Noticed this issue for months now and it doesn’t make any sense. If yoyo expert purposely removed visibility of yoyo reviews, this removes transparency and sucks in general. A bad move if you ask me.
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It makes no sense to review a yo-yo honestly. It’s too subjective. You either like the shape, feel etc or you don’t. If it’s a quality issue you reach out and they take care of it. There is absolutely nothing to be transparent about lol
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Maybe they noticed that not many people were writing them because the forum has all that kind of info and more. The reviews looked old every time I stumbled across a product that actually had one. A few that I read were decent, but I never really look at them these days.
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Lmfao to be totally honest dude, most yoyo reviews are written by people who are at an intermediate level @ best. The people I would actually trust for quality, well informed opinions on yoyos don’t write yoyo reviews, they’re learning tricks and competing at contests. And like @Guapocamacho said, reviews are wayyy too subjective. Everyone has COMPLETELY different taste in yoyos, it’s kinda like food - what may be one person’s least favorite food ever could be someone else’s favorite. Also, pretty much MOST yoyos made today are at the level to where they’re at least GOOD - this wasn’t the case ten years ago when that review system may have made more sense.
And I guess the biggest thing rendering those reviews useless is this forum lol… If you really want thoughts on certain yoyo, you can hop on here and search for it and a bunch of results will probably pop up. And if not, start a new thread and you’ll get more “reviews” (and the unfiltered transparency you want so mich lol) than you’d see on a product page for sure. 
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Sad. I liked the reviews! I dont really care that its not exactly pros out there reviewing. The more information I can find about a throw the better. It is one less source of information, which is a loss whatever way you slice it.
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I’d chalk it up to something they’re phasing out as a site improvement whatever the reasoning. The forum provides a better platform for reviews and maybe they felt the product review system was either antiquated as @SR1 mentioned or redundant (wrt the forum). Though I do agree that every word written about yoyos that is lost is a tragedy. 
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Don’t agree with this statement at all, but let’s just say it’s true, they’d be giving the review for the exact same skill level or lower. People at a certain level arent asking other ppl for their opinions on throws, they just try them for themselves. So not sure i see the problem with reviewers not being pros. I’m not arguing for or against the reviews on the site, i wasnt around for them. I would, however, caution you not to fall into the trap of thinking only competition level pros have valuable opinions and info, especially given who their target is
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I only buy the ones with the worst reviews so I can blame it not on skill level but poor design
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I would assume the feature just wasn’t well used. Having a feature like this likely adds non-trivial maintenance costs.
I would still encourage people to post reviews on the forums. I love reading what other people think of yo-yos. That’s why I’m here.
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We didn’t do it on purpose lol - the application that we were using isn’t working at the moment which we are currently working on! - It’s funny the staring reviews work, but not the commenting which we have saved, so once we get it working again, all the reviews will be transferred over!
I appreciate everyones positive outlook on the situation 
<3
To echo what everyone is saying, the forums are a great place to share your thoughts and get more in depth information about the toy!
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non-trivial maintenance costs strike again!
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my dm’s are open.
Hows it play? Hell good dawg
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I never figured out how to leave a review so I never touched that feature and very few had reviews anyway
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I kind of agree with many of the comments here even if Eric clarify that is a little problem of the forum, many reviews on that section were done very approximately, missed pictures, missed stats, missed a real description of the possibilities of the yoyo and most of the time it was “yeah, I am not the best player ever but I love this yoyo” which is not very helpful.
To avoid this, everytime I buy and play with a yoyo I leave a tiny bit of thoughts over the picture on the “what you get in the mail post” after around 3/4 hours of playing.
I do think reviews in terms of pure playing require some skills to appreciate and understand how the yoyo work (doesn’t matter the shape) but also a reviewer should be someone that tried many yoyos so it has a proper view of the general market and how things goes.
For a while I wanted to start making video reviews with a proper setup format but I do not have the chance to try many yoyos and I did not tried a huge amount during my “yoyo career” so I just left the idea and focus as I do on playing, other than that it doesn’t seems to appeal anymore the review and also yoyoing youtube channels are a bit dead, everything is mostly on Instagram and a different type of yoyoing is on Tiktok
Well, here is my comprehensive review of All my 1550+ yo-yos.
A Whole lotta yo-yos I really really like.
A good number of yo-yos I really like.
A fair number of yo-yos I don’t really like all that well…
A smaller number of yo-yos I have… I’m like ‘really’?
I really do believe that the Best playing, best looking, best made and best designed yo-yo for me, is not yet in my possession.
I really believe that my yo-yo reviews are an integral part of stimulating yo-yo sales, simply because most people know that if I can blaze through my 12 tricks in a 38 second freestyle, that they need that edge too and will buy whatever yoyo I am drooling about.
‘really’…
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i pay attention when more experienced people here say like how this new yoyo plays or that its really good on non review threads. that’s natural i think.
so you, and others, are integral part of stimulating yo-yo sales.
really …
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This is a hornets nest that I’ve poked a few times in the past, and gives me flashbacks to the days in which I was more disparaging of the collector/less skill oriented parts community than I should have been.
I have since modified many of my stances, but this is one of the few that I have not.
Judging by the number of likes on this post, I can see it’s still a reasonably popular stance, so I will try to proceed as objectively as possible, and present just the facts.
(My stance on the issue):
If you really want to learn about whether you would like a yoyo, a review from someone with more skill will always, ALWAYS, be where you should look, regardless of your own skill level.
Again, the idea that reviews by beginner yoyoers are good for other new throwers to read because they’re relatable, will never hold water to me.
There are multiple reasons why, but I will include just one in the interest of keeping this response from getting too ridiculously long.
(Justification of stance): Beginner yoyoers have a vast array of technique issues that they are unaware of.
There are some common patterns that all beginner yoyoers have, but most technique problems are not shared across the board. Therefore, the experiences one beginner had with a yoyo might be entirely different than those of another.
One guy might be throwing his breakaway wrong. Another might not fully understand tilt correction. And these two people may not share each others issues!
This means the first guy might try a yoyo and say “this is a neat yoyo, but its hard to throw straight”, when if he had been throwing for 20 hours more, that issues would no longer exist, and is NOT something that should be included in an objective review.
Because, guy #2, (despite being a novice as well!) might not have the same issues with his breakaway, and may stay away from that yoyo, even though he actually never would have had an issue with throwing it straight.
When I bring out my collection at contests, I often seen one beginner commenting on how a yoyos lacks “stability” or may be “sluggish” when they are really speaking about some of the most stable and fast products on the market, and then the next one I let throw the yoyo thinks the stability and agility are great.
The issue is usually that the yoyo is dying fast for the first dude because he isn’t used to the shape, doesn’t know how to throw it, or some similar technique problem that will wash out in a couple months.
It is ONLY through attaining a higher level of skill that these extraneous factors like “its hard to throw straight” can be weeded out as the issues of a novice, and actual shortcomings of the products design (that other yoyoers will actually be sure to experience) can be identified.
(Other ideas):
And look, I get that the idea of looking at reviews by people at a lower skill level is appealing if you’re just starting out too. It makes you feel like you can identify with the reviewer, and gives a (largely false for the reasons above) sense of shared perspective.
And its also true that if you’re looking at getting your first bimetal, and a reviewer is only mentioning how good it is at behind-the-back-horizontal, that review doesn’t give you much information (except that when you get really good, you’ll be having a good time with the yoyo). But if a reviewer only talking about high level stuff, he’s not doing a good job. I concede that.
At the end of the day, I think its important to separate feelings from facts when looking at what reviews are the best for beginners. Does it feel good to consume reviews from other beginners (especially if they’re of a similar age and background)? Yes. Are these going to be the best to look at if you want to determine if you’d like how the yoyo plays? No.
(Closing note):
At this point, if you’re someone who didn’t already agree with me you’re thinking that I’m doing a horrendous amount of gatekeeping. And I understand that. Let me try and win you back for a second.
New yoyoers are the lifeblood of the community, and collectors are what make the companies run. I have devoted over a decade to bringing as many of both in as I could.
But where the reviews start to become a problem, and the reason I made this post, has to do with how beginner yoyo reviews effect yoyo companies.
The beginner/collector community is tight. Small/botique yoyo companies are realistically vying for a part of the monthly paycheck from a pool of around 300 or so middle aged dudes. This means if one of their own puts out a negative and inaccurate review of a yoyo model…
…man, people BELIEVE that stuff.
Which is highly unfair to the yoyo company who made the product. When I was on yoyoworkshop, I watched that ship go down, in no small part to two uninformed reviews on the Cthulhu, which criticized aspects of it that were some of its strong suits, both by beginner yoyoers.
Its a difficult position because the adult collector community if where smaller/boutique companies sell their wares. These companies can be put out of business by a single poor selling run. And, at the same time, their market is where beginner reviews are more likely to be made, and listened to by the tight micro community of beginners/collectors.
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Bc we’re talking about reviews imma just share a thought that like yo, ppls perspectives on yo-yos are also hiiiiighly influenced by the way they play and like, no one talks about that much. Some yo-yos are more suited for certain kinds of play than others and it’s hard to get where the reviewer is coming from when reading a review. By kinds of play I mean like does the reviewer do mostly slacky tech in front of the body or like lots of horizontal and big lacerations or something, not like the different divisions. I think the most helpful thing is to see if a Yoyo is a players sig or if ppl are using it in contests and then look at how they play the Yoyo. I don’t know kinda rambling thoughts my bad.
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This is where the gatekeeping starts though. I know thats not your intention, but consider this, if a reviewer is talking about a yoyo at a beginner level, they arent talking to you. You dont know and therfore cant possibly be taking it upon yourself to dictate what someone should or shouldnt find valuable info. As someone who is brand new, i can assure you it’s dead easy to tell when someone is talking to me. We arent always the target of every single thing that comes out of ppls mouths, nor should we. A beginner and an advanced player arent having the same conversation. Beginners don’t know things that may interest advanced players, but i can promise you i see a ton of advanced players being at a level where they can’t even explain how to break a trick down in an intelligible way even though they’ve been doing it for years. It’s a completely different mindset with different standards and different goals.
I think Henry is right when he commented on how subjective reviews are, but I’ll take it a step further and say it’s this subjective nature that must allow for all levels of opinion to be respected.
This quote demonstrates the disconnect I’m talking about. You want to separate feelings from facts for beginners when feelings are all a beginner cares about. This is exactly why a high performing throw might not appeal to a newer player. They can’t even make it work at the level that certain things start to matter and if it doesn’t feel good, no amount of a skilled player saying “its good trust me” is gonna keep that person interested.
I think it’s a bit disingenuous to suggest a couple beginner reviews are going to tank a company with no other factors at play. The fact of the matter is ppl have to take some personal responsibility. I don’t think it’s the right move to essentially paint a picture that beginners have wrong opinions and ruin companies because the entire community just listens to what they say and follows them off a cliff. Everyone here knows im a noob, i say it every chance i get lol If all of a sudden i posted a review on a yoyo, i think (and strongly hope) that the rest of you would know to A. Take what i said with the knowledge that im at the level i am and B. Ultimately use any info to inform their own decision, not make it for them. As you noted, lets be real most of us are at least legally adults and should be thinking for ourselves, and again just know when you arent the one being “spoken to”.
There are just as many needs, goals, desires, and artistic expressions out there as there are throws and any community only suffers by telling members they arent qualified to have an opinion
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I just look at reviews to justify the purchases I’ve already made.
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