Yeah, I believe it was from when they patented ‘yo-yos’ or something, not sure about the detail, but I reckon they don’t use it anymore today except on their classics.
‘In the early 1960s, a national television campaign intoned the slogan, “if it isn’t a Duncan, it isn’t a yo-yo!” High expenses and a trademark protection lawsuit put Duncan personally out of business in 1965, but his manufacturer, Flambeau Products, continued making yo-yos.’
source: Duncan Yo-Yo - The Strong National Museum of Play
For a long time Duncan had the word “yo-yo” as a trademark which led to their slogan “If it isn’t a Duncan, it isn’t a yo-yo”. In 1962, Duncan sued Royal and Dell over the use of the word yo-yo. The latter company stopped the production of their yo-yos, and a three-year court battle between Duncan and Royal started regarding the trademarked word. The Supreme Court put the word “yo-yo” in the public domain, stating that the well-known Duncan slogan defined the name of the toy as a “yo-yo”. This landmark decision is is still referenced in copyright court cases today. This long, costly court battle led to Duncan filing bankruptcy, leading up to the buy-out by Flambeau.
source: Duncan | YoYo Wiki | Fandom
I would say anything geared towards competition specs is more high-end. Something above a beginner or intermediate level in both quality and price point (although expensive doesn’t mean it’s good, just priced above what someone who has never yo-yo ed before would pay for one).
Most people would never pay more than $5-10 for a yoyo outside of the yoyo community though.
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Grendel
(The Voice of All Grendel’s world wide.)
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I’ve got two Duncan’s but they are made/modded by Skon, so I don’t think that counts.
I was watching Steve and his More Gooder the other night, good times.
Duncan is still #1. Not because they sell the best yoyo’s but because they sell the most. True, many are Imperials and Butterfly’s because you can find them anywhere. Many of us old timers had one choice, Duncan. and many newbie’s started with one of those 2 yoyo’s and got hooked.
As far as higher end stuff, the Torque and the Bassacuda are every bit as good as most other midrange brands.
Sure I have a lot of different yoyo’s from a lot of different manufactures and even though I am only a mediocre player I still go back to my torque time and time again.
I too feel like Duncan (in which was at one time in the spotlight that YYF is currently in) is just kind of there. A lot of their widely available yoyos today are very “beginner” and on the higher end models they do have, it seems very minimal. I do own several of the Duncan metals (Strix, Barracuda, Torque, Echo 2) and find them very enjoyable. But I feel like they are not really staying with the rest of the competition. Yoyofactory appears to have taken Duncan’s role today, with the broad selection of yoyos from beginner all the way up to competition throws.
Duncan makes and releases products at all levels, even yoyos for elite players. There probably isn’t a yoyo in their product line they haven’t released that completely missed a feature or set of tricks or playstyle. They cover the whole gamut. Their yoyos have won several worlds titles, with the most recent being 2014’s barracuda, and the echo.
I don’t claim to know their business strategy, nor do I understand the yoyo market as a whole, but I certainly can’t see how Duncan is not providing yoyos that can be used at an elite level.
I just bought one from Toys R Us. It doesn’t appear to be the same one sold here on YYE. The one I bought has a non concave slim bearing which leads to a narrow gap. Fully responsive as is.
Is the shape and everything else the same? If it’s just the bearing then that makes sense. I would find it strange if they sold an unresponsive yoyo at a store like Walmart or Toys R Us.
It looks like everything else is the same as far as the yoyo goes. I just looked again at the packaging and it doesn’t say “pro” on it anywhere that I see. I wonder if there is different packaging as well.
YYF did the same thing with their DV888, they had a beginner-friendly one in retail stores with slim bearing and some thick pads. I of course didn’t realize when I bought it, went to do my first trick only to have smashed knuckles.
I have to agree, Duncan seems to have been slow to adapt to the brave new world of fancy metal unresponsive boutique yo-yos. And it also seems true to me that their bread and butter (95% of their business?) is the cheap yo-yos they’ve always been known for, so maybe they focus on that and the higher end stuff is just statistical noise in their sales?
If you visit the official duncan homepage at yo-yo.com, and click through to the yo-yo store page, it tells the whole story (note that I have not filtered by skill level, this is the default page)
At the $15 and under price point, they seem fine. When you get to $29 and higher, I have heard only negative things about the Metal Racer and Metal Drifter, and literally nothing about the Torque and Strix. It looks like Torque / Strix are on some kind of blowout sale as they are $45 / $55 respectively at YYE.
TL;DR as far as Duncan goes for “basic responsive” at around $10 they are fine, but for “value metal” at $30 (outside of special blowout sales for older models) the story is … pretty bad.
There is a new chapter in this story, though… I haven’t seen the (new?) $40 Orbit, $40 Counter Punch, or $35 Road Runner yet. All are lower priced and might move the needle on “Duncan is a good value metal choice” and kinda erase the, uh, Metal Drift… over time. These are only on the Japanese yo-yo stores which tend to get some inventory first.
Speaking of … I also get the distinct impression that the Duncan brand has more cachet outside the United States, whereas here it’s seen a bit like the “cheap” brand that everyone starts with but grows out of quickly?
