Opening: Feels great to yo-yo again after a few years of hiatus. I have been throwing on and off for about 14 years now, this hobby has been a part of my life. I love seeing this sport evolve and see how the new players are changing the game. One thing that in my opinion has been a big change was the use of the finger spin hubs in yo-yo’s making tricks like the DNA easier than ever. In the beginning we only had the fingerspin hubs without the dimples, but now yo-yo’s come equipped with the fingerspin dimple which makes it so much easier. I never compete or anything, I have always considered this just a hobby and a pastime of mine, nothing else. I enjoy watching videos, my favorites are the Asia Pacific Yoyo contests and the European Yoyo contests. Little did I know one of the best European players, Petr Kavka, has developed his own brand, XOXO. I became highly interested in their products after seeing Ann Bubak’s video on the yo-yo that made her get the hang of fingerspins well, this yo-yo is called Baby by XOXO, available on Slusny website only. I knew I had to check this out, and after seeing the website I found there is an upgraded version called Baby 2.023. I went ahead and ordered this one to try it out and get back into the world of yo-yo.
Specs:
Diameter-58 mm
Width-48 mm
Weight-65.7 grams
Bearing-Size C Concave
First Impressions: While shipping did take about 2 and half weeks, this is expected considering this yo-yo is shipped from the Czech Republic, and let me just say the wait is totally worth it. When I got the package, it came with the yo-yo, an orange string, and some stickers. The packaging itself has no brand name or yo-yo name on it, but it is signed by the Czech legend Petr Kavka which is a great touch in my opinion. This is the first and only “autograph” I have ever received from a yo-yo player, which I am very happy about. When I took the yo-yo out of the box, I noticed immediately the smooth bead blasted finish. I knew I had to test palm and finger grinds on this. The shape is also comfortable in my hand and the center trac bearing installed also made me know this would be a great yo-yo to use. The body of the yo-yo is made of metal and what I think makes it interesting is the fingerspin design. The sides of the yoyo feature plastic but the actual fingerspin dimple is metal, will get more into this in the Play section. I could not wait to test this thing out.
Play: On my first throw the spin time was pretty good, also the bearing was a little noisy, which did not really bother me. It handled all my combos with ease and was still spinning a while after I finished. The response was a little slippy at first, but after breaking the response pads in, the response was perfect. Since this yo-yo is light it plays rather fast, and combined with the quite wide width design it helps to hit tricks accurately. I tested out grinds and due to the bead blasted finish, they were executed perfectly, both palm grinds and finger grinds work amazing. Finger spins are another thing this yo-yo shines in, absolutely perfect and smooth. The only other yo-yo I have to compare the fingerspin performance is to the plastic Skyva by Magicyoyo and Jeffrey Pang. The XOXO Baby 2 features the fingerspin dimple which is made of metal but the cap is plastic as well. The sides of the yo-yo feature plastic but when you fingerspin, you fingerspin on the actual metal part of the yo-yo,if that makes sense. The Skyva and Baby 2 have the same mechanism where your finger locks in place and holds the fingerspin for a while making tricks like DNA easy to learn and do with it. My family that has no experience with fingerspins were all able to do them with this yo-yo, which made them all excited. This yo-yo is a solid monster in performance. It can handle anything you throw at it, pun intended.
Final Thoughts: If this level of quality and performance keeps coming from them, I can certainly see XOXO becoming a top yo-yo company in the near future. I am super pleased with this yo-yo and will be on the lookout for their next model. My top throws, some are old, are now YYF Shutter, C3 P-Wave and now it includes the XOXO Baby 2. The quality of this yo-yo is amazing, and I am extremely happy with this. What do you guys/girls think? Feedback is greatly appreciated.