Well, I’ve been wanting to write my first review for a while, and I’ve been wanting to do a review of the Crayon. Then, this YoYofficer review contest came up, and basically, now I have to do it. So, here it goes.
YoYofficer Crayon
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Specs
Diameter: 54.45 mm / 2.14 inches
Width: 44.60 mm / 1.75 inches
Gap Width: 4.35 mm / .17 inches
Weight: 67.4 grams
Aesthetics
First of all, I think the thing just looks amazing. All the colorways I’ve seen are just beautiful, and easily make it what I think would be one of the best looking throws in any collection. They did a great job there. The shape is nice and natural, perfectly fitting in your hand. The finish makes the surface incredibly shiny, but could be better for grinds. I’ll get into that later though. In the center hub, there’s a short spike in the middle. The branding is subtle, with a very small “YOYOFFICER” at the bottom of the circle, and the Crayon logo towards the top. And although the hearts are very understating to my massive amounts of pure manliness, I can still dig it.
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Bearing and Response
Mine came with a Center Trac Bearing in it, but for some reason when I look at the pictures here on the YYE page for the yoyo, it looks like it just has a flat in there. Anyways, with the Center Trac, it plays amazing. Perfectly smooth with no vibe on the throw or string whatsoever. The response is the standard 19 mm Silicone Slim Pad that we all know and love. It started out grippy, but with play, broke into a not really slippy, but definitely unaffected during trickier moves that usually cause bunching like Over Under Boing-e-Boing.
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Playability
Overall, it’s a really laid back throw. It plays smooth and fairly slow, the perfect pace for when you just feel like you need to loosen yourself up. The spin time I got (and this is not holding it at the end of the string right above the yoyo, but just holding it at the slipknot) was 2 minutes and 28 seconds, while the Catalyst clocked in at 1 minute and 45 seconds. It plays incredibly light for it’s weight, practically floating on the string. If you’re feeling more relaxed and just throwing for a bit of fun, it’s the throw you’re looking for.
Grinds: As I mentioned before, it’s not too great of a yoyo if you’re looking for a good long grind. It’s average finger grind time I got was about 2.75 seconds, while the Catalyst was 3.5. Of course, these aren’t really the same shape, but they were the closest thing I had. The lack of amount of time to grind is probably attributed to it’s shape, as the organic shape is never too great for it. For thumb grinds, it does perform well, with the little section under the lip on the edge being the perfect place to fit your thumb. The average time I got was about 7.25 seconds on the Crayon, and 6 seconds on the Catalyst; a much better performance.
Finger Spins: Since there’s no real place for your finger to fit, it’s not the greatest for finger spins. You could try to get it to spin with the little spike on the tip of your finger, but it is not quite long enough to do so. After a few seconds, it tends to spin out, spinning around your finger instead of on it.
Horizontal: Natural shapes don’t tend to be too great at horizontal, but the Crayon plays surprisingly well. It doesn’t tilt back for a good long while, and I can easily pull off every horizontal trick in my repertoire (which admittedly are kind of underwhelming) with time to spare. For me, if I ever go ‘zontal, it’s my first choice.
Final Thoughts
To wrap it up… get it. The YoYofficer Crayon is an amazing yoyo. Mixed within my case of yoyos costing up to almost three times as much as this throw, it gets more play than all of them. It plays like a dream on the string, floating around the room taking you through your tricks. It’s worth the money for it, and considering the money’s only $51.99, I’d saying buying this yoyo is practically a no brainer. Considering YoYofficer is still very up and coming, I’d say that this yoyo is a great indicator that amazing things are still to come.
