I see they are finally marketing MG Diffusion even though they dropped back in 2024
I hope they make an Oregon Diffusion in the future 
The MG is rad either way
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I don’t think any of this is about trying to be coy about cost savings. It’s common knowledge that most yo-yos of unspecified origin are made in China.
“From Oregon” means a few very specific things to yo-yo enthusiasts. You couldn’t buy a yo-yo machined elsewhere in the US and expect these things to apply. If YYR had another shop in Oregon start making their “From Oregon” series, people would cry foul.
Brands like Rain City Skills, Doctor Popular, Hesh Enterprises call out One Drop by name, but because of specific things about their relationship with One Drop.
At this point, brands are also mentioning FPM by name, both as an indicator of quality and higher manufacturing cost. I think that is a function of yoyofriends putting the work into making FPM a (yo-yo) “household name”.
It seems like other shops in China are fine with being behind the scenes. If they aren’t trying to make their name known, I don’t see why their customers would call them out. I can think of some business reasons why these relationships would not be openly discussed.
The Japan Tech FGAl is said to be made in Japan. I have never seen a specific shop mentioned. I don’t think there is a “famous” Japanese yo-yo machine shop(?) Japan has a reputation for high quality manufacturing, but anecdotally this did not necessarily apply to yo-yos. If someone is buying an FGAl (which is a great yo-yo, FWIW) it shouldn’t be because the machining or finishing is higher quality than the rest of Japan Tech’s line.
I think this is slightly missing my point.
I understand that experienced collectors may read “unspecified origin” as “probably China,” but that still relies on insider knowledge rather than disclosure.
What I find frustrating is the selective transparency: origin is highlighted when it adds marketing value, but when it is not highlighted, the buyer is expected to infer it from community knowledge.
My point was never that Japanese machining would be superior. I was interested in origin for collector reasons, not as a quality ranking. So replying with “Japanese manufacturing does not necessarily mean better machining/finishing” answers a claim I’m not making.
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That’s fair.
But I think nationality also clouded my own point. One Drop and FPM established themselves as names to market on. This is not true of every shop. If a shop hasn’t established what their name should mean to retail buyers, there is no reason to put it out there.
Some machine shop’s (not necessarily yo-yo-specific) may take the position that final design quality and machining precision is to be determined by the client. Knowing their name would tell buyers nothing about their capabilities or allow them to infer anything in general about their other projects. There is really no upside to broad transparency in this situation,
even for customers, though industry peers could trade this information with the appropriate context.
Originally, all YYR were made in Japan. If you want YYR made in Japan, you need to find an older model mono-metal like the Stargazer, Sleipnir (old), Gleipnir, e=mc^2, etc. If you want a bi-metal, you need to pry a Draupnir out of someone’s hands with cash.
The older versions are definitely well made. They all have a super-fine machining that resembles an old hi-fi record. Chinese yo-yo’s are certainly of similar quality. The machines that newer factories use are way ahead of what was being used in the early 2000’s.
Yo-yo’s “made in Oregon” are just remakes of older YYR throws using 6061 instead of 7075. It lets people imagine they have YYR; but it is made by OneDrop. I bought a FYFO and instantly sold it. Not the performance I expected.
Newer YYR mono-metals are not what their mono-metals used to be. If you want real YYR, you gotta spend the $$$ to get their high end stuff. Being cheap just gets you the name; but none of the legendary performance. You get what you pay for.
If you want to have the best; buy high-end Yoyorecreation.
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Super helpful, thank you.
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Back in 2015, I owned a Golyat from their sub-brand Rebellion. Fast forward to 2017 around that time, a friend of mine had a yoyo called Ting by Yoyo Empire. What surprised me was when I took a look at the internal spacers of the Ting they looked oddly familiar. Then it hit me. They were almost exactly the same spacers used in my Golyat, with the same specs and even the same color. So I guess it’s not really a surprise where Kengo sourced his China-made yoyos.
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Let me preface this post by making it clear i am FAR from an expert on anything yoyos. Throwing them, reviewing them, critiquing their country of origin, etc.
But i will offer my opinion on the whole “made in china” thing.
I think everyone here has had some product, whatever it be, that is a cheap, mass produced piece of trash that was made in China. And i attribute that to almost everything being made it China. Whether thats an original design or a knockoff. Their production of everything is truly prolific
But there’s a flip side to this. We’ve all had some dissapointing junk that was made in China, but I’d be willing to bet we’ve all had some dang fine products that also hail from the same place. Whether we know it or not.
Maybe 20 tears ago one could attribute that country of origin to more subpar production. But with the massive increase in manufacturing, many Chinese factories have stepped up their quality in a major way.
Are there still those pumping out garbage imitations that dont work out of the box and break in a week? Of course. But there are plenty who are making a superior product to anywhere else, and doing it cheaper too.
I guess my point is that “made in China”, in my opinion, no longer implies poor quality immediately. Some are garbage, but some are top of the line.
I think this has always been the case for most other countries of production. Many goods produced in the USA/Germany/Italy/etc. are great. But many are not. It would be unwise to go all in on any product simply based on where it was made. China is/has been recently, one of those same types of countries.
Even many of the goods that are "America made " have some part of the process done in China. Whether that be raw material production, machining, hardware, or any other step that is cheaper to outsource. Heck, some items are almost ENTIRELY made in a Chinese factory and shipped to a warehouse in the states. Then an American worker tightens a single bolt and it’s “made/assembled in the good old US of A”.
No hate to any of this, especially not to any country/worker anywhere who makes the goods I enjoy everyday. Just that believing any manufacturer’s claim about where something was made, and assuming quality based on that, is silly in my mind.
Good stuff is good stuff. Bad stuff isnt.
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Since the brand Rebellion 2015 & AE 2017 (alter ego) line up was introduced that is made in china
Officially it is like this, but I had the very concrete suspicion that some model releases were made in China even before, but this is not the point or the factor that makes the difference… the real point is that Yoyorecreation presented itself on the market with innovative, very personal and distinguishable objects, which followed their own philosophy… they were recognizable even if raw and without logos or engravings… they were YYR in their DNA… take the models produced in the last 4-5 years… remove the writing and tell me what kind of yo-yo are they? They could have been made by any manufacturer… At least in my eyes, from how I have known YYR since its inception and from the yo-yos I own, the recent models are a jumble of objects that do not move me any feelings… I willingly remain in their past!
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I might have a different take on this.
The one thing the Chinese do very well is copying innovative products and technologies while optimizing and scaling production. That is exactly what is happening to YYR. Their innovation is quickly copied and propagated to other manufacturer’s products through the use of the same factories for production. The definition of ‘best’ is fleeting. It is usually YYR that is first to market with the highest performing yo-yo’s to be had at any one time.
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