(Picture link from YoyoTrap official site)
The Helium from the newly emerged Spanish brand YoyoTrap is one of the 4 yoyos I picked up at Worlds, and the only one among these I did not know about before. This yoyo was used on stage by their team member, the 13 year old Attila Botlik. He did a pretty clean performance in the prelims, and I, having managed to secure a front row seat among the crowds, immediately took interest in his yoyo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK0QPNsRULw
I approached their team after Attila’s performance and soon brought back with me one of the exact yoyos he took onto stage.
–Specs and design
Diameter:56.5
Width:44
Weight:66.5
The dimensions of this yoyo is pretty generic, which isnt a bad thing at all when the manufacturer’s goal is to make a yoyo readily picked up by anyone.
The yoyo assumes an inverse rounded H-V shape that is extremely popular right now. The string tangent touches the yoyo further out on the rims than many other yoyos with similar basic shapes, due to the extra step between the V-shaped inner catch zone and the rounded rim allowing for higher curvature of the rims. This, when combined with the protruded gap wall, brings this yoyo high horizontal stability, tilt control sensitivity and also relatively smooth rejections by the standard of sharp-rimmed yoyos.
The yoyo’s weight ring is located towards the center, although not quite as extreme as the Phenom series and the 3yo3 metals. It is also divided into 2 fine steps, providing extra float stability to this yoyo similarly to clyw’s inner ring during hops and lacerations.
The flat inner cup has a diameter of roughly 2cm and a well defined wall around it, allowing side-grind style fingerspins.
–Aesthetics and stock quality
The splash pattern is not fully smooth like a clyw and can be felt with fingernails. That said, this yoyo has also the smoothest blast finish of all my yoyos, better than any clyw and also the irony jp. It is so smooth that I sometimes have problems snap starting the yoyo with gloves on.
(Picture link from official site as I dont want to unscrew mine lol)
The stock bearing is a YYF CTX (which actually comes cleaned-clyw im looking at you) and the response pads are also YYF CBC. I dont tend to nitpick that much on bearings; this one does not try to wind the string up on a tug, and thats good enough.
My specimen has a slight vibe that can be seen from the pulsating splash patterns and felt with a fingernail. Since mine came directly from a team member and is technically not mint, it may have been dinged or is a b-grade. Ive heard reports from others that they got dead smooth ones from the official production run.
—Playability
This thing has all I look for in a competition yoyo. It acts as your most loyal servant. It never tries to tell you ‘you cant do this’. It absolutely obeys every single order and attempts to do nothing more than that, apart from keeping reminding you to calm down. It can be pushed as fast as a Phenom as soon as when you want, but does not ask you to do so if you dont. It faithfully reflects all of your valid inputs while automatically filter out the movements that adversely affect your tricks cleanliness. This yoyo is not lifeless, dull or lacking of character either. It senses everything you r thinking and feeling and planning to do, guiding you to the correct choice at every moment.
-Speed combos: This yoyo exhibits medium floatiness and returns clearly defined force reactions when bouncing off the string. It is very easy to keep track of at high speed. 9/10
-Complex inter-string pops (jensen etc): Hopping the yoyo up is not significantly easier than with other yoyos, but if you do get the hop right it is easy to control midair and land on the target string. 8.5/10
-Eli hop variations: The H profile and protrusion around the gap wall provides it with good stability on par with extreme rim weighted oversize yoyos. 8.5/10
-Influent: Im a big n00b on these tricks and every string segment becomes as tilted as piza tower after going around my arms. I can only make a guess based on its properties shown in hops and horizontals that it has a relatively high tilt threshold in these tricks as well. ~8.5/10
-Horizontal: This yoyo spins forever due to the combined effect of its finish and all the details in shape design. Stability wise it is not on supercheathax-level like bimetals, overdrive and the irony jp’s, but enough to keep you comfortable, confident while also alert. It rarely goes out of control and i v never hit myself with this yoyo. It also does not tend to accidentally reject the string and dismount during inverted horizontal tricks. 9.5/10
-Rejections: It is as close to organic or flat rimmed yoyos like my L5 or AC2 as H-V shaped yoyos can be.
8/10
-Lacerations and suicides: The predictability of its movement mid-air is moderate, although not as perfect as clyws for example. Its better than most if not all simple V shapes tho. 8.5/10
Overall impression with personal preference included: 8.8/10. If it were dead smooth and could spin just a little longer it would be an easy 9+.
From the $90 price tag I assume that it is directed towards the same market target as for example the YYF Genesis, as a yoyo that plays well for everyone and every playstyle. Compared to most such YYFs, it pays finer attention to many details and also accommodates asian playstyles better. As for me myself, a self-identified speed player wannabe in denial that dreams of gitting gud at everything, it is ideal for both general purpose and stage performance alike. It is now my main everyday throw and is only replaced by the ironyjp 2013 when I need maximum haxin cheatin levels of spin time and stability to learn the most complicated of long combos.
Suitable for playstyles: EVERYTHING
Unsuitable for people with a preference of: Heavy string hitters, or heavy yoyos in general