Here it is folks, the Capstan 22
I’ve had a few days with this yoyo, and I feel I am now ready to give a review on what I think about this little guy.
I’ll do my best to give a write-up about how this yoyo plays in depth, I’ve been playing on and off for over a decade so I’m familiar with the evolution of yoyo design, and this design really sparks a “new and improved” look while still having the awesome organic geometry I love in a yoyo.
Let me first give some background to my meeting of Wayne (@yoyoworkshop_wayne) of YYWS. At a small local meet-up we got to talking about him (Wayne) designing cool yoyos, and me being a CNC Machinist (with a different kind of machine than your typical lathe used in the yoyo industry). I think he read my mind in being super curious about attempting to make my own yoyo, and he was gracious enough to share with me one of his own personal designs to test making a yoyo on a different kind of machine, a vertical milling machine to be exact. This is the type of CNC machinery I program and operate at work, where we mostly do aerospace parts and mold making, NOT yoyos.
(For anyone wondering, it was on a HAAS VF2SS.)
Now the design I was given was the Capstan 22’. To my surprise it was a design that had not been released yet, so I gave it a shot at machining his yoyo, but unfortunately I had to omit some core inner lip features that would need some fancy tooling that I didn’t have on hand. I’ll link some pictures below of the process, pretty neat surfacing programming involved.
Keep in mind people, this is separate from the production Capstan’s. This was a side project that Wayne helped me achieve, which just happened to be the Capstan CAD, I attempted to make it.
Unconventional approaches definitely make interesting results. This was a rough, ROUGH draft of the Capstan 22’, and gave light to the undersized yoyo it would evolve into.
Fast forward to now, and I am physically holding the official Capstan 22, and I can especially appreciate the attention to detail and refinement of the design in this physical form.
I’ve had about a day or so to throw and consider what makes this yoyo what it is. For me it’s obviously something special, but I have a feeling that this yoyo will also resonate with a lot of people.
It’s small, at a glance and in hand, but down the inside cup you’ll notice a high-walled organic and a thick catch zone. Your finger can almost fit inside the gap. That ties into how this thing plays. The soft blast and organic walls make for a nostalgic, well, organic feeling throw, but in play it is very forgiving and stable. In fact I’d say the forgiving nature paired with the light weight are what really shine here. Imagine a yoyo that feels organic in hand, but plays closer to a rim weighted yoyo on the string.
The weight distribution feels as if its sitting in between float and speed, the best way I can define its play is confidently. The weight combined with the size naturally make for a faster player, and no doubt this will go as fast as you can throw it at, but it’s light! It doesn’t have to be that way when the weight is placed well like this. Even when I slow down the pace it doesn’t suffer from the “rock on a string” a lot of undersized do. The weight distribution keeps it stable and long spinning even though it’s lightweight which I find impressive and indicative of being well designed.
There’s a multitude of undercuts sweeping the inside of the inner cup lip, which looked difficult to land grinds on at first, but with the way the undercut sweeps sharply off the outer rings makes it SUPER easy to land thumb grinds on. The center of the cup has an interesting convex taper which some may able to utilize in fingerspins, but for me I personally enjoy the aesthetic of this feature and the concentric rings that surround it (and I suck a finger spins). It gives a super cool complex look to the inside of the cup. This isn’t your run of the mill organic, it’s got personality, and I love that about it.
All of this comes together in the sweet little package that is the Capstan 22,
I cannot compare this yoyo directly to any other, as nothing I have played plays quite like this.
I can easily recommend this yoyo to anyone looking for a well-playing, lighter weight, stable undersized. Even though appearance wise it has organic walls, it slices through tricks in a way that makes it easier to land tricks with than it may seem.
Seriously this thing rips, and it excites me to be holding something that I think a lot of other people will like, too. Keep a look out for this one.
I wanted to thank Wayne again for letting me be a part of this cool project. To physically hold a yoyo that I machined with his help, and then to hold the finished product made officially was really something special. Cheers, Wayne.
Here are the specs:
Material: 6061
Diameter: 53mm
Width: 40mm
Gap: 4.64mm
Weight: 62.1g
Bearing: D Sized
I’m happy to answer questions people may have. Thanks for reading my review on the upcoming Capstan 22!
