Archives for March 20, 2014

Throwback Thursday: 1970’s Duncan Yo-yolympics

March 20, 2014 By Ben Gates

For Throwback Thursday, check out this hilarious old promotional footage that Duncan Toys produced in the 70’s.

The first four minutes are a yo-yo “history & science lesson” presented by Doug Behringer, who was the Promotions Director for Duncan during this era. Scratch your head while he explains how yo-yos are powered by the sun.

“What do you think would happen to a yo-yo in outer space? Without gravity, do you think it would spin forever?” I wish I could make this stuff up!

Also notice: towards the end of the bit, Doug explains that it’s called “playing yo-yo” rather than “playing with the yo-yo.” I’d reckon that the term “yo-yoing” hadn’t been coined yet. Crazy stuff.

The latter ten minutes of the film is an extraordinary glimpse at yo-yo contests of yesteryear – “How to Run a Yo-Yo Olympic Contest.” This was filmed in 1979 at Six Flags over Georgia, and distributed to parks and recreational departments across the country in preparation for this nationwide event orchestrated by Duncan Toys. According to the video, the Duncan Yo-Yo Olympics was open to all boys and girls under 16 years of age. Divisions were segregated between the sexes, and also either over or under 12 years old.

Contests seeded from the Playground level to the City Contests, followed by State Contests, and onto one of 9 Regionals. Finally the top 9 in the country were flown to Nationals at the Marriott Great America, in Illinois. The prize for a Gold medal at Nationals was a $1000 Scholarship Bond.

Duncan had certified demonstrators in every region of the country mobilize to sell yo-yos, teach tricks, and judge these competitions locally. In Atlanta, the regional demonstrator at this contest was Lance Lynch from Pensacola, Florida. With that fantastic mustache, watch in the film as Lance rounds the kids up in a line for the contest. Unlike modern freestyle based competitions, this primitive yo-yo contest format is very similar to how Kendama ladders are organized today. As Lance moves down the line of kids with a clipboard, everybody steps out from the line one at a time to attempt each trick. Here, everyone starts off with 100 points, and loses 2 points for each miss. It’s basically a sport ladder where the competitors move up the rungs in a group.

Here are the old trick lists:

Playground Level:

-Gravity Pull

-The Spinner

-Walk the Dog

-Around the World

City Level:

-Lunar Loops

-Astro Loops

-Planet Hops

-Orbit Launch

-Rock the Baby

State / Regional Level:

-Skyrocket

-Man on the Flying Trapeeze

-Tidal Wave

-Warp Drive

-Flying Saucer

-Braintwister

-Shooting Star

-Double or Nothing

-Gemini Loops

Vietnam 84 Arena YoYo Contest Results

March 20, 2014 By Steve Brown

Our friends from The Gioi YoYo in Vietnam sent over results and video from their 84 Arena Contest…great to see the scene in Vietnam continuing to grow! The level of play has jumped noticeably from last years event.

1A Division Freestyle Results

1st – Huynh Huu Loc

2nd – Nguyen Pham Minh Khoa

3rd – Hua Phu Nguyen
4th – Van Dinh Sang
5th – Nguyen Ngoc Tri Duc
6th – Dang Nguyen Hoang Long
7th – Nguyen Quang Thach
8th – Nguyen Ba Dien
9th – Le Hong Duc
10th – Le Quang Kiet
11th – Tran Dam Trung Thai
12th – Nguyen Trong Khang
13th – Nguyen Duc Huy
14th – Thai Nhi Khang

Z Division Result

1st – Nguyen Hoang Tuan

2nd – Trinh Hung Liem

3rd – Nguyen Binh Giang

4th – Nguyen Duc Tien
5th – Le Pham The Vu
6th – Tran Thanh Phong

First Look – Square Wheels Plastic Prototype

March 20, 2014 By Steve Brown

We’re exciting to bring you a first look at the prototype for the new machined plastic yoyo from Square Wheels!

Square Wheels Plastic Prototype Specs:

Diameter – 57.75mm
Width – 44.00mm
Weight – 60-64g (making prototypes in various weights to get this right on)
Bearing – Size C (.250 x .500 x .187)
Response – Square Wheels Pads (19mm Slim)

Square Wheels has put a ton of thought and effort in to this, and they feel it’s a real game-changer for machined plastic yoyos. A few features they shared with us:

1. The yoyo is machined from a plastic resin that is hand mixed, degassed, and cast into bars by Jon Mackey. Since this is a hand-cast plastic, this gives them the ability to mix any color they want.

2. A unique new design for the bearing seat. Square Wheels has heard the complaints about bearings fitting too tight, too loose, and even breaking the plastic. Square Wheels has developed a new design, and will be machining their own bearing seats at near perfect tolerances…without inflating the price of the yoyo.

3. This new plastic yoyo uses a different resin formula in the rims than the body, to allow for legitimate rim weighting while maintaining even wall thicknesses and no risking the structural integrity of the yoyo. Since Square Wheels is hand-mixing and casting the resin bars themselves, they can even introduce drastically different weighting scenarios from one run to the next.

Square Wheels will be producing both bearing and fixed axle models with their proprietary resin formula. I think with this much thought going in to this new product line, we can expect some really unique things from Square Wheels. No word on price or release date, but we’ll update when we get more information.