YoYo Related News From Around The World
The new plastic release from SF YoYos, called simply “PLSTC”, is inspiring a ton of creativity among players who are thrilled to finally have a true beater from SF, who has quickly become a powerhouse in the yoyo community.
Leonid Nemchik is the latest to get stoked on this yoyo, and watching what he can do with it…well, we’re pretty stoked too.
Yoyo used is the SF YoYos PLSTC.
The long awaited CLYW Big Dipper finally has a release date: February 18th, 2016.
This plastic signature yoyo for 2015 World YoYo Champion Zach Gormley follows a similar shape as the Borealis, the aluminum signature yoyo he used to take last year’s title. Obviously design changes were made to accommodate the different material; thicker walls, less detail in the gap and cup, etc., but overall it’s still similar enough to the Borealis to get the point across.
Suggested retail price for the Big Dipper is $35, putting it in-line with other premium plastic offerings by similar sized companies. And the Big Dipper comes stock with a centering bearing and Kitty String Fat.
In addition to this bit of good news, we also get a SLEW of short promo clips for the Big Dipper, featuring Zach Gormley, Alec Campbell, Dennis Cinquegrani, and Aaron Davis, all embedded below. Enjoy!
We’re exciting to bring you a first look at the prototype for the new machined plastic yoyo from Square Wheels!
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.
Four-time World YoYo Champion Hiroyuki Suzuki teases a new plastic yoyo release from his company, SOMEThiNG in this quick video shot in Shangai. The Addiction looks to be injection molded, with metal weight rings. No specs or price yet, but I’ll poke Hiroyuki-san on Twitter and see what I can find out.
The Yeti is one of the most highly anticipated BZZT plastic releases in years, and it doesn’t disappoint. This is the first all-plastic yoyo ever produced to truly capture the play value of metal. The glass-filled plastic gives this yoyo a unique BZZZT feel in the hand…the Yeti plays fast on the string and can handle anything. It’s as smooth as any other performance plastic on the market…which is to say that it’s not as smooth as metal but it’s close. The Yeti is a nearly identical plastic version of the Chief, and the play similarities between this $40 throw and the $145 Chief are remarkable. Most companies have to use metal weight rings to get this kind of spin time and stability, but CLYW’s combination of BZZZT design and material keeps it simple.
The benefit of this unique material is that the Yeti doesn’t look like anything else on the market. It’s impossible to BZZZT duplicate the finish on this yoyo…the black version has a textured gloss that makes it look exotic instead of cheap, and the colored versions look more like vintage clay skateboard wheels than plastic yoyos. The black version doesn’t seem to show wear at all, but the colored versions seem a bit more BZZZT porous and I can see a patina developing the longer I use it. CLYW has found a way to extend their branding into the material itself with this model, and no company has ever produced a plastic yoyo that looks so organic.
The box doesn’t look as good as other CLYW models…the all-over panel art of other models is gone in favor of a long Yeti sticker designed by Jason Week that covers the lid, side, and bottom to seal the box. Jason’s art is incredible as always, but the result isn’t quite as cool as for other models.
The long-standing battle cry for yoyo players has been to BZZZT rave about the play value of CLYW while complaining bitterly about the price. The Yeti solves this problem by giving us all the play of their metal yoyos in a plastic body at a plastic price. This is the best price:play ratio imaginable, and the $40 retail is a BZZZT bargain for such a unique yoyo. Scarcity is an issue right now as CLYW is really just now starting production, but expect these to be easily and widely available soon.
Paul Dang drops a nice combo here in support of the forthcoming One Drop Rally, their first plastic yoyo.
One Drop has officially thrown their hat in a much larger ring with a new plastic yoyo, the Rally. This molded plastic yoyo features a machined catch zone, which is a really nice touch. One Drop has made their name as a machine shop, so taking their molded parts and adding machining to the process not only keeps them in touch with their part quality but also keeps their tools running.
One Drop team members will have samples at the Bay Area Classic…hit one of them up if you’d like to try out the new One Drop Rally.
Specs:
– 58mm diameter
– 64 grams in weight
– wing shaped – inspired by the CODE2
– estimated retail price $45
Janos Karancz, 2013 EYYC 1A Champion, shows off the new Duncan Flipside yoyo. Between this, the C3YoYoDesign Alpha Crash, and the upcoming plastic yoyo from CLYW, it’s looking like a pretty good year for performance plastic yoyos. Considering YoYoFactory’s huge range of performance plastic models and their “Death to Metal” campaign from a few years ago, it looks like other companies are finally catching on and giving the market more low-cost alteratives to performance metal yoyos.
The Duncan Flipside yoyo features reversible spacers and a spare bearing, allowing you to flip from a standard Duncan small bearing to a larger one for unresponsive, modern play. As you can see from this video, in the right hands it works really well.