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Ed Haponik – Cobalt

March 16, 2015 By Steve Brown

Ed Haponik! ED HAPONIK!

There are few people in the yoyo community who are universally accepted by all as “good people”. The list is short, and Ed Haponik is easily at the top of it. Check out his latest love letter to yoyo play, and get inspired!

Yoyo used is the Tom Kuhn Silver Bullet 4.

Filed Under: Players, Video Tagged With: ed haponik, silver bullet, tom kuhn, yoyo tricks, yoyo video

YoYo Spotlight – Tom Kuhn Silver Bullet 4

March 16, 2015 By YoYoNews

Tom Kuhn Silver Bullet 4

Tom Kuhn Silver Bullet 4 Specs:

Diameter: 57 mm
Width: 42.55 mm
Gap: 4.85 mm
Weight: 64.5 grams
Response: 19mm CBC Slim Pads
Bearing: Size C (.250 x .500 x .187)

The Silver Bullet 4 is the first truly modern performance yoyo from legendary yoyo manufacturer and designer, Tom Kuhn. Designed and produced for them by the Chico YoYo Company, the Silver Bullet 4 brings a new level of performance to Tom Kuhn yoyos!

PLAY

The Silver Bullet 4 is the first bearing model in Tom Kuhn’s long-running Silver Bullet line to come with a fixed gap and a butterfly body shape, and the play greatly benefits. The Silver Bullet 4 plays up to modern standards, and is the first competition-grade yoyo from Tom Kuhn. Light in the hand and fast on the string, the Silver Bullet 4 keeps the classic feel of the original Silver Bullet (the first modern aluminum yoyo!) but brings a new level of performance to the table. Designed in conjunction with the Chico YoYo Company, the Silver Bullet 4 is a true modern player!

SB4_side

LOOKS

The first release of the Silver Bullet 4 comes in the classic polished aluminum of all Silver Bullet yoyos. A classic, iconic look from a classic American yoyo company. There are few things that look as nice as a well-polished, raw aluminum yoyo and the Silver Bullet 4 looks great in the hand, on the string, and under stage lights. The classic “bullet” hubs are present, tying the design in with all of the previous models. The first release was classic raw silver, but a new Cobalt Blue Mandala version is available now, only direct from TomKuhn.com.


VALUE

The Silver Bullet 4 retails for $145 – $150, and is definitely not a casual purchase. But with modern performance from a classic brand and small run sizes, this is a great combination of performance and collectibility.

BUY THE TOM KUHN SILVER BULLET 4

The Tom Kuhn Silver Bullet 4 is available at YoYoExpert.com.

THIS POST SPONSORED BY YOYOEXPERT

Filed Under: YoYo Spotlight Tagged With: sb4, silver bullet, sponsored, sponsored post, spotlight, tom kuhn, yoyo spotlight

Ed Haponik – Silver Is The New Black

December 13, 2014 By Steve Brown

Here’s a rare treat….modern fixed axle pioneer Ed Haponik dropped an entire video of him playing with a bearing yoyo! The new SB-4 from Tom Kuhn has just recently hit shelves, and it looks like Ed is really enjoying it. Designed as a collaborative effort between Tom Kuhn and the Chico YoYo Company, the SB-4 is the first unresponsive yoyo from everyone’s favorite dentist.

Yoyo used is the Tom Kuhn SB-4.

Filed Under: Players, Video Tagged With: ed haponik, sb 4, silver bullet 4, tom kuhn, video

Ed Haponik Joins Tom Kuhn YoYos

November 1, 2014 By Steve Brown

Ed Haponik

Ed Haponik has officially joined Tom Kuhn YoYos! He resigned from Werrd just a week ago, and quite suddenly found himself courted by the brand he’s loved the most since he started throwing. Here are Ed’s thoughts on the matter:

Last week, before TK asked me to come onboard, I parted ways with Werrd. They are some of the highest quality people in yoyoing and make equally excellent products. But the stuff they do best isn’t what I tend to play most, so I started to feel disingenuous in representing them. Regardless I’ve got nothing but respect for the crew, and for Stu. I didn’t intend to jump on with another company, but the chance to work with one I feel so connected to was irresistible. Going to be handling community liaison stuff, social media, and giving input on new designs and brand identity. I can’t claim to be an expert on any of that stuff, but that’s not gonna stop me from getting paid to rep a company whose yoyo I have tattooed on my arm.

This is a HUGE leap forward for Tom Kuhn YoYos, who have slipped well behind the rest of the industry in recent years and have only recently started making some forward movement with the brand and new product. Congratulations to TK on picking up such a rare and respected talent as Ed Haponik.

Filed Under: Manufacturer, Players Tagged With: ed haponik, tom kuhn

Tom Kuhn & Chico YoYo Company Announce Silver Bullet 4

August 23, 2014 By Steve Brown

Tom Kuhn Silver Bullet 4 SB4

 

Tom Kuhn, widely considered the father of the modern yoyo, is releasing the latest in the Silver Bullet line…as a collaboration with the Chico YoYo Company. The Silver Bullet 4 is the first modern competitive yoyo from Tom Kuhn, whose last new design was released in 2008 (the Fat Cat, a slightly reshaped Silver Bullet 2).

The Silver Bullet 4 is not yet in production, but is available now for pre-order directly from Tom Kuhn YoYos for $125 each, with a limit of two per customer. You can contact lisa@tomkuhn.com for details and to reserve your Silver Bullet 4. Check out full specs below, and see Nate Dailey putting a prototype through its paces!

Silver Bullet 4 Specs:

Diameter: 56.9mm
Width 43mm
Weight 66g
Gap: 4.25mm
Response: 19mm pad
Bearing: Size C (0.500 x 0.250 x 0.1875)

Filed Under: Manufacturer Tagged With: chico yoyo company, sb4, silver bullet, silver bullet 4, tom kuhn

YoYoDrop – Return Of The Flying Camel

August 20, 2013 By Steve Brown

Tom Kuhn Flying Camel YoYo

The Flying Camel is one of the most idiosyncratic and beloved bits of fixed axle yoyo history. Originally created by Tom Kuhn as the butterfly-shaped standard release of his No Jive 3-in-1 yoyo, the name came to him while backpacking in 1978 after seeing a cloud that looked like a camel with wings.

When Brad Countryman and What’s Next Mfg. took over production of Tom Kuhn yoyos in the late 90s, the quality fell tremendously and many of the shapes changed to reflect existing tooling that What’s Next was already using on their own wooden yoyo line. As ball bearing yoyos took over the market, the Tom Kuhn line slipped away into near obscurity, What’s Next production ground to a halt, and new models were not only few and far between but largely unsuccessful in gaining any traction in the market.

Tom Kuhn Flying Camel YoYo

Which makes it all the less likely and all the more wonderful that this particular model has been resurrected by Adam Bottiglia at YoTricks.com. Available now in their webstore, I reached out to Adam to get the scoop on why this model, and why bring it back now.

The Flying Camel was the first yoyo I ever bought with my own money. This was back in the early to mid-90s when there was still some debate over whether bearings were actually superior to wood yoyos for learning tricks or not. Looking back at that moment in history, it is honestly hard to say. At the time I was using a Raider to work on my string tricks, and if a butterfly-style ball bearing yoyo was available, I was unaware. This was before the Freehand, before Team Losi’s Cherry Bomb, back in a time when two-handed play was seen as the pinnacle of yoyo skill. All that to say, in my mind, a butterfly shaped wood yoyo could still hold its own against the best plastic had to offer, and the No Jive’s reversible design had great appeal for me.

I didn’t have a job so I wandered the streets of my small town for weeks collecting soda cans to return for a dime each, constantly resisting the urge to spend my money on baseball cards. When I finally had enough I gave the money to my mother who wrote a check, I believe, and we sent it to Infinite Illusions to receive my reward.

I only had it for one week, but it was a glorious week. I couldn’t stop looking at it, mystified at the name and intricate laser etched design. I must have swapped it back and forth a hundred times from butterfly to imperial style. In my mind I owned the best yoyo money could buy. In typical adolescent fashion (typical for me, at least) I left it on the school bus, never to be seen again. I am sure some bus driver is still learning tricks with this oddly named bus-seat artifact.

I would be lying if I said my teenage disappointment was not a strong motivator for bringing this one back. Besides that, I genuinely love this yoyo and I knew it would never see light again if someone did not take action. The 3-in-1 design, while not so necessary any more, was pure genius back in its day. Add to that the bizarre and inexplicable name and graphic on the yoyo and it was just too sad to leave in the annals of yoyo history. With the recent interest in wood yoyos it seemed like a perfect opportunity to resurrect this lost gem without taking a total loss.

Since Tom Kuhn and Brad Countryman had closed down their own wood yoyo making facility a few years back they had to commission a new factory to make this run. Brad described the intricacies of the process to me over the phone, getting the hex parts to fit perfectly, and how precise each hole needed to be to make the yoyo work properly. “Wood is not like metal” he said, “and we know what it takes to get these made perfectly.” He suggested that it would be difficult to get another shop to hold to the proper specifications, but that he would make sure they came out right. His suspicions were confirmed when the first batch of yoyos came back unacceptable due to some carelessness or misunderstanding in production. Thankfully the second effort turned out a much better yoyo half. I believe Tom and Brad still had parts from other yoyos they make (many of them are interchangeable) so they assembled the yoyos and got them right out to us.

Of all the things I remembered, the one thing I forgot was the smell. The laser etching on the yoyo really brings out the maple, even syrupy, smell of the wood. I feel any yoyo player would find throwing this aromatic camel a soothing comfort at the end of a rough, yoyo-less day.

Huge thanks to Adam for bringing these back, and for sharing his story. The new Flying Camel retails for $29.99, and is available at YoTricks.com.

Filed Under: YoYo Drop Tagged With: Adam Bottiglia, brad countryman, flying camel, tom kuhn, yotricks.com, yoyodrop

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