John Higby’s “Everybody Yo-Yos” Book on Kickstarter

April 4, 2019 By Steve Brown

Is it fair to say that John Higby is everyone’s favorite yoyo artist and performer and human being? We think so.

Everyone’s favorite yoyo artist and performer and human being, John Higby, is making a children’s book called “Everybody Yo-Yos” and he’s funding it with a Kickstarter campaign. The campaign is already fully funded, but if you definitely want one of these for that special child in your life (lol jk we know you’re buying it for yourself, all good so are we) then backing the project on Kickstarter is the best way to guarantee you’ll get one!

There are still 17 days to go in the campaign and some pretty sweet extras including painted yoyos, limited editions fro YoYoFactory, and original canvas paintings of the artwork used in the book. We highly recommend you scoop up one of those paintings…they really are a joy to look at and you’ll thank us later.

John Higby’s “Everybody Yo-Yos” Children’s Book on Kickstarter

Kickstarter – YoYo Legacy Project

June 19, 2018 By Steve Brown

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To celebrate the 90 year anniversary of the modern yo-yo, our friends at theYoYo Legacy Project are offering a gorgeous set of exotic wood yo-yos that represent the historical milestones of our favorite toy. No dyes, stains, or tints are used; you’re seeing the natural color of sustainable, exotic woods from all over the world. While designed to be a beautiful desktop display piece, all yo-yos are fully functional. The Kickstarter will be running until July 9th, 2018.

In 1928 Pedro Flores, a Filipino immigrant, worked as a bellboy in a downtown Santa Barbara hotel. In his spare time, he hand-carved a small disc toy he called the Yo-Yo. On his breaks he would go out to the sidewalk and show passersby his toy and the unique tricks that could be learned. It captivated those who saw it! Americans loved the simple toy and Pedro Flores did not remain a bellboy for long.

On June 9th, 1928, Flores set up the first American Yo-Yo manufacturing operation in the Granada Building in downtown, Santa Barbara, California. Within two years he was producing 300,000 Yo-Yos a day at a cost of 15 cents to $1.50 each and promoting the first ever Yo-Yo contests throughout the area.

This project is a celebration of Pedro Flores and the 90th Anniversary of the Yo-Yo in America. It is also a tribute to my childhood love of the Yo-Yo and my lifelong passion for beautiful wood. How better to celebrate the 90th Anniversary of this wonderful toy than to create functional, desktop art with five historically significant Yo-Yos turned out of exquisite, exotic woods.

Backers have the option of quite a few cool rewards, including a reprint of the 1928 Flores trick booklet, a full set of the yoyos with a desk stand, and even a trip to their workshop to learn how to make wooden yoyos yourself!

Check out the full Legacy YoYo Project on Kickstarter and pledge your support today…the Kickstarter campaign ends July 9th!

And be sure to follow the YoYo Legacy Project on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for updates.

This post sponsored by the YoYo Legacy Project

IndieGoGo Campaign – Justin Weber’s Chameleon YoYo

April 11, 2018 By Steve Brown

Professional YoYo Performer Justin Weber has launched an IndieGoGo campaign to raise funds for a full production run of the Chameleon, his ultra-oversized yoyo designed for long-string performances. At 80.3 mm it’s the biggest yoyo available anywhere, and even if you’re not a performer you’re gonna want one of these for your collection. They look amazing! Learn more about the project below, and then click over to IndieGoGo to show your support and help Justin make his dream come true.

Justin Weber x Turning Point Chameleon Specs:

Chameleon

Weight: 113 g

Diameter: 80.31 mm

Width: 50.66 mm

Chameleon Light

Weight: 102 g

Diameter: 80.31 mm

Width: 50.66 mm

Pledge now on IndieGoGo

Doc Pop Launches Kickstarter for The Bolt 2

February 2, 2018 By Steve Brown

Doc Pop has launched a Kickstarter project to fund production for the Bolt Part 2, the official follow up to his much loved plastic yoyo, the Bolt.

Originally manufactured by YoYoJam, the original Bolt was a fun plastic yoyo that was great for beginners and advanced players, and had that extra bit of charm that all of Doc’s projects seem to carry. The Bolt Part 2 looks like it will be another great, fun yoyo and with manufacturing by C3yoyodesign the quality is going to be top notch.

Check out the project description below, and then head over to Kickstarter to back the project and guarantee your own!

The Original Bolt was a hell of a throw, and was manufactured for over 5 years, with devout fans all over the world. After 12 years, we’ve taken the best of the Bolt design and updated it for modern play.

The final design is a collaboration between myself (Doc Pop) and Hadrien Bennaceur (who has designed some of my favorite yo-yos) and will manufactured by the awesome folks at C3 Yo-Yo Design, makers of the Re:Master Galaxy, FingerSpin, and Speedaholic (just to name a few). Big shout out to Hadrien, Walter, and Ron for working on this yo-yo with me.

The Bolt Part 2 is made from machined delrin, with aluminum hubs and side caps for better play and longer spins. The caps feature a new “cubby hole” design for horizontal finger spins and delrin body has “schmoove grooves” to reduce string friction. It fits comfortably in your pocket, but still has a nice catch-zone.

Most importantly, it still feels fun.

UNPRLD x Renta Motoyama ft. Clarity

January 24, 2017 By Steve Brown

Japanese player Renta Motoyama gives up some truly lovely offstring tricks for us in this new video. Really smooth style, and fun to watch!

Yoyo used is the Unparalleled Clarity (which you can back now on Kickstarter!)

Doc Pop & Ernest Kahn Launch The Executive YoYo on Kickstarter

July 5, 2016 By Steve Brown

Doc Pop and Ernest Kahn have teamed up to produce The Executive, a new pocket yoyo being funded on Kickstarter.

The Executive is so small that it fits comfortably in the fifth pocket of your jeans (or pretty much any other pocket you’ve got). Designed and produced in the USA, The Executive is meant to be the perfect everyday carry yoyo.

The Executive is being offered exclusively through Kickstarter, and rewards include a t-shirt designed by Paul Escolar, a special colorway of the yoyo available only to backers in the first 24 hours, plus some neat stretch goals.

The Executive Specs:

Diameter: 44.45mm
Width: 30.30mm
Gap: 4.30mm
Bearing: Size C (OD 10 Ball)
Response: OD Flow Groove Pads
Material: 6061 Aluminum

The Kickstarter campaign is officially live, so head over and back the project now!

Click here to back The Executive on Kickstarter

iYoYo Crowdfunding Campaign 1 Day Left!

January 4, 2016 By Steve Brown

German-based iYoYo has a fundraising campaign on popular crowdfunding platform IndieGoGo for their next model…an injection molded plastic yoyo called Kickstart. The Kickstart will be molded and produced entirely in Germany, which is definitely unusual for the yoyo industry…there’s just not a lot of yoyo production happening in Europe! It also features a unique spacer + shim assembly, intended to let the user choose between a wider gap (unresponsive) and narrower gap (responsive), to suit their skill level.

Check out full specs and a blow-apart diagram video of the yoyo below, and then head over to the campaign page to support the campaign and help fund this yoyo! The campaign ends in just 10 days, and they’ve added some awesome perks, including rare new versions of the popular iYoYo Steel.

iYoYo Kickstart Specs:

Diameter: 57 mm
Width (beginner mode): 41 mm
Width (pro mode): 43 mm
Weight: 64.7g
Gap (beginner mode): 2.26mm
Gap (pro mode): 4.26mm
Bearing: Centering Bearing (Size C)
Response: iYoYo Blue Pads (19mm slim)
Colors 1st run: Red, Green, Blue

iYoYo Starts Crowdfunding Campaign For New Plastic YoYo

December 9, 2015 By Steve Brown

German-based iYoYo has started a fundraising campaign on popular crowdfunding platform IndieGoGo for their next model…an injection molded plastic yoyo called Kickstart. The Kickstart will be molded and produced entirely in Germany, which is definitely unusual for the yoyo industry…there’s just not a lot of yoyo production happening in Europe! It also features a unique spacer + shim assembly, intended to let the user choose between a wider gap (unresponsive) and narrower gap (responsive), to suit their skill level.

Check out full specs and a blow-apart diagram video of the yoyo below, and then head over to the campaign page to support the campaign and help fund this yoyo!

iYoYo Kickstart Specs:

Diameter: 57 mm
Width (beginner mode): 41 mm
Width (pro mode): 43 mm
Weight: 64.7g
Gap (beginner mode): 2.26mm
Gap (pro mode): 4.26mm
Bearing: Centering Bearing (Size C)
Response: iYoYo Blue Pads (19mm slim)
Colors 1st run: Red, Green, Blue

Back Ti-Yo on Kickstarter!

August 13, 2015 By Steve Brown

Sonny Patrick has teamed up with Honolulu-based product designer and machinist Mike Bond to create a new titanium yoyo, available for pre-order now via Kickstarter! That’s right, MOAR TITANIUM! THE SUMMER OF TITANIUM™ WILL NEVER END!

Based on the designs for the legendary and never released Kuntosh and the long sold-out BSP, this new titanium yoyo (called the Ti-Yo, but we’ll forgive them for that) looks like a slim, fast, stable player from one of our favorite yoyo designers of all time. And with Kickstarter rewards starting at just $175 for one of the yoyos, it’s also one of the best deals for a titanium yoyo we’ve seen yet.

The project is nearly fully funded, but you should get your order in now to make sure you get one because hey…who knows if production will continue after this Kickstarter ends.

RiotMouse YoYos on Kickstarter

October 25, 2014 By Steve Brown

Mark McBride is the guy who invented modern 3A yoyo play (that took off pretty well), was the first person to create a notation system for yoyo tricks (that didn’t catch on), and now he has a new project: custom built yoyos to your specs via a web interface.

Riot Mouse is basically like having your own personal modder at your disposal…you create your ideal yoyo via a fairly simple web interface, specify the material you want it made of, and plunk down your money…and in a week or so you get your yoyo in the mail. The plan seems to be to create yoyos from standard materials (maple, delrin, aluminum) as well as a variety of exotic and novelty materials (bone, composite plastics, a chunk of wood from The Man at Burning Man, etc). Sounds like a neat idea, and with the slow rise of 3D printing in yoyos it’s nice to see someone taking the idea of tabletop manufacturing to the next logical step.

Head over to Kickstarter for more details and to support the project. Good luck, Mark!

Support RiotMouse Toys on Kickstarter

LearnKendama.com Kickstarter Project

October 17, 2014 By Steve Brown

The folks from YoYoTricks.com are launching a new website, and they’re looking for your help!

They’ve got a Kickstarter project online right now to fund their new site, LearnKedama.com, and they’ve got some great rewards including new kendamas from Catchy. Check out the details below, and then head over to Kickstarter.com to support the project.

For the last 5 years we have been running YoYoTricks.com and filming tutorial videos to teach people how to yoyo. We even launched our own yoyo, the Civility, through Kickstarter, which has helped us take our tutorials to new heights. It has been our pleasure to hear story after story of kids and adults finding our site and mastering tricks they never thought possible. We have been amazed and humbled at how meaningful our site has become to our users. We often receive emails from customers who share with us how the yoyo has helped them gain personal confidence, stem the tide of boredom, and even how parents are connecting with their kids as the whole family learns to yoyo together. While this certainly reaches far beyond any goals we had for the site when it launched, it has made the work more gratifying than we ever thought possible. Our hope is that through LearnKendama.com our users will experience the same joy and camaraderie others have through YoYoTricks.com.

Our Goals

Our long term aim with LearnKendama.com is to build the most thorough and engaging place to learn kendama on the planet. In the short term, through this campaign our goal is to get kendamas into the hands of interested people, and have enough tutorials released on LearnKendama.com by Christmas to familiarize those players with the fundamentals. The funds we raise through this campaign will not only help us launch LearnKendama.com by Christmas, but will supply us with our initial stock of products so that we can continue to run this business and make tutorials for the foreseeable future.

YoYo News From Around The Web

February 24, 2013 By Steve Brown

Here’s a compilation of yoyo news around the web that we found…enjoy!

TechCrunch gives us an absolutely painful listing of every single yoyo-related pun imaginable in their non-coverage of two Kickstarter projects involving yoyos, and one involving a fire flying disc of some kind that they lumped in with yoyos for no discernible reason.

Korean pop fansite AllKPop.com gives us some great coverage of Hiroyuki Suzuki’s recent appearance on Star King with members of k-pop group KARA.

KomoNews.com published a great photo gallery from the Pacific NorthWest Regional YoYo Contest.

Civility YoYo on Kickstarter

January 11, 2013 By Steve Brown

Colin Leland (OneDrop Project, TMBR Toys) has teamed up with old-school player Adam Bottiglia and his website, YoTricks.com, to produce a new metal yoyo called “Civility”.

This yoyo is being crowdfunded through Kickstarter, and has already reached 162% of its funding goal with 30 days to go!

You can still pledge and pre-order a Civility for only $75, though, so get in now and guarantee yours before production begins.

John Higby’s “Everybody Yo-Yos” Book on Kickstarter

John Higby’s “Everybody Yo-Yos” Children’s Book on Kickstarter

IndieGoGo Campaign – Justin Weber’s Chameleon YoYo