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§ 01 · Latest reviews

From the workshop bench

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  • Edition Yoyo | Miro | A-Tier
    Folio 3609

    Edition Yoyo | Miro | A-Tier

    Small yoyo that feels rounder than it feels tubular, despite nearly being a 1:1 spec ratio (if the yoyo was a full-sized 56mm dia, it’d have a ~53mm width) Edition tends to make good yoyos. This is one of them. Didn’t expect to like it because undersized yoyos are always “omg it’s so good it…

  • A Look at the Aroundsquare Not Machine
    Folio 3607

    A Look at the Aroundsquare Not Machine

    Aroundsquare is well know for a lot of skill toys: begleri, deadeyes, knucklebones, chetki, and more. They’ve never done a yo-yo, until now. The Not Machine is their first of hopefully many throw offerings. It’s a wooden fixed-axle yoyo made from either maple or purpleheart. Both have a birch axle, and a copper “Aroundsquare” plaquette…

  • W1LD | Adrenaline Rush (Pom Rim) | S-Tier
    Folio 3478

    W1LD | Adrenaline Rush (Pom Rim) | S-Tier

    I heard this thing was coming and was very excited. I liked the OG Adrenaline and sorta always wished I hadn’t skipped on it. Same goes for the NorAdrenaline. It just sorta always worked out that I didn’t have one in my hands. I saw the white-on-white protos and instantly wanted one. Then the colorways…

  • Dis Yoyos | Obscura (PC Rim) | SS-tie
    Folio 3373

    Dis Yoyos | Obscura (PC Rim) | SS-tie

    This is a review of the PC version of the obscura, not the Pom version. Dude, this yoyo rips. Genuinely. I watched Dis pretty distantly through their first two releases; didn’t love the Sibyl or the Anima, neither were my thing. I liked how both felt, but I felt like they made compromises for that playfeel. Other…

  • Japan Technology | Kagerou ’24 | A-Tier
    Folio 3322

    Japan Technology | Kagerou ’24 | A-Tier

    I wrote an entire video for this yoyo. The script is fully done; I could’ve just posted it to the YYE forums as a review and gone next. The only reason I didn’t is that editing and recording are a miserable process for me right now and will probably only get more stressful going into…

  • Yoyorecreation | Savage Handcrush | B-Tier
    Folio 3248
    ·

    Yoyorecreation | Savage Handcrush | B-Tier

    This yoyo should be everything the Savage was but even more. And in some ways, it is. In the good ways and the bad ways. It’s still a thrasher, but it’s still fatiguing to use. But ironically… It’s slightly nerfed. This yoyo leaves performance to be desired in a couple of weirdly particular ways. Obviously,…


§ 02 · Player profiles

The throwers we follow

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  • Adrian Velez

    Adrian Velez

    Adrian Velez Adrian Velez is an American yo-yo player known for technical 1A competition and Midwest community organizing. After placing third in Junior 1A at the 2013 Midwest Regional, he won Minnesota’s 1A title in 2016, 2017, and 2018 and Missouri state honors in 2024 and 2026. He helped organize the University of Minnesota yo-yo…

  • Hiroyuki Suzuki

    Hiroyuki Suzuki

    Hiroyuki Suzuki Hiroyuki Suzuki, nicknamed “Mickey” for performing to the Mickey Mouse March, is a Japanese 1A competitor from Aichi. He won four World Yo-Yo Contest 1A titles — 2004, 2005, and 2006 on his YoYoJam signature Speeder, and a fourth in 2012 on sOMEThING’s Anglam — a share of the most 1A world titles…

  • Naoto Okada

    Naoto Okada

    Naoto Okada Naoto Okada is a Japanese 4A specialist competing for Team YoyoRecreation, and a two-time World Yo-Yo Contest 4A World Champion (2009, 2011). YoyoRecreation’s first offstring model, the Maestro, is his signature throw, built around his long boingy-boingy and recapture combo style. In 2016 he swept both the 2A and 4A divisions at the…

  • Jensen Kimmitt

    Jensen Kimmitt

    Jensen Kimmitt Jensen Kimmitt is a Canadian 1A competitor from Edmonton, Alberta, best known for winning the 2010 World Yo-Yo Contest on his own signature YoYoFactory Northstar — a plastic yo-yo that outperformed a field dominated by full-metal models. His sponsorship history moved between Caribou Lodge Yo-Yo Works and YoYoFactory, with CLYW as his affiliation…


§ 03 · Articles

Longform from the archive

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  • Spinworthy Yoyos: Keeping Fixed Axle Moving Forward
    Folio 3750

    Spinworthy Yoyos: Keeping Fixed Axle Moving Forward

    From handmade wooden fixies in Adelaide to the tiny MR85 bearing at the heart of the RBC, Harbinger and Flying Lemon, Spinworthy has spent nearly a decade exploring what happens when old-school yo-yo ideas are treated as a starting point instead of a limitation. Spinworthy Yoyos did not begin with a large product launch, a…


§ 04 · Companies

The makers behind the throws

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  • Augment Design

    Augment Design (Augment Yoyos) is a niche sub-label launched by Thesis Yoyos in February 2022 for smaller, experimental, direct-sale-only projects. Its first and, to date, only release was the CALYX, a Grade 5 titanium competition throw sold directly through Thesis’s own site in a limited run. The brand’s Instagram has been dormant since mid-2022 with…

  • BigBoi Yoyo’s

    BigBoi Yoyo’s is a small independent yo-yo accessories brand based in Florida, run by Nicholas Privett. The brand sells strings and counterweights directly through its Square storefront. In August 2026, BigBoi announced a collaboration with longtime manufacturer Spintastics Yoyos on its first full yo-yo release, the V-tour, an aggressive V-shaped competition throw roughly 18 months…

  • Unity

    Unity yoyos is a small independent yo-yo brand whose debut release, the Affinity, launched with art by Carter Tanney and a Zipline x Sochi Alphaline string. The Affinity is a 7075 aluminum mono-metal available in multiple colorways and a 5A edition with a titanium chainmail counterweight by Dustin Gunter.

  • Shinwoo

    Shinwoo is a South Korean yo-yo manufacturer founded in 1987, known for offering ball-bearing yo-yos at aggressive price points. Its catalog spans budget plastic string-trick throws (Techno, Phantom, Loop series), off-string/multi-style models (ZanNavi, Griffin Wing, ProWing), and the Zen line of low-cost full-metal yo-yos. The Griffin Wing was used by Naoto Okada to win the…

  • Watieoboo

    Watieoboo is a budget yo-yo brand sold primarily through Amazon and eBay, offering entry-level and intermediate metal yo-yos with dual-mode (responsive/unresponsive) bearings. No dedicated brand website or founding history has been published; it operates as a marketplace-first manufacturer.

  • Royal Tops Manufacturing Company

    Royal Tops Manufacturing Company was founded in 1937 in Long Island City, NY, by Joe “Chico” Radovan, a former Duncan yo-yo demonstrator. Its wooden yo-yos carried a crown-and-chevron logo and the Chico nickname (Chico Super Deluxe). In 1965, Royal Tops won a landmark trademark case against Donald F. Duncan, Inc., successfully arguing that “yo-yo” was…

§ 05 · Yo-yos

The objects themselves

Open the cabinet

What's currently on the Curator's desk.

§ 06 · Stories

Throwers, in their own words

Read the oral histories
  • Cerasus Design Notes

    This is a project that I’ve been working on for a few years now, but with protos now in the wild and getting shared around at a few clubs, I figured it was time to actually talk about it. The Cerasus started as a simple vision, simply wanting a large diameter yoyo that actually had…

  • Pun1sh3R’s Yonomicon ‘Merica Edition Adventure

    As memtioned above, I purchased the ‘Merica Edition. I also opted for the “Delivery In Person”. “The author will take a paperback copy of the book to the gun range, shoot a hole in, then take it to a burger joint where he will eat the largest burger on the menu with fries and get…

  • Dale Oliver picture from 1998 YoYo Boom – Earliest Offstring Photo?

    Later in the thread he references this article, which is an excellent read, followed up by this amazing video. Overall, some amazing yo-yo history here!

  • The Chief, a Documentary by Gingie

    Popular online yo-yo reviewer, Gingie, has released a video documentary about the CLYW Chief. “Super proud to finally be able to say this The Chief Documentary is done, at long last! After nearly two years of work, it’s my magnum opus and the single longest video on my channel. This video explores the lead up…

§ 07 · The index

The Archive Catalog

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