History / About
Toy Tinkers (also known as the Tinker Toy Company), based in Evanston, Illinois, entered the yo-yo market in the mid-1950s with its Toy-O-Ball series, a rewinding metal reel housed in a round plastic shell and made as baseballs, basketballs and footballs. The YoYo Wiki notes the balls looked very similar to the HEP Magic String Balls sold in the same period, and that it is unclear whether Toy Tinkers produced the HEP line or the reverse. The wiki describes the Toy-O-Balls as the first auto-returning yo-yo balls produced. The model “Chicago Fair HEP (Baseball)” is one of six Toy Tinkers yo-yo balls listed on the wiki’s manufacturer page; the wiki has no separate entry or specifications for it.
