History / About
A plastic basketball-shaped yo-yo from Festival’s Be-A-Sport series. The Yo-Yo Museum says the series began selling in the late 1960s and continued, under at least five packaging redesigns, until the very late 1970s, and included a football, basketball, baseball, eight ball, tennis ball, bowling ball and golf ball. The earliest dated museum example of this model is 1972. After Festival closed, the molds resurfaced, and the museum notes Duncan appears to have acquired them for its 2003 sports ball line. Festival Toys was a division of Union Wadding Company of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, according to the Yo-Yo Museum, and was associated with Wilf Schlee Jr., owner of Cheerio and Hi-Ker.
