History
Pedro Flores’s original production yo-yo, the first mass-produced yo-yo in the United States sold under the “yo-yo” trademark. Flores filed a DBA certificate in Santa Barbara, California on June 9, 1928 under the name Yo-Yo Manufacturing Company, introducing the Wonder Toy to the American market at 15¢ for the smallest size.
The defining innovation was Flores’s loop-axle slip string — the string was looped around the axle rather than tied to it, allowing the yo-yo to spin freely at the string’s end in the “sleep” position and enabling a range of tricks impossible with earlier fixed-string bandalores. The slogan became: “If it isn’t Flores it isn’t a yo-yo.”
At its 1929 peak, the company operated factories in Santa Barbara, Hollywood, and Los Angeles, employed 600 workers, and produced over 300,000 yo-yos daily. The Wonder Toy was offered in a three-tier pricing lineup (15¢, mid-tier, and premium) with colorways including red, green, blue, pink, and purple, each stamped with the distinctive “Big F” ink mark. The brand and trademark were acquired by Donald F. Duncan Sr. in 1932 for an estimated $250,000–$750,000.
Original examples are highly collectible; graded specimens sell for $300–$975+ depending on color rarity and condition.
