Stompling
A 3D-printed, fixed-axle yo-yo release by Ardeus in May of 2025.
Stomp
A 3D-printed, fixed-axle yo-yo release by Ardeus in May of 2025.
Bowl XL
The following is archived from RSO’s website:
GO BIG OR GO HOME
Making an oversized yo-yo has been a massive dream of mine, literally and figuratively. Sometimes the stars don’t seem to align… until now. I had intended to release a larger Bowl before a mini one last year but ran into dead-ends and roadblocks on the journey.
The BIG (there’s that adjective again) problem was sourcing 7068 aluminum bars that could be anodized with great color-pop and consistency. There were no issues 2 years ago when producing the regular sized Bowl 7068. But most recently, I had prototyped another yo-yo, the upcoming “Heavy Duty”, with 7068 aluminum bars obtained from two different suppliers – the anodizing process created blotches on all 10 samples. I decided to give away all the prototypes to those who bought yo-yos from RSO, and to my delight, they are still in circulation throughout the community today.
I felt it was not worth the risk due to the much higher costs involved in producing an oversized yo-yo. Material costs are based on the amount of material required and these bars, sold by weight, are massively heavy compared to standard sizes. As a general rule of thumb, the aluminium bars have to be about 2-3 mm thicker than the target yo-yo diameter. With the 66mm Bowl XL, we had to buy 72mm 7068 aluminum bars since there were no other sizes in-between. This added a lot more cost in materials on top of production time to lathe away all that extra aluminum to arrive at the 66 mm diameter. Here’s a tip for the next time you’re deciding what pizza size to order: when you increase the diameter of a circle, the volume essentially increases by a power of 3. We also had to invest in tooling to create an anodizing rig to cradle those bigger yo-yo halves, then add in more post-production costs because fewer yo-yos may be anodized at a single time due to the size increase. And finally (I know, you get the point by now), shipping is more costly due to the higher volumetric weight. Here’s another impact (I said finally, but I didn’t mean it): material costs and freight are experiencing hyperinflation and prices for these commodities have increased since I started dreaming about “GOING BIG!”
Fun fact: the 7068 Bowl XL costs almost double to make compared to the 6061 Bowl mini.
Fast forward to early 2021. Due to the limited yet sufficient availability of quality tried and tested oversized 7068 aluminum bars combined with the immense popularity of the Bowl series, I decided that it’s time; time to revive the Bowl XL project so you can see why I’ve been obsessing over this big dream.
IT’S HUUUGE
Make no mistake, the Bowl XL is a gigantic yo-yo. It is one of the most enormous yo-yos ever made. Put this in a pocket of your tight-fitting pants, and you’ll get a decent Jason Derulo bulge. Don’t be surprised if you hear, “Is that a Bowl XL in your pocket, or are you happy to see me?” The goal of the Bowl XL was to pack the usual floaty play-feel of the Bowl series into a Godzilla-meets-Mothra-sized hefty package. So I took the original Bowl CAD and gave it a dose of Viagra. A super-charged one where the effects would last infinitely. Don’t worry, you wouldn’t need to bring your tool to the doctor. The yo-yo retains the “for your hand pleasurable” organic shape of the Bowl series.
People often say, “it’s not the size but how you use it.” But what if you could have both playability and size? At only 1g heavier but 10mm bigger than the regular Bowl 7068, you’ll be thrusting in and out of your tricks effortlessly. The fun is guaranteed to last as long as you want, without tiring out at the climax of your trick combos. How awesome would it be to supersize your way through a session of maximum-sized yo-yo play?
NOT A ONE-MINUTE YO-YO
The Bowl XL prototypes were equipped with 19mm response pads. As with most development processes on newly designed RSO models, 10 prototypes were made and sent to a selected few with their RSO purchases. Everyone loved it, but felt it did not gain enough rotational momentum when launching down the string on the initial throw. And sometimes, as a result, the yo-yo often came (back to the hand) prematurely. Nobody wants a 5-second combo unless you’re ordering fast food through the drive-thru. After much deliberation, I attributed this to the response pads, which were changed on the production version to the CLYW slim / G2 G-grip size. Wait until you experience the massive BANG!
So what is the science behind this mystery concoction? With thinner pads, the yo-yo actually makes fewer 360-degree revolutions with string contact compared to thicker pads. Larger yo-yos also make fewer of these revolutions compared to smaller yo-yos when they unravel from the string. Combine these two factors and the momentum is significantly reduced. The thicker CLYW slim / G2 G-grip size response pads made up for the shortcomings and made the production version of the Bowl XL last longer on the string. The Bowl XL has enough stamina to spin all night long.
PERFORMANCE REVIEW
Yo-yo’ing isn’t just shallow fun; it’s good for you too. Finding your flow releases a flood of the hormone oxytocin, improving your mood. Regular throwing may improve your cardiac health through movement, reduce stress through flow, and increase self-esteem through improving every session. Reducing stress has been shown to help improve sleep. So choose your yo-yo like how you would pick a life partner: wisely.
It has been said that just like the noble Sasquatch, the “too big yo-yo” is simply a myth. Some go as far as saying it is an unplayable paper-weight that should be reserved for those who can’t afford a monster truck to overcome some hidden deficiency of self-consciousness.
But trust me when I say that too big yo-yos are very real and may pose a problem. The CLYW 2018 Sasquatch (71.4mm diameter, 78.9g) and the Sengoku Bakemono (68mm diameter, 85g) might be too overwhelming for the common folk. The Bowl XL weighs as much as a regular-sized yo-yo – you can play it for hours and never have to tell the story of your painful “first time” or how you got a hernia playing a “too big yo-yo.”
The One Drop Par Avion (62.4mm diameter, 65.2g) has much more palatable specifications. Due to the less float compared to the Bowl XL, the experience might be a little… similar to that of a married couple who has been doing it the same way for decades. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In such a scenario, I would suggest moving from the bed to the floor, the bathroom, or the kitchen counter for a change of scenery. But… that is not my place to get involved.
The Atmos Projects Pomelo (65.3mm diameter, 61.3g) is the closest thing you would get to the Bowl XL experience but its play-feel would be described as “lightweight” rather than “floaty”. It may perform like the young dude you just met at the club that you may struggle to instruct and control, if that is your fetish. The extra 3.4g of weight in the Bowl XL puts you in the driver’s seat.
Tip: Yo-yos do not make their own natural lubricant. If it is in short supply, playing the yo-yo may be a rough and unforgiving experience. Most lubricants are safe to use with your Bowl XL.
Don’t miss out on the Bowl XL! Because at the end of the day, and during your yo-yo play…
SIZE MATTERS.
P.S. The above comparisons are all made in good fun. They are all great yo-yos which are special in their own way, and part of my collection. Have a laugh will ya?
THE COLORS
Green – Legendary Anaconda. The most epic colorway that needs no explanation. Many often boast that they have one but they do not. Inspired by the CLYW Wintergreen Peak.
Pink – Pink Tractor Beam. Rumoured to refer to a very important body part, from the song Here In My Room by Incubus, from the album A Crow Left of the Murder.
Blue – Blue Veined Aristocrat. Refers to a long critical organ which increases in size like the hulk, with veins showing. Inspired by the gowns of French Aristocrats of the Seventeenth-century.
Plum – Plum Tree Shaker. An Eighteenth-century term for a certain human appendage.
A SPECIAL EDITION – RSO’S FIRST SPLASH COLORWAY
Long Dong Silver – RSO’s first splash colorway is a tribute to one of the greatest performers of the century, and inspired by the colors of one of my favorite fast food restaurant, Long John Silver’s.
WHAT’S IN THE BOX
EMBROIDERED PATCH
A PAIR OF CLYW SLIM / G-GRIP SIZE TYPE 50 RSO LANDING PADS
NEON GREEN THICK STRING
The artwork, by ATILA, features Mr Colton “Taekwondo” Xxxtra Long, an up and coming performer.
derti
The following is archived from RSO’s website:
THE ELUSIVE GENIUS
I first spoke to Russell Andert, the maker of the dert and its various iterations, in November 2020. It was challenging to get hold of him, given that he has (by choice) decided not to jump on the social media bandwagon like everyone else. He literally has zero online presence. With the help of Andre Boulay of YoYoExpert, I managed to contact Russell via email. After a few back and forths, a Zoom conversation followed.
Russell is a machinist himself and one hell of a genius yo-yo designer (more on this later). Back in the day, he machined his yo-yos using leftover metal bars using a CNC mill. Conversely, other brands tended to make their yo-yos on a CNC lathe. What is the difference, you might ask? Put simply, the cutting tool moves in a mill while the raw material moves in a lathe. With the raw material turning, it is much easier to make a perfectly concentric yo-yo. Making a playable yo-yo on a mill is a challenging endeavour; just ask One Drop (their first yo-yo, the Project was made this way.) Due to the lack of raw materials, derts were made in tiny quantities. People love them, and they rarely pop up for sale on yo-yo forums. Today, Russell is still a machinist pondering about unique ways to make yo-yos.
Russell agreed to collaborate with RSO on our first Zoom call, after I pitched to him my vision for the collaboration and showed him RSO’s past projects. He revealed that he had previously turned several people down. I was extremely fortunate! Collaborating with Russell was an absolute breeze. I felt he was unequivocal in his thoughts and direction for the project, and he never fails to meet the deadlines set.
We actually completed the our collaboration project at the beginning of 2021 but I had to release it later due to various RSO projects already planned.
BEAUTY IN SIMPLICITY
The design of the various dert releases, starting from the first 6061 aluminium dert in 2006, through the mini iterations of the dert (the baby, eli and KC, for example), to the legendary 7075 aluminium dert in 2008, had straightforward designs. They all had organic shapes with reasonably high walls, primarily inspired by the Duncan Freehand, one of Russell’s favourite yo-yos of all time. Being the inquisitive machinist Russell is, he had most recently meddled around with more unique designs such as the Pop-A-dert, a bimetal design that can open beer bottles. He talks about it in a YouTube feature with Doc Pop below.
The standard dert shape essentially consists of a single arc at the catch zone and another arc in the hub joined with a straight line at the rims. Even the signature dert nipple is a simple cylindrical shape. The dert logo engraving on the nipple is the stock RomanS font from AutoCAD, a program both Russell and I are very familiar with.
From the start, we were in agreement that we would do a titanium yo-yo and to stick to the minimalist design philosophy of the dert series. Choosing which model to remake in titanium took us a while due to the number of models he had made, but we eventually settled on the mid-sized OG dert.
The OG dert design went through multiple iterations (Russell himself cannot even remember how many). The OG dert started as a 6061 aluminium, 52 mm, 58.5g yo-yo. After a few refinements, it became what Russell thought was the “best” version made out of 7075 aluminium, with a diameter of 53 mm and weighing 68g. The 7075 version was also the biggest run he had ever made. This 7075 version was the starting point of the titanium dert (which we affectionately call derti).
The response groove had to be modernised. We also felt that some weight reduction (we decided on about 63g) would make the yo-yo play better. It merely took me 5 minutes to thin down the walls of the 7075 dert CAD Russell sent me to arrive at the derti design. Fun fact: Russell had himself made a small run of 4 titanium versions of the dert back in the day, but it weighed 72g and is unacceptable by today’s standards.
We were extremely pleased with the prototypes and did not make any design changes to the production version. The resultant yo-yo plays in a sweet spot between floaty and solid. I would go further and say that is the best playing RSO to date. You would have to throw it to realise the beauty in its simplistic design.
THE ART OF EUPHEMISM
The customer base of RSO has always been slightly older. Both Russell and I wanted to do something more suggestive with the artwork for a more mature audience. We thought it was a fun idea to have a simple-looking yo-yo and artwork with mature innuendos, a play on the “derti” name.
There was only one person I had in mind to do the artwork – Jason Week. It took us a few weeks to brainstorm the different components of the artwork.
A box art look-n-find certificate comes with every derti – can you identify all of the words and their related art? Jason also added a few hidden “69s” in the artwork for good measure, so start hunting when you receive your yo-yo!
WHAT’S IN THE BOX
BOX ART LOOK-N-FIND Certificate of authenticity
DERTI ENAMEL PIN
A PAIR OF 19MM CYAN TYPE 50 LANDING PADS RESPONSE
BLUE STRING
Rainier – Boosted
From One Drop:
“The Rainier started with the idea of scaling up a Cascade and shifting the weight out to the rim and turned into a performance monster. It was one of our first “Dark Side” yo-yos and among our best performing models. It seemed natural to make a Boosted version.
“Boosting” is making a 6061 alloy yo-yo out of 7075 alloy, but changing the design so that the overall weight ends up being lower, even though 7075 is a heavier alloy than 6061. It takes a lot of tweaking to the design to make this happen, but we like to do it in a way that yo-yo looks the same and has the same or similar specs (except for the weight). Given that 7075 is a heavier alloy, if we took the same design of a 6061 yo-yo and produced it in 7075, it would end up about 2.5 grams heavier. We have done this in the past and called it “GZR Edition”. Turns out to be not as interesting as Boosted because the weight distribution is the same so it plays very similarly. Changing the weight distribution is how to make the feel in play change which is why we do Boosted and not GZR when we make a 7075 version of a 6061 model.
The Rainier is optimized for rim weight at essentially the limits of 6061 alloy. We have a hard limit on what we consider the thinnest we can make the body. We can safely go thinner with 7075 alloy which is what we did: thinned out the body and added rim weight while maintaining the same profile shape. The result is a yoyo with considerably more rim weight, but a total weight of about .5 grams less (or about 3 grams less than if we just ran the same design in 7275 – see above). The Boosted Rainier is further into the Dark Side than the original. It’s even more of an extreme design.”
