The following is archived from ILYY:
A year the its inception, the Alpha finally receives its counter part – the Omega!
The Omega inherits all characteristics of the Alpha: diameter, width, weight, gap size. It uses the same stainless steel rings. The only difference is the shape.
While Alpha uses a very concave H-shape, Omega sports a complementary organic profile.
The following is archived from ILYY:
This yoyo is dedicated to everyone getting told they don’t belong. Because of how they look. Because of what they wear and who they love. Because of how they feel and who they want to be. Because of how they express themselves. You do matter. You do belong. You are not alone. You are strong and beautiful. Just the way you are.
In 2010, when budget mono metals were quite popular, we cooked up the Void filling a gap in our portfolio. With its basic angular design it was easy to machine and thus yielded a good A-grade ratio, very important back in the day, when a scrapped yoyo run would mean ruin to the business. But beside the engineering and economical aspects, it played surprisingly well. Inherent to this basic shape is a magic formula that just works perfectly for a yoyo. This can be seen on many well-regarded yoyos with such designs from the Draupnir to the Peregrine X.
It was time to again tap into this magic sauce and create a yoyo to clear the mind from daily stress and burden. A yoyo to immerse the player into the joy of this hobby without compromise and to feel re-newed and happy. We achieved Katharsis.
Katharsis inherits its overall body shape from the Void but adding modernized elements like low-walls, increased width, less weight, bi-metal construction and the ILYY fingerspin cup finished in a beautiful yet still moderate acid wash anodization.
The blasted and plated stainless steel rings are machined thin yet wide to maximize their mass moment of inertia. The rimweight is carefully chosen to offer massive spintime while still retaining snappy un- and rewinds. The increased width allowed us to push the rimweight even further than with the Numen while still keeping balance between inertia and RPM. The rings flare out making the cup diameter as large possible for easier fingerspin catches. This design gives Katharsis an aesthetically pleasing calm and airy appearance further adding to the concept. There are no unnecessary curves or slopes with Katharsis, just pure function doing its thing.
Katharsis is the new top performer in the ILYY line-up with unmatched spintimes and stability. Its 50mm width offers a large catch zone for modern meta while still being able to move through tighter technical maneuvers.
The following is archived from ILYY:
The Trvth came to life as a tribute to the legendary SB-2 by Tom Kuhn. Being one of the few ILYYs with engravings it struck a nerve for ILYY fans and collectors.
For this 2025 re-invention, we went all out in terms of performance. The Trvth2 features massive stainless steel weight rings that carry 66.6% of the body weight, making the Trvth2 the most rim-weighted ILYY ever, it is relentless.
Also new for this era is an old school death metal inspired “side b” engraving of fleshy darkness by none other than the great Mark Riddik and a box that has seen the undead.
A note about optical imperfections
The Trvth2 batch has slight optical imperfections in the form of black spots around the response area and in the cup.
These are fairly subdued thanks to the black anodizing and bold engraving. We decided against trashing the batch and having them remade since we dislike the thought of scrapping perfectly fine yoyos. Instead, we will offer them at a €20 discount. These imperfections are only cosmetic and do not affect play. The spots are also barely visible without closely inspecting them. We even think they go nicely with the gnarly undead theme of the yoyo.
The following is archived from Atmos’ website:
Atmos Projects is nearly coming up to a year since we first began, and I don’t think any of us would’ve guessed we’d be in a position like this before the year was up. We had a pretty clear initial vision of what we’d like our trajectory to be, but it definitely didn’t involve releasing a titanium model for a while.
We’re very happy to introduce the Gravity.
SPECS
dia 54mm
wid 40mm
weight – 63.1g stock with only Brass Ultra Light SEs, weight range is 60.4g to 74.2g, depending on setup
material Titanium
Elvin from Round Spinning Objects reached out sometime late 2020 to talk, and raised the idea of collaborating on a yoyo. It was still early days for us – the team and I were still in the midst of working on the Pomelo design, but we were drawn by the prospect of working on a design with Elvin. Juggling early-stage tasks of our own and taking a step into a collaborative project was not easy, but we’re incredibly glad we did.
Any successful design begins with a concept worth pursuing. We circled this for weeks, in repeated attempts to discern an idea substantial enough. On one of our many phone calls, we began discussing the possibility of working on a modular titanium design that could be customised in weight and feel – by adjusting various sections of the yoyo – however the player preferred it.
Customisability is a feature that is rare today. They do still exist – the best implemented instance of customisable tech is in One Drop’s Side-Effects system, where users can alter the physical makeup of their throw with ease. Personally, I am a massive fan.
Freshly Dirty also recently put out an incredibly innovative modular design in the Mod44 – the creative audacity embodied in that design is something I very much admire.
We began initial canvas work on a profile similar to the Cloudberry – fat, rounded walls, step-and-schmoove response area and all.
The idea of customisability and caps are very much linked. I grew up in the era where Duncan and Yoyojam ruled the design meta. I played 5A primarily then, and the Freehand Zero was – no matter how briefly – considered the premium performance plastic. That the Freehand Zero could hang with its other performance plastic contemporaries was affirmed when Tyler Severance took the World Title in 5A with one in 2007.
It used small A-sized bearings and response pads, and was held together with a simple hex screw and nut. It would probably not fare well in any modern performance test, but the Freehand Zero was beloved for many reasons.
The first was that it was customisable. The “modder era” has mostly faded, but tinkering with a stock Freehand Zero was something nearly everyone tried at one point – whether it was to recess its pad seat using a dremel and a jeweller’s screwdriver to make it less snaggy on binds, overhaul its guts with a SPR kit, irreversibly throw on metal weight rings (and accept the pulse vibe that usually was the cost of adding power to plastic), or even painting the insides of a clear Freehand Zero.
Caps were a crucial piece to the experience. They were swappable, and provided endless permutations of color choice. They also added a bit of weight, and this “hollow body” playfeel that is both full and light at the same time. It’s a playfeel that I am personally nostalgic about, and try to capture on some of my designs – particularly the Cloudberry.
Making the Gravity cap-compatible is my favourite of the many design choices we made. Fitting Freehand caps on a titanium body gives it a playfeel that is simultaneously nostalgic and new – more on that below.
Whilst tinkering with the CAD, we decided to also include a groove that would also accept rubber o-rings – a homage to older Freehand 2s, which used similar rubber weight rings to give its hollow body mass – and give the player yet another variable they could play with.
Implementing the Side Effects axle system made perfect sense for a project where the primary design goal is player customisability. It was also an elegant solution for cap removal – it allows the player to access the cap with an implement without much fuss; an issue that surrounds most cap-compatible designs.
The aspect that excites me the most about the Gravity is being able to add and reduce weight nearly wherever you desire, whether closer to the center of the axis, or the rim.
The complete possible weight range using what we include with each Gravity is between 60.4g to 72.3g – the upper limit of that range is extended to 74.2g if you install Brass Spike SEs, which are not included with the Gravity.
Every Gravity comes with Brass Ultra Light SEs stock, so that they’re at a comfortable, playable weight out-of-box (63.1g). Playing it stock is a pleasant experience – it’s light on the string, and is very amenable to directional change.
My personal, preferred setup is with Aluminium Ultra Light SEs and Freehand caps. At 54mm and 65.8g, it has a wonderful feel in play. It doesn’t lose much of its agility at all, but it is not flimsy or easily tilted; it has a nice, full presence as it weaves in and out of more complex mounts. The caps tops off the play experience with a bit of that nostalgic magic.
The upside of the Gravity is that you have a myriad of setups available to you out-of-box – whether you prefer a lightweight feel, or cherish a solid, more powerful throwing experience.
(Aluminium UL SEs do not come included.)
I hope you’re as excited for the Gravity as Elvin and our team are. It’s been months in the making, but we think this one’s a doozy.
Let us know what you think!
Elvin has also written on the design process of the Gravity, over here :
https://roundspinningobjects.com/gravity
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The following is archived from Atmos’ website:
This has been a crazy month for us, having just released the Gravity with Round Spinning Objects. That was a whirlwind, and we’re incredibly grateful for all of your support.
All the same, we’re very excited and proud to announce something that has been in the works for a long time.
Say hello to the Goji.
SPECS
dia 52.5mm
wid 49.7mm
weight 63.5g
material 7068 AL
If you’ve been on this thread at all, you’d know that our design process always begins with some acknowledgement of history. That is usually where we begin, and our hope is that by the end of each design cycle we have added on to the body of work that has come before.
The Cloudberry was our attempt to saddle lightness and power and to find its place a long line of great organics; the Pomelo an oversized featherweight that pays homage to the fat, chunky designs of the 2000-2010s era.
The Goji begins with the lineage of great undersized organics. It is easy to call to mind which they are, because they’ve been and remained iconic throughout the years – Yoyofactory’s 888, Caribou Lodge’s Wooly Marmot, and Anti-Yo’s Bapezilla remain some of the most emblematic and enduring instances, and in my view, this lineage is continued today in wonderful designs in One Drop and Static Co.’s Parlay and Sudo, and A-RT’s Sparrow, amongst a few others.
The challenges for us in putting out something we felt could stand amongst such storied designs were in adapting the classical shape and specifications for modern play. Undersized designs are sometimes limited in spin power and stability. That “sensitivity” to off-axis movement is part of the joy that accompanies small and round return tops.
At the same time, we wanted the experience of someone using the Goji to be as thoughtless, free, and unexacting on the player as possible – something you could just comfortably jam with, without it requiring too much care and focus.
We wanted to take the intensity and intentionality of honing a player’s precision out of the experience, and provide something more fun, more effortless.
Our first prototype weighed in at 66.6g. It was a total spin machine.
Isaac Sams is someone we’ve had the privilege of helping us test early iterations of our designs. Of the Cloudberry, Thunderberry, Pomelo and the Goji, he wrote back saying the Goji was his favourite – that was quite an affirming moment for us.
Still, I personally felt it overpowered the Thunderberry, which was an interesting and exciting experience in itself – it could just go on and on. It reminded me of the Bapezilla 2, which felt thunderous in playfeel despite having an unassuming profile.
Power wasn’t an issue, but its nimbleness was.
An early design prompt that was core to the process of creating the Goji was that it had to feel like it could “run” on the string.
An early working title for the project before we settled on a final name was Peter Rabbit, which was meant to help us visualise the sort of liveliness it should have in play. If you’ve ever seen old videos of Jensen Kimmitt trick-shredding on a Wooly Marmot in that inimitable hop-style, you’d have a sense of what we were fixated on.
We took a month off design work to play and test the Goji, so we could find clarity in what we wanted to keep, and what we’d take off the board.
We liked the Goji’s profile, and so we retained its silhouette completely intact, but we eventually overhauled its entire weight distribution. After reconstructing its rim and cup, the design turned out 3.1g lighter, which is a significant mass for any return top, much less one this small.
Prototype II came back possessing that very litheness on the string. It isn’t as powerful as Prototype I, but still has enough juice to get through most modern tricksets.
It’s not meant for competition in the slightest, but if kicking back and jamming for hours is something that sounds like a good idea to you, you might just like the Goji.
This thing just sprints across string.
As always, thank you for getting to the end of another of these very long posts. If you have any thoughts or comments, I’d absolutely love to hear what you think!
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