“The H (Aitch) shape yo-yo seems to be under-represented. Even if you look at One Drop history, the H is rare. When we have done it (Benchmark Series) in the past, we kept it only mildly H. We decided that it was time to do a proper H shape.
The main idea of it being “proper H” is that the profile would need to be as extreme as possible without compromising how it played. The diameter is on the large side at 55.88mm. In order to make everything work, it needed to be a touch on the narrow side in relation to the diameter: the width is 39.62mm. We also wanted it to have Side Effects and to ship with a new style which is the Mini Spike. We feel like we achieved the goals and hope you agree.”
This is the signature yo-yo of team member Tsukasa Takatsu from Japan. Here is his description of it:
“There are a lot of excellent yoyos in existence now.
To us, as players, this is a joyous thing.
With that said, I realized at some point that yoyos tend to fall into one of two groups:
Yoyos which you never really stop playing with. Without thinking about it, you leave them somewhere handy after a session. You pick them up again the next day, and again the next day. So it goes, day after day for months on end until suddenly… You realize that you’ve used them consistently for years.
Yoyos which you play with for a few days, then put back in the box.
What’s the difference between these two kinds of yoyos?
I’m certainly not saying that the latter yoyos don’t play well (and actually, it’s probably harder to find a bad playing yoyo than it is to find a good one these days). In a lot of cases, these are yoyos which, at first, I have felt are really nice.
It’s hard to identify, but this distinction was at the forefront of my mind throughout the process of designing the Panorama. My primary objective was to create a yoyo that falls into the former category, a yoyo that is never far from your reach – An authentic yoyo. In order to make the Panorama a reality, it was absolutely essential to capture this.
High walls for increased control, rims that seem to adapt to your hand on the catch. These are some of the traits of authentic yoyos from which I took inspiration during the Panorama design process.
However, these things alone do not make an authentic yoyo. After all, sometimes high walls can cause stress, and weight distribution designed to maximize spin time can cause a yoyo to feel out of control. Similarly, nice playing yoyos do not always transcend the era in which they were created.
Panorama is a yoyo built with all of these things in mind, and in keeping with the sensibilities of the modern competitive scene – like a hybrid of cutting-edge tech found in a well-tuned F1 machine combined with the flavor of a classic car from the 50s.
A yoyo which seems to consistently appear in your hand and thus becomes a part of your lifestyle. It is my hope that the Panorama will become this kind of yoyo for you.”
“Next up in the 20/20 Hindsight Series is the Burnside.
The original Burnside was released 10 years ago. Wow! It was intended as a 6061 aluminum alloy oversized competition yo-yo. For the 20/20 update, we “boosted” it. “Boosting” is taking a 6061 alloy yo-yo and re-designing for 7075 alloy. The trick is that 7075 is heavier than 6061, but the yo-yo is designed in such a way that the final weight is less than the 6061 version even though the alloy is heavier. In this case it’s 2.75 grams lighter. We also changed the look of the hub and got rid of the tap-through axle system. The profile shape remains the same.”
The Deep State released almost three years ago. We wanted to have a One Drop yo-yo that was accessible to everyone to use without a bind. Since it was our first semi-responsive yo-yo, we weren’t sure how well it would be received and how much demand there would be. The Deep State has turned out to be one of our best selling models and still going strong. Because of that we decided to make a new version.
One of the “weaknesses” of the Deep State is that doing modern 1A tricks can be really challenging. For anyone not used to responsiveness, 1A is going to be difficult, however, the narrow width and narrow gap also add to the challenge. For the Deeper State we wanted to improve this aspect so you’ll find it’s a little bigger in diameter and a fair bit bigger in width. Additionally the gap is narrow at the bottom of the catch zone to help with responsiveness, but unlike the Deep State, the top of the catch zone opens up wide. These features make it easier to land string tricks and it’s more stable than the Deep State. Even though it’s a bigger yo-yo, the overall weight is the same or lighter than the Deep State (depending on the Side Effects used). Don’t get us wrong, it’s still going to be challenging to hit your string tricks, but things are much improved in that regard.
We decided to use a tapped axle instead of Side Effects on the Deeper State just to mix things up. The cup has a really cool and unique look to it.
If you’re looking to just throw it and tug it back up, the Deeper State is amazing. It feels so nice how it responds – a really smooth return.”
