“Toxic Strings and One Drop YoYos have come together and created a new yo-yo called the T1 with the purpose of helping out Trevan with his medical expenses. Trevan, aged 2, is the son of Evan and Angie Evans who own Toxic Strings and he was recently diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes (hence the name T1). This has been a life altering event for the Evans family emotionally, logistically and financially. Proceeds from the sale of every single T1 yo-yo will go towards helping them out with the medical expenses.
It is so cool how collaborations create results that wouldn’t happen any other way. The T1 is no exception. It is a large, fun, floaty and wide yo-yo with a unique ridged catch zone. Evan was always a fan of the “Projection Profile” found of some One Drops like the Project but wanted to take them in a new direction with larger grooves. This gives the T1 a really unique look and feel. The play is stable and the wide catch zone inspires confidence.“
“When we approached Vilmos about making a signature yo-yo, his original goal was to make an all around competition throw with a straight forward design. He was going for pure performance that has excellent play demands. Vilmos came to visit One Drop from Hungary and we sat down with him and worked out the design.
In more detail, he asked for a simple and comfortable V shape with small undercut rims and lots of rim weight for long spin times made out of 7075 aluminum. For the play, he wanted it capable of handling all kinds of trick styles including fast technical, horizontal and finger spins. If you watch Vilmos compete you will see what a complete player he is and he needed a yo-yo that would keep up with him.
We added a small circular bump in the hub area to make finger spins possible both inside and outside of the circle. The rest of the hub is as flat as possible to minimize center weight. For some reason, some consider the tap-through axle a “budget” feature, but the use of it here improves performance and quality. Usually on a flat hub yo-yo, a very short axle is used meaning there are less threads which increases the chances of stripping or the yo-yo coming apart. The tap-through axle feature allows the performance of a flat hub yo-yo with the assurance and quality of a longer axle and more threads.
For horizontal play there is nice bump coming out of the guts as well as a nice open wide catch zone to lower string friction so spin times and stability remain constant.
On the last day of the design process, Vilmos came up with the “Triple Grooves” in the catch zone and inside the hub as a unique styling element. It is an new take on our classic “Projection Profile” first seen on the original Project and it looks amazing.
The dictionary defines Valor as “strength of mind or spirit that enables a person to encounter danger with firmness”. For Vilmos, the Valor will allow him to encounter his yo-yo challenges with firmness and resolve because of the unique design, high quality dense aluminum and the incredible play.”
Releasing a Side Effect yo-yo with a really low price; continuing our tradition to strive to provide the best value possible for you.
The idea that yo-yo design has sort of become crystallized into standard shapes.
We have taken these two ideas and decided to turn them into a line of yo-yos that reflect our take on the standards. A benchmark if you will. We are releasing the whole line at the same time and each year we may refresh the line based on what is going on in the industry.
What we’ve come up with for 2013 are the V,O (organic), and H shapes.
Next, we have decided that all three yo-yos will share the same diameter, width, gap and weight. All three look completely different but share the same basic specs which is an interesting experiment in the weight distribution. If you play them all one after the next it becomes clear that weight distribution plays a huge role in how a yo-yo feels and plays. Everyone already knew this, but now you can directly experience it.
All that aside, these are three solid performing Side Effect yo-yos that are extremely affordable at $60 each in solid colors. In order to get the price that low we’ve taken advantage of the shared specs which allow us to combine the cnc programming, and cut our usual tooling costs and production steps by two thirds. The yo-yos are clean in design in that there are few, if any, non-functional styling elements which reduces the machining time, setup time, and tool wear. Also, the yo-yos will not have any laser engraving. Finally they will all share the same packaging which saves money on art and stickers.
What isn’t compromised to save money is the quality and the performance and where they are made. These are three competition grade Side Effect yo-yos made to the same quality standards as our more expensive models. These yo-yos are meant to be played.”
“The Format:C Challenge: design a 7075 yoyo for competition play from the ground up. The “C” stands for “Competition” or “Contest”.
The testing process was intense with two rounds of prototyping going to every single member of our team for extensive play. The Format:C probably has the deepest “beta testing” of any yoyo we have made.
We had an unexpected extra challenge on the manufacturing side. We had to change and refine some processes to be able too make these consistently balanced. Shawn (The Machinist) was up for the challenge and was able to solve the problems. There was a point where we thought we may not be able to release this but now the Format:C is here.”
“Three years in the making: One Drop presents the Rally – a premium performance plastic yoyo made in the U.S.A.
We set out to match the nostalgic feel of plastic with the performance of modern metal while maintaining our high quality standards and “made in the USA” ethos. The result is a wing shaped design based on the CODE 2 featuring a marbleized catch zone for superior grinds. The machined and anodized aluminum rings complete the weight distribution for long spins and the type of performance players have come to expect.”
