We’re incredibly thrilled to bring you the latest instalment in our featherweight organics design line.
Meet Abel.
SPECS
Dia 54.3mm Width 48.4mm Weight 63.2g Material 6061 AL
The Abel is easy to introduce.
Its antecedent, the Noah, began as a project in making an unapologetically light and round, blank-canvas organic that leaned fully into characteristics of the form factor. It had no bias for rim weight, a bubbly-wide and comfortable frame, and an incredibly fun lightness.
The Noah took off in ways we didn’t imagine, and became one of our own favourites.
The Abel extends that project of making our version of a fundamental, purist’s organic, and takes another step towards simplicity.
It has endless curves, and lines only where strictly necessary.
The most obvious difference is that the Abel isn’t compatible with Side Effects, a design feature that is core to the Noah.
It’s not really addition via subtraction here; the Abel isn’t intended as an upgrade over the Noah. It’s more of a 1a) and 1b) sort of deal.
Some players deeply enjoy customisation and control over the way a yoyo plays; some others enjoy the ease and intuitiveness of playing it as they come, and find tuning an additional effort.
The Noah is for the tinkerer; the Abel is for the player who doesn’t need to fiddle.
On that note, the Abel is one of the smoothest designs we’ve manufactured. This thing is just glass.
The Abel is machined out of 6061 aluminum bar stock, a switch from the 7068 alloy that the Noahs used.
We apportioned some of the extra material along the cup to give it an even, if slightly center-biased distribution.
We also added a tiny nub in the center of the cup – a homage to Flat Caps and the original Side Effects compatibility of its forebear – that many observed.
We enjoyed its subtle disruption of the otherwise unbroken curvature of the hub. It’s similar to the little “halo” groove that marked our initial line of organics, beginning with the Cloudberry and most recently in the Goji – an understated, light touch that we enjoy.
This nub is also featured on a few designs we have in the oven, and we can’t wait to show you more in due time.
The Abel clocks in at 63.2g, which is less than a gram heftier than the Noah in its lightest configuration.
The Abel’s weight distribution sits between a Noah with AL Ultra Lights installed, and another fitted with AL Flat Caps. It plays that way, too. It’s got a bit more body and presence than a Noah at its most featherweight form, but retains every bit of its light touch.
The Noah was originally designed as a miniaturised blend of the Goji and Pomelo (anyone who has played these two would understand this comparison), and the Abel shares that lineage. It’s endlessly boppable, light, and 63.2g of relaxed fun in a midsized frame.
The name Noah refers to a sense of restfulness and calm that we hoped to capture in its design and play. Abel translates to breath and vapor – a fitting name, we think, that encapsulates a sense of airiness and tranquility.
The Abel comes with a matte, ceramic-like blast that allows the colors on these to pop.
We masked the inmost portion along the schmoove step to keep it entirely unblasted and smooth, so as to reduce friction between the string and the matte surface. We also hand-process each Abel with various fabrics to further mute surface friction.
A handful of Abel prototypes were sent out to a list of friends and supporters of Atmos earlier in the year, as a way of expressing our gratitude for the incredible support we’ve received, and also to ask for feedback on the Abel. It was a wonderful exercise in testing on a scale we had never done before.
The Abel is the Noah’s slightly reserved but self-assured twin brother.
Smooth, airy, and easy, and it does everything with a light touch.
We’re proud to introduce the Snowberry – it’s plastic fantastic.
SPECS
Dia 56.4mm Width 50.5mm Weight 65.6g Material Delrin
Most of our design journals pay a degree of homage to the lineage that precedes it, but a look back in history never made more sense than for the Snowberry. At risk of sentimentality, the significance of our first plastic design lies in the very roots of what we now do at Atmos Projects.
I came into the scene around 2006, a time where design sensibilities were starkly different from what they are now. I was always taken by the design leaders of the era, such as Caribou Lodge, One Drop, and Yoyofactory, but I got started on a steady diet of ball-bearinged plastics – I began throwing in high school with a Duncan Throw Monkey, moved on shortly to the Freehand Zero, and then eventually throws from other brands such as the now-defunct, but eternally amazing Yoyojam. The Patriot, Journey and Lyn Fury featured regularly in my rotations. Another fun fact was that I mainly played 5A for years before I transitioned to 1A, deciding it was what the cool kids did – but my taste for wide and round shapes that were suited for 5A play was forged in those years.
These plastics were perfect for the time. They could take the hits that came with perfecting counterweight tricks, and you didn’t ever have to feel precious with them. And they played so satisfyingly.
In 2007, Paul Yath released the Milk under his brand, Crucial. I never got to own one myself, but took every chance to play with one that belonged to a friend. It shifted my perception of plastics considerably; the machined delrin felt like an altogether different material from injection molded polycarbonate – softer, denser, more refined, and incredibly smooth to the touch. Years later, the One Drop Cabal was released, and again, I was fascinated by what I imagined was a Delrin reincarnation of the Markmont Classic. This time I managed to get my hands on one.
Sometime last year I doubled down on this Delrin exploration, and managed to acquire a Crucial Cream and Yoyopalace (now Sense) Sphere. In my book they are such joyful designs that are severely underrated.
All that to say – there’s an enormous nostalgic significance that sets the context for our first plastic design.
Sometime in 2021, I started toying with the idea of making a delrin yoyo. The reasons for not doing that as a small boutique gig like ourselves are myriad and endless. But I was keen to try, even if it meant the project ended with a couple of prototypes of a design that didn’t make sense for a larger production.
I began with the Cloudberry’s shape as a reference; this was the most instinctive starting point, given its big, round shape that isn’t identical to but reminiscent of the Milk and the Patriot. It was also a natural progression of our exploration of materials in the Berry line – two monometals (in the Cloudberry and Thunderberry), then bimetal (in the Stormberry), and now a fully delrin iteration. It features very similar features, such as the schmoove-step.
The diameter was kept to 56.4mm, which is consistent throughout the Berries, but we increased the width to 50mm. The idea was to keep the weight distribution similar to the Berry series, and the playfeel in the same zippy, floaty and light-stable range.
One thing we were insistent on was maintaining a fully plastic exterior. Modern machined plastic designs generally have an exposed metal insert in the hub, which are at times adapted to aid tricks like finger spinning. But what was entirely arresting about the Crucial Milk was its pure white structure. ditto with the cream and the sphere. We felt a metal nub in the hub would be a distraction, a visual disruption to an otherwise full and uninterrupted surface.
In later prototypes, we configured the spacer inserts to sit embedded within the delrin hub, and then be concealed by a small machined delrin cap, which features the “halo” groove signature to the Fruitbowl series. We worked with our machinist to experiment with multiple spacer constructions, and finally settled on one.
(L-R; early prototypes to final production version)
Initial prototypes came in, which made for a very exciting day. Prototype I was a wobblefest. Prototype II had a small, unobtrusive metal nub; it played more solid and was slightly smoother on string; Prototype III was full-delrin, was degrees floatier and lighter, but had a bit of vibe. I sent Prototype II and III to Coleman and Evgeniy. I preferred Prototype III, but wanted to triangulate my own thoughts with their feedback. After some play, their responses leaned towards the fully-delrin version. Evgeniy referred to it as the “monolith proto”, which I thought was cool, and mentally I referred to it as that from then on.
Coleman put the Snowberry through its paces in his own singular way, with flowy, relaxed combos that feel more like an art form than anything.
To fix the slight vibe, we adjusted the hub and spacer construction again for tighter and more secure fit against the delrin body, and they came out playing great. The production version also has a bit more weight – plastic designs have a tiny bit of variance weight-wise, but the Snowberry sits around 65.6g.
It’s very slick on the string, and has the classic Atmos lightness of feel. it has the same fluffy-oomph of the Cloudberry, but is even softer.
It’s an unapologetically wide and fatty organic, it’s very stable for a plastic, and spins long enough for a modern trickset. It won’t beat a new bimetal at sleep length if you’re counting seconds, but if you’re genuinely thinking about trick capability – have you seen what Evgeniy has done with it?
The modern market can feel like an arms race sometimes. This is a wholly positive thing – variety and availability of quality designs are great, and it’s never been a better time to be a player. Saturation generally breeds innovation and creativity.
In a crowded space, the ones I’ve personally found inspiring have a quietly oddball quality to them; the CLYW Arctic Circle 2, the A-RT 420, a-rt x sf dk, and the RSO Spaceship ES sit amongst our favorites; and amongst those we produce, the Noah, Abel, Fruitloop and Goji. It’s not a stretch to say all these designs are an imperfect fit for the median player who looks for least error, but in play they just make me go, oh.
The Snowberry sits in that pocket for us; it recaptures feelings of uniqueness and nostalgia, and also an excitement of old.
The Snowberry is a plastic yoyo — it’s plastic fantastic. It’s a thank-you note to its plastic forebears that kickstarted many yoyo journeys. It spins incredibly well, it feels slick and smooth on the string. It can take a tumble, it’s soft in the hand, it’s the one you chuck in your bagpack and bring on a hike, it’s the one you pull out to teach your younger cousin how to yoyo. it’s one for all seasons.
It feels familiar, like throwing snowballs in January.
Dia 57mm Width 46mm Weight 68.1g Material titanium
Shortly after the release of the Ari in February 2022, we began dreaming up concepts that would be fitting for an Ari Pro. This began early with talks with Evgeniy getting his Ari – incidentally his first Atmos design – he loved the feel, the width, and the light but powerful play of the Ari, but also mentioned he desired a bit more mass. We started sketching up a few concepts, and had a few in queue while we focused our developmental attentions to other projects in our pipeline, such as the Abel and Snowberry.
We returned to the concept shortly after, armed with feedback from Ari users. The Ari is and has always been a tinkerer’s model; it has a very light base weight, and was designed to accept One Drop Side Effects, Freehand-sized caps, and even rubber o-rings, which allowed a user to construct his own build, up to north of 70g. The only drawback with adding more moving parts on a precision design was that tuning became a necessity.
In our view, tuning isn’t something to be avoided – its a useful skill in yoyoing, similar to being able to correct string tension. It’s easy, and frees one up to enjoy SE-enabled yoyos without unnecessary frustration.
But the larger point for those who had played the Ari was that there was desire for a version unencumbered by the need to customize, assemble, and calibrate. There were calls for a high performing design in the format of the Ari, but even further simplified. Players loved the Ari’s physique, the full-frame form factor, and our use of titanium; but they were requesting play-readiness, and a sharper focus on high performance. That felt aligned to the Pro designation we were thinking about for the next iteration of the Ari form factor.
This brought us back to our conversations with Evegeniy about weight, and after some back and forth, we decided to move into the realm of heavier concepts.
We’ve generally kept our designs below 65g. One design that has broken that soft rule is the Snowberry, oddly enough our heaviest design to date, which clocks in at 65.6g. We’ve mostly been able to do creative things with width and weight distribution in achieving light power without piling on the pounds – case in point, the Snowberry, which is also arguably our fluffiest design in our lineup. For our design purposes the 62-64g space mostly suits us well.
But with this overt dip into heavyweight territory, what we were hoping to achieve in playfeel was akin to the handling and feel of performance cars with low ground clearing – that of torque, gravitas, balance, and the ability to turn tight corners at speed with supreme handling and full, fine control.
68g can sound extreme to some, given there are 66g designs that play sluggishly. The playfeel that players dread is the thudding rock on the end of a string that resists all types of movement. With the Aria, the idea was to design something with considerable mass but distribute it well enough across the Ari’s large 57mm and 48mm frame, so that it would feel substantial and balanced, but not unwieldy and reluctant.
This was one of the earlier prototypes we made of the Aria, machined on aluminum stock for feasibility testing – it had a stepped hub and an even more pronounced nub. We made multiple early prototypes, but they were all condemned by vibe and never made it past testing phases; the weight distribution was too extreme.
Eventually we simplified the wall design, and reduced the overall width from 48mm to 46mm – which, interestingly, makes the Aria our narrowest design to date.
The Aria also has significantly thicker rims than the Ari, giving it a lot more power. Crucially, we graduated the mass bias from the center to the outer rims, which gives the Aria a powerful, but very smooth acceleration and handle.
The Aria is deceptively deft and nimble for a 68g yoyo; it has that low-center-of-gravity smoothness, superb control and pace, and a powerful stability. It’s difficult to throw it off kilter. It stops on a dime. Once it gets moving, it plays lighter than 68g might suggest it would, and has all the spin you need – and then some more, and then some more… and then some more.
It’s everything we were hoping to achieve in an Ari Pro.
The Aria comes equipped with premier kit in Black Stratos Pads, Atmos Type I Concave Bearings, and Zipline Strings’ Case Study #50s.
After months of teasing, we’re thrilled to finally present the Cephas.
SPECS
Dia 54.3mm Width 48.4mm Weight 65.2g Material 6061 AL
In case you’ve missed it, we wrote a bit about our Design Lines as of 2023 — in short, they represent different design pursuits in what we do here at Atmos Projects.
To that point, the Cephas is the newest installment to the Classic O’s line, which collectively focuses on minimalist organics, and is the latest iteration of the Noah and Abel.
Most immediately, the Cephas takes inspiration from forebears that share its flat capped visage. The foremost of the group is likely the SPYY Pure, which was released in 2009; the genre is also populated by others such as the Turning Point Bacchus, Core Co. Diesis, and most recently, the Duncan Freebird 3. The SPYY Pure in particular holds sway in the conversation for its unique manufacturing processes. As far as we know, the hub and the cap were separately machined, assembled, and then further machined on the lathe to render the already microscopic gap between the individual pieces invisible. This gave the Pure — very aptly named, we think — an iconic uninterrupted, solid-piece look.
The designs of the Bacchus, Diesis and Freebird 3, on the other hand, emphasize the point of assembly, rather than hide it. The “rims”, which encroach on the main body, somewhat resemble the Yoyojam-era of hybrids, or even how modern outer-rim bimetal rims look like.
Our intent with the Cephas was to recreate this former sense of purity and minimalism within our organic form factor.
In the prior designs mentioned, none featured a strictly organic silhouette – their inner walls feature straight lines extending towards the rims, even if the outer hubs eventually rounded off. Where the flat caps provided a simple, austere look, the side profiles were slightly busier, with harder lines and faux rims.
We were compelled by the notion of an extremely round, organic model combined with the simplicity of a flat cap feature, with no visual hints at joinery, or discontinuation between body and rims – the Cephas thus builds on the Noah and Abel’s physique, which features clean lines and round, uninterrupted curves, and the integration of its capped design gives it a monolithic, solid feel.
But beyond mere visual difference, a thicker, more powerful, hollowed-body version of the Noah and Abel was, to us, an interesting marriage of different design concepts.
The cap conceals the hub, the primary site where we overhauled the base weight distributions of previous designs. To begin, we carved out mass from the center portion of the hub, giving it a cavernous hollowed-out body, and also to allow for a disproportionate concentration of mass closer to the rims.
The Cephas weighs in at 65.2g, which is the heaviest of the Classic O’s line — the Abel clocks only 63.2g, and the Noah an even lighter 62.3g. A majority of this additional mass lies in the caps, which actually weigh 8g each — that’s about a quarter of its overall weight in the caps alone.
The effect of this adjustment is obvious – where there was nearly zero bias towards rim weight in the Noah and the Abel, this new weight distribution makes the Cephas the longest spinning and most stable installment of the Classic O’s.
This is assisted by a familiar schmoove-groove, which is less pronounced than those in the Fruitbowl Line. We made minor tweaks in the Cephas’ schmoove-groove for an even smoother play experience.
It still feels bubbly and extremely comfortable in hand, and features a familiar relaxed, agile playfeel, but it also has a steadier, more even presence compared to its two brothers.
The Cephas sits in a lineup of featherweight organics characterized by light, floaty playfeel – and it distinguishes itself in that company by its solid, grounded presence.
To that end, the name Cephas – etymologically connected to “Peter”, both of them loosely translating to “rock” – playfully overstates that relative heft. Where “Noah” gestured towards “rest”, and “Abel” towards “breath”, the name Cephas is a reference to its relative stability and solidity.
For those more literally inclined, don’t fret – it doesn’t actually play like a stone on the end of a string.
The Cephas joins the Classic O’s as a perfect everyday throw, best suited for relaxed, flowing play, and provides enough power and stability for uncompromised hours of pure fun.
We’re adding more organic sauce in our lineup. We’re proud to introduce the Pomodoro.
SPECS Diameter5 5mm Width45.2mm Weight 66g (base) 68.7g(heavy) Material 6061 AL
The Pomodoro joins the Cloudberry, Goji, Thunderberry and others in our Fruitbowl design line. It’s one our first organics that doesn’t fall within the ultrawide category, and it also sports a Side Effects hub design that is a first in the field.
This one took some time to get perfect. Some designs are straightforward, and you can tell you really nailed it the first time around. Some others, like the Pomodoro, have a longer, winding route. We’ve been working on this since April 2021 – two years and three prototypes later, we think we’ve finally landed on something special.
The first prototype of the Pomodoro was machined in 2021. This was during a season of wide experimentation – the same period that produced the Goji and Pomelo, so you can imagine the sort of parameters we were happy to toy with. The idea was to produce a model that played like a slimmer, more center-weighted Cloudberry. What resulted was this prototype – it played fairly well and had surprising power for its size, but it ultimately lacked character. It was on par with the Cloudberry in performance, but it didn’t feel special enough in terms of playfeel. A deeper overhaul was clearly necessary, so we shelved it in favor of other projects.
We returned to the prototype in 2022, this time adding significant elements to the design concept. Minor design changes included a different diameter-to-width ratio, and a bit more heft, but the major departure from Prototype I was in pursuing a proof of concept of an embedded Side Effects slot, which would be flushed with a rounded hub. If executed properly, Ultra Light Side Effects would sit entirely flushed with the surface.
All Side Effect designs that currently exist utilize a protruded nipple – not dissimilar to the Khuno, Ari and Noah. While there have been adaptations of this nipple, such as in titanium designs like the Gravity (which we produced alongside our friends at RSO), we believe this is the first design that allows the Side Effect to sit cleanly and fully within the hub.
10 units of Prototype II were made, and we gave a few of them away during our first November Market event. Together with some given to Coleman and Evgeniy as testers, there are about 8 of these in the wild.
It was a big leap from Prototype I, but Prototype II still had some significant faults – it felt anemic, and still did not have enough presence on the string. The rims were also too sharp, and it didn’t have the fullness of in-hand comfort that has come to be a signature of our designs.
We went back to the drawing board and worked on it until early 2023, when we felt ready for a third shot at the design concept. We sent in new blueprints for machining, and what resulted was a rounder, fatter, and more whole version of the Pomodoro.
Prototype III didn’t just sport a fuller and rounder frame throughout, it also played a whole lot better.
We increased the center-mass with a much rounder hub, but balanced that increase with a fuller and thicker rim design for increased spin power.
The protruding nipple contributes nicely to an angular, industrial look – we love how it looks with the Ari – but can be disruptive to an organic, rounded shape. In the Pomodoro we wanted to push design coherence and a purer look in a Side Effects enabled organic.
It also has the narrowest width in our lineup – for reference, the Cloudberry is 48mm wide, while the Pomodoro sits at a relatively normal 45.2mm in width.
In play, the Pomodoro feels close to the Cloudberry if it were condensed into a smaller, more compact frame, and if it were more center-weighted. It’s a touch heavier at 66g (Base Weight), but less reluctant, and has a nice momentum to it.
The Pomodoro is the heaviest entry of our organics, but its weight distribution makes it amenable to directional shifts and quick, nimble rhythmic movements. It has some of that float that many of our designs have, it flows and shifts nimbly, and is incredibly easy to control.
The Base weight is with Aluminum Ultra Lights installed; this weight option is what feels the most natural and “native” to us. For those that enjoy plenty of center-weight, we’ll also have Heavy options that clock a nice, massy 68.7g. They’ll be available in select colorways and come with Brass Ultra Lights installed.
The Pomodoro is not made for the modern meta. It will not DNA or horizontal well if that is your focus. We design some yoyos for tech under the Weatherman line, but this isn’t it. It’s subtle and sensitive; it lets you know when more finesse is required. This is meant for those who enjoy the subtlety of organic goodness.
Note – we hand-tune each Pomodoro for smooth play before we send them out, but as it is with any Side Effects design, players should expect that, should faint vibe occur, some degree of tuning is part of the game.
