Posts Tagged Captured

This was the signature yo-yo that almost was….

I was playing Super Mario Bros 3 on my old SNES this week and started feeling nostalgic. I decided to dig out my protos of “The Yo-Yo that almost was”. Back in 1999, I was managing a yo-yo store in southern California and was also working with a machinist to design my own yo-yo. Even back then, I had wild and crazy ideas. Back then, most yo-yos were slim lines that offered a mixture of looping and string tricks. I had the machinist work out two designs. The plan was to approach Yomega, Custom and Playmaxx with the two prototypes to see if they were interested. The yo-yo was called the StuntMan. The idea was that the yo-yoer could land the string on the swappable “StuntPegs” instead of the axle. There were only two sets of StuntPegs created but we had a handful of ideas for shorter, longer, sharper and thinner StuntPegs. It added an interesting element to yo-yoing that, at the time, I thought was pretty unique. Before we could get anywhere with the three companies we were approaching, the market died down (stupid Pokemon) and interest in yoyos had dried up. It was nearly 12 years ago, and the closest I ever came to having one of my design get produced.
Thought you guys might get a kick out of seeing them.

Alright guys, Since you asked so nicely…

Vimeo Link in case YouTube freaks out again
This yo-yo was never designed with the current playstyle in mind, so these are Stunt peg versions of old tricks. I hope you like it.
Gyro Stunt didn’t have a name until recently. Gyro was not a common trick then (if at all) so I didn’t know that is what I was doing. Baby Knievel, is a fun twist on rock the baby, but most of all I loved Lode Runner. Thanks to the fixed peg, the yo-yo climbs the string like a top trick.