I’m sure if you frequent yoyo2 you’ve also see Steve Brown’s post on Yo-Yoing.com HERE.
In response to this Duncan has asked for us to post the following response:
I recently became aware that Steve Brown has been trying to drum up further controversy for Duncan on some message boards regarding Duncan’s unwillingness to sponsor events Steve Brown is “involved” in. Since the responses to the original post varied greatly, I think it’s best to just clarify Duncan’s position on this subject. Duncan will not sponsor or associate itself with any event that has Steve Brown affiliated in any official capacity such as organizing, promoting, or judging such an event. However, Duncan places no restrictions on its sponsored events with respect to Steve Brown competing or attending such events.
When Steve Brown left Duncan he obviously had a lot of bitterness in his heart for Duncan and members of our company so much so that he couldn’t contain himself. We have evidence of numerous posts on message boards and blog sites where Steve Brown wrote very derogatory remarks about Duncan and its people, often in very vulgar terms that no reasonable person would consider acceptable and worthy of continuing a relationship. Since Steve Brown’s departure from Duncan no one at Duncan has made any public statements about him to any party outside of Duncan. Despite his involvement with YoYoFactory after his departure, we were still willing to extend an amicable relationship with him. Steve Brown destroyed any goodwill he could have retained with Duncan due to these highly offensive posts. Given the level of hatred Steve Brown obviously has for Duncan we cannot expect he would maintain any objectivity toward anyone associated with Duncan in an event. So we have taken the position stated above shortly after Steve Brown made many of his statements on web boards and blog sites. This was prior to most of the 2007 contests, including World’s, Nationals, and NY International. In addition, it’s not the intent to harm or punish organizers of contests.
On a sidenote, while Steve Brown represents himself as the best thing that happened to Duncan in decades, I know from the inside that Duncan has worked on and introduced some great products in recent years and continues to be the most prominent resource for elevating awareness and participation in yo-yoing in the public eye. While Steve Brown was with Duncan he was accepted as a valued member of the team. From product development to the initiation of the Duncan Crew to contest sponsorships, he helped Duncan well. However, none of the successes Duncan had while Steve Brown was with us were solely the result of only his efforts and inputs. Had Steve Brown not been with us at that time we would have tapped inputs from other qualified people.
On a final note of clarity, while it’s true that most of our sales and profits are derived from Classic and ProYo/ProFly yo-yos, Duncan does value the members of the top players and enthusiasts in the world. They represent the leaders of yo-yo play, competitions, media coverage, and do a terrific job in overall consumer awareness.
Discuss.
The Meteor. Mickey’s newest signature yo-yo. Same Shinny Caps. Different shape.
Looks like they are borrowing the 888 rim design.
I guess once more people try it there will be more info about it.
Incase you though SWAY was all talk, here is a proto of thier yoyo Aurora.
64 grams, dual deep recess pad (able to accept silicone), large bearing, with the coating being unknown at this point.
In comparions with a Bear vs Man, and Project. Taken straight from bpcyo’s post:
“This is the CRAZYSMOOTHEST throw Ive experienced – its noctu level smooth. It is hand satined by us so it grinds real nice.
The gap is wide so that is the reason we think Kentaros will be better than silicone but it will take sili if youd like to do it.
The axle system is stainless and I think it more resembles a project than Buzzon but whatev. The coating we will use will be a hair different, this is a first pass – they will be similar to this but different colors. We want to pull it farther away from Caribou’s splattercoating.”
And then there is this little tib-bit of info “We still cant release manufacturing info because we are attempting to get a patent – but as soon as we have it locked up we will post it.”
Excited to see what stems from that.
The only real problem I see anyone having with this yoyo is the axle system. It is similar to that of a Buzzon yoyo like Bryan said in the above quote. For me personally not that much of a problem, but for other’s who knows.
I started reading the SWAY brothers posts on the boards a few monthes back thinking they were just two brats running around with mommy and daddys money. But after meeting them at MASS states, they really have thier shit together and I expect great things out of them.
Funny how I’ve been meaning to write this blog post for about a year now, and today while I was digging through an old box of yo-yos i found the subject. The Super Tech Steel Bearing type Classic Yo-Yo…
Last year while I was on a roadtrip for spring break Abe John Bot and I stopped at a truck stop. Walking in this caught my eye. I can’t remember the exact cost of it, but it was around $3. Ball Bearing. In fact, it came with 2 bearings and 2 sets of spacers. The bearing pictured was a very small ‘looping’ bearing. and a wider “string trick” bearing was packaged with it.
Its a really close knock off to the Duncan Imperial’s shape. But thats where the similarities end. The Plastic feels like polycarbonate, not the soft sticky K-Resin that Imperials are made of. There are also design flaws with the Super Tech. The biggest ones are the thin threading and nut being molded into the body. Thats just asking for over tightening and cracking.
It’s really interesting to see yo-yos getting more and more expensive. Established manufactures like Yo-Yo Factory, SPYY, CLYW, Dif-e-Yo and Anti-Yo set trends while others scramble to imitate them. Yet there are always high quality, low cost yo-yos that do the job. This Super Tech and the FAST 201 come to mind first. Well made with quality product with a really nice price tag. These kind of yo-yos should be the trend setters.
Over at the Project Red Alert site Ben has posted the first picture of the Catch 22.
The Shape is pretty interesting.
There has been a said for this yo-yo. The price tag for one. Your looking at about $375-500 for the next Yo-Yo Factory yo-yos. Ben alluded to the name being a hint for the yo-yo. Titanium’s atomic number is 22, so that has been the speculation.
On the Red Alert blog the Catch 22 is called “the ultimate yo-yo”. Were do you draw the line to get the best playing yo-yo posable? More over, apart for an amazingly playable yo-yo, what are we doing with all the new yo-yo technology? Look at the last 5 years of yo-yoing. The last trick that effected manufacturing technic was the grind. That was back in 2003. Apart from that, Hub Stacks are the newest change to the yo-yo in regards to new ways to do tricks. But that has mainly been on the manufacturing level.
