…also posted in the YYR collection thread… since I haven’t seen a Valkyrie review, here is one… If you have questions about this yoyo feel free to ask and I’ll do my best to answer.
A bit of a Valkyrie review…
Background: I’ve been playing a 3rd run Peak pretty exclusively for the past 1-2 years because I just really like the feel of a Peak and wanted to focus on improving my technique by using a yoyo that was less “easy” than the modern competition-style yoyos. Before that I owned a lot of YYR, including Stargazer, Sleipnir, Overdrive, Messiah, DreadnoughtG, Clash. So the Valkyrie is the first yoyo I’ve bought in a long time (I only have 3 yoyos right now), and my first bi-metal.
So… I’m just gonna focus on the play of the Valkyrie…
But it looks beautiful too. I got the blue. My non-yoyo friends commented on how good it looks. And the engraving is really well done and sharp.
On the first throws I didn’t like it. Felt like the yoyo had to be pushed more for direction changes and whatnot - it seemed sluggish. But then I realized that it felt “wrong” because I got some new Kitty String and the default string length was longer than I was used to. Shortened the string a bit and it was much better. Also, this goes to show how much a cm of string length can make a difference, and how one just gets used to playing with a certain length.
Anyways…
The Valkyrie feels solid on a throw and swinging at the end of the string but in hops and maneuvers it is fast and nimble. The size is great for my preference. Super stable and gives a confident feeling, a nice presence at the end of the string. It chews through tricks with spin to spare. It’s quiet too, even after blowing out the bearing with air - is this typical of bi-metals, that they run quiet? The only thing I notice on the negative side is that the Valkyrie seems to not return to the hand at low spins as easily as I remember for my other YYR (i.e. Sleipnir) - maybe this is due to the weight and that it is a double straight bearing instead of a KK (?). Anyways, that’s easily adjusted for by doing flyaway binds or whatever, and more importantly, the Valkyrie stays stable even at low rpms.
I’m really happy with the Valkyrie, and it’s turned out to be a great yoyo for me who has been exclusively playing with a Peak for a year or so. From YYR’s description, it seems that they were trying to make a “floaty” yoyo (I mean come on - it even has a feather engraved on it!) - that it has a solid weight but “By precisely choosing the sweetest spots to distribute the weight, we’ve managed to produce a yo-yo with a special characteristic which can be described as being close to weightlessness, giving it exquisite maneuverability.” (in the words of YYR) With the Valkyrie YYR were trying to make a more “accessible” Draupnir and chose specs that fit in the middle of what is popular right now and they ended up with something close to the Peak (Valkyrie is 1mm larger in diameter, and 1g lighter that my Peak).
tldr; Valkyrie is great for my preferences for yoyo size and weight, it has great stability, is solid at the end of the string, but fast and nimble on hops and small maneuvers (so…ahem…“floaty”)
