Why don't you see much love for Duncan?

I dunno. $15-$20 maybe. Toys all kinda cost that now.

Ahhh, interesting thought! i bet you are right, and that whole thing never even crossed my mind. Thanks for sharing!

That does make me feel a bit less insulted also. so thanks again!

Duncan is still #1. Not because they sell the best yoyo’s but because they sell the most. True, many are Imperials and Butterfly’s because you can find them anywhere. Many of us old timers had one choice, Duncan. and many newbie’s started with one of those 2 yoyo’s and got hooked.
As far as higher end stuff, the Torque and the Bassacuda are every bit as good as most other midrange brands.
Sure I have a lot of different yoyo’s from a lot of different manufactures and even though I am only a mediocre player I still go back to my torque time and time again.

I too feel like Duncan (in which was at one time in the spotlight that YYF is currently in) is just kind of there. A lot of their widely available yoyos today are very “beginner” and on the higher end models they do have, it seems very minimal. I do own several of the Duncan metals (Strix, Barracuda, Torque, Echo 2) and find them very enjoyable. But I feel like they are not really staying with the rest of the competition. Yoyofactory appears to have taken Duncan’s role today, with the broad selection of yoyos from beginner all the way up to competition throws.

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Duncan makes and releases products at all levels, even yoyos for elite players. There probably isn’t a yoyo in their product line they haven’t released that completely missed a feature or set of tricks or playstyle. They cover the whole gamut. Their yoyos have won several worlds titles, with the most recent being 2014’s barracuda, and the echo.

I don’t claim to know their business strategy, nor do I understand the yoyo market as a whole, but I certainly can’t see how Duncan is not providing yoyos that can be used at an elite level.

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And to prove your point, the Origami and the Haymaker are getting good buzz!

The Freehand Pro looks pretty awesome. I love a nice plastic.

I’ve heard it’s in Toys R Us now, which is pretty cool.

The Origami looks pretty cool. I have put it on my list.

I just bought one from Toys R Us. It doesn’t appear to be the same one sold here on YYE. The one I bought has a non concave slim bearing which leads to a narrow gap. Fully responsive as is.

Is the shape and everything else the same? If it’s just the bearing then that makes sense. I would find it strange if they sold an unresponsive yoyo at a store like Walmart or Toys R Us.

It looks like everything else is the same as far as the yoyo goes. I just looked again at the packaging and it doesn’t say “pro” on it anywhere that I see. I wonder if there is different packaging as well.

There’s a slim bearing blister pack set for general retail and a wide concave bearing plastic box version for yoyo stores.

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YYF did the same thing with their DV888, they had a beginner-friendly one in retail stores with slim bearing and some thick pads. I of course didn’t realize when I bought it, went to do my first trick only to have smashed knuckles.

Bart has, just all of them, from all the places.

I think the bearing is the only difference.

I have to agree, Duncan seems to have been slow to adapt to the brave new world of fancy metal unresponsive boutique yo-yos. And it also seems true to me that their bread and butter (95% of their business?) is the cheap yo-yos they’ve always been known for, so maybe they focus on that and the higher end stuff is just statistical noise in their sales?

If you visit the official duncan homepage at yo-yo.com, and click through to the yo-yo store page, it tells the whole story (note that I have not filtered by skill level, this is the default page)

At the $15 and under price point, they seem fine. When you get to $29 and higher, I have heard only negative things about the Metal Racer and Metal Drifter, and literally nothing about the Torque and Strix. It looks like Torque / Strix are on some kind of blowout sale as they are $45 / $55 respectively at YYE.

TL;DR as far as Duncan goes for “basic responsive” at around $10 they are fine, but for “value metal” at $30 (outside of special blowout sales for older models) the story is … pretty bad.

If you do click through to “expert”…

I have been legitimately impressed with all their higher end yo-yos, though you will note most of them are not on their store page.

  • Barracuda $45
  • Origami $45
  • Raptor $45
  • MKT $50 (@Tvelto himself reviewed this one)
  • Grasshopper X $95
  • Orbital $99
  • Haymaker X $120

There is a new chapter in this story, though… I haven’t seen the (new?) $40 Orbit, $40 Counter Punch, or $35 Road Runner yet. All are lower priced and might move the needle on “Duncan is a good value metal choice” and kinda erase the, uh, Metal Drift… over time. These are only on the Japanese yo-yo stores which tend to get some inventory first.

Speaking of … I also get the distinct impression that the Duncan brand has more cachet outside the United States, whereas here it’s seen a bit like the “cheap” brand that everyone starts with but grows out of quickly?

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Duncan and Yomega focus on their beginner entry level yoyos. They strive from sales from the non-yoyoing market. The people who don’t know much if anything about modern yoyoing. YYF targets the beginner audience as well but they are focusing on those who are already aware of the modern yoyoing scene. Needless to say, the former market is much greater, so they get a huge amount of sales from those, enough to trump any other yoyo company except maybe the powerhouse YYF.

As for the mid-high end yoyos, they are mostly good, it’s just that not many are great. I still believe in what I said from that quote of mine you got from 2 years ago (lol) that they are doing just enough to be relevant in the modern scene, but they aren’t pushing boundaries, and they really aren’t trying to, which is fine.

With that said, I had a Strix around the time it was released and to this day it’s one of the most fun yoyos I’ve ever played with, and it was pretty good for its price back when it was released. The torque was also very intriguing to me when it was released but I never ended up getting one. I have no doubt it was one of the better budget metals back in the day though.

I see the Torque as kind of a turning point for Duncan. Although they still aren’t as innovative as other companies, their mid-range yoyos started becoming at least competitive with others in a similar range. Origami, Barracuda, Grasshopper, they’re all pretty good yoyos for their price points. I actually prefer all 3 over the Shutter.

Their high-end yoyos are just good enough to stay relevant as well. Grasshopper X is great, and the Orbital and Haymaker X both look like they have some serious rim weight too.

In terms of performance, I think they’re fine. They’re not the best but they’re by no means bad or even mediocre “anymore.” I think part of the reason why they aren’t more popular though is because they aren’t the most attractive brand for modern players. “What yoyos do you have? What are your favorite companies?” I and I imagine most others would rather say OD, G2, or SF than say Duncan.

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This is an absolute killer. When your brand is permanently associated with “the cheap but serviceable stuff”… that reeeeeeeeallly ain’t good for your long term health as a company!

That’s also why I noted that Duncan seems to do better in non-US markets where they have more “official” brand mystique I guess?

I think a lot of recent Duncan releases are excellent. They are putting in a lot of effort to release varied and great performing yoyos. Everything they are making is now far more refined than in previous years.

It seems to work for Duncan.

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