Plastic Yo-yo Shootout review

Hi everyone

There is a new review article up on Cyyclical today comparing six of the more popular and recent pure plastic yo-yos out there: Replay Pro, Big Dipper, Premiere, Diffusion, First Base, and Gargantua. Since this article covers more than one yo-yo, it is a longer read than usual, but hopefully you don’t find it to be too much of a slog.

Enjoy!


http://cyyclical.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Plastic-shootout-2.jpg

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Your impressions in the “shootout” are pretty similar to my own regarding those choices. I do think, however, from a purely performance standpoint that the Replay Pro outplays the First Base. The First Base has grown on me some, it’s fun to play and I love the shape, but couple that shape with the light weight and you’re not going to have a performance beast. I like the look of the Premiere the best, especially the green-blue one from the first release. The Diffusion is probably the better performer with the Premiere close behind, but I think an upgraded Classic probably beats them both in raw performance. Entertaining read. I read most of the content on Cyyclical, it works as a more in-depth, long-form alternative to some of the other yoyo news sites which are also great.

OH great, now there are 5 more Yoyos I need to buy (I already have 2 Replay Pros) :wink:

Yeah the Throwers subreddit community has been having a debate about these two today, and there is a decent chance that my Replay Pro is simply a lower performer. Many players seem to have a great performance experience while others (like me) seem to have Replay Pro that struggles when other yo-yos don’t. It might simply be due to the variation in yo-yo manufacturing which ismore pronounced in plastics (so I am told, and I can believe it).

I didn’t talk about this in the article, but I did a whole series of series of tricks, combos, and repeaters with each of the yo-yos during my review testing, and in the end my First Base seemed to inch past the Reply Pro, even if not by much. I had to report my experiences as I found them of course, but it is likely that someone else will have a different experience with a different Reply Pro (I am hoping to get some more of them in the future to test the variation).

Oh, and thanks for the feedback on the site :slight_smile:

Yeah I hear a lot of good things about the Replay Pro but the fire marble one I got turned out to be a dud. I don’t know if it was something I did or what, but it just won’t spin longer than 20 seconds any more. It played great out the box (it actually blew my mind so much I was literally laughing in amazement) and was going to be my EDC throw until I untwisted it to get a knot out. After I put it back together the bearing just sounded super scratchy and wouldn’t spin for long. I even put in 3 other bearings from my metal throws and same thing. Sanded down the sides that touch the bearing and no dice. I believe it is a top performer because it was one right out of the box. I did not over tighten it either. No cracks in the plastic. Also those arrows don’t match up anymore. Just something happened to mine that made it bad. I also have a First Base and a Big Dipper and I love them both. They are also solid performers. I feel like the First Base is a slightly smaller Big Dipper. They seem to have the same basic shape to me. Both are hella fun to play. I may try and get another replay pro on down the road and see what happens.

Better than having 5 metals that you need to buy! :wink:

But, there are probably 5 metals that you need to buy as well… ;D

I’m not a big fan of the Replay Pro in the end. It’s a good yoyo, but I find there are better options, even in that price range. In my mind, it’s hard to beat an upgraded Classic.

If you do another shootout with $10-20 plastics, I’d suggest taking a look at the Adegle PSG and Asteroid. They’ve been discontinued for a while, but there are still quite a few in stock at the various stores. They don’t get recommended or talked about very much anymore, but they still play quite well for their price, especially if you can swap out the cheap flats in them with some spare curved bearings.

The Replay throw is the only modern plastic I own, unless the YYJ Legend counts, and I really love it. I’m feeling like GregB, now!

Only 5?

I at least need :
OD Gradient and Cascade,
CLYW Chief, Borealis and Orca
MonkeyFinger (anything)
YYF Shuta, Nightmare, Space Cowboy
Sengoku Masamune
Rebellion Start the Riot

I mean, at least those right? :wink:

where s the og

OK good to know, thanks! A few others have also suggested that a shootout in just the $10-20 range would be interesting. And thankfully that won’t cost me much to set up :slight_smile:

I’ve played the PSG and will be attempting a writeup of a slightly different set of plastics… probably in a month or two, still need to finish up some projects.

My main gripe with the PSG is that bearing removal is pretty hard. That thicker axle means that some standard bearing removal tools won’t work.

I will have to agree. After getting to try all of these plastics excluding the Big Dipper, it is pretty safe to say that the high-end name Yoyorecreation takes the top spot. Companies can always say “this plastic yoyo plays as good as high-end metal”, but from my experience that is never the case. I truly do believe only the Diffusion 2 has that bragging right because it plays like a cloud on a string. It takes advantage of being plastic and uses it well.
Great review! Truly amazing! ;D

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Thanks for the feedback. I am glad you liked it :smiley:

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