Skyva Yoyo Review

I’d have to agree that mine isn’t “dead smooth,” but then again, most metals aren’t either if I’m really nitpicking about it. The minimal amount of vibe in my Skyva can only be noticed when doing a fingernail test, otherwise it feels dead smooth during normal play; much like most metals that I have owned/played. As for during finger spins, there is a bit more “vibe” as the machined innermost cup area isn’t perfectly smooth.

It is incredibly difficult for most metals to even be considered “dead smooth”, at least by my standards. Only a handful of the 50+ metals that I have owned would be classified as such, most of those being mint right out of the box. Most OD metals have been dead smooth for me, at least ones with SE’s; my Sovereign and the Citizen that I had both had tiny amounts of vibe. The two Draupnirs that I owned. A TP Palpitation. My Evora. The SPYY yoyo’s that I’ve owned; Orbitron, Supra, and 3 Addiction v2’s. My Anti-yo Bape.2, Vis, and Stealthzilla. Two YYF Cyphers, and both a Space Cowboy and Cowgirl. My Masamini. And 2 G2 Marvels. Otherwise everything else has had a noticable amount of vibe if you put it to the fingernail test, but mostly it’s completely unnoticeable during play.

With all that being said, my Skyva is one of the smoothest plastic throws that I have played. My OG Yeti is also incredibly smooth for a plastic, and the smoothest that I have played is probably a Regen which is machined POM. I guess that I have gotten lucky with all of these, as they’ve only had as much “vibe” as most metals, where you can only tell on a fingernail test, but otherwise play very smooth.

I think people are getting too sensitive about vibe lately. The Skyva plays great, some may vibe a little more than others and some are pretty close to dead smooth, but I haven’t seen or heard of any where the ‘vibe’ inhibited performance in any way.

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On the whole vibe thing quick. Not going to throw out any names, but I think a lot of people don’t actually understand what true damage vibe is. I have done many trades where people will say the yoyo has vibe. I will throw the yoyo without having tried to tune it, fingernail test it, and it will be dead smooth no matter how I look at it… I think sometimes when people say yoyos vibe they just need to learn how to throw better… Or learn to tune them :wink:

Plastics have a little bit of a vibe to them naturally. Personally, that’s what I like about them, they feel unique.

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Try a OD Cabal for smoothness and 9-10 vibe free.

The Cabal is not polycarbonate, nor is it injection molded. It is machined POM. These are not the type of plastic yoyos I was talking about.

This is such a great yoyo, and not just for finger spins, although it does excel at that. I would highly recommend this yoyo.

I went ahead and ordered a white one. For 20 bucks its worth trying. Givijg the kitty string 1.5 a try too.

My first Skyva was dreamy smooth. I sold it after a few days.

My second Skyva (recently bought) has some vibe. Not generous. Closer to slight, but it’s there. It doesn’t inhibit performance at all.

I’ll probably keep this one til I croak.

Iv got the grey one coming in today. I love the replay pro and been throwin it around for months here and there. But man i cant wait to throw the skyva and put the replay down for a bit. Scope out the differences.

I have 3 replay pros myself, however I like my onestar a bit better due to size and shape. I’ll let you know how the skyva compares to both.

Cool sounds good. Yeah iv had 2 one stars. I loved the specs and the price! Had a speedaholic also. Great throw forsure but ended up not diggin it anymore. Just got my skyva a few hours ago. Super happy with it. Favorite plastic hands down

“Vibe” is NOT the vibrations from the string-it’s the visible shaking of the yoyo

I tried my friends skyva and I must say it was rather smooth. It was smooth enough to not even wonder if it had vibe. I really like this yoyo

So after having the Skyva for 2 weeks, heres my thoughts: I got it in white, I like the over all design and color, its texture is super smooth. The bearing that came with it was gritty, so I swapped it with a different CT one. Theres a small amount of vibe, but it doesnt affect playability at all. Overall I’d say it was worth the 20 bucks.

I just ordered mine. I love the minty green color but YYE is sold out so I got the gray one. Can’t wait to try it. Maybe I can finally learn how to do finger spins :smiley:

I received mine two nights ago and have had a bit of a chance to play with it. Here are my first impressions:

It feels really light on the string. It’s a quick yoyo but it’s also stable. It’s doesn’t seem to tilt off axis very quickly if I don’t throw it absolutely straight. The spin time is reasonable, but I’m betting it will get better as I work in the bearing. It’s not bad, but it’s not as good as the yoyos I throw every day (which makes sense since those bearings are all nicely broken in)

I threw a GT knot this morning and had to take the yoyo apart to clear it. Because of the finger spin cups the axle is quite short and the threads seems to be really tight. I almost thought I was cross threading the axle. When I tightened it I wasn’t sure when it was properly seated or if I was over tightening it. That worried me a little bit.

But how does it play? With my limited skill set I would say that it’s a fast, yet stable throw. It doesn’t seem to bog down when there are multiple wraps (such as wrapping up 3 or 4 Lindy Loops). I have missed several binds though. This may be due to the included string which is both quite long and quite thin. I’ll put an Ammo or Venom string on it today and try again. I can’t do finger spins at all, I’ve never even properly caught the yoyo on my finger yet. But the one time I was closest I could feel my finger pop into the finger spin cup (right before it popped out again). That’s what this yoyo was designed for and could see how the spin cup would be a huge advantage. I hope I become good enough to use it :slight_smile: If you’re a horizontal player then I’d really like to hear your opinion on it’s horizontal stability.

Tricks with quick direction changes like Gerbil or Cold Fusion can be done easily. The yoyo doesn’t seem to lag behind what I’m trying to do with it. The catch zone feels really wide and it’s easy to catch tricks like Kwyjibo. My fundamental impression is that it’s a really good plastic yoyo. I’ll need to play with it more to see if I like it more than my Replay Pros. But I’m thinking that the quickness of the Skyva may put it a notch ahead of the Replay Pro.

Let’s try it this way: I’d say it’s a bit quicker than my Shutter while being almost as stable. It’s not as quick as my Dogma but is vastly more stable than the Dogma. This seems to make sense since a yoyo with more rim weight tends to be a bit slower when changing directions and vice versa.

In the hand it feels really good. I’d say that it feels closer to an aluminum yoyo than any of my other plastics. There’s an almost subconscious sense of quality to the yoyo. I can’t explain what’s different about it, it just feels good.

The sound: Wow, this thing has the coolest sound. It has a high pitched shimmering ring to it. Plastic yoyos do tend to be louder but this one is the loudest yoyo I own by far. But it’s a cool ZING ZING sound rather than an annoying sound. I like it.

Bottom line: For the price, there’s no doubt that you should add one to your collection. It plays really well for a plastic yoyo and it plays pretty darn close to an aluminum yoyo like my Shutter. I don’t think there’s a down side to it at all.

If you’re on the fence about getting one then don’t be.

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@Greg Not gonna quote cuz it’s too long :wink:

I don’t think it’s super fast. It’s on the faster side but it handles a slower pace just as well in my experience. Saying it’s faster than the Replay Pro really isn’t saying much imo. The Replay Pro is 69g, very hefty and it’s definitely a slower yoyo. The Shutter is 67g so it’s still pretty hefty as well, the Shutter is on the faster side for a 67g yoyo but I wouldn’t say it’s fast overall, more of an average-paced throw.

I agree with the spin time, it’s decent but not the best. I thought it was the bearing at first too but I’ve tried different bearings and it’s the same. This is probably because it’s completely plastic with no weight rings so there’s not as much rim weight. I agree the yoyo is pretty stable, especially at higher/mid RPMs, but during lower RPMs I notice a little more turning than I’m used to. That combined with the average spin time, this isn’t something I’d use for competition where I’m trying to pile as many tricks as I can in each throw but it’s definitely great for casual play. As for horizontal it’s pretty good but not exceptional.

I definitely agree that it feels like a metal and that there’s a premium feel to it. I’ve stated this before and I think it’s really nice. Overall I personally think it’s the best yoyo on the market right now for under $30.

When I got mine, the response pad wasn’t seated. After taking it apart, I had the same concern as Greg- I had a hard time telling when it was tight enough. It is hard to read in that regard. Also, does anyone else have an issue with this thing being hyper responsive? I’m not using thick string, but I can barely set up a finger spin without it biting me. Which sucks, because that’s primarily why I got it.

Are you able to do fingerspins on other yoyos? Maybe your form just needs to be corrected.

I can “kinda” do them with other yoyos but not well. I’m definitely still learning, but I don’t have the response issue with other yoyos. I like the divot in the cap of the skyva and how it will really lock in, but it’s so responsive it’ll start to bind on snaps. Like, give it a tug and it’s coming back with a vengeance from a sleeper. I’m thinking I’ll have to call it a $20 loss and maybe use it as a giveaway to a new player,but I’m torn on whether I should give it another $20 go or just get a horizon or something. Not problem with the play, but I’m leery now