Duncan Limelight

I received one of these as a gift and was initially skeptical. Light-up? Plastic? Are you serious?

A little background: I'm old-school. ...okay, I'm a dinosaur. I learned on - and still prefer - solid, simple, wooden yo-yos with fixed axles. Plastic always felt too light and cheap, light-up features were terrible and destroyed balance (this was before LEDs were common... like I said: I'm a dinosaur), bearings and transaxles always seemed gimmiky to me, and metal... well, metal may not have even been a thing back then.

So imagine my surprise when I took this thing out of the package, gave it a throw, and it actually felt... good? How's that possible?

Turns out the axle/bearing on here is nice and responsive, but with good sleep time; the weight is good despite being plastic; the edges are nice and rounded, so it feels comfortable in the hand; and it's even narrower/thinner than any of my other yo-yos, so it slips in a pocket really easily as a take-anywhere toy. The lighting feature IS pretty gimmicky, to be honest, but it's also kind of fun at the same time. If I have a complaint, it's that the string it comes with is a little short for me. But it's about the right length for my wife, who's starting to figure out how to yo using this little thing.

Overall: this little guy exceeded my expectations. Nicely done, Duncan!