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Now, I’m by no means claiming that the Yo-yo was solely a toy of the 1980s. Indeed, in it’s current form as a toy it dates back until at least the 1920s, and records date it back to being a hunters weapon in the Phillipines during the 16th century, and there are even examples of Yo-yo like objects being used in ancient Greece, dating back to 500BC!
However, there was a sudden fad for the Yo-yo when I was at secondary school, which is why I’m writing about them. A friend of mine brought his into school one day and started doing a few very simple tricks with it. Up to that point I had of course played with a Yo-yo before, but all I ever did with it was make it go up and down the string, which got a bit boring after a while.
My friend kept throwing his Yo-yo out in front of him and looping the loop with it, and at that point I was hooked. At the first opportunity I went Yo-yo hunting, and I ended up with a cheap metal Yo-yo that was blue with a picture of a panda on it, but it was all I could find, so it would have to do. I started practising and before long was copying my friend’s tricks of throwing the Yo-yo out horizontally, or performing loops.
I triumphantly demonstrated my new skills to my mate, who then went on to show me his new trick. He called it “the spinner” but I later learned the accepted term for it is a sleeper. With a sharp flick of his wrist he sent the Yo-yo to the bottom of the string, where it stayed, spinning round and round like mad, instead of rolling back up the string. He then slapped the back of his Yo-yo holding hand, and it climbed back up the string into his hand.
I was amazed at this, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get my Yo-yo to do it, so I asked my friend for help. He showed me his Yo-yo, which was made by world leading Yo-yo manufacturers Duncan. He explained how instead of the string being tied to the central axle the string was actually twisted together so that the end of it was a loop into which the axle was placed. This allowed the Yo-yo to spin on the string instead of immediately return back up it.
So, off to the shops I went again, and this time managed to find myself a much better Yo-yo, and also a book explaining how to do various tricks including the infamous Walking the Dog, where you allow the Yo-yo to touch and roll along the floor before returning to your hand. I practised and practised, and whilst I managed to (sort of) walk the dog it wasn’t long before the fad at school ended and I started to lose interest.
The reason this particular memory from my childhood came into my head was that I stumbled across a new Yo-yo made by Duncan the other day. The reason it caught my eye was the price tag. I might consider spending five pounds on a Yo-yo, perhaps even ten, but this baby costs a cool £300! The Duncan Freehand Mg is a precision piece of kit, with the body made from 99% magnesium and the central ball bearing axle being made of ceramic and surgical grade stainless steel.
Personally I could never justify that kind of expense, but apparently Yo-yo connoisseurs are loving it, stating it as being the most perfect Yo-yo ever made. I should think so too for that price! If you’ve got a spare few hundred quid kicking around that you don’t know what to do with, you can get one from Play.com!
I never could master any fancy shmancy yo-yo wizardry beyond the basic up/down motion. But I do love its simpleness.
There’s nothing around today that I can think of that has that timeless quality. Most “toys” now rely on too much tech to enjoy. I wish I could invent a toy (similar in low-techness to a yo-yo or hula hoop) that would bring kids back to the true form of playing.
You are quite right about toys being too complicated today Marissa.
My nephews have some Bakugan (I think it was called) toys, which is basically a card game augmented with some little plastic toys. The cards have magnets embedded in them, and so do the toys. In play you roll the toys like marbles at the cards, and if they stop on top the magnets are supposed to make the toy pop open into a little monster thingy. I say supposed because it seems to be incredibly hard to get it to do it during proper play.
OK, this is all very clever, but I bet we had more fun playing snap with normal playing cards…