I haven’t seen a kd with a yoyo in years; seems like its time for a revval. I don’t eveb see them in stores, who makes them these days?
Yo yo’s got pretty big in the late 90’s and early 2000’s for a while. They were every where. Lots of expensive specialty yo’s that you could do sick tricks with. I actually had a couple of metal yo yos and the most popular yo was the Bumble Bee. I could do some good tricks with them.
They’re long due for a comeback, however WILL the comeback is the real question
Who makes them? Lots of places, but Duncan, who made them when I was a kid, is still at it:
Yo-yos always come back. Unless the string breaks.
No, unfortunately – frequently they don’t. Use of the yo yo requires some skill.
Late 60’s early 70’s Ohio grade school. Every year-18 months or so, all the kids at school would all of a sudden start buying yo-yos, and every boy just had to have one (incl. me). Then after a couple of months, everybody would stop bringing them to school. After like the third iteration I finally figured out how silly the whole peer-pressure thing was, and didn’t partake the next time. Anybody else undergo a similar recurring fad when they were a kid?
In 1990, when I was in 7th Grade, they were big at my school.
I thought it was ridiculous.
I went to parochial school in the 60s and once or twice we had an assembly for the purpose of some old guy selling yo-yos. Ironically, the nuns confiscated most of them from students within a week.
I went to grade school in Northern California and for some strange reason, yo-yos seemed to be big only during the Spring of odd-numbered years.
And then, as now, Duncan was the name in yo-yos. I can’t even think of any other major competitor.
Didn’t that also happen in a Simpsons episode?
Oddly enough, once you get it, it’s pretty hard to make it not work. At, least, it is for me. the yo-yo always comes at least 3/4s of the way up. When I was a kid, it would just hit the bottom and not come back up.
In the early 60’s, small teams of older kids would show up in our schoolyard periodically doing cool tricks. I don’t think they sold yo-yos but the visits must have been part of a coordinated campaign.
I was more into Duncan Spin Tops which were huge for a while but never seemed to have the staying power of the yo-yo.
“That’s the old Sparkle”
I have fond memories of the yo-yo fads of the late 60’s and early 70’s. We girls played with them too. In addition to doing tricks, we named ours and had weddings for them.
My kids have yo-yos, jacks, chinese jump ropes, etc. They rarely find other kids who know how to play with them, though.
I work with a lot of them.
Tommy “Yo-Yo Man” Smothers is ready.
A lot of the “novelty” yo-yos I’ve seen now-a-days, and that my kids have acquired, are tied off on the axis.* Which is a cheat. Real yo-yos must have a free-spinning axis, which at first is harder to operate, but is a must if you intend to get skillful and do tricks. Basically, have fun with it.
*not saying yours is, just that most run-of-the-mill ones are made this way, geared for kids who want instant gratification.
Edna Krabapel was a nun?
I think my middle school had a National Champ for a while. It was popular during either the late 90s or early 00s but it went away after a few months.
I actually saw two kids with yoyos just the other day. Maybe it’s on the verge of a comeback?
And neither do boomerangs.
Boomerangs have strings?!