Yo yos were very popular for a few years when I was a kid. During the 70s and early 80s they weren’t uncommon to see in public or on tv.
I was writing a note to someone today. I stopped short of making a yo yo reference for fear I would sound even more uncool than normal. I haven’t seen a yo yo in years.
Do kids still play with yo yos or are they a thing of the past?
I’m a teacher.
Thing of the past, with minor anecdotal incidences being the exception.
I know that they made a brief comeback in the late 90’s when I was in middle school but I don’t think I’ve seen more than a few isolated incidents since then.
Then again, I know I saw some yo-yos at Toys R Us a few months ago so someone must still be buying them. (Maybe it’s just terribly uncool and clueless parents strapped for gift ideas.)
I do. 'Course, I’m not a kid.
don’t know if it’s cool, but they still hold nation and worldwide contests for it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Yo-Yo_Contest
Unless Wii has come out with an electronic version of the Yo Yo; then no, my kids do not play with Yo Yos.
I know several young kids who love their yo-yo’s, and a couple who have put a lot of time into learning great tricks. One little 7yo I know was in the church talent show with his.
However, I live in the town that hosts the National Yo-yo Contest and Museum, and so I probably see many more yo-yo enthusiasts than most folks do.
Kids love yo-yos still but they won’t buy them.
If a kid sees a yo-yo he won’t buy it but if you put a bunch of yo-yos in a classroom full of kids and give them away free, all the kids will take it and play with them
I remember the Duncan Yo-Yo commercials when I was a kid, there seemed to be a Yo-Yo season when the commercials would appear and then disappear like clockwork once a year.
I don’t know that they are widely sought out and requested, but my experience is that if you put kids in contact with them, they’ll play with them.
Hmm… I didn’t learn how until I was in middle school. I wonder if I could teach Fang how to yo-yo. He’s six.
I think we may have a project for Thanksgiving break.
When my son was in 5th grade (2 years ago) he had the exact same experience as Bart Simpson. A group of rollerskating yo-yo experts did an assembly at his school. For a few weeks after that he carried a yo yo constantly and tried to teach himself tricks. Also like Bart, “it was hard so I quit.”
They need to do another revival, as someone up thread has said there was one in the mid-1990s. Everyone I know had a yoyo for a couple of weeks when we were all about 13 or 14. Then they all disappeared again.
My kids are 7 and 5, each have a yo-yo (I forget from where), but I see them often playing with it. They’re also both better than I at it (in that they can get the yo yo to go up and down, something I can’t even do) but no “tricks”.
Although, keeping in mind that they’re only 7 and 5, I don’t think this was the age of “kids” you were looking for (I’m guessing roughly twice their age?)
The commentary for the Simpsons episode about yo-yos mentioned that apparently Duncan, being aware of the faddish nature of the yo-yo’s appeal, promotes their product in multi-year cycles. The problem of course is that the classic Duncan yo-yo is a piece of crap. Someone on The Dope mentioned years ago that they were still using molds that had long since warped. But Duncan bought out Pro-Yo, so now it’s the Duncan name on a lot of those nice rim-weighted ball-bearing transaxle yo-yos.
These days, there is an active mod community for yo-yos, and there are sites that specialize in selling the parts to customize your yo-yo. If you look on YouTube you’ll see that there are young people out there who are fantastic with the things, though most of them seem to be from Japan. Japan out-nerds the U.S. in so many obsessive hobbies.
They may not enjoy the popularity or mindspace that they once did, but if you are into yo-yos, it’s an exciting time to be alive.
Timely thread, for me, at least. My kid (almost seven) has been turning the house upside down looking for his lost yo-yo for the last two days. It’s just a tin piece of crap he got out of a yard sale free box; I’m going to get him a better one for his birthday. So I know one kid who does.
Mine try. They usually end up getting frustrated and swing them around looking to clobber the other. These are crappy gift bag yo-yos they get at parties, though. I should get them something proper that actually works. As a yo-yo.
Mine were fighting over one last night…playing with it I didn’t notice, but since one person has to play with it for the other to want it…I suspect that at least one of them was playing with the yo yo.
Mine do. I also have one in my desk at work.