I ask because I haven’t seen any kids playing with them for years! Yo-Yos seem to be a toy whose popularity runs in cycles…I can remember them as a kid. They were hot for a few years, then you wouldforget about them for a long time.
So, are Yo-Yos posed for abig comeback? Should I buy stock in whatever toy company makes these odd objects?
Haven’t seen them???
My son just came home with a yo-yo tonight. There were yo-yo’s in the prizes at the kid’s place we went to for my daughter’s birthday. My mother got some for the kids last christmas. At work we gave some out for marketing. They’re EVERYWHERE! They are also a lot cheaper than the ones we used to have when I was a kid. A good heavy yo-yo is much easier to play with and do tricks with than these el-cheapo plastic jobs I see so often now.
Of all the people in this thread so far, that’s two who haven’t seen them anywhere for a while, and one that’s seeing them all over. I’m in Southern California; where are you, ralph124c? Maybe we could figure out that it’s gradually creeping from the east coast to the west coast or something. In fact, I think Magic: The Gathering did that not too long ago. As far as popularity running in cycles, I wouldn’t be surprised if that turned out to be true.
There was a resurgence several years ago, and there were several advances in yo-yo technology, including transaxles, ball bearings, weight clutches, perimeter weighting, and string gap adjustment. Yo-yo companies started making more radical designs than the traditional Duncan Imperial or Duncan Butterfly, used materials other than plastic (most notably aircraft aluminum). There was at least one yo-yo that cost upwards of $135 (US dollars).
Well, just did some looking, and it appears that Duncan has just about acquired almost all of the smaller companies that existed in the late 90’s. I just found the $135 yo-yo selling for $99 on Duncan’s site (www.yoyo.com naturally).
So I would say that yo-yos are kind of in a down cycle right now. But grab your glow-in-the-dark Imperial and keep Splitting the Atom - it will probably make a comeback in a few more years.
critter42
The sales are typically circular in pattern…
My kids were bonkers for them 5 years ago. At that time, there was the aforementioned explosion of popularity in the USA. They were not incredibly pricey units- under $ 10.00 for a really great Yo-Yo, etc.
I recently looked, and simply could not find them anywhere. No, I didn’t go to the Internet. I was looking for a friend with small kids who had inquired, and if I found them while shopping around, fine.
They’ll be back. They always return to sender…address unknown.
A few years? My experience as a kid was that the Simpsons portrayal of a yo-yo craze was accurate. It was usually over within a week or two. I think the yo-yo craze hit at least twice during the time I was in primary (elementary) school. As I recall, Coca-Cola was behind it, and most of the yo-yos had Coke logos on them. Some were very expensive, and all the cool kids had to have them. This was in the late 70s.
We still see yo yo’s around here. There’s a woodend rainbow one in the kitchen by the phone. There are also a purple one and a blue one somewhere around here. Last week I saw a young boy get a yo yo snatched out of his hand after he hit is sister with a failed trick.
Yo yo’s are evergreen.
Yo-Yo sales are always up and down. 
Took about long enough. Sometimes I worry about this board.