3yo3 Cosmo review

[oldyoyoguy]

(With acknowledgement to Kat over at the Nation for her excellent review format)


Specifications

Weight: 67g

Width: 40mm

Diameter: 59mm

Material: Crystal clear acrylic

Bearing: Size C 6.35 x 12.7 x 4.75 (IxOxW mm)

Response: Flowable silicone

Have you ever wanted a yo-yo made out of glass? While it's possible to make a yo-yo out of glass, one slip during play and you might well fill the air with crystalline shards. As an alternative, 3yo3's Cosmo is perhaps the closest you'll come to having a yo-yo with a glass-like finish without the possibility of a shattering toy on your hands.



Eye candy, oooo-ahhh, oo-la-la


The Cosmo is hand-turned from acrylic stock by Landon Balk, a longtime player and modder whose work has really matured over the years. Landon has done custom modding work and had entries placed in the Worlds Mod Contest. Now he has started a boutique company, 3yo3, to create his own line of hand-turned yo-yos.




Is it crystal?


The angular shape is reminiscent of the YYJ Speeder, although I think the Cosmo is a little more extreme. The narrow silicone stripes insure a nice level of unresponsiveness.





Tower of Power


The Cosmo plays as good as it looks. Mine has a slight, almost reassuring, vibe (like the yo-yo is alive at the end of the string) but absolutely no wobble. As I've mentioned elsewhere, the Cosmo will start to precess on a medium throwdown, which I attribute to the ratio of rim to center weight on this machine (please anyone correct me if my hypothesis is off-base here). Landon has a personal version with metal weight rings attached which I assume would alleviate the precession somewhat. However, he's a little concerned (understandably) to market such a beast and possibly violate YYJ hybridization patents.





It's fun to watch the threading turn while the yo-yo is spinning


Also, at 67 grams already, adding weight rings is going to push the yo-yo into the mid-70s range or more, which is too heavy for many players.

The Cosmo comes with a seriously beefy axle, a la Dif-E-Yo yo-yos. This is great for easily threading the axle into the acrylic body (there are no inserts), since the threads are wide and provide more surface area for gripping the yo-yo half. Still, there is a potential for easily stripping the yo-yo through overtightening, and the axle adds center weight not compensated for by rim weight.




Uh-oh, teflon tape? Note brawny axle and clean silicone wells


I was a little bummed to see the teflon tape around the axle, although I understand why it's there, and it's easy to reapply if necessary. This yo-yo plays as smooth as glass, too, so if teflon tape helps in that regard so be it. I'm no great player myself, but Landon has a video of himself playing his own weight-ringed version:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4C3aPqaAbU


The Cosmo is slightly smaller and narrower than both the PGM and Milk, which were the two plastic boutique yo-yos I had on-hand for comparison.





PGM, Cosmo, Milk










In summary, the Cosmo is stunning eye-candy that puts any other transparent yo-yo (including the clear Big Ben) to shame. It's like playing with a piece of flying crystal. Others have hand-turned crystal clear acrylic yo-yos before (Eric Wolff comes to mind), but 3yo3 is offering these to the general market (first batch at 52USD shipped). The Cosmo plays very well, with up-to-date silicone response, robust guts, and nimble feel. I'm wondering if it would be possible to concentrate a little more rotating weight to the rims by trenching the outside well somewhat, which currently is quite shallow. That would also shave off some overall weight from the yo-yo and possibly make it even quicker playing.

[Shreddar]

That looks amazing...I was actually pondering the other day whether or not a glass yo-yo had been made already and how well that would work. I gotta look into these.

[Duped]

what does it mean to precess?

[oldyoyoguy]

Originally Posted by Duped

what does it mean to precess?

It means the yo-yo turns on the string, when viewed from above, to the left or right (usually very slowly) while spinning. This isn't the same as tilting. All yo-yos precess to some extent, especially when they start to slow down.

[Duped]

Im guessing this could be taken care of by using a KK, correct?

[Shreddar]

Not exactly... I imagine it would reduce the effect, but even a yo-yo with a KK in it will precess when it slows down enough.

[Uberfish]

Where can I get one?

[Yoking]

Originally Posted by Duped

Im guessing this could be taken care of by using a KK, correct?

Yeah with a KK, the precession is slower, I've noticed whenever I had them precessing in testing, that the string was all the way to one side of the non-KKed bearing.

[JeffreyPang911]

Originally Posted by Shreddar

That looks amazing...I was actually pondering the other day whether or not a glass yo-yo had been made already and how well that would work. I gotta look into these.

Trust me, Ive seen it in real life. Yo-yo halves at least.

*cough* Kyo *cough*

[jhb8426]

Nice review, and a nice yoyo.

Hats off to Yoking/Landon for brining these to life.

[misieq]

PGM's diameter is 56mm, Cosmo's is 59/60mm but it's smaller on these pictures.

Wtf?

[Yoking]

Originally Posted by misieq

PGM's diameter is 56mm, Cosmo's is 59/60mm but it's smaller on these pictures.

Wtf?

according to yoyoguy.com, the pgm's diameter is 2.15", the Cosmos are all 2.1". OR IT COULD BE AN ILLUSION, AHHHH!!

[Xdohls]

Looks interesting. Good review!

[Uberfish]

Can't wait till I get one...