The Story of AoE

Throughout the seven plus years of yoyofriends, we have always had an idea of an injection mold, polycarbonate yoyo in our mind. This is a monumental task for us as an injection mold has a massive upfront cost. If the design is not up to standard then the entire injection mold could be void, costing us 5000 USD or more in loss. We also have a pedigree of high performing yoyos no matter the shape, material, and cost in our entire lineup, and we still want to keep that tradition alive even if it is an injection mold yoyo. Thanks to all of your support throughout these seven plus years, we are finally big enough to take on this challenge. 

Yoyofriends has its own manufacturer, FPM. We have over ten years of experience with all different kinds of metals. We also have mastery over designing and producing metal yoyos with utmost quality control but we don't have any in designing an injection mold polycarbonate. 

To kickstart this project, we looked back on one of our previous designs, Dove. Dove is a machined delrin yoyo with flowy feel and high performance, it is one of our success stories entering the plastic market and a design we want to base this project on. We tweaked a lot the design of the dove to translate it from machine delrin to injection mold polycarbonate. Then we incorporated some of the feedback from the players, customers and retailers to further improve the design. Improvement such as adding a response bump to further decrease friction of the string when doing combos with multiple string stack, rejection, injection and horizontal play. Having a wider width and overall catch zone for high risk zoning tricks and beginner friendliness. 

After the design has been approved by our teams, we made the injection mold and the first prototype is here. Although the performance is fantastic, the yoyo struggles to lock into the DNA position easily due to the angle of the incline going into the center of the cup is not enough. After a thoughtful discussion with the teams we have increased the incline on the mold, another massive amount of upfront cost. 

The prototype two is here. This one came out exactly what we wanted. AoE is a low budget, high performing yoyo with incredible power and stability, perfect for learning new combos and having fun. For colorways we are inspired by the colorways of the World Yoyo Contest this year at Osaka, Japan. 

There will be two versions of the AoE, one has slim bearing and short axle pre-installed for responsive play, one has normal U shaped bearing and long axle pre-installed for unresponsive play. 

We named the yoyo AoE (Area of Effect) as we wish this high performing, budget yoyo will have an area of effect on the yoyo community in a good way. Whether you are a beginner starting your yoyo journey, or a pro trying to have some fun, AoE is the ultimate budget offering no matter the skill level. 

AoE will be available first at the yoyofriends booth at the World Yoyo Contest 2023 in Osaka, Japan, we hope everyone will visit us there. 

Here are the details of AoE:

The box contains:
1 x yoyo
1 x string
1 x Boxes

Both responsive and unresponsive AoE includes short/long axle and slim/normal bearings. 

Pre-Release Price of WYYC period
Clear: $15.5
Clear Blue: $15.5
Clear Blue Pink Fade: $17.5

Official Release Price
Clear: $17.99
Clear Blue: $17.99
Clear Blue Pink Fade: $19.99