The Story of Ti KOI and XL Ti KOI

In 2022 we introduced SS Koi, the first ever spin off of our original Koi in the series. It was met with great success, we thank you all for all the support.

After the SS koi, we wanted to bring a different and unique feel of the original Koi in its full size organic spec which is loved by many, so we started working on the Ti Koi.

We thought just making a Ti Koi is not enough, here at yoyofriends and our parent manufacturer fpm we want to push all kinds of possibilities, so we had the idea of making an oversized Koi. We want to fully commit to making one of the largest titanium yoyos in the community, thus making it special in style and play. We will make both the Ti Koi and the oversized Ti Koi in the Koi series.

Firstly we want to tackle the normal Ti Koi first to have an understanding of its play and properties before taking on the oversized version. The oversized Ti yoyo will require a larger titanium material and the cost will be very high for the prototype.

For the first take on the Ti Koi, we maintained the same outer diameter of the original Koi at 56mm. The weight of the Ti prototype came out to be about 63.6g. To ensure stability and the weight distribution, especially on the rim. We set the width to 43.5mm.

Ti Koi has been tested by our yoyofriends players worldwide. We found out that while the yoyo plays well, it doesn have the original Koi's power and stability in the latter half of a long combo. We want to ensure Ti Koi has the essence of the original Koi and one of them is power. The players decided to up the weight drastically, especially on the rims, one of the biggest jumps in weight from prototype to prototype. The 2nd version came out at about 65g. It passed the players test in terms of performance and power that highlighted the original version of the Koi.

Ti Koi keeps all the characteristics of Koi with organic feel and insane amount of power. It also has enhanced features like sound and weight distribution and unique titanium feel due to its material. Ti Koi is the organic that have both fun and performance in a titanium form.

After the Ti Koi, we immediately took on the challenge of the oversized Ti Koi. We started with a staggering diameter of 63mm.

We were second guess on this decision as yoyofriends has no experience on making oversized yoyo. How to manufacture this oversized Ti ? What will be the yield and the quality of the product? How will it perform and will people like it?

After discussion we fully committed to this challenge. We decided on a width of 48mm, which is reasonable. We also found out due to its organic nature and high, curved wall on the oversized Ti Koi we have to add a slope at the response position for better play and performance.

The weight of this large yoyo we decided on 63g, as larger diameter yoyos intrusively have more power and momentum, we also kept it light for movement as larger yoyos tend to move slower.

After 3 months of prototypes, we are finally satisfied with the project.

We have worked on both the Ti Koi and Oversized Ti Koi for around 12 months, the results are finally here, we are excited to introduce 2 new yoyos in the Koi series.