3Yo3 HanDPickEd
Reviewed by Chris Rhoads
June 25, 2013

Introduction

Ok lets see what materials has Landon used to make a yo-yo.
• Aluminum – Yes
• Titanium – Yep
• Acrylic – You betcha.
• Delrin – Child’s play
• Pure Teflon – Sure, why the heck not
Sometimes I think Landon just looks around fantasizing about how he could turn this or that into a yo-yo. Heck, in 2011 he took the World YoYo Contest mod crown for his yo-yo made from the hub of a bicycle wheel. The man is completely mental when it comes to the materials and ideas he comes up with and it honestly makes me wonder sometimes what color the sky is in his world… and that is why I love it every time he messages me saying he has something for me to look at. Case in point, the 3Yo3 HanDPickEd. Yes, those capital letters are there on purpose. The HanDPickEd is made from dense HDPE plastic. You have probably seen this plastic before in your own house, this is the same plastic that is used to make most kitchen cutting boards. When he told me that, I didn’t even blink. With a smile on my face I just told him to send it on over. Landon is our community’s mad scientist and it is now time to see what beast he has brewed up in his Floridian lab.

Specs

• Diameter: 57.15mm
• Width: 50.8mm
• Weight: 65 Grams
• Bearing: Flat C-Size Steel Bearing
• Response: General-Yo Thin HatPads

Construction

Before we dig into the design I want to give a little bit of background on the material used. HDPE plastic is a common plastic used in everything from grocery bags to hard hats, and yes your everyday kitchen cutting board. Landon picked this plastic because it has a high density to strength ratio. This allowed him to make a full size yo-yo that weighed considerably less than others in the same size category.

The profile of the HanDPickEd shows the extreme H-Shape that Landon was going for. It is all rim with a steep, cavernous catch zone and an exaggerated, horizontal step out before transitioning to the gap. The face of the yo-yo gives a good look at just how thick the rims are. The cup is shallow with a flat floor and just enough depth to allow for an IGR under the lip. The floor is completely flat with the only the brass hub nut to break up the stark white look. The guts of the yo-yo are a machined insert similar in design to the spacers YYF uses but with a tighter fit in the yo-yo and a looser bearing post so it stays in the yo-yo instead of going with the bearing when you take it apart. In testing, I found it took a pretty firm grasp with some needle nose pliers to remove the post insert from the yo-yo. The feel of the plastic is similar to Celcon. Comfort wise, the HanDPickEd is what you expect from H-Shape yo-yos. It isn’t the most comfortable in the hand but due to the lighter weight it doesn’t have a harsh impact feel on the return. Overall the design does exactly what it set out to do… push all the weight to the rims. It isn’t the most elegant of designs but it is a great showcase for what you can do with the materials used.

Weight

This is a big yo-yo that clocks in at 65 grams. This makes for a light feel on the string. With all the weight pushed to the rims it feels a little like the Magnum, another yo-yo that used an exotic material to push all the weight to the rims. One issue you will have with the HanDPickEd is that since all the weight is pushed to the outer edge it only takes a slight push to send it into a trick ending tilt. I will talk more about that in the playability section.

Response and Bearing

Landon has been using General-Yo’s Thin Hat Pads for quite some time. These pads have a good amount of grip to them giving tight binds. They break in quite fast and have a decent play life once installed. I have only had to replace them a handful of times in other yo-yos that use them.

The bearing is a steel 8-Ball. It gets the job done with a reasonable amount of noise. It gets the job done and with a little bit of thin lube it becomes whisper quiet.

Playability

This yo-yo has a crazy feel on the string. Holding it in your hand you expect it to play brutish and ballsy. It is large and solid after all. The funny thing is that the feel on the string is light and nimble. It will change direction at the drop of the hat, whether you want it to or not. That second part probably has you guys scratching your head. The thing is that when you make a yo-yo with this extreme of an H-Shape you end up leaving a flat area that the string can hit during play. This hit can cause the yo-yo to go off axis and spin out. This is by no means a defect with the HanDPickEd. I have experienced the same issue with the H-Spin Envy, which had a similar shape. I also had a similar problem with the ILYY PYBIT, which looked like a tin can with a string attached. Now it sounds like I am beating up the HanDPickEd and I am not. This is a yo-yo all bout experimentation and pushing the materials to the limits. To that end the HanDPickEd is a brilliant player. The massive rims give it an impressive spin time, more so than any other solid body plastic (meaning no weight rings) that I have played with. It is fast on the string and as I said earlier it responds super quick to a direction changes. Grinding feels similar to Celcon yo-yos like the Lyn Fury. It will grind on a finger and in the hand quite well but it isn’t as fully self lubricated as machined Delrin. This isn’t a huge issue unless you play it outside on a humid day, then it will shoot off your skin rather quickly. Thumb grinds were darn near perfect, even in humid weather. Over all the play is pretty darn good. The hitting against the inner step took some getting use to but once I worked on my precision a little but I was pulling off decently long combos without a hitch.

Final Thoughts

Ok, here is the thing. While this review sounds like I am knocking the HanDPickEd around honestly, I am not. This is an extremely fun yo-yo. It has its quirks but that is to be expected when you mess around with new materials. A single adjustment increasing the angle of the inner step to the gap would cure the major issue I had. As is, I had a blast playing with it and THAT is the key to Landon’s designs over at 3Yo3. He makes a yo-yo that is fun first and then worries about if it is a “competition player” later on. It is a brilliant strategy especially considering that a good 90% of the players out there will never be competition players. Eventually the HanDPickEd will go on sale on the 3Yo3 site for $50. At that price I whole-heartedly recommend picking one up.