“Swirly” by Big Brother Yo-Yos By Chris Rhoads

Introduction
This is another one of those “out of my comfort zone” yo-yos. It is my first mini yo-yo. Everyone has a specific size they like for a yo-yo, mine is in the undersized (50-52mm diameter) category. The Swirly falls under that line. It is also another one of those yo-yos that I knew very little about before I purchased it. Finally, it weighs in at 62 grams. I am fond of a heavy throw. I want a “thunk” at the end of the string and I want to know where it is when it is moving. Well, can this yo-yo live up to its larger, heavier, and meaner siblings in the Big Brother line or does it need to be flushed?

Specs
Weight: 62 Grams
Width: 38.50 mm
Diameter: 48.25 mm
Gap: 4.50 mm
Bearing: A-Sized Bearing
Response: O-Rings or Flowable Silicone

Look and Feel
Let me start off by saying that the etching on the sides of this Swirly is not the standard artwork. Since these are being released at Worlds, there is competition specific artwork that cannot be sold until the event starts. That being said I asked Doug to go nuts and surprise me with something. This was the result and I am very impressed with the outcome.

When I first saw this yo-yo I was amazed by the size of the gap on it. To put it in perspective, the Swirly has the same size gap as the beastly Big Brother Bully. The Bully is 5 mm larger in diameter, 3 mm wider, and sports a C-Sized bearing. The next thing I noticed was the blue hue on the Swirly. Big Brother has a knack for picking great colors for their yo-yo lines and this is no exception. The Swirly comes in a great shade of electric blue that has a great shine to it when the sun catches the yo-yo.

The Swirly is not bead blasted so it feels very smooth to the touch. Now is the time I would complain about the lack of bead blasting retarding the yo-yo’s grinding abilities. Well, I cannot say that this time. While a bead blast finish would help with finger grinds, the flared bell shape makes it a great palm and arm grinder. The yo-yo only really comes in contact with my palm and arm at the very edges of the sidewalls. Admittedly, I am 6’5” and have arms and hands that match my frame so this could be a relative thing. This yo-yo also has a deep, and I mean deep, recessed IRG area that makes it easy for my bratwurst-sized thumbs to perform grinds.

Weight
62 grams??? Really? If Doug Spence himself didn’t tell me, I would not have believed it. This yo-yo plays heavy and with authority. I have a theory that it is due to the compact nature of the design and the monstrous rims on this yo-yo because it plays very similar to my M1s. The extreme rim weight also gives this yo-yo magnificent spin times.

Response and Bearing
The Swirly can use either o-rings or flowable silicone. I cannot comment on the performance of this yo-yo with o-rings because it came with flowable silicone preinstalled. Now, with the silicone installed it has nice, snappy binds and plays dead unresponsive. One of the ways I test responsiveness is that I will just throw a sleeper and then bounce the yo-yo at the end of the string, looking for it to come back up or for the string to start wrapping around the axle. I cannot tell you how many times I have taken aluminum to the knuckles with this test. Luckily that was not the case with the Swirly. A good minute of bouncing and it never attempted to climb back up and the string never even tried to wrap around the axle. The bearing that came with the Swirly was an unexpected surprise. When I deshielded the bearing, I noticed that it contained ceramic ball bearings. The bearing, coupled with the weight distribution make for a yo-yo that is a joy to play.

Playability
This thing plays incredible. If all mini yo-yos play like this then I am going to have to add more to my collection. As I said above, the grinds are great considering it lacks a blasted finish. The thumb grinds allow me to transfer from on thumb to another and back again with spin time to spare. It feels heavy on the string but pops up into the air with ease. The gap allowed for some serious amounts of string wrap, I must have hit this yo-yo with the trick Ripcord four or five times in a row without it binding up once. It also suicides like a champ as well. All in all I could not find anything wrong with the play of this yo-yo. It is stable, fast, and smooth. The best way to describe the play of this yo-yo is that it plays like a BBYY Bully that had been shrunk down.

Final Thoughts
I really wanted to find fault with this yo-yo. It had a lot of things going against it when it comes to my preferences in yo-yos. It is small. It uses an A-Sized bearing. It lacks a blasted finish. And finally, it is light. With all that going against it, the Swirly has become one of my favorite throws. It is a hair wider than what I would call a great pocket throw but I can live with that. Ever since I got my hands on it, I have kept it with me. It goes to class with me so that I can impress my students, it goes to the theater with me so that I can throw something while waiting in line. It really is an all around great little yo-yo.
There is only one down side to this yo-yo. If you want to buy one, you will have to go to the 2009 World Yo-Yo Contest in Orlando, Florida. The Swirly is being sold exclusively by YoYoGuy at the contest and there will only be about 40 of them available. I hope they sell out quickly and get rave amounts of fan feedback. If that happens, maybe BBYY will make a production run for the masses. It truly deserves it.