Duncan Freebird
Reviewed by Brett Grimes
November 16, 2010

Introduction

I am known of not being a fan of plastic yoyo’s, this is a personal thing, even though they play fine they always gave me the illusion of them not being on par, quality wise, with a well machined metal. So when I was asked to give a review of Duncan’s newest plastic yoyo I thought to myself “oh boy this isn’t going to be good”. The Duncan Freebird is the signature yoyo of Hank Freeman current 3A yoyo champion, its made from Delrin and features a small bearing. So here we go. Will this yoyo change my perceptions on what plastic yoyos can do, or will I still continue to feel plastic yoyos just don’t have the quality of their metal counter parts.

Specs

  • Weight (g) – 67.8
  • Diameter (mm) – 56.68
  • Width (mm) – 42.10
  • Bearing size – Size A (Duncan)
  • Response – Stickers 12mm Silicon

Construction

When I pulled the Freebird out of its plastic packaging the first thing I noticed is that its free of any machine marks common on most plastics, even Delrin’s. This is one well-made yoyo. Thankfully the caps are snug I have a few FHZ’s that have loose caps and let me say this, they can get loud when they are buzzing around. The shape of the yoyo is nice, with the slight angled rims to the organic catch zone; it is comfortable in the hand. The Delrin is very smooth giving it a silky feel. The Freebird is solid as a rock, not a single thing I can see wrong with this yoyo, kudos to Duncan for doing an extremely clean job on this yoyo.

Weight

The weight of the Freebird is a tad on the heavy side for me spec wise, but when I threw the yoyo the weight felt well distributed. The Freebird still has that solid hit on the end of the string, as any heavier yoyo will, but it moves around quite easily. I have also been learning to throw 5A and when I attached a die to the Freebird it became a different beast. It just reacts perfectly for that style of play. The weight, to me, is perfect for 5A but if I was going to use it solely for 1A I probably would like to shave 1-1.5 grams off. I’m sure if I pop the caps off I could lighten it up a tad but the yellow caps against the black yoyo is just a great contrast so I will leave them on.

Response and Bearing

The Freebird comes stock with an A size small bearing, I used to not care for small bearing yoyos but about 10 months ago I started to like them, they have a different feel obviously, the Duncan bearing will need a good cleaning to truly eek some decent spin times out of it. I tend to clean all bearings so its nothing against Duncan. The response system is a silicone sticker and initially it can be a bit grabby. Thankfully I have ninja skills to get out of the way when it grabs. After a couple days of play the sticker begins to wear in and becomes perfect, binds are tight and solid, never grabby on the string when spinning making for a true unresponsive player. Just be careful for a few days.

Playability

The Freebird is a solid player and as I mentioned before when it comes to 1A it is a bit heavier than I would like to see. That being said, it does move nicely around the string all with great authority. Grinds are non-existent since the Delrin seems to prohibit them; I tried everything in my arsenal to get the caps off with no avail. I was curious to see what was under there. From string tricks, to multiple wraps in the gap the Freebird handles them with ease. Where this yoyo shines in my opinion is for 5A it just feels so nicely weighted with the Duncan die on the other side, I am no pro when it comes to 5A trust me, but I really like the Freebird in this setting.

Final Thoughts

It is still a plastic yoyo, and I am slowly coming around and warming up to them. The Freebird is an excellent throw and I would recommend them to anyone looking for a solid well-constructed player. I personally couldn’t find anything to really complain about the yoyo other then the stickers are a bit grippy at first. Other than that I think it will be a welcome addition into anyone’s case.