Preproduction Hat Trick by General-Yo By Brett Grimes
Introduction
Attention!!! All rise and welcome the newest to the General Yo line up the Hat Trick. The Hat Trick you see in this review is a pre-production model. Ernie Kaiser, owner of General-Yo states that the specs of the production model will not be modified from what you see here today other then a bead blasted finish in a yet to be announced colorway. When I received this yoyo from Ernie I was concerned about the weight. When I see yoyos under 65 grams I am leery because its not what I am used to. But I was told this was like nothing I have ever played. Is this the third straight goal from Ernie or will the enforcers check it into the boards? Lets read on.
Specs
Weight: 64.1 Grams
Width: 41.5 mm
Diameter: 50.2 mm
Gap: 4.34 mm
Bearing: AIGR C-Sized Bearing
Response: General Yo Hat Pads
Look and Feel
When I took this yoyo out of the shipping box, there was no fancy boxes, nothing really, just a well packed yoyo. This is after all a pre-production model. I was amazed, as I was not told it would be polished to a mirror finish, it’s simply stunning. You could brush your teeth in this thing. After the raccoon in me got past the shiny nature of the yoyo, I began to look it over; it is very well constructed, as are all General Yo products. The yoyo features a standard butterfly shape but with some really beautiful simple, yet elegant, designs. The first thing I noticed was the thick rim, it looks beefy and I just knew this was going to spin wonderfully. It features a very elegant spike in the middle. This yoyo was not built for fancy looks or gimmicks it was built to play.
Weight
As always I was leery about the weight, and figured it would be faster then I like. Much to my surprise this yoyo does not feel light or heavy on a string. Its a mixture of the two on a throw it has the thunk on the bottom of the string like a heavier yoyo, but at times it zips thru tricks like you would think a lighter weight yoyo would. It was definitely cool how it seemed to blend a mixture of what I loved about heavier yoyos but still kept flying thru my tricks like its lighter companions.
Response and Bearing
The Hat Trick comes stock with a shielded General Yo AIGR Bearing. I was forewarned that this bearing would need to be broken in a bit before it truly can be appreciated. I usually clean my bearings the day I get the yoyo. I prefer it that way. But I wanted to try and break in an AIGR bearing the natural way. Knowing I would be doing a review on this yoyo I wanted to dig into it immediately so I replaced the bearing with a 10 Ball. I have since put the AIGR bearing back in to be broken in naturally. I have owned several AIGR bearing and they are up there with the best, but I have I never broke one in with out cleaning it first, so it was special to me to try it this time.
The pads that come in this yoyo are the new Hat Pads from General Yo. Ernie has had pads out before but this was a different size, which incidentally will fit right into a CLYW recess but you will have to double them up. The pad, just like any new pad, will be a bit grabby at first, and needs time to be broken in. I usually will just throw and throw for a couple days and it will break the pad in and reduce the grab associated with new pads. Once the pad was broken in I think these are fantastic. Nice and snappy and binds return immediately unlike with some pads, where there is a millisecond delay before they actually catch.
Playability
As I said in the weight section this yoyo combines some of the elements of both a heavy and lightweight yoyo. I have never experienced this before. It truly must be thrown to be appreciated; it’s a wonderful thing not a negative. The Hat Trick just whips around with speed and accuracy. The gap is large enough to handle more wraps then you can think of on a trick and it just asks for more. The IRG provides awesome thumb grinds and can easily be popped in the air and caught with your thumb. Obviously due to the nature of the polished finish finger and arm grinds were not the best. But if Ernie puts the same finish as the 2nd run 5-Star, this will be a huge success for you grinders out there. Overall this thing is a player thru and thru, I tried everything, it just took it while asking for more.
Final Thoughts
Ernie may only have a handful of designs under his belt but the Hat Trick is going to garner instant love from the community. Its comfortable in the hand, has a unique feel when it comes to its weight distribution, and it is just a fantastic player, its got my recommendation as a must own for any collection. I can not wait for the production model which I hope will have the same finish on it as its older sibling the 5-Star. I will update this review upon receiving a production model.
