General Yo Prestige
Reviewed by Chris Rhoads
October 27, 2013
Introduction
Those of you wondering if General Yo is sticking with the new direction of making competition-geared yo-yos need stop wondering. It looks like Ernie has no intention of shying away from this new design ethic. He started down this path with the KLR and then kept the ball rolling with subsequent releases such like the Majesty, M10, and Majesty v.2. Now he is bringing out his latest release, the Prestige. This latest release looks to take what has been learned from the Majesty and M10 and fuse it together into one design. Now the question is whether or not this is a good thing. Time to find out.
Specs
• Diameter: 56.44mm
• Width: 43.7mm
• Gap: 4.5mm
• Weight: 65.8 grams
• Response: General Yo HatPads
• Bearing: AIGR Bearing
Construction
The Prestige makes its way to the end users in an unassuming little white box with a label affixed to the outside. It is all very low-key and understated for such a revered brand. The Prestige profile shows off an organic V-Shape with a thin flat rim edge followed by a small series of almost imperceptible cuts that break up the feel of the yo-yo while holding it in the hand with out giving the Prestige any harsh lines aesthetically. The wide open catch zone curves down towards the gap before hitting a tiny step out to keep the string away from the wall. The face shows off a flat outer rim which steps slightly into the cup where the rest of the rim weight is located; set back under the rim shifting the weight towards the middle of the yo-yo. The rest of the cup is your normal design of having the wall curve towards a small flat floor. The biggest divergence in General Yo design is the hub. The Prestige has a large, wide hub with a convex cut in the middle. It is a far cry from the spikes used in the past and can function as an inverse spike if you throw a UFO and then pop it up and catch it on your finger. I will say right now, there is a great sense of accomplishment when you pull off that trick, I had a heck of a time doing it. The finish is General Yo’s slick, smooth finish that everyone has grown to love. While I like the M10 quite a bit I kind of missed the more organic feel the General Yo usually puts out. I am glad they were able to bring it back in the Prestige. This is a design that just works for me even without an IGR.
Weight
A pattern I am noticing since the KLR release is a tweaking of weight starting in the mid to high 66s and then moving down from there. The Prestige tips the scale at 65.8 grams and that feels just about perfect for this design. It is fast when it needs to be but doesn’t feel held back when you want to go slower. The shift towards middleweight gives the Prestige great spin times while also remaining rock solid stable.
Response and Bearing
General Yo is still using their Hatpad response and AIGR bearing in the Prestige giving the smooth and quite spins and some quick and grippy binds back to the hand when it is needed. The pads do take about half an hour of play in order to fully break in but after that it is smooth sailing for quite a long time.
Playability
Ok, one of the things being said about the Prestige is that it looks a lot like the ILYY Nile. I debated talking about this but in the end I need to address this. Putting them side-by-side, you can see the differences in the shape, especially in the cups. The weight differences are also enough to feel. It is amazing what a half a gram will do for the play. In the end these yo-yos feel quite a bit different during play even if they do have a similar look.
On the first throw I was loving the feel, it plays a little lighter than its older competition based brethren and thanks to the weighting it still has a slight amount of float to it, comparable in feel to some of CLYW’s double rimed designs like the Cliff, Arctic Circle and such. As I said above, it can play as fast as you want it without feeling strained at higher speeds and at the same time it does not feel held back when you play it slower. Ernie has perfected the weight distribution on the Prestige allowing it to be an ideal fit for all types of players including fans of horizontal play. The stability translates well to off axis tricks and Gyro Flops. I had absolutely no problems getting it to turn on axis getting smooth, full rotations during the flops even during multiple changes in the direction of the rotation. Grinds are just a thing of beauty thanks to General Yo’s blast finish. The only area I had an issue with was thumb grinds, the lack of an IGR means you will need to compensate by throwing at a slight angle. Not a big deal, with the push towards leaving out the IGR I have gotten quite use to throwing with a slight angle when I want to pull off that trick.
Final Thoughts
The Prestige is simply an amazing yo-yo. It is fun to play and designed to meet the needs of a wide range of players and their varied styles of play. The Majesty has been a favorite of mine since its release but that looks to be changing with the Prestige, if for no other reason than the new hubs are fun to play with. As with any General Yo release this is going to be hard to get when it comes out. I would say it is an easy buy and recommend you do not hesitate.
#1 by Greg on October 27, 2013 - 10:38 pm
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Great review! It’s worth mentioning (unless I missed it?) that while your review model was the standard blast with AIGR bearing, there are also pyramatte with Buddha Ripple bearing models.
With regard to the hub, you can also pull-start (like with hubstacks, though with less force, so you get a medium spin instead of a crazy spin) as well as tilt a breakaway or sleeper to horizontal for the fingerspin. No need to hop, although the hop will be the most impressive.
Been loving this yoyo. Instant love that also endures (so far; it’s only been ough a few weeks!).