ILOVEYOYO Saint Eel (Production Run)
Reviewed by Chris Rhoads
March 31, 2010

Introduction

The story of the Saint Eel reads a little like a twisted version of Goldilocks. “Ok boys and girls; let me tell you about the four versions of the Saint Eel floating around the community. The First one was raw and too heavy. The second, while bead blasted, was too light. The third had beefier rims and was almost perfectly weighted. And then there is the fourth, the one being reviewed today.” I have had the pleasure of playing all of the prototypes and found each to play completely different from rest. Now it is time to see if all of that prototyping, going back to the drawing board over and over again, has paid off. The goal that Frank and Dom set out to achieve was to make a pocket friendly micro yo-yo that played like a full size. Lets see if they accomplished their goal.

Specs

  • Diameter: 42.10mm
  • Width: 31.00mm
  • Weight: 61.50g
  • Response: Hot Red SILYYcone
  • Bearing: ILYY KMK 5×11×5mm

Construction

The name gives it away that this is not your ordinary aluminum yo-yo. The Saint Eel (St. Eeel) is made from type 303 steel that gives the Saint Eel the heft needed to play like one of the big boys. The body of the Saint Eel is the same classic rounded butterfly shape that ILYY has used in some of their most loved yo-yos, a group that includes the E1NS and the Lio. The cups are free from obstruction, with the tiniest of spike in the center. It is by no means a usable spike, just there for decoration. The rims are pretty thick for such a tiny yo-yo and the IRGs are recessed for easy catching on the thumb. Overall, the Saint Eel is very comfortable in the hand.

The finish on the Saint Eel is beautiful electro-chemical polished steel with a slight satin to it. I am glad they did not go with a mirror polish. It would have sacrificed grinding just to make the yo-yo pretty, a common mistake that many manufacturers have made in the past. While the retail Eel does a decent job of grinding, I had hoped that ILYY would have brought back the ceramic blast finish of the second run prototype. That prototype may have been too light, but it had far superior grinds.

Weight

Weight has always been the main focus for the Saint Eel. It is the reason so many prototypes were made. The first Saint Eel that I played with was proto #2. In my review of it I said that the weight felt just right, well I was wrong. Once I got my hands on proto #3 I could feel the difference in play and spin time. Here is a list of the different Saint Eel weights.

  • Proto #1 – 68 grams – I got to play this after playing Proto #2 and felt that it was sluggish. It had great spin times but it was a chore to move on the string.
  • Proto #2 – 59 grams – This was too light. The spin times were muted and it would spin out during combos.
  • Proto #3 – 65 grams – this is the one that I consider almost perfect. It had a satisfying thunk at the end of the string and moved quickly when commanded. The weight had been pushed to the now thicker rims giving it great spin times.
  • Production Run – 61.5 grams – Still plays well like Proto # 3. A little bit faster on the string while retaining the spin times. Lost the satisfying thunk that Proto #3 had.

The production run and proto #3 play extremely similar but proto #3 has a thunk that I prefer. Others may not like that thunk, for those people the production run is the Saint Eel to get.

Response and Bearing

The response is the standard sILYYcone that ILYY uses in all of their releases. It lasts forever and gives tight binds. Not much more to say about it.

The bearing in the Saint Eel is a smaller D-Sized KMK bearing. It still comes deshielded and still spins forever. The bearing in the Saint Eel did need a little cleaning; I think some dirt got in during shipping. Once cleaned it performed quite well.

Playability

On the first throw, I was amazed at the play of the Saint Eel. The production run finally hits the nail on the head. It feels like its bigger brothers while moving around on the string. The best part is that while the Saint Eel is a micro sized yo-yo, it didn’t need that much retraining to make it perform. The Mighty Flea, for example, is just too darn small, you have to work just to get a good level of play out of it. The Eel, on the other hand, took a little practice but after about ten minutes I had it hitting the same tricks that I could pull off using my Sovereign or Punchline. The gap is wide enough to accept a couple of string wraps without major spinout. The grinds were decent on the palm and finger because of the satin finish and thumb grinds were great because of the IRG. All that being said, the wow factor is still the level of play you get from such a small yo-yo. Being so small means it is a harder target for slacks and whips but I was hitting Ninja Vanish and Hidemasa Hook on the Saint Eel with little to no problems.

Final Thoughts

I would say ILYY has hit their goal. They came out with one of the best micro sized pocket yo-yos on the market today. It is fast, stable, and fun to play. The only thing that it needs is to ditch the polished finish for the more grind friendly ceramic blast finish. Other than that, if you are looking for a pocket friendly micro you really should give the Saint Eel a shot.