Slithering Hippo YoYos – The Answer
Reviewed by Chris Rhoads
October 7, 2012

Introduction

Slithering Hippo YoYos… the name alone made me curious about the products they would drop on the community. Heck it was the name alone that made me reach out and ask if I could review one of their products, it was just too bizarre not to ask. Once I had made contact with Andrew and started getting more information about the yo-yo he was sending for review, The Answer, I was even more intrigued. While he may be new to the industry the veteran he tapped to help him with the design and the CAD work is not. Landon Balk of 3Yo3 fame helped Andrew throughout the entire prototyping phase of this yo-yo and as Andrew put it, this yoyo would not have happened without Landon’s help. While this is only a prototype for The Answer it close enough to the final build that Andrew has asked me to review it. Now I get to see if the yo-yo lives up to its name or if it will leave me with more questions.

Specs

• Diameter: 42 mm
• Width: 42 mm
• Gap: 3.2
• Weight: 42 grams
• Response: Flowable Silicone
• Bearing: C-Size String Centering Bearing

Construction

The Answer is an extremely unique looking and feeling delrin yo-yo. The profile shows off a three step, H-Shape catch zone with rounded rims. Each step leading to the gap has a slight undercut to it. The gap itself is super low walled. Right off the bat I can tell that this yo-yo is designed to keep string contact to an absolute minimum. The face of the yo-yo gives us a fat rim and a cup completely devoid of any obstructions allowing for easy access to the deep cut IRG. The feel of the yo-yo is quite strange while held in the hand. The diameter makes you want to hold it like an undersized throw but the width is almost as wide as my CODE2. There is definitely a dichotomy of scale there. Even though it feels funny to hold it is still quite comfortable. The rounded rims cause no pain during play and my middle finger felt at home resting in the gap. The finish on the Answer is what you would expect from delrin. It is smooth to the touch and completely bleached white. I can see some of the more dye happy modders in the community salivating over the creative things they can do to that three-step profile. Overall I am digging the construction for h Answer. It is just this side of crazy and makes me want to pick it up and play with it.

Weight

Now I will not lie, when I first got this yo-yo I was not a fan of the weight. It was just too light for my tastes. I can see this being a sticking point for quite a few people. At 42 grams it is a full 7 grams lighter than the Werrd Pacquio, a yo-yo that I loved but thought was pushing the boundaries of lightweight throws. I pushed through my initial reactions and kept throwing it. While I still think it is a tad too light I must admit it did grow on me considerably. Performance wise, it does have enough spin time to get through the tricks you want, although long combos are going to stretch it pretty thin. Andrew has told me that he is working on a revision that will push a little more weight to the rims. This will give it a boost in spin time and add a little more stability during play.

Response and Bearing

This yo-yo was shipped as a prototype and did not have a response or a bearing installed. I was told it would ship with flowable silicone and a string centering bearing. That being said I used the following products with this yo-yo.

For the response I installed blue Snot made by Monkey Finger YoYos. This stuff is as close to ILYY Red Hot sILYYcone that you can get without stealing if directly from Frank. It has an added bonus of coming in a rainbow-stretching gamut of colors. All I can say is that it is my favorite type of flowable silicone. It is easy to pour, and gives incredible binds once cured.

The bearing I used was a Twisted Strings Trifecta bearing. This bearing combines the center groove of a Crucial bearing, the channel of a KonKave, and the ball count of a One Drop bearing. On paper that all sounds great but in performance I found it a little limiting. While it is quiet like a 10-Ball I found that the string centering properties of the Trifecta impeded binds. I have used one in this yo-yo and for about a month in my Burnside. My binds became quite a bit slippier during play due to the fact that the Trifecta almost forces the string away form the response. Bearings like this are great for beginners who do not want to smack their hands on an unexpected bind. More experienced players are going to stick with standard flat bearings.

Playability

As I said above, this yo-yo is ultra-light. It will take some time to get use to. After a couple days of constant play I finally got use to how it performs on the string. I found it to be fast and floaty during play. On the string it almost felt like it wasn’t there. The thing I had to stop myself from doing was over powering my tricks. It took considerably less force to perform a suicide or hop it from string to string. If I treated it like a Cascade or even a 54 it would shoot off in ways that I didn’t want. Once I had compensated for the wight I was doing ninja vanish and black hops with ease. Regen tricks are a weakness of the Answer. The stepped catch zone does not want to give up the string like a butterfly or a V-Shape design. Grinds were extremely smooth on this yo-yo. The slick delrin and low weight meant that grinds felt like they were almost hovering over the skin instead of on it.

Final Thoughts

Going off of what I said above you may think that this is a yo-yo to avoid… and you would be wrong. While it is a novelty for sure but it is a fun yo-yo nonetheless. There is no rule saying all yo-yos have to be pure competition grade performers. With a little extra weight pushed to the rims I think Slithering Hippo will have a hit on their hands for those that just want a fun yo-yo to throw around. Lets be honest here, that is what this hobby is all about anyways. Great job Andrew, I look forward to trying the final version. While this prototype needs some tweaking, I can see a lot of potential here.