Vs. Newton Secret Agent Decoder Ring
Reviewed by Chris Rhoads
November 5, 2011

Introduction

This is more of a review for posterity than for anything else. The Secret Agent Decoder Ring is one of the rarer yo-yos out in the wild. When it pops up in the Buy/Sell/Trade sections of the major forums it usually commands an astronomical price tag. The funny thing is that its success is predicated on a fluke. It is just the convergence of a contest, a limited run, and small naming contest. When the Secret Agent Decoder Ring (aka the SADR) came out it was just a fun little design that Heath had made to sell at the 2010 World Yoyo Contest. There was a limited run of 32, with most of them selling at the contest. One went to the winner of the acronym contest held on YoYoNation. The big question since then has been, is it worth it? There have been other limited yo-yo designs sold at Worlds that have never seen the light of day afterward. Those don’t command nearly the amount of money or attention that the SADR captures. Heath was kind enough to lend me his personal SADR to review for this session, now I get to find out what all the fuss is about.

Specs

• Diameter: 54.1 mm
• Width: 38 mm
• Gap: 4.1 mm
• Weight: 63.8 grams
• Bearing: Large 10-Ball
• Response: Flowable Silicone

Construction

This is a large diameter thin yo-yo, similar in design to the Flying V but not quite as extremely thin. The profile shows off a large V-Shape catch zone with well-rounded rims on either side. Closer to the response area there is a scalloped cut giving the profile a slight H-Shape. From what I can tell the scalloped cut not only keeps the weight pushed to the rims, it reduces string contact against the inner walls as well. The cup of the yo-yo has an almost completely flat floor with a sharp, curved, conical spike in the center. Under each rim is a deep inset IGR that tappers to an almost knife-edge. One of the more interesting design choices of the SADR is the laser etch logo in the cup. Instead of going with a traditional logo Heath went all out with an elaborate binary code logo that translates into… well I won’t tell you, you will have to do decode it yourself. The whole yo-yo has been Gruntbull blasted and anodized in a rich black finish. Normally I do not like black yo-yos but on this one I will give it a pass just because the laser etch would not have popped as much on a different color. Over all I am a fan of the design, it is comfortable in the hand and is extremely pocket friendly. That last part is important to me, sometimes I don’t want to look like I have a can of chewing tobacco in my jeans pocket while walking down the street.

Weight

This is a pretty light yo-yo given its size but with it being so compact in width all of the weight is concentrated. This gives the yo-yo a very stable feel to it while zipping around on the string. This is a speedy throw with a long spin times thanks the weight being pushed to the outer rims.

Response and Bearing

The response is Heath’s standard flowable silicone. He has been using it since the initial run of Sky Walkers and it has served him well ever since. I find that they slightly recessed silicone gives the Vs. Newton yo-yos a dead unresponsive feel out of the box with little to no break in time retired.

The SADR comes stock with a 10-Ball bearing in it. There is absolutely no more that I can say about this bearing. It is hands down the best on the market.

Playability

Being similarly thin in design like the One Drop M1 and the SPYY Flying V means that this is as unforgiving as those two yo-yos. This is not a bad thing; most experienced players will adapt to the slim shape and have an easy time aiming for the gap. For intermediate players this is going to be a good learning experience. I know that when I got my M1 I had a dickens of a time hitting the gap consistently but after a couple of weeks it actually made me a more consistent player. I can see this doing the same for others as well. As far as tricks I didn’t really set out to learn a new trick during my play testing of this yo-yo, instead I just took it with me everywhere and played the heck out of it. What I found was that it is more than capable of doing every trick you can throw at it. Better still it is an awesome suicide yo-yo. Unlike other slim yo-yos, this one does not have a high wall that closes the loop, great for me since I have been working on my consistency in regards to suicide tricks. As far as grinds are concerned, this is a Gruntbull blasted and anodized yo-yo so it is an excellent grinder. I didn’t notice any string cutting that is prevalent in other GB anoed yo-yos. Overall, the play on this yo-yo is top notch giving solid performance while being a little less than forgiving to newer players.

Final Thoughts

It is kind of a shame that this yo-yo is so limited, I can see people liking this as a great pocket throw to knock about. Does it deserve the $200 plus premium that it commands on the trade forums… no. Even Heath doesn’t think it should be going for that much. At the end of the day this is another good design from Vs. Newton that I would like to see come out in higher quantities. If you can find one at a good price on the forums I would recommend that you pick it up, just do me a favor play it like mad; it is a fun yo-yo that will be wasted on the shelf.