That led me to One Drop Yoyo's - designed, manufactured, and sold out of their shop in Eugene, Oregon. I liked One Drop partly because of the great reputation they have, partly because of their own small yet active forum, partly because of their very cool "shop cam" (which shows all the goings on in their shop), but mostly because they make really cool yoyo's.
One Drop was releasing a special version of their popular "54" model yoyo, called the "Black Smoke Monster" - a black & gray finish, an homage to the venerable character from Lost... so I knew it was meant for me.
This yoyo bridges the gap between art and toys. It's a magnificently engineered object that's both interesting to look at, and more importantly (to me, anyways) fun to play with - to the point that the yoyo itself inspires me to pick it up and play with it.
What makes the 54 so unique is that it has a swappable axle system called "SideEffects" that let you screw in different ends - such as the tough looking aluminum spike, as shown above, to a "stunt peg", allowing you to do some crazy gyroscopic tricks, to a Lego nub which allows you to attach a Lego piece (or a stack thereof) to your yoyo.
Thanks to a wealth of tutorials online, I can already do a handful of tricks that seem to impress people who don't know how many amazingly skilled players there are out there. Call it strange, call it unique - I call it fun.
