Sometimes there comes a product in the yoyo world that really blows me away. Its pretty rare that this happens - because its all been done. I watched as yoyos moved from plastic to aluminum. Then came the O-ring response, and silicone response. And as manufacturing standards got higher and prices got lower - it hit a plateau. There was no better or worse anymore. There was just different. Almost every aspect had been covered - Almost.
I was sitting in the SLUSNY Yoyo shop in Prague, CZ about a month ago. Vashek was there, packing his daily orders and I was there eating my beautiful Czech lunch and likely making a mess everywhere. I saw one of his throws on the table and decided to try it out. "Thats the one I use on stage". I threw it, and something was different about it. It was dead silent. There was no string vibration - It felt something like a cushion of air. I could feel it was more than just the design of the yoyo.
I looked in the gap and saw the weird angles on the bearing. I knew what it was instantly, and, embarrassingly, it was the first time I really tried it. The Japanese made NSK Micro Platinum DS bearing. I was blown away - that something as simple as a bearing made the world of a difference. I got one off of him, and threw it in the Octavia prototype. Instantly, everything changed.
It was incredible. Although other bearings were marginally better than each other, this was leaps and bounds ahead of the next best thing. It was almost instantly that I knew the performance oriented Octavia needed it. I often say that the Evora was very aesthetics focused. The design of the shape. The weight distribution of that huge nub. And it would be a lie if I didn't pick out that beautiful pearl white ceramic bearing for just its waterproof cleaning conveniences. But with the upcoming Octavia release, it calls for unsacrificed, unadulterated performance.
Apologies if this writeup seems short. it has been an insane month of work, accumulating multiple 70 hour work weeks back to back. More than half of that work is comprised of plastic projects I have in the pipeline for 2023. So although it has been non-stop, it is work I have been enjoying quite a lot. Im trying to get stuff buttoned up before I leave Canada, so things have been all over the place. Back in December when the Fulvia hit the stores, this Triple zero was already in development. In fact - this was supposed to be the first yoyo released until I changed my mind in mid 2022.
December was such an insane month, it almost burnt me out. The amount of yoyos I had to ship out for the Fulvia release was insane, but on top of that being just a single person running Luftverk, it meant I was also dealing with invoicing stores all around the world and making sure the factory got paid in advance for shipments. All in all it was a slurry of spreadsheets and staying up late to pack orders every day.
I dont know where to start with the project. It has been the most expensive yoyo by multiple magnitudes to create. Not only was this project costly due to injection molding, but my persistence on a machining operation meant the R&D for this yoyo took forever. I started designing this yoyo over 2 years ago - and it has slowly snowballed into this proof-of-concept initial release based on the beloved Fulvia design.
JT (Cyyclical)
November 18, 2015
Thanks for the update. I am getting more and more excited for the Octavia release!