Crazy to think it has been 2 years since the original release of the Plastic Fulvia and Plastic 000. Both models as of now are pretty much sold out everywhere, and I knew it was about time to update both with a small batch of new colors as well as fix a few small issues with the first designs. I appreciate everyone who has reached out anticipating a restock of these - as the manufacturing process is very timely for sure so restocks can't happen as quick as I'd like.
The most requested color of just clear was always a surprising choice, but understandably a lot of my customers are adults that prefer more of a subtle minimalist look. Luckily I had clear blanks left over from the Hybrid Fulvia project. I was always more of a fan of solid colors as they make the yoyo design stand out more, but as that has been done already its cool to be able to see the guts and hub area in clear sight. The slight matte finish also adds to the aesthetics of this colorway.
The cream is the same cream as the Fulvia, which was the number one best selling but this time around I decided to run a limited quantity of the 000 as well, bringing a new elegance to the lineup. I feel like this beige color gives the 000 a more classy look where the pure white in the original model felt way more modern.
Lastly the iconic Translucent Ice Blue was actually made possible with the help of CLYW's order of their team edition blue peak. This idea cooked up by Steve Brown was really cool - a limited Peak as a thank you to the team. This blue was meant to replicate the look of the older 1950's glass Coke bottles, and they turned out beautiful. Because he only requested 100 units, it didn't meet the minimum order quantity of the injection molding process so I personally invested more planning to use them in the future. They sat around for a while until now, so here we are with a handful of these beautiful 000 & Fulvias in the same colorway. The photo above was my personal units that I have been daily using pretty aggressively - which is why the 000 in particular looks a bit beat up (my apologies). But something about a well used yoyo gives it a bit more personality.
Besides these new color changes the 000 has a slight change in the hub area making the plastic a bit thicker, to reduce the chances of cracking. The stresses of machining an injection molded blank is something that was a brand new technology so I am still refining what is possible with every iteration, customers have sent in tons of messages in regards to my designs and I love improving on community feedback.
This short little update I felt like was necessary to just give everyone a little look at this mild restock release, but if you are interested in learning about the design process of both of these models, there are write ups on both in our older blog posts that go way more in depth. Besides this plastic update, there is one more model (Titanium) I will be releasing for the end of 2024 which will be interesting to say the least, thank you as always for the continued support. Hopefully will be able to keep the ball rolling and develop more interesting plastics into 2025!
It has been a year an a half living in Osaka, crazy how time flies. I remember releasing the Plastic Fulvia just before leaving Toronto, a product that I could argue changed the trajectory of everything. At that moment, Luftverk grew exponentially, with the support of retailers around the world. At that moment, I developed so many behind the scenes processes for management that it became much more of a corporate job then a creative one. Huge projects like Cheatcode, and the CLYW collaboration definitely had its creative sides dont get me wrong, but the addition of moving to a foreign city, learning a new language, pursuing motorsports and delegating tasks behind the scenes with razor sharp margins meant for a lot of it I was on the brink of burnout. I questioned if I even still liked doing yoyo stuff at all, or if it was just to keep food on the table.
In January, I released the AKURA MG, a yoyo made from Magnesium. This material has a very low density and I talked about how it performs more like a plastic than anything else. But what made that yoyo really special is the aesthetic. I loved the lines on that yoyo. The proportions with the chunky rims were just perfect. One of the biggest aesthetic challenges though were that after the ceramic coating the lines were quite subtle which hid the design.
Its wild to think that the Fulvia design is now 8 years old - originally released in 2016. This design was developed in titanium with the pursuit of rim weight and stability. So much has changed since then. 2024 was an interesting year with the challenges of moving to a new country while maintaining releases. Not many people realize but I often prototype yoyos for myself and they just never get released. Often they join the rotation of throws I have on the shelf, which never make it to production. The monometal 000 and Fulvia was exactly that - prototypes that I submited earlier this year that just never ended up making it to production.
Jeffrey Pang
Author