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The largest working yo-yo measures almost 12 feet in diameter, weighs 4,620 pounds, and uses a 120-foot rope for a string.It is made from pine, birch and maple, and is 5.5 foot in diameter, has a 75 foot string, and weighs 250 pounds. The world’s largest wooden yo-yo is in California.There are videos online of how the yo-yo behaved in zero gravity. In 1985, a yo-yo was taken to space by NASA’s Space Shuttle Discovery mission as part of their “Toys In Space” project.for bringing the joy of yo-yoing to millions of kids in America. Thank you Pedro Flores and thank you Donald F. But you don’t need to be a national champion or world-class yo-yoer to enjoy this fun and fascinating toy. Winners of that get to participate in the World Yo-Yo Contest. In the United States there is an organization called the National Yo-Yo League. Some were given ball-bearing axles-the kind used in fidget spinners. Later on, all kinds of innovations were created, such as take-apart models so the axle could be replaced, and even models with gears and a clutch. For example, they made some with the rim of the yo-yo heavier than the center so it could spin longer. In 1965, the Duncan Toys Company was bought by the Flambeau Plastics Company, which continued to call the toys Duncan Yo-yos.īeginning in the 1970s, manufacturers began making improvements to the toy. That meant that all companies could use the word yo-yo on their packages. In 1965, the Federal Court of Appeals ruled that the word yo-yo had become a common word in the English language and not the name of a specific product. They had to call their versions things like Come-Back or Whirl-a-Gig or Returning Top. That meant that only his company could use that word. In 1932, Donald received a trademark for the word yo-yo. He made the yo-yo into something that everyone wanted, and thanks to him, it became one of the greatest-selling toys of all time. He also hired Pedro to run promotional campaigns, such as competitions and exhibitions.ĭonald’s business was called the Duncan Toys Company. In 1930, he raised $5,000 and bought Pedro’s business. It was at a yo-yo competition that Donald first saw the toy in action. This made it possible for the yo-yo to spin (or sleep, as it’s called) at the bottom of the string until jerked upward. An innovation that Pedro’s company made is instead of the string being tied to the axle so that all the yo-yo could do is go down and up, they made a small loop at the end of the string. His efforts sparked the first yo-yo craze in the United States. Pedro built a yo-yo factory in California in 1928. Yo-yos were used in the Philippines, both as toys and as weapons. Pedro was born on Apin the Philippines and came to the United States in 1915. Though Yo-Yo Day happens on Donald’s birthday, maybe it should be on Pedro Flores’s birthday. There is evidence from ancient China, Greece, and Egypt that this type of toy was used long ago. Yo-yos have been used for several thousand years. Yo-yo Day is in honor of Donald’s birthday, but he didn’t invent the yo-yo – he just helped make it popular in the United States. And stores still sell yo-yos.ĭonald Franklin Duncan was born Jin Kansas City, Missouri. If you have never seen or tried a yo-yo, there are plenty of videos on the Internet of people yo-yoing.

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Beyond that, comes nearly unbelievable tricks done by professional yo-yoers.

And then there are some not-so-simple tricks, some difficult tricks, and some extremely hard ones. There are other simple tricks it can be made to do. The simplest way to play with it is to repeatedly send the yo-yo down and up, down and up, down and up. Then, with a slight jerk of the hand, the yo-yo seems to magically wind back up the string, ending up where it started. With a flick of the wrist, the yo-yo spins downward, unwinding the string as it goes and continuing until the end is reached. The string is wound around the axle until the yo-yo is in the person’s hand. A loop at the other end of the string is placed around a person’s finger. The end of a string is tied with a loop around the axle. The business that sold them was the Duncan Toys Company and people called the toys “Duncan Yo-yos.”Ī yo-yo (also spelled yoyo) is a toy that is made from a short axle that connects two disks. How many were sold? In 1962 in the United States, there were about 40 million kids old enough to play with yo-yos.

In the early 1960s, yo-yos were one of the hottest-selling toys in America. stands for Senior.) More about him in a bit. It’s called that because it’s the birthday of a man named Donald F.

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