is thought to have originated in China, most likely traveling from there to Greece where it is first mentioned in historical records from c.500 B.C. These records describe toys made out of wood, metal, or painted terra cotta (clay).
The earliest surviving yo-yo dates to 500 BC, and is made using Terra Cotta disks. A Greek vase from this period shows a boy playing yo-yo where found.
The principal distinction between the Filipino design and more primitive yo-yos is in the way the yo-yo is strung. In older (and some remaining inexpensive) yoyo designs, the string is tied to the axle using a knot. With this technique, the yo-yo just goes "back-and-forth"; it returns easily, but it is impossible, or nearly so, to make it "sleep".
A popular belief is that the yo-yo was a weapon for over 400 years in the Philippines, is Not True.
Time line of Yo-yo
- 1866 - James L. Haven and Charles Hettrich (or Hettrick) received the first US patent on ” an improved construction of the toy, commonly called a bandelore”
- 1928 – Filipino American named Pedro Flores opened the Yo-yo Manufacturing Company in Santa Barbara, California. The business started with a dozen handmade toys which later expanded to Los Angeles and Hollywood
- 1932 – Donald Duncan had purchased rights and all assets, including the Flores name which was transferred to the new company. Duncan's first yo-yo thereafter was the ”Duncan O-BOY“
- 1946 – the Duncan Toys Company opened a Yo-yo factory in Luck, Wisconsin, prompting the town to dub itself ”Yo-yo Capital of the World“
- 1962 – due to declining sales after the Second World War, Duncan launch a comeback campaign for his trademarked "Yo-Yo" in 1962 with a series of Television Advertisements. (it was successful but short-lived)
- 1965 – Duncan had lost it's exclusive rights to the term ”Yo-yo“ as it had become a common speech term
- 1968 – Duncan sold the company name and associated trademarks to Flambeau Plastics still continues to run the company today.
- 1978 - dentist and yo-yo celebrity Tom kuhn patented the ”No Jive 3-in-1“ yo-yo, creating the world's first "take-apart" yo-yo, which enabled yo-yo players to change the axle.
- 1980 – Michael Caffrey patented what would later become the Yomega Brain, a yo-yo with a centrifugal clutch transaxle. Designed with a free-spinning ball bearing linkage, "The Brain" could spin much longer than previous fixed-axle designs. In addition, the axle was "clutched" with spring-loaded weights which would pull away from the axle at higher speeds and grab again at lower speeds. The result is an automatic return of the yo-yo when speed drops below a given threshold.
- 1990 - Tom Kuhn released the SB-2 yo-yo (short for Silver Bullet 2), a high-performance ball bearing transaxle made with aluminum. This marked a major breakthrough for the modern yo-yo, as it was the first ball bearing yo-yo that actually worked.
- 1998 – Tom Kuhn received the "Donald F. Duncan Family Award for Industry Excellence". He was the first to receive this award eventually brought him the title "Father of the modern yo-yo"
In the late 1990s, Yomega partnered with HPK Marketing and helped fuel the yo-yo boom that spread across the globe. From this partnership, Team High Performance was born, a group of skilled demonstrators that toured the world.
In this period, Yomegas were heavily marketed in Japan, where Bandai produced several yo-yos under the Yomega name which were sometimes different from those sold in the US.
At the turn of the century, 1999-2000, Yomega partnered with McDonald's and distributed a large number of Yomega X-Brain and Firestorm yo-yos at outlets throughout the US.
Yo-yos are still around, very much around.
You may find one in your neighborhood as well.
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