Dick Stohr: Hi! I am Dick Stohr. I am also known as That Yo-Yo Guy. First of all I want to get started with just the basics. So, I want to show you the types of yo-yos. We have here is the all-wood, Duncan, Classic yo-yo, this is called the Imperial shape, and this is in fact the Duncan Imperial Yo-Yo.

You can see that they both have a rather narrow area where the string rides, in the string gap, and what we are talking about is the area where the string goes in between the halves of the yo-yo. This is the Imperial shape. This is the Duncan Butterfly; as you can see, it looks like the Imperial which is assembled backwards, so that you have a much larger area where you can land the yo-yo back on the string to do string type tricks. We'll talk more about that when we get into the tricks, but I want to explain to you the two different shapes in yo-yo. This one is called a modified shape. It's just a little different than the Imperial in that it has a little bit rounded area where you enter the string gap. The two shapes in yo-yos are the Imperial and the Butterfly, both of those made famous by Duncan. This is a modified shape. This is made famous by a lot of different yo-yo companies. The axle of the yo-yo is very important, and there are two types of axles; there is the fixed axle where the axle actually rotates with the yo-yo and a transaxle where there is no friction on the string because the string rides on something that does not spin with the yo-yo.

This yo-yo has a wood axle, because it's all wood. This has a metal shaft as an axle that rides with the yo-yo. This one also has a metal shaft that rides with the yo-yo. This one has a replaceable wood axle as you can see in the one I have taken apart. This little wooden shaft is trapped by the yo-yo and rotates with the yo-yo. So, all of those are fixed axle yo-yos. This one is a transaxle yo-yo. You can see this little plastic sleeve; the string is wrapped around that sleeve, and that sleeve does not spin with the yo-yo. So, there is no friction on the string. This happens to be a Yomega Fireball. This one is a Tiger Shark - back to the butterfly type shape - and it has a ball bearing axle. The string goes around a small ball bearing. The inserts that go inside the yo-yo, trap the inner race of the ball bearing, so that there is no friction on the string, that's what spins with the yo-yo. The outer race of the bearing is what the string wraps around, and so the friction in this yo-yo is actually inside of the ball bearing.

The two types of transaxle yo-yos are plastic sleeves and ball bearings. These are the types of yo-yos that we are using now, that most of the yo-yos are in these shapes with these axles, and many of the newer ones are actually made out of metal. So, the yo-yos spin longer, they have got more weight, and that sort of thing.