The Del Toro is an undersized radical V shape throw with a beautiful and soft chalky feel. The design of this yoyo has a fair amount of weight distributed outward to the rim, giving it long spin time, and it's also got a nice bit of material in the center to give the inside cup a flat base.
I've found this yoyo to be very stable and nimble on a straight throw, and moves smooth like butter through different rhythmic and speed dynamic changes.
I found for my own long-form choreography driven style that switching a Terrapin coated ceramic bearing out for the smooth 10ball steel bearing (incidentally the same bearing One Drop uses) really increased the spin time and shifted more spin weight out to the rim. I also found the Chaos 422 strings (poly, slick poly and nylon blend) are perfect for the Del Toro.
At the time of this review, YoyoExpert has sold out of every color, however I found some available at the YoyoCanada Website. I'm told YoyoExpert is waiting on an order of from Chico.
As always, your questions and suggestions are more than welcome - Click to Email Sniffy-Yo
Here's the review, specs and notes are available below the video.
Here are the specs:
| Diameter: | 50.6 mm / 2.00 inches |
| Width: | 38 mm / 1.50 inches |
| Gap Width: | 4.5 mm / .18 inches |
| Weight: | 65 grams |
| Response: | Red Silicone O-Rings Compatible with Slim CBC or K-Pad |
| Bearing Size: | Large Stainless Steel Bearing Size C (.250 x .500 x .187) |
Here are my notes taken during the 50hrs spent testing the Del Toro:
- • Though this is an undersized throw, the radical V spread of the catch zone makes landing the string as easy as any full size I've played.
• The Del Toro has an incredibly soft and smooth finish, almost like a chalky feel.
• I've found that although the Del Toro doesn't have a hooked irg, catching the edge and grinding is extremely easy because of the deep space between the edge of the wing and the flat surface of the inside of the cup, though it's not so much a "cup" being the halves are constructed with sharp and perfect angles. This construction also shifts quite a bit of the weight to the rim, which combined with the 10ball bearing used gives the Del Toro nice and smooth long spins.
• This review would be very incomplete if I weren't to mention the beautiful packaging. The Del Toro comes in a box covered in retro style coated paper. Definitely the best yoyo packaging I've come across.
• Inside the box the yoyo is nestled in cut foam and includes a set of spare pads and a slot for the string.
• As I'm playing this yoyo one question keeps coming up, which is how is it this throw hasn't made it into the general discussion of top undersized models? It really is a curious thing, the dynamic nature and unique qualities of the del toro should have it up there with the standards in its class and style, and, among similar yoyos well beyond its price point.
• Interesting thing I was previously unaware of is the 10ball bearing Chico uses in this yoyo is sourced from the same provider that One Drop's 10ball comes from.
• I've decided I need to qualify one of the statements above after spending around a week with the Del Toro. Which is although this yoyo has many excellent qualities, I'm not able to recommend it for extended, long form freestyle play stock out of the box, my reason for this is that although for short form tricks it's really fantastic, I've found it gets fluttery with multiple regens. Everything you'll see or read on Sniffy-Yo is and will always be my absolute honest opinion and I'll never leave out a weak point for the sake of giving a strictly positive review. This doesn't indicate I'm not recommending this throw, however, I have found it does get a little floaty on long form play. This is a weak point that's very specific to my type of play and shouldn't be taken as a 'bad review' on any level. I will be popping a ceramic bearing in as well being I think this yoyo will benefit greatly by the longer spin time of a Terrapin coated ceramic. More on this as I go.
• Ok. I finally found the sweetspot for the Del Toro use in long form freestyle, which is the ceramic terrapin coated 8ball and the Chaos 422 string. The combination of the lighter and long spinning ceramic not only obviously adds the needed extra spin time because of the nature of the bearing and magical coating, but also shifts more much needed weight to the outer edge in comparison to the stock steel 10ball. The Chaos string is not only a smooth and slick string, which helps being this yoyo can spin out if a regen finds you hitting on the V edge above the lower area of the wall, but also handles multiple twists without creating too much tension, which with a yoyo such as the Del Toro which has so much of its weight distributed in the center, is extremely important if you want to keep things going without having to back-spin or stop and un-twist during a long combo.
• Well, I'm ready to get ready to start readying the review, which in all terms will be positive. I love this yoyo at this point. I didn't like it so well at first out of the box, I found the 10ball steel didn't supply me with the spin time I needed for my long-form style, replaced it with a ceramic terrapin which did it for me and also did some nice weight shifting at high speeds. I also needed to find the right string, and once I did everything fell into place.
I would say the Del Toro is delicate, but that could be taken the wrong way, while it isn't as forgiving as I'd personally like a V shaped yoyo to be, the soft chalky finish is tough, it hasn't lost it's feel after around 50 hours of play, and has hit the testing area carpet several times without a mark.
So to sum it up, the Del Toro is an excellent yoyo and I'd recommend it in a second, if your play is aggressive long style choreography I'd definitely recommend a ceramic terrapin bearing and the chaos 422 strings.
Of course there will be plenty more details in the video review, which I plan to schedule for this weekend unless regular life invades with something pressing.