#vooper

I’m Nexus. Welcome to Ylum. The year is 2496.

Welcome to Ylum, podnuh!

Ad hominem attacks and lies are your stock in trade.

Really, and why does evil have a female persona?

About two months ago I scrapped my plans to do a Fever review.  The model YoYoJam had sent me had a problem with the response wall that I did not identify until late in to the review session and snapping strings at exactly all the wrong times.  Once I identified the defect as a manufacturing error and not a design flaw, I knew it this unit had simply slipped through YoYoJam’s QA cracks and did not represent the product release on a whole.  I scrapped the review and sent my findings directly to the company.  I can’t tell you how important it is to contact the company directly when you have problems with a product.  Yo-Yo manufacturers don’t intentionally release product at full retail with known problems like string snapping and excessive vibration.  They know that you are going to talk to your yo-yo friends and a good yo-yo will quickly get a bad reputation.  Val at YoYoJam got back to me right away with zero reservations, and we arranged an exchange.  I am glad I didn’t review the first model sent to me because after playing the Fever for a week, I can tell you that the replacement model is indeed the true representation for the release line.

Note: After the Jump you will find a new format for my review that I am experimenting with.  Your feedback is both requested and welcome.

Includes:

Standard YoYoJam green plastic box

Spare thin bearing for responsive play

Poly String

  Specs:

Weight (g) 64.70 Width (mm) 41.41 Diameter (mm) 54.42 Gap Width (mm) 4.15 / 3.15 Bearing Size C-Sized and Slim Stock Response System Silicone slim Response Pad

Construction and Design:

Looks Great

Looks Good

Looks not so Good

Large metal rims

SPEED C-Sized bearing

Plastic caps quickly come loose

Solid Spin Axle System

Nice logo design

Plastic caps quickly show wear

Middle weight

Mirror Caps

Metal to Plastic conversion not completely flush

Wide and inverted catch zone

No grind surface

Inner Ring Groove

  YoYoJam is known for their Hybrid metal yoyos.   From legacy throws like the original Dark Magic and Hitman to the newer throws like the Fever and SR-71, YoYojam has proven time and time again that they know exactly how to squeeze the maximum about of performance into a small metal/plastic gryo.  The Fever has an inverse catch zone and a flared response wall. With Red foil stamped mirrored caps, the Fever has a pretty nice look. The plastic body core comes in a variety of color options.  The durability of the foil caps is not great, though.  After a week of play, the caps were already loose in their seat, and I already had some of the red foil wearing off. I wish the rims came in more color options than just “Metal”.  I think some annodization would really help both visual presentation and grind performance.

Performance:

Vooper showing off his signature yo-yo

Great!

Not so great…

Plays fast and light, yet floaty

Grips on a grind

Solid response system

Slight vibration

Handled multiple wraps

Hard to get clean regen

Clean transfers

Stability could be better

Does not take drops well

I failed to mention that the Fever is the signature yo-yo of Vooper, and after playing it for a week I can completely see why.  With the floaty yet fast matchup, the Fever is the perfect yo-yo for Vooper’s playstyle.  If you watch Vooper play, you will see that he mixes a lot of fast movement hops and transfers and then segments tricks together with a smooth flow.   The response setup YoYoJam is perfect. The pads last a long time, don’t snag, and are easy to replace.

Being a plastic/raw metal hybrid, the shortfall of course is going to be grinds.  Again, I think anodization would help here.  Due to the loose caps, the Fever started to buzz after a few days of play and developed a vibe towards the end of the week.  This could be to wear and tear from a week of belt carrying, but loose caps seem to be a common theme with yoyos that use them.  Since the weight mass is fairly close to the center, the yo-yo is not as stable as I would like it to be but the trade-off here is a great flexibility.  Lastly, I dropped the Fever from about waist height onto carpet, and the side weight rim nearly popped off.  After pushing it back together it had a telltale vibe.

  Final Thoughts:

When it comes to the Fever, it really depends on what you are looking for.  Performance wise, the Fever is great.  It is inexpensive and out of the box plays just as good as a high end metal.  Durability wise, a different story.  There is good news though.  The Fever has a low price tag of $45 and as long as it isn’t abused and kept in a case, should have a long and healthy play life.  I would classify the Fever as a low cost performance yo-yo, but not a daily carry only due to durability issues.