THE BEGINNING

Hi there! My name is Elvin Lim. I have been an avid yo-yo collector since 1999 when my parents bought me my first yo-yo - the Playmaxx Proyo II. It arrived with an accompanying VIDeYO tape with trick tutorials. Back in the day, you had go through the cumbersome process to press rewind and find the spot on the tape that corresponded with the trick you were learning, because there was no scrub function! The saving grace was that responsive yo-yo’ing was much simpler then.

The first trick I learned was “Around the World”. It was consequently the first trick which resulted in a broken string… and a yo-yo! The next yo-yo I acquired was my first high-end yo-yo of its day - the Playmaxx Cold Fusion Pro-yo. It was so nice that I was scared to play with it. The exact yo-yo remains in pristine condition in my collection, which includes other influential brands of the golden years including Yomega, Tom Kuhn, Duncan and Spintastics.

THE UNRESPONSIVE ERA

Hit the fast forward button to years later when unresponsive yo-yo play changed the game entirely.  Players like Paul Escolar and Spencer Berry invented tricks and combinations that were impossible with responsive yo-yos.  André Boulay’s “Expert Village” tutorials put his visually stunning and complicated play within reach of all of us.  With the popularity of unresponsive play, companies began innovating with shapes and weight distribution of their yo-yos which affected the play and personality of each model.

Yo-yos took on unique designs. Some of my personal favorites were the Caribou Lodge Yoyo Works (CLYW) Peak and Wooly Marmot, Anti-Yo Bapezilla, and the One Drop Project.  Models like the painted CLYW Peaks and the “Doing Stuff” Wooly Marmots attracted my interest with their unique artwork and packaging.  Brands such as Crucial, Dif-E-Yo, and ILoveYoYo (ILYY) carved out huge followings.  People were camping out in front of their computers for limited YoYoNation releases (some of which are now top shelf items in my collection) from the “fastest fingers first” drops of yesteryear.

EVOLUTION OF DESIGN

With technological advancement in computer aided design and manufacturing, there was a shift in focus to competition oriented designs, which included low-walls and V-shapes, for speedy play and long spin times.  The Yoyorecreation (YYR) Draupnir became the Lambourghini of the yo-yo world, combining a high-performance design with two types of metal alloys.

To up the ante, yo-yo manufacturers took the high stakes of producing from expensive materials combined with more complicated anodizing. 

YO-YO COMMUNITY

I had been to my local Asia Pacific contest intermittently over the years. The 2015 World Yo-Yo Contest in Tokyo was the first contest I had attended overseas and it was an eye opener for me. At the event, I finally got to meet Andre Boulay and Hishida Masanobu, from YoYoExpert and Spingear respectively. They had been handling all my yo-yo orders for years.

In 2016, I traveled to Berlin where I met Dave Geigle of iYoYo fame at a local yo-yo meet. He was so hospitable and an amazing gentleman! Of course we had beer afterwards!

I traveled to Shen Zhen in 2018 to finalize the design for the Bowl 7068 and got to meet the fantastic team behind Fenghuida Precision Machining (FPM). It was a tiring trip, especially for my wife who was almost 6 months pregnant then.

FAMILY, LOVE

My wife, Hui Wen, and I got married on 16 October 2016. I have her to thank for her relentless support in my career and my decision to set up RSO. She understands that although it is not a money-making venture, it is a hobby of mine and gives me some respite from my hospital work.

Our elder son, Isaac Lim, is our pride and joy. He was born on 21 February 2019.

Our precious younger son, Isaiah Lim, was born on 2 March 2022.