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| Duncan Hugo Z Hor (mini) |
| Exhibit #2489 |
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| Type | Prototype |
| Shape | Concave )-( |
| Axle | Bearing |
| Packaging | None |
| Construction | Multi-piece aluminum |
| Response | Silicon Ring |
| Diameter | 49 mm |
| Width | 39 mm |
| Gap | Fixed |
| Gap Width | 3.90 mm |
| Weight | 65 mm |
| Condition | Mint |
| Date | 2008 |
| To | 2009 |
| Owner | Rick Brough |
| Compare |  |
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The following narrative came from a fellow in the Czech Republic named Jan Kordovsky. Mr. Kordovsky helped run the website http://yoyostore.cz/ and played a leading role in popularizing the sport of yo-yo in his native country. This narrative is the story about how the model of yo-yo in this exhibit came to be, in Mr. Kordovsky's own words:
"The Duncan Hugo z Hor (pronounced "hoo-goh zuh-hor"; also known as the "HZH" or "Hugo") story is quite interesting and very personal for myself. I started throwing in 2003, when I was 13. And within a year or so I found myself within the local, miniature yo-yo community.
We were all super excited that something as unusual as yo-yoing started to get some momentum and we wanted to do stuff to promote yo-yoing. Apart from founding the Czech Yo-Yo Association and doing contests, we (me and my friend Ondra) also started thinking about producing a yo-yo. It was in the time when metal yoyos only just started, YoYoNation webstore was still in business, and the European yo-yo community was pretty much based around “hanging out” more than competitive yo-yo play. So, the idea grew more every time we met up. Then one day I found out that my neighbour at our family cottage was a machinist. So I gave him some yo-yo specifications and he came up with the first prototype of the Hugo z Hor. The name can translate as “Hugo from the mountains” because the cottage is in the Czech mountains at the north of the country.
The prototype was surprisingly good so we changed a few things, made more prototypes and ended up with a final product [a] few months later. It was a time when Czech was an emerging market and for some reason we got quite a lot of international guests from time to time.
We ended up releasing the yo-yo in 2008 (I think) and it was christened by Pat Cuartero from YoyoNation who was visiting Prague at that time. It was very different from the later Duncan model, it had flow grooves for response, a large bearing, and the hubs were much sharper.
In the end we made about 180 of them. 100 sold throughout Europe, 80 went to YoyoNation.
Fast-forward a year and we had a visit from Mike Burke and Jack Ringka from Duncan. They were attending a Toy Fair in Germany and stopped over in Prague to pick new members for the Duncan Crew. In the end, they chose myself, Ondra, and Tomas Bubak. We also showed them the original Hugo z Hor and Jack was quite impressed by it. It was at a time when Duncan was struggling to come up with a solid metal yo-yo while everyone else already had one (days of the Screaming Eagle). We basically gave them the drawings and a few yo-yos to take apart and they made a licensed yo-yo out of it. I am not sure how many were made in the end but i think they sold out pretty quickly everywhere. Unfortunately Duncan never recovered from the mess they were in at that time and no other cooperation was made since then.
The Duncan version of this yo-yo, part of the Screaming Eagle series, was released in 2010. Th[e] prototype [in this exhibit] came out probably in 2008 or 2009 and has a diameter of 49.12 mm."
Yo-yo uses a size D ball bearing.
Original retail price: $100 US.
Special thanks to David Hall for this exhibit.
To see all mini yo-yos in this museum, in the left panel, click Exhibits.
In the right pane, in the Name/Model field, type mini, then click Browse. | |
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