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| Duncan Expert Award - Ronnie (carved) |
| Exhibit #3496 |
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| Type | Award |
| Shape | Concave )-( |
| Axle | Fixed |
| Packaging | None |
| Construction | Three piece wood |
| Response | None |
| Gap | Fixed |
| Condition | Mint |
| Date | 1959 |
| To | 1962 |
| Owner | Rick Brough |
| Compare |  |
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The wooden Duncan Expert Award butterfly-shaped yo-yo was sold retail for a short time in the very early 1960s. The same yo-yo was also used as a prize at their yo-yo contests. The handcarving on the opposite side of the yo-yo in this exhibit suggests that it was carved by a Duncan yo-yo demonstrator (most likely Filipino as they were known to carve designs into yo-yos for kids) and given to the winner whose first name was Ronnie. The paint is a metallic red finish. The retail version was sold polybagged with a "Duncan Butterfly Yo-Yo" header card and a pre-printed price of 69¢. Occasionally, the Duncan wooden butterfly yo-yo model is found stamped with "69¢" in dark blue ink on the face of one of the halves, suggesting that is was sold loose with no packaging.
The Duncan Butterfly was first released in 1958. A yo-yo demonstrator named Wayne Lundberg introduced the idea for reversing the traditional tournament-shaped wooden halves to make a yo-yo that had a wider string gap. The wider gap helped kids perform more complex string tricks. While the actual Butterfly design has been around since 1878 (see patent 207527, by William Katz, for "Improvement in bandelore toy", August 27, 1878), Duncan was the first company to actually mass produce them. The Butterfly yo-yo was changed by Duncan from wood to plastic in 1968. In the words of Bob Rule, long time yo-yo player and last demonstrator on Duncan's payroll, "Probably the [yo-yo] advancement I see the most is the Butterfly invented by Wayne Lundberg. I called it a bicycle with training wheels but had to accept it as it helped the players advance in skill so fast.
Of interest...
To see all hard carved yo-yos in this museum, in the left panel, select Exhibits.
In the right pane, in the Name/Model field, type carved, then select Browse. | |
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