The Toy Fair New York, now known as the North American International Toy Fair, is the largest toy industry trade show in the Western Hemisphere. In 1999 the yo-yos popularity was at a high point and multiple yo-yo manufacturers were present at the Toy Fair showing off their lines at their booths. The BC/What’s Next booth was no exception having a booth dedicated to both the BC/What’s Next brand and the Tom Kuhn brand. To attract attendees to their booth, and to promote both brands, two different promotional yo-yos were given out.
The first of these promotional yo-yos is an imperial shaped wooden yo-yo promoting the Tom Kuhn brand. The yo-yo has the same shape as the Maple Leaf “No Jive” woody but rather than having a gloss natural finish, this yo-yo is painted a solid blue color. One side of the yo-yo features the Tom Kuhn brand with “The Original” written about a replica of Tom Kuhn’s signature in white over an orange block with the word “YOYO” [sic]. Across the bottom of this face is the 1-800-US YOYOS phone number. The design of this side is identical to the Tom Kuhn Yin-Yang yo-yo’s brand side.
The reverse side fo this promotional yo-yo features the What’s Next brand. The design is very similar to the Tom Kuhn brand with “….. WHAT’S NEXT MFG” across the top, “The New BC YOYO” [sic] in the middle and a different toll-free number, 1-800-458-8635 in the same place as the other side.
The second 1999 Toy Fair New York promo yo-yo available at the BC/What’s Next booth was a red version of the above. The only difference between the red and the blue versions of these toy fair promo yo-yos was the branding. The red version featured only the BC/What’s Next branding.
A limited run of each of these yo-yos were produced for the Toy Fair. Many of these yo-yos went home with toy buyers for various retail establishments and have rarely appeared on eBay. This yo-yo is unique in the history of the Tom Kuhn brand; it is the only Tom Kuhn yo-yo that was intended to be given away.
