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| MK1 YoYos x Throw Spiral PK Sliver |
| Exhibit #4396 |
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| Type | Production |
| Shape | Modified |
| Axle | Bearing |
| Finish | Anodized |
| Color | Gold/Silver |
| Packaging | Boxed |
| Construction | Multi-piece aluminum |
| Response | CBC Slim Pad |
| Diameter | 54mm |
| Width | 34mm |
| Gap | Fixed |
| Weight | 63gm |
| Condition | Mint |
| Date | 2022 |
| Owner | Rick Brough |
| Compare |  |
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The PK Sliver (not "Silver"] yo-yo was a collaboration effort between two boutique yo-yo businesses: Throw Spiral (still closed/offline; checked October 23, 2023) and MK1 YoYos (accessed October 23, 2023).
From yoyosam.com:
"The PK Sliver was created out of the need to make a better performance slimline that challenges the player without limiting them. They carefully chose which aesthetics to bring in to the design, including an expansive flat cup and the signature Spiral rim groove in the face, and a faceted inverse round shape in the profile to reduce string drag. The slim form factor makes the PK Sliver an exceptional daily companion."
From Mark Diehr of MK1 YoYos on YoYoExpert forum
"It is delightful to make something cool with a friend. I have been working on a new slimline yoyo with my pal Jaime Larkins, who runs Throw Spiral (see the Kappa - this is important as a design note).
We call it the Sliver, as a reference to the cool Magic: The Gathering creature type that was first introduced in Tempest block, and because slivers (the general concept) are very thin. As a bonus, the clear colorway is now called Silver Sliver.
We designed a cool box that follows the dimensions of an M:TG card box, though thicker to fit a yoyo inside. I hired cool artist friends for the “sliver” and the box layout.
The SLIVER is 54mm diameter, 34mm wide, and 63 grams. It plays primarily unresponsive, though there’s a fully greased flat bearing included if you want a responsive mode. The Sliver pockets easily but was designed with performance in mind, allowing it to be a great 1A companion.
The Sliver will cost $54 for monocolor and $60 for multicolor, and will release on January 21st here on YoyoExpert.
I made sure the box fit magic: the gathering cards inside. Just in case you have a giant pile of beat up cards you need to carry somewhere."
From Mark Diehr on mk1yoyos.com:
"In the world of yo-yo companies, new alliances and collaborations appear as if overnight, but the real work happens over months and sometimes years beforehand. This yoyo is the product of such a collaboration, between @throwspiral and @mk1yoyos.
The SLIVER yo-yo was created out of the need to make a better performance slimline that challenges the player without limiting them. We carefully chose which aesthetics to bring in to the design, including an expansive flat cup and the signature Spiral rim groove in the face, and a faceted inverse round shape in the profile to reduce string drag. The slim form factor makes the Sliver an exceptional daily companion.
Developing the Sliver
(The following is a transcript of the website link above, sans pictures, in case the website ever goes offline)
The design of the Sliver, a new yoyo from Mk1 and Spiral, began with a threat:
'… anyhow if we're gonna collab we should think of some sort of idea or theme or concept you have 5 minutes. Otherwise I'm making you pay for half a run of The Spin top return top tri-material bimetal disaster…'
Jaime Larkins (Throw Spiral owner) immediately responded with some slimline/mini thoughts, and a 37mm wide concept that he had been working on intermittently. This was back in 2020, early in the year, before even the Kappa had released.
Talk about a collab subsided for a couple months, interspersed with design questions like, 'how wide do you think a bimetal could be before it blasts itself apart?'. I got distracted and worked on the Exia, and some counterweight ideas. Jaime was working on the P40-Warhawk. We traded ideas and tips back and forth. He was preparing for the Kappa release, I had just dropped the Umbra. We talked about yo-yos a lot, philosophically.
In May [2020], we got back on track, looking up different slimline widths, and found a range to explore between Heshgod Petri (28mm) and SF 36 (36mm).
We go back and forth like this for a couple hours until we take a break to think of a name for the collab. Mostly we found cool names that had already been used on other yoyos. Since we’re pals, I bought a Kappa and he bought an Umbra. We like each other’s yoyos, which is a good sign, always. We traded some MTG anecdotes with each other, which I suppose is an omen of things to come! Plus, this important exchange:
'I want a good slimline unresponsive that isn’t punishing.'
– me
'Bro, yes let’s make a GOOD slimline.'
– jaime
Several months later (July 2020), Jaime sent me a file called heck.x_t which contained a yo-yo design.
I sent back a revision [of the file] where the rims were rounded over.
We didn’t even have a working title for the yoyo, having abandoned plenty of great ideas that were already in use.
Its frame is made of lead and it's 5 times the weight of a normal yo-yo. I call it… THE HEAVY BRAIN !! Heavy … Brain !!Case study on yoyo names
Eventually, finally, we thought of something passable: “dither”, referencing a pixel art technique where two colors are blended using a checkerboard or other pattern, which adds texture + the appearance of a third virtual color. It’s a metaphor for how we created the yoyo, of course.
Through this process the design got refined down to something really close to what you see in the production version. 6061, flat cup, same dimensions. We discussed the ‘small’ 8mm axle and decided to simply put it through a stress test once we got the prototypes.
We were happy with it, our teams were happy with it, so it was time to order some. So, I did. And we got the first prototype photos in August, along with the Mk1 Contact, which I was prototyping at the same time.
Later, they came in the mail.
We sent them to the team for feedback, and got a couple notes that resulted in changes for a second prototype. Of note, the weight dropped, the rim cut in the profile got pulled back a bit, and some of the fillets were made more round. The next round of prototypes were blue rim dip, just to try something new. It took a bit to get around to this, due to other yoyo releases, but in February 2021, we placed the order. This is also when Jamie came up with the final name for the yoyo:
'yojamjam 02/12/2021
yoyo name.
This is the one I think
Sliver'
The second sliver prototypes arrived at the same time as the second Contact run. They looked cool! I shipped them out for team testing and got to work on the other various MK1 stuff that I had been putting my time into.
The CAD file ended up not changing from this version, but the other really long part of yoyo production was still left – picking colors, designing engravings, coming up with a box & a sticker. This was a collab, and a special one, so I wanted to get really deep into it.
Given the new name & theme, I contacted one of my M:TG friends who had been working on card proxies, and hired her to design box art based roughly on the look of Tempest pre-con decks. This was combined with custom art from a friend-of-a-friend.
The box [box art by Evelyn Butler] was designed to fit Magic cards, though it’s thicker than usual to accommodate the yoyo.
For colorways, we settled on making some raws, two rim masks, two fades, and two solid colors. This sort of symmetry makes the reasoning process easier for me, and also provides a handy way to organize the yoyos once they arrive. Of all the colorways, the PK Sliver took the longest to develop, due to the newness and intricacy of the engraving. It’s striking in person, and we all hope you enjoy it (or whichever colorway you get).
The colorway development process usually involves tons and tons of 3d renders, which I’ll spare you.
There we go. That’s the tale of the Mk1 x Spiral SLIVER yo-yo. I hope you enjoyed it. Maybe you can be part of the story?"
The PK Sliver featured a masked-rim anodizing.
Released January 21, 2022.
Recipe
Grade: A
Diameter: 54mm
Width: 34mm
Weight: 63gm
Material: 6061 aluminum
Bearing: Size C
Response: 19mm slim pad
Axle: 8mm x 4mm
Original retail price: $60 US. | |
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