In our opinion, the Eclipse was one of the better Spintastics yo-yos that was produced, and it was rather unique as it had a thin metal weight ring that is tucked between the yo-yo halve and the caps.
Spintastics Eclipse
Spintastics was made famous back in the day with their super durable models such as the Tornado, Tigershark and Great White (another gem in our opinion that featured a Beefcake bearing setup). The company was set up by National Yo-Yo Master Dale Oliver, and had a pretty solid contest team featuring the likes of World 2-handed Champion Matt Harlow.
At the time it was released, players were getting more into wider butterfly yo-yos for string tricks, and the Eclipse was Spintastics offering for a wide butterfly shaped yo-yo. If you were to compare the Eclipse to modern day yo-yos, you will be able to tell that they're worlds apart. Yo-yos have come a long way since the Eclipse, but nonetheless, it is still a fun yo-yo to revist every now and then for that nostalgic feeling.
Technological Makeup
The Eclipse was rather unique due to the rounded sidecaps sticking out of the yo-yo halve. This gave it a rather strange feeling in the hand, not that it was uncomfortable, but just took some getting use to.
The internal workings of the Eclipse used a small, thin bearing that was commonly found in older YoYoJam yo-yos, and Duncan Friction Stickers. Friction stickers was the response of choice back in those days for it's reliable, grippy response, ensuring that with or without binds, the yo-yo would have a tight wind allowing for stronger throws.
The Eclipse also came with Starburst response, but as the gap of the Eclipse was maxed out with the widest spacers that could fit without the string slipping in-between the bearing and spacer, the Starbursts were rendered unusable as the string would not wind tight, and would cause the yo-yo to slip.
The good-ol' Duncan Friction Stickers always worked like a charm on the Eclipse, giving it reliable performance.
Sizing Up
The Spintastics Eclipse is a sure fun yo-yo to throw around, given that no modern yo-yos would feel like it as yo-yos have evolve immensely over the years. Of course, we wouldn't see modern competition players using the Eclipse on stage now, it's nostalgic feel and make just brings us back to a time when contest yo-yos were still made of plastic, and that unique and different features of a yo-yo would give different players a kick out of throwing it.
The gap of the Eclipse though maxed out, issn't as wide as modern throws and is very similar (slightly narrower) to the gap of the Freehand Zero (pictured above). With this, it also makes the Eclipse less smooth as compared to modern yo-yos.
The Bad
If you were to make a direct comparison of the Eclipse to say a YoYoFactory Protostar now, you would think the Eclipse wasn't any good at all. But bring yourself back to when yo-yos were slimline, even butterfly yo-yos were slimline, and you would think the Eclipse was one of the best yo-yos available for its price.
The Eclipse may not be the most stable, it may not be the most smooth and for sure changing the response stickers every other day/week may seem like a hassle, but that is the beauty of it. A reminder of a time where yo-yos took a little bit of tuning, wearing in and much more practice to get your tricks right. Those were good days. (Excuse this old dude writing this article)
Conclusion
The Eclipse is over 10 years old now, and is definitely a collectors piece to keep as a reminder of what yo-yos were like back in the early 2000s.
Nostalgic and fun, at a time when string trick creativity was at an all time high, the Eclipse will always serve as a reminder of 'the good old days'.
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