Yo-Yos to be '2010's biggest toy craze'

London, Jan 17 (ANI): The yo-yo is set to become 2010's most popular toy with a ten-fold jump in sales over the past year, say retailers.

The yo-yo, which gained widespread popularity during the decade following the 1929 Wall Street crash, is being lapped up again by parents turning to inexpensive toys for their children in the time of the recession.

And modern yo-yos come with new features like gears, which allow users to perform tricks easily.

Retailers and yo-yo manufacturers believe 2010 will the biggest year for the toy since 1998, when almost four million were sold in the UK, which means one for every three children in the country.

"Since November they have been selling ridiculously well. We are up about 1000 per cent at least - ten fold on the sales we were having a year ago," the Telegraph quoted David Strang, the managing director of Wicked Vision, the distributor of Duncan yo-yos, as saying.

He added: "Yo-yos, generally over the last 80 years, have gone in seven to eight year cycles. It's a generational thing. A ten-year old has never really seen one, but his older cousins, father and grandfather have. But this time around we haven't seen a proper global craze since 1998. I think video games and the internet left yo-yos behind."

And according to Peter Jenkinson, who runs the industry website, toyology, yo-yo makers are investing into manufacturing new and sophisticated models.

He said: "You can master the basic skills with a simple 99p yo-yo, but the new pound 8 and pound 10 models that the likes of Duncan and Yomega are bringing out are pretty amazing. The companies are pushing them hard and I wouldn't be surprised to see yo-yos being played in every playground of every primary school by the summer." (ANI)