The Metalhead. Last year Magic Yoyo released Dylan Kowalski’s signature YoYo, the Hotdiggidy. Within a week Thomas Velto and I were chatting and decided he needed a signature YoYo as well! The Metalhead was born. I left Thomas to create the basic design. Joey Serrano of 2Sick Yo-yos lent a hand to draw up Thomas’s design. We talked about a nice big, wide performance YoYo.
The first prototype played great, but had too many sharp edges and cuts. It lacked a refined feel. So We worked a little more to round out the edges without compromising the play. The decision to use a traditional hub instead of a Lego hub was actually something of an oversight. I legitimately forgot to add he design feature. When we got the 2nd prototype I brought it up with Thomas. We agreed that we didn’t want to mess with how great the throw played, so we left it. As it turns out that was the right decision, we accidentally ended up with a really good finger spin cup!
The theme. I’ve been wanting to make “The Metalhead” for a while, but didn’t have a YoYo to go with the design. One of the local Yoyoers in Vancouver, Joey Hockin, is also a growing force in the BC heavy metal community. I wanted to make a YoYo he could sell at shows. When Thomas and I started talking, it clicked into place!
I asked Joey if I could share his story, here it is!
“My first experience with yo-yoing was in the summer of 2001 when I was 12 years old. There was a booth set up at the Calgary Stampede sponsored by Duncan. It featured future world champion Jensen Kimmitt. I became instantly addicted and spent that whole summer practicing in my backyard. A few years later, around 2008, we had the first Alberta Yoyo club (YORAD) meeting with myself, Jensen, Steve from SPYY, Chris from CLYW and Michael Witteman. I was introduced to the unresponsive style of play and the competitive side of yo-yoing. Over the next couple of year, I placed top 10 at a couple of competitions including western regionals and nationals. I decided to step back from competitions and treat yo-yoing as more of a creative endeavour than a competitive one. This is where I’ve always found the most joy in yo-yoing anyways, as the creative aspects of it align more with my interests. This brings me to the other big hobby in my life, METAL!
I started out like most metalheads my age, listening to Linkin Park, Sum 41 and the like back in 2001. I worked my way through every style of heavy music you can imagine until I found my love for European styles of metal. In September of 2009 I was lucky enough to see Edguy, Stratovarius, Dragonforce, Sonata Arctica, Epicurean, Luna Mortis, Viathyn and Kobra and the Lotus all within a week. Since then I couldn’t get enough of that feeling and my life has pretty much revolved around metal since.
Every single year I’ve managed to make it to at least a couple of festivals. My travels have taken me to a dozen different countries to see epic shows and be more a part of this global metal community. After trying to get my own band off the ground I decided it was time to make the move to Vancouver where the metal scene is much more alive. I finally formed my band, Apprentice, and started playing shows in early 2015.
In 2016 I started Journeyman Productions (a logical name to follow Apprentice) and started promoting metal shows in Vancouver. Now we have a small team of people that are dedicated to fostering the growing metal scene. We enjoy every second we spend making sure bands have opportunities to grow and get to play in front of a larger audience. In late 2018 Apprentice finally released our first album “The Strength of Mortality” which is the culmination of the work of most of my adult life. If you get a chance we’d really appreciate you checking us out online at any of our social media. Give our album a listen on pretty much any major platform where you can find music!
I’m unbelievably stoked to have in my hands a toy that brings together 2 of my life’s biggest passions in a high quality package. This will definitely be my main throw. I look forward to introducing yo-yoing to members of the metal community as well as metal to members of the yo-yo community. The similarities between the 2 might surprise you as they both involve a lot of creativity and personal style! So get on your favourite band’s shirt, throw on our album and give the Metalhead a spin!“
Joey gave me a discount on downloads of “Strength of Mortality” so I could include it with the Apprentice engraved edition of the metal head for half price. If you choose a different colour, you can still pick up the album and their merch at
If you are looking to score a metal head, click the “Buy Now” button below to take you to the Rain City Skills store.
