You have found the most comprehensive archive of yo-yo images, historical memorabilia, and information in the world. Whether you're a long-time yo-yo collector, or just looking for that long lost treasure from your childhood, this is the place., In the 1800s, the English term for a yo-yo was a bandalore, and English royalty made it their toy of choice. Here in the United States, two Ohio inventors filed an 1866 U.S. patent for a product they referred to as a “bandelore” and a “whirligig,” which was made of metal., The yo-yo is one of the oldest toys and has roots in ancient Greece and the Philippines. Pedro Flores mass-produced the yo-yo in America, and Duncan bought the rights and improved it. D. F. Duncan Sr. was the co-patent holder of a four-wheel hydraulic automobile brake and the marketer of the first successful parking meter., During the late 1700s and early 1800s in France, an unexpected figure emerges in the curious history of the yo-yo: Napoleon Bonaparte himself., yo-yo, a toy that falls and rises back to the hand by the unwinding and rewinding of a string attached to an axle that connects two disks of equal size and weight. The disks can be made of plastic, wood, or metal. As a person drops the yo-yo, the string that is wound around the axle releases., .