Flowpoi Duo whats good and bad

Not sure if this is allowed but I thought it a good idea for spinners who are wanting to buy, HOP for when they sell them and Flowtoys in future sales/products.

I got the Duos, 2 air 2 water

Good -
The weight is great, id say a better weight than Oggz/Oggpoi
Very bright
Easy to go through patterns
Great patterns
Handles are excellent (a lot better than nylon and even my worn leather ones)
Instructions are simple

Bad -
Leash is better than nylon but not as good as Colecord
Tapping the battery out as suggested doesnt work (I use a piece of metal to dig it out)
The battery door could be used to get the battery out but i fear one of the little feet will snap off
Interlocking, even the correct way makes a nasty crunching sound sometimes, like the plastic is shattering
Harder than Oggz, so be careful

Overall they are great and im loving them, however I have changed the cords for one metre (each poi) of colecord, added ball bearing swivels and quick links.

Flowtoys should sell Colecord and Ball bearing swivels with their toys, HOP should sell Flowtoys handles with theirs.

The way i have fastened the heads, i can add custom Oggz heads or any other non fire heads - handle, quicklink, swivel, knot where colecord is tied in a loop, knot, colecord, poi head (click link for pic)

Thanks

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v626/geeza1/flowpoiduo.jpg

A problem you may want to watch out for is the caps coming off while spinning. This has happened to me a number of times. Usually due to a tap together, i suppose just enough force is applied to kick off one or two caps and the lights go spinning off into the crowd and such... Luckily I've always gotten the pieces all back together. Its especially annoying when in a club though.

It's partly because I store the duos assembled (caps on) and they can get pretty dirty over time, cleaning does help. So to fix the problem I tied a loop of thin white twine through the top end (there's a hole there where they attach) and over the bottom. The tips of the end caps are bumped up so there's like an indent or channel in an x, so the string fits nicely. Just slide the string loop on or off the cap when you open/close the duos. You'll have to tie it kinda tight but it shouldn't be a problem. To help even more, once you close up the duos and pop the loop on, twist the cap and one end of the loop so it spirals around them, this'll ensure a tight fit.

It's not noticeable at all while spinning, by you or the audience, and has kept the caps on ever since... and I've put a lot of miles on them for sure.

The handle are great. most comfortable 2finger handles I've ever used. Everyone remarks how much they like the handles whenever they try them out.

Do you mean the bottom caps come off (furthest from handle) or hanger caps with flowtoys.com on?

I dont even know if the hanger caps come off, it looks like there are two covered small holes with screws in on either side.

Do you mean you have drilled two holes and tied a piece of string from the end caps right up the duos to the hanger cap loop?
Other than doing this i suppose the end caps could be kept on by drilling a hole in each side of the plastic end cap and each side of the plastic tubing then tie each one. This would make turning the flowlights on, off, changing pattererns and replacing batteries very annoying though. (untieing and retieing 4 times each time)

At the moment the end caps seem reasonable secure but i assume over time they wont stay on as well.

The end caps are fine. Just make sure you wack them on hard with the heel of your hand. If you do that, the won't move.

no no no, there's no tieing or anything to be done over and over. You just make one single loop, tie a knot and cut off the extra. The loop goes through the very same hole that your colecord goes through and the other end should fit over the end caps. you litterally slide it on/off of the end cap. The cap I'm referring to that comes off is the same one you take off to cut the lights on/off.

And I do "wack them on hard with the heel of [my] hand" and they still can come off. I'm not saying they fling off all the time when I spin but it's happened at least 8 times I can count off the top of my head. Yes I admit that its when I mess up and the duos hit together. In fact I can safely say that at least half the times this has happened has been when doing an antispin wall plane semi-isolated mini flower at great speed... every once in a while the ends hit.

you may have no problem with the ends, if you don't GREAT! but if you do, the loop of twine fixes it right up. You'll thank me when it does eventually happen and your flowlights get shot into the face of someone in the crowd and you have to go hunting for the cap itself.

Also, as I understand it, flowtoys crew is working on some new caps that lock on, so i'm excited to see those.

Would you mind taking a picture of this. I think i know what you mean, but dont get how its attatched to the end cap

In my opinion:

Good:
-Handles are so comfy
-Runs on AAA batteries
-Circuitry means it keeps the same brightness all the way through the battery life.
-Easy to scroll through patterns
-Amazing looking patterns!
-Very very bright
-Weight
-From what I can tell so far, extremely durable.

Bad:
-No swivels on mine, yeah, colecord would've been better
-The tubing is too long to do wrap combos with without it looking stupid, regular flowpoi are better for this, keep duos for more flowy spinning. It wouldn't be a problem for most, but I love wrap combos.
-Again, the size of the tube means I can't to tangles close to the head of the poi, which is preferable to me.
-No weight in the handles for throws etc.

Apart from those few qualms, they are fantastic! The length of the tubing cannot be helped, obviously, and is far from a design fault, but if you're a glow-stringer who likes wrap combos, go the regular, not duos.

Spitfire and I are thinking about buying a couple of sets of these. I know that it's really difficult to portray through a computer screen how the colours will look, so what are peoples opinions about the best colours?
Which colour combinations are your favourite? Which are the brightest?

Also, I noticed on the order form that it asks for your colour options for flowlights 1 -4.
Am I right in thinking that flowlights 1 & 2 go in one poi, and 3 & 4 go in the other? So if you want 2 identical poi, lights 1 & 3 will be the same colour and 2 & 4 will be the same colour?
Are you able to take the lights out and swap the order of them around, or are they there to stay once you've decided on the colour combo?

Red, yellow and organgey colours are much dimmer overall than blue, white and green ones. So if you want the best performance out of your poi don't go with hot colours.

Each flow toy holds 2 lights, or 1 light and 1 empty shell (as a spacer). You can adjust the order of the lights by taking them outta the case too.

Here are the colours. The love colour (pink, white, pink) sounds interesting

http://www.flowtoys.com/pages.php?pageid=25#flowlightcolors

I think a green, white, green would look quite good. They dont do this colour combo though

Thanks Rellizate, that's helpful.

I've seen the colour combos from the flowtoys site, but wondered peoples opinions of them in person. The love ones do sound quite cool- at some point I might have to purchase a couple of extra flowlights to see what they're like.
I think I'm being pulled towards all water- I prefer simple rather than a tonne of multicolours.

What colours do other people have?

2 air 2 water. The air flowlights give them added brightness whilst the water looks pretty and quite bright.

Why not try 2 water and 2 of the new water II?

I've also got 2 air and 2 water. The air ones have only a very simple look to them, if you had 2 waters, then you'd have a really bright, stand out green smack in the middle of your poi, taking away from the "solid colour" you were after. Water on the ends, green facing out with the air in the middle is what I most commonly use.

2 colours is good, anyway, because sometimes I use one all water and one all air for while I'm practicing flowers and new things... its handy to have each a different colour so you can see quickly and clearly which is which in a mirror/window.

If I were buying now I'd probably get two water and two water 2, simply because the white-blue-white can get lost with some settings, beads is the one that springs to mind, doesn't look as clear as the water ones with the clear green flashing, the blue-white-aqua may well be a tad better, who knows?

^ you could also take one of the flowlights out and use them as handles then pack the empty space with something

(something i have not yet done)

Hmmmmm... interesting thoughts.
I wish I could see the water 2 lights in action. I'm now thinking that 2 of them and 2 water would be the best way to go.

Thanks guys

I've got 2 water 2 and 2 airs, they look great. New video coming soon, although the camera really doesn't show up the colours well...

I gotta say the two new lights featuring pink are LUSH. "spirit" and "love". Really lovely, for all you pink lovers.

You got them, do you, khan??? Or have you just seen them? I'm liking the look for spirit and love. If anyones seen a video of em in action I'd love to see.

I don't have them, but I have seen them in person. I haven't purchased them yet mostly because I rarely spin poi anymore and can't justify the expenditure as a prop. I'm contemplating getting them to attach to hoops though or possibly to incorporate into costuming.