CLYW & Factor 5; It’s Time To Put a Yeti in a Spaceship

CLYW dropped some news this morning about their Metal Yeti yo-yos that they released 2 months ago. The news stirred up some feelings of nostalgia deep within my being. At the risk of leaving too large a clue of just how old I may or may not be, I would like to tell a story now.

A long, long time ago…

I graduated from high school in the late 1990’s, an era when the Nintendo64 was still new and exciting. I moved out of my parent’s house and into a small apartment with my friends. Soon after, I went to the mall and scooped up an N64 and a few games. Yes, of course I got GoldenEye, but I also got Star Wars: Rogue Squadron.

My roommates and I did the very responsible, young-adult thing, and spent nearly every waking moment eating chicken wings and playing Rogue Squadron. Through much frustration, celebration, and lots and lots of time, we finally achieved our goal of getting gold medals on every single mission. It was a magnificent achievement and a memory I am actually quite fond of.

Months later, if maybe even a year or more, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace was coming to theaters. We, like everybody else in the world, were beside ourselves with excitement. Side story: My roommates and I were actually the first people in line for the movie in our town, and we were in the newspaper about it. Yes, we were THAT cool.

Reflections and opinions about the movie itself aside, it was undeniably a big deal and it brought with it a ton of new Star Wars toys, lore, worlds, aliens, and vehicles. The highlight of all of it for me, though, was when this story about Rogue Squadron broke on IGN. The Naboo Starfighter, a vehicle that we had not seen until it appeared in the Phantom Menace, was hidden in the game the entire time and nobody had any idea. I maintain that this remains the best (only?) kept secret in videogame history and I still applaud Factor 5 and LucasArts for pulling it off.

Meanwhile, back in the present…

Ok, so what is this all that about? Well, those feelings of applause and excitement for a well-executed secret are back. This time it’s for what CLYW just pulled off.

CLYW has let us know in a recent Instagram post that their Metal Yeti yo-yos, which they dropped on January 24th, have been a delivery mechanism for a super cool giveaway all this time, and we had no idea. Not even the retailers knew about it. It turns out that one of each colorway has a special engraving underneath the snow tire response pad, which if’n yours has it, entitles you to an extremely limited golden colored Akita. HOW FUN IS THIS?

There may be some voices out there saying this is just a marketing stunt to sell some snow tires or more Yetis, but I say “bah” to that. It’s fun, and I’m happy to play along. I scooped myself up a metal Yeti this morning and I look forward to taking a peek behind the pad.

The featured image for this post was shamelessly stolen from the CLYW Facebook page.