You never know who may drop in during the free yo-yo sessions Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle's Toys offers every Saturday morning.
But Steve Brown, one of eight National Yo-Yo Masters (there are four Grand Masters), was way over the top.
"He was really awesome," recalled Meghann Milligan, 21, who has worked at the toy store at 4811 E. Grant Road five years.
"He was just so nonchalant about the tricks he was doing. I was like a kid in a candy store," she said. "It made me want to go play with my yo-yos for vast amount of hours."
Milligan is usually one of the folks offering instruction on yo-yos and juggling between 9 and 11 a.m. Saturdays. "Yo-yoing is addictive. Once you start you don't want to stop. You want to learn the next trick up."
Yo-yos are no longer just kid stuff. She estimated that some of the store's regulars are in their mid-20s.
Thought to be the world's second-oldest toy ("There are Greek statues dating from the B.C. era depicting children with yo-yos. Isn't that awesome?" Milligan said), yo-yos are also an emerging pursuit with Old Skool (the classic style that uses wooden yo-yos) and New School (which has developed with the invention of transaxle yo-yos). There are even off-string maneuvers.
"I actually think it's getting more popular." Milligan, an anthropology junior at the University of Arizona, says she noticing more people practicing around campus. "I usually carry about two in my purse at all times. . . . It's very relaxing," she said.
The hardest trick she knows is 'cold fusion'. "That is a multi-level string trick. I don't even know how to describe it. It starts off with a 'trapeze,' " she said, rating it a 7 on a scale of 10. "My specialty is barrel rolls."
Surprisingly, Milligan only started getting into yo-yos about year and a half ago. She now describes them as a "partial obsession of mine" and owns a dozen.
Mrs. Tiggy-Winkles offers a range of yo-yos, ranging from models for beginners that start at around $12 to some high-end ones for about $52 that endure all skill levels.
A deal, obviously, compared with Sony's PlayStation 3.
So, considering this is the gift-giving season, who is a good candidate for a yo-yo?
"If you have someone who is really into skill toys or likes doing things with their hands, or enjoys learning patterns or manipulating toys, then a yo-yo is really probably up their alley. It's a great learning toy," Milligan said.
And one last question about Brown, who was in Tucson for an another event earlier this fall and made time to come by the store: Does he really have the Yo-Yo Master crest tattooed on the back of his head?
"Yes. He really did," she said. "That's dedication."