iTopSpin

I was looking for some spintops in the SpinGear site when I found several interesting finger tops. I ordered these ones (about $10 each):

Sakurakoma (cherry blossom top) opens by centrifugal force: not a new idea but a good implementation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNnWm_z37To

Go-En Koma: fits the included 5 yen coin (with the whole in the center) inside:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6en49T0EHY8

The Taorenado I got mainly because of the name:



Of course, something called tao should be very balanced even if it's a tornado!

I like the sakurakoma. It's fun, a nice design, and the opening mechanism seems well designed and well built.

Lots of fun stuff. The sakurakoma is nice and would attract a lot of people to the spinning world. Taorenado sounds cool. You did not happen to see an Earlrenado, did you?

I already received the tops (I got free EMS shipping because of the order total).

The Sakurakoma and Taorenado tops are made by the same company and are of good quality. Because it's a contract design and manufacturing company (www.swany-ina.com) and the tops are 2 cm wide (at rest) I suspect these are spinoffs of the finger top battles (koma taisen) that we discussed before. In fact, the Sakurakoma looks like the expanding (but all metal) top that we saw in several battles.

The Balancing Taorenado is advertised as a top that refuses to fall:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CP8BOiLSdU

I found why the name (not because of me ): the verb taoreru means to fall. Taorenai is the negative: will not fall. According to my phone visual translator, on the back it says that: "the secret is the high center of gravity and exquisite balance". I think that the real secret is the large ball tip . Perhaps the effect is more spectacular because the top is narrow and tall. The only English in the package is this well known quote: "The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."

The Go-En koma is a Taka design. Go (five) and En (yen) refer to these 5 yen coins with their unusual hole. But from the package we learn that goen also means: ". . . human relationship. For Japanese, goen is very important for happy life."

Some entertaining finger tops you have there, ta0. Gotta make a LEGO version of the Go En koma to explore the effects of adding rotor mass during spin-down.

Behavior-wise, the Taorenado reminds me of some of these small high-CM tops -- e.g., at 6:31 and 3:24.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_btrG34M0Q

Centrifugal tops really tickle me, and the sakurakoma is a fine example. Here's one of my more recent efforts in this genre. The variant at 3:24 to 4:59 is one of my favorites.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG-szSIt84A

Very nice tops, Jeremy.

If my theory is correct, the sakurakoma's origin was a top designed to circumvent the 20mm limit rule for taisen battletops.