Based my first LEGO string-pull top starter on Japanese examples like so...
Then I met master French top-maker Christian Laloye at the Marines Festival in February. And he showed me that for this purpose, ribbon is vastly superior to string.
Over the years, I've come up with electric, pneumatic, spring-powered, string-powered, and gear-driven starters (examples
here,
here, and
here). Most work well, and some are quite fun in their own right.
The "ribbon-pull" starters below are my most recent, and what's not to like? They're small in size and weight but big on power and versatility. They're easy and fun to use, have a pleasing mechanical feel, and even rewind automatically. And they allow fine control over the torque, speed, and tilt applied to the top.
One of the best things about ribbon-pulls: A top with a medium to large axial moment of inertia (AMI) and a medium to low center of mass (CM) can carry one on its stem, just as Japanese string-pull tops often do! The 5 tops at 0:48 are good examples, though the green and orange Airjitzu top at 4:06 struggles somewhat due to its relatively small AMI and high CM.
At 5:13, I also show 2 detaching ribbon-pulls. These are analogous to the string-pull "handles" used to start tops around the world, but they're easier to use and much more compact. One transfers torque to the top via dog clutch. The other has a loosely fitting drop-out chuck for my usual LEGO cross-axle top stems.
The first 8 tops shown can take any speed a ribbon-pull can dish out. But the last (8:37) literally explodes at the highest ribbon-pull speeds. (Some of the pieces are still MIA.) The reason: Studded connections tend to have unfavorable orientations when it comes to resisting centrifugal force in a rapidly spinning LEGO top. In this example, the gold conical hats and the white bricks around the top's periphery tend to fly off first.
