beyblades are back!

[the Earl of Whirl]

I am standing in the local Toys R Us store and Beyblades are all around me.  They have tops with trading cards, two top packages, packages with three tops, flashing light tops, launchers, key chains, an assembly chamber, full size stadiums and mobile beystadiums.  Looks like they are going all out for the holiday sales!

[RunBMC]

Thats awesome! I used to have hundreds of those, should've thought about keeping them!

[Mark Magyar]

Thanks for bringing mention to this. I was about to mention it earlier. The newer Beyblade series started a few months ago. I saw the Beyblades at Wal-Mart here where I'm at. The newer Beyblades are slightly smaller I think.. more the size of a Japan Bei-goma which they are designed after. Instead of a string to get the top started a rip-cord is used instead. So if your interested in Bei-goma Bey-blade Battle tops and up to a Beyblade battle top challenge,.. Look around in one of your local stores and you may be able to find some Beyblades. "Let It Rip!"
  http://www.beyblade.com/
http://www.beybladebattles.com/

[the Earl of Whirl]

Now that you mention it, I did notice they were smaller than earlier versions!

[Romano911]

My ten year old loves his beyblades.  The new ones seem very well constructed -- very solid, with a good heft and rim weight.  We have had quite a few top battles between his beyblades and my sidewinder and trompo.  Good times! 

[Eric]

Eight or ten years ago, my boys and a bunch of their friends were big into Beyblades.  I helped them mod their Beyblades and we even made our own arenas.  One kid in the neighborhood had every Beyblade and accessory and he kept beating Woody and Noah. So.....I made some Beyblades for them out of the heaviest, densest hardwoods available; Lignum Vitae, Ebony and Cocobolo.  I designed them so that they were about the same dimensions as production Beyblades and cut slots in the tops so they worked with the standard launchers.  Because of the woods I used, our wooden Beyblades weighed twice what an average Beyblade weighs. 
The next weekend the neighborhood kids got together to play and my boys were literally unbeatable......the weekend after that, the majority of the kids declared that my wooden Beyblades were illegal............

[ta0]

Ha! That's a great story, Eric!

Are the new "stadiums" any good for our battle tops? From the previous iteration I got a cute folding arena (but I have not used it).

I can imagine a viral youtube video: beyblades are combating when a peg tops come crashing down, piercing the beyblades and cleaning the arena 

[the Earl of Whirl]

The arena I saw seemed a little too small and the sides were a little too steep from my experiences.

[Eric]

Some of the commercially available Beyblade arenas are shaped well enough for our top battling; however, they're molded from relatively thin plastic, one good kill shot (death from above) and good bye arena.....

[the Earl of Whirl]

Yes, that is right Eric.  What I felt was very thin plastic and it would get pretty beat up from even one of our gentle battles.  Actually, one of those beat up arenas might make a good picture!

[topper777]

i went to kmart this evening to pick up some gifts for my church and found beyblades. i was like a kid again. excited i grabbed the last 4 and picked out the 2 best. the first one is big and my favorite color, green. i bought that one for myself. the other one had 2 beyblades in it and they were much smaller. the last thing i needed was a battlefield. i chose the yellow one. i hope whomever gets the blades and the battle field is happy this Christ mas!!!

[Mark Magyar]

i went to kmart this evening to pick up some gifts for my church and found beyblades. i was like a kid again. excited i grabbed the last 4 and picked out the 2 best. the first one is big and my favorite color, green. i bought that one for myself. the other one had 2 beyblades in it and they were much smaller. the last thing i needed was a battlefield. i chose the yellow one. i hope whomever gets the blades and the battle field is happy this Christ mas!!!

What a great gift.
I sure would be happy if I received BeyBlades for a gift.
I also like the Green Leo lion top...

Happy Holidays
Happy Spinning,
_Mark Magyar

[Mark Magyar]

Yesterday here where I'm at,  I went to a thrift store named GoodWill.
When there I found a good amount of original spare BeyBlade parts.
I was able to mix match some of the parts and put together three now spin capable BeyBlades.  ^_^   Let it Rip...

[ta0]

I love this video of a Kenkagoma Koma battle between a father and a son. The arena is a "drum" similar to those used for Beigoma (the forerunner of the Beyblades): 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1K8opYTytZk

Note that they wrap the tops the same as we do, but they throw tip down, palm up.

[lincolnrick]

We were talking at Madfest about how the battle is so different when one of the contestants is left-handed.  It's not that case here but now I look for that when I see battle top videos.  Thanks ta0 for posting that.