I have been playing with the latest product (has been out for an year, I think) from the Aerobie company:
Megatop. It is billed as an "utra-high performance spinning top."
Coming from the inventor (Alan Adler) and the company that developed the Aerobie flying ring, Guinness World Record of the "longest throw of an object without any velocity-aiding feature," you would expect something really good. It was a disappointment.
I guess the top was designed with the idea of a high-endurance whip top. It does spin long on a flat hard surface. I got over 4 minutes the only time I clocked it and I am sure I could get more. But even as an endurance top it is not much fun: being close to the ground the magic of a standing top defying gravity is lost. Neither does it have much of a "dance" so battles won't be exciting.
The silicon-type whip works acceptably well and I prefer it to string or leather whips. But it is short and you cannot whip it on the floor while standing up.
It is also advertised for: "Fun Tricks & Games." The back of the package says: "Invent new Megatop tricks and games . . . will post them on our website . . . send us your video . . . Maybe it would work for games (it looks like a hockey puck) but for tricks it is terrible: I don't know what they were thinking. The official video shows as much as it can be done: boomerang to the catching plate, throwing the top and catching it again on the plate (with a pirouette if you are really good) and passing the top between players.
The top can be spun on either the lower (spherical) or upper (cylindrical) tips, but these "tips" are completely useless for tricking. What's more, they are so short that the top cannot be spun on the hand! The plate and the top are made of hard plastic, so landing the top on the plate without the top bouncing off is not easy. I am surprised that Aerobie that uses rubbery materials for many of its products (including the Megatop whip) would not make a plate that would dampen the bouncing of the top.
For me the most interesting thing is the way it is thrown. It uses just a 27cm (11") long string wrapped only once around the periphery but still claims to get 3000 RPMs (I have not checked it but looks about right). I need to try something like this with our tops.
When I first tried to boomerang this thing I thought it was almost impossible until I saw the official video. Now I have got pretty good at it. You need to throw the top almost straight up (but with the axle remaining vertical)! But I cannot get as much speed as with a ground throw. The top can be whipped and kept going while on the plate.
After much thinking, the only "new trick" I could come up with is a sort of "fetch the stick." I throw it to the ground spinning on its edge so it grinds and comes back to me. Then I try to scoop it with the plate and hopefully end with the top spinning normally on it. I haven't decided if I will send the video to Aerobie.