Saw this LEGO kit on Amazon

[JODA9395]

Saw this and thought of Jeremy.

[Jeremy McCreary]

Good find! That may well be the first-ever LEGO set specifically designed to make true spinning tops -- with a cool starter and suggested experiments. Instructions are dated 2008. (Only took 'em 50 years.) Lesson plan site here.

However, this set was never sold in retail stores. Anyone can buy from LEGO Education, but schools are their target market.

The first retail sets specifically designed to make true spinning tops came out under the Ninjago Airjitzu name ca. 2015. Unlike the Ninjago Spinjitzu spintoys introduced ca. 2011, the ripcord-launched Airjitzu tops actually fall over at rest. You can even do tricks -- including something akin to a boomerang. But poor aerodynamics, an unfavorable mass distribution, and a suboptimal tip keep spin times on the ground quite short.

Much better true ripcord tops came out ca. 2017 under the name Ninago Spinjitzu Masters. Good fun for $10 with decent performance. A Masters of Spinjitzu line of so-so tops of very different design followed.



That said, the best LEGO tops are the ones you make yourself from loose parts, often from several different sets.

Surprisingly few good top-making parts have come out of the sets above -- mainly for lack of useful connections. The one spectacular exception: The Spinjitzu turntable, with an internal metal weight ring and good aerodynamics. Below is my longest-spinning LEGO design ever -- up to 5 minutes with starter -- with 2 fluorescent blue turntables sandwiched together. Three single-turntable tops join in but fall long before the blue one.

No need to suffer through the whole thing...

https://youtu.be/52Sw7xaJqQA

[JODA9395]

That's what's so great about legos. Not everyone has access to wood or a wood lathe. But almost everyone has some lego pieces lying around.
The versatility is almost limitless. Maybe I'll make a lego beyblade one day.

[Jeremy McCreary]

That's what's so great about legos. Not everyone has access to wood or a wood lathe. But almost everyone has some lego pieces lying around.
The versatility is almost limitless. Maybe I'll make a lego beyblade one day.

Every time I think I've found all the good top-making parts in the definitive catalog at www.bricklink.com, I find 3 more. There's no end to it.

Before COVID, I'd show my tops at a dozen regional LEGO shows per year. Many have been real crowd-pleasers. Given all the LEGO in circulation, and the versatility you mentioned, I kept expecting to hear, "Yeah, we've made tops, too."

Instead, all I hear is "Wow, we have a ton of LEGO but never thought to make tops."

Sadly, I think that shows just how far outside the collective consciousness tops have become.

[Texture]

Jeremy, have you seen this one?

[Jeremy McCreary]

Cool! I'm all for top starters.

Looks like an unofficial third-party set pulled from genuine LEGO parts. You can apparently make money at that.

[JODA9395]

That's what's so great about legos. Not everyone has access to wood or a wood lathe. But almost everyone has some lego pieces lying around.
The versatility is almost limitless. Maybe I'll make a lego beyblade one day.

Every time I think I've found all the good top-making parts in the definitive catalog at www.bricklink.com, I find 3 more. There's no end to it.

Before COVID, I'd show my tops at a dozen regional LEGO shows per year. Many have been real crowd-pleasers. Given all the LEGO in circulation, and the versatility you mentioned, I kept expecting to hear, "Yeah, we've made tops, too."

Instead, all I hear is "Wow, we have a ton of LEGO but never thought to make tops."

Sadly, I think that shows just how far outside the collective consciousness tops have become.

hehe, well we are engaging in a niche hobby. I feel that maybe tops will be on top again, pun intended. I mean, it happened with pogs after all.