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[Eric]

As Guilia di Legno #9 headed off to Paris, Jim fired off a "return pack" to Chicago.  I got three very cool tops:



1. A mini finger spun top made by Philippe that can be spun upside-down on it's shaft, or rightside-up on a tiny point hidden inside the cone.
2. A Ball-and-stem "flip back" top, turned by Jim after one of Philippe's designs.  When you start it it begins spinning on the long stem; give it a nudge and it flips to the short stem and continues spinning.
3. An "Anagyre".....a symmetrically shaped wooden leaf-shaped thing, spin it clockwise and it spins fine; spin it counterclockwise and it says "NO", stop, and starts spinning clockwise.....see below:

http://public.fotki.com/YoEric/turnings-fall-2010/dsc-0001.html

Thanks Jim !!!

[Free]

a wooden leaf that knows what it wants, that's awesome. 

[ta0]

That was a great package!

The finger top is very nice. Because the inner point is very close to the center of mass it will precess very slowly if it precesses at all.

The long spinning top is one of my top favorite tops. Besides the flip-back action, it is great to see it spinning at a very large angle when it starts. And then if you hit the bulb down it will show a lively bouncing up and down. I believe that is called nutation which is difficult to notice with our tops (although all tops have it).

The Rattleback (Anagyre is a new name for me) is another amazing top. I read that it was discovered by an archeologist spinning some stone artifacts (Celts used to be a name for them).  From your video that one works very well.

[the Earl of Whirl]

Great to see all the spin top action between the US and France.  Actually, we have had one awesome year for spin top trading with trompos and toupies and trottolas and more!

[Free]

This is not as cool as Eric's wooden one but I saw this today and was a bit surprised to see an Anagyre made out of plastic. The packaging calls it the Rattle Back.

[pplgrande]

I never seen anything like that leaf, very very nice, thanks for posting

[jim in paris]

hello !
thanx for the report !!

for me I take as much pleasure preparing , wrapping ,stamping and sending a package as receiving one

let's keep the flux of exchanges between players at a high level

i'm already planning a few TopPacks ready to go for new year

cheers

jim

[ta0]

There are two basic types of Rattlebacks: those with asymmetric hulls and those with asymmetric weighting, like this  Russian Rattleback from Grand Illusions:



They also have the traditional one.

A new thing Grand Illusions has is a "Steam Powered Top". It is quite a stretch to call it a top. In fact, it is not. But it would be very neat if somebody devised a true steam powered spintop. I have no idea how it could be done.  Mmm, probably somebody would have already done it in the 1800's if it was easy.