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[Larry D.]

On the Spin top Snipers video, did anyone else notice the segment at about 0:48, in which the tops are th r own to land (and spin) on their crowns?  Very cool....

Another video showing the Taiwan tops spinning on their crowns can be seen here;
(I also included some close-up photos of the top including the tip on the crown in that posting).
http://www.ta0.com/forum/index.php/topic,3722.0.html

[Jeremy McCreary]

One of my Japanese koma books has it listed as Higo Koma. It seems that Higo is a somewhat generic name: it might translate as "fat rear"

You know how languages are always borrowing handy words from other languages? I'd say that's a word we need to borrow here in The Land of the Super-Sized.

Of course, it wouldn't apply to my rear. No siree, not mine. Is there a catchy Japanese word for "wide load"?

[trav1121]

I received my Higo Koma today and I can't seem to figure out how to wind the top, let alone throw it . I tried winding it like an ordinary top with no luck, the cord just keeps slipping off. Any help would be much appreciated.
EDIT: I found this video suggesting that you should wind it from the bottom up. I've tried this method with no luck, I've been spending much of my afternoon trying different methods and none of them have worked.
The video:

[ta0]

Yes, you wind up from the bottom up as it does not have a crown.
You need a thick cord.
Put one or two wraps on the tip going down, come back up over them and add a new wrap between the body and the tip, pulling hard. This should give you a good base to do the rest of the wrap.
I think there is a video of Larry showing a similar technique for another ethnic top.

You can throw it as a regular top or you could use one of the methods shown on the video: those are sasebo komas from the same region as the higo koma.
However, each style of throw may require a different length for the wrap.

When mine arrive from Japan I could make a video, but you'll get the throw before that.

[Larry D.]

I think there is a video of Larry showing a similar technique for another ethnic top.

Here's the video... I hope it helps:


Best of luck!

[trav1121]

Yes, you wind up from the bottom up as it does not have a crown.
You need a thick cord.
Put one or two wraps on the tip going down, come back up over them and add a new wrap between the body and the tip, pulling hard. This should give you a good base to do the rest of the wrap.
I think there is a video of Larry showing a similar technique for another ethnic top.

You can throw it as a regular top or you could use one of the methods shown on the video: those are sasebo komas from the same region as the higo koma.
However, each style of throw may require a different length for the wrap.

When mine arrive from Japan I could make a video, but you'll get the throw before that.

It came with a pretty thick rope-like cord that is around 38" in length. Should there be a knot in both ends of the cord or just the end that's held in the hand? I tried it wrapped the way you said with and without the knot(on the end that wraps around the top) and it seems to work better without the knot on the end. It doesn't seem to spin as fast as I thought it would but this may be due to how hard I'm throwing(trying not to knock myself out) or the string length (which seems a little short for my liking). Thanks again, this helped a ton.
PS: I also tried Larry's method and while it did work effectively, the extra cord length used to wrap around the top of the top(lol) took away from the spin a bit (definitely gonna look for a longer rope-like cord). Thanks

[ta0]

I got mine today. Both have a sticker on one side that says Higo Koma and one on the other side that says Kumamoto souvernir. Kumamoto is a city in the island of Kyushu, indeed.

They did not come with a rope so I used the one from my 5" HDPE top (about 5mm thickness) and it worked fine. They do spin slower than a regular size hollow top, but acceptable considering the long tip. I spun them on the ground and also did boomerangs, throwing them like regular tops. While the stickers were still intact I put them in the display cabinet.

[cecil]

His video got 12,099 hits on you tube The best I've got with this is 811. And I have to take this to the GRAVE. I'll say this again. WHERE IS THE JUSTICE?

[Larry D.]

WHERE IS THE JUSTICE?

As I told you 3 years ago...

"Funny how that works Cecil.
It must be my devastatingly good looks!"

LOL

[the Earl of Whirl]

"devastatingly good"!!!  I like that phrase and description.  Thanks for the smiles, Larry D.

[cecil]

Ok. Maybe it's time to dye the hair. And maybe some Botox.