At my house, we Beyblade. We have several different types, a stadium to battle in, and guess what? It is fun. My two boys really enjoy blading, and have even gotten me interested in it.

Competition at my house gets quite fierce some times and a girl just has to have her own reliable equipment. My blade is a Beyblade Spin Dragoon Attack-Type Basic Top Starter Set. It comes with the components to build a Spin Dragoon and a basic rip cord. We also have a Beyblade Stadium that we do our battling in. I really recommend having a stadium if you are going to battle as these little tops spin pretty fast and can bounce and hit you when attacked by another Beyblade if you are battling on a flat surface instead of inside a concave stadium.

I was first introduced to Beyblading when one of my sons found a new show that he wanted to watch on television. Our house rule for new shows is that either me or my husband have to watch them first, then we decide if the kids can watch. Anyway, I watched an episode. And I liked it. Well, I didn’t actually like the show too much, but I liked it when they bladed. It reminded me of the old whizzers that my siblings and I had when we were kids. The new tops are smaller and tougher and function with a rip cord for maximum spin and speed.

What exactly is a Beyblade?

They are really high performance tops. We have several different types, but they are have the same basic parts. Each Blade is made up of several components that you assemble until you have the perfect little fighting top. There are four primary components of a Beyblade. These are interchangeable with so you can customize your blade if you so choose. As taken from the Hasboro website, these components are:

Attack ring: determines how your Beyblade will attack your opponent and how strong an attack you'll achieve
Weight disc: determines how well your Beyblade will balance and how long it will spin
Spin gear: affects what direction your top will spin
Blade base: determines where your Beyblade will move

Another interchangeable component is the bit chip, but this is more of a decoration and doesn’t affect the battling power of a Beyblade.

As I said before, I have the Spin Dragoon, which is an attack type blade. I haven’t customized it. I used the stock parts it came with to assemble it and have been very satisfied with its battling capabilities. I do have to say that before I perfected my rip (how you pull the rip cord), I didn’t win many battle. Once I mastered that, I can beat my children’s endurance type blades easily.

How do you battle?

Battling is generally done ins a Beystadium. As I said before, stadiums are really a necessity to prevent injuries. To begin an official battle, you must use the official battle cry of 3,2,1 Let it rip! (Really, this is the truth. Check out the official rules.) You launch your blades (only one launch for each battle) and that battle is over when only one blade is left spinning. We play that the last blade spinning wins, but here is an actual scoring method. As per the Hasboro website:

Only one launch per battle -- battle ends when one top stops spinning
If player touches opponent during opponent's launch of top, player loses 1 point
Player scores 1 point if opponent does not launch top into the BEYSTADIUM
If player's top enters one of the three penalty pockets anytime during battle, opponent scores 2 points (max score of 2 points per battle)
Player scores 1 point if his/her top spins longer than opponent's top
If player touches BEYSTADIUM during battle, opponent scores 3 points-battle immediately over
Compete in multiple battles-the player with 7 or more points at the completion of a battle wins!

Miscellaneous Information:

You can purchase a variety of Beyblades. I was looking at the new generation of blades on the Hasboro website (Hasboro.com) and noted that my blade is not in the line up. If a Spin Dragoon is on your shopping list, you might have to stick to secondary markets like ebay to locate one.

You can also purchase a variety of launchers. The basic set comes with a standard ripcord, but there are two pistol-type launchers available

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 6.99
Age Range of Child: Whole Family