Picture this: you’re an early 2000’s kid, let’s say 2010. You’re entering into second grade. Life couldn’t be better. While you’re waiting outside for the doors of school to open, you look to your left by the fence and see a weird group of kids squatting over some weird cone looking thing. You’re naturally curious, so you walk on over to investigate. And that’s when you see it.
Two kids are holding these weird plastic platform looking things, with a little chord with teeth in the other hand. They’re shouting like crazy, and you hear this really powerful metallic whir, like an airplane taking off. You look down at the weird cone thing. And see two metal tops colliding into each other.
At first, you’re probably like “What the hell is this?” But the more you watch, the better you understand. That’s Beyblade. And it’s AWESOME…unless you’re an adult.
Beyblades have been around for a long while, originally coming out in 1999 by a company known as Takara, which later merged into Tomy to become Takara Tomy. While they became widely popular in Japan, it took a little while for it to reach North American markets. Around 2002, the UK got a taste for Beyblade, and it quickly shot up in popularity, becoming toy of the year in 2004.
Eventually, the US would finally get a taste for Beyblade in 2008, with the release of the second generation of Beyblade toys under the “Beyblade: Metal Burst” toy line. These Beyblades were made with stronger metal, and specialized more with specific types of Beyblade tips for fighting.
Now, I know what you may be thinking: “But…they’re TOPS. Not, like, playing cards or anything. What’s so special about them?” Well, dingus, my answer is that you really have to be there to get it.
Beyblades are a playground or schoolyard toy. You don’t have Beyblades at home unless you’re getting new ones or fixing more up. No, you bring them to school to battle your friends. You bring them to trade and have competitions and play for keeps. That’s the joy of Beyblades.
Toys in the early 2000’s were hit or miss sometimes. Sure, there were cool ones, but none of them really truly inspired that sense of school community like Beyblades did. They were essentially Tamagotchis for Gen Z kids (even though Tamagotchis are still around, but shut up, will ya?!). They inspire this sense of personality that you don’t really get that often, especially with toys.
Beyblades came with characters you could link yourself to and believe in. Beyblades were this weird cultural fad for school students because they were awesome: I can have my metal top hit into another kid’s metal top?! And I can do that as much as I want?! Awesome!
That was another aspect that kids could get behind: Beyblades weren’t your momma’s toy. They were metal. They hurt. And that made them cool. The danger inherent in them (which wasn’t actually that dangerous) inspired us to look at them like they were taboo. And who doesn’t love breaking the rules? Nerds and pansies, that’s who.
Beyblades would fade from popularity like so many things do. Time moves forward, but Beyblades can only spin. Still, it’s nice to take a step back and remember a time where, for just a small fraction of a second, every kid in class had something to prove; that they had the best battle top.