Beyblade (toy)

Beyblade (ベイブレード Beiburedo) is a line of high-performance spinning top toys originally developed and manufactured by Takara starting in 2000. Both the toys and their name were inspired by "Beigoma", a traditional spinning top. The introduction of the toy corresponded with the broadcast of the Beyblade anime television series of the same name. In 2002, Hasbro began to sell Beyblade toys internationally (under license from, and produced by, Takara) along with a coordinated country-by-country rollout of localized versions of the TV series. The Beyblade toy line went on to be one of the most popular toy lines in the world from 2000–2005. In August 2008, Takara Tomy released a new generation of Beyblade with a metal outer layer; the first incarnation of the toy in three and a half years. from the Basic System through the Heavy/Hard Metal System, Beyblades were categorized as Attack, Defense, Combination, or Endurance Types, but when the Hybrid Wheel System was introduced, the Combination and Endurance Types were renamed as Balance and Stamina Types, respectively. These Beyblades may have pictures on them that symbolizes a creature (known as a Bit-Beast) which shows what the Beyblade does, or looks like. In Beyblade Metal Fusion, they have symbols on them that represent one of the 88 known constellations in space, while in the 4D series, beyblades are named after planets and constellations.

Basic System

The "Basic System" tops are the first generation of Beyblade tops. They are made entirely of plastic, with the exception of Weight Disks and some tips. These Beyblades consist of four basic parts:

• Bit Chip: A decorative plate inserted into the Attack Ring of the Beyblade, adorned with a small icon of a mythical creature. In the anime, these creatures' souls were actually housed in the Beyblades themselves.
• Attack Ring (AR): The Attack Ring determines the blade's effect when it impacts against its opponent, as this is normally the first part to come into contact with the opposing blade. Also, the Attack Ring holds the Bit Chip in place on the top, preventing it from coming off mid-battle.
• Weight Disk (WD): The metal Weight Disk adds weight to the bey, makng it harder to bash around.
• Blade Base (BB): The Performance Tip determines how the Beyblade spins, and also affects its movement pattern. The Blade Base determines the direction of the Beyblade's rotation; either clockwise (right) or counterclockwise (left) dependent on what Spin Gear is used. The BB is attached to the AR

The first tops consisted of a four-layer part system: Bit Chip, Attack Ring, Weight Disk, and Blade Base; the Spin Gear would lock into the Blade Base, essentially making the top only four layers after initial construction. Upon the arrival of the S- and F-series Beyblades, Sub-Attack Rings were introduced that were removable and interchangeable, thus creating a five-layer system.

Magnacore System (MG)

Introduced with the V-series, the "Magnacore" line of Beyblade toys featured magnetic Spin Gears and Weight Disks to attract or repel blades from each other. Additionally, one could purchase magnets that were affixed to the bottom of one's Beystadium, which affected the movement patterns of the Beyblades.

Engine Gear System (EG)

Engine Gear tops were introduced with the G-series, and retain the same major design of a typical Beyblade, including a Bit Piece, an Attack Ring, a Weight Disk, and a Blade Base; Engine Gear tops, however, replace the typical Spin Gear with a more advanced Engine Gear, which affects the behavior of the top during the battle. Each Engine Gear includes a Turbo Winder to wind-up the engine core. When in action, the Blade Base releases the Engine Gear determined by the Blade Base's clutch lock system. This series of beyblades were the last ones to be made of plastic parts with the exception of the weight disks. The later ones were semi metal or completely metal.

Engine gear types

• Engine Gear: The default engine gear that comes with most beyblades in G-revolution, but their tip is varied.
• Turbo Engine Gear: First released with the left-spinning Dragoon GT, the Turbo Engine Gear gives an even more powerful release than that of the original engine gear that comes with a larger turbo winder.
• Reverse Gear: The Engine Gear spins in the opposite direction of the rest of the top. This engine gear is only bundled with Dranzer GT, which uses this gear for a reverse zig-zag attack. Although this attack can be very effective, the beyblade loses spin when the gear kicks in. As with Dragoon GT, it comes with a larger turbo winder.
• Gyro Engine Gear: This unique type allows the tip of the Beyblade to spin independently. Thus the beyblade can be launched without a launcher, as a ripcord can be inserted into the beyblade.

Blade base types

• Instant Release or First Clutch: The Engine Gear triggers at the beginning of the battle, resulting in a large burst of speed almost immediately after launch.
• Steady Release: The Engine Gear triggers at the beginning of the battle, but releases earlier because of the weight of the beyblade on the larger or wider revolving blade base, which is attached directly to the engine gear. Used in Rock Bison and Wolborg 4.
• Hit Release or Final Clutch: The Engine Gear triggers when the blade base collides with an object, or when the beyblade is running out of spin, and releases a quick burst of speed. The clutches must be pulled prior to winding the spin gear.
• Middle Clutch: Built exclusively for Dranzer GT, the middle clutch has a similar design to the final clutch base, but releases the engine gear in the middle of the match; earlier than a final clutch but not instant as in the First Clutch base.

Customizable engine weights

For the 2 GT Series Beyblades that were released, the Engine Gear that comes with them is intended for use with the Customizable Engine Weight of each top. The Engine Gears, however, can fit with the "Clutch" bases.

Hard Metal System (HMS)

Beyblade HMS (Hard Metal System) is a line of Beyblade toys released after the Engine Gear line of blades in respect to the anime series. This series, unlike ones in the past, use smaller pieces made mostly of metal. HMS Beyblades have a distinct advantage over previously released Beyblades, that being that their spin velocities are 1.5-2x faster.^[1]

These tops are composed of a four-layer part system:

• Bit Protector: This holds the parts together, unlike its plastic counterpart, the Bit Chip, which was merely decorative. With the release of the first 5 HMS Beyblades, 2 different stickers for made for the Bit Protector, one of a "bit beast" and one of the emblem. The emblem stickers were the only ones that appeared in later Beyblade toys.
• Attack Ring: This is composed of an inner metal part screwed to an outer ABS caul. Typically there would be a ring made of plastic that connected to the second ring made of metal. The attack rings were fashioned in tons of different styles.
• Weight Disk: HMS Weight Disks are completely circular, unlike plastic Weight Disks which were shaped as hexa-, octa-, and decagons. There are also Customizable Weight Disks, which have plastic and metal parts, the plastic parts giving the Weight Disk a certain feature.
• Running Core: The Blade Base of HMS. It goes through the weight disk & attack ring and attaches to the Bit Protector.

HMS blades do not use Spin Gears or Engine Gears, nor do they require them since the blade can be launched from both spin directions. This is possible through the HMS Neo Dual Launcher, which allows such spin-changing.These beyblades were the last ones corresponding to the Original series. A few years later, a new show under the name Metal Fight Beyblade, (Beyblade: Metal Fusion in North America) with new characters and Beyblades made in the same scale as HMS Beyblades, but with a completely different structure, was introduced.

Hybrid Wheel System (HWS)

This system was released in 2008 in Japan and in 2010 worldwide. It introduces new components making the Beyblades more complex including a wheel made of polycarbonate and more technically advanced bottoms. These kinds of Beyblades are part of Metal Fusion.

Names of Beyblades can now be determined by their parts. For example, Storm Pegasus 105RF has a 'Pegasus' Energy Ring, 'Storm' Fusion Wheel, '105(10.5mm)' Spin Track, and a 'RF (Rubber Flat)' bottom/performance tip.

• Face Bolt: Playing a much larger role than the Bit Chip, the face is the screw that holds all parts together.
• Energy Ring: These are composed of CPC (Polycarbonate). Aerodynamics sometimes are a factor, and are used as a hold for the launcher hooks.
• Fusion Wheel: These create a frame for the Energy Ring and make the most contact with the opposing beyblade.
• Spin Track: These determine the height of the Beyblade. Some are just heights (145,100,230,etc), but some also have special features, such as metal balls (GB145/Gravity Bowl 145), down-force fans (DF145/Down Force 145, UW145/Upper Wing 145, T125/Tornado 125) claws (C145/Claw 145, WD145/Wide Defense 145), spinning horns (H145/Horn 145, ED145/Eternal Defense 145) and height switch track (Change Heght 120/CH120 and TH170/Triple Height 170).
• Performance Tip: In this system, there are new Performance Tips to ensure greater performance, and have distinct classes; Attack tips are flat for aggresive movement (F,HF,CS [sometimes] RF,R2F,MF,etc.), Defense Tips are high friction (CS [sometimes],RS,RSF, etc] While Stamina Tips are low-friction sharp/round tips and sometimes free-spinning tips [Eternal tips] (WD,PD,SD,D,EDF,etc)

Beyblade/Metal System(Pre-HWS)

Beyblades have 4 different parts(instead of 5 from the Hybrid Wheel System):

• Face Bolt: A screw with a colorful sticker that holds the bey together.

• Wheel: A metal part that attacks and comes with stickers for color.

• Spin Track: It shows the height of the beyblade

• Performance Tip: It determines how the beyblade will move and attack.

4D System

4D system beyblades are the newest series of beyblades to be released on 28th March 2011. There are several differences between this and the HWS beyblade. Firstly,The Metal Wheel of this series is divided into multiple parts. Second, the clear wheels are made of a heavier, stronger material.^[2] Third, it uses a piece that is a fusion of the track and bottom, known as the 4D Bottom. An example is Big Bang Pegasis F:D. F:D stands for Final Drive, the name of the part.

Face(Facebolt) - Keeps the whole Beyblade together

4D Clear Wheel - Part used to connect to the launcher

PC Frame - Exclusively only for a few beyblades, is a layer on that sits on the Metal Frame and Core. It is made of Polycarbonate plastic. The speculation for it describes it as a shock absorber to deliver Upper Attack. The strength of Metal causes extreme recoil, so the PC Frame will prevent destabilisation.^[3]

Metal Frame - Primarily just a Metal Wheel, except, it is more of an "outline" to the core, since it has big hole to sit on top of the core, aligning it in place. It may be flipped for a mode change.^[4]

Core - Supplies the holes and indents for the Track to be placed under and Clear Wheel and Metal Frame to sit on top. It has support parts for an extra add on.

4D Bottom - Some are fused for gimmickal purposes (F:D/Final Drive, F:S/Final Surive, D:D/Delta Drive, B:D/Bearing Drive,etc). Fang Leone comes with a normal Track and Bottom that are separated, like the other beyblades before BB-105 (Big Bang Pegasis) is released, thus meaning that not all parts will contain 4D bottoms.^[5]

However, with L Drago-Destroy, which is left-spinning, its Clear Wheel will be placed on the bottom instead of on top, and it features a Rubber Disk. ^[6][7][8]

METAL FACES Takara tomy has released Metal faces which work with HWS and 4D beyblades. Metalfaces make the beyblade lighter or heavier.

Differences between Tomy and Hasbro Beyblades

There are several differences between Beyblades made by Tomy and Hasbro:

• Hasbro has changed the names of some Beyblades:
• Pegasis was changed to Pegasus.
• L Drago was changed to L-Drago.
• Aquila was changed to Eagle.
• Cancer was changed to Gasher.
• Unicorno was changed to Striker.
• Escolpio was changed to Scorpio.
• Phoenix was changed to Fireblaze.
• Perseus was changed to Destroyer.
• Susanoo was changed to Susanow.
• Horogium was changed to Tempo.
• Giraffe was changed to Zurafa.
• Ketos was changed to Cetus.
• Tornado was changed to Cyclone.
• Basalt was changed to Twisted.
• Hell was changed to Hades.
• Killer was changed to Evil.
• Beafowl was changed to Befall.
• Infinity was changed to Thunder.
• Face was changed to Face Bolt.
• Clear Wheel was changed to Energy Ring.
• Metal Wheel was changed to Fusion Wheel.
• Track was changed to Spin Track.
• Bottom was changed to Performance Tip.
• Takao Kinomiya was changed to Tyson Granger.
• Rei was changed to Ray.
• Max Mizuhara was changed to Max Tate.
• Hiromi was changed to Hilary.
• Ginga was changed to Gingka.
• Ryusei was changed to Ryo.
• Daidoji was changed to Doji.
• Da Xian was changed to Deshan.
• Go Shoot! Was changed to Let it Rip!
• Hasbro has stronger adhesives for the Beyblade stickers
• Initially, some Beyblades released during the 2002 season had no MG Core but a weighted non-magnetic core. Hasbro replaced many of these with MagneCores. There are no longer MagneCores in Hasbro V2 Beyblades (BBA Championship Series). In the same way, Hasbro added the engine gear to several Beyblades that originally did not have an engine gear (Metal Driger, Gigars etc.).
• Hasbro's version of the Customize Clutch Base (Dranzer V2) has had the clutch removed and was originally fixed in the sharp position and could not be changed. Later releases contain a properly working clutch.
• Hasbro's version of Ariel 2 was named Capricorn Strike G. It has a golden colored gyro(Flame Pegasus) instead of the original Weight Disk/Support Parts/Blade Base/Spin Gear.
• Hasbro changed Trypio's Attack Ring to not be able to fly.
• Hasbro released many of the Random Booster blades in a different series rather than in Random Boosters.
• The initial version of Driger V made by Hasbro had a completely sharp metal tip on the blade base, while the Takara version had a semi flat tip. Many fans complained about Hasbro's change, and Hasbro later changed the metal tip to be semi-flat.
• Hasbro's versions of the "Hidden Spirit" Beyblades had small joints for the "dragon parts" to attach to on the attack ring, while in Takara's version they attach to the blade base, so they look like the blade in the anime, but neither version is launchable.
• The "Heavy Metal" system was marketed by Hasbro as the "Hard Metal" system.
• Tomy's Metal Fight Beyblades are made with weaker materials than their counterpart, Hasbro's Metal Fusion
• Some Tomy Beyblade Face Bolts are printed ; ( Ray Striker D125CS, Quetzalcoatl 90WF, Burn Fireblaze 90WF (Ice Blue), Bronze Galaxy Pegasus W105R²F, Silver Galaxy Pegasus W105R²F, Golden Galaxy Pegasus W105R²F, etc.)
• Some of Hasbro's Face bolts (Faces) names are blacked out or just don't have their names on it, such as Burn Fireblaze and Thermal Pisces.
• Grand Cetus has a 100 Spin Track from Hasbro, while the Spin Track from Tomy with is an 85 Spin Track.

See Also

• Battling Tops
• Spinja
• Ninjago

Notes

1. ^ http://www.beywiki.com/index.php?title=HMS Hard Metal System Article at Beywiki
2. ^ http://ameblo.jp/ginta-mixx8/image-10797502724-11041212148.html
3. ^ http://ameblo.jp/ginta-mixx8/image-10797502724-11041211452.html
4. ^ http://ameblo.jp/ginta-mixx8/image-10797502724-11041211351.html
5. ^ http://ameblo.jp/ginta-mixx8/image-10797502724-11041211650.html
6. ^ http://ameblo.jp/ginta-mixx8/image-10797502724-11041211957.html
7. ^ http://ameblo.jp/otenki2010/image-10831254497-11108651050.html
8. ^ http://ameblo.jp/ginta-mixx8/image-10830916760-11108300412.html

References

1. Bey Wiki

External Links

• Online Bey store
• Beyblade Metal Fusion Toys
• Beyblade Games Online
• World Beyblade Organisation
• Beyblades store