What the heck is BEYBLADE

For sometime now, my SIL had been lamenting abt Aadhu's obsession with the 'Beyblade' toys. I experienced it first hand when we were trying to play host to the little one, who was on a two-day trip to chennai.

Beyblade mania has definitely struck the younger lot. We purchased the Beyblade kit, little did I know, what was in store. Aadhu was as happy as Bill gates would be with Google's search algorithm!

He was quite adept in assembling certain parts of the toy rattling off their names like launcher, base, etc., at ease. Mind you, he is just a four-year old kid. Apparently, the beyblade we bought was different from the ones he had handled, so the onus of fixing it up fell on me. I struggled with for more than 15min & then gave up, That definitely needed some skill.

Since then, this Beyblade has been haunting me. So, I went ahead to digg more info on this stuff... My fellow Beyblade illiterates, take the plunge

Beyblade Wikipedia: Beyblade is a spinning top toy produced by Takara. The Japanese version of the spinning top called Bei Goma, Beyblade is at present the reigning indoor sport among youngsters

Beyblade.com:U are now looking at kid games 2.0. You get to know abt BBA - Beyblade Battle Association that is conducting beyblade competitions all over the world.

The Telegraph tries to ponder over the latest indoor sport: Some stats " Funskool India is the sub-licencee for Beyblade products in India. The company claims to have sold over 40,000 pieces in Calcutta alone. The figure would be 10 times more nationally, adds the spokesperson. In fact, he says Funskool India is flooded with so many requests that it has to ration the supply of Beyblades to retailers across the country." Read this report, u will know, y I'm doing this blog.

Another report from Exchange4Media gives more insight into the animation program in cartoon network. Some more dizzy numbers - "The Beyblade series is broadcast in over 60 countries and has more than 1,000 merchandising and licensing products with 300 licensees worldwide and is one of the leading toys being sold in Japan, Canada, the UK, Australia, et al. So far, around 100 million Beyblade units have been sold worldwide. "

An exasperated parent writes in Business Line: Takara the creator says " they have zeroed in on a toy that "satisfies every boy's urges to battle, customise, and collect."

Hail the mighty BeyBlade ;-)