Spinning tops--they're not just for toddlers anymore.  If only I'd known that Beyblades were going to become the hot toy for the third-grade-boy set, I wouldn't have asked Mr. College Student's permission to toss out all his old ones just this past summer.  We had a whole bunch of them sitting in the basement, and I've gone down there three times in the past two weeks hoping that I didn't really throw them out.  But I know perfectly well that I did.

Beyblades are plastic-and-metal spinning tops with an attitude.  You don't play with them, you battle with them.  The idea is to get two or more of these tops going at the same time, in a plastic dish known as a stadium but which looks more like a bedpan to me.  The tops will eventually bang into each other, and the one that is able to keep spinning the longest is the winner of the battle.

At least that's as much of it as I understand.  Apparently the different tops have unique abilities and skills.  Kids learn about these skills by watching the cartoon that centers on these toys, and when I've got four or five little boys playing this game in my family room, it's a sure bet that they'll spend the whole time singing the theme song.  That's right--a toy with a theme song.

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