Battling Tops facts for kids
Battling Tops is an exciting children's game where spinning tops battle it out! It was invented by Eddy Goldfarb and first made by the Ideal in 1968.
In 1977, the game got a new name, Battling Spaceships. This happened because the movie Star Wars was very popular. Later, in 1982, Marx started making the game. By the late 1980s, it was no longer being made. But good news! In 2003, Mattel brought Battling Tops back to toy stores.
This game is a bit like gasing pangkah, which is a traditional sport from Malaysia.
Contents
How to Play Battling Tops
Battling Tops is a fun game for two to four players. The main goal is to have your spinning top be the last one still spinning in the arena!
Setting Up the Game
The game uses a special round arena. It's shaped like a bowl, which helps the tops move towards the center. There are four spots where players can launch their tops.
Launching Your Top
Each player gets a spinning top. You wrap a string around your top. This string is attached to a pull tab. Then, you place your top in one of the launch spots. When you're ready, you pull the tab very fast! This makes your top spin and zoom into the arena.
The Battle Begins!
Because the arena is shaped like a bowl, all the tops roll towards the middle. This makes them crash into each other! The game is mostly about luck, but a little bit of skill can help your top stay spinning longer.
Winning the Game
Small pegs around the edge of the arena help you keep score. You put a peg in a hole each time you win a battle. The first player to win ten battles wins the whole game!
Meet the Battling Tops Characters
There were six different spinning tops to choose from, each with its own color and name. You could only play with four tops at one time, though.
Original Characters
The original tops were:
- Hurricane Hank
- Twirling Tim
- Dizzy Dan
- Smarty Smitty
- Super Sam
- Tricky Nicky
How the Tops Are Made
Each top has an eight-sided disc that slides onto a ridged shaft. There's a special notch on the shaft to hold the string when you wind it. The game also came with colorful stickers. You could put these stickers on the discs. Usually, the stickers matched the color of the top. But you could also mix and match different shafts, discs, and stickers if you wanted to! Just remember, the stickers only stick once.
New Characters and Versions
In the newer version of the game, Smarty Smitty was replaced by a new character called Cyclone Steve.
In the very first 1968 version, there was even an 8-top set! This set included Fighting Frank and Rocky Rocko. However, it only had four colors, so you would have two tops of each color. The six-player sets came with red, yellow, green, light blue, white, and orange tops.
Images for kids
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The 1986 version of Battling Tops by Ideal Games.
