The Hindu : New Delhi News : Beyblade craze grips children

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 06, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Beyblade craze grips children

Mandira Nayar

NEW DELHI: The brightly coloured wooden "lattu" (spinning top) that most people would remember playing endlessly on dusty streets in their childhood days has been reborn in a jazzy new avatar. While most adults might think it is just another "lattu with lights", for children today "Beyblade'''-- this spinning, fighting top from Japan for the uninitiated -- is a toy that they have to own.

Tracing their origins to an ancient Japanese spinning top "Bei Goma", they are slightly different from the "desi" version that involves spinning the top alone. The war of the tops, really, it is played by two people who spar their tops with each other in a "Beyblade arena". The top that manages to throw the other out of the arena wins.

The show that is aired on Cartoon Network has already got children glued to their television sets at 5-30 p.m. Bigger than the Pokemon phenomenon, Beyblades within the first month of the launch on an average was rated 1+ TVRs compared to Pokemon's O .8 TVRs.

"I only got into it a month ago. I used to be alone playing outside at 5-30 p.m. while all my friends used to watch the show. I then decided to watch the show myself -- and got hooked to it. I am now obsessed. It is like a sport. There are Beybladers and they compete against each other. Beyblades have bit-beasts, the spirit of animals like tiger, dragon and even turtles,'' says 12-year-old Kunal Chopra.

A craze that has gripped the children's world, quite literally, globally, Beyblade is the best-selling toy in Japan, Canada, Britain and Australia. Quite different from the good old times when tops cost under Rs. l0, Beyblades can cost anything from the `cheap' Rs. 199 and go up to more than Rs. 1,000 for the remote control version.

While Kunal might have been a new recruit to the cause, six-year-old Shiv Kataria, who saw his cousins from the U.S. play with the tops a year ago, has been addicted ever since. "I have nine Beyblades. I don't always watch the show. But I like the toys,'' he says.

Considered one of the fastest selling toys in the last year in India, according to a toy shop owner here in Khan Market, it is creating a new wave in the Indian retail market. Cartoon Network, which launched a consumer product line this year, has tied up Funskool to sell Beyblades in India as it recognised its potential as being "huge''.

"Beyblade toys were a runaway success from the time they were launched. The response to Beyblade superseded our expectation. The products are a complete sell-out. Barely a month after they were launched by us, almost 100,000 units were sold country-wide! The property is witnessing a 20 per cent increase in sales month-on-month,'' reveals Cartoon Network Enterprises-India and South Asia director Jiggy George.

Targeted at 5 to 15- year- old children, Beyblades' popularity might cut across continents, but does not seem to manage to bridge the gender divide. More a boys' game than girls', in the fast-changing toy world of children it seems that this toy is here to stay.

Having hit the Japanese market in 1999, it has taken the world by storm and according to Mr. George will not vanish into obscurity just as yet.

"The Beyblade phenomenon is here to stay and with the ever-growing popularity of Beyblades among kids, we also plan to extend the Beyblade property into products like Beyblade puzzles, action games among other things. It provides kids with cutting edge sports entertainment combining a heady mix of adrenaline and strategy.''

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