Beyblade (ベイブレード, Beiburēdo, diminutive Bey, from the diminutive of beigoma) is a line of spinning-top toys originally developed by Takara, first released in Japan in July 1999, along with its debut series. Following Takara's merger with Tomy in 2006, Beyblades are now developed by Takara Tomy. Various toy companies around the world have licensed Beyblade toys for their own regions, including Hasbro in Western countries, Sonokong in South Korea, and Takara Tomy for Eastern countries. Both the toys and their names were inspired by beigoma, a traditional spinning top. The concept is similar to Battling Tops, a board game developed by Ideal Toy Company in 1968. The toy line was introduced with an accompanying manga series of the same name in 1999. In 2002, Hasbro began to sell Beyblade toys internationally (under license from Takara) along with a coordinated country-by-country release of localized versions of the TV series. In August 2008, Takara Tomy released Metal Fight Beyblade; the first incarnation of the toy in three and a half years. A third incarnation, titled Beyblade Burst was released by Takara Tomy in July 2015.
Type:Spinning top Company :Takara Tomy, Hasbro Country:Japan Availability:1999–present
