16.Jul.2012 Toys: Where are the roller derby fighting tops?

Here’s a small diversion into the world of children’s toys.

I’m just back from taking my daughter to the local toy shop. She was after some Beyblades – spinning tops that fight each other – to play with her brother. In one corner of the store were the Beyblades – with their metallic styling and jagged typography. And in the other were, as the young female sales assistant (un)helpfully pointed out, Dizzy Dancers. “Oh, they’re the Beyblades for girls. They’re exactly the same.”

Except they are not. Dizzy Dancers are obese soft toys on garish plastic rounded bodies – lurid pink to boot. They don’t have a ‘fighting arena’. Instead they have a ‘dance floor’.

To her credit, my daughter went with the Beyblades after some extended discussion about why the Dizzy Dancers wouldn’t be any good as fighting tops – physics and all that.

Market forces, yeah yeah. But really.

Having just taken my kids to Gotham Girls Roller Derby just yesterday, I think there’s a great opportunity for a Kickstarter project to make roller derby themed fighting tops.