Beyblades spin a top-class return: Retailers report huge demand for the high-performance tops

NEW DELHI: Parents, be warned! A metal fusion onslaught from Beyblade’s return is going to take up your kids’ vacations time. Yours too. Ben 10 is no longer your child’s preoccupation. Beyblades-—those glitzy spinning tops that most young boys had in their pockets some five years ago—are back, with a bang.

Retailers report huge demand for the high-performance tops in metros and smaller towns. “We've had stock-out situations for the Beyblade series; at some point, we had to create a waiting list, because there's an explosion in demand,” says Raj Kumar Pinisetti, president of Home Centre & Babyshop at retail chain Lifestyle. Since the toy is imported it takes about 15 days, sometimes a month, to replenish stock, he says.

Lifestyle, the hypermarket chain of Dubai-based Landmark group, sells Beyblades through its 27 stores across metros and smaller cities such as Ahmedabad, Kanpur, Pune and Coimbatore. Funskool India, the toymaker that markets Beyblades in the country, says the toy is topping its sales graph along with Nerf and Transformers. “Beyblade is the hottest boys property currently in the market,” says Funskool VP (Sales and Marketing) R Jeswant.

Takao Aoki, the creator of Beyblade, has prompted Japanese Beyblade maker Takaratomy to aim for 20 billion yen (about $200 million) annual revenue by next year from around the world. This includes India. The trigger for its return is the start of animation series ‘Beyblade: Metal Fusion’ on Cartoon Network. And Funskool expects sales to cross one million units by the end of the 51-part season one of the serial.

In its first coming in 2004-05 , Beyblade had changed the game in the industry. “It was the kind of offtake the toy industry had not seen before,” says Jeswant. Then, it took almost two years for sales to touch 1million mark. So, they expect it to be even better this time. Why not? The industry is now used to huge demands for well-market toys in certain seasons. Lifestyle’s Pinisetti says that Ben 10 and Barbie Fashionista were equally popular. And Hannah Montana was a big hit closer to the movie release.
Susan Visvanathan, a sociology professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, says it is an example of socialisation of advertising. “It shows the commercial course of desire and children are at the receiving end,” says Visvanathan who is the chairperson of Sociology Centre for the Study of Social Systems, School of Social Sciences, JNU. And there is not much parents can do except, perhaps, secretly wish they be banned while spinning one into their shopping cart. And watch their children call themselves Gingka or Kyoya and talk about L-Drago and Storm Pagasis! Sociologist and editor Kumar Ketkar says the popularity of the toy has nothing to do with market economics.

It’s all about marketing and hype. “Children cannot refuse; nor can parents.” Monica Tata, general manager, entertainment networks, South Asia at Turner International India , which owns Cartoon Network , says, “Beyblade's on and off-air success is due to its high engagement value.” Funskool’s Jeswant attributes the success of the toy to the animation series on air. But experts say the show's television rating is well below other children’s shows including Cartoon Network’s Tom & Jerry. “Beyblade is one of the performing programmes but is not in the league of shows like Tom & Jerry,” says Tarun Nigam, executive director (north), Starcom Worldwide, which buys media for brands such as Samsung , Aircel and Oracle. But at toy shops, Beyblades spin money much faster than any cat and mouse.

Top of the World

Beyblade hottest—selling toy of the season

What is it?

Beyblades are

spinning tops that emit light and sound and spin at high speeds. They come in different colours and shapes and each has a name.

Origin

Beyblade toys

are inspired by a Japanese manga—a genre of cartoon—series in the same name on children battling one another with powerful spinning tops, written and illustrated by Takao Aoki starting 2000. The name was inspired by ‘Beigoma’, a traditional spinning top. The manga led to animation series as well as the toys.

Selling Point

Kids collect

them and compete one another with these tops. Players, called ‘bladers’, cry “let it rip” and together launch their tops into the battleground called ‘Beystadium’. The top that pushes others out of the Beystadium or spins longer wins. Children can also join bladers community on the internet and participate in national and international Beyblade championships.