Hey all, Ralf here. I feel like procrastinating[1] and helping people out at the moment as well, so I'm writing this helpful guide right now. As most of us know, Beyblade X is the new 4th generation of beyblade products. And like most people, we want our hands on some day 1 stuff(or I guess four 7 month but whatever). However, many people don't exactly know where to buy these new products or if they're even legitimate or not. But thankfully you don't have the attention span of a goldfish so we can get on with this, let's start with the latter of the possible problems first.
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The Real, The Fake, and The(possibly)Ugly
The most important part of buying a beyblade is it's legitimacy; whether you bought an official product or if you bought a counterfeit. There are multiple factors that count towards identifying these guys, but before we get to that, you're probably asking:
"Why should I not want a fake?"
Well, the main reason is pretty simple: LEAD POISONING. The most notorious feat of fakes is their inclusion of harmful substances, like the aforementioned lead. If lead gets into your bloodstream, brain damage can occur among other things like cancer. I'm not an expert on the topic and the explanation I gave was very abridged, however, there are multiple articles that discuss the matter so you can inform yourself further if you want(and also this is a forum post about bleyblade and not lead awareness so lets get back on topic). Fakes also use weaker material than official beys, causing them to break very easily, very fast, with the risk of shrapnel-akin shards flying everywhere, which could include towards you or loved ones. Which for something like X, where some real beys have already experienced heavy wear to unusable conditions, isn't the best of things that could happen. Fake beys also tend to come with wrong parts, off looking appearances, dysfunctional parts/gimmicks not working(ie. a rubber tip being plastic or a fake savior Valkyrie lacking bound and a working shot driver), and such. Also, a big reason to not want them is their legality in tournaments, as all fake products are prohibited. Now, we can ask the real question:
"How do I know if this beyblade is fake?"
As I mentioned before, there are multiple factors that count toward detecting a fake, from how it looks to even the prices. Lets take a look.
The image above is of a Dransword 3-60 F starter box. Notice the Takara Tomy logo, the Beyblade X logo itself, and how most of the text is in Japanese. Usually if you see these you're good.
This image is a counterfeit version of Dransword 3-60 F by the brand Flame. Note the lack of a Takara Tomy logo, sudden inclusion of English despite being stylized in an Asian box, and the off looking appearance of the logo and bey itself.
The price of these beys are also a hint at its authenticity. After a bit of research, the following is what I came up with
Takara Tomy-Beyblade X
Random/Booster:14-20usd
Starter: 20-26usd
deck/3on3 set: 30-40
Accessories: around 10usd
(NOTE: Sites like Suruga-ya have legitimate products but with significantly cheaper prices, but those were not taken into account)Flame-Beybade X
Product cost:8-11usd
Product with grip: +1usd
MQ-Super Bey X
Every product: 1-3usd
You can also see if a bey is fake by looking at it. As stated previously, many fakes tend to look "off" aesthetically, but you can also tell based on screws. TT uses tri-wing and faceless screws on their beys, while fake brands use Philips head screws. Fake brand metal is also very shiny and doesn't oxidize, while TT's metal isn't as shiny and starts to noticeably oxidize after about a week or so, but the rate at which it oxidizes depends on your environment's humidity(the higher it is, the more quickly it'll oxidize, and vice-versa).
Now that you have a basic understanding of how to detect fakes and avoid them, it's time to know where to buy some real ones.
Stimulating The Bey-conomy
There are many sites that you can buy beyblades from, but how do you know which is right for you? Or if they even exist? Well gimme a second I gotta type em.
100% Safe and Trustworthy
These sites are well known and are well trusted, and are on top most's lists to buy beys from:
Alternative Sites, Use Caution
These sites tend to be littered with fakes and/or untrustworthy listings. Only use these if safer sites or the sites above aren't an option.
- Sites like eBay, AliExpress or Mercari where anyone may sell/have a shop on the site. Many of these sites have sellers that sell fakes, and these listings tend to be one of the first results to pop up. (Sites like Mercari.jp are safer options, as Japanese sites aren't known for having fakes)
- Well-known storefronts like Amazon and Walmart. These sites also allow sellers on their platform, and tend to be where most people obtain fakes from. Fakes often cover up the authentic listings, those of which are more overpriced than on other sites.
NOTE: everything listed in the section above are just examples of sites. There are more sites that are safe and more that are untrustworthy, the ones mentioned are simply more well known.
Conclusion
Well, I hope that with reading this you're now informed on how you can avoid fakes and where to buy real beys. Also note that you can use some of the ways to identify fakes with other gens, so 2(or 4) birds with one stone. Feel free to mention anything, I'm always open to comments. I hope you find yourself in good spirits.
Also, about that footnote(if you didn't already look down), [1] This was originally started in October, being 80% done. I then proceeded to ignore it until now because I drafted something else not to long ago, so I very clearly have procrastination issues.