Naturally I must voice my opinions on this. I'll not be talking about the animes here, maybe I'll mention how it made me like or dislike the toys but this isn't the thread to talk the show.
Now I really love all toylines equally, all of them have their positives and negatives and I'll be talking about all of them.
With the
Plastic season of beyblades, I love the amount of customisation on them, it's incredible! There are so many parts, each oozing with variety for the most part and being able to switch the tips from some blade bases is pretty cool. This also allows you to use almost any AR in both spin directions which is something I adore! The system can be pretty fun too, the ARs aren't all too circular and it makes some battles really intense. I love most of the designs in these tops, they're really nice. This also gave me a lot of great memories as a kid because me and my friends and cousins would just battle with these all day and have a lot of fun, making random combos which we thought were good even though they weren't, but there was no WBO back then and I liked discovering them on my own. However... if I had to point out my problems with the toyline, it's that some of these things aren't really durable, even against each other, some designs are just a bit too thin and aggressive and given their really crazy battles, it's bound to happen eventually. Another problem I have is that there are some combos that can be disgustingly strong, but this is something that seems to occur in every toyline anyway, although I don't recall HMS having that one combo that'll be super difficult to beat... speaking of which...
Heavy Metal System (HMS), now I really really love this system! I was always into the more compact and heavy tops, it's just so satisfying to use and the overall feel is just nice. This has some of my favourite aesthetics for beyblade ever, probably my favourite! That mix of metal and plastic and how it's all designed and laid out is so attractive, the only thing it needed to up the looks more is translucent plastic, then it would be far far nicer looking than any system to date, but as it is it's already above them all. Gameplay wise, I think it's just as fun as the plastic beyblades, very intense and aggressive, and I hear that there aren't as many combos that'll ruin the game. The inclusion of dual spin is amazing, and the advantage it has over the plastic beyblades are that you don't need to switch some sort of spin gears to achieve left spin so this is really versatile and on the go. To many, including myself, this is what many consider to be the ideal or the most perfect metal beyblade system, as it has many advantages over MFB, I prefer the aesthetics here, that inclusion of dual spin and the really fun and intense battles making this many bladers dream. However if there is anything I have to say about them is that they're incredibly rare and for the most part really hard to find, especially without forking over your life savings, and it's such a shame! This is, to this day the system I wanted a comeback for the most no contest, I wish I picked these up as a kid too, but I don't think I've ever found them. Another flaw is that these things aren't as diverse as some other systems as they only contain four parts and only three were meant to be customizable, not counting bit chip molds. They did introduce CWDs later on, but that gave the illusion that there was more parts involved as the core disks were the exact same. That said however, this was a system that never truly got it's chance to truly shine so it could've been developed over time to be more diverse, like the plastic system. This would've marked the end of beyblade... had it not been for...
Metal Fight Beyblade (MFB)! Ah yes this system got me hyped, and for many reasons. When seeing these things against HMS in Youtube videos, they were very very strong! They practically wasted any system so naturally I envied them, as I had no qualms with crossgenning back then. I really love the aesthetics and colours of the HWS, I was always a fan of translucent plastic so it was nice seeing them here, these were sleek and shiny and I love their looks. The Pre-HWS system looked good too but to me, I really didn't care for the bland colours, but on the upside they had more unique designs... oh yeah I should get to that. The HWS system was highly criticized for looking similar to one another and lacked identity, and yeah I'll admit the clear wheels aren't all that different mainly due to their size and for the most part, roundness. However I don't think it's as bad as people make it out to be, and it's only from a distance and even then they still look gorgeous, especially 4D. Gameplay wise, it's good, I love the heavy feel of them and the satisfying heavy and hard hits from them, they're very fun and their crazy spin velocity makes some battles crazy. These are also a really well designed and durable system, and most last really long despite the heavy hits towards each other. The customisation is also pretty good, theres four parts with the original, but one was a face which didn't have differences yet, until the metal face came around where the face position could finally be customized, even better with the customizable metal faces later on. Then HWS gave more customizable parts, being the metal wheel + clear wheel, many have said that clear wheels did jack, but they did effect weight distribution a little and the different shapes had some effect... I guess. The naming system is also great! Making combo listing incredibly convenient. If there are flaws with this system, it's that these introduced the idea of limiting the spin direction of beyblades which sucks, only leaving left spins to be used as a selling point for specific wheels, this trend sadly still carries on today, but I guess having a dual spin Duo would suck... speaking of which, MFB has more round beyblades than the other system so some battles aren't as fun as some of the other systems, but I am the of guy who can watch a battle of two stamina types without a problem... that is until we introduce opposite spin stamina battles which suck and plague the combo lists sometime giving some really disgustingly strong combos... yeah they're back too, but then again that was mostly a problem in...
Zero G, yes yes I know they're technically part of MFB, but the system is different enough, different enough that some of the points I made in the MFB one doesn't apply to this. Now Zero G does have some really cool design and is what introduced us to the asymmetrical designs in beyblades we would later commonly see in Burst too oddly enough. However while I do like them, I prefer symmetrical designs to be honest, I sorta get the feel of them being more like spinning badges rather than spinning blades, but these do have more character than the HWS beyblades. Gameplay wise I get a kick out of using single wheeled Zero G beyblades, it's crazy and fast, and some are really off balanced which makes them move around more and it's entertaining to watch. The new Zero G stadium also helps, it's very fun and chaotic to use this thing. The customization is pretty good and unique, being able to combine two differently shaped metal wheels to one, which have a significant effect, I feel like they should've done this with MFB... in a sense that the clear wheels should've been a bit larger but I guess there'd be less metal contact. Unfortunately Zero G does suffer from the same problems as MFB does gameplay wise, and are in fact worse, like I mentioned before this was when opposite stamina battles started to come around in MFB, with left spin chrome wheels, while it's cool that it gives any other chrome wheel it's paired with the ability to spin left, that also including the round ones too. These things are also 60 grams on average for the wheels alone and combined with most of their sort of rounded designs the Synchrome battles can be incredibly boring. I still want this to have a comeback though, not as much as HMS but I would've loved to get more cool and unique parts for MFB and some new chrome wheel designs would be nice. Like HMS, Zero G could've been so much more.
Finally we have
Beyblade Burst and yes I am aware that this is an ongoing series but I'm going to judge it based on what we have so far, after all it's two seasons in and it should really be selling us this era of beyblade as soon as possible, the original series and metal series sure did. Good news, it did sell me, these things were really beautiful! The single layers look quite cool, it's nice and simple but over time their designs and colours have naturally gotten blander, mainly because the dual layers and god layers really make the system look great! The God series is so beautiful! The colours, amazing design and the god ability feature is so attractive, definitely one of the nicest looking systems. Gameplay wise it's quite fun, the introduction of the Burst gimmick can make battles really crazy and fun, and it's possible to win even if you have less spin, so it's not always just a slow reminder that you're losing. This series so far does have some flaws though, some really big flaws. The first one is that during the God series and maybe Dual Layers, really disgustingly good parts have shown up and made the game boring, both left spin stamina and a super round stamina beyblade no less... This is also the series with the most banned parts so far, whether you agree with them or not theres no doubt that some parts can be gross. My biggest most personal issue with the series however is their durability which is rather poor for some of them. With the single layers their durability seemed fine as their shapes were less aggressive and more reinforced but this also had a bad case of teeth wear for a few layers. Dual Layers was when the problem started to get really bad, layers would keep breaking as their designs were more for looks and were flimsy, this even plagued some of the God layers, I broke gK twice and it's infuriating to say the least, I wasn't even using them roughly either. These things are meant to explode in a battle, so I'd expect them to be designed around that, especially if it's possible for metal disks to smash into them.
Now in terms of my favourite, I honestly couldn't tell you. On one hand, I have the most memories and a lot of fun with Plastics and especially MFB, but HMS is the closest to being the most ideal system for me, and Burst and Zero G offer something new to the table. I'm leaning towards MFB if I had to choose one, but again I don't really have a favourite.
My Cho-Z Reaper Deathscyther .12.Cr concept render, click below to see!
![[Image: 2hdvatw.png]](https://i64.tinypic.com/2hdvatw.png)
No I don't plan on doing more yet.
I should probably go back to making fan custom Zero G beyblade concepts again
