Hello there. Lovely to meet you all. While I go by many aliases online, the one I've chosen for this forum is "Howling Wolf". I’m 28 years old and am from London.
I was SUPER into Beyblade when I was a kid, I'm talking proper old-school Tyson, Kenny, Kai, Max and Ray era. Used to have TONS of the old-school Beyblades and used to play against my sister a ton. I still remember how desperate I was to find the original Draciel top because all the kids at my school were claiming it to be "the best". Whether or not that's true I don't know but I'm sure somebody will let me know. First ever Beyblade I did own was the original Driger, as Ray was my favourite character in the anime (I thought he was cool).
So I stuck with the original product for a long time throughout my childhood, through the first season of the anime and through most of V-Force, though I found myself dropping off towards G-Revolution. By that time I was getting to that stage in life where watching cartoons was no long “cool” or “acceptable” in the schoolyard. I know it seems stupid now, but back when you’re a kid that kind of stuff matters to you. So eventually I stopped watching, stopped collecting the toys and started to “grow up” as it were.
However, in my adult life I’ve begun to revisit a lot of things from my childhood, and have been discovering that there are still strong communities for them of both the young and old. The first thing I really started getting back into was Yu-Gi-Oh, which I now actively play and have even joined a Guild dedicated to it in my local area. I can’t really say what’s brought me back around to Beyblade now, but I’ve suddenly become very interested in it again. I started listening to some of the music from the English dub of the original anime and started thinking “You can say what you will about them not using the Japanese soundtrack, but the music we DID get was pretty awesome”. After a while I came across various videos on YouTube talking about how the franchise is very much still alive and that there is a very kind and dedicated fanbase towards it. So I thought “Why not delve a little deeper? I’m on a nostalgia high at the moment after all”, and well... here we are.
Like with Yu-Gi-Oh, because I’ve been out for so long there’s a LOT I need to catch up on and relearn about Beyblading. I’m going to sound like an old man here but: But in my day it was still “Bitchip, Attack Ring, Weight Disk, Spin Gear, and Base” that made up the actual top. Now I’m just standing here thinking “Layer? Disk? Driver? What the heck are you talking about?! What’s all this “Bursting” stuff?!” and so on. But I’ve always been a quick learner, so I’m sure I can start picking it all up in no time. I bought myself a Takara Tomy Xeno Xcalibur M.I to give myself a feel for the new product. Don’t know if that one’s any good or not, I just thought it looked cool. Of course I plan on investing into more tops and whatnot the more I learn about the franchise.
So that’s why I joined this forum. I wanted to learn all about how much this product has grown and evolved over the years since I’ve been away. I want to take part in tournaments and meet people who share similar interests (I know I’ve JUST missed on in London... but given I only have one Beyblade that’s probably for the best). I just wanna... Go Shoot (I think that’s what they’re saying now right?). So I’d greatly appreciate any help you can give an old wolf looking to get back into something he loved so much as a kid. I’m a giant kid at heart, so I’m really looking forward to being a part of this.
Sorry for droning on for so long, but I wanted to make sure people knew where I’m coming from going into this. I really am a total noob now who needs to be shown the ropes. So as I said: Any help you can give an old dog, tips on getting into it properly, what some of the top tier Beyblades and parts are, just anything to help me get underway. Looking forward to talking to you all more and hopefully competing against some of you some day. Hope this post wasn't TOO long for you all 

The disk, driver, layer stuff is burst so I recommend watching YouTube videos,and buying a few beys of your own.First up is the layer.It is the part you would call the bit-chip/Attack ring.It is the part that holds all the attacking capabilities and has the designs and stuff.There are a LOT of gimmicks,so do some research.Next:The disk.This is what controls your weight so it is mostly the heaviest and most ignored part of the beyblade,even though it is vital to the balance. The driver is what controls where your going.


THIS IS BURST INFO!!!!!

Hi Howling Wolf! Good to see another Beyblade Veteran come back into the fold. For advice, I'd say that looking at current Bey-youtubers (Illunic, Zankey, DragoGalaxy, etc) and monitoring the parts used in combos and builds are the best ways to purchase and build a top tier Beyblade arsenal. Of course, the best research is usually done by yourself, battling against another friend or by yourself to test combinations. In my opinion; as a beginner, your best bet for getting rare and top tier Beyblades (or just their parts for scavenge) would be the Takara Tomy random booster packs found on Amazon and Ebay. There are probably about a dozen or more Beyblades and parts by Takara Tomy that are only found in the Random Boosters (11.99$-33.00$) or the large booster sets that come with 3-4 exclusive beys (28$-110$). Simply put, watch combo/battle videos and buy the random booster packs or large set if affordable. Good luck out there, can't wait to battle you at a tournament one day!

Edit: If you would like to know any more information on the new beyblades or the new rules for tournaments and such don't hesitate to contact me.