[Unanswered]  Can someone please advise. I have 7 questions (below) - Thanks

Hi. I've created an account and am posting on behalf of my son. He loves the Beyblade TV show and wants to get into beyblading. We bought a twin pack of beyblades online. They fell apart within 48 hours(!)....in retrospect, clearly couterfeit. I looked further into Beyblading, but as a 46 year old dad, I'm confused! I'm hoping someone out there can help. He now has a stadium and we have returned the fake (and broken) "Beyblades". He is expecting his first genuine (hopefully) beyblade (BB-126), which is a starter flash Sagittario on Sunday. However, I've now worked out that there are different 'releases' of beyblades, and this is an older one. I think he wanted a beyblade burst. He is saving up for another one (but they're expensive aren't they?!) so that he can battle. My questions are 1) Can this beyblade fall apart (intentionally) or does this just happen with the burst beyblades?. 2) If he buys a Beyblade burst, will he be able to 'battle' it against the sagittario he's ordered? 3) Do all beyblades come with a launcher? 4) Do different launchers have any effect on the performance of a beyblade 5) Do all launchers work with all types of Beyblades. 6) Can you swap parts between the different releases of Beyblades 7) Are some Beyblades much stronger than others (when we buy a second beyblade for my son, I want to get one which will compete well with the Sagittario - I don't want to get one which will win almost every match, or lose almost every match.

I'm really sorry about all the questions, but I'm fairly clueless! Thanks to anyone who can help.
Beyblade Burst is the third (official) series of Beyblades. They are named for their unique ability to burst, where they can fall apart during battle. Each one is made up of an Energy Layer (The top part of the bey. This is the part that comes into contact with another Beyblade.), a Forge Disc (The middle part that is made of metal. It gives a Beyblade a majority of its weight.), and a Performance Tip (The bottom part of a bey. It is what causes it to move and changes its stamina.). Every Beyblade has a type: Attack (Pretty self-explanatory, it uses attacks to beat an opponent. It loses to defense and defeats stamina.), Defense (Also pretty self-explanatory, it defends attacks. It loses to stamina types and defeats attack types), Stamina (Stamina types typically have high stamina, which means they can spin for a long time. They usually lose to attack types and defeat defense types.), and Balance (My personal favorite, balance types are jacks-of-all-trades but masters of none. They have some skill in each area, so they have less skill at attacking than attack types but they have more stamina and defense than attack types, and etc.). In order to read a beyblades name, it starts with the name of the Layer, then the disc, then the frame if it has one, and then the performance tip. For example Valtryek V2 Vertical Accel would have the Valtryek V2 Layer, the Vertical Disc, and the Accel driver.

There have been four different systems of Beyblade Burst: the Single Layer System (which was the weakest of all four systems, but also the first), the Dual Layer System (a direct continuation of the Single Layer System with a slight difference in layer design), the God Layer System (Hasbro calls it Switchstrike. God Beyblades all have unique gimmicks. For example, God Valkyrie features three spring-loaded wings for a “Bound Attack”. Also, they replaced Forge Discs with Core Discs that can attach new frames) and the Chouzetsu or Super Z or Cho-Z Layer System (Hasbro calls them the Slingshock beyblades. They all have metal on the layer and are all much stronger than any of the previous systems.).

At this point, you pretty much only want a Cho-Z bey. Hasbro screwed up and removed the metal, so you probably don’t want Hasbro. Hell Salamander has a very strong layer but it’s Disc is extremely light and it’s Tip has very poor stamina and balance, so if you buy it you’ll need other beyblades.

What to buy for someone who likes Attack types (Click to View)

What to buy for a Defense-type lover (Click to View)

What to Buy for a Stamina Person (Click to View)

What to Buy for a Balance Type Lover (Click to View)

I hope you managed to read through and understand all that. If so, I hope I helped
I'll Add some info here. Flash Saggitario is a 4D bey, which Is part of the Metal Fight Beyblades. Those beyblades are made out of 5 parts: Face Bolt, Clear Ring, Fusion Wheel, Spin Track, and Performance Tip. The Face Bolt Is like a screw that hold the bey together. The clear wheel gives the bey it's first name, some weight, and some very small contact points. The Fusion Wheel Is the parte that adds the most weight into the bey and that gives the biggest contact points. The Spin track determines the height of the Beyblade, and the Performance Tip is the tip that decides how the Beyblade will move, how much stamina does it hace, etc. The 4D system divides the fusion ring into 3 pieces. Those are PC frame, Metal Frame, and Core, which can be used in different ways. Also, the Spin Track and Performance Tip become a single piece, that is called 4D Tip. The 4D system is almost fully compatible with all other Metal Fight Beyblades. The Beyblade can only be used with it's own generation, as you can't mix a Burst Beyblade with a Metal Fight one. Also, it Is recomended by Hasbro that you only use for battles two beys of the same generation
1) No, Burst exclusively has this gimmick
2) Yes, but it will make for some boring battles (4D Beyblades generally beat Burst Beyblades
3) Most do, at least to my knowledge
4) That is kind of the point of different launchers
5) Metal Fight launchers and Burst launchers are not compatible
6) You can swap parts within Metal Fight, and within Burst, but you cannot combine the two
7) Yes, I would recommend buying a Diablo Nemesis and replacing the top part with the metal part of Basalt Horogium. If you are not able to buy both, then Diablo Nemesis alone is probably fine.
As a postscript, I would like to strongly encourage buying a Takara Tomy Beyblade, which is imported from Japan. It may be more expensive, or take more time to arrive, but overall, the quality is a lot better, especially for Burst, at least according to popular and expert opinions.
I usually see people mentioning to people about buying the most recent or meta releases, and I think they don't realize that not everyone really cares about that, your kid may want ones that have certain gimmicks or parts and are fun to play with or because of the character that owns it, Beyblade is a game afterall, and how people have fun with it isn't all the same. Especially since if you're not competing in tournaments having the strongest stuff isn't really important at all? More so what you'd enjoy playing with.

Some other stuff, regarding compatability please be aware that for the burst system while any beyblade is compatible with any part, you CANNOT use takara tomy beyblade burst parts with hasbro beyblade burst parts except for the metal disc, or the plastic frames, the layer and top piece and the driver/tip bottom piece are not compatible between the two manufacturers and will damage the parts involved. For previous series this isn't an issue however as far as I've had experience with, I can't say about the 1st gen stuff.

For the burst gimmick, it's done by a spring and lock mechanism that slides, as the bey gets hit, the metal disc moves along the teeth or slopes of the bey which vary in strength depending on the part and eventually it will burst when it passes the locking point, the bey will then fall apart, it is not broken though, it can easily be put back together.

When storing/not using Burst Beyblades, try to not leave them put together for extended amounts of time, the drivers/tips springs have varying strength for balancing, and leaving them assembled for long periods of time like over the course of longer than a few days you can wear out the spring strength, not the worst thing to happen but if the driver has a weaker spring it could possibly not be fun to use it anymore if it just keeps bursting and losing immediately from that.

For Flash Saggitario in particular fun beys to play with it might be Big Bang Pegasus, Fang Leone, or Death Quetzalcoatl, however it should be noted that for the Metal Fight/MFB series beys, at least in my opinion for casual fun play the power creep among its seasons isn't too bad whereas for Burst, there is a pretty big leap from Beyblade Burst God and Beyblade Burst ChoZ.

If you're kid is really into Beyblade, I'd highly recommend checking out the Beyblade Burst anime, I grew up watching Metal Fight Beyblade when I was younger and I didn't think I'd ever love a Beyblade series more than it, but Burst far surpassed everything I thought about MFB. I've watched it with my Mom and a ton of my friends, it's silly at times, and isn't perfect, but watching it together, it's really great, and for kids, it has a lot of good stories to tell.

In the first season for example the main cast of characters go through and process a handful of different things, Kensuke with isolation and symptoms of social anxiety, Daina with his ill brother and trying to give him as much happiness as possible as well as struggle with self loathing, showing and letting boys cry in general for example, etc. It really masterfully handles processing these emotions that for me as a kid that was bullied a lot while struggling with my mental illnesses filled me with a lot of warmth and comfort knowing that kids can watch this show and be validated by it, if I had it back then, it would have helped me so much. I can't speak for the English Dub version of it, and I do know that it's changed and removed things, I don't know to which extent but from my friends that've watched both the general opinion is that it pails in comparison to the Japanese version with subtitles. Season 1 is subtitled in its entirety and season 2, Beyblade Burst God is subbed up to Episode 22 I believe, ChoZ the third season is subbed up to 23 I think too? I don't know how old your kid is, but I've watched shows in other languages with subtitles as young as 7 if you're concerned with that. As for episodes without subtitles they can honestly still be enjoyed without them, at least in my opinion, even though I have a bit of advantage in that I'm studying Japanese, my mom who has no knowledge whatsoever cried and cheered throughout our viewing of it.

The biggest benefit of the anime besides just generally enjoying it is that it helps familiarize you a lot with the toys and how they function, even though it stretches things a bit i.e. real Beyblades obviously don't have spirits you can communicate telepathically with to change their movement mid battle the core of it is still there a great deal. If you'd like, there's a handful of trusthworthy sellers listed on a thread here, I'm not sure if we're allowed to link things like that in a post like this, but I could DM it to you as I've bought from quite a few of them. The internet is absolutely loaded with fakes, most first results are in fact fakes, so it's really risky if you don't know the person's record, even if they have good reviews they can still be fakes, and even if they use legit pictures it can still be fakes, the only way to truly guarantee is with other user confirmation. And even if it is real the price hike is pretty bad, Beyblades sold directly by Takara Tomy are typically half the price what most people are reselling them for, part of that is due to shipping from Japan and the other due to them making profit, but even with that in mind some people really put unreasonable prices up there. If there's anything you're hesitant about in purchasing asking others for opinions would be a good idea.

If you have any further questions or things you'd like clarified I'd be happy to help!

P.S. If you're ever looking for a rare part or bey or anything, Zenmarket is a great way to get a hold of stuff for way less than other sites would, the way it works is a little confusing at first, but that's also an option, I was worried I may never own the correct red color of the Strike God Chip that God Valkyrie gets in the anime since its original release didn't make it very accessible to people and most people selling it put it as low as typically 40 USD and as high as 90 USD all for this tiny little piece, and I was able to get it from Zenmarket for just 12 USD + 5 USD shipping, which while expensive, its something really precious to me, to go off topic a bit and explain, the main character of Beyblade Burst, Valt's voice actor used to voice a character from Metal Fight Beyblade named Hikaru, she was my favorite character because her story dealt with her handling trauma and healing and moving on from it, which was really important to me to see, and, not only does she now voice Valt, but also his Beyblade, Valkyrie when she speaks to him. Being able to complete the God Valkyrie that Valt uses in Season 2 meant so much to me so it was definitely worth it to me dfyhinjfskg
Here are some tips:
Never put a Metal Fight Beyblade, like Flash Sagittario, up against a Burst Beyblade. This will result in Sagittario winning all the time, and possibly breaking the Burst Bey.
Make sure that your son finds a type of launcher he's comfortable with. In Metal Fight, String Launchers are amazing, but they can lash back at the player's hand, so you should get a launcher grip for it. Ripcord launchers are very weak, but the Lightlauncher 2 is your go-to if you don't want a string launcher. For Burst, I'd have to say that Long Winders and Sword Launchers are as equally usable as String Launchers, depending on what feels more comfortable. Also, I must note that there are Beyblades that spin clockwise (the more common dorection, referred to as Right Spin) and Beyblades that spin counterclockwise (referred to as Left Spin). Left Spin Beys require a launcher that is separate from Right Spin Beys, so watch out for that. So, for Burst, his first Beys should ideally be Dual Layer Beys (make sure that it's a Starter so it comes with a launcher) if he likes string launchers, but go ahead and get him God Layer or Cho-Z Layer Beyblades (regardless if it's a Starter or Booster) if you're Buying a launcher on the side. Also, Hasbro Beyblades are official, but lower quality than Takara Tomy Beyblades. Hasbro Beyblades will generally cost $10-15 USD, while Takara Tomy Beyblades cost anywhere from $15-40 USD on Amazon, depending on how new it is, because those are imported from Japan, so the sellers account for the original price, the cost to ship from Japan, and how rare the Beyblade is (ie if it's a Limited Edition Bey, which I don't recommend for the fun factor).

One last thing: Beyblade Burst is the current series that is going on, so your son might have friends with Burst Beyblades, which is why I suggest getting Burst over Metal Fight.