I was an engineer with beyblades. The official US products were actually worse than the 3rd party and knock offs believe it or not. I regret the one or two times I nagged my parents about buying them at Walmart. The range of available models were lower so there was very little experimentation you could do. Most of the US ones were either very gimmicky or had the plain flat-tip base. They also had the scrawny short rip cords which were bent out of shape because they were crammed into their packaging with the gears facing in.
When you went to places selling the generic stuff though, you had access to the models the US domestic market didn't have. Knock-offs of the US models were made thicker so they weren't as likely to break (i.e. Dranzer S). Rip cords were 2 to 4 times longer than the US rip cords, weight disks had way more variety and were more fun (the over-sized ones with pieces of flint stuck to the end created sparks!). Some Asian beyblades were sold as a set, and most knock offs at some point were sold in little plastic container sets containing 3 or 4 beyblades. Most base pieces have metal tips (which was good because that lasts way longer than a plastic tip), and some bases were made entirely of metal, allowing your spinning top to hold more momentum that your competitors.
And finally on top of all that, they cost way less! The biggest drawback to the knock-offs were the fact some pieces didn't fit with other parts, but this stuff is plastic so that's nothing a little sanding can't fix!
Wow, I wasn't expecting you to deliver so much insight on this matter, guess there's more to you than what meets the eye.
So the generic stuff actually offered more variety and sturdier parts overall compared to the official stuff in the US, eh? Looks like I underestimated that possibility, it seems, from what you say. For a change, they did offer more for less (of a cost), while actually providing the players with a more comprehensive set of parts and some neat bonuses (the flint thing does sound pretty cool, to be honest, never thought you could get a Beyblade to shoot out actual sparks). It's definitely very interesting that all those things combined made up for stronger, more fun Beyblades than the original, officially-licensed products. Well I'll be darned...
Hey, Steel Angel Kurumi, now that can definitely considered as garbage. Even worse than Beyblade, I dare say. At least Beyblade had some sort of purpose, Kurumi was another case of using sexualized women for the sake of... well, using them with no real, tangible goal. Also, I remember seeing Hikarian in 2001 in Portugal, but that was the original version, not the one that was broadcasted in Japan at that time...
Hmm, there seems to be a bit of a reliance in that post of yours...
I don't know, some sort of sunny reliance.
Also, I really like the style of the fourth picture within that spoiler tag, I can't quite explain why. It has this "realistic yet cute" feel to it, and it's very well executed. 👍
But the other two are still good.
