The top that (almost) never stops

boing
1

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/09/12/the-top-that-almost-never-st.html

…

2

The indigogo link to Limbo seems broken?

3

Can I put it on a wireless charging pad?

3 Likes
4

only this one comes with an especially annoying curly haired kid.

Wait, what? I’ve forgotten about the tops now.

2 Likes
5

Battling tops make me think of Beyblades. My son is into them, and a surprising amount of my time is spent in Beyblade battles. It’s surprisingly fun.

6 Likes
6

A top that don’t stop.
Here I am wondering what good one is that does?

1 Like
7

Little does Mr. Limbo Owner know that his coworkers (and the delivery guy for some reason dressed as Bob the Builder) are jaded goldbrickers just happy to have an excuse to hang out in his office and listen to Epic Marketing Music.

3 Likes
8

I LOVED and STILL LOVE Battling Tops.

My parents were lucky enough to find one a few years ago for 50 cents at a garage sale so I even have a copy today! (Though I was surprised how much it affected me to see the name stickers were put on different colours by these owners. Dizzy Dan is GREEN, darn it!)

6 Likes
9

We had those battling tops, too.

And (the completely unrelated, but I just thought of them) SSPs!

3 Likes
10

Is it? We found the “blades” with the most mass invariably win so it is a simple matter of picking the heaviest one before spinning them… I wanted to like beyblades more but the battles were too … predictable based on mass.

4 Likes
11

I think it’s supposed to tell you whether you’re stuck in a dream or not. Need to double check that with Christopher Nolan though.

8 Likes
12

“It looks like that top from that movie.”

Yes, this is pretty much why I backed it when it was on Kickstarter. As movie prop replicas go, this one looks spectacular. Simple and effective.

3 Likes
13

The top that (almost) never stops
image

5 Likes
14

Well this is one of those times that I can’t explain to people in the office why I am laughing.

2 Likes
15

wow! Never seen the impossi-cars before, how adorable.

Is the problem as simply as resistance and the inefficiency of magnets? Or is there some other physics fail like, the lead magnet needs to be travelling away from the car to make it work??

1 Like
16

The problem is that while the magnet drags the car forwards, the car also pulls the magnet backwards just as hard - and the magnet is part of the car, so the net sum is zero. It’s kind of the same problem as trying to lift yourself by standing in a bucket and pulling on the handle.

You certainly could pull a car with a magnet, if, say, the magnet was stuck to a different car (with a normal engine) in front of you. In that case, it’d just be an unconventional way of attaching a tow rope.

More elegantly, you could use electromagnets. If you put permanent magnets in your car, and place it on a track full of electromagnets, and then turn those on and off as the car is going by, then you’d certainly move. (The difference is that now you’re pushing against the track, not yourself). This is basically how maglev trains work, though those also use the same magnets to levitate the train a little bit above the track.

3 Likes
17

I think i either saw a Kickstarter for this or something like this a few months ago. I really wanted one but just couldn’t justify buying it. If anyone wants to send me one feel free :smiley:

1 Like
18

I said this same thing but more poorlier.
I don’t think anybody got it.

Live and learn.

19

Newton’s 3rd is a bitch.

Those of us who understand the laws of thermodynamics.

2 Likes
20

I don’t think so CanadianBeaver — that would be a great upgrade for LIMBO 2.0.