HONG KONG - In a fresh food market in Hong Kong's residential Yuen Long district, J.J. Chan's butcher shop is no longer frequented only by homemakers and domestic workers but by a different crowd who rarely go grocery shopping.
Fiery-eyed and tenacious, they are here with their own Beyblade spinning tops to challenge the 29-year-old meat vendor's green Wand Wizard, Chan's most reliable gamecock from a collection of around 100 tops.
With his cleaver set aside, Chan focuses on his 43-by-44-centimeter "Beystadium" plastic arena where the battles take place. Chan and his opponents release their toys using plastic strips after hearing "Three, two, one, go...shoot!"
The sounds of plastic and metal colliding are echoing through the financial hub's waterfronts, malls, parks and schools during the summer as Beyblade tops are enjoying a resurgence across Asia, including Taiwan, Thailand and Malaysia.
The customizable spinning tops, first developed in the late 1990s by Japanese toymaker Takara Co., are a modern take on a traditional Japanese spinning top known as "beigoma," from which the franchise apparently derives its "Bey" prefix. Takara later merged with Tomy Co., which continues to produce the toys today.
Each spinning top comprises three components -- an upper layer, a weight and a lower performance tip -- which players can interchange to enhance offensive capability, defensive strength or stamina.
Although the toy line's popularity exploded following the introduction of an accompanying manga and anime series in 1999 and 2001, it had spent years in the shadow of other Japanese franchises.
Its fourth and latest generation, Beyblade X, which premiered in 2023, did not become a phenomenon until a Taiwanese man's viral post on the social media platform Threads in February describing how he was mocked by his relatives' children for his poor Beyblade skills.
The revival of public discussion about the toy prompted a shared sense of childhood nostalgia and spurred a boom in sales, with enthusiasts lining up outside toy stores in Taiwan and Hong Kong to snap up the latest or rarest models.
Some players from Taiwan said, despite the toy's "relatively low barrier to entry," it offers a "thrilling and exhilarating" experience due to its intense collisions and unpredictability right up to the last second.
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te in early June used the game to cheer up this year's high school graduates.
Gilbert Law, the general manager of Mani Ltd., the toy's sole agent in Hong Kong and Macao, said sales had increased at least tenfold from April, before the craze took off.
"The craze exploded simultaneously among elementary school students, young people and adults," said Law, who distributes the toys to around 400 retail outlets in Hong Kong. "Our inventory could not keep up."
The sudden uptick in demand was in part thanks to "kidult" culture, in which adults indulge in children's interests and hobbies.
Plush toys such as Labubu and Chiikawa now adorn backpacks, handbags and office desks after being embraced by pop stars. Meanwhile, collectibles such as Pokemon and One Piece trading cards have become tokenized assets and even targets for robberies worldwide.
According to Law, unlike other items that rely on their collectible value to attract buyers, the ferocity of Beyblade battles has sustained the boom.
"People don't just buy one at a time, but they buy 10," he explained. "It will get scratched and damaged with each battle. It will definitely be over in about 20 battles."
Such battles provide a "psychological space that saves people's souls" by restoring human interaction in a modern society dominated by smartphones, Law added.
"During the COVID-19 pandemic, you kept playing online games, including social interactions -- I could play games with somebody for 100 hours straight, even though I didn't know them," he said.
"If a child grows up surrounded by virtual reality from childhood to adulthood, do you think it would be healthy for their mental development?"
Therapists have also introduced the kinetic game to care homes in Hong Kong to improve residents' hand-eye coordination, hand functioning and grip strength.
For Chan, who sometimes spends up to 16 hours a day at the butcher shop, Beyblade battles are now his way to relieve stress and make new friends, as challengers come from a wide array of backgrounds, ranging from elementary school students to surveyors in their 50s.
He might need to take on up to 100 rivals over a weekend, he said. Forcing his green Wand Wizard out of the ring, they can go home with their heads held high and a piece of pork as a prize.
"Without Beyblade, I can hardly make new friends," said Chan, who has spent almost HK$10,000 ($1,300) on his collection. "This is the pull of a real-life game."
