{"id":473964,"date":"2026-06-03T11:01:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T11:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/473964\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T11:01:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T11:01:11","slug":"beyblade-craze-grips-hong-kong-as-fans-battle-it-out-in-malls-expos-and-on-the-streets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/473964\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyblade craze grips Hong Kong as fans battle it out in malls, expos and on the streets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">It is 1pm on a sweltering Saturday inside a packed event space on the ground floor of Dragon Centre in Hong Kong\u2019s Sham Shui Po neighbourhood, but nobody is here for the mid-year sales.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Instead, dozens of children, teenagers and a surprising number of adults are pressed shoulder to shoulder around clusters of small plastic stadiums, watching pairs of clashing Beyblades, the high-performance spinning tops popularised by the eponymous anime in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Across Hong Kong, Beyblades are spinning back into the mainstream with a force that has caught even seasoned toy retailers by surprise.<\/p>\n<p>Fuelled by the global success of the high-speed Beyblade X series and a potent mix of nostalgia and grass-roots organisation, the city is now home to a dizzying calendar of tournaments. These include casual weekend meet-ups in housing estates and official qualifiers for the Asian and world championships held inside shopping centres, toy expos, on the streets and at <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/hong-kong\/society\/article\/3355431\/inaugural-hong-kong-comic-con-draws-massive-crowds-and-global-vendors?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the recent Comic Con<\/a>.<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Most competitors in Hong Kong have cases filled with varying modifications and editions of Beyblades to optimise their chances. Photo: Chloe Loung\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/acd3a85f-379b-476e-9fc1-0d95ef94f857_52e0d632.jpg\" title=\"Most competitors in Hong Kong have cases filled with varying modifications and editions of Beyblades to optimise their chances. Photo: Chloe Loung\"\/>Most competitors in Hong Kong have cases filled with varying modifications and editions of Beyblades to optimise their chances. Photo: Chloe Loung<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The competitive structure has been supercharged by official support from Takara Tomy, the Japanese manufacturer and creator of the Beyblade franchise. The brand regularly hosts official Beyblade X events and tournaments across Hong Kong, and competitors can battle in domestic qualifiers for the chance to enter the international Beyblade X Asia Championship and the World Championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is 1pm on a sweltering Saturday inside a packed event space on the ground floor of Dragon&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[215253,220172,220168,220169,220171,60926,3448,220174,85,46,1437,220167,220173,172782,170715,220170,125,142365],"class_list":["post-473964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-asian-championship","tag-beyblade-x","tag-beyblade-x-asia-championship","tag-beybladegeeks","tag-dragon-centre","tag-hasbro","tag-hong-kong","tag-hong-kong-beyblade-association","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-japan","tag-kirsten-thomas","tag-marcus-wong","tag-mong-kok","tag-sham-shui-po","tag-takara-tomy","tag-technology","tag-wan-chai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}