• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • ABOUT US
  • MEDIA
  • PRIVACY
  • TERMS
  • DMCA
  • CONTACT US
  • AUTHORS
do you remember

DoYouRemember?

The Home of Nostalgia

  • Celebrity News
    • Family
    • Obituaries
    • Life Behind the Fame
    • ICONS
    • Celebrity Feuds
  • Entertainment
    • Cast
    • Showbiz Rewind
    • Music
    • Beauty & fashion
  • STORIES
  • Celebrity Buzz!?
  • Sitcoms
    • Bewitched
    • Little Rascals
    • The Partridge Family
    • I Dream of Jeannie
    • All in the Family
    • MASH
    • Happy Days
    • Cheers
  • Celebrity Collections
  • SHOP DYR
    • DYR Book

Stories

Battling Tops: Did You Play A Few Rounds Of Battling Tops Back In The Day?

by Zack Walkter

Published September 3, 2017

Assuming you didn’t have access to cockfights and bare-knuckle boxing bouts as a kid, the next best thing to getting your gladiatorial fix was Battle Tops. Once you released your spinning top into the plastic arena, you could sit back and watch the carnage erupt as you cheered on your fearless plastic cohort and hoped that, once the dust cleared, it emerged the last one standing, er, spinning.

Etsy

Battling Tops, released by Ideal toys in 1968, came with six spinning warriors who, despite their innocuous-sounding names (Dizzy Dan, Tricky Nicky, Twirling Tim, etc.), were all eager to enter the provided plastic arena.

Related:

  1. Millennials and Gen Z Play A Bigger Role In Battling The Coronavirus Than We Think
  2. ‘Wheel Of Fortune’ Contestant’s Wrong Answers Make The Rounds On Social Media

Only four could battle at a time, since there were only a quartet of launching stations, one on each side of the arena. A cord with a finger ring at the end was attached to each top – give it a good yank and let the fighting begin.

The goal was simple – don’t get knocked down and don’t get knocked out. Players watched anxiously as their tops smashed into each other with reckless abandon, trying to topple the competition and emerge victorious. Players battled through ten dizzying rounds to determine the winner.

americanplasticequipment.com

One of the things that made Battling Tops so popular was that any age could play. Sure, the smallest warriors might need a helping hand from an older sibling or parent to wind up their top, but once the competition started, age mattered little. All eyes, young and old, were locked on the hypnotic twirling patterns, hoping their top had the intestinal fortitude to withstand the melee and remain upright.

The game was redesigned in the late 70s, thanks to the popularity of a little film called Star Wars. Now called Battling Spaceships, and featuring a space-themed galactic arena, the concept remained the same. In the 80s, Marx bought the rights to the game, but it was eventually discontinued before the decade’s end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPX92dvGm-g

Thankfully, Mattel has brought back Battling Tops in recent years so that new generations of gladiators can experience the fierce competition of this classic game that pitted families against each other, without anyone having to tape up their knuckles.

Credits: retroland.com

Share this story on Facebook with your friends.

Previous article: 15 Hilarious Things Found In Textbooks That’ll Prove Scholars Are Comedians Too
Next Post: During What Month do People Sleep the Least?

Primary Sidebar

© 2025 DoYouRemember? Inc.

  • about us
  • media
  • privacy
  • terms
  • DMCA
  • CONTACT US
  • AUTHORS