TopSpinning.com

THE bulletin board where spintop players swap tricks and advice. Moderate traffic but almost all relevant.

Unidentified Flying Tops

A spinning top collector's board (yahoo group). There are hardly any new posts (except spam), but you can still browse the archives or the picture gallery after registering. Hint: spinpole = ta0

Yo-Yo 4 All forum

Forum from Spain (in Spanish) that has a section on tops ("peonzas") managed by a player from Madrid.

Spintastics top videos

More than 50 video clips showing the tricks required to obtain Spintastics award patches as well as most tricks used for compulsories in major contests. There are also some freestyle examples. Featuring Dale Oliver, Valerie Oliver, Dave Bazan, Miguel Correa and others.

TopSpinning.com

The original spintop trick site has acquired a new life under André Boulay and the sponsorship of Infinite Illusions. It uses the yoyoing.com video vault, filtered using the spintop tag. The original videos of the site (featuring Herman Lau, Steve Brown and Lao Alovus) can still be found here.

Youtube.com

Of course, many videos end up in youtube. The link above (search "spintop") will find you some of the vids; use other searches to find more. The problem with youtube is that it doesn't let you store streamed videos to the hard drive without some tricks or help (e.g. keepvid). Some notable uses are komanotaketyan with lots of tricks performed with traditional Japanese tops, DarthJairo with Colombian tops and mondomagic1 with Mexican style play.

Komaspace

An excellent site by young koma player Yuuya dedicated to promoting the art of performing tricks with a tradional Japanese top or "koma." Now available translated into English.

Nickel-Eye.com

Some spintop videos (including a fire-top) in this site of mainly crazy fire stunts. Featuring 2004 world champion, Matt Ritter.

The Glass Lab

"Official Home of the DXL crew" Its first video clips were spintop tricks by Felix Avellana that can still be found under Trick Videos. There are spintop freestyles under Large Videos plus individual trick inside some of the yoyo videos. The Y-axis lab has remained empty, though, and it has not been updated in well over one year.

Spinning Top Museum of Burlington, Michigan

A museum dedicated to spinning tops and now also to yo-yos. It has hands-on presentations and organizes spintop events around the year. Directed by the top lady Judith Schulz.

Koma Museum of Nagoya, Japan

Huge collection of spinning tops from around the world with an emphasis on Japanese tops.

Jochen Schell

An artistic German juggler with a magnificent spinning top routine.

Koma Zuru

Japanese classical spintop performer. His career in the US was launched when Ed Sullivan saw his act in Japan and invited him to appear on his show in 1965.

John Sandstrum

Exhaustive classification of spinning tops. Currently hosted inside Sandstrum's site is the old Brian Lemin's site from down-under, including his translation into English of the Japanese Top Museum.

Tuj Lub playing in Minnesota

Players of the traditional topspin sport (Tuj Lub) of the Hmong people of Laos and Thailand.

The spinning top's friends association (Amics de la baldufa)

Spinning top club from Barcelona, Spain. Baldufa means top in catalan. Content in English, Spanish and Catalan.

History of the Top

This page on the history of the spintop, prepared by Val Oliver from Spintastics, is the best online. It includes first-hand knowledge on the recent American spintop history. Yes, the 8 year old girl in the picture is she!

Spinning tops everywhere

A collector from Israel. In English and Hebrew.

Knut Hegna

A collector from Norway (site in English). Spintop in any language, links and bibliography.

Der Kreisel

Site in German from the Institut für Kreiselforschung. Classification, science and culture of the top. Bibliography and many links.

Michael Schoenhoff

"Germany's biggest top collection".

The Top Guy

Jonathan has an extensive collection of tin lithographed plunge tops.

Mia's Top Collection

Mia Levesque was one of the first to post a top collection on the internet.

Eiji Ohashi's collection of Japanese Tops

600 pictures! In Japanese with some pages translated to English.

Folk Toys of Chile: Trompo

A page in Spanish taken from the Essay "Origen y folclor de los juegos en Chile" by Oreste Plath. Includes pegtop names, games and poems.

International Top Spinner Association

Dead association (never took off) but some pages still live. Founded by Walter Watts, spintop craftsman and player (old school).

Toupie et compagnie

A French collector's site. It used to be "Toupie or not Toupie" but with a very different look (its English version still available).

Tupiphilie

A French collector of wooden tops.

Thomi's kreisel site

German collector´s site with pictures and diashows of tops in his collection and around the world (including some sculptures). It even has a forum on finger tops but very little activity.

Gambling Tops

A dice collector page with "put-and-take" tops (teetota).

Thomas' dice top collection (Dice Monster)

Huge collection of dice tops.

Beigoma

A Japanese site dedicated to the Beigoma (ベーゴマ) top, the traditional medallion-shaped throw-top that some consider the forerunner to the modern beyblade.

Toupie Hollandaise

These antique ornate tables from Benelux and the north of France are larger versions of the game known as Skittles, Toptafel, Table a Toupie, Jue du Roi or Toupie des Indes. More pictures in this (slow) site.

Unusual and interesting tops

Two amazing tops: Top Secret and Levitron (Caltech)

Description of three magnetic displays, two of which are tops: Top Secret (Perpetual Top) from Andrews Mnfg. and the Levitron from Fascinations. Their record for longest continuous levitation so far: 314 days!

The hidden history of the Levitron

The baffling story of how the levitating spintop was stolen from its true inventor, Roy Harrigan. See also: Levitron: an amazing invention and a patent failure.

Humongous wooden top

Tetratops

The original tetratop site by inventor Kurt Przybilla.

Maxwell's Top

This top is described in Crabtree's book and is a striking demonstration (but not trivial to explain) of precession. See a video I made. A simpler (but adjustable) version is explained here.

LSX/Topnosis Guinness World Record finger top

This finger top can easily be kept going by manipulating the base where it is spinning. Using it, a 15 year old set a Guinness World Record of 2 hours, 52 minutes, 11 seconds in 1998.

Physical Toys by Prof. Christian Ucke

Humming Gourd Top

Instructions on how to build humming top out of a gourd (German and English).

Quark, a high-tech finger top

Spintastics

Manufacturing rights and distribution have been transferred to the Canadian company RskillZ. It is not clear yet how this will affect availability and if the company will continue to innovate in spinning tops as under Dale Oliver.

Duncan

Most stable manufacturer. The Bearing King and the Ripcord have been produced since 2000 with practically no changes.

Yoyojam

Used to make the best bearing tops, such as the TopDog and the Jon Gates signature top. Had stopped production for several years but has announced a new large-size performance top by the end of 2008.

Trompos Extrem

Mexican spintop manufacturer.

Dave's Skill Toys

Infinite Illusions

Yoyonation

Yoyostore

Yoyoplay

RSkillZ

Alan Gray

Alan custom builds the best performance wooden tops, including oversize tops (such as my Figaro)

Armin Kolb

Artist and master spintop maker from Germany. Some of the most beautiful tops anywhere.

Kreiselparadies

This German site may be the largest top shop in the world but mostly finger tops.

Sterling silver trompo (Mexico)

Itza Orfebres Mexicanos, silver crafts including this pegtop.

Les Trésors d´Agui (France)

Lots of nice crafted tops and top games from this shop (in French).

Channel Craft

Don Olney sold Toycrafter a few years ago and has since closed, but Channel Craft distributes some tops that seem of Toycrafter design.

Roy Campbell

This craftsman from Montana specializes in tops, mostly throw tops. Besides the exotic woods, he makes clear acrylic pegtops.

Donatien

Fine French craftsman does very nice tops, mostly finger tops.

The Toy Post (UK)

Among many wooden classic toys they offer 14+ models of whip tops.

Turner Toys

Some wooden tops plus the spintastics line.

El taller de Tomaldo

Craftsman from Uruguay making tops from exotic woods, including nested pegtops (in Spanish).

Gyroscopes Online

Online dealer specializing in educational gyroscopes. It also carries related stuff, such as tops, tachometers, and exercise powerballs.

The Color of Life

Unusual finger tops are the main products in this little neat shop.

Grand Illusions

My absolute favorite odd toys and illusions site includes some interesting tops for sale (UK).

Science Museum of Minnesota

Making finger tops.

Gilbert's Discovery Village (Salem, Oregon)

Rotational Inertial: Tops (teaching guide, part of Physics of Toys)

Earnshaw's Theorem and the Levitron

Spin-stabilized levitation and the Levitron

Dynamics of a Spinning Top