Second Look—BeyWarriors Shogun Steel Octagon Showdown Battle Set

A lot of our readers know I’m a huge Beyblade fan. I’m a regular member of the WBO, and I host regular tournaments in the town I live it. My kids and I have a bunch of Beys, both from Hasbro and imported from Takara Tomy. When I saw the BeyWarriors at Toy Fair I was skeptical, but willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

I shouldn’t have. They stink. They stink BAD.

BeyWarriors are rubber figures with a Bey on the bottom, interchangeable tips and arms, and a built-in rev up launcher. All that extra plastic is just bulky, and makes for a figure that doesn’t spin very well, or very long. My kids and I have played with the BeyWarriors Shogun Steel Octagon Showdown Battle Set, and while I like the arena, the BeyWarriors themselves are just a waste of plastic and metal.

The best way to describe the action would be to picture two drunken men spinning around and slapping each other with large fish. Give ’em about 5-10 seconds before they fall over. Not a pretty picture. Neither are BeyWarriors.

It seems there could have been an awesome opportunity for customization, and a proper metagame, but it was lost somewhere in design. Having the launcher built onto the figures adds a ton of unnecessary bulk, and a real killer of balance. Being only able to customize the tip and arms seems pointless. You can’t even swap the Bey out of the bottom.

Hasbro, I love Beyblades. I’m even a fan of BeyWheels. As much as I’d like to, I just can’t get behind BeyWarriors, especially for the price. Each figure costs around $13. That’s a lot of money to pay for something that just doesn’t work very well.

A BeyWarriors Shogun Steel Octagon Showdown Battle Set was provided free for review by Hasbro.