Takara Tomy's Tail Battlers: Tail Swishing Fun!

Product Review

At first glance, Takara Tomy's Tail Battler looked to be somewhat of a cheap thrill

You see, the dragon-like figurines require no batteries to start up. Instead, a long plastic rod connects the dragon to a rotating handle, much like a fishing reel. Installation was a breeze, which was a good thing considering the boys could not wait to pit each other's dragons together.

Working it was ridiculously easy. All they had to do was to turn the handle as if they were reel fishing. The force generated travels through the rod and makes the dragon spin round and round, swishing its tail in the process. The objective is to strike your opponent's dragon's head to blow off its tail. Hence its name of Tail Battler, get it?

I know what you are thinking. How fun can swishing a tail be? But trust me, I had underestimated the joy in trying to strike something with a few turns of the tail. For starters, attempting to turn the handle as fast as I can to generate a more powerful spinning force AND trying to aim for the other dragon's head is not as easy as it looks.

But it sure was wickedly fun... which even prompted Ale to clamour to have her own Tail Battler.

There are three classes of Tail Battlers - Attack, Defense and Speed - and the armour plates of the dragons can be interchanged for customization upgrades. Attack-oriented Tail Battlers have tails with wider tips for a more devastating attack area, Defense-oriented ones have bulkier armour to fend off attacks while Speed-oriented ones have smaller wheels to enable quick mobility.

So yes, it is not all about mindless spinning.

And definitely not a toy that the monkies will be putting down any time soon.

Tail Battlers are retailing at major departmental stores for $19.90.