Bakuten Henkei Gaia Dragoon

Attack Ring: Fire Cracker

Weight: 4.7g (Mold 1) | 5.1g (Mold 2)

• • Oval-shaped AR with rounded sides, with large gaps and large head protrusions at either end.

  • Rounded sides make it less consistent than Square Edge despite vaguely similar shapes.

  • Too recoil prone for Stamina or Defense due to its protrusions.

  • Slightly fragile.

  • Head protrusions which are some of the primary contact points are raised, which can make it more effective than many options against Circle Survivor Defense, but mean it struggles terribly with shorter opponents, being largely ineffectual against compacts. Overall, alternatives such as Square Edge are more consistent, and for raised contact points, Mountain Hammer is a safer bet.

  • Nonetheless an option on Attackers using SG (Bearing Version 2) setups, but generally Mountain Hammer is a more reliable choice. In addition these tend to be outclassed by more powerful Smash Attack combos anyway.

  • Fairly large variation in weight despite no visible mold changes.

  • Overall not great, but with a few niche uses. It is nonetheless the worst of the "Hidden Spirit" ARs.

Notable Mold Differences:

• In addition to the Hasbro Version, there is a second mold of Takara's Fire Cracker, used first in Bakuten Henkei Gaia Dragoon and later again in Bakutenryu Donitrus, which has an extra layer of plastic at the bottom, making it thicker and about half a gram heavier. This version is generally preferable due to increased durability and weight. It is interesting to note that while there is also a second mold of Salamalyon Base, this is only used in Bakutenryu Donitrus, so the two are not coupled release-wise.
  

Weight Disk: Revolver Attack

Weight: 15.0g

• • Lighter than Heavy and Eight Heavy while having a similarly compact weight distribution

  • Weight distribution implies defensive use, but the recoil from the contact points and the relatively middling weight means it doesn't work well here - even Heavy Attack is a better choice on set-ups that can reduce the recoil.

  • Not a useful part.

Blade Base: Salamalyon Base

Weight: 5.9g (Mold 1) | 6.1g (Mold 2)

• • Light base with built in SG (4 Layer System style).

  • Tip is a narrow flat tip (barely wider than the flat part of SG Semi-Flat Base).

  • Tip provides aggressive movement, but is hard to make flower pattern and doesn't handle recoil well.

  • Poles for figurine attachment cripple LAD and cause scraping (albeit not as severely as Griffolyon Base), and interfere with the deep banking required to get a decent movement pattern out of the tip.

  • Overall, inferior to the already mediocre Flat Base.

Notable Mold Differences:

• There is a second mold of Salamalyon Base, included in Bakutenryu Donitrus, which has reinforced poles. The reinforcement also adds to the length however, making the scraping issues incredibly bad in this version, to the point it can scrape when Tornado Stalling and spin itself out. This may make it the worst Blade Base of the generation, as while the Mold 2 Griffolyon Base from its compatriot Bakutenryu Etanzel is less practical, it at least does not self-induce scraping.

Overall

• With no useful parts, this Beyblade is not worth buying other than for collection.

Related Beyblades

• Salamalyon - Original Takara Release

• Bakutenryu Donitrus - Dark Blue Recolor from late G-Revolution

• Salamalyon (Hasbro) - Hasbro version of Salamalyon

• Salamalyon 2 (Hasbro) - Orange recolour of Hasbro's Salamalyon