Bakutenryu Etanzel

Attack Ring: Cross Griffon

Weight: 5.4g

Right Spin:

• • Excellent Smash Attack, moderately more powerful than Triple Wing at only slightly higher recoil thanks to thick, sharp contact points.

  • More prone to beating the stamina out of opposing combinations with hard hits than most Smash Attack ARs, which can be useful on SG Metal Flat Base (Gaia Dragoon V Version).

  • The main downside of Cross Griffon is that it is quite prone to damaging opposing Beyblades, stadium walls, and is renowned for being particularly painful to pick up while spinning. On the other hand, Cross Griffon itself is extremely sturdy, with thick construction and no points likely to suffer stress fracture in the design.

  • It does however wear down over time, though the same goes for most thick high-powered Attack Rings if used regularly enough. Nonetheless this is something to keep an eye on as the power drop is noticeable due to pushing the wing tips inwards.

Left Spin:

• • Fairly heavy recoil and only decent Smash Attack power, basically a more recoily and slightly less powerful version of competitive Left Spin Smash Attack ARs.

  • Not worth using in this direction.

Weight Disk: Eight Balance

Weight: 14.1g

• Middling weight and unremarkable weight distribution.

• Outclassed by pretty much every common competitive Weight Disk, particularly Ten Balance. Heavier plated versions can sometimes reach the same weight however, which makes them an equal, if niche and impractical alternative.

• Generally though, no competitive use.

Blade Base: Griffolyon Base

Weight: 7.3g

• • Narrow, rounded tip provides exceptionally poor stability and Defense as well as no movement.

  • The pseudo-free-spinning tip is mounted to a cylindrical plastic piece which sits inside the Base, but this has little effect on performance, and the way it is molded leaves a molding line down the centre of the tip, which often results in unevenness and thus even poorer balance than the already appalling tip shape itself provides. In addition, the "free spin" gimmick is limited by the large contact area between this centre shaft and the surrounds as well as needing sprues from the runner frame to be clipped very carefully to not scrape.

  • The cherry on top and most infamous part of the base are the four poles hanging down from it, which not only scrape extremely easily and violently when the Beyblade loses stability (a very common occurrence given the tip), but also make the side of the base (from which they protrude) extremely recoil-heavy should anything reach low enough to hit it.

  • Strong contender for worst Blade Base of the entire generation, as Jumping Base (Trygle) at least has a vaguely interesting gimmick and isn't actually significantly worse.

Notable Mold Differences:

• There is a second mold of Griffolyon Base, used in Bakutenryu Etanzel, which has a shorter tip - though not enough to make a significant weight impact. The reason for this decision is unknown, but as a result of this it scrapes incredibly easily, making it a close run thing between its compatriot Bakutenryu Donitrus's Mold 2 Salamalyon Base which while marginally more practical does often self-induce its scraping.

Overall

• Long overlooked, Cross Griffon is an excellent Attack Ring and a sturdier alternative to the famed Triple Wing. In fact, comparisons between their respective Beyblades are very common - both have a competitive Smash Attack AR and an absolutely appalling Blade Base - even worse in Etanzel than the original Griffolyon and rather useless Weight Disk. However, Bakutenryu Etanzel tends to be quite expensive and hard to find, and is generally therefore a poorer buy than Griffolyon itself - though it's certainly a bigger flex.

Related Beyblades

• Griffolyon - Original Takara Release

• Griffolyon (Hasbro) - Hasbro version of Griffolyon

• Griffolyon 2 (Hasbro) - Purple recolour of Hasbro's Griffolyon