This is the one I've been waiting to do.
Shoot your Marbles
Marbles are probably among the oldest toys in history dating back to early Roman era and much older than Christ. A typical game is basically keeping your marbles in a circle by flicking them. They came in many sizes and materials over the centuries and the game was left more or less unchanged, it wasn't until the late 90s early 00s that Battle B-Daman took the marble concept and turn it into a proper battle game not much different to the ball bearing game of crossfire from the 70s. But it was Bakugan who gave it more strategic spin on the game turning the marbles into mini transformers and combining them with cards and territory style gaming, it was strangely addictive and is actually coming back to screens.
Ball Bearings for War and Gambling
The humble ball bearing was invented in 1794 by a Welsh Ironmaster although in industry, bearings had been used for much longer and is an integral part of engineering but leave it to the modern era to make games from it. I already brought up crossfire, a very awesome battle game from the 70s but there were other uses. Japan actually created Airsoft in order to continue to train it's military despite the embargo placed on them participating in wars from World War II as guns shoot plastic Ball Bearings instead. I have participated in Airsoft, it frickin hurts! C3 is the only anime I know of to have Airsoft as it's theme.
Pachinko is a low stakes gambling game using ball bearings, an evolution of an old Victorian era game named Bagatelle. It's another way of getting round Japan's already strict gambling laws as the stakes are never that high, it's also seen as the final resting place for retired anime and games as pachinkos use anime to encourage gamblers.
Spinning Top Battles
Spinning Tops are just as old as marbles but have a much more interesting history from religious significance in Jewish Dreidels to being used as an alternative to dice in some tabletop games as well as being the first toy most children play with as infants. Then you have Beyblade.
The spinning top battle game is cheesy as hell but I have a soft spot for it. I used to help run a fan page for Beyblade before I came here. In fact my username came from my own Beyblade, a Dranzer that uses a Dragoon's left spin gear as opposed to the right spin gear in most Beyblades. I'm probably more harsh on the franchise than I should be but considering how it shaped my fandom and how it helped me meet some very special people, I'm kind of sad at how stale the series got after the first generation.
