I call the tops in this video “centrifugal tops” because they bear mechanisms designed to harness centrifugal force in interesting ways. The Japanese, who have been making such tops for at least 300 years, call them “edo koma”.
The ingenious wooden edo koma of Japanese master builder Masa-aki Hiroi are smoothly spinning works of kinetic art full of whimsy and humor. Examples can be seen in action at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FLcK… and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykmIf….
The LEGO centrifugal tops in this video can’t hold a candle to Horoi’s work, but they are edo koma in the broadest sense of the term. Each deforms reversibly by pitting centrifugal force against a gravitational or elastic restoring force that also grows with the deformation. The dynamic mass redistribution resulting from the deformation usually alters the top’s behavior, though not always in a predictable way.
Simple centrifugal tops @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKTgH…
Expanding ring tops @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEMUG…
Flyball tops @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtDRz…
More on Japanese tops @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow1gB… and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSqSR…
Jeremy McCreary
Lego spintop crafter
Most of the videos here are extracted from my MOCs pages there and are working gizmos born of a fascination with gadgets and the science and engineering behind them. Technical LEGO® — my term for the fusion of LEGO® with STEM (science, technology, and math) subject matter — brings out my inner inventor/designer/engineer/toymaker like no other medium.
My work owes a great deal to the folks on my list of favorite builders. Their imagination and ingenuity never cease to amaze.
