Another gift post, but in a different medium: should we call it Beydazzling?
I have a friend who’s getting married. She is the most unbelievably stylish person that I know, like it gets tired for me to just compliment her every time I see her but what else can I do, and she’s also into Beyblades. Like really into Beyblades.
I know nothing about Beyblades, but I thought it would be fun to get her a wedding gift of a super over-the-top, high femme/goth/vaporwave/terminally online custom Beyblade launcher. Not something you’d want to play with in a serious tournament, but something you might keep on your wall, or whip out for an impromptu drunk game at MAGFest.
Much to my surprise, I couldn’t find anything in the style I was looking for. Beyblade mods and custom attachments, yes; bedazzled grips and launchers, no. (I still can’t believe no one is doing this, so tag me with whoever I managed to miss.)
Of course, I immediately fell down an obsessive rabbit hole of how to make the glitteriest Beyblade launcher possible. Not just bedazzled in clean straight lines—a truly over the top, high femme Beyblade launcher.
I did a few materials tests on $5 launchers already.
Materials test 1:
Various combos of glitter glue, holo vinyl, nail stickers, and rhinestones. This was never meant to look cohesive, it was just a surface to test combos on, but I didn’t like any of them. E6000 in particular was hard for me to work with, inevitably getting all over the tops of my rhinestones and dulling them down.
Materials test 2:
Various layers/combos of E6000, hot glue, glitter, rhinestones, and charms. Hot glue can be layered for a 3D treatment, which I liked, but it was also stringy on the gems. Empty glue areas felt goopy rather than intentional. Likewise, it didn’t feel intentionally maximalist—just maximalist.
Materials test 3:
Decoden glue, rhinestones, charms. God I love living in NYC—I decided to give the decoden approach a shot this afternoon, found a decoden shop in Flushing, and got back home with my spoils before the evening ended. It also appears to be the best combo of 3D, glittery, solid hold, and non-stringy. But we’ll have to check that in a few days.
This size/shape is temporary—I have a BX-11 grip coming in the mail, which will both give more real estate and also probably introduce all sorts of usability problems. But what’s a little palm pain for the fiercest Beyblade launcher of all?
