This Magical Top Spins for Hours, Breaks Guinness World Record

Most of us have played with spinning tops at one point in our lives, and the idea was fairly simple. You rotate them on a vertical axis and thanks to the magic of physics the top continues to spin for some time before falling down.

But LIMBO is different. At first glance, the top developed by Fearless Toys will give you a recall of the totem that Leonardo DiCaprio used in the movie Inception to find out whether he’s dreaming or awake.

And when you spin the LIMBO, you’ll notice that it’s no different! The top keeps on spinning almost endlessly, leaving you puzzled to decide on whether it is a dream or reality.

The spinning top also holds the Guinness World Record title for the longest running mechanical spinning top. The exact time duration of its world record spin is 27 hours 9 minutes and 24 seconds.

The LIMBO may look like every other ordinary spinning top from the outside. But the secret to its longevity resides inside the housing, where there rests a special asymmetric flywheel motor, a high-end motion sensor, a rechargeable battery and an advanced system-on-a-chip that constantly monitors LIMBO’s stability and applies dozens of motion corrections every second to keep it spinning.

The spin is made possible with an asymmetrical motor that is used in the spinning top. When the accelerometer inside the spinning top senses a loss in spin speed, the asymmetrical flywheel motor actuates and keeps the top from toppling.

Another interesting feature of LIMBO is its ability to adjust to the surface that it is spinning on, which most of the ordinary spinning tops fail to manage. The algorithm developed by Ben-Yehuda, CTO at Fearless Toys is the star of the show, as it keeps everything in check and gives the top an ability to adjust to changing variables.

“What makes Limbo so magical is its ability to learn and adapt to the surface it is spinning on. It was surprising even for us to witness how clever the control algorithms proved to be. We’ve tried to spin it on some really crazy objects. The first time we spun Limbo on a tomato it was really confusing, but in a few seconds time the algorithm figured out the surface, and it was like, ‘yeah, I can do that!” says Tom Ben-Yehuda.

It is astonishing to see how they have managed to squeeze various technologies into the size of a spinning top while keeping its weight at about 16 grams, though according to Ben-Yehuda this was the most challenging part.

LIMBO has not been commercialized yet and is seeking investments through a Kickstarter campaign. The project, however, has been funded more than its pre-requisite of $40,000 and has managed to raise over $200,000 at the time of this writing.

With just a few days for the campaign, you might want to quickly book one at an early-bird price point of $49.  The shipping is set to begin from December this year.