Seaborg
The Navy Blue BBA Selection version of this Beyblade suffers from Fragile Plastic Syndrome and tends to shatter on assembly.
Weight: 4.3g
Right Spin:
Highly aggressive, with massive recoil and fairly strong smash.
Unfortunately due to the connection angles the AR is rather fragile, especially as it tends to be UV Damaged very quickly in its default colour (and just generally super fragile in Navy).
Power isn't sufficient to justify the recoil, however given the fact Whale Attacker comes with Defense Grip Base, if you are sure your opponent won't be using something that has good grip, you can quite safely use it as an offensive choice.
Overall, outclassed and risky but not useless.
Left Spin:
Rounded contact points with mediocre range and relatively average Smash Attack, and spikes on the side that are rather recoil prone make for a fairly average Smash Attack AR with no other real uses due to the recoil.
Slopes provide good Upper Attack - exceptional if on a low Blade Base, specifically Storm Grip Base (Tip Inverted), making for one of the most compelling Left-Spin Traditional Upper Attack ARs.
Overall a great part, though one should still be somewhat wary of fragility.
Weight (Hard Edge Mold): 12.7g
Weight (Soft Edge Mold): 12.2g
Very light weight
Two molds, one with sharper edges used exclusively by Takara, and one with softer edges used by both Hasbro and Takara (after production moved to China, presumably). The Hard Edge mold tends to be heavier on average but there is huge crossover between them and the difference can largely be considered negligible. The soft edge mold also often has bumps, generally smaller than those on Ten-Series Weight Disks, at one or both ends, which theoretically could make for poorer balance, though the impact is negligible.
Wide weight distribution, albeit less so than Ten Wide, Wide Defense and Wide Survivor.
Minor use with Attack AR's whose contact points are obscured by wider weight disks (eg Double Wing), though these limitations inherently render them inferior to many other options, and overall the lighter weight of Eight Wide leaves it outclassed.
Spin Gear: Right Spin Gear
Weight: 1.1g each (Shells) + 1.12g (Metal Weight Gear) (Optional)
Standard SG System Shells.
Incompatible with Neo Cores, and thus certain MagneSystem Blade Bases, though Wyborg's SG (Auto Change Version) SG Core Part can be used to allow use with some.`
Generally Neo Shells are preferred for their greater compatibility, mostly their ability to use Neo Cores. For Right Spin, this is particularly relevant with the Heavy Metal Core.
Generally uses a Metal Weight Gear with all compatible SG Cores. This gear helps reduce wobbling/rattling and adds a small amount of weight. It does not, however, work as a gear in any capacity.
Nonetheless, per BBA Survivor, BBA Attacker, BBA Defenser and BBA Balancer having Regular SGs but no Metal Weight Gear, it is not required for legality.
This allows Right Spin Gear Shells to produce the lightest SG setup in the game when using SG (Auto Change Version) and no metal Weight Gear.
Note: The correct name for this part is "Gear" however this name is commonly used to avoid confusion with the Metal Weight Gear in standard SGs.
Weight: 0.61g
Small core part to fit into the Base and be clipped to by the Base Clips, holding the Beyblade together. Also used as a ripcord gear by Bearing Gyros Beyblades.
The plastic part is the second lightest of all Core parts, being just slightly heavier than Wyborg's SG (Auto Change Version) core part.
Incompatible with certain MagneSystem Blade Bases as the tip shafts are too wide for the hole in its base.
With Neo SG Shells, it creates one of the lightest setups, making for what is theoretically the best SG for most attack types not requiring a Neo core or their own shafts, though the difference is generally theoretical only, due to the minimal weight difference, and often going heavier is better for rotational recoil control.
Useful for completely optimizing a Spiral Change Base zombie (which are the only competitive stamina types that do not require a gimmicked SG), as cores are not useful for recoil control due to its low friction and the lighter weight in the centre slightly improves survival. Technically SG (Auto Change Version) may be superior as it does fit, but the difference is likely to be too small to measure.
Weight: 6.1g
Two modes: Normal Mode is tip inserted from SG side of the base, for rubber sharp. Attack Mode is tip inserted upside down from below the base, giving a wide, flat rubber tip. This is considered legal for WBO Organized Play and does not breach any published rulings by Takara.
Defense/Normal Mode:
Rubber Sharp tip.
Rather recoily design with poor LAD.
In a light weight generation, the stamina issues of that tip design are even more prominent, and traditional attack combinations (those using Triple Wing and Cross Griffon for example, or those on Customize Grip Base Tip which has solid Stamina for a Rubber Tip) are often able to beat the stamina out of it to win by outspin. The presence of metal-tipped attack types and various balance types becomes a real issue for it.
The tip however does have exceptional grip and stays right in the centre of the stadium. It does require cleaning after each battle for efficacy however.
Much more effective in Same-Spin, like Rubber Sharp from MFB, though still quite hard to knock out in opposite spin.
Versus the Hyper-Aggressive Smash Attack opponents which are now more common, it is perhaps the hardest Blade Base of any to KO (much like Rubber Sharp in early-mid MFB), and does have enough stamina to outspin them unless they first hit it solidly then immediately proceed to tornado stall.
Overall, a very powerful defensive part when paired with a Heavy Metal Core, a low-recoil Attack Ring such as Tiger Defenser and Wide Defense or (though much more likely to be outspun for minimal defensive improvement) Ten Heavy.
As the Blade Base doesn't move, the AR has to disperse the force of every hit, which unfortunately leads to significant breakage risk.
Attack/Tip Inverted Mode:
Wide, flat rubber tip produces excellent speed. Tip is of average softness, providing solid if not exceptional recoil control, enough that even the most recoil prone Hyper Aggressive Smash Attack ARs are usable if not exceptional in all cases (in particular, the recoil-heavy Double Attacker as well as Seaborg's own Whale Attacker are significantly less reliable and somewhat less powerful than they are on setups using SG Grip Change Base's Tip).
Rather tall, which is the primary downside to this. However, this does allow non-overhanging ARs and particularly ARs with elevated contact points like Mountain Hammer to handle Circle Survivor Defense, the latter doing so with great reliability.
Able to use any non-gimmicked regular or Neo SG core, although for Smash Attack this isn't that sizeable an advantage, given the inertia from the higher speeds resulting from lighter SG cores tends to be more than is gained from the trade-off of speed which results from placing weight in the centre of the beyblade, though Attack Rings with sizeable rotational recoil such as (or perhaps particularly, seeing as it is by far the most noticeable case of this) Mountain Hammer sometimes benefit enough from the greater rotational inertia to at least make it a decent choice.
Cheap, common, not particularly fast-wearing, fast moving, with decent recoil control and ability to use both left and right spin gears and any non-gimmicked regular or Neo SG Core including a Heavy Metal Core - basically ideal aside from the height and poor shape.
The only superior tip, SG Grip Change Base Tip is only marginally so, wears much faster, is much more complex to use, usually costs 5-10x as much and is extremely hard to find. The wearing difference alone is more than enough to make Defense Grip Base much more sensible.
In addition, as Defense Grip Base can make use of a Heavy Metal Core, which SG Grip Change Base Tip cannot do without using the incredibly fragile SG Grip Change Base. As such, it is generally considered the "best" Attack Blade Base by sheer fact of its primary opponent suffering from a crippling manufacturing error.
Poor stamina and horrible LAD preclude use for Force Smash, disappointingly.
Can be slightly fragile around the Base Clip area due to its protrusions and tendency to suffer more severe UV damage.
Notable Alternate Molds:
The Hasbro Defense Grip Base, like their Storm Grip Base, has a flat side which lacks the raised section or hole in the centre of the Takara version, but also has a section of this part cut away, resulting in slight 'hopping' (like a milder version of MFB's Quake tip). While not really severe enough to make the part uncompetitive, Takara's version is greatly preferred.
Overall
Defense Grip Base presents bladers with an excellent Attack or Defense Blade Base at a cheap price - something plastics is otherwise sorely missing, as well as a very impressive if somewhat narrow-in-scope Defensive option. The fact the aggressive-if-impractical Attack Ring makes this Beyblade somewhat usable out of the box is a bonus - even without that, Seaborg would be a must have, and all bladers are recommended to own multiple copies.
Related Beyblades
A Note On Fakes
There are a number of Seaborgs on the market which sellers are claiming to be genuine which are obvious fakes - this is most easily determined by the fact they use plastic tips. Buyers should beware.