Tops

 

"A top (also called spinning top or spin top) is a toy designed to be spun rapidly on the ground, the motion of which causes it to remain precisely balanced on its tip because of inertia.  Such toys have existed since antiquity.  Traditionally tops were constructed of wood, sometimes with an iron tip, and would be set in motion by aid of a string or rope coiled around its axis which, when pulled quickly, caused a rapid unwinding that would set the top in motion. Today they are often built of plastic, and modern materials and manufacturing processes allows tops to be constructed with such precise balance that they can be set in motion by a simple twist of the fingers and twirl of the wrist without need for string or rope."                                  Wikipedia

We have all kinds of tops in our collection... big, little, plastic, wooden, string powered as well as human powered.  They are beautiful, fun, and always the source of many hours of concentrated effort to decide which spins best, which looks best when spinning, and which one can bump out the others by battling each other as they spin.