Bakugan: The Game Craze Sweeping the Playground

It all began innocently enough. I asked my Second Grade grandson what he wanted for his birthday. "I wanna Aquos Blue Pyrus Juggernoid and a Pyrus Chrome Delta Dragonoid!" The words that excitedly spewed forth in a torrent struck fear into my heart. Clearly, aliens had abducted my grandson overnight and subjected him to some mind-altering probe.

Before I could dial 911 to report this dastardly deed, his father offered to translate my grandson's strange language. What he was asking for, I was told, was a couple of Battle Brawlers used to play a new game craze called Bakugan.. Every day, it seems, the boys at his school engage in a pitched battle to save the world from destruction during a short 20 minute playground recess. Since the world is still spinning, I can only assume that they've been successful.

Before journeying off to the local Wal-Mart in a blind quest to find a couple of those Pyrus thingies, I decided to do a little research. Being an experienced traveler on the information super-highway, I googled and found my way to the official Bakugan website. What I learned was that Bakugan is an anime cartoon shown on the Cartoon Network. Naturally, like its predecessors Pokemon and Yugioh, Bakugan cartoons go hand-in-hand with marketing toys and games to kids.

I discovered that the Bakugan game pieces are called Battle Brawlers. They look like a medium-size plastic jawbreaker that pops open and transforms into a warrior when rolled over a magnetic game card. The game is played a bit like marbles, with each boy shooting his Bakugan Brawler onto the playing field made up of these magnetic cards. When two wind up on the same game card, they engage in battle - well, sort of. They don't actually do anything other than pop open. The winner of the battle is the Brawler with the highest "G power." As near as I can figure, this G power is unque to each Brawler and is something like playing rock, paper, scissors. The card on which they do battle goes to the child with the winning warrior. The overall winner of the game is determined by each child totaling the Halo Secret Points listed on the battle cards they've won.

It seems *cough* simple enough - the game is a combination of shooting marbles, trading cards and rock-paper-scissors. The only question that still remained in my mind was: How would my grandson know if he'd won or lost when he's not yet learned to add beyond 10 fingers and toes? It made me angry just imagining a 4^th grade shyster scamming the 2^nd graders out of their Bakugan cards. But, I had to let that go. My duty as the grandfather was to be the "child spoiler." The baton of "child protector" I had passed to my son. The 4^th grade shyster was his problem. My problem was to find the Aquos Blue Pyrus Juggernoid and a Pyrus Chrome Delta Dragonoid and spoil my grandson. In this case, I think I would have preferred do battle with that 4^th grader.

Armed with a general understanding of the Bakugan game, and a slip of paper from my son containing the names of the two Bakugan Brawlers my grandson requested, I set out on my quest.

My research offered a list of retailers that carried the Bakugan game pieces. I decided to try the store closest to home and came up empty. The next on my list was the same story. Not a Bakugan to be had. Wal-Mart was my last, great hope. Nothing! I grabbed an unsuspecting store clerk and asked him if they had any more of the Bakugan toys in back. I was prepared to offer him a bribe, if necessary. The clerk said that those toys fly off the shelves the same day they come in. And, "no", he didn't know when Wal-Mart would be getting more. He clearly looked disappointed when I shoved that ten dollar bill back in my pocket and headed for the doors.

Undaunted by my failure to provide for my grandson's desperate need of a couple of winning Bakugan warriors, I did the next best thing. I gave him twenty bucks - one dollar for each finger and toe. I'm letting the kid find his own Battle Brawlers.