BilletSpin Xeno Spinning Top Review

The BilletSpin Xeno is a Spinning Top with an interesting and technical design, offering stainless steel and bronze parts. Read on!

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Official Specs

Here’s a link to the BilletSpin Xeno Stainless Steel and Bronze Top product page (or as near as you can buy this model now).  The Stainless Steel and Bronze retail for $175, and is almost the least expensive option (least expensive being $150, Copper/Bronze/Bronze).

Short Review

This is a very cool little top.  The spin is great, and the grip for getting great spins works very well.  Nice that there are a bunch of versions, with different metal combos, too.

Long Review

Package

I received this top with some other items, but as for the top itself, it ships in this BilletSpin branded soft pouch.  The top is wrapped in bubble wrap inside this pouch.

A case is available for these tops.  It’s big enough to hold many (20+) so might be overkill if you end up with only one top.  Otherwise, you’ll need to figure out some way to carry this safely and comfortably.  A padded hard case would be great.

Look

The Xeno is a striking top.  Hard to describe, so mostly have a look at the photos.  BilletSpin describes the look as follows:

The Xeno pays homage to the movie Alien with its facehugger 8 leg design. Angular themed top with a stainless steel body, bronze upper and lower facehugger disks and a stainless steel/bronze stem. 5 piece top.

That’s a cool description.  If I was describing it, I’d say it looks more like a high-end wheel for a pimped-out car.

The point of contact for the spin is a stainless ball.

It’s unclear to me how these parts fit together.  Possibly they’re press-fit because they are snug.  There’s absolutely zero concern for them to unintentionally disassemble and not much indication where they could be parted for intentional disassembly.

This top is near to the Stainless Steel / Bronze / Stainless Steel / Bronze Xeno – my specific top isn’t even listed on their site.  There are a bunch of options!  However, that name is specific to the parts here, and in order.  First, the biggest ring is Stainless.  Then the “facehugger” part is bronze.  Then a stainless steel shaft, and finally a bronze grip.  (The name of my top would be “SS/Bronze/Bronze/SS” since that’s the order of my parts.)

Feel

Note the thumb stud.  It’s very grippy, and allows strong twists for long spins.

Spin Times

The Xeno takes half a minute or so to get stable, but once it gets into its spot, it’s rock stable.  So much so that you’ll think it’s not even moving.

I did some spintime tests and the results are as follows:

Spin	Time (m:s)
1 (table top)	3:21.58
2 (table top)	2:11.84
3 (table top)	2:21.94
4 (hard plastic plate)	4:02.01
4 (ceramic plate)	3:59.70

Clearly, my tabletop is too soft and not uniform for good spins.  With a good spin station, I think 5+ minutes would be easy with this top.

Maintenance / Disassembly

As I said above, I’m not sure how to disassemble these tops.  The different metal parts aren’t able to be purchased individually (ie, you can’t ground-up build your own top from parts at BilletSpin), so I think they’re press-fit together.

Keeping the top clean should provide a long lifetime.

Size

The weight is 38g.  I measure it as 31mm tall by 31mm wide.

Conclusion

What I Like

• High-quality build
• Tons of metal options

What I Don’t Like

• Can’t be parted out for a “custom” build
• The price of entry is $150 (reasonable for the meticulous detail work, but still costly)

Head over to BilletSpin to have a look at this metal combo or look at the many other versions of the Xeno available.  I can’t not link this Zirc/Ti/Zirc specifically.  That’s a gorgeous top you absolutely must see for yourself.

I have a few more similar items that I’ll be posting in the coming weeks.  If there’s anything more or specific that you’d like to see, please let me know in the comments!

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Notes

• This top was provided by BilletSpin for review.  I was not paid to write this review.
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