Top Man

Top Man (タップマン) is a Robot Master created by Dr. Light and Dr. Wily to work on other planets in search for the Energy Elements needed to build Gamma, but he is used for combat by Dr. Wily in Mega Man 3.

Top Man is equipped with an auto balance system that allows him to spin rapidly much like a top, which he uses as an attack called the Top Spin to injure enemies, and as a defensive mechanism because the high rotational speeds make projectiles deflect off of him. However, he can't spin for too long because he gets dizzy, and maintaining such high speeds could damage his internal components. Top Man also attacks by tossing rapidly spinning tops from his head or shooting tops from his arm cannon.

Top Man is known to be somewhat of a smooth talker and such allows him to make arrangements for Dr. Wily's behalf easier. However, despite this, he has been known to not be good at storytelling and has occasionally been known to push his luck too far. He is fond of physical activities relating to roller skating and has been known to shun people who can't dance.

Mega Man 3
Top Man attacks by throwing three tops from his head that try to home on Mega Man. To avoid this, the player has to slide to the opposite side they come as they're trying to home on Mega Man. After throwing his tops, he uses the Top Spin to move to the other side of the screen. It is avoided by jumping over him. He'll then repeat his attack pattern.

His weakness is the Hard Knuckle, but he is invincible to it if he is spinning. It defeats him in four hits. He is also weak to his own weapon, the Top Spin, but it can only be used on him in the rematch against him in the Wily Castle. It defeats him in seven hits.

Mega Man II
Top Man is one of the four bosses fought in the Wily Castle. His actions are the same from Mega Man 3.

Mega Man's Soccer
Top Man is an average player with low defense that doesn't have his own team. In Tournament mode he is a member of the Fire Man, Wood Man, Dust Man, Enker, and Proto Man teams, and in League mode he is part of the Needle Man team.

Super Adventure Rockman
Top Man is one of the robots revived by Ra Moon in the Lanfront Ruins and appears as the third boss of Episode 3. When the room Mega Man is in fills with acid after defeating Hard Man, he tries to escape by climbing up the pillars in the room, but Top Man attacks Mega Man at the top. The game does not show what happens to Top Man after the fight, but he was probably melted in the acid like Hard Man, as Beat takes the Top Spin chip before it falls in the acid. If the player loses, Top Man will shoot a top from his arm cannon and make Mega Man fall, but he is rescued by Rush and Cut Man, and the player will have the option to restart the fight.

Top Man and the other Wily Numbers are later revived by Ra Moon again, and after Ra Moon betrays Wily, they are attacked and collapse. If Mega Man is defeated by the New Yellow Devil, he can ask the robots to help him by giving all their remaining energy to him, becoming inactive after this. Their bodies are apparently destroyed alongside Ra Moon's temple.

Rockman Complete Works data
体をこうそくかいてんさせて、攻撃をむこうにするシールドシステムをもつ. あたまからコマをだすので、しょうがつは、にんきもの.

Translation: Has a shield system and can attack across by rotating the body at high speed. Since he can take out tops from his head, he is popular on New Year.

Stage enemies
Enemies that appear in Top Man's stage in Mega Man 3, a simple area that is good for beginner players to practice the basics of the game.
 * Bolton and Nutton
 * Komasaburo
 * Mechakkero
 * Metall DX (normal type)
 * Pickelman Bull
 * Tama

Enemies in Top Man's stage in the Game Boy game Mega Man II:
 * Komasaburo
 * Mechakkero
 * Metall DX (normal type)
 * New Shotman
 * Pickelman Bull
 * Tama

Damage Data Chart
Amount of damage in units that Top Man receives from each Special Weapon in Mega Man 3.

Mega Man
In the Mega Man animated series, Top Man appeared in the episode Campus Commandos voiced by Jim Byrnes, where he infiltrated a robot campus pretending to be a student and befriended Roll to trick her. During the episode, he proved to be powerful, deflecting incoming attacks with his Top Spin, once knocking out Mega Man and rendering his Buster useless.

He was the last of the three Robot Masters to go down in this episode, only doing so after Roll used the Stealth Suit to pull him high into the air whilst spinning, before dropping him into a fountain. Even still, he was shown to have survived the fall, last being seen surfacing and blowing some inhaled water out of his mouth.

Captain N: The Game Master
Top Man appeared in the beginning of the episode "A Tale of Two Dogs", which is based on Mega Man 3. He was the only Robot Master remaining and had the last energy tank needed for Gamma to work. He was defeated by Mega Man with only one punch of the Hard Knuckle.

Mega Man Megamix
Top Man appears in the story Metal Heart trying to recover the Yellow Devil MK-II, but has no success. He appears briefly in the story The Strongest Enemy to Date.

Top Man also appears in Mega Man Gigamix.

Mega Man (Archie Comics)
Dr. Wily uses Ra Moon to create Top Man during the story arc Spiritus Ex Machina, with Ra Moon copying data from Dr. Wily's laptop to bring Top Man into being. He was also a part of Wily's Robot Master army, also commanded by Doctor Eggman, in the Worlds Collide crossover event. During a massive battle, he was seen racing Shadow the Hedgehog, only to be knocked out when Sonic the Hedgehog sent Hard Man flying at him, to the former hedgehog's chagrin. With the effects of the doctors' Genesis Wave reversed, Top Man was returned to his universe unaware of these events.

Along with the other Mega Man 3 Robot Masters, Top Man was enslaved by Ra Moon after the supercomputer betrayed Dr. Wily and set about its own agenda. He was thus pitted against Wily's first Robot Masters-who unlike Top Man's set were immune to Ra Moon's control-and a team led by Mega Man who arrived to investigate the source of the blackout. After an intense battle, he was freed from Ra Moon's control by the alien machine's destruction, and quickly renewed his allegiance to Dr. Wily. His first mission-along with his freed brothers and Break Man-was to capture the renegade Shadow Man and recruit him to their cause. With the ninja Robot Master on their side, Top Man and his brothers subsequently launched a raid on the unveiling of Gamma, a massive robot whose power source-several Energy Elements was stolen by the attackers. Dr. Light also recognized Top Man and his compatriots as having been designed by himself and Dr. Wily.

Top Man reappears in issue 41, where he had taken control of the Hydroponics Asteroid and rigged it with various traps against Mega Man, fully anticipating his arrival, and hoping to destroy him even if it meant ruining Dr. Wily's plan. However, Mega Man bypassed the traps, causing extreme agitation in him. Once Mega Man arrived he gave the Robot Master a chance to surrender, but Top Man declined. Throughout the battle, Top Man taunted the Blue Bomber while at the same time skating around and attacking him with either the Top Spin or his top bombs. Unfortunately for Top Man, Rush bites his skates, preventing Top Man from deflecting Mega Man's attacks long enough to get hit by a charged shot from the Mega Buster, defeating him. He took his defeat in stride, however, as he realized what his brothers meant by Mega Man having a "simple elegance." Mega Man reclaims the Energy Element Top Man stole and sent it back to the doctors, while also copying Top Man's wepaon, and taking his IC Chip from his deactivated body.

Other Appearances
Top Man also appeared in the manga Rockman World 2, Rockman: Yomigaeru Blues, and Rockman 4Koma Dai Koushin.

Production Notes
"I focused entirely on Top Man for an entire week, but lost all of the data in a big [computer] crash when someone tripped over the power cord. I was so devastated, but with everything so fresh in my mind I was able to get back to where I was in about three days. This incident is why I'll never forget Top Man... sometimes I wonder if my first attempt would have made a better Top Man (laughs)." -Keiji Inafune

Trivia

 * Top Man's quote from his Mega Man & Bass CD Data is a reference to the 80's hit song "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" by Dead or Alive.
 * Top Man was the only Robot Master from Mega Man 3 who appeared in Captain N: The Game Master.
 * Top Man, along with Hard Man, Crash Man, and Wood Man, was one of four Robot Masters to not appear in the Tiger electronic games based on Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 3.