Finally decided to get Skylanders for my son for Xmas this year. We have the starter set and a bunch of figures hidden down in the basement waiting for Xmas. Now he just noticed that there's a new Skylanders game coming out. Can't win, LOL. Ah well. He'll have fun with the first one for now.

Did you just buy it? Apparently Best Buy will have the Starter packs on sale for $39.99 tomorrow as the Deal of the Day. Maybe you can get it price matched.

If it's not too late you could always return the first one and buy the new one. The old figures will work but the new ones will be better.

Dammit! No, we bought it when it was on sale for $49.99 at Kmart a month or two ago. No worries. I'm not even 100% sure he'll like/play it. He's only 4. If he does like it, we'll work on getting Giants next.

My daughter just turned 4 and she loves skylanders.

I am pretty sure Kmart's return policy is 90 days. If you want to jump straight to Giants it's currently available for preorder at newegg for $63 with the following promo code EMCJNJD242.

According to post on darkspyro.net (wave 1 from a wholesale list, and wave 2 from EB Games) here are the wave 1 & 2 figures.

WAVE 1 -Launch
> single figure assortment (12 count)
2 x Pop Fizz (new)
2 x Chill (new)
2 x Fright Rider (new)
1 x Zook (reposed)
1 x Whirlwind (reposed)
1 x Terrafin (reposed)
1 x Slam Bam (reposed)
1 x Ignitor (reposed)
1 x Trigger Happy (reposed)

> light core figure assortment (12 count)
4 x Prism Break Lightcore (new)
4 x Drobot Lightcore (new)
4 x Eruptor" Lightcore figures (new)

> giants figure assortment figure assortment (6 count)
2 x Giant Crusher (new)
2 x Giant Bouncer (new)
2 x Giant Swarm (new)

> triple pack assortment (6 count x 10)
3 x Triple pack A
A: 1 x Pop Fizz (new), 1 x Trigger Happy (reposed), 1 x Whirlwind (reposed)
3 x Triple pack B
B: 1 x Chill (new), 1 x Zook (reposed), 1 x Ignitor (reposed)

> battle pack (6 count)
1 x Chop Chop (reposed), 1 x Dragonfire Cannon (new), 1 x Shroomboom (new)

WAVE 2 -Late November
Giants Hot Head
Light Core Jet Vac
Bash S2
Double Trouble S2
Drill Sergeant S2
Flameslinger S2
Hex S2
Sonic Boom S2
Stump Smash S2
Gill Grunt S2
Flashwing
Sprocket
Triple Pack Flashwing/Gill Grunt/Double Trouble
Triple Pack Sprocket/Sonic Boom/ Stump Smash

Thanks. That's 1st post material right there.

FYI the dragonfire cannon pack is not a GS exclusive. The only exclusive part is the golden color. Not sure if it's any different in game though.

And now it is. Thanks for the idea.
Well, in that case, I think I'll cancel that pre-order. Any way I don't have to buy something for full price at that evil corporation is good news in my book.
Unless, of course, I can sell it for a decent profit. But I doubt that here.

Here's some images of the new Giants, from DarkSpyro.net


Thumpback, Crusher


Ninjini, Hot Head


Eye-Brawl, Swarm


Tree Rex, Bouncer

And the new regular-sized figures:


Chill, Sprocket


Flashwing, Hot Dog



Fright Rider, Shroomboom


Jet-Vac, Pop Fizz
__________________________________________

Full List of Achievements : Here

Those new figures are *very* cool looking! The kids'll go nuts when they see these photos...

Flashwing and Shroomboom look like the coolest to me.

Sprocket looks like a cheap knockoff fig you'd get in a Taco Bell kid's meal.

Cliff nOtes on this? Is it kind of like Pokemon? (each character has different abilities). So essentially you try to get as many as you can?

Not really. You can play through the whole game with just the characters in the starter pack.

They all have different abilities and having 1 of each of the 8 elements allows you access to all parts of the game. So you can beat it with the starter figs, but to see 100% of the game you have to at least get 8 figures.

It's a convergence of video games and toys. Each character is a nicely detailed toy with a NFC chip in the base. When placed on the "Portal" which is plugged into the game console, that same character appears in the game. It's like physical DLC. The experience and upgrades you attain in-game are stored on the chip and you can bring your figures to a friend's house and play that character, with his current level and upgrade, in-game on your friend's console, even if it's a different game system than yours.

You don't have to collect all the figures (and at $8- $10 each, it's pretty expensive. They will be up to $15 each this time), but many of us here did manage to compile the entire set of 32 character figures (plus other figures that unlocked levels and stuff) last round.

So bottom line : Unlike Pokemon, you don't collect the characters in-game, you collect them by begging your parents and grandparents until the purchase them all for you!

The info available so far the cannon's do show up differently in game (one is silver, the other gold) and the actual toys light up (silver one has blue eyes/barrel, gold one has orange eyes/barrel), but it's believed that they unlock the same battle arena. I'm going to keep my pre-order since it's already paid off at GS, even though I'll have to wait until 11 a.m. to pick it up.


I've only played the first two chapters of Giants so far since I only have Tree Rex (he's really slow), and I was able to use my green base figures (first game) to get into the 'locked' element areas.

Somethings I have noticed playing around with other figures, is the green base figures remember upgrades purchased in Giants when used again in the original game.

The adventure pack levels from the first game unlock in Giants as chapters 17-20 in the chapter select screen, and each one also unlocks a battle arena.

The sidekick (Frito-Lay promotional) figures work in Giants (same as the first game, they just follow you around), and from the character collection screen looks to be 4 new ones also.

Granite Crusher (Target exclusive/regular edition). I may wait and hit Target at 8 a.m. Sunday morning for the exclusive. I like the silver/gray/blue color scheme better.

Definite to the Target Granite Crusher.

Is the Target exclusive something they will keep stocking like the TRU legendaries? If not I can see a reseller buying every single figure.

Skylanders Giants Review at Joystiq :

Skylanders Giants : Big Toys, Small Changes

IGN 8.0 Review.

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hah. that sounds kind of cool. Thankfully the boy is only 2.

IGN said that this one is shorter than the last game which is not a good thing. I thought the last game was rather short when you think of how much additional stuff was put in just to find things for characters and not actual levels.

^Wow... that *is* bad. We thought it was a bit short as well (level wise) and were looking forward to something a bit longer based on the interview posted earlier. Of course, it won't stop me picking up a copy. Right now it looks like my Starter Kit for $63 w/coupon pre-order at NewEgg is the best price and the one I'll let go through.

And the gougers are already at it... Amazon has a listing for BATTLE PACK #1 (includes: Dragonfire Cannon - Chop Chop - Shroomboom) with whorders asking $50 up... already... for a ~$25 pack. I sincerely hope these vultures loose their shirts this time out.