Awesome post BobO'Link! I went thru everything with my kid with your post so he could know what was out there and decide where he wanted to go.

I think we are going to go to TRU since I just got an email from them today with a coupon for $10 off a $40 or more purchase only between 8am and 9am tomorrow. I have to go out of town but I will make the wife take him. He is super pumped. Plus the TRU ad says that ALL Skylanders stuff is buy one get one 40% off. This will work out well since he was wanting to use his own money to buy some of the new figures.

Thanks again.

Fine print on the $10 off coupon says it excludes Skylanders items ... DAMN!

D'oh. You are right. That is pretty fucking stupid since the damn coupon has SKYLANDER GIANTS plastered all over it. Fuckers.

Guess I may just order it from Amazon now.

With TRU coupons, you always have to read the fine print as they like to exclude a lot of things.

My local TRU has a ton of Skylanders and they confirmed tomorrow is wave 2. They won't have as many wave 2 figures and they will be doing vouchers.

Ended up buying the following:
Glow in the dark bundle from Walmart
Granite Crusher from Target
Pop Fizz, Chill, Fright Rider, Zook, Whirlwind, Slam Bam, Ignitor, Trigger Happy, Crusher, Bouncer, Swarm, and Legendary Bouncer from TRU.

l'll pick up Terrafin tomorrow with wave 2.

The only Giant our two Toys R Us received was the Legendary Bouncer. I passed on him until they get other ones to take advantage of the sale. We did get 4 of the multi-packs.

Just got back from a Target/WM run and picked up these:

Target - Granit Crusher exclusive
WM - Swarm, Bouncer, Pop Fizz, Chill, Fright Rider

Target had *nothing* on the floor and I had to wait. There was another guy there also looking for the exclusive Granite Crusher and the Strategy Guide. He'd tried to purchase the guide last night but they took it from him as it "had been put out too soon". When I left with my purchase he was *still* waiting for them to find the guides. We were the only 2 people there at 8 to get any Skylanders.

As WM is a short detour on the way home from Target I stopped in just to see what they had. The associate was in the middle of stocking and I was the only person looking for figures. They had everything Krayzie mentioned but, for now, all I'm interested in purchasing are the new-to-Giants characters. I'm sure we'll purchase some of the others but they are a much lower priority for now. As the associate headed to the back for more boxes he asked if there was anything specific I was looking for that he'd be happy to look for it. Wow! That's a first for me in WM!

General comments on brief examinations of the new stuff:

The paint jobs on the Giants looks more sloppy than on the original set. Every one I looked at had *some* small issue somewhere - typically overpaint or a small spot missed. You would think with them being larger they'd be easier to paint. Considering the 50% price premium I expect better paint work. Maybe I'm being overly critical, but...

That glow-in-the-dark Cynder is *ugly*! It's a pale, sickly, green right down to the skull base. Yes, it's cool that it glows in the dark, but man. The portal is too well hidden in the package to see just what parts of it has the glow in the dark applied. I'm guessing it's the runes since they no longer illuminate. And just *why* was this feature removed? To make it easier and less expensive to manufacture? That's a very cool effect to lose for such a base reason.

I pre-ordered the Starter Pack from NewEgg using a $12 coupon so that savings pretty much paid for the Target Granit Crusher. It should arrive later this week. Of course my grandson wants to go to Target and WM after Church and purchase the game/figure. I've been making excuses so far...

Now it's a decision as to whether to give it to them now or make 'em wait until Christmas...

I don't recall seeing any multi-packs mentioned other than the one with the Cannon at GameStop. What is in them?

They're listed in the first post of this thread now.

They had zero single figures aside from the one Legendary Bouncer. I heard from more than one person that there will be more 3 packs this time around and less single figures. After reading a few reviews I'm sort of hoping that for the 3rd game they focus on the game itself and less on selling us a plethora of new toys. As a matter of fact I could deal with just a new game and if needed one new figure per element.

I met this guy this morning at Toys R Us. He told me that he was sent several of the figures and the game awhile ago to review. He also said that his son has plowed through the game a few times and that the end boss is far easier than the boss in the first game. He was there to get the Legendary figures. It was cool to run into him.

figures are ringing up as b2g1 at best buy run!

Ugh. Too late for me.

Anyway, I went to TRU and got some figures this AM.

Got:
Swarm
Bouncer
Pop Fizz
Chill
Fright Rider

and Granite Crusher at Target.

No reposes purchased -- screw you, Toys For Bob! So I think I'm good for now. Though I may get the three Light Core figures from Best Buy if they really have the Buy 2, Get 1 Free thing going on.

Just gave my boy Granite Crusher and Pop Fizz (gotta hold some back), and he's thrilled even though we won't get the actual Giants game for a couple of days courtesy of New Egg.

I was going to pick up Legendary Bouncer from TRU, but looking at both I think regular Bouncer looks a lot better (and a hell of a lot like an enemy in Ratchet & Clank Future). Their legendary Slam Bam is particularly ugly and looks like a lump of coal.

You know, I've never seen a single Wham Shell for sale in any retail store ever, but at TRU, they had a display case for sale for $29.99 that came with a Wham Shell figure inside. So I guess that's why they never released them in any significant amounts -- so they could have another hook to get people to buy other accessories.

I discovered (via zoolert) that TRU has most of the new characters available online at the B1-G1 40% off price. The *only* one I can't get in the cart is Legendary Bouncer. Even though it shows to be orderable there is no link to add it to the cart without doing store pickup.

So... now to decide if it's worth ordering what I purchased this morning from TRU and doing a WM return to get the Legendary Giants 3 Pack for ~$15 (cost for the Legendary pack after subtracting the WM total from the TRU total).

Thanks! And I now recall seeing that original post with the lists. I'd pretty much ignored the 3 packs since they consist of only 1 "new" character and a couple of re-poses. I probably would have picked up a Battle Pack had I seen one this morning.

Amazon *still* has no characters listed other than the Battle Pack from whorders (and it's the "regular" one at that).

Even after the initial rush, my TRU had TONS of Legendary Bouncers left -- more than all the rest of the Giants figures combined. Like I said, it's not bad, but regular Bouncer looks better. Stay away from that Legendary 3-pack (unless you have to collect every figure) as the Eagle guy looks better in the regular Starter kit and as I said, Slam Bam is hideous.

Here's proof (but it looks a little better in the picture than in real life)

I have to go back to TRU and return all the crap I bought besides the legendary bouncer. I bought all of wave 1 at best buy since the b2g1 was applied to all the figures. IE giants, 3 packs, single packs. I do however think it's an error and if you want to try it, you should probably go soon.

Edit: Sounds like they may have fixed it based on a post on sd.

That pretty much sums up my opinion of all the Legendary figures... the slight alteration in the stats aren't anything to shout about either and IMHO are overall not as good as the "regular" figures, but try telling that to a 8-9 year old. He's really hung up on this game and *loves* the Legendaries just because they're different. It would help if I knew the in-game stats on those figures but I've not yet found that information posted anywhere.

I got through the TRU deal:

Crusher
Swarm
Bouncer
Fright Rider
Chill
Pop Fizz

And the game is showing up tomorrow. My son is already pretty set for Xmas. And he just recently found out about the game (saw an ad online) so he's been talking my ear off about all the new figures.

Pics of our haul for the day. Buying most of the stuff now while it is available and will grab a few other characters here and there.









Here is the list of everything:

I ended up getting legendary bouncer, bouncer, granite crusher and crusher. I am debating whether or not I should keep the variant giants.

I'm only getting the giants this time around. I have all of series 1 and and don't really use them much anyways.

Shea, let me know what you think of the Battle Pack. I'm seriously considering dropping the Game Stop preorder and just picking up a light core Shroom Boom later on.

I think the BB b2g1 deal is still going on as CAG people are saying they've had success.

I bought the battle pack because I am a hoarder... It's basically a pvp map and one of those helping items like the ones from the adv pack.

Well... I did it. I ordered everything I'd picked up at WM this morning from TRU adding the new Legendary 3 Pack and the Battle Pack. I left off Pop-Fizz and will keep the WM single *or* pick up the 3 pack with him some time later. After the returns, adds, discounts, etc. are computed the Legendary 3 pack and Battle Pack will add just under $21 to what I'd purchased. That's a fair discount on the lot so I'm happy for now...

I kept my buying at a minimum. Grabbed 2 giants; Swarm & Granite Crusher*(Target version) and 2 regular figs; Chill & Fright Rider. That's good enough for Christmas along with the starter pack.

I have the Shroom Boom battlepack on pre-order but it sounds like a loser. I'll probably drop that one.

*Granite Crusher looks badass. Probably my favorite looking fig out of all of them.