I've got a question for the Skylanders Experts out there....

If a certain kid happen to have about every Skylander out there from day one that is for the Xbox 360 which includes the newest Trap Team....will anyof these work with a PS4 version?

The reason why I'm asking is the last two report cards he has got has been all A's (7 years old) and I'm thinking of getting him a PS4 for Christmas.When it comes to Skylanders I believve he can probably work there because he knows every character and their abilities by heart. You mention Skylanders and he'll talk for 15 minutes non-stop.

if this newer one coming out can use the characters and not one of those "sorry but you need to buy everything new". Plus he's aboiut the same with Lego games and I've heard nothing but good stuff of the PS4 versions.

Yes, you can bring over each and every figure. The only thing you might have to do is take ownership of each one in the menu of the figure. This will add it to your current collection. Have fun!

Wow. You guys are hardcore collectors. I'm just a player.

I have it bad. I'm single, live alone and am somewhat disabled. I don't like to leave my apt so this is where I spend almost all my time. I got my Wii and Skylanders Giants a little over a year ago and both sat unused until about two months ago when I gave Skylanders a try. I've not stopped playing since. (I also have Infinity but don't care for it.) I'm completely taken with the game, presentation and what I call my "little people." Can't get enough of the game.

I have no idea how much money I've spent - I've Giants, Swap Force and Trap Team - and I don't want to know. It's got to be close to $1500, and that's just within the last two or so months. I just love the game and can't wait for next year's game!

I must play 10 or more hours a day. I've really nothing else to do and it's, I think, good for coordination, memory and logic (I tell myself that at least once a day...). Well, it keeps me outta the bars and off the streets.

There's a new game going but I can't post URLs yet.

I guess google Frito Lay Give Away. Again, you win - and this time I think it is an actual toy due to MSRP - a character. It's the toy that was (when?) chosen then named buy 'us,' High Five.

So far, no luck here.

You should read back a few pages to catch up. That's old news:

You should ask before you condemn, Bob. I've read every single post in this thread, all yesterday. That's three years worth in approx 10 +/- hours, and it made for a long day. You should forgive a slight confusion. Additionally, things worsen with ST/LT memory issues.

I felt it odd that it seemed new here, since you guys are on top of things. At any rate, I just found it and now I, too, am calling. I should have gone looking for something, now that I think about it, as it seemed there was frequently a contest, but never thought to. I actually stumbled over the contest. They sure are fun, aren't they?

I can't remember who did it, but whomever sent off their 'Lander because they won two and the other person won none, that was one of the most gracious things I've heard of. All of you that offered to, too. I thought that was so special.

Really nice folks here.

I didn't know the contest about it until the newer post - must have gotten buried in all the new Skylander talk, so thank you Obsessed!

I never win, so I stopped blippar-ing and calling.

You're very welcome, Decker. You Dialing for Dollars now? I called last night about 1:30 AM, so I've awhile to wait before I can call again. I'm wondering how smart it was to call right then, when I found out about it, but am hoping the rest of the Skylander World will be asleep and I'll just slip right in and win!

Come on, Goldberg! I'm horrible at winning, but it's the thrill of the possibility! And we now have a new word thanks to you, like "googling." "Blipparing!" We call or we blippar. Calling daily or blipparing daily. I like it! It has a nice ring to it.

P.S. I lived in SA some years back. About '84 to '86. Then moved back to MN. Was living there when the Big Snow came and Cisneros closed the city down for three days. I was out driving in it... Coming from MN, three inches of snow is nuttin'. Did some cross-country skiing around my house in the fields/woods. Boy, do I miss Los Barios chimichurri sauce...

Still nada from the contest for moi.

Stopped at Walmart this afternoon to see if they had any of the 'neat' (subjective) stuff I've seen on the 'Net different stores across the country have. Very run of the mill 'Lander stuff, not even the Mirror Adventure Pack. Did get three Traps: the two (2) hand (Walking Dead as I call the Undead as I can never remember that; and Tech) traps and the nifty 'flame-ish' looking one for Life (like it better than that hammer). I use my Life Trap all the time as I play my Chompy Mage a lot because he just tickles me to death. I've him in the portal constantly. He's so cute! Read on line the guy, Alex Something-or-Other, also does Mr. Broccoli's voice. He works for Toys for Bob.

Speaking of Adventure Packs, I read in my book - I've the books for all three games, Giants, Swap Force and Trap Team and I still do horribly! - there are going to be four (4!!!) Adventure Packs for Trap Team! Cool! I really enjoy the adventure packs and the extra little story/chapter(s). Not to mention the multiple figurines that come in the packs. Sweet! Anybody else use the books?

I play through the Chapters a couple times, then enlist the help of my book(s). Even then I don't ace all the stars. Nobody would want to co-op with me! The only chapter I've gotten all the stars on, so far, is Chapter One in Giants. Isn't that sad?!

I don't know if I should help feed your "addiction" but...

You *do* know there are *four* games, right?

Skylanders: Spyro's Adventures
Skylanders: Giants
Skylanders: Swap Force
Skylanders: Trap Team

Spyro's Adventures was the first, and it should be fairly inexpensive to pick up a starter, although some figures and the "Darklight Crypt" Adventure pack can be rather expensive. It, too, had 4 "Adventure Packs" which all worked with Giants to unlock the same levels in that game. Swap Force only has two "Adventure Packs" but it also has two "Battle Packs" which each provide a additional Battle Zone area instead of a level.

My grandson has the players guides for the first three and uses them fairly regularly. I only pull them out if I *really* get stuck trying to find a item/location. But I'm more a "look everywhere, check everything, and explore" type player while he's a "run through as fast as you can to get to the boss" type player.

For Giants, though they may have been made for Spyro's Adventure as they have green bottoms, I have three adventure packs - as listed in "the book" for Giants - Empire of Ice, Pirate Seas, and Dragon's Peak. Only reason I don't have the Crypt one is I'm not paying $99 for it. I'm obsessed, not insane.

For Swap Force I have both Adventure Packs, Tower of Time and Sheep Wreck Island.

And I've one of Trap Team's Adventure Packs - Nightmare Express. This one I'm saving until I can no longer control the drooling and just have to open it up and play with it.

Edit: As I said I've not opened it... But the Piggy Bank in Nightmare Express has a cutout on top that looks large enough to fit a penny or dime through! Well, THAT'S cool!

I swear that calling into the contest and waiting through all the rules is a ruse to keep you on the line long enough for the FBI to triangulate your location.

So, reading the customer reviews on Trap Team for the Wii, it seems the game suffers from some pretty bad bugs that freeze the system during normal game play. That won't make a very good Christmas present for a 7 year old.... Probably time to upgrade his system.

I feel your pain. I've been looking for a reasonably priced copy of that one for my grandson to take home (I've purchased the DS versions for him as well as Spyro's Adventures for his X-Box and Giants for his Wii - although he doesn't yet know about the two later purchases). I snagged dups of the others for $10 each when TRU had a sale sometime last year.

Yeah... those were made for Spyro's Adventure but work in Giants. The level design and play of those Adventure Packs is identical in both games.

Are you aware of the "Legendary" figures from TRU (Toys-R-Us)? They have a "Legendary Nightmare Express" Adventure pack this time. I don't know what the difference is between it and the regular version. Normally the Legendary figures have different power stats. I don't know if it's only the figure that's different in that one or if the level and/or power ups are a bit different as well. They *do* have different paint jobs.

looking for my tin hat right now before calling...

I saw some of those too, but I've also seen such comments on other games for the Wii (mainly the Lego ones) that we've never experienced. I never know if it's "stupid user syndrome" or actually something significant. There've been a few games for the Wii where the "fix" is simply changing the way audio plays back - or turning off WiFi - so I tend to take those complaints with a grain of salt. Still... I'll be looking a bit closer before making the purchase just in case. We have a Wii at my house but my grandson has both a Wii and X-Box at his so that could be a tipping point for me to get a X-Box or just buy it for him to take home.

At least with the Wii version you get a free download for the WiiU digital version. That would be an easy upgrade if you stay with Nintendo.

I've had no more, no less, wonky things happen in my Trap Team game (Wii) than what I experienced in Swap Force. I just rap my portal, wriggle the trap, move the character around to straighten things out. Actually, I'm truly lucky my Wii works at all, as many times as I've tripped (multiple Xs daily) over the cord from Wii to portal. I'm soon going to need either a new Wii or a new neck.

My Jade Kracken is on its way! I'm am *such* a sucker for green!

Get a short USB extension cable. That way should you catch the cord it's more likely to simply unplug from the extension rather than cause damage. Plus you get the much needed (IMHO) extra length for the rather short cable. I much prefer the original wireless portal...

Good idea, Bob.

Well... I will soon be the owner of Spyro's Adventure, "The Book," and five or six characters (Series 1) in addition to the three or four green bottomed characters I currently have.

I like Giants and Trap Team so much (Swap Force not so much) that I want to try SA, too. I really really enjoy these games.

With the Shareplay function now on the PS4 we can actually play some online local co-op.

How 3D printing brings 'Skylanders' to life

by Joseph Volpe | @jrvolpe | 7 hrs ago



Toys for Bob's Skylanders franchise isn't the only "toys to life" game in town anymore and Paul Reiche, co-founder and studio head, is well aware of the deep-pocketed competition. "We recognize that we've got Disney with Infinity and Nintendo with Amiibo and, you know, they have entered into this world with their own products. And it's really our job to make sure that, through innovation, we're leaders," he says. The franchise, which lets players control virtual versions of their RFID-equipped figurines in-game, was the first to successfully merge physical toys and video gaming as part of a new crossover entertainment category. Given that penchant for innovation, it's no surprise that the studio has now fully embraced 3D printing as a means of streamlining its in-house creative process.

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It was during the development phase for Skylanders: Giants in 2012 that Toys for Bob began experimenting with 3D printing. "We noticed that the price [of 3D printers] was rapidly dropping down actually into our budgets for video games," says Reiche of the studio's decision to embrace the maker tech. "We started out buying a fairly expensive machine by our standards, printing out color versions of our toys."

The idea behind this investment, Reiche says, was so that he and I-Wei Huang, the lead character and toy designer, could get a real sense of how their two-dimensional drawings would fare as fleshed-out 3D models. Apart from giving the creative duo more freedom to experiment and quickly iterate on designs, the tech was also helpful in determining what character poses would fit properly within the constraints of retail packaging (e.g., adjusting the grip of a character's weapon and stance).

But it wasn't long before the studio scrapped that particular color 3D-printing process due to the fragility of the printed models. The material, Huang explains, was too brittle and often the models would break easily. And so, Toys for Bob ditched it in favor of a more reliable (and colorless) Objet Eden printer for Skylanders character prototyping. "The next generation of 3D printers went beyond this sort of grainy, but colored surface and became very high-resolution, rigid plastic rubber," says Reiche. "We could make durable toys; make things that look really close to final in terms of the quality of the surfacing."

"The MakerBot we just started using. It will help us prototype early stages really well and just kind of define the size. It doesn't have the detail levels that the Objet [printer] has," says Huang.

More commercial 3D printers, used for lower-quality character iterations, were added to the mix later. "The Objet printer is what we use the most," says Huang. "It's super-high resolution. The MakerBot we just started using. It will help us prototype early stages really well and just kind of define the size. It doesn't have the detail levels that the Objet [printer] has." The efficiency gain, it seems, is worth it. Whereas before, it would take Huang at least four weeks to see his creations made into physical models, the inclusion of 3D printing means he can see results in-studio in about four hours. That quick turnover time means he can continue to tweak minor things like detailing for gloves or leather patterns.

"Before we started 3D printing, the process took a long time. Basically, we would draw a character. We'd have a toy team to kind of help us model it ... and also prototype the actual physical toys. And that could take months and months of work before we'd actually see anything back," says Huang.



Now, however, Huang feels freed up to experiment more with the many characters that inhabit the world of Skylanders. "As soon as a character is finalized on paper, we start modeling and instantly we can print something overnight after the model's done. We can try different detail levels, expressions and stuff like that ... different poses." That flexibility even extends to the number of Skylanders that can be 3D printed at once, as Huang says up to five Giants or 10 core, regular-sized characters can be made on one tray within the Objet printer.

"I would love to have a 3D printer that can do everything, but it's not something that we can develop here. We're using consumer machines," says Huang.

3D printing may have made the creative process more efficient for Huang and Reiche, but it's not without its headaches. Occasionally, print head malfunctions can cause the printed models to appear melted or irregular in parts. There's also the matter of material limitations. Since a typical Skylanders figurine is made up of more than just plastic, Toys for Bob would have to invest in either a bespoke 3D printer or purchase a multi-material industrial 3D printer to achieve a model with near-final production quality.

While 3D printers of that latter variety do exist, their costs (i.e., that printer and materials) can prove prohibitive. The Objet1000, for example, works with a variety of materials (about 100-plus) and can print using up to 14 of those at a time in one model. It's that type of 3D printer that Toys for Bob would need to fully realize a final production-quality Skylanders model, except the cost of something on that scale easily rises above the half-million dollar mark. So, for now at least, it's not a financially feasible option.



If there's one inevitability surrounding 3D printing that Huang believes in, it's that in the not-too-distant future, kids will be able to make their own Skylanders figurines (and other toys) at home. The idea isn't as far-fetched as it sounds, either. Already, companies like Hasbro and Sesame Workshop are making CAD files available for consumers to download and print out their own figurines. That Toys for Bob would follow suit with Skylanders is a no-brainer, according to Huang. It's simply a matter of the technology improving to the point of mass adoption. "With 3D printers becoming more popular, eventually one day it will probably be mainstream," Huang says. "You know it just makes sense. You'll have a 3D printer at home just like you do an ink jet printer."

Looks like Activision is not allowing Share Play with neither Advanced Warfare nor Trap Team. Ugh!

This figure is in the video... but not on the poster:



Edit to add: Nevermind... it's Blastermind.

The BF ads released so far are showing Trap Team to be $38-$40 for the regular version. I'm hoping the Dark edition will be ~$50...