All figures are playable going forward. No need to get rid of the old ones.

Yes. Any figure released for any prior Skylanders game will work with Trap Team. All figures are *forward* compatible.

I hate to play the begging card here, but you guys know I've been with this money-pit from the onset. If any of you hard-core collectors manage to score an extra Kaos trap, could you send me a PM? My boy won't let it go about how he needs a Kaos trap. I had no idea they would be so rare and I'll be damned if I pay the outrageous price folks are demanding on eBay for a tiny bit of plastic. What jerks Activision are for making it so scarce. If one of you would be willing to part with one I'd happily double your purchase price and pay for postage as well. Just asking, anyway.

I will grab one for you if I am out and about and see one. Speaking of Skylanders, I played a few hours today and have almost all of our newest figures, including KnightLight and Nightmare, leveled up all the way to 20 and all upgrades. If you have Kaos trapped and use him while having your characters in need of leveling on the portal then you can get tons of xp in the Kaos mode challenge set on hard difficulty. For the money it is easier to do the arena challenges on the easy setting. You can spam Kaos' attacks as well as replenish his time over and over with the magic attack. I just keep the magic attack selected and hammer them with the sharks or the big head and lasers.

I, too, will help if possible. While both my grandson and myself have the "Dark" versions which came with the "Ultimate Kaos" trap I *still* want a regular one - just because (OCD/collector coming out).

It totally irks me that the stuff *required* to "complete" the game goes into short supply mode almost from the start! That includes level packs and any character required to get into a locked area. I'm *still* somewhat miffed that you can't get Darklight Crypt but the other 3 Spyro's Adventures level packs are still widely available for under MSRP! My grandson needs one of those for *his* copy of Spyro's Adventures so he doesn't have to borrow mine each time he starts a new game.

That the regular Kaos trap was *not* included in *every* starter set is almost unconscionable. I've read there are *3* in every box of traps but don't know that for a fact. Even so, around here *traps* in general are in rather short supply. It almost makes me wish I'd stocked up before BF when most stores had dozens from which to choose. IMHO the Kaos Trap should be the *easiest* to find - not the hardest!

Sorry... rant off...

If I happen to stumble across any I'll definately keep you in mind!

Thanks to you both!

Did anyone go to GameStop last Saturday for their "Skylanders day?" I forgot and had kind of wanted to go and pick up one of their "Exclusive" Light Traps. It's the same one my grandson found at Target preloaded with "Rebel Lob Goblin". I remembered this morning and checked to find no store within about 50 miles has one in stock. I can wait - but I don't understand the "Exclusive" bit since there's no indication on the package and they *have* been at other stores.

I'm not sure if it's scalpers or if the traps are just shelf warming here, but I've never seen a Kaos trap... is there a new wave of traps where I can tell if I missed him, or did they just pack him in with the existing traps? Having them all be the same mold just in different colors may have been great at saving costs, but is horrible at getting me to collect them all or even remembering which ones I have and don't have.

According to many of the posters over at darkspyro this event was a bust at more than one location. Many of the posters claimed that they didn't have the traps and only had waves one and two of the trapmasters. Gamestop went out of their way to advertise the event but were not prepared for the event itself. No surprise!

I have the trap box from Toys R Us and as I collect new traps I just take a new pic of the traps with my cell and keep it with me to check when I am out and about. To be honest, I will likely just grab a few more trap variants to fill some empty spaces and be done with the traps. We only have 3 trap masters and a few more of the regular guys along with the last light and dark figures to get. We'll see with this years announcement if we will continue on, but if it doesn't include some online element and an improvement then we will likely step away. However, I have said that before and it didn't happen.

Yeah, I have the trap box from TRU too, and that's one of the only reasons I've gotten multiples... but that was before I really looked at the traps, as I assumed they were all fairly unique. And if Kaos is going to be hard to find...

Still, playing both this game and Disney Universe 2.0 after Christmas with the kids, even my attachment to Marvel characters doesn't sway me from the fact that this is a lot more fun to play (unless you really really like building environments). I do hope they do more with the next installment besides another gimmick on the portal (the Trap Masters themselves seem like a step back from the swap force gimmick, although the talking traps are cool).

I offered to buy my son the Trap Team Official Guide as it was only $4.99 but he told me using a guide was "cheating". Besides he said "I know how to play Skylanders!"

He's been surprisingly frugal this time and actually turned down the offer of extra traps. Said he only needs one per element. I picked him up a Magic Mirror Adventure Set though. He was excited to get that.

Saw there was a "Dark Expansion Set" in the Best Buy Weekly ad yesterday. None in any store though. What's in that?

A new level and a pretty cool character as well as a dark trap. That is needed in order to trap a few villains from the regular game as well as a villain in the expansion. There should be 3-4 dark traps and 3-4 light traps by the time everything is released.

Yeah, I saw those in the Best Buy ad as well, so I was excited because I thought they were actually going to get stock. But online I can add it to cart, but only for in store pickup, and nothing in the area. sigh.

Yeah... the talking traps are cool... for a while. Some kind of overstay their welcome or are rather annoying. I *do* like Broccoli Guy and most of his smart-ass comments plus he's a pretty good one to keep handy for the healing ability. Even so he's rather annoying at times. I keep forgetting to use them in boss battles where they can really shine, if only briefly. I think that's partly because of the newness but also because I take them out of the portal so they'll just shut up!

The more I play this one the more I tend to just use Trap Masters. So far I've not found any really good reason to use anything else. They are the only figures who can open the elemental doors as well as bust up "traptanium" and are mostly as fast as the regular figures. My grandson says there are *some* places where there are boulders for Giants to pick up but I've yet to find them. I tend to think this was by design to wean people off the desire (need?) to own all the prior figures and that the next game will not allow use of all the older ones - possible only going back to Swap Force and the reposes from that set forward. Still the Trap Force Trap gimmick and overall game play *does* frequently feel like a step back from the Swap Force gimmick. It reminds me quite a bit of Giants. I *do* know that due to the play mechanics I no longer suffer from the "need" to purchase all the figures. I don't even use favorites from the prior games and haven't even put them on the portal for this one.

I have a Wii (my grandson has a XBox 360) and have experienced a couple of hard lockups like others with that system. I've had 2 hard lockups on the "Dreamcatcher" level. While I *did* follow advice and run through it with no "side trips" to complete the level without a lockup (it took a lockup for me to recall that info though) I had another one going back through to pick up stuff I missed. By then I was pretty frustrated as I'd played the level 3 times with 2 hard lockups at roughly the half-way point. But the lockup I anticipated when placing the Dark level activator on the portal did not occur so that was a good thing!

That said, the graphics on the Wii are much better than what was done with Swap Force. You can actually *read* the on-screen information about character health/levels/etc. without resorting to moving very close to the screen. That alone makes me gravitate to this one more. I didn't finish Swap Force partly due to the horrible graphic designs (and partly due to being somewhat burnt out on the whole experience by then). I'm still frustrated that the portal cord is too short - why didn't they just make it 16' and be done with it? No matter - I'm using a extension cable to get past that issue.

Question: Why do you guys have the TRU Trap Box? Is it really that good? I was under the impression it's basically a fiber board box with cutouts for the traps. The game comes with a trap holder that seems fairly sufficient to me. I figure I can make my own "box" for it to sit in and cover it with just about anything I desire.

I picked up a hard copy of the guide when Gamestop had it on sale for $10. We mainly use it when/if we really get stuck. My grandson likes those for the actual game stats on the characters and the full descriptions of the upgrade paths. The worst part is this version does not have the Dark/Light level information - maybe it'll be in the "free" online version that comes with each copy...
I didn't see that in the BB ad (probably overlooked it) - I did see it and the Light one in the Target ad. I don't know about BB but Target *usually* has a few and if you go first thing Sunday AM you can get what's advertised. I didn't bother going out to look as I'd already purchased them from Amazon during one of those quick availability windows. My Light one should be at the house today. My grandson really wants those but he has to purchase them with *his* money to have them at his house. I *did* let him take the level activator and trap home last night so he could unlock the level and do the "quest" for the dark villain(s) he has trapped. I'm sure he'll be itching to do the same with the Light one very soon and fully expect him to ask to take the Light/Dark Trap Masters home to get into and play the locked areas.

He tickles me when he watches me play a level as I'm all about exploration to find all the hidden stuff. Yesterday he was in a "Watch Pa Play" mode and kept commenting "Wow! I didn't know *that* was there! I need to do that at home!"

So can you catch Kaos with that Dark trap?

edit : N/M. Looks like they're treated like new Elements.

Kaos can be trapped with his own trap and can be used to dominate Nightmare mode as well as Kaos challenges and the arena battles on the hardest difficulties. We used his ability to level up characters from beginning to level 20 in about 8-10 levels during the Kaos challenge. Kaos has the magic ability which resets his playtime back to full each time you bring it up. You can spam his shark attacks or others and hit the button to bring up his elemental attack each time your timer is about to run out. The other person just keeps their player away from the action so that both players suck up a lot of xp. In the early stages of leveling a character, I have seen them go from a level 1 to a level 5 in a matter of seconds when there are a lot of enemies on screen. It becomes a bit more of a grind later on but is still mucho mas faster than leveling up characters in levels.

If you're buying a lot of Skylanders, you should consider having a Best Buy Gamers Club discount... most of this stuff becomes easier to find, and the discount applies to the figures too (even though you'll find some employees who swear it doesn't).

The trap holder isn't really necessary (and I didn't realize at the time you get a holder with the game), but it helps keep the traps organized (though it takes up a ton of space) and my daughter likes putting them in... though like I said before, I had intended to get all the traps before, and now I don't see the point, so we'll see how my OCD fares with a half empty gigantic box.

The game itself comes with a cardboard trap organizer. That's all we need.

I decided having 2 or 3 traps of each element is probably a good thing (at least convenient). I threw caution to the wind and ordered a single Tech Trap from Amazon since it was the only one with a single image. I had also ordered a Water Trap for my grandson during a LD a few days prior. Of course I did *not* get the ones that were shown when I placed the orders. The Water Trap for him is identical to one he has (we were hoping for a different one based on the image at time of ordering) but at least the Tech Trap is different than the other Tech Trap I have.

During the order process for the Tech Trap I noticed *this* newly added blurb on *every* trap and trap set:

So I check the UPC on a few of the traps. Yep... all the Water Traps have the same UPC, as do the Magic ones, Earth, etc. All the UPC does is differentiate between elements *or* the Traps with a pre-trapped villain.

That means I'm 100% done ordering traps from Amazon. I *might* order a few from TRU during sales as they *do* somehow track the different traps and you actually can order exactly what you want. Other than that it'll be strictly local purchases for traps from now on.

At least with identical UPC codes I can easily swap that duplicate Water Trap somewhere locally just as soon as he finds one he likes.

Decker, I sent you a private message about the Kaos trap. I got one!

You Rock!

Thanks so much. My son and I quite literally just got back from Target on yet another unsuccessful search for a Kaos trap.

PM sent.

^ & ^^ That's super!

Traps are still in pretty rare supply here no matter *what* type you're looking to purchase. Target has *2* different Water Traps (both are a Water Hammer but one has the pre-loaded villain), WM is dry (both stores) as is SAMs, one Gamestop has a small selection and one has a bit larger small selection, I've not yet looked at BB but they are typically understocked, K-Mart is never worth bothering with (I've never seen more than 2 or 3 figures there), and Hastings now looks like a 2nd rate flea market with little stock of mostly older stuff.

I was shocked at the change in Hastings when I went in to look around yesterday - it was not the brightly lit, clean, well stocked multi-media store of old. Isles were narrow and cluttered, with disorganization everywhere. They actually have a aisle of pet supplies! I had to ask if they still carried video games because I couldn't find them! They'd been moved to the movie section which had shrunk by at least 50% and the CD section was less than 30% of its prior size.

There are two K-Mart stores here, and neither ever got any Trap Team games/figures/traps. The only things left now are a few scattered Swap Force items.

In just the last week both have condensed all of the games down to a single locked cabinet, and it is all stuff that has been around a while. It's looking like they are not going to do video games anymore.

The K-Mart here sucks terribly when it comes to almost anything new, not solely including Skylanders. I went in there shortly after Christmas and they had a wall that looked like those that you found in the supermarket in Fallout 3 and it didn't seem like the employees cared that it looked that way.