Tag: skylanders pictures

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Toys & Collectibles

Big Game Hunting: Activision Skylanders Adds Traps & Tablets

Capturing Villains in the New Portal is Key to Skylanders Trap Team Game Play.
Capturing Villains in the New Portal is Key to Skylanders Trap Team Game Play.

Better Late Than Never(land)…
Excuse this late #ToyTuesday edition. Just as I was about to post my feature about the newest update to super the popular Skylanders toy based video game I received an email with important news I know you’ll be excited to hear. Activision has announced its development of fully powered gaming on your TABLET! That’s right Skylanders will soon be available to experience on your mobile tablet device for super convenient take-along game play. Keep reading…

Lion Hearted Wildfire on New Prison Portal with Crystal Trap.
Lion Hearted Wildfire on New Prison Portal with Crystal Trap.

Shut Your Trap…
At the recent Sweet Suite Toy Event, held in conjunction with Blogger Bash in NYC, Activision gave us a look at The Trap Team, their next Skylanders iteration along with the character toys that will inhabit its virtual gamescape. The game heralds the The Trap Masters, heroes returning to Skyland after Kaos’ destruction of CloudCracker Prison frees his contemptible cohorts. As a result of the explosion multi-colored hunks of Traptanium now litter the landscape and can be used to power up for battle with the escapees.

Characters Wildfire, Gear Shift, Snap Shot, Chopper, Torch, Wallop, Food Fight, Krypt King, many armed with awesome translucent weapons, will join the already over 175 figures available for the Skylanders game experience. As before, older game characters move forward into the new environment.

Snap Shot is Ready for Battle with Escaped Baddies.
Snap Shot is Ready for Battle with Escaped Baddies.

Crystal Blue Persuasion…
Totem like sparkling crystal icons of Traptanium are the media into which the digital villains are pulled and stored, like flys in amber. Freshly captured baddies can be heard squawking in protest of their confinement in the new portal’s cellblock. They can then be brought back into the screen game reversing their powers for heroic deeds. Traps, like the toy characters, have various elemental designations (Water, Fire, Life) and can be collected separately, swapped as needed to achieve various goals. Traps can also be transported to a friend’s house, bringing with you the powerful players you’ve subdued.

Tablet Starter Pack Contents Revealed (Photo Courtesy of Activision)
Tablet Starter Pack Contents Revealed (Photo Courtesy of Activision)

Keeping Tabs…
In addition to the expanded game play of the Trap Team, Activision has just announced a major move into the world of tablet apps. Offering all the power of its console versions Skylanders Trap Team will be available to tablet users through a hardware starter kit and downloadable app.

Supported Tablets are:
Apple iPad 3rd Generation, iPad 4th Generation, iPad Mini Retina, iPad Air
Kindle Fire HDX (7” & 8.9”)
Google Nexus 7 (2013)
Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro (8.4”, 10.1”, 12.2”)
Samsung Galaxy Tab S (8.4”, 10.5”)
Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014), Galaxy Note Pro 12.2

Activision Says…
“The Skylanders Trap Team Tablet Starter Pack gives fans everything they need for a rich gameplay experience wherever and whenever they want to play. Tablet players will experience the Skylanders Trap Team innovation through a Bluetooth© version of the Traptanium Portal and Bluetooth© controller. They can also play the full game on their tablets using touch controls and two digital Skylanders characters and two digital Traps.”

SkeletonPete Says…
Developing the Skylanders gaming platform for portable tablet was an Activision stroke of genius. Giving us access on such a wide range of iOS and Android devices, along with same date as console launch (Oct 5, 2014) availability, will surely keep Skylanders a top of the heap gift for the upcoming holiday season.

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Toys & Collectibles

Mash-Up In Skyland: Activision Adds Swap-Ability

Washbuckler, One of the New Skylander SWAP Force Collectibles
Washbuckler, One of the New Skylander SWAP Force Collectibles

Skylanders’ New Adventure…
Mid-October 2013 will see the world-wide release of Activision’s next step in the overwhelmingly popular Skylanders game series. Started back in 2011 with Spyro’s Adventure, the game offered play via collectible toys, which when placed on the power portal entered the video game. Skylanders matured last season with larger “Giant” game pieces, light features, and more articulate play capabilities.

Bombs Away Dream Babies…
Now Activision expands the possibilties exponentially with Skylanders SWAP Force, adding 16 new characters with detachable upper and lower sections that can be mixed and matched according to game task needs.

It’s a whole new adventure and mythos for the SWAP Force. Activision explains, “In Skylanders SWAP Force, Portal Masters embark on an all new adventure in the mysterious Cloudbreak Islands, home to a mystical volcano that erupts every hundred years to replenish the magic in Skylands.  During an epic battle, a brave group of Skylanders were caught in the volcano’s eruption, which blasted them apart and sent them to earth.  But, the magic of the volcano gave these heroes a remarkable new power — the ability to swap halves – turning them into a special team known as the SWAP Force.  Meanwhile, Kaos is back with a new evil plan.  And now, Portal Masters everywhere must reassemble the SWAP Force — in their original form or in new combinations — and send them back to Cloudbreak to save Skylands!”

These previously unexplored areas of Skyland will be accessed via all new powers of the Swap Force heroes. Along with jumping for all characters – including legacy pieces – SWAP Force will add flying, digging, climbing and even teleporting to the various figures’ attributes, all the better to thwart the villainous Kaos.
SwapForce_RollerBrawl
I’m A Little Bit Country, I’m A Little Bit Roller Brawl…
SWAP Force characters will share each other’s powers and take on new screen names based on the pieces attached. For instance the top of Magnacharge added to the base of Washbuckler would become MagnaBuckler on screen. Additionally, 16 new Core Characters, 8 Lightcore pieces and 16 re-imaginings of favorite legacy characters, like the new Ninja Stealth Elf, will join the team. I’m particularly found of scorpion tressed roller derby queen Roller Brawl, with her skull helmet, gloves and base.

Parental Units Should Know…
SWAP Force continues the forward compatibility for all previously purchased game pieces and even adds additional powers to them in the SWAP Force realm. All legacy characters will get power boosts (“Wow-Pow”) and Level Caps of 20. The Skylanders series has offered exciting though reasonably mellow game play for the younger set, but don’t be surprised if you get hooked on the fun too.

Expect the multi-platform hit to be available on October 13 in North America, October 16 in Australia and October 18 in Europe. As usual, platform specific starter-kits will include the new portal of power, game disc, and several game characters.

Activision’s 2013 NY Toy Fair Display

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SkeletonPete Says Toys & Collectibles

Activision “Skylanders”: Collectible Toys with Gaming Powers

Another really awesome experience at Toy Fair 2011 was getting a sneak peak at Activision’s new “Skylanders, Spyro’s Adventure” video game. Their booth was totally dedicated to debuting the game and featured giant replicas of the game pieces, including the familiar Spyro the flying purple dragon. Developed by Toys for Bob, the game is an imaginative and immersive adventure with puzzle, treasure hunt and battle components. What sets it apart from other games are it’s collectible figures each representing a character from the virtual world. These beautifully rendered miniatures can be “put into play” by placing them on the circular “portal of power”. Each has a unique set of abilities which can unlock different worlds or accomplish different tasks. Most importantly every toy figure has embedded tech which “remembers” its achievements inside the game and those level-ups and experiences travel with the toy.

Players can place a maximum of two characters at a time on the portal and play cooperatively or in battle mode. Characters exit and enter the game simply by placing or removing them from the portal base giving the player an opportunity to call in creatures as needed for their special masteries. It this manner game play varies endlessly based on which characters are in play, what tasks attempted and the level of each game pieces’ achievements. For instance, a friend who owns a character you do not, may be invited over to help unlock a new level or complete a task.

There will be over 30 characters to collect and use in gameplay, including Terrafin, Chop Chop, Gill Grunt, Trigger Happy and Stealth Elf. The game is set for release in fall of this year and will ship with Spyro, 3 other characters and the portal base, which resembles a castle turret. The game is scored by movie composer Hans Zimmer but Activision opted for AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” as the soundtrack to the promo video. While aimed at a younger audience is not hard to believe older siblings and even parents will be charmed by the chance to pop a figure on the portal and take a trip to Skyland.

See PiercingMetal’s Toy Fair 2011 Features here.

Click any photo to launch lightbox display.