darkSpyro

So the skylander boy and girl interview showed Lou saying that their main focus is the Cars and the Superchargers. He then said 20 of each. So, will there be only 40 figures? And with it being 12.99 for a Supercharger and 14.99 for a Vehicle. It seems too good to be true. Activision wouldn't try to make less money, would they? Considering everything they had last year.

Seems to be that,but the collection poster showed more than 20. Not too much over that though, 30 at the very most.

Where is the poster?

It's a really tiny picture, but from it you can make out a row of Light and Dark and about three skylanders on the other ones. Though they can also be vehicles,only 10 are separated from the rows.

It's the market, there are other toys to life games out now so there is competition. More figures don't mean more money for activision especially if people arn't buying the figures.

ONLY 40? This is more than enough for me ... Srsly

Quote: Bifrost

It's a really tiny picture, but from it you can make out a row of Light and Dark and about three skylanders on the other ones. Though they can also be vehicles,only 10 are separated from the rows.

Lou said there would only be 20 characters and 20 vehicles and I doubt he is lying. Are you sure your not seeing things? Also on the rows I only see two for each which makes sense.

Quote: Windumup

Lou said there would only be 20 characters and 20 vehicles and I doubt he is lying. Are you sure your not seeing things? Also on the rows I only see two for each which makes sense.

He lied before, I still remember "we'll put more balance in character speed" in SF. But I'm not seeing anything but 3-4 blurs on the rows, this is too small to make out anything but colors.

Quote: Bifrost

Quote: Windumup

Lou said there would only be 20 characters and 20 vehicles and I doubt he is lying. Are you sure your not seeing things? Also on the rows I only see two for each which makes sense.

He lied before, I still remember "we'll put more balance in character speed" in SF. But I'm not seeing anything but 3-4 blurs on the rows, this is too small to make out anything but colors.

Looking at the image really closely I see 4 rows with 1 tiny gap between 2 portraits in each row plus some sort of symbol with no name under it down the center.
The no name symbols I have no idea
Also this is really blurry so until a better pic comes up this doesn't qualify as "there will be more then 40 figures" when they said there will be 40 figures

Not to mention Guha also said "20 new skylanders, 20 vehicles"

I know what he said, you mentioned it twice now. But they also might pretend to change their minds later and have some more, it's their game and it's far from release.

Quote: Bifrost

I know what he said, you mentioned it twice now. But they also might pretend to change their minds later and have some more, it's their game and it's far from release.

I was just saying the Guha also said 20/20 so I am pretty sure that they aren't adding more then that (minus variants naturally) besides all you have for evidence is an EXTREMELY blurry picture.

Yes. You don't need to keep repeating yourself,I can read. Let someone have the benefit of the doubt.

I would like to mention the "18 Cores, 16 Trap Masters" of last year.

And the fact Light and Dark got revealed A LOT later compared to the other news despite being on the poster (even if not shown).

I could go on a semi-rant here but won't since it's not the right place to do so.

They even said they have a lot more aces up their sleeves.
We'll see, maybe even at the E3.

Makes me wonder how many waves they'll be.

Quote: superhalite

Makes me wonder how many waves they'll be.

Probably 4. Then there will be 5 superchargers and 5 vehicles in each wave.

I only pick the good people from each game anyway. I want to have an elite army and don't collect everyone. For example in trap team the trap masters I've gotten so far is gearshift, thunderbolt, nitro krypt king and legendary jawbreaker. I still want enigma and knight mare. I would get knight light and blaster mind but my brother is getting them. We both have our own army's and loved battling. Hope it comes back in superchargers. Also the only others I got from trap team is the tech mini pack and treadhead. I still want the water mini pack and flip wreak. Probably eons elite spyro too. That's all so 40 in total will be good for me. Might even collect all of they are in my standerds. Superchargers I think will be the best game yet.

Quote: XSparxX

ONLY 40? This is more than enough for me ... Srsly

I, too, am okay with only having 20 figures and 20 vehicles. Although, I am not enitrely sure if the new game will require certain elemental vehicles and Skylanders unless the elemental gates do return, which I believe they will.

I knew Activision wouldn't drop dough so easily, of course super chargers are $13....


plz spyro tho.

Quote: TheShadowDragon

Quote: XSparxX

ONLY 40? This is more than enough for me ... Srsly

I, too, am okay with only having 20 figures and 20 vehicles. Although, I am not enitrely sure if the new game will require certain elemental vehicles and Skylanders unless the elemental gates do return, which I believe they will.

Guha confirmed you only need 3 vehicles. 1 for each terrain (land, sea, and sky)

Wow. "Only 40"? Giants had 16 new, add 2 more each for Light and Dark and I would be satisfied with a flippin' 20 figures. Jeez, how much money do you have to spend on the things? o.O

I assumed this number was in reference to the "SuperCharger"
Skylanders, 2 of each element for both the new SuperCharger characters and vehicle, but that we could also see more core skylanders and reposes.

It seems to me that another video I saw it was stated there were 60 new one, which would make sense. 20 Superchargers, 20 vehicles, and 20 new core and reposed old characters.

Personally I wish there was only 1 Supercharger and 1 Vehicle for each element.

Technically, that is partly true. Ten of the Superchargers are new characters. The other ten are returning characters, but they are now Superchargers, with new skill trees. Super Shot Stealth Elf is a new character, in that all of her powers are new, but she is a returning character. I think 20/20 is just the base number. I think we'll be seeing around 50-55 total after palette swaps.

No there is only 40...no core figures. 20 SuperChargers (as in the video ..Lou said) half are reposes...but not reposes.. they are the old figures we all know, but all new with a completly different upgrade attack tree.

But i am a bit suprised there is only 20(...not including the Variants)Skylanders this time around.....altho my wallet appreciates it.

20 new figures / 20 new vehicles from my interview/notes - no lightcore no swaps no new traps no giants no minis -- just vehicles and superchargers

Its always fun seeing the poster image early on an trying to make out what on is.

Not complaining bout the number here. Even with 20/20 the total cost comes to over $500. Thats just the simple math not including the starter pack and variants (or tru's mark up)

I remember the trapteam launch i spent $300+ <.< those dang traps really did add up even with the BOGO
I foresee maybe 200 or so at launch for just figures and will wait for the starter to drop...maybe even pick up the starter after all the figures are released lol

Only 40
SHUT UP AND TAKE......LESS OF MY MONEY

Quote: TheShadowDragon

Quote: XSparxX

ONLY 40? This is more than enough for me ... Srsly

I, too, am okay with only having 20 figures and 20 vehicles. Although, I am not enitrely sure if the new game will require certain elemental vehicles and Skylanders unless the elemental gates do return, which I believe they will.

Vehicle Elemental Gates have already been confirmed.

Don't know about regular ones for Skylanders but I think they are likely to appear.

Quote: The Bone Chompy

Wow. "Only 40"? Giants had 16 new, add 2 more each for Light and Dark and I would be satisfied with a flippin' 20 figures. Jeez, how much money do you have to spend on the things? o.O

I would be ok if I truly had 20 new characters to buy.

I'm sorry but I personally can't really get past the fact they actually took the time to create new abilities and skill trees only to give them to already exsisting characters.
Could have easily come up with some truly new Skylanders and give them those powers.

So it's 10, maybe 12 new characters for me this year.
And then at least 2 more vehicles then I'll see.
But still they are not Skylanders.

No problem if you like this revamp idea but I do not.

13 bucks for a supercharger and 15 bucks for each vehicle. They increased the cost of them to match the competitors, because "if they can sell them for that much, so can we", watch that become the new standard price point now. The next game, if there is 60 new characters, they will now be this new price, and so on and so on. And remember Toys R Us raise prices on these things.

Excited about the game, but the vehicle levels in giants and such I really did not enjoy at all. So the vehicle segments, especially the flying, kind of give me that same feeling...and it isn't a good one.

I would guess that there are good reasons for the lower number of characters.

- I don't know sales figures, but I would guess that they significantly drop off after Christmas. So law of diminishing returns says that you're not getting that much more profit for the tail end of the figure releases.
- Perhaps they are hoping less figures will cause more people to scramble for the hard to get figures, and build more buzz
- They're just trying to match what they think the market will bear.
- One thing other franchises have that Skylanders has less of is brand recognition. It's difficult for them to keep the older more name recognizable figures relevant So this is an experiment to see if they can create a 2nd skillset for a character to keep the character relevant, but still new and worth playing...more then a repose.
- Perhaps the dev team has had issues with the high character count, and they are trying to keep it down so more time can be spent on gameplay.
- There probably are other figures not yet released. Mini's seem likely. The light and dark surprise seemed to go over well, so maybe they will do something like that again.

Well we had 16 TM's & 16 *new* cores last time.
Reposes are just reposes.
Villains would have been made anyways (for the most part).

So Sure, we are 'only' getting 40 this time around, but in terms of full on 'new' content, that's actually MORE than last time.

Best of all, the vehicles are real toys, though I want to know if the Sub can actually go in water. The car having working wheels is HUGE to me, it essentially doubles the value as a toy for my boy.
- Unreall

Lol the sub probably could go in water , but I really don't think it's meant too. It's like asking if you can throw the planes in the air.

I think the cars will be the main focus . They'll probably make more cars then air or water vehicles coz they are more appealing as toys .

If there's 20 vehicles , I'm thinking 10 land vehicles , 5 water and 5 air.

I think that the point is if the sub can stay underwater just fine and not get rusty or loose wheels. Lost plenty of toys that way, but if Skylanders don't get damaged as some fans have proven, probably they're not affected as well.

Quote: The Bone Chompy

Wow. "Only 40"? Giants had 16 new, add 2 more each for Light and Dark and I would be satisfied with a flippin' 20 figures. Jeez, how much money do you have to spend on the things? o.O

It's about half of Trap Team. Guaranteed they are tempering based on competition and sales.

Also keep in mind that the vehicles are half that, so really only 20 characters. That's technically less then the number of skylanders released on the first game!

Just wait for Activision to release like, 30 variants for this game. That will "fix" things...

Kinda glad the number is low. This gives me a chance to buy my faves from previous instalments. I think I am still going to be looking for trail blazer when superchargers comes out.

Quote: TakeYourLemons

Quote: The Bone Chompy

Wow. "Only 40"? Giants had 16 new, add 2 more each for Light and Dark and I would be satisfied with a flippin' 20 figures. Jeez, how much money do you have to spend on the things? o.O

It's about half of Trap Team. Guaranteed they are tempering based on competition and sales.

Also keep in mind that the vehicles are half that, so really only 20 characters. That's technically less then the number of skylanders released on the first game!

Not only, because when you think about it only 10 or 12 of those characters are actually completely new!
Giants had 16 entirely new Skylanders, 2 per Element and that was the lowest number of new characters... Until now.

This won't even have that, basing on what we know so far.

Quote: DragonShine

Kinda glad the number is low. This gives me a chance to buy my faves from previous instalments. I think I am still going to be looking for trail blazer when superchargers comes out.

You know Trailblazer is in stock on Amazon for $12.89, right? Unless you need to find one in a store.

Good that they made only 40 figurines! Not everyone can buy that many figurines! Because you know, money.

Quote: LloydDXZX

Good that they made only 40 figurines! Not everyone can buy that many figurines! Because you know, money.

Anyone that's been with this franchise since the beginning has spent plenty of moolah, despite the approach. It simply feels odd to go from the most in franchise history to the least in franchise history. Major "Brakes" were applied on this juggernaught.

Also, just found out Dimensions allow you to configure your vehicle up to 3 different ways. Definitely a feature we got in Swap Force but would've been nice if we could apply PHYSICAL upgrades to the toy instead of buying them with the bits. I'm sure that was thrown around but they kept it simple. I wouldn't doubt it if they sell variant vehicles that have mods unlike the regular vehicle.

Quote: Dark Snap Shot

Only 40
SHUT UP AND TAKE......LESS OF MY MONEY

It's not that, if it has 1000 figures this time around some just won't buy the game and buy something else instead.

I'm definitely thinking they have realized they were pushing the limits of sanity with plastic to buy for Trap Team. They probably came to their senses and scaled it back some, particularly since the people who collected traps are probably going to be pretty darn bitter that all they get in the new game is a bunch of Skystones. Focus on what works and make it work well.

Um, 40 is not less than 32 from the original game, or even the total for the original game, 37. They are treating the vehicles as characters, so 40+, which is indeed more than 32. 20, as a base number, is also less than the 16 new characters for Giants. So, Superchargers is not the least of anything.

They are also making less due to Space on Disc I would imagine. Every old character plus each new one can't be easy on Disc space. And they know if they cut the Old Figure compatibility out, they'd really have a fire on their porch...

^ The minute they decide this, they should just retire the franchise and work on rebuilding all entries to include all characters---they can stick it to us with new versions of existing games.

Quote: defpally

I'm definitely thinking they have realized they were pushing the limits of sanity with plastic to buy for Trap Team. They probably came to their senses and scaled it back some, particularly since the people who collected traps are probably going to be pretty darn bitter that all they get in the new game is a bunch of Skystones. Focus on what works and make it work well.

I think they're trying to use a gimmick to do "one and done" and try not to have to provide future portability to solve the "scalability" problem. Part of my problem on getting all the vehicles is the fact that come next game they either won't work or will provide some useless elemental boost as a token gesture. As SkylanderDad noted, some of the toys do look like tub toys to me and don't fit with the fantasy they've given us thus far.

In general, I wish they would just go back to basics. Concentrate on new innovative gameplay, and make a reasonable number of skylanders. If the game is the gimmick and they stay within the sanity limits, they could extend the life dramatically. Now with all of these quick buck ~80 figures and one and out gimmicks they're going to have a rebuilding year, and they will pay the price for it. I was kinda worried about this last year, sadly most of us saw this coming. As sad as this sounds, swappers are still the best TECHNICAL gimmick they've launched. I like playing these gimmicks, but I see they're introducing way more uncertainty on future use and they're betting we're going to accept it. I get the gimmick is relative to the current game story only, and frankly it is a good idea not to carry gimmicks that dont fit moving forward...but because of this I'd argue they shouldn't use them at all because they're going to be critically reviewed by fans and customers. Maybe it's best to either make the game gimmick non toy based and just make cool skylanders....tough one.

I am stoked that VV is at the helm, as I have faith they'll give us awesome value. Hopefully they've balanced the gimmick better than TfB did last year.

Quote: TakeYourLemons

^ The minute they decide this, they should just retire the franchise and work on rebuilding all entries to include all characters---they can stick it to us with new versions of existing games.

Quote: defpally

I'm definitely thinking they have realized they were pushing the limits of sanity with plastic to buy for Trap Team. They probably came to their senses and scaled it back some, particularly since the people who collected traps are probably going to be pretty darn bitter that all they get in the new game is a bunch of Skystones. Focus on what works and make it work well.

I think they're trying to use a gimmick to do "one and done" and try not to have to provide future portability to solve the "scalability" problem. Part of my problem on getting all the vehicles is the fact that come next game they either won't work or will provide some useless elemental boost as a token gesture. As SkylanderDad noted, some of the toys do look like tub toys to me and don't fit with the fantasy they've given us thus far.

In general, I wish they would just go back to basics. Concentrate on new innovative gameplay, and make a reasonable number of skylanders. If the game is the gimmick and they stay within the sanity limits, they could extend the life dramatically. Now with all of these quick buck ~80 figures and one and out gimmicks they're going to have a rebuilding year, and they will pay the price for it. I was kinda worried about this last year, sadly most of us saw this coming. As sad as this sounds, swappers are still the best TECHNICAL gimmick they've launched. I like playing these gimmicks, but I see they're introducing way more uncertainty on future use and they're betting we're going to accept it. I get the gimmick is relative to the current game story only, and frankly it is a good idea not to carry gimmicks that dont fit moving forward...but because of this I'd argue they shouldn't use them at all because they're going to be critically reviewed by fans and customers. Maybe it's best to either make the game gimmick non toy based and just make cool skylanders....tough one.

I am stoked that VV is at the helm, as I have faith they'll give us awesome value. Hopefully they've balanced the gimmick better than TfB did last year.

As you know I'm with you on this one.

The thing that really annoys me a lot is that this year gimmick, the vehicles, took away some space for the Skylanders.
No, no, and NO.

I don't think I would have been happy if they reduced the numbers of Skylanders to give us more traps/trappable villains, last year.
Not at all.

Instead, they decided to give us our regular 32 Skylanders and 4 more for Light and Dark and if anything, cut the villains themselves to make the disc less crowded.

This year they made the opposite decision (teamed up with what's their worst choice so far, in my opinion, reposed Gimmicklanders) and I don't like it.

I really hope TfB will be able to bring balance back without adding new gimmicks, unless they are related to future supported characters and they are truly amazing (as you said swappability still remains the peak of technical innovation), but simply giving us 20 or 40-ish new Skylanders to play as and a big and new game, with all the kinds of cool staff they can think about.

I hope you understand my motivations since I was expecting a game with no "external" gimmick and got one where that's the focus, instead...

YEah, it's a pity vehicles are taking space from skylanders. Maybe they'll fix the fact that we are forced to play vehicles levels in order to complete the storyline before the game is released. That, at least, would be something.

Quote: angelg

YEah, it's a pity vehicles are taking space from skylanders. Maybe they'll fix the fact that we are forced to play vehicles levels in order to complete the storyline before the game is released. That, at least, would be something.

Agree it would make it feel waaaay more like a Skylanders game.
A solid platforming adventure with extra vehicle areas and branches.

Even if, actually, I wouldn't mind if there were mandatory driving sections but not that often.
Something like let's say 20 minutes of platforming and then you get to ride a vehicle for 5 or 10 minutes (or more, depending on what you'll have to do).

I would like that.

Quote: Drek95

I hope you understand my motivations since I was expecting a game with no "external" gimmick and got one where that's the focus, instead...

Yep I understand completely. The gimmick wasn't the problem in Giants or Swap Force because forward compatibility skylanders WERE the gimmick and as you say "not external". With two games of external gimmicks under their belt with a one game lifespan, I hope customers vote NO so we can restore balance in Skylands. Imagine a checkpoint system based on an open world achievement model, and spin up gameplay outside of a simple story mode. I know if kiddies can handle it in Infinity, they can do it here.

The aspect of trapping villians weren't as out of character because you are beating up baddies anyway, but in this game there's a distinct REFOCUS of gameplay that might be a little jarring. I personally don't like the idea that you can't even play the game without ONE vehicle on the portal.

Heck, I'm waiting for another mysterious dungeon crawler.

I'm also thinking the reduced character set might have to do with VV insisting that the game experience not be impacted with a litany of new characters that have to be developed and coded. As we all know, the leaning tower of Piza will eventually fall with the weight of the characters. I take this as a cautionary good sign that they are trying to find ways to get that balance--if they offer more modes etc then I think it will definitely be worth it.

I think the low number of characters is due to the fact that they had to adapt all the existing characters to the vehicles, which needs a lot of new animations.