darkSpyro

So I think I may have asked this before in another form, but we're right now very close to release of Nintendo's Amiibo figures.

Late yesterday, the internet was treated to actual final models of the Amiibos and they look ok for the most part. But the cooler things I saw was the display:



Nice, right? So what I'm super curious about is what everyone thinks about the growing market for Toys to Life? Is it cool? Too wallet consuming? Oversaturated? I'm also interested in seeing what everyone's local stores are like; Do Skylanders still sell well? Infinity? Or is everything kind of shelfwarming. Maybe some of the older members can also help with this; does it look like Trap Team figures are selling well compared to Swap Force, Giants, etc?

Personally speaking, I love the concept, and I think the more the merrier if they can be done well. Its no secret that the ones made with a good idea in mind are surviving (ie, Skylanders and Infinity) and the cheap cash grabs are not (Telepods, Apptivity). My stores all have a very healthy selection of figures, but I do not think that in another year or two, the stores will be able to keep them on the smaller electronics aisles. TRU especially has a problem featuring SSA, Giants, Swap Force, and Trap Team + other skylanders merch and that's not counting Infinity and amiibos stuff. They'll have to set up a "toys to life" aisle with regular toys away from electronics. Skylanders especially could utilize the regular toy aisle place for their other stuff.

I would love to make an open world game that used all 3 figure brands in it! That would make a lot of high ups mad, but would be awesome!

I work in inventory at walmart and I can say for sure that we have skylanders being put out every night. The floor stock does not completely reflect sales as stores have gotten smarter about how much stock of skylanders there are. I remember during ssa the pegs were cleaned for months. I like to think everyone learned their lesson about them at this point.

Long story short, sales are good at my walmart on skylanders, infinity sales are far lower and we send out boxes about once a week for them

By all means, bring on the competition, it might force Activision to ramp up the quality a bit themselves, might even take a few inspirations.

Right on!

I'm not approaching Amiibos like a collector thing, we are doing it like a one per person thing. It's less of a "import character into game" type thing and more of a physical way to store and transport your profile. It "learns" how you play and adjusts to that, in Smash, you don't play as them - they are your sidekick that mimic your play style. As a result, I'm getting one for each son and myself based on our favorite characters.

It just seems pointless to have an army of these (other than collecting just to have). The whole idea is to play a lot with one so it "learns" you, kind of like some of the Virtua Fighter games "learned" from players. What you would end up is several that kind of play like you as opposed to one that really matches your style.

Quote: defpally

I'm not approaching Amiibos like a collector thing, we are doing it like a one per person thing. It's less of a "import character into game" type thing and more of a physical way to store and transport your profile. It "learns" how you play and adjusts to that, in Smash, you don't play as them - they are your sidekick that mimic your play style. As a result, I'm getting one for each son and myself based on our favorite characters.

It just seems pointless to have an army of these (other than collecting just to have). The whole idea is to play a lot with one so it "learns" you, kind of like some of the Virtua Fighter games "learned" from players. What you would end up is several that kind of play like you as opposed to one that really matches your style.

They work for more than just Super Smash Brothers, incase you were wondering.

Also I honestly doubt that Trap Masters selling well is going to have a huge deciding point for them in Skylanders 5. It's like saying Giants didn't sell well, and they did sell well.

I am Skylanders Fan . Am i curious about Disney infinity ? Yes i am and i will buy the starter sooner or later but i dont think i will go nuts and want to buy every Disney toy off shelf .

Princess Repunzel looks very cute

I'm only buying a few Amibos (only Pokemon and mario) if/when they work in the pokemon and mario kart games. As for the shelving situation at my normal TRU, they have a huge display then you first walk in, and then even more in the video games section. They also have room for SSA SG and SSF, and infinity (which I'm not impressed with because they stole skylanders, and the next game involves Star Wars that I normally love) and have a spot reserved for Amibo. My walmarts are just pathetic, and all the targets near me have closed recently.

Quote: WickedRogue

Quote: defpally

I'm not approaching Amiibos like a collector thing, we are doing it like a one per person thing. It's less of a "import character into game" type thing and more of a physical way to store and transport your profile. It "learns" how you play and adjusts to that, in Smash, you don't play as them - they are your sidekick that mimic your play style. As a result, I'm getting one for each son and myself based on our favorite characters.

It just seems pointless to have an army of these (other than collecting just to have). The whole idea is to play a lot with one so it "learns" you, kind of like some of the Virtua Fighter games "learned" from players. What you would end up is several that kind of play like you as opposed to one that really matches your style.

They work for more than just Super Smash Brothers, incase you were wondering.

Also I honestly doubt that Trap Masters selling well is going to have a huge deciding point for them in Skylanders 5. It's like saying Giants didn't sell well, and they did sell well.

Traps, not Trap Masters.

Giants, as Skylanders, were obviously supported in SWAP Force.
The traps, being only "colored transparent plastic", are not that taken for granted.

But I honestly don't see why they wouldn't support them.

^I do, total and absolute kaos when playing the next story when the villains won't fit with either the story or gameplay. I would consider the traps "noise" next to the next gimmick. My .02 of course.

Quote: GhostRoaster

^I do, total and absolute kaos when playing the next story when the villains won't fit with either the story or gameplay. I would consider the traps "noise" next to the next gimmick. My .02 of course.

Well, it most likely won't have a story that revolves around them, but I really don't see why we wouldn't be able to use them.
We captured them, and now they are inside our traps. Just press a button and you can play as them.

What do you mean by "noise"?

If you notice on the Amiibo packaging they state they are for a certain game in the case of the first 2 Amiibo waves it says Super Smash Bros. Heck even the base of the Amiibo is the Super Smash Bros. emblem. So, I wonder if you'll need different Amiibo's for different Amiibo compatible games.

Quote: Dark fhoenix

I am Skylanders Fan . Am i curious about Disney infinity ? Yes i am and i will buy the starter sooner or later but i dont think i will go nuts and want to buy every Disney toy off shelf .

Princess Repunzel looks very cute

... and rapunzel is VERY op!

competition in the market place can only be a good thing for all franchises. evolve and improve or die.

i collect Infinity as well as Skylanders, but at the moment i won't be getting any Amiibo, as i don't like the smash brothers games. When there is something else they work in, i might consider it.

As for how sales go, in my area, the electronics manager at my local Target told me that the disney infinity stuff is still stocked with the same shipment they got for launch, and there is no lack of a variety of characters, whist skylanders has needed 3 new shipments to restock, especially on traps, they sell out the same day they are put out on the shelf. SSA, Giants and even Swap Force are non-existent for sale new around here, only really available pre-owned from ebgames.

this is in Australia, Target and Big W are probably the biggest retailer of Skylanders and DI, Toys R Us doesn't stock either at all.

Maybe the trapped villains could be clones. (Well, Kaos at least)

Quote: Ricky Karnage

If you notice on the Amiibo packaging they state they are for a certain game in the case of the first 2 Amiibo waves it says Super Smash Bros. Heck even the base of the Amiibo is the Super Smash Bros. emblem. So, I wonder if you'll need different Amiibo's for different Amiibo compatible games.

They stated that Hyrule Warriors will have a future update that will allow the Link amiibo from Smash to be compatible with HW.

Friends of mine that were into the game have no interest in Trap Team and won't be getting back into Skylanders. Of them probably half are big Infinity fans. However talking to a couple of store employees and they tell me that TT sales are really good and yeah the traps pegs seem to be bare but I have no idea how many traps the stores have brought. There seems to be no shortage of trap masters and triple packs available.

Quote: Drek95

Quote: GhostRoaster

^I do, total and absolute kaos when playing the next story when the villains won't fit with either the story or gameplay. I would consider the traps "noise" next to the next gimmick. My .02 of course.

Well, it most likely won't have a story that revolves around them, but I really don't see why we wouldn't be able to use them.
We captured them, and now they are inside our traps. Just press a button and you can play as them.

What do you mean by "noise"?

Maybe the press of a button to play them, but not a press of a button to swap them?

What are the chances that if traps are supported in the game in some small way their timer runs out very quickly and the only way to swap villains is through TT? So Skylanders 5 could claim to support the traps, but they are nerfed and you can't switch villains in game meaning you have to either go back to TT or have a different trap for each villain you want to use. If they appear at all in S5 this is my prediction for how the traps will be treated.

Quote: min8or

competition in the market place can only be a good thing for all franchises. evolve and improve or die.

i collect Infinity as well as Skylanders, but at the moment i won't be getting any Amiibo, as i don't like the smash brothers games. When there is something else they work in, i might consider it.

As for how sales go, in my area, the electronics manager at my local Target told me that the disney infinity stuff is still stocked with the same shipment they got for launch, and there is no lack of a variety of characters, whist skylanders has needed 3 new shipments to restock, especially on traps, they sell out the same day they are put out on the shelf. SSA, Giants and even Swap Force are non-existent for sale new around here, only really available pre-owned from ebgames.

this is in Australia, Target and Big W are probably the biggest retailer of Skylanders and DI, Toys R Us doesn't stock either at all.

Yeah skylanders seem very popular in Australia. Loads of DI characters but not many skylanders. I guess the fact we get bqd waves in Australia helps activision too.

I feel Skylanders tends to sell faster because of Activisions practice of blind boxes - if a particular character starts appearing in stores with no pre-announced release date and may or may not be in stock a month out, consumers will scramble to buy them. I personally have barely touched Disney Infinity 2.0 because I know all the characters will be well-stocked into 2015, when there's more discounts.

I love Nintendo, but Amiibo doesn't grab me. I may change my mind once the figures become available, but for now I'm more on the side of sitting this one out. I know my buying tendencies and if I start another collection, I'll likely want to buy them all as well.

There is very little chance of the toys to life genre, at least in console gaming, becoming much bigger than it is now. Essentially, the toys to life concept is hugely expensive, and just as huge a gamble, and there are only maybe 3-6 video game companies in the world that could afgord to take the risk. Three of them are already represented; Activision, Disney, and Nintendo. Off the top of my head, the only other companies that could afford such a big risk would be EA (and we don't want them in this market), and maybe Capcom or Square Enix. Basically, it already costs $30+ million, on the low end, to produce a AAA title. You add to that figure design, manufacturing, marketing, and the cost of getting on store shelves, and that number goes way, WAY up. Activision has a long history in the franchise market and the peripheral/accessory market, they knew the risk involved and it paid off big time. With Disney Infinty, the game being successful was a make it or break it situation for the developer, if the game sold well, they got to keep their jobs and make another, if it didn't, Disney was going to stop developing games. I haven't played 2.0, but I had a complete set of Disney Infinity that I sold earlier this year, I found the game incredibly disappointing, and very lackluster. Based on what I have seen and read, I think it sells just well enough to continue the franchise, but it doesn't seem to have taken any market away from Skylnders at all. If they are incorporating Star Wars, that could end up being another story entirely, as Star Wars probably has the largest fanbase of any single property in the world.

Quote: kaosmumishot

Quote: Drek95

Quote: GhostRoaster

^I do, total and absolute kaos when playing the next story when the villains won't fit with either the story or gameplay. I would consider the traps "noise" next to the next gimmick. My .02 of course.

Well, it most likely won't have a story that revolves around them, but I really don't see why we wouldn't be able to use them.
We captured them, and now they are inside our traps. Just press a button and you can play as them.

What do you mean by "noise"?

Maybe the press of a button to play them, but not a press of a button to swap them?

What are the chances that if traps are supported in the game in some small way their timer runs out very quickly and the only way to swap villains is through TT? So Skylanders 5 could claim to support the traps, but they are nerfed and you can't switch villains in game meaning you have to either go back to TT or have a different trap for each villain you want to use. If they appear at all in S5 this is my prediction for how the traps will be treated.

It could be possible, or they could have a sort of "villain vault", in the hub, so every time you register a villain, you can then swap him from there.

Quote: TrapShadowFan

Quote: Ricky Karnage

If you notice on the Amiibo packaging they state they are for a certain game in the case of the first 2 Amiibo waves it says Super Smash Bros. Heck even the base of the Amiibo is the Super Smash Bros. emblem. So, I wonder if you'll need different Amiibo's for different Amiibo compatible games.

They stated that Hyrule Warriors will have a future update that will allow the Link amiibo from Smash to be compatible with HW.

Awe, i looked into it some more and seen the little disclaimer.

"Depending on the amiibo, a single figure can unlock features in multiple amiibo compatible games. In addition to Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, a variety of other games will soon offer amiibo compatibility."

The real end-game is mobile. Until they find a good way to transfer Toys to Life - to mobile platforms (most likely why they swung for a tablet version of TT) - then it's a limited and possibly dead-end genre. I'm not screaming the sky is falling or anything - don't mis-interpret me. I think Nintendo is making a mistake (1), I think the market can only support (1), and I think Disney Infinity will shrink more as skylanders is/will win out.
- Unreall

To me:

Skylanders-Awesome.
Disney Infinity-****!
Amiibo-Okay?

Quote: WickedRogue

Quote: defpally

I'm not approaching Amiibos like a collector thing, we are doing it like a one per person thing. It's less of a "import character into game" type thing and more of a physical way to store and transport your profile. It "learns" how you play and adjusts to that, in Smash, you don't play as them - they are your sidekick that mimic your play style. As a result, I'm getting one for each son and myself based on our favorite characters.

It just seems pointless to have an army of these (other than collecting just to have). The whole idea is to play a lot with one so it "learns" you, kind of like some of the Virtua Fighter games "learned" from players. What you would end up is several that kind of play like you as opposed to one that really matches your style.

They work for more than just Super Smash Brothers, incase you were wondering.

Also I honestly doubt that Trap Masters selling well is going to have a huge deciding point for them in Skylanders 5. It's like saying Giants didn't sell well, and they did sell well.

Yes, I know, but it's mainly just unlocking things in other games for now.

Right now ive committed a lot into collecting skylanders. So i will not be getting any DI characters. However, I will be snagging a couple amiibos just cause im a big fan of a lot of the nintendo games.

As far as longevity of games there is a lot of potential for each series. After all disney does own the rights to star wars and nintendo has pokemon.

For me its:

Skylanders-Great games but i grew over it
Disney Infinity-Pretty good but it gets really boring and its to hard to build something you really like, the playsets are the best.
Amiibo-Beautifull and looks like a fun expansion for your games

I'm done with skylanders. It's just too expensive and the games are redundant. But as I am looking into getting a Wii U, I may pick up one or two amiibos if I have compatible games. Just my favourite characters of course - for sure I'd get a Yoshi for Mario Kart 8 (that is a game I am definitely interested in and Yoshi is favourite). I have no interest in building up a little army of these guys as well though.

I'm interested in getting Donkey Kong and Mario for display. I could care less about the games or the others.

Quote: defpally

Quote: WickedRogue

Quote: defpally

I'm not approaching Amiibos like a collector thing, we are doing it like a one per person thing. It's less of a "import character into game" type thing and more of a physical way to store and transport your profile. It "learns" how you play and adjusts to that, in Smash, you don't play as them - they are your sidekick that mimic your play style. As a result, I'm getting one for each son and myself based on our favorite characters.

It just seems pointless to have an army of these (other than collecting just to have). The whole idea is to play a lot with one so it "learns" you, kind of like some of the Virtua Fighter games "learned" from players. What you would end up is several that kind of play like you as opposed to one that really matches your style.

They work for more than just Super Smash Brothers, incase you were wondering.

Also I honestly doubt that Trap Masters selling well is going to have a huge deciding point for them in Skylanders 5. It's like saying Giants didn't sell well, and they did sell well.

Yes, I know, but it's mainly just unlocking things in other games for now.

Where has Nintendo actually said what they do in the other games? D:

I think what we'll see is Amiibos of Pokemon - not all of them, just the special ones the give away over the internet at the moment. So the only way to get something like the Shiny Gengar which is out now, will be to buy the Amiibo.

I'll be mostly getting dragon skylanders and pokemon amiibos. I hope these ones don't get sold out the quickest!

I'll be sticking to Skylanders as my main NFC series and pick up a few amiibo figures. So far I'll only be buying Villager, Greninja, and Yoshi.

Honestly i don't exactly like Infinity or Amiibos because it seems like they just are copying skylanders with the toys and the "Portal"

Quote: Luminous35

Honestly i don't exactly like Infinity or Amiibos because it seems like they just are copying skylanders with the toys and the "Portal"

That's why I hate Disney infinity, because they totally stole skylanders with "oh look it's a cool looking toy! (In my opinion infinity toys look like $^&#) It works in a video game! Wow!" They also lack in creativity by using already existing characters (even by using star wars they won't be getting me! Infinity I'll never join you! NEVER!) where as Skylanders make totally new (not saying all of them are good) characters with awesome powers. Infinity you have to pay $4.99 to get an attack that you don't know if you have it yet even, because of stupid blind packs. Amiibo I don't think you need a portal (from what I understand you don't need one, you just put it near the gamepad or 3Ds and it works) and I would only buy a few of them any way and only my favorites. I don't think you even need to buy a starter pack for Amiibo.

dont forget that UBFunkeys was first and that disney infinty are a totally different game....

Quote: CountMoneyBone

dont forget that UBFunkeys was first and that disney infinty are a totally different game....

I actually have every one of those released, I didn't even think anybody here knew about them!

Won't get that much into Amiibos, as I only own a 3DS, for the next gen Nintendo part.

However, I would like to say a few things about Disney Infinity.

While I don't consider Infinity to be a copy of Skylanders (would you call LittleBigPlanet a copy of Super Mario? Well, they are both platform games, after all ) for many reasons, I don't like it under some aspects mega spyro already mentioned:

- the game seems just like an excuse to buy the toys (unlike the Story Mode of the Skylanders titles, which at least tries to give you a plot). I already own a level editor based game, and I think it's waaaaay better than Disney Infinity (even the 2.0 version);

- characters are not as deep as the Skylanders (adding a skill tree is not that useful, if most of the abilities are just "level ups" of previous ones. Might as well stick to the 10 or so upgrades a Skylander has), and the figures have a style that doesn't attract me (they look like toys, both outside and inside the game). Also, Skylanders always come up with original new characters, bad and good, of course, and, except for Spyro and Cynder, it's incredible to see how much some of those characters already took our hearts. ;

- blind bags for power discs. I'm surprised no one talks about them, when we discuss about "how greedy and money grabber Activision is".
Well, at least, with Skylanders, you know what you buy.

That being said, it is still a very cool and original game, even if I feel they didn't innovated that much with the 2.0 version (not that they had to, actually).

DI v's Skylanders

I'm really surprised that Pokemon hasn't jumped on the toys to life band wagon. I know Nintendo will have some Pokemon figures, but I'm talking about a whole Pokemon game with all the characters.

I believe activision went to Nintendo with the idea, prior to making skylanders a reality, but they were turned down.. Big mistake, and I'm glad, cause skylanders would be only on Nintendo consoles!

imagine 719 different figures, and thats without counting shinies, different forms(26 unowns, red/blue basculin, season specific deerling etc etc etc) or mega evolutions. even having one figure per species, 1 figure that has charmander/charmeleon/charizard/mega x/mega y is a massive undertaking.

Quote: min8or

imagine 719 different figures, and thats without counting shinies, different forms(26 unowns, red/blue basculin, season specific deerling etc etc etc) or mega evolutions. even having one figure per species, 1 figure that has charmander/charmeleon/charizard/mega x/mega y is a massive undertaking.

Gotta catch em' all!

Quote: 7Habits

I'm really surprised that Pokemon hasn't jumped on the toys to life band wagon. I know Nintendo will have some Pokemon figures, but I'm talking about a whole Pokemon game with all the characters.

here this is a start...
http://www.geek.com/games/nint...igures-1543057/

Quote: CountMoneyBone

dont forget that UBFunkeys was first and that disney infinty are a totally different game....

I'd never heard of them - just looked them up on Wiki. So Skylanders weren't the first with the idea! I never realised that. Even the portal was a Funkeys idea!

Quote: Drek95

- blind bags for power discs. I'm surprised no one talks about them, when we discuss about "how greedy and money grabber Activision is".
Well, at least, with Skylanders, you know what you buy.

THIS! - I wasn't going to buy TT when we thought the traps would be in blind-bags.

Just throwing my hat into the ring:

Skylanders: Anything that isn't a chase variant, I will get. [And even those I get to sell, though this only happened once when I found a purple metallic Lightning Rod laying in a box at TRU.] [This also includes every trap variation, though I'm debating whether or not to get duplicates based on: Outlaw Brawl 'n Chain is in a Water Logholder mold, should I get a variant-less Water Logholder trap too, or just the one I already have.]

DI: I have neither game, but am slightly interested. If I ever have the spare money, I'll pick up the starter packs, and try to catch up on all the standard figures. [Unsure how I'll deal with the blind-bag power disk.] [Unsure if I'll mess with the TRU exclusive crystal characters.]

Amiibo: I plan on getting every figure in the Smash line up. However, I have no plans for any of the other Amiibo, like the Mario Kart line up. [Especially if they work in multiple games, Hence all Mario, Wario, and Yoshi figures working in MK8, and all Zelda figures working in HW.]