darkSpyro

My Hot Dog stopped working a week ago and a few users in the Swap Force comment sections have had their's stop working.
Is time running short for our older Skylanders?

that will be a big problem for the series if figures start dying

Not here...yet.

I'm sure that the microchip inside the Skylanders figurines does have a limited lifespan. They won't work forever.
However, passive type RFID chips are intended to last for many years, potentially decades.
If your figurine is already "dead", it may have been due to trauma (dropping, falling off a table, mistreatment by kids/animals, etc.).

I think you can contact Activision about possibly getting a replacement, but I don't know how strict they are about their policies on replacements.

Could just be a faulty RFID, as we've got atleast another 15 years before RFID chips mass dying becomes an issue as the chips in skylanders are passive.

Quote: BahamutBreaker

I'm sure that the microchip inside the Skylanders figurines does have a limited lifespan. They won't work forever.
However, passive type RFID chips are intended to last for many years, potentially decades.
If your figurine is already "dead", it may have been due to trauma (dropping, falling off a table, mistreatment by kids/animals, etc.).

I think you can contact Activision about possibly getting a replacement, but I don't know how strict they are about their policies on replacements.

When my Gil Grunt's bottom fell off I had a look at the chip. They don't gingerly place them in the figure, and mine was kinda bent. In my opinion, the tech isn't failing, it may be the manner in which they're placing them in the figure itself that causes the chip to fail. It could also be a bad "batch" somewhere but I'm sure they test them. Maybe.

Of note is the fact that as an investment we will all lose our investment in this game/toys if they fail at some point. Granted, we may never play this game 20 years down the road but that surely puts a lifespan on any investment we put in this franchise...and I think they need to answer those concerns candidly.

GhostRoaster hit the nail on the head. Poor construction is the leading cause of failure.

I had a Scorp that had the RFID tag half out of the base and it was bent and ripped, OUT OF THE BOX. It never worked.
Activision were quick to send a replacement but there is no doubt the construction is poor at times.

If your figure died it was probably already damaged when you got it inside the base where you couldn't see.

There is a chance that taking the base apart you could repair the antenna or replace it (keeping the chip and using a new antenna) if you are desperate to keep your data. You don't have much to lose trying this if it is already dead!

Eventually, everything burns out. Hard drives stop working after so long because of how much they are used. With the constant saving and reading of data on the figures, I'm sure it's just a matter of time before the chip flames out. In technology, nothing ever lasts a lifetime and that's why you backup computer files that are important to you. Sadly, the only backup for a Skylander you have is to get a second one.

To address my above comment, I should have specified "if figures start dying this fast" ... I think years from now is perfectly acceptable, for reasons stated in comments already here. This reminds me of GBC save data batteries dying after 10-ish years.

Well I Did a College Paper (on the same chip tech that that is used in the figures) and what I found out is that the expected life of the NFC chips they use is about 20 years (or longer if treated well).

Gill Grunt from SSA

Well, something similar happened with early production Legendary Bouncers. Their lights died out and they stopped working.

My dino-rang stopped working

My 100% Eye Brawl died a few months ago, it was a traumatic experience.