darkSpyro

You dang right it was.

I'm looking forward to keeping my Wii U and PS4 in good working condition so when my 1 year old daughter is old enough, she can enjoy them all herself just like her two brothers did. And I will be there enjoying them all over again with her.

*thumbs up* I say it was worth it too. People spend way more on booze and cigs. At least these will last much longer and won't cause your body any damage.

Yes. Absolutely. I was quite happy today enjoying the sheer awesomeness of my fire ninja imaginator. I still pay the old games, and look forward to completing them all 100 percent on nightmare mode, completing all heroics, etc.

344 with 6 more tho complete my collection to a nice rounded number 350

Agreed! It was not quite two years ago that my wife suggested we get a WiiU and Skylanders Swap Force for our then-8-year-old for Christmas. Just yesterday I bought a lot of 14 senseis that for all intents and purposes finishes our collection! I'll be giving the game and the full set of Imaginators to my kids this Christmas.

It wasn't until a few months after the original Swap Force purchase that the collecting bug bit me, when my wife asked me to pick up some more characters for our oldest's birthday. Did she ever create a monster. I've had a blast hunting skylanders. Most of them have been second-hand, but it's still probably been six or seven hundred dollars all told.

Working backwards, I filled out the Swap Force collection, then Giants and Spyro's Adventure. Even I thought we were done there with the first three games, but then, after about a year, I accidentally discovered that Superchargers was really cheap. That got me started again. Once I was finished collecting all of the Superchargers and vehicles, I also happened upon a couple of good craigslist deals for Trap Team characters, and that got me hooked finding all of Trap Team. By that point, Imaginators was out, and I started collecting the Imaginators guys as I finished up the Trap Team slate.

I'm thanking my lucky stars for craigslist. I'd never have been able to afford all of the Trap Team guys and especially the Imaginators without it. I was on a business trip in a big city for two weeks a while back, and was bored as heck most evenings, so I just craigslisted skylanders the whole time. I ended up finding enough rare stuff to be able to get the Light/Dark expansions for the kids AND sell the rest of what I found on Ebay to pay for all of my Imaginators purchases!

The funny part is that I have only played one of the games all the way through myself. I just really enjoy the collecting, and the kids love the games. In anything besides Swap Force, I've only played the first level. I actually did a lot of the goldmining for all the characters since I like unlocking all of the movesets that the kids don't have the patience for.

Still, now that I've got the full set of Imaginators and I'm waiting for Christmas to give them to the kids, I'm just giddy with excitement for them. I've tried the game out a bit myself, but haven't gone past the MAP and first level.

Our collection isn't as exhaustive as a lot of folks' on here, and certainly isn't crazy impressive like yours, Dahvoo. I decided we'd just go with one of each playable character, so the most recent repose of any guy, and whichever we liked better between regular and variant of any character. And I got us one of each element trap and creation crystal, and all bonus levels. But it's cool we've got one of everybody.

I've only got Pit Boss and Ro-Bow remaining to pick up before Christmas, and of all random guys not to have gotten around to picking up from Trap Team, I still need Fist Bump. But besides that, it's done. So crazy.

Like you, Dahvoo, I'm really looking forward to the younger kids aging into the games, and experiencing it all again through their eyes. There will still be many great portalmaster years to come!

I have nowhere close to a collection as most people, but so worth it. Be the game itself or (most of) the community. Also looking foward to getting this collection to kids once they're old enough to have one - even when the chips stop working I'm sure someone will be able to have fun with them.

Yes definitely.

Yes and no. I went alittle overboard but otherwise ya it was fun

I'd have to say yes and no as well.

Yes I've loved playing the game with my boys, the thrill of going into shops looking for the new releases etc. So many great memories.

But no for a few reasons. Firstly, there has always been (and was always going to be) too much of a gap between the number of playable characters and the amount of content in the game. Trap team was an extreme example of this but in any of the games you could finish them with just a few characters and all that was left was replaying the same chapters with new characters. Which was ok for a while, but not completely satisfying.

No also because so much of the money now seems wasted looking at how much the prices have dropped. I was in EB Game yesterday looking through their secondhand bins to see if there were any Skylander variants that I didn't have. There weren't, but what they did have in there was a HUGE number of characters from SSA through to Trap Team as well as a couple of SC characters and vehicles. Had I not purchased so many new, I could now be getting the bulk of my collection for a fraction of the price.

And no also because of this decaying/failing chip business that I didn't know about, and in fairness I hadn't bothered to look into. Sure I figured some of the toys would eventually stop working for whatever reason but it's disappointing to think that they will all stop working in the coming decades. Particularly the rare ones that I've paid a lot for. I'm hopeful that one day I'll have grandchildren who might get to play with some that are still working, but that they'll enjoy playing with them just as toys when the chips are dead. But it really makes some of my collection seem pointless now.

Well, if you don't mind spending even more money, it's also possible to remove the figures you're most fond of from the base and articulate them if the value won't mean anything in a few years. Takes some skill for a lot of them but characters like Whirlwind even have plastic seams where you should be cutting to put pegs(I think it's what they're called?).

I knew going into this hobby that the values would tank. I deal in used toys on ebay and I've seen prices on just about anything drop to about a dollar per doll/figure/toy. Generally if you wait about 8 years it becomes collectible and has more value but rarely will anything ever reach retail prices again unless it's new boxed.

Anyway I bought a lot of my Skylanders used and I bought only the ones I liked the best new at retail. So I've not regretted my buying and I probably paid only around $1500 total for all my Skylanders and I only need about 20 more. I'm a retro game collector, so I'll probably have them for another 30 years like the rest of my old gaming stuff.

As for failing chips, I'm still counting on someone to crack and release a proper backup program for free to the world to be used on some type of cheap chip which everyone will surely have for some reason or other. It'll take a few years for Activision to not give a crap about protecting old tech like old retro gaming systems, so I know it'll happen one day.

Well if the chips do eventually decay I hope someone figures out a way to make a third party "character unlock key" or something that we can set to any character and glue to the bottom of our figures if we want.

I hadn't previously heard anything about chip decay. Is this something people are starting to see en masse? Or is it the infrequent instance of a chip just malfunctioning?

Are there any links to the phenomenon?

TIA!

Don't remember links, but someone on another thread said the chips only keep the data for an average of 20 years. It's a lot of time, but it's time for some of the younger people here to see their kids grow up enough to play with figurines.

let's see, it's more like 10 games (counting the 3DS versions since they have different styled gameplay and story)
I'll admit, I missed how much fun the earlyer games were, collecting treasure, beating bad guys, battle arenas, extra quests, and defeating Kaos and his minons.

That's true, the first four 3DS games were unique enough to be considered their own games. Swap Force and Trap Team in particular were amazing for letting you have access to your collection instantly after scanning them in at least once.

I don't get hung up on how low prices are now for so many figures compared to launch. I know I got my money's worth.

absoulutely.

It was worth it to get the Skylanders figures (and Amiibo and Disney Infinity for that matter).

Every single cent and every single moment.
I recently bought Lost Imaginite Mines, and potential last Creation Crystals aside it may very well be my final purchase in the whole series.

I sure hope the future will hold more than Academy and the mobile game, but even if it won't I'd still have basically nothing to regret.
Not even SuperChargers, I'm glad I went through it for the good stuff it had to offer.

Definitely one of my favorite franchises for a number of reasons, which I'm sure I'll never forget.

You bet it was worth it. Because of this game I have amassed a bunch of amazing heroes I swear no other line will ever emulate. I mean how many toylines can have a drill dozer robot, beetle with staff, executioner wielding a scythe, walking beehive with a beehive bazooka, talking bazooka shooting bamboo and so many wacky heroes? I had dreamt of having a franchise with such crazy character designs.

Definitely a yes, and I doubt it would've been as good as it was had it not been for the lovely community both here and outside of dS. I've encountered problems along the way, sure, and burnt out more than once.... but that was worth it to have fun and a ton of games I want to revisit. I'm also into playing other TTL games like Lego Dimensions and now Disney Infinity, so I hope to come up with some more review content and happy experiences with them also!

My only regret is that I didn't know enough about Toys to Life when they first came out. Had I known what we do about Skylanders and the genre now, I'd've bought the figures at launch with no problems. However, I wasn't fond of paying £7.99 just for a few moves in a single game that didn't offer much replayability then, and the pressure of needing the next game's figures and gimmicks. And now I feel I'm too late - there's few discussions for me to be part of or create because it's already been said and done.

I've got a video that goes into a retrospective of my troubles with TTL coming up, so that should summarise only the bad parts of these toys and games for me.

I have no regrets and i still collect even if i only play once in a blue moon.

Well- It's hard to say. I've collected, downsized, re-collected, and downsized again.

I've gone through all 3 (4?) TTL franchises, and the only one I haven't sold stuff with is Lego Dimensions. And I've fully gotten rid of Disney Infinity twice. [Though to be fair, if Disney had not shut down the servers, I would have kept the second set of Infinity.] I may even start re-collecting again, one final time, if I were to get a better, more stable income. However my sights are currently set on fixing my Amiibo collection. Then fixing the Skylanders collection depending on my emotions (though unlikely). Then Infinity if I truly think I can do something with it. [Luckily/Unfortunately Lego Dimensions has finished, and I still have everything, and don't plan on getting rid of them any time soon- less I move out and let my mom keep the collection as they are currently shared.]

But I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Skylanders, and as a franchise, it is one of my favorites. So over all, I say it was. I just wish I was smarter with my decision making.

lets be honest, was it worth it?.. i will have to say no, it was a huge money sink. but it sure was fun while it lasted, even if it was very frustrating sometimes. will i jump on another toy comes to life game if it happen again, no. as i see it this was a one time affair. so its done and its time to move on. lets hope there will be a proper spyro game coming next from acti..

It was an awesome experience! The only drag was SuperChargers. Everything else was fun and totally worth it.

I gave up after four games, and still don't even have a complete collection for Trap Team. (Also lost my digging SF skylander, but I have hope for finding it.) But recently, I went back to the game, picked up my old favorite Cynder and my new Sprocket, and enjoyed it. And accidentally got back into the series, so I'm going to be needing some more figurines. (Maybe the dark and light dragons, they look cool. Or Bash, to complete my SA dragon collection. Or maybe the adventure packs and traps I need for Trap Team, or try to collect every female Skylander, or...)

Still is, I keep playing on a frequent basis. Just started Trap Team, and have a lot of things to do in the other games yet.

-Giants: 3 stars on each level; remaining heroics.
-Trap Team: everything beyond level 6; nightmare mode.
-SuperChargers: last chapter on nightmare mode; 3 stars in all SC challenges & elemental gates unlocked.
-Imaginators: 3 stars in all levels unlocked; candy set; nightmare mode; more crystals to buy and characters to create.

Plus leveling up all characters and doing all unlocked heroics with all of them; remaining trophies (I go 100% with all skylanders ones).

So... for me, enjoying this franchise is really far from ending. There're some toys my girlfriend and I are still looking for. And we want to purchase SC Racing to play together on her Wii.

So... long live to Skylands!

I’m gonna get max money for every character and... sigh... vehicle... may take a while.

Honestly, I regret buying everything besides the Starter Packs.

Quote: Buchi

Honestly, I regret buying everything besides the Starter Packs.

And why did you buy it, then? Collecting characters or buying the ones you like the most was the one of the mains aims of the franchise. If it wasn't your case, I can't find a reason why you did it.

we have a ton of figures
and i also bought all of whirlwind variants because she is my favorite skylander

Quote: Halvmorke

Quote: Buchi

Honestly, I regret buying everything besides the Starter Packs.

And why did you buy it, then? Collecting characters or buying the ones you like the most was the one of the mains aims of the franchise. If it wasn't your case, I can't find a reason why you did it.

It started when I couldn't beat Creepy Citadel in SSA, so I bought some other Skylanders to complete the level. 11-year-old me decided that it would be a good idea to buy the rest of them, which continued with Giants and SF, before I stopped collecting every single one with Trap Team.

That said, maybe collecting one of each element for SSA and SG would of been a good idea. Just that I think buying all of them was a bad idea and a waste of money IMO.

Well, that's what I did at first. I bought one character per element I didn't have, my favourite ones, and that's all. Then I started to buy other characters that appealed to me once they were really low cost at pre-owned stores. It was crystal clear for me since the beginning that collecting everthing wasn't a option, I didn't wanted to be a hardcore collector since it wasn't necessary.

Well, you could always sell those characters you don't like/need and maybe you won't be so regretfull once you earn a bit of money.

Maybe. If I'm lucky, maybe Skylanders will gain cult following or something in a few years, and I can sell my rare figures for quite a bit. I doubt they're worth much at the moment, though.

Oh it was more than worth it. It gave me five years of non-stop fun, from hunting the figures, to upgrading my army, to gathering and discussing leaked news from a remote Gamestop in Ireland about a secret variant... it was quite the ride. Like Buchi was saying, I have a feeling it'll gain a cult following in the next five to ten years as its younger players grow up and start to grow nostalgic, and maybe that'll warrant a remaster game, but man, I'm gonna miss all the good old days back here. It always makes me smile remembering the times we were all anxiously awaiting Toy Fair while refreshing this website every few minutes, or raging at all the Shroombooms hogging the shelves, or swarming some old mom and pop store because they got wave 3 early, or hacking the french version of the game to find Light and Dark while Activision miserably failed to keep it hidden from the masses, or finding out some secret prototypes were accidentally sent to some random Mexican toy store, or celebrating Thrillipede's release with swarms of gummy worm memes... it was a hassle just to get even the smallest tidbit of news, but it was still one of my favorite things to do here.

This addiction didn't land me in jail or the hospital and I spent some quality time with my family hunting for them and playing with them. So, yes, well worth the money.

Was it worth it? Absolutely not. Was the hunt fun? Not after SA. Do I regret it? Not one bit.
I had lots of fun and as I am finally digging into Imaginators, I am reflecting on the damn good journey.

I just wish each subsequent game had support for the prior gimmicklanders.

Honestly, it became a tradition in our household to at least go hunting once a week. I think the thrill of the find/play more than made up for the cost.
I think what ultimately sealed the deal was the release on switch. It was fun using the portal but trust me its so much nicer just being able to switch on the dime, plus the portability was fantastic.
To this day, we still skylander hunt and are down to about 30 left. Unfortunately, the ones left are the ones I have to sell a kidney for ;/

Switch version is great, just wish they would have made the character selection screen easier to use. For those with a large collection, it's a pain to cycle through so many to get to the one you want, especially if you want a Swapper. Was hoping they would have changed it up in an update, but game was pretty much DOA.

The way they did it in the later 3DS games was almost perfect. Characters are sorted by element that you could tap to switch between. So much easier.

Hell Ya it was worth it! I am still collecting this very day. I only need 31 more chase or rare figures to have them All!