darkSpyro

Alright so because there's not a real definitive 'list' of what the game does and doesn't count as a unique variant for it's tally, I figured this would be the best route to go about it. Right off the bat going to state that this doesn't include any of the named variants that appear as unique characters in the game, so none of these:
-All Legendary characters (Toys R Us exclusive)
-Dark Spyro (3DS Spyro's Adventure starter exclusive)
-Royal Double Trouble (Gamestop US Battlegrounds Exclusive)
-Polar Whirlwind
-Punch Pop Fizz (3DS Giants starter exclusive)
-Jade Flashwing
-Molten Hot Dog
-Gnarly Tree Rex (Wii US bundle, PS3 UK bundle exclusive)
-Granite Crusher (Target US exclusive)
-Scarlet Ninjini

These are known to appear with a 'Special' identifier in the game, for collections, and count as a separate character as it were in Skylanders Universe to boot:
============
-Bronze S2 Flameslinger (US Amazon exclusive)
-GITD Fight Rider (UK Argos, Australia JB exclusive)
-GITD Cynder (US Wal-Mart, UK GAME exclusive)
-GITD Sonic Boom (US Wal-Mart exclusive)

Count as separate in Giants, but not in Universe.
===============
-Sparkle Sprocket
-Sparkle Sonic Boom
-Sparkle Hot Head
-Stone Zook**
-Stone Whirlwind**

Count as Special in Giants, but unknown for Universe
=======================================
-Snow Flocked LC Prism Break****
-Snow Flocked Eruptor
-Snow Flocked Stump Smash
-2013 NY Toy Fair Metallic Blue Chop Chop

These are unknown, but according to universe are supposed to count as separate. What they'll look like is anyone's guess:
===============
-???? Gill Grunt

The following do not:
===============
All green-base Skylanders
*Red Drill Sargeant (Wal-Mart exclusive)
*Blue Bash (Toys R Us exclusive)
*Silver Dino-Rang
*Silver Eruptor
*Silver Boomer
*Gold S1 Flameslinger
*Gold Drill Sergeant
*Gold Chop Chop
*Chrome Cynder
*Pearl Hex
*Flocked Stump Smash
*Chrome Spyro
*Ice/Clear/Crystal Wham-Shell
*Ice/Clear/Crystal Cynder
*Ice/Clear/Crystal Stealth Elf
*GITD Wrecking Ball
*GITD Zap
*GITD Warnado
*Green Gill Grunt
*Employee Exclusive Prism Break
-Platinum Treasure Chest (Skylanders Battlegrounds item)*

When all is said and done, you should have a grand total of 113 unique Skylanders registered in your Giants game when you're done.

*Despite being a uniquely named item, the Platinum Treasure Chest does not behave any differently. In fact, you can use a regular Hidden Chest and still reap the same benefits.
**Not all Stone Zooks and Whirlwinds will register due to an issue with certain particular ones. Your mileage may vary.
***This is the completely covered Prism Break. The employee exclusive fortunately does not count as special for the game.

Any Skylanders with a green base will NOT register as Special(although Green Gill Grunt may, we'll wait and see).

Stone Zook and Stone Whirlwind register as Special(but some early versions have an error where they do not from lacking the extra coding).

Yeah that was the bit I was wondering about, because a lot of people would say one or the other as to them counting. As for GGR, I'm waiting to see if he registers in the game before putting all green base figures on the list, though it's safe to say it's a good idea to list them because people will miss that opening note.

Have we seen any proof that the Stone Characters show up as special? Both of mine do not.

Seems to be hit or miss thus far, I've seen two Wii users claim they do appear as special in their copies. Can you try yours out in Universe and see if they don't produce the 'You already registered this kind' message?

Blue Bash and RDS definitely don't count? Has this been definitely confirmed? What about Flocked Stump Smash?

Also, you might as well add the Platinum Treasure Chest to the list of things that DO NOT count in game. This was confirmed by Gamemaster.

PS: Blue Bash is a Toys R Us exclusive, so you don't need the '?'.

PPS: This thread definitely needs to be pinned. Very useful for people.

No Series 1 variant will register as special- AKA:

• Silver Dino-Rang
  
• Silver Eruptor
  
• Silver Boomer
  
• Gold Flameslinger
  
• Gold Drill Sergeant
  
• Gold Chop Chop
  
• Metallic Cynder
  
• Pearl Hex
  
• Blue Bash
  
• Flocked Stump Smash
  
• Chrome Spyro
  
• Walmart Exclusive Red Drill Sergeant
  
• Ice Wham-Shell
  
• Ice Cynder
  
• Ice Stealth Elf
  
• Glow Wrecking Ball
  
• Glow Zap
  
• Glow Warnado

Do NOT register Special;
We only need to know about Green Gill Grunt.

At least we can put together a list now. The Platinum Chest is weird though: I've seen the card via eBay auctions and it is indeed named on his card like the Gold Dragonfire Cannon, but isn't different in the game. Universe definitely won't treat it differently since it has a fixed checklist of unlocks. What about the Battlegrounds game itself though? Do the two chests behave differently in it or not?

EDIT: Hey I can delete my old posts on here to push a topic up. Go me. Anyway I've added a section to this list: "Needs more testing". Right now the Platinum Chest is a little up in the air as it is intended as a uniquely named item from the card, so it's a question of whether this item and the original Chest from the adventure pack behave differently in Battlegrounds.

Gill Grunt and Sonic Boom are pretty explanatory: they're out tomorrow, can't test yet. Sparkle Sprocket and Sonic Boom also just came out, so similar story there. Stone Zook and Whirlwind on the other hand are a tossup. Gamemaster claims Whirlwind isn't registering on any versions, and several people have gotten no results with Zook. Has anyone had any real luck with either one themselves?

I don't own any rock variants, but I heard Zook is the only rock variant that shows up as special. If rock Whirlwind shows up as Special, then it's a case of hearing it not register as special more than I hear it does.

However, if some are reporting that rock Zook doesn't show up as Special to some, then I can breathe a sigh of relief that I don't need to find them with there being a chance of it not showing up as Special in my game.

i can confirm that both stone whirlwind and stone zook show up as special on my ps3 version of giants

I want a stone whirlwind and Stone zook for my collection, however can find one and will not use evil bay.

I'm half wondering if it's not so much the games, but the figures themselves that register as special due to a flag on the chip not being set in early batches.

You think that Scarlet Ninjini and Molten Hot Dog and the other variant will be easy to find or they will be hard to find?

Platinum treasure chest just shows up as Hidden Treasure, at least on the 360 version. No duplicate count.

See that is what I was thinking with all of the glitches that we have, especially in S:SA. They never fixed them, maybe it was because it was due to the programming on the chips that couldn't be fixed with a patch or whatever.

Quote: Kung Fu Man

I'm half wondering if it's not so much the games, but the figures themselves that register as special due to a flag on the chip not being set in early batches.

You are correct. There is a flag being used to identify special / variants of characters stored in the toy.

If the game isn't showing a toy as special it's either because the flag isn't set correctly or the game doesn't recognize it.

Edited the post to reflect that, just a matter of asking when buying on eBay whether or not it'll show up properly it seems.
Still need to get a verdict on the chests, and we'll know about GGR/GITD Boom Friday.

Bumpage time. GITD Sonic Boom does indeed count...Green Gill Runt does not Was really bummed about that one because it is a beautiful toy.

If Green Gill Grunt is made for the original game (green base) then chances are it won't have the special flag set. The flag set is not used in the first game.

I checked my Rock Zook last night which I got Oct. 21st and the "special" flag in the toy is not set.

Quote: tiker

If Green Gill Grunt is made for the original game (green base) then chances are it won't have the special flag set. The flag set is not used in the first game.

I checked my Rock Zook last night which I got Oct. 21st and the "special" flag in the toy is not set.

S:SA ignores the flag so there was a chance that they could have set the flag on green Gillie jut for SG to recognise.

Some Rock Zooks register as special and some do not - my Rock Zook does, for instance.

Green Gill Grunt is a Series 1 Figure. It does not show up as Special in Giants. It does come as level 5 with $2100 Gold.

Quote: chaosworrier

Quote: tiker

If Green Gill Grunt is made for the original game (green base) then chances are it won't have the special flag set. The flag set is not used in the first game.

I checked my Rock Zook last night which I got Oct. 21st and the "special" flag in the toy is not set.

S:SA ignores the flag so there was a chance that they could have set the flag on green Gillie jut for SG to recognise.

Some Rock Zooks register as special and some do not - my Rock Zook does, for instance.

Yep, mine does, too. Same with Whirlwind, Cynder, Flameslinger, Regular Cannon, and GITD Sonic Boom.

Trying to edit the post but apparently there's some forum glitch preventing me from editing large posts right now...I'll get the new info in there once it goes through @.@

Yeah. Ive noticed that one, too.

Quote: Kung Fu Man

-Bronze S2 Flameslinger (US Amazon Exclusive)
-GITD Fight Rider (UK Argos, Australia JB exclusive)
-GITD Cynder (US Wal-Mart, UK GAME exclusive)

Just making a few corrections.

Editing seems to have worked, so I've added the info into the post.

You need to Add Molten Hot Dog to the In-Game Variants.

Bit of a bump, but has anyone as of yet tried adding both Sparkle and GITD Sonic Boom to their Giants/Universe collection to see what happens?

GITD SB shows up as special series 2 Sonic Boom when place on portal and as special Sonic Boom in the menu screen

Strange, I got here to show up as Special on both with no problem. Main curiosity here is whether the game counts both GITD and Sparkle separately or just one of each.

The platinum chest does not behave differently on Battlegrounds. I put the Pirate Chest on the portal first and it gave me all the benefits that the Platinum Chest was supposed to. When I added the Platinum Chest nothing new was added.

I would be willing to bet that GITD Sonic Boom and Sparkle Sonic Boom will both register with the same "Special" identifier.

GITD showed up as special in game, on the 3DS, and on Universe both from the register and on the menus. Fun fact for those though, is that the "Special" characters also have different character icons.



I believe someone also tried the Platinum Chest on the console version, and claimed it appears exactly the same as the Pirate Chest. So that one is just a plain repaint with a different card.

Some say the rock variants appear as special ingame on certain systems, while some claim it doesnt show up at all on the Wii, 360, or PS3 versions. That's why I am never going after them... well, unless I can find them at a reasonable price, which I doubt.

I venture to guess Sparkles (Opalescent) are hit and miss, too.

The Platinum Treasure Chest only shows up ingame and on Spyro's Universe as the Hidden Treasure (from the first game). The only difference - and this is why I posted in my sig I am 101/127 ingame and 102/128 physical - is the actual toy itself, which is a repaint.

GITD Fright Rider, Sonic Boom, and Cynder, as well as the Bronze Flameslinger all show up as Special in the home console and handheld games. They also show up as special and register as a new Skylander in the online game.

I am currently at 81 registered Skylanders in the online game, in part to the Specials that are registerable.

Updated the Platinum Treasure Chest info. Real bummer there that it's the only uniquely named variant that's not, well, unique. Thank you for confirming that folks

Sparkles as of yet seem to be guaranteed, haven't heard any issues with them like the rock/granites.

Some say the rock variants appear as special ingame on certain systems, while some claim it doesnt show up at all on the Wii, 360, or PS3 versions.

Some Stone Whirlies did not get their RFID chip encoded correctly so it is basically 50/50 for them but I do not know of any Stone Zooks with the issue.

My first Stone Whirlie did not come up properly so I simply asked prospective sellers to check their items before I was prepared to purchase - now have a replacement one which does register on its way to me.

I would expect that it was merely an abherration of that specific fig so when my 3 Sparkles arrive, they will hopefully read fine.

Hey, finally an accurate variant list.

Anyway, I have seen that some figures apparently register differently among the different consoles. Some consoles say only "special" while others say "Series 2 Special".

So far, the PS3 has registered the variants as Series 2 Special. I've tried with GITD Sonic Boom & Cynder and Amazon Flameslinger.

Anyway, I have seen that some figures apparently register differently among the different consoles. Some consoles say only "special" while others say "Series 2 Special".

I don't think that is a console variation but a fig variations as most of mine say "Special" but I have at least one which says "Series 2 Special". By memory it is the Stone Zook but I can't remember for sure and I am at work so can't just check straight away.

Sucks that some are hit and miss. That's why I am not personally counting them toward the 127 objects that register in the game. It sucks that people would have to check with whatever buyer, or if they found that lonely 1 in the store only to find out it may or may not show up.

TFB should allow people to get replacement variants, so ALL of them show up as special, thus it would tempt me to get these newest variants and raise up that 127 number, to 132.

So giving this a little bumpage, managed to get a Granite Zook of my own thanks to my wife after she saw it on my eBay (and I'd made sure with the seller that it did indeed show up as 'special' in the game). And lo and behold, it does count as a special character for Skylanders Giants.

...but not for Universe. Trying both the code and the toy itself, it instead counted it as a regular Zook. Anyone else manage to get one to appear properly on Universe?

Quote: Kung Fu Man

-Sparkle Sprocket
-Sparkle Sonic Boom
-Sparkle Hot Head
-Stone Zook**
-Stone Whirlwind**

**Not all Stone Zooks and Whirlwinds will register due to an issue with certain particular ones. Your mileage may vary.

Well, bleah. That's not the answer I wanted to see. I was hoping the Sparkles and Stones fell into the category of chaser-only figures (too rare and random to find reliably so they won't count towards your "true" console figure count).

Guess I can give up on getting a full 'relevant' set of figures unless I want to spent unnecessary money on a few of them. (Although that was probably true as soon as Gnarly Tree Rex appeared ...)

Can't help with your Universe question, unfortunately, since I don't have anything 'rarer' than the standard frequently-on-shelf exclusives (GITD Sonic Boom, etc) or the exclusives that you can find from any Starter Pack.

Gonna bump this with a few still unanswered questions. Well, at least I think they are unanswered. (We really need this thread to be stickied.)

Has anyone tested out the Sparkle variants in Universe yet? Do they count as their own characters like the GITDs and Bronze Flameslinger? They definitely count towards the total in the console games, right?

Also, in both the console games and online game, does GITD Sonic Boom and Sparkle Sonic Boom count as the same Special figure or as seperate ones?

Bumping again with new info. Got Silver Sprocket in the mail and while it registers just fine in Giants...Universe still treats it like a regular Sprocket. Even removing my old Sprocket and trying to add her in results in it adding a Sprocket back into my collection. This pretty obviously seems to be a bug in Universe too, as we do have an image now that shows every character that should register as unique in the game and they're on it. It also gives us an indication on what other chase variants should show up too, so I'll post that also. (Huge thanks to spyroflame and Trexroarr for finding that).

Hmm. Only way I'd go after Giants variants, is if they for sure register as special in both Giants on 360 and Universe. With it seeming to be wishy washy, I don't think I'm gonna lose any sleep over them.

I think I'm over the whole variant thing. My collection still rocks based on the sheer amount of Skylanders I own. Having said that, I relisted my variants again, only seperate this time for 130 a piece with free shipping. Here's hoping they sell.

Chances are GameMaster they're going to fix that eventually in Universe, since they do have icons.

I am with GameMaster on this one. Unless a figure counts as 'special' in game and counts as a seperate figure in Universe, then I am not going to go hunting for it. If I find one in a store (by some miracle), then I will of course buy it. Other than that, I'm not gonna get them.

I'm gonna get all 48 different skylanders. Deciding on getting ones that show up different like granite crusher and that's it. All these specials will leave me more than broke.

I'm trying at the variants this time, might raise the future value of my collection when it comes time to say bye to them..

Thank you for the info! very nice indeed exspecially for a noob to this like me that means i dont need to buy but 2 of the Mobile starters!!! for the royal double troubles. you sir are my new best friend.... untill 2359 Z 19DEC2012

I like royal. A very nice color.

Quote: Matteomax

I'm trying at the variants this time, might raise the future value of my collection when it comes time to say bye to them..

Reminds me of all the people who bought Episode 1 toys back in 1999, looking to cash in like those who bought the old Star Wars toys did.

I never bought Skylanders for the purpose of gaining more than I spent when they become collector's items... IF they become collector's items. I just can't see these being worth much in the long run, as there are simply too many of each character, minus variants.