darkSpyro

Would you be okay with it?

What if instead of being able to physically see the figure from the outside through the clear packaging bubble, what if that part was covered or what if the Skylander itself were in different packaging that didn't have the plastic clear bubble and instead it came in some sort of box with the picture of the figure on the front? On top of the packaging change VV or TFB would have more variants of the characters.

Personally I would love this, variants would become more luck based but fair because your opening the figure not knowing if its going to be a variant or not you just know what character it is. Instead of the fiasco that goes on now, I have personally seen employees hold back glitter variants just for their friends to come buy them for them. I have heard stories of people paying employees to call them when they open a box and find one really a lot of shady stuff goes down with these variants. At the end of the day it would be way less of a drag. Certain collectors might not like it because they can't keep it sealed but I think Skylander fans would love it because you open up the box and you never know if your figure could be that rare variant.

I've heard people mention blind packs before, but I don't think that be great for the series due to the cost per figure, you can't afford to buy something just to end up getting the same figure. What I am suggesting has the same concept of a blind pack but you know what character your buying you just don't know if its normal or variant. Exclusive figures will still say what it is on the box for example Molten Hot Dog, will always have a Molten Hot Dog. However non exclusives will be luck based, so you buy a Zook it could either be a normal Zook or a stone Zook but theres no way of telling from just looking at the box, unless you open it.

i support this. except i want to display my variant in it's box, so.....

I would not like this at all not becuse of the variants but cus I like to try to get the best looking skylander if they have more than one of that one. You know one that does not have paint spots all over its face or a broken part. Plus I dont they they would sell as well (not by much) but little kids like to see the toys they are buying.

I have no desire for variants. I just want the regular figure, so I'd actually be annoyed if I bought a "blind" Whirlwind and wound up with a GitD one.

Quote: DragonsDream

I have no desire for variants. I just want the regular figure, so I'd actually be annoyed if I bought a "blind" Whirlwind and wound up with a GitD one.

Or a "blind" anything that turned out to have a crap paintjob or was not assembled correctly. In fact, the whole "blind" thing would kill the desire to have an "in package" set for collectors.

I do NOT like this idea.

A) You would need to open the package to know which variant you received. I would rather leave a rare variant in the box for display.

If you wanted to collect the rares you would need to buy tons of the figure in order to get lucky and find it, or you would be forced to pay crazy prices on eBay to know which figure you will get. Either way it will cost a lot of money.

It also wouldn't work out well for kids, because they like to see the figure - that's why they use bubble packs. Keep in mind, this is a kids game, the collectors are a very small minority of the people who buy Skylanders. They make variants as a nod to collectors, but the goal is to market to the kids.

Quote: defpally

Quote: DragonsDream

I have no desire for variants. I just want the regular figure, so I'd actually be annoyed if I bought a "blind" Whirlwind and wound up with a GitD one.

Or a "blind" anything that turned out to have a crap paintjob or was not assembled correctly. In fact, the whole "blind" thing would kill the desire to have an "in package" set for collectors.

Exactly. I would HATE this. I'm kinda picky when I am buying figures because I don't want a broken one, or one that is not painted well. And I'm not interested in variants either. I just want the normal figures. Plus, they would lose some money because parents AND collectors would not want to have to buy multiple figures just to try and get the variants they want. You could buy 3 different packages of the same character hoping to get a variant, but chances are they will all be the same exact kind. That's a total waste of money.

i would like this for the reason of store employees holding them for them selves or friends. But at the same time. I love displaying my favorite figures and variants in the package

Although "Mystery" boxes are always cool, regular collectors always end up getting butthurt over them. My dad is a Hot Wheels collector, and you should have saw how much flack the people at the Hot Wheels Convention a few years back gave to this Mattel rep. In doing so, they ended up actually removing the "Mystery Cars" line from the main series and put them into little plastic baggies to look more "kid friendly"

Now, I think that was a good idea being in baggies- in a blister pack, people would often rip open the packaging to see what was in there. I don't doubt for a second if this ever came to the Skylanders series that the same thing would happen.

There's 2 (well...3) alternatives that I think would be much better.
1) They release a special grouping of figures in a small baggie. You get the figure, code and card...its just not in a big blister pack. The bad is sealed and has a heavy coloring on the outside so you can't see what's in there (although obviously you could feel the figure). In that way, one of the characters in the line would have a possible variant color that you could get, but you wouldn't know.

1.5) Going off of that, if they really didn't want people feeling the boxes up, they could sell them in small boxes. Not blisters, but little cardboard boxes. Inside would be a black baggie with the figure, then the code and card in the box. Other companies have done this with special figures (Doctor Who vinyls and the Pokemon Kids lines come to mind) and they've all had at least one special figure in the groups. I've never really heard of any sort of problems with these so I assume they work well. They could sell them at the front of the store (like at a checkout) so people can watch them more closely. The problem with the Mystery Car Hot Wheels and potentially Skylanders is that someone could sneak into the aisle and grab them and open them in right there.

2) The other alternative is to simply stock more of the chase figures in boxes, effectively drowning the market for them. Not necessarily on the level of say GITD Sonic Boom or Red Drilly or anything, but more common than they are now.

The best solution would be to give them away via the Skylanders Universe online game.

Say, the first 500,000 people within a region (NA, EU, AU - whatever. Number can be adjusted) to register, say Hot Head on the online game get entered into a random drawing to get a Glitter Hot Head or such.

yeah, the only way to make the distribution of the chase variants "fair" would be to remove them from stores and use alternate distribution - contests, raffles, give aways and the like. Perhaps as a hidden code inside a regular package for a mail in offer. This of course, would also upset the collectors because they will complain that they aren't being allowed to just buy the ones they want.

The thing is, you aren't entitled to any variant you want. You don't get to complain that you couldn't get one. They are meant to be special - a bonus for random people who happen to acquire them.

There are such raffles, but they're given out on Twitter.

If they were to do this, the best option would be to create a "Collector's Series", with different, more detailed paint jobs for the collectors to obsess over. Then they could have the regular figures for the kids, which after all this is a kids game. It also might shunt some of the scalpers over, at least the intelligent ones and not necessarily the "herp, derp I'm gonna buy everything and put it on Ebay and make $10 each by taking advantage of kids!" scalpers.

I'm fine with some being rare and desirable, even going for astronomical amounts on Ebay. That's what super collecting is all about, finding rare items and building a collection with some real gems. But get that crap out of the main line toys so the kids can get the figures they want to play in the game! They don't care if their Spyro is painted with highlights on his butt cheeks, they just want to play him. As I recall, Macfarlane Toys did that with some of the figures they make, they make a mass version so kids can get them to play with, then make "special" ones more rare.

I'd have to take the example of Disney's vinylmation figures,
some they have where you can get which figure you want,
Others are one of a series that's just in a box so you don't know...

it's possible to do it in a way where you have both,
a regular packaged version for people who are looking for specific figures, and "mystery" packaged ones where the variants "could" be in....

in that way, I would buy a few mystery ones first to try my luck.. then buy individual regular packaged ones later to fill in what I want...

Here is a couple other points on this.... Right now they have the displays set up where you can set the figures on them to see the gameplay of them. With the S2 Variants being "special" that takes the blind packaging out of them. As far as giving them away on Universe problem with that is not everyone plays that. Someone said something about the first 500k people on it getting into a drawing or giveaway. I don't think this would cut down on the scalping of the regular figures or the variants. They would buy as many of the regular figures to get in the drawing and they would still end up on Ebay or where ever.

The only answer I feel to this would be to make more of the variants.

Quote: darkrai848

I would not like this at all not becuse of the variants but cus I like to try to get the best looking skylander if they have more than one of that one. You know one that does not have paint spots all over its face or a broken part. Plus I dont they they would sell as well (not by much) but little kids like to see the toys they are buying.

I am crazy about slight mistakes too.
But people would just open then up anyways.

This would be a step in the wrong direction, instead of making them blind and more difficult to get. How bout individual skus so each fig could be preordered. That would be a better move.

You can preorder them in AUS.

I've collected blind packed items from many line - Gentle Giant bust-ups, Lego mini-figs, Halo & Power Rangers Megabloks figs, etc. It's a pain in the butt, but it's somewhat acceptable pain in the but when it's a $2-$4 item. Doing it for Skylanders, that are a minimum of $10, and you may wind of getting multiples of one "common" figure, may be an incredible burden for some people. What they should introduce is a "collectors club" sort of concept, where you could pay a small membership fee, maybe with a variant as an annual gift, then have variants available for sale or raffle, only to members of the club. Granted, I've seen this done with product lines that aren't available at retail stores (Mattel's MOTU, Gentle Giant Statues) so I don't know if would upset people who just like "the thrill of the hunt".

The best way to make variants fair would simply be to make more of them. Either increase their odds like one per box (1:12), or have more exclusive events (which may cause problems for other countries).
More supply, less demand, less employes and scalpers will be interested in buying them out, more people who genuinely want them will be able to afford/find them.

I would not like them blind-packed (assuming it's marked what character is inside) because I'm very OCD about paint errors and have to look at all the figures before choosing one.
Also the packaging could be unsightly, like the Hot Wheels with a black plastic bubble on cardboard or just a plain box. Seeing the product is more attractive.

If the character itself was random, it wouldn't work well with the price range. Yes most "designer vinyl" blind-boxed toys can be about $7-10 each, but for a game aimed at children that encourages you to have individuals over duplicates, it would be a bad move.

Not to be mean or rude.

But this is a stupid idea. This would be horrible! You'd have no idea what you're buying and like others said, this is aimed towards children. Not collectors. So no one wants this. At all. The end.