Can someone please explain Skylanders to me?

[Nina1]

So, we don't have Skylanders right now. My son has never even brought it up. Until yesterday. He was talking with friends at recess and I guess some of them play this and have asked Santa for more for Christmas. I don't know anything about this, so I am hoping for some advice on what exactly it is, how you play, how to get started and what your overall opinion is of Skylanders. DS is 7. Thank you!

 

[Lorix2]

Well I only know of them now because my nieces have asked for them. They are character figures with special powers that you use with the Portal of Power game for the Wii system and other gaming sytems. The ones packaged in blue are for the original game and the ones in yellow are for the newest version which I belive are called Skylander Giants. You have to read the packaging to se which are compatible. I bought a 3 pack off of amazon for $18.00. They are $8.00 - 14.99 per figure and the game comes with a starter pack of 3 as well. Hope this helps.

 

[pigletto]

Here is a thread from a little while ago that explains them a bit better.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3019081&highlight=skylanders

 

[mieuxmew]

I have 8 year old twins (boy and girl) and since they got Skylanders for Christmas last year they are OBSESSED!! They LOVE the game and all the characters. They wanted the entire collection! We have it for the xBox but it is available on most game platforms. There was a BIG problem last year with the company being able to keep the supply up with the demand. Seems better this year with the Skylanders Giants release.

Last year I had some of those Toys 'R Us gift cards promos they gave with certain purchases and they expired before Christmas, so I used them to buy the Skylanders game for free. That "free" game cost me hundreds$$ in buying characters, etc. There are 30 characters for the first game and they are $8-10 a piece.

The new game has more characters costing $10-15 a piece.

I'm sure your 7 year old will love it. The characters are grouped in elements (air, fire, undead, water, earth, tech, magic, and life). You mostly need at least one from each group. The character is placed on the portal and appears in the game. The character's wins are stored on an RFID chip. The characters can be used on any game system. Just be warned it can get $$$$. Game is a lot of fun, though.