Welcome to Skylands!

Thinking about Skylanders has always made me smile. Last Spring, I began my collection after attending the opening day celebration of the Downtown SF's Microsoft Store. Because I had won a $25 gift certificate and they had 20  percent off grand opening promotion, I knew what I wanted! New Xbox 360 games!  I really didn't know which games I wanted exactly. . Something filled with adventure and treasure hunting was a must. The Microsoft Store employees sold me on Skylanders Giants! They played the game themselves so I picked a few characters I thought looked cool plus the game starter pack. It was such a great deal on the set!

Of course to my brother's credit, he told me about the first series,  Spyro's Adventures. 

Spyro is one cool dragon! Since dragons are one of my favorite mystical creatures I was already interested.  Especially when I found out my other favorite mystical creature, unicorns, are also in Skylands! Whirlwind is pretty cool! He even told me about Gamestop employee exclusive figures!! LUCKY! My brother also explained to me how the system worked. There were many characters from various elements needed to unlock doors to treasure.  There were various versions of each character. Legendary Skylanders were rare exclusive ultra powered types. There were also seasonal holiday themed Skylanders that were limited edition specials as well as store exclusives found only at Toys R Us, Walmart, Target and Game Stop.  

Whirlwind: Part Unicorn part Dragon!

  

 

Legendary Trigger Happy  

Springtime Trigger Happy (Swap Force - Seasonal)

I continued to visit the Microsoft Store to buy more Skylanders. Every time employees saw my face they would disapear quickly into the back to bring me a selection not on the shelves. Once I collected all the characters I thought were cool from the Microsoft Store, I told myself, "Ok I'm done! This is how my collection looked last Spring! You will see what it looks like now at the end of this post!

One of my online gamer friends in Norway showed me a picture of his collection on Facebook. He had every single Skylander both normal, rare and legendary types!  I was shocked how much he invested into his collection because there is no Toys R Us  Norway! He relied heavily on inflated eBay prices and high international shipping to obtain his collection. He said his collection was well over 2k U.S. Dollars! YIKES! ! That's dedication!

Ket's 2013 collection

It was not until August 2013 that I met a boy in a new school I worked at with a Skylanders shirt and shoes! I yelled from across the playground, "Look it's Eruptor!! His jaw dropped and he ran over to me. He said "How you know this is?" Once I told him I owned Eruptor he told me each and every new Skylanders he owned! He said his legendary bouncer was his best one. I was really happy with my Tree Rex but he said there was a special one coming soon. When I bought Gnarly Tree Rex I couldn't wait to tell him. He laughed when I was cheering about the other new additions to my collection.  He high fived me for finally finding Ninjini ... well my brother did! She is a ninja/genie with two katanas...we both said, "That's so cool!" He said I should have done the pre order for Scarlett Ninjini because she was "so so so so so strong!"  

During our classroom circles many of the children without Skylanders would ask to see videos of the characters personalities. The cartoons shorts were really funny. When Swap Force was released, I told the boy I wasn't interested. ..but then he told me about how you can swap the parts of the swappable friends making 256 combos!

The boy mentioned to me how he would dress as Spyro for Halloween. Since there were two versions I showed him on my tablet to verify which Spyro he would choose. He choose the outfit that was fully covered so he could Ram Charge.like Spyro. He giggled when he mentioned  how funny the pink on the costume was. He said it wasn't too much but even if Spyro was all pink he would still like it! (While this Spyro appears purple, he said it looked more pink in person!)

During Black Thursday, Skylanders Swap Force was marked down from 75.00 to 35.00, so I finally decided to invest in Skylanders again. I bought the Swap Force starter pack and multiple Skylanders for 40 percent off. Another great deal! This is how my swap force yet looked back in November.

As the boy and I continued to compare our Skylanders each time I arrived at his school, our conversations were so high energy I forgot I was a teacher. Rather than remind the children to rest during nap time, the boy and I told stories of  the Skylands with the star night light nd flashlights on. Some children contributed to our stories with the knowledge they carried of Skylanders.  Others listened intently to find out what happened to Kaos the bad boy. They had trouble deciding if he was a big kid or a little big kid because he was so short, bald and always needed his mom's help to stop the Skylanders!

Kaos and his Mommy

All of January, I was assigned to another school. When I returned in February to my fellow Skylander's school,  I came into the room with my Eruptor plush keychain. The boy stared at it before looking up at me. I patted him on the head and saying, "Hey you Skylander!" He nodded and then poked me hard. He stomped his foot and said, "Hey! Where were you??" I laughed and said the other school down the street! He laughed and asked if any kids were Skylanders fans. I told him a bunch! I asked him if he was still my Skylander friend and he said yes! He took his strategy guide from his cubby and showed me all of his Skylanders. He pointed to two he did not have. Scratch,  Fire Bone Hot Dog  and Stink Bomb. It took me tons of camping Toys R Us, Target and Wal-Mart to find them! The store employees in the video game section would cheer me on and give me search tips for those three if they saw them in other stores around town. I ended up finding Fire Bone Hot Dog and Scratch at Walmart and picked up the last Stink Bomb at Target. He is awesome! A Ninja Skunk!!  What more could one ask for? Stealth and Funk ability. That's awesome!

Fire Bone Hot Dog

Scratch

Stink Bomb

While the boy was amazed I found Scratch, . .yes that was the last one in stock also! He asked me if he could use my phone to call his parents so they could put it in his Easter basket. Scratch really is the ultimate cat warrior griffin. Seriously, this game has the characters with the coolest personalities! Here are some items I found at Target and Toys R Us showing how children could have a very Skylander/Pop Culture filled Easter!

An update to traditional Easter Baskets

For those of you who are wondering why I did not include Disney Infinity - it was released after the clear success of Skylanders Giants launched. The only reason I would buy a figure is if the planned Captain EO figure is actually released.  I don't want the game only the Captain EO figure! I have noticed that children who do not have Skylanders have Disney Infinity because their parents play/love Disney and even a few have both. My Pre K Skylander friend's father figured out I was the teacher his son always talked to about Skylanders. His father was upset because he had spent so much money on his son's collection. I did ask him to work on building and creating new stories with the characters. That did very well because now his Skylanders have a new life and purpose outside of game play. Video games create a space for children to build stories from their own experiences with the journeys they experience through game character's lives. Whether the experience is comical or tragic, children are learning what it means to live with choices they make, whether good or bad and draw strength and courage to make the right decision that places them one step closer to who they want to become.