It’s almost time. We are less than a month away from the new Skylanders Trap Team game. That means the information on all of the new characters is ready to flow. Here are the official trailers for all 16 of the Skylander Minis which are playable in Trap Team. Be sure to check all of the Skylander pages for all videos, unboxings, and retail information as we get it. Now, it’s time to meet the Trap Team Skylanders: Minis.
It’s not much of a shock when I tell you: “Guess What? Toys R Us is going to have special ‘Legendary’ variants of Skylanders for Trap Team!” I mean they’ve been selling exclusive Legendary figures for three games now. So not much is changing for the forth Skylanders game Trap Team. However, we are getting a slight twist on the Legendary figure option. This time, Toys R Us will have at least one Legendary Adventure Pack. The Nightmare Express adventure pack will have a Legendary version which comes with a Legendary Blades Skylander.
Last week was Gamescom 2014 and there was a lot of gaming news coming from Cologne Germany. We covered a lot of that news for our sister site GameNutts.com. But the news was flowing for Skylanders as well. First it was announced that Minis would actually be playable in the new Skylanders Trap Team. Plus 8 new minis were announced in addition to the previously existing 8. Now if you never entered those Frito-Lay contests or happen to get any through promotions at Gamestop, don’t worry, you’re not missing out. The 8 original minis will be re-released with red bases for Trap Team. It also looks like the minis will come in two packs, perhaps even two per element, for $13.99 (rumored).
But Walmart has an exclusive “buddy pack” which is Gill Runt packaged with Tidal Wave Gill Grunt. You would pre-order that now, though if you are a collector I would advise against it. Its possible that the only way you then could get Thumpling would be to get him in the mini two-pack, meaning you would be stuck with two Gill Runts. That was the problem last year for the Walmart exclusive triple pack. Buying it ruined your chance to buy other triple packs without getting duplicates. Below are the minis that will be released with Trap Team. Be sure to visit their pages for more information and videos as we have them.
Also coming out of Gamescom was a new Trap Team Poster. This poster is not a complete poster, but it has allowed us a peak an almost all of the new Skylanders. Click on the image to blow it up larger. Be sure to visit our character pages as we will update them as we get information, including what I hope is maybe some more pre-orders on character figures. Right now you can pre-order any of the games through our game page here, Gearshift, and the Gill Grunt/Gill Runt Buddy Pack mentioned above.
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Owners of a Wii or Wii U may want to take note. Activision announced that Skylanders Trap Team Wii will also include a code for a free digital version of Trap Team for the Wii U. Why might this be important? Well, obviously if you have a Wii and plan on upgrading to a Wii U then this version will have you covered. But what if you just have a Wii U? Well, if you don’t mind getting a digital version of the game, this might be a good deal for you. You see, Skylanders Trap Team for the Wii is one of the very last games to be produced for the Wii. So it seems likely that some retailers will clearance or mark down this version of Trap Team before the more popular newer versions including the Wii U version. So Wii U owners who may not want to buy a copy on day one, or if you are like me and have kids and multiple systems where the Wii U version isn’t your first version of choice, you can just wait and watch for the Wii version to go on sale or clearance. I usually try picking up a Wii U version cheap so that the kids can play Swap Force while I play something else on the Xbox or PlayStation. So patient deal seekers be aware that the Wii version of Skylanders Trap Team, could be your ticket to a cheap digital version of the game for your Wii U. You can read the original Activision post here.
At the recent San Diego Comic-Con 2014 event, an exclusive #0 edition of the new Skylanders Comic was given out. The new Skylanders comic series will debut in October written by Ron Martz with art from Mike Bowden and David Baldeon. Ron Martz was one of the writers on Swap Force the game. The comic will be published by IDW and sold both digitally and in comic stores and other major retailers. It will be part of IDWs successful Micro Comic Fun Packs line-up. You can find the +0 issue digitally through IDW’s website, and even sign up for a digital subscription. If you want a paper copy of #0 you will have to pay the Ebay premium.
Activision recently announced that a new type of collectable Skylander will be available. These figures are going to be in extremely limited quantities and sold through GameStop in the US and Canada. There will be eight characters in total, and each one will be an original from Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure. The first two are going to be Elite Spyro and Elite Chop Chop. The figures are going to be in the same poses as the old figures. 
However, each will be on a gold metallic base and will come in a display case with a 3D background image. An Australian GameStop Website had them listed at 29.95 Australian Dollars with a release date being the same as the new Trap Team. So these will not be cheap characters. You might be saying, “Why would I want to buy an old character of which I already have several different posed variants, just for a gold base and a fancy 3D backed plastic case?” Well, there is only one other thing the new characters offer. Each Eon’s Elite member will be up to three times more powerful than it’s original character. So if the game wasn’t easy enough for you, now you can really breeze your way through it. If you 
don’t have a huge collection and do have trouble because you don’t have that many characters to swap with, then these may be a bigger draw to you. But these characters are clearly just a new marketing ploy by Activision to get us collectors to spend even more money buying a character we already have bought several times before. I’m torn right now on whether I want to buy these or not. What do you think? Do you plan on buying these collector’s items, or letting them sit for someone else with more disposable income than you?
I got a surprise e-mail from Toys R Us this morning. Apparently they have limited quantities of Quick Draw Rattle Shake available now in store only. The character doesn’t even show up online. So you may want to call or stop by your local store. Quick Draw Rattle Shake was previously only available by winning the Frito-Lay Skylander Contest back in November of 2013. That’s how we got ours, but if you are still looking for him and don’t want to pay the outrageous e-bay prices. Now would be the time to pick him up!
It looks like Skylanders will be getting another Dark Edition Starter Pack with Skylanders Trap Team. This time though, it’s not going to be limited to just GameStop. You should be able to find this at your favorite retailer. The Dark Edition will again come with black and silver colored “Dark” versions of characters. Just like the regular starter pack, the Dark Edition will come with Food Fight and Snap Shot. However, these will be the “Dark” versions of the characters. The pack will also still include the Life Trap and the Water Trap, which do not have a dark affiliation from what I can tell. However, the Dark Edition will also include Dark Wildfire and the trap that everyone will want…The Ultimate Kaos trap. The Dark Edition will retail for $99.99 but because it’s not exclusive to GameStop, you can pick it up where ever you get the best deal.
One of my goals with this website is to give people information on how to get more with their money. Saving money and buying things at the cheapest possible point is important to me and a lot of other people. When I first heard of Best Buy’s Gamer’s Club Unlocked, I thought it was a little much. It was originally $120 for two years of benefits. But then I was grandfathered into it for a year based on previously being an @Gamer magazine subscriber. The magazine has gone away, but in it’s wake, I’ve been enjoying plenty of 20% discounts. Enough that I was able to pick up an additional two year subscription for a discounted price. Since it’s inception Best Buy has now dropped the price of a membership to $30. It’s value to you depends on the type of gamer and Skylander collector you are. If you buy a lot of new games or pre-orders then it’s almost a no-brainer. I’ve seen people pre-order over a dozen games at a time at GameStop, paying $5 each. $600 to $800 is ridiculous to spend on new games at one time to me. We’re talking all the big holiday games. But if that’s what you want to do, then why on earth would you not save 20%? For 10 new games at regular price of $600, you would save $120 or $90 if you had to pay the $30 subscription price. It only takes three full price game purchases in 2 years to make the membership worth it.
It seems like I am often surprised by Toys R Us weekly adds which seem to often contain a brand new released Skylander Figure. This week it happened again. Jade Fire Kraken available now at your local Toys R Us or via the website. I would call before you go though as only one of the stores in my area actually had the figure in stock. Toys R Us is also running a little sale on the new figure. If you buy Jade Fire Kraken, then you can get any other one regularly priced Skylander figure for 50% off. The website state restrictions apply but listed over 130 eligible figures, so other than figures that are on clearance, I’m not sure what other figures are excluded. We picked ours up today and I believe that was the last named Swap Force figure we needed? Time to start saving up for Trap Team!
Update: Also found out that Jade Fire Kraken is also out at Best Buy
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