Legendary Zoo Lou

On Sunday, Toys R Us started their slow leak of new Skylanders. This weeks release: Legendary Zoo Lou. Instead of a white "panda," he is a black "panda." Or as Jonev calls him, Blue Zoo Lou. He does have a blue tint but it is like a car paint. Depending on the light it can look blue or black.
Interesting to note that his wand or whatever that thing is in his hand is really gold on the figure. All the artwork we had seen showed it as the dark color. The package show the dark color wand and even Skylanders.com shows the dark color. What's up with that?

We picked him up yesterday along with another new Skylander (that shall remain nameless until December 25th).

I think we should have time to play with him tomorrow and check out if the animals he call are still green. I hope not. That would be awesome if they are gold are black.

Next week the schedule shows that Legendary Night Shift will be released. Of course that will be another purchase. We have a spreadsheet of all the figures and which of the kids get to call each "his or hers" or is it Dads or the entire family. I know... quite nerdy and organized. It truly cuts down on the fighting. So on that spreadsheet, no one claimed Legendary Night Shift. Should be interesting deciding...

How many variants do you have? Which ones? Do you like having to get variants? Do you hate TRU for making them so appealing?
Which variants are left to be released... Enchanted Star Strike, Nitro Freeze Blade and all those that got released on the German site... soccer, spring, jolly, etc...

Wave 2 and Weekend deals

This last week WSD and WSM celebrated a wedding anniversary. Gifts were exchanged and cheesecake was partaken. These kids have the best mom. She bought Lightcore Star Strike for WSD. Then Dad snuck in another Skylander to use the 40% off purchase special happening at Toys R Us (using his lunch money for the week). Lightcore Smolderdash is now part of the collection. Both girl Skylanders. What is up with that? Mom was going to buy WSD 2 shirts as a gift... He asked for a shirt and a Skylander.
Also Grilla Drilla joined the fray on Friday night.

Today is Thing 2's Birthday- he is the big ocho. That is ESPN the Ocho (8) for you gringos. This morning he unwrapped a regular Magna Charge and probably will unwrap another Skylander before the sun goes down, wink, wink.

While at Toys R Us on Saturday for a Lego event. We saw all the Wave 2 Skylanders on the shelf. The boys were going out of their collective minds. A really odd thing about the store is that they placed the Lego event in the Swap Force section. There was barely any room to move with out stepping a little kid filling a bag with lego pieces.
One question kept coming to mind is, "Where are the triple packs?" I want to save a few dollars and get them all at once. I think we will see them show up soon when other stores start selling Wave 2.

GhostRoaster has a nice write up on the Wave 2 release.

SWAP Force Launch: What's the plan?

Saturday nights at our house usually end later than most nights. This Saturday will be no exception, except it will be really late. The "old" Toys R Us, as the kids call it, will be having a midnight launch of Skylanders Swap Force. There may be one near you- check out the list.

I plan to be there to snag the exclusive guys that are only at TRU. You are a true Skylander fan and already know but just in case a newbie happens to read this, here they are:

Legendary Free Ranger	Legendary Light Core Grim Creeper (that guy has a lot of names, must be a nephew of mine)

 

After TRU, there are 4 Walmarts before I get home and I will go to each one if I have to. I'll be looking for Enchanted Hoot Loop. Of course I will be very tired and I hope the first one will be a winner.

Enchanted Hoot Loop

Soon after I plan to pick up Nitro Magna Charge with Rattle Shake at Target. Oh and I can't forget about the Dark Edition at Gamestop.

The Skylander fan community is great. There are so many dedicated fans. One of my favorites to follow is portalflip.com. Portalflip created a Launch Day Survival Guide.  It has all you could need to remember, take, use and plan for launch day... err night.

What is your plan? Where are you going first? TRU? Walmart? What character are excited to get, then play?

Just over 48 hours from now...

Tweet for a chance to win a SWAP Force Starter Pack

The official @SkylandersGame twitter account is hosting a contest as part of SWAPtober or more rightly stated as #SWAPtober.
Everyday you can submit your favorite new SWAP combination, catchphrase of that new swap and included the hash tags #SWAPtober and #skylanders.

For the full rules be sure to checkout bit.ly/GzGcOP

Only one entry per day but I guess you can submit lots of swaps per day. Many people are.

Here is an example we did yesterday.

Today's SWAP of choice: Night Blade "Hit and Run" #SWAPtober #skylanders
— skylander family (@skylanderfam) October 6, 2013

Keep is simple and have fun.

Wal-Mart Pre-Order issues

Today I went to check on an order I had with Wal-Mart, then decided to check the SWAP Force selections. I was blown away with the price increase for Enchanted Hoot Loop and the Magic Three Pack. This is of course an error by the store but it doesn't make me want to pre-order at this moment. Hopefully they correct it soon.

 

I plan on being at a Wal-Mart at midnight October 13th maybe the in-store Hoot Loop will cost less. ;)

 

I did double check any settings that may have caused the currency to change. I didn't find anything. Notice that the Wii Starter Pack has the proper price...? Weird.

 

The Ones That Didn't Make It

Forgotten ones. Castaways. Outcasts. Exiles. Refugees. Shunned. Not picked to play the game.

Whatever you call them there are a few Skylanders that didn't make the cut and didn't make it into Skylanders Swap Force. Here they are in no particular order. Photos below are from our collection of Skylanders figures.

1. Slam Bam
2. Wrecking Ball
3. Zap
4. Shroomboom
5. Lightening Rod
6. Sonic Boom
7. Zook
8. Stumpsmash
9. Hex
10. Fright Rider
11. Drobot :(
12. Drill Sargent
13. Double Trouble
14. Ignitor
15. Flameslinger
16. Bash (never found him in a store)   :(

Wrecking Ball	Double Trouble	Slam Bam	Zap
Lightening Rod	Sonic Boom	Ignitor	Flameslinger
Hex	Fright Rider	Drobot	Drill Sargent
Zook	Stumpsmash	Shroomboom	Bash

Shroomboom and Fright Rider are special disappointments as they were only Series 1 guys, new to Giants, and they didn't make the cut. Well, if there is any silver lining for these figures it is that there are some Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure Series 1 figures that are coming back for Swap Force. Namely Warnado, Camo and Whamshell. 

But to these guys... See you later. Maybe we'll play you later after the swapping excitement wears off. 

The more real Swap Force Poster

Dune Bug, Scratch, Wind-Up and Punk Shock, along with the entire range of Skylanders: Swap Force characters have been revealed today thanks to a new poster found by supernicmax. Reshared from GhostRoaster.com

Holy Bananas! Camo is back!!! Or should I say Holy Watermelons!

Swap Force Characters [Updated]

Ok so this information has been out for a while but I have been sitting on this post waiting for one more Life element to be revealed. It still might show up but I don't see other people talking about it. I heard Skylander Dad mention it once in a video.
Sources:
GhostRoaster.com
DarkSpyro.net

16 Swappers

1. Wash Buckler
2. Magna Charge
3. Stink Bomb
4. Night Shift
5. Blast Zone
6. Freeze Blade
7. Spy Rise
8. Hoot Loop
9. Free Ranger
10. Rattle Shake
11. Trap Shadow
12. Doom Stone