The Confusing Complexity of Skylanders Portals

[@Mikeonut]

Hi everyone, quick correction, turns out the XBOX One and 360 have two different portals entirely, and are not interchangeable. This means there is an additional portal for every xbox one skylanders release, meaning there are 3 additional portals or so. The XBOX one portals are interchangeable with the Series consoles. Sorry I didn't catch this before, I don't own an xbox.

[@julianbello8376]

Huh, I wonder if you comenting pushed the video since this comment was made 3min ago

[@Mikeonut]

@@julianbello8376 I doubt it. It’s just been gaining traction recently, and because of that people just pointed out the error more, so I made an official statement.

[@wobblewokgaming655]

I learned this the hard way.

[@Zora_Fox]

WHY, why has everyone forgotten about that the first game "Spyros Adventure" was actually also released for PC, i really hate that is was the only game of the series for PC. It had a wired portal, likely the same as the XBox Portal.

[@marktheredlightning2829]

The superchargers portal probably doesnt work on trap team because of the voicelines thingy from the original traptanium portal, like when the villains talk through the portal Idk how to describe it

[@thisisasupersayin376]

Hey Mike, it's canon that the Skylanders characters were actually, physically transported to our world in the form of plastic figurines, right? Does that mean Activision just has both a menagerie of interdimensional refugees, and the technology to send them home, but is choosing to make profit by selling the privlige of sending them home to random kids, and that's just actual Skylanders lore? Am I getting this right?

[@jakejohnson718]

Yes. And that also means that by them stopping making games for skylanders, skylands is doomed

[@andrew_the_artist]

Never thought Skylanders would have the darkest lore I've seen.

[@SnaksiXD]

Yes. Activision found these characters somewhere in their frozen state and put these heroes from anohter world trapped within their own bodies, up for sale to CHILDREN in stores worldwide. That is the lore.

[@iamnotanalien2267]

This means the slam bam in my room has been subjected to psychological torture everytime I nut? Note to self:wipe slam bams data

[@grumpreviews5590]

Yes. Skylanders is a commentary against capitalism

[@mushroom4466]

I personally think the Trap Team portal is the coolest one, just for how rad it looks. It even has a speaker in the little cage part so you can hear nice little random banter from the villains you trap! That kind of stuff just oozes personality.

[@PikachuGamerSMT]

It also works on all the games

[@flamzo9074]

The superchargers portal got slept on by the devs. It could've been amazing. But they just got lazy and made it blue

[@spudmunch5187]

I agree but say rad again and youll fucking die

[@baylen8695]

scott the woz ooze

[@nicholasjohnston1970]

Well they also have hundreds of clones of them

[@doabuilder]

the reason the rift portal doesnt work with trap team is because trap team required a speaker on the portal so you can hear the villains trapped in the traps, which the rift portal did not have.

[@setLillie]

Yeah, that's what I thought

[@aperturemax3651]

It works, it changes the elemental attack of the car

[@doabuilder]

@@aperturemax3651 huh?

[@aperturemax3651]

@@doabuilder if you use a fire elemental car, but put in a water crystal it will change the attack of the car from fiery to watery

[@moumdoh]

and hear kaos speak through it in chapter 18

[@sam4gaming135]

3:35 I can confirm that the 3DS portal does work on Wii U, however it wouldn't fully load the skylander rather constantly flicker the intro sequence, although take note that I was doing this with a 3rd party charger and was Playing Imaginators/Superchargers

[@sam4gaming135]

Although the fact that the games accept the portal in the first place highly suggests that its compatible

[@ToastNova]

you can use a Pro Controller charger lol

[@BoomBringer]

I can confirm the SSA, Giants, and Trap Team 3ds versions on the portal work on pc, ps3, ps4, wii and wii u. They work just fine and load characters on the console releases without any issues, heck I even played though superchargers on the ps4 with a giants 3ds portal just for the goofs

[@HitTheFloor16]

Something about imaginators, I was little and skylander boy & girl were still a thing and I legit thought they kidnapped a guy at activision and that's how the game was made

[@enmadaniaisabel1552]

​@@BoomBringer HOW DO YOU DO THAT? OwO

[@failinhearts354]

To add some extra clarification based on what I've been able to learn. Old Portals from SSA and Giants can still scan Swap Force Skylanders, you can try through SuperChargers and Imaginators. The reason why Activision insisted on that Arch Portal for Swap Force was basically because of multiplayer. Original Rune Portals aren't really restricted by the type of toys they scan but moreso they have a hard cap on how many toys the Portal can scan at once: Three toys at a time. Because a Swapper's top and bottom means it counts as two toys, if you and a buddy say... placed two Swappers and a Magic Item on a Portal, that's effectively 5 toys. Something way beyond what a Rune Portal can accept. So Arch Portals and beyond were engineered to handle at least 7 toys. Since the maximum combination of toys read on a Portal in Skylanders would be in SuperChargers with two Swappers, one vehicle, a Trap power up and a Racing Trophy. You try doing that on an Rune Portal in SuperChargers and the game would deny you.

[@emileveilleux4605]

Ok so you can use giant portal for swap force right?

[@failinhearts354]

@Émile Veilleux Not for the game Swap Force, that put a restriction on what Portal to use. What I'm saying is Swap Force figures can be scanned on Giants Portals, but in SuperChargers and Imaginators only.

[@DroBoww]

Trap team portal works with every game, thats the one you wanna use. Superchargers work with all except trap team as it doesn’t have a built in speaker for the villains. Imaginators, swap force, giants and spyros adventure portals only work on those 4 games, they will not work on superchargers or trap team.

[@DragoSmash]

actually, all portals can support a lot more than that, i don't remember if it's 32 or 64 figures but the way the portal addresses them as they come in can go up to that number

[@underdrow5572]

​@@DroBoww​Imaginators and Swap Force Portals will work with Spyro's Adventure, Giants, Swap Force, Imaginators, and (failinhearts354 is correct) Superchargers Giants and Spyro's Adventure portals work with those previously listed games, minus Swap Force

[@Kalfuyama]

it's always nice to see non-skylanders content creators dive into skylanders content, thanks!

[@saramariayepez3203]

Que haces aquí kalfuyama

[@ibill4647]

ye

[@criminalityMinion]

Yeah

[@AgenteJereJuega]

Kalfuyama???

[@MysteryTheEmsm]

Bro really had to flex his Snowderdash on us 😭

[@Puffsley-]

You forgot to mention that if you use a supercharger portal in imaginators and put a trap in, you get 500 gold. Same with the extra items like the dragonfire cannon

[@Multislacker_]

I don't care about the spring-trap Skylander I care about the Cleveland Cleveland Brown Skylander

[@chowcowgamer5834]

The fact I found another toontown fan here talking about the best character in the series/hj

[@XanderIsALoser]

did i just stumble upon other toontown fans? oh my god they’re real

[@foreignracer4168]

Man i thought he meant Cleveland Brown from family guy

[@chowcowgamer5834]

@@foreignracer4168 he did

[@Felonious_monk]

Fr

[@Amphian2005]

As a kid I stole my mother's lipstick and painted on the figures, especially the swap force ones to inact my childhood need for toy blood.

[@SonicWorld100]

I literally did the thing 10 year old me thinking it was paint 💀💀💀 It was nail polish 💀💀💀💀

[@foxxonaut]

random fun fact: you forgot to mention the portal from the Spyros Adventure PC Version! it looks like a classic SSA portal, but came with a wire and USB plug. It also says “for PC” on the bottom. Don’t know if it works with any other consoles as I got all my other skylanders games on Xbox :)

[@Blade2145]

There was one thing I remember a friend of mine showed me back when Trap Team was out; apparently as long as one portal of power was plugged in, while two (older) portals are touching, the unplugged portal (somehow) didnt need to be plugged in to work. It confused the living hell outta me...

[@Hyper_Drud]

Magnets? Electromagnetic signals?

[@HatofMemes]

@@Hyper_Drud quasi connectivity. if you're confused another guy made a comment about it go look for it

[@Physi0ninja]

I have heard that you can use the SSA portal in imaginators and can even scan in Swap force Skylanders perfectly fine.

[@speedrunner1763]

The ssa and giants portals can read swap force figures but they can only read a max of 4 figures at a time. Swap force skylanders count as 2 figures bc of the top and bottom. So 2 swap force characters and a magic item would be 5 figures which is too much for the ssa and giants portals which is why they made a new portal for ssf. But the ssa and giants portals technically still can read swap force characters as long as you don’t go over the 4 figure limit.

[@vjpearce]

1:55 There was also a PC Portal of Power. It was wired and was compatible with PC, PS3, PS4, Wii, WiiU and PS5 when playing the PS4 disc on it. It saved me so many headaches.

[@DaveMan1K]

I live in the UK, and my copy of Imaginators came with the Swap Force portal.

[@CosmicsVoids]

Xbox Skylander gamer here, and what you said about the Xbox portals pretty much sums up. It sucks having to switch portals all the time, but if you have the Traptanium Portal, it's compatible for every game. Obviously for the games with no traps in them the actual trap slot won't function, but other than that its a really cool, very compatible Xbox portal. If you are an Xbox gamer looking to get into Skylanders, buy Trap Team first for the portal.

[@Newtid]

i have a huge tub of skylanders under my bed waiting to see the light of day i would kill for a new skylanders game. i would 100% buy it for nostalgia

[@Shrock568]

Skylanders comes on most platforms, so knock yourself out!

[@Danblak08]

Allegedly we’re getting remakes of Spyro adventure, giants, and swap force so that’s something

[@Cosmic76Guardian]

​@@Danblak08I'm also thinking my mind if we can ability to play all 6 Skylanders games digitally on latest gen consoles (plus PC for Steam) and digitally play as any Skylanders (similar to Disney Infinity Gold Edition on Steam). If so, I'm thinking I will call it Skylanders (The) Portal Master Collection for PS4/5, Xbox One/Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and Steam.

[@lemonosis]

They gave us the crash bandicoot remastered trilogy, then they gave us the spyro remastered trilogy, its only a matter of time, and i cannot wait

[@bob-lq3ph]

when i saw at 9:57 the portal and thought no that can't be true. i got one of my many left overs imaginators portals and made it open with a schrew driver. I am anstonished.

[@naidrinskyconfederation6363]

0:23 HE'S JUST LIKE ME FRR

[@moltenlavacore]

Ok couple things I'd like to add as a fellow Skylanders fanatic: (disclaimer, I loved this video and appreciate seeing high-quality informative Skylanders content these days when misinformation around the series so prevalent): On top of all of this portal BS, Xbox portals still got their own portals, one exclusive version for the 360 versions and the One versions when they came out, you probably already knew that tho lol The devs totally didn't give up when it comes to Imaginators. In fact they worked harder on that game than they did on any other game, scrambling to re-use assets and engines in order to have a complete and finished game by the extremely early due date. Also, Trap Team is picky about its portal and couldn't use the superchargers one because of the speaker; activision couldn't send out an update to ignore if the portal had a speaker either because the Wii version of trap team couldn't be updated

[@pikacat09]

I had a thing that allowed you to pit the portal in, and have several skylanders on it. it came with a remote that let you choose what skylander you wanted, based on where they were placed. Real useful.

[@Limeskin]

I had no idea I just needed a trap team portal to play all of it's predecessors. This is actually great news for me.

[@kijjin9893]

Wait for real ? Cuz im buying the games again and I don’t wanna spend any more than I have to due to some sellers overpricing some Skylanders. Does the trap portal with with every game with no problem? Or just a handful, any info is appreciated !

[@underdrow5572]

​@@kijjin9893 The Trap Team Portal is the only portal that works with every game, so its also the most sought-after one

[@SaddieMoon]

5:56 Fun fact, the 3DS Giants and Spyro’s Adventure portals can also scan in Swap Force figures. It probably just takes longer than the Swap Force portal.

[@AwesomeDrawer2017]

Portal Lore:

[@Goofy-goober72]

In the imaginotors rift engine portal, if you take off the thing covering the trap hole it still works, so there was no reason to put a thing over it

[@JayDee3779]

I have the 3DS Spyro’s adventure portal with the mini USB port in. And it did work with PC for the Skylanders universe online game since I used to play that all the time in 2011-12. And it worked with the Wii, too. (Idk about PS3 since I never had one of those growing up). But when I plug my 3DS portal into the Wii, my Wii portal stopped working. I don’t know if it’s the console or me plugging in a second portal confused it. But strangely, the USB receiver and the Wii portal stopped trying to connect to each other. This was before Giants came out so my brother & I had to make do with the 3DS portal until we got the next game. That portal got very cramped when it came to co-op. It was not made for it. Good Times.

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

Giants and the PVP was/is some of the most fun I've had when playing a game with friends. Drobot, Stealth Elf and Double trouble were insane!

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

Great video my dude!

[@SaddieMoon]

What’s most impressive is how the portals are so powerful, that if you put an unplugged one next to the portal you’re using, the game would react still if you put a Skylander on said unplugged portal. Since it’s within the active portal’s radius.

[@derbaum8761]

5:00 My Favorite Mobiel is Lost island too, we are meant for each other

[@starcoreonline5592]

I forget where I heard and saw this from, but I believe a variant of the giants portal has a sort of quasi connectivity where if it's pressed up against a portal currently being used, it also gets connected and is available for use despite not being plugged in or connected to anything wirelessly.

[@hydrusalphy4654]

Likely true. As someone who experimented a lot with her portal as a kid, I can confirm Skylanders figures also get read if you press them up against the *side* of the portal (referring to the portals from the first two games here). So if you press the sides of two portals next to each other, then put a figure on one of them, the other portal can likely read the figure that way.

[@greninjaguy5264]

I really like the sleekness, portability, and the usefulness of the wireless I pad trap team portal. Never played a game past giants but I can really admire the look and quality of it. Shame they never made more portals like that and that companies aren't doing stuff like that.

[@machincort]

9:00 in trap team the portal must speak and the superchargers one can not do that

[@yaboy528]

I remember when I was little, I would go to Toys R Us and there would be walls of skylanders 😢

[@256-j6l]

The true portal master is the person who owns every single Skylanders portal

[@PenguinBoi27]

Oh my god seeing anything from Englanders was such a blast from the past, these games were my childhood lol

[@Glamikuns]

Yo my brother loved skylanders, happy to see people still talk about it lmao 😅

[@ibill4647]

ikr

[@zizi4941]

When we moved with my brother, we only took the Traptinium Portal with us out of our other portals as it's compatible with all games.

[@TheFurry]

I will mention this every time I can, but I am in the credits for the original Skylanders for the 3DS. I was one of the original play testers, as I was young at the time, and lived near the company. Did you know that originally you had three characters to select from in every level instead of two for the final release?

[@SaddieMoon]

I think Trap Team should’ve had a trap holder figure that you put on the portal. You put a trap in a trap holder, and then put it on the base. Allowing the same functionality except for voices coming out.

[@TheBrotherHolmes]

I wish there was a phone app that used your phone's NFC to back up your characters and maybe act as characters that you can't find.

[@tumage8592]

3:04 Id object, wired is not objectively bad

[@cadence4527]

My supercharger portal worked on trap team. It just doesn’t have the speaker so you don’t get to hear what the villains are saying.

[@SorielHDTBers]

The reason the Superchargers portal doesn’t work with Trap Team is because it doesn’t have the speaker.

[@Lucky_9705]

The original wireless portals for the Wii were prone to breaking and getting interfered by external signals (Bluetooth, Routers, etc.). I remember getting Spyro’s Adventure for the Wii back in Christmas, 2011. The portal eventually broke and I would get constant error messages for the Skylanders that I placed on the portal. To compensate, I ended up getting a new portal from Activision and it ended up working much better.

[@Hyper_Drud]

Not to mention if you buy it used you run the risk of the seller not having the wireless dongle. Happened to me, good thing the giants portal worked for the first game.

[@teenzset8827]

I used the Wii portal for Spyros adventures for 4 years, I never once changed those baterries.

[@dogemaster9676]

3:00 wirelesscels when they have to buy batteries vs cordchads plugging things in

[@clyne8835]

I remember that online game actually! The wii portal came with a tiny usb that could be plugged into your computer to use the game. I don't remember how the portal factored in though. I think the usb held save data while you plugged the portal in separately to use the skylanders toys. I could be wrong though, I'm going off of fuzzy childhood memories here

[@jeremycole617]

I remember well. The USB allowed the Portal to connect to console or PC, and that's all. It basically cut the cord. As far as the web game goes, you could use the portal to add your figures instead of punching in the code, as well as updating the Hero Level on the figure in the case of SSA. You could even use that to swap on the fly instead of going into the menu. I haven't seen anything about the site being preserved. Big shame. I'd love to try going through it again--especially to finally raise that Hero Level on SSA!

[@zazelrpg9413]

9:03 i think it doesnt work because the supercharger portal d ont has any speakers

[@NewerGrounds]

YOU HAVE SNOWDERDASH?!?!

[@SaddieMoon]

11:29 Funny. A while ago I found a Spring Trap Skylander custom.

[@alexskocy9948]

Iirc you could u Put the 3ds portal touching the orignal wii portal and it would work like it was part of the same portal

[@LopolisWizard]

I’m a skylanders collector as well, and when i buy them secondhand they always send the portals 😭. So now im stuck with around 30-40 portals that i have no idea what to do with cuz who on earth would buy em/need em. Help.

[@betchaos7383]

Great video! I love seeing content for my favorite series in my feed. Not a FNAF guy personally so this my first video of yours I've seen. Also can confirm the 3ds ssa portal does work with other versions. I've used it on Wii before with no issues.

[@potatoofmemes]

there is a dark version of traptanium portal and possibly dark versions for SSF, SSC, and SI portals but idk for those last 3

[@favgameisundertale1912]

We got our first Skylanders game for the PC (SSA of course). It was on clearance at this Sam's club, and we had to be taken to the back by a worker to get it. Its portal had a wired connection like the xbox

[@BovineDesigns]

Great video! I had no idea it was this complex!

[@TabbyPro]

I would love to see more Skylanders content from this guy

[@aduckwalkeduptoalemonadestand]

“If I had a nickel for every time a fnaf KZbinr was in to Skylanders I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice.” -Doofenshmirts

[@catgamer1k]

I want to see someone using all of the portals on an infinity gauntlet.

[@scrollkeeper5272]

It's been years since I played with my Skylanders and its great to see that the game still has fans to this very day. It's also great to learn more about the portals.

[@stewiegriffin5075]

I had two Swap Force portals so I dismantled one and spray painted it chrome, turned out not bad

[@toono7998]

Finally some one remember skylander

[@RC_studios]

I do too!

[@MrIncognito-on1qn]

I had one of them glow in the dark ones.

[@ikustoceol]

Dude what the hell was that fake png of lava barf eruptor doing at the end? 😂

[@TommoROM]

3:39 For those curious, yes you can use the 3DS portal on the Wii version of the game by using the micro USB port.

[@WonderSparkPuppets1]

The Trap Team portal has a built-in speaker which makes it unique. I guess that's why the Superchargers portal can't be used for TT, it doesn't have the speaker that is activated when you trap a boss.

[@Beano__]

I have every skylanders portal for the Xbox 360 (from giants forward) except for the imaginators portal. I didn't even know it had one, i just use the superchargers portal for everything. I too have a large collection of skylanders though and I have absolutely no idea what to do with them

[@davidv2002]

recently dug up my old portal from ssa, and it still had the batteries inside from the beginning with a little bit of life left in them (no leaks either, yay). man those batteries has been inside that portal all these years from the beginning of skylanders till now

[@kidman1312]

Giant was my first game, and Swarm was my first Skylander. I then proceeded to go crazy over Skylanders any time I was home.

[@madamthulhu7856]

i found a weird thing with my 360 portals where i could have one portal plugged in, have another sitting next to it not plugged in, put a skylander on the one that isn’t plugged in, and it activates the one that is plugged in

[@Jonathanxxng]

Hey, I have the portal of skylanders giants for ps3, is the one that has the eagle in the portal at 3:52, it had batteries, so we had trouble with that, so my dad putted a cable and we didn’t need batteries anymore, well, my question is if I can use that one in super chargers in ps5

[@afish2281]

Makes me wonder why there hasn't been drivers for any portals to be used like regular NFC readers.

[@chadderbug7587]

The good thing is, you can use the Traptanium portal with every game as long as it worked with the console. I have only that portal and I've used it on the 4 PS4 released games and PS3 SSA and Giants with barely any issue. Meanwhile for 3ds, the Swap Force mode is the way to go since it also works with every game and is the one you require to even play the game its from lol. Seriously, you need the swap force model even though the trap team 3ds version can use the swappers perfectly. TLDR, if you can get only one portal, Trap team for console and Swap force for 3ds.

[@mcthegoldeboat4137]

I had the portal for spyros adventure for the 3ds and that Mf was still on the original battery’s years later and still worked idk how but they lasted a lot longer then they should have

[@Train115]

You have taught me that there was a 3DS Skylanders, I am now trying to get one.

[@LeeTESFM14]

I can confirm that the Xbox and Wii portals from SSA used to work on the online game as I used to play it constantly when I was younger

[@Enteiso]

I remember when I was playing sky landers I only had 3 sky landers, the crocodile with the bow and arrow, the little plant guy (I don’t remember what vegetable he was but I know it was one I didn’t like). And my personal favorite, Gearshift

[@sonicjhiq]

The superchargers portal doesn't work on trapteam because it doesn't have a speaker

[@elmacho5153]

I always thought it was pretty simple. You put the thing on the other portal thing so you can do things, and there’s a lot of things that can do cool things once you put them on the portal thing

[@shurngirdleh3936]

You could always tell who’s parents were rich in school when this game was brought up

[@darknessinc.Inc830]

My favorite skylanders are funny bones, Twin blade chop chop, blackout and Roller Brawl.

[@Wasauchimmer12]

Casual Snowderdash flex 6:50

[@MarieLikesSoup]

The trap team portal is the only portal you really need

[@SleepyLuigi]

I have always been a skylander fan, and I’ve always thought the portals were fun! But one complaint: traps should work on superchargers and imaginatiors.

[@zacmarken65]

so when i get around to playing through all the skylander games with me mum i should use the trap team portal is what i've gathered.

[@polskikurak4409]

Hey, So my story with skylanders started with PC version of Spyro's Adventure andd I find it a little bit weird that no one ever mentions it and while watching the video i noticed that my pc portal is also a little difftent, than the one for xbox

[@mo642.0l]

I got the repageged supercharger portal….. and ripped the bit covering the trap bit with put realised g

[@Mo-dz5rb]

Thank you for reminding me about skylanders lost island I completely forgot about that

[@elimBaz]

Quick correction,in Trap Team for 3DS in USA the portal is the Spyro's Adventure one,but in EU it's the Swap Force portal,very weird

[@jayboom25]

The swap force portal is the best looking imo. But i do have a small love for my trap team portal as it was the only game i played on the ipad instead of the wii or xbox

[@itsminal]

I have fond memories of watching Skylander boy and girl figure out you can put an unplugged portal next to the portal you had plugged into your game and somehow the unpowered portal worked and glowed, albeit dimmer. Even looking back knowing how nfc works i have no clue how it made the Skylanders glow. Good times. I think ive had every xbox version portal in my possession at some point, and im pretty sure the portal thing still worked XD

[@Karavusk]

Well it kinda is a wireless charger with a small amount of power being transfered and getting some light out of a LED really doesn't take all that much power.

[@zoeadams5572]

I think I remember obtaining a glow in the dark portal. I also never used a wired portal except when i played on xbox 360 after our wii sensor broke. I was a massive skylander junkie

[@VoidPh0enix]

I remember playing the 1st game when i was a child

[@killjoymcrx]

3ds portal works on wii and playstation

[@peabrain6872]

May we have a moment of silence for all the skylanders whos chips dont work anymore

[@zaconthemonster8222]

My parent sold the Christmas lobster skylander without consulting first

[@1Chasg]

When I was a kid and saw the advertisements for the first game, I thought the tech was amazing

[@jordankibbe]

Please answer this can I just use a portal not for a game but get it to light up off the USB just being plugged in to a phone charger brick thing

[@sickyicky]

I once brought one to a GameStop, they took the game, figures but not the portal. Always confused me as without it you couldn’t play the game.