Skylanders/Toys To Life Games - What Happened?

[@panelsandbars]

I worked in retail when Skylanders came out and at the time it seemed like a license to print money. Didn’t take long for the industry to run the idea into the ground.

[@JmrUltra]

Honestly, if a New Skylanders game comes out, I probably wouldn’t care about it. After Imaginators, I was burnt out on these games and I don’t want to have that feeling again.

[@PsychoCrusher46]

I was burned out from Giants once we found out that the later games were very heavy with what you need in order to unlock more progress for the game. Dodged a bullet right there before I jumped into collecting my favorites for amiibos.

[@earthing3696]

@@PsychoCrusher46 i was burnt out after Giants.

[@BiffMcSkylark]

Yeah I worked in stores during the initial boon as well. I ended up working for one later 😂 Skylanders was manageable but once there was others in the store I wanted to burn it.

[@fyxation]

I was about to make the same comment. From Skylanders to Disney Infinity, these companies over-saturated the market and fast. Reminds me of Guitar Hero & Rock Band.

[@torokami1109]

I almost never use my Amiibos. I just buy the ones I like, because they look good on my shelf. Nintendo really knew what they were doing.

[@GreekDudeYiannis]

Plus, they don't break the games you use them for. They just unlock neat little extras

[@Nintendoggy]

@@GreekDudeYiannis The Metroid amiibos for Samus Returns were a bit of locked and expensive DLC for things unobtainable in the game normally, so that was a bit of a dick move.

[@kingbowser4542]

@@GreekDudeYiannis not for Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival though. Fuck that game

[@TheRedScizor]

it's an easy way to get figures of characters that don't have many like Shulk

[@torokami1109]

@@TheRedScizor True!

[@DestinedOblivion]

Skylanders Giants was one of the games I was able to get my Grandma to play - she liked the little figures and their powers. She would even like playing the battle mode where you verse each other. Still have my collection.

[@bobafett4265]

That's awesome dude, it's hard to get opportunities like that. 😀

[@courage_the_cowardly_cam]

@@SpiralPoliFemboy if there's one thing about Nintendo, it's a consistently top tier gaming experience for all ages. As much as they fuck up, I will love nintendo, and mario, for my entire life. That is really cool to hear your grandma loves Mario still to this day and you are able to share that experience with her. Cherish things like that. Don't take anything for granted.

[@r3drose685]

That's so sweet 🥰

[@OriginalGameteer]

The original Skylanders and Giants I thought were good games The third game was when I felt it started dropping

[@JokerFromPersona5Royal]

even if i have a small collection, i will never ever give them off my hands...

[@Shadoestar]

Lego Dimensions also had Doctor Who. They even had Peter Capaldi voicing the Doctor and Nicholas Brigs as the Daleks.

[@kirby-rh5js]

The Doctor Who level was really cool, lots of fun even as someone who isn’t really a Doctor Who fan

[@toongrowner1]

@@kirby-rh5js I actually started to watch the show because of that. XD But I stopped at some point again when the Daleks showed up... again -_-

[@AKPiratePrince]

Imagine not wanting to stick with a series because of a recurring villain

[@toongrowner1]

@@AKPiratePrince If it pretty much retcons the happenings of the previous season, yeah.

[@Kappasav]

@@AKPiratePrince I'm rewatching the series with my Gf and she was pretty annoyed when they kept saying there wasn't any more Daleks, then having some more shoe horned in. I suppose after the new paradigm they stopped doing that

[@BiffMcSkylark]

as someone that works at a company that did Toys to Life I wish I got to talk to you on this hahaha

[@ArcticaQuantum]

I would've loved to hear some insider perspective!

[@BiffMcSkylark]

@@ArcticaQuantum nothing negative to say thankfully 😅 Mostly covered in this video. The key thing.. Just too much of it from too many options.

[@TheEDFLegacy]

@@BiffMcSkylark You should email him!

[@chuckledarkly]

did you work at vicarious visions? I just ask as i was there during development of the 3rd game but have since lost touch with most of the people i met there back then.

[@piksnas8]

You do o-o

[@bronco5591]

*looking at pug spyro* "They massacred my boy!" *Sees reignited spyro* "They...fixed my boy?"

[@a.z.pantera5577]

I would say they massacred Cynder as well, but she never had a single concrete design to begin with XD

[@PerverseMilk]

Its less fix and more like they found old VHS home videos of your boy celebrating xmas and put it through a hd render.

[@beeaggressive160]

Well at least Spyro and cynder’s design are better in academy

[@AndreSthegeekydude]

The art team put so much love into the Reignited Trilogy it's crazy. The experience they gained by doing Skylanders served them well.

[@Victor-xg6xn]

Hey whats wrong about pugs

[@armjjb5189]

When Lego Dimensions started Season 2, the hub world got a new area with all of the portals to the different S2 worlds, and far off in the distance you can see another area like it which was inevitably going to be where all the Season 3 portals were. But obviously they cancelled Season 3, so now it only exists as an inaccessible area far off in the distance you can never reach. Kinda sad really.

[@smbatman123]

LEGO dimensions was legit a really good game which makes it even sadder

[@thomaspalazzolo5902]

They took the time to have Coulton write a Lego song and have GLaDos sing it while Batman and The Doctor danced around. Legendary.

[@darrisreid502]

Some of the planed IPS I would have loved lego figures of.

[@bobafett4265]

Yeah and handling the Toys to Life concept better by simply LEGO Dimensions being released in seasons basically updates to the original game which in turn made it a bit more appealing to a consumer heck i am a LEGO fan and I almost bought some when they were in stores, i decided not to and i regret it cause some of those levels and content got me at least interested like Goonies, Simpsons, Gremlins, Beetleguise...

[@toongrowner1]

@@bobafett4265 Not to mention that the figures where actual toys, not just like lego looking statues, but actual lego

[@jabarithegoldenlucario8841]

Activision literally ran the idea into the ground. Disney just abandoned ship around a similar time. Nintendo actually kept going and they’re still making them. Mainly for Smash Bros but still making them.

[@MinecraftWorld1954]

And Lego Dimensions was the best of them all (for me at least. I haven’t played much skylanders)

[@DirgeTV]

I think Nintendo did it best. Made just enough for people who wanted them without overflowing the market but also didn't make it where they were a requirement for the game. It ended up being a decent balance that still around and isn't tiring people out (Something that alot of companies need to take into consideration whenever something gets popular)

[@GhengizKanye]

Amiibo is fantastic for smash bros but it can completely backfire with stuff like wolf link being needed for a sizeable amount of content in twilight princess HD. If it was just used for cosmetics then who cares but for a company that supposedly hates the sale of used goods they certainly make it easy to artificially inflate the price of their products.

[@drip7797]

Rare Nintendo W

[@Benzinilinguine]

At the very least, Lego Dimensions left you with ACTUAL Lego when you were done with the game, instead of a static figure.

[@cherrycola1144]

Yeah cause they charged like $30 for one little figure and two tiny builds

[@toongrowner1]

@@cherrycola1144 depends on the figure.... in some stores in germany you can get figures like Bane or chase mccain for like 5€, so quiet cheap... anything else... yeah, if you don't have when it got released, good luck. Can't believe I managed to get me my lego sonic relative cheap... it's one of the figures people would like to have the most

[@lifegame9542]

@Benevolent That was practically the ONLY reason for collecting them in the first place........... there were people back then who would have killed for lego adventure time and sonic figures

[@TorchwoodLinger]

`Life Game after dimensions was cancelled you could buy them for like 2€

[@CosmicGaijin]

In 5 below if you can catch it in a restock, you can get them for $3.

[@pcachu]

The real nut-punch with the Infinity shutdown was that the true meat of the game was user-generated content. Most of the packed-in gameplay was just busywork for you to earn in-game scenery, pieces and devices, which you could use to assemble your own game levels, link the bits together with some rudimentary game-logic tools, and upload your completed levels to a (curated) server, where it could be found and downloaded by other players. The end of the game meant the end of the server and a bunch of now-unobtainable trophies/achievements.

[@sho829]

Well it's still technically possible to get your hands on the user generated content but you need a flash drive and the right files for the right console. Like people did preserve the user made content thankfully but it ain't easy to try and bring it back for newer players which sucks

[@epicmewtwo8274]

Skylanders was my childhood, 10 year old me was crazy about them, I owned every Skylander from the first 4 games because somehow my parents had the money and the patience to let me indulge in it. But they pumped out so many of these toys to life games so quickly that even I got bored of them and their endless gimmicks, and over time I came to realise that dumping hundreds of pounds into video game toys wasn't worth it. Didn't even buy the last one. Still though, I revisit the Skylanders games every now and again, and I really enjoy them, I just wish could've been less cashgrab-y.

[@TheMightyPatapon]

I was working at Toys R Us and just moved out on my own around the time these things came out. It was among the first times I realized I was getting older as I immediately disregarded these things as the blatant cash-grab they were.

[@debbidonosenshi]

@@metazoxan2 I was 7 when i first got a ps1 and spyro was my first ps game ever so it will always be dear to my heart. Haven't played since a hero's tail, buy when I first ever saw skylanders I was like "oh shit my bois got a whole crew with toys now, kids will love that" Soon after I wondered more and more, where's spyro? Seriously haven't seen him in a long time now and I pass through toy isles in store from time to time to see what's out these days. Oh and get beyblades, my work had a keyblade competition and somehow it blew up into something crazy lol

[@lordanzu8763]

Same.

[@intotheverse3363]

I loved the original Skylanders, put so many hours into the game but as soon as the sequel was out, i had lost interest. It became too much of a chore.

[@bobafett4265]

@@metazoxan2 yeah I feel the same way, I felt betrayed when the new Spyro game was Skylanders, his new design is bad and to make things worse they didn't take as much advantage of the Spyro brand for Skylanders other than a few characters and a level in the first game based on the first Spyro game, honestly if they threw in my boy Hunter as a playable character along with the other classic crew like Agent 9, Elora, Professor in a Mech, an Electroll cause why not, honestly it felt like they were piggybacking off of Spyro with a new IP rather than taking advantage of it, I was pissed when that was the case. Heck it made me hate Thunderstruck by ACDC thanks to their teaser, I am glad I didn't give them a cent at the end of the day and knew a mile away it was a fad that costed to much money to complete and the yearly releases for stuff like that takes it's toll on people and lose support really quickly...

[@shaheerjazbhay1717]

Skylanders had this charm that you just couldn't explain. I knew it was just a way to make money but God damn, the original game and its follow up were some of the most fun moments I had, especially in co-op

[@OriginalGameteer]

Skylanders 1 and 2 were fantastic imo

[@calebgadison167]

Nah, Skylanders was a shit series imo

[@NoahInfinity]

1 and 2 were easily the best, with the rest growing more and more cash grab and careless in nature.

[@thedukeofnothing6421]

@@NoahInfinity I feel the cash grab nature is definitely at it’s worse in Trap Team, the games main gimmick had people searching all over store for plastic traps that don’t really do anything after theTrap Team. Not to mention all the elemental gates required you to use the new Trap Masters instead of allowing your older Skylanders to access them.

[@travissloan9411]

"Skylanders: Imaginators" You know a franchise is out of ideas when they ask fans to make the characters for them.

[@dustydd]

CYOC really is a double edged sword. It mostly works when you include it right out the box but if your game is a few seasons in and you add that you know something shakey may be happening behind the scenes even more so if there's a noticable drop in profits.

[@FaelumbreProject]

The worst part is that there were still tons of good character ideas by that point. There's a lot of scrapped Skylanders that just didn't look "battle ready" and had to be put away in favor of designs further along, didn't pass kid focus groups, or wouldn't work in a shiny new gimmick group to put all over ads. Yearly releases killed even the entire point of buying the games.

[@wallywest4727]

@@se.224 Sonic Forces was pretty decent though at least, i got it with PS Plus and really enjoyed my time with it.

[@monstercombo007]

Reminder that Imaginators was Crash Bandicoot's PS4 Debut after 8 Years without a new game and Skipping ps3. But then the N. Sane Trilogy happened and well, everyone quickly forgot.

[@logicaloverdrive8197]

@@se.224 Forces was trash, but the oc maker was ok.

[@Darawnal]

3:53 "Kids go banana nutso for dumb little pieces of plastic, in the shape of things they love." *Looks at the D&D minis and the mountains of dice*

[@rontheauraknight9606]

Meanwhile the multiple figures of Poison when mat states “unlike Adults such as myself”

[@Xxgxxaxx]

*Warhammer

[@Idkidkidkidkidkidkidkdude]

I was very late to the toys to life trend but I still wanted to play it somewhat. I ended up getting 20+ disney figures and play sets for like $10. I couldn’t imagine how much parents spent on figures alone in their prime!

[@silverbackoneshot4843]

$20 plus tax for one skylanders figure when it was in its prime , the Disney characters were $19.99 I think it’s been a while since I bought both so I’m unsure

[@spongebobfan78]

I never cared nor wanted any of the toys-to-life games, until Lego Dimensions had to have Sonic and Portal sets. It made me want to have those.

[@tiraXpyrrha]

Yep, I brought several of those including the Portal 2 and Doctor Who sets. To this day, I never bought or owned the actual game.

[@yannickgrignon2473]

Man, I had no idea they had so much stuff, but now I really want Lego Portal

[@EpicB]

I never had any interest in the toys to life craze either. Lego Dimensions had some cool sounding stuff but I don't feel too bad missing out on it.

[@gta71000]

I have the game and all the sets for it (I love lego lol) and there are some sets in the lego dimensions series that haven't had another set outside of ld made which is both sad but also neat. I especially loved the secrets they put in the game that are findable as you play some of the levels or dlc levels. Example : in both Simpsons levels (base game and the Simpson's dlc pack story) you can find hidden "dimensions" in the following places: mr.burns office right before you do the boss fight in base game you can find a secret tardis spot which when taken will travel you back in time to the flintstones. In the dlc story during homer's hallucination you can find a British bus that if broken can be remade into another tardis station but this time if used will travel to the far future literally inside the jetsons home.

[@KazuhaEien]

I found it the most interesting that they had The Wizard of Oz as a world. It was very interesting. I was the most interested when they had Adventure Time in it as well.

[@TattedDad120]

Can we just get a small appreciation for how many Poison figures he has 💜

[@IllMatic97]

Settle down. Ya foo.

[@DevonDekhran]

No

[@snesfan3000]

Didn't you mean Shun'ya yamashita style figures ?

[@snesfan3000]

Because he has a shit ton of that too.

[@blind3dbylight]

The absolute trans icon.

[@hhtptai]

Parents got overwhelmed and tired very quickly because they had to spend so much money for more overpriced plastic shit that their kids weren't going to use after a few months.

[@oimate6357]

I’ll have you know I was still playing with those games for years So don’t underestimate children

[@_skysick_]

@@symbiote1982pk if they couldn't, then they would still be buying them. We're here because they aren't. Did you get everything you has as a kid because your parents lacked a spine?

[@unknownnametag6595]

@@oimate6357 I actually started Skylanders giants again a few weeks ago

[@PopHappi]

Parents could say no, they said no to me a lot when I wanted a skylanders when I was younger. They made sure I didn’t get everything I wanted (besides stuff I need to live, I’m talking more of like a toy, game, etc) so I don’t expect to get everything I want when I’m older. Sometimes I feel like people ignore the fact that parents have the ability to say no. It’s like they ignore it so they can sound more convincing that these types of franchises are horrible (and yea I know most of these were cash grabs, which I don’t really like about TTL games but I do enjoy the gameplay). I know some of them say yes a lot which I do agree that they should say it part of the time but not all of the time. The parents have control over the kid, the kid can’t say “I want that one!” And the parent is forced to buy it. If it were like this all of the time then TTL games would be still pumping out content to this day. Also another reason it’s kind of good to say no is because you don’t want the child to become a spoiled brat that is entitled to themselves and will expect everything they want to be theirs. Some examples being kids who ask for the most expensive items and get their wish fulfilled for no reason at all. People need to earn things instead of having it given to them unless it’s some sort of gift or something that is given every now or then like a birthday or Christmas. I don’t want this to sound like I’m being rude I’m just saying parents can say no sometimes.

[@dreamingahopefuldream4439]

amiibo really are genius. I collect all the ones I specifically want because in a lot of cases, that character doesn't have a figure or merchandise already. plus they're small and go good on my shelves.

[@bramble553]

honestly, while this was a neat idea, I'm glad it died out. Imagine all those poor parents who has to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars because their kid was addicted to collecting these. and Dear god, Imagine if EA got their hands in on this...

[@Funni-guy99]

I fell so damn bad for my parents now, I’m sorry Mom and Dad

[@a.liguria2698]

I can see why indeed... Thankfully for my parents, I got only Skylanders 1 and 2, with not even half of all the characters I wished to get, and barely 4 amiibos. All between my 11 years and 17~ Indeed, I have bought more Amiibos NOW, in my 20s through Ebay, with MY money... not theirs

[@Funni-guy99]

I got 5 of the 6 games

[@thebigquack6945]

If EA was the ones producing it You’d be paying for parts rather than the whole thing Plus 9.99 for add on dlc

[@siennide]

I'm in this comment and i dont like it

[@agrubohub4009]

Funny how this episode came out after the one about Playstation All Stars. Just a quick reminder how that game was developed at the worst possible moments for franchises like Crash and Spyro.

[@MatanVil]

Can r/WallStreetBets and the investors join forces after the whole GameStop/AMC/Nokia (the last one is actually fine) go after Activision-Blizzard is a way to make Bobby "Satan, who is The Devil" Kotick broke? (god that company is so evil)

[@TheBigDynamo]

That, and it was given to a weak developer team that was just not well known enough in terms of budget and popularity

[@maskedknight93]

I love the image of Microsoft, Nintendo's rival console competitor will have a Steve amiibo in it's office

[@atre5763]

I remembered when the 1st Skylanders came, I was actually interested in the idea. I actually considered wanting to collect them. But they kept releasing new games, so I just didn't bother. Boy did I dodge the deadliest of bullets. Now I try to collect amiibos since they aren't bound on one game, and it's Nintendo.

[@gratuitouslurking8610]

Literally me and my sis. We were missing like 2 of the characters of the first series and by that time, they were scalped to hell.

[@a.liguria2698]

Skylanders 1 was actually my very first ps3 game back when I was 11... I then got Skylanders 2 and stopped there, between newer games being released, and me never managing to get all the characters I wished... Like that frost yeti with 4 arms, or all the giants except 3 (the tree one, the robot and the insectoid one) I wouldn't mind getting someone through Ebay now though... like I did with many Amiibos

[@theuone8828]

Same, I even bought the strategy guide for the first game, expecting to have to choose who I'd try to buy ... never even got a PS3 lol, so I was saved from the massive money sink.

[@DavidDumbedDown]

@@theuone8828 the first game was on xbox 360 and the wii

[@DavidDumbedDown]

@@theuone8828 and it wasn't a PS3 exclusive

[@Laguzrick]

My guy, that Poison statue looks sick with the lighting!

[@PaddletailPhilly]

Nintendo's take on toys-to-life was and still is a stroke of genius, just sayin' Another great vid, Matt. Please do Warriors of Rock

[@tonymcneill7779]

Indeed. They still put out new ones and reissue old ones to coincide with certain game releases.

[@PaddletailPhilly]

Not to mention, as explained in the video, Amiibo figures aren't tied to a single game, nor are they the sole focus of any of them, except Amiibo Festival But we don't talk about Amiibo Festival.

[@yuuhyakuya3863]

@Daniel Epie did you hear the explanation as to why amiibo survived while everything else died?

[@SteelTiamat]

@Daniel Epie Doing less actually works to their advantage because that means that you don't have to depend on them to play a game, save for exceptions like Amiibo Festival and such. So while my Mario amiibo may not do much in itself I get some bonuses on current and future games with it. Amiibo also never saturated the market, so I don't see how they made it worse than the examples listed.

[@pn8937]

@Daniel Epie you know the whole concept of buying a trillion toys just to be able to play a game is the worst.Toys are toys and videogames are videogames the whole idea of mixing them may be lucrative under very specific circumstances but it ended soon cause these circumstances are difficult to find...Having significant content gatekeeped behind a purchace of physical toys makes the videogame less satisfying and FORCE you to flood the market with toys in hopes they get bought because of the game... The Nintendo model has broken this circle...Yeah the ingame value of amiibos is miniscule when compared to other correspodent toys but they are not bound to a specific game and no game(except one) is bound to them so they act as proper toys(and collectors items).Nintendo doesnt have to oversaturate the market with a dozen of them on each financial quarter and can space their release better and we can buy whatever we like to collect and not a hundred just for a random game to be playable.

[@igniskitsune887]

Yeah, when the first Skylanders game came out, I got almost every figure because I really liked collecting the figures. I never got into the other games because I lost interest after realizing how repeatedly the game was. I will always remember you Zap, my number 1 Skylander character.

[@yasminsamson9632]

you have taste

[@khif13]

Broly showed up in DBZ Sagas? Who even managed to get far enough into that game to find that?

[@AlonzoTompkins]

The devs

[@scwh3181]

Back in the day, I bought the game (used, thankfully), and marathoned through it in a single 8 hour or so stretch... then I never played through it again. I would check back with it every year or so, thinking maybe it couldn't be that bad... I played all the way through it after all, but would give up after about 20 minutes.

[@TheLowBrassDude]

Jared Knabenbauer, but we don't talk about him anymore.

[@viscountrainbows6452]

I did. And yes, it was pure suffering the whole way through. Playing as Broly but being spanked by Raditz. That game was a troll.

[@viscountrainbows6452]

I pretty much 100%ed that game because well, being poor, yer mum could only give you so much allowance. You had to eat your mistakes.

[@sgtbathsoap]

Disney infinity really is a great and fun game, I got super into it when covid hit and bought up tons of figures for pennies, it’s just a silly fun run around beat stuff up game, and is really great if you’re a huge Disney fan, it’s really sad that the online support has ended because it really was a great game for creative types and there’s a lot of really fun stuff people have created, and the figures are REALLY well made

[@KazuhaEien]

Yeah, I agree, it was one of the reasons I owned a Xbox 360 back then (I don't play it anymore because all the games I knew and played on there went to other consoles that I already owned and to make way for my PS4). I'm currently replaying it on PC and gotta say, it is still darn good, and great for making your own settings with Disney assets. I still have a lot of cool figures from the game, and I'm thinking of making a display on a shelf with them. Shame they cancelled 4.0.

[@Harukurochan]

I’m also really happy, and surprised, that there were no studio closures this time around! Also, while it’s not really surprising that the “massive multi-franchise crossover” games moved onto the mobile market, I still wish we could get a game with a lot of crossover potential that is just a good game at the base with no exploitative micro transactions (aside from Smash Bros.)

[@bladerex1224]

The Project X Zone games maybe?

[@user-wf1nb8cc8o]

Skylanders remains one of my all time favorite franchises to this day. As a hardcore collector and fan of the series, it holds a special place in my heart.

[@thetoongrump9801]

Oh wow this’ll hit me to my fucking core XD I was a big Skylanders collector back in the day and I have a huge affinity for the series and TFB. I’ve really come to appreciate the world and characters of that game franchise, despite the core gimmick being a tad wallet draining

[@Astrojandro]

Me and my brother had Skylanders Giants and played with our friends, each of us had their own set of personal Skylanders (between 4-8 each) and we all played on the same game without using each other's toys, when Skylanders Swap Force came out we did the same, but this time the owners of the game were 2 of my friends (who were brothers) and me and my brother had 3 of the new Skylanders each (I don't remember if the old Skylanders were compatible with the new game), overall we had a lot of fun and all of us playing on the same game while having our personal Skylanders was a great way of saving money, but then new games kept coming out and we just didn't care enough to keep up with them. I had a great time playing and have great memories of that time but I'm also kinda glad we stopped.

[@Coolstarburst]

I’m sorry man but you missed out in trap team

[@TheSlimeKilling_Minecart]

You can freely use older Skylanders in newer games

[@PrinceMallow]

I'm still bummed the Toys to Life bubble burst when it did. Not because I cared about any of the Toys to Life games (I've never even played any of them), but because it came to a halt just before Disney was about to release figures of Darkwing Duck and Gravity Falls characters. I would have loved to have neat little figures of them.

[@viniciusfernandes3259]

I was ready to buy the DD Figure. Biggest loss from DI.

[@bobafett4265]

Darn if Disney Infinity had Gravity Falls characters in it i would've buyed that in a heartbeat. 😀

[@toongrowner1]

I know, right? Instead we got more star wars figures and freakin baloo... not mogli or any other jungle book character, only baloo and not even the tale spin version....

[@toongrowner1]

@@JeskidoYT they had Phineas and Perry as figures. And some of the tv show characters showed up as mini-mes in the game.

[@DexterManning]

God I loved all the Skylanders games. Judge me all you want

[@MattMcMuscles]

No judgement here!

[@aquamarinerose5405]

I loved them up till trap team, Thought the Car Gimmick in superchargers was stupid, and thought imaginators was underwhelming... But i kinda hope we see a resurgence someday just because it was fun

[@aquamarinerose5405]

Though I'd be afraid that they could relapse into predatory monetization again.

[@akuxdante8471]

same

[@occam7382]

I love them all too. Those were some of the very first video games I ever played, and they truly changed my life. I'm always going to appreciate them.

[@agrubohub4009]

Activision when they see a franchise they always try to milk it to ground, more than EA and other companies. First Tony Hawk, then Guitar Hero and at some point this. Only COD stays up after all these years and even then it stopped being good around a decade ago.

[@PaddletailPhilly]

Guitar Hero was the worst offender for me, because it was what got me into rock music. They weren't in it for the music, maaaaaaan

[@corrupted3600]

Yeah you can see anything you want about ea but at least they know how to handle their most popular ip need for speed most of the time

[@lustyworldlivenow3186]

I didn’t know Toys for Bob developed 102 Dalmatians: Puppies to the Rescue until now.

[@bobafett4265]

Yeah I only found out about that the other day looking up what Activision's Studio's worked on out of curiosity, I was one that grew up with the mostly terrible DreamWorks Games that were published by Activision like Shrek Super Slam a decent Power Stone Clone, Shrek Smash and Crash A Kart Racer with lots of destruction that's okay at the end of the day, Madagascar games Fun Platformers with good polish and awesome minigames, Kung Fu Panda an awesome God of War styled action game that fits with the film as well as having a presentation leagues better than the other Dreamworks games that's the perfect marriage of Gameplay and Presentation that the DreamWorks games always lacked and is the only one i like for more than the gameplay.

[@ashrafhaider598]

Bot

[@perkilatorxiii5179]

They also developed a game called Majokko Daisakusen: Little Witching Mischiefs.

[@Astrojandro]

@@bobafett4265 This is a bot that copied someone else's comment

[@TheBigDynamo]

@@Astrojandro Oh, good, that's an answer I can totally sit with. I genuinely got scared that it was a bit talking sense

[@captainnurbles9169]

God, if I were a kid when this stuff launched I'd have been ALL over it.

[@Druid-T]

As someone who was a kid when the original Skylanders launched, yes, yes you would have

[@alicobosboi]

I was all over it as well, disney infinity and skylanders were my jam. The only thing I collect now is amiibo and that was only saved by botw.

[@koloth5139]

As a parent of a kid when this came out, yes you would have. This for at least a couple of years was absolutely the way to sell DLC. Because that is all it was a chunk of plastic that cost $7 to add another character to the game. But for some reason the chunk of plastic made it seem like you were getting something for your $7. It is funny how we react to DLC characters but are happy to buy plastic versions. And I was completely aware of what it was and still bought my son dozens of the things.

[@PsychoCrusher46]

I was all over it since my parents bought the first game. Spent a lot of time with Skylanders up to Giants and amiibos saving my allowance to get my favorites and the expansions. So I can confirm that you would be all over this as a child.

[@ashrafhaider598]

I was a kid when this was a thing , I REALLY wanted to play Disney infinity , the problem is , I live in iraq

[@Tsukistar1]

I remember having super fond memories of Skylanders; wanting to collect all the dragon characters and ONLY the dragon characters. Think I still have them around here somewhere, even.

[@viniciusfernandes3259]

Not gonna lie, I liked Amiibo because it was the only way I was going to get a "cheap" and cool figure of some my favorite charachters. How else I was suposed to get a Shulk, Ganondorf and Shovel Knight figurine?

[@MintyDragonVidz]

Okay you’re gonna think I’m crazy but one of the game designers from Disney Infinity became a high school teacher in Utah and is now my digital media teacher. It’s wild

[@WolfDB]

I think that ending means you're kind of obligated to do a HyperScan video now

[@pcachu]

team-up episode with Shane of ReRez? if only because he's already been there.

[@ghastlyghifin4029]

At least with Lego Dimensions you could re-use the minifigures since they weren't glued to their stands.

[@dylanslonks5061]

When I was 11 years old my friend had every skylander imaginable, and we played Spyro's Adventure on the ps3 all day, good times

[@FunM0nkey]

I had no idea skylanders was a spyro "game", i just thought spryo was a cool crossover

[@rockyslinko1744]

I thought Spyro came from sky landers 🤣

[@MesozoicMaiden]

@@rockyslinko1744 OMG SAME! I only learned that Spyro once had his own series like 4 years ago!

[@icantthinkofaname1009]

I was always tempted to give the Lego one a go but didn't just because I knew if I started then I would want to buy EVERYTHING Impressive just how many different IPs from different companies were involved in that thing though

[@governor_explosion]

It’s a Warner Bros. game, so that explains it. They own as many franchises as Disney, if not more- just look at HBO Max.

[@jacklindsey8400]

Same, and same...I would have loved to play through the portal section... the rest... I've found lego games to only really be fun with others. So that and my distaste over having to buy the playsets kept me away...but even seeing this makes me tempted again.

[@toongrowner1]

still got me my lego dimension stuff. Just recently got me a new pack to finally have all level packs and be able to complete all levels (mainstory and optional) and optional hubworlds 100%. This pretty much toke me 3 years and a bit of planning which figures to got. Which some gotten more expensive over the time. And I still don't have every single figure (though to be fair, there are some figures I don't really care about or need). So if the main story and 3 cool minfigures + a mini batmobil are enough for you, go for it. If you wanna go collection, you certainly need a lot of money and/or patience.

[@mallqui123]

I know that a lot of Disney infinity designs ended up being reused and sold as normal toys at Disney stores.

[@EzioHanitore]

I worked at a used game store and we had CASES full of these things. Most of em were like 3 bucks but occasionally you'd get one in that was worth like 50 bucks. No one ever bought em unless they had a kid with them lol

[@BigBirdJay]

I know i'm in the minority, but I used to love skylanders when I was a kid! It was the new pokemon/beyblade/bakugan collecting for me and many others! A shame, the dip of quality in the later games because they are genuinely fun. Espacially when you play with friends and family. Skylanders will always have a special place in my heart!

[@occam7382]

I still love Skylanders. I not only played every game, but I read a whole bunch of the novels and comics, I watched the show, everything.

[@TheJacoliexp]

I Litterally just got back into Skylanders a month ago. I have been WAITING for you to cover this amazing series, thank you so much.

[@TheAnimeEncyclopedia]

I miss Lego Dimensions. It was funny, I really enjoyed trolling my friend when I got the Doctor Who expansion, He couldn't figure out where I disappeared to because he didn't understand the concept of the TARDIS XD

[@KazuhaEien]

Same here, I played it for Adventure Time and Sonic.

[@RickRaptor105]

"Were their characters (Mario, Link, Pikachu etc.) as popular as Marvel, DC, Star Wars or Harry Potter? No." That hurt.

[@MattMcMuscles]

Its not inaccurate.

[@mariokarter13]

Pokemon is the highest grossing media franchise of all time. Most of that from merchandise. Pokemon may be newer than Star Wars or Marvel, but it's objectively more popular.

[@aquapyro1]

@@mariokarter13 people said this exact comment thinking Detective fucking Pikachu could outgross Toy Story 4

[@autobotstarscream765]

@@aquapyro1 Pokémon is bigger than Toy Story franchise vs. franchise, but a lot of Pokémon's power and money is in merch (it's described as the new Hello Kitty) and the movie for a side project like Detective Pikachu is not _by itself_ as important as the next mainline movie in a series such as Toy Story that's actually still a trusted name to bring quality to the table every time by not bringing out a new one except once in a blue moon and until it's ready, unlike Game FrEAk pumping out Pokémadden every year with the end result being a testimony to the infinite money-printing power of Pokémon; if Pokémon games didn't make money solely because they're Pokémon games, the franchise would be the subject of _several_ Wha Happun? episodes. (Was Hey You, Pikachu! successful just because of Pikachu, or still eligible?)

[@glctcthnkr8059]

I don’t know a single human being that doesn’t know what pikachu is

[@southpaw117]

I have a lot of nostalgia for working at Toys R Us when Skylanders Giants came out, but the release of Trap Team was when I couldn't take it anymore. The phones were constantly ringing due to people trying to find the Kaos Trap, and I had one middle-aged couple come in being fed up that no stores had any stock, so when they saw a bunch of Skylanders shipping boxes that were clearly only full of characters and starter packs, they decided we were lying to them about our inventory and got out their keys, opening up all the boxes and tossing characters all over the place in the hopes that they would find Traps that we were probably holding for a flyer or something. I had never lost my shit on any customers before, not even thieves, but I really gave them a verbal wallop and even walked them through how the English language works, teaching them how to read the boxes letter by letter.

[@XIIIthProductions]

"Not needed to play any of the games!" Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival would love to have a word with you :P

[@Jaylen510]

@@sneakyscarab On sites like Mercari, AC amiibo cards absolutely flood the Amiibo section. It used to have cheap Amiibo and now all I see are freaking AC amiibo cards.

[@acmeanvil3022]

Lego Dimensions was definitely my favourite of the bunch. What I appreciated was rather than releasing a whole other game to introduce new characters they just provided updates to the original.

[@JadeFalcon07]

The digital Switch version of Starlink was not that bad of a game, but it was sorely held back by the T2L model. I mention the digital version because it skips most of the that plastic bullshit and comes with more content completely rendering the T2L model moot.

[@lonesquiff6551]

I bought the Switch version on clearance just for the Arwing.

[@jothki]

It's interesting how they kind of screwed up the physical model with the Switch version. The base game for the other consoles came with physical toys for a sort of "main character" pilot, his ship, and three weapons. The base game for the Switch came with Fox, an Arwing, the main pilot (who I guess they felt obligated to include), and two weapons. You could still access the main pilot's ship and the third weapon, but doing so required you to use a digital-only mode that ignored the toys. That basically meant that if you wanted to get the most options out of those available to you, you had to not actually use the toys for the game. Buying physical figures would let you scan them in to get access to them, but that required to you occasionally rescan them to maintain access while the toyless versions you could buy as dlc were just permanently there.

[@emmanuelduran3801]

Gotta love how Activision/Disney is quick to kill its golden egg hen as soon as the hen lays 2 eggs instead of 3 I only ever bought the amiibo because the other's style was not that appealing

[@Blur4strike]

I saw the writing on the wall for the "Toys to Life" genre when I was working in physical retail and an online retailer's fulfillment center, there was an over-saturation of that market much like the "Plastic Instrument" genre did over a decade ago. Amiibo I've seen them ebb and flow since their release, some were hard to find physically in-stock (Lucina), some were peg-warmers that didn't sell (Animal Crossing characters), others were easy to find at your retailer of choice (Samus, Zero Suit Samus, Link, Roy, Palutena, Corrin, Ike).

[@the_NNPW]

Matt, never stop this series. It’s become one of my favorite series on KZbin!

[@maugos]

As someone who enjoys collecting figurines it saddens me how quickly this died out. Like ya said, when ya over saturate the market it kills an otherwise lucrative idea. Maybe if all these companies hadn't tried to rush it and make way too much the toys to life thing could have been normalized and doing fine today.

[@kriscynical]

I am so happy KZbin repeatedly shoved the latest episode of this series in my face until I finally gave in and tried it. I fucking love this series and have been binging it for the last three days. Matt, your writing is one of the few that actually makes me legitimately laugh.

[@randommanwill802]

I know several people who bought these things as soon as they came out. Whew lad...

[@Cain1134]

Looking back on it, I'm surprised Bandai didn't try the toys to life idea. With the amount of Gundam model kits they've made and at least four Gundam anime shows that center around model kits being brought to life to compete in competitive matches, they would have made a hell of a lot of money during that time if they made such a game.

[@Swordsmen99]

They probably could have done it with Digimon as well.

[@lastmonarchistproduction_253]

@@Swordsmen99 or astro boy

[@GenerationWest]

Let's run this down: Skylanders: They made my boy look like a purple pug, made his name a subtitle in his own series, he was done dirty on the regular, and kept it going with that Netflix Skylanders series. (At least Toys For Bob bounced back with Spyro AND Crash, they are redeemed, and so did other companies like Beenox and Vicarious Vision's... Oh they got absorbed into Activision Blizzard's support teams... Oh.) Disney Infinity : I actually liked the designs, and it was Kingdom Hearts, without the Square Enix. (I have to add, I still see Incredibles and Lone Ranger figures sometimes, it's both sad and funny) Lego Dimensions: You got 14 Doctors and a TARDIS in a major game, not bad (I saw so many people in denial that this was canned, it was a sight) Amibos: Congrats Nintendo, you played the game wisely, buy not going hard with it. NEVER heard of that Ubisoft thing to just now.

[@FaelumbreProject]

In dev interviews, TFB actually considered Skylanders a separate series from Spyro, so it's a bit of a weird situation where it's a different Spyro, world, etc. However, Activision repeatedly tried to shove Skylanders stuff in every Spyro related subject, so I guess they built its own bad reputation at the start.

[@maximillianlylat1589]

Honestly starlink was mostly remembered for the starfox content.

[@antman1001000]

Only reason I knew about Starlink was because for some reason I got it in the mail and still to this day have no idea why.

[@soren7550]

I worked at GameStop around when Skylanders, Disney Infinity, and Amiibos first came out, and that was one of the more notable worst things about working there. I remember with the Amiibo display that there was a very high chance that it could electrocute and kill the person installing it. The Skylanders one had a motion sensor on it so whenever a mildly stiff breeze would come through it'd start screaming at you to touch its button. Theft was a huge problem with the individual figurines, so we had to use theft prevention hooks to hold them in place. And if someone wanted to trade in some of these dumb things, that was a nightmare unto itself. We had a whole book that was solely for what to do when that happened, and because it was such a convoluted mess only the manager could deal with it.

[@ajshim]

I personally really enjoy Disney Infinity. I still have all of my toys & accessories. Hell, I still play it to this day with some other people. Whom all suffer from the ridiculously difficult levels I created with the house rule of no support items. The reactions were priceless. Just goes to show that with enough creativity you too can get much mileage from Disney Infinity. You just have to frustrate your friends and family enough that they will keep coming back to beat your levels.

[@claudiobizama5603]

If Lego got the A Team for Dimensions, I can believe they would do a Shrek one. MR T MINIFIG FOOL

[@jak830]

I know that Avalanche Software also worked on Tak and the Power of Juju (the old games), which I'm pretty sure most people who played the games liked them (I mean Tak got a TV show for crying out loud, so it was clearly popular). I loved DI, and it's a shame we'll probably never get a huge Disney crossover game like that again (not like that gacha mobile game either, but a full adventure/platformer/racer game).

[@adamangus2005.]

Childhood right here I'll never forget that time when I waited so long for one skylander to come to the uk

[@MomijiSour]

I refuse to believe enough people got into the motion-controlled Tony Hawk games to qualify as a fad

[@ChalkyLoki]

I grew up with Skylanders and still enjoy coming back to it to this day!

[@fromvault801]

Spiderman Turn off the Dark would be the perfect non gaming episode for Matt

[@ladyaceina]

nintendo : hey what if instead of selling these things in a short terms gain fassion we sold them as nice collectable figures instead and we also build the NFC reader into our game device so every one has it already and this is why nintendo is so good they plan for the long buck not the quick buck 9/10 when they do a cash grab its still a quality product so fans grumble but still pay for it (that 1/10 thoe *Shdders and looks at that animal crossing wii u game*)

[@Rivent90]

Watched a bunch of the Lego Dimensions cutscenes after this. Didn't realize there were so many.

[@alecopedia5744]

Honestly, this concept is still cool to me even all these years later. I had all three of these games and they all gave me so much fun and enjoyment. Disney Infinity had the cool style and Toy Box, Lego Dimensions had the most amazing crossover that nobody would of even thought was possible, and skylanders at least had some cool designs. Amiibo had the right idea and execution, but I thought their implementation of the figures was lame compared to the other games. They just had a more magical feeling to them.

[@slochedplays9585]

The shame is that StarLink was actually a really good game. You didn't need the toys, so I always played without them, but the game itself was a cool kids to teen open world starfighter title. The toys even seemed like a step up, with ships with swappable parts, they looked fun even apart from integrating with the game. I like Disney infinity too, but it rankled me that the "toys" were only collectible statuettes, not something a kid would actually play with. I never owned it, but that seemed like an advantage to Lego Dimensions: you were at least buy real-deal legos that were compatible with other sets.

[@maxblackrabbit8990]

Was kinda funny when the bubble popped. Friends and I would go to toysRus and see the infinity figures on sale: Buy 1 get 4 free. So just picked up all my fave characters. never played the game.

[@atsunymphae2723]

I miss Heelys... Made Costco shopping trips a joy. --- Thank you for the excellent overview and cathartic explanation as to this game model. I'm absolutely floored by how many IPs Lego Dimensions incorporated and now honestly quite bummed it wasn't more successful.

[@spaceknighterrant]

You know, this holds a special place in my heart, and always will. Hell, I still collect a figure every now and then. I feel a little sad every time I think about what could've been with these games.

[@ramen3643]

I used to really wanna play skylanders as a kid, now I'm kinda okay with not having played it, but I still do regret not playing lego dimensions, that game seemed and still seems fun to me.

[@clarkejoseph49]

My brother was OBSESSED with Skylanders back in 2012 and 2013 Dad spent a fortune getting the figures for the game. The fact of the matter is, it totally slipped from our minds as we got older and I started to play more violent games.

[@dillongeorge5866]

I wonder if there is a human being in this world who managed to get every Skylander

[@rindobestgirl628]

I got everyone in Spyro’s adventure and giants 🥴🥴🥴

[@Pokezilla101]

@@rindobestgirl628 Including the alternate color variants or just the original ones?

[@rindobestgirl628]

@@Pokezilla101 nah just the original version for each

[@puertorico2927]

There was this channel on KZbin that had a father who made skylanders content with his son and daughter and they collected the living shit of it I think its called the Skylar dear boy and girl if am not wrong. They literally had a huge ass wall of every figure of them.

[@judebell9645]

@@Pokezilla101 I'm pretty sure I had every skylander from all six of the games but not the variants

[@amilyndreams]

The things that makes Amiibo have way more longevity than others is that they work as just nice figures. I’ve used my Amiibo for Smash maybe twice. They just look good!

[@agenthappypotato868]

To think this could've been the incarnation of Spyro we might have gotten in PlayStation All Stars....*shudders*

[@Descro382]

Been bingeing for multiple days now.. it's the longest I've gone continuously watching videos since I binged AVGN.. congrats

[@BippyChunchun]

Lego Dimensions is the only one I'd actually consider TOYS to life as they're not just statues like the others are

[@vonbrewskie9361]

Brother, I love like, all of your videos. This one is a cut above, I have to say. I actually lived next door to a guy who worked on Skylanders as a level designer. I have some of his original art too. Guy was a genius. Worked out of Marin, I believe? Was a long time ago. We used to smoke together and watch MST3K together. I was working nights at the time so I'd come home after a long shift, dude be like "wanna smoke???" "Hell yeah!" Such an incredible artist man. Just like you!! Great video.

[@Will-im6xt]

There are still discord groups and youtube channels devoted to both skylanders and infinity the games are dead but the community still is very much alive

[@nathanwalker7983]

8:10 Fun fact: Avalanche's first game under WB's ownership was the video game of Cars 3, a Disney-owned IP, ironically resulting in a Disney game published by their arch-rival.

[@Legoguy9875]

It's a shame what happened to the Lego Dimensions game, because it had the best shot at success out of all the others. Lego was (and still is) a proven successful toy brand that appeals to all audiences, and I don't doubt that had they created the game sooner, it could've been way more popular. I don't care for the game itself, but even now I am wanting to get the Sonic and Portal sets, just for the sake of having cool tiny sets themed after two of my favorite game franchises.

[@TheWillOfJ]

I love these videos but rarely have a ton of free time to really pay attention, so I've gotten into the habit of putting them on when I have to fold laundry... Gives me something to focus on and help pass the time faster!! Anyway, this dropped literally right as my last load came out of the dryer so that lined up nicely~

[@StevenZephyc]

"the toy to life market is dead!" Amiibos: about that...

[@ShibuNub3305]

@@symbiote1982pk I feel extremely called out

[@junebunchanumbers]

I vividly remember when amiibo first became a thing thinking that it would never take off and was pretty much doomed to immediate failure. Might be the wrongest I've ever been in my entire life.

[@JmrUltra]

The only thing Toys to Life related thing I can name that still exists today is Amiibo, but that’s because they’re figurines of popular characters like Mario and Link, who still wouldn’t want stuff like that today.

[@maximillianlylat1589]

I think what also helped amiibos was being able to own toys of the more obscure Nintendo franchises

[@dreamerthatgirl]

you know, I loved these and I still do. sure they might be some toys that are in a box when I look more closely I see some things that I some how love about them. at the moment I got back into them because of the donkey kong Skylander/amibo and that's what got be back to that box revisting my past. and I got to say, its been quite fun so far, I know I won't actually keep this small fire going but its nice to go back and look at the past. (geez this is long)

[@shesholdingcorn]

We literally have over 300 skylanders in our basement in a box-

[@francodigennaro1236]

I just got to know you bc of this vid and I gotta say.. you're a blast to watch dude, got a new follower right away

[@toytripperv8488]

*** Waiting for Funko Pop! figures to become non-relevant as well ***

[@lostmediadetective2590]

Skylanders giants was my first video game that I remember playing

[@destronlaserwave9566]

I must admit, while this series did get repetitive and kicked Spyro to the curve, but without it I doubt we would of seen a Spyro or Crash remake. Also I am nostalgic for it, but I acknowledge its flaws.

[@IcyDiamond]

100% agreed

[@TotemSP2]

I worked at a kid's play center for a few months, both a labourer while it was being built, and stayed on as a regular worker when it opened. Sure we had cool stuff like a big playground, a pair of Initial D arcade stage ver.2 cabinets, and not one but two (or three, counting the toddler section) inflatable bouncy castles... but we also had a two story Skylanders Castle.