Activision Announces ‘Skylanders Giants’ Coming to Toy Fair

Head to any Toys R Us and take a look at their video game section and look for the large space where the Skylanders figures should be and you will see a trail of utter decimation. In talking to a Toys R Us employee, we were told that the only day the Skylanders’ rack isn’t empty is the day deliveries come in. And by end of that day, it is already down to half of its stock. So, it’s no surprise that Activision will be officially unveiling the follow-up to Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure at Toy Fair in New York City next week with Skylanders Giants.

With promises of eight brand new regular Skylanders and eight completely new Giant Skylanders that also light up when close to the Portal of Power, it looks like the creators are going to have a ton of fun expanding on the Skylanders universe.

Skylanders Giants builds upon the breakthrough fundamentals of the first game-merging the physical and virtual realms with an innovative line of cross-platform toy figures that have “brains,” which players everywhere can magically bring to life in the world of Skylands. This next installment of the franchise features a variety of new characters, new challenges, a thrilling new story-driven adventure, and advanced integration across console, handheld, mobile and online:

Going Big: Skylanders Giants introduces eight new highly collectible figures that are more than twice the size of the main skylanders cast in both physical and virtual form. Their in-game powers and abilities reflect their colossal scale.

Bright Lights: Helping to further the real world magic of bringing toys to life, Skylanders Giants includes a set of characters that feature spectacular new light technology integrated into the toys, allowing the figure to light up when near or on the Portal of Power™. These characters have additional in-game benefits as well. Batteries are not required.

Brand New Skylanders: Eight new regular sized skylanders, each with their own unique powers, abilities, and personality, join the adventure alongside the Giants.

Forward Compatibility: Every beloved character from Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure is 100% compatible with Skylanders Giants, leveled-up stats and customizations intact.

Wider Worlds: Portal Masters will see all new arenas and more gameplay options in Battle Mode for exciting head-to-head play, as well as enhanced Elemental Zones, new Hero Challenges, and other features that encourage players to collect and level up every character.

Toys”R”Us has reaffirmed its commitment to Activision and the Skylanders franchise, and will remain a marquee retail partner for the launch of Skylanders Giants. “While it was still in development, we recognized the potential that Skylanders had to connect with our customers due to its unique merging of physical and digital play,” said Jerry Storch, Chairman and CEO, Toys”R”Us, Inc. “The game was an enormous success last holiday shopping season, and the toys seem to evaporate as soon as they arrive on our store shelves. We’re excited to continue our enthusiastic support for Skylanders with a comprehensive, global marketing program to introduce Giants to our customers.”

It is interesting that this game will be dropping the Spyro name from the title. Though the Spyro characters from the original title will be forward compatible, anyone who played the game realized that Spyro was far from the focus of it. Even though Spyro can still be seen in the trailer, it is most likely that using Spyro was solely a way of getting this new franchise off the ground since the little purple dragon’s name did have some equity behind it. Now, after seeing the success and sales of all the figures that Spyro and his previous games’ mythos had nothing to do with, it looks like Activision is ready to build on Skylanders as a franchise of its own.

Check out the reveal trailer below as well as new screens and pics. Stick to the Flickcast next week when we report live from Toy Fair and get a first look at these new Skylanders Giants and hopefully some hands on with the new game too.