At Comic-Con in San Diego we got the opportunity to take a closer look at the latest additions to Skylanders with Skylanders Trap Team. While we had already gotten a peek at the title, there were still some awesome announcements behind the game along with some great insight from the designers as well.
First came the announcement of the Skylanders Trap Team Dark Edition Starter Pack. Like last year’s SWAP Force Dark Edition, the set will come with some special dark paint variants of characters. Unlike last year’s though, there will be only three new Trap Team members without any sprinkling of classic characters.
It will also come with a new Portal of Power which will have a new feature in addition to a new look, the ability to use Traps to capture villains in game and use them while playing. The Dark Edition will come with a limited edition over sized trap allowing players to capture Chaos.
At Comic Con we also learned about a special set known as Eon’s Elite. Eon, the player’s guide through the series, has handpicked 8 characters back from Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure (presumably one of each element) that will be getting a special edition treatment. Starting with Spyro and Chop-Chop, all of Eon’s Elite will have a special gold base, metallic finish and special packaging putting them in front of a 3D lenticular background. Additionally, characters will be supercharged and three times as powerful as their standard counterparts allowing players to race through games in an almost speed run type fashion right from the start.
“Eon’s Elite represents the most iconic characters from the original Skylanders game that started it all,” said Josh Taub, senior vice president of product marketing at Activision Publishing. “These eight toys are not only premium quality but also honor the characters’ strength, courage and commitment. We’re excited to extend our fans’ collections with this new line.”
We got the chance to chat with I-Wei Huang, Toys for Bob’s Director of Toy and Character Development, who talked to us about the process of Skylanders and how it has evolved. With Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure, the team had to hand sculpt every character and make sure they matched up with the in game models and designs. Now, the characters are created using 3D printer technology which allows the in-game models to match up with their toys perfectly including the ability to find the perfect poses before ever needing to print them.
On the Skylanders panel, I-Wei joined comic book writer Ron Marz who is working on the Skylanders comic from IDW, voice actor of Chaos (and Invader Zim fame) Richard Horvitz and moderator Geoff Keighley. There we got insight into more of the story of Skylanders Trap Team and the unlikely alliance that will come into play as Chaos must actually work alongside the Skylanders. Finally, things concluded with a costume contest with an amazing Scratch costume blowing away the rest of the competition.
Skylanders Trap Team is headed to all major consoles this holiday. Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available here on the Flickcast.
