Topic: The ridiculousness of Skylanders figures

What started out as fun figure collecting is no longer fun.
With most Game shops out of stock of skylanders figures it seems the only way to buy them is online but wait there's a catch... what started out as £6.99 for a single figure and £19.99 for a triple figure pack has now changed. Thanks to money hungry sellers Single figure packs can range anywhere from £12.00 to £70.00 and triple packs from £30.00 to £50.00.
Play.com seem to be the worst for these prices they dont seem to even have any of there own store prices anymore. For now my fun for collecting these cool figures has died as I refuse to pay the amount of money that these dealers are asking for.
It's a shame really as I was really looking forward to getting a complete set before Skylanders Giants came out.
What i find strange is the game has not been out that long and some of the figures are considered rare already, Drill Sargeant i have seen go on ebay for £60-£70.
Amazon.co.uk seem to be slightly more reasaonable but i just begrudge buying them at the moment.

supply and demand fella. Happens with all popular collectible games in their prime. People buy and Hoard by the dozens and sell high when the 2nd set comes out and the rare stuff from the first set isn't being sold any more. Think its bad now check how much those 1st edtion golden skylanders from the Base set cost when they're taken out of stores for the Skylander's giant expansion.

@shingi_70 I can imagine

Supply and demand.

They seem to get slightly better now, we get ships here every couple of weeks, and the kids all have them so nobody buys them out. So I have seen tons of most of the Wave 1 and 3 Figures but I cannot find any sealed Wave 2s to add to the collection for the life of me...

I really feel bad for the UK, they have it horrible. No Wave 3, low amount of figures... And no Gold/Silvers, at least here we collectors can get them at ToysRUs even though it is a horrible, stockless store...

I've actually bought off scalpers thrice because we get new figure Waves very slowly here with the exception of Wave 3. Once each for Darklight Crypt ($50) and Empire of Ice ($80!) and right now for Legendary Trigger Happy($25 so could be much worse). I wouldn't buy from them but the late arrivals to Oz is Activision's fault... I actually don't feel too bad about buying Empire of Ice for a markup because my Slam Bam from that pack has a unique collector's base! http://Nibelilt.deviantart.com/art/Skylanders-Water-Base-Comp...

Great news! I'm getting ready to sell mine. Sadly most are open, but I've got a few left in the package. I love a hobby where I can at least earn the money back that I spent on it. (I'm looking at you MtG)

Game Informer joked about these in the April issue this month (dang, you get them as early as a car or a sports game!). "Imagine the intensity: If you have to pay for every bullet, every shot counts." Anyone know what the joke was? It's way too obvious. It's being integrated w/ Call of Duty! (yeah, that's one of many April Fools jokes in this issue's Game Infarcer _{The World's #1 Pretend Magazine} section [instead of #1 Game Magazine. Get it?])

I have absolutely no idea what you're trying to say here.

I'll just take a random stab at it though and hope for the best: You do NOT have to purchase any additional Skylander figures (aside from what comes with the starter kits) to play and beat the game, although 100% completing the main game requires 1 of each "element" of figure. I think there are 7 "elements" total iirc. I would dare say that the collectibility of the figures has nothing to do with the game, just the hoarding/collecting nature of specific personality types. Hell I just sold my 18 figures this morning for $160 and they were almost all out of their original packaging and all were used.

First of all while you're right the problem is for those of us who want to... Not only is there infuriatingly low stock in many areas(although personally I still see heaps lol)... Prices are rising... Single packs now cost $15 here, $30 for triples and prices online aren't even worth considering or good ones are unavailable here... Also while this is somewhat supporting "then don't buy more", you get very little content on the main version for the cost(Although on 3DS it isn't so bad, about 3 hours a character if you nibble levels, and it's brilliant on web game, 50 levels a pop!)...

I've spent about $770 already on the game... Not including a second set to open and still missing many packs. Although to be fair I did spend $190 on a sealed Toy Fair Cynder. Heck I only WANT to use my team and when the sequel comes out the Giants. But I also want a sealed set just for my Spyro collection which may very well be the largest in the world... But the problem and reason why people complain is these toys cost too much for even just one or two toys for the amount of stuff you can get out of them or at least that I personally do... And they are nigh impossible to collect due to that and the amount produced...

Activision really need to pick up the pace getting these out... I don't see why they didn't release less characters at the start and sent out a couple a month... Then people would probably be more interested in the game and at least waiting would be a novelty... But as it is no fun trying to get all of these. Gets frustrating, will become boring after a couple more games... It would be more fun if the game at least had online. Multiplayer is a blast, but I don't know ANYONE who plays this game who is a good player who can strategically use the different characters, it becomes boring charging up Daybringer Flame to kill a mashing Sonic Boom or playing Lava Lakes Railway over and over with a Legendary Trigger Happy.

P.S. There are eight elements.
P.P.S. I know parts of this argument suck but it's almost one here, can't think straight.

The Skylanders games are quite fun. I've already beaten the console version and I'm currently playing the 3DS version.

Scalpers are ruining the experience, but you can hardly blame Activision for that. There's no way that scalping and shortages were expected and it works against Activision's plans for making this into a franchise. I mean, who in their right mind would want to go through all this trouble finding figures again when the sequel comes out? Fact of the matter is, they've already stepped up production, but unfortunately it has not been enough to deter those who are successfully flipping figures from clearing out store shelves and keeping the demand high.

I myself have not purchased a single figure from a scalper, but those who do are the ones further encouraging this sort of behavior. I've bought all my figures at retail for close to around MSRP and I have almost every figure I want, but to be honest, it is not really necessary to buy any extra figures in order to enjoy the game.

"but to be honest, it is not really necessary to buy any extra figures in order to enjoy the game."

I have to disagree with you there... Anyone I've seen with just the starter set was upset with the lack of content, and new figures are just the only thing to occupy. Don't get me wrong, it's definitely fun, but unless you want to reset a handful of characters over and over there isn't anything to do. I suppose I could go over this all day but I'd just be a mule.

@Nibelilt: I disagree with you too. Having extra figures merely adds a small bit of variety and extends your overall play time, but with the exception of the adventure packs, having extra figures doesn't really add anything meaningful to the game. If you're not enjoying the game as it is, having extra figures isn't really going to change that.

Also, our enjoyment of Skylanders likely differs as I have been content with playing the game and enjoying the music and story as opposed to purchasing an extra special expensive $190 figure (Metallic Cynder) that offers no in game difference to my cheapish $8.99 figure (Simply Regular Cynder). That's not a knock, I collect stuff too, just not Skylanders...to each their own.

I seriously can't tell what you are saying. i read it like 4 times, and all i've gathered is that your speaking some very strange english!

What I was trying to say is that I disagree with you saying you don't need extra figures to enjoy it. You can but it will need to be stretched. Even if you do buy some extra figures it isn't worth it, IMO, paying $100 for a roughly eight hour game.

In Activision's defense it is not their fault that people charge so much for the Toy Fair Cynder/Hex but I think the Cynders are just near the end of reasonably priced since they are incredibly limited run collector's items, the Hexes are too expensive but again not their fault. The $190 for Cynder I was very happy with. I don't play with it at all. I display her. She looks beautiful. She'll be gone in years to come. I'm actually glad I paid that for this particular one.

I do enjoy the game, I love all the versions of it, but you know what I DON'T? And this is Acti's fault... Not only do they have the audacity to now charge extra money here, where we were already paying extra, but Wave 3 still isn't out in the UK, and Wave 4... Could either be coming out this week or be localized in America only for weeks more. And comparing my Wave 1 to Wave 3 Flameslinger, and others to the new ones in store the figure quality actually looks much worse.

Heck, all they need to do is bring the figures back to the original price... At least that was somewhat reasonable, 37 characters for two games for roughly $500... But the new cost is just stupidity... I have not seen ANY triples, do you know why? Because they want to squeeze out an extra $15 per customer... And I KNOW the stores near me have not even been getting any, because they have told me so... Why buy two when you can get three for the same price? But sorry, they're out of stock.

And scalpers aren't the only shelf clearers. Kids buy the toys too... Activision not anticipating the popularity isn't any excuse anymore. They sold 20 million figures in a few months. But at this rate people will be disinterested when decent stock on ALL figures is available- I know kids who used to play who did stop because of no new characters and none they haven't had for weeks. All I have seen for weeks is Cynders, Flameslingers, Double Troubles, Whirldwinds, and Drill Sergeants. So not only is collecting, as my personal hobby for my Spyro collection expensive, but impossible.

Before you hit me with "but you don't have to buy them" I still want to- it's just sad they make us pay so much here, and not have all the stuff sent. I would at least bear the new price, since I still have some of the older-price packs, if they had all the figures sent out for collecting but they don't and haven't since the beginning of the game. The only reason I have all the current figures is because I bought them on launch. I want to have all the figures to open and play with but with no triple packs out I'm not willing to do it at this stage. Even when they are made available again I might give up on having two sets and just have a sealed one to place on Portal and just unlock.

But at this rate, I wish I could just buy the Warnado/Camo/Ignitor Triple to have my complete team, a less scratched Ignitor and a Camo for sake of it... and be done with it rather than buying the whole series like I planned to before... I wanted to support this series and get a whole army, but at this expense... I may sell everything out-of-team-or-starter-pack instead.

I don't see what's hard to understand.
He's saying Game Informer (pretty much the only gaming print magazine left in existence, thanks to being owned by GameStop), made an April Fools joke in the April issue (that apparently is already available), suggesting Activision is going to start making you pay real money for every bullet used in Call of Duty.

(I don't know, is Nintendo Power still running? I know with GamePro closing, that was the last American multi-console print magazine, that isn't directly owned by a game store.)

@KingMike Nintendo power is still running and is stronger than ever

I understood what you were trying to say, but it just isn't as universal a statement as you believe it to be. I prepared a much longer reply, but I don't really find much of a point in posting it and boring everyone with details.

Just want to point out that I spent $40 for the 360 starter pack with the largely useless (but neat to have) Volcanic Vault and $35 for the 3DS starter pack (there are sales for these all the time now). Average price I've paid for single pack is $8 and average price I paid for triple packs/adventure packs are $20 (I've found quite a few). ...and I only got into Skylanders about a month ago.

This thread itself is proof that Tendoboy has somehow found a way to breed.

Some people in this thread need to have a look at Magic the Gathering.