A bit of a lazy post today (although it's involved a lot of editing!), and very much a joint enterprise, which has been in the queue since 2017, from whence all the images date, after early submissions from the Blog's roving reporter in New York, Brian Berke, in that February, through summer shelfies (from both of us, I think), to some scans of that years' Argos Christmas Catalogue. A situation not helped by both the passage of time and the fact we were, at the time, both using cameras with a default prefix on image titles of DSCN!
Also, everything here has already been replaced by NFC (Near Field [digital] Communication) games, lines and ranges, so it's all, already obsolete. And while the tardiness in publishing has been explained before (a lot has happened here at Small Scale World Towers in the last few years - and is ongoing), the subject is very peripheral to figure collection, and this is a mostly Wikipedia-worded box-ticker, overview or primer, covering the three main ranges, back in 2017.
And, no, I don't know where that eight-years went!
Fistley, the opening paragraph from this Wikipedia page;
"Toys-to-life is a video game feature using physical figurines or action figures to interact within the game. There are several technologies used to make physical figurines appear in game such as image recognition, quick response (QR) codes, Bluetooth and near field communication (NFC). Depending on the technology, the game can determine the individual figurine's proximity, and save a player's progress data to a storage medium located within that piece. It was one of the most lucrative branches of the video game industry especially during the late 1990s and 2010s, with the Skylanders franchise alone selling more than $3 billion worth over the course of four years."
"Skylanders is a toys-to-life action-adventure video game franchise developed by American video game developer Toys for Bob and published by Activision.
Skylanders games are played using NFC-enabled collectible figurines of playable characters, alongside a specially themed NFC reader dubbed the "Portal of Power", which reads and writes data stored on a microchip within the base of the figure. This includes the corresponding character to use during gameplay, as well as ingame [sic] upgrades and statistics, allowing figures to retain their game data across different games in the series.
Each Skylander is associated with one of ten elements: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Magic, Tech, Life, Undead, Light, and Dark. Skylanders of different elements are stronger in certain areas of the game, and can unlock areas of the game hidden behind "Elemental Gates"."
Skylanders games are played using NFC-enabled collectible figurines of playable characters, alongside a specially themed NFC reader dubbed the "Portal of Power", which reads and writes data stored on a microchip within the base of the figure. This includes the corresponding character to use during gameplay, as well as ingame [sic] upgrades and statistics, allowing figures to retain their game data across different games in the series.
Each Skylander is associated with one of ten elements: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Magic, Tech, Life, Undead, Light, and Dark. Skylanders of different elements are stronger in certain areas of the game, and can unlock areas of the game hidden behind "Elemental Gates"."
The next biggest was the Disney Infinity franchise;
"Disney Infinity (2013) was a toys-to-life series based on Disney characters and franchises. Since the initial game's release in 2013, there had been three installments [sic]. Disney Infinity was the first game, focusing on Disney and Pixar characters. In 2014, Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes was released as the second game, which focused on Marvel characters and properties. The third game, 2015's Disney Infinity 3.0, centered [sic] on the Star Wars franchise. All Disney Infinity figurines could interact with various games in the series. The line concluded in 2016, when Disney announced that production of the series had officially ceased, and that there would be no more future titles. "Gold Editions" of each game have since been released on Steam, containing a majority of the original content with the toys integrated into the games."
The other big seller back then was the planet destroying polymer plagiarists . . .
Wikipedia again;
"Lego Dimensions (2015) was a toys-to-life game developed by Traveller's Tales that used physical Lego figures, featuring characters from various Warner Brothers and Lego franchises, as well as other third-party intellectual properties such as Back to the Future, The Simpsons, and many more. Some franchises, such as Adventure Time and Sonic the Hedgehog, had never seen releases in Lego format prior. The game involves a heavier emphasis on the physicality of the genre, with characters having vehicles that could be rebuilt into new forms, as well as mechanics that involved moving characters on the Toy Pad. No sequels were released, with new content being added through a series of "Year 2" updates. On October 23, 2017, Warner Bros. officially announced that they would not be developing further content for Lego Dimensions"
"Lego Dimensions is a 2015 toys-to-life platform video game developed by Traveller's Tales and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Wii U. It is a crossover between Lego and over thirty different franchises, from which levels can be played through a USB toy pad peripheral. The Starter Pack, containing the game, the USB toy pad, three minifigures and one vehicle, was released in September 2015, while additional level packs and characters were released over the following two years."
Obviously, Brian bought a Donald Duck for purely ornamental purposes, and why wouldn't you?! I know I hate Mickey and Mini, but I don't have trouble with the rest of them, although the whole Pluto/Goofy thing is a bit odd, and Donald having turkey for Christmas is downright disturbing!
These are starting to turn-up in mixed lots, at Cra Boot Sales, or in small Charity Shop bags, but I actually try to avoid them as the rigid bases (where all the electronics are) mean even loose, they take up a lot of space, and there may be a future session of debasing those I have picked up, as the figures are often very good examples of the art. Also, the electronic exchange shops (like CeX, geddit: these kids are soooo edgy!) still tend to have cabinets full of them, as many people still play with them, even if they're now discontinued.
Many thanks as always to Brian for his help with these, at some point we will return to them, I'm sure, but not a great priority, they are electronic gaming pieces, not strictly toy figures!
