50 Fun Facts About Skylanders

Skylanders toys outsold which number one action figure line of early 2012, by Activision's estimate?

Star Wars figures were the top action figure line at the time, yet the first Skylanders toys beat them. Sales ran two to three times above Activision's forecast, which prompted a sequel.

Where does Kaos banish the Skylanders at the start of the first Skylanders game?

Earth lacks the power that keeps Skylanders moving, so they freeze into figures and end up on toy store shelves. Only a new Portal Master, the player, can send them home.

Which classic PlayStation mascot is a playable guest with his own level in Skylanders: Imaginators?

Crash Bandicoot arrived with his own level, Thumpin' Wumpa Islands, plus crates to break and a spin attack built specially for him. His enemy Doctor Neo Cortex is playable too.

Which element does Spyro share with the tiki-masked Double Trouble in the Skylanders games?

Magic is Spyro's element, not Fire, the natural guess for a dragon. The first game gave each of its eight elements four heroes, and his fellow Magic users include a grub worm named Wrecking Ball.

Which two Nintendo guests in Skylanders: SuperChargers have figures that double as amiibo?

Bowser and Donkey Kong each brought a vehicle, the Clown Cruiser and the Barrel Blaster. Both figures work only with the Nintendo console versions of the game.

Which film composer wrote the first Skylanders game's main theme, with Lorne Balfe scoring most of the rest?

Hans Zimmer wrote the main theme, while Lorne Balfe composed most of the remaining music. Balfe was still scoring the series four games later, on SuperChargers.

Which Skylanders rival of 2013 was cancelled in 2016 when its studio, Avalanche Software, closed?

Disney Infinity ended when Disney shut its developer, Avalanche Software. Activision pressed on with Imaginators that same year, believing the toys-to-life genre still had room to grow.

Which gremlin of the Tech element came in the first Skylanders starter pack?

Trigger Happy shared the first starter pack with Spyro and a harpoon-firing fish-man. He returns in SuperChargers as Double Dare, driving the Gold Rusher.

The first Skylanders game was scripted by two Oscar-nominated co-writers of which Pixar film?

Toy Story co-writers Alec Sokolow and Joel Cohen wrote the game's plot, a fitting hire for a tale about playthings that come alive. Their Pixar script earned an Oscar nomination.

Which Dodgeball cast member voices Spyro in the animated series Skylanders Academy?

Justin Long voices Spyro in all three seasons. The series recast most roles to give it an identity apart from the games, where Josh Keaton had played the dragon.

Which California studio, founded by Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford, created the Skylanders series?

Toys for Bob had already been experimenting with physical toys that talk to games when Activision asked it to revive Spyro. Its 2011 debut is credited with inventing the toys-to-life genre.

Which two elements did Skylanders: Trap Team add to the original eight from the first game?

Light and Dark were created when Kaos blew up Cloudcracker Prison. Their gates were marked as an unknown element until a matching Skylander or trap was placed on the portal.

Which Portal Master, left a bodiless spirit by Kaos, serves as the player's guide in the Skylanders games?

Eon lost his body defending Skylands, so he can only advise. In SuperChargers Kaos captures him, and the heroes must free him from a prison in the Land of the Undead.

Which fish-like Water Skylander with a harpoon gun was sold in the first starter pack beside Spyro?

Gill Grunt returns in SuperChargers as Deep Dive, the pilot of the Reef Ripper. Darin De Paul voices him in the games.

Which Life-element hero is voiced by Ashley Tisdale in the series Skylanders Academy?

Stealth Elf is one of the three new graduates who lead the show, alongside Spyro and a lava monster. In the games she is voiced by Audrey Wasilewski.

Which lava monster of the Fire element drives the Burn-Cycle in Skylanders: SuperChargers?

Eruptor goes by Lava Lance in that game. He is also one of the three lead heroes of the animated series Skylanders Academy, where Jonathan Banks voices him.

Which Undead dragon became a Skylander after first appearing in The Legend of Spyro trilogy?

Cynder returned in the Skylanders: Giants starter pack as an upgraded Series 2 figure. Felicia Day voices her in the animated series Skylanders Academy.

Which Skylanders alchemist, voiced by Bobcat Goldthwait, drinks a potion to gain a stronger form?

Pop Fizz debuted in Skylanders: Giants, and Goldthwait kept the role for the animated series. In SuperChargers he is Big Bubble, pilot of the Soda Skimmer.

Which of the Giants leads the team and came in the Skylanders: Giants starter pack?

Tree Rex heads a team of eight Giants from 10,000 years in the past. They are strong enough to lift boulders and break walls that other Skylanders need explosives to breach.

On which console does Skylanders: Imaginators scan figures with a controller instead of a portal?

Nintendo Switch controllers carry their own NFC reader, so each figure is scanned once and saved to a menu. This version arrived as a launch title for the console in 2017.

In Skylanders: Imaginators, what are the veteran heroes who train player-made characters called?

Senseis each teach one of ten battle classes, such as Knight or Bowslinger, and raise the level cap of created heroes. Eleven of them are villains from earlier games.

Which basic move, missing from the first two console games, did Skylanders: Swap Force finally add?

Jumping had needed a bounce pad until then. Since the series was not aimed at seasoned platformer players, the team tested jump height with children and kept the harder leaps to optional areas.

Skylanders: Swap Force's sixteen heroes swap top and bottom halves to make how many combinations?

256 combinations come from pairing any of sixteen tops with any of sixteen bottoms. Each bottom half also sets one of eight ways of moving, such as Rocket, Dig or Climb, which open special challenge zones.

What was built into the Skylanders: Trap Team portal to play up the trapping of villains?

A speaker in the portal takes over the villain's voice as it leaves the TV, as if the foe had been pulled into the crystal. Trapped villains can then be played as heroes.

Which Albany studio led console work on Skylanders: Swap Force, a job the series' creators had held?

Vicarious Visions turned to the swapping idea after its Guitar Hero project was cancelled in 2011. An early proof was a magnet-jointed figure with Spyro's head on another hero's torso.

Activision gained the rights to Spyro, the seed of Skylanders, by merging with which games company?

Vivendi owned Spyro through its games arm, so the merger handed the dragon to Activision's studios. An early pitch for a grim, bloody reboot was scrapped almost at once in favour of a family game.

Launching the first Skylanders cost about as much as a game in which shooter series?

Call of Duty budgets were the yardstick: the launch cost about $100 million, a bold bet on an untested toy idea. It paid off with the best-selling kids' game of 2011.

Roughly how many Skylanders toys had been sold worldwide by 2016, five years after the series began?

300 million toys made Skylanders the 11th biggest console franchise of all time by 2016. The series had already passed $3 billion in sales the year before.

Which original Star Trek cast member voices the robot Arkeyan Conquertron in Skylanders: Giants?

George Takei plays the Conquertron, an ancient machine that Kaos wakes by accident and that then recruits him as its new leader.

Which Saturday Night Live alumnus voices the troll butler Glumshanks in Skylanders Academy?

Norm Macdonald played Glumshanks in 38 episodes, bringing his deadpan delivery to the servant of Kaos. In the games the troll is voiced by Chris Cox.

Which bird-like sky baron of the Air element debuted in the Skylanders: Giants starter pack?

Jet-Vac returns in SuperChargers as Hurricane, pilot of the Jet Stream. He also teaches the young heroes in the animated series Skylanders Academy.

Which dirt shark from the first Skylanders game drives the Shark Tank in Skylanders: SuperChargers?

Terrafin goes by Shark Shooter in that game. He is voiced by Joey Camen, who also plays the dynamite-throwing troll Boomer and a storm chicken named Free Ranger.

Which Undead skeleton in the first Skylanders game shares an Arkeyan origin with Drill Sergeant?

Chop Chop comes from the robot empire that enslaved Skylands 10,000 years ago, until the Giants rose up and toppled it.

Which four-armed yeti of the Water element debuted in the first Skylanders game?

Slam Bam shares a voice actor, Fred Tatasciore, with the turtle Warnado and the bazooka-toting Zook from the same game.

Which Air Skylander from the first game is a hybrid of a dragon and a unicorn?

Whirlwind has a fiery counterpart in Sunburn, who is half dragon and half phoenix. Salli Saffioti provides her voice.

Which member of the Swap Force is a Mermasquid, voiced by John DiMaggio in Skylanders: Swap Force?

Wash Buckler is one of sixteen heroes who gained the power to trade body halves when the volcano that renews Skylands' power erupted beneath them.

Which leader of the Trap Masters came in the Skylanders: Trap Team starter pack?

Snap Shot hunts villains with a bow and arrows of Traptanium, the crystal that Cloudcracker Prison was built from. His best friend Wallop swings two hammers of the same material.

Which Life-element Skylander came in the Skylanders: Trap Team starter pack alongside a Trap Master?

Food Fight is one of the few heroes whose game actor, Billy West, kept the role when the animated series Skylanders Academy recast most of the heroes.

Which flame spirit leads the SuperChargers and drives the Hot Streak in Skylanders: SuperChargers?

Spitfire is voiced by Diedrich Bader. His team's vehicles run on Rift Engines, which borrow portal technology to cross land, sea and sky.

Which Undead vampire from Skylanders: Swap Force returns in SuperChargers as the driver of the Tomb Buggy?

Roller Brawl, a roller derby player, returns in SuperChargers under the name Bone Bash. Swap Force has a second vampire too, a boxer called Night Shift.

Which blob-like Doom Raider is the first of the gang to be trapped in Skylanders: Trap Team?

Gulper is a gelatinous giant who swells to huge size when he drinks soda, so the heroes use that craving to catch him at Soda Springs.

Which Undead jouster debuted in Skylanders: Giants with a skeletal ostrich for a partner?

Fright Rider is voiced by Yuri Lowenthal, who returned in Trap Team as a fire unicorn named Trail Blazer.

In Skylanders, which race includes the pilot Flynn, the adventurer Cali and the trainer Buzz?

Mabu villagers turn up across the series. In Trap Team the Dreamcatcher torments a whole village of them and raids the dreams of their scientists.

Which Japanese publisher released the first Skylanders game in Japan, nearly two years late?

Square Enix handled the Japanese release in July 2013, well after the West's 2011 launch. It included a Wii U version of the game that was sold nowhere else.

Which author wrote the Skylanders prequel novel The Machine of Doom under the pen name Onk Beakman?

Cavan Scott went on to write the Mask of Power books, eight more prequels to the first game, the last of them published in 2016.

Which ancient relic turns Kaos into a giant robot in Skylanders: Giants?

The Iron Fist of Arkus keeps Kaos unstoppable until the heroes wrench it off him. Ages earlier, the Giants won their rebellion by defeating the robot king who held it.

Which lead of a 1990s TV series voices the hammer-wielding Giant Crusher in Skylanders: Giants?

Kevin Sorbo, television's Hercules, kept voicing Crusher in every later game up to Imaginators.

Which heavy metal frontman voices the werewolf guitarist Wolfgang in Skylanders Academy?

James Hetfield of Metallica plays Wolfgang, one of the Doom Raiders. In Trap Team the werewolf escapes to the far future and takes it over with amplified music.

Where did all three seasons of the animated series Skylanders Academy premiere from 2016 to 2018?

Netflix premiered the show in October 2016 and its third and final season in 2018. It was made by Activision Blizzard Studios, a division set up to turn the publisher's games into film and TV.

Which card minigame from Skylanders: Giants was remade as Creation Clash in Skylanders: Imaginators?

Skystones came back in Trap Team in a new form, a number-based card game played on a tabletop. In SuperChargers, traps kept from Trap Team each added a unique stone to play.