Why is everywhere sold out of skylanders

Collectability: Like Pokemon, each Skylanders character comes with its own strengths and weaknesses. At different points in the game you might need one or another to complete a task. In one Brooklyn Target video game aisle, disc boxes for games ranging from Call of Duty to Nickelodeon Dance sat crowded on one side while a display for Skylanders once took up the entire length of the other.

That is, until Skylanders became successful. Disney delayed the release of Infinity in part to accommodate the line of interactive toy figures that were eventually released with the game. How valuable? But being first has its advantages, too. I tested the game both on PlayStation 4 and iPad mini with Retina Display, and it definitely seems like the same thing on both, with a few caveats.

On iPad, you have to download new content like additional Skylander characters and some worlds and environments, while on the console everything is instantly available. This can be either mildly or very annoying, depending on your connection speed, but even with my fast home Wi-Fi some things took longer than others. But on May 10, Disney shocked the industry, announcing it was ceasing all work on future "Disney Infinity" games — and shut down the studio responsible for the series, affecting workers.

And that led to questions. If "Infinity," which most analysts believe outsold "Skylanders" and "Lego Dimensions" last year Disney doesn't break out sales of the game wasn't seen as a viable long-term revenue generator, what did that say about the long-term health of the toys-to-life category?

Look at the new vs. We're trailing by something like 50 percent — maybe its 40 percent, but we're down big time. It seems like much of the magic of this idea has already been pretty much executed on. Kids got the idea and it feels like both collectors and kids are beginning to move on to something else.

Activision and Warner Bros. Kids not only use them as an interface to the game, but they carry them away from the game. There are plenty of those, like combining all of these pieces in an animated skeleton together, and having a nice, smooth, complete version of a character.

We decided early on with this version to go for the creative angle, and the whole game just blossomed out of it. And the portal master has always had this unique power to bring your characters to life, and now you have that power. Now you can actually create them. We had to make an awesome Skylanders game and expand its functionality, but also connect it into the worlds of TV media, and as I mentioned earlier, of physical toys with our 3D printing plans.

They arrive at the academy as soon as they hear about the emergence of mind magic, which has exploded across Skylands.