Our friends over at GeekDad just keep writing great stuff about Skylanders:
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/03/skylanders-accessories/
The article I linked above has one passage that made me stop and marvel.
They don’t actually use the Skylanders DS styluses to play on the DS at all. Firstly they used them to create their own plays in a make shift cardboard theater. By poking the stylus up from behind they could get the miniature Skylanders figures to act out different chapters from their adventures.
They then moved on from this when one of the styluses got inadvertently broken (apparently during a particularly hazardous Skylanders adventure involving a house brick in the garden). This resulted in the mini-figures being separated from the end of his stylus — creating an opportunity for some other ways to play.
The following day I found my youngest son trying to get the miniature Skylanders figure from the stylus to register on the game’s portal. I had to explain that only the big figures can be used in the game. “But I thought I could use baby Spyro to get between the little gaps in the game” was his response that actually made a lot of sense.
It makes SO MUCH SENSE.
Paul Reiche from Toys for Bob once told me that he thought this game might change the relationships between kids, toys, and games. That kids would get a toy and be disappointed if they couldn’t bring it to life in a game. I thought that would be impossible.
Clearly I was wrong.
Wow, now that I think about it I know I would have had a very different relationship with my toys if they could go into games.