darkSpyro

Or SWAPtober if you prefer. There are a few things going on to mark the launch of Skylanders SWAP Force, first up is that during the whole of October the official Skylanders twitter account will be giving away a single SWAP Force Starter Pack each day.

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Fans can then tweet their favorite SWAP Force character combination along with a suggested catchphrase using the hashtags #SWAPtober and #Skylanders for the chance to win one of the daily Skylanders SWAP Force Starter Pack giveaways, which will be available after the game's launch.

On Thursday the 10th from 3-6 PM there will be "celebration" in Times Square dubbed SWAPtoberfest where "fans will have the chance to be among the very first to play the game before it's available at retail" (the game launches on the 13th).

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SWAPtoberfest will feature Skylanders SWAP Force-themed activities, photos with Skylanders costumed characters as well as chances to win a Skylanders SWAP Force Starter Pack and special Skylanders-themed merchandise from top companies like MEGA Brands, Rubie's Costume Company, Hybrid Apparel and Power A.

And on the 12th and 13th at the Toys R Us flagship store in New York City you'll find "one-of-a-kind in-store experiences, including game demos and giveaways" to celebrate the launch of the game.

Skylanders: Lost Islands gets its weekly update with a new house and a new companion.

• A new house just for the girls, the Sky Cadettes HQ which costs 200 Gems and can be used by any of the female Skylanders
  
• A new companion Batterson who ups the number of kudos invitations can send in another kingdom from 3 to 6, he costs 200 Gems
  
• Super Tuesday tomorrow will be to get a chest every time you clear a troll/sheep/chompy pod so try to save them up if you can!
  
• And October's Alter-Ego is Skeletal Cynder, you'll be able to win her in the Wishin' Well from the 1st all the way through to the end of the month
  

The official Skylanders website has been updated with all of the artwork, videos, back stories and a few screenshots of each of the new Skylanders SWAP Force characters like Punk Shock and Wind Up below.


Several new trailers for the game have also been posted on the official Youtube channel like this CGI trailer introducing us to a new villain.


A few new alternative decoration toys have been discovered recently including a new Enchanted Hoot Loop, the first visual of Nitro Magna Charge, and an odd looking Jolly Bumble Blast. The first two you can find on the official website but Jolly Bumble Blast remains elusive.


Frito-Lay have launched a new sweepstakes to win a special orange and black Fright Rider. You find a code inside the large packs and enter it online for a chance to win one of the Fright Riders. It runs until the middle of November but remember it's just a chance to win unlike with the Sidekicks.


A fairly large update has hit the Lost Islands this week, you'll need to go to the App Store to update the app this time.

• A brand new type of currency called Kudos that is earned from the social objectives and used to buy a few things.
  
• Admiral Thumpback is a new Alter Ego but not from the Wishin' Well, instead he'll cost you 2000 Kudos.
  
• A new companion, Capybara King, costs 150 Gems but then causes all of your chests to have a bonus gem inside.
  
• Gurglefin is another new companion, he costs 400 Kudos and adds the chance to get Wishstones from gifts.
  
• The penultimate Sidekick Thumpling also sneaks in, he'll cost you 300 Gems if you don't have the toy.
  
• You can get Thumpback's House for free until the 29th.
  
• It's also Water Week which means Water Skylanders get +25% gold just like the Dragon Skylanders did last week.
  
• And finally there's a new bunch of decorations as well as a house for you to spend Kudos on.
  

Super Tuesday is a free gem each hour that you have to collect from Orville and 33% off Shrines.

A poster containing almost the entire lineup of Skylanders: SWAP Force has been found by supernicmax. The poster finally gives us the pictures and elements of the last remaining new Skylanders "Dune Bug", "Scratch", "Wind-Up", and "Punk Shock" who had until now been known only by their names.


It also confirms the return of Camo in some capacity as well as showing the new looks for a few other returnees.

And in other news, Skylanders: Cloud Patrol hit the regular Android Google Play store today, so no longer is it exclusive to the Kindle Fire (and iOS).

Activision today revealed some new information and screenshots for the Nintendo 3DS version of the upcoming Skylanders SWAP Force.


It will be developed by n-Space, the same company that made the 3DS version last year's Skylanders Giants, and will again have a completely different storyline to that seen in its console counterpart.

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The story of Skylanders SWAP Force on Nintendo 3DS begins in Boomtown, home of Skylands' favorite pilot, Flynn. As the town is celebrating Flynn as their hometown hero, a new villain known as Count Moneybone sneaks his way into Boomtown to kidnap Cali, long-time friend to Flynn and the Skylanders. Now it's up to Portal Masters everywhere to assemble the Skylanders and SWAP Force to save Cali and defeat the evil Count Moneybone.

The game will be released alongside the console versions in October and comes with two swappable characters, Free Ranger and Rattle Shake, as well as the exclusive Volcanic Eruptor.

Also playable on the 2DS!


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At this year's gamescom in Germany Activision have shown off a few of the new characters for Swap Force that we've been getting glimpses of recently.

The four main Skylanders they've been focusing on are two swappers, Boom Jet and Grilla Drilla, as well as two core Skylanders, Slobber Tooth and Zoo Lou.


FamilyGamerTV were at gamescom and have been busy interviewing a few key people like Guha Bala from the developers Vicarious Visions in the video above.

You can check out some new screenshots, artwork and toy photos in the Swap Force Gallery here on darkSpyro.

A special $100 edition of the Skylanders Swap Force Starter Pack has been announced, the Dark Edition Starter Pack will be exclusive to GameStop and feature five Dark versions of some Skylanders.


The main attraction is the five dark Skylanders: Dark Wash Buckler, Dark Blast Zone, Dark Ninja Stealth Elf, Dark Mega Ram Spyro, and Dark Slobber Tooth. And along with all the usual stickers and cards you'll get a special poster featuring all of the characters from all three games.


Lost Islands this week sees the introduction of the first two Sidekicks, Trigger Snappy and Whisper Elf. They behave just like the other Skylanders but they can tackle the new Chompy Pods when they're fresh, other Skylanders must wait for it to empty. The other six Sidekicks are likely to be rolled out slowly like they've been doing with the variants. Super Tuesday this week has a double gold bonus.

Today we get out very first glimpse of the new Core Fire Skylander "Smolderdash", the Toys R Us exclusive Legendary versions of a few of the other new characters and a closer look at even more new figures from Skylanders SWAP Force.



We've also got images of the packaging that a few of the single characters are going to come in for SWAP Force:

Thanks to FFM1994 Walmart have kindly provided us with the names for the remaining mystery Skylanders from Skylanders SWAP Force, unfortunately they don't have any new pictures so you'll have to use your imagination for the moment.

For the totally brand new SWAP Force Core Skylanders we have:

• Wind Up
  
• Scratch
  
• Punk Shock
  
• Dune Bug
  
• Smolderdash
  
• Scorp
  

In addition to the ones we've known about previously there will be LightCore versions of Countdown, Bumble Blast and Smolderdash.

The remaining Adventure Pack and Battle Pack were also named as "Sheep Wreck Island" and "Arkeyan Crossbow" respectively. No details were given so it is still guesswork as to which Skylanders will be included in those packs.

And finally they gave almost all of the missing names for the Skylanders returning from previous games:

• Heavy Duty Sprocket
  
• Bang Bang Big Bang Trigger Happy
  
• Anchors Away Gill Grunt
  
• Fire Bone Hot Dog
  
• Phantom Cynder
  
• Twin Blade Chop Chop
  
• Super Gulp Pop Fizz
  
• Turbo Jet-Vac
  
• Horn Blast Whirlwind
  
• Hyper Beam Prism Break
  
• LightCore Wham-Shell
  
• LightCore Warnado
  
• LightCore Flashwing
  

That does however still leave room for one more Life returnee...

The last few remaining swappable characters from the upcoming Skylanders SWAP Force have been revealed by way of a poster on Amazon.co.uk spotted by jckelsall. Those last four stragglers are Rubble Rouser, Trap Shadow, Doom Stone and the previously leaked Boom Jet.


Also revealed today on Amazon.com was the packaging for the first Adventure and Battle Packs of SWAP Force. First we have the Tower of Time Adventure Pack in better detail with confirmation of the item names "Battle Hammer" and "Sky Diamond" along with Pop Thorn's name "Pop Thorn".


Then we have the Fiery Forge Battle Pack (previously known as Mulcan Forge) with a clear shot of the Bumble Blast toy as well as Knockout Terrafin.


You can find screenshots from both packs in the gallery.

Thanks to Aura24 for spotting some listings for a whole load of unannounced Skylanders, they've since been removed by the retailer.


Another new Skylander that did not have an image is a Lightcore Skylander called Smolderdash and along with the other new returnees there were also Lightcore versions of Flashwing and Warnado but there were no images of them.

The first thing to remember is that the images that were used were clearly not intended to be published as is so the Skylanders will no doubt look a little different in their final designs. Their names too may be placeholders that have yet to be fully finalised as a Skylander we already know the name of, Pop Thorn, is listed as Gasteroid (of course it could be that Pop Thorn is the older name).

Bumble Blast, a Skylander we have actually previously seen in promotional artwork, looks set to be a part of a Battle Pack called "Mulcan Forge" along with the Series 3 version of Terrafin, the battle item itself being a cauldron pouring molten metal called "Cauldron".

As well as all that there a couple of listings for Double Packs which include two of the swappable Swap Force characters, one pack has Free Ranger and a mysteriously named Nitro Magna Charge while the other has Rattle Shake but also has Nitro Magna Charge. Again there were no images of these packs so it is unclear exactly how Nitro Magna Charge will differ from the regular single pack Magna Charge.


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Another of those last few stragglers, Series 2 Drobot, has been spotted at several Walmarts across the US. With Polar Whirlwind about to be formally released on Saturday this means that only Lightcore Hex remains unreleased in the US - and you'll need to pre-order and then wait for SWAP Force to get her.


Further details about GameStop's event this Saturday, the "Ultimate Skylanders Festival", have been confirmed including free sidekicks with the purchase of any Skylanders Giants toy, a free SWAP Force poster for the first 25 customers, Giants Starter Packs for $39.99 and all Battle Packs for $9.99. Not to mention the release of Polar Whirlwind and the possibility of a few Scarlet Ninjinis turning up too.

Two stores will also apparently have a SWAP Force demo:

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Come to these Stores if you are in the area for a Skylanders Swap Force Demo!

Dallas Fort-Worth
Shops of Southlake
1251 E Southlake Blvd, SPC 351
Southlake TX 76092

New York City Broadway & 85th
2322 Broadway
New York, NY 10024

Remember the event only runs until 2PM so make sure to get there early!

This Saturday (the 22nd) folks in the US will be able to go down to their local GameStop and hopefully get their hands on the elusive Polar Whirlwind. In an event known as "Skylanders Day" Polar Whirlwind will see her US debut (although of course some places have accidentally put her out early) along with some other special items and discounts on things like the Giants Starter Pack.


To get Polar Whirlwind in Australia however you will need to pre-order Skylanders SWAP Force from EB Games, much in the same manner as the rest of the world is doing to get LightCore Hex.

Forum member Tigorus has spotted the first of the new Adventure Packs thanks to a flyer given out when pre-ordering SWAP Force. The round, spiky, winged, core Skylander named Pop Thorn will be part of an Adventure Pack called "Tower of Time". And it appears to come with two brand new magic items just like the original Adventure Packs did.

E3 2013 has brought with it many new character reveals, gameplay videos and interviews with an assortment of Activision and Vicarious Visions staff about the upcoming Skylanders SWAP Force.

To kick it off we've been introduced to several new characters, some brand new Swap Force type and some regular "core" Skylanders.


Another brand new Swap Force type character, so far seen only in the newly updated version of the part swapping trailer, is a Fire Skylander called Fire Kraken. And for the core Skylanders you've got newcomers like Grim Creeper and, as shown off in various hands on play sessions, Fryno, a fiery rhino that has upgrades to get his very own motorbike (just like Hot Head).

We've also seen various returning Series 3 characters confirmed through brand new artwork like Spyro, Trigger Happy, Eruptor and Terrafin along with a few other brand new characters whose names have yet to be revealed.


On the gameplay and interview side of things you've got fairly extensive coverage from FamilyGamerTV showing off each of the new characters, like Fryno, as well as an interview with David Nathanielsz from Vicarious Visions the developers of Swap Force.

Coin-op TV too have a few videos and an interview of their own and The Skylander Kids have some up close videos on some more unnamed brand new Skylanders that were seen in toy form at the Skylanders' booth. GameSpot ran a live showing of the game and you can see the 25 minute recording of that to watch them show off of a wide variety of the characters and their combinations as they advance through a brand new level.

Today's Nintendo Direct had a few very brief seconds of video from the Nintendo 3DS version of Swap Force, it's at about the 17 minute mark but blink and you'll miss it.


And of course our very own Skylanders SWAP Force gallery has been updated with all the new screenshots and pieces of artwork that have been released.

It looks like Skylanders fans in the UK will finally be able to have a chance to get a hold of some of the sidekicks from Skylanders Spyro's Adventure. On promotional packs of Chupa Chups and Fruittella you'll find a code that you can use on their website to see if you have won. Oddly though the article says that only two of the sidekicks are up for grabs: Gill Runt and Whisper Elf.


The promotion runs from the 15th of June until the end of August giving away ten each day.

Last year it was Chrome Spyro, this time around it's a Bronze Hot Dog for the exclusive E3 variant. FamilyGamerTV have gotten their hands on one a little early and you can see them unbox it in the video below:



Kotaku have also got one which they've taken some nice clear photos of.