tell me about skylanders

[omama]

I know nothing about them - can you give me the low down so I can choose a suitable pressie for 9yo nephew?

There are 3 games
Spyro's Adventure (the original game)
Skylanders Giants
Skylanders Swap Force (recently released)

To play the game you purchase characters which you put on a portal of power (which comes with the game).
There were a number of characters introduced with the original game (Spyro's Adventure). More characters (giants) were released with Skylanders Giants. With swap force, yet more characters have been released which split into 2 (so you can "swap" them about).

Your nephew will likely want particular characters. You will need to find out which ones he already has (or wants) and what variants of the game he has (e.g Swap force characters won't work with old games portal ).

There is also assorted branded merchandise such as bags, Tshirts etc. which he might like.

If he doesn't have any of the game at all at the moment, the starter pack for Swap Force is around £70, the characters are between 8-12 each. They tend not to be backwards compatible.

There are 8 'elements' and you need one of each to be able to do all areas of the game. earth, air, fire, water, life, death, tech and magic. If he has the sets already then find out which element he's short of. He may already have an idea of which he wants.