KidzWorld Q&A with Alex Ness

[Yaggleberry Finn]

This Q&A with Toys for Bob Chief of Staff Alex Ness appeared on KidzWorld and you can read the full interview at www.kidzworld.com/article/26521-skylanders-spyros-adventure-qanda-new-toys

Here are a few highlights:

Back in November, we released what we call Wave 2 of the toys that included 3 new Skylanders characters – Hex, Wrecking Ball, and Dino Rang.  A fine group.  Then on the week of January 16th, we released Wave 3, which includes two brand new characters –Cynder, and Double Trouble – plus a new Adventure Pack called The Empire of Ice.   The Empire of Ice Adventure Pack comes with a new Skylander, Slam Bam, and two magic items.  These guys still haven’t come to my local stores yet and it is killing me.  Despite working on Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure for two-and-a-half years, I’m really excited to get the new toys myself and play with them in the game.

Do you guys really believe that the Chief of Staff of Toys for Bob doesn't have all of the Skylanders in his possession? I'm definitely not trying insinuate that he's lying, it just seems really weird to me is all.

Cynder is actually a character from the old Spyro game that has made her way to the Skylands...  She can also temporarily enter a shadow form and perform a very powerful dash attack, leaving behind these ghosts that continue to attack her enemies.

Probably just a matter of opinion, but I thought her shadow dash was pretty underwhelming as an attack. Her upgraded lightning breath is much more powerful.

Then there is Double Trouble, a crazy tiki wizard that can create clone versions of himself ...  He also has a magic staff that can deliver a consistent beam of energy that intensifies over time.  This can be a super effective weapon in Battle Mode.

He shoots, he scores! I am just now realizing how deadly DT is in battle mode.

The Empire of Ice is indeed, a very cold and frozen place...  I’m actually really looking forward to playing this one again so if you are listening, local Target store, please get this Adventure Pack in stock soon.

Another comment about waiting for figures. This is certainly a good PR move, saying that they're just as eager as the rest of us to see shelves stocked with Skylanders. But it's kind of funny to put it on the local Target store rather than Activision's distribution. Just last night I heard some WalMart employees lament that they couldn't order a lot more Skylanders at once since they fly off the shelves so fast.

We’ve got more Skylanders coming out – Wham Shell, Lightning Rod, Camo, Warnado, Sunburn, and more!  There is also another Adventure Pack coming out.  When is all this coming out?  Oh jeez, I was hoping you wouldn’t ask that.  I don’t actually know when the official release date is.  I’m pretty sure most of them will be out this spring.

Yeah, this is just speculation, but what do you all think "spring" means? March 20? Any time between then and June 19? I know they're being purposefully vague there, but my wallet sure would like to know a little more specifically...

In addition to that, have you heard about these collector’s edition Skylanders floating around out there?  There are some very limited runs of some of the Skylanders toys.  I believe these have been introduced randomly into the stores and are extremely rare.

I think GameMaster has made some comments as to their actual rarity. I wonder if they'll ever make it known just how rare they are?

[Radical Tropicon]

I really do think it's weird that the chief of staff himself has to go out and find these guys as well. If its true, guess I'm wrong about the swag these guys are able to get easily. A PR would make sense though.
As for spring speculation, I want to say a date closer to Easter, but it's such big speculation at this point. Middle of March or early to middleish April.