Demystifying Toys & Figures Compatibility
Understand that all figures from older games work in newer games. Or to put it another way, newer games in the franchise are backwards compatible with figures from previous games. For example, all figures that were released for the Spyro's Adventure game will work in every game in the franchise, because that was the first game to be released. Figures that were released for the Swap Force game will work in Swap Force and later games, but not necessarily in Spyro's Adventure or Giants, which both came before Swap Force. There are only a few caveats to this rule of thumb. It particularly applies to Magic Item and Expansion / Adventure Pack figures from earlier games. They do still work in later games, but their functionality often changes or diminishes over time compared to what they did in their debut games. For example, the four Adventure Pack figures from Spyro's Adventure (Dragon's Peak, Darklight Crypt, Ice Cave, and Pirate Ship) each unlock a new stage to play in both Spyro's Adventure and Giants games. From Swap Force on however, they no longer do this, and instead function as a magic item that damages enemies on the screen at the time of placing them on the portal. Another example is Traptanium Traps from Skylanders Trap Team. When you use them in Trap Team, they can capture specific villain characters and allow you to play as them in the game. In SuperChargers and Imaginators however, Traps merely augment your racing stats and abilities, or give your character some gold when scanned in during play, rather than performing their original functionality.
Understand that unlike portals, Skylanders figures are not console-specific. This means you can use them with any Skylanders game they are compatible with, regardless of the console you are playing on. There are also no region locks or restrictions on figures, so you may import them from other countries online without having to worry about compatibility issues in your region.
Understanding a Figure's "Series" and Forwards Compatibility
Check the original packaging that a Skylanders figure came in when you purchased one new, if you have access to packaging for one at this point. You may notice a few mentions on the box, of Skylanders games that the figure is or is not compatible with. These are not always accurate indicators of a particular figure's compatibility, and were sometimes incorrect.
Keep in mind that if a character had their "Series 1" or debut figure in a given Skylanders game, then you can use newer versions of that character's figure in their "Series 1" game, and any game after it. For example, say you have Tidal Wave Gill Grunt, a Trap Team figure designated on the packaging and in the game as "Series 4", and you want to know if it will work with any earlier Skylanders games. All you need to do is determine the earliest game in the Skylanders franchise that had a Gill Grunt figure in it, which will be his "Series 1" debut figure. Gill Grunt was one of the original Skylanders figures from Spyro's Adventure, so even though your Tidal Wave Gill Grunt is a Trap Team figure from a newer game, it will work in any games in the franchise from the first Skylanders Spyro's Adventure game onward. All that the "Series #" designation means, is that the character has had its own figure released in that number of games up until that point. It doesn't necessarily mean that they were sequentially released with every new game however. For example, the character Shroomboom had his "Series 1" debut figure in the second Skylanders game, Skylanders Giants. However, he did not have a figure in the third game, Swap Force, at all. Instead, his "Series 2" figure came in the fourth game, Trap Team, as Sure Shot Shroomboom. So for this character, if you have the "Series 2" version of his figure from Trap Team, using the rule of thumb, since his "Series 1" debut was in Giants, his "Series 2" Trap Team figure is compatible with Giants, Swap Force, Trap Team, and later games. It is important to note that this rule of thumb only applies to the first 4 games in the franchise: Spyro's Adventure, Giants, Swap Force, and Trap Team. SuperChargers was the first to break this rule, with its figures only being compatible with SuperChargers (and the later game Imaginators) despite having figures of some of the same characters from earlier games. This is because even though the characters themselves were familiar faces from previous games, their SuperChargers figures actually had redesigned skill trees, and in some cases completely different play styles than their earlier games' versions. Imaginators features only all-new character figures, with no figures of returning playable characters at all. You could technically play as the villains in Trap Team if you captured them using Traptanium Traps, but they weren't fully fleshed out as playable characters with their own skill trees and progression systems in Trap Team like their Imaginators figure versions are.
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