*****disclaimer/summary: this is not a review of skylanders the video game. this is a non-variant collecting guide and cost-benefit analysis for those on the fence about how much money it would realistically cost to begin collecting the figurines and level packs. buying only what is necessary to unlock all areas of the game would be substantially less.*****

so my 6-year-old daughter has a birthday on 12/23. for said birthday and xmas, i have purchased skylanders for the xbox360, along with most of the available characters (21 of the 23 available, variants excluded). she's at an age where i'm ready to test her desire to collect and catalogue. if this goes well, we'll keep on collecting the set together.

at a glance, purchasing and collecting the skylanders figurines looks straight brutal:

• skylanders starter set - $70
• the single figurines - $8
• character packs - $20
• adventure packs - $20

excluding character variants and focusing just on unique characters, there are 32 skylanders (4 characters per element type, 8 element types). if you're counting total non-variant figurines, this count rises to 44 (32 skylanders, 4 level figurines and 8 power-up figurines). since the 3ds starter set contains a variant (dark spyro), i will be focusing on every console except the 3ds (i'm doing my best to be concise, not thorough).

skylander collecting: the concise, non-completist method

the most cost-effecient way to collect the skylanders is via character packs ($6.67/character vs. $8/character for a single). as of this writing, some characters are not yet released and hence not available for purchase via character packs. for the purposes of this analysis, let's assume all are currently available:

• the starter set includes three characters (spyro, gill grunt and trigger happy in every version except the 3ds - it instead includes dark spyro, ignitor and stealth elf), that leaves us with 29 characters to collect separately.
• of these 29, four of those characters (ghost roaster, terrafin, sunburn and slam bam) are currently only available in level packs that also include a level figurine and two power-up figurines (sunburn and slam bam level packs are not yet released) and cannot be purchased as singles or in character packs. after theoretically purchasing all four level packs, we're left with 25 characters to collect.
• two characters of these 25 were claimed as retail-store-exclusives (whirlwind at target, drill sergeant at wal-mart); they are not available in character packs and unfortunately must be purchased separately. now 23 characters remain.
• five unique character packs are currently available (excluding the toys r us exclusive 'legendary' characters). for sake of this analysis, we'll assume at least two more character packs will be created and released (a rather logical assumption considering their strategy). that leaves only two characters left to purchase.

let's now tally up the full cost using the above strategy:

using the above total, the most any one person should spend to collect all 32 character figurines, all 4 level figurines and all 8 power-up figurines will be around $322 - approximately $6.15 per figurine after subtracting $70 for the starter set. sweet fucking christ.

skylander collecting and the virtue of patience

fortunately, one can acquire all of this for much less if you wait for one of the constant sales being offered. during black friday, for instance, several retail outlets priced the starter set at $50, while other retail outlets advertised buy one get one free offers for any skylanders accessory.

in the weeks following black friday, the deals have lessened somewhat - toys r us recently offered buy one get one half-off on all skylanders accessories. in another instance, they gave out single characters when purchasing any video game over $19.99. toys r us is currently offering a $20 skylanders voucher when the starter set is purchased at full price.

additionally, since it is in the nature of all video games to drop in price as time passes, surely the skylanders line of toys must also follow this trend for those who are patient and have more time than money (which is most of us). as more character and level packs are released, with them will most certainly be more deals designed to entice us as collectors.

i personally took advantage of the $50 starter set and purchased both available level packs, four of the five character packs, and four single character packs (of the 23 characters currently available, i am only lacking drill sergeant and ignitor). i began purchasing the skylanders on black friday and made my most recent purchase on 12/13. my cost breakdown currently looks something like this:

to date, i have spent around $136 - approximately $3.58 per figurine after subtracting $50 for the starter set. from my viewpoint, this is a much more realistic figure of what is possible if you space out your purchases and buy when sales are present.

conclusion

while i cannot predict with certainty just how cost-effective upcoming sales will be, nor can i predict the release schedule and packaging for upcoming skylanders characters releases, i can at least demonstrate it is not only possible to buy the game for less than the cost of a regularly-priced xbox360 or ps3 game, but i can also demonstrate the figurines can be purchased for half off the face value of a single character pack.

thanks to all who made it to the end. hopefully you've found my long-winded analysis to be at least a little helpful in regards to what is possible and just how much it can or can't cost you to collect the skylanders series. feel free to post any great deals on par with what i've so far accomplished. considering i still have two level packs and nine additional characters to collect, my quest is only two-thirds finished.

I wanted to get this for my niece & nephew for xmas, so I bought the "Mega Pack" from Best Buy when it was on sale. It came with the starter set, a 3 pack character set, and the pirate level pack for $80. That package got me 6 of the 8 elements, so I went and picked up 2 additional characters to cover the last 2 elements.

So in the end I spent ~$100, and got:

• The game
• 9 total character figurines
• Pirate level & power-ups

I don't really plan on buying any more characters, I just wanted to get enough characters so he could access all the elemental gates in the game. In fact, I'm not even giving them the Pirate Seas pack yet, that's going to be a birthday gift to my nephew in 2 months, help spread things out a bit.

@Nadafinga: well done, that's around $4/figurine. you've also shown approximately how much it will cost at minimum to get a full elemental set. my original strategy was also to buy every element and call it good.

when i went to tru to buy the necessary character pack and single packs, it was on black friday. they were running the bogo free ads and it made sense to just double up. then i decided to buy both level packs. before i knew it i was buying everything and turned the whole quest into a game in itself.

I bought the starter back, the 3 pack with drobot, stump smash, and flame slinger, the pirate level and the crypt level. That gave me all of the elements but wind, so I bought Sonic Boom as a single. I got the buy 2, get one free deal at TRU, so that's 70 + 20 + 20 + 8. $118 total.

We played with just the starter for a few weeks, then Sonic Boom was added as a good behavior reward. Pirate Pack was a Thanksgiving present. The rest are waiting for Christmas.