I’m planning on getting this game for my kids for Christmas. I have two 8 year old girls; their favorite things are Littlest Pet shop, My Little Pony, Bratz, and Barbie. I also have a 10 year old son; his favorite things are WWE, Halo Reach, and Star Wars.

I’m looking for any advice on how many Skylander toys I should get each of them and based on what else they enjoy maybe witch character packs to buy. Any advice would be helpful. I’m just not familiar enough with the toys or the game.

You'll probably want one character of each element in order to unlock all of the areas of each level. I'm guessing you're going to get it for the console version which comes with Gill Grunt (Water), Spyro (Magic), and Trigger Happy (Tech), but if you're getting the 3ds you'll be geting Stealth Elf (Life), Ignitor (Fire), and Dark Spyro (Magic) - who is a Spyro recolor with a slightly different set of stats.

So you'll probably be buying 5 extra characters over the starter pack, or make it 6 if you want 2 for each kid. That should be MORE than enough to start with - that will make 9 characters.

Here's the full list of characters. The ones in Bold are available now, but the others will likely be available before Christmas if sales keep up:

Earth Characters: Terrafin, Prism Break, Bash, Dino-rang

Fire Characters: Ignitor, Eruptor, Flame Slinger, Sunburn

Air Characters: Sonic Boom, Whirlwind, Lighten Rod,Warnado

Water Characters: Gill Grunt, Zap, Slam Bam, Wham Shell

Magic Characters: Spyro, Voodood, Double Trouble, Wrecking Ball

Tech Characters: Trigger Happy, Boomer, Drobot, Drill Sergeant

Life Characters: Stealth Elf, Stump Smash, Zook Camo

Undead Characters: Chop Chop, Ghost Roaster, Hex, Cynder

My girls tended to gravitate towards Stealth Elf and Whirlwind, which took care of Life and Air. Sonic Boom is another fun Air character that the girls might like.

I bought Prism Break (Earth) and he's a TON of fun, but for Earth I also like Bash, he's a brawler character. The BEST earth character is probably Terrafin but he's only currently available in the Pirate Seas expansion pack - which I highly recommend but that may be more money than you want to spend at $20. Comes with an extra level and some fun powerup items.

I like fast characters, so Flameslinger was my guy of choice for Fire, but Eruptor is another good choice if your son wants to be more up-close. Ignitor is only available in the 3DS version currently.

That leaves Undead. Ghost Roaster is only available in the Haunted expansion back, and I'm not a huge fan of him. Chop Chop is another good one.

@bigdc666 said:

I’m planning on getting this game for my kids for Christmas. I have two 8 year old girls; their favorite things are Littlest Pet shop, My Little Pony, Bratz, and Barbie. I also have a 10 year old son; his favorite things are WWE, Halo Reach, and Star Wars.

I’m looking for any advice on how many Skylander toys I should get each of them and based on what else they enjoy maybe witch character packs to buy. Any advice would be helpful. I’m just not familiar enough with the toys or the game.

Your son seems like he'll turn out all right but you may want to try getting your daughters to play Gears or something. Barbie isn't going to teach them the skills they'll need to excel in tomorrow's job market ;)

I always wondered what it's was like for Jeff to buy toys at a Walmart on a Friday night....probably awkward as hell....but then again I still give a shit. Must be nice for him :)

@Vinny_Says: yea Walmart. You know what they say: It's the only place where you can get beer, a blanket and a WWE action figure at 1am.

Yes... your "kids"  
 
Mmhmm...

I have it on good authority that Drobot is da illest, son.