Skylanders Swap Force announced ahead of Toy Fair 2013

Written by Matt Swider on February 05, 2013

Skylanders Swap Force News: New interchangeable Skylanders toys for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, Wii and 3DS, have a fall release date.

Skylanders Swap Force announced at Toy Fair 2013

Skylanders Swap Force was announced today, literally buildinging on Activision’s successful toy-based video game franchise.

As third entry in the series, Skylanders Swap{ Force will allow players to reconfigure 16 Swap Force characters into more than 250 unique combinations.

“An all-new innovative play pattern -- swapability -- gives kids more choice than ever before by letting them swap the top and bottom halves of the toys to create their own characters,” said Activision in a press release.

The game is set to makes its public debut at Toy Fair 2013 in New York City from Feb. 10 to 13.

Skylanders 3, 2, 1 -- Jump!

Of course, owners of Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure and Skylanders: Giants will be able to use their valued Skylanders InterAction figure collection with the new Skylanders Swap Force game - and they’ll have one new ability to boot.

“The entire collection of characters from both Skylanders Spyro's Adventure and Skylanders Giants, now with the added capability of jumping,” promised Activision.

Old Skylanders toys won’t be swappable with the new Skylanders Swap Force characters, but 16 times 16 equals 256 combinations among the new lineup.

"The idea that kids can customize their own characters in the physical world, and have their unique combinations recognized in the virtual world, is an idea as big as the concept of bringing toys to life itself," said Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg.

Skylanders Swap story

How the Skylanders Swap characters became split in two is explained by the game’s story and location. Cloudbreak Island is home to a mystical volcano that erupts every 100 years to replenish the magic in its Skylanders.

That sounds like centennial bliss, until an anniversary in which a group of battling Skylanders get caught in the volcano’s eruption and are blasted apart. Hence the halves.

Now these Skylanders have swappable top and bottom halves, turning them into a special team, which is good timing because the aptly villain Kaos is back with “a new evil plan.”

Skylanders Swap Force Release Date, toys

Skylanders Swap Force is going to feature 16 new swappable toys and 32 core Skylanders. The core list is broken down into 16 regular toys and 16 versions of fan favorites.

There will also be eight new LightCore characters, the special light-up class that premiered along with Skylanders Giants last year.

That’s a total of 56 new Skylander characters for Skylanders Swap Force on Wii U, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and Nintendo 3DS.

With the all-new ability to jump and test out swappable combinations, kids and avid toy collectors are going to have a lot more interaction with their favorite InterAction figure series come the fall Skylanders Swap Force release date.