Dizzying number of toys-to-life products are coming out in the next six weeks, featuring the biggest entertainment names.
Toys-to-life is the world’s most lucrative video game genre, having made an estimated £2.6bn since it began in 2011 with Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure. This month marks a manic time for the sector. Disney Infinity 3.0 has just launched, while Skylanders Superchargers and Lego Dimensions arrive over the next two weeks. More than 100 toys based on these games (plus Nintendo’s Amiibo range) will be released over the next 12 weeks. Here’s what to expect.
Star Wars mania
Disney Infinity 3 features Inside Out from Pixar and a few Marvel superheroes, but is really about Star Wars. Fifteen Star Wars toys have been announced and three “games”, one inspired by Star Wars episodes 1-3, another based on episodes 4-6 and a third set, due later in the year, featuring stars of the coming Star Wars movie: The Force Awakens.
Lego Dimensions
This new entry lets Homer Simpson drive the Batmobile through Mordor. It a game that mashes up Doctor Who, Batman, The Simpsons, Scooby Doo, Lord of the Rings, Jurassic World, Back to the Future and a lot more. It even features many of the original voice actors from their respective movies and TV shows. The drawback? The starter pack costs £95-plus and all the sets combined almost £700.
Skylanders
Skylanders Superchargersdoes not feature the same big-name characters as its rivals (though the Nintendo versions feature Bowser and Donkey Kong), but it does bring cars, planes and other automobiles to the franchise, moving the toys-to-life genre away from just fancy figurines. Superchargers lacks the appeal of Star Wars and Lego, but is the only toys-to-life game coming to Wii, 3DS and iPad.
