Springlanders

It's been a few months since my last Skylanders spotlight (in fact it's been so long, the last one was Christmas themed).  I don't want to just wait for holidays to do these posts, but until I get to a regular one, here's some Easter Skylanders!

As I said in my last spotlight, I do enjoy these holiday themed versions.  If you're going to do exclusive repaints, they might as well be something fun, otherwise, why even bother?  Releasing a sculpt in gold or silver paint is all well and good, but it's not really fun.  Christmas is fun!  Easter is fun!  Halloween is also fun, but I haven't gotten there yet.  Technically only one of these is a true Easter themed figure (and another is about 50%), but thanks to the special hats I've given them, they all count!

Both Trigger Happy and Fryno come on cards made-up to look like Easter Eggs (or the more PC "Spring Edition" packaging), but one is clearly more Easter themed than the other.

Like Jolly Bumble Blast, Springtime Trigger Happy is a straight up holiday themed character.  Instead of his usual orangey-brown color, he now comes in pastel pinks and yellows.  His giant bomb is also done-up like an Easter egg (pity the poor kid who finds that one during the egg hunt).  

I thought we were going to be getting an Easter themed "Hoppity" Pop Fizz figure, but I guess that just ended up being an in-game character you could get for a Skylanders app game.  I'm just happy we got something to add to the holiday themed collection, and the figure itself turned out well.  The bomb works perfectly as an Easter egg, but Trigger Happy's colors remind me of ice cream more than Easter.  He actually looks quite tasty.  Don't eat him though.

Just like in the last Skylanders post, I used my camera to take pictures of my TV screen so I could get some in-game shots.  There's probably a better way to do it, but I don't know what that is.  Anyway, in the last post I talked about what a nice surprise it was that Jolly Bumble Blast came with his own exclusive hat.  As I said then, giving hats to my Skylanders is one of my favorite things to do in the games.  Well, Springtime Trigger Happy comes with an exclusive hat as well!  This is the Springtime hat, and it's set apart from the regular "wabbit ears" because these ones are coming out of an Easter egg.  You can put Trigger Happy in pretty colors and give him a cute hat, but he still looks like a psycho.  Maybe it's the guns?  It could just be that he actually is a psycho!

Trigger Happy has all the regular moves and abilities that his normal version does.  It's just his outside appearance that's changed, but that's okay.  Remember kids: it's what's on the outside that counts.

Some of the earlier "special" Skylanders looked different as a figure, but appeared like they normally would in the game.  It's nice to see the themes get carried over into the games.  I don't mind getting the different versions of characters if they're released more than once (that way I can level them up in different ways), but I prefer it when they look different.  At the very least, I can give them different hats.

You can see Trigger Happy's regular colors in this screen, though I assume most people know what Trigger Happy usually looks like.

Fryno is the "50% Easter" character I mentioned above.  He comes packaged on the "Spring Edition" card, but the figure is just a regular Fryno.  To give this fire rhino some extra Easter cred, I've outfitted him with the wabbit ears hat!  Doesn't make him look any more festive, though.

I like giving the figures a prominent spot in these posts, because I'm a toy fan more than a video game  fan.  I do enjoy the Skylanders games, but a large part of the fun is just getting the figures.  Fryno is a cool-looking figure!  You know, besides all the fire.  He's a small guy with a ton of attitude.  If you were thinking Skylanders was missing something without a flaming rhino biker guy, then this is the Skylander for you.

Fryno is a hard character to photograph on the screen because he's always moving.  Even when he's not running around on all fours, plowing into enemies with his rhino horn, he pumping his fists or punching himself in the head.  Like I said, this guy has attitude.  Or issues.  This guy has issuetude.

His head-pounding tantrums serve a purpose though.  Get him mad enough and his fists turn red with rage, which adds some extra power to his punches.  And in this state, he's not content to just plow into his enemies.  He goes all "Skylanders of Anarchy" and drives into them with his fiery motorcycle!

Fryno's figure is a nice one, but that's also part of the problem.  He looks wild, but nice.  If they do another one down the road (like maybe a Lightcore version!) I hope they give him an angry face with red eyes.  The anger just suits him better.

Oh, one last thing about Fryno:  As seen in the rear pic farther up in the post, my figure had this weird crusty stuff on his goggles (glue, I think?).  Anyway, it bugged me, so I just colored over it with a black permanent marker.  Problem solved!  I'm handy.

My final Easter themed figure might be reaching for the theme it a bit, but it's close enough for me.

Sonic Boom made the Easter team for two reasons:  One, she throws eggs, and eggs and Easter go together.  Easter eggs don't have little baby griffons inside like Sonic Boom's do, but imagine if they did!  And two, I've given her the fancy hat, which makes her look like she's wearing her Sunday best. That's Easter-y enough for me!

The first two figures in this spotlight are both from Skylanders: SWAP Force, the third game in the series.  This version of Sonic Boom is from the first game, and I find it kinda plain.  The second version (that I'll get to someday) is more exciting, and she has a glow-in-the-dark version too.  But this is the one that I gave the fancy hat to way back when, so this is the one that makes the Easter cut.  I don't know why I find this one so plain.  I think it's because she's just standing there, without much personality shining through.  She's a griffon, and that's it.  I like the way the clouds look on the base, but all of the Air-type Skylanders have bases like that.

In the game, Sonic Boom definitely lives up to her name.  She sure booms sonically.  She's not my favorite Skylander to use, but at least she's photogenic!

Besides her shriek, Sonic Boom can fly.  Flying seems to increase her speed, but it's not hugely useful.  She'd be much better off putting those claws to good use.

Even though she's called Sonic Boom and does boom sonically, she's known more for taking her children into battle with her.  Sonic Boom's babies were cursed to hatch from their eggs, exist for a short amount of time, and then revert back into eggs.  Instead of finding a way to break the curse, she has turned her babies into weapons, throwing them at her enemies and having them back her up for a while before they turn back into eggs.  Say what you want about Sonic Boom's mothering skills, her little family does seem to work well together.

Oh, and the baby griffons in the above pic are fine.  They're just hatching, not freshly crushed.

So that's another Skylanders spotlight in the bag!  Only... many more to go.  But there's no major holidays on the way for a while, are there?  Maybe I'll actually do a randomly themed Skylanders spotlight next.

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!