We’ve been hearing about sets from MEGA Brands based on the wildly popular “Skylanders” video game franchise for a while now, but the whole upcoming Skylanders Mega Bloks debuted in all its glory over the weekend at New York Comic Con 2012! As NYCC 2012 was the first chance for the public to photograph and see the Skylanders Mega Bloks sets in-person, I was pretty thorough and made certain to take photos of each and every set that was on display.

Let me be forthright here: I don’t know a ton about the Skylanders franchise, beyond the fact that it has to do with that little purple Spyro dragon that was popular when I was in college (man, I’m old). So I am not a good authority (at all) when it comes to the Skylanders property. What I do love, however, is one of my specialties: Mega Bloks. So if Mega Bloks deems Skylanders worthy of being its very own theme–and the sets are going to look as superb as what was shown at New York Comic Con 2012–then that’s good enough for me.

The set that MEGA Brands chose to spotlight the most at the event is the Skylanders Giants Mega Bloks Crusher’s Pirate Quest 95442 set. The set features an innovative “two-in-one” building feature that MEGA Brands has never implemented on one of their major sets before. I’ll talk about that in detail momentarily.

That magenta dragon in the photo above isn’t Spyro the Dragon, of course, but is in fact the popular dragoness Cynder. Cynder was freed from the evil magic controlling her by Spyro, and now fights the forces of evil as one of the Skylanders. It’s encouraging to see a female character show up in the very first series of toys for the Mega Bloks Skylanders line–that’s something that a lot of major toy companies don’t have occur for several series (if ever).

One of the things that stood out the most to me about the sets MEGA Brands brought to NYCC 2012 was the huge wealth of unique molds for the figures on-hand. Everything from humanoids to robots to quadrupedal dragons were on display, and I don’t know anything a whole lot about Skylanders–yet–but it’s inevitable that I’ll end up owning most or all of these Mega Bloks sets, so it’s only a matter of time until I’m a sage with regard to this theme.

The most interesting feature of the Skylander Mega Bloks Crusher’s Pirate Quest set, however, is that it can be rebuilt into the Cutthroat Carnival dock from the “Skylanders Giants” video game. That’s a pretty radically different kind of build than you see very often from any building set company.

The other major set that MEGA Brands wanted to make show-goers aware of is the Skylanders Giant Mega Bloks Arkeyan Copter Attack 95418. The Arkeyan Copter Attack set was proudly positioned on the highest island of the floating island display case that stood at the center of the MEGA Brands booth.

While the primary component of this set is the Arkeyan Copter, let’s be truthful here: MEGA Brands is betting on collectors plunking down their $29.99 for the headliner Spyro the Dragon Mega Bloks figure. And as this is the only set that Spyro is included with, MEGA Brand’s bet is likely to pay of–this will almost certainly be the best-selling set in the first series of Skylanders Mega Bloks, as every Skylanders fan will want this articulated Spyro the Dragon figure.

The floating island display case definitely drew a lot of eyes to the MEGA Brands booth from passersby that otherwise might not have given a Skylanders display a second look. This gorgeous display was definitely a smart investment by MEGA Brands!

Not only did MEGA Brands bring a lot of all-new Skylanders sets to New York Comic Con, but they also brought along a lot of the original concept artwork and packaging design art for the theme. I think it adds a definite classy touch to the setup.

While those were the most noteworthy products that debuted at NYCC 2013, I’ve uploaded a variety of photos of the other sets comprising the Skylanders Mega Bloks theme for 2012-2013 below.

 

MEGA Brands’ all-new branch of Mega Bloks Skylanders toys is scheduled to be released in October-December 2012, so we literally may start seeing these sets on store shelves any week now. Toys R Us is scheduled to receive the first shipment of Skylanders Mega Bloks sets, with other major retailers like Target and Walmart following shortly thereafter.

I’ll be reviewing the Arkeyan Copter Attack 95418 and several other Skylanders Mega Bloks sets just as soon as they’re released, so keep your eyes peeled for more Skylanders coverage!