Mysticat character in Skylanders Imaginators.
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Skylanders Imaginators hands-on: Creating your own characters is a breeze

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 3 min

The hallmark of Skylanders is that it’s easy to play. And that’s the case with the newest release in the franchise, Skylanders Imaginators, which debuts October 13 on consoles and the PC.

Activision’s Toys for Bob studio started the toys-to-life market in 2011 by making hybrid toy-game products. And now, it is finally allowing consumers to create their own Skylanders characters. I visited Toys for Bob in Novato, Calif., and got some hands-on time with Imaginators. I created my very own Skylander, as you can see in the video at the bottom. Toys for Bob is betting that this kind of customization is the innovation that fans have been waiting for, and it will get the whole market growing again.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.