Creative Project Subject Research

I have researched three ideas, two briefly and one well researched. Skylanders is my chosen subject as it has been a tremendous influence in my life so far and I thought they should therefore also have some representation in my project along with Mixels. My proposal is to link these two together to make something unique.

I have decided to not do roller coasters as I have already explored this idea in my previous brief from last year. I would like to try something new for this new project.

Skylanders

Skylanders is a toys-to-life video game series made by Toys for Bob and published by Activision. Skylanders games are played by putting character figures into the portal of power. This device reads the figures by NFC and imports the character portrayed by the figure into the game as a playable character. The first mainline game, “Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure”, came out in 2011, and the last mainline game, “Skylanders Imaginators”, came out in 2016.

Several Skylanders mobile games were released; these include Skylanders Cloud Patrol, Skylanders Battlegrounds, Skylanders Lost Islands, and many more. All the games are not downloadable anymore, but in 2018, a new Skylanders mobile game called Skylanders Ring of Heroes was an RPG-style game. There are ten unique elements that Skylanders are in Air, Life, Undead, Earth, Fire, Water, Magic, and Tech. Trap Team introduced the Light and Dark elements, which don’t have many Skylanders in them as it was a very recent addition.

Skylands

The games are set in Skylands, a magical world in the centre of the Universe that contains an endless expanse of clouds with large and small floating islands inhabited by both regular and fantastic creatures. A group of heroes called the Skylanders protects the realm. Skylands is under constant threat of evil.

Skylanders Academy is an island that first appeared as the central hub world in Skylanders Trap Team. It serves as the training ground for potential Skylanders.

Characters in Skylanders

There are several reoccurring NPC characters in the Skylanders games. Here are some of them:

Master Eon, also known as Eon, is a veteran portal master who is one of the main supporting characters in the Skylanders series. He was the leader of the Skylanders before he became a spirit and passed his role to the new portal master, who is the player.

Kaos is an evil portal master and the main antagonist of the Skylanders series. He plots to take over Skylands and banishes all the Skylanders from their world to Earth after destroying the Core of Light that protected Skylands, but his plans are ultimately foiled.

Glumshanks is Kaos’s right-hand henchman, butler, and only friend. He is taller, more practical, and slightly more robust than Kaos, but he still serves him. Though most of the time, he is a recurring antagonist in the series, he also has a neutral or helpful role.

Flynn is a Mabu pilot that is one of the main supporting characters in the Skylanders series. He proclaims himself the “best pilot in all of Skylands” and is armed with a big ego and a love for enchiladas. Flynn has a crush on another Mabu named Cali. His catchphrase is “BOOM!”.

Cali is a Mabu adventurer and one of the main supporting characters in the Skylanders series. She gives you heroic challenges you can do in Spyro’s Adventure.

Hugo is Master Eon’s assistant and one of the main supporting characters in the series.

Persephone is a Fairy Queen who helps the Skylanders by giving them upgrades.

Tessa is a fox girl who first appeared in Skylanders Swap-Force. She owns a large bird companion named Whiskers she rides on for transportation.

Buzz is a Mabu veteran who first appeared in Skylanders Trap Team. He is the legendary Skylanders trainer and the head of security and secret ninja commando operations at Skylanders Academy.

Mags is a supporting character in Skylanders Trap Team and Superchargers. She is the inventor of every gadget in the Skylanders Academy.

Each game has its unique gimmick to make the game different from the other instalments. Spyro’s Adventure doesn’t have its scheme other than it introduces the toys to life aspect.

Skylanders Giants introduce Giant Skylanders; they are much larger than the regular core Skylanders. They have great strength and can lift, throw, and destroy things that regular Skylanders can’t destroy. An important ability that Giants have is the Feats of Strength, which can provide access to the next level in the game world. For instance, this may involve pulling two floating islands together or lifting walls of logs. The Giants were the original Skylanders and were called the elder elementals. Giant Skylanders also light up when placed on the portal of power.

Skylanders Swap-Force introduces the Swap-Force. These Skylanders can swap the top half and bottom half with each other to mix and match their abilities and powers. They gained the ability when they have blasted apart and sent to Earth by the eruption of a mystical volcano in the Cloudbreak Islands. The magic of the volcano gave them their new ability.

Example of the Swap-Force swapping ability:

Skylanders Trap-Team introduces the Trap Masters, a group of Skylanders that hold weapons made of traptanium to weaken villains. They were the ones that initially caught and imprisoned the villains in Cloudcracker Prison. Kaos banished them to Earth once he blew the prison walls up.

The game also introduces the traps; these are traptanium crystals that are used to capture villains in-game. They are the shattered fragments of Cloudcracker Prison. They associated each one with an element needed to catch the villains of the same elements as water element traps, capture water element villains.

Skylanders Superchargers introduced the Superchargers, a group of Skylanders trained to pilot the most powerful vehicles in Skylands. There are three different vehicles: land, sea, and sky.

Skylanders Imaginators introduced the Senseis. They are masters of different fighting styles and battle techniques.

The game also introduces creation crystals; these are used to create your own Skylanders called Imaginators and assign them into the battle classes as the senseis.

Other types of Skylanders are not exclusive to certain games; these include:

Lightcores

Lightcore Skylanders are Skylanders that were introduced in Giants and used again in Swap-Force. When they are placed on the portal of power, they will light upon it and create a blast in-game that can wipe out hordes of enemies. They have a special glow effect in-game.

Various Lightcore Skylanders from Giants and Swap-Force:

A Lightcore Skylander lighting up on the portal of power:

Reposed Skylanders (Series 2, 3, 4)

In Giants, they reintroduced the majority of the Spyro’s Adventure Skylanders that differ from the original ones. In which they get a unique ability called a “Wow Pow” and the ability to change upgrade paths.

Reposed Skylanders are backwards compatible and work on previous titles. For example, Series 2 Gill Grunt will work in Spyro’s Adventure as they introduced him to that game. But Turbo Jet-Vac (Series 2) will work in Giants but not Spyro’s Adventure as they did not introduce him to that game. Skylanders originated from Giants will not work with Spyro’s Adventure. Skylanders originated from Swap-Force will not work with Giants and Spyro’s Adventure; Skylanders originated from Trap-Team will not work with Swap-Force, Giants, and Spyro’s Adventure. You get the idea. Supercharger Skylanders and Imaginators Skylanders are not backwards compatible.

All the reposes of Spyro, Trigger Happy, and Gill Grunt (all the figures shown here work in all titles):

Gill Grunt is the only Skylander to get a series 4 repose. Imaginators is also the only game he didn’t get a new figure for, but he appears in the game as an NPC.

Variants:

In the Skylanders games, there are different coloured variants of some Skylanders. These include things like dark variants, legendary variants, and holiday variants that were introduced in Swap-Force. Some were store-exclusives like the Legendary Skylanders were exclusive to Toys R Us, and dark edition Skylanders were exclusive to the dark edition starter packs.

Every Legendary Skylander:

Dark edition Swap-Force Skylanders:

There are holiday variant Skylanders that were introduced in Swap-Force. These include Halloween, Christmas, Valentines, Easter, and other events.

A Halloween variant Skylander (Frightful Fiesta):

A Christmas variant Skylander (Jingle-Bell Chompy Mage):

A Valentine’s variant Skylander (Love potion Pop Fizz):

An Easter variant Skylander (Springtime Trigger Happy):

There are also very rare and hard to find types of Skylanders called “Chase Variants”. These Skylanders were either rare store finds, giveaway promotions, or employee exclusives. These types of Skylanders are worth a lot of money, so you might not be able to get your hands on one of these.

A normal Pain-Yatta next to a chase-variant Pain-Yatta:

Elements in Skylanders:

Each Skylander figure has a base that the character stands on, which has their NFC chip inside. The base of a Skylander figure corresponds to the element they belong in (They did this until Trap-Team):

• Air element Skylanders have a cloud for the base
• Life element Skylanders have leaves for the base
• Undead element Skylanders have a skull for the base
• Earth element Skylanders have a rocky base with crystals on it
• Fire element Skylanders have fire on the base
• Water element Skylanders have a water splash as their base
• Magic element Skylanders have a black base with a pattern on it with symbols around it
• Tech element Skylanders have a pile of gears for the base
• Light element Skylanders have a white platform with a sun on it for the base
• Dark element Skylanders have a black base with swirls on it

In Superchargers, the Skylanders have a rift engine for the base instead of the usual ones. In Imaginators, the Skylanders have octagon-shaped bases with different colours and patterns that correspond to the element. The base has a symbol on them that corresponds to their battle class. The bases have various colours on the bottom, which show what game the Skylander is from. Here is a list of them:

• Green base Skylanders are from Spyro’s Adventure

• Orange base Skylanders are from Giants

• Blue base Skylanders are from Swap-Force

• Red base Skylanders are from Trap-Team

• Rift engine base Skylanders are from Superchargers

• Octagon-shaped base Skylanders are from Imaginators

Various Skylanders figures from Spyro’s Adventure, Giants, and Swap-Force:

I have been collecting these figures since October 2012. Spyros Adventure was the first game I got on my birthday in 2012. Around that time, the second game in the series, Skylanders Giants, had come out. The first Skylander I got that wasn’t from the starter pack was Camo. I collected them through all six games, and I got all the non-variant Skylanders Superchargers figures.

In 2017, I stopped collecting them as it was the final year for the franchise. However, in July 2019, I started collecting Skylanders again and began finishing my collection. I am still collecting them now, and I don’t have many non-variant Skylanders left to get now.

Series 1 Camo from Spyros adventure (who was always my favourite Skylander since I first got the game):

How I would use Skylanders for my creative project is that I would include some aspects of Skylanders in my creative project, such as the figurine concept and the different worlds of Skylands, as these could benefit my idea really well.

Mixels

Mixels logo:

Mixels is a comedy animated television series co-produced by Lego and Cartoon Network, which aired on Cartoon Network. The series first aired on February 12th 2014, and its last episode aired on October 1st 2016.

The series revolved around the Mixels, small creatures from different themed tribes that can combine creative and unpredictable storylines using the power of the cubit. When two or more Mixels use a cubit, they become a mix to solve problems. When all three Mixels of the same tribe use a cubit, they become a max. Sometimes it can go wrong, and they end up becoming a murp which often leads to disaster.

Mixels have sworn enemies known as the Nixels. Nixels are colourless creatures that want to nix the mixels’ fun. They are destructive and hate creativity, so they want to take all the colour and creativity away from Planet Mixel.

Mixels are the first Lego series to use 2D animation, whereas other Lego titles, such as Lego Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu and Legends of Chima, use CGI animation. The show had two seasons. The first season comprised mostly short episodes that were a minute long and two specials that were around 5-7 minutes long, and the second season had four specials that were 22 minutes long each.

Mixels also have a Lego toy line from 2014 to 2016, just like the TV show they based it on. It started with Series 1 in 2014 and finished with Series 9 in 2016. There were 81 figures in total. There were 9 Mixels in each series, and they came from 3 different tribes. For example, Series 1 had the infernites, cragsters, and electroids. Series 1-3 released in 2014, Series 4-6 released in 2015, and Series 7-9 released in 2016. Lego Mixels sets were made to be taken apart and put back together to be used for new Mixels creations, like making mixes, maxes, and murps.

Three of the Lego Mixels sets which are Flain, Volectro, and Seismo:

I’ve been a fan of this series since 2015 when series 4 released, and I collected some figures. I first discovered this series by going to a Lego store one day as I wanted to get a new Lego set as I haven’t got one in a long time. Once I saw the Mixels sets, they caught my interest as they looked fantastic and were at a cheap price. The first two Mixels I got were Rokit and Meltus. I have also recently got quite good at drawing in the show’s art style.

Mixels had two mobile games that were on the app store: Calling All Mixels and Mixels Rush. Both these games are no longer downloadable nowadays.

Calling All Mixels was about a mixel named Flain saving and reuniting the mixels as the nixels have captured them all. The game was about discovering new lands, creating mixes and maxes, building structures to secure cubit supplies. The Nixels roam Mixel land and cause trouble for everyone in sight. Flain and the rest of the mixels must use all their wits and work together to find new friends, gain new bases, gather ingredients, get stronger and deal with constant Nixel problems.

Mixels Rush was about Major Nixel unleashing a nixelstorm and the Mixels need to stop them. You play as different Mixels and combine them to make mixes or put together three Mixels from the same tribe to create a max. Sometimes you can end up with a murp when making a mix which will slow you down. You use special items to get past obstacles and stop the Nixels.

An unofficial Mixels fan game was being developed, a successor to the two official mobile games called Mixels Unite. It was going to be an Earthbound style RPG game about MC and his companion Pippy, who must save Mixopolis from King Nixel and his Nixel army. The game cancelled development on October 27th, 2020, as the main and only programmer left the team in August 2020.

I have made my own Mixels characters, and I will share a few of them here. I drew all 5 of them:

Shockwing: (Electroids)

Clifft: (Cragsters)

Slicker: (Lixers)

Snailmer: (Glorp corp)

Shivant: (Frosticons)

How I would use Mixels for my creative project is that since I have already made my own Mixel characters, I could use them for my creative project as I wouldn’t need to create any new characters. In order to use them, I might make something inspired by Mixels and have it filled with things based on my interests.

Roller Coasters

Roller coasters are amusement rides that comprise a light railway track with many tight turns, steep slopes, and sometimes inversions on which people ride in small, fast open carriages. They are found in amusement parks and theme parks worldwide. LaMarcus Adna Thompson got one of the first known patents for a roller coaster design in 1885, the Switchback Railway that opened a year earlier at Coney Island. A roller coaster track does not have to be a complete circuit and can be a shuttle roller coaster where the roller coaster train goes backwards. Most roller coasters have multiple cars in which passengers sit and are restrained. While some roller coasters, like wild mouse roller coasters, have single vehicles.

A Vekoma boomerang roller coaster:

There are two types of roller coasters, which are steel and wooden. Compared to wooden coasters, steel coasters have tubular steel tracks; they are typically known for giving a smoother ride and their ability to turn riders upside-down. Wooden coasters have flat steel tracks and are notable for producing air time through negative G-forces when reaching the top of some hill elements. Newer track types, such as I-box and topper, which Rocky Mountain Construction introduced, improve the experience on wooden coasters and the ability to invert riders. There are also hybrid roller coasters, a mixture of steel and wood elements for the structure and track.

A steel roller coaster

A wooden roller coaster

How I would use roller coasters for my creative project is that I would make an informative video on them and maybe visit another theme park in the UK, somewhere like Thorpe Park as I went to Alton Towers last time as I might do a part 2 for my theme park vlog.