Tomy LightSeekers...

So who here has become aware of the new Tomy range of toys/cards/apps that go under the banner of 'LightSeekers'?

Basically there are are range of ~7" fully articulated figures and various add-ons (so think at this point only action figures). However these can also interact with the Tomy LightSeekers app, allowing you to use the action figures in the app (so now you're thinking Skylanders).



However it goes somewhat beyond the Skylanders model. Here you get the basic action figure, to enable this to interact with the app you need a 'fusion core', this plugs onto the back of the figure and then communicates to your tablet/phone etc... using bluetooth. At this point you can play the character on the tablet, but you also get feedback in terms of lights, sounds, vibrations etc... on the action figure.



Start adding other bits to the action figure, such as interchangeable weapons, these then also appear in the game, add a jet pack and the figure then becomes the controller for the figure in the game. The best part though being that all the weapons, jet packs, fusion cores etc... are interchangeable between the various figures



But even then it doesn't end, you can also get trading cards, these form a real-world collectible 'trading card game' (aka TCG) similar to other games such as Magic The Gathering (the grand-daddy of them all). These can be had in the form of 'starter decks', 'booster packs' and various combos of these allowing you to customise your decks etc... as you can with any TCG/CCG. However the little wrinkle here is that these cards can also interact with your virtual action figure hero, using the camera on your tablet you can scan the cards and these then translate into special abilities or other add-ons in the game.





So all in all you have a nice link-up between figures, card, apps etc...





This could be either very big in the coming years or go totally tits up

[Super]

Well thats different.

Couldn't agree more Super, I only found them as they popped up on the 'suggested other items' when I was adding something to my basket on Amazon.

Prior to that I'd seen a couple of adverts, but not really taken much notice of the range. However if you believe the stickers on the packaging these toys have won the 'Toy of the Year' award thing.

Curious then that they have such a low profile in the UK and don't even seem to be in most stores, places like Argos (a major click and collect type operation in the UK) doesn't even have them listed. The only places I've found them so far apart from eBay is Amazon and ToysRUs (the latter only have a minimal range).

Makes me wonder if these toys won the award and caught Tomy's production capability out and they've been unable to take advantage of the award for this christmas