Toys R' Us interview about in-store strategy for Skylanders Trap Team and new Legendary Skylanders.
With Disney Infinity, Angry Birds Telepods and Skylanders each bringing new versions to market this year there will be increased competition for space on store shelves. Equally there will be competition amongst retailers to get the right stock on their shelves to attract customers.
This is where the store exclusives come in. Offering an exclusive version of a Skylander or Disney Infinity figure not only attracts hard core collectors but also younger players too. This has worked well for a number of outlets in previous years.
At the UK Skylanders Trap Team launch event I spoke to Toys R Us Buying Director, Fiona Murray-Young, and asked whether there would be lots of Trap
When asked whether Trap Team would be seeing an increase in floor space this year Murray-Young expanded on plans. "We've now dedicated double the space, moved it to front of store and given it feature space." This support for the game at retail goes hand in hand with some exclusive Legendary figures not found anywhere else (apart from high priced second hand products on
I asked Murray-Young whether the requirement of another Starter Pack and Portal for Trap Team would put families off? She suggested that this was in balance with the functionality, "once [families] see what Trap Team can give them and the advancements with the sound in the portal."
This led on to talk about whether Toys R Us would have more exclusive figures this year. Murray-Young was surprisingly forthcoming when asked whether Toys R Us would have Trap Team Legendary characters, "oh absolutely yes, we're working very closely with Activision to make sure we get the right characters that the kids will want... The legendary figures have been phenomenally successful for us so watch this space. "
To me this suggests we will be seeing the titular Trap Master characters in Legendary form, as we saw with both Swap Force and Giants. These figures not only look different in the hand but are also rendered differently in the game with additional bonuses.
As we drew our interview to a close I was interested to hear that Skylanders is not only a professional interest for Murray-Young, who talked about how her own family were excited about the game too. "I have eight year old twins mad about Skylanders, so I learn a lot at home and also at work."
Certainly in my family the children's heads are easily turned. While Skylanders has been put down in favor of Minecraft (and recent Flappy Bird style game Retry) talk of speaking portals and playable enemies has already got them excited -- and the related playground chatter soon lets them know the best places to go and buy the toys.
With other products also vying for space in store it will be interesting to see how the new crossover category of toys and video-games does at launch, and whether Skylanders can bounce back to fend of Disney Infinity 2.0 in 2014.
