BTS - Return to Skylanders (133,134,135) (Patreon)

G'day Pop Fizzers, it's finally time to reveal the process behind the recent Skylanders episodes. As these were both part of a series and not overly complicated episodes, I'm just going to cover all of them here in a single detailing. So let's get into it!

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Some Background: How did these episodes come to be?
For those who recall when the channel hit 10,000 subscribers back in the beginning of 2017, we celebrated the occasion by closing the Spyro series review with Spyro's Adventure, spawning a new series review to begin. The second and third episodes would release late in 2017 and were only made possible thanks to a donation of GIANTS and SWAP FORCE figures to the show. This made it super simple to jump in and cover. Soon after, I received another lot of TRAP TEAM figures but the problem was, I was having a lot of difficulty trying to find the other figures I needed for SUPERCHARGERS and IMAGINATORS... so the return to finish this series review was forever pushed back and pushed back.
I was planning to finish the series in 2018, before Croc and Tony Hawktober completely took over and everything was put on the shelf until the start of 2020! FINALLY I'd managed to accumulate enough figures for the remaining games which put these videos back on my radar!

Skylanders: Trap Team!
This was a really difficult video to write, mostly just to get the ball rolling. Taking a break for almost 3 years and just jumping back in like nothing happened is impossible. I also had a much larger collection of these figures that I felt would make for a good "look how out of control things have gotten" type of physical gag. One idea was to climb up a ladder to find the container but slip and have the entire thing dump out onto me... BUT SINCE I DIDN'T FEEL LIKE DYING, the big dump onto a table and sweep off later in the video was a good Plan B.
There were a few strange cutaway gags like this throughout the video. Probably the strangest was taking the Kaos trap out of my mouth. I WISH I had any idea where that cam from ahaha, I think the mindset was just that "this is a kids game, kids are known for being morons and trying to eat toys. I could totally see a kid tasting these" so I think for that reason, it was a quick and 'to the point' review of the crystals used in the game.

Writing the video being out of practice with scripts was tough like I already mentioned. Prior to this, the last full review script I'd written was for Hawktober back in August of 2019 (which is like a production line anyway) so I was quite out of practice. With all of these additional cutaways and long, antagonizing points made in the video. It ended up being a lot longer than I'd have liked and longer than previous Skylanders episodes, a theme that followed through all of the videos to come.

Skylanders was one of the first series I covered when I began making logos for each episode. After doing them for a year before reaching GIANTS and SWAP FORCE at the end of 2017, they were also some of the first that I felt I'd done a really good job on... funny how time changes our opinions on things.
It was really important for me to REALLY do these new logos some serious justice. Starting at Trap Team, I frankenstein-ed my older, shitter logos into something much cleaner and better proportioned.

Skylanders: SuperChargers!
The SuperChargers episode was another beastly video that I struggled to get done. Partly due to issues in my personal life, but also just not knowing how I could structure the video in a way that made sense to present. Usually my reviews are structured in a way that presents new information and critiques in a natural order, as if we were actually playing through the game. A lot of people do this. But I decided to switch things up a little bit.
I've always wondered what it would be like to start a review WITH the final score.
So instead of leading people through the journey to a conclusion, you get the verdict first (which just so happened to be quite a polarizing verdict) and then go through the process of explaining the how and why. It was weird writing this way as I've only covered a game from a previously completed perspective a handful of other times. But it was a lot of fun! And I think with the score up front this way, it got people interested to hear what made this less talked about game so deserving.

Honestly, I don't have a whole lot else to really say about this episode. Aside from the delayed pre-production process, everything was pretty simple to get done. The logo is one that I'm very proud of and the video overall, while quite a simple video, is still of a strong quality in my opinion. So I'm happy with this one!

Skylanders: Imaginators!
Now THIS is the game everyone wanted me to talk about from the moment I began covering this series, purely because of the Crash Bandicoot expansion. So for that reason, I felt added pressure to make this video REALLY fucking good!
Out of the gate, I was just really happy with the consistent look of this entire series review through both the logos AND the thumbnails.

The biggest hurdle with this episode was the fact that I was forced to move house during the production. Script writing was a delayed process again, just not feeling creative due to my home life getting the better of me, but I had the script completed and ready to film PRIOR to moving.
That's an ugly situation that really crept up on me out of nowhere, but thankfully once I moved into my new apartment, I was able to waste no time in getting into the production. Most likely due to my mental state at the time, the video had A LOT of great physical gags included. The best thing about covering Skylanders is that it gives me instant material with the toys as an object to write the video around. So with not much of anything to say about the game and my weird state of mind, there were heaps of segments in that episode I'm really happy with. And thankfully, everything I wrote for my normal filming location of 5 years, translated super easily into my new place. So the video long plot line of constantly having to dig through things to setup, just to make the game work, served as not just as a good plot for the episode, but also as a great way to christen the new apartment ready for more Square Eyed Jak content!

It was a real pain in the ass trying to keep continuity with the packages figures, I was constantly removing them from the boxes and then having to put them back in without destroying anything. But the entire segment trying to reset the crystals is easily one of my new favourite parts of any video. That kind of calamity "this is the reality of legitimately playing this game" is always a fun story to tell in videos, much like the Tony Hawk: Motion DS episode that required a modded system. It's just fun to see Jak go through the pain of figuring this stuff out. And along with all of the other good writing bits, I felt like this episode was quite a return to form for me. The perfect end to this series review (for now).

Cut content:
There was actually 2 things cut from this episode...

• Imaginator Overhaul: This was something I had planned to include prior to covering the final level in the game. I took the time to give all of my custom characters a makeover, power the up with all of the best items (some of which were joke items) and it was going to be a quick gag in the video "let's get ready for a big final fight... that never comes" type of thing. There were a few problems with this... A) it didn't add anything to the video overall. B) the pace coming off of the Crash expansion didn't leave room for it C) I realised these 2 things after FORGETTING to even include it in the first place. 😅
• Switch Version: This is more just a fact I wasn't too sure on and decided to play it safe and cut. In my research, I found that the Switch version of Imaginators actually does allow you to reset creation crystals, so I mentioned it prior to breaking out the Wii in the episode. However while editing, I did a double check and started to find in-consistent information on this. Either it only worked sometimes or didn't fully work... or didn't work at all. So it was just easiest to ignore it and remove that from the video.

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That's a WRAP!
Well that covers just about everything that went into making these videos. Sorry there wasn't a lot of juicy details, these were just some simple "back to the basics" formatted videos just to get 2020 underway. If I hadn't been going through so much in my personal life, these could have easily been completed before the end of March as planned, instead of late into April. But I'm just really glad this chapter in my life is completed as it felt really shit having to abandon the series for the longest time.
Of course, I was to give a HUGE thanks to those few Patrons who contributed the figures used in the Skylanders videos! Along with everyone that has been pledged, as you've allowed me to buy a lot of the necessary items to cover this series at it's fullest and do it justice.

So I hope you enjoyed that and found it interesting and until next time, I hope you have a great fucking day. Cheers guys! 😄