Skylanders Giants 2013 Calendar

Review of Skylanders Giants 2013 Calendar

What?  Skylanders Giants 2013 Calendar

Where Did You Get It?  Christmas Gift, likely Walmart

What Did it Cost?  $9.88 plus tax

What was Stock Like?  Should be easy to obtain early on...I personally have always had trouble getting calendars if I don't do it in the first 2 weeks of the New Year, but that might just be me, lol.  If it is in print long enough past that the price should drop at most outlets.

Overview

The calendar is a nice size and will look great hanging in your bedroom, the cubicle at work, or your Skylanders shrine.  It measures a conventional 12" Wide and 11" Tall unopened.  When you pin it to the wall you are looking at a 12" Wide x 22" Tall piece of wall getting covered up...

This is a 16 month calendar, which honestly doesn't mean a whole lot if  you are getting it now, lol.  That said, for those that plan ahead and bought it early you got to get a little more of your hard earned cash out of the product.

I like that each month features the previous and coming month in the event you need to glance back or look ahead without turning the page.  The artwork is very nice and each element (8) is represented in the calendar.  The remaining months (4) are covered by the Adventure Packs and their respective characters and magic items.  Here is a run down on the featured characters:

*Note: "Featured" refers to stand alone, top page art and "Secondary" refers to a cameo in the bottom right hand corner.

September-December 2012: Faithful Trio of Spyro, Trigger Happy, and Gill Grunt

January 2013: Feature Gill Grunt (Water Element), Secondary Feature Slam Bam

February 2013 Feature: Trigger Happy (Tech Element), Secondary Feature Drill Sergeant

March 2013: Darklight Crypt and Ghost Roaster, Secondary Feature Twisted Hourglass

April 2013 Feature: Zook (Life Element), Secondary Feature Stump Smash

May 2013 Feature: Prism Break (Earth Element), Secondary Feature Bash

June 2013 Feature: Terrafin and Pirate Seas, Secondary Feature Treasure Chest

July 2013 Feature: Sonic Boom (Air Element), Secondary Feature Whirlwind

August 2013 Feature: Eruptor (Fire Element), Secondary Feature Ignitor

September 2013 Feature: Sunburn and Dragon's Peak, Secondary Feature Winged Boot

October 2013 Feature: Cynder (Undead Element), Secondary Feature Hex

November 2013 Feature: Spyro (Magic Element), Secondary Feature Double Trouble

December 2013 Feature: Slam Bam and Empire of Ice, Secondary Feature Sky Iron Shield

Conclusion

This is a pretty cool calendar for any Skylander fan.  The price is right at under $10 as well.

My biggest gripe comes in the title.  The calendar is dubbed "Skylanders Giants" an dthe cover features Tree Rex's ominous gaze.  However, there are NO GIANTS and NO NEW  SKYLANDERS featured in the calendar, or even highlighted!  This is a bit misleading if you are buying it as a gift and are not "in the know" on all thing Skylanders.  I don't think anyone would be too disappointed, but it certainly doesn't match what you would think having Tree Rex on the cover.

An interesting note is that each featured character and secondary featured character appears in the game as a repose.  The only two featured characters that do not appear as a repose are Ghost Roaster and Sunburn, both from Adventure Packs.

My personal gripe, and a minor one at that, is that Darklight Crypt does not seem like it should be January.  I would have put it with October for Halloween.  To the designer's credit the Undead Element does occupy that turf, but Ghost Roaster just screams Halloween more to me than Cynder and Hex.  I think that duo would have worked fine pretty much anywhere else, even in February as they are both girls.  Again, minor complaint, but valid.  I did like Empire of Ice getting December.  Only other issue is that Slam Bam was with Gill Grunt in January...I personally like that, but since Slam Bam was already featured we could have had Zap in his place at the bottom...Terrafin was not featured at the bottom of Prism Break's month, but rather it was Bash.

Anyway, all-in-all, this is a nice calendar that any fan will love.  If you are buying it as a gift you might want to make sure the recipient isn't expect 12 pages of Tree Rex, Crusher, and Thumpback etc.

Have fun counting down the days of 2013 with your Skylanders Giants Calendar!