Aww, look at his little soccer ball head. Celebrating the onset of soccer fever, Activision is releasing special edition Skylanders: Swap Force toy 'Kickoff' Countdown (clever) this Sunday, May 18, at ToysRUs locations across the country and online.

Did you hear that? That's the sounds of hundreds of thousands of parents and collectors breathing a sigh of relief, as they learn the final Skylanders: Swap Force character is being released next week. It's quickly followed by a pained groan, as they discover Doom Stone's debut is a 500-piece giveaway at the Toys'R'Us…

Today Activision announced a second round of eight Skylanders Happy Meal Toys will be launching March 27, but they will not be alone. The Skylanders: Swap Force characters will be the "boys" toy, and the "girls" option? It's My Little Pony, dammit.

The next wave of Skylanders: Swap Force figures hit Toys'R'Us this weekend, leaving hardcore collectors and impressionable youngsters only two more reasons to get out of bed in the morning until the next game is announced. What's the point of it all?

This morning Toys'R'Us locations across the U.S. start selling Rubble Rouser and Stink Bomb, the two Skylanders toys needed to 100% complete levels in a game released three months ago. What?

In August I got an early chance to play the latest installment of Skylanders on a PlayStation 4. I thought it was just the prettiest thing ever. After reviewing the game on the PS3, I thought I might have just been seeing things. Nope. So much better.

With a new Wii U Deluxe set coming out on November 1 featuring two Mario games, how can Nintendo possibly sell new Wii buyers on the basic unit? How about an exclusive Skylanders: Swap Force figure?

I was not expecting this at all. Don't click if you don't want to spoil it.

Know for its scenic mountain vistas and sheep farms with an economy based on fishing, tourism and whiskey-distilling, Scotland's Isle of Skye is now the first real-world location officially twinned with a video game setting. One of the prettiest places on the planet, now a Skylanders: Swap Force marketing tool.

Attention Skylanders parents, you're going to Toys R Us tomorrow morning. Swap Force launched this past weekend with some important elements and travel powers unrepresented. The twelve new figures going on sale tomorrow morning exclusively at Toys R Us should help fill in the blanks.

Now that the console version of Skylanders has finally caught up with the portable one in terms of jumping, the 3DS version of Skylanders: Swap Force ups the ante, letting players load all of their toys into the game at once.

It's taken 40 long years, but it's finally happened. I've finally become an adult, and it's all thanks to the latest Skylanders game. I just don't understand the Swap Force.

You would think that on the third installment of Activision's highly-successful toys-meets-games series they'd give folks the option to just buy the game by itself. Ha ha! We're not getting off that easy.

Every Skylander character released so far has been remastered in HD. We're visiting a region of the Skylands we've never seen before. We meet Kaos' evil mom. So many new features are coming in Skylanders: Swap Force, some almost exciting as the ability to jump.

I didn't fully appreciate the next generation of consoles until last Friday, when I got the chance to play Skylanders: Swap Force for a couple hours on the PlayStation 4.

More of a sabertooth turtle dinosaur, I suppose. This is Slobber Tooth, and he's one of the latest non-splitting Skylanders champions, joining the fray when Swap Force hits October 13.

Taking a break from marking up used games, GameStop announced today that preorders were open for the chain-exclusive Skylanders Swap Force Dark Edition Starter Pack, which replaces the normal pack's milk chocolate with sumptuous dark... oh wait.

Disney Infinity is not a Skylanders clone, but that doesn't mean the Disney title wasn't inspired by Activision's toy-meets-game success story. Heck, three Skylanders toys even showed up for this Disney Infinity "Designing the Figures" video. Update — The video has been removed from the Disney Infinity YouTube…

Say hello to Color Shift Hot Dog, the exclusive E3 2013 Skylanders toy Activision will be giving out at their Skylanders: Swap Force area when the show opens tomorrow. Shortly after that he'll be on eBay for several hundred dollars.

Okay parents, we've been through this twice before; this time we get it right. The latest installment of the franchise your children go crazy for is officially launching on October 13 in North America and October 18 in Europe. You should probably be taking notes.