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I've always wondered if there's an official way to use the cards you get when you buy Skylanders and Adventure Packs, but I don't think there is. I've always seen it more as a Top Trumps kind of thing, but has anyone thought of a kind of way to play it?

I've had a few ideas over the years...

But I do wish something official was announced, or the stats matched up etc. I've never quite understood how they justify the stats not reflecting the in game abilities...

I know some people scream "they do reflect the game if you use this equation" but the truth is you can start with any number and end up at another if you make the time...

The best thing, outside of displaying/archiving them, is simply to kind of deal the cards and throw it down battle style...which requires long explanations, lol.

Its been quietly gnawing at me...How can I play a game with my son with all the cards we have collected for the games??
This thread put an idea in my head... ...How about playing a type of UNO with them...I know UNO is based on Crazy Eights with standard cards.

Here are simplified rules for Uno/Crazy Eights...
To start a hand, seven cards are dealt out to each player, and the top card of the deck is flipped over and set aside to begin the discard pile. The player to the dealer's left plays first. On a player's turn, he/she must do one of the following:

play a card matching the discard in color, number or symbol
play a Wild card, or a playable Wild Draw Four card (see restriction below)
draw the top card of the deck
If a player chooses to draw the top card of the deck, and that card is playable (it matches the discard, or is a playable wild card), then the player may (but need not) immediately play that card.

Play proceeds clockwise around the table.

If a player chooses to draw a card and the drawn card is playable, the player has the option of either keeping it or playing it immediately (as part of that turn).
If a player chooses to draw, the player may not play any card (other than the drawn card, if playable) on that turn.
A player may play a Wild card at any time (even if that player has other playable cards).
If the entire deck is used during play, the top discard is set aside and the rest of the pile is shuffled to create a new deck. Play then proceeds normally.
A player who plays his/her next-to-last card must call "uno" as a warning to the others.[4]

The first player to get rid of his/her last card ("going out") wins the hand and scores points for the cards held by the other players. Number cards count their face value, all action cards count twenty, and Wild and Wild Draw Four cards count fifty. If a Draw Two or Wild Draw Four card is played to go out, the next player in sequence must draw the appropriate number of cards before the score is tallied.

The first player to reach five hundred points is the winner.
Ok...so using these rules as a springboard....

So...here's a rough attempt to modify them for Skylander character cards...
(This is a rough first attempt, I'm literally trying to work this out as I type!...lol)

To start, shuffle all the character and item cards you have received with your Skylanders into a big deck. Then seven cards are dealt out to each player, and the top card of the deck is flipped over and set aside to begin the discard pile. The player to the dealer's left plays first. On a player's turn, he/she must do one of the following:

play a card matching the discard in element symbol or Type (Lightcore, Giant, Mini, Variant). At a future date it could also include Game Release (SSA character, Giant character, Swap Force Character or Trap Team). The exact qualifying types can be agreed upon before starting.
play a Wild card, or a playable Wild Draw Four card (see below)
draw the top card of the deck
If a player chooses to draw the top card of the deck, and that card is playable (it matches the discard, or is a playable wild card), then the player may (but need not) immediately play that card.

Play proceeds clockwise around the table.

If a player chooses to draw a card and the drawn card is playable, the player has the option of either keeping it or playing it immediately (as part of that turn).
If a player chooses to draw, the player may not play any card (other than the drawn card, if playable) on that turn.
A player may play a Wild card at any time (even if that player has other playable cards). After a Wild Card is played, that player announces a new element of their choosing to continue the game under.
If the entire deck is used during play, the top discard is set aside and the rest of the pile is shuffled to create a new deck. Play then proceeds normally.
A player who plays his/her next-to-last card must call "KAOS Rules!" as a warning to the others.

The first player to get rid of his/her last card ("going out") wins the hand and scores points for the cards held by the other players. Card values will need to be determined. If a Draw Two or Wild Draw Four card is played to go out, the next player in sequence must draw the appropriate number of cards before the score is tallied.

The first player to reach five hundred points is the winner

Wild cards could be any non-character card-..ie magic items. Or even any magic item and ANY NON-STANDARD character cards-Eon's Elite for example.
A "Wild" card can obviously be played as any element or type.
As to Special wild cards that are in the UNO deck for example...(like Reverse which flips the direction the players go in the circle, or Draw 2's which makes the next person draw two cards from the pile, Turn Skips, etc, etc) That is open for debate here....
Actually it occurs to me that keeping the types flexible could be really fun...Translation: Element type is the obvious choice but it would be fun to hear what kids would say the categories should be...Dragons...?, Flying characters should be able to be played with other flying characters...Similar weapon users...Swords for instance...! It could make for fun debate in the game if exceptions could be made as long as all playing agree that the association is valid!!..Lol!!
Soo...What do you think!?!?

Nice! Seems like it would work quite well!

I have been limiting myself to the stat cards only as the odds of completing a set of the Topps cards is slim to none and I need all the available fundage for the actual figures, lol.

My son and I gave it a first, tentative try...I thought it was fun, He REALLY liked it! We attempted it with all of the Trap Team Cards only. The 8 elements (Light/Dark were not out yet) served as the most basic matching sets. What was really fun was trying to decide what the other matching sets would be for the game. We would play, put down any card that we thought aligned with the showing card on top of the deck and then present out case to each other. If we both agreed it stayed, if not, the card was withdrawn.
So example...when Spyro was showing, he argued that he should be able to put down Spry. I agreed and therefore Mini's formed a subset of their own and could cross connect to their larger counterparts. We also decided that Giants and Legendaries would be their own subsets as well.
When we play again, I will give some more detail!

Nice, main thing is to have fun!

I'm glad we never got into the Topps cards-I think it would have driven me crazy! And an added expense as you describe.

On a separate note, my son and I have worked out some of the details of the card game we created for the Skylanders cards. We are planning to make and post up a YouTube video of us playing and explaining it.
I just posted on your Skylander Mailbox Post..uhh...post that we found some clear collector card boxes for 99 cents each at the Walmart Magic The Gathering/Collector Card section by the checkout counters. Each handheld box seems to hold about 150 cards or so. Very nice and neat. I hope to show them on the video we make of the gameplay. Which reminds me...we are going to have to name this game...hmmmm.