The Skylanders franchise has grown into a multimillion-dollar juggernaut. The idea of introducing toy figures, and asking consumers to pay more, was new and risky, apparently to risky for Nintendo. According to Toys for Bob co-founders Fred Ford and Paul Rouse, Nintendo had the opportunity to claim some of the cash for themselves.

“We had been directed towards thinking about something that would play well with Nintendo. I think there was some co-marketing money and the Wii was doing well. They had some success with peripherals.” – Ford
“They (Nintendo) spent a long time looking and looking. They were just like ‘we have never seen anything like this before.’ I’ve always wondered about the full meaning of that comment [laughs]. We have no idea why (Nintendo turned it down). Clearly, they have got properties well suited to this world. Why it is that they didn’t rush in here will probably haunt them for the rest of their days. Nintendo could have kicked Disney’s ass. If I was running Nintendo I would have jumped on this.” – Rouse

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