I honestly don't mind the Skylanders series, if the figures for the previous games are compatible with the next instalment then you could probably save some money.
At least some of them look nice on a shelf next to your games, it's like that Disney Infinity game that never really caught on, silly rendition after unwanted game, it gets out of hand rather fast.
Actually, I'm going to defend Disney Infinity. xD
It has a very powerful level creation tool. Some classmates in a game design/philosophy class used it to make a few projects. My Professor (who taught the class) is really fond of it, and even created a custom level for his daughter (He's a big video game guy, so they enjoy games together lol). He seemed to think that Infinity would have been more successful if it would have been marketed better, because most people aren't aware of how awesome the level creation tool is.
I'd like to get my hands on it. At the very least, I like the figures a lot better than the Skylanders ones.
I haven't really played it, however. But I would argue that it's a great tool at the very least; it would just need to be better marketed, and perhaps levels better created, for a wider variety of audiences.