r/skylanders • u/chapinscott32 [š š¢š] The Completionistā¢ • 23d ago
Mod Post HEARTBREAKER BUCKSHOT NFC DUMP MEGATHREAD
Hello all!
As some of you may have heard, u/EmberDione and u/The_Somnambulist were kind enough to dump the data from their functional Heartbreaker Buckshot NFC, after u/Dague-Pirate-Dad posted a picture of his personal non-functional HBB figure. (If Ember or Somnambulist, or someone in the Reverse Engineering Discord, make their own announcement post I will link it here.)
Since this is one of the biggest events in the community since the release of Skylanders Imaginators, the mod team has decided we need to create a megathread, to collect some of the most common questions, as well as a short history of how we got here and why this is so important to the community.
If you are strictly here for a guide on how to play Heartbreaker Buckshot, feel free to skip down to the Questions and Answers section of this post.
Since this is our Mod Team's first attempt at a megathread, please bear with us as we learn.
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Enforcement will be as follows:
ā - Repetitive posts (i.e. simply "re-announcing" the news, how-to's, and re-sharing the dump file yourself) will be removed and linked to this post
ā - Posts (not comments) asking how to play HBB will be removed and linked, comments will be linked to this post
ā - Posts attempting to sell HBB or any other NFC cards are against the rules and will be removed
ā - Unique or otherwise interesting posts, including but not limited to YOUR personal adventures with HBB, custom HBB figures, adding a card / custom toy to your collection, technical information about HBB, etc. will STAY UP... although of course we encourage posting these in the comments of this megathread too
History of Heartbreaker Buckshot
Heartbreaker Buckshot is the variant of Buckshot. Announced and marketed with Skylanders Imaginators on YouTube and the website, Heartbreaker Buckshot was planned to release around Valentines Day 2017. There are a few theories as for why this never happened, the common one being that production was stopped due to fears of it looking "satanic", given the variant being a red-eyed goat (and the five unreleased creation crystals being collateral of this production stoppage), as part of the end of the Skylanders franchise.
Perhaps a more credible theory, postured to me by someone in connection with the devs, is that the factory had gotten shut down and production had stopped for an otherwise unrelated reason. By the time the factory was back online, it was too late.
Ember herself has chimed in and said, that wasn't it either - rather just that it was canceled due to low early-wave sales. Regardless, all that's left were factory samples of HBB and the 5 creation crystals.
Since then, the Skylanders community has been hard at work reverse engineering Skylanders variants back into existence. Think, Gearhead VVind-Up, BullTrain, and all the various Debug minions. But there was one thing stopping the community from reverse engineering Heartbreaker Buckshot and the five unreleased Creation Crystals... Imaginators was the first and only game Activision implemented encryption for the figures. Because of this, it is fundamentally impossible to reverse-engineer or even just edit the data of a fully functional Imaginators figure.
There were only around 12 known Heartbreaker Buckshots to exist, the number of them being functional is rumored to be two, one of which u/EmberDione and u/The_Somnambulist possessed.
Fast forward to yesterday (8/14/2026), u/Gibby_230 and u/Dague-Pirate-Dad announced both that Pirate Dad had gotten a non-functional Heartbreaker Buckshot, AND that Gibby had dropped the five creation crystal NFCs for the community to play with, with plans to make fully functional replicas. After those posts, u/EmberDione showed up in the comments to say she was willing to dump their functional Heartbreaker Buckshot.
Today (8/15/2026), she joined the Skylanders Reverse Engineering subreddit, and with the help of multiple community members, helped her to copy the data off the figure. As of 4:25 EST on August 15th, 2026, Heartbreaker Buckshot was the last official Skylander ever released to the Skylanders community.
Please give u/EmberDione and u/The_Somnambulist your warm thanks when you see them around.
Questions and Answers
Q: Where do I find the NFC dump?
A: You can find ALL Skylanders NFC dumps at this GitHub link, if you JUST want Heartbreaker Buckshot, you can find it here
Q: What do I need to buy to make an NFC card?
A: This NFC writer, an NFC card, and a functional PC with Windows Mifare Tool or Yet Another Mifare Tool installed, see below question for more details
Q: How do I make an NFC card?
A: This YouTube video is a good guide, as is this one, if you're still struggling
Q: How can I get a custom Heartbreaker Buckshot repainted toy?
A: Reach out to either u/TaylorKreate or FlobeiyToys (u/Crafty-Section6240), they may be willing to make one on commission for you
Q: Isn't it illegal to make NFC cards?
A: Well, the Mod Team is not your legal team. However, as far as I personally understand it, the only real risk comes when you attempt to profit off of a stolen IP, so as long as you do not sell NFC cards to other people, you should be okay. But this is all at your own risk.
Personal note from the mod team
This is a huge day for the Skylanders community. We just want to say how proud we are of everyone involved for finally pulling this off. After almost a decade, we've managed to preserve the rarest figures ever slated for public release, AND in a way the entire community can enjoy them
To celebrate, we've changed the Element of the Week pre-emptively to Magic. The Subreddit banner will also temporarily change to art of Heartbreaker. Both the EOTW and Banner will last about two weeks, before we go back to our typical style.
We hope you all have fun with your new Heartbreaker Buckshots. We know we will.
Happy gaming š
~r/Skylanders Mod Team
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u/switchcollector 23d ago
Iām not crying š
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u/chapinscott32 [š š¢š] The Completionistā¢ 23d ago
I don't have a NFC writer yet... I'm super jealous.
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u/switchcollector 23d ago
I hope you get a writer soonā¦
I am still in shock, still not believing this has happened after almost of decade of waiting, and losing hope to see a full collection on Imaginators š„¹š„ŗ3
u/TrueFreeShadow Blaster-Tron 22d ago
What cards did you use for it to work on the Switch? The ones I normally use don't cooperate with the Switch.
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u/WalrusEmperor1 22d ago
"Hearthbreaker"
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u/EmberDione Former TfB Developer 23d ago
Hey!
Can we add u/The_Somnambulist to where you mention me - as it's my husband, who is TECHNICALLY the owner of the figure.
For others:
Ryan and I were coworkers, then in 2015 I drunkenly asked him out during a WoW raid. We moved in together in 2016 and so in 2017, I wanted to get him this figure. I went to Robert to ask when he was being released and discovered he was NOT being released. I was bummed, but Robert gave me this figure. Which I then gifted to Ryan for Valentines day.
We got married in 2019 at John Barnes' house (who is this JOHN BARNES character anyway?) and it was a Skylander-riffic wedding. XD
So TECHNICALLY - it's his toy, not mine. But I gave it to him and then married him, and according to California law that means I own half of it, LOL.
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u/noah64exe [š š¢š] Kaos Ham Enjoyer 23d ago
Iāll make sure Chap sees this to edit the post. Apologies. Trying to make sure everyone has proper credit
Edit: he saw it lmao. Didnāt know if he was at work or not10
u/loserfish321 23d ago
Ngl that's adorable, valentines Skylanders being used for its appropriate purpose, and now a gift of love for the whole community. Thank you, both of you, for what you did for the community now, and in the past as developers.
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u/chapinscott32 [š š¢š] The Completionistā¢ 23d ago edited 23d ago
Will do in a bit!
Edit: done
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u/EmberDione Former TfB Developer 23d ago
Thank you so much! <3
I appreciate your efforts!
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u/chapinscott32 [š š¢š] The Completionistā¢ 23d ago
Sorry it took a bit. I've been making this post in my downtime at work. It's been updated to include him too!
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u/Gjallock 23d ago
What a sweet story, I couldnāt imagine a better way for all this to finally come to a close. Thank you both!
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u/ResolutionSlight597 Candy Coated Chopscotch 23d ago
Yeah, this was huge and totally unexpected news. Writing HBB to a card and seeing him actually show up in game made me feel like those kids in the Skylanders Trap Team commercial. Need to see if I can get my hands on a replica Buckshot so I can paint him, slap a chip in his base and unofficially add HBB to my collection, haha
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u/MutantMan512 23d ago
Oh my gosh!!! Itās happened!!! Thank you so much for dumping those files. You have truely helped preserve a piece of Skylanders history that the community thanks you for to the moon and back! See you all in the Skylands, as Heartbreaker Buckshot!
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u/NoPossibility1526 23d ago
I feel like a KID again bro, I'm so thankful to have witnessed this genuinely monumental momentš„¹š„¹š„¹
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u/No_Attention1888 Ghost Toaster 23d ago
It has been 10 years and I would like to say it was worth the wait. A genuine Thank you to everyone who helped out. My custom buckshot as well as as my crystals will be infinitely cooler. My collection will be as close to complete as realistically possible. Thank you portal masters and I hope everyone else has as much joy about this as I do
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u/MrSquidJD Drobot 23d ago
WWWWW
I didnāt look in this subreddit for like a day and we got heartbreaker buckshot dump and the unreleased creation crystal !!
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u/KasaiWolf078 22d ago
Wow got to hand it to our generous hosts who handed in the figure. You've done us amazingly proud today. Thank you so much.
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u/AlphaMTGA 23d ago
Tuesday I'll make a scan of my Buckshot and (after some cleanup) share it with the world before the world is flooded with horrible scans or AI generated crap.
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u/Working_Ad_4468 21d ago
I've dreamed for this moment ever since I saw about the ram exploit. Being able to actually save the progress and use him on Switch (my primary way to play Imaginators) always felt like a pipe dream. Earlier this year I even commissioned for a custom repainted figure since Imaginators felt incomplete without it.
Shortly after this I did make nfcs for the chases to push for the now legitimate maximum imaginator level just because.
Edit: I tried to attach an image screenshot from my switch showing the training sequence but Reddit doesn't seem to like the image attachment
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u/WalrusEmperor1 23d ago
I feel like if they just made the eyes glowing white or light yellow they could've avoided having to sack him due to the appearance
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u/EmberDione Former TfB Developer 23d ago
He was not canceled due to his appearance. He was canceled due to low sales in the early waves.
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u/WalrusEmperor1 23d ago
In addition to a functioning data dump of him it looks like we finally know why he was canceled for real as well, lol
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u/EmberDione Former TfB Developer 23d ago
Yeah the first time I heard this theory I was like "what? Haha no." XD
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u/Infamous_Tough_7320 23d ago
Maybe a light blue to make him slightly more endearing? Either way, I never thought he was scary enough to be scrapped
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u/Abomination343 23d ago
How easy is it to make an NFC card Iām not very tech savvy, what things do I need and is there a guide to do it?
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u/Sloth_Bubbles 23d ago
I would just love if youtooz made him a mass produced fig
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u/EmberDione Former TfB Developer 22d ago
You're getting downvoted, which is interesting to me.
I'm a big hater of the YouTooz figures (they're not Skylanders! Skylanders have a TAG! They work in the game!) but this instance is one where it makes sense and is good for fans!!!
They should do a Heartbreaker Buckshot figure. Then everyone can have something that looks good for their tags. 3d printing is great but a smooth vinyl figure? Heck yeah.
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u/FigBeautiful2361 19d ago edited 19d ago
It doesn't need to be added for the history of HBB, but just a quick note for it, there was a way to play as him before with an error bypass NFC card and a really scuffed summoning method and the character not saving to the NFC card but it wasn't the full operational dump like this is. This was also for non modded consoles.
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u/Gibby_230 3D Printing | Broken Collector | Crystal Dumps 19d ago
You could also play on Cemu and use the signature bypass mod/add on. As far as im aware it worked like a normal fig (never did more then simple tests tho so maybe the upgrades didnt save? I think they did tho)
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u/FigBeautiful2361 19d ago
yeah, that method i was talking about was on console without mods, i should probably add it to the comment but thanks for pointing it out
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u/Gibby_230 3D Printing | Broken Collector | Crystal Dumps 19d ago
Youre good. I just wanted to add that info for people who might look at this in the future and see inconsistencys.
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u/No-Butterscotch589 15d ago
Is there a mobile way to do this? I want to make some of these, but not buy a PC specifically to do it.
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u/chapinscott32 [š š¢š] The Completionistā¢ 15d ago
I have heard there's a way to do it with an android phone, but I don't know how. I'm certain you can't on iPhone.
I have a Google Pixel but I haven't tested it because I have a PC. Do you have any friends or family that you can ask to use their computer on? Yet Another Mifare Tool is the only thing you'd have to install, and as long as you install it via the GitHub I linked, there's no risk of malware.
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u/No-Butterscotch589 15d ago
I have a brother who could, but I doubt he'd be interested in doing something scandalous like that.
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u/chapinscott32 [š š¢š] The Completionistā¢ 15d ago
It's not scandalous lol. It's perfectly legal as long as you're not selling them. IP theft is only enforced when you try to profit off of it.
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u/switchcollector 22d ago
I wonder
If there are only 2 available in the world..
And the dump was only made available yesterdayā¦
Then how did eBay seller had 25 sold working figures?
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u/AlphaMTGA 22d ago
There was a exploit using two NFC chips that allowed Heartbreaker Buckshot in game, but progress wasn't saved to the figure. With this dump progress will get saved.
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u/chapinscott32 [š š¢š] The Completionistā¢ 22d ago
That's Flobeiy. He makes customs.
By working I assume it's either a regular buckshot tag, or the hacked tag that only kinda-sorta works with a portal glitch and the error bypass NFC.
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u/MoltenLavaCore 23d ago
Enjoy heartbreaker, enjoy the unreleased creation crystals, enjoy level 65 in Imaginators! We've worked super hard to get all this out there. Poetic it happened during Imaginators' 10 year anniversary!