I wonder how much of this was "GameStop was the only major retailer that showed interest." vs "Man, let's give GameStop the hookup!"
I agree with you Vahne. From dealing with GameStop and Skylanders, they're about the last retailer I'd want to deal with on this. They get very little stock, they plaster giant, ugly stickers on the cardboard, they completely botched the last promo they ran, advertising one thing and sending a different direction to the stores (then many stores went a third, completely different direction...)
Oh, and there's the whole thing with them pulling the rare chase variants out at the warehouses and selling them online in insane $500+ bundles.