Interactive toy system

Abstract

An entertainment system, methods and computer software products are provided. In an exemplary embodiment, an entertainment system comprises at least one hand held controller with a touch screen interface. In one implementation the hand held controller is a mobile communications device, such as a smartphone or table computer. The system further includes at least one base station unit. The base station unit reads storage data from game character dolls, toys, and accessories. Additionally, a vehicle, toy, or figure, may act as a portal. Multiple portal, multiple character game play with and without accessories is supported for multiple players using different controllers.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of interacting with action figures, comprising:
 providing at least one base unit having a reader element;   detected one or more action figure dolls on the at least one base unit, where each of the one or more action figure dolls has a data storage element to store identification data related to the action figure;   communicating the identification data for the one or more action figure dolls to a unit acting as a game console; and   adjusting the operation of an interactive game to represent characters corresponding to each of the one or more action figure dolls.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising detecting at least one accessory unit on the at least one base unit, communicating identification information stored in the at least one accessory unit, and adjusting the operation of the interactive game to include the at least one accessory. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising detecting movement of an action figure doll on a base unit and controlling game play based on the movement. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein there are two or more action figure dolls detected on the at least one base unit. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein at least two corresponding game characters are displayed on at least one display screen where each game character corresponds to a respective action figure doll detected on the at least one base unit. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein at least two different game players control a respective one of the game characters with separate game controllers. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising utilizing a toy as a game portal.