With the new Skylanders: Giants there's a bunch of new characters. Only, they're not all new. Many of them are "reprints" of old characters. These "reprints" seem to be compatible with the original game. Not a big surprise, since it's the same character.
The question now is this: what's the gameplay difference? I don't much care about the fact that the character is in a different pose, or is colored differently, or lights up when you place it on the portal, those are all cosmetic differences that I am uninterested in. Are there new or improved powers? The starting stats seem higher in some cases, does that mean that the 2nd edition characters will be more powerful with the same advances as the 1st edition character? For instance, it seems that the new 2nd edition figures can go up to level 15 or something? The 1st edition characters stop at level 10. So if I take a 1st edition figure into Giants they won't go above level 10? But a 2nd edition will? And if I then take the level 15 character into the base Skylanders game will it continue to be level 15? Or will it be "rolled back" to level 10?
Basically, I'm looking to fully understand what the different capabilities are of each figure based on the 'type' of the figure.