Vicarious Visions adds Molten Hot Dog and other rare characters to Skylanders Lost Islands in latest update

For the fourth time since it released Skylanders Lost Islands back in November 2012, Vicarious Visions has updated its freemium world builder with a batch of fresh content.

After downloading this new update, you'll be able to unlock five brand-new companions, all of which give you special powers, abilities, and even prizes.

There's Beatrees, for example, who enables you to instantly harvest and plant energy crops with just a few taps of your device's screen.

Oh, and there's Cali, who doubles the gold payout of every adventure you undertake.

If you own the real-world physical Molten Hot Dog, Polar Whirlwind, Granite Crusher, or Punch Pop Fizz toys, you'll be pleased to read that you can now import them into Skylanders Lost Islands using each character's special web code or your Portal of Power.

If you don't own the abovementioned Skylanders (all four are exclusive to certain stores and hard to find, after all), however, you can purchase them from the in-game store using the game's premium currency, Gems.

Last but not least, this update contains a bunch of new features, including radiant crops that give extra energy; special hidden Gem offers; and XP bonuses when you place a decoration next to a compatible building.

Skylanders Lost Islands is one of the few free-to-play build-'em-ups that we wholeheartedly recommend you add to your collection.

We wouldn't have given it a glamorous Gold Award at review if we didn't think its icon should be on your Home screen yesterday.

Skylanders Lost Islands is available to download from the App Store for your iPhone and iPad for free. Naturally, it contains lots of in-app purchases.