Polycrystalline members of the GaV$_4$S$_{8-y}$Se$_y$ family of materials with small levels of substitution between $0 leq y leq 0.5$ and $7.5 leq yleq 8$ have been synthesized in order to investigate their magnetic and structural properties. Substitutions to the skyrmion hosting parent compounds GaV$_4$S$_8$ and GaV$_4$Se$_8$, are found to suppress the temperature of the cubic to rhombohedral structural phase transition that occurs in both end compounds and to create a temperature region around the transition where there is a coexistence of these two phases. Similarly, the magnitude of the magnetization and temperature of the magnetic transition are both suppressed in all substituted compounds until a glassy-like magnetic state is realized. There is evidence from the $ac$ susceptibility data that skyrmion lattices with similar dynamics to those in GaV$_4$S$_8$ and GaV$_4$Se$_8$ are present in compounds with very low levels of substitution, $0 < y< 0.2$ and $7.8 < y < 8$, however, these states vanish at higher levels of substitution. The magnetic properties of these substituted materials are affected by the substitution altering exchange pathways and resulting in the creation of increasingly disordered magnetic states.
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