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Amiibos


Lurch77

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My daughter wanted a pink sparkly Yoshi so found a good glitter paint and made one for her. I had the tape a bit too high around the feet; I think next time I'll take the figure off the base first before painting.

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Nice work Lurch! I've had Mega Man for a couple of weeks now, and he's on a shelf in my office next to my favorite, classic GI Joes. And I really dig him. I'm not so into him that I feel the need to run out and buy other figures though (thankfully).

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I grabbed an extra Mega Man and some metallic green paint to create an alternate costume. But up next my daughter and I designed a neat cosplay outfit for an extra Pikachu we have; thankfully we're staying away from a lot of paint (and the sparkles) and going with sculpted costume parts.

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Ahh amiibos. I've managed to get most of the ones I wanted, although I've had to watch the subreddit like a hawk after I missed out on a number of UK based wave 4 pre-orders to get Pacman, Robin and Lucina (I'm a HUGE Fire Emblem fan and main the FE characters in Smash).

From what I've read, Nintendo REALLY underestimated how popular these were going to be and frankly it makes a lot of sense. The low numbers were probably due to the poor sales of their consoles with unsold versions of both the 3DS and WiiU have supposedly sat in the warehouses and I was told even the recent Pokemon game didn't sell as well as expected. Additionally considering this was a bold and risky new direction for them, it makes a lot of sense to not produce large numbers if they'd fail to sell. Finally a lot of the characters are relatively unknown or cult favourites; as much as I love Fire Emblem it rarely sells well outside of Japan so why produce 10,000 figures of say Marth or Robin when maybe only 5,000 of the fans would get either. And as for why they've not made more stock yet, from what I've read about production times, it's likely the four Smash waves released so far (at least in the UK) and possibly even the upcoming fifth wave were all in production and with quantities set LONG before Nintendo knew how popular they'd be. Now I will add this is all, ultimately, just speculation but I feel people are too quick to jump on the "Nintendo are making limited demand to piss off their fans!" bandwagon without checking some of the facts first.

However now that's been proven otherwise I do feel they need to pull their thumb out and do something about it. I understand it will take months to start production of and release re-prints of everyone released so far and I do realise they don't want to flood the markets but I really feel they need to do something rather than dropping them for cards that mimic the functionality. Even if it will take a while to resolve the issue, at least saying in a future Nintendo Direct "Hey, we are looking to resolve the stock issue; hang in their collectors" will not only give hope to people who've missed out on getting their favourite but will also take out a lot of the wind in the sails of scalpers and we may start seeing reasonable prices for them. The day wave 4 released in the UK, Lucina, Robin and Ness all appeared on Amazon.co.uk for £50+!

Let's take one of the princesses (Rosalina) that fans, especially little girls, will definitely want and make her an exclusive so they sell out quickly and only become available on secondary markets at inflated prices. Bonus points if the retailer (Target) will leave the promo signs for this line up for months to remind these young fans that they were available for a hot minute but the store will never/ever/in-your-lifetime have them in stock again. Oh an Pokemon seems to be a fairly popular brand, especially among young boys/girls, let's make several of them (Lucario, Jigglypuff & Greninja) exclusive as well instead of widely available. Surely they're going to want to "Catch 'Em All" and what better way for them to drown their tears of sorrow away than acquiring through secondary markets so they can use them for what they were actually intended for ... PLAYING WITH THEIR GAME CONSOLES & GAMES!

I also agree that store exclusives was a VERY badly chosen idea and poorly handled. In my eyes store exclusives and/or chase figures should be say the same amiibo in terms of design but with an alternative pallet - say Mario or Luigi in their Wario/Waluigi designs from Smash - i.e. amiibo that only hard core collectors would truly be after.

Edited by pawcanada
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Could they release all of the characters but in different coloured costumes? e.g. Mario in his fireflower outfit? Do you think that would appease those that missed out the first time? I mean, casual collectors and kids just want Mario, and the hardcore who maybe already tracked him down and paid through the nose will still have the original and it's not cheapened by the new one.

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Could they release all of the characters but in different coloured costumes? e.g. Mario in his fireflower outfit? Do you think that would appease those that missed out the first time? I mean, casual collectors and kids just want Mario, and the hardcore who maybe already tracked him down and paid through the nose will still have the original and it's not cheapened by the new one.

Mario isn't the issue. Most of the Super Mario characters are readily available.

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Why not just do different poses?

Or that of course. I just mean for Nintendo, it's easier to just repaint rather than make new molds.

Like Pawcanada said, it's understandable that Nintendo had no idea how big this would be, but why haven't they confirmed a 'new print', so to speak, of the original waves, just with minor tweaks.

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I read on The Escapist that supposedly Nintendo is currently stuck in a contract with a manufacturing company and wouldn't be able to release any more Smash amiibo until that has expired. HOWEVER that was a post on the forum back in February or March and I've seen nothing else relating to it since, so take that with a massive pinch of salt.

On a more positive note, I have seen numerous rumours on Reddit about re-stocks, including one last night that also says wave 5 will have triple, maybe even quadruple the stock that one to four had. If this is true then I feel this strengthens my theory that the first four waves were in production before Nintendo knew the popularity and it was too late for them to do anything on them. Again, it's always worth taking these comments with a pinch of salt but hopefully they have pulled their thumb out and are starting to look to resolve the problem.

Edit: A site has posted an article about the re-stock rumour - http://nintendoeverything.com/rumor-nintendo-customer-service-rep-says-all-amiibo-will-be-back-on-the-european-market-this-summer/

Edited by pawcanada
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  • 5 weeks later...

Good luck to everyone tomorrow on Wave 4! I just want Pac-Man and Charizard. Sounds like those should be fairly easy later on since they are the commons. But Jigglypuff, oh, Jigglypuff... Why did you have to be so exclusive? At least I got my shipping confirmations for my Greninja.

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I woke up early to go to Target not expecting anything. But thankfully got Jigglypuff and Pac-Man. Didn't go for Silver Mario or the Splatoon series (the only other ones left). Overall, quite a hassle free experience. Just glad I didn't come out empty handed. I went to another Target for fun and after an hour past opening, they still only had the Splatoon ones. I guess no one wants them?

Edited by storm 1:08
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Snagged Pac-Man, Charizard and Wario at Target, the exclusives were long gone by the time I got there (like 15 mins after store opening). Now trying to track down a reasonable Ness since Gamestop was a complete cluster, the one store we drove by on the way to take the kids to carpool (this was at 7am) already had people camping out. I imagine TRU was crazy too.

Splatoon looks like it could be a fun game but find it odd they put so much stock in brand new property to make amiibos for it. I passed on them but the little squid looks cool.

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Splatoon looks like it could be a fun game but find it odd they put so much stock in brand new property to make amiibos for it.

It looks like maybe they're just making them for every significant first party game going forward. Hopefully that means we'll get some more Star Fox amiibos whenever that comes out.

And it seems like someone in the UK really wanted the Splatoon ones at least! blink.png

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I'm hoping they'll make some if/when Pokken gets a WiiU release. Lucario and Gardevior have gone on to become some of the main members of my teams so I'd love to get an amiibo of each of them.

I managed to get two of the Splatoon amiibo (a friend managed to get me the third in exchange for a Greninja) and I have to say, the content is great but annoying. The amiibo let you re-do some of the single player maps with certain criteria, i.e. the Inkling Boy missions require you to use the roller while the Squid gives you either a time limit (although your squid form is a "kraken" who spreads ink as it moves) or limited ink runs. They're enjoyable but a little frustrating as the maps weren't really designed with these restraints in mind. For example, in the first map you have to throw a grenade onto a platform to distract a shield gunning for then shoot it while it's back is turned. With the roller this isn't possible; it does have an ink flick move that I wasn't even aware of at first so before I learned about it I spent a good five to ten minutes trying to do a running jump onto the platform to no avail. Additionally the loot you unlock is, apparently, not as good as anything you unlock after you reach level 10. I think the amiibo should have offered a different way to unlock the loot (the other being actual DLC) rather than being locked to it, especially if you've not been able to get them. Whilst I don't agree 100% with everything he said, Jim Sterling does bring up some good points about them in his most recent Jimqusition video.

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  • 3 weeks later...

for these figures, i can't believe they tricked toy collectors into buying dollar store toys for 20$

i really don't get the hype at all. someone explain?

The thing I like about amiibo is how they're being supported. For example, I have the four Fire Emblem amiibo figures. If I scan them into either the WiiU or 3DS version of Smash Brothers, I get an ai bot I can train up. I've always seen myself as a medium level tier player (at best) so it gives me a good challenge that allows me to get better and hopefully consider playing online. If I scan those same figures into either Codename S.T.E.A.M or the upcoming Fire Emblem If/Fates, I unlock those four (hopefully five when the Roy one gets released) characters to be used in either game. Unfortunately I lack the abilities to do this at the moment (I'm toying with getting either the new 3DS or the adapter if I can pre-order it in the 5 second window) but from what I understand the version in S.T.E.A.M are special units that can't be revived if KOed (like in FE) while in the next FE game, they appear as "super bosses" (or at least super hard enemies) that I may be able to recruit if I defeat them. Additionally most if not all figures can be scanned into both Yarn Yoshi and Super Mario Maker to get special character themed skins you can use. Thus for me the price I paid for them gets spread across more and more games, allowing me to justify it more.

Obviously it is a tricky situation as a) there are supply issues (either planned or unintentional) which they're hopefully getting on top of and b ) there is the risk of locking out too much, like they've done with Splatoon but I think if they get the balance right they provide a nice extra for a good price - assuming you can get them at retail prices - that, unlike other DLC can be used in more games.

Edit - This article here provides a complete list of all the known compatibility

Edited by pawcanada
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  • 2 months later...

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