If you own a Wii U, chances are you’ve heard of amiibos (amiibi?).* If you’re a parent whose child has a Wii U, chances are you’ve heard of amiibo. Regardless of who you are in this world, the almighty Nintendo hardware toy piece, the Great Amiibo, has given you a prophecy in your dreams. Oh wait, not you? Okay, maybe that’s just me.
What I’m getting at is that the amiibo toy is a very hot and popular item these days, seemingly ruling the video gaming and toy world with over 25 different amiibo on shelves and more slated to come out. People have been hittin’ the stores with extreme vigor to get their hands on amiibo before Christmas. After all, I’m sure these little figurines are on many a Christmas wish list (check it twice “Santa” because your son wants Mario, not Peach).
It strikes me as odd that all of the crappy and seemingly boring amiibo are currently the rarest in the market. My only speculation is that some information on the number of units in production must have been distributed (or leaked) because I can’t quite picture millions of boys and girls clawing at their mother’s feet begging for a Wii Fit Trainer amiibo over a Mario or Yoshi. EBay is a great thing, but its vendors have ruined this amiibo experience for many just to control the flow of the rare items. *sigh
So let’s cut to the chase, right? What does Miyamoto have to say? Nintendo recently mentioned that some amiibo would be discontinued to make way for new ones, and in a recent interview, Miyamoto said:
“We’re not making promises for certain figures, but the way amiibo is designed is that certain games can have amiibo specifically for that game. Other games can take advantage of past amiibo that developers want to make their game compatible with. In the future, we have the option, if certain amiibo figures are no longer available in stores, to release an amiibo in card form with the same functionality.”
This is good news and bad news. Bad because they might be discontinuing certain amiibo before we ever had the chance to get our hands on them! Good because for functionality’s sake, gamers will still be able to use the cards in place of the old amiibo. But is the card really the same thing as the amiibo itself, y’all? Methinks not.
This leaves people like me bewildered. Nintendo talking about discontinuing amiibo makes my skin crawl with anxiety as I consider taking out a second mortgage on my home just so I can buy up ALL amiibo before they’re sold out! Think about the high price-gouging online and at second-hand stores?? It’s surely to be a massacre of epic proportions. It confuses me why Nintendo would even talk about discontinuation so soon, but maybe it’s all one big ploy to get people to snatch up as many as they can right now.
I will admit that I was hesitant to share this news with you. By letting you know that some amiibo could be discontinued soon, I’ve put my own future collection of these mostly worthless toys at jeopardy. What I really meant to say was that Nintendo is going to be releasing 100 million more amiibo over the next 2 months, so there’s no need for you to go buy any right now. Wait until later. Yeah… that’s what I meant.
*I think the proper form is “amiibo” for singular and plural, but who the heck knows (or cares)?
We just got our first figures of Captain Falcon and Luigi yesterday. We got plenty of excess Luigi, but only the pre-ordered amount of the Cap’n. Expect him to be pretty elusive.
I’ve never known Nintendo to go with this whole “intentional scarcity” thing…sure, if all of this is Nintendo’s doing, these things will fetch an amazing price on the aftermarket, but that won’t do Nintendo any good. Wouldn’t they be better off not creating this artificial scarcity?
I could be wrong, but I still have the feeling that in a couple of months time all of this will be remembered as a “holiday triviality.” It just feels like bad business to stifle production, however, I could see it as BRILLIANT business if they get everyone all worked up over certain figures, slowly increase production, which makes people snatch ’em up the first time they see them, and then a few months down the road leveling out the numbers for the more casual fans. Call me crazy, but it feels a little like bait and switch for those of us want amiibo and want them NOW!
Have they said which ones are going to be discontinued or was it going to be all of them?
When I stumbled across this rumor a week or two ago, the only ones specifically mentioned were Marth, AC Villager, and Wii Fit Trainer. But from experience, lots of them are missing – for instance, I still have yet to physically see Luigi, Little Mac, Captain Falcon, Diddy Kong, Pit, and possibly one or two others that I can’t remember.
As far as I can see, they have not made any official release as to which ones would be discontinued. Likely to avoid utter chaos and a serious backlash from fans. Plus… these things are uber successful! I just hope they keep them all going for a while… at least until I collect them all. Then they can throw the rest in the trash for all I care.
I did the math. At full price after tax (not counting any store discounts or 2nd hand retailers upping the price), you can expect to spend over $400 collecting the entire set (the ones that are currently on shelves).
I read some rumors about discontinuation awhile back. It sucks, but even if it does happen, all we need is a little patience. Pretty soon they’ll be popping up on the aftermarket for reasonable prices. Even if the production on some of these is/was limited, they’ve still got to number in the millions of units…right?
Yea I would think so. And honestly, just because they’re mentioning discontinuation of certain figures, that doesn’t mean they mean ANYTIME SOON! Could be 6 months to a year. Either way they’re gonna break my wallet haha —
And while yes, these could pop up on the aftermarket, as soon as they’re discontinued, the unopened ones could very easily skyrocket for a while until they eventually fall back down to normal numbers (probably still higher than the original price though). Oh well, like you mentioned Cube… patience!