The heat is blistering my “Super Mario Bros” T- shirt is sticking ickily tight in gooped sweat to my back. I had been outside since a cool swift winded 3AM, the time was now 8:55 AM. My prize a single Jiggly-Puff amiibo inside the dreaded doors of my then place of work, Target. In the US some amiibo (Nintendo’s toys-to-life product) are retail exclusives making it ever more burdensome on collectors to have to rush recklessly to Target to obtain Rosalina and Luma then cruise to Best Buy for the mighty Metaknight only then to creep down to GameStop to snag Shulk and then in a trial of patience venture all the way back to Toys "R" Us to catch an illustrious Lucario.
You can easily see why store exclusivity has been gnawing my sanity and writhing the last of my wits. Nevertheless I had produced the front spot for myself at Target and next on the list was to pick up my Greninja I had secured at Toys "R" Us. The rest were being shipped via GameStop on account of Ness from Earthbound being exclusive to the video game monopolizing empire that it is. (Yeah I was one of the lucky few that had an order placed during the server crash.) Simply put obtaining these wonderful and well-crafted figures is becoming very hard. Almost as hard as beating Donkey Kong in a barrel throwing contest. Recently Nintendo had announced that the next wave would only contain two figures. However to my grave disdain the two were exclusive to electronics chain Best Buy and online retailer Amazon. The daring and deadly Dark Pit and the glorious green goddess herself Lady Palutena.
I can't stress enough the fact that the United States are the only region with store exclusives and as a market ploy it is pretty good. Getting consumers in the store to buy one item and maybe on impulse or convenience pick up more stuff. It is alright in most cases but it is messing with my collecting in a way I detest to the very point of revolt. Imagine if DC or Marvel had decided to instead of releasing variant covers to exclusive stores but withhold entire issues unless you decided to go to separate retailers on release day. It would be annoying and many readers would be out of the loop simply because Barnes & Noble had not decided to do business in their town/city but they have issues 1, 3, and 5 in hand ready to pay money out of the same hand for 2, 4, and 6. Complaining is not the point of this. Let us dive into the detail. I am very fetched by the features of craftsmanship that the amiibo have to be such a small scale they are superior to most toys on the market. By far one of my favorites is the squid from the Splatoon set. Also if you have not played Splatoon yet. Buy a Wii U if you do not own one and get a copy of the Squid Squashing Splash Splatter Shooter as soon as you finish this sentence. (If you did as I as I said.
You are welcome.) The squid amiibo is cute yet epic at the same time he shines as a beacon of light that proves PVC figures are the ultimate form of detailing. It is truly a monster among men. Also after completing the in-game tasks it unlocks a robot costume. How butch is that?
My little boy Erik is two and a half and loves playing with our amiibo. Framing the durability of the figures the little boy occasionally puts Charizard in a death grip and spends hours setting them up as he pleases and using Lucina, Marth, or Link to knock them all over. At times I worry they may break as rough as he can get with some toys but he is yet to kill any of them. Thanks to these toys my son also recalls the names of many different Nintendo characters that most children his age would never know otherwise. Being from the old school of Nintendo I can really appreciate passing the torch to my kid. Nostalgia is a powerful marketing weapon and the amiibo use it to bend nerd wallets to their will. Soon to be released is the beautiful blonde bomb-shell and bounty hunter Samus Aran a variation on her usual powersuit garb this amiibo will feature her in a zero suit (essentially underwear for powersuit users.) The world could feel shockwaves of earthquakes-ish awe as it was revealed Samus was a female and an attractive one at that and over a decade ago none the less. With an arsenal of gadgets and an inter-stellar bounty hunting skill set that almost puts Boba Fett to shame. This figure is top priority for any videogame collector. This Summer heat is ridiculous but as cool as amiibo are each wave release is like a fresh splash of water to cool us down and stop the searing simmering sun from scorching and melting us like plastic.
Join us on Facebook.