I’m lucky…well, maybe I should have to say that my wallet is relieved, and very lucky, very lucky indeed. Just look at all they are throwing at us aside from the usual games, which already are expensive enough. It all started with the Skylanders that you could collect to combine with your game, and then the Disney Inifinity figures. But ever since Nintendo released the first Amiibo, things have gone from crazy to scary.
Every time that a new Amiibo wave is announced the figurines disappear from the stores just as quickly as they are stocked. Adults fighting over what is basically a plastic toy ( though a high quality plastic toy). Scalpers are making loads of money selling the most wanted ones on eBay. Shops have been announcing and selling exclusives, only available in the specific shop. Only fueling the crazy prices that are paid for them.
I’ve watched it all with a calm feeling, no feverish reactions on my part, I seem to be immune for The Amiibo Fever!
- No searching for the announcements in the media for new Amiibo to arrive
- No waiting in line for a store to open to get the newest released one.
- No searching every gaming store I come across for the slim chance of finding a rare one.
- No searching eBay to bid an insanely high amounts of money to buy a rare one that’s still missing in my collection.
- No pre-orders to put in in hopes that I get one that will be released in lower quantities then needed.
- No shocked feeling when you realize how much money you’ve already spent on them.
- No having to dust them all off.
- No clearing new shelves in the room to display all of my collection.
Could it be that I get away unscathed? Even though I do see that it can be bliss too, the feeling of finding that one you were still missing. And the Yoshi Yarn Amiibo look positively cute and lovable. I did buy some Amiibo Animal crossing Cards. But that’s not hard to do here in the Netherlands: I took this picture this afternoon in a media store here, and as you can see, enough left in stock. And I might, just might go for the Animal Crossing Amiibo, they look so good and I’ve been a fan for years…could it be that the Amiibo fever has a sort of incubation time?
I do wonder if all collectors unpack their Amiibo and really use them in a game. Because it seems to me with all the time that it takes to collect, there isn’t much time left to play!
Amiibos is the difference in the physical amiibos (in reality they are puppets) and virtual amiibos; amiibos virtual cards are the size of a credit card; both physical and virtual cards are connected via the hub Nintendo amiibo reader and connect and interact with RFID through the Nintendo 3DS (1st Generation) and New Nintendo 3DS (2nd Generation) console. See, the left side is the amiibo Physical Donkey Monkey is the doll (the red box) and right through the bag yellowish-green, is the Virtual amiibo Animal Crossing on the size of the credit or debit.As I see in the picture it is the difference of the two virtual and physical “Amiibos”; the physical and virtual dolls are brought inside the card using RFID radio frequency type.
=== Spanish Translation (I wrote in my language native) ===
Los Amiibos se diferencia en los amiibos fisicos (en realidad son muñecos) y los amiibos virtuales; los amiibos virtuales son las tarjetas del tamaño de la tarjeta de crédito; tanto fisicos y virtuales via tarjetas se conectan al concentrador lector de Amiibo de Nintendo y se conectan e interactúa con el RFID a través con la consola Nintendo 3DS (1ra Generacion) y New Nintendo 3DS (2da Generacion). Véase, el lado izquierdo es el Amiibo Físico de Donkey Monkey es el muñeco (la caja de color rojo) y por a la derecha con la bolsa de color verde amarillento, es el Amiibo Virtual de Animal Crossing del tamaño de la tarjeta de crédito o debito. Así lo veo en la imagen es por la diferencia de los dos “Amiibos” virtuales y fisicos; los fisicos son muñecos y virtuales traen dentro de la tarjeta mediante radiofrecuencia tipo RFID.
Reblogged this on Las Variedades de Venezuela y El Mundo Sin Borregos..
I absolutely open every single amiibo! Now that the fad has seemingly settled down a little bit, and the rare ones are being reprinted, I feel much less stressed out about getting the ones I need. I was happy to come home to a bag full of Yarn Yoshi’s that I did not think I’d be getting this round, and the game is really fun so far! (although the amiibo functionality is kind of annoying…) Otherwise I’ve been training them in Smash Bros and learning how to play all the characters I’d usually never use. I love most Nintendo characters, so the toys are cool by themselves, but they do serve a nifty purpose for competitive SSB players, I just don’t get why so many people leave theirs in the box. I understand collecting and such, but seriously – where’s the fun in that?! That’s just my opinion though lol
If every am going into the collecting, it would be for Animal Crossing. And like you said about loving the Nintendo characters, that’s me and AC. By the way, thank you for the brain wave about the blog, I got my inspiration from yours!
I am honored! It was nice to read someone from outside of America’s perspective on the whole Amiibo thing. I think we pre ordered more than one bundle copy of Animal Crossing Festival, and I was going to pre order a few of the amiibo bundles. Let me know if you run into any troubles finding them – I usually try and get a couple for friends who can’t make it to wait in line lol (I usually can’t either…some people have way too much time on their hands…) and I always just give them to people who need them. Making money off Amiibo is just cold, I hate it. I may have to look into importing those cards from New Zealand though! I’ve never seen that kind of stock! There is one guy in my city who BUYS ALL OF THEM as soon as they get put out. 🙁
Well, I don’t know about New Zealand but there are enough cards over here. But, be warned: we pay an equivalent of $5,50 for just three cards! Highway robbery I say!
Thanks for your kind offer on the AC Amiibo!
Oh jeez…ours are 6 cards for 5.99 I think! Of course I always get doubles when I DO find em haha. I found a full box on amazon for 50$ but I didn’t think I wanted them that bad back then and now they’re 200 plus 🙁
Yeah I know, and you get six where we get three. Crazy! I know ladies who are doing their best to get all 100 of the first wave..trading clubs are thriving.
I am glad that these days I am older and wiser. Back when I was a kid I would have been one of those psychos battling with other shoppers to collect all these figures. If anyone wants rare Amibos they should consider flying over here to Gibraltar. Our local stores seem to have plenty of stock and not many people buy them.
Lol, so Gibraltar is the place to be? It would seem the Amiibo cards are plentiful here, but I hardly see any other Amiibo. Besides the ones that they have tons of in stock. So, I guess we are both older and wiser…now I feel like we are the two guys on the balcony in the muppet show!
If I can talk my girlfriend into going to Gibraltar – I will buy you a drink good sir! Haha, I may not mention that Amiibo just so happen to be in abundance over there. Seriously though, she’s never left America, and I’m hoping I can make that change soon haha. As far as the situation over here is going, it seems to be dying down which is a relief. I really do like these things, but I’m just not willing to walk my way into a black eye or a broken bone for a boxed Shulk…people get serious about them! The Wii U didn’t make much of a stellar impact on the US though, so I can kind of understand why maybe they were a little hesitant to go all in… at first. Now if they could only figure out a way to make them cool enough to actually sell systems!!!
If I lived in a big place like the States I wouldn’t leave the country either. There’s plenty of stuff to explore in your home nation and you don’t need to worry about different languages or tasting horrible foreign grub.
The battle to collect Amibos is fierce. Wouldn’t it be ironic to get punched in the face over a squabble for a Little Mac figure?
It’s a shame that the Wii U wasn’t a bigger hit. It came out at a bad time and Nintendo have yet to address the lack of third party support. I’m not sure how much more life the system has, as studios are already getting development kits for the NX.
Oh god. Semi off topic hah, and I’m not super proud of this, but I actually did get in a real fist fight over a game of Street Fighter Third Strike at a bar once…I was about 22 years old and the guy who was playing with me got super angry, let loose some homophobic slurs… and literally punched me in the face…it was so trashy, but that really did happen. Ah, youth! I have heard about devs getting their hands on NX kits, it is a shame, it seems as if they’re waving the white flag already. I hope they find a way to make Wii U games playable on that thing, I am curious as to what it’s gonna be. I’m assuming it’ll be a handheld / home console combo…the rumored price tag is 150$…we shall see I guess. I have no regrets about my Wii U purchase though,the handful of games that did make it on there were mostly very good. And I am still looking forward to Xenoblade!!! Alot of the Wii titles were absolute BLOATWARE, so their attention to quality control was refreshing. It just wasn’t meant to be I guess. I do hope they figure out a way to make everyone happy, I’d like to see another successful Nintendo console. Lately that’s all I’ve been playing!
Yeah, I was thinking the same when I read about the dev-kits being distributed. How on earth do they expect to sell any WiiU now? Although I guess most of the audience that might go fo the system over the holidays isn’t really into gaming news. Plus, picking it up cheaper might be nice for people too.
I heard the NX was supposed to be a life management/improvement machine, that is the Nintendo answer to wearables. From what I’ve heard, it’s going to be something for fitness, and health, and is not a replacement for the WiiU at all.
I wonder, Christine. News coverage about it on NintendoLife speculates that it will be a console and a mobile gaming device all at the same time. Oh well, I guess we will have to wait and see!
The reason why you don’t see that many amiibos here in the Netherlands (according to some stores) is because they don’t store them, because they hardly sell. Apart from a few fans like you, Nintendo is almost dead here. Unlike the US, where they are huge Nintendo fans. I have absolutely no interest in the amiibo’s, but like you, i get itchy when i saw the AC amiibo’s. I wont use them much in game,s because i hate the amiibo ‘gameplay’, but it’s Animal Crossing 🙂
Unlike you, i did collect all the Skylanders for the first 3 games and all the Disney Infinity figures for the first 3 games. I loe those! Especially the Skylanders. They are so cool to play with. Unlike the amiibo’s, you actualy get to play with your figures, you need to work very hard to level them up. It takes hours and hours and hours of gameplay. Unlike the amiibo, that you can put in a practice match, leave the console to cook a meal in the kitchen and when the foods done, your amiibo is level 50. Such a dissapointment!
But these Animal Crossing amiibo’s… I did buy the villager too, just because it’s AC. I’m doomed 😛
You bring up an interesting point Marise, I’ve been wondering about the Nintendo appeal here in the Netherlands. I realize I’m prejudiced because I’m a fan. But at FirstLook I saw the masses in front of the main stage when PS 4 or XBox games were featured. And then the meager amount of onlookers when Splatoon was featured. I asked my niece about this, and she said that Nintendo wasn’t cool with the students at her school. I guess it might be so, that Nintendo doesn’t have a huge fan base among gamers. Problem is that they had a large market with the Wii, with all the family games. And the WiiU lost those people again, they are now with the other consoles which can offer them more. The casual market isn’t faithful to one brand!
Personally i’m not a fan of Nintendo (anymore) either. Not because it’s not cool or something, but because i really don’t like platformers, and Nintendo is mostly platformers. I LOVED Nintendo when i had my GameCube, but lost interest with the Wii. The only reason i have my Nintendo’s really is Animal Crossing. A lot of that had to do with Nintendo itself. Having to wait so long before we get games (if we get them at all) when people in the US or even UK are already playing, is just not okay in my book. Did you get AC New Leaf on a European 3DS? We had to wait a YEAR longer than the US. I sometimes wonder if Nintendo even knows Europe exists.
My previous comment also connects with a previous post of yours. Know how me hardly get any streetpasses here? I wanted to do it the legitimate way, by actually only streetpass with people i met. That’s not possible here, as i got about 1 streetpass every 2 months. I only played my streetpass games with coins from walking. You can’t play like that, so i did the router thing. That’s when i really knew Nintendo is almost dead here. And look at GameMania. There’s a few small shelves for all Nintendo games, the rest of the store is Xbox and Playstation. Even though i’m an Xbox fan, i think it’s kind of sad. Nintendo is history and i really would want to be a fan again. Hopefully with the new director, they will go oldschool again.
I’m afraid that’s not entirely right, New Leaf in the US was five days earlier then the European one. I have both regions, and I don’t really understand either though why there has to be a difference at all, as both are English language games!
I guess you’re right about the platformers. I don’t like them either, plus I don’t like Mario. But still, Nintendo has the most games I do like, simulation and turn based RPG. As I’m a handheld gamer first and foremost, XBox doesn’t hold much for me at all. The Vita is great, but it’s library is more limited for me. Looking on there for a simulation game really takes some doing…
Ooooh just checked, it were the Japenese who got it almost a year before. Gues i have a few American friends with a Japenese console then 😛
I don’t like Mario either! Not many people who agree ^_^
My preference are the consoles, i’m not much of a handheld player unfortunately. Nintendo definitely rules the handheld market though. That’s why all the handhelds i do have, are Nintendo.
It will be our guilty secret, Marise, that we are not fans of Mario! I do have a soft spot for Luii, but then I always root for the underdog!
Nintendo pretty much owns the handheld market. The Vita is an amazing machine, such a pity that Sony doesn’t even bother with it. It could have been much more then it is now.
I would like to buy some Amiibos, but I am not crazy about them. I don’t find their in-game uses to be very interesting, so I would mainly get them as figurines. However, they are so absurdly expensive around these parts (think 40 dollars) that the thought of buying one has never really crossed my mind.
That’s crazy for a piece of plastic, $40! Small wonder that you are not tempted at all to buy them.
I’m with you, no amiibo for me. It helps that I don’t have a Wii U, but even so, this craze I seem to be immune to as well. Don’t get me wrong, I do understand the “collecting” bug, but none of the toys-to-life products are doing it for me.
I guess both our wallets are thankful!