The Amiibo Effect

<p>On June 10<sup>th<&sol;sup>&comma; 2014&comma; the term &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Amiibo” was introduced to the world&comma; and Nintendo fans hit the ceiling&period; Like unto <em><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;e3-2015-skylanders-superchargers-features-dk-and-bowser&sol;">Skylanders<&sol;a> <&sol;em>and <em><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;e3-2015-star-wars-comes-to-disney-infinity-3-0&sol;">Disney Infinity<&sol;a><&sol;em>&comma; these Amiibo figures are collectible figures that enhance the gameplay of several Nintendo favorites on WiiU and The New 3DS&comma; adding additional gameplay and progress tracking using the miniatures&period; The figures are small&comma; posed versions of their video game counterparts&comma; and include iconic characters such as Mario&comma; Link&comma; and Star Fox&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The first &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;wave” of Amiibos was released in November of 2014&comma; and many of the figures were never seen on store shelves again&period; Finding a highly desired Amiibo in store or even successfully pre-ordering one online is so improbable that it’s become little more than a joke to fans and collectors&period; Figures such as Jigglypuff&comma; Ike&comma; Little Mac and Lucina have been dubbed &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Unicorns” by Amiibo fans&comma; poking fun at the idea that you are more likely to see an actual Unicorn than find one of the rare figures&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The enormously popular internet forum <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;reddit&period;com">Reddit<&sol;a> has an entire &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;reddit&period;com&sol;r&sol;amiibo">subreddit<&sol;a>” dedicated to the discussion and trade of Amiibos&period; This subreddit is consistently updated with members posting collections&comma; rumored release dates&comma; possible pre-orders and discussions about Nintendo&comma; sales&comma; and their own opinions on how the releases are being handled&period; These discussions are the main pull of the subreddit&comma; allowing Nintendo fans and collectors alike to unite in a mutual distaste for the lack of provided Amiibos&period; The group even managed their own Twitter trend at one point&comma; with thousands of tweets directed at Nintendo&comma; all bearing the hashtag &num;pleaseunderstand&period; Nintendo&comma; who originally coined the hashtag&comma; responded to the trend with their own tweets&comma; all including the same hashtag almost outwardly making fun of their desperate fans&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;gyazo&period;com&sol;e20550fbf69b2cc20c858c0b2b99211a&period;png" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"543" height&equals;"171" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>So far&comma; no obvious attempts have been made by Nintendo to remedy the Amiibo situation&comma; and fans remain despondent&period; Pre-orders on Amazon&comma; Target&comma; and Best Buy all consistently sell out within seconds&comma; and so-called Unicorns can only be found on eBay and similar websites at an enormously inflated cost&comma; thanks to secondary sellers and scalpers&period; Occasionally a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;&num;pleaseunderstand” will show up on Twitter&comma; but for the most part&comma; Nintendo fans are quietly outraged&comma; and their feedback seems to make little difference&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There is a fine line between &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Collector” and &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Casual Fan&comma;” and this line has become more defined as the Amiibo situation continues to spiral&period; It is quickly becoming an impossibility to obtain all or any of the figures from any particular game release&comma; and those with complete collections are either extremely lucky&comma; or willing to pay a hefty price for their beloved figures&period; Right now&comma; there is little hope that many figures will ever be available again&period; For those who are still waiting&comma; it seems there is nothing left to do but continue to explain that we’re done trying to &num;pleaseunderstand&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;