Amiibos - your experience

[bikingjahuty]

Yesterday I preordered the very last Smash Bros Amiibo I needed to complete the entire set, Sora. I became an Amiibo collector day one when they first came out. I had preordered Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire from Toys R' Us in late 2014, which also happened to be the same day the Amiibos launched. Originally I was just going to purchase the Amiibos I cared about, but decided at the last minute I wanted them all. I ended up buying the 2 or 3 Smash Amiibos I originally wasn't going to buy, completing my Wave 1 set. Just a few days later, I'd find out that everyone wanted the Amiibos, especially Marth, and they were now being scalped and resold like crazy. I joined an Amiibo subreddit back in the day to keep track of store release schedules, and how to ensure I was able to get all the Amiibos I wanted. I had some interesting experiences over the years including watching a middle aged scalper almost get in a physical fight with a Target employee, camping out in front of Target for 4 hours in freezing temperatures for Rosalina, and Gamestop having to break up a fight over their last Pit Amiibo. It was pure chaos, and I'm so thankful the hype around the Amiibos died down considerably after that first two years or so, and they became way easier to obtain.


While I have bought various other Amiibos from other sets, the Smash set was the one I primarily was into and the one I've been committed to completing all these years. It's almost surreal that nearly 10-years after I started collecting them, that I'll finally be finished with the Smash set, which more or less will end my quest to actively collect Amiibos. Nintendo occasionally announces new figures for games like Zelda or Splatoon that get me excited about some that are coming out, but in general I've been way less enthusiastic about Amiibos than I was over 5-years ago. I don't know how many times I saw the Loftwing Skyward Sword Amiibo and thought to myself, "I'll pick that up next time" and never actually did. In a way, I'm relieved to be out of the Amiibo game finally, but part of me will look back fondly on the whole thing as a fun, ridiculous, and pretty irrational hype train that I rode on for the better part of the 2010s.


What are other people's experiences with Amiibos or any interesting stories you have about acquiring some of them?

[bikingjahuty]

It also blows my mind that I've been collecting these things over the span of 2 entire console generations. I have a lot of fond memories of Nintendo's Wii U era, including the super entertaining Iwata Nintendo Directs, and some of Nintendo's best games of all time coming out for that highly underrated console. Of course, Amiibos were a big part of this as well, even up through the release of the Switch.

[dhaabi]

When amiibos debuted, I was working retail at a store where certain figures were exclusive to it over the upcoming months. Despite being exclusive, I remember our store only receiving a handful of certain figures during their initial shipment. Of course, they all sold quickly every time, but even the non-exclusive ones were always selling throughout the next six or so months I worked there.

I had and still have no real interest in them, but I remember hiding one or two figures behind the counter two or three times so that a friend of mine could better acquire them. I particularly remember Rosalina being a challenge for them to find.

It also blows my mind that I've been collecting these things over the span of 2 entire console generations.

Pretty much one full generation (Wii U, Switch, PS4, Xbox One) and partway through the next (PS5, Series X/S), but nearly a full decade, nonetheless. I suppose as long as they keep selling, Nintendo will have them manufactured.

[Cartagia]

I've never been super into amiibo, but I will pick them up if I see them at a good price.  I got the Solaire one and Shovel Knight ones because I just wanted memorabilia from those franchises.

[emporerdragon]

I want to complete the Smash series, but with being unable to find most of the Ultimate characters at non-scalper prices, my interest has certainly waned.

I wish I had finished training up my entire roster into level 50 fighters though. My Zelda and Little Mac in particular were both stupidly good. Zelda was a sniper tank that you needed to get into the 300s to even budge. Mac was even better though, I enhanced him in a way that gave him actual air recovery, and he also had vampirism, allowing him to heal back all damage done to him in seconds. Dude could demolish me in a 3 stock match in a minute and a half once he was full powered.

[kamikazekeeg]

I never went super hard on them, I mostly just wanted all the Zelda stuff and some of the characters I liked or if it was for a game, such as Splatoon 1, so I had the amiibo for it.  I ended up selling a lot of my amiibo, especially the Zelda ones after a rough point for me back in 2017, but I eventually started to get some back, though it's been a challenge with the costs of them.  Right now I own all the Zelda ones from BOTW/TOTK, I need like 2 or 3 of the non-Smash ones, specifically Wolf Link, and then all of the Smash ones for Zelda.  I also have Banjo-Kazooie because they have some big importance to me and a Mario because I needed something for reference size with some 3D bead art I was making lol

Oh, I do have the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Mithra and Pyra, I forgot about those, they are sitting boxed in a closet till I get the room to display them properly as I had a big love for that game, so wanted those to.  I have been tempted to get mostly the crossover Smash characters, but probably won't end up doing that.  I technically have a Pac-Man amiibo right now that I found at the thrift yesterday, but I probably won't keep it lol

[weirdfeline]

Avoided them. Never had any including the Super Mario cereal.

[sworddude]

I've had a few of em early on but I'm glad I broke out of the collection curse real early. they are pretty worthless to me and the costs rack up quick. This is lowkey the smartest dlc in a game ever. People spending over 1K retail on a game withouth feeling bad about it.

It was a pretty interesting time however. I remember during them peak times when amiibo scalping got so bad and you could flip stuff like shulk amiibo's for 100$ etc.

From resellers to retro stores to actual retro collectors everyone was after them wether it was refreshing online or stalking them physical stores.

Meanwhile I was ignoring them and man was the market empty when the good supply entered the market. I got some insane deals for hyped items withouth much competition during those weeks. even things that lasted for 1 day or two including some of the best stuff that would otherwise be gone in an instant.

Scored some of my best snes and sega deals during those few weeks including a pretty minty cib Hagane for cheap Good times 

[wartoy]

I dropped out of the amibo game shortly after the second set released and never looked back.

[kamikazekeeg]

Avoided them. Never had any including the Super Mario cereal.

I forgot, I have that too on my shelf, didn't remember it was technically an amiibo lol

[telekill]

I only bought favorite characters, having Smash Link, Wolf Link, Fox and Sonic. I guess the Mario cereal counts. I cut it out and have it in the Mario Odyssey case. The other four sit on my nerd shelf collecting dust.

[lipebittencourt]

One. Sonic the Hedgehog. Collectible item, only.

[pzeke]

I only have four amiibos, but the first one that I actually got was Sonic in a 3DS lot, which I sold in a heartbeat. I wanted to get Terry Bogard, but forgot, and I wanted Sora, too, but also forgot; in fact, seeing this topic is what jolted my mind in reminding me that I was "interested" in the figure.

All in all, I was never too keen on amiibos and only got the ones I currently have because they cost me less than a Happy Meal, which is the same argument for the few Funko Pops! I own. As I once said somewhere around here, the amiibo craze fizzled out a long time ago, and Nintendo completely and utterly wasted their potential.

[koemo1]

I got a couple as stocking stuffers back in the days.
Yoshi, Fox, Mr Game and Watch, pac man and wii fit trainer

I actually only used Yoshi for Smash Bros on WiiU. I liked the functionality.