I went out at 10:50pm for amiibo last night. I thought I didn’t want any of the figures from wave six of Nintendo’s NFC figure collection. Then Shigeru Miyamoto announced Pikmin 4 . I realized I had to have an Olimar, because with my luck he’d end up doing something in the game.
So, I went to a local big box store. I don’t live in an especially busy suburb and thought this would be fine. Still, there were six people ahead of me when I arrived. People were casually chatting. The two at the head of the line had been there quite some time, with one having brought his own chair so he could play Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX in comfort while he waited.
It was then that the sad news was revealed. This particular store only had 4 of each new amiibo. Since Olimar isn’t exactly popular, one of the two men at the head of the line did a count again to see if it was worth my time to wait as the seventh person in line. As people went through, it seemed I’d be victorious. Only three of the six said they wanted him. The man in front of me claimed his girlfriend wasn’t there to buy, and was only in line to keep him company.
The man in front of me lied.
For an hour I stood there and waited. Another man arrived five minutes after me, an additional count was held, and he was certain he’d get the fourth Zero Suit Samus amiibo. We made small talk. I cursed myself for not bringing my 3DS for StreetPasses.
At midnight, the amiibo came out. Things went smoothly. The first four people ahead of me got their figures without incident at the counter. Then, the couple ahead of me revealed their true nature. They were scalpers. Since a one-per-customer rule was in effect, due to the limited quanities, the man and his girlfriend teamed up to purchase whatever they could get, in this case being the last Olimar, two 30th Anniversary Edition Mario, and Zero Suit Samus.
It didn’t go over well. I immediately headed to various stores’ websites on my iPhone and was fortunate enough to grab an Olimar amiibo from Walmart. The man behind me confronted the couple in front of the store employee and other shoppers, saying that they had claimed they were only there for the Mario, had lied about wanting the others, and wasted his time. A futile exercise on his part, but maybe it helped him feel better?
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The entire event did provide insight into the collector mentality. In short, people are crazy Nintendo still isn’t making the moves necessary to adequately meet demand. Nintendo has known about its amiibo problems since the figures launched. I can understand shipping small numbers of both Olimar and Zero Suit Samus. But the Ganondorf and 30th Anniversary Mario amiibo are a big deal. Especially the latter, since he’s specifically tied to Super Mario Maker , one of the biggest Nintendo Wii U releases in 2015.
And shouldn’t people be honest? If you’re going to go ahead and be a scalper, don’t try to hide your intentions and waste the time of people you know won’t get the figures they want because you’re grabbing them for reselling purposes.
In short, amiibo hunting still sucks. Nintendo isn’t making good on its commitment to do better. Collectors are still selfish and crazy, and maybe online importing, though more expensive, is the best way to avoid all this foolishness.