Nintendo: Yes, We’re Discontinuing Some Amiibo Figures

The Amiibo figurines for Nintendo characters Marth, Villager and Wii Fit Trainer have largely disappeared from store shelves since the product line’s November 21 launch. Nintendo

Say goodbye to your little friends.

After the November 21 launch of Amiibo, Nintendo’s line of Skylanders-style interactive figurines that connect to Wii U games including Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart 8, would-be buyers started to notice that supply of some of the figurines dried up fast at retail outlets and online, and didn’t seem to reappear.

Today, Nintendo confirmed to WIRED that this was deliberate, and the company does not plan to ship any more of several of the Amiibo figurines after the “initial shipment.”

“We will aim for certain amiibo to always be available. These will be for our most popular characters like Mario and Link. Due to shelf space constraints, other figures likely will not return to the market once they have sold through their initial shipment,” read the full statement.

A Nintendo representative told WIRED that the company was not adding any further details about which Amiibo figures would be always available, and which would be phased out.

Aftermarket prices on certain Amiibo figures have soared since launch; some of the $12.99 figurines are selling for up to $70. and will likely only go higher following this announcement. Of the 12 Amiibo figurines that Nintendo shipped, three—the characters Marth, Villager and Wii Fit Trainer—have been notoriously difficult to track down. Chief among these is Marth, who is certainly not a popular Nintendo mascot on the order of Super Mario, but is a popular character among Smash Bros. players. Individual Amiibo figurines are required to access certain gameplay features of Super Smash Bros.

Amiibos aren’t the only product for which Nintendo seems to have drastically underestimated demand. Super Smash Bros. on Wii U also allows players to use GameCube controllers via a special adapter, which sold out in many retail locations minutes after the game launched, and has been extremely difficult to find ever since. The $20 adapter now fetches over $100 on eBay. (Nintendo said it had no comment on this issue.)

Earlier this fall, Nintendo only produced a reported 300-500 units of the “limited edition” version of the Legend of Zelda game Hyrule Warriors, and only sold them on a single day at its Nintendo World retail location in New York City. Meanwhile, in Europe and Japan, similar limited-edition prints were produced in abundance, satisfying the demand.

But at least in the case of the Hyrule Warriors, the “limited edition” was flagged as being such. Would-be Amiibo buyers had no such heads-up, and now it seems as if they have no choice but to buy a second-hand figure for an inflated price if they want to get one.