If you own a U.S. Marth amiibo, consider yourself privileged. Nintendo’s Fire Emblem character was part of the November 21 amiibo launch, same day as Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, and it didn’t take long for both fans and collectors to buy every figure available. From that point, Nintendo released a trickle of Marth to stores while prices went from reasonable to absurd on eBay. This might seem bizarre if you don’t collect toys, but he routinely sells for $140; most stores sell amiibo for $12.99 each.
What’s a Nintendo fan to do? Fork over the $140 or import a much cheaper Marth amiibo from Amazon Germany; same figure, slightly different packaging.
With Nintendo aiming to release an amiibo for each character in Super Smash Bros., there are more Fire Emblem heroes on the way. Next up is Ike, who launches alongside the rest of wave 3 in February. Considering Marth was produced in such limited quantities, we can already imagine the loud smacking sounds from scalpers feverishly licking their lips with anticipation.
The big questions here is whether or not Ike will be as popular as Marth, and at the moment there’s no way of telling for sure. We know some characters will always be in limited supply (Villager, Wii Fit Trainer), but this is also Nintendo’s chance to do in the U.S. what it successfully achieved in Europe and Japan, flood stores with every single amiibo. You literally won’t have an issue finding Marth in France or Japan. The streets are paved with Marths, Little Macs and Captain Falcons.
At the very least, the company should produce enough Ike so he’s available to buy during the first few weeks after release to give fans a chance. That would temporarily prevent the eBay explosion. Then as more popular characters take over, Nintendo gradually reduces the amount of Ikes on shelves. In a perfect world you could get Ike forever, but there’s only so much shelf space stores like Toys R Us and Target will devote to amiibo, and if you collect toys, you already know limited quantities are inevitable.
For now, the best way to guarantee an Ike on launch day is to pre-order. Amazon is a dead end for now, but you might be able to reserve him at GameStop, and in-store is your best option since people tend to do everything online; pre-order Mega Man and King Dedede while you’re at it.
What do you think? Will Ike be impossible to find when amiibo wave 3 arrives in stores, or will Nintendo correct its “mistake” with Marth and make Ike readily available?
Personally, we feel Ike will be gone by March and retailers will have plenty of Toon Link, Sheik and Bowser. As always, if you see an amiibo you want, buy it immediately.
