I won't hold my breath.

@Triforce Hermit
My sentiments exactly. I would love to get my hands on a Rosalina Amiibo for less than $40 though.  :P:

"Waah, don't blame me mom, I'm trying my best!"

In this day and age it's not that stinking hard. All you have to do is find a second manufacturing facility and a third manufacturing facility and have all 3 of them producing at full capacity. Suddenly you're pumping out three times as many and maybe I can actually find the fire emblem characters in a store so that I can use them on Codename: Steam.

I think they got the problem licked, everyone should be happy now.

It's nowhere near that easy.

Then you're going to have to enlighten me because I don't see how it isn't that easy. Yes there are many parts and yes it's taking people time, but that's why you get more manufacturing companies to help so that you at least come close to meeting demand. In the mean time the stretch out time between waves so that you can make more copies of each one.

Many people believe the mistaken idea that the more items you manufacture, the more money you will earn. This turns out to be false even for simplistic mathematical models.  Real life has many variables and factors that must be "factored into the equation" so to speak.  There is a considerable amount of mathematics involved in economics.  If you don't believe me check out this link to see how much of it is understandable.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_economics

Don't act so high and mighty. I actually know a lot about economics and if you had read my post I never said doing this would make Nintendo more money. I said they could fulfill demand. You see they've made games where content is hidden behind a plastic figure (see codename steam, & captain toad) and now since we can't find the figures we can't use that part of the game. It's frustrating I really want to use Amiibo on codename steam, but since they announced that fire emblem characters are playable on the game IF you have the Amiibo I haven't been able to find a single one. I'm still 0-4. I'm ticked and it and I have only Nintendo to blame as they could have made more of them and they chose not to several times (the first time is absolutely understandable but they have no excuse for the other times)

There's such a thing as too much supply here. Retailers don't want tons of these sitting on store shelves, and Nintendo is producing them with that in mind.

Sure there's such a thing as too much supply, but we're VERY FAR from that right now.
How is that a concern right now?

That's why I said they have a legit excuse for the first wave. They should have increased production for the second wave and then maybe they would have needed to increase it more for the third and maybe not, but if they continue to produce almost none they can guarantee pissed off customers. I talked to the manager at GameStop 15 times and every time I got the same story sorry man I only got 2 Shulks and 1Ike and Best Buy told me they didn't get any Robin and Lucina. How are you defending this? My best buy Todd me they only got 4 Meta Knights. It's crazy. I love Nintendo, but I can't defend this.

They keep taking about the cards, I'm not trying to collect the figures I just want the content if they offer me a Robin card for $13 I'd buy it and yet they won't even offer it to me

I feel like they've already said something similar... several times.

Yes they have and with no improvement.

I'm sorry I know I'm spamming this comment section, but this really irritates me

I was interested in getting amiibo figures. But the moment they decided that they wouldn't make enough of the non main mascot or Mario universe figures I decided to not bother.  they lost a customer here because of their supply issues.

Can retailers really be happy with the way things are right now?  They get a fraction of what they could sell for the rare characters, have shelves filled with the same characters they've had since Amiibo first came out, and constantly have to deal telling people they can't buy what they came for.


I can understand that they were conservative with the first wave or two but how have they not solved the problem 6 months later?

First, you probably shouldn't say snippy things like "please enlighten me", then two posts later tell people not to talk down to you. :D

Second - where to begin?

It's not as easy to just "find a manufacturing facility" (or two).  You have to find one that's set up to actually manufacture something in the same line of what you're making.  Then, you have to book it in advance.  Like, many months (sometimes, over a year) in advance.  Depending on what you need, special equipment (or special modifications to existing equipment) may be required.  And we're dealing with RFID toys - something fairly new in the world of toys. All kinds of government compliance checks are required.  These deals and details are all planned out far in advance.  In the cases of some characters (namely, third party characters - but even secondary characters - for example, did you know that Nintendo doesn't own the rights to license Kirby?), the contracts were probably signed long enough ago that clearly specified how many figures could be manufactured and when they could be sold.  Then, even after they're manufactured, it's generally six-to-twelve weeks from factory to warehouse for Chinese goods shipped via cargo ship to US.

Nintendo could throw all this money at putting all of this together and by time the first restocks are on the shelves, folks could have moved on to something new/different/exciting.  Marth first went on sold in November (and sold out almost immediately).  It's half a year later and we still don't have the restocks on US shelves yet (and that's without trying to rig up additional factories).

On top of this, Nintendo is tied to retailer orders.  Nintendo signed agreements (possibly a year or longer) with retailers to say "In May, we will ship you X amount of Y figure." - now, for something like the port strike, I'm sure there's language in the contract that gives them some leeway.  But I doubt there's much wiggle-room for "Yeah, we'd rather make more Little Macs this month than the new ones we promised you."

Nintendo grossly underestimated demand of these figures to begin with - and that is their initial downfall.  They need to do everything reasonable in their power to get things fixed as soon as possible.  I don't know what that is, but I do know it's a whole lot more than just finding another factory or two.

Until I can order directly from them anything Nintendo says are empty words. Direct ordering is the only way people are going to reasonably get the amiibos they want even if they have to wait. Most people do not have time to constantly refresh websites or wait outside stores for the chances they might get something. Locals store can't be counted on to order enough of something or it at all. If they are going to be pushing these with every game the current situation is completely and utterly unacceptable.


I'm at a point now due to not being able to get some of the amiibo I really wanted, because they happen to be the rare ones, my interest in the product line overall is just lessening. I don't have the time to put in to get close to get a Robin, Lucina, etc. I count myself lucky that I got a Shulk and almost didn't get that due to how gamestop was acting. Since this isn't easy for me to just put in an order and get what I want I just stopped paying attention and I've stopped tried to get figures. I'm not going to push myself to adjust for Nintendo's incompetence.

Nintendo's been doing a lot of "talking" about fixing the Amiibo supply problem since the first wave, and so far the situation's only gotten worse. Meanwhile, Wave 4 sold out in 15 minutes here in the states while simultaneously taking down the website of the biggest dedicated gaming realtor. I lucked out that one of the staff here found several stores with full shelves of Wave 4 figures in Australia that I was able to procure a Ness; Lucina; and Robin, but that raises questions of its own as to where Nintendo's allocating their resources. I'd like to acquire a Shulk; Ike; & Marth someday, but given the current state of Amiibo that is nowhere near a reasonable expectation.

I'm tired of Nintendo's excuses and empty promises. It feels like all Nintendo's done since the Wii U launched (if not much earlier) is make excuses for whatever latest way they've ****ed up.

The first one "enlighten me" That was genuine.
I work in manufacturing in a field directly related to electronics. I also run my own business on the side. So I consider myself to know a thing or 2 about this stuff. So when I was so confidently told that it isn't near that easy I wondered if you knew something I hadn't thought of yet so I asked you to help me understand.


The second one, yes I was genuinely irritated at that point. I have an Engineering degree, I work in manufacturing, I own my own business, I've read many books on economics principles, and I have almost all the pre-requisites to get started in the MBA program. So although I don't know everything I'm not a complete idiot.

I don't know about your philosophy, but with both the company I work for and the company I own I make sure to keep my customers happy. It's not always easy and sometimes I lose money on a specific transaction, but then they come back because they walked away happy.


Just last week I needed a specific device for one of my customers, I was told I couldn't get it because it's only sold in Europe (I'm in the US) that wasn't good enough for me and I made it clear.
When that didn't work I escalated it to the guy above the man I was working with. I then simultaneously found a second company that could produce the same thing for me. Meanwhile I designed a back up option in case neither of the first 2 worked out. The original company came back to me and said they could get me in the normal line and they would be willing to start selling that line in the US just for me. The back of the line meant 12 weeks. That was unacceptable and I made that very clear. I then started moving forward with the second company and did more work on my own design. Finally I was able to convince the first company to get it air shipped within a week. Are things sometimes difficult? Yes, but you do what you gotta do and it feels like Nintendo is doing NOTHING.


You point out that Kirby is owned by HAL??? How many people do you know that are trying and failing to find a Kirby?


Marth, you just proved my point 6 MONTHS and I was in Walmart and Best Buy today and neither had Marth (they both had Kirby) 

I really doubt that at a time right now when so many people are pissed at GameStop, Walmart, Toys R Us, Target, and Best Buy that they'd have a problem if Nintendo pumped out more Marth, Villager, Shulk, Rosalina, ect and then made sure that they supply enough Amiibo for all the future waves.


Yes Nintendo grossly underestimated demand with the first go round, but obviously you and I have VERY different opinions of what is reasonable for fixing that.




Sorry I've said WAY TOO MUCH

Quickly, since I'm on mobile, to address this - I used Kirby as an example because I have specific first-hand knowledge on him regarding licensing and such.  He's a second-tier Nintendo mascot, but Nintendo doesn't outright own the rights to him.

I don't know about other charcters.  Does Nintendo own all the rights to Marth, or could he somehow be tied up with IS?  I dunno.

Then, you even have things like Pokemon characters.  There's an existing complay (Tomy) that has all the rights to make Pokemon toys.  Did Nintendo have to cut a deal with them to make Pokemon toys under their own brand?  If so, I suspect that deal included quantities and if they want to go back and make more Greninja, they will probably have to go back and renegotiate that deal.  And to make things more fun, we already know that Nintendo doesn't own all the Pokemon rights (Owned by The Pokemon Company - which is how we end up with pokemon iOS apps).

So, again, it's just not as easy as finding another factory.

At this point in time, I've lost all hope that supply will improve and instead believe that Nintendo of America is saying anything they can to keep frustrated customers from losing interest completely. Empty promises can only placate for so long.

You're trying way too hard. Yes HAL makes the Kirby games and Game Freak makes the Pokemon games so if Nintendo is terrible at making a quick deal like that then we'll never see more King Dedede, Meta Knight, Lucario or Greninja. However, Intelligent Systems is 100% owned by Nintendo so Fire Emblem Characters (Ike Marth, Robin, Lucina) are not a problem. Little Mac Wii Fit Trainer, Villager, Wario, Toad, Rosalina, Pit are fully owned by Nintendo. In other words, if this was the problem then the shortage would only include select characters that Nintendo doesn't control not a combination of characters that include one Nintendo controls.

When the Wii U GC adapter mess happened, they promised more of those later. They were up pretty much daily on Amazon and EB/GS for a two week stretch last month, so they definitely delivered on those. I know at least two scarce Amiibo (Shulk and Marth) are/have gotten restocked in the States and Meta Knight is rumoured. Just this morning I saw Marth, Ike, and Meta Knight got restocked in Australia. Three other rare Amiibo (Captain Falcon, Little Mac, and Villager) very recently got restocked in Japan as well.

They screwed things up majorly (and continue to do so), but to say they're only making empty promises and not trying to remedy the situation in any capacity is unfair.

Is IS wholly owned by Nintendo?  I can't find a source on that.

As per your list, Toad is still new, Wario is in ample supply where he's been released, Villager and Little Mac have had reissues.  Can't comment on WFT, Rosalina (might be waiting on a MP10 Release for her) or Pit - except to say, it's not as easy as finding another factory and turning on a power button.

Man this argument just won't quit (although it's entertaining to read)
Intelligent Systems is a subsidiary of Nintendo see the first sentance here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_Systems
or read this
http://www.ign.com/companies/intelligent-systems

Yes Toad is new that's the point of this whole Amiibo debacle nobody can find Amiibo if they had started making adjustments last year when they started selling out then there would be enough Toad Amiibo for everyone that wants one.


Wario is what? Where are you shopping?
Not Best Buy http://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage.jsp?st=wario+amiibo&_dyncharset=UTF-8&id=pcat17071&type=page&sc=Global&cp=1&nrp=15&sp=&qp=&list=n&iht=y&usc=All+Categories&ks=960&keys=keys


Not Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Wario-amiibo-nintendo-wii-u/dp/B00V86C4LS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1430846642&sr=8-2&keywords=wario+amiibo


Not GameStop
http://www.gamestop.com/browse?nav=16k-3-wario+amiibo,28zu0


Not Target
http://www.target.com/p/nintendo-wario-amiibo-figure/-/A-17318492#prodSlot=medium_1_1&term=wario+amiibo


Reissues? I haven't seen any. Several times a week I go to Best Buy and or Walmart and look for Amiibo and I haven't found anything worth mentioning in months. Even though I called 2 different GameStops multiple times a week for a month I never found a Shulk and Nintendo also fully owns Monolith Soft. I had to find a random guy that was willing to sell it to me (trust me this is not a cheap method of getting Amiibo) I'm very irritated

Re: IS - "Subsidiary" doesn't equate to "Wholly owned subsidiary."
Re: Toad - again, this stuff is planned out months/years in advance.  They cannot just say "hey, next month, let's make more Toad instead of Splatoon."
Re: Wario - Wait, wait, wait.  Wario isn't out in the states yet - so don't source US websites.  He's pretty plentiful overseas (he's Wave 4's Bowser).
Re: Reissues - haven't had any shipped to the US yet (released to the public, that is).

Take a guess at how long it took my latest twitter account @Retail_Dalek to make a tweet about amiibo... 3 tweets...

That's not really problem seeing as the toys aren't even making it to the shelves...

As someone in supply management, Armchair manufacturing experts in here makes my head hurt.

If I have misspoken something, please do feel free to offer a correction.  I won't be offended.

I may argue the point with you, but I won't be offended. :D

I assure you, your'e the closest thing to right in this thread in terms of speaking to both the complexities of ramping up production and the economics of doing so.  I could write a dissertation on why it isn't "easy" to set up new production as it's been suggested, but I don't think anyone's truly interested in that.

I may have some exact details wrong (which is why I'm always open to corrections) - but, yeah.  I figure that I'm pretty spot-on with the general details. :D

When you get 90 percent cancellation of Robin and Lucinda (EBGames) then you still have a problem.  Rather miffed that 10 mins in any given time amiibos are gone.  At least with Skylanders it was somewhat easier.  Most time I have to go to craigslist in Canada.  Apparently because of short supply most retailers in Canada won't do pre-orders for wave 5 onward.  That says a lot.  Its big hassle and easier in USA than in Canada.  Most international places do not ship overseas now. 

Nintendo needs to fix this problem before people leave to Microsoft or Sony.  You may in short term keep loyal fans but in long term screwing over your faithful will have dire circumstances in the future.

The kind of people that want a Robin amiibo aren't the people who are just going to stop being Nintendo fans all of a sudden.

I dunno man.  I may gut the innards out of my Popeye cabinet and see if I can't mount an XBox One in there.

I agree, but they (ahem.. I) might be the kind of people who just stop chasing and choose not to support distribution practices that are explicitly customer-unfriendly. I'm not buying games that require Amiibo to unlock content unless those figures are very easy to find.


It's not like this is different from the Kid Icarus AR cards, or the Animal Crossing eReader cards... not much has really changed in how Nintendo is handling their business.

The Animal Crossing cards were pretty easy to find (and were even sold on N's webstore for quite a while.)

So...you're not going to buy any major first party release then? I quit the Amiibo game after the Ness debacle but I'm not going to condemn the entire company just because. I'm buying Splatoon even though I'm probably never going to get to play the 8-bit mini games because those unlock via Amiibo. I'm buying Fire Emblem even though I won't get to play the content that will inevitably be locked behind the Robin and Lucina amiibo.

Didn't buy Captain Toad, and probably won't unless I can find the Toad Amiibo. Not sure if I'm buying Kirby on Wii U either, since I can't get DeDeDe or MetaKnight at anything approaching reasonable cost/effort.



Not buying Splatoon, not buying Codename S.T.E.A.M., have enough backlogged Fire Emblem that any content unlocks requiring impossible to find Amiibo figures would prevent me from buying it either.


I'm a Nintendo fan, but that doesn't mean I need to buy everything they put out there. If they put out content that is aggressively anti-consumer, as a consumer I'm going to choose not to support it.  Does Amiibo cross that line? At this point, I'd say you could argue either side...

They disappeared from retail locations very quickly here, and were never restocked. (Retailers told me they tried but weren't able to get more in - maybe they were lying, who knows?)  It's true you could buy the cards online from Nintendo's website, but they weren't well advertised and (at least when I saw them) not all series were available there.


Surely even you, a staunch fan and collector, can't defend how Kid Icarus cards were handled in North America.


The point remains: it shouldn't be this hard. When things are successful and people want them, and Nintendo makes a profit from selling them, it shouldn't be so difficult to make them available.

(No edit option, so trying again to avoid the stupid resizing that always happens with these forums.)


Didn't buy Captain Toad, and probably won't unless I can find the Toad Amiibo. Not sure if I'm buying Kirby on Wii U either, since I can't get DeDeDe or MetaKnight at anything approaching reasonable cost/effort.


Not buying Splatoon, not buying Codename S.T.E.A.M., have enough backlogged Fire Emblem that any content unlocks requiring impossible to find Amiibo figures would prevent me from buying it either.


I'm a Nintendo fan, but that doesn't mean I need to buy everything they put out there. If they put out content that is aggressively anti-consumer, as a consumer I'm going to choose not to support it.  Does Amiibo cross that line? At this point, I'd say you could argue either side...

They disappeared from retail locations very quickly here, and were never restocked. (Retailers told me they tried but weren't able to get more in - maybe they were lying, who knows?)  It's true you could buy the cards online from Nintendo's website, but they weren't well advertised and (at least when I saw them) not all series were available there.


Surely even you, a staunch fan and collector, can't defend how Kid Icarus cards were handled in North America.


The point remains: it shouldn't be this hard. When things are successful and people want them, and Nintendo makes a profit from selling them, it shouldn't be so difficult to make them available.

I was able to find a bunch of Toad amiibo at Toys 'R Us this week. It was as full as the other Super Mario series amiibo, so I picked one up. Definitely try looking out for that, as I think Toad isn't going to be a hard to find figure anymore.

Not going to defend Kid Icarus.  Very bitter.

Toad amiibo isn't hard to find.  Saw him in two out of four stores where I looked at amibo.

But man, claiming you're not buying Captain Toad because of the amiibo?  How long was that game out before they announced the update that added amiibo support?  Were you planning to buy it before, then decided against because they added more content for free that you never have to worry about?

If ejamer actually has dedication to boycott Amiibo supported games, good for him.  We tend to suck at voting with our wallets and put up with a lot of bullshit to get our videogame fix.  The publishers know this.  They know they can sneak in microtransactions and on disc DLC and day-one patches and online passes and DRM and in-game advertisements and all this other nonsense as long as they put enough of a game we're vaguely interested somewhere within.  Nintendo knows Amiibos are bullshit but they also know that most of us are addicted to Mario and Zelda like a drug.  We may not like Amiibos but do we dislike them enough to refuse to buy a game we otherwise are interested in?  Are we willing to suffer a little bit by not playing a game we're mostly interested in to show publishers that we won't be exploited?  No, we usually aren't and every publishers knows this and preys on it.  And the second you buy a game that has some anti-consumer nonsense in it you are endorsing it, even if you don't participate directly.  They know that whatever bullshit they squeezed in there didn't annoy their customers enough to prevent an outright purchase, so they'll push harder next time.

If anyone who didn't like Amiibos stopped buying games that supported them it might actually affect Nintendo's bottom line enough to change their business practices.  Every publisher will only be consumer friendly enough to get the sale.  If you show a very low tolerance for anti-consumer bullshit they will back down.  Despite us all being willing participants that can refuse to spend our money at any time, it too often appears that the publishers hold all the power because we seem to have very little self-control on something as unnecessary and frivolous as videogames.

Captain Toad wouldn't have been an early purchase for me regardless, but it would have been on my shelf eventually. Amiibo limited availability is annoying enough, and my backlog big enough, that any games with features locked behind a physical pay wall where the key isn't even available to buy aren't worth my time or effort. It's the principle at this point.


If the Toad Amiibo is easily available without paying scalpers I might reconsider. But I've been watching Amiibo stock online and at multiple local retailers - so far talk of more stock appearing hasn't held true here. Until availability improves I'm very content playing other games.


(This isn't a hard rule. I'll buy Xenoblade regardless of Amiibo integration.)

I'm going to guess 3.

Plot Twist: NOA is currently being run by Nibris.

So just to follow up on Nintendo's latest round of failure, I've been keeping an eye on my 1 nearest GameStops, my local Best Buy, and my local Walmart over the last few days. Of these 4 establishments, only one got any of this supposed Amiibo restock, and that Gamestop only got ONE Amiibo figure: an Ike Amiibo that was already reserved to a person whose pre-order was unfulfilled back in December. One Amiibo in my entire city. That's the extent of Nintendo's efforts, the culmination of their promises for the last few months. Pathetic.

Edit: 2 nearest GameStops.

That's correct, but keep in mind we can not criticize Nintendo the holy ones

I think most stores are holding their restocks for May 29th.

That's funny, I'd suggest most forumers on this site are hyper-critical of Nintendo.  It's one thing to criticize Nintendo for their clear failures in forecasting demand, but then to suggest it's as simple as (a) ramping-up orders, (b) finding another manufacturer to produce more amiibo, or (c) offering it on their website as a way to order them shows a clear misunderstanding of production, demand planning, or possible contractual agreements between Nintendo and the retailers who currently sell Amiibo.

But I know this is a site devoted primarily to people who care to talk about it from a fan perspective, so it isn't terribly surprising many here don't care about those nuances or at least have that provide context.

I actually can understand and forgive failing to forecast demand. It's the complete inability to adjust that is baffling me. Until someone can show me where I'm misunderstanding (keep in mind I work in manufacturing so I understand some of the difficulties) they launched these things 6 months ago and it didn't take long at all to realize they weren't producing enough. At first I thought it was awesome that they couldn't keep up with demand because I assumed that within 3-4 months they would increase supply to meet demand and we'd be ok. Instead I waited 6 months (this thread is the first time I even felt frustrated by it) before I lost my patience and I've officially lost it. For quite some time I was ok with arranging trades on craigslist and paying a little extra for some of the figures, but it should have been fixed by now instead it's gotten WORSE. I wouldn't have lost my patience if it had at least improved a little instead it's worse. There's literally NO EXCUSE especially considering it's really only 1 area (North America) where they underestimated demand.

Not that anyone's truly interested this, but once I get home from work, I'll be glad to detail out a realistic scenario of how this probably played out at Nintendo, or how it would play out at any company that purchases a product & sends it to a retailer.  There's a lot of potential pitfalls that can be piled on-top of Nintendo's general conervative nature that would cause it to be delayed or even worse at this point.

Well, my issue in this case is that Nintendo promised a restock that clearly either hasn't happened (still no sign of that alleged Marth Amiibo restock they've been promising for months) or has been so woefully miniscule that it doesn't justify Nintendo hyping it. If you can't supply, don't pretend that you can. It just makes you look even more incompetent than you've already proven to be.

"Our restock plan is real"

Friday is shaping up to be interesting. Robin and Lucina are going to be super-hard to get, Target opens first and is limiting customers to two figures (total) per person, and, of course, they have an exclusive, which means you can't complete your collection at Target.

My wife has a catering job early Friday morning, so it's going to be interesting to make this work... but I think I can do it. :D

Ah, the few benefits of working retail.

Complaining about Amiibo stock is still a thing?

I feel like this is old news.

(insert shrug gif)

Apparently it's 2 per character. Not two amiibo total.

Yeah, they've tweeted both today. Gr.

I actually work at Walmart and I strongly believe the restock (at least for our store) is still in the warehouse given how barren our amiibo display is right now. More then likely they're basically not going to bother replacing our stock until wave 4 comes out.