Ok, so here are the facts:
-Wii Fit Trainer didn´t sold until it was rare, before that it was with Peach: The only amiibo left in most stores.
-Both Villager and Marth were REALLY under supplied. At launch I had to go buy amiibos to get in the buy 3 for $30 bucks deal and GCU. My Best Buy only had ONE villager and no Marths, TRU had 3 of each and they flew as I was standing there, Target had 3 of each and I bought Marth there, Walmart Had only Wii Fit Trainers and only one lonely villager with the box broken. Meanwhile, all other figures were readily available and had at least 6 of each. Gamestop sold the rare ones at launch and I was not able to get a Marth nor a Villager from them, I was 23rd on the line (They numbered is to receive smash)
-There was maybe ONE restock of all this figures and with the same quantities, I am aware there was one because I saw the box arriving at TRU at 9am and opened in front of us, I took my WFT from that box and an extra Marth to sell at my store. Same happened with Walmart, but they only had 2 WFT and thats it. This is on November 30 if I remember correctly.
-All other figures were restocked constantly at most stores, not any of this 3.
Wave 2:
Zelda, Diddy and Luigi got restocks. Pit, Captain Falcon and Little Mac, so far, haven´t.
Walmart has not stocked amiibos in store in most places.
TRU has not stocked Captain and Pit in most places.
Conclussion:
I think there is no point in blaming the strikes on this one, the fact is that the USA is incredibly large and NOA needs the help of the retailers to distribute equally, this is the reason why Nintendo of Japan and NOE have no trouble with the figures, because they are far more organized and have less territory to cover. NOE has a distribuitor per country, pretty much.
And retailers are NOT savy. Be sure that when they ordered amiibo they are not thinking "Oh yes, Marth from Fire Emblem, order as many as Samus for that one" and Villager is a character WITHOUT A NAME, sure, Animal Crossing is popular, but Villager is the player avatar and doesn´t have a name or a defined personality. Sure, characters like Link can be named anything you want, but he is clearly defined and has a personality beyond the player. So it makes sense that retailer and Nintendo themselves put no fate on him selling. Even if scalpers was not a thing the fact is that the figures are limited and were hard to find even at launch, when they were available if you looked hard enough and scalpers where not part of the equation in the level is now.
Is there hope for people that want to complete their collection? Well yes, yes there is. You can import, for once, for 10 bucks more you can get the figure you want. Now some are selling out, but we had a month to make the order.
Another option? Well, this is a first for Nintendo. Is the first time Nintendo makes a in-house toy production with collections purpose and it choose its more popular series to try it, Well, not really, is the SECOND time they have done this, the first was Pokemon Rumble figures and that sold decent... but not as amazing as Amiibos have.
Point is, if Nintendo sees there is money to be made, they can make a second print. The first is still not completely sold out worldwide and there is still 21 figures to announce and 32 to sell, I guess that is Nintendo´s priority: Sell what is left. Once that is done, if there is still money for them to be made, be sure NINTENDO IS GOING TO MAKE A REPRINT.
But don´t expect it to be exactly the same. Maybe they will change the package a little bit. Maybe the figures will look better. Or cheaper. Maybe they will be sold at bundles. We don´t know.
For know, I´ll keep collecting them. Because since melee when I saw Master Hand take a Mario trophy and thew it to the air I KNEW I wanted a collection of Nintendo Trophies.
And here we are now.
