amiiboGAF
where do I start? Ive been lurking around here for a VERY LONG TIME, so now that my account has been approved I thought Id venture over and say hello.
I remember being at my homies house playing Mario Kart prior to amiibo being released & he showed me these things on Amazon, ALL of them available for preorder at the time, & I scuffed them off as a Skylanders/Infinity clone Why would I preorder those? You can buy any Skylander/Infinity figure you want in stores at any time I thought.
My interest didnt peek until Wave 2 was released & I saw (a picture of) the Pit figure. At the time, I was unaware of the amiibo craze, so I waltz into my local GameStop thinking I will find one on the shelf &
LOL!, Im sure we all know how that went. I did, however, leave with a Fox amiibo, so it wasnt a total loss. At that point, I was on board. I picked up a few more figures here and there (Pikachu was #2, the rest is kind of a blur) & began to frequent forums (NeoGAF/reddit) for discussion & release/restock information. Even though I didnt post anywhere, I soaked up as much information as I could & for the most part, it paid off in the end. I specifically remember getting off work one day & refreshing whatever OT we were on at the time and a user had posted two links stating that GameStop had Little Mac & Captain Falcon available for purchase. Added them to my cart with no issues, checked out, paid, & received my packages a few days later I could now say I had unicorns.
WAVE 3. Whew, Wave 3 was ROUGH. When I hear Wave 3, all I can think of is the obnoxious drama that was Rosalina. I wont go into details, because I know that was somewhat of a dark time for us, but the Rosalina scare is why I am now comfortable importing things from overseas. I read posts from different users about importing X unicorn from this website with no issue, but for the longest time, it all seemed like a foreign language to me. To avoid the stress/anxiety, I finally went to eBay & bought one from Japan, it ended up being right at $25 and I was more than glad to pay an extra $10 considering the (then) current state of amiibo. I picked up Bowser, Shiek, & Megaman with no problem, and my homie (the guy I initially mentioned) snagged an extra Toon Link for me when he got his on launch day. Lucario, Shulk, Ike & Meta Knight were a bit more tricky.. & Im yet to get a DDD. I didnt get Lucario until the recent restock, I got Ike & Shulk when GameStop got their 2nd shipment of those months after their initial release, and Meta Knight was (unfortunately) obtained off eBay after his Best Buy restock.
Wave 4 was a big deal for me because; the remaining Pokemon (except Mewtwo) were set to be released & from the beginning, all I wanted was Greninja. Wave 4 started off really bad. I remember Greninja preorders were supposed to go up at a reasonable time early one morning, I set my alarm clock to wake up early only to find out that preorders went up hours earlier & sold out within minutes. Jigglypuff preorder? No chance. Robin/Lucina
haha. Ness? Actually, Ness was one of the easier ones for me to obtain, I really lucked out that day. The GameStop I frequent is really great. Ive been going there for years so they know me & they were aware (from previous purchases/conversations) that I dont resell these things, so they do what they can to help me out when they are able they also know I work two jobs, so coming by right away is not always an option. The day Ness was to be released, my local GS called me & let me know preorders were opening up @ X time & wanted to know if I could come in? Unfortunately I could not make arrangements to leave work and had to tell the guy on the phone that I would have to come in tonight at closing & preorder what was left. As Ness went live, and the horror unfolded, I lost all hope and ended up crossing Ness off my list telling myself to forget about him. Knowing it was a lost cause, I decided to swing by my GameStop on my way home from work only to find out that one of the store employees went ahead and paid for me a Ness preorder, just to make sure I had one on release day. Saying I was shocked was an understatement, to say the least. Mind you this was only a $12 toy, but he didnt have to do that. He did it because he wanted to, and I have never experienced that kind of customer service anywhere else. Fast forward to release day, things went pretty well for me. I went to Knoxville since my home town doesnt have a Toys R Us or Target & walked away with; Silver Mario, Splatoon 3 pack, Charazard, PacMan, Wario, Jigglypuff, Greninja, & Ness was waiting for me once I got back into town. Also, knowing Robin/Lucina were a lost cause, I ended up importing them the night before, so I ended up walking away with all of Wave 4 somehow.
Admittedly, my interest did drop off after Wave 4. I dont know if the stressfulness of Wave 4 finally broke me, or if the ease of obtaining them from Wave 5 on made me not as involved, but I went from constantly refreshing forum pages, to only checking them a few times a day just to stay current. Wave 5 A/B came and went, I managed to get everything except Bowser JR - I was busy the day of release & was not able to watch for him to go up online. Wave 6 the only ones I cared about getting were the ones in the Retro Pack & Wave 7 I only bought Mewtwo, all of which were obtained with ease.
Outside of the Smash line, I havent picked up many - I havent touched the Animal Crossing line (yet) & the trading cards dont interest me in the slightest. I did get a Gold Mario at launch, I waited in line at my local WalMart the night of release they initially told me they didnt receive any, but after suggesting a box behind their counter could be said amiibo, all was well. I grabbed a Marth when he was first restocked at GameStop (lol, restock). The morning stores were supposed to start getting them in, I checked their website & noticed a store a town over had some in stock. It was only a 30 minute drive, and at the time Marth was nonexistent, so I headed out & showed up just in time to get the last one. Ive also randomly bought Toad, Blue/Pink Yarn Yoshi, Retro/Modern Mario, & most recently, Shovel Knight.
Im looking forward to the rest of the Smash lineup, Gold Mega Man, Wolf Link, & I welcome anything Pokken has to offer. I will admit I bought into the hype, got a little carried away, and ultimately bought some characters I probably wouldnt have if I had to do it again (looking at you, Peach). Going forward, I will definitely be more selective, but overall I am happy with the collection Ive amassed. If you would have told me, prior to release, that people would be waiting outside for 12+ hours (in some cases) for these things to be released.. I would have called you mental, I would have thought you to be totally insane. Little did I know, a few months later, I would join the ranks & become one of those people waiting outside for one of these things to be released.
Sorry for the novel (I had some free time at work), but thanks to those of you who took the time to read it. Thank you to anyone who has contributed to the OT in any way, and to anyone who has posted updates/a status/links/release dates/ect..ect. Also, a special thanks to Diggeh for giving us THE BEST OT & for not abandoning us now that things have died down. Happy hunting dudes!