We now have a huge rumor about the last man standing of the toys-to-life product line.
As reported by NintendoLife, rumors are spreading about a giant amiibo restock that’s on the way. If the rumor is true, the Nintendo seems to have been on the level about wanting to make amiibo a long lasting product line for the company, and something they take seriously like their games and consoles.
As the rumor goes, the wave of amiibo restocks starts this August, with another wave coming this November.
These are the amiibo figures expected to see restocks and their rumored release schedules:
Wave 1: Mario, Peach, Donkey Kong, Link, Fox, Samus, Pikachu, Zelda, Luigi, Rosalina, Olimar
Wave 2: Captain Falcon, Bowser, Lucario, Sonic, Mega Man, Charizard, Ness, Pac-Man, Greninja, Jigglypuff, Mewtwo, Famicom ROB, Cloud, Cloud Player 2, Bayonetta, Wolf, Terry, Banjo and Kazooie, Young Link
Other: Link’s Awakening Link, Wedding Mario, Peach, and Bowser, Samus Aran (Metroid Collection), Wolf Link, Archer Link, Rosalina (Super Mario Bros line), Boo (Super Mario Bros line)
As expected, there is some decent representation here for The Legend of Zelda amiibo and Super Mario Bros amiibo. Both would be in high demand, thanks to the recent release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and the breakout success of The Super Mario Bros Movie. The latter will obviously also be supporting the incoming release of new Super Mario Bros games, including Super Mario Bros Wonder and Super Mario RPG.
However, the lion’s share of amiibo are for Super Smash Bros, for games and franchises that don’t have any new games coming out, and aren’t immediately relevant except for being in Super Smash Bros.
There is even a decent amount of amiibo licensed from other companies, including SNK’s Terry Bogard, Microsoft’s Banjo and Kazooie, and Square Enix’s Cloud as well as Cloud Player 2.
These amiibo aren’t being made with as clear a profit incentive as those from Nintendo’s two biggest franchises. To be clear, I’m not saying Nintendo are saints.
Rather, if the rumor is true, then Nintendo is sincerely endeavoring to meet market demand. That does mean they are taking amiibo’s fandom seriously as customers, and are hoping to help them fill out their collections.
In the toy market, demand can seem fickle and random. When Mattel created the He-Man line, it saw a quick surge of unprecedented success that dropped just as suddenly as it rose, lasting two to three years at best. When PlayMates made TMNT, they managed to keep their toyline relevant for nearly a decade, but would have to bring the franchise to dormancy and revive it every few years.
Transformers stands as one of the few toy franchises with the true longevity that outlasted even its dry spells. Nintendo’s amiibo might not have the longevity of Transformers, but Nintendo may have stumbled upon a market line that they can keep going for as long as they keep making video games.
