So the news may be old but I just found out about it, apparently Nintendo isn't going to continue production on some amiibos, currently I guess Marth, Wii Fit Trainer and The Villager are all discontinued?

This news has me a little biffed, I don't even have any amiibos, they seem dumb. But why would they do this, what purpose could it possibly serve to just up and shut down production on certain models of these, and so early in their existence too when people are still trying to get their hands on them for the games that use them. I mean it sounds like they're a success for Nintendo, so I just don't get this move, what do you people think?

For starters, limiting supply generates scarcity, which creates fervor and results in sales. Then take into account the manufacturing side of things. They have a second wave of Amiibos on the way. This frees up some of the manufacturing facilities to pump those out.

Yeah, it just sucks that it's the coolest/weirdest ones being cut first and not the boring ones like Yoshi.

It might have worked though since hearing this news makes me want the Marth Amiibo way more. Then again if the fourth wave has Lucina then there's no point since she is just a better Marth.

I went to Best Buy to buy some amiibos on their release day. 12/14/2014 Little Mac and Zelda came out. Zelda was on the shelf, Little Mac I needed to ask for. I got up to the counter and the cashier literally couldn't sell them to me. The computer said they weren't out yet and they couldn't scan it. I talked to the manager and after a phone call she said that Best Buy had a different street date. They weren't coming out until, and I quote "either the 19th or the 30th".

I tell you this because it backs up my theory that Nintendo is doing everything they can to make it so amiibos appear rare. They want them to be Beanie Babies and Beanie Babies were rare. The only reason that I knew that the Best Buy had the new amiibo was because someone fucked up and accidentally started stocking them. I honestly doubt they're discontinuing anything. They just want to make it look like amiibos are the shit for the holiday season. If The Villager doesn't come back I'd be surprised (and bummed because I want that one with all my heart).

I'll be the first to say that I think they're the coolest little figures I've ever seen, I haven't bought a toy since I was a boy and I'm buying them in bulk, but their application in games is lacking like a motherfucker. I'm keeping them packaged.

Well there's an interview on kotaku I think with Shigeru or someone and they're saying they are discontinuing some of the figures. Miyamoto is quoted saying they may do like amiibo cards so that the functionality of the figures can be preserved without the figures themselves or some crap.

Knowing Nintendo they're actually not intentionally creating scarcity, they're just sticking to their own plans and focusing on what they think are the more popular figurines. Just like how disc based media was ignored for a long time, joining in the hardware arms race was a silly fad, and so on, and so on.

Amiibos are very clearly intended to be collectable and like all collectables you occasionally stop production of certain things so they become collector's items. If you have a problem with that, you have a problem with how every collectable that's ever existed operates.

I pre-ordered the Little Mac Amiibo from Target's website. The day it was supposed to ship they cancelled the order. Apparently Toys R Us cancelled all of their orders for the newest few Amiibos as well. I scrambled to find Little Mac somewhere else, but every single online store is out of stock. Sorry, I could get it on Amazon for the hot markup price of $35.

Either this was a large screw-up on the retailers part, or Nintendo is producing way too few of these things. In this case the thing was basically discontinued before it even saw a retail release.

It depends on how well they're doing. WiiU in general isn't selling great, so if these aren't selling very well it would make sense for them to stop production on the least popular ones. It's possible the ones chosen for this fit that description.

There are multiple eceonomic factors that would go into this decision. The interesting thing will be how much it drives the price of these characters up with collectors- assuming there isn't already a bazillion of them out there.

Anyway, the very little I know about this suggests it's a cost cutting measure more than anything.

@bargainben: Except nowhere in the description do these say they are limited edition collector's items, they're toys and many of them as @drac96 states, became hard to find almost immediately. Even toys that are marketed as collectibles do not just fly off shelves instantly and increase in price by 100-400% in a month. Little Mac and Villager are both already selling for 30-50$ a piece, that's like 300-500% markup in only a month of release. And again nowhere -to my knowledge- did they say "these are limited edition items, get them while you can."

As to the idea that they're discontinuing the less popular amiibos, how on earth did they have time to figure out that little mac and villager are the least popular? They have been out a month people, a month and they've been hard to find from the beginning.

Also I mean the only way I can see this benefiting Nintendo is that it'll create a fervor for the second series of amiibos, but this seems like such a waste of time and an overall dumb decision. By all accounts the Amiibos are selling very well, soooo?

the weird ones should be rarer anyway. there should be 10 yoshis out there for every wii fit trainer.

Supply and demand ... or stupidity , time will tell.

It definitely makes me want to buy the ones that could potentially end up being rare. I think this is exactly the kind way Nintendo wants me to think about buying Amiibo's.... aghh they've got me! I bought Fox, which is actually really, really nice and Samus. I'll get Pit and Mega Man.

Isn't a problem with Amibos is that they are kind of crappy quality? Maybe they are getting rid of them to flush the "version 1" to make way for "version 2".

I have the Kirby one just because I wanted a Kirby figure to put on my desk and it's comparable in quality to Skylanders and the Disney Infinity figures.