UPDATE: Nintendo has confirmed that certain figures will be discontinued but not which ones.
Rumors are flying wild in the last few days that three of the original twelve amiibo figures; the villager, Marth and Wii fit trainer, are to be discontinued. This has caused consumers to go mad on purchasing and sets of all three have already begun emerging on eBay, easily selling for around $100 rather than the $40 cost price.
While some retailers such as Game in the UK ramped up the price of these WiiU compatible figurines by 25% following their popularity, others such as Amazon have held steady. It should be noted however, that the three figures listed above have already sold out there and are currently being sold by private sellers for $35, $50 and $25 respectively.
Underestimating the popularity of using GameCube controllers to play the Super Smash Bros. series, Nintendo failed to produce enough WiiU compatible adaptors in their first run, and now the hardware originally priced at around $30, is easily selling for around $100 on eBay.
Unlike Skylanders or Disney Infinity, amiibo figures, while cool looking, do not give players a playable character or competitive edge when playing the award-winning fighting series. Instead, amiibos act as a non-playable character which players can train and then fight against or with on a team.
The AI on amiibo figurines should not be under-estimated as a Fox amiibo entered in a local Smash tournament as a joke, managed to reach the semi-finals and was only knocked out by one of the region's best Brawl players in a grueling 1 hour 33 minute match.
Unlike the WiiU itself, the figures are worldwide compatible, and we could see buyers from countries such as Japan, which still have these figures in stock, exporting to America and the UK. Other figurines such as the much sort after Zelda figure are also released here first.
While consumers are desperate to get their hands on the figures while they are still in stock, it should be noted that the discontinuation of these products has not yet been confirmed by Nintendo and is based on anecdotal evidence. We could easily see a second run of amiibo figures and GameCube adaptors in the near future, so those who are do not mind missing out should be advised to hold on for official announcements.
Update: Rumours are still unconfirmed. But someone has claimed to have received an email from Nintendo claiming that the products have NOT been discontinued. We will update if this is later confirmed.