A MOST AGREEABLE PASTIME

I got my first Amiibo this week, and just look how happy it made me. Gosh darn they’re charming little things, aren’t they?

Like me, you may have been pondering whether to buy one of these little figurines. Like me, you may have been reasoning to yourself that they’re quite expensive for little lumps of plastic that don’t do very much. You might have been thinking that the functions they add to games are superfluous at best, pointless at worst. You might be thinking that they’re, you know, just for kids, right?

But if you’re anything like me, the lizard part of your brain will also be screaming: “OYMYGODOHMYGOD THEY’RE SO COOL BUY THEM NOW I NEED THEM ALL!”

Eventually the lizard won. In fact, he won on two counts, because not long after I bought Link, I spotted Marth on GAME’s website in a small window of availability before the figure was discontinued. The reasoning part of my brain was telling me that I’d already bought one figure, and that Link was the one I really wanted, and that perhaps the only reason I wanted Marth was because it was rare, but by the time it had thought all that the lizard had pressed “BUY NOW”.

So do I regret my purchases? Not for one second, chiefly because they’ve made me very happy (see above photo). The actual figures themselves are superb, and Link in particular has an impressive level of detail. Marth too looks brilliant, although I noticed that the paint job around his sword hand wasn’t quite as neat as on Link. But apart from this very minor quibble, I’m overjoyed with both.

The reasoning part of my brain is still standing there with arms folded, a look of disapproval on his face. But he can’t argue with that massive grin o’ mine as I look upon my new purchases like a kid in a sweet shop. And it is like being a kid again, which is what’s so intoxicating – I have a lifelong attachment to these characters that began when I was a child, so stuff like this reaches right out to the little kid inside me.

But reasoning brain does have a point, and that point is: when will this all end? With wave after wave of Amiibos being prepared for release, there’s no way I can afford even a fraction of them. More to the point, I’m still not even sure where to put them. Lizard wants them all though, so we’ve come to a compromise – I’m going to get a maximum of one figure from each set, and only ones I really want – Ike and Mega Man are already looking appealing. One thing we’re all agreed on, however, is that we’re not going to be suckered into buying ‘rare’ figurines for the express purpose of selling them later for a profit. To emphasise this point, here’s the packaging for Marth, which has been gleefully destroyed and discarded. I mean, these things are meant to be played with, right?