Success! After the ups and downs of the past few days, I’ve finally managed to pre-order a Yarn Yoshi amiibo.

I received a tip-off from this Reddit forum that GAME are taking in-store pre-orders for old yarn-face himself, even though you can’t currently pre-order through the website. So after confirming this was the case with my local GAME store, I hot-footed it into town and gleefully handed over my £5 deposit to the piercing-adorned sales clerk. He told me that the Yarn Yoshi pre-orders had been “going crazy”, so I’m glad I got in now – sounds like they might not be available for long.

The shop assistant still didn’t have the exact price for the amiibo, but if it follows GAME’s usual pricing it will be a cheeky £14.99, a good £4 higher than the RRP. I’ve noticed that quite a few retailers have hiked up their amiibo prices in response to the demand – as my economics-expert blogging-buddy Sir Gaulian would say, that’s basic economics for you.

I also pre-ordered Yoshi’s Woolly World from GameSeek for a bargain £25. I was originally going to pre-order the version of the game with the Yarn Yoshi amiibo included from GAME at the same time as ordering the amiibo. But seeing as the standalone game has an RRP of £44.99 (and GAME tends to stick with the RRP), my guess is that this version would cost at least £50 in store, so it will probably work out cheaper to get the amiibo and game separately.

Getting that amiibo pre-order in has made me immensely happy. Part of me is appalled that a grown man like myself can get so excited about a fluffy toy that’s essentially for children. But then again, who cares? I’ve got a Yarn Yoshi amiibo, hurrah!

UPDATE: Just after I posted this, pre-orders went live on GAME’s website and ShopTo – typical! Still, looks like I saved a bit of money by ordering the amiibo and game separately – as predicted, the version of Yoshi’s Woolly World including the amiibo is going for £49.99. But the amiibo on its own is a cheeky £19.99! I guess that wool don’t come cheap…

UPDATE 2: Yarn Yoshi has arrived!