Nintendo's Amiibo Figures Are Not Quite as Detailed as First Advertised

[Guffe]

Why is no-one whining that the Hamburger at McDonlads doesn't look as god as in the picture?
I doubt the world will fall apart from this, the few figurines I'll get will have the purpose of being a in-game player that I'll train and harness to the maximum so even I can't defeat him/her/it. I wouldn't mind if it was a blob, as long as I now whitch character it is.

Then again, for someone who would buy them to have on display I guess this is a bummer, as the first pictures we saw, and the ones in the latest Smash promo video looked absolutely awesome!

 

[ajr209]

If you are going to cut corners in a way that will cause the prototype of your product to be noticeably better than the finished retail product for F***s sake DON"T show the prototype because you will only make people feel cheated and potentially sour them on your brand. This seems to be a lesson the industry is having difficulty learning *cough watchdogs cough*. If I had only seen the finished product it wouldn't have occurred to me that there was anything wrong with them since they're about as detailed as most comparably priced action figures I've seen but next to the prototype they look just cheap. You know how transformers toys nowadays have the full version for like fifteen dollars and then they have the smaller less detailed ones for half that price? Well that's what popped into my head when I saw those pics, except at least with the transformers there's the option of getting the more detailed ones.

 

[TKretts3]

This is horrendous. I just got my Game and Watch figure and it is COMPLETELY watered down. Like, all of the detail is gone, seriously, they missed so much. Last time I buy any promotional material for a game. It's just a big black blob!

 

[Maze1125]

It's actually a dealbreaker for me. The prototypes were something worthy of being displayed, but the actual ones are simply too cheap-looking for visual purposes. Why does one buy a figurine? To display.

That's why nerds buy figurines.
Children (ya know, the people figurines were originally invented for) buy them to play with and they don't care about tiny details.

 

[weirdee]

This is horrendous. I just got my Game and Watch figure and it is COMPLETELY watered down. Like, all of the detail is gone, seriously, they missed so much. Last time I buy any promotional material for a game. It's just a big black blob!

tell me about it, i can barely figure out which side of this kirby figurine is his front

 

[ThreeName]

Miniatures are not as detailed as they were in promotional material? I MUST SEND DEATH THREATS TO FEMALES WORKING IN THE GAMES INDUSTRY!!!!

Jesus fucking Christ, can you people try to contain your GamerGate/anti-GamerGate shit to their own threads? It's bad enough seeing half of Off-Topic reduced to arguing about that nonsense, don't drag the fetid corpse of the damn thing into unrelated threads.

I'm going to buy these faster than heroine addicts bought Bayonetta 2

That was a highly amusing turn of phrase. Well done

 

[Nazulu]

Well that's disappointing. I wanted a great model of Peach and Samus. I need to see it in person to really decide though.

 

[Scarim Coral]

This doesn't suprised me, the prototype/ test image ALWAYS look different when they released the real thing, it's the olde case of quantity vs quality!

 

[Aerosteam]

I might be generalizing a little, but I'm pretty sure kids don't pay attention to detail.

Why does one buy a figurine? To display.

You buy these figurines to obtain the virtual version of the character and they appear inside your game, Skylanders style.

Nintendo never said they're for displaying.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

This is kinda sad news, but they should have never shown off the prototypes beforehand. I can understand them finding out a certain design would be more expensive to mold and paint than they thought, but many won't. I thought Nintendo was more secretive than that.

The Link figure's change makes sense since he was floating over the base and being supported by an acrylic twig. The new one has a giant pillar growing out of his leg and his other foot is touching the base. Wii Fit Trainer has giant support that looks like an ice block (ice beam victim?) up to her knee. These are also supposed to be marketed to kids and will need some extra stability and strength. (It was a bad call on the color of Link's, though.)

But for $13, they could have just adjusted the poses to minimize the support sizes. They look fugly, especially Link's crystallized golden shower. For some of us that price almost an hour and a half of dealing with irate customers and coworkers. That's worse than loosing some detail to practicality.

Back to R&P with you lot.

OT: They look like cheap Chinese knockoffs compared to their prototypes. I understand cutting costs is a thing, but it might've done them good to release a more expensive version using the prototype models. Then again, that might come off as "Here poor cunts, have the shit ones".

They already did it with the Wii U at launch. "You can either have the deluxe 32GB version with tons of goodies, or be cheap and get the one with basic functionality and a paltry 8GB of storage." (At least all the current bundles pretty much fixed that.) Why not try with something that doesn't matter to most people, instead?

I'd rather pay around $20 for a detailed Samus (Prime model please, Other M's Freudian baby bottle-shaped arm cannon is off putting to me.) with a chip in it. But yes, someone would accuse Ninty of cash grabbing.

 

[Lilani]

Well yeah the prototype always looks better than the mass produced version. And several of the differences I would attribute to lighting rather than quality. I don't really care either way, I've never been much interested in figurines, but the disparity isn't so great that I'd say they were lying. At least more than any other prototype has.

 

[Obama's Dad 420]

Miniatures are not as detailed as they were in promotional material? I MUST SEND DEATH THREATS TO FEMALES WORKING IN THE GAMES INDUSTRY!!!!

haha that's some good satire!

 

[chozo_hybrid]

Considering the price, the fact they have a function outside being a figure, I'm okay with it, they don't look too shabby.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

I'm not entirely bothered by the outcome, I've seen far worse quality statues/figures than this that ask for more (Transformers for a "prime" example.

At least Destructoid users took this well than here I'd say.

 

[madwarper]

You buy these figurines to obtain the virtual version of the character and they appear inside your game, Skylanders style.

Nintendo never said they're for displaying.

If they weren't for displaying, they why are they using figurines? After all, if they only were only there to do something in a game, they could have made them like the QR cards that came with the 3DS and cut the production cost to nil.

And, since it appears that you don't know, when not being used for putting a character in game, the Skylanders are sturdy actions figures and are meant to be mashed up against one and another and have posable arms and legs, because they're toys that just happen to have chips in them.

These figurines, on the other hand, are just barely attached to the stand by a piece of plastic. Obviously, they not toys meant to be played with. The only justifiable reason to have them be figurines is that they were meant to be displayed.

 

[Colt47]

I still think they look good enough to buy. The only issue I have is the lack of a higher detailed model for the real devoted collectors crowd so they can take full advantage of the work put into the prototype models.

 

[KazeAizen]

Miniatures are not as detailed as they were in promotional material? I MUST SEND DEATH THREATS TO FEMALES WORKING IN THE GAMES INDUSTRY!!!!

Dude, do you have no shame? Using someone's harassment from the GNAA to bash on people who had such a high level of respect for Nintendo that they expected their physical items to be just as high quality as the games they love? The same GNAA that has made real people's lives hell for over 10 years?

Really? You are going the low road? Even as a joke its pretty damn low. We found out it wasn't even gamers, it was the GNAA that trolled the entire industry and is threatening to take everyone down.

OT: LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL HASBRO LEVEL GARBAGE NINTENDO IS KILL!

I would have expected nintendo to care a bit more to put in more details, but these aren't for older fans.

These are for kids. They will break them, will grind them down using their bike wheels or chewing on them, and generally break.

You can't give something high quality to a kid and expect it to hold. Its wasted money.

Especially for a company that is already losing too much money and may be circling the drain entirely.

You must be a real joy at parties with your ability to detect sarcasm. Also your first sentence literally makes no grammatical sense even by internet standards and that is saying something.

Nintendo isn't circling the drain. They haven't been doing fantastic but anyone with a brain knows they aren't in that dire straights. As for your comments regarding the figures I can't even begin to describe how condescending and repulsive those are.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

You must be a real joy at parties with your ability to detect sarcasm. Also your first sentence literally makes no grammatical sense even by internet standards and that is saying something.

Nintendo isn't circling the drain. They haven't been doing fantastic but anyone with a brain knows they aren't in that dire straights. As for your comments regarding the figures I can't even begin to describe how condescending and repulsive those are.

No kidding, if Nintendo is circling the drain, then everyone else is already in the drain. Such as Sony, who's set to post a multi-billion dollar loss (AGAIN). Or how about we get into how every 3rd party is struggling to make ANY sort of profit with their offerings, profit margins continuing to get slimmer and slimmer while they are content to let the gaming audience continue shrinking thus making the future of the medium very shaky.

Anyway, this is completely typical; prototypes are ALWAYS better than the mass-produced models. Plus, if you notice, it's the more complex ones that have suffered a slight downgrade. The simpler ones like Kirby, Yoshi, and Mario (which Kotaku have conveniently ignored) have actually maintained the same quality. There is no need for people to get pissy about this.

 

[Leemaster777]

I just want to know why they went with that HORRIBLE yellow plastic for the stand.

they do realize the point of clear plastic is to make it less noticable, right?

The only conceivable reason for that change would have to be plastic quality.

Clear plastic has a nasty habit of being fragile if the plastic quality isn't entirely up to snuff. They may have had to switch to yellow if the original stand plastic wasn't good enough. And considering in Link's case where the clear plastic is basically holding up the ENTIRE figure, it was probably necessary to keep it from breaking.

OT: I can definitely see the difference between them, but it's hardly a dealbreaker. They're adequate for $13 toys with electronics inside. And hell, I was probably only going to buy the Game and Watch one anyways, so it hardly matters to me either way.

I'm just glad these exist at all. Ever since the original Smash, I've always wanted Nintendo figures on stands just like these. And that is what these are.

 

[144_v1legacy]

It's actually a dealbreaker for me. The prototypes were something worthy of being displayed, but the actual ones are simply too cheap-looking for visual purposes. Why does one buy a figurine? To display.

That's why nerds buy figurines.
Children (ya know, the people figurines were originally invented for) buy them to play with and they don't care about tiny details.

I might be generalizing a little, but I'm pretty sure kids don't pay attention to detail.

Why does one buy a figurine? To display.

You buy these figurines to obtain the virtual version of the character and they appear inside your game, Skylanders style.

Nintendo never said they're for displaying.

I'll respond to both of you simultaneously. Your responses both justify the quality drop through children being the target market. So I assume then, that in spite of your defense of the product, you also won't be buying these? In spite of their in-game functionality, you've both condemned these products to the realm of lower-quality children's toys. And I agree. They look like toys. But a higher-quality item would be more versatile, displayable for adults and playable for kids.