With the Animal Crossing Amiibo fizzling out and the last few Smash Brothers Amiibo on their way, I was hoping Nintendo would announce new Amiibo soon and in today’s Nintendo Direct, they unveiled a brand new line of Amiibo!  Kirby is finally getting some much needed figures after appearing in Super Smash Brothers.  The four figures are of Kirby on Warp Star, King Dedede, Meta Knight, and Waddle Dee.  Three of the four do have Amiibos already, but Kirby fans will still eat these up I think.  I consider myself to be in that category and I love how Kirby and Waddle Dee look.  The air puff and stars on Waddle Dee look especially good.  Meta Knight and Dedede look inferior to their prior Amiibo, especially with their poses which is disappointing.  One thing that is cool is that blue base.  It will make these Amiibo stand out from what else has been released and I hope that Nintendo will continue to play with base designs.

With a new Kirby game on the way, this move makes a lot of sense for Nintendo.  Kirby also has a hard license to get when it comes to toys/figures.  While I’ve never heard this confirmed, Jakks Pacific does not appear to have the license to make Kirby stuff or they already would have by now (what I wouldn’t give for Kirby Micro Land!) and so with exception of the Kirby Nendoroid or looking to Japan for more obscure figures, Kirby fans have had to settle on the Amiibos most of which are a year to six months old now.  It sounds like the Amiibo will unlock new costumes and an ability in the new Kirby: Planet Robobot game coming out in June.  Other Amiibo will unlock abilities that are well known to Kirby fans like Zelda will unlock the Sword ability and Mario will unlock the Fire ability.  This is a clever idea and it will be fun to find out what Amiibos do what in the game, especially if you have a large Amiibo collection.

What do you think of the latest Amiibo news?  The releases have been a little slower lately, but if Nintendo continues to expand the characters and styles that are represented in Amiibo, I think they can keep collectors interested and draw new people into the hobby.  Of course, Animal Crossing Amiibos tried to bring new people in and seemingly have failed commercially so we’ll have to see if Kirby does better.  Either way, it is nice to know new Amiibo are on the way and I look forward to see what Nintendo surprises us with next!