I have been following some interesting rumors on the World of Nintendo Reddit (the people there do an awesome job of keeping World of Nintendo fans informed) closely but waited until there was official news before reporting on this.  There are new World of Nintendo figures in both the Trophy and Prototype series but the crazy thing is that they appeared in retail before Jakks Pacific announced them!  For those who don’t know, the Trophy series are repainted World of Nintendo figures that have a bronze metallic finish.  The Protoype series are black and white repaints of World of Nintendo figures.  In both of the pictures below, the new figures are on the right and the ones that are already out in some retailers are on the left.  Here is a look at these new figures:

Currently, the Trophy Series are Walmart Exclusives and the Protoypes are Target Exclusives.  Many people might assume that these are limited edition but without any clear marking of that, I wouldn’t necessarily make that conclusion.  World of Nintendo has always been a little tricky when it comes to that.

My theory is that Jakks Pacific either has leftover figures that they need to sell and so they are repainting them to make collectors want them or they are trying an alternative way to make more money off existing figure molds (meaning this way they don’t have to create new plastic molds like they would with any new figure which is expensive).  As a business, it makes sense to try this and take advantage of collector’s desire (and need!) to have everything.  What is surprising is that these were appearing in stores before Jakks even announced it.  World of Nintendo has always struggled with marketing and keeping their diehard fanbase informed and I’m sorry to say that this is probably the worst it has been in a little while.  I’m sure there are reasons why Jakks Pacific does things this way but I believe it does hurt them in the long run not to keep fans a little better informed.  If nothing else, it helps get us hyped for new releases!

With that said, what do you guys think of these new figures?  I personally like the Trophy Series and would definitely pick a couple up if the price is right online.  I hate shopping at WalMart and won’t do it even for Nintendo figures (which is saying something).  The Prototype figures do not impress me and I already own two of the four figures in color.  I’m not sure that they will sell well or that collectors will really gravitate towards them.  As always, it is great to hear from other Nintendo fans what they think about all of this so please make your voice heard in the comments below!