Gaming
Rare Mega Yarn Yoshi Amiibo Release Arrives
With fall gaming season in full swing and the Holiday 2015 shopping season kicking into high-gear, Nintendo’s Amiibo figures are about to become even hotter commodities. Gaming and toys giant Toys R Us isn’t wasting any time in promoting its exclusive Amiibo and other figures. Rare Mega Yarn Yoshi Amiibo release day has arrived at all of its retail stores.
Toys R Us took to social networking site Twitter yesterday to promote the Mega Yarn Yoshi Amiibo release date and more yesterday. Amiibo are tiny figures that usually come attached to a circular base. This base allows them to communicate wirelessly with Nintendo’s Wii U and Nintendo 3DS consoles. Mainly, they unlock extra items in different games across Nintendo’s vast portfolio of family friendly titles.
For example, purchasing a Splatoon Amiibo unlocks extra content in Splatoon for Wii U. More and more, these figures are becoming a hot collector’s item. Nintendo says that they’re so popular it’s having trouble keeping them in stock. Megan Yarn Yoshi is inspired by Yoshi’s Woolly World, a platforming game that launches on the Wii U today in North America.
Read: 2015 Amiibo Releases: Smash Bros, Animal Crossing & More
Toys R Us is selling the Megan Yarn Yoshi Amiibo at its stores beginning this week. In its post on Twitter the store encourages users to get to its retail locations as soon as they can to pick up a Mega Yarn Yoshi. No other stores in the United States are allowed to carry the over-sized Amiibo. What’s more, Toys R Us is only selling the figures in its actual retail stores. There are no Mega Yarn Yoshi Amiibo figures available for purchase on the company’s website.
Collector alert! Get the Mega Yarn #Yoshi #amiibo on 11/15 in store only. Quantities extremely limited! pic.twitter.com/CYZODqFLan
— ToysRUs (@ToysRUs) October 14, 2015
The Mega Yarn Yoshi Amiibo is exclusive to Toys R Us, but other Amiibo figures with their release set for today aren’t. Other Amiibo arriving on store shelves today include Light Blue Yarn Yoshi, Pink Yarn Yoshi and Green Yarn Yoshi. Those aren’t yet available on the Toys R Us Website either because the retailer only has limited quantities. The picture provided by Toys R Us on Twitter includes Mii Gunner, Mii Brawler, Mii Swordfighter. They’re not due out until November 1st.
Nintendo will close out the holiday 2015 shopping season with Mewtwo, Falco, Tom Nook, Reese, Mabel, Lottie, KK, Isabelle, Digby, Cyrus Amiibo. To be clear, Amiibo aren’t just figures exclusive to Toys R Us. Wal-Mart, Target and GameStop all sell Amiibo figures too. Amazon does too, though the rarest of figures are pretty hard to find there.
All told, Amiibo figures are the Nintendo equivalent of a Skylanders figure or a toy for Disney Infinity. In fact, the concept is the same. Both of those games come with a pad that allows players to drop the figures into their worlds and their story. All of this work is done by a near field communications chip that’s embedded in each figures base. Apple uses the same technology to enable Apple Pay on the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. It’s also embedded in Apple Watch.
Anyone considering purchasing the Mega Yarn Yoshi Amiibo from Toys R Us – or any Amiibo figure from anywhere really – should look into compatibility. Every Wii U console supports Amiibos, every Nintendo 3DS doesn’t. The New Nintendo 3DS XL has NFC built-in. Older Nintendo 3DS devices and the Nintendo 3DS need a separate NFC reader accessory before they can communicate with the figures. Luckily, Nintendo began selling such an NFC reader accessory for its gaming systems this past September. It’s called the NFC Reader and Writer Accessory for Nintendo 3DS and its available online and in Toys R Us’ retail locations for $19.99.
Ted Manney
10/16/2015 at 5:26 pm
I think you’re quite confused. Mega Yarn Yoshi was only released at *Canadian* Toys R Us locations today, he’ll be released in the United States on 11/15. You also said this:
“In its post on Twitter the store encourages users to get to its retail locations as soon as they can to pick up a Mega Yarn Yoshi.”
…and then right below that, you show the Tweet from Nintendo which clearly states that fans should check in stores on 11/15 (which, if you check your calendar, is next month). I would give you the benefit of the doubt and say you were only talking about Canada, but it’s clear elsewhere in the article that you’re referring also to the US and this is a .com site and not a .ca after all.
While we’re at it, if you’re going to compare amiibos to Skylanders or Disney Infinity and say they’re “equivalent”, you might want to point out the differences that both Skylanders and Infinity figures are only designed to work for one game or game series, while amiibos have compatibility across a wide variety of Nintendo games and have different functionality in each one. The technology is the same but the way amiibos are used only bears a surface resemblance to the other two.