The first two waves of amiibo were available at all retailers, albeit not in good supply for many of them, but the third wave brought upon us the now dreaded retailer exclusive amiibo. Wave 3 had four exclusives in the Super Smash Bros. line and also the exclusive Gold Mario soon after, while Wave 4 that just released had three exclusives itself. This is a trend that is almost certainly going to continue in Wave 5 and exactly which amiibo will be exclusives in the next wave is beginning to become a little more clear.
Wave 3 was an utter mess with exclusives from the start, with cancellations and low stock all around. Lucario was a mess at Toys R US, with numerous pre-orders cancelled and then reinstated. The launch day numbers were pretty much a joke as well. Rosalina was stocked pretty well on day one, but beyond that day has become impossible to get. Shulk was basically only available for pre-orders until recently, though still very hard to find. Meta Knight was probably the worse for those camping out, as hardly any Best Buy stores had an orderly system and it became a case of who could get back to the amiibo section first.
Wave 4 luckily saw similar day one numbers of Jigglypuff at Target as they had for Rosalina and Toys R Us impressed with the number of Greninja available on the first day. Ness however was as hard to come by as they get, basically only being available to pre-orders and a lucky few.
While Wave 4 was a little better overall with exclusives, there are still very few that want to see retailer exclusives again, except for maybe Target and Toys R Us. However, it’s sounding like we may see a number of them coming up.
Target has basically confirmed that they will have some sort of exclusive coming up after the Jigglypuff amiibo became the fastest selling item in Target.com history upon her pre-orders going live. This information came from a verified source on Reddit that spoke with a mod and said that there is no doubt Wave 5 will have an exclusive.
Right around this time, new updated electronic amiibo displays began to surface at both Target and Best Buy that showcased different amiibo on a touchscreen. In the past, these have had all non-exclusive amiibo, except for the individual store exclusives within that specific store after being announced. Currently, the displays have Zero Suit Samus, Ganondorf, Olimar, Green Yarn Yoshi, and Pink Yarn Yoshi. Missing happens to be Wave 5a amiibo Palutena and Dark Pit, Wave 5b amiibo Dr. Mario and Bowser Jr., as well as the Blue Yarn Yoshi.
This seemed to confirm much speculation that Palutena and Dark Pit would be exclusives, especially considering they are coming out in July all by themselves. The plot thickened upon multiple verified Best Buy employees on Reddit confirmed that Dark Pit was in fact in their computer system. If he is in fact a retailer exclusive, it’s looking very likely that Dark Pit will be exclusive to Best Buy, which many theorized based upon him being a similar style amiibo to Meta Knight.
If Dark Pit is in fact exclusive to Best Buy, that question on where the others will be exclusive to. So far, we’ve had retailer exclusives at Target, Toys R Us, GameStop, Best Buy, and Walmart, with the first three already getting two. Considering there are five rumored exclusives upcoming, it would make the most sense for each to get one.
Palutena would seem like a perfect fit for Target, considering their choice of female centric cutesy characters so far, but would Target get another right away is the bigger question. If Nintendo is truly going in order, Walmart would be next up, but I’m not sure she would be a good fit for it. If not at Target or Walmart, Palutena could potentially be at GameStop considering they have so far picked characters from smaller franchises. If not Palutena, Bowser Jr. could fit in with the cutesy style of Target so farl, but he could just as easily be at Toys R Us as well.
Dr. Mario is hard to pick, with the logical pick being either Walmart or Target based on the pharmacy angle, but that might be a little too logical. Walmart is the only one not to have a Smash Bros. line character yet though, so maybe they will get the Blue Yarn Yoshi instead, if he is indeed exclusive. This would then leave Dr. Mario for another retailer like GameStop or Toys R Us.
We will almost certainly get a set release date for Wave 5 during next Tuesday’s Nintendo Digital Event, but the exclusives were not announced during the stream last time, so make sure to stay tuned for any information following to find out which stores will exclusively carry multiple of the Wave 5 amiibo as soon as they are announced.
