Lucina amiibo (Super Smash Bros Series)

The first wave of Amiibo figures from Nintendo is here. While Nintendo has been in the business of licensing their most popular characters for toy adaptations for decades, Amiibo is a new foray into the toy business. Amiibo is essentially the answer to the question posed several years ago when Skylanders debuted: Why hasnt Nintendo done this yet? In 2014, Nintendo has begun releasing its variant on the NFC-powered figures, and the results are somewhat mixed. First, the good. These are excellent figures for the price. This review specifically pertains to the Link figure. As a collector, I have a number of Link figures, stretching back to the trophy figures of the 1980s (which bore minimal resemblance to Link). Most recently, I acquired the Japanese import UDF [Ultra Detailed Figures] line, which included some extremely detailed Link figures of three iterations of the character. This is the Smash Bros. iteration of Link. It is functionally an amalgam of a few designs, most closely falling between an HD Adult Link from Ocarina of Time with a little Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess thrown in. Link looks excellent. His shield is extremely detailed even upon close inspection. The same applies to the Master Sword in his left hand and the scabbard on his back. Speaking from the perspective of a Zelda fan and a collector of Link figures, this one is on the higher end in terms of detail and quality for the size of the figure. Of course, Amiibos have no articulation as they are essentially the trophies players earn in Smash Bros. brought to life. If you want an articulated Link figure, there are two options currently on the market that are more suitable to your interests (and one of them is in fact cheaper in brick and mortar stores than the Amiibo). This is a display piece that looks stylistically consistent with the other figures in the Amiibo line and looks great on a shelf. As a figure, taking into consideration the fact that it is specifically not designed to include points or articulation, I give it 5/5. This is a very good Link figure and it looks quite nice on a shelf. Now I would like to address the NFC functionality of this figure. In fairness, I will gladly update my review if these problems are corrected down the road. There are three games as of this date that utilize the Link figures NFC integration. Hyrule Warriors and Mario Kart 8 each give an extra item in the game without any substantive content. Smash Bros. is very different. You train your figure sort of like training an in-game Pokemon in that series. However, it is a tremendous missed opportunity. As a player, you can never actually play as your highly trained Link (or Mario or whoever else you purchased). Playing as your particular figure rather than relegating it to the CPU would be a huge bonus and add pseudo-RPG elements to the game, which would positively impact Smash Bros. I grant that Smash Bros. has ample amounts of content and frankly does not need Amiibo integration in the first place, but if its there, it could be better than it is at present. Amiibos represent a lot for Nintendo. For long-term fans, they are great figures. Some of them, such as characters from Fire Emblem, have never had any type of toy or collectible figure widely available in the market. Accordingly, fans of Nintendos vast library of IPs will get the benefit of having otherwise obscure characters made into collectible little figures. The level of detail on these things is amazing, and as collectibles, I strongly recommend them. However, Amiibo as a use of the much-touted NFC technology integrated into the Wii U gamepad misses the mark a bit. There are some fairly obvious better ways to utilize these figures in the virtual worlds to which they connect, and hopefully they will be better integrated in the future. As it stands, collectors should be on the lookout for these figures. They are a worthwhile purchase, and while they do not have the relative obscurity of other Nintendo-themed collectibles, they also come at a reasonably fair price ($12.99 or less) per figure. Theyre fun little additions to the games to which they connect as well, but frankly they should not be bought exclusively for that purpose. Their additional functionality wears thin very quickly. As I noted, I will update this review in the future should Smash Bros. receive a patch to let players level up their figure AND play as that character, or should other games better integrate them.

Another great amiibo for my sons set

The parts of Link are thin and spindly, and as I feared, the arm broke off within a week. One drop from my five year-old and it snapped right off at the arm/sleeve joint. Luckily, I was able to re-pose it by rotating the arm and gluing it back on, so that he is trailing his sword behind him with the point near the base. Its more compact this way without that sword arm hanging out to one side and a little less likely to hang up and go for a tumble.

It said it wasnt being shipped until March 6th but low and behold the little guy showed up today. He looks like a boss and is a great addition to my Amiibo collection. 10/10 would not change a thing.

Works as i thought, love looking at it. But its better than me in smash bros. D:

I bought this for my brother and it works with no problems. Also, I dont see any chips in the paint or anything noticeably off with the figurine.

it is a cool little link figure works with my switch playing skyrim

Fun to level up and collect. I own several other amiibos, but the Kirby figure seems poorly made. The paint isnt completely smooth and just doesnt seem like they put as much effort in, compared to other figures.

This amiibo is awesome. The detail is superb, just like on all of them. The ordering of this amiibo was, BY FAR, the smoothest, easiest of them all. Nintendo should just give all of their release debuts to Amazon to sell and then stock them in brick and mortar stores after the initial sell out craze.

We had to wait for this amiibo because of a backorder. But it was worth it. My son loves it and had to have it. We have lots of amiibos for our Super Smash Bros. I also purchased the question block amiibo bag which he loves without compartments..These amiibos are made quite nicely and I really love the quality and my son loves Luigi.