There was a time when Nintendo would, by their manufacturing facility's own two hands, produce some neat merchandise or pre order bonuses for customers to purchase, BUT at a less widespread rate. That would be the cue for other manufacturing companies to take control of production and distribution for officially licensed Nintendo merchandise.
However, with the closure of Club Nintendo and the rise of Amiibo NFC figurines spiking to a point where supply issues have the company taking further control of balancing the unbelievably high demand hand-in-hand with supply, it seems that Nintendo has had their fair share of difficulties in the past year and are making an effort to solve them by putting matters into their own hands once more.
Personally, I'm more than OK with that as my own difficulties with collecting North American Amiibo were once an impossible feat to accomplish. Even with the first wave in mind, originally. I was surprised to have collected 11 of wave 1 with only the Villager Amiibo alluding my grasp, as I've had some tight money situations spanning across the end of 2014. After establishing a conclusion that I wouldn't get close to obtaining the Villager Amiibo any time soon, I went on ahead to wave 2. I've then collected 5 of wave 2, with Pit pulling a semi-Villager on me even though I had my chance to pre order him at least on Best Buy only to ignore it and Little Mac not becoming the eventual problem I thought he would be (as I found him at a Target on launch day).
As for the next two waves I was only missing King Dedede until early July, having collected all of the others in wave 3 and 4 (even the exclusives) with little to no hassle whatsoever. I just had to stand outside an hour before opening time at the retailers carrying the exclusives and new Amiibo so that the situation would become less of what it needs to be. I later proceeded to wave 5 this past month with Palutena successfully ordered on Amazon.com and Dark Pit immediately becoming a no-go since the line outside of Best Buy was the largest I've seen for the Amiibo yet, prompting me to purchase him off of eBay for a reasonable price. It felt bad purchasing him and Villager at exorbitant prices, but I felt the need to complete the rest of what's been released so far (Pit was easy to obtain later thanks to a Gamestop.com restock and King Dedede was ordered for in-store pickup at Gamestop as well, but I ordered him a tad too late and had to wait an entire 6 months until I could pick him up!).
Having said all this, I guess I can go on to say "the struggle is real". I wish the best of luck for everyone collecting, specifically tomorrow considering the "retro 3-pack" will be releasing early to all who come in first thing Saturday morning at Gamestop, with special priority given to Power Up Rewards Pro members! I wish I could participate in this event, but I don't have a ride at the time for this occasion. Ah well, I suppose....