Nintendo has finally confirmed the existence of a Gold Mario amiibo figure that is a repaint of the Super Mario series Mario amiibo figure due out in stores on March 20 alongside the release of Mario Party 10 for Wii U. As tipped by a leaked Walmart in-store advertisement, this new Gold edition Mario amiibo variant is exclusive to the giant retailer and will be sold in the United States only at 3,000 brick-and-mortar locations with a retail price of $12.96.
As with the regular edition Super Mario series Mario amiibo figure, the Gold Mario amiibo release date is March 20. Nintendo isn’t sharing how many of what amounts to the first variant amiibo figure will be produced. You can bet that collectors and scalpers alike will buy up most if not all the inventory within hours of them hitting store shelves. Gold Mario amiibo pre-orders already sold out at Walmart.com within minutes of availability.
Mario is an interesting choice for this first variant as the regular version is a timed exclusive to the Mario Party 10 amiibo bundle. Pre-orders for that bundle have sold out everywhere, so now this Gold Mario edition amiibo is a second chance for gamers to grab the figure at launch and unock the Mario game board in the “Amiibo Party Mode” within Mario Party 10.
Gold Mario marks the fifth store exclusive amiibo released by Nintendo, though he’s technically a variant and not an exclusive character or sculpt. Other amiibo exclusives include Meta Knight at Best Buy, Shulk at GameStop, Rosalina and Luma at Target, and Lucario at Toys “R” Us.
Nintendo’s willingness to dip into the repaint realm, a collector-focused move that Activision has aggressively pursued with its multi-billion dollar Skylanders franchise, tells us that there will be many more repaint variants to come. A silver Mario of the same sculpt has also leaked, though it’s unclear when and where this Mario variant figure will be made available.
Source: Nintendo
