The Amiibo figurines have proven to be a huge success for Nintendo, with analysts estimating that these figurines could very well net the Japanese gaming company as much as $1 billion in sales, which is why it isn’t surprising to learn that in markets around the world, there have been a variety of fake Amiibo characters spotted.
As you can see in the image above courtesy of Info Amiibo (via Nintendo Life), it shows some examples of fake Amiibo figurines. While on the surface the color and design of these figurine appear to be pretty close to the original, there are plenty of subtle differences that are telltale signs that these are fakes.
However it seems that the biggest sign that these are fakes is the fact that they do not come with NFC embedded into them. What this means is that if you were to buy it, the best it could do is act as a paperweight as it would be useless trying to use it with your Nintendo consoles. It could also potentially end up tricking parents who think that they are buying the real thing.
According to the reports, these fakes have been spotted in markets such as China and in Brazil, but we wouldn’t be surprised if they eventually found their way stateside. Given that some figurines have been sold out and are no longer in production, we are advising our readers to be careful if you plan on buying them from online websites such as eBay.