So as I posted I got Marth and Pikachu, Marth just looks sooo bad. I might just flip it if it's expensive or return it.
Anyways, I was pretty picky about Skylanders and the two DI figures I picked up...the Amiibos seem ok, better than I thought.
I spent about 7 minutes examining them and here's what I thought. If I had a shitload of money I'd buy them all but I don't so I have to pick and choose. This is just what I thought about them, I was super hyped all night and I was really happy when I could finally go see them at the store.
Best:
Mario - he doesn't have the problem of a support piece and they captured his look pretty well. also has effect part which the others don't really have. Some figures had some eye paint problems though.
Fox/DK - Fox has a very eye-catching pose and his equipment is sculpted decently. Good texture on his fur and has a cool design. His support piece is blue but that's better than Link's yellow/orange. My MAJOR complaint is that the seamlines just slice his head in half at the nose. Who sculpted it like that..? Super awkward or else I would have grabbed a Fox today.
DK is pretty big and his stand is even less obtrusive than Fox. Textures are good, but he supports paint problem with his eyes, most looked imperfect. I don't really use DK so I'm not too tempted, and I just picked up the Jakks DK figure last month so I'm not planning to get this one for that reason only (or else I might get him, but I'll wait for my man DDD).
Samus - I already have the figma, but not here to compare them. I think some panel lines are too thick but the figure doesn't have many problems compared to the rest. She's in a suit with no face. I worry for ZSS. Samus is pretty good but I'm passing since I have the figma.
Kirby - Pretty good, it's hard to fuck it up completely due to such a simple design. I think some had slight problems but nothing major from what I saw.
Medium:
Pikachu - This is a simple design but even then they managed to fuck it up. There's some shading problems near the tail, and the or whatever they did has bubbles. You can see that the yellow on the body is not smooth. Also the sculpting seems too soft, his arms melt into his body. The one I picked up was ok in paint but there's small imperfection on his mouth. This one called out to me so I'm keeping him for now unless I find a better one. I felt that the Monster Collection Pikachu is too small, that's why I decided to get this one to fit in with my other toys better.
Link - This one is controversial, the pose is dynamic like Fox which gives a cool silhouette. The stand is not that bad but the orange/yellow is not cool, why not blue or green or black if not clear? The main problems with this one are the face and the limp limp sword. Some of them looked like crosseyed and some looked like creepy Christmas elves or something. I might cave in and buy this if there's a sale or something though, but i'm holding out for Toon Link since I have the figma Link already.
Yoshi - overall he seems OK. There's paint issues with the white smudging into the green. I like Yoshi but not that much, I already have a vinyl figure of him that I enjoy so didn't see the need to get this. Cute pose but he has lots of cuts that breaks up the sculpt.
Peach - I REALLY wanted to get her but I couldn't today, couldn't find a good one. There's two problems with her, the face is not sculpted well and then also not painted well. When I found one that was painted bad, her facial expression looked like a haunted doll but when I found one that was painted decently, there were problems with the paint on the dress. Hope I can find a good one!
Villager - He looks like he's a little stoned and then they put him in the package. The paint is clean but something about how they painted the eyes (a bit too thick outline maybe) and sculpted the hair really puts me off. There were only 2-3 of these on the shelf.
Wii Fit Trainer - I think the sculpt is pretty good on this one, they did a good job on that. However, seeing how the foot has a giant cast on it put me off, I was going to let that slide and grab it still but then I noticed that the foot fuses to another white piece on the stand. I really didn't like that, so I passed. I don't like using her in the game anyways. Only 4 on the shelf.
Bad:
Marth - HIS FACE. Everything else is good but some had paint splotches. Same limp sword as Link. The silhouette is nice though.
EDIT: My Best Buy looked like this.