Nintendo has announced that shipments of its Amiibo plastic toy line have now reached 10.5 million. This is up from 5.7 million units shipped worldwide by the end of the 2014 calendar year.

　　The new Amiibo shipment milestone was announced as part of Nintendo's latest earnings report.

　　Nintendo president Satoru Iwata explained that Amiibo may end up being an evergreen product line.

　　"Our assessment is that people purchase additional Amiibo figures without any seasonal bias, as they are relatively more affordable than video game titles," he said as part of an earnings presentation.

　　Iwata also acknowledged that Amiibo supply shortages have led to headaches for many fans. Earlier this week, Nintendo apologized for supply issues, pledging to increase supply. Iwata reiterated this point in his remarks, but admitted that shortages are likely endure for quite a while.

　　"We are very sorry that we can't promise at what point we will likely be able to resolve the current situation because figures such as these require a considerable amount of time to produce, store shelf space is limited, and it is difficult to precisely predict the exact amount of overall demand," he explained.

　　Nintendo has also released a new pie graph that speaks to the popularity of Amiibo, based on region. As you can see, the United States & Canada make up the biggest piece of the pie by a wide margin.

　　Also during the presentation, Iwata revealed that new, less-expensive card-based Amiibo toys will debut later this year with 3DS game Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer. On the same day that the game is released (Nintendo has not yet announced a release date), Nintendo will also launch the long-awaited Amiibo adapter for 3DS. This will finally allow legacy players to sync up their Amiibo toys.

　　The introduction of this adapter is expected to lead to "further growth in Amiibo sales" due to the toys becoming compatible with the massive install base of 3DS family systems relative to Wii U. The New Nintendo 3DS features a built-in NFC adapter, but older models do not.

　　Nintendo's Amiibo toy line may be selling well, but it's nowhere near Activision's Skylanders series. The Call of Duty publisher has sold more than 240 million Skylanders toys by its latest count. Of course, Skylanders launched back in 2011, while Amiibo is not even a year old yet.

　　The current toys-to-life market consists of Skylanders, Disney Infinity, and Amiibo. A newcomer, LEGO Dimensions from Warner Bros., will debut later this year, featuring toys based on properties like Lord of the Rings, Batman, The Wizard of Oz, and many others.