I'm gonna have to agree with Wii here.
“At first glance it may look like we’re a trend follower with amiibo,” says Iwata. “But really what we’re doing is, we have introduced amiibo in a way that is new and where amiibo do things in our games that they can’t do anywhere else. From that perspective, we feel that we are a trendsetter.”
Seems very similar to AR codes (nicely used in Pokédex 3D), using Shazam on adverts to unlock "more". The only thing that is new is that they're physical models and cost a ton more. It's DLC on a small scale or more expensive freemium-esque shizzle (depending on how often you use it, you could making savings as opposed to loads of microtransactions in other games). Doing something new =/= trendsetting.