I mean that you can't control them, as far as I know the Amiibos only spawn bots in SSB, right?

And sure, you're right, we should give it time, but right now I'm just not convinced, at the moment it looks like something for the Nintendo collector to me, but not necessarily something that is going to be uber successful.

Also I'm wondering when Nintendo is going to unveil what the figures are going to do in other games.

Yes its a mystery for wat they'll do in other games, but here is 1 idea i thought about for MK8.

Playable SSB characters in MK8 O.o  Play as Link/Samus/Pikachu/etc. Maybe add in 4-8 tracks that are based off other games etc :)

Now for SSB, the Bot thing is very interesting. Your right but its a feat people dont understand. From wat im seeing its like this.

Each Amiibo will be customizable for you to play or create a unique CPU. You can do different custom add ons (such as speed/knockback) for that character and most important switch up Special Moves (something new to SSB). From there the more you ply, that amiibo will start to mimic and learn from your experiences. Here is an example. 2 people have Mario Amiibos and practice for a week.

Player 1: Jumps alot and evades and is very very cautious. Now your CPU does the same when facing others.

Player 2: Chases opponents down and is reckless. Same thing for the CPU you customize.

here is some small details on some characters with different customizable movesets (that are known)

http://www.ssbwiki.com/Character_customization

I just want to know what those figurines will do, exactly. All we've heard about so far concerns Smash Bros., and even that sounded quite vague and more like ideas for uses than actual implemented functionality.

Right now it just sounds like Nintendo really have no idea how to go about creating fun and useful experiences with amiibo, but simply decided they'll go with figurines because that worked for Skylanders, and then see whatever happens. Even though that may not be the case, it's certainly what it looks like to me. : 

We currently don't have all of the details available on the amiibo capability of any of the games it will work with at or around launch window. We know they will work with Smash, Captain Toad, Mario Kart 8, Mario Party 10, and Yoshi's WW.

The most interesting feature that's been confirmed is that you can train your own amiibo and battle them, similar to digital pets.

Also, all amiibos seem to have a general and specific data sets. So for example, Smash Mario and Kart Mario will have the same basic Mario attributes across multiple games, but for their specific games they will contain extra bonuses.

Also, third parties will be able to have their own amiibos made, and can make use of any amiibo data as they see fit. So they could create a Monster Rancher game based off of feats you have recorded on amiibos.

If you think that Skylanders sold well because of their awesome contributions to great game play, you'd be wrong.

I just want to point out that the attach rate of figures to games was something like 10 figures per Skylanders software unit. Imagine what even half of that could do for Nintendo's coffers on Smash alone. Do you really think SE, with their love of merchandising and need for sales, wouldn't hop on with Dragon Quest amiibo in Japan?

the figures would have done better if they were Pokemon in a full fledged Pokemon game.

I predict Amiibo will end up like PS Move. It'll try to capitalize off the skylanders crowd by making a good concept that good, and possibly better than the other product, but will sell miserably because that audience is already taken. Plus, the Wii-U not being in a good standing as is won't help much.

If it is successful I'm looking forward to next gen. The console will just be an NFC port with a controller.

I disagree (not with the entire statement though )

SSB WiiU will sell no less than 4mil lifetime (and then there is SSB 3DS im not taking into account) and there will be over 4mil Amiibos sold at the VERY VERY VERY Least (4mil if the avg is 1 amiibo sold for every copy of wiiu which is obviously going to be a much bigger avg).

4mil amiibos sold = $60mil (i think each amiibo will be about $20 but i'll go with $15)

Im thinking avg will be alot more than that, so lets say 30mil amiibos sold then it be = $450mil.

Now wat the game potentially can sell is alot of amiibos shared between both wiiu+3ds (which will feat over 40 characters=40 amiibos)

So lets say if it did sell  80mil amiibos, thats $1.2bil O.o

I think its going to be very successful, many will try to get all the amiibos and not only that, it'll work with the already huge MK8 and other games

When you use the Smash Bros. Mario amiibo in Smash Bros., it's able to do all of the different things designed for that game. When you take that amiibo and you use it in different games, it's not the Smash Bros. Mario, it's just a Mario. It's a more simple use for [amiibo functionality] but it's able to do those two things.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/06/12/e3-2014-nintendo-on-amiibo-smash-bros-and-custom-figurines

it is vague, like all amiibo info, but that is what I (and apparently the ign wiki) have infered from the interview.  So there will be some games that will have specific amiibo lines that have special functionality for those games.  However, if you don't have that specific games amiibo line then you will only have the basic character functionality.