Huh. Well it's to be expected. I wouldn't suggest basing your decision not to collect them on the fact that the prototypes were downgraded for mass production, I'd suggest basing that decision on whether or not you think the mass produced models are decent enough notwithstanding a comparison to the prototypes. The cost of producing a prototype version is likely quite a lot higher, even if you don't factor in the design cost. Nintendo wants to sell these at a $12.99 price point and still make a nice profit, then of course they have to give their design to Chinese manufacturers and say "here, make this as cheaply as you possibly can."
A comparison to mass produced Disney Infinity or Skylanders toys would definitely be more apt to base that decision on, but I don't have any experience with those.
Personally I'm basing my decision not to collect these (beyond Zelda characters of course) on the fact that there will just be way way too many of them.
Maybe Nintendo could make a Collector's line of higher quality prototype-style versions and sell them for twice the price or whatever it would take to make that profitable. But if they didn't anticipate a big enough market for that then they would never invest in the startup costs for it.
Sure there will be a group of us saying to Nintendo "come on, make these higher quality." But I'm afraid there will always be a much larger group of people who say "we want this cheaper."
@Cosmic: Link
before and
after.