Nintendo’s amiibo may have seemed like a risky move at the start for a company that has seen a lot of struggles, but their gamble has paid off since their launch in late November, with exceptional sales ever since. With something this major, one would thing that the idea came from some grand plan that someone at Nintendo constructed from top to bottom. However, the idea had such a simple beginning according to a new interview with Nintendo by TIME.

Within the exclusive interview with TIME, plenty of new information was revealed. A separate article with TIME explained the Club Nintendo successor’s future, as we told you earlier, but another gave us some interesting details about just how amiibo were conceived.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata explained to TIME how he first came up with the idea for amiibo while on a bullet train in late 2013, where he simply started to sketch figures that could connect wirelessly to Nintendo systems for use in games. Iwata explained how he continued to get more excited as the process moved forward because “It was something I believed would be completely new for us.”

Iwata certainly was right, as amiibo has sold very well and the latest wave even arrives today with the first Super Mario Bros. line alongside the exclusive Gold Mario. If you need more details on that release, make sure to check out our amiibo hunting guide right here.

- This article was updated on:March 8th, 2018