Altair, Ezio, And Starting Our Official Assassin’s Creed Collection

Since players first strapped into the Animus almost a decade ago, Assassin’s Creed has quickly snowballed into one of the gaming industry’s most widely recognised franchises. While it’s currently on hiatus, that core premise, of hopping back through time to kill a secretive world order of Templars, has endured for the best part of ten years, taking fans to various moments and places in human history.

Along the way, Ubisoft has continued to ply fans with a menagerie of merchandise and collectibles, from comic books and eagle peaked hoodies to replica hidden blades and some truly eye-catching special editions. The fact that there’s now a collectable figure range should come as no surprise.

Published by Hachette Paperworks, and co-developed by Ubisoft, the Official Assassin’s Creed Collection is looking to bring many of the series’ prominent characters to life – 80 of them, to be precise. Captured in 1:21 scale, each hand-painted resin figure has been produced using Ubisoft’s own original work as reference material.

Now, when it comes to figure collections such as these, I’m hardly a stranger. In the mid to late 2000s, I spent a great deal of time (and pocket money) hoarding magazines and figures that still adorn my shelves to this day. Mostly characters from The Lord of the Rings and various Marvel comics, many have endured the past decade while others have sadly be retired. Cast in solid lead, the added weight always made it feel as though you were getting your money’s worth.

As a collector, however, the amount of time you actually spend handling these figures makes that point largely irrelevant. If anything, it becomes an issue, especially when transporting your collection or simply giving individual models a quick dust-off. Fiddly bits such as bows, arrows, swords, and even arms, are prone to break under the tiniest amount of pressure, while paint chipping is another common issue. Needless to say, once damaged, you can never really appreciate these figures in the same way, no matter how well you manage to piece it back together.

With its Assassin’s Creed range, Hachette has adopted a modern lightweight resin which I find is immediately preferable. It’s more robust, flexible, and much easier to clean. While they may “feel” a bit cheaper than their metal counterparts, using resin has allowed for larger sized models that certainly have more of a presence when put on display.

Overall, the first two models we received – Altair and Ezio – were welcome additions to the display. What surprised us is just how evocative the poses of these sculpts are and how well they capture the essence of both protagonists. Where Altair is methodical, stoic, and lowkey, Ezio brandishes both hidden blades with a degree of flair and showmanship. It’s this kind of attention to detail that die-hard fans will love.

Of course, the closer you look, the more likely you are to pick out flaws and imperfections. The term “hand-painted” is by no means a guarantee that your figure will look like the real McCoy. If you’re completely new to collecting, I can’t stress this point enough and it applies to every product range in the same market and, well, models in general. Unless you’re willing to spend suitable sums on a single figure, don’t expect the end result to be a perfect replica.

With both Altair and Ezio, the facial detail is lacking (and somewhat comical) though easily masked by their eagle-peaked hoods. Due to the basic pattern and colour scheme of Altair’s robes, there was some room for error, whereas Ezio’s lavish finery presented a real challenge for the painters. Its various linings, buckles, and embroideries look fine at arm’s length but far less so the harder you focus. Overall, the figures are of good quality and going forward, it will be interesting to see how some of the series’ more sophisticated characters are rendered in model form.

As someone who is in dire need of a refresher before the next Assassin’s Creed game, the accompanying series of magazines come as a perfectly timed remedy. Having been worked on by various creative teams, the Assassin’s Creed lore has been pulled, twisted, and spun out in just about every conceivable direction. From key events to its gigantic cast of characters, there’s a mass of information out there and hardly any of it is cohesively strung together.

Each issue of the Assassin’s Creed Collection promises a full colour, 16-page guide to its featured character. This includes a full backstory and profile, outlining character traits, feats, and associations. While 80 issues sounds like overkill, you have to consider just how big the series timeline is and how many secondary cast members appear throughout.

The actual written copy is clear and concise, even if some of it does read like an online wiki entry. In trying to condense and segment all this information into a series of 16-page dossiers, it’s delivery can be a tad dry, but it’s easy to read and very informative. Having played every game in the series, and read several tie-in novels, there were still intriguing nuggets of information I had either missed or had been introduced to the series’ revised history. The magazine also doubles up as a showcase for the many works of concept art, sketches, and other designs which help underpin the game franchise.

Naturally, some will balk at the price. From issue 3, the Assassin’s Creed Collection will be available for £9.99, introducing a new figure every fortnight. That’s almost the same price as a Skylanders toy or an amiibo. Still, despite its recent hiatus, Assassin’s Creed continues to boast one of the most dedicated fanbases in the video game industry. While most will settle for the games and an odd bit of merch, for the most dedicated among them, this collection provides a perfect opportunity to piece together their very own Assassin’s Creed timeline.

For more details on the series, as well as a sneak peak of upcoming editions, head over to the official website.

Written by
Senior Editor bursting with lukewarm takes and useless gaming trivia. May as well surgically attach my DualSense at this point.

4 Comments

  1. Alternatively, virgins with a spare £800 can bun the cash on 2 hours with a high class brass! :-p

    • Who needs brass when you have durable, wipeable resin?

      ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

  2. I get the feeling the magazine text will be just a rehash of the encyclopedias, and judging from the picture in the article, it appears to mention the shock blade which is definitely in one of the encyclopedias. So I wonder how much extra content is added..

    • I think the value of the magazine stems from curation as opposed to have new content.

      I doubt the mag will introduce anything that isn’t already there in a wiki or encyclopedia but having it edited into individual issues makes the mass of info more digestable.

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