Sorry guys for the long waited review I promised a few days ago. It got here Tuesday and I am only free to collect it today. After a few hours with the figure, I can say that those still on the fence about this figure, GET IT!!! It's an amazing figure and a milestone by Hot Toys in terms of tailoring. You thought the T800 and T1000 clothing was fantastic? Wait till you see this figure in hand. For now, enjoy the pics my boss took. (My pictures will come Monday)
I love the art on the box. It fits the theme of the videogame and it's simple and elegant. I also love the fact that it's one of those book style boxes. I really hate those sleeve style boxes by HT. Most of the time, the sleeve will fall apart after some time.
Let's move on to the headsculpt. This headsculpt is a step above their usual videogame line work. The headsculpt is easily on par with their MMS. It looks amazingly realistic with really nice skintone and his ever present five o'clock shadow. Ezio spots a determine look and the eyes are painted looking slightly up, perfect for those 'death from above' assassination poses. There is also a pony tail attachment if you choose to display him hoods down, I honestly do not see why I will want to pose him hoods down but it's a nice gesture by HT.
My only slightly nitpick is his scar. It’s a little too soft. It's there just that it doesn't jump out at you but I guess I am being really picky here. Also, I would have love another head with his slight smirk that he spots in the trailers.
I was talking about how amazing the costume is and IT IS!!! It never ceases to amazed me how Hot Toys could sourced such thin fabric. Ezio is wearing like three layers of clothing and he doesn't look bulky at all. In fact, it looks like he is only wearing one layer of clothing from the outside. The costume is full of fine detailing with patterns front and back, the left shoulder leather piece especially impressive with the pattern press into it. Those worried that the cape might be too thick can rest easy. It's made from very thin material and there is a thin wire at the bottom. You can easily make it looks really flowing and it doesn't get in the way.
The hood has been a source of controversy and out of the box, it does look horrible. It can be futz and can be made to look really close to the videogame, as close as humanely possible. One thing we need to be realistic here is it will never look as good as the game. If you look at the Lineage short film, the hood doesn’t hang as well as the game either. So, with a bit of patience and careful adjusting, the hood will look good enough.
Despite wearing multiple layers of clothing, the articulation is not hindered in any way. He is super poseable and you can easily recreate any pose you want from the game. The fact that his boots is a two piece design helps. I hope HT will try to implement more of this style of construction for their boots in the future. There have been countless figure that are really poseable only to be limited by the boots in the end (Blade, Jill, Abigail, Comedian,....)
Accessories wise, you are not going to find the arsenal of weapons that are common with the RE figure. Ezio does have the key weapons from the game such as his two signature blade, which is not retractable (hard to implement reliably in this scale). The detail on the two blade is very well done, with patterns on the blade itself. The left gauntlet has all the fine detail and the Assassin’s symbol painted silver. My only gripe is here is where is the gun attachment? That would have been a really cool touch since it’s one of the key scenes in the trailer. We also get six throwing knives with all kinds of fine detail, in addition to one dagger and sword of Altair. It would be cool if they could include some of the hammer, axe, and mace along. I mean they gave so many (weapons) with the RE series and I don’t see why they could not have done the same here.
Overall, this is a must have for fans of the series. This will most likely be the best collectible released so far for Assassin’s Creed 2. There will be more Ezio figure coming from Neca and Play Arts but those are from a different category all together and will not be as poseable and as fun as the HT version. If this sell well, I hope to see more figure from the series (Altair, Ezio Altair Armour)
Ps- if the review format seems familiar, it’s because I based it on those fantastic reviews by Michael and Jeff. Those two are my inspiration and I always look forward to their opinion on anything Hot Toys.