Niccolo Machiavelli
The third (and last) historical figure that makes an appearance in Ubisoft’s Assassins Creed: Brotherhood game is Niccolo Machiavelli. Most people know him because he wrote the book The Prince, which is compendium of political principles and whose most paraphrased quotes are “It is better for a ruler to be feared, than to be loved” and “The ends justify the means”.
In the game, Machiavelli acts as the leader of the Assassins Brotherhood into which the player character, Ezio is inducted. Sort of like “M” from the James Bond films.
The action figure displays the same attention of detail found in the other two figures I have already reviewed from this line (Leonardo Da Vinci and Cesare Borgia), and doesn’t share pieces with any of them. One interesting aspect of Niccolo’s garment is that he wears a thick leather glove on his left hand, which makes me think of dueling protection or perhaps he would use the gloved hand to grab an opponent’s weapon.
Unfortunately, the head sculpt on Machiavelli has even less definition than in the other two characters, although I concede it is possible to make out some distinctive traits when looking at the profile.
Niccolo Machiavelli has the standard articulation Unimax gave to this line, consisting of:
• Ball jointed neck.
• Pegged hinge shoulders.
• Pegged hinge elbows.
• Swivel wrists.
• Floating torso.
• Ball jointed hips.
• Hinged knees.
• Pegged hinge ankles.
Out of the three Assassins Creed figures I own, Niccolo Machiavelli is the only one where all of the joints work as intended, character design limitations considered. The only joints where mobility is impaired is at the hips because of the large rubber skirt that simulates the lower edge of his tunic, but even then, the overall range is reasonably good.
There are surprisingly few paint applications on Niccolo since most of him is molded in red and dark gray, but what little there is, it is very neatly applied. The skin color used is the same, sickly gray hue used for Cesare and Leonardo, but since Niccolo lacks the advantage of a beard and a mustache to outline the facial features, it is harder to make out any distinctive facial trait.
Machiavelli comes with only one rapier as accessory. This thin sword has a rich golden hilt and a silver blade, also neatly painted.
Even with the fairly nondescript face, I ended up liking this Niccolo Machiavelli figure quite a bit, in great part because of how well the articulation was implemented on him. Finding him with a 50% Off discount didn’t hurt either.
Errex Score: 80/100
Category: Assassin's Creed, Featured, Other Games, Toy Reviews, Video Games
About the Author (Author Profile)
I've been collecting action figures since the original Kenner Star Wars days. Nowadays, I still collect pretty much anything that catches my eye.Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
