Year of the Black Dragon. Skyrim Collector's Edition

This post was supposed to start with a story about how sadly the situation with truly "big" collector's editions is in our country, which are comparable in size to household appliances. It's no joke, I didn't have a single one of these editions in my collection until recently, as they cost a colossal amount of money, compounded by shipping from abroad. But long before the release, I decided to get Skyrim at any cost.

Since the situation with Bethesda collector's editions in Russia has long been grim, and no pre-orders were observed on the Softlab website, I successfully placed a pre-order at videigry.net and prepared to wait several weeks after the release. I had a Steam key for a long time, so the wait was not an issue. But because of this pre-order, I almost missed what might be the craziest release from 1C-Softlab.

Completely unexpectedly, from November 9 to 11, pre-orders for the PS3 version of the collector's edition of Skyrim appeared on various gaming store websites at a shocking price of 4999 rubles. Shocking because this edition costs 140 euros in Europe, almost 1000 rubles more, and the European edition was indeed what we got. To my horror, I learned about this release only on the evening of November 11, and I had to call all the networks of stores I knew before placing the coveted order. In one of them, I was even told that Softlab was not supplying this edition, and they were trying to find out where the collector's edition of Skyrim came from in the Russian market. But in reality, it was, of course, 1C-Softlab.

Besides the price, two more things are notable about this release: the ridiculously small quantity of editions available for sale (no more than 10 in the retail network) and the absence of any mention of these collector's editions on the 1C-SK website. The most truthful explanation is as follows: Bethesda sent a print run of collector's editions as promotional materials (for the press and partners), but they miscalculated the number, and way more of them arrived here than planned, which is why they decided to quietly distribute them to stores.

The boxes went on sale on November 11, together with the world. However, since the time at launch was missed, I only got my hands on the Skyrim Collector's Edition on Wednesday, November 16. The story of how I tried to reclaim my order from the online store deserves a paragraph of its own, but I won’t describe it, as I ended up buying it at an ordinary store, in Mega Mall. It was very grand to walk through the mall with a cart containing the coveted collector’s edition.

And now, the review!

In the second photo from the top, you can see the size of the box compared to a regular DVD box. The dimensions are so large that the collector's edition is not sealed in cellophane but simply taped. There’s a convenient handle on top for transportation, and the cover separates from the box, which encourages one to make a panoramic poster out of it:

Fortunately, the box itself does not hold any collectible value, and it can be safely thrown away. To reach the contents, one must break through a massive amount of protective layers. And on top — the art book!

Made in China applies only to the protective wrap, and on it, one can read warnings in a vast number of languages, except, of course, Russian. Don't let children play with the bag; they might put it on their heads and rob a merchant without punishment!

Under the art book in the same cardboard niche lies the game box, and under all this cardboard...

...another box!

The collectible value of the smaller box is higher due to the Skyrim logo and a separate age rating. You’ve already figured out what's inside, right?

For now, we will stop here and return to the rest of the contents. Inside the slipcase lies the bulk of the contents: the game, bonus disc, map, and guide. The slipcase itself also holds collectible value:

Please note: there are no platform indications on the cover, and one can insert a PC disc inside without any aesthetic difficulties. But the guide, of course, pertains to the PS3 version:

The map is made of fabric, but this fabric closely resembles paper in weight and durability. The size is the same as that of the Russian version of the map, which was distributed at Igromir and is included in our gift edition. In the second photo at the top, it is shown.

The bonus disc, like in [Fallout 3](/games?search=Fallout 3), is a complete film, forty minutes long, telling the entire story of the development of TES V. It covers the basic principles of the series, talks about the team, and describes the various stages of the development of Skyrim. It’s engaging and distracts significantly from the review writing process.

The art book is beautifully executed — a leather-like cover, a volumetric metallic insert, over 200 pages. In such an edition, it couldn't be done any other way. The thickness of the book is impressive.

The internal content covers all artistic aspects of the game, with numerous comments and notes, and greatly complements the film about the game’s creation. You need to see this:

And finally, the main highlight. In the western collector's edition of Oblivion, the primary value was a coin, as it was hard to come up with a figurine that would embody the entire game at once. In Skyrim, finding such a character is very easy:

Alduin!

From the early photographs, I thought the lower radius would be like a regular DVD disc; however, the figurine turned out to be even larger! The stand in the box was placed separately, and for the particularly astute, there’s an instruction inside:

The figurine is of very high quality, heavy, and solid; it could scratch your teeth. Not cheap, bendable plastic in every direction.

The main problem with the figurine is finding a place to put it. This reptile is meant to look down on everyone, so if there’s still free space at the top of your collection — clear it for the dragon.

And of course, I must answer the question "Where else can I find this gem for 4990?!" As far as I understand the situation, so far only PS3 editions have arrived, and there is a chance that X360 collector's editions will arrive within a few days. So keep an eye out, grab, and look for them. Perhaps the PS3 version can still be found in stores that do not explicitly post their release lists, like M.video. Their phone support informed me that they only have the third part of Elder Scrolls and that I’m likely mistaken. Well, at least it seems to increase the chances of accidentally stumbling upon this edition in the stores of the network if you act quickly.

For this collector's edition, it's worth becoming a collector.