[Merch] Evangelion Figures Superthread [3]

[Blockio]

Looking forward to it! Always glad to see fellow modellers around

[Archer]

Since you have experience in miniature painting and talk about primer and types of paint as a normal thing, you have enough experience to pick up really any kit that Bandai or Kotobukiya has ever put out.

The RG Evas in particular are extremely good from everything I have heard or seen; haven't built one myself yet, but that's only a matter of time ultimately.

If you want something in the style of the TV Series, the old LMHG line is also pretty solid for what it is, although it does have some annoying to work with rubber parts, same with the Perfect Grade 01, that one in particular requires a loooot of patience (and also some minor welding if you want the led gimmick)

I own one of each, and IMO the Kotobukiya is the best screen-accurate representation of an Eva with both TV and Rebuild versions available, and yields the best finished product. They are a pretty good size - about a head shorter than the Bandai HG's - and have EXCELLENT posability. Notably, it has a hinge joint with a swivel at each end on each elbow, which gives it considerably better arm posability than any other Eva kit. It's also the only other kit available for the TV Eva's other than the LM-HG's, as the Bandai RG only comes in Rebuild colors/proportions. These kits WILL require a bit of paint; however it's not particularly difficult and should be able to be done even by a novice.

However, these kits are harder to put together than Bandai's offerings, and require way more post-processing. The runner design is just not very good, with many large, obnoxious nub marks in really obvious places. The engineering is also less user-friendly, with the torso being quite difficult to take apart after it's assembled, and plenty of obvious seam lines that can't be easily removed if you want to be able to disassemble the model for painting. From a "user experience" perspective, the Bandai kits are just much better engineered to be fun and easy to put together. This kit definitely requires some modeling experience - I wouldn't recommend it as somebody's first kit.

The main issue with these kits are the price (Unit-00 is $60, Unit-01 is $50, Unit-02 is a whopping $80) and the availability. Kotobukiya seems to make the TV versions in smaller batches, so they're not always widely available like the Bandai kits. If they're not currently in stock, you'll just have to hope they drop another batch and pre-order it as soon as that happens (Units 00 and 01 seem to be in stock at various retailers at the time of this posting).

--

The RG is a great kit, but not without its issues. The most glaring is the arms; the bicep design is frankly baffling, you need to be extremely careful to do a bicep rotation without the arm falling off. The forearm armor gimmick also severely limits the wrist rotation to about 90 degrees. There's also issues with the hip connector, which for some reason is allowed to freely rotate inside the pelvis without that much friction. The inner-thigh "muscle" gimmick also has a tendency to come loose. The RG also only comes in the Rebuild colors/proportions too, so of course if you want a TV version kit this one ain't for you. As a model kit, though, I think it's far superior to the Kotobukiya and offers a much more enjoyable build experience.

Basically, my verdict is, if you don't care about screen accuracy and just want a cool Evangelion model kit that looks great out of the box and doesn't need any additional work... get the RG. If you want a more anime-accurate (or Rebuild-accurate, I don't judge) figure, get the Kotobukiya. If you don't care about arm posability and don't mind a lot of painting, then you can save some money and get one of the old LM-HG's.

Comparison images  SPOILER: Show

LM-HG Unit-02 vs. Koto Unit-01. The Unit-02 was my first-ever model kit, and as mentioned above required a TON of paint on:
- Black areas between the torso segments
- Orange below the kneecaps and on the pylons
- Orange on the chest - this was easily the most annoying part, since there's these little sunken dots that need to be kept black
- Various black panel lines, dots, misc. detailing
- Whatever color the spine is. I painted it silver but I don't think that's accurate.
- Literally the entire head, which out-of-box was 100% red plastic and is about the size of a quarter
The Koto kit is completely unpainted and un-panel-lined (I plan on airbrushing it at some point in the future... soon ) but even then I think it looks completely presentable. The HG unpainted, on the other hand, is obviously incomplete.

Koto vs. RG. The RG is noticeably smaller.

Also, note how the Koto Eva-01 is folding her arms. This pose would be difficult to pull off on the RG and outright impossible with the HG's stupid rubber arms. It seems like a minor thing, but having the arms be freely posable just makes natural-looking and dynamic poses so much easier to pull off. Again, up to you to decide if that's worth the extra cost.

Despite my personal bias towards the Koto kits, I hope I've presented all this in an objective enough manner for you to come to your own decision as to which kit is right for you.

[Ellis Sitzky]

SPOILER: Show

Since you have experience in miniature painting and talk about primer and types of paint as a normal thing, you have enough experience to pick up really any kit that Bandai or Kotobukiya has ever put out.

The RG Evas in particular are extremely good from everything I have heard or seen; haven't built one myself yet, but that's only a matter of time ultimately.

If you want something in the style of the TV Series, the old LMHG line is also pretty solid for what it is, although it does have some annoying to work with rubber parts, same with the Perfect Grade 01, that one in particular requires a loooot of patience (and also some minor welding if you want the led gimmick)

I own one of each, and IMO the Kotobukiya is the best screen-accurate representation of an Eva with both TV and Rebuild versions available, and yields the best finished product. They are a pretty good size - about a head shorter than the Bandai HG's - and have EXCELLENT posability. Notably, it has a hinge joint with a swivel at each end on each elbow, which gives it considerably better arm posability than any other Eva kit. It's also the only other kit available for the TV Eva's other than the LM-HG's, as the Bandai RG only comes in Rebuild colors/proportions. These kits WILL require a bit of paint; however it's not particularly difficult and should be able to be done even by a novice.

However, these kits are harder to put together than Bandai's offerings, and require way more post-processing. The runner design is just not very good, with many large, obnoxious nub marks in really obvious places. The engineering is also less user-friendly, with the torso being quite difficult to take apart after it's assembled, and plenty of obvious seam lines that can't be easily removed if you want to be able to disassemble the model for painting. From a "user experience" perspective, the Bandai kits are just much better engineered to be fun and easy to put together. This kit definitely requires some modeling experience - I wouldn't recommend it as somebody's first kit.

The main issue with these kits are the price (Unit-00 is $60, Unit-01 is $50, Unit-02 is a whopping $80) and the availability. Kotobukiya seems to make the TV versions in smaller batches, so they're not always widely available like the Bandai kits. If they're not currently in stock, you'll just have to hope they drop another batch and pre-order it as soon as that happens (Units 00 and 01 seem to be in stock at various retailers at the time of this posting).

--

The RG is a great kit, but not without its issues. The most glaring is the arms; the bicep design is frankly baffling, you need to be extremely careful to do a bicep rotation without the arm falling off. The forearm armor gimmick also severely limits the wrist rotation to about 90 degrees. There's also issues with the hip connector, which for some reason is allowed to freely rotate inside the pelvis without that much friction. The inner-thigh "muscle" gimmick also has a tendency to come loose. The RG also only comes in the Rebuild colors/proportions too, so of course if you want a TV version kit this one ain't for you. As a model kit, though, I think it's far superior to the Kotobukiya and offers a much more enjoyable build experience.

Basically, my verdict is, if you don't care about screen accuracy and just want a cool Evangelion model kit that looks great out of the box and doesn't need any additional work... get the RG. If you want a more anime-accurate (or Rebuild-accurate, I don't judge) figure, get the Kotobukiya. If you don't care about arm posability and don't mind a lot of painting, then you can save some money and get one of the old LM-HG's.

Comparison images  SPOILER: Show

LM-HG Unit-02 vs. Koto Unit-01. The Unit-02 was my first-ever model kit, and as mentioned above required a TON of paint on:
- Black areas between the torso segments
- Orange below the kneecaps and on the pylons
- Orange on the chest - this was easily the most annoying part, since there's these little sunken dots that need to be kept black
- Various black panel lines, dots, misc. detailing
- Whatever color the spine is. I painted it silver but I don't think that's accurate.
- Literally the entire head, which out-of-box was 100% red plastic and is about the size of a quarter
The Koto kit is completely unpainted and un-panel-lined (I plan on airbrushing it at some point in the future... soon ) but even then I think it looks completely presentable. The HG unpainted, on the other hand, is obviously incomplete.

Koto vs. RG. The RG is noticeably smaller.

Also, note how the Koto Eva-01 is folding her arms. This pose would be difficult to pull off on the RG and outright impossible with the HG's stupid rubber arms. It seems like a minor thing, but having the arms be freely posable just makes natural-looking and dynamic poses so much easier to pull off. Again, up to you to decide if that's worth the extra cost.

Despite my personal bias towards the Koto kits, I hope I've presented all this in an objective enough manner for you to come to your own decision as to which kit is right for you.

Thanks for taking the time for this detailed review, much appreciated.
My daily hobby is with miniatures (resin and plastic) of various genres mostly from Games Workshop.
I'm never been much into Japanese animation but Evangelion is a so deep, revolutionary and layered opera that It stroke my imagination and put in me the interest in something different.
I'm trying for the first time a model kit but my idea is to completely prime it (light gray maybe with a white zenithal, I want a vibrant cartoony colors effect at the end) and repaint it. So I don't need it ready out of the box.
First thing is I don't care too much about articulation. If it can be assembled in a cool pose, then - you will wish me death now - I could glue the model in position before painting it. The important thing is to have the less possibie action figure joints visible at the end.
Second thing is the size: I'm searching something not too big (the larger the surfaces, the harder to make them interesting with color). If I understood correctly Kotobukiya and RG Bandai are the smaller options.

My preference goes to the TV version that I like more than Rebuild movies, but as long as the model is accurate in one or the other version, it's the less important thing.

So, maybe the Kotobukiya one I guess?...

(If a good, detailed and not over-sexualized Asuka miniature existed I'd gladly work on that too... but I didn't find anything... - yes, my favourite EVA doesn't match my favourite EVA pilot...)



Please do not extensively quote entire posts, but only the parts of them you consider most relevant to what you yourself have to say. For that matter, quoting isn't necessary anyway. Also, when quoting someone, the quote goes in the top of your post instead of the bottom.
-Zusuchan

[Blockio]

and repaint it. So I don't need it ready out of the box.
First thing is I don't care too much about articulation. If it can be assembled in a cool pose, then - you will wish me death now - I could glue the model in position before painting it. The important thing is to have the less possibie action figure joints visible at the end.

BROTHER!

But yeah, if you want less visible joints, I'd say go with the RG. Koto's joints are ball-shaped compared to the longer RG joint, so while they look smoother if you want to keep the kit poseable, they'll quite stick out compared to if you glue the RG joints and do a bit of puttywork and sanding to hide the seams.

They are imilarily sized if memory serves, but the RG also comes with more surface detail to boot

[Archer]

If you want to essentially use it to create your own statue/diorama, I agree that the RG is probably the best bet. Ignoring screen accuracy as a factor, it's definitely the best looking kit by far, and adds in a bunch of interesting angles and contours to make it more visually interesting. Besides, most of my gripes with it come from the fiddly posability, and if that's not going to be a factor for you then it's pretty much the perfect kit for your purposes.

[kevinlowl]

I own one of each, and IMO the Kotobukiya is the best screen-accurate representation of an Eva with both TV and Rebuild versions available, and yields the best finished product.

Kotobukiya TV series kit isn't screen accurate. It doesn't have the right chest to waist ratio. Chest definitely not wide enough. It looked like they just took the Rebuild kit and modified it a bit.

If you're going for screen accuracy:
TV series - Bandai LM-HG (despite stupid rubber arms)
Rebuild - Kotobukiya 1/400

thread/19216/Whats-the-best-Unit-01-model-kit/#p868727
Here is a post with picture comparison courtesy of user TMBounty_Hunter.

The RG is a great kit, but not without its issues. The most glaring is the arms; the bicep design is frankly baffling, you need to be extremely careful to do a bicep rotation without the arm falling off. The forearm armor gimmick also severely limits the wrist rotation to about 90 degrees. There's also issues with the hip connector, which for some reason is allowed to freely rotate inside the pelvis without that much friction. The inner-thigh "muscle" gimmick also has a tendency to come loose. The RG also only comes in the Rebuild colors/proportions too, so of course if you want a TV version kit this one ain't for you. As a model kit, though, I think it's far superior to the Kotobukiya and offers a much more enjoyable build experience.

You summed up my thoughts about the RG. They look so dang cool and I am tempted to get them. However the thing that annoys me are the bicep rotation thing and the weird forearms. The overdone panel lines irked me at first but now I kinda like it. Just the stupid bicep and forearms that turn me away right now.

[Blockio]

"Anime accurate proportions" is kind of a non-argument honestly, since depending on the shot, those proportions are going to looks very different just by the nature of the medium. Just get whatever looks cool.

[AdamMalkovitch]

What do you guys think of Bandai's ungraded Unit 06 model? I've been eyeing it for a couple weeks at my hobby store's Gunpla section and I'm seriously considering getting it. Like having it in it's descending pose with Cassius like it's going down into Terminal Dogma would be so fucking rad.

[Archer]

What do you guys think of Bandai's ungraded Unit 06 model? I've been eyeing it for a couple weeks at my hobby store's Gunpla section and I'm seriously considering getting it. Like having it in it's descending pose with Cassius like it's going down into Terminal Dogma would be so fucking rad.

Pretty sure that's just an HG. So of course it comes with the same issues, mostly just being the rubber arms. After trying to pose my Unit-02 I realized another thing that makes the rubber arms inexcusable... because of the very limited forward-arm movement and the lack of a bicep rotation, it actually can't be properly posed with a palette rifle, which is arguably the Eva's most iconic weapon after the Lance of Longinus. It can be held one-handed, but you can't have the other hand under the barrel in a proper rifle-holding pose.

If this figure was <$30 I would've bought it already because Mark 6 is probably my favorite Eva design, but I'm just gonna wait to see if Kotobukiya puts one out eventually or if Bandai decides to do an RG kit.

[Blockio]

Well, the RG has just been announced the other day, and just the shoulders alone look infinitely better than on the old kit, so I'd go for that instead

[Archer]

You gotta link or a photo? I've tried searching online but nothing's coming up.

[Blockio]

tweet-body

— twitter-user (@username) date

(HobbySite being Bandai's official twitter)

[SEELE-01]

That one is missing an abdominal segment

[Blockio]

I'm not positive; it looks like it might be partially tucked underneath the chestplate

[Archer]

Quick and dirty photo manipulation shows that they’re likely “cheating” by using a chest piece that kinda-sorta has an extra torso segment molded into it underneath. It does look like they’re reusing the vast majority of the molds so I wouldn’t expect any major structural changes.

Just based on the silhouette it looks a lot bulkier than I usually picture Mk 6 to be, even with the apparently slimmed-down arms. I’ll have to wait for actual clear pictures to make any lasting judgments.

[evaunit13]

It's pretty annoying that none of the Bandai lines have a complete lineup:
- Robot Damashii '10: missing 06, 08
- Robot Damashii '20: missing 03 (teased but not announced), 06
- Real Grade: missing 03 (teased but not announced)

Shame that Revoltech is the only option for a complete lineup, since I think they're dramatically inferior to anything Bandai puts out. Hopefully we'll at least get Mk13 announced for some of the lines after the movie releases.

[SEELE-01]

It's pretty annoying that none of the Bandai lines have a complete lineup:
- Robot Damashii '10: missing 06, 08
- Robot Damashii '20: missing 03 (teased but not announced), 06
- Real Grade: missing 03 (teased but not announced)

An only Revoltech made an Eva 05 figure

[Blockio]

To be fair, a RG 05 would be roughly PG-sized. Those legs are MASSIVE

[SEELE-01]

To be fair, a RG 05 would be roughly PG-sized. Those legs are MASSIVE

True dat

[AdamMalkovitch]

BRUHHH UNIT 06 RG LOOKS SICK AS FUCK
I really don't mind that it looks a bit more chunky than the anime design, I know part of the reason the old HG EVAs are so damn hard to pose is because of their nonexistent waistline in contrast to their broad shoulders. Unit 06 did always look a bit too scrawny to me, in comparison to the giant itself. Like the armor caused the giant to be compressed. Plus there's also the Twelfth Angel up in there so it makes far more sense for it to be just as chonky, if not more so, than the rest of the humanoid EVAs.