autaku

It’s taken a while to arrive (I’ve only just decided to start paying extra for the faster EMS shipping from Japan), but this morning Revoltech’s spoilerific new version of Eva Unit-01 landed on my doorstep. It’s probably a little late at this point given the prevalence of Revoltech figures, but yes: this figure is a spoiler for Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance (read my spoiler-free review here). Now of course the figure doesn’t tell you how or why Unit-01 “awakens” like this so it’s hardly going to ruin the movie for you, and when it happens it’s so awesome that it wouldn’t matter anyway. It’s so awesome that I pre-ordered this figure basically right after I saw the movie. Ah, the power of merchandising.

This is the first Revoltech figure in my collection, and I’m fairly pleased with the quality. The colours really pop, there are no paint defects as far as I’ve seen, and the energy effect for the regrown left arm is very well-done. It’s opaque in the upper arm, but gradually transitions to transparency. It looks very cool and wins Kaiyodo big points for this figure. The only downside in the paint work and detailing is that there’s no text on the figure, and though that keeps the figure from being a perfectly accurate representation of Unit-01 it’s a relatively minor omission and seems to be fairly standard for figures of this size.

Of course, the main feature of Revoltech figures is the Revoltech joints, which are used for almost all of the points of articulation on this figure. They click into place as you move them, which means that the figure will hold a pose near-perfectly (and presumably near-endlessly) once you’ve adjusted the joints to your desired positions. There are, of course, a couple of trade-offs. The first is that you cannot adjust the joints as precisely as with some other figures, because the click points are set. I can’t imagine this being too big a problem for many people, but it’s worth mentioning. The second trade-off is that Revoltech joints have a distinctive ball look which doesn’t look quite right in all cases, and there’s a plus sign (+) sort of design on them that can look out of place as well.

The latter issue is more of a concern for me than the former, and to be honest the benefits don’t really outweigh that for me. My Robot Damashii Lancelot Albion figure has held its pose quite well for some months now (with occasional adjustment needed), and the joints are mostly more discrete. Of course, this is a matter of personal preference and you may prefer the Revoltech joints. I’m glad I got this figure as I prefer the look Kaiyodo has created more than what Bandai have shown thus far for their upcoming Tamashii Spec version of the Awakening Unit-01, but I’ll definitely be passing on the rest of the Rebuild Evas in the Revoltech line in favour of the Robot Damashii versions (Unit-02 has been announced for release early next year and the rest are sure to follow).

With that said, I’d like to reiterate that Kaiyodo’s take on the Awakening Eva Unit-01 is a very nice figure. The colouring and finish is very well done (especially on the effects parts), detailing is nice aside from the lack of text and there’s a great assortment of extras included. It’s a fine recreation of a truly epic event in Evangelion 2.0 that will make a great addition to any Eva fan’s collection.