Riuva : Research Institute for Unicultural Visual Arts

Everyone knows that Evangelion was a great show. Everyone knows that Rei and Asuka occupy a special place in all anime fans’ hearts. Everyone knows that fanboys spend money uncontrollably. So what does this mean? It means monthly Eva figurines and action figures, all designed to tempt the otaku into parting with his hard-earned cash that could have been used for better figurines. Why the hell do we need 300 different versions of Rei?

Yet the sad fact is that when every new version of Rei/Asuka appears, we have to fight this uncontrollable urge to buy them. So far, I have fallen prey to this evil marketing just once, resulting in the purchase (it was on sale at least) of the Eva Tennis Girls Set, where Rei and Asuka dressed up in Tennis outfits. Many of these figures are extremely well designed, and made affordably cheap too. Look at the recently-released Eva Goddess set! Amazingly well designed, if they weren’t Eva figures I would have bought them.

A quick search on HLJ turns up 39 entries for figurines of Eva alone. Mind you, this is the same HLJ that removes the product listing once they finish their stock of the item. And there are other products like Mecha kits and figures too.

I wonder if it is truly Gainax’s fault? Or should we blame the large demand, since this is a free market and the factories make what the consumers want? Is it time for us to all move on? The fact that even I, who wasn’t much of an Eva fan, find these hard to resist proves that it will be a lot of years before this milking stops.

Here’s a quick run down of what is coming. I did not include all, just those that pre-orders are still open for.

The Biker, Yukata and Police Reis look really good. And the thing is, the average price of these are 1500 yen!!!! Which is half the normal price of a regular 20 cm figurine. The quality of these figurines reflect the price though. Plainly put, the paint sucks. They look really plasticky. I forgot to mention this, but for the benefit of those who do not know Japanese nor understand picture diagrams, the Misato figurine is *soft*. I haven’t seen a soft PVC figurine so far, so I’m quite intrigued. Anyone knows?

Now, the only Eva goods I’m looking forward to buying are the repainted mecha action figures from Kaiyodo. The metallic ones, re-released in April, will have metallic coats of paint that seem to look really cool. Their price, about 3000 yen, is pretty affordable for mecha as well. There are tonnes of option parts. For a proper review by a mecha expert, click here.

These are fully poseable. I’ve only put up pictures of 2, but there are the usual 6.

• Metallic Yellow EVA-00 Proto Type
• Metallic Blue EVA-00 Proto Type
• Metallic Purple EVA-01 Test Type
• Metallic Red EVA-02 Production Type
• Black EVA-03 Production Type
• Silver EVA-04 Production Type

Note that each of these have 20 points of articulation and come with their respective set of accesories. The blue one just looks amazing.

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