Evangelion is a powerhouse in the figure-world, with more figures than any other show in existence. However, if you actually look at what gets produced, it’s almost all Asuka and Rei, with the occasional Mari now that 2.0 is out. The boys barely get any love, but Kaworu’s badass appearance in the last movie seems to have changed that a bit. There’s suddenly a demand for him, so Kotobukiya has added him to their long-running 1/6 scale Evangelion line!
Now before you go telling me how we need a Shinji before Kaworu, let me tell you something–Kaworu is awesome. He’s all, “hello ladies, look at me, I could do an Old Spice commercial” while Shinji whines in a corner about being the chosen one. So let’s just be thankfully that we finally have some Eva boys, and that they decided to go with the one who doesn’t bore the audience to tears!
Normally box shots bore me to tears. I usually find myself trying to convince Stephen not to take one, just so I don’t have to think of something mildly interesting to say about them. But Kaworu actually has a very nice box! It matches the rest of the line, with all-the-way clear packaging with his signature colors (dark blue and red) accenting the edges.
But the coolest part of Kaworu’s box is on the back. It has one of the members of SEELE, complete with the “sound only” text! You know, I’ve watched the show maybe 4 or 5 times and I’ve seen End of Eva and the new movies and I still have no idea what SEELE is or what they want. Maybe in 3.0 they’ll actually explain some things!
Assembling Kaworu is simple. His base is an entirely separate piece with no pegs or anything attaching them, so you kind of just plop him on there and fiddle around with it until he balances properly. There are a few different angles you can end up putting him in, so that’s pretty nifty. I like that his base is totally separate, but Stephen wishes there was a peg in his butt because we kept knocking him over during the shoot!
Kaworu’s pose is an interesting one. He looks both cocky and serene, and for a male figure it’s surprisingly seductive. Guys usually get poses where they look badass, not where they’re giving you a come-hither smile with their legs spread. Kind of unusual, but definitely fitting for the character. I mean, he lives on the moon, you can’t exactly expect him to be like everyone else!
If you look at his face separately from his pose, Kaworu looks remarkably calm and at peace. It’s a very passive face, and makes him all the more mysterious. If you think about it, we don’t know a lot about Kaworu as opposed to the other Eva characters. I mean, he was in about 5 minutes of 2.0, maybe even less!
Like many of the figures in this line, Kaworu’s hair is cast in clear PVC and painted over to give it a lighter quality. There’s also a ton of shading, with colors ranging from almost white to steel blue. The sculpting is sharp and has several different layers, giving the illusion of volume. Overall it creates an excellent likeness of the character while also making the hair look more “real”–well, as realistic as a chunk of plastic can get when representing cartoon hair!
If I’m being nitpicky there are some miniscule seam lines in his hair, but honestly they are hard to see even in pictures and they’re invisible when he’s on a shelf. I am not one to “grade down” a figure because of an issue that you can’t even see in real life!
His suit is a lot more ominous-looking than the other pilots’. The colors are darker, it’s more angular, and it has those spiky rib-things that Mari had on her test-suit. Only with Mari they were hot pink, which really lowers the creepy-level. Kaowru’s suit looks more mature and refined, with a sleeker color palette and a shape that seems more natural. Koto did a good job rendering all of the little details, and the paint is clean–none of the colors overlap, not even the metallic red.
Here’s Kaworu with the rest of the figures from this line. I am missing Rei, as I never picked her up, but I’ve had Asuka for years and Mari for quite some time too. Technically you could add two more figures to the line–Misato and Test Suit Asuka–but since they aren’t on Eva-bases I’m only counting Kaworu and the standard plugsuit girls.
As nice as they look individually, I think this line looks better the more of them you have together. They are perfectly to scale and the poses match quite well, and having a few of them together adds a nice sense of dynamism and background. After all, they all fight together, and are (sometimes) friends!
I think the aspect of these figures that I like the most is the bases. Not only does it add some context, but they are always so well-done! In fact, the quality on Kaworu’s Eva is on par with (if not higher than) the actual figure it’s meant to support. The paint gives it a great aged look, and these could definitely sit on a shelf by themselves and still look amazing.
You know, Kaworu’s Eva was in like 5 seconds of the movie, but I think it might be the most badass of all of them (except maybe Beast Mode Unit-02). Look at those awesome horns! Plus it’s from the moon.
If you like Evangelion, I think Kaworu is a must-buy. There are very few figures of him, in fact there’s only one other that has him in his plugsuit! And based on quality, size, and pose, I’d put this version miles ahead of the GEM Kaworu. I wonder if there will be any more additions to this line–maybe a plugsuit Shinji or Mari in her green outfit? I know I’d eventually like to get the entire cast (especially Gendo), just think of what an epic display that would be!
Thanks to Stephen Donaldson for taking these shots. We tried to keep this shoot thematically similar to the 1/7 Rei we reviewed, since they’re from the same show and by the same company. You know what those two figures have in common? They both balance ridiculously well on their own! Broken trees, slippery metal poles, pointy rocks–you just plop ‘em down and they magically stay put. I feel like you could come up with a really wacky way to display them all together!
Purchase At: AmiAmi
[Thanks to Kotobukiya for providing Plastikitty with this review sample]
Great review and gorgeous shoot as always, guys! Funny how two different photographers taking pictures of the same figure can both make me never want to buy something and then make me feel like my life would not be complete without it.
Amaziung work you guys. Seriously a fantastic job. One of my favorite new figures and this really shows why.