There are a lot of Rei figures on the market–233, and that’s only the scaled figures! 21 of these are by Kotobukiya, though they’ve only done a few of her in her iconic plugsuit. And oddly enough, out of the massive amount of Evangelion figures I own, I don’t have any figures of her in her plugsuit aside from prize figures! I’ve considered picking up the 1/6 scale one to match the rest of the girls that I have, but when I saw their new 1/7 version of her I knew she was the figure for me.
Rei’s sad, otherworldly aura was perfectly captured, and I was quite excited to finally get a plugsuit Rei to add to my giant collection of Asukas. So was she the right choice? Find out under the cut!
Rei’s box has three windows, all of which are rather large, so you’d think it would be easily squished. Oddly enough, she was in a box without any protective layers and came out fine, while other, more sturdy boxes got bent.
Rei comes in two parts, the base and the figure. Assembly is incredibly simple, and she attaches at 2 points–her foot to the bottom and there’s a peg for her leg on the upper part.
She’s listed as 1/7, which is pretty accurate. For me, this is an odd scale for a plugsuit figure, as all my others are either 1/10, 1/8, or 1/6. In fact, the only 1/7 Eva figures that I have are ballerinas or prize figures. I had planned to display this Rei alongside Alter’s Test Suit Asuka, but the size difference is a little too noticeable. Thankfully she looks great among my 1/6 girls!
Rei’s pose is rather unique among my collection, I just don’t have a whole lot of girls leaning on hunks of concrete! But because of how she’s leaning and the thinness of her body, she almost disappears from the side and you really only get the full effect of her pose from the front and back.
I find Rei’s pose rather fascinating to look at. She looks quite different from every angle, and it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what she is doing. She’s based on a piece of art, but in figure-form I think she is a lot more ambiguous. Here she looks sad, and almost like she is injured and leaning to take weight off of her side. Rei gets beat up a lot, so that’s not exactly a stretch!
Without her face in the picture, her pose is decidedly seductive. Her hips are pushed out to the side and her legs are spread, which combined with her skintight ensemble is practically an invitation. It’s funny that her expression changes this figure so drastically, because as soon as you see her sad eyes the message of her body language totally changes and she seems vulnerable and shy.
Rei’s face is beautiful, and to me this is one of the few figures that really captures her personality. She seems both profoundly sad and also lost in thought, which is exactly how she is portrayed in the show.
Rei has a very long set of legs, as all of the 14-year-olds in Evangelion do. Then again, I think we’ve all just come to assume that they are much older.
While in terms of pose and atmosphere Rei is one of the best Eva figures around, she has a few quality issues. There’s an odd gap between her bust and her arm where it seems like the pieces weren’t fit together properly. I’m not exactly sure how this happened, because I have seen pictures of other people’s Reis and 2 different ones in person and none of them have this particular issue.
The arm thing is not a huge deal because it’s barely noticeable, but Rei has one rather large issue. The paint on her leg is cracking! This I find pretty bizarre, because if it was a problem with the paint itself it would happen to everyone’s Rei which it has not. I’m thinking that perhaps it has something to do with the shifting temperatures and moistures while she shipped, though it’s still a bit mysterious.
It’s a bit disappointing to get an issue this big, though I tend to go two ways with problems like this on my figures. If it’s entirely noticeable on a shelf and it’s distracting from the overall effect, I end up disliking the figure. This happened with Max Factory’s Mio, who had a giant, ugly scratch in her hair. But if it’s an issue, even a severe one, that you don’t notice when the figure is on display, I tend to not let it affect my perception of the figure. While Rei has problems, and some pretty big ones, she falls into the second category for me. Both the arm gap and cracking aren’t the least bit noticeable on a shelf, even if you are standing right in front of her. The only thing you notice is her beautiful face and the intricacy of the pose!
At the end of the day, even with her problems, this is my favorite Rei out of all the ones I own. I tend not to be 100% set in how much I like/dislike a figure until Stephen shoots her, and he did such a beautiful job that I can’t help but smile when I look at her now. She’s certainly a photogenic figure!
And it seems like the issues I had were not very common, so it’s safe to say that if you get one it will have better quality. I’d recommend her with the caveat that you should be prepared for some small issues, but the overall package is nice enough to make you forget about them! She’s also sold out at almost all of the Japanese retailers, so it seems like she’s a popular figure–pick yours up soon if you want one!
Purchase At: KotoUS
[Thanks to Kotobukiya for this review sample!]
Ahh, she arrived for me late last week. I just did a once over, and I didn’t notice any paint cracking issues. However I did notice that my base was incredibly loose. I could easily pull the two pieces of it apart. Not sure if that’s a production issue or the way the base was designed.
I am going to come into your room and steal her in the night. In the dark.
Omg I got this for my birthday today, love it. I’ve been wanting her since I read your awesome review. I didn’t have the problems at the legs, but the gap near her arms and bust is similar if not worst than yours…however, I’m a huge rei fan and this is definitely one of my favorite ones. Even my sister said she’s lovely….
Congrats, happy you like her! Definitely one of the best Rei figures~