The Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise is a merchandising titan, parceling out its logos, characters, and mecha to the likes of keychains, mousepads, and instructional typing software. And, of course, figures. Lots of figures. Figures of all different shapes, sizes, poses, and quality.
It is a bit odd then that there aren’t many standard-scale figures of Asuka in her plugsuit. In fact, other than her Revoltech figure and a Kotobukiya one which featured her curled up tight against Rei, this figure is the only one that I know of. One of Alter’s earlier products, this rendition of Asuka is built in a manly 1/5 scale, although she is rather compact due to her seated position.
She comes with a most boring base, a solid red plastic disc with no interesting markings or features, and she doesn’t need it to sit upright. Her sculpt is solid, as is her paint job, although the skin tone isn’t Alter’s best work; it’s a bit lifeless, and her size exacerbates its conspicuousness. Her plugsuit hugs her in all the right places, and I particularly like her facial expression; rather than the nitroglycerine-tempered fireball she is presented as in the anime, she’s shown here in a rather placid mood, sitting while she adjusts her cuff. The sculpt complements her introspectiveness as well as adding a touch of vulnerability, making for a very appealing figure.
This was one of the first figures I bought; I got her three years ago, and I like it a lot. This is not one of Alter’s more ambitious figures, but it’s definitely high quality and more importantly, one of the best plastic depictions of Evangelion’s tempestuous firestarter.
Hey, your picture reviews seems to have gone…offline.. =/
Err, hmm, so they did. I re-uploaded them but that is most strange that the pictures disappeared like that. Thank you for the heads-up.
Recently started collecting Evangelion figures, and I’ve been looking for this very Asuka figure. It has been several months, and I’m just wondering if you know where to get one of these (authentic)? Thanks! She looks so gorgeous; I’m jealous. =)
Hmm, I’m guessing eBay or Yahoo Japan may be your best bet, or perhaps the classified section on Tsuki-board … this is a really old figure and I’m pretty sure that no retailer on the planet has it anymore, but let’s see if any of the retailers I know of have it …
Edit: Err, yipes, there’s one up on Yahoo Japan for 25,000 yen, and there’s a guy on Tsuki-board selling it for 165 euro. I did not know that this figure is that valuable o_O
Thank you for the quick reply! Been checking ebay for the last 2 months, but nobody has posted it yet. And wow! 25,000 yen and 165 euro; that’s just insane! was willing to pay up to $150 =( Love your pictures though, at least I get to see it. =) Oh ya, where do you usually shop when buying figures? Been looking for places with genuine stuff (HLJ etc.)
You’re welcome! Yeah, I didn’t think it was that valuable; I could swear I saw it (or the Rei counterpart) sell for around 5000 yen a few months back on Yahoo Japan. I might be imagining things, though.
For brand-new figures, I usually go with Hobby Search and Amiami, and HLJ as well, though their prices are a bit higher. I also buy stuff from Mandarake, though a lot of their stock is preowned and their inventory tracking leaves a bit to be desired. For hard-to-find stuff, though, they’re great and usually relatively cheap compared to going to an auction site. In the US, I’ve used OtakuFuel, though their stock is fairly limited and the beating the dollar is taking against the yen isn’t helping their prices (which were usually the lowest I’ve seen for an American retailer). I’ve also bought stuff off of retailers on Amazon.
Yehay! Found a few of the ones I’m looking for at Amiami. Thanks for the suggestion!
Anyways, I recently won an auction ($7 lol) for this figure; don’t know what it is. Can you help me? images at http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/2104/picture1uw.jpg and http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/1927/picture2ps.jpg Thanks again 😀
You’re welcome! Unfortunately, I have not a clue who that might be. You might try going to Tsuki-board and registering an account there, if you haven’t already; there’s a Questions and Answer club that might be able to identify him.
Just saw this figure on eBay for a whopping $562! Is it just me, or is that some horrific price gouging?
That is some wacky-ass pricing. Though from what I’ve seen, this figure can sell for some very high prices (though not nearly as high as $562). I don’t really get it as it’s a nice figure, but it’s not nearly as good as its successors.