Another Rei! They never stop coming. What is the world coming to? I’ll tell you what the world is coming to. Obviously Rei and her army of clones have become real. They’ve jumped from the small screen and big screen to reality. To conquer the world and then the galaxy beneath the weight of their multitudes. There is no thwarting them. There can be no defense against their replication. They’re coming for us.
I think this is my fourth Rei Ayanami review, and it isn’t even my last one. This particular example comes courtesy of E2046 by way of Volks, who released it in garage kit form last year, I think. She’s in 1/6 scale, although she looks taller than she is due to the nature of her base.
Let’s start by talking about that base. It’s not normally something I care a lot about, but here it’s important in the overall design of the figure. The bottom part is a flat disc, the standard base that E2046 uses for many of their Gathering kits. Atop that is a combination of mechanical engine and tentacle monster, sinuous wires protruding from it. Rei attaches to the thickest bundle of cables, with no gauche support pylons to hold her up. She is surprisingly stable despite the precariousness of her position, but I wouldn’t put this figure anywhere where she might be violently jostled.
Volks’s sculpt stays mostly true to Rei’s character design. She’s depicted in her famous plugsuit, her facial expression typically placid. Her hair is a bit different in that, rather than her usual bowl-shaped afro, the ends are splayed out. It’s a nice touch.
This figure was painted by E2046 and they’ve done their usual superb job. The colors are faithful to the character design and there aren’t any problems that I can see. I particularly like the contrast between Rei’s shiny silver-white suit and the dark, matte base.
I should note that when I got Rei from E2046, her head had snapped off her body. Fortunately the break was clean and after a quick application of superglue, she looks fine and you can’t tell that she’d been decapitated. Everyone who collects figures should have a tube of superglue handy for emergencies like that.
Some of the wires attach directly to Rei’s body, which is pretty sexy. The fit isn’t entirely perfect though; they fit loosely and are easy to knock off of her. This is another reason to display her in a safe place.
The pose is my favorite aspect of this figure. There’s a strong sense of movement and dynamism, which is balanced by Rei’s serene, inquisitive expression.
I haven’t been disappointed by E2046’s offerings yet, and Rei is another sterling example of their craftsmanship. I have a lot of Rei figures, and although this is my newest, it’s also my favorite of them.
She’s a fine figure, except her face doesn’t look like Rei Ayanami’s.
And that’s the important bit.
Yeah, her face isn’t entirely accurate to the anime or manga. It doesn’t bother me, though.
I’d be more afraid of all those Kanu Unchuus flying around. At least rei has that failsafe which only allows 1 to be moving around at any 1 time.
But it seems to be a strange thing about the face of Volks figures where they don’t seem to be particularly close to their source material. The mugen no frontier figures were like that as was the Volks Nanoha, which is why I went for the Alter version…
Haha, yeah. I guess you’d have to take Ryuubi hostage to stop a Kanu invasion.
On this figure I’m chalking it up to artistic interpretation, since she’s such an old character and there’s so much Rei merchandise out there. When I got this figure, I didn’t really notice the face; to me, the hair was the most conspicuous deviation from the original character design. I’m used to seeing different Rei faces but she’s always shown with the spherical haircut.
I’d love to get this one, lets see what this years convention will drop into my hands
I need more Asuka figure!!! Why don’t they make more Asuka! Your Gathering broke on you? That has never happened to me before.
>> JefLebowski
Good luck! Rei looks fantastic, I highly recommend tracking her down if you can (and if you’re a Rei fan).
>> Wolfheinrich
Yeah, I don’t understand it either, there’s like twenty Rei figures for every Asuka, it seems. Plus there seem to be almost no Asukas where she’s standing up.
I was pretty surprised to find her head rolling around. Actually, the biggest problem was that there was some smudged point on her cheek where the loose head had rubbed against her collar, but fortunately I was able to remove it with some rubbing alcohol.
I remember seeing this figure a long time ago and she is beautiful. that floating look is awesome
Looking at my other Reis, one (the Yamato one) is just standing with her arms above her head, one (old Alter one) is sitting, and a third (new Alter one) is lying down. This one vastly overshadows them for absolute coolness.
I wouldnt mind an Army of Reis coming for me 😛
Great Figure and those cables wrapping around her are indeed sexy ^^
Gathering is a fantastic Line and my Gathering Rei is my favorite Rei in my collection aswell
Nice one with this Rei figure. Well done.