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EVA-01 Mini Revoltech

July 8, 2011 | By Errex More

Evangelion has to be one of the most influential anime shows created in the last 20 years. The full series name is Neon Genesis Evangelion and at the time it premiered in 1995, it represented a rather novel take on classic Japanese giant monster shows, where you’d have some sort of giant monster attacking a city in each episode with a group of heroes defending against them using their own enormous fighting machines called EVA Units.

The twist in Evangelion is that the machines were not entirely what they appeared to be at first, a fact hinted at by the peculiar EVA Unit designs. The show was insanely successful, which in turn gave birth to a slew of merchandise based on the designs seen on the show. One of these licensors is Japanese toy maker Kaiyodo, whose most successful line is precisely the Revoltech action figure line.

The regular Revoltech figures are usually about 6 or 7 inches tall, depending on the specific character design, but since the Evangelion segment of the line was so well received, Kaiyodo decided to produce a couple of smaller 4 inch versions of the main EVA designs.

This time we are taking a look at EVA Unit 01, or EVA-01 for short. The series protagonist, Shinji Ikari (whose whining would make Episode II Anakin Skywalker look like a well-adjusted individual), pilots this giant robot.

Even though the basic EVA design is pretty much the same as in EVA-00, Shinji’s unit has a few differences that really make it stand out from it’s brethren. For starters, the coloring is characteristically different, being mostly purple with just a few accents in black, green and yellow.

The really relevant changes are the head sculpt and the shoulder guards. The head is a completely different mold that reminds me of both a classic kabuto helmet and a unicorn at the same time. The shoulder fins are separate pieces that clip onto the Revoltech spheres at the shoulders, thus preserving most of the articulation on that joint.

Other than the slightly restricted range at the shoulders, the EVA-01 shares the same articulation model with unit 00, meaning it has:

• Revoltech neck. Works mostly as a back and forth hinge, although there is some degree of rotation allowed by the character design.

• Revoltech shoulders. These joints provide both pegged hinge functionality to the shoulder, as well as an upper biceps swivel to the arms. The removable shoulder fins do restrict range a little, though.

• Revoltech elbows. Again, these joints provide pegged hinge functionality, as well as rotation above and below the elbow. This last comes very handy because there is no wrist articulation provided.

• Revoltech torso joint. Here we get a decent amount of side-to-side swivel, as well as discrete ab-crunch capability.

• Swivel hips. These are angled in a way that, when combined with the next joint, allows much more versatility than I thought possible.

• Upper thigh swivel.

• Revoltech knees. Functionality here is pretty much the same as any double pegged hinge joint, meaning that in addition to flexing we get swivel joints above and below the knee.

• Revoltech ankles. Now, the interesting thing here is that the ports that connect the joints to the feet are angled in such a way that provides the feet with side-to-side movement range, allowing for improved stability in action poses.

The figure is molded entirely in purple plastic, with simple paint operations applied very neatly, with the couple of small crests printed onto the shoulders being probably the most complex operation.

Similarly to Unit-00, the EVA-01 comes packaged with a black display base, an extra right forearm with a gun gripping hand and a knife. Unlike Unit-00 though, the regular hands that come in EVA-01 are sculpted in an open palm gesture.

The base is plain black plastic with only one peg on it, but as expected, the extra forearm is painted to match the EVA-01 color scheme. The knife seems to be a rather simple piece, with the body painted in a dark metallic paint, but given a nice bright silver edge.

The EVA-01 Mini Revoltech is easily my favorite figure from this sub-line because of the fine detailing on the head piece and the overall color scheme. I wish they had included some more extra accessories but I still think this is a really nice addition to my collection.