I like Rei figurines and a little bit on figurine manufacturers

Even though Eva doesn’t do much for me these days, except when I’m making fun of Mike, there’s one character in Eva I still like. No, it’s actually not Misato, at least not in the figurine sense (what the fucking sense is that). It’s Rei Ayanami that I like.

Granted, Rei’s probably too quiet in most people’s opinion, but what I like about her is that she’s not aggressive and she doesn’t talk too much, if at all (I can already hear the women rolling their eyes over and groaning), and yes, I appreciate that very much.

I got a very nice Rei figurine as a pair (not in the same box, but released in the same make). Here’s a picture of her together with Asuka (who’s Mike’s favorite):

In any case, I forgot which manufacturer made this. I think it’s Sega Prize. For arcade prizes, these guys actually churns out pretty good stuff (I think maybe they have stricter quality control in their factories in China).

Another good company is Max Factory. Their PVC figurines are awesome, the quality is just slightly below their resin figurines (I think they make these, too), assembled of course, because I don’t make garage kits. I have a Belldandy on beach wearing a bikini and a towel around her waist, and I’ll post that pic as soon as I take her out of the box next time. The designs from Sega Prize and Max Factory tend to be very close to the original design.

Next, I think Yamato tend to make good to great figurines, too. I think they’re better known for their Macross fighters, but I’ve bought a couple of figurines (albeit smaller ones) from them and they make quality stuff, it’s just that they often hire designers who define the character designs in their own ways, and so sometimes, the figurine from Yamato don’t look quite like the original design. I tend to dislike that, because obviously the reason I would want to buy a figurine is because the design for the figurine is very close or almost exactly the same as the character. Of course I know it’s nearly impossible to make any figurine, even garage kit figurines, exactly like the character design (one can do it with Gundam garage kits if one’s very skilled and has a lot of time to research).

Speaking of Rei Ayanami figurines and Yamato, here’s an interesting Rei figurine from Yamato designed by Shunya Yamashita, who did the character and weapon design for Final Fantasy X.

I have mixed feelings on this one. On one hand, Yamashita certainly kicked up the sex factor for his design of Rei, and the female Eva characters have been sexualized since they appeared in anime world and many Otakus’ wet dreams. Looking at the “cheeky” shots of this figurine, it’s as if the limiter in Eva character designs was taken off and Rei has been released into a different fantasy catered mainly for Otaku (men AND some women) with more mature tastes and would appreciate looking at a different look of a familiar character. However, on the other hand, this figurine looks more like a trendy Japanese girl cosplaying as Rei, with a spicier outfit (love them cheeks), but she also turns on the seductive factor much higher than Rei the character would in Eva.

Here’s a shot of the behind of my Rei’s figurine for your comparison:

OK, so it’s closer to a side view. But the comparison is obvious. The Yamashita design is curvier and more adult-like, and the Sega Prize (?) one is simply the design from the anime.

As for quality, I like Yamato just fine, but again, sometimes their designs are different from the original, and in this case they’re obviously trying for the classic sex-sells technique (and yes, this one is sexy), on the other hand, I don’t know if hardcore fans who have to buy figurines with designs that look exactly like the original would appreciate this.

I do know that if it comes out in Taiwan, I’ll be looking hard into it.

If you like this figurine and want to buy it–and support this site too–click here to buy it from J-List!