It’s the pose that attracted me…arms held languidly above her head, the coy, sideways glance and the suggestive jut of her hips….it just oozed sexiness without being blatant or vulgar about it.

This figure was based off an illustration by Shunya Yamashita, and was a vast improvement (in my humble opinion) over the scrawny Rei depicted in the actual Evangelion anime. It had full, womanly curves versus the stick n bones of the “real” Rei Ayanami. Sure, it was not a full on likeness to the anime, but you won’t hear me complaining ^-^ Just chalk it up to artistic license :)

I have heard rumblings from the Internet about the poor finishing of this figure, so much so that Yamato released another Rei Ayanami figure (ver. 2), with better accessories and paintwork to placate disgruntled fans. That was a nice gesture, but it sure didn’t help those who bought the ver. 1 figure.

Now that I have the ver. 1 figure in hand, I can unfortunately confirm the grouses were true. The paint work was splotchy and uneven. This was unfortunate because the glossy white colour of her suit really highlighted the uneven paintwork. There were also rough spots around the detailing of the suit that really shouldn’t be there. It should have been sanded down smooth. The face had a slight glossy sheen (rather than a matte finish) that reflected light and made photographing the figure difficult. All in all none of the slight imperfections were deal-breakers to me, but it was difficult to accept these when relatively cheap “prize figures” from Sega and Banpresto offer better finishing compared to the way more expensive Yamato figure.

Ultimately, though, the sculpt won me over.