Vintage Figure Shoot – 1/4.5 Asuka X 1/4 Rei
I have always wanted to go back and do some vintage figure shoot, but the lack of proper equipment has prohibited me from doing so. Some of my earliest prepainted figure collection date back about 7 -9 years or so and the picking were slim back in those days. PVC figures were no where near as high quality as we see from Good Smile Company or Alter today. Instead, most of the above average quality figures were cold cast polystone, or just resin figures that you need to paint yourself. Today, we will take a look at my Evangelion duo that has been part of my earliest collection. Their quality is of course, not close to the high standard we hold the top tier figure manufacturers today, but they are indeed vintage and we can see just how far the figurine industry has come along!
As usual full scale images are available in my blog.
Trying to use one light to create some shadow effect here, not sure if it works out really well though ^^;
The 1/4 Ayanami Rei was manufactured by Kyosho back years ago, first as a resin kit but was later released as a complete figure, it is recently picked up by Aizu Project for re-release. The Asuka on the other hand, was a custom painted Realize Original Kit No.33 1/4.5 Asuka! She was first featured on a Hobby Japan Extra 1998 Spring. Since I love this kit so much I had it commissioned to be painted some time in 2003.
Ok, enough mumble jumble, let’s dig in to the pictures!
This Asuka is no doubt one of the best looking Asuka resin kit back in her era!
Until this day, this is still my favorite Asuka scaled figure (not including Dollfie Asuka of course, just don't tell her about it!)
Next up is 1/4 Ayanami Rei who rises from the ashes again! I can’t believe it’s getting released after what? 7 years or so? It is a very good figure and I am glad she will come alive again in the hands of Aizu project! One of the best manufacturers of polystone figure. As you can see, details on this 1/4 figure is very crisp! She also has that very “rei” expression on her face. The skin tone may be a bit odd, but it was like that 7 years ago >.>; It was considered “really good” back then >.>;
Definitely one of the best polystone figure of her era as well, figure of this quality was seldom seen back in those days!
May be it’s due to the surging demand of Evangelion goodies because of the movie? The plotline in Evangelion 2.0 definitely favored Rei, Rei fan should be rejoiced, perhaps a happy ending is in the making?
I hope you all enjoyed this vintage figure shoot! I am lining up a few more of my “vintage figures” for a shoot out sometime in the future!
now those are vintage figures, and still in great shape! amazing to see the difference to the ones today. how was the pricing back then? will be nice to see more from your collection ^^
Glad you enjoyed them! There are several others what I consider vintage figure but these two are definitely at the highest ranked among my collection, a bunch of them are extremely NSFW and I haven't even attempted to do a figure shoot for them so far ^^;
Polystone figures were generally expensive, close to 20000 yen back then ^^; The Asuka resin was in the 15000 yen or so, but after the painting fees and what not, think may be in the 250 USD range?
wahaha i think the difference in a photoshoot with NSFW figures is that you spend a little more time on them. =P and i just noticed the scale on these! crazy prices but custom paint jobs usually do cost a pretty penny.
LOL, soon my entire collection of NSFW figures will get their photo shoot treatment.
These are fairly large scale figure back in those days!
Interesting, those prices are still roughly the same as now, with a bit of inflation here and there, but we're getting much better detail and paint jobs. My Raquel (though recast) cost like $120USD, prepainted and all.
The Asuka resin was imported from Japan so that alone added a lot more money, the paint job was commissioned so it is expensive compare to a "production" environment like the Gathering. I have actually offered a spare kit of this Asuka under the "share your kit" program in an attempt to bring her back to life with the standard today. Too bad there aren't enough people interested to actually revive this kit yet.
that rei look pretty!!!^^
She is getting re-release this month after 6-7 years, catch yours today!
great!!!^^
Whoa~ vintage figures of Asuka and Rei!
Aye, true vintage! Can't get much older Rei and Asuka that looks as good as they are, save for may be my 1/2.5 Asuka Oneesan?
Vintage or not, they have really strange faces. And rei's head looks really big in that shot from her side that shows the back of her head. Still those two are the best 2d girls ever and Eva rocks. Your photography is good too.
Perhaps they do have a bigger head than 1/4 figures these days, but big head were popular back then!
Still too pricey for me, especially this year >_< I woulda love to get that Rei. Oh but then again I don't have space for this one XD Hmm... well the skin tone is good back then, but then again there aren't a lot of skin on her ^^;
Hmm... so who's heavier?
Polystone is heavier than resin, this Rei is heavy!
Oh but this Rei should easily out place a bunch of other figures :P I am going to start going through my oldest collection and start snapping pictures of them soon~