Review date: 6/25/2004

Manufacturer: Vance Project

Released: 2004

Availability: HARD

Type: PVC Figure

 
 
Personal Story:
I enjoyed the Pinky St. figures which were released a while back so when I saw these, I had to get them. I'm not a huge fan of Neon Genesis Evangelion but I loved the designs for these figures. I found it in some UK online import store while I was ordering something else. I decided to get it since the price was fair. The packaging arrived crushed but thankfully, I don't care about the packaging.
 
Introduction:
These figures were made by Vance Project. They are figures from the Pinky St. series. Pinky St. figures consists of cute female characters wearing various trendy clothes. They have interchangeable parts so you can make a lot of combinations for one character. The concept for these two particular figures depict the Pinky St. girls cosplaying as the characters Asuka Souryuu and Rei Ayanami from the anime, Neon Genesis Evangelion. They were sold as a special two-pack set. The regular Pinky St. figures were sold individually.
 

Sculpt:
Cute as usual. Vance Project took liberties with the source material so they're not supposed to look exactly like the anime versions. They're basically the Pinky St. versions of the heroines. Vance Project reused the same heads from their regular figures but the hair for both characters are new. Both Asuka and Rei's heads and hair look very close to the source material. They actually sculpted out certain strands of hair and made them look like simplified versions of the anime characters. Not too shabby. Their outfits are also well made using a different design than the anime version. Their tops look more like t-shirts and they have baggy pants instead. Very cute version of the plugsuits. There aren't a lot of details to the body but the minor folds on the pants add some detail. They both have the same bodies but I guess I can't really complain too much about that. Another minor complaint is that their pose makes them look a little too slanted towards one side. They don't look like their standing fully straight like the images on the back of the packaging. It's a lot more apparent from the back (see pics below).

As for the accessories, they come with two backpacks (one for each girl) and two dolls based on the Angels in the anime. One of the Angels is Lilith and the other looks like Gaghiel, but I'm not 100% sure. I'm surprised with the detail for the dolls. Lilith actually has a tiny version of the Lance of Longinus for one of the girls to hold onto while the other Angel, Gaghiel has a knife stabbed into it. Nice details. They are very well made. The backpacks hang onto the figures fine.

They have ZERO articulation so you won't be playing with them much. You can probably have some fun changing their heads and accessories but that's about it. They aren't as versatile as the regular Pinky St. figures but they weren't made to be broken up anyways. But it'll be interesting to swap their heads onto those trendy outfits in the regular series and show Rei and Asuka in a different way. :)
 

Paint:
The paint is very clean and sharp. The colors for the hair are slightly darker than the anime colors but there's no complaint from me. Asuka's hair has a tiny bit of airbrushing while Rei's hair is one flat color. The eyes and lips as well as the cheek blushes are all very neatly applied and I like the colors. They followed the source very closely down to the characters' eye colors. The color for the flesh is nice and light. The colors for the outfits look very close to the source with Asuka's blazing red and Rei's ultra white. The designs for the outfits look very close to the source material and are cleanly applied. The small numbers and lines on the outfit are perfect. The plugsuits are a lot more glossier than the hair and head and arms. Both figures look great and there's no bleeding or any other major flaws with the figures. The same can be said for the accessories. They are just as cleanly applied as the figures themselves. Well done.

One problem I had was there were some black marks on Rei's lower face and arm but I managed to scrape them off without any problems. A minor flaw that was easily fixed. Another problem was the black part of the shoes weren't fully painted near the bottom so it left some red on both figures visible. I was able to fix it with a marker really quickly. They were minor problems but it prevented these figures from getting a Flawless Award.

 
Overall: A+
These figures rock! I was really happy with their design and quality. They are even better than the regular Pinky St. figures, in my opinion. If you like either the anime or the Pinky St. figures in general then they are must-haves. They're a welcome addition to anyone who enjoys cute characters. They are also very stylish. :)
 

Where can I find this?
The Pinky St. figures aren't widely known outside Japan. Certain online import stores may have them (as of this review) but I also heard they might be released by a US distributor soon so go check them out if you're interested.

 
Other Images:


The figures in their packaging. Cute design. The background uses the designs from the characters' outfits. The packaging was slightly crushed due to poor packaging from the online store I ordered from. I hate that.

 


"So I told Shinji to go kill himself...*giggle*"

 


The accessories. Cute backpacks and the included doll versions of the Angels are way cool.

 


The back. No, you're not seeing things. They look horribly slanted from the back but they look fine from the front. How odd.

 
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