Prime1Studio is now taking orders on its impressive, but expensive new statue of Unit 01 from Neon Genesis Evangelion.
In Hideaki Anno's highly influential mecha anime, the mastermind behind the Evangelion project, Gendou Ikari, is constantly forced to deal with complaints about how expensive his giant, semi-mechanical weapons are. That aspect of the series has been faithfully recreated in figure manufacturer Prime1Studio's new Unit 01 statue, which will cost fans $1,499 USD. The statue justifies that price with an imposing 65.7 cm height (27 inches,) a premium fluorescent paint scheme that appears to glow even in low-light conditions, and light-up LED eyes. The figure also comes with two swappable heads, so users can choose to display the Evangelion with its standard appearance, or with its teeth bared as it goes berserk.
Preorders are now open, though interested parties will have to put down a $149 USD deposit to reserve the statue. Fans who can afford the figure should act fast, however, as only 500 copies of the figure will ever be produced.
The statue recreates Shinji Ikari's first battle with an Angel, which was depicted in the first episode of the classic 1995 anime series and remade in the 2007 movie Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone. Shortly after arriving in Tokyo-3, Shinji is pressured by his estranged father, Gendou, into piloting the Evangelion, a monstrous weapon that serves as humanity's last line of defense against the Angels, an enigmatic alien race that is seeking to initiate an apocalyptic event that would destroy life on Earth as we know it.
The story of Evangelion finally came to an end with the release of 2021's critically acclaimed and commercially successful Evangelion 3.0 + 1.01: Thrice Upon A Time, the final movie in the Rebuild of Evangelion film series. While the movie provided a conclusive end to Shinji's story and creator Hideaki Anno's time with the series, Anno has teased that new entries in the series, which would take place in the parts of the series' timeline that were skipped over in the show and its follow-up movies, may be created without him at the helm. The director has stated that he now wishes to work on live-action projects, such as 2017's lauded kaiju reboot Shin Godzilla. Anno wrote the upcoming Shin Ultraman, which is set to be released in Japan this year, and is currently directing Shin Kamen Rider, a reboot of Toei's long-running tokusatsu series.
The original Neon Genesis Evangelion anime is available for streaming on Netflix and on home video from GKIDS. The entire Rebuild of Evangelion film series is available for streaming from Prime Video.
Source: Prime1Studio, YouTube
