I never got into Evangelion before. I didn’t even give the anime a chance because of how anorectic the Eva units looked. Growing up in the 80s and 90s while watching giant robots from the 60s, 70s and onwards, my ideal piloted giant mechanical fighting machines is chunky, boxy, and barrel-chested.

That all changed when the local hobby shop owner recommended this kit to me. He has decades of experience when it comes to model kits, from military scale models to Warhammer miniatures, from Gunpla to Figure-rise, and beyond. So, I trust him.

“This, to me, is the best Real Grade model ever made. And it is not even a Gundam,” he said.

The model was on the expensive side (RM175), even for an RG. For someone like me, just finished painting a Warhammer 40,000 army, everything looks cheap.

Relatively speaking, the Bandai RG Evangelion Unit-01 is cheaper than a codex, and costs a little more than most character models from Warhammer. It also requires fewer tools, no paints, and less effort to complete. Which is nice.

13 frames of parts made up the EVA unit, its rifle, umbilical cord plug, four knives (two folded two deployed), and lots of hands.

The kit took several hours to complete, with several breaks in between. It begins with the body, the head, the legs, the arms and shoulders, before moving on to the accessories. Although there are only a few components to the model, the number of parts that make up each one is numerous.

The unique gimmick of this kit is its multi-coloured parts, a single part moulded in several colours. This, combined with the superb colour and parts separation detail on the kit, makes a satisfying model. It looks excellent without paint or panel lines, and the stickers are mostly optional.

What makes the RG Evangelion kits the best RG kit, according to the hobby shop owner, is how posable it is. And he is right. The model is flexible, versatile, and expressive. At the same time, it is also solid, like an action figure.

Of course, there are some issues. The connection between the elbow and the upper arm is loose, perhaps because of the multi-coloured moulded part. Also, most of the stickers could and should be avoided. I advise using only the stickers for the inner skeleton that has to be applied during assembly.

Apply the rest sparingly and avoid the stickers for the knuckle and shoulder fin. The latter could work if after applying the sticker, a hobby knife is used to carefully cut the sticker following the panel lines underneath it, and a toothpick is used to push the cut sticker into the panel line recesses.

Most hobbyist who built this model wished that it came with decals instead of stickers and those are available but from third-party makers.

The Bandai RG Evangelion Unit-01 is a push-fit kit. There is no need for glue. Paint is optional except for the most hard-core hobbyist and customizer.

For tools, a pair of good hobby cutters or nippers is a must. A hobby knife and a pair tweezers are encouraged. However, for the best finish, sandpaper and files are required to remove nibs and smooth out mould lines.

I liked this kit so much that I subsequently bought Unit-00 and Unit-02 from the same series and I’ve started to watch the anime on Netflix.