LM-HG Evangelion Unit 00 Review

So, my fifth kit I got for my fifteenth birthday is following in the last one's foosteps, and is also a LM-HG Evangelion, specifically the Eva Unit 00 in it's original form. If you didn't check out my previous LM-HG Mass Production Evangelion review, LM-HG stands for Limited Model High Grade, which were an old line of non-scale HG kits of Japanese mechs, usually molded in a single color meaning that you will have to paint them. Moreover, you'll need cement, seamline coverage and other improvements to make the kits look good, think HGEW kits with no color and worse articulation. The LM-HG Evangelions on the other hand are much better kits, with decent color separation for the time (abeit through the use of stickers), and decent articualtion as well. LM-HG Evas used to be very rare, however recently Bandai has done a restock on most of the main Eva units (Both 00's, 01, 02, 03). So in this review, lets see how this kit fares.

Box:

You have a picture of the painted kit in the back with what seems to be a background of LCL. There's also a close up face of Unit 00 to the left, as well as Gendo, Yui and a curled up Rei in the front.

Parts:

You first get 2 orange runners, both which are runners used universally by all Evas, however there is one extended section on one runner unique to Unit 00...

You then get 2 black runners, both that are universal...

...a grey runner shared by both unit 00's and unit 02, or what I like to call the "Weapon Runner".

 The grey runner made out of polycap plastic, and a brown runner, both which are universal,

..with a small grey runner, and a tiny clear red runner, both which only contain a single part.

You also get a PVC runner containing non-scale unpainted PVC figures that you get with a lot of older kits and all LM-HG Evas. With the Original Unit 00, you get Gendo and plugsuit Rei.

You'd think Bandai came up with molding multiple plastics and colors on a single runner recently with RG's and figure-rise busts, yet Bandai has actually been doing this for a long time. This runner for the arms have an "arm frame" in the middle that contains gears and moving parts for movement, and both has polystyrene plastic with stretchy rubber molded for it so that it could bend. They are molded in the same color, but the difference between the two plastics are noticeable. This makes the kit's arms look a lot more natural and realistic as opposed to having an actual elbow joint, however the negative is that the arms have very little articulation, and I honestly think it wasn't worth it.

Oh right! Can't forget the polycap runners!

You also get two long wires and a jewel-like part.

The kit finally comes with stickers for color, and optional waterslides that you can add if you feel like it. Note that the putting on the water slides is not anime accurate, so don't put them on if that bothers you.

Manual:

The manual is a small booklet type manual as opposed to the folding out pamphlet, but works fine.

Like the MP Eva, you also get this newspaper-like page, which I assume also gives information about the characters you get with this kit as the PVC figures, and information about the Eva and it's weapons. Besides that, you get your instructions, part count, and the handy dandy color guide in Japanese.

Completed Product:

OOB the Eva unit 00 looks quite good. The kit itself comes in a good amount of colors, although paint will definitely be needed to fill in finer color applications, some of said color applications are fixed by the use of stickers though, which don't look the best. The worst stickers are the white ones on her chest, they literally bend and try to cover an entire part and it simply looks bad. Seamline coverage is also something you definitely want to think about. But considering the age of the kit, I think it still holds up quite decently today, and it's got some nice redeeming qualities which I will get to eventually. But in the looks department, it looks decent from a straightbuild, but will need paint for anime accuracy, most notable areas are in the torso segments, and spine. It should also be noted that this kit does not come with the shoulder pylons that most other Evangelion units have, so displaying one with them isn't an option.

If you haven't noticed, the eye is actually a single clear part instead of a stickers. This was done because a sticker on a rounded part would've looked horrible and almost impossible to do. Although there is a bubble inside, i'm really grateful that Bandai gone and did this for us.

Articulation:

Articulation wise, it's on a ball joint and has decent articulation. The neck also does move a bit so she can look down quite nicely.

On the other hand, her shoulder can't go up or swing forward that far. It can't swivel either.

The arms like I said are pre-molded in a sort of rubbery type of material covering a plastic frame that has gears inside for movement. The black on the arms are parts that you put on, although the white is a giant sticker that doesn't cover the black part all two well, as the kit does suffer from remold syndrome. These arms are a mixed bag, on one hand it makes the elbow bend look more normal compared to if there was a joint there, on the other hand it vastly limits articulation, and doesn't allow for a lot of poses. This picture is the arm stretched out as far as it can go, it can't go any more straight than this.

As you can see, the rubbery material looks quite good when bending , and there is no obvious joint there, however the elbow can only go 90˚ when fully bent.

You'll also notice that since the plastic parts are attached to the "frame", the rubber will be stretched due to them, making these gaps. You can see it happen in the two above images.

The LM-HG Eva kits have very, very nice torso articulation though.

It can go quite far to the side, and while it doesn't go that much backwards, it moves very nicely forwards.

Thighs can swivel a bit but is limited by the armor, and legs are double jointed, meaning that there is nice articulation to be found here too.

The feet have little toe joints.

Accessories:

Hoo boy, does this kit come with accessories. This is because all LM-HG Evas have some sort of "weapon runner" which contains the all weapons that a certain Eva uses in the show. This weapon runner is shared by both Unit 00's and Unit 02, so not only do you get all of Unit 00's weapons, you also get Unit 02's weapons, which is really sweet of Bandai to do. Due of this, she has an arsenal of weapons ready to be posed with, abeit they all come in one color due to being molded on one runner and will need paint.

Besides the open hands, Unit 00 has a pair of closed fists, and they honestly don't look very good on the top. They work fine for what they are though.

The kit also comes with a right holding hand, strangely enough, this isn't used to hold all weapons that you'd think it would, it only holds two.

You get the Lance of Longinus that is molded in grey, meaning you will have to repaint the whole thing red for anime accuracy.

It does what it's supposed to do well though, and definitely looks good, although there are a few holes in it.

I tried to do a throwing pose. :/

It also comes with the huge heat shield, and it's quite detailed for what it is. You should definitely panel line it, it would be a shame to waste all that molded in detail.

You grip the hand onto it sideways and rest the hunk of plastic on the ground.

This is a really powerful shield, it's no AT field, but anything that can stand up to best girl's geometric beam is a very good shield in my book.

You also get the smash hawk, which is the last weapon that can be held by the standard holding hand.

It's never used in the show to actually fight the angels, Unit 02 was just seen holding it once. But it functions similar to a progressive knife, only instead of a small knife, it's a giant tomahawk.

The next hand you get is the trigger finger hand. Surprisingly, this is what is used to hold most weapons, even ones that don't have a trigger.

Let's start with Unit 00's main weapon, the sniper rifle.

It can be held with two hands and looks really nice. It has a stand connected to the end for lying-down ground poses if you can somehow manage to get the kit in one.

Funny enough, she holds the rifle up perfectly in one hand, which is quite amusing to see.

She also comes with a handgun, I personally love pistols, so I instantly love this handgun a lot.

Bang Bang Shooting!

You get the Pallet Rifle, which is a staple weapon of Evas. This will need paint to look anime accurate, but the mold is quite detailed.

Funny enough, she holds it quite awkwardly. Due to having a section at the back, she has to hold the rifle at an angle, similar the a Zaku machine gun, but harder to pose with due to the arms.

She then comes with both Unit 01's and Unit 02's prog knives. She's not supposed to have a knife at all in her original form, but the inclusion is nice.

Stabby stabby.

Cutty Cutty.

If you've watched the show, you'll know that Evas do not have a permanent power supply. Their internal batteries will only last them a total of 5 minutes of movement before the Eva shuts down entirely. All Evas have this disadvantage (spoiler, highlight to view)besides Unit 01 after Zeruel dinner, so because of this, Evas are usually powered directly from Nerv headquarters with the use of Umbilical Cables that are stationed around Tokyo-3. You get one to replicate these for dioramas or perfect anime accuracy, but this will need paint to be 100% screen accurate.

To plug it in, you simply attach the plug to the socket on the Eva's spine.

Now she's being powered externally like she should be.

You can also extend this with another wire and a small piece to connect the two wires.

Just put them in if you need to.

Gimmicks:

If you've watched the show, the pilot of an Evangelion gets inserted into the Eva via an Entry Plug, which is inserted into the spine of the Eva and filled with LCL, allowing the pilot to sync with the Eva and control it easier. The negative being whatever the Eva feels, the pilot feels, but that's getting off topic. The kit does have a gimmick that allows you to take out and insert the entry plug just like the show.

First, you open up a hatch at the front, before opening up the cap under it.

You then pull out the larger section, which then pulls out the entry plug with it. From there, you can just take it out.

The entry plug is nice and detailed, although fans will immediately notice it's in the completely wrong colors. You'll need white paint for anime accuracy and even more for detail paints (have fun, this thing is as bad as painting those 1/100 pilot figures). The entry plug is to scale and from it you can get a perspective on how small the pilot is compared to an Eva and how huge the actual Eva is.

Again, those arms deserve another mention, as they are a gimmick, but one i'm not too fond of honestly.

You also get unpainted PVC figures of Rei and Gendo, these scale only with the other Eva PVC figures, but are neat editions.

Verdict:

The LM-HG Evangelion Unit 00 is a fine kit, despite it's age and apparent flaws, it still manages to hold up with other HG's engineering-wise and looks nice on a shelf. It's got decent articulation save for the arms, and has a nice amount of weapons to keep you satisfied. If you're a skilled painter and love a challenge with small details, you should get this, as some of the accessories miss quite a few minor color apps. If you're not a painter and a straightbuilder like myself, i'd recommend it if you like the original anime and if you don't mind the missing color apps. Personally, I think this is perfectly presentable OOB, but painting it will make it look better. I highly recommend this to any Eva fan, skilled painters who love challenges, people who like unique mechs, and for once, people who do sometimes play with their kits. Now don't get me wrong, it's a model kit, so I still stick by my thoughts of "display, don't play", but it does come with a nice amount of accessories and a few gimmicks that could prove entertaining.

Pros:

- Tons of accessories and playability (!)

- Decent overall articulation.

- Comes with PVC figures of plugsuit Rei and Gendo.

- Very well engineered kit for the time.

Cons:

- Will require some paint for 100% anime accuracy. Very skilled painting needed for finer details. (!)

- Seamlines aren't very friendly, may want to clean those up.

- Articulation is quite limited in the arms.

- Suffers from remold syndrome, has quite a bit of stickers for color separation.