LM-HG Evangelion Unit 02 Mini Review

My friend gave me this kit a few weeks after school started, he had this thing lying around the attic and decided to give it to me, so I happily accepted it. He's been a fan of the Evangelion, and also knows it's my favourite show, so he decided to give it to me, love ya buddy!

It was already built, panel lined and painted a bit by him (my god he needs help with nub removal), so I didn't have to do much to it (I tried my best with the nubs. So thanks to my friend for giving me this kit!

I'd say the kit can presentable OOB, however out of all the LM-HG Evas, i'd say Unit 02 is the one that needs the most work. For one, she misses the most color apps of any other Evangelion, even with stickers. She doesn't even come with stickers for the eyes, my friend painted them in with a Gundam marker. Also, the black areas on the face for the gimmick is all just black panel lining marker, OOB, the entire head is red and all colors are by made by stickers. You'll definitely need to paint at least the eyes in, and if you want anime accuracy, you'll need some extensive paint detail work.

Since this kit is an LM-HG, she shares a good amount of parts with other LM-HG's, the most notable differences being the head and colorscheme. Build is similar to that of an HG held together with polycaps and parts, for more information on the articulation kit, please check out my LM-HG Evangelion Unit 00 Review.

For accessories, the LM-HG Eva Unit 02 comes with an arsenal, this is because she shares the same weapon runner with the LM-HG Eva Unit 00, and thus comes with all her's accessories as well. The way they work on this kit is completely identical to how they work on Unit 00, so again, go check out that review for more information on the weapons. A thing I should mention is she does not hold her own progressive knife super securely, so you'll need some sort of security, which is very weird since it's her main weapon, problem of having universal runners for these LM-HG Evas.

For gimmicks, she has the same PVC-arms to allow for more natural looking arms, at the expense of articulation. she also has a similar gimmick to other Evas in where her entry plug can be taken out, only with her, the back part splits open in half as opposed to flipping up like on other LM-HG's. You'll also notice that her head can open up to reveal two more pairs of eyes. The head is molded completely in red, so the black and green required to color the eyes like the anime will have to be painted in.

You also get unpainted PVC figures of plugsuit Asuka and Misato. These are still to scale with the other PVC figures which come with the other LM-HG's, quite nice.

Verdict:

Similar to the LM-HG Eva Unit 00, the LM-HG Eva Unit 02 is a decent kit. It will definitely need a few touchups for anime accuracy, and at the very least, green paint will be needed for the eyes and black is necessary in a few places. Still, it's the only model kit representation of Unit 02 from the original series as of now. When it comes to proportions, they are great, and reflect the look of the anime well, articulation could've been better in the upper body, but what it has will be enough for some decent posing. My verdict to this kit is very similar to that of the LM-HG Eva Unit 00's, it's a decent kit overall, and while it's age does show, just some touchups will be needed to make this kit great. I urge painters to give this kit a shot, and would recommend it to fans of the original show, builders who want a different looking mech in their collection, and people who may want some weapons for a diorama, because like I said, she comes with a lot of stuff.

Pros:

- Lot of accessories and display options. (!)

- PVC figures of Plugsuit Asuka and Misato are included.

- Quite well engineered for it's age.

Cons:

- Will need paint, minimum of green for the eyes.

More details missing that will require skilled detail painting. (!)

- Seamlines don't look very good, you'll want to get rid of them.

- Articulation is quite limited in the arms.
- Has trouble holding her main weapon, the folding progressive knife.