[Toy Review] Evangelion Portraits 8: Asuka and Mari Dual Review

I watched the original Evangelion series during my high school days, I liked the anime because the story is a total mindf*ck and weird but not that convoluted, that's why it became popular. It spawned a lot of merchandise including model kits of the EVA units, toys and figures. Now on to the present! Well, more like 2012. I bought some of the Evangelion Portraits Candy Toy figures made by Bandai. The figures I want to review are the figures of Mari and Asuka, they're sold separately. I bought Mari and my sister gave me Asuka as a gift for my birthday.

PACKAGING

Box is windowless... I want the other Asuka figure too!

The packaging is basic, just a colorful box where you can't see the figure. This means that you get a random toy for every purchase plus candy! The good this is that the store clerks checked what's inside the box and marked it (this box marked Rei which I got and will review soon) so that buyers will know what they're getting. The front of the box shows the pic of Asuka and Mari and the back side (and the rest of the side) shows other figures in the set. The majority of the texts is in Japanese

[Left] Asuka's parts (click to enlarge)

[Right] Mari's parts (click to enlarge)

After unboxing you get the decapitated characters that needs assembly and their special display stand (the store clerks removed the candy, they probably ate it... those jerks.)

[Left] Asuka's display stand

[Right] Mari's display stand

These are the special stands of the figures. They're easy to assemble and disassemble. It's easy to put the two figures on their respective stands.

THE FIGURES

ASUKA
Let's talk about this figure Asuka first. She came with a table-like stand where she can pose on top of it. The figure got holes so that you can fit it on the pegs on the display stand

Asuka Langley Soryu

Asuka on her display stand

The figure is very detailed for its small size, roughly the size of a Figma/Revoltech figure. It got nice and precise paint job. I didn't find any problems with the paint job.

The Red 02 Plugsuit

Asuka's red suit have a glossy finish, it also got the detailed carved linings. Even the bottom of the feet have detail and painted pretty well.

A closer look on Asuka's face

Asuka's face is well painted and really looked like her in the anime. Her hair is long with paint shadings and covers most of her back.

Hair is sculpted well

Her back is detailed too even though it will just be covered by her hair, that's attention to detail and is a plus.

Attention to detail is great!

This wraps up Asuka's part of the review. I didn't see anything wrong with this figure. This one is almost perfect.

MARI
Now it's time for Mari. She is the latest character in the new Evangelion series which I don't watch anymore. She came with a wall-like stand where she can just chill there. The figure also have peg holes that you can fit on the pegs of the stand

Mari Mikanami Illustrious

Mari's hanging out on her private wall space

Mari is well detailed but she got some bad painting on her butt, looks like a burn on her suit or something.

The pink colored 05 Plugsuit

Her pink suit have some matte finish on it and it's not consistent with Asuka's glossy suit but still very detailed with those linings and other textures. Here you can see some minor silver paint excess on her left shoulder.

A closer look of Mari's face

Mari's face is also painted well. She always wear her red eyeglasses that doesn't have any major flaws and the glasses are transparent so you can see her eyes. But the eyeglasses can be a hindrance when you want to clean this figure. 

Mari's back

Her hair especially her pigtails is soft but very plain (she got a nice blue headband though). Her back side is really detailed too.

Very nice and detailed!

This concludes Mari's figure review part. Even though Mari have minor paint issues located on her left shoulder and her "butt burn" she still looks great.

CONNECTABLE DISPLAY STANDS

Asuka and Mari's display stand is translucent so that you can view the figures on all angles. It's a little hard to see the blind angles though because the stand is black translucent. Their stands can be attached to each other. And when combined, this makes a semi-diorama of Asuka and Mari.

Don't they look great when they're together?

I wish the stands have detailed sculpt too for that extra appeal.

CONCLUSION

These are nicely made figures, they have quality despite the cheap price... of course there are few flaws. Oh and they're small (4-5 inches at least) and doesn't take too much space. Bandai really does a good job on making these and other toys. Evangelion Portraits series of candy toy figures are very tempting and addictive to collect, you've been warned!

Cheers And Happy Collecting!