Product:  Neon Genesis Evangelion Portraits 4 Product Type:  Display Figures Number of Figures in Range:  5 Manufacturer:  Bandai Import Price:  £4.50 Purchased from:  Neon Martian Rarity:  Uncommon Reviewer:  Rich (Webmaster)

There are things in life that are near enough guaranteed.  You can guarantee that it will rain at Glastonbury Festival and Wimbledon, you can guarantee that there will be one teaspoon left in the sink after you finish washing up, and you can guarantee that there will be new Evangelion merchandise pretty much every month.

This time round the merchandise in question is the fourth range of Bandai's popular Neon Genesis Evangelion Portraits figure series.  As with the previous ranges, Portraits 4 features five figures based on portraits of the characters from Evangelion.  This time round we have two figures of Rei Ayanami - one in a kimono and one in a white bikini, one of Asuka Langley in her plug suit, one of Misato Katsuragi in her trademark red mini dress and finally one of Kaworu Nagisa in his plug suit.  As before each figure stands at around 5" (13cm) tall, and come fully painted with only minimal assembly required.
 

I have been impressed with the quality and design of every one of the previous three Portraits ranges, and these are no exception.  As boxed trading figures go these are pretty much as good as you'll find.  The painting is excellent with some nice fine detail and no noticeable bleed between colours, and the join lines between the body parts are well disguised.  As always there is a visible join line across the centre of the hair where the fringe clips on, but this is such a common problem it barely registers nowadays.

The pose and design of each figure is great as always, and if you have any Evangelion artbooks you will no doubt recognise many of them - particularly the one of Rei in a kimono.  Once again the series heavily leans towards Rei and Asuka, but it's nice to see that not only do we get a figure of Misato but also one of a male character - only the second one out of 20 figures across the entire Portraits series.  At the end of the day most fans want the sexy girls so that what we get, but it would be interesting to have more characters covered.  As it is anyone who has managed to get all five figures in all four ranges will now have 12 of Rei and Asuka.  Whilst they are the most popular characters this does seem a little excessive to be honest.

In fairness the figures rock and it's hard to be disappointed whichever you get.  The Neon Genesis Evangelion Portraits series keeps coming back and although to be honest the figures in each range are quite similar, the quality is excellent.  For boxed figures they are a decent size and come with their own stand which makes them look pretty damn good.  I would highly recommend using the clear plastic support that comes with each figure though, even if it stands up without it.  The pose of some figures makes them lean slightly without it and over time this becomes more pronounced and can be irreparable.  As long as you use this though there is little to fault these figures on, and it is pretty unobtrusive. 

As with the previous three ranges Neon Genesis Evangelion Portraits 4 is a must have if you are a fan of good quality figures.  For their size there are few ranges on a par, and even fewer that are better.  Well worth checking out and I can't wait to see what the fifth range will bring!

Extras

Each figure comes with a base made of transparent red plastic as well as a clear plastic support.  There is also a slip of paper showing how to put the figure together, and a piece of chewing gum too which, unlike the sweets you sometimes get with other Japanese figures, tastes pretty normal.

Ratings

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