Kit Review

Straight build

Evangelion Vertical Take-off and Landing Aircraft - Size comparison with a cigarette pack. It's a bit larger than other Kotob

Size comparison with a cigarette pack
It's a bit larger than other Kotobukiya aircraft kits.

Evangelion Vertical Take-off and Landing Aircraft (1/6)

Evangelion Vertical Take-off and Landing Aircraft (2/6)

Evangelion Vertical Take-off and Landing Aircraft (3/6)

Evangelion Vertical Take-off and Landing Aircraft (4/6)

Evangelion Vertical Take-off and Landing Aircraft (5/6)

Evangelion Vertical Take-off and Landing Aircraft (6/6)

Underside

Upper/lower canopy section

Evangelion Vertical Take-off and Landing Aircraft - You can choose between a tinted type or a clear type for the canopy when

You can choose between a tinted type or a clear type for the canopy when building.

Evangelion Vertical Take-off and Landing Aircraft - Detail shots of various sections. The densely packed minus-mold bolt mark

Detail shots of various sections.
The densely packed minus-mold bolt marks give it a real aero kit feel.

Evangelion Vertical Take-off and Landing Aircraft - Landing gear detail. Compared to aero kits it's a bit chunky.. just simpl

Landing gear detail.
Compared to aero kits it's a bit chunky.. just simple Gunpla-level detail.

The landing gear can be swapped out with covers.

The underside with the covers swapped in.

Included dedicated stand

Evangelion Vertical Take-off and Landing Aircraft - To mount it on the stand, you need to remove one of the landing gear cove

To mount it on the stand, you need to remove one of the landing gear covers.

Mounted on the stand.

Evangelion Vertical Take-off and Landing Aircraft - Vertical takeoff scene (1/4)

Evangelion Vertical Take-off and Landing Aircraft - Vertical takeoff scene (2/4)

Vertical takeoff scene

Evangelion Vertical Take-off and Landing Aircraft - Recreating the moment of landing/takeoff with the rotors turning (1/5)

Evangelion Vertical Take-off and Landing Aircraft - Recreating the moment of landing/takeoff with the rotors turning (2/5)

Evangelion Vertical Take-off and Landing Aircraft - Recreating the moment of landing/takeoff with the rotors turning (3/5)

Recreating the moment of landing/takeoff with the rotors turning

Together with the aircraft kit R-Gray 1.

This kit is based on the aircraft that appears in Evangelion: New Theatrical Edition — the NERV Commander's Exclusive Vertical Take-off and Landing Aircraft for VIP Transport— quite the mouthful of a name. ^^; They've gone and kit-ified a pretty unique flying mecha from the anime..

First off, the kit is 100% snap-fit in the easy Gunpla-style assembly format — low parts count and very straightforward to build. Clipping parts off the runners, cleaning up the gates, and snapping everything together takes well under an hour at a relaxed pace. If you move quickly, 30 minutes from opening the box to finished build is plenty.

That said, the detail level feels closer to an aero kit than standard Gunpla — the densely engraved minus-mold bolt shapes all over the body are really striking. The landing gear section, though, is pretty much your typical simple Gunpla-style shape.

Feature-wise, both engine nacelles can rotate, and the landing gear can be swapped out with covers for the in-flight configuration. As a bonus, you can choose between a clear orange or fully transparent canopy, and the kit also comes with a large waterslide decal sheet and a dedicated display stand.

The super easy assembly is genuinely impressive, but… for something this simple to build with this little in the box, the ¥4,500 price tag is pretty steep. Once you've actually built it, it's honestly hard to justify the cost — maybe the license fees were just that expensive?

All in all, this is a Gunpla-style aircraft kit with fairly refined detail — it looks great even as a straight build, and painting it up with decals doesn't look out of place at all. Price aside, it's a pretty sharp little kit. :-)

Evangelion Vertical Take-off and Landing Aircraft | 2012.4 | ¥4,500

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.