LMHGNeon Genesis Evangelion

Evangelion EVA-00 Proto Type

Rei's Unit-00 as originally built, straight from Bandai's original 1996 Evangelion tooling.

MechaGrade Score

3.0/5

EVA-00 · non-scale · 1996

GradeLMHG

Scalenon-scale

Released1996

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

Like its 00' sibling, this is honest vintage Bandai tooling for Rei Ayanami's Unit-00, not a modern kit dressed up to look old.

Scalemates catalogs it as LM014, later in the original 1996 line's run than the 00' repaired version, which is a small but real piece of the line's release history. Judge it as the 1990s snap kit it is and it's a fine pickup; judge it against modern Bandai engineering and it will disappoint.

Best for: Evangelion collectors building out the original 1996 LMHG line who want the plain Proto Type alongside the repaired 00' version

The full review

What it is

EVA-00 Proto Type depicts Unit-00, the first functional Evangelion built and referred to on-model as "EVA-00 PROTO TYPE," piloted by Rei Ayanami. Scalemates catalogs this specific kit as LM014 in Bandai's original 1996 LMHG Evangelion snap-kit line, using genuinely new tooling for its release, and it ships in the same folding, side-opening box style as the rest of that original line. Because Bandai's own wiki-level infobox pairs this Proto Type against the repaired 00' (Kai) version as the two named states of the same suit, this kit and the EVA-00' Proto Type are best thought of as a matched pair covering the character's before-and-after story states.

The catch

The honest caveats are the same as the rest of this original 1996 line: sticker-driven color work and basic articulation rather than a modern inner frame, non-scale sizing that won't match a 1/144 or 1/100 Gundam shelf, and thin recent build commentary online because the tooling is thirty years old. None of that makes it a bad kit for what it is, but it isn't competing with current-generation engineering and shouldn't be judged like it is.

Who it's for

This is for Evangelion collectors specifically chasing the original 1996 LMHG line, especially if you're pairing it with the repaired EVA-00' release for a before-and-after display. If modern articulation matters more than kit history to you, look at the 2021 RG Evangelion Unit-00 instead, which is a current-generation kit of the same character.

The build story

What the build is actually like, and the engineering worth knowing about.

Confirmed facts: this is catalogued as LM014 in Bandai's original 1996 LMHG Evangelion line, using new tooling at release, and it ships in the same folding, side-opening box as its line-mates from that era.

As with the 00' release, I don't have current, kit-specific build logs to pull granular claims from, so I'm sticking to what's verifiable. Expect a straightforward snap-together build with the color-separation and articulation limits typical of Bandai's pre-inner-frame era, not a modern engineering showcase.

Lore & trivia

01This kit is catalogued as LM014 in Bandai's original 1996 LMHG Evangelion snap-kit line.
02Unit-00 is the first functional Evangelion built and is piloted by Rei Ayanami.
03This Proto Type release and the repaired EVA-00' kit are presented together on the character's reference wiki page as the two named states of the same suit.
04It ships in a folding, side-opening box, matching the packaging style of Bandai's original mid-1990s Evangelion line.