LMHGNeon Genesis Evangelion

Evangelion Sachiel (3rd Angel)

The Angel that started the whole show, boiled down to a snap-together shelf piece.

MechaGrade Score

3.2/5

Sachiel · non-scale · 1997

GradeLMHG

Scalenon-scale

Released1997

Runnersn/a

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The verdict

I like this one as a piece of franchise history more than as a display of engineering.

Sachiel is the very first Angel the show throws at you, the thing that drags Shinji into an Eva cockpit in episode one, and Bandai's 1997 LMHG kit renders it as a straightforward snap-fit model rather than anything close to Gunpla-grade complexity. Judge it on those terms and it holds up fine. Judge it against a modern kit and it will disappoint you.

Best for: Evangelion fans who want Sachiel on the shelf and are fine with a simple, vintage snap-together build

The full review

What it is

This is Bandai's original Limited Model High Grade take on Sachiel, the 3rd Angel, dating back to 1997 and molded to match the design straight off the show, tall, thin, with the disproportionately long arms and that unsettling near-featureless bird-like head. The kit box lists a plastic sprue set plus a sticker sheet for the marking and detail work, which tells you upfront this is not an inner-frame kit with painted-in color separation the way a modern MG would be. It is closer in spirit to an old-school character model than to contemporary Gunpla engineering, built to get an accurate Sachiel silhouette in front of you without a lot of fuss.

The catch

Being a 1997 non-scale snap kit, do not expect posability or panel-line detail anywhere near what a current-era Bandai release offers. Sachiel's design itself does not lend itself to dynamic posing anyway (it is mostly a rigid, alien body plan rather than an articulated humanoid), but the kit's own engineering compounds that with limited joints even where the anime design would allow more. Color accuracy leans on the sticker sheet for the finer facial and body markings rather than molded-in plastic color, so out of the box the finish will read flatter than the show's coloring unless you paint over it. Detailed builder writeups for this specific kit are thin online, so treat any claims about exact fit and cleanup as general expectations for the line rather than confirmed specifics.

Who it's for

This is a good pickup if you are chasing a complete Angel lineup or want an accurate Sachiel silhouette without hunting for a garage kit, and you are comfortable with a simple vintage build rather than a modern engineering showcase. It is not for anyone expecting Gunpla-style articulation, full molded color separation, or a challenging build session, this is a quick, straightforward snap-together project. If your interest is purely in posability and detail payoff, you will get more satisfaction from a newer-tooled Eva unit kit than from this older Angel line.

The build story

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

The box contents are simple: a plastic sprue set and a sticker sheet, no polycaps and no inner frame, which puts this firmly in the era of Bandai character kits built for accuracy of silhouette over mechanical complexity. That means assembly should be quick and low-tool, closer to snapping together a display figure than working through a modern multi-runner kit.

Where this kit earns its keep is faithfulness to the source design rather than build sophistication. Sachiel's proportions, that long-limbed, barely-humanoid shape with the bone-beaked head, come through clearly once assembled, which is really the whole point of an Angel kit. Just do not go in expecting the kind of panel lining, color separation, or joint engineering that later Bandai lines would bring to the table.

Lore & trivia

01Sachiel is the 3rd Angel and the first to attack after the Second Impact, emerging from the ocean near Tokyo-3 and fighting Evangelion Unit-01 on its very first operational sortie.
02Sachiel is unusual among the Angels for breathing through gills in its thighs and exhaling through its crotch, a respiration system that doubles as underwater propulsion.
03After surviving an N2 mine attack, Sachiel regenerates a second head with a shorter beak and gains the ability to fire long-range crucifix-shaped energy blasts, a scene that became one of the show's most iconic images.