Finally free after 12 years - unboxing Rei Ayanami

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Finally free after 12 years - unboxing Rei Ayanami - Printable Version

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Finally free after 12 years - unboxing Rei Ayanami - Loona - 08-31-2020

I have been playing with the thought of adding a Pullip Rei Ayanami to my collection of blue-haired girls for some time, and (after numerous failed bidding attempts) earlier this year I managed to win her through an auction that ended with a price within my budget. She arrived already in mid-July, but I am super lazy, and only managed to upload her photos today.

Since her plugsuit is known to have issues, I took some pictures of unboxing her and removing her plugsuit - I thought it might be useful for anyone who might be considering getting her MIB with plans of deboxing her. Here we go smile

A first glance at her through the bubble wrap - my possible plans of changing her red eyechips to a more neutral colour vanished right here - I LOVE how her eye colour pops among all the blue Heart

Unboxing Rei - first glance! by ~Loona~, on Flickr

I love the little touches of personalisation made to the box, like the NERV logo added to the top!

Unboxing Rei - lovely box art! by ~Loona~, on Flickr

Uh-oh! Even though the box has never been opened, the plugsuit is already disintegrating where the plastic band keeping the doll in place is touching it.

Unboxing Rei - MIB plugsuit by ~Loona~, on Flickr

Finally some fresh air! A relief after spending more than 12 years in a box smile

She has likely been stored in a basement for quite some time, as the box had a heavy musty smell that still remains as of today, more than 1.5 months after the unboxing.

The little black dot on her left eye is unfortunately a defect, not just a speck of dust. I'll think of ways of removing it, but for now, luckily it doesn't bother me too much. Just look at those mesmerizing eyes! Considering how massively I dislike the colour red, they must be magical if they have this effect on me! smile

Unboxing Rei - first glance out of box! by ~Loona~, on Flickr

A first OOB shot of the - yet untouched - plugsuit.

Unboxing Rei - plugsuit issues by ~Loona~, on Flickr

...aaaand this is what happened as I carefully peeled the plastic band away sad

Unboxing Rei - disintegrating plugsuit by ~Loona~, on Flickr

Other parts of the plugsuit that were in contact with a plastic band behaved in a similar way...

Unboxing Rei - disintegrating plugsuit by ~Loona~, on Flickr

Unboxing Rei - disintegrating plugsuit by ~Loona~, on Flickr

Here is my lovely little ninja finally out of her box!

Unboxing Rei - free now! by ~Loona~, on Flickr

At this point I started very carefully removing the plugsuit. Taking the plastic top part off has left further damage, and no matter how careful I was, the pleather material was flaking with even the slightest wrinkling. At this point I was starting to lose hope of saving this part of the stock...

Unboxing Rei - taking the plugsuit off by ~Loona~, on Flickr

And this is what remained of the plugsuit after I fully took it off Rei. Flakes everywhere! I saved the suit for measurements and sentimental reasons, but I don't consider it useable anymore. Thankfully I didn't really want to use it anyway.

Unboxing Rei - the remainders of the plugsuit by ~Loona~, on Flickr

Unboxing Rei - the remainders of the plugsuit by ~Loona~, on Flickr

Thankfully the box contains another dress: Rei's school uniform, which is what I wanted to use as her main stock. Let's try it on!

Unboxing Rei - let's try that extra dress on! by ~Loona~, on Flickr

Unboxing Rei - all ready for school! by ~Loona~, on Flickr

Now that's better! She's all ready for school, which starts next Tuesday here. I love how she looks now, and she is finally able to move without leaving fairy dust (=flakes of the plugsuit) everywhere smile

Her shoes are still in the box - this is where I grew tired (I don't know how much time I spent trying to carefully pry the plugsuit off, but it was A LOT), and just gave her another pair from my box of shoes.

After all those years in box, her hair lays super flat, making her bangs really long. The whole wig is longer than it should be by the way, and its bottom curls up funnily - I'll see what I'm going to do about that.

Unboxing Rei - box hair smile

by ~Loona~, on Flickr

I'm very happy to finally have Rei, and I now feel my blue-haired girl gang is complete! ^^

RE: Finally free after 12 years - unboxing Rei Ayanami - Elfy - 08-31-2020

Yay! You have an Evie! We call her Evie anyway. Her suit hadn't totally disintegrated, but Lejays took it off and she's never worn it since. In fact I don't even know where it is. She does look way better in her uniform anyway.

RE: Finally free after 12 years - unboxing Rei Ayanami - dargosmydaddy - 08-31-2020

Aw, she's cute! Love the school uniform.

RE: Finally free after 12 years - unboxing Rei Ayanami - werepuppy - 08-31-2020

Oh, wow that plugsuit did not last.long following unboxing. She's still super cute, though!

RE: Finally free after 12 years - unboxing Rei Ayanami - Kanrabat - 08-31-2020

As ekesupekutedu, it's the same with Rei as it was with my Asuka. Those plug-suit were not made to last.
Regardless, the main purpose of those dolls are to be redressed. I really don't like that school uniform that look more like some stage show armor than anything else. So my Asuka became A bloodthristy Red Riding Hood!

I'm pretty sure your Rei will be even more amazing in the right outfit, benifiting from her superb stock wig and eyes.

RE: Finally free after 12 years - unboxing Rei Ayanami - Alliecat - 08-31-2020

Groove's choice of materials and QC is an absolute disgrace.
/end rant

Yay! for getting her out of the box!! grin

As an anti-boxxer ( wink

) I'm always happy to see dolls get finally released from their boxes and enjoyed. I think the little curl in her hair is cute -- at least it looks uniform all the way around & not just one bit sticking out. You could probably poof up the bangs a little bit. Congrats on completing your blue-haired gang (for now at least, hahaha!).

RE: Finally free after 12 years - unboxing Rei Ayanami - Elfy - 08-31-2020

The curl is cute. Our Evie has them, too.

RE: Finally free after 12 years - unboxing Rei Ayanami - neon_jellyfish - 08-31-2020

Congrats on new member of the Blue Squad!

Sadly, pleather does this all on its own, it's an inherent characteristic of the material, and the best of the best storing conditions can only slow it down, not stop it.

RE: Finally free after 12 years - unboxing Rei Ayanami - Lejays17 - 08-31-2020

I have no idea where Evie's plug-suit is. I haven't seen it since I changed her (like you did!) out of it about a day after I unboxed her.

ours doesn't curl outwards like yours does, it's a bit more inwards.

She's an excellent addition to your blue girls.

RE: Finally free after 12 years - unboxing Rei Ayanami - davidd - 09-01-2020

The schoolgirl uniform looks to be in excellent condition. Love the pic with her hair combed down over her eyes!

RE: Finally free after 12 years - unboxing Rei Ayanami - tasuke - 09-02-2020

(08-31-2020, 06:51 PM)neon_jellyfish Wrote: Sadly, pleather does this all on its own, it's an inherent characteristic of the material, and the best of the best storing conditions can only slow it down, not stop it.

such a beautiful "Fabric" and yet so very Cursed.
i worked with it a couple times about a decade-plus ago, came to find out about it's terminal flaws, and have sworn off of it since...

https://www.deviantart.com/shaorin-chan/art/Miss-Shao-as-Lynn-Minmay-2-158948286

https://www.deviantart.com/shaorin-chan/art/Princess-Ayeka-Idol-Singer-1-88262977

RE: Finally free after 12 years - unboxing Rei Ayanami - dunneh - 10-25-2020

She's cute! Congrats! I have her too but I got her to rechip and rewig years and years ago (My idea was to turn her into Arimi from Marmalade Boy)... and I haven't done it yet. LOL

She has a really sweet faceup. It's such a shame about the plugsuit. I have mine in storage but I'm sure it will fare no better. sad

I looked through my stuff the other day and my Celsiy stock jacket is doing the same thing. It breaks my heart a bit because its SUCH a cute jacket. Darn you JP/Groove *shakes fist*

RE: Finally free after 12 years - unboxing Rei Ayanami - Loona - 11-06-2020

Aww, apologies for never coming back to this topic up until today - I wanted to respond with a new picture of her also included, which sadly never happened due to a photo block (and then a forum block) sad

Thank you for the kind comments everyone! Rei is settling in with the others. They are accepting of her, but she still feels a little out of place and shy, which is somewhat ex-pected when one is dropped into a cohesive gang of 3 sisters and a fourth girl who has shared interests with at least one of those. She is now finding comfort in running around in a Hello Kitty outfit (I know, I know, pictures, or it never happened! She's not taking it off until that happens, I promise!), rolled up in the middle of their room.

(08-31-2020, 08:05 AM)Elfy Wrote: Yay! You have an Evie! We call her Evie anyway.

Yep! I always loved watching your Evie, and deep inside I wished to someday bring my own Evie home. I missed out on her a few times, so I was happy when I finally managed to buy her. She will keep her name here though - I won't say I don't have renamed Pullips, but in my case the renamings happened because out of the 5 blueheads, 3 are technically the same character (Hatsune Miku), so 2 of them needed new names to reflect that in my realm they are 3 separate identities.

(08-31-2020, 09:30 AM)Kanrabat Wrote: As ekesupekutedu, it's the same with Rei as it was with my Asuka. Those plug-suit were not made to last.
Regardless, the main purpose of those dolls are to be redressed. I really don't like that school uniform that look more like some stage show armor than anything else. So my Asuka became A bloodthristy Red Riding Hood!

I'm pretty sure your Rei will be even more amazing in the right outfit, benifiting from her superb stock wig and eyes.

I actually re-read your unboxing post before I dared to unbox Rei! I remembered how awful the plugsuit behaved for you, so I was prepared for the worst - but it was still disappointing. Oh well, I really didn't plan to use it anyway, in this house Rei isn't a fighter who would need one. She's seen enough battles, it's time to be a careless little girl. It's funny how I also think of Miku as some kind of a retired singer who just wants to be a regular girl now - and Ami is also not running around as Sailor Mercury. I'll need to come up with a new and fancy name for their room, like "Sanctuary for Burnt-out Superheroes and Superstars" Tongue

You know, I originally had thoughts of rechipping her - I really don't like red, and I wasn't sure if I will accept her red eyes in my blue-haired, blue-eyed girl gang. Much to my surprise, I actually find her eyes mesmerizing, and a totally positive distinctive feature of hers in all that blueness.

(08-31-2020, 11:15 AM)Alliecat Wrote: Congrats on completing your blue-haired gang (for now at least, hahaha!).

I was really fearing how I will react once she will be here. Will I feel complete, or will I crave for Neo Angelique? Prunella? Chelsea? All of these were once wishlist girls, mainly because of their hair colour. I have been in the doll hobby long enough to know I should neve say 'no' or 'never', but for now, I feel content with the bunch I have, and no longer crave the ones I just listed. With time I learned to look at them more rationally, and found features in all of them that I don't really like, and realised that I shouldn't - I don't *need* them just because their hair is blue. I have managed to buy Prunella's stock separately (I really wanted that for my J-dolls), and I would probably buy her wig too, as well as Chelsea's stock, but I don't want any of them as complete dolls anymore. They wouldn't fit into the group.
(that said, before someone thinks I learned what 'enough' means: I did acquire a second Andrassy, and a third is on my wishlist Sweatdrop

blue triplet fixation must be a thing, because I certainly have it Innocent

)

RE: Finally free after 12 years - unboxing Rei Ayanami - Kanrabat - 11-06-2020

"Sanctuary for Burnt-out Superheroes and Superstars"

LOL

I like that concept a lot! Furthermore, too many super hero costume are just plain plasniks. So seeing super heroes and idols in casual wear, just chillin', is very refreshing.
Like the Miku in my sig!

RE: Finally free after 12 years - unboxing Rei Ayanami - Alliecat - 11-06-2020

Nice to see you back smile

Oooh, I can understand the love for Andrassy!

(11-06-2020, 08:38 AM)Loona Wrote: I'll need to come up with a new and fancy name for their room, like "Sanctuary for Burnt-out Superheroes and Superstars"

S.-B.O.S.S. would be a good acronym for such a group... and it sounds like a crew like that should have their own TV series. Or at least a photostory wink