Finally free after 12 years - unboxing Rei Ayanami

[Loona]

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

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



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 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!


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


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

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 by ~Loona~, on Flickr

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