The Evangelion Test Type-01, or Shogōki, is the purple machine of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Gainax's 1995 series directed by Hideaki Anno, and of the Rebuild of Evangelion films. Nerv builds it as the second unit and sends it into the first real operation.
What it does in the story
Its first activation, in 2004, uses Yui Ikari as the test subject; her sync rate passes 400 per cent and she dissolves. Eleven years later Shinji Ikari reaches 41.3 per cent on his first attempt.
What makes it different
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Designed as a demon, not a toy.
Anno asked Ikuto Yamashita for a giant barely under the control of humankind, and Yamashita took the scale from Gulliver's Travels. A toy company told Gainax the design could never sell.
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It keeps what it eats.
In the nineteenth episode it devours the Angel Zeruel and assimilates its S² Engine, the organ that makes energy without an external supply, freeing it from the umbilical cable.
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The number is written in Chinese.
The first three units use traditional Chinese numerals, which is why this one is Shogōki and not simply Unit 01.
How big is it?
- Original series: No height is stated on screen; Newtype printed an estimate of forty metres, as did the early proposal.
- Rebuild films: Around seventy metres, or eighty with the vertical supports.
What this collection covers
Kotobukiya carries most of the page: 1/400 action-figure kits in plain, Night Combat and Awakening versions, a non-scale television kit, one with the Spear of Cassius and a Godzilla-coloured variant. Meng and MODEROID add further kits. Finished pieces include the Metal Build 30th anniversary release with the Spear of Gaius, threezero's ROBO-DOU in three versions and a Takara Tomy TOYRISE figure.
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Frequently asked questions
1. What is the Test Type?
Unit-01, the second Evangelion built at Nerv and the first used in an actual operation.
2. Who pilots it?
The pilot is Shinji Ikari, the Third Child. The 2004 activation before him used his mother, Yui Ikari, as the test subject.
3. What is the S² Engine?
The organ Angels use to generate energy without an outside supply. Unit-01 acquires one by eating Zeruel.
