Shamshel
Review by JoshB
Shamsel is an angel. Not just any angel, but a giant, super-powered monster angel.
Of course, when we are talking about Neon Genesis Evangelion, the term Angel takes on new connotations.
The Angels are the bad guys of the series, sent to the earth to steal panties from Japanese school girls. No, wait.. that's not right. But it would make more sense if it was.
Shamshel is the Fourth Angel (Fifth if we are talking Rebuild of Evangelion) and is one of many Angels that attack earth, more specifically, NerV headquarters.
Shamsel attacks Eva Unit 01, and the battle is fierce. Unit 01's power supply is severed in the attack and manages to kill Shamsel seconds before his power runs out.
If you haven't seen NGE, then this may be lost on you. Shame on you.
While there have been tons of toys of the EVA units, there have been very few of the Angels, and mostly we get Satchiel or something. But with Bandai's Soul of Sofubi line, they started to make vinyl toys of the Angels. Unfortunately, they stopped after only a few releases.
Shamshel is the last release in the line.
As a vinyl toy, it's not bad, but doesn't do much. Shamshel stands 22cm tall, and features two clear energy whips and a clear core. There's no articulation.
Shamshel comes loose on a hang tag with a card, and the energy whips are packaged in a plastic case. You need to attach the whips, and they are keyed to go in a specific way.
Because Shamshel is not bagged or anything, he's often found scuffed or damaged.
There you go - Shamshel. It exists.
Comments
8 comments postedI remember reading from one of the way in-depth NGE fan-sites that the Japanese term used for the bad guys really should have been translated as 'Apostles' rather than 'Angels', which I always thought sounded a bit cooler...
These Soul of Soft Vinyl releases always make me sad... it really WOULD be cool to have a full set of the Angels for your Evas to fight, and soft vinyl is the ideal medium for them. These guys were a good size and had solid detail, but the articulation always seemed to be lacking, even for a vinyl figure, and any time I've seen the few that came out, they were way too expensive. I always felt like these could/should have been $10 a pop like the Bandai Godzilla/Ultraman vinyls. The Angels all had vastly more simple designs than even the lamest of Ultra-kaiju, and don't seem that hard to make. For $20, this guy should have come with flexible whips, at least. It seems like if they'd priced them better or made them better, they would have sold well enough to warrant finishing the line. As it stands, my local comic shop has the first Angel (Saschiel?) and the two that split in half, all for $35 each, and they're going to sit there... forever.
Cool. These exist. At 22cm, I guess Clamshell, and the other Angels are roughly in scale to put with SOC Evas.
I LOVE this series of toys! It's sad they don't get the press or accolades like they should or deserve. Like SOC they seem to cover a lot of ground for a such simple release and Bandai does an excellent job with these releases. The Arashi I reviewed is just awesome and one of my favorites in my collection. I have another lined up for review from Kaman Rider Stronger. On Y-Auctions these toys are mostly very inexpensive and they can be had under 1000yen. I just hope they release vinyl figures of JAKQ soon as they have already released Goranger and I need to pick up the Kikaider figure soon.
If any CDX reviewers have any more Soul of Soft Vinyl in their collections please review them as I would like to see more!
Leonardo Flores
CollectionDX Staff Writer-West Coast Bureau
I think the Israfel twins are sitting in the reviews cache now. Only they, Shamusial here, and Sachiel were released.
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CollectionDX Staff
The problem with most of the Angels is their massive scale differences and structural integrity.
Ignoring how much shelf space you have to spare, and assuming that they're all to scale with an SOC Evangelion Unit:
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CollectionDX Staff
Awesome! Looks like you've already thought about this, Eva!
Leonardo Flores
CollectionDX Staff Writer-West Coast Bureau
A bit, a bit.
;)
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CollectionDX Staff
In the new movies they redesign some of the Angels. Shamsel is still there but has better details etc... he or it was never a favorite of mine. The scene where Shinji pulls his pals into the entry plug is the most unbelievable scene, since there supposed to be pressurized upon entry... but whatever. When he kills it with the knife in a rage is awesome. About the toy: kinda boring... for this EVA fan.