Earlier, we posted about the 2 Evangelion guitars featuring Rei Ayanami, which will be auctioned off this December 1st, no doubt at no small price. If you simply have to have one of these, but don’t have the large sums of money to get one, you can always settle for a 1/8 scale replica by F-Toys. F-Toys makes a lot of precision 1/8 scale replicas of guitars, so these will no doubt match their quality, and based on the images we’ve seen, they look just like the real thing.

To be released at mid January 2010, these 1/8 replicas will stand at about 125mm and will retail for 4,725円. Although the stand isn’t included, it does come with its own carrying case featuring the Nerv logo and the guitar type.

Click to see more pictures.
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Fender USA is producing 2 Evangelion guitars designed by Yuriy Shishkov, a telecaster and stratocaster, both with Rei Ayanami on the body. The maple neck and 22-fret rosewood fingerboard features a mother of pearl Lance of Longinus inlay design. All hardware is gold plated. No word on how much they’ll be selling for, but chances are these will have a price tag of over $1000.

• Eva Blog
• Fender Evangelion page (Japanese)
• Interview with Yuriy Shishkov

Update:
According to Oricon, these 2 guitars will be auctioned on December 1st, 2009.

John Oppliger, an employee of AnimeNation.com who answers fan questions about the anime industry and Japanese culture, recently addressed the lack of excitement and poor performance of Evangelion 1.0’s American distribution. He notes some potential causes such as screening in independent venues with little advertising, the delay in American licensing, and the views of many fans that the movies are simply a remake. So what do you think? As Eva fans, we get excited about any Evangelion related news but what about the non-diehards? Is 1.0 performing below expectations in the US? What are some of the reasons that there’s a lack of interest among American anime fans?

• Ask John blog post

A week or so ago, it was announced that Shiro Sagisu, who was in charge of the music in the Evangelion TV Series, the movies and Rebuild of Evangelion, was releasing a CD(s) of some of Evangelion’s music performed by an orchestra. I noticed today that the 2 releases were up in the Evangelion Store for pre-order for 3,500 円. The expected release date is on November 26th of this year for both.

The both sets are 2 discs, one is a music CD and the other a CD-ROM containing PDF’s of the scores, and a booklet containing a performance guide and interviews. The performances in this CD include the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra, a Murata Youiti group and a Sagisu group. The Murata Youti group consists of flutes, clarinets, oboes, a full brass section, bass, vibes, and a percussion section including drums. The Sagisu group consists of a full brass section, piano, synthesizers, guitar, electric and acoustic bass, and drums. Yoko Takahashi is the guest lead vocalist.

• Evangelion Wind Symphony #1
• Evangelion Wind Symphony #2

Our previous posts about Medicom’s “Real Action Heroes” Shinji, Rei and Asuka will now be joined with a Kaworu Nagisa in his Evangelion 2.0 plugsuit. Like the other figures in the RAH line, it stands about 30cm tall, has moveable joints underneath the plugsuit and will retail for 17,640 yen. Expected release is April of 2010.

• Mediacom Toys
• Kaworu Nagisa RAH @ Project 1.6 Online Store.

According to a recent Newtype interview, as discussed on tokyo3cn, reposted to the Evangelion ML, and once more reposted here for your delight and consumption, Rebuild of Evangelion 3.0 is due out in the Summer of 2010.  This is earlier than expected, as it took nearly two years between 1.0 and 2.0.  Apparently, the films have been so successful that they’re not limiting the budget on 3.0, and with the staff from the previous two films, they’ll be adding new staff, maintaining the same level of quality, and pushing the film out much earlier than expected.  The only downside is that the directors/supervisiors won’t be able to do interviews/press conferences.  I’d say that’s a pretty fair trade, wouldn’t you?

Similar to the Rei Ayanami jigsaw puzzles released shortly after Evangelion 1.0, You Are (Not) Alone, in the wake of Evangelion 2.0 we have an Asuka jigsaw puzzle. The Blue Sky image has Asuka wearing her plugsuit leaning on what is supposed to be her Evangelion against a blue sky background, and is illustrated by Fukano Youichi. The jigsaw puzzle is 1000 pieces, 50 × 75cm, and pre-orders are available through Rakuten for 2,198 円. The expected release date is mid November.

• Asuka Jigsaw Puzzle at Rakuten

Eleven Arts Inc. has asked Anime News Network to give away up to 310 tickets to Evangelion 1.0, You Are (Not) Alone, screenings across theatres in Canada. Go to Anime News Network’s website to sign-up. The contest ends on September 19th at midnight and on September 21st, they will announce the winners of free tickets.

Click on “Read More” to see a listing of all the theatres involved in this giveaway.

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The Evangelion 2.0 movie program and Eva-Extra 04, both sold at the theatres during the 2.0 run, are now being sold at the Evangelion Store. According to the product description, both look to be the same as what was sold at the theatres.

The 2.0 movie program contained lots of movie stills, some from the trailers, as well as an interview with Tsurumaki about the CG in the movie. It’s A4 sized, has a couple of centerfolds and has Evangelion Unit-01 on the cover illustrated by Takeshi Honda. The EvaStore is selling it for 1,000 円. Note that the movie program does contain 2.0 spoilers.

Eva-Extra 04 is a plastic bound with a plastic sleeve, 66 page version of Eva-Extra containing much of the images from the first 3. It also contains “pin-ups” with the previous Eva-Extra covers as well as some postcards. The EvaStore lists this at 1,300 円.

• 2.0 Movie Program
• Eva-Extra 04
• Some (crappy) pictures I took of my copy of Eva-Extra 04

Update for our previous 1.0 and 2.0 screening in Australia post.

Forum member Riotgear found the thread about Reel Anime ’09 at the Madman forums. In particular Slykura, Madman staff, says this: Just to confirm. Yes it’s on hold. There are some silly reasons for it that I can’t delve into but we are hopeful in bringing it back in 2010!. So it looks like Reel Anime won’t be running for 2009 but should be back in 2010.