Won, Not Sold: The 2001 Sega Asuka and Unit-02 Prize Plush Set
Three of these are already gone. One sold, then the same buyer came back on Mercari and took two more. So this post is going up now, while there is still something to point at. As far as I can tell, nobody else is holding this set right now. That will not stay true for long, and I would rather show the whole shelf once than write about an empty one later.
What they are
In 2001 Sega ran a prize line for Neon Genesis Evangelion built around one character: Asuka Langley Soryu. Five plushes. Four Asukas in different outfits, plus her Evangelion, Unit-02. Each one carries a Sega Prize hang tag, and the back of that tag is a six-panel photo collage showing the full set. The tag is its own checklist. Flip it over and you can see what you are missing.
Prize means exactly that. These were loaded into UFO Catchers (Sega's crane machines) in Japanese arcades. You did not buy one at a counter. You fed the machine, lost, fed it again, and eventually walked out with a plush under your arm or went home with nothing. There was no retail box, no barcode on a shelf, no reorder. When the machine ran empty, that was the run.
The timing matters. 2001 sits after the original series (1995 to 1996) and End of Evangelion (1997), and before the pachinko machines (2004) and the Rebuild films (2007 onward) that put the franchise back on every surface in Japan. This is the quiet stretch. Eva goods from this window were made for people who were still watching a show that had ended, not for a marketing push. That is why they are thin on the ground now. Prize plushes get won, get loved, get thrown out. Very few get kept with the tag on.
All five here have the tag on. The sewn-in fabric tag reads GAINAX / Project Eva, the licensing line you want to see on anything from this period.
The five
1. School uniform
Blue jumper dress, white blouse, red bow, the school bag. This is the Asuka most people picture first, which is probably why Sega led with it. Light handling wear on the fabric, consistent with 25 years of existing. No rips, no stains. Sold.
2. Red plugsuit
The pilot version. Red suit, black shoulder pads, the 02 marking on the chest. This is the one that pairs with the Unit-02 plush, and it is the one collectors who want a single Asuka usually go for. Tag attached, clean fabric. Sold.
3. Bath towel
Wrapped in a towel with a matching towel wrap on her hair, from the post-bath scene. This is the odd one in the set. A prize company in 2001 chose to make a plush of a character in a bath towel and put it in a crane machine, and the tag back treats it like any other outfit. That is the set telling you what era it came from. Sold.
4. Yellow sundress
Yellow sundress, red mary jane shoes. Her civilian look from the middle of the series. Of the four Asukas this is the one that turns up least, tagged or not. Tag attached, clean fabric.
5. Unit-02
Asuka's Evangelion in red and yellow, four eyes, horned mask, clawed feet. The only non-human in the set, and the one that makes it a set instead of a wardrobe. Condition note: there is a small tear with loose threads at one leg seam near the foot. It is in the photos. Everything else is clean. Tag attached.
How to read one of these if you find your own
Three things to check, in order. First, the hang tag. It should say Sega Prize on the front and carry the six-panel collage on the back. A plush with no tag is still real, but you are now taking someone's word on the year. Second, the sewn fabric tag inside the seam. It should carry the GAINAX / Project Eva license line. Third, the fabric itself. 2001 prize plush is a short, slightly stiff pile, not the soft minky material that took over in the 2010s. If it feels like a modern plush, it is a modern plush.
Bootleg Eva prize goods exist, and the ones that show up mostly copy the Rebuild era designs, because that is where the money went. The 2001 line is old enough and small enough that nobody bothered faking it. That is the upside of a quiet era.
Where it stands
Three sold: the school uniform, the plugsuit, and the bath towel. Two left as of this post: the yellow sundress and Unit-02. Those are the only two links above. If one of them stops working, someone got there first, which is how prize plush has always worked.
I got these together and I would have liked to sell them together. That did not happen, and I am not going to pretend it did. What I can do is put the whole tag back on one page so the set exists somewhere, even after the last one ships.