Long before the resurrection begain in 2009, Leiji Matsumoto made his own attempt to bring Yamato back to life as part of a grand plan to unify all of his creations. Its title Shin [New] Space Battleship Yamato, but the secondary English name did a better job of setting it apart: Space Battleship Great Yamato.
Unable to complete his ambitious plans for Great Yamato, Leiji Matsumoto immediately transformed it into a bigger project. What made Dai Yamato different is that it didn’t start out as a manga. It would go straight to animation…by way of your local pachinko parlor.
Though some aspects of Yamato merchandising are firmly rooted in the production years, plenty of new and different products began to appear shortly after 1983. In time, the number of items began to equal and then surpass their predecessors in both quantity and quality. This deep and impressive archive begins here.
Continuing the archive of merchandising, we find phone cards, watches, the beginning of Leiji Matsumoto exhibitions, lighters, dolls, toys, apparel, and much more.
The archive of merchandising is further expanded with Dessler wine, a Cosmo Zero helmet, electronics, products attached to Yamato Resurrection and the live-action movie, new companies getting on board, a Yamato t-shirt is off to outer space, and the most expensive Yamato collectibles ever made. See them all here.
While in possession of the Yamato copyright from 1998-2002, Leiji Matsumoto put his name and personal stamp of approval on many products from toys to books to video releases. Here we focus on the Yamato products that directly resulted from his personal touch.
Though they no longer exist as a company, Mimuko was instrumental in returning Space Battleship Yamato to toy shelves, and the charge they lead is still underway. They were the first to acquire a Yamato toy license from Bandai Visual in the 1990s and end a dry spell that went all the way back to 1981.
New technology leads to bigger and better toys from diverse branches of the Bandai family tree from 1999 onward. See them all on these three pages: Banpresto (1999-2001) Popy, Plex, and Megahouse (2001-2008) Bandai toys (2007-2011)
Translated from Matsumoto’s autobiography, The Far Place Where the Ring of Time is Linked. The book culminates with a chapter devoted to Space Battleship Yamato and his second most famous production, Galaxy Express 999. Here is the Yamato portion, which contains the explanation for the book’s unusual title.
Since the resurgence of Yamato toys in the legacy years, advances in toymaking technology and artistry have both worked their magic to expand the definition of “toy” far beyond something kids play with and outgrow. We’re now in the age of the Designer Toy. Two companies in particular stand out in this field, both examined here.
Five Yamato fans from all over the world (USA, Australia, and Russia) converge on the home of Leiji Matsumoto in December 2010 and ask him everything you probably always wanted to ask. What were his answers? Find out right here. [3 pages]
Yamato miniatures have been around since the production years, but as manufacturing has improved, the level of quality and detail has left the originals far behind. Here are four different sets of Yamato miniatures from 2003-2008 made by Sunkus, Nubel, Bandai, and 7-11 to compare and contrast.
The number of products for Yamato 2 was quite small, but the overall quantity increased during its broadcast thanks to the involvement of two dedicated sponsors: Nomura Toy Company and Ezaki Glico, Japan’s biggest confectioner. See the entire lineup here. [2 pages]
Part 5: The Voyage Continues
Previous model kits were still in steady release when The New Voyage made its debut in July 1979. New mecha was introduced in the story that Bandai brought to plastic in an effort to feed the insatiable hunger for Yamato.
Today’s Yamato toys not only outnumber the originals, they surpass them. In the early days, they were made by tradesmen who didn’t know what Yamato would become. Now they’re made by Otaku who are driven to pay homage. That’s a big difference that you can better appreciate when you see the results. [2 pages]
Part 11: The Crown Jewel
In January 2007, the biggest and most ambitious model kit in Yamato history made the record books when Bandai released the game-changing 1/350 scale Yamato. See it from front to back and read about how it came to be.
Part 4: the Sustained Explosion Yamato 2 kept fans primed for new model kits. This was also the birthing period for the next Bandai revolution, the smaller-scale Mecha Collection kits that retailed for only 100yen (about a dollar) and ignited a modelmaking fever like none before it.
The creativity exhibited by modelmakers in Japan is enormous, and (in some cases) as imaginative as the original ship designs themselves. In this three-part record, we have the pleasure of seeing Yamato through their eyes. Yamato and fighters | Earth Defense Forces | Enemy Spaceships
Plenty of new products were readied for Final Yamato, but the enormous amount of competition from other anime was consuming a lot of resources. The experience of Yamato III had shown that children were pretty much out of the picture by this time, so all the products were oriented toward older fans.
Garage kit manufacturers assemble several times a year at various hobby shows to sell their carefully-handcrafted works, and Yamato is always well-represented. The kits are difficult to obtain outside Japan and require high-end expertise to build. For the rest of us, here is an extensive photo-tour of these “Yamato Supermodels.” [2 pages]
Many Japanese garage kits are exquisitely-designed statues of popular characters. Yamato characters haven’t been turned into garage kits as often as those of other anime productions, but enough of them exist — of one standout character in particular — to fill up a skilled modeler’s shelf.
Part 3: the Explosion Farewell was loaded to the gills with intricate spaceships that set new standards that tested the capabilities of Bandai’s model designers. Their success boosted Bandai to the very top of Japan’s model kit industry, where it has remained ever since.
Merchandising for Final Yamato was light for two basic reasons. First, the fans were getting older and second, many of the previous items were still available. This allowed the new product line to aim for a higher degree of sophistication since they would most likely appeal to older teens and adults.
When we last left our heroes, games based on Space Battleship Yamato had just made the jump from paper to pixels, but many years would pass while Yamato took every step down a road that lead to home electronics and the high-end world of pachinko. That journey is fully documented here. [2 pages]
Part 8: Finishing Touches Final Yamato gave Bandai and its Yamato customers one last spin on the dance floor. Of the kits that concluded a very successful ten years, only one was new, but now that Bandai had become an industry leader, there was plenty more to come.
Part 2: The Comeback
Although the excitement had begun to build well ahead of the Yamato movie’s premiere, licensors maintained a wait-and-see-attitude. It took Bandai three months to release their first movie-related kit, but it was just as revolutionary as Yamato’s comeback.
In 1985, previously-unseen Yamato animation appeared exclusively at Taito game centers in Japan, in a now-extinct Laserdisc game based on Final Yamato. It’s no longer possible to play it, but enough pieces survive for us to examine this amazing artifact from beginning to end. [2 pages]
Released by NEC in 1999, this gave fans something they could only dream about during the production years: a virtual Yamato that could be explored at will and a digital database for the first TV series. Examine this groundbreaking masterwork from top to bottom and find out what it took to create it here.
When one considers the gameplay possibilities Yamato offers, typing doesn’t immediately spring to mind, which makes the extraordinary quality of these games even more surprising. These four articles examine each game in detail with animation stills, movie files, and more. Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3 | Game 4
Part 1: The Windup
This series covers the entire history of Yamato model kits. We begin with those released in conjunction with the first TV series, which was just a small smattering in accordance with the risk of any new and untested program.
