{"id":1807,"date":"2013-06-27T06:31:17","date_gmt":"2013-06-27T06:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/?p=1807"},"modified":"2026-03-21T19:45:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T02:45:26","slug":"297","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/297\/","title":{"rendered":"Fan Club Products, Phase 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"0812icon\"<\/p>\n

The merchandising of Be Forever<\/em> wasn’t as extensive as the Farewell to Yamato<\/em> avalanche, but the variety and variation were expanded to perpetuate any fan’s Yamato<\/em> lifestyle. Here’s a rundown of the products the fan club had to offer during the 1980-81 stretch.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Be Forever Yamato<\/em> ‘Fancy Goods’<\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

The merchandising of Be Forever<\/em> wasn’t as extensive as the Farewell to Yamato<\/em> avalanche, but the variety and variation were expanded to perpetuate any fan’s Yamato<\/em> lifestyle. Here’s a rundown of the products the fan club had to offer during the 1980-81 stretch.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Keychain<\/h3>\n

When it was realized that you didn’t actually need keys to attach to something decorative, they became known in Japan as “mascots” and expanded to incorporate whatever young people were into.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This had been going on with Yamato<\/em> merch since 1977, and had now reached a “heavy metal” stage that will last until the sun stops burning.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Crew Wallet<\/h3>\n

Pushing fans even farther down Fun Street was the official Yamato<\/em> Crew wallet, which could be personalized with your own photo and vitals. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It consists of six pages, ending with a handy ship schematic to help you figure out what deck you’re currently lost on.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Pass cases<\/h3>\n

Owing to the greater-than-50%-female demographic of Yamato<\/em> fandom at the time, there were almost always equal opportunity Kodai and Yuki variants available.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Plus, one look at Sasha would practically guarantee a wave-off from that snooty school hall monitor.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Coin wallets<\/h3>\n

Another variant was this super-handy coin-carrying wallet with a Kodai front…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

…and a Yamato<\/em> front.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Inside were slots for your 1 yen, 5 yen, and 10 yen pieces. Even in those days that wouldn\u2019t buy you much, though.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Keychain wallets<\/h3>\n

Finally, the wallet world crashed together with the keychain world and made life better for everyone. One would think this signaled the limits of wallet technology, but the Final Yamato<\/em> campaign was still coming.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Once again, the drama of a Yamato<\/em> movie meant plenty of tears would need drying.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This time there were no less than six<\/em> styles of handkerchief (shown above and below) ready to absorb.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Cel painting set<\/h3>\n

<\/span>\n<\/div>\n

\nThe animation boom sparked by Yamato<\/em> naturally inspired many fans to try their hand at the craft, and this Yamato<\/em> cel painting set gave them a chance to do just that. It came with 15 paint colors and 8 images printed on acetate from previous films. It was sold exclusively through the fan club and advertised in the club magazine.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/br><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Rulers<\/h3>\n

There were already plenty of Yamato<\/em> school supplies in the world, but Be Forever<\/em> brought two more into being: mini-rulers (to rule them all)…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mechanical pencils<\/h3>\n

…and mechanical pencils that defied the need for a pencil sharpener. Scoffed at it and hurled it to the ground, in fact. Maybe even tweaked its nose.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Pencils<\/h3>\n

But if you still had a soft spot for pencil sharpeners, there were standard wood varieties as well. The design of this set is worth a closer look; check out the letters down near the tip.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Pencil cases<\/h3>\n

Wherever there are pencils, pencil cases must follow. In this case, there were both soft and vinyl versions.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Erasers<\/h3>\n

And, sure, something to clean up your pencil mistakes with. Some of these are from 1978, but there were at least three Be Forever<\/em> styles to choose from.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Pencil boards<\/h3>\n

Of course, we can’t leave out the pencil boards, meant for strengthening your average flimsy note pad.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Academy offered four different Be Forever<\/em> pencil boards…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

…including these two on clear plastic.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Note pads<\/h3>\n

A pencil was only worth something if you had something to write on, and Be Forever Yamato<\/em> supplied that, too.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Not only were there two varieties in this format…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Space Mail sets<\/h3>\n

…there were also two different sets of stationery with a “ship” motif and a “character” motif.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Both gave you writing paper and five smallish envelopes to send letters to your fellow Yamato<\/em> pals.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Things like this were considered disposable at the time, but there’s always a breed of fan who can’t bring themselves to part with their treasures, so many survive today without a mark on them.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Seal sets<\/h3>\n

“But what about the stickers,” you’re probably shouting by now. Calm down, even this was covered in two styles, which included crew-name badges in the blue set and customizable ID tags in the red set. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

By now all the bases must have been covered, right?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Door posters<\/h3>\n

Wrong! The picture wouldn’t be truly complete without a fresh set of posters in the big and tall variety to hang on a door…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

…or across an empty wall if you had a horizontal space to fill.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mini posters<\/h3>\n

If your doors were full up, there was a series of ten smaller posters with various images to keep the movie alive until you got to see it again.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Postcard sets<\/h3>\n

You want pictures to go? No problem! Academy also had three different sets of postcards to carry around with you or mail off to a friend in cities where they had no Yamato<\/em> postcards. Like, any city outside Japan at that point.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/br><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Collector cards<\/h3>\n

Those weren’t the only cards you could get. This set of three was also available, though it’s not clear if they were offered separately or bundled with another product.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Idol cards<\/h3>\n

Then there were these pocket-size versions, laminated with heavy plastic to take whatever abuse your wallet or pass case could dish out.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/br><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Luggage tags<\/h3>\n

In terms of design alone, the next set of products truly distinguished themselves. Starting with these serialized ID tags, we see a unique graphic element, helpfully rendered in English.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

For the first time, the entire Yamato<\/em> record was boiled down into a single image that contextualized each of the big voyages (“Ankoku Seiun” means “Dark Nebula”). This may be the first English rendering of “Earth Defense Forces” outside of a Star Blazers<\/em> episode.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Pass case<\/h3>\n

The design appeared again on this pass case, which added more English that demanded to be taken seriously.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/br><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A variant of the graphic also appeared on this vinyl bag.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

And speaking of bags, Academy had you covered there as well with other vinyl versions for flat objects…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

…and beefed up carrier versions for everything else. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Okay, NOW the bases were covered.<\/p>\n

<\/br><\/p>\n

Click here to see West Cape publications<\/a> for Be Forever<\/em><\/p>\n

Continue to Fan Club Products Phase 4<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-merchandising-be-forever-yamato"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1807"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43455,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1807\/revisions\/43455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}