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Soul of Chogokin Space Battleship Yamato (Argo) 2199 version Updated

Space Battleship Yamato 2199 is the recent remake of the venerable series that is taking Japan by storm. It was only a matter of time before Bandai decided to make a new Soul of Chogokin of the Yamato as it appears in 2199. This massive ABS and diecast battleship is a whopping 42 centimeters long and comes with numerous gimmicks such as built in LEDs to light up the engine, bridge, and wave motion gun. It also features numerous sound effects that can be activated via remote control. You also get two rocket anchors, moving wings, an opening hangar, four Cosmo Falcons, and two Cosmo Zeroes. This is due in Winter 2013 for 26,000 yen.

Updated with information from Bluefin Tamashii about the stateside release:

 

"In one of the most ambitious Chogokin projects to date, Tamashii Nations presents the Argo (Yamato) as it appears in the StarBlazers 2199 (Space Battleship Yamato 2199) anime as a high-end chogokin diecast model with full light (multiple LEDS with different colors for Wave Motion Engine and Gun sequence portrayal) and sound functions- features five tunes from the anime as well as five different cannon noises.  Measuring over 16" long, this is the largest version of the ship ever produced as a Chogokin, and features a combination of diecast and plastic parts to accurately portray the most minute details of the famed star cruiser. Light and sound gimmicks are controlled via remote control to enhance the experience and make you feel a part of the space battleship crew. Rendered with faithful proportions and exquisite detail, even hull internal mechanics can be viewed. Accessories such as interchangeable Rocket Anchor x2 and wings, Cosmo Zero x2 and Cosmo Falcon x4 fighters, and special display stand are included in this deluxe set.  *Batteries sold separately- requires 4 AAA batteries (two for model, two for remote control).  The North American release will include the original Japanese box design, but under the Starblazers moniker." Coming February 2014 for $264.99

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted 10 September, 2013 - 07:22 by VF5SS

Comments

8 comments posted
Sorry, gotta ask simply

Sorry, gotta ask simply because I'm ignorant:

Was the "Yamato 2520" design so offensive that the only way fans will accept an upgrade decades later is just another rehash of the original? I know nostalgia is strong and steady, and 'don't mess with a classic', but isn't the whole "ocean warship pretending to be a space warship"-thing being phased out by now?

I mean, since I've never seen the original "Space Battleship Yamato" (I will NOT watch "Star Blazers" or any other dub), I can ask that since to my untrained eye they look exactly the same, and you'd be hard-pressed to convince me this is a "new interpretation" rather than just a slight retooled update.

By no means am I trying to call out "Yamato" fans, and this certainly looks like a great kit of the classic design (err... the new one?); I am simply curious and this seemed the place to ask.

EVA_Unit_4A's picture
Posted by EVA_Unit_4A on 13 June, 2013 - 01:10
Yamato 2520 was just not that

Yamato 2520 was just not that good of a show. It's main good spot is the cool Syd Mead design. If they wanted to do more models or shows featuring that design, they'd have to pay Syd Mead.

The whole ocean ship as spaceship thing was kind of ripped off of 60's Star Trek (spaceship that follows navy rules) and was most definitely a 70's thing. To make it not a boat in space is to not make it Yamato; just like how at its core, Macross is a always a show about a plane that folds into a robot, Yamato is always a show about a boat in space.

It was a big cultural thing for Japanese who were kids in the 70's-80's, like Voltron's popularity in the States in the 80's. It was also a big US TV hit in the early 80's as "Star Blazers." Many US thirty and forty-somethings still remember it fondly. Some of the merchandise both new and old can go for some money or are simply unavailable. The SB version of the show is pretty rough to watch nowadays. The original is classic, amazing stuff- but if you can't handle old school style, bad continuity, the art style, or just plain crazy, you're not going to dig it. Those are all the reasons why I love it so much. I'm super biased as I love all Leiji creations good and bad, so watch an episode of the first series to see if it's your thing.

As to the design- I haven't watched the new show yet, but if I remember the show was a "remake" much like Shin Mazinger, or closer still, the Captain Harlock Endless Odyssey show from a while back. So it makes sense to keep it similar. It's a classic like you said, you don't mess with it too much.

The Big R's picture
Posted by The Big R on 14 June, 2013 - 15:22
I just finished the original

I just finished the original "Captain Harlock" anime a few days ago, so I've been exposed to ocean ships in space (even if that anime is not the best representation of them). While the Arcadia is unquestionably a ocean-going starship (umm... literally), it was different enough that I actually liked it as a "space battleship" rather than a re-purposed ocean battleship like the Yamato is.
On the other hand, I get the strong nostalgia for the Yamato- not just the anime vessel, but also the national pride of its real namesake, so I understand it from that perspective; we did the same thing with the orbiter Enterprise compared to its sci-fi counterpart (which in turn was named for the WWII aircraft carrier).

What I'm asking is why it is that in this newest series, the Yamato looks more-or-less the same as its 70s counterpart, and wasn't given a completely new look with homages to the classic WWII battleship. Would fans have rejected a "new" version of the Yamato, tolerating only the classic design?

EVA_Unit_4A's picture
Posted by EVA_Unit_4A on 14 June, 2013 - 15:57
Nowadays I think, much like

Nowadays I think, much like Star Trek, the nostalgia for the show I think trumps the historical nostalgia for the original source battleship with sci-fi fans.

Beyond the Syd Mead one you mentioned earlier, there's been subtle differences between the different versions of the Yamato on the various TV shows and movies.

Since the basic story of the Yamato is always that humans dug up the old ship and refurbished it into the Space Battleship Yamato, it makes zero sense to completely redesign it from the ground up. It generally already looks like the old WII carrier with subtle cool 70's space differences like the bridge, wings, antenna, smokestack, bow, wave gun, etc.

There's no need to redesign it to change to people's tastes, because it's instantly recognizable and works. The recent live-action movie and this new show, the ship seems identical to me, and that's ok, because first it's a cool original design, and second, it helps to have something familiar to the audience in a reboot. I think a lot of new shows and movies redesign stuff just to redesign it, and that is most definitely not the Yamato audience. And with the ship there's no need. It's silhouette alone is famous, and again for many people who were kids in the 70's-80's Yamato is up there as a classic show just like 79 Gundam, Macross, Mazinger, etc. It's a sci-fi icon, like the Tardis, the Millennium Falcon, or the Enterprise. Its obviously steals a lot from Star Trek, and was stolen from in turn quite a bit in the first Star Wars film (and George Lucas was in Japan for quite some time when Yamato was airing in the 70's, hmm)

That's the thing about Yamato, Galaxy Express, Harlock... if you're looking for hard science or continuity like say Gundam, or Star Trek, then you're not going to find it in these shows. They're going for poetry, drama, myth, fantasy, a la Star Wars or Lord of the Rings. In the case of Galaxy Express, it takes this idea of free-flowing continuity and runs with it to a huge beautiful advantage over many other shows. In Harlock, it has a much more moral theme- in a society of cowards, Harlock is the one to speak out and his loved ones suffer for his actions. With Yamato, it's more about the adventure and legacies and again making tough choices with real consequences. On the other hand its the boat from your history class textbook, flying in space and fighting blue people to save the earth. It doesn't need a thousand moving internal parts or to transform into a spiky spaceship. It's the Yamato. It takes your science and logic and throws it into the acid sea of Gamilas so you can be a real man! ;)

The Big R's picture
Posted by The Big R on 15 June, 2013 - 19:59
Star Blazers

You really should watch Star Blazers. It was a great show. Just because things are dubbed does not mean they automatically suck. That's rather closed minded.

xTIMMYxCOREx's picture
Posted by xTIMMYxCOREx on 18 June, 2013 - 16:19
The point of Yamato 2199 is

The point of Yamato 2199 is that it is meant to be viewed as "what if they made the original Yamato series as planned back in 1974, but with today's animation technology and modern astronomy and astrophysics injected into the mix?". It's a retelling, using much material that was planned for the series but was dropped, and repairs a number of minor continuity errors and plotholes left open or unexplained originally. It's some incredible space opera and introduces a lot more depth and twists then were in the classic series, and does so with some fantastic animation. I definitely recommend it to fan and newbie alike. As for the original series...it does still hold its own...the dub was good for its time and made less changes than most, but there is also a fansub of the original Japanese DVD remastered series which is really worth checking out if you are at all curious about the original series. But as a long time fan, I feel safe in saying that if you want to watch Yamato as a newbie, check out Yamato 2199. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

I also enjoyed the live action movie, but I think that, like the Macross 1984 movie, it is better watched by someone already familiar with the larger story arc as it is quite seriously time-compressed by comparison.

The Yamato is largely unchanged as a result, other than a few proportional tweaks, additional details added, and some changes made to improve functionality and a few very subtle sytlistic changes. This version is taken straight from the CG model data from the show, giving it more precise accuracy to the one portrayed, and since it was built as a CG model, it allowed for a lot more rethinking of how everything fits together and is scaled correctly...something the animation made a great effort to try to do under the refined design work of Miyatake Kazutaka and Matsumoto Reiji, but difficult to do as perfectly accurate as it is with 3D model data. In turn the 3D model data had to be tweaked a lot for style in order to get some of the desired classic exaggerated-perspective profiles from various angles. So the ship model has a much curvier profile than previously.

To a non-fan's eye, or even a casual fan, there's no difference whatsoever...which was kind of the intent, to make these changes work in such a way that they would not look jarring to the classic appearance of this iconic vessel. But at the same time, a hard core fan will notice things right away, such as the significantly reduced muzzle size of the Wave Motion Gun, the oversized periscope sensors on the main cannons, the enlarged third bridge, and so forth.

Also I agree that while Syd Mead's redesign was quite nice, the show of Yamato 2520 was pretty boring and soulless. The ship itself also seems to lack the "character" of the clunky but romanticized Matsumoto/Miyatake space battleship, with everything streamlined into a kind of featureless torpedo shape. As such, it doesn't really lend itself to animation as well. But as for why leave the design close to the original aside from what I've already mentioned, here's the real issue. Yamato is an iconic design. To heavily redesign the Yamato is akin to heavily redesigning Bugs Bunny or Mickey Mouse. Or the Millennium Falcon, for a closer comparison. It's not something you do lightly and without incurring a lot of disdain.

microbry's picture
Posted by microbry on 19 June, 2013 - 06:16
Cool!

I missed the first release and will be happy to add this to my collection. How can you not love a WW2 Battleship in space it's exactly the right kind of crazy.

TattooedRobot's picture
Posted by TattooedRobot on 7 September, 2013 - 10:42
I honestly like the

I honestly like the poportions of the GX-57 better.

Also I'm not seeing a remote. I'm guessing the electronics are activated by buttons hidden as features on the sculpt?

Tetsuryu's picture
Posted by Tetsuryu on 7 September, 2013 - 18:05