1/60 Destroid Tomahawk

Review by Atom

Being a long time Macross/Robotech/Japanese Toy fan I have always wanted Destroids that are in scale to the Valkyrie fighters seen all over the Macross series and Movie but we have only gotten smaller, more diminutive version of Destroids in toy form over the years.

Well, enter Yamato's newer 1/60 line of Macross collectibles. With two Valkyrie's released as of this article Yamato has decided to tackle the need for more than the transformable jet and have launched a line of 1/60 scale Destroids.

A Destroid for those that do not know is a non-transforming mecha that generally provides ground support and heavy weapons in Macross. The Tomahawk was probably the most prevalent of all the non-transforming mecha and my personal favorite of the Destroid designs.

So when I got my hands on it I really didn't know what to expect. Yamato traditionally has been hit and miss with their Quality Control in the past. With the high level of quality, the first couple of new Valkyries have had I guess I was half expecting a dud this time around but I am happy to report that is not the case.

The Tomahawk comes in the standard Yamato windows box but is much smaller than other releases in the Macross line being half the size of the newer 1/60 Valkyries in the line. Inside the box is the Tomahawk, sticker sheet, pilot figure and two ground crew members.

Yep it's got a pair of nicely detailed ground crew figures in addition to the pilot. A nice touch on Yamato's part and makes me wonder if we are going to end up with a full assorted crew when all the Destroids get released.

The Tomahawk itself doesn't disappoint. While it has very little in the way of diecast metal content, it has a very solid toy-like feel with lots of clicky joints and a very nice high-quality plastic.

It is very poseable and the inner mechanisms for the feet and hip joints are all metal. Doesn't feel like anything is going to break here; well, you might want to watch out for the teeny, tiny antenna next to the head but other than that, it's all good.

Detail on the mecha is very good. While many complain that not all the detail is tampo printed on – the major permanent markings are indeed printed on and all are clean and neat. The application is flawless, no over/under spray anywhere.

All the other major markings like unit numbers are left off for you to put on using the included sticker sheet, leaving it wide open as to what unit number and markings you give it. Something the customizers will love I am sure.

The one big complaint I have is the waist joint which moves the top half forward and back is a bit floppy. It holds all the appropriate poses just fine but does seem a bit loose. Feels like Yamato needs to add something to adjust the tension.

The cockpit/head opens to accommodate the pilot and the shoulder and chest missile pods do open to display the missiles. Sadly they do not fire, a feature Yamato should really think about adding. This thing would rock with "shoot-your-eye-out-goodness"!

Finally, in the manual, they make a very specific point of showing you that the different parts of the Destroid are modular and come off. Makes me think they plan on designing these so collectors can mix and match different parts to make new designs.

I really like this Tomahawk and I will be picking the rest of the series as it comes out. Being a Macross/Robotech fan it's nice to finally have a line of decent collectibles that are all in the same scale to each other.

I look forward to adding more new Destroids as they are released and if you're a Macross fan you should too.