Imperial Japanese Navy Battleship Yamato
Review by Shogundan
The powerful, fearsome and famous, Imperial Japanese Navy Yamato.
Some people may not know this but, this ship was the inspiration for Leiji Matsumoto's Space Battleship Yamato.
IJN Yamato’s keel was laid down on November 4th 1937. She was built under secrecy in a specially built dry-dock at the Kure Naval Shipyard. IJN Yamato, and her sister ship IJN Musashi were the largest, heaviest, most powerful battleships ever built. Both these ships bested even the famous German battleship Bismarck.
Today, I will be reviewing the IJN Yamato. This will be my fifth entry into Taito's Super Mechanics line of UFO catcher prize toys.
Like most entries in this line of toys so far, IJN Yamato does not disappoint. Packaging is the usual familiar window box. The box has a few nice illustrations of the IJN Yamato.
Unlike other toys in Taito‘s Super Mechanics line-up, IJN Yamato has no assembly, Just remove from the box and display.
Yamato is a full 35cm long. That’s almost 15 inches from the gold bow medallion to it’s stern aircraft catapults. The IJN Yamato is well made and sturdy. Comprised from quality plastic and ABS.
One of IJN Yamato’s really cool features are its five rotating adjustable turrets. Another cool feature is the details, just look at those four bronze screws (propellers). Check out the realistic looking deck planking. You can clearly see all the deck hardware down to the anchor chains.
When IJN Yamato is displayed with Space Battleship Yamato you can really see how the sleek modern profile of the IJN Yamato was an inspiration for Leiji Matsumoto.
I really like this toy. It is a really nice display model without all that pain of assembly, glue and paint. As with Space battleship Yamato, its getting even harder to believe that Taito's IJN Yamato, costs only $15.00 USD. IJN Yamato is out now and can still be bought cheaply. Get it before the price goes up.
Comments
2 comments postedThe greatest warship of her time... destroyed in only her second engagement by dive bombers in a sacrificial run to stop the Allies from reaching the Home Islands. And they knew the odds were against them before they sailed too. Gotta salute those brave souls...
And no one's built a battleship since. Since then, the aircraft carrier has replaced the battleship as the pride of any navy's fleet because they can deploy fast & agile fighters which can evade big guns. (Although, missile frigates are rather popular nowadays.)
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CollectionDX Staff
Shogundan, thank you for post all those pictures. I always prefer to take a look first before make my purchase decision.
Although you’ve given high regard to this IJN Yamato, I found the model ship in your pictures looked very disappointing.
Compare with the Taito’s Space Battleship Yamato, this IJN Yamato looked too short (in both length and height) and too fat. The detail is crude and painting application is lacking and boring.
Taito’s Space Battleship Yamato was 40cm, but this one is only 35cm. A true 1/700 scale model should be 38cm in length. The size of this IJN Yamato is not compatible with anyone else. I’ve always wanted an already built, pre-painted IJN Yamato model, but this one is not the solution.
For those people who are interested in pre-built 1/700 scale Yamato, I highly recommend the following:
Takara’s Battleship Yamato sectional model Suggested retail price is 2660yen per ship;
Takara’s Men’s Yamato movie version sectional model Suggested retail price is 3150yen per ship.
They are about twice as expensive as the Taito’s IJN Yamato, but offer about five times more detail and much better paint job.