Space Battleship Yamato

This has to be one of the more frustrating toys I’ve experienced in recent memory. I had wanted this thing since first spying it in the basement of the closed Sasuga Books once it reloacated from its home in Cambridge ma. This was maybe 2006 or so? The idea of a cutaway Space Battleship Yamato, sold in affordable Trading Kit format was good one, but somehow I never thought to pick one up until this year. Turns out, it was a mistake.

The set was released in 2005 and consisted of 8 mini kits that each made a section of the Yamato. When combined, it makes a Yamato that measures 14 inches long and can be fully deconstructed down to its component blocks. It’s a huge piece of shit. Read on.

The outer box is a simple black and white box. It can be torn in a certain way to make a countertop display.

Inside are the 8 kits. Each identical except for a number on the box.

Kit 1: Wave Motion Gun and Rocket Anchor

This part comes pretty much pre-assembled aside from the cover to the automatic navigation device. The entire kit has a hard ABS style shell with a softer PVC style inner.

Kit 2: Bow, Missile, Main Radar

Notice the grey powdery covered plastic? This will become an issue later.

Kit 1 and 2 together:

Kit 3: Main turret & Life Squad Block

This one has a fair amount of assembly as you have to build the guns.

Kit 4: Carpentry Room

It translates to “Carpentry Room”, but it’s basically the forward hangar. Inside there’s a little claw to hold a ship in place. This hollow area is hidden from the completed build but it’s a nice touch.

Lets talk about the big problem with this kit: the breakdown of the PVC over time. That grey powdery finish is actually some chemical reaction happening with the plastic. You can wipe it away, resulting in a waxy-feeling plastic. I don’t actually mind the patina it gives the parts, but the unfortunate side effect is that the entire model is held together with these parts and nothing stays together. The parts are supposed to snug together with friction – tabs into holes and such, but the film and subsequent waxy surface keeps them from staying together.

Kit 5: Bridge and Chimney, Missiles & pulse laser group

It was at this stage that this thing almost went directly in the trash. Trying to get each little gun turret on was a nightmare, again due to the decay of the plastic. Pushing each gun in would result in it working itself out within a few seconds. The film on both surfaces provided no friction to hold the parts in place. Each part needed to be individuallty cleaned as best as it could to get it to stay even just a little bit.

I did like the detail inside of the bridge areas, but of course one of them would not stay together and ended up being glued.

Kit 6: Third Bridge and Central Computer

Another frustrating section with some questionable assembly practices. The Central Computer section is visible in this step, but not when the model is completed. The small oval pods at the bottom just kept falling off each time you moved it. The grey plate looks like metal, but no, thats just the film from the plastic degrading.

Kit 7: Carrier Aircraft hangar

This part includes 5x Black Tigers, 2X Cosmo Tiger (single seat type) and 3x Cosmo Tiger

Kit 8: Wave Engine & Catapult

This is where I lose my mind. The wave engine has slots that the rear wings tab into, but as soon as you tab them in, they fall out.

Assembling the sections together was a nightmare. You just can’t handle it without parts falling off all over the place. Nothing stays put. I never want to do this again.

Without the panels removed, it’s obvious how nothing lines up. It looks terrible. Good thing that’s not why I bought this kit.

With the side panels off you can see the nice detail inside. I do love this look, and I don’t mind the look of the plastic.

What’s interesting is that you can further deconstruct the inner workings of the Yamato down to it’s core component pieces. Lets look at Kit 1 for example:

In these two sections alone there is something like 14 separate parts that you can take apart and see the inner workings. That’s pretty cool, and the same throughout the whole ship. Bandai went HARD to give you lots of detail in this model, it’s just the plastic that let them down.

In the next section you can see the exposed observation deck and crew quarters, the wing (that actually moves in and out), movable turrets with individually moving barrels, bridges and more. The third bridge does have a door that opens.

Next you can see the hangar area with storage for some of the fighters. Not all the fighters fit, so I don’t know why they included so many. The launching hatch opens. You’d have to deconstruct this area a bit more to see the Central Computer, but it’s in there. Both those cannons move.

Yet, despite being a total nightmare, I do kind of love it. I shouldn’t want to muck with it anymore, but I kind of want to see if there is some kind of bath I can give these parts to clean them and maybe clear coat them to keep them from degrading anymore? I know it is probably a futile effort, but I just can’t help myself.

So yes, it is a piece of crap that hasn’t held up well 20 something years after it’s release, but you can’t deny how cool it looks.