GX-57 Space Battleship Yamato SOC Review by Gold

The following review was originally prepared by Gold on 01/10/11 on the Robot-Japan Forum:

Hi all, here’s a quick look at Soul of Chogokin Gx-57 Space Battleship Yamato.

To celebrate the live-action movie “Space Battleship Yamato” released in theaters last Dec 2010, Bandai decided to release the Yamato in its SOC lineup.


The manual is a simple fold out and not an actual instruction booklet.




Display base. Indispensable, since without it there’s no way to place the Yamato outside of the box.







There are optional spare stands for the display base, so you can pose the Yamato inclined at 45 degrees upward.



When putting batteries on the IR remote, remember to poke the “lock” on it first, using any sharp object, to eject the panel.


Infra-red remote receiver, covering or blocking this will mess up the signals from the remote control. Be sure the remote has an unobstructed line of sight with the receiver.



To plug in the batteries, give a good hard tug on the ship bottom, the panel will pop free. Just be very very careful how you hold the Yamato.




Electronics (requires 4 AAA batteries, 2 for the remote, 2 for the Yamato)
Wave Motion Engine



Wave Motion Gun (Hado-Ho)



Bridge alert







Weapons

Shock Cannons




Pulse Lasers (Pulse Laser turrets turn left right when the dial on the other side of the ship is played with)



Stack Missiles





Launching bays.






8 Ships included:


Cosmo Zero
Cosmo Tiger – II (Akira Yamamoto/Yellow-finned ship)
Cosmo Tiger – II (Saburo Kato/Red-finned ship)
Cosmo Tiger – II (Three-seater type)
Black Tiger (predecessors of the Cosmo Tigers) x2 ships
Ambulance/ rescue ship
Type 100 Search craft


Other gimmicks
Rocket Anchors




Add-on wings.



Catapult (mainly used by the Cosmo Zero)



Main Radar



Supposedly an exclusive to “first production” batches (does Bandai plan to roll out reissues later..?) Bandai included the Desslok Drill Missile, which was fired at the Yamato and severely damaging the Wave Motion Gun.



Some minor specs:
-Ship weighs about 500 Grams (not including stand)
-Ship’s length is about 16.5 Inches.
-Diecast parts in the lower half of the ship (not including the area near the main radar)
-Some diecast parts in the Shock Cannons (gun barrels and the undersides of the turrets are plastic)
-Scale is 1/625
- Pressing the main button at the same time with another button on the remote switch will play various music tracks instead of just sound effects.
----theme of the original Yamato (56sec)
----infinite universe (26sec)
----Black Tiger (45sec)
----Tiger New Cosmo (38sec)
-You can overlap the music and sound effects at the same time (audio does not cut out abruptly whenever another sound is played).


Admittedly, I’m not really a huge fan of Space Battleship Yamato, I only have vague memories of it from my childhood (remembering the theme song mostly). Based on the reviews for the SOP Yamato (I never got one), the SOP definitely has more gimmicks and play features compared to this one (the lack of a light in the hangar bay in the SOC version was the biggest let down for me).

The only difference in the electronics is the addition of theme songs to the electronics and clearer audio on the SOC. Personally, based on play value and overall details alone, I think I’d prefer the SOP. But according to reviews, there were “fragility” issues on the SOP (more than on the SOC). So that is also something one might have to consider.


Check out this fan-made video tribute. Done using various clips from the movies and the PS2 games. Cool.

Gold