Its hard to believe that Yamato Toys has been producing for almost 10 years already toys from the Macross Franchise. What started it all was the 1/72 YF-19 of Isamu Dyson from the Macross Plus series that was initially released in July of 2000 then followed in December by the 1/72 YF-22 of Guld Goa Bowman. Both of which were capable of transforming to the 3 states of Fighter, Gerwalk and Battroid. And I have to say that building a real life miniature replica toy from its line art that is capable of transforming to three different states is no simple feat and speaks greatly of the skill employed by the folks at Yamato Toys.From there they expanded their line to 1/60 and 1/48 scale. Then they added the Valkyries of the original Macross and the Macross Zero VF's. They also made the small scale, non transforming GNU line up. More recently also they branched out by including the non-VF Destroids from the original Macross series then this year they started producing VF's from the Macross Seven series.
My own experience with Yamato Toys was when I purchased this year a second generation Perfect Transformation 1/60 VF-1S Hikaru Ichijo from DYRL and its corresponding Super and Strike Packs. Based on my review of the two products I have to say that I was awed by the artistry and detail put in by the Yamato folks. Which led me to conclude also that the Macross toys that they carry aren't toys but are really perfect transforming display models. Yamato had to sacrifice sturdiness for the sake of quality. Which is OK for me because I'm too old to be playing with toys anyway, playing "yes", collecting "no". Nobody's too old to have to stop collecting toys *snicker*
Most recently, Yamato Toys posted on their site a page which details the history of their Macross Toy releases. Here's a list of their toys that I translated from the time they started in 2000 with the 1/72 scale line to 2002 wherein they started releasing their first 1/48 perfect transformation series of Macross Valkyries.
Will continue with the other years in the succeeding posts.
2000
- Transforming 1/72 YF-19 from Macross Plus: released July 2000. 27cm long in Fighter Mode. Made of Die cast metal, ABS and PVC plastic. Includes Gun Pod and Marking Stickers.
- Transforming 1/72 YF-21 from Macross Plus: released December 2000. 27cm long in Fighter Mode. Made of Die cast metal, ABS and PVC plastic. Includes Marking Stickers, doesn't seem to have a gun pod with it.
2001
- Transforming 1/72 VF-11B from Macross Plus: released June 2001. 25cm long in Fighter Mode. Made of Die cast metal, ABS and PVC plastic. Includes Marking Stickers and Gun Pod.
- Transforming 1/72 VF-19A from VFX2: released June 2001. 27cm long in Fighter Mode. Made of Die cast metal, ABS and PVC plastic. Includes Marking Stickers and Gun Pod.
- 1/60 VF-1A Valkyrie Hikaru Ichijo: released October 2001. 24cm long in Fighter Mode. Made of Die cast metal, ABS and PVC plastic. Includes Marking Stickers and Gun Pod, 3 Missiles and missile pods. Legs and cockpit cover for transformation. This was version 1 of the 1/60 line and a far cry from the detail and accuracy of the current line of 1/60 Perfect Transformation VF's.
- 1/60 VF-1S Valkyrie Roy Fokker: released December 2001. 24cm long in Fighter Mode. Made of Die cast metal, ABS and PVC plastic. Includes Marking Stickers and Gun Pod, 3 Missiles and missile pods. Legs and cockpit cover for transformation. This was version 1 of the 1/60 line and a far cry from the detail and accuracy of the current line of 1/60 Perfect Transformation VF's.
2002
- 1/60 VF-1A Valkyrie Maximillian Jenius: released February 2002. 24cm long in Fighter Mode. Made of Die cast metal, ABS and PVC plastic. Includes Marking Stickers and Gun Pod, 3 Missiles and missile pods. Legs and cockpit cover for transformation. This was version 1 of the 1/60 line and a far cry from the detail and accuracy of the current line of 1/60 Perfect Transformation VF's.
- 1/60 VF-1S Strike Valkyrie Roy Fokker version: released February 2002. 23cm long in Fighter Mode. Made of Die cast metal, ABS and PVC plastic. Includes Marking Stickers and Gun Pod, RMS-1 anti-ship missiles (nuclear). Legs and cockpit cover for transformation. This was different from the Super Valkyrie because it had a cannon in place of one of its missile pods. This was version 1 of the 1/60 line and a far cry from the detail and accuracy of the current line of 1/60 Perfect Transformation VF's.
- 1/60 VF-1A Valkyrie Cannon Fodder: released April 2002. 24cm long in Fighter Mode. Made of Die cast metal, ABS and PVC plastic. Includes Marking Stickers and Gun Pod, 3 Missiles and missile pods. Legs and cockpit cover for transformation. This was version 1 of the 1/60 line and a far cry from the detail and accuracy of the current line of 1/60 Perfect Transformation VF's.
- 1/60 VF-1J Super Valkyrie Hikaru Ichijo version: released April 2002. 23cm long in Fighter Mode. Made of Die cast metal, ABS and PVC plastic. Includes Marking Stickers and Gun Pod, RMS-1 anti-ship missiles (nuclear). Legs and cockpit cover for transformation. This was different from the Strike Valkyrie because it didn't have a cannon. This was version 1 of the 1/60 line and a far cry from the detail and accuracy of the current line of 1/60 Perfect Transformation VF's.
- 1/48 Perfect Transformation VF-1A Valkyrie Hikaru Ichijo version: released November 2002. 30cm long in Fighter Mode. Made of Die cast metal, ABS and PVC plastic. Includes Marking Stickers and Gun Pod, 2 spare hands, 3 missile pods and ground attack missiles plus pilot figure. Price: 15,540 yen. Start of the large scale 1/48 line of Yamato toys, that offered superb detailed work of the Valkyries.
List of Macross Toys created by Yamato in 2003 can be found here.
