For fans of Space Battleship Yamato, the recent reboots of 2199 and now 2202 have brought the classic series to an all-new audience of fans. To commemorate that, Tamashii Nations has a new Soul of Chogokin toy planned for the titular battleship and it is something very special.
Naturally, there have been many chogokin made of the Yamato made over the years. However, this version from Yamato 2202 is quite a bit different from the previous releases.
I caught up with Sei Okazaki, the product manager of this new toy, to briefly find out more about it. Starting with why the new Yamato 2202 version was chosen in the first place.
“It was timed for the television broadcast and theatrical release of the 2202 series. The GX-64 was based off the 2199 portrayal, but the design of the Yamato changed a lot in 2202, and we wanted to make a version of that.
“By contrast, the GX-86 includes motors to allow the five cannon turrets to rotate. It also contains newly recorded voice samples of all the main characters, which is a first for the Soul of Chogokin Yamato series. Together with the included sound effects and music, it offers a far more immersive experience than previous products (such as the GX-57 and GX-64).”
All of these new features do come at a cost, which is an increased price point. Something Okazaki went on to clarify.
“The price was set based upon the expanded features, such as the fact two motors were needed to drive the five gun turrets, and that we needed a bigger chip to contain all of the sound data we included.
“We wanted to clearly differentiate this new release from the previous GX-64 portrayal of the 2199 version to impress Yamato fans and give it the “wow factor” a new product demands.”
The especially lovely aspect of this new toy is that the staff on Yamato 2202 also worked on this toy, as Okazaki explained.
“They were a big help in the audio recordings. Director Nobuyoshi Habara, series composer Harutoshi Fukui and writer Hideki Oka advised as we recorded the actors and musical director Tomohiro Yoshida assisted with the music and effects. This meant we were able to have the cooperation of key staff in producing the recordings included with the product.”
Now that this new Yamato toy has opened the door to motorized chogokin, I wondered what next was planned for the famous toy line.
“I’d like to try doing the things we did with the GX-86, the motorized turrets, the sounds and the light effects, with ships from other series besides Yamato. There are so many possibilities: space pirates’ ships, famed robot carrier-ships, things like that.”
With that in mind, there are a litany of ships from anime I would love to see covered, with the rotating habitable blocks of the Argama from Zeta Gundam being probably my first choice.
The Soul of Chogokin GX-86 Space Battleship Yamato 2202 is released on May 25 in the U.S. for $369.99 and you can pre-order it via Amazon.
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