Print ad (January, 1979).
Click to enlarge.

1979 Catalog, courtesy Robert Duban.
Click here to view a gallery of all pages.

Apparently willing to bet it all on the starting gun, Nomura’s entire toy line thundered into Japanese stores within the first two months of Yamato‘s October, 1978 premiere. Supported by an imaginative and eye-catching TV commercial (excerpted above), they had every reason to believe Yamato 2 would be a worthy successor to the insanely popular Farewell to Yamato movie. Actual sales figures are probably buried in a vault forever, but the fact that Yamato 2‘s average TV rating topped 22%, there is every reason to believe Nomura caught many more customers than they were dreaming for.

1/1300 Diecast Yamato (October, 1978)

The very first Yamato toy immediately told the fans Nomura meant business. No chunky windup motor, no featherweight plastics. Not even the flat hull bottom and the off-model fightercraft detracted from the fact that you could hold this 8″ long finely-crafted hunk of solid metal in your hand and feel like you were holding the real thing. Bonus features included pop-out wings, an opening hangar door, and a full-color “space panel” backdrop.

The 1/1300 Yamato measured nearly eight inches long and was so well-remembered by fans that a perfect replica of it would be released 20 years later to kick off a Yamato toy renaissance. Read all about that here.

Diecast Cosmo Tiger II (October, 1978)

At 7 inches long, this 1/100 toy was a bit smaller than the Bandai model kit, but made up for it with solid metal heft and spring-launched missiles. Similar missiles on a Battlestar Galactica toy of the same era would soon bring long-lasting ruin to US-made action toys, but Japan was able to avoid this fate.

Diecast Analyzer (October, 1978)

Standing 5.5″ this all-metal Analyzer could crush Popy’s soft vinyl 1975 version without breaking a sweat. Both poseable and rollable, it wasn’t a perfect matchup to the anime design, but still landed closer to the mark than the Bandai model kit. Though solidly built, the limited play value of Nomura’s diecasts was not a big hit with Japanese kids who preferred the transformation and connectivity of “super-robot” toys. Nevertheless, Nomura toys are now highly prized by collectors, many of whom used to be those same kids.

Mystery Analyzer (October, 1978)

Proving that it could also be adept with plastics, Nomura had a second Analyzer on toy shelves at the same time as the diecast version.

What was the “mystery?” This Analyzer was self-propelled and could bounce off walls in unpredictable directions, thanks to a swiveling wheel on its underside.

Sofubi (Soft Vinyl) figures (October, 1978)

For the first time, Yamato’s human characters could now be played with right alongside the mecha. This set of five included Kodai (Wildstar), Yuki (Nova), Shima (Venture), Captain Okita (Avatar) and Dessler (Desslok), who sported a cloth cape.

They stood just under 4″ and were only poseable at the arms and waistline, but this deficit was soon to be addressed.

Windup Analyzers (October, 1978)

Fans were always happy to see their toys with action features, and Nomura answered the call with these two mini-Analyzers. The smaller version (about 2.5″) was markedly different from the larger one (about 4″) but both were undoubtedly a welcome sight to Japanese kids with mini-allowances. At right: Analyzer and friend. (This “friend,” made by Takara, became George Lucas’ favorite Star Wars toy of all time.)

Cosmogun (October, 1978)

This toy may have fallen a little short of perfection in terms of a perfect replica, but once they could hold a Yamato crew pistol in their hands that would light up and buzz, most Japanese kids could probably overlook this. Also included was a plastic pin badge.

This toy was later repackaged as a Blue Noah blaster when Nomura picked up the licensing to that series in 1979.

Cassette 8 Movie Projector (October, 1978)

As one of the earliest examples of at-home, on-demand Yamato viewing, fans could now watch a 2-minute segment of Farewell to Yamato as often as they liked. The cassette contained an 8mm film reel of the scene in which Yamato blew away Goland’s missile ships. It wasn’t the first time Yamato could be purchased on 8mm film (Asahi Sonorama had crossed this line a year earlier), but this set included its own hand-crank projector with a battery-powered lamp, a built-in screen inside the box lid, and a flexidisc soundtrack to accompany the show (or a dialogue transcript if you wanted to do the voice-acting yourself). It wasn’t yet home video, but it was close enough.

Yamato Capsule (October, 1978)

For the fan who thought they had everything, this mini grab-bag offered up an instant collection of stickers, erasers, and plastic do-dads that could be strung together into a bracelet or necklace. And who wouldn’t like to have their own Iscandarian message capsule to keep it in? Click here to examine the contents in detail.

Ministeck Mosaics (October, 1978)

Before video games and the internet, people could amuse themselves for hours placing tiny colored tiles onto a grid and snapping them into place to make instant art for the den or family room. That was the case in West Germany, anyway, where the “Ministeck” was invented and exported to other countries with long attention spans.

Thanks to Nomura, Yamato fans could get in on the action with these two do-it-yourself hobby kits. Incidentally, this was long before the word “pixellation” gained common usage.

Model kits (November, 1978)

One of the lesser-known facts about Yamato model kits is that Bandai was not the only company to manufacture them. For a period of roughly one eye-blink, Nomura offered up four completely separate kits of their own making, which have earned special attention over the years from connoisseurs. Read about them here.

Action Figures (November, 1978)

Inspired by the tremendous success of the Star Wars action figures, Nomura tried to capture the same lightning with these 3.3″ Yamato characters.

They followed the same lineup as the earlier soft vinyl versions but had far more articulation and, even better, a place to play in…

Yamato First Bridge Playset (November, 1978)

One glance is all it takes to be convinced. This one is the showstopper, the absolute favorite Yamato toy from the early years. Scaled to fit the action figures AND the smaller windup Analyzer, the Bridge Playset has it all. Moving seats, lightup control panels, interchangeable backdrops (click here and here for examples), and even sound effects. The characters could now yell out “video panel switch on,” “Yamato launch,”or six other signature phrases at your command.

Measuring about a foot wide, 8″ tall and 8″ deep, the bridge set could also accommodate Bandai figurines made 25 years later (far right, 2nd from top). Nomura thought it significant enough to rate its own toy commercial, stills from which are shown along the bottom row. Unfortunately, the marketing of action figures was not as fully developed in Japan as it was in America, so sales were something of a letdown. This, of course, takes nothing away from the grandeur of this one-of-a-kind Yamato toy.

1/850 Diecast Yamato (December, 1978)

One just wasn’t enough, and there was plenty of metal still to go around. Stretching almost a foot long and weighing more than any photo could convey, this became Nomura’s most popular diecast toy ever (though to be accurate, it had some plastic parts too). The proportions were virtually the same as the 1/1300 version, but the fightercraft were more accurate and missiles could be fired from the forward launch tubes.

Inflatable Kite (1978)

If you ever wondered if there was a way to get a Yamato toy up into the air, wonder no longer. A few puffs of air and your 2-foot kite was off to outer skies.

Diecast Miniatures (March, 1979)

At just under 4″, these metal Yamato and Andromeda minis came in about an inch shorter than their counterparts in the Bandai Mecha Collection model kit series. But they could almost certainly do better in earthquake conditions.

Gum Eraser Yamato (1978)

Nomura teamed up with paper goods manufacturer Amada (who did brisk business with their Yamato card and sticker sets) to produce a wide variety of “gummy” figurines which cost very little to make and could be stamped off by the truckload. Products like these first appeared in Japan’s 1977 “Supercar” craze (ignited by a spate of racing toys, movies, and anime) and soon became ubiquitous. The nicest of these was a 4.75″ 2-tone rubber Yamato that came in both grey and blue variants.

Multicolor Gum-rubber Figures (1978)

The 50-yen gummy figures (above left) came individually wrapped in several colors. There were eight models, each about 2.3″ in length (or height). The 20-yen figures were sold out of the box shown above right or the party-size grab bag shown below left. These were all under two inches, 17 different models in 8 colors. Shown below are a mix of the 50-yen and 20-yen gummies. All of these were marketed as erasers, but it’s doubtful they were used for such a menial purpose.

Picture Puzzles (1978)

One more unique item from Nomura was a large-format (10″ x 15″) puzzle depicting an imaginary adventure on Planet Telezart, and another with the main characters. The art for these puzzles was never reprinted elsewhere.

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