From its 1978 debut onward, mecha design for the EDF fleet in Farewell to Yamato and Yamato 2 represented the pinnacle for the Yamato saga. These ships were revisited over and over, making this the single largest body of merchandising for any fleet in the series.
Part 3: the Explosion Farewell was loaded to the gills with intricate spaceships that set new standards that tested the capabilities of Bandai’s model designers. Their success boosted Bandai to the very top of Japan’s model kit industry, where it has remained ever since.
To Japanese fans at the time, Farewell to Yamato was the biggest, most powerful movie they’d ever seen, and it came with a merchandising campaign to match. Practically anything you needed in your daily life (and lots of things you didn’t) could be found with a Yamato label on it. See them all here.
Licensors for Farewell to Yamato had seen the feeding frenzy and knew what to plan for in the next round. Just as the movie improved upon its predecessor, the products also went to the next level. Here is a substantial sampling of what Yamato fans had to choose from in the wake of the biggest anime ever [3 pages].
Like the original movie it is based on, the Farewell Playstation game exploded the Yamato universe to new dimensions. Get an overview of the game’s structure and art with plenty of screenshots, along with its many spinoff products.
