As 1978 drew to a close, Yamato fever showed no signs of abating. Farewell would soon be back for revival screenings, Yamato 2 approached its halfway point on TV, and new merch continued to appear, especially on the music side. It all made December a month to remember.
Where there is a great success story, imitators usually spring up looking for a free ride like Star Flies on a Space Battleship. On the upside, it does take a creative (if misguided) mind and a sort of endearing chutzpah to push these things out into broad daylight, and it can be great fun to examine them with a trained eye.
Created by model and toymaker Aoshima, the Redhawk line is worthy of respect for sheer volume if nothing else. As silly or eccentric as they may look, they were wildly inventive to the point where they quickly moved past the source material that inspired them. See the entire almost-but-not-quite Yamato lineup here.
Summer doldrums (or whatever) caused activity to drop in the month of July, but the hits were still solid, especially an unexpected announcement that pulled an exceedingly rare gem out of the history vault. Here’s what July had to offer…
Dessler commands Kodai to fire the WMG at him in order to destroy Goruba. As Kodai is about to accept this reality, Domon’s youthful enthusiasm moves him. “Save everyone!” In order to carry out Domon’s plan, Kodai rushes to Starsha in the experimental Dimensional Submarine Cosmo Hound…
