Kit Review

Straight build

Size comparison with a cigarette pack.
It's a big beast at 66cm long~

1/500 Yamato 2199 Yamato 2199 - Various angles (1/6)

1/500 Yamato 2199 Yamato 2199 - Various angles (2/6)

1/500 Yamato 2199 Yamato 2199 - Various angles (3/6)

1/500 Yamato 2199 Yamato 2199 - Various angles (4/6)

Various angles

Detail of the wave motion gun section.
The light doesn't actually light up ^^;

1/500 Yamato 2199 Yamato 2199 - Side detail shots (1/5)

1/500 Yamato 2199 Yamato 2199 - Side detail shots (2/5)

1/500 Yamato 2199 Yamato 2199 - Side detail shots (3/5)

Side detail shots

1/500 Yamato 2199 Yamato 2199 - Deck detail shots (1/3)

Deck detail shots

1/500 Yamato 2199 Yamato 2199 - Bridge detail shots (1/4)

1/500 Yamato 2199 Yamato 2199 - Bridge detail shots (2/4)

Bridge detail shots

The small gun turrets on the sides.

Nozzle detail

1/500 Yamato 2199 Yamato 2199 - Underside detail shots (1/4)

1/500 Yamato 2199 Yamato 2199 - Underside detail shots (2/4)

Underside detail shots

The 5 main guns can rotate, and each barrel can be elevated individually.

Most of the side turrets can rotate,
but the 4 turrets at the very bottom are fixed.

Because the kit is so large, there are a lot of internal frame pieces inside.

1/500 Yamato 2199 Yamato 2199 - You need to pay attention to the orientation of the rearmost frame piece at the front sectio

You need to pay attention to the orientation of the rearmost frame piece at the front section,
it only goes together correctly if the serrated part in the center faces toward the back.
It only assembles correctly that way.
All the other frame pieces have no particular orientation, but this one does, so be careful when assembling ^^

1/500 Yamato 2199 Yamato 2199 - Remove the left hull parts and the internal hangar is exposed. The 1/1000 Yamato 2199 even r

Remove the left hull parts and the internal hangar is exposed.
The 1/1000 Yamato 2199 even reproduced the rotary-style hangar, but they left it out of the 1/500 -_-

The hangar cover on the lower rear section opens and closes with a movable gimmick.

1/500 Yamato 2199 Yamato 2199 - The round hangar section on the side also opens — you remove the corrugated middle piece, th

The round hangar section on the side also opens —
you remove the corrugated middle piece, then detach the front and rear parts and reattach them facing outward.
But the gimmick feels pretty flimsy... the corrugated middle part falls off way too easily, which is a bit annoying ;;

You can also remove the bridge section, though the inside is completely hollow...

A separately sold LED unit can be inserted into the bottom of the bridge.

1/500 Yamato 2199 Yamato 2199 - LED lighting effect on the bridge. Three spots at the front and one at the rear light up — l

LED lighting effect on the bridge.
Three spots at the front and one at the rear light up — looks pretty nice in its own way.

The rear nozzles can also be removed to install an LED unit.

1/500 Yamato 2199 Yamato 2199 - LED lighting effect on the nozzles. The area where the light actually shows through is narro

LED lighting effect on the nozzles.
The area where the light actually shows through is narrower than expected, so the effect is a bit...

2 of each type are included, for a total of 8 fighters.

Type 100 Space Recon Fighter

Cosmo Falcon

Cosmo Zero

Cosmo Seagull

1/500 Yamato 2199 Yamato 2199 - Alongside the previously released 1/500 original version Yamato. Since the 2199 version is l

Alongside the previously released 1/500 original version Yamato.
Since the 2199 version is larger by design, there's a significant size difference even though both are 1/500;;

1/500 Yamato 2199 Yamato 2199 - Just looking at the bridge area you can really feel the size difference, and the molded colo

Just looking at the bridge area you can really feel the size difference,
and the molded colors are quite different too.

Alongside the 1/350 Yamato.

Group shot of all four Yamato kits, including the 1/1000 Yamato 2199.

The molded colors are different across the scales ^^;

The fun of picking your favorite scale to build~

Following the original version 1/500 Yamato released in 2010, we now have the 2199 version 1/500 Yamato. Some of you might be wondering why a kit in the same scale was released again — and fair enough, since the original and 2199 versions look pretty much the same on the surface.

The key difference comes down to the size specs. In Yamato 2199, the ship's length was extended to 333 meters for a more realistic setting. The original version was set at 267 meters, so that's 66 meters longer — roughly 25% bigger.
(The original Space Battleship Yamato's size specs were a bit all over the place depending on the work, so it's a little ambiguous)

Actually, even back in the day there were plenty of complaints that the Yamato's size didn't make sense relative to the bridge, fighters, and crew, and so mecha designer Tamamoto Jun'ichi revised the overall proportions to create the 333-meter Yamato 2199. As a result, compared to the original 1/500 Yamato kit, the size and volume difference is pretty dramatic — it almost looks like a completely different scale. In the end, as you can see in the four-way comparison shot, it comes across as roughly halfway between the original 1/500 and the 1/350 kit ^^;

Since the overall silhouette is so similar to the original version, honestly the feeling of building it isn't all that different from the original 1/500 Yamato. In a word, the assembly process and overall composition don't feel particularly fresh — it's more just that everything feels noticeably bigger. Of course, if you look closely, the 2199 version does have different molded colors and richer detail and panel lines...

On top of that, the 2199 version supports separately sold LED units under the bridge and at the rear nozzles, so LED lighting is available as an option. You do need to dim the lights to really appreciate it, but it's a decent option. The underside also features several hangar bays that open and close via movable and detachable mechanisms — something the original 1/500 didn't have.

However, the main gun linkage gimmick from the original 1/500 (where rotating the main guns automatically adjusted the elevation angle) is gone in the 2199 version, and the internal rotary hangar from the 1/1000 Yamato 2199 has also been dropped from this kit. Instead, you can remove the side armor to view the internal hangar, which suggests the rotary hangar was probably planned during development but cut later. (Maybe it'll show up as a separate option or limited release someday -_-)

Ultimately, the biggest appeal of this kit is probably that you get to build the latest big-scale Yamato with a larger body and finer detail. It seems like a perfect fit for anyone who finds the 1/350 too big and expensive, but feels the original 1/500 is a bit on the small side. Personally, I think the 66cm 1/500 Yamato 2199 hits just the right spot in terms of size — big enough to feel satisfying, but not so overwhelming in price or footprint that it becomes a burden.

Of course, if you're a Yamato romanticist like me, you'll probably end up building every scale anyway ^^;;; But if you're torn between the original version and the 2199 version in 1/500, I'd recommend going with the 2199. There's a price gap of ¥6,800 vs. ¥9,800, but the satisfaction you get from the size feels about twice as much, so it seems well worth the investment :-)

1/500 Yamato 2199 Yamato 2199 | 2013. 12 | ¥9,800

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.