1/40 scale Yamato in Lego
April 11, 2009 3:28 PM   Subscribe

1/40 scale IJN Yamato in Lego.

It's Geocities Japan, so we may kill it with traffic.
posted by Chocolate Pickle (25 comments total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
 
Be forever Yamato.
posted by SPrintF at 3:43 PM on April 11, 2009


we may kill it with traffic

In that case link to his youtube video or his brickshelf page.
posted by Rhomboid at 3:48 PM on April 11, 2009 [1 favorite]


Lego North Korea will not take kindly to this show of force.
posted by orme at 3:50 PM on April 11, 2009 [5 favorites]


Needs more wave motion gun.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 3:51 PM on April 11, 2009 [4 favorites]


Well, he's got the space version too.
posted by CRM114 at 3:52 PM on April 11, 2009 [2 favorites]


If there's any justice in the world, the Lego company will buy it from him and put it in one of their museums.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 3:56 PM on April 11, 2009


You know, I really take offense that they chose to give the Japanese sailors yellow faces.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 4:01 PM on April 11, 2009 [2 favorites]


The actual ship is rather impressive, too. It's final mission was impressively... tragic?

The largest battleship ever built, on a suicide mission, with only enough fuel to reach Okinawa, beach itself, and fire its massive guns until...? It was spotted before it got there and attacked by literally hundreds of US planes. With no opposing air cover, the attacking planes hit the Yamato with multiple torpedoes and bombs over the course of about two hours as it continued towards its target.

"A torpedo plane's view of battleship Yamato. This is how Japan's mightiest warship appeared as six lone U.S. Navy torpedo planes raced in to destroy her. She is still making 10 to 15 knots, though fires continue to burn amidships."
posted by whatnotever at 4:02 PM on April 11, 2009 [3 favorites]


The battleship Yamato is quite a legendary and potent symbol of courage in the face of futility. So much so, that the anime some of you may know as Star Blazers was based on this ship. The Japanese name for the series was Space Battleship Yamato. In fact, the creators did a little re-writing of history with this anime - the second film from the television series, Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato, sees the protagonists on a mission to defend Earth against alien invaders despite being grossly outnumbered and outgunned. Yamato is destroyed, but not before repelling the invasion.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 4:11 PM on April 11, 2009


Huh. Seems I remembered FTSBY incorrectly - in reality, the aliens do destroy Earth, but then they themselves are destroyed when the Yamato team decide to ram the alien mothership, destroying it, Yamato, and the crew on board.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 4:19 PM on April 11, 2009


1:10.

This is generally what stimulus money expenditures look like in Japan, a spiffy public museum somewhere with some dodgy content. I think half my my salary in Japan 1995-2000 was funded via these spending programs (I wouldn't know but that's the impression I get in retrospect).

Yamato's sister ship, the Musashi, got a similar aerial workover in 1944 in the general fleet action of the Philippines., eventually sinking in the Sibuyan Sea after too many torpedo hits took out its forward buoyancy.

4 more carriers instead of these 2 monsters would have served Japan better in '42 & '43. As it was the Yamato served more as a floating hotel at Truk during the crux of the Solomons battles. When the USN first got some distant aerial recon shots of the ship (IIRC in early 1944) they were quite impressed however.

The strategic problem the IJN was facing was that their munitions were in the north but their fuel oil was in the south. The BBs were based in Singapore and Borneo for the oil access, but they couldn't train up a fleet very well there.
posted by mrt at 4:34 PM on April 11, 2009 [1 favorite]


Wow, he didn't cheat with the construction, either (with glue/wood/other non-Lego pieces). Very impressive!
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 4:56 PM on April 11, 2009


The sinking of the Yamato was also the subject of a recent Japanese movie. (The production company behind the movie is one of Kadokawa Haruki's ventures. Kadokawa has led quite a colorful life, including building a full-size replica of Christopher Columbus's Santa Maria and sailing it from Barcelona to Japan.)
posted by needled at 5:11 PM on April 11, 2009


Oh wow. I knew that thing had to be big, but even still, once I saw the pictures with the artist in them, I realized I'd grossly underestimated how big. That's some righteous shit.
posted by nebulawindphone at 5:11 PM on April 11, 2009


once again, the internet has justified its entire existence in a single page.
posted by UbuRoivas at 5:25 PM on April 11, 2009


once again, the internet has justified its entire existence in a single page.

After I saw the flickr group "Does this look infected to you?" I thought nothing could justify the Internet again, but I tend to agree.
posted by fatbird at 6:30 PM on April 11, 2009


that makes two in one day! praise jebus!!!
posted by UbuRoivas at 6:31 PM on April 11, 2009


I don't speak Japanese but I feel it's a fair guess that much of that text consists of the builder bemoaning that women don't "get" him and that sex is probably overrated anyway.
posted by JeNeSaisQuoi at 12:03 PM on April 12, 2009


So does anyone else have the theme song Star Blazers stuck in their head?
</nostalgia>
posted by crataegus at 2:34 PM on April 12, 2009


All the time, crataegus. All the time. Nova was my first crush.

Also, I can highly recommend the movie Yamato. It's 145 minutes of amazing cinema.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 3:18 PM on April 12, 2009


Heh, look what I found.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 3:36 PM on April 12, 2009


R/C Submarine model of the Spaceship Yamato creepin' around a pool. Rotating turrets and everything.
posted by Extopalopaketle at 12:17 AM on April 13, 2009


I don't speak Japanese but I feel it's a fair guess that much of that text consists of the builder bemoaning that women don't "get" him and that sex is probably overrated anyway.

Truly an original joke. Well done.
posted by Fleebnork at 7:56 AM on April 13, 2009


So does anyone else have the theme song Star Blazers stuck in their head?

IF WE CAN WIN THE EARTH WILL SURVIVE!

OUR

STAAAR

BLAAAA-ZERRRRS!
posted by Philby at 8:26 PM on April 13, 2009


On the Yamato's guns - they were the largest guns ever mounted on warships. The Yamato had 9 of these guns, in three 3-gun turrets; they were designated the Type 94, and fired 45cm shells. The guns themselves weighed 2510 tons, which at the time was the weight of an average-sized destroyer - and the Yamato had NINE of these babies.

Interestingly, the Japanese steel foundry (Japan Steel) that made the ginormous barrels for the Type 94s survived the war, and today is the only plant in the world capable of producing the containment unit in a nuclear reactor (I may be getting the science-y bit wrong, but that is the gist of it) in one piece. That translates to a reduced probability of a meltdown. Where did they get their expertise? According to this Bloomberg article (previously):

"Our accumulated technology for cannon barrels helped us make this technical breakthrough in forging,'' plant manager Sato said.

It also makes samurai swords on the side.
posted by WalterMitty at 5:14 AM on May 8, 2009 [2 favorites]


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