Takatoku 1/55

Takatoku 1/55 was one of the original line of toys created by Takatoku Toys made to promote the Super Dimension Fortress Macross television series and later The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? movie. Bandai currently makes reissues.

Shōji Kawamori and Kazutaka Miyatake pitched their ideas to Takatoku Toys. One major obstacle during the designing of the transforming toys was a way to swing the two rear fuselage pieces to the front to become the legs. Eventually, the legs were hinged onto the cockpit by two metal parts, although this cut down show-accuracy, it made them the a pinnacle of toy engineering in that era, the kind of toy engineering that wouldn't be seen until the late 80s and early 90s. To this day, a lot of VF-1 Valkyrie toys use the same technique to bring the legs to the front. A notable gimmick of these toys are the spring-loaded landing gear. In the wake of Takatoku’s collapse, Matsushiro, the company that had been originally contracted to design the 1/55 VF-1, acquired the rights to the mold. Hasbro contracted Matsushiro to manufacture the 1/55 toy as part of The Transformers toyline, and re-branded the toy as "Jetfire". Shortly thereafter Matsushiro also hit financial hard times and Bandai acquired many of Takatoku’s assets from Matsushiro including the 1/55 VF-1 mold.

Kawamori told Takatoku to time their releases in accordance to the anime's release. The first toy to be released was the VF-1J in the November of 1982, this was because the VF-1J was the protagonist's main mecha for the first arc of the series. By the December of that year, they had already sold around 20 0000 1/55 scale VF-1 Valkyrie toys.

1982

#	Model	Series	Yen Price	Release Date	Notes
1	BATTROID VALKYRIE VF-1J VARIABLE FIGHTER	Super Dimension Fortress Macross	¥3,980	1982 November

1984 (Hi-Metal)

In 1984, Bandai released new variants of the Takatoku 1/55 Valkyries for the film The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? under the Hi-Metal line.

HM #	Model	Series	Yen Price	Release Date	Notes
01	VF-1S Strike Valkyrie (Hikaru Ichijyo Custom)	The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love?	¥	1984 October	Includes new Strike FAST Pack.
02	VF-1A Super Valkyrie (Hikaru Ichijyo Custom)	The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love?	¥	1985 January	Parts variant of HM-01.
03	VT-1 "Super Ostrich" Valkyrie	The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love?	¥	1985 April	Parts and color variant of HM-01.
04	VE-1 "ELINT Seeker" Valkyrie	The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love?	¥	1985 June	Parts and color variant of HM-01.

1990

Model #	Model	Series	Yen Price	Release Date	Notes
01	VF-1S Super Valkyrie (Roy Focker Special)	Super Dimension Fortress Macross	¥	1990	Reissue with a reprint of the original Takatoku packaging.

2008 (Origin of Valkyrie)

Origin of Valkyrie (オリジン・オブ・バルキリー, Orijin obu Barukirī) is the 2008 reissue of the Takatoku 1/55 Valkyries by Bandai.

OOV #	Model	Series	Yen Price	Release Date	Notes
01	VF-1J Valkyrie (Hikaru Ichijyo Custom)	Super Dimension Fortress Macross	¥8,190	2008 July 19
02	VF-1J Valkyrie (Milia Fallyna Jenius]] Custom)	Super Dimension Fortress Macross	¥8,190	2008 July 19
03	VF-1S Valkyrie (Roy Focker Custom)	Super Dimension Fortress Macross	¥8,190	2008 July 19
04	VF-1A Super Valkyrie (Hikaru Ichijyo Custom)	The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love?	¥9,450	2008 August 30	Reissue of HM-02.
05	VF-1A Super Valkyrie (Maximilian Jenius Custom)	The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love?	¥9,450	2008 August 30	Color variant of OOV-04.

See Also

• Takatoku 1/100
• Takatoku 1/3000

External links

• Tamashii Nations' Official Origin of Valkyrie Site