Well I saw some episodes of a revamped series on some website (kissanime??) a while ago, so I splurged and got the DVD to Starblazer 2199 & 2202. 2199 is a retelling of the classic series trip to Iscandar to save the Earth from planet bombing done by the Gamilons. 2202 is a retelling of the trip to Telezart warning of the Comet Empire threat. Generally they were an improvement in quality (how could it not since the originals were from the early 70s) without trampling what was like-able in the original. Some of the more childish/silly things were removed, so I liked it better comparatively as an adult (as opposed to more common disappointing remakes).
You have all the original characters but the names are the original Japanese (Kodai vs Wildstar, Okita vs Avatar, Yamato vs Argo, etc.) and a few new ones. There are more ladies, who are almost all knock-outs wearing skin-tight clothing shown with lots of male-pleasing views (very common in anime now, but not so much in the original). Most of the ships are the same shape, but they are different sizes (mostly larger) and quantity (generally more) - now Bandai has newer/more kits to sell! The main plot is roughly the same, but there are newer, more compelling sub-plots (I would say moreso in 2199 where 2202 was somewhat confusing/puzzling).
An example of the ships (where size information on the original series provided by
Starblazers Fleet Battle System are smaller at 270m, 72m, 72m, 72m respectively):
While admittedly there are some eye-rolling aspects to the show, Starblazers/Space Battleship Yamato did influence sci-fi to follow, including Star Wars and Babylon 5: Crusade (Capt. Gideon commanding super-ship with super weapon on a time-limited quest to save Earth from a deadly plague).
