X-Bomber the Game

As I touched on in the update from yesterday, Matsukami has printed himself an astrofighter carrier (and astrofighter to go with it), based on Brad Smith's 3D models, from a few years ago.
Hop onto the forum for more info:
	Re: Yet another X-Bomber 3d build
I especially like the weathering on the astrofighter's engine parts.

The relevant 3D models can be downloaded, for free, here:
	Astrofighter | Carrier

I found this interesting image a while ago, from twitter user; Sayabu.
It looks to be some of the original Go Nagai drawings and storyboards for X Bomber.  I like the illustration of the laser pistol in the upper-right corner.
According to the uploader, these had been sitting in his attic for some years.

Matsukami has added some great images of his 3D printed astrofighter carrier (and astrofighter) to the forum:
	 Re: Yet another X-Bomber 3d build 
I will do a separate, fuller front page summary on it, soon.

I added some new, really nice fan artworks from Japanese twitter users; uei4989p and Nopple_1000 to the fan artwork gallery:
	Fan Artworks

In other news, the third instalment of the TV-Kun manga is about to get shipped from the buyee.com warehouse.
It'll be going over FedEx, so it should be here before very long.

I also had some spare funds this month, so I ordered the Blu-rays of a sci-fi anime called Yukikaze; which, from what I've seen, is a tiny bit like UFO; only Japanese.  It has really impressive and realistic air combat scenes with futuristic aircraft.
I'll give the whole series a watch and see about putting up some screenshots from the Blu-rays.

While we're waiting for this new issue of TV-Kun to arrive at buyee.com's depot, I wanna say thanks to the Star Fleet X-Bomber group on facebook...

I thought I would check on them the other day and, despite the fact that the website has had not many updates over the last few months, they must have been checking back on us often and had info from the site shared there that'd only been up a couple of days.

I'm really happy that people are sharing info from the site and carrying it further than the site can reach by itself.

I would've gone on and given them some encouragement but Facebook is awful and I'm not registering another account.
Anyone heading that way though, let them know I'm wishing them all the best.
	Star Fleet X-Bomber | Facebook


At the same time, I was looking on twitter and Japanese users were posting content from the site on there.
Ironic that the Japanese users are posting content from a UK site about the Japanese show. The circle is complete.

Anyway, all the best for now, everyone.  If you want anything adding to the site or you're having difficulty finding something, let me know on the email or the forum, and I'll see what I can do.

I received this issue of TV-Kun some time ago (back in May) but encountered quite some difficulty, then, managing a really good scan of the Dai-X cutaway, since a lot of the image disappears into the spine of the book.

Anyway, I revisited the process, since I had the February (4th) issue to scan as well.
Not many comic pages in this issue, but it does contain some of the most famous of the colour features.

The February 1981 (4th) issue of TV-Kun showed up about this time last month, having spent 75 days on the seven seas.
Perhaps they decided to send it on the Ever Given.
I wasn't aware that the shipping option that I was choosing was going to send it in a shipping container from Japan rather than on a plane like normal, otherwise, I would've chosen another one.

Anyway, it's here and it's scanned and you can see my various remarks at the top of the page (click the image).

I don't expect to find the January (3rd) and April (6th) issues anytime soon.
I have been looking quite intently for some time and none of them are showing up. So I am presenting what I do have in the remaining logical order.

Update - [ 2021.09.13 ]
I said today that I didn't expect to find the January or April 1981 issues of TV-Kun any time soon.
I checked again in the usual places and found neither, so I had to try something else and I checked Mercari over buyee.com, which I have not actually used to buy anything in the past.

Anyway, we got a bit lucky and it looks as though we have the January issue, which will hopefully be on its long journey soon.

Scanning and editing on the third and last instalment of the Shonen Jump X Bomber manga is complete.
That's that side of the project rounded off.

I am keeping an eye open for the two missing instalments of TV-Kun needed for the manga but I'm not hopeful about them materialising anytime soon, since I've not found them despite searching regularly for quite some time.

In the meantime, I will scan the two instalments that I do have, that are not yet on the website and people can fill in the blanks as best they can.

There we go! There's part 2 of the Shonen Jump manga scanned and uploaded.
I will try to scan the third and last instalment this week.

Update - [ 2021.09.04 ]
I've started off scanning and editing part 3. A few more evenings and the Shonen Jump side of the manga scanning project should be done.

I did not expect to have the Shonen Jump bit done before TV-Kun, since I started with TV-Kun, but the Shonen Jump instalments were significantly easier to find; not amazingly easy to get all three, but still a lot easier.

I am thinking of getting someone to translate these so that we know what the characters are saying, and don't just have the illustrations to go off. If anyone knows anything about doing that, maybe you could shoot me an email, or better still, let us know on the SFXB forum.

I've started scanning the second instalment of the Shonen Jump X-Bomber manga.
I think I'm about half-way done. I need a few more nights to run the scans and edit the outputs.
This part is where the fur really starts to fly with the space battles.

Update - [ 2021.09.03 ]
All pages of part 2 are scanned and the editing is almost done.

Here we go!  The scanning is complete.  I will try and get the second one done in the next week or two.

Hi, it's been a while since there was any update ...
We've been working on a few crucial things at our end.

One thing that was hanging up the X Bomber manga scanning project was the fact that one shipment from Japan was hugely delayed.
I chose a different shipping option that looked reasonable at the time and after 2-and-a-half-months, it's arrived in the UK.

The shipment contains the first instalment of the Shonen Jump manga.  I already have the second one, and the third (and last) is in the warehouse in Japan.
It also contains the February 1981 (fourth) instalment of the TV-Kun manga.

After that, all I need is the January and April instalments from TV-Kun, and to get the last instalment of Shonen Jump shipped, and that should be all the materials for the project assembled.

Update [ 2021.08.27 ]
I have started scanning the first instalment of the Shonen Jump manga. The third and last one has apparently been delivered at home today. The issues are quite dense with about 30 pages each, so it'll take some time to complete.

Please don't hesitate to get in touch. I'll be glad to hear from you and I'll reply as quickly as I can.

Email me at:
... or contact me via the SFXB Forum contact page.

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