X Bomber Encyclopedia

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Vanessa
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X Bomber Encyclopedia

Post by Vanessa »

Hi all,Well, after much searching, and a great deal of help from Machina, I finally managed to get hold of a copy of the fabled X Bomber Encyclopedia.Actually managed to do this a few months ago, but I wanted to complete the entire project of procurement and scanning before announcing it on the forum (that was difficult, keeping schtum for so long!).As I said, Machina is an absolute internet searching legend! Without his help, this project would not have succeeded.Anyway, I can tell you all that the book is sized smaller than A5 format, and is very tightly bound in paperback form. The image quality of many of the photos is not very good, probably due to the source material they used when making the book in the first place.There are 240 pages, and the copy I have is in very good condition considering it's age. However, due to the tightly bound nature of the book, plus the need to open out the pages fully to see the images, many of the pages are falling out. The book was published in 1981, in Japan, and is entirely in Japanese, meaning it is read starting from the back of the book (opposite to UK convention), with sentences flowing from the top to the bottom of the pages, rather than from left to right. Most of the pages are in black-and-white, with 32 at the beginning in colour.For me the most interesting part is the character bio's, with most of the "good guys" pages being in colour. But very frustratingly, the Imperial Alliance pages are in B/W. But the concept are sketches are fascinating, as are the "behind the scenes, making of..." shots.The next step was to get such a fragile book scanned. Obviously a standard flatbed scanner was not sufficient, due to the tightly bound nature of the pages. So I contacted a specialist scanning company that handles rare and fragile books, and has one of only four specialist book scanning machines in the entire UK. Basically, each page is photographed individually by a high-res digital camera on a stand, with each image then manipulated to straighten it out. This instrument is usually used for rare manuscripts from museums!It took them a few attempts to get it right, but in the end I had a top quality complete scan of the entire book. As I say, the image quality of the actual book is not that great, it's not that the scanning is poor quality.Here are a few screen shots for you to enjoy:These are of the cover, Shiro's bio page and Makara's bio page. Check out the concept sketches.Obviously the sheer size (and possibly copyright issues) prevent me from putting the entire book up on the forum. But if there's a character page you'd like to see, I'll try to oblige by posting it up here.Sadly my Japanese is not that great, so I can't translate any of the text. If anyone wants to do this for the benefit of the forum, please let me know...
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Crash
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X Bomber Encyclopedia

Post by Crash »

I ... am ... stunned.I'll host the lot, just let me get my uploading script working or email them to me.At least I've got my new Images front-end ready in time.I don't really see how copyright really works here, considering that ... no-one else has been able to obtain one of these.They can always write me another takedown email - see how far that gets them.
Dream big and bold and daring.
Shane
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Joined: Fri Dec 07, 2001 9:10 pm

X Bomber Encyclopedia

Post by Shane »

Vanessa, you are a genuine star! What a great find! Really appreciate the time and effort you've put in on this project.Finding it must have been hard enough, but to get the entire publication professionally scanned is really beyond the call of duty! This a real case of actions speaking louder than words!Can't wait to have a proper look at the encyclopedia; incidentally, I've just completed a short course in the Japanese language and I am now reasonably adept at reading and writing Katakana. So I may well have a go at translating this beast!
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Crash
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X Bomber Encyclopedia

Post by Crash »

I honestly thought it was something that someone had made up; a bit of a story that had snowballed.
Dream big and bold and daring.
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Vanessa
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X Bomber Encyclopedia

Post by Vanessa »

Thank you for your kind comments As I said, a huge debt of thanks must also go to Machina for his assistance with locating a copy, and helping me with purchase formalities and getting it sent to the UK from Japan.I did initially think it might be some kind of urban legend, but I assure you it's 100% real.Hats off to you for having a crack at learning Japanese Shane! I imagine it must be very difficult. Please feel free to translate any X Bomber stuff for us all here on the forum
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Bladez636
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X Bomber Encyclopedia

Post by Bladez636 »

You and Machina are awesome, Vanessa!You've uncovered possibly the most rare thing in this community! Well done!
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Crash
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X Bomber Encyclopedia

Post by Crash »

Pages 47 and 48 should be translated .... just ... not by me, lol.P55 shows that Legtrax has a heavy gun in the waist section underneath.Wow, this really does have everything - including quite a lot of vehicles that never made it into the show.
Dream big and bold and daring.
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Vanessa
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X Bomber Encyclopedia

Post by Vanessa »

Yes, there is a great deal of information.Just to show what Crash is referring to, here are those three pages:
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Crash
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Post by Crash »

At the risk of sounding like I obsess about sci-fi because of the machines rather than 'the human drama' ...I wanna know what all those labelled bits are.
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Happosai
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X Bomber Encyclopedia

Post by Happosai »

Excellent find!I can translate some of the two pages with the X Bomber cut-away (amusingly, it has the toilet marked on there), but would need higher resolution versions to do the rest.Good to see familiar names still posting on here, BTW. I only seem to check in here every 12 months or so...[Happosai]



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