X-Bomber the Game

Also in my latest care package from Japan is a full set of mint, retail Japanese Zentrix DVDs.
It is difficult to express in words how pleased I am to get a hold of all of these; especially in such good condition, and retail discs, rather than the rental ones.
I was really lucky to find it, because I've seen sets of a-bit-used rental copies go for more than double the amount.

So that's a nice win, and one project on the site that I can bring to conclusion.

X Bomber Manga Scanning Projects

The Televi Kun manga scanning project ran a bit aground, as I haven't been able to find the 3rd (Jan 1981) or 6th (April 1981) issue, despite searching for them for some time.
Issues 4 and 5 are either here, or are on the way.

I plan to scan and editorialise them a bit all-together, and in the proper order, otherwise the result might be a bit disjointed.

So, since I was having trouble progressing that, I turned my attention to the other X Bomber manga by Naoki Kamohara.

That manga features in the 1980 Shonen Jump issues 6-8.
These were a bit less hard to find, (and also significantly cheaper).  In theory, I now own all 3 ...
#6 is still on a boat somewhere.  #8 is at the warehouse.
Lucky 7 is the first to arrive.

Fan Artwork

Twitter users in Japan have been a bit more active lately and I found two great artworks for the fan artwork folder:
 - Kia_asamiya - X-Bomber and Dai-X (pictured)
 - Nopple_1000 - Dai-X

In other news, I am working on a few other projects, but it may take some time to see the results, since the necessary materials are held back by huge shipping delays from Japan.

Star Fleet Project Omega - Future Echoes Prologue

Jiraiya aka Zordon has created a terrific trailer for a Star Fleet audio drama that he wants to make.
I was really amazed at how well produced it is and how great the voices are.
It's only one guy doing it and I was absolutely stunned.

SFXB 2021 Review

Andy Thomas; creator of SFXB, has done a really fantastic video that looks back over the last 20 years of SFXB and Star Fleet fandom.
xbomber.co.uk gets a mention here-and-there as well, which is real nice.

This is a historical video that looks back over how Star Fleet fandom has evolved in the UK, so I have uploaded a version to this site for safe keeping.

It's been brilliant knowing Andy through our Star Fleet endeavours.
He is one of the best guys I've ever known.

2021.05.29 - There was a bit of a delay in uploading this. The last several weeks have been a bit tough. I am working back, filling in the missing weeks of Star Fleet Saturday ...

Sorry for the lack of a Star Fleet Saturday, last week ...

Brad Smith Dai-X
As you can see, Brad is doing fantastic work on 3D-modelling LegTrax.
You can find more images and give him encouragement on the forum.

TV-Kun Manga
I'm currently scanning the March 1981 issue of TV-Kun, which contains an interesting instalment of the X-Bomber manga.

The February issue is sitting in a warehouse in Japan, waiting to be shipped.
The January and April ones; the two that I'm missing, aren't showing up anywhere currently but they should show up eventually.

Other Stuff
I did have good luck with my Zentrix project...
A few weeks ago, I wrote that I wasn't sure that I'd ever find the last 3 volumes of the Japanese Zentrix DVDs.
Then, a set of ex-rental copies; volumes 3-6 appeared, where the price was exorbitant but was steadily coming down.
I checked on FROM JAPAN one day and a full set of 6 retail copies appeared; in great-looking condition for very substantially less.
Since I didn't expect to see nearly as good an offer in the future, I bagged it and, hopefully, we should be getting that part of the site completed before too long.

Star Fleet Saturday didn't take much time to prepare this week, since the scanning of the second instalment of Televi-Kun had already been done last weekend.
So, enjoy what's turning out to be quite an interesting project.

In the last few weeks, the site has had a few other improvements.
The media system will use the new HTML5 video and audio tags to play mp4 videos as well as audio files without people leaving the page or opening a new tab. That seems to work pretty well.

The website can also handle webp images, although it doesn't perform any server-side resizing, since this new Google format is pointless, and hopefully, it won't catch on.

There are quite a few additions to the Star Fleet area of the site:
	Publications - X-Bomber Super Manual
	Toys and Merchandise
	VHS Tapes

Star Fleet Saturday was a bit delayed this week...
I finished scanning the first instalment of the Televi-Kun X Bomber manga and full-colour feature, that were published in November 1980.

It's been a bit of a tricky process getting to this point, since the books themselves are not that easy to obtain, and not that easy to scan, as it turns out, either.

Anyway, out of the six instalments, I've managed to track down four in total and I'm working on the other two.

I may not manage it, but I will try to scan the second; December, instalment next week.

At the same time, the site has undergone quite a few other updates and additions.  I'll write a little update, summarising those at some point.

It took me a long time to find it, but here's the third out of the six volumes of Zentrix DVDs released in Japan.
This one was in a red box, which I seem to remember, indicates that it was a retail copy, rather than a rental one.

It's taken me about 2 years to get this far but, hopefully, I'll eventually manage to get the rest.
I saw volumes 3-6 as a set on Mercari but I can't justify the £400+ cost for the three that I still need.

	Screenshots
	Menu screenshots and cover scan

I contacted my friend; Maria, whom I met over Facebook, (before we both ditched it), to see if I could complete the fan artwork section a bit with some of Maria's illustrations.

They really capture the nature of characters from the show well.

Anyway, I received some great scans; far better than what I'd found before.
Go and check them out because they're great.  I've asked whether there's even any more where those came from.

	Maria Ramirez

Also, I have received my latest care package from Japan with another instalment of the TV Kun X Bomber manga.

I will have to get busy scanning those so I have something to show you next week.

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.

Profiles: SFXB Forum