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Ships
As you'd expect from a Japanese show, the technology in Star Fleet is at once believable and also completely out there! There's now a whole section of the site devoted to the mecha of the series which you can find here. So on this page I'll just give you a quick run-down of the main ships in the series, and you can then find out more if your curiosity is piqued...
X-Bomber is the star of the show, and the original Japanese version of the series was named after it. In the finest tradition of anime shows it has to transform to fire some of its most powerful weapons and it's as hard as nails. The western influence of Star Wars is undeniably present, though - the bridge guns are straight out of the Millennium Falcon and there's an obvious similarity with a X-Wing fighter. It's basically your classic, one-of-a-kind, last best hope for victory style ship.
Next up to bat for the good guys is the mighty Dai-X. This is the big red robot which many people remember, formed from three fighters piloted by Shiro, Barry and Lee. It's a predeccesor of the modern Power Rangers robots, or Zords. Like them, when it's walking around it's a bloke in a suit. This is another example of how Star Fleet crosses genres - it's Thunderbirds meets Star Wars meets Godzilla!
Spreading destruction around like it's going out of fashion is Commander Makara's cruiser. This ship, designed to look a little like a shark, is the Imperial Alliance's main battle wagon for most of the series. Although it's much bigger than X-Bomber and is home to a fleet of enemy ships, X-Bomber manages to hold its own against it - most of the time.
When the X-Bomber does run into trouble, more often than not this is what gets it out of trouble - the mysterious sailing ship called the Skull. Much of the series is devoted to X-Bomber's hunt for this ship and its link to the mystery of the F-01. Until relatively late in the series it has an annoying habit of saving the X-Bomber from Makara's cruiser or other peril and then flying off without revealing anything more about itself. Suffice to say that its importance goes beyond just getting the X-Bomber out of scrapes...
Last updated 14 December 2013
