FSS Designs 1 - Gears Online has a copy!

[sharky]

2 versions ? Maybe, more like one official and one not that much...
At first I would think bootleging a book is not really such a great deal, moreover an FSS book, but you never know XD

I'll see if there's a way to find mine is a copy or not (Maybe if I mail Automatic Flowers directly^^), then I'll see what I can do if I do anything (whining to paypal with the protection thingy, I have 4 days left ).
20 pages missing is kinda wrong. "kinda".

Mmh could there be some pages with some material hard to reproduce ?
Like some textured paper like in Knightflags/Smokewalls ?
Or some metallic paper parts ? Or glossy/matte stuff etc etc ?

Nothing I noticed.

Did you check the bottom right on the last page. Mine said it is printed Sept 25, 2005 and had "(c) 2005 edit" above the "Print in Japan" line.

I've added my page number to your list.

-p1 : P1 Ama' in red & yellow kimono, slightly seen from above. With title
-p2 : p5 the 4 red diamond AKD icon
-p3 : p6 Ama' in red & yellow kimono, this time full view from foot to head.
-p4 : p8 Ama', old artwork from 1985, white and red outfit, big flower in the hair and all.
-p5 : p9 Ama', new artwork, white kimono, with some blue and red circles
-p6 : p10 Destiny Lachesis, new artwork, with pink ribbons in the hair
-p7 : p11 Lachesis, old artwork, white robe with gold parts and FEMC cross.
-p8 : p12 lachesis outfits, plastic style suite (the pink one), and a classy robe, dark red
-p9 : p13 lachesis again, summer robe, with sun hat, another one, with gold robe
-p10 : p14 ladios sopp & lady sopp
-p11 : p15 Sopp kneeling, teenage Sopp
-p12 : p16 Mell Rince
-p13 : p17 Agari No Kimi and old Mel Rince artwrok
p14 : p18 Amaterasu Focuslight
p15 : p20 Amaterasu no Mikoto
p16 : p22 Aisha & Wascsha
p17 : p23 Sarion/Ikaruga, old and new artwork
p18 : p24 Litora
-19 : p25 Mell Sarcher
-20 : p26 KOG
-21 : p27 Destiny Lachesis (old artwork, true form with blue air) and youn Lachesis (brown hair) + Swe
-22 : p28 KOG AT
-23 : p29 Atropos (2 artworks)
-24 : p30 Hughtrang
-25 : p31 KOG as Luminous
-26 : p32 Schpeltor
-27 : p33 Auge Aruscul
-28 : p34 Green Neiper and fatima Diode
-29 : p35 Mashine Mess Auge
-30 : p41 FEMC Bloodcross
-31 : p43 FEMC Mirage Mortar Headd
-32 : p44 LED
-33 : p45 LED V3 Inferno Napalm
-34 : p46 LED detailed artwork
-35 : p47 LED's head lineart, another lineart and Fatima in red Plastic Style suit, during Monarch Sacred
-36 : p48 Fatima Bucstual
-37 : p49 Fatima Vitter Schasse & Fatima Cieciesterkesrem (WTF ?! )
-38-39 : p50-51 Jagd, without twin tower
-40 : p52 Jagd Twin Tower, full front view
-41 : p53 Jagd Twin Tower, front view, busters cut
-42 : p54 Jagd arm, thigh
-43 : p55 Jagd head, Schaft, with rose icon

Missing from your list.
P2,3 is table on Contents
p4 is Joker star chart
p7 isdescription/writing about Amatersu
p19 is Amatersu family chart
p21 is description/writing about Amatersu's families
p36-37 is map of AKD empires and writing
p38-39 is illustration on the floating island
p40 & p42 is blank page

[hitori]

I have the 176 pages version as well.
This is terrible.

I'm sorry you had to deal with that eBay guy Falk...

[Falk]

Thanks a lot for checking the content !

Most of what is lacking in my book seems to be texts or tables. That's weird. (On the other hand I'm relatively glad that's mostly content I could not read, and I guess most of it was already published in Tales Of Joker/at the end of english books/in previous artbooks)

Or could this be a printing error ?
I guess it happens and they simply can't sell those ones, but maybe they sell it for a cheap price to sellers specialised (or not) in unperfect books (there used to be a store like that not far from where I live, selling books with just a few mistakes (either editing or printing) for a really cheap price).

But if it's a printing error, this would mean it "skipped" some content but printed the right page number... Which would mean the numbering is done separatly from the content ? I'm not really a specialist of printing process^^.

I'll write all I have in my book to know exactly what I'm missing, I'm not sure it's worth it to start whining with ebay/paypal just for some texts I can't read if I'm not even sure it's a copy... A shame I only have 3-4 days to whine (and it's the weekend), doesn't left me much time to sort that properly, either I whine directly or I let this go. I would have mailed the guy first, just to know what he has to say.

Not to generalise about Chineses hey^^, but if a copy book is sold all around China, even for an FSS book it may be worth it.
Look at this link http://photo.163.com/photos/death_2000_2/30337390/ it has the same amount of page than mine :
-artwork of p.145 :
http://img261.photo.163.com/death_2000_ ... 808988.jpg
-name of the artwork p.147, as for mine, it says the artwork is on p.163 :
http://img261.photo.163.com/death_2000_ ... 809929.jpg
(oh, and go back to the root page, it has lot of scans of mecha related books, Tales Of Joker 19 with some B&W artworks I had never seen (this one's really cool)

What would bother me much if it's a copy, would be a cheap ink quality. For instance, the white stripe on the left of the 4 artworks has some slight black marks, the one on the double page artwork has some slight blue marks.
Nothing really bad, but I can't tell if it was there right from the beginning or not.

Also the messed up order of the pages. I guess Eatta is on the opposite page of Rogner, and Allecto is on the opposite page of Aisha. In my book Rogner is on the opposite of "FEMC Mirage Knight", Aisha on the opposite of Eatta, and so on... Not great...

The bottom right of the last page is normal, well I guess, same as yours, printed sept 25, (c)2005 edit... But if I had to copy a book, I would copy the copyright as well
Is there another logo with a peacock and various numbers ?
The ISBN is the right one.

[Rubel Colus]

Falk, sorry to say that yours is a bootleg. They really did a very good job this time, the print and paper quality are very good, so much so that it looks almost like the real stuff. the only thing is they skip some pages making it only 150+ pages, while the ORIGINAL is 170+ pages.

The price sold in China is about 35 ~ 38 China Yuan +/- (altho i've heard the cost price is way below that!). Its also available in HK. I've also heard that they may print future series but probably not gonna miss any pages, so its gonna be harder to spot next time. The best way is to buy from reputable sellers.

Sorry to inform this so late, coz i didnt expect it to get out of that region.

And i really hate it that the sellers are trying to sell it as an original. I've heard that many people were conned this time due to the good quality print. Usually bootlegs will have obvious difference in the cover to differentiate it from the original.

[Falk]

38 yuan ? You mean like... mmh... 5$ ?! 4€ ?! 3£ ?! (just some cheap special FX^^)

Now that's not cool. I prefere to have original products though I don't mind buying a recast resin kit as it appears they don't really care about the international market (someone corrects me if I'm wrong), and same goes for this book as it was out of stock on HLJ 2 weeks after the release date and not restocked (same on another online store, nippon-export).
But buying a copy with missing pages presented as an original ("back from Japan toy trip"... ), for about 5 times the copy price, it's not barely OK anymore.

Thanks for the infos^^
I think I'll mail AutomaticFlowers some day soon, and bug them about creating an online store, or an official deal with an existing online store or something, and use this as an argument... I hope they care about bootlegs... (well, I mean, about no bootlegs )

[Rubel Colus]

have u contacted the seller about this issue? or talked to ebay?

I also think that it's despicable that he tried to pass it off as an 'original', even though he didnt spell it out. I even suspect that he knows about the pages discrepancy that's why he only mentioned "OVER 100 pages" and not being specific!

Sadly, it does seem that the officials are not too keen to do international business.

If u r really desperate for an original FSS Designs 1, i can consider letting go of my extra...

[Nu Soard Graphite]

This is good to know. I was planning on buying a copy soon.

[Falk]

have u contacted the seller about this issue? or talked to ebay?

I also think that it's despicable that he tried to pass it off as an 'original', even though he didnt spell it out. I even suspect that he knows about the pages discrepancy that's why he only mentioned "OVER 100 pages" and not being specific!

Sadly, it does seem that the officials are not too keen to do international business.

If u r really desperate for an original FSS Designs 1, i can consider letting go of my extra...

Nope, haven't contacted the seller. When using paypal you have 45 days after payment to make a complaint, after it's to late. Today is the 45th day I think^^ (or tomorrow maybe). So it's to late to contact the seller.
And about paypal I'm not sure, if in the end I have to send back the book to have a refund, I'll end with no book at all... So I'd rather do nothing as most of the lacking content is japanese text...

What bugs me is "just" the way it's done (and being spoiled 20$^^).
Selling 25$ a copy worth 5$, presenting it as an original with some "trip to japan" bullsh*t...
I haven't bought the book at 45$ cuz' I don't want to spent 45$ on a book that cost 25 just a few months earlier, and that I'm sure I could still find for this price in Japan. I see no point in paying 45$ to a US seller just cuz' he had to pay the book (25$), the shipping from JP to US (10~15$), then add his own profit margin (5~10$).
It's just pointless. Damn, imagine the shipping cost if we were living on Jupiter
What also bugs me is that I left a positive evaluation on his profile and it can't be changed.

I'm wondering about contacting other guys who bought the book... I have 9 object numbers, though only 2 have not left an evaluation yet. They may complain or not, but at least they'll know that what they've purchased is not exactly what they think it is.
And looking at the ebay messageboard, it looks like they don't act quickly to prevent things like that... (cuz' big sellers bring more money, whether what they sell is original or not)
Or am I making a big deal of this ? (after all we buy expensive crap everyday just cuz' there's a brand on it, we know about it and won't even complain).

As for your extra, thanks^^, but if I push the reasonning as far as possible, it all comes down to "get a job and buy those books when they're out, not when they're twice the original price on ebay"
I missed FSS Designs 1 when it came out, I missed FSS 12 preorder, and I just missed Sweet Dreams from Shunya Yamashita... (well on backorder now, if I want it without waiting on HLJ to restock it (which may eventually be... never) it's on others sites, for a higher price)

(Damn, the page order is really bugging me though... I mean, you buy a book for what it is, it's not like a recipes cards collection you store in a ring binder... )

[Falk]

Ok, if someone wants to check what else is missing^^
Don't bother looking at each page, I guess missing pages are mostly between each section of the book.

44-45 : More Jagd content (lineart, buster unit)
46 : Cross Mirage male type
47 : Cross Mirage female type + doowray
48 : heavy cross
49 : terror
50 : wunderschatz
51 : cloudschatze (or whatever wolke schatze)
52 : rouge/eleshis + apache
53 : mighty series
------------------------------------------------------------------------
54 : femc mirage knights
55 : rogner
56 : eatta
57 : aisha
58 : alecto
59 : spector art
60 : spector + porter
61 : spaccorn
62 : tisphone
63 : lie ex + ikaros
64 : dippa drops + achileus
65 : hind kill + thaleia
66 : leopard chrysalis + tita
67 : urazen sie + philleto
68 : poeshe nomien + shelasta
69 : sharie randers + euphrosyne
70 : bijotorn corlala + spaluta
71 : stateballo kaieda + kale
72 : nu soard + pasithea
73 : iemarah lout jajas + soltia
74 : mischalu ha lonn + kclappa
75 : john weinzel
76 : weinzel + palsuet
77 : allen bradford
78 : kyo
79 : maximum + atlas/SSL
80 : qukey zanda + aglaia
81 : cha tea + hugtlang
------------------------------------------------------------------------
82 : sarion + maja
83 : schaft + parthenon
84 : ding + la belda
85 : spinner, python
86 : kiny + irupeo
87 : bester orbit, maizer broze
88 : spark + krakaline
89 : spark + krakaline
90 : muddler moirai + belcut
91 : miss muddler
92 : biz vis + something
93 : princess tightnaben + salome
94 : panard ex + can't remember his name
95 : eldai zawanzig, velvet weismel
96 : upizone bardenbarg + megaira
97 : karrer crysalis + tita
98 : alert lie ex
99 : lady spector
100 : the tower
101 : queen + deimos hiarak
102 : dagairan roth, marca roumors
103 : gilfi viridian
104-105 : FEMC clothes
106 : white lynx, mel zoom
107 : palu swain, elena kunikova
------------------------------------------------------------------------
108 : gods knights logo
109 : vogen de leibach + elala
110 : upandra, Dr joejo
------------------------------------------------------------------------
111 : AKD ground force icon
112 : AKD navy icon
113 : trooper, gun, camo
114 : Major metallifel, yuri vasyuchenko
115 : E-75, E-505
116 : armored trooper, mirage trooper
117 : meyer von toccata, elena kunikova
118 : inna petrova, admiral yang
119 : spaceship U-17, transport cruiser EEL
120 : U-21, killfish, panna cotta
121 : plutonix, foler, prowler
122-123 : belle clair, whale
124 : space ship comparision chart
125 : stuff about outfits, ama, ena dai gu fillmore, another one
126 : more stuff about outfits, sakurako and 3 other
------------------------------------------------------------------------
127 : faits, land of fatimas with fatima atlas B&W art
128 : uranium ballance
129 : nakandra swans
130 : focuslight + lithium ballance
131 : arsenic ballance
132 : optical ty-phon
133 : chrome ballanche (x2)
134 : queen art
------------------------------------------------------------------------
135 : another art, with title "the deities, spirits and tales"
136 : the silvis ride
137 : silvis on chocobo-like + cheetopard, or leotah
138 : silvis race venus
139 : more silvis (x2)
140-141 : even more silvis, demon horn, silvis mirror...
142-143 : lachesis 6599
144-145 : lachesis artwork lost in time/space
146 : manticore
147 : kfir imperium
148 : fool for the city cover + text
149 : satan commander, 7 fingers would be great to write such a list
150 : Karen
151 : the mist breaker (not the fresh maker)
152 : babylon king Vs satan + text
153 : some text over grey AKD emblem
154-155 : the bride

[jlyc]

damn..my copy is a bootleg as well...but ya they really did a good job this time...i wouldn't have been able to tell until somebody mentioned about the missing pages.

the quality of the paper and printing is 98% of the knight flag i have. but i didn't suspect anything because the list price is less than half of k.f. so i didnt expect them to use the same type of paper anyway. now that i know...i'm kinda pissed too...maybe it's true that ignorance is bliss.

[Nu Soard Graphite]

Well, I finally managed to get myself a coopy of Designs 1: Easter AKD. Great book. A lot of rehashed pics, but plenty of new material as well. I like the new picture of Nekkandara Swans and Mel Rince. And we finally get some height/weight info on a few more mysterious AKD MH's (mainly the MM: Auge and the Cloudschatze.

I also like the chapter about the AKD military, since the Characters series books I posses only have a small amount of that info in it (none of the books I posses have the info on the Powered Armor for example)

If anyone has any information on the new characters, (Major Broz, Tightnaben, LD120 etc) please post what you know so that we may soon put up more profiles to flesh out the list of Mirage Knights. I will begin work on the full Spark/Madora/Prominence profile tomorrow (or maybe later tonight)

[Falk]

Yo,

Talking about the black Phantom on hobbyfan got me wondering :
Why isn't it in FSS Designs 1 ?

Allen Braford's Apache is in the book, while it doesn't even have the blood cross, never fought for the AKD AFAIK, and doesn't seem to be a Sopp design ("unknown" on Gears), and on the other hand the Black Phantom (though it's a Siren variant) sports the blood cross, may "soon" (yeah I know... ) get some action, but no, it's not in the book.

Any idea ?
Is Spark/Madora still considered as someone from Bakinrakkin while serving the AKD ? (and so does her MH ?)
Or is she considered as Prominence, from the Super Empire ?

Or should it be featured in FSS Designs 2 ? (if anyone knows what it's supposed to be about)

[Rubel Colus]

designs 2 will be more on Juno and Addler, maps of all 5 planets, MH Stable(?) (<-- MH hangar huh? this will be interesting!), and "Making of anime n manga", etc...

any one has scans of Newtype May issue?

[Tachyon]

Cool! Thanks for the update, Rubel. I'm looking forward to that book.

Is FSS running in Newtype again? I'm sure FSS fans on both sides of the Pacific will be happy.

[Rubel Colus]

Cool! Thanks for the update, Rubel. I'm looking forward to that book.

Is FSS running in Newtype again? I'm sure FSS fans on both sides of the Pacific will be happy.

nope, FSS is not gonna start for a loooooong loooooong time, i guess at least more than a or two year from now.

i juz wanna see the advert and the news about designs 2. :p