Up till a few decades ago the Mitsubishi 'Zero' , though not the only, certainly was the best known Japanese WW2 fighter, so many allied pilots believed they fought 'Zeros' all over Asia, e.g. the 'Flying Tigers'. The JAAF however had it's own 'Zero': the Nakajima Ki.43 Hayabusa (allied code name 'Oscar').
This plane is the subject of three remarkebly similair books: this Osprey/Aircam no.13, the ARCO/Aircam no.15, and the Schiffer Books 'Nakajima Ki.43 Hayabusa I-III', the second volume in their series about Japanese aircraft. How come? The British book is the original, the ARCO/Aircam is the Americam edition of it and the Schiffer Books' version is the revised and updated edition of the original. Together with the 'Aircraft in Profile no.46' (to be found in 'Aircraft in Profile vol.2') and a Hayabusa book by Merriam Press they form pretty much everything that has been published about this plane in the English language. It is done in the usual Aircam-style: 50 pages crammed with black-and-white photographs, 8 pages of colour art and a text portion of 8 pages in his case.
A must for the modeller, lots of painting schemes can be done with this book at hand. If and when you're fluent in Polish you can buy two Polish publications about the Nakajima Ki-43 hayabusa as well (AJ-Press "Monografie Lotnicze" and Ace Publications "Pod-Lupa"). If your knowledge of languages extends to Japanese there is a wealth of other sources, amongst them three different editions of the Bunrin-do's Famous Aicraft of the World series.

The Hayabusa was the Japanese army's equivalent of the famed Zero fighter, and was often mistaken for it in the early months of the war. (By the AVG Flying Tigers, among others.) This is a reprint of Dick Bueschel's 1970 paperback from Arco. Unfortunately it wasn't updated to include more recent knowledge, but it remains the best thing available in English on this remarkable (for 1941) aircraft.

Much the same applies to Bueschel's other titles in this series, and especially to the less-famous aircraft (pretty much everything except the Zero, which has been well-researched and written about in recent years).

If you have any interest in collecting coin-operated machines or in their history, you should get this book. There are a large number of color pictures of historic slot machines, arcade machines, pinball machines, trade stimulators, and jukeboxes. In addition to the pictures and market prices, there is a lot of information about the history of these machines, and tips for collectors. This book was a great help when I purchased a vintage slot machine.

On top of hundreds of fantastic photos the book has game discriptions and prices. Many that are not pictured are still in the price list and described there. The dates of manufacture as well as the maker and the origin. Includes a fantastic history of trade stimulator as a whole, and offers contacts for restoration and evaluation. I need another copy, I have worn mine out!

If aircraft (and aircraft books) could be compared to PC's, the Kawasaki Ki-61 Tony could be considered a clone (using the same engine as the German Bf 109), and the final variant, the Ki-100 (taking a very different radial engine), a major upgrade.
This book is meant to be an upgrade to the earlier book with the same title and author, published in the early 1970's by Osprey. In this case it is a long overdue re-issue of a book that for many years was the virtualy the sole source of supply in both visual history of the plane and of its painting schemes, both of which this book has ample supply. Maybe Schiffer can be talked into re-publishing the whole Aircam line?

I said in a previous review "As with all books in the Osprey/Aircam series -in the US published as Airco/Aircam- it is well worth searching for. One would hope that the publisher would consider a re-issue every 20 years or so, but until now that has not been the case. That is even more to be regretted as one consideres that the volume about the Zero was a volume 1, implying that they had more material and that a volume 2 was also considered"
Well, good news, this is the second, revised and updated, edition of the former book. The same holds true for the other titles in this series, which has already extended further than the original. A must buy for anyone seriously interested in Japanese military aviation.

Upon reading this one at the shop I discovered that it was an old aquintance, it was the 2nd edition of my Aircam no.29. It even has exactly the same title, most of the text and photographs. I always wondered if Mr. Bueschel would write more about Japanese planes, or whether Osprey or Arco would publish more from him in their -now abandonned- series.
It might be possible to write a better book about the Hayate, and maybe there is a book in Japanese that is better than this one, but if that is the case, how come that we don't know about it?
So congratulations to Mr. Bueschel and Schiffer books for the fact that they found each other and that Mr. Bueschel is able to continuate -and even expand- his series about Japanese planes in the second world war, for some time the only reference about these planes together with the book Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War by René Francillon and the book about the camouflage and markings of Japanese Army Air Force planes by Donald W. Thorpe.

This book will be a revelation to modern arcade-goers. It looks back over a century, to an era long before Space Invaders or Mortal Kombat, to when arcade amusements were incredibly simple, barely interactive, and utterly charming. This is a book for collectors of truly antique arcade machines, so if you're looking for much on pinballs or video games, this isn't the title for you. But it does a great job of examing the machines the penny arcades were built on, like strength testers, fortune tellers, and peep shows. The author has turned up some fascinating material on the subject, like contemporary brochures and patent drawings, and the whole thing gives a sense of the flavor and feeling of a bygone period. Aimed more at serious collectors than casual browsers, this is a useful reference on a little-documented subject. Only the sometimes-grainy B&W photgraphy and the author's occasional bouts of social or political commentary detract slightly.

When this book was published in 1970, it became the standard reference for everyone who wanted to know what a Mitsubishi Zero looked like. Still one of the most densely packed photograph-books about the Zero, it is now no longer available from its publisher, and one has to find it on the second hand market. As with all books in the Osprey/Aircam series -in the US published as Airco/Aircam- it is well worth searching for. One would hope that the publisher would consider a re-issue every 20 years or so, but until now that has not been the case. That is even more to be regretted as one consideres that the volume about the Zero was a volume 1, implying that they had more material and that a volume 2 was also considered.

One thing you have to admit to the publishers of the Osprey Arco Aircam series: they didn't just stick with the well-known planes, but rather unknown planes as this one were included as well. The book follows the standard laid out for this series: a comprehensive text, lots of black-and-white photograps -as good as all there was available at the late 1960'ies when it was written- and some 38 sideviews, including the three on the cover and the five in the extra inlay. I think it's a save bet that there are no five other books written in English about this plane, and if that is the case, they sure won't all surpass this book in information.

A wonderful guide to a gaming art forgotten by the young with the advent of the Computer game packages. The illustrations are remarkable and insitefull. I am waiting for the rest of the searies to be published. The Pinball wiz in San Diego.