Reviews on Sailor Moon Items
Sailor Moon Trading Cards
Some of the first trading cards were avaliable in vending dispensers at
your local Toys 'R Us stores after Sailor Moon first appeared in North
America around early 1996. They were fairly nice, and they were hard. The
fronts had pictures of the characters or scenes from the show, and the
backs talked about the characters or the scenes. While they were rather
corny, they were also informative. I learned how to spell the NA names
from them. What's interesting to know is that the cards gave away
information that the dub tended to avoid. For example, the Darien card
mentions that he's the reincarnation of Prince Darien, something DIC
does not talk about at all. Another example is that on the Rini card,
it says that she helped the Scouts defeat Rubeus, which, at the time of
the card printing, she hadn't done yet. One main thing the cards did
were to mention the deaths of the Sailor Scouts in 'Day of Destiny,'
but the dub makes you think that they were just kidnapped.
Also on the backs, the Sailor Scouts said little messages. Sailor Moon's
messages are rather silly. Some of the other cards were also laughable.
For instance, a Mercury card called Amy a 'popular genius' when she was
never popular.
The third series cards were also pretty hilarious. Some of the back pictures
were nice, but otherwise they were just dumb. The quotes, messages, and
descriptions are moronic, most of the front pictures look crappy, et cetera.
I believe this was also the series that released the infamous card of
"Sailor Uranus in earthly form." This particular card (which I have :D)
had Haruka in her school uniform but did not give her a name other than
"Sailor Uranus." Her statistics were also on the back, which were
surprisingly correct except for a few of the "too Japanese" ones. At the
time the card was released, Sailor Moon S had not been released and most
people thought that it would never come out dubbed.
A later series of cards were the Prismatic series. These were probably the
worst out of the early bunch. Even the pirate sticker cards made in Taiwan
have a better sense of taste. The Prismatic cards just took regular
pictures and mad them all shiny, which gave a really cheap, tacky sort of
effect.
Kotetsu provides some
information on the later Sailor Moon trading cards released in 2000:
"I've been an anime card collector for a little while now, but only just
recently have I found any NA SM cards worth investing in. Some of the
more recent series, which (understandably) haven't yet been included on
the page, are actually quite nice.
"Here's the information that I've gathered over the course of a year
regarding NASM card and trading-sticker releases:
"Artbox is the company currently releasing SM cards to the North American
market. Their website is
http://www.artboxent.com/ Artbox
is actually a division of JPP/Amada, the company that released the
Sailormoon pull-pack cards in Japan.
"Sailor Moon Trading Stickers Series I: The first series of trading stickers
released is simply amazing - because the stickers are complete facsimiles
of the first two Japanese sets of pull-pack cards! The images on the stickers
were not altered in any way from the original pull-packs. Even the Japanese
text was kept! The difference is that images that were prisms in the
pull-pack series are now plain stickers in the NA release. Artbox created
their own series of ten "double-prism" stickers to compliment their set.
These stickers actually have two layers. The first layer is three or four
die-cut prism stickers. If you peel off the die-cut prisms, there is a
lovely foil sticker underneath. There are 10 "double-prism" stickers and
90 regular trading stickers in the set. There are five regular stickers
and one double-prism sticker in each pack.
"Out of all the cards and stickers released in North America, these are my
favorite. The original Japanese PP cards are very cute and colorful, but
unfortunately extremely rare because they are no longer in print. This
sticker collection is kind of a cheater's way of collecting PP cards.
Either way, the stickers themselves retain all of the charm and appeal of
the Japanese originals.
"Unfortunately, Trading Stickers Series II were a disappointment. I was
hoping that they would encompass PP series 3 and 4, but I was wrong. These
stickers are just a bunch of previously released images from the first two
seasons of Sailormoon. There are a few standout images, such as shots
of the corpses of the Sailor Senshi from episode 45. But overall, nothing
new or innovative. The stickers would be a lot prettier if not for the
horrendously ugly "Sailor Moon" logo stuck conspicuously in the corner of
every sticker. These logos are so huge that they spoil the entire image.
I do have one sticker that is a nice headshot of Rei, and one of her eyes
is partially covered by that hideous logo. If it weren't for the logo
spoiling the images, this wouldn't be a bad set. The images are nice, and
each sticker is framed by a soft, pearly pink border. There are 72 trading
stickers and 12 prism stickers in the set. There are five trading stickers
and one prism sticker per pac!
"Sailor Moon Action Flipz are actually kind of cool, but more expensive
than regular stickers or cards. They have an irregular size, 2" by 2".
Each "Action Flipz" uses "lenticular motion technology" to make the image
on the card move. There are some very nice images from the opening
credits of the first season. Because these little babies don't fit into
conventional card collector's sleeves, Artbox also offers a customized
binder to compliment the collection.
"Sailor Moon Film Cards Series 1 are very nicely done. Each card is
actually an image from the anime painted onto a transparent cel, and
framed by a thick cardboard card. The images themselves are nothing new,
but the presentation of the card itself is very impressive. The colors
seem unusually vibrant and rich on the cel material, and the border of
the card is a tasteful solid color that compliments the image on the
cel. Artbox offers a free film-card viewer that can be retained if you
send in the UPC labels from three packs of cards. I'm not exactly sure
what this is or how it works, but here's the advertisement blurb from
the website: "Our new line of Film Card Viewers allow you to load up the
plastic viewing unit with Sailor Moon Film Cards and then 'pop' them up
one by one onto the small screen for viewing! It's a great new product
and this Blister Board will contain one viewer and a starter pack of
Film Cards so the kids can start the show!"
"Overall, I would say that Artbox has produced four series of cards and
stickers that are FAR superior in quality and presentation to the earlier
sets released by Ban Dai and Dart. The best part is that NONE of these
cards or stickers have those stupid sayings or moronic messages on the
back!
"Wow . . . I never thought that I could be so enthusiastic about any NASM
product. The dolls are still uglier than sin, the soundtracks aren't
stellar, and the Dart cards remain a blight, but . . . I'm actually kind
of excited about the direction that Artbox is taking collector's cards and
stickers. Heck, I even spent the time and money to invest in a complete
set of Series I trading stickers. And it was worth every penny."
There is also some trading card power game where you collect cards of
scouts and villains and other cast members with different power levels
to play in some sort of game. I have not seen these myself and have
little interest in obtaining them, so if anyone else has any information
on them, I'd be glad to post them up.
Sailor Moon Music
I honestly cannot remember the BGM for the DIC transformations so I can't
comment on them. But anyway, the songs to the dub may have been the only
really good thing about it. These are my views on the songs on the first
CD, released in 1996. There were two versions of the CD- the regular CD
and a blisterpack version. Both versions included a songbook with lyrics
and some pictures.
- Opening Theme Song: This is pretty bad. It has bad singing and
is a bad hacking of "Moonlight Densetsu. Least favorite song.
- I Wanna Be a Star: Pretty good on the CD. Nice fast pace, nice
music. I don't like the lyrics though or when there's the talking during
it. I can't stand when she sings, "I Wanna."
- My Only Love: One of the best songs. Very, very strong, as good
as the one on the show. Nice additional bg music that I appreciated as
well.
- Call My Name and I'll Be There: This song was played during the
same episode as 'Oh Starry Night' but was cut off by the Cardian. Pretty
nice. It's a shame I hate the show 'Friends' and this is the theme song.
- Oh Starry Night: I like it, even though it was hacked from the
original song, 'Eien no Melody.' The song on the CD is longer than the one
in the ep, like the rest, but it makes Raye seem a little too weak. ("I wait
patiently for a sign.") Still nice.
- Give Me the Strength to Carry On: One of the other best songs.
Nice and fast paced, sounds almost like the one in DOD, except without the
'Mercury Power', 'Mars Power' shouting during the interlude.
- Rainy Day Man: Pretty good. The singer just says 'Rainy Day Man'
too many times. Sad music, still touching, though not as much as 'My Only
Love.'
- It's a New Day: Fast paced, cheerful. Longer than the one on the
show, again. I prefer 'You Are Just My Love' instead in the Japanese original
though.
- Only A Memory Away: I actually prefer the CD version, and I hated
the one in 'Mercury Moving On.' It does sound country, and I don't like it
when she says a line and sounds like she's whining. A little bit sad, but
the lyrics are still silly.
- She's got the Power: I liked this better during the episode. He
just keeps saying, "She's got the power" over and over again, and I missed
the action that was lacking from the CD.
- Ending Song: Same as the theme song except thankfully shorter.
The second North American Sailor Moon CD was entitled "Sailor Moon and the
Scouts," which was also known as "Lunarock." The songs were all new, but
most of them were never used in the actual dubbed episodes, plus the CD had
two Japanese songs, "Moonlight Densetsu" and "Ai no Senshi." My over all
opinion about the Lunarock CD: Every single song except for the Japanese
songs, "Moonlight Densetsu" and "Ai no Senshi" was bad. I couldn't stand
listening to any of them, I had to fastforward through them and move on-
which, in most cases, didn't improve my situation. All the songs were
basically "SM" versions of popular songs made by famous artists, all were
just plain terrible.
Sailor Moon Dolls and Figurines
There was actually quite a bit of merchandise early on when Sailor Moon
first appeared in the United States. These toys and dolls were made by
Irwin, a Canadian toy company. These included dolls of the five Sailor
Scouts and Queen Beryl; accessories for the dolls like the moon
motorcycle; and cosplay toys like the Moon Locket, the Emperyum Silver
Crystal and Wand, and a Crescent Moon Jewelry Box.
There were several versions of the dolls that were released in 1995/1996.
The first edition smaller dolls had the wrong shoes for all the Sailor
Scouts; they all wore boots like Sailor Moon's, but this error was later
corrected. The smaller dolls are quite icky looking. They appear to have
no noses. They're technically there but they're nothing more than bumps.
Mercury's hair looks really poofy and dyed, like Elizabeth Arden on
crack. Moon's meatballs are disfigured. The larger dolls are the best of
the initial lot, since they're prettier than the smaller dolls but they
cost like $25 each. The larger dolls' noses are also more noticable.
They're actually cute too.
After Sailor Moon reran a few times in the United States and Canada, Irwin
released Sailor Moon R dolls in Canada only. These included dolls like
King Darien, Rubeus, Emerald, and Prince Diamond. The three male dolls
coincidentally all have fros. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's a conspiracy
to make Mercury doll feel better. I think there might have been a Sapphire
doll and a Princess Serenity doll as well, but I can't remember.
The Sailor Moon S dolls were also released by Irwin for Canada only but
later came across the border to the US. They were made before any plans
to release the Sailor Moon S dub were confirmed and were mostly Irwin
trying to make more money off of a popular commodity. The dolls include
Pluto, Uranus, Neptune, Professor Tomoe, Kaori Knight, and Super Sailor
Moon. They're extremely ugly, horrid, and tackily made. Professor
Tomoe probably is the worst- he doesn't look crazy at all, and his glasses
are ridiculous as they are ugly and shoddily made. None of the dolls have
noses, their hair is messed up. Pluto's outfit is for some reason silver
instead of black. Super Sailor Moon doesn't even have the the pins in
her hair, but her fuku's all right except her sleeves are like Eternal
Sailormoon's. All the dolls come with Luna keychains and cheap Talismans
and items though.
Irwin also released a lot of mini figurines, which are ugly too. I just
can't wonder why anyone would buy them, even though they were modeled
after the original Japanese figurines and should be somewhat decent. I
think the only decent dolls are the plushies, which are pretty cute even
if they cost $13 each. When Chibimoon dolls were released, they were
just called "Rini".
The majority of these dolls and toys are now no longer created.
Since the release of Sailor Moon S and SuperS in North America, new dolls
have been created by Irwin and advertised on American and Canadian TV.
I've heard they look better than the original dolls, but I don't have
any other information on them.
Other Merchandise
There has been a lot of other merchandise released in North America. These
items include Sailor Moon folders for school; Sailor Moon valentine cards;
Sailor Moon bedsheets; an interactive Sailor Moon CD-ROM game; Sailor Moon
books, novels, manga; Sailor Moon playing cards; Sailor Moon wallscrolls;
Sailor Moon calanders; etc.
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