Collection Oddities: Sailor Moon Doll Pizza Scooter

At the height of it's popularity in the mid 1990's, Sailor Moon had a ton of merchandise released in Japan. We Sailor Moon collectors might think we're drowning in merch now (which TBH we are), but it was nothing compared to the mid-ninties. Out of this glut came a lot of weird stuff that really had little or nothing to do with the show itself. Many moon fans think Irwin pretty much cornered that "what the hell is this thing" market (the moon cycle comes to mind) But there were plenty of weird things released as well.  In that vein in Japan there was an entire set of Sailor Moon Pizza parlor items including outfits, the pizza parlor itself and this beauty, the official Sailor Moon pizza Scooter.

Pretty sure Chibusa is violating Japan's child labor laws

We have the pizza parlor as well (sadly we've not photographed it) but that seems like a more reasonable accessory. The girls do go on outings when the're not fighting for love and justice, a pizza parlor is a reasonable place for teenage magical girls to hang out in their off time. The pizza scooter on the other hand makes some weird assumptions. For example that somehow Usagi and Chibiusa somehow have time for a part time jobs presumably after school but before transforming into pretty soldiers in the evening, not to mention the fact the Chibiusa appears vastly underaged for normal work (we know she's 900 but the local labor board would probably be tough to convince).  Perhaps most alarmingly though it implies that Usagi would be competent at making pizzas without buring them and driving the scooter around to deliver them without crashing. My many years of familiarity with Usagi's character make that the an entirely unbelievable claim. Here it is out of the box:

Years of turmoil have left the Moon Kingdom in need of repairs so Princess Serenity takes on a part time job to help out

(Posed it with the Bandai Princess Serenity because it amused us). It comes with a helmet because safety is very important when you're as clumsy as Usagi is. This apparently works with the IR RPG toys but we don't really collect the old RPG toys so we haven't tested it out but it rolls along with manual power as well.  It's a pretty fun design though we especially like the crisis compact design on the front. What better way to blend in to populace as regular High School student/Pizza delivery girl than by plastering your current magical transformation item on the front of your scooter? Also notable the heart shaped sticker on the back with Suai and Chibiusa in it, is that the pizza parlor's official logo? If so does the Tsukino family own it?  If so when did this happen, who paid for this, and who wrote out the business plan? The mind, it boggles. So many unanswered questions with these old crazy sailor moon items. Otherwise the decorations are generic cute ribbons and stars, pretty standard for the sailor moon doll playset. Also the trunk opens for easy pizza storage, or maybe a magic wand or two in case the girls are attacked while on the job.

Overall this is a weird wonderful thing with no real reason to exist, so of course we love owning it and sharing it. Also if anyone want to sell us those pizza outfits (preferably NOT MIP)  let us know,  we'd love to complete our set.

~Stephanie

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Last minute Christmas shopping guide: Sailor Moon Toys

Just starting your Christmas shopping or just looking for a perfectly unique present that you can't find in retail stores? We've got you covered.  If you've got friends or family with a flair for the geeky we've probably got the perfect something in stock at www.avaneshop.com right now!

We're going to do a series of these shopping guides over the next few days and this is our second Sailor Moon guide. If you've got a Sailor Moon fan on your holiday shopping list, we have a huge selection of  vintage Sailor Moon items available. We have everything from Sailor Moon manga to Sailor Moon dolls to sailor Moon Stationery & Stickers to Sailor Moon bags and just about anything else Sailor Moon you can think of! This time we plan on focusing on Sailor Moon toys.

 We have variety of unique and interesting Sailor Moon toys available.


Sailor Moon Tea Set Miniature Tea Cup:

Sailor Moon Mini Porcelain Tea Cup For Sale

This tiny teacup was part of a Sailor Moon gashapon miniature tea set. This cup is a little larger than a US penny and is the perfect size for dolls or just as a display piece. It's new in package and is just $6.50, a really cute unique gift for any Sailor Moon fan. We have several other pieces of this set currently available as well.

Japanese Chibi Super Sailor Moon fingerpuppet figure:

Super Sailor Moon Figure for Sale

This cute little figure features an Chibi style Super Sailor Moon. It's hollow at the bottom so it can be used as a fingerpuppet (though it's a little small for adult hands) This is an adorable piece sure to make any Sailor Moon fan smile at only $5.50 it would be a great choice for a stocking stuffer.

Vintage Sailor Moon Collectible Party Poppers:

Unique Sailor Moon collectible for sale

This set of five party poppers have Sailor Moon, Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Venus and Sailor Uranus on the outside and shoot out confetti when you pull the string. We've never seen another set of these either for sale or as part of a collection so they're a perfect choice if you're shopping for a Sailor Moon collector who has almost everything. This unique gift choice is only $12.

Japanese Sailor Moon S Sliding Puzzle:

Japanese Sailor Moon Puzzle for Sale

This is a plastic sliding style tray puzzle. It features a great Sailor Moon group shot that includes: Sailor Moon Sailor Chibimoon, Sailor Mars, Sailor Venus, Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Neptune, Sailor Uranus, Luna and Artemis. This is still in it's original package with the toei seal on it. Only $10 for this fun gift.

Sailor Neptune Candy Figure:

Sailor Neptune Candy Figure for Sale

This figure of Sailor Neptune is part of set tiny Japanese candy figures. She's only a little bigger than a US quarter but is very well detailed! These tiny candy figures are rare, but at only $4 she makes a great little gift for the moonie in your life.
We also have the Sailor Uranus from this set available in case you don't want your Neptune to be lonely.

Custom Sailor Chibimoon My Little Pony:

Custom Sailor Moon My Little Pony for Sale

For a truly unique gift, we have this custom My Little Pony based on Sailor Chibimoon. This Pony was made with a G1 baby pony body and has custom painted eyes, a custom cutie mark and has her mane pulled into chibiusa's rabbit ear odangos. This one of a kind gift is $9 would be perfect for the moonie who both loves Sailor Moon and My Little Pony.

Those are some of our top toy picks, but we have loads of other Sailor Moon Merchandise available we certainly have something wonderful in stock for your moonie fan.


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Collection Oddities: Sailor Moon Bubble Blower Version 2.0

If you've check out our oddities posts before you'll know that we've done a Sailor Moon Bubble blower before. This is a Sailormoon World bubble blower, making it a bit newer than our StarS bubble blower.  Is it new and improved? Let's find out:

 We haven't taken it out of the package so we can't say if it's functionally better, but we can see right off the bat that it comes with it's own bubbles which is an improvement from the old model. This one isn't electronic, you have to blow it like an old school bubble pipe. So it's less technologically advanced, but no batteries to worry about, I'm not sure whether or not that counts as improvement, so we'll just say it's different for now. There is some assembly required, the figure comes separately from the bubble maker and you have to put it on yourself like a sucker. Our other bubble maker has a preattached figure, no fuss no muss. Though according to the back of the package, this figure can be used as a pencil topper when you're done. So we'll still count that as an improvement. Speaking of the back lets check it out:

I have to wonder about that stamp? Is it the date for maximum bubble freshness?

So from looking at the illustrations and ignoring all the Japanese characters I can't read( 99.9% of them) it seems that item uses both water and bubble solution to function and a fun wheel mechanism. Also, contains the ever popular, do not become Pacman while using this item warning. The Japanese seem to be preoccupied with people becoming Pacman, was there some sort of epidemic of this I'm not aware of?

Overall this bubble maker is a lot different than our other one, not just in looks, but in functionality as well. So perhaps it was aimed at people who wanted more of a role in their bubble production? Maybe parents who didn't want their children taking the lazy path of push button bubbles? It's hard to say. though it does beg the questions just how many Sailor Moon bubble makers are out there? and just how many bubble makers does one series need?

~Stephanie

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Collection Oddities: Sailor Moon Make Up Compact

Unlike may of the collection oddities we feature, this item is actually pretty reasonable in theory. Little girls were the primary audience of Sailor Moon and are generally the largest consumers of cheap waxy make-up.  So combing the two into one product made a lot of sense, thus came the Sailor Moon Make up Compact:

I think they made the face so horrifying so  no mater what, you'd feel good about your own face.

Sure Sailor moon poorly molded plastic face is staring at you with soulless dead eyes, but hey at least you know it's her. She even has pretty much the right details. A compact based on the compact she has in the show would be a lot cooler, but hey this is better than just a logo sticker at least. So at this point it still seems like a pretty reasonable item. Then we open it:

Eww...

Once open you've got a little mirror and cleverly designed celestial themed try holding science experiments involving mold and bacteria lip and cheek color. To be fair, this item is at least 16 years old so some of the colors have definitely changed with time, but I can't say that any of these colors would have been a particularly good choice to begin with saving for that magenta at the bottom, which still isn't great but is at least sort of a wearable lip color. Oh but wait according the handy chart on the back:

Does 4 and up seem a little young to anyone else?

Magenta is a blush color, lip colors should be limited to yellow, orange and beige...which frankly confirms my suspicion that even before they'd been exposed to 16 years of color changes these colors shouldn't have been on anyone's face ever.  Also, if you note the instructions it says to put this stuff on with your finger, which can be a fine way to apply make up but not such a good idea for girls ages 4 and up, unless you happen to want multi-colored fingerprints all over everything.

So basically this thing is a little creepy but fine of you never open, just sort of upsetting if you do open it. Luckily for us we have very little reason to open the lid, so we can still happily display it in our collection.

~Stephanie

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Collection Oddities: German Sailor Moon Squeaky Toy

 Sailor Moon was massively popular all around the world and as a result there are some country exclusive items that were made in smaller numbers than any of the US or Japanese merchandise. Germany's Igel company released quite a lot of this small run, unique merchandise including dolls, plushies, figures and some other weird things.

This is somewhere between figure and weird thing:

                                                The Official Sailor Moon Squeaky Toy:

When we bought this we had no idea it was a squeaky toy we just thought it was a cute concept, kneeling moon and inquisitive Luna on a crescent moon base. When it arrived from Germany, we found it was made of soft squishy rubber instead of PVC plastic like we were expecting. Strange sure, but we were more interested in how it unfortunately seemed to have been painted by a very talented factory working who under normal circumstances would have made a beautiful figure, but was drunk while detailing ours. Naturally the not-so-stellar paint job was disappointing, but  it's nothing too odd in Sailor Moon collecting.

At some point we flipped the figure over and found the oddity. We noticed that there was a little hole in the bottom. A little hole that looks suspiciously like the holes in the bottom of our dog's squeaky toys. After a brief moment of disbelief at the concept we gave it a little squeeze...

Squeak Squeak

This left us both amused and dumbfounded. It's not like they just made a toy out of rubber and it happened to squeak as a result, there is a squeaker in it. Meaning at some point while this was being conceived there was a conscious decision made to enable a Sailor moon figure to squeak. Leaving us left to ponder for what or for whom is this item intended?  Is it a Sailor Moon toy for your dog?  For your Baby? Or did Igel just believe that Sailor Moon Fans everywhere were yearning to make squeaky noises? We thought perhaps the tag might give us a little insight into this mystery of who this toy was intended for, but what we found wasn't helpful.

The image might be kind of hard to read, but it says:
  
Mondstein flieg und sieg  

Which if you don't know German Translates to "Moonstone fly and victorious" at least according to both types of translation software we used on it. Which doesn't clear up any questions as to why there's a Sailor Moon Squeaky toy, but does present a host of new question regarding that Slogan. (In case you're curious the back side of the tag just has copyright information which is strangely in English). I suspect the slogan is probably just something that doesn't translate well, but we are looking at a Squeaky Toy after all. Maybe the whole thing is some sort of elaborate plot meant  to confuse. It's hard to say.


Some mysteries probably won't be solved in our lifetimes and for now we'll count this item and it's slogan among them.

It's mysterious, it's odd, and it's squeaky. We're thrilled to get to share it with you.

For those of you really really interested we have higher quality photos in our Flickr account.

~Stephanie


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Collection Oddities: Bootleg Sailor Moon Car Pencil Box

Our collection of weird Sailor Moon items isn't just limited to officially licensed crack, we have a wide variety of unofficial items as well. Now finding a crack bootleg item is like shooting fish in a barrel, but we try to get some of crackest of the crack items. That being said we present you with one of the worst offenders, A Car Shaped Pencil Box:

Who knew that Sailor Moon and Sailor Chibimoon rode around in such a flashy car? Though admittedly Usagi won't be driving it for much longer if she doesn't put more than one posing finger on the wheel. Stranger still who knew they hung out with other magical girls like Momoko from wedding peach? Though even though she looks like she's smiling in the back window, something much more sinister may be going on..

Instead of having a normal hood, this car is so fancy the whole top comes up for extra easy access, snazzy!

You've got to wonder how exactly they're getting around. I'm really not a car person, but I've seen a variety of engines none of which seem to resemble an unplayable race themed board game. On the plus side it seems like a pretty unique green environmentally friendly solution, a moon princess has to be socially conscious after all.

In all reality, this a tin pencil box with a hinged lid and single inner tray, it probably would hold your pencil, but wouldn't hold up to much wear and tear. We bought it online (for around $5 including shipping) but it almost certainly came out of some back alley Chinatown dollar store. However, in spite of it's many flaws and inaccuracies, this is a fun and unique piece for our collection and will serve us well holding wands, time keys and doll stands.

~Stephanie

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