Meet a Sailor Mercury Figure Prototype!

Posted May 13th, 2013 by

A few days ago, a blogger named Seaside Tears was wandering around Sofmap (a Japanese electronics store), and noticed that there was a small exhibition devoted to the upcoming Tamashii Nations S.H. Figuarts Sailor Moon figure featuring flyers, figures, and a large display playing the commercial over and over again. And surprisingly, there was also an unpainted Sailor Mercury prototype on display. The post got picked up by Tomopop, and later Crunchyroll, and then the news got to me via staff member BlueSwim. While the figure has not been officially announced, it is unknown if it ever will be either. This may be a test from Bandai to gauge public reception towards the figure. Many of our older fans may remember that Irwin did this once a very long time ago with the Amazoness Quartet. But unfortunately, they never got made due to Irwin dropping the line (and later facing bankruptcy). If fans are interested in seeing a Sailor Mercury figure produced, feel free to leave comments here or on our Facebook page, as well as on Bluefin Tamashii Nations’ Facebook Page, or on Tamashii Nations Japan’s Facebook Page if you can write in Japanese. For those of you looking to pre-order the Sailor Moon figure, please check our previous post for a comprehensive list of places you can pre-order the figure from. The exhibition is traveling around to different Sofmap stores around Japan until the end of the month (check here for a schedule). For now though, here are some images (credit to Seaside Tears) of the exhibition!

Posted in Bandai, Breaking News, Events, Exhibits, Industry, Japan, Toys No Comments

ANIME! High Art – Pop Culture Around the World!

Posted May 19th, 2009 by

Since our last post about Sailor Moon‘s appearance at ANIME! High Art – Pop Culture in Beverly Hills, we’ve since learned a lot more about it! The exhibit has even gotten some buzz in Japan, with Ellen Harrington, the Director of the Academy saying that this exhibition is in their museum because “”Japanese animation is very popular in America. It has the most profound impact on various media in America”. Special thanks to Frostrubin, who told us a little bit more about it and his involvement. The exhibit started in Germany, then traveled to Denmark, and now it is in Beverly Hills. And we have learned from ANN that it is headed to Belgium next! Frostrubin also tells us that he gave a lot of cels (not just from Sailor Moon) to the exhibition, but he is unsure which ones are being used.

Here, in his words, is the story of how his cels got in the exhibition!



“The exhibition organizers viewed my homepage and asked me, if I am interested to give cels for an exhibition. First I thought this is a fake
(someone wants to get cels for free 😉 but than I got more information ^^ The organizers visited me and had a look for the cels and choose
pieces that would be good for the exhibition. I am always happy to see cels from other collectors, so why not show my cels to others 🙂
I think they asked me because there are not so many collectors around as in USA or Japan and I was nearby”

He also sent us exclusively a few pictures of the exhibition to share with you all in Frankfurt, Germany – and we have to say that they did a much better job of presenting the cels here than they did in the pictures posted from the US exhibition on ANN. You would have thought that since this is a celebration of anime’s pop culture, that there would have been a little more effort in the decor of the gallery. We loved the futuristic pillars, the gallery backlights, section descriptions and the stars painted on the walls in the German exhibit! But the best news of all is that Sailor Moon is featured a LOT in this exhibition. Naoko Takeuchi, we hope that you know about this exhibition – Sailor Moon is still loved around the world, please bring it back!

Sailor Moon Projected on Floor
in Beverly Hills. (Courtesy ANN)
Astroboy and Totoro Hanging
Out in Frankfurt!
Large Section of Wall Devoted
to Sailor Moon in Frankfurt!
Sailor Moon Hanging Out With
The Girls In Frankfurt!

Posted in Appearances, Breaking News, Events, Exhibits, Museums, Sailor Moon 1 Comment

Breaking News: Sailor Moon Meets Oscar!

Posted May 4th, 2009 by

Any Moonies planning to visit Beverly Hills this summer are in luck! The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will be displaying an exhibit devoted to Anime from May 15th until August 23rd. The exhibit is titled ANIME! High Art – Pop Culture and will feature 400 clips, animation cels, and character models from such great anime classics including Akira, Dragonball, and of course, Sailor Moon. We are so happy to see that Sailor Moon gets face time on the Oscar website that we just had to picture it twice! The exhibit is organized around many themes, such as shojo, shonen, early anime, Studio Ghibli, sci-fi, and fantasy. It will also include a portion devoted to manga and it’s relation to anime, and a special “Adults-Only” section which we’re pretty sure is devoted to things like ecchi and hentai. Admission is free, and this will be displayed in the Academy’s Grand Lobby Gallery and Fourth Floor Gallery. Please check the official site for hours and more information – and if any of our readers are planning to go to this please send us pictures! We’d love to feature them on the site for everyone to see!

From what we have read, this is a traveling exhibit and we are curious to see where it shows up next. We will keep our readers posted as soon as we know where it will be next! The exhibit is sponsored by the Goethe-Institut, Los Angeles, and is presented by the Deutsches Filmmuseum, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, in partnership with AMPAS. The Sailor Moon cel pictured on the AMPAS website appears to be from Frostrubin’s collection, as is the cel featured from Wedding Peach. He is one lucky fan for having part of his own collection on display around the world!

Posted in Appearances, Breaking News, Events, Exhibits, Museums, Sailor Moon 5 Comments