Fumio Osano (aka Osabu) shared a lot of new merchandise earlier today on Sailor Moon Channel! He also tweeted earlier that he will do his best to make sure the manufacturer has enough product  supply.  First, he announced a special 20^th anniversary wallscroll and microfiber mini-towel.   The mini-towel retails for about $6.30 USD,  and is fast absorbing with a full color print.  The wallscroll is also in full color, and retails for about $33 USD.  The next items that were announced were a gold and silver ring, designed after Sailor Moon’s Crisis Moon Heart Compact in Sailor Moon SuperS.  Both rings are made of sterling silver (or silver 925) and the gold ring is coated with 18-carat gold.  Both rings feature a pink Swarovski crystal in the middle. And these are quite pricey, retailing at around $166 USD.  The rings, the poster, and the towel are all being sold from Premium Bandai.  Lastly, a few weeks ago the Tamashii nations S.H. Figuarts Sailor Moon line announced that Sailor Mercury was going to be next! And today, it was confirmed that the figure would be released in Japan in October.  The figure will have some hand and face parts, and come with Sailor Mercury’s computer and visor.  The faces being included are supposed to resemble her gentle expressions. We are working to find you some details about pre-ordering and hope to share that with you as soon as we are able to.  For sure though, we can guess the price of Sailor Mercury won’t be too different than Sailor Moon’s (around $43 USD).  All of us at Moon Chase hope that ordering from Premium Bandai will become a lot easier in the face of the struggles that happened this week!

Hot on the heels of the compact announced a week ago, another set of Sailor Moon cosmetics was announced and tweeted by Fumio Osano (Osabu) today. The Sailor Moon R Miracle Romance Nail Collection features nail polish in pink, blue, red, green, and orange in artfully designed bottles that are representative of the Senshi’s transformation wands. In the post on Sailor Moon Channel, Osabu writes that there was a bit of a challenge in finding the right colors to appeal to adult tastes. The photo on Sailor Moon Channel as well as on Premium Bandai show some nail art accessories that they used to make some fake nails look nice, but it does not appear that those are going to be included (sorry, you will probably need to find a skilled manicure artist to replicate those).  And going by the dimensions posted for the bottles themselves on the site, they appear to be quite a bit smaller than what you would usually expect to see for a nail polish bottle. The collection will go on sale tomorrow, and will cost 5,250 Japanese Yen, or about $53.50 USD. We will refer you to our earlier post about where to purchase the compact.

While we understand that JList (and maybe some other sites) will be carrying the product, please understand that there is now a strict limit on how many of each item can be ordered. Last week it was around 20, this week it is only 2. On each page it says that Premium Bandai would like to be able to sell to more customers, so they have imposed this limit. As far as we know, Premium Bandai has not licensed anyone to distribute the product and we do not know how many of these sites that are promising to sell the product are going to be able to meet the demand. We strongly encourage our fans to look at the shopping services again, which (we will say this again) both have special sections on their site where you can send them a site url and they will order whatever is on there for you. Do not use the search functions there as that will most likely only search Yahoo Auctions.

Wow! We are all surprised that Premium Bandai and Creer Beaute have sold out of this product in under 24 hours, and over a week before the product has been shown to the public! But fear not! There will be a second run – please watch Premium Bandai‘s page for more information.  On another note, please refer to our last post for two Japan shopping services that have been confirmed for their ability to order this product.

EDIT: Moonies, Fumio Osano (aka Osabu) tweeted this morning that the compact will be up for pre-order again on June the 12th at 10AM Japan Standard Time.  This compact will also be shipping until sometime in November, according to the link.  World Time Server has a handy converter (Time here, Time there) that lets you figure out what time it is in your local time zone. We recommend going to our last post for links to Japanese shopping services that have been confirmed as able to order this product, and placing your orders ahead of the day.

Hi Moonies: I wrote to two Japan shopping services last night and heard back from both this morning (both sites claim they can order anything from anywhere, but I had wanted to make sure before I posted on this site).  For those of you who are wanting to order the Crystal Brooch Compact, you have two choices (and fans, if you know of any others, please let us know via email).  One is Rinkya.com and the other is From Japan to You.  I have no idea what using any of these services is like, but I am more inclined to try From Japan since Rinkya wants you to scan your credit card and government-issued ID, and charges a little more in handling fees.  If any fans have used any of these services and would like to let us know of their experience, please post a comment here as I am sure many other fans would like to purchase this product!

In yesterday’s post (and apologies for the late-night typos, they have been fixed), it turns out that Fumio Osano (better known as Osabu), had written a message to the fans in the June 2013 issue of Dengeki Hobby Magazine. It is located in the orange box at the top of the second page. Here, is our translation (Thanks Emi!):

The orange part reads:

A message from Naoko sensei’s editor, Osabu. He’s been Naoko sensei’s editor back then and even now.  Well known among fans with his nickname Osabu,  Mr. Fumio Osano of Kodansha gave us, S.H. Figuarts, comments.

The white part reads:

While Bandai Collectors worked very hard to keep the original feel of  Usagi’s action pose and face, at the same time, they tried to update the looks to the current style. Even the ad is also very particular so please check it out. When you see the ad you would go “gotta buy this!” LOL  Hope you guys can bring all the senshi out.  If Usagi sells, all the senshi should become available I think. I personally like to see Sailor Saturn! Let’s do it!

And, I asked some questions that many of you had to Xavier Lim at Bluefin Tamashii Nations!

MC: Will the new figure have packaging/instructions in English? How much assembly will be required?
Bluefin/TN: As of this moment, the packaging and instructions will be still be in Japanese.  There may be an additional licensing sticker on the box that may vary by region, but that is there only to mark it as an officially licensed product.

MC: Is Sailor Mercury a prototype being tested or is it next in line? Are there figures of other characters also being planned or is it too early to say?
Bluefin/TN: Tamashii Nations will often tease figures of future releases or items they would like to test consumer reception on before continuing forward.  Prototype figures without release dates or pricing information do no indicate an item is going to be released next. There have been many cases in the other product lines where a prototype figure has been shown before, but has not been released, only to have other characters come out beforehand.

MC: When will the figure actually hit the shelves, August, September or October? Many sites are reporting different dates from August-October for when they will actually ship the figures to customers.
Bluefin/TN: The official Japanese release date is August 2013.  For the U.S. and Canada, it is Sept 2013.  Some stores that have very large fulfillment centers may believe they will not be able to ship out in time before the end of September and have indicated an early October release date.

MC:  How much input did Naoko Takeuchi have in the design of the figure?  What was the collaboration like? How were the facial expressions chosen? How long did this Sailor Moon figure take to develop?
Bluefin/TN: Yes she is involved.  This figure has actually been delayed until now by her request.  Otherwise this figure would have been revealed a few years ago.

MC: How long will the two bonus faces be available, and will all launch figures have them? Approximately how many figures will be in this first production?
Bluefin/TN: 1st release bonuses will be packaged inside and will be available on all figures in this 1st production cycle.  I cannot reveal production numbers at this time, nor can I indicate if/when a second production will occur.

MC: What is the timeline for the production run of the figure (first press and subsequent presses)? What window will there be for fans to purchase the figure before it gets removed from circulation?
Bluefin/TN: In N. America at least, the 1st release of the figure will be still readily available for retailers to re-order at least until December.

MC: At Tamashii Nations 2012, a figure of Sailor Moon and Luna in Chibi/Super-Deformed design was announced. Are they going to be released and if so when?
Bluefin/TN: Hopefully soon!

Only a few more months until release! Are you Moonies excited yet?