Sailor Mercury Figure Details:

The figure will be released sometime in October in Japan, and will probably ship to North America in November/December. Bluefin Tamashii Nations does not have order information quite yet (hopefully sometime this week there will be some news).  It will cost exactly the same price as the Sailor Moon figure at 4410 Japanese Yen ($46 USD), stand 14 inches tall, and this first production run will have special accessories.  There will be 3 exchangeable faces, 4 exchangeable right hands, 5 exchangeable left hands, front hair parts that include a Head Mounted Device Goggles (or her visor), and two types of pocket computers.  So far, the only image that is out right now is one we posted previously, but we anticipate there will be some more soon in different poses.

Sailor Moon Cosmetics:

Since Premium Bandai has moved to a build-to-order model, there is no reason why the shopping services should not work this time.  But please remember that the ordering limit of two per customer still holds for each product. The releases are being paced apart by a couple of days, as mentioned in our last post.  Some reporters at the Tokyo Toy Show this weekend posted some more details about them, including a hand model with each shade painted on her nails so fans could better see what the colors looked like, and pictures of the products.   But the most important thing is that there will be a third product added to the line (and sorry, nothing is going to be themed for the Outer Senshi or Starlights). Now we have heard a few rumors for what this third might be – a fragrance, an eyeshadow palette, or lipstick/lipgloss, and we are leaning towards the fragrance (although one of the others could happen). We too are disappointed that the majority of the branding of this 20^th anniversary is only using the images of the Inner Senshi, when what made the show so special was its huge cast.

As for the products that are known and on the way: the powder compact is not going to be like your typical face powder, and will instead be like a “luster powder” to add some shimmer to your face. The compact itself is more glossier and shinier than the photos on Premium Bandai suggested initially.  As far as the nail collection goes, the pink shade of nail polish is significantly lighter than the photos on Premium Bandai had suggested. Also, fans should be aware that each bottle is only holding about 3.5ml of nail polish – this is significantly smaller than nail polish bottles you would find at the store, so the polish in each bottle will not last as long as fans might had hoped it would (perhaps only one or two uses per color?) The other surprise was that the bottles do actually come out of their golden exteriors, and we wonder if the rings of the different symbols around the bottle tops could be wide enough to wear around a pinky.

What do you think of these products?  What do you think the third item might be?

Sailor Moon Musical:

Nicovideo has a special hub site set up just for the musical for their more premium members to and purchase tickets  from their mobile phones, as well as links to sites from Animelo and Nelke Planning.  While there is no video content as of this writing, we would not be surprised if there was considering Nicovideo’s involvement in the 20^th anniversary.  We have also heard that the plot is going to stay true to themes from the manga.  It will be interesting to see how this translates to the stage for the first time!

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!

Hot off the presses Moonies, Fumio Osabu has just announced that a Sailor Moon Makeup Compact will be hitting the stores in Japan.  After many requests from fans for transformation items, “Crystal Brooch” is the first authentic Sailor Moon-themed adult makeup product ever!  The compact is aimed for girls who loved the compact toy who have now grown up to be women who wear beautiful makeup. The compact comes with “Sailor Moon R Moon Miracle Romance Shining Powder” pressed powder, and a mirror.  Special attention was paid to the detail of this product as it actually looks like Sailor Moon’s compact.  The compact will be unveiled to the public at the Tokyo Toy Show at Tokyo Big Sight on the 16th. More ordering information is at Premium Bandai.  This compact will be produced by Bandai’s premiere cosmetics line, Creer Beaute.  The price is listed at 3980 Japanese Yen, or around $40 USD. What do you think Moonies? Would you like to see something like this at Sephora?

EDIT: This product will not be available for shipment until October, but pre-orders are available as supplies permit.

EDIT: Some more details have been learned about this product. The powder has a gentle “Princess Floral Fragrance” that is smelled when you open up the compact, and the powder has been specially formulated to absorb sebum to avoid that oily look on the face (I am curious if Naoko Takeuchi’s background in chemistry and pharmaceuticals contributed at all?).  But this will not dry out your face as the powder has a moisturizing component to it. And finally, the powder will have some pink glitter elements to it to give the skin a glossy tone.