The Sailor Moon Adventure Dolls, produced in '95, arrived with the 65 syndicated half-hour episodes culled from the first two seasons of the popular Japanese anime series. The dolls were available in both a 6" (15.2cm) series and a "deluxe" 11.5" (29.2cm) series. Both lines featured the five core Sailor Scouts, also known as the "Inner Senshi," that appeared in the North American episodes. The 6" line included a sixth figure, Queen Beryl, the team's arch enemy from the dreaded Negaverse. (Known as the "Dark Kingdom" in the original anime.)
The larger series is fully poseable. The joints at the shoulder allow the arms to move outward as well as up and down. The heads can turn and tilt and the legs can bend at the knee. Just don't let them fall from the top of your TV, 'cause the legs are apt to pop right off. ;) The faces on the dolls are long and thin, so the dolls don't exactly look like the characters they're based on. Attempting to recreate the look commonly found in Japanese animation, the designers opted not to sculpt a normal nose and instead left a small raised point in it's place. The results were not very... popular. The gold v-shaped headbands are punched directly into the dolls' heads, which is is fine if the doll's hair covers the forehead. But if the hair is pulled away from the face, as is the case with Venus, it looks awkward. Accessories include a wand and a pair of gloves. (Note: the prototype photo of the complete set of Deluxe dolls shows each character wearing the same style boots. Originally, each character had the correct footwear, but later production runs changed them all to boots, so as not to give out the "wrong message." (You know what they say about girls with high heels and short skirts...) Also, cloth chokers are on the dolls but are not shown.)
Want a closer look at the American Deluxe dolls? Click on the character name to see a scan.
The 6" series is very similar to the Deluxe series. Both have that "real doll hair" and Mercury's short 'do still looks too "poofy". The differences? In general, the faces look better on the smaller dolls, the gloves are not removeable, the chokers are painted on and again, they aren't featured in the prototype photo. Each Sailor Scout figure comes with a crescent wand, Queen Beryl comes with a staff. (Note: the little ol' Queen Beryl doll is significant in the fact that it is one of the only Sailor Moon villain dolls produced anywhere in the world! That's right, the NA line actually has some relevance!) The above note about the footwear also applies to the 6" series.
Click here for a side note about Sailor Mercury dolls
In addition to the regular line, there were a couple of offshoots called "Fashion Playsets", featuring Sailor Moon. "Serena's Bedroom" has the doll in pajamas, comes with a plastic bed and a cardboard backdrop. The "Dream Castle" playset has Serena as the Moon Princess with a white gown and Locket, plus a plastic archway and a cardboard backdrop.
Not that anything even remotely like it was ever used on the show, the Moon Cycle is a cute accessory for the 6" series. Also worth mentioning is the picture of the Tuxedo Mask prototype doll on the back of the package. This doll was never produced for the US market, yet it could tentatively appear in Canada sometime in 1997. (Oh, in case you didn't know, Sailor Moon episodes still air in Canada. They've expanded their doll line with a new series just this year. Someday, I'll get around to writing about the Canadian toys...)
Sailor Moon and all related characters are copyright Naoko Takeuchi, Kodyansha Comics and Toei Animation. No rights are given or implied. This is purely a fan generated site created in the interest of sharing information with other over zealous fans and collectors. The design, layout, scans and text that make up these pages are the copyright of Kane. So there.
