Technically, this section should have been for the toys and products manufactured to coincide with the airing of the episodes from the first season. But there are countries that never used the names given for each season in Japan. So along with some info on the first few Japanese toys, this is where you'll find the "unspecified" toys marketed in the United States, Canada and Italy. While the toys in the United States are by Bandai America, the toys found in Canada come from a company called Irwin Toys, and the toys from Italy are produced by Giochi Preziosi. Both Irwin Toys and Giochi Preziosi have licensing agreements to produce and distribute Sailor Moon toys in their respective markets. And like the toys found in the US of A, there are no distinctions such as Sailor Moon R, S, SuperS or Sailor Stars.
Click on the links to the left to see the various toys and products marketed in the US, Canada & Italy.
[American Toys] [Canadian Toys] [Italian Toys]
You'd never know it judging from the years that followed, but Bandai's output of Sailormoon merchandise was rather conservative during the first year. As far as dolls, there was just one Sailormoon doll produced. She was about 11" tall, with molded hair and a removable cloth fuku. Click here for a picture. The doll sold well, which was expected for such a popular show, and Bandai produced an extensive line of dolls the following year.
Bandai also released a couple of role-playing toys, including the Crescent Wand, the brooch Usagi wears on her bow, the star-shaped pendant and the Transformation Pen Moon used to disguise herself. (I've heard that there were also wands made for each of the other Scouts, but I've never actually seen these, so I can't verify their existence.) The role-playing toys were a huge (and unexpected) success, which led the creators to invent new wands and devices every year, which could then be marketed as toys. This trend lasted all the way until the final season. (The images used here were actually the European and HK versions.)
Hey, check out this cute little plush Luna pin! She's about 4" high. Retailed for ¥780.
Banpresto jumped right in on the show's popularity and produced the first series of plush Sailormoon UFO catcher toy prizer for their skill games. There were eleven in the first series, including: Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Mars, Tuxedo Mask, Luna, Artemis, 2 versions of Moon, one of Usagi in her school uniform & finally, Naru. (Naru was Usagi's best friend from school who kind of faded away in the later seasons. For the dubbed episodes shown in North America, she was known as "Molly." All of the first series of catcher toys, as well as dozens of others are featured on the Sailormoon section of my Banpresto page, which you can check out by clicking on the blue Banpresto title above.
Korea is another market for Sailor Moon toys. Bandai Asia released same five Inner Senshi dolls that were sold throughout Europe, with Korean writing on the packaging being the only real difference. In addition to those dolls, it appears that a licensing deal was also made with a Korean toy company called Sonokong, who produced a beautiful 14 inch rooted hair Sailor Moon doll. This doll comes with a base, the packaging is nice, and it does include copyright information, which leads me to believe it is a legitimate, licensed item.
Click on the links below to continue on to see the toys produced in the US, Canada & Italy.
[American Toys] [Canadian Toys] [Italian Toys]
