Hi Hiii!
So, as some of you may know, there is an EXCITING development in the magical girl world!!
Sailor Moon is FINALLY making it back on the anime scene, with the long awaited re-vamped anime:
I was SO excited two years ago when the news was announced, I literally started CRYING!
Sailor Moon holds a very near and dear place in my heart, and has been a corner stone for much of who I have shaped my ideals about love, friendship, and righteousness around!
With the new anime coming however there have been SO MANY new and WONDERFULLY done merchandise, from bags, apparel, stationary, and even GASHAPONS!
The brooches and transformation items have long been COVETED by Moonies since the begining of the series! Especially in the past ten or so years with Sailor Moon having been completely off air, there has been NO new merchandise, and collectors like myself have scrambled to afford the ever rising prices of the retro lunar toys!
So, imagine how ECSTATIC those of us in the magical girl fandom were to learn about the introduction of brooch GASHAPONS!
And these are not just ANY gashapons, they are almost near PERFECT replicas of the original full sized toy compacts!
Take a look at these babys!
Can you understand how freaking amazing these are??
Comparatively to the other Sailor Moon replica merchandise being put out (so far) only through Premium Bandai through their "Proplica" line. That's a fancy way of labeling their revamped anime toy line for "adult collectors" basically....it's all mostly the exact same designed items from the 90's that they've just slapped on an exclusive "brand" title onto it with a "brand" price, oh AND they are limited EXCLUSIVELY to those who live in Japan ONLY.
(I could write a whole article about this, probably will in the near future but lets get back to the point...)
It is QUITE the understatement to say that these mere Gashapons are WORKS OF ART!
But what the hell is a gashapon you ask, and why are these pieces so special even if they are just cookie cutters of the original designs?
Well let me explain: Gashapons are usually cheap crappy toys you can buy for 100-500 yen (about 1-5$ USD) a piece and are despensed in little toy machines. You're probably used to seeing those crappy little toy machines in your local arcades or grocery stores, wher eyou can get stickers or a simple fall apart toy for just quarters.
Well these are the Japanese equivalents, however in recent years Gashapon toys have become nicer as companies have realised that collectors are willing to shell out more money, for better quality items at the fraction of the cost!
So here we have these beautiful compacts!
I had my doubts when I saw the original prototype photos since they were photoshopped sooo much that i just prayed i would get any thing close to a nice authentic looking compact instead of having to spend the 300+ on a retro or even proplica compact!
These gashapon come in a variety of five designs:
♥Transformation Brooch
♥Crystal Star Compact
♥Cosmic Heart Compact
♥Crisis Moon Compact
♥Chibi Moon Crisis Compact
The detail is SERIOUSLY breath taking especially a someone as in love with SM as myself!
At just 500 yen a pop, these pieces are SERIOUSLY a gift from GOD onto the Moonie universe!
And, thanks to them being GASHAPONS, that means that anime specialty stores were able to sell these guys as well! So i gathered my 25$ and placed my pre-order the DAY they went up on Bluefin Tamashii!
Sooooo Much SHINY
And to my DELIGHT these guys are almost near the same size as the fullsized compacts that would have been in the show!
Because they ARE gashapons, I had expected they would perhaps be smaller, some where like the size of a keychain, but nope, they are HUGE in comparison to my expectations!
Because they ARE gashapons, I had expected they would perhaps be smaller, some where like the size of a keychain, but nope, they are HUGE in comparison to my expectations!
Additionally, each gashapon opens up to reveal this quite fugly, but very detailed, embossed yellow plastic outlining what would be the insides of these toys!
Personally, I'd have loved to have payed more just to buy additional stickers that you could put on the insides but i mean, i think for the price the quality is still stinking amazing!
Additionally, each gashapon opens up further under the yellow to reveal a little storage compartment, which is a fairly good size, enough to store some earrings, candy, or pills!!
Such a good valued Gashapon, I'm still super impressed!
They all also come with a nice little mirror, this one still has the film attached but it suffices enough i think to be able to at least apply lipgloss with ahaah....
Finally, I made a short youtube video, just to get that extra little eye candy visual on how stunning the work that was put into these babies was:
I really hope this company makes more of these in the future, I would LOVE to see them do the other sailor items or even compacts and pens for around the same price, you better believe I'll be right on those to snatch them up!
Have these made you want some of your own?
Thanks for reading, please leave comments and questions down below!
