Combine my recent discovery of the wonderful world of figures with the resurgence of Sailor Moon merchandise to coincide with the upcoming anime and you’ve got a deadly combination. While I’ve been pretty good about not giving into temptation so far, my mom inadvertently added fuel to my addiction when she preordered a set of six Puchi Chara! Sailor Moon figures for me over the holidays.
Jlist has finally started sending out those preorders, and I was beyond thrilled to receive mine in the mail on Friday. Since I never buy this sort of thing, I had no idea what to expect… Sets come with six random figures, and the Sailor Scouts and Tuxedo Max have two different designs each, making for a possibility of 12 different figures to get. According to the box, some lucky people even get Luna and Artemis figures! But what would be in store for me?
Really, they’re all adorable, so I wasn’t really worried about getting one over the other, but I have to say Tuxedo Mask without his mask is pretty high on my “want” list.
I suppose it goes without saying to expect lots of gratuitous photos in this post…
It also goes without saying that I made sure to keep the box in pristine condition! It’s too cute to just throw away.
Here you can see the six individual boxes the set comes with. You can generally buy singles of these kind of random boxed toys in shops in Japan, but (crazy) fans like me will preorder a whole set in order to try and collect them all.
More adorable packaging… Note the 20th anniversary Sailor Moon logo at the bottom left of the box. There’s also a little note saying that the figures themselves are each 60 mm tall.
I was pretty surprised to find out that the figures have a couple of joints in them, allowing for some minor pose changes. You can alter the angle of the head and twist the legs around a bit. Oh, and these toys are for children ages 15 and up, so it looks like I’m safe.
But what about the figures themselves? Opening each box is a real treat since you have no idea what’s going to be inside. I won’t hold you all in suspense any longer – I actually got one of each of the Sailor Scouts and Tuxedo Mask, which means I have a complete set. No doubles! Plus, my Sailor Moon came with Luna and Sailor Venus came with Artemis. I don’t know if that means that I’m super lucky or that each box of six is guaranteed to come with one of each of the characters, but since I was prepared to get at least one double, I was definitely impressed. I’d love to know what others got, though!
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| Sailor Moon type A with Luna |
The figures themselves are very nice quality – they have a good weight to them and the sculpts look really great considering how small they are. Each character came in at least three parts: head, torso, and legs, which needed to be assembled after opening. While I didn’t expect this, it gives an added flexibility to how they’re displayed, allowing for some minor changes in the angle of the head, etc.
What I don’t like about the Puchi Chara! Sailor Moon series, however, is the pegs that connect the figures to their stands. They’re made out of extremely cheap, flimsy plastic, and I actually managed to break two of them while trying to set them all up (technically, I broke one and my father-in-law broke another, but that’s a long and boring story). If you look closely at the picture above, you should be able to see a crack near where the peg connects to the bottom of Venus’s base. I was able to glue it and bring it back to a functional state, but I don’t think it’s unfair of me to say that I was really disappointed in the quality of the stands compared to the quality of the figures.
Now that I’ve learned from my mistakes, though, I do have a suggestion to anyone who has bought or is planning on buying the Puchi Chara! figurine series: be sure to assemble the figure and connect it to the peg before attaching the peg to the stand. Then, after the peg has been secured in the stand, adjust the position of the figure on the stand by moving the figure around, not the peg itself. When I broke the peg, it was because I tried to adjust the angle of the peg from where it attached to the stand. Don’t make the same mistake! Let me tell you, it’s no fun at all to break a toy you’ve literally just opened.
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| Sailor Jupiter type A |
Aside from the peg issue, I’m really happy with these figures. I’m even happier now that I’ve got them all assembled and looking great. Sailor Jupiter here is the other figure whose peg got broken, but you really can’t tell, right? Right?!
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| Sailor Venus type B with Artemis |
Sailor Venus could maybe use a little adjusting, but I wanted to make sure the glue on her peg had completely dried before fiddling around with her positioning. Still, I’m happy that you can’t see that something was broken from the front.
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| Sailor Mars type A |
If you look really closely, you can see each character has their symbol etched into their base. It’s a really neat touch!
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| Sailor Mercury type B |
Sailor Mercury is probably my favorite of the inner scouts, and I’m really happy I got her B version! She looks super adorable in that pose with both her eyes closed.
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| Tuxedo Mask type A |
Tuxedo Mask is actually the figure with the most detail in the collection. Both his cloak and his hat are removable, and he even gets a rose to hold (though it’s not removable).
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| Tuxedo sans hat |
I have to say, I wasn’t sure how much I’d like little figure like these, but the whole experience of opening the boxes and not knowing what I was going to get combined with the great quality of the figures themselves overall has me totally in love with this set. So in love, in fact, that I’ve… gone and preordered the Outer Senshi set!
I must not be the only one in love with the Puchi Chara! Sailor Moon series, as they’re already reissuing them. Preorders are open now, with a scheduled release sometime in June. If you’re interested in purchasing the Puchi Chara! Sailor Moon six piece set for yourself, you can do so at Jlist, Play-Asia, CD Japan, or Ami Ami! I can personally vouch for each of them, but if you order form Jlist or Play-Asia, I’ll get a small commission which all goes toward supporting content on this site.
Finally, I hope you liked this “Swooning Over” post – I’ve been trying to find a way to showcase a few odds and ends I’ve picked up in recent months without “reviewing” them per say, and I think this will be a good fit. There should be more in the near future, but in the meantime please do let me know what you think!
