First of all, this is the sailor moon I got, as you can see, it looks very similar to the real sailor moon box, that looks something like this....(the picture underneath, is the real authentic sailor moon)
Now, if you look at both of them, you can already spot a few differences, for example, I can spot 2 off the bat! First of all, the bandai cat sticker that is in between sailor moons legs, as you can see above is missing on the fake one! (no bandai sticker here)
Also, what was really suspicious about this box, after I did my research was that the first edition sticker on the sailor moon box meant that it contained 2 extra interchangeable faces, which I believe was the winking one and the crying one. Now technically, mine does not have that sticker, yet it contains all five faces which were only exclusive to the first edition ones, that contained the golden sticker, and clearly mine did not have that. If you spot a sailor moon like that, clearly this should raise some red flags!! (Below, as you can see, no first edition sticker)
Yet, it contains all five faces!
I would also like to point out, that the real sailor moons figure arm joints are colored white, however on the fakes, the joints on the arms are skin colored, this should also raise another red flag! (skin colored joints on arm, below her sailor collar)
I would also like to point out, that when looking at sailor moons hair, her tips on her pony tail on the real one are a translucent yellow, however on the fake, they are pretty much clear tips, with no color, this should also be noted when looking for a real sailor moon!, Clear tips with no tint of yellow are a no no!
Another thing that I have noticed when compared to the real one, that Luna the cat comes wrapped around in strip of styrofoam paper, if the box is closed, and you tilt it at an angle to see lunas body, you should notice a piece of white around her body, that is the styrofoam paper, on the other hand, the fake comes with no sort of protection around lunas body, as you can see for yourself....
The wands on the real figure are also swapped, the one with the diamond is on the right and the one without the jewel is on the left, on the fake, the jewel one is on the left instead, see below:
I will also note that it does come with a stand!
The real sad part, is that it comes with all these beautiful faces that are interchangeable, however in the fake the face is molded right into her hair so basically, no face exchange can be done, making the extra faces useless...........as you can kind of see, her face is molded into her hair... (UPDATE: as I played with the figure to know if the face was really molded in, turns out it actually isnt! it is just really really stuck in there, once I was able to pop off the bangs the face was able to come off, and now I am able to switch up the face! so as I said earlier, I thought it was molded in, but its not! even though I can change the faces, it is still not as good as the real one!)
and so here is the complete set, out of the box, as you can see for yourself, however this is a fake, pretty much useless for exchanging faces, and the joints are not as moveable as a real figuarts, or real sailor moon figure,
So, that is pretty much it, I hope those of you that owe one make sure that yours is real, for I believe the fakes began appearing on December of 2013, I had a person tell me that she had the real one and her friend gave her a fake one, she didnt know it was fake till I told her about it, and now she knows she owns a fake, so watch out for the fakes, hope this helps, a few red flags can be seen even without having to open a box up, so that is an advantage, just do your research and you should be fine!
Thank you for reading! Also, if you would like to see a video of the this exact fake figure, check out the video my friend made, in order to compare the fake and the real, side by side! It will give you a better understanding of how it will look! thanks for reading once more! Also, from what I have heard, fake Sailor mercury's have begun coming out, so watch out for those, and I am pretty sure if those fakes are coming out, sailor mars will too.........beware!