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Collecting the Sailor Moon CCG: The Definitive Guide to an Unexpectedly Difficult Task

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In 1993, a little card game by the name of Magic: The Gathering hit the market, and the gaming world would never be the same. All of a sudden, a new, addictive and scalable form of gaming had arrived, requiring little up-front investment to start playing but, once it got its hooks in someone, could potentially bleed their wallet dry one dopamine-promising booster pack at a time. It was sort of a spiritual precursor to today's free-to-play video games laden with microtransactions. Magic was a huge hit, amassing a huge fan base globally and becoming such a phenomenon that, even decades later, its profitability is basically propping up a massive toy company. So, as you might imagine, the tremendous success of Magic made the collectible card game concept very attractive. As such, over the next decade or so, there was a collectible card game (CCG) for practically every property you can imagine. No, really. Think about anything popular from the 90s and there was probably a CCG for it.

Finally: Mr. Lips!

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  I've written before about Carve-O-Lantern , the company (now known as Pumpkin Masters) that brought detailed, miniature-saw-based pumpkin carving to the masses. One thing I have not done, however, is carve their iconic jack-o'lantern design: the inimitable Mr. Lips. And when I say "iconic," I mean it! Mr. Lips was on the front cover of the very first Carve-O-Lantern pattern booklet back in the late 80's.     Se ñ or Labios would go on to be a featured element of these pumpkin carving kits for years to come, even as they metamorphosed into the Pumpkin Masters brand we know and love today. As big of a fan as I am of these carving kits, I never actually endeavored to make my own Mr. Lips. I'm not sure why...perhaps he was overexposed? Or perhaps I was fearful of screwing up the relatively difficult, intricate pattern that made up Mr. Lips's illumined face, thus exposing myself as a carving poseur. Whatever the reason, I decided to shake off the jinx this ye