Anime T-shirts and Merch from the 90's and earlier

The roughly mid-90's and earlier (generally pre-Toonami, pre-anime boom) era of anime & manga fandom: early cons, clubs, tape trading, Nth Generation VHS fansubs, old magazines & fanzines, fandubs, ancient merchandise, rec.arts.anime, and more!
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animefilm
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Anime T-shirts and Merch from the 90's and earlier

Post by animefilm »

Hey All,

This is my first thread, very nice to be a part of the Old School Otaku lounge.

I am a collector of vintage anime t-shirts, especially from the 1990's and earlier. If I could get a discussion going here and see what kind of old school anime merch/ shirts everyone still has in their collection.

I'm a big fan of all the Ghost In the Shell, Bubblegum Crisis, Dominion Tank Police, and Akira merch from that era.

Full disclosure: I'm also making the thread as I would love to purchase or trade any old school merch depending on what others might have. (I can remake this thread in the other buying section if the discussion does go in that direction).

Anyways, here is some of my collection:

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labsenpai
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Re: Anime T-shirts and Merch from the 90's and earlier

Post by labsenpai »

There is a prior thread about shirts here: viewtopic.php?f=28&t=1348
If you are looking to B/S/T, then the other index topic will be more helpful. For instance, I have old posters up for grabs...no shirts sadly.
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animefilm
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Re: Anime T-shirts and Merch from the 90's and earlier

Post by animefilm »

Thanks for the response labsenpai, glad to see after several days there was at least one person that had seen my post.

I did in fact read that thread prior to posting as well as all the other threads related, but I felt that the last reply in that thread was from over a year ago... I would create a new one here.

I guess I was hoping for more of a direct response, or to get a current check in from the active boarders.

I think what I will do is cross post to the B/S/T topic at your suggestion

;)
danth
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Re: Anime T-shirts and Merch from the 90's and earlier

Post by danth »

I would have killed for that Dominion tee shirt back in high school.

The only cool anime shirt I found back then was a Hook Ups skater shirt featuring the main character from Iria: Zeiram the Animation. I loved that shirt because at the time people just thought I was a skater instead of an anime nerd!
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animefilm
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Re: Anime T-shirts and Merch from the 90's and earlier

Post by animefilm »

Found it in the upper right. I would love to find some of these vintage hookups tees as well, there is something really appealing to me about bootleg anime merch from that era

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Akage
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Re: Anime T-shirts and Merch from the 90's and earlier

Post by Akage »

I have a couple of Sailor Moon shirts still in unworn condition from the 1990s. There was one particular one of Chibiusa that I loved from back then since, unlike the rest of the SM shirts, it was drawn well. I had a couple of anime shirts that I wore with great frequency in the 1990s (a couple of Dragonball Zs, Sailor Moon and Pokémon). I still wear anime shirts now thanks to Hot Topic selling them for $10/each every Black Friday, but I've also gravitated to Tee Turtle as well.

You would have loved SF Chinatown back in the 1990s, AnimeFilm. It was full of bootleg tapes and merchandise. I remember seeing lots of bootleg Sailor Moon figures (I think they were called Pretty Girl or something weird), bootleg trading cards, bootleg Pokémon and Dragonball toys, etc. I still think that the bootleg SM cards were a lot nicer than the real ones and I haven't been able to get rid of mine.

Legitimate merchandise I own from that era is at least 1 of every Japanese Sailor Moon card produced. I was a huge SM card collector for many years and then I moved on to production artwork from the anime. I have a couple of the dolls/toys as well and a really neat Sailorstars jacket (it was originally a blanket designed for little kids to sleep in on the floor) that I've worn around at local cons since it's too bulky for traveling.
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animefilm
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Re: Anime T-shirts and Merch from the 90's and earlier

Post by animefilm »

That sounds amazing Akage. I have found in my search that a lot of Anime shops were in existence during that time period in the Bay area for some reason. Your description reminds me of many European flea markets that I attended as a kid in the 90s, which offered a plethora of anime related comics, toys, and merchandise .... often strange bootlegs.
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DKop
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Re: Anime T-shirts and Merch from the 90's and earlier

Post by DKop »

Damn, I kinda wanna bring back Hook-Ups, I think its about that time to revive it once again. I remember briefly the Hook-Ups stickers on skate boards not knowing what they were.
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animefilm
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Re: Anime T-shirts and Merch from the 90's and earlier

Post by animefilm »

DKop wrote: Wed Mar 13, 2019 2:16 pm Damn, I kinda wanna bring back Hook-Ups, I think its about that time to revive it once again. I remember briefly the Hook-Ups stickers on skate boards not knowing what they were.
We are in the full swing of a Hook Ups revival already.
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usamimi
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Re: Anime T-shirts and Merch from the 90's and earlier

Post by usamimi »

Hook-ups is definitely still alive and kicking, still stealing artwork. :lol: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=432

Very nice collection, animefilm! I agree that Dominion shirt is especially awesome. I wish I still had some of the anime shirts I had back in the day--I remember I had some bootlegs from Hot Topic back before they went more legit (they sold Hook-ups shirts too, lol!) But the ones I got were mostly no brand skater shirts with cheap Sailor Moon or Dragon Ball iron ons on em...though once I did get a Key The Metal Idol one too, which surprised me!! I guess whoever made it just thought the art looked cool. I also had a bootleg Candycandy shirt a friend got me from a swap meet/market, it was so cheap it basically disintegrated after a year though.
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