Anime Artifacts: The Mysterious Sailor Moon VHS

Hello everyone! How's it been going? As usual, I've gotten sucked into the world of adulthood and haven't had much to really talk about, but this is a post I've had planned for a long time. Over a year, in fact. What is it about? Well, it's something, and yet nothing. Something special... or a piece of junk? It's a Sailor Moon video tape that's meant to be a screening copy only.

Okay, how did I get my hands on this? I have absolutely no idea. I'm pretty sure this was given as a gift to me during the time Blockbuster was still a thing. I used to rent tapes all the time, and it was usually either Pokemon, Sailor Moon (I loved the Black Dream Hole movie to bits!), or Sonic the Hedgehog episodes. I really loved Sailor Moon as a kid so it's no surprise that I would be gifted it.

But wait: this tape looks normal, what's the deal? I know, I know. I had to get the preamble out of the way, so here are the rest of the photos:

Since this is the only copy of Hearts In Ice that I've owned or even faintly remember, it's come to my attention that the back of this box actually differs from the normal release. Let's make a quick comparison,

Release Box art:

(Check out the original image here.)

My box art:

(Yeah, it looks like crap cause I scanned it with my cheap scanner. Imgur link here.)

And lastly, the big proof: The VHS tape itself. Also scanned with my worse-than-average scanner.

As you can see, it clearly states that it's for promotional use only. It's apparent on the tape as well, during two parts of the film a small white subtitle announcing that the tape is for promotional use only displays on the screen. I would take a picture of that, but sadly getting the vhs player to work is a real hassle. If I ever set the damn thing up again, I'd be happy to capture that moment as further documentation.

So... in conclusion, what does this all mean? I've tried doing research on this tape in particular but searching yields no real results. I'm pretty sure there are a dozen of these promotional tapes lying around since it was a common thing done at the time, but where did they all go? Are they sitting in a cardboard box somewhere? Do people happen to have copies but haven't documented it? Either way I'm so happy to have an oddity like this in my collection-- whether it's 1 in 100 or 1 in 1 million.

Thanks a lot for reading guys, and as fate my have it, I do happen to have another oddity lying close by! Hopefully it will be an interesting read, and if there's more information floating around about these promotional tapes, I'd be very interested to know!