[Dream Rocket / ドリームロケット] Prototype Marnon

While it may not look like much, this unpainted grey Marnon [マーノン] is a pretty significant item for Dream Rocket [ドリームロケット] collectors. Although most may not know it as such, this is the first Marnon made available to the public. But wait, you might be saying, I remember the first Marnon and it was that pink one released in two paint variants and an unpainted version. WRONG. About a month before the first production release, in October 2007, Dream Rocket provided a handful (about 4-5) of test shots in unpainted grey vinyl to the organizers of Patchi-Summit for use as lottery prizes. Being that you had to be there in person, in the moist basement of a skanky Japanese bar, to win these, they're next to impossible to find after-the-fact. Only the really crazy people go to Patchi-Summit. Personal story- one of these actually did turn on an auction site after the aforementioned event. I half expected to walk away with it, given that Dream Rocket items rarely garner any significant competition on the aftermarket. To my unhappy surprise, I ended up in a bidding war with a major collector in Japan- by the time I gave in, the winning bid was at around $250. Boy am I glad I didn't win that one! There's a sentence I rarely use.