Overview
I've seen this drum listed as an Orion and a Saturn over the years, but it's not badged as either - it just says "Mapex Drumfest, Limited Edition Drumfest 2005 Snare Drum". Regardless of this and the lack of a Black Panther badge, like many of these limited editions it definitely is a Black Panther.
Only 100 of these were ever produced for, as the title suggests, Drumfest 2005 in Birmingham, which featured top players like Thomas Lang, Gregg Bisonette, Kenny Aronoff, Jimmy Chamberlain, Russell Gilbrook, Andy Edwards and Adrian Erlandsson. Soon after Drumfest, several of these quickly hit the second hand market, but nowadays they come up very infrequently. It also appears that they were available with both Powerhoops and Die-Casts; not sure what's going on there - more investigation needed I think...
The jury seems to be out on whether this is a 13" x 6.5", or 13" x 7", since the listings I can find differ. I'm going with 7" since that's what Rockem Music say, and it's their photos you're looking at. Also, measuring the distance between the lugs in the photos (and some others I've found online) it tends to suggest 7". July 2022 Update - I'm sticking to 7" as the second example I found (shown below) is listed as a 13" x 7". So that settles it.
The example shown with the powerhoops was later signed by Mapex artist Ben Carter in 2015.
Signed example with Powerhoops courtesy of Rockem Music - thanks very much folks!
The example with Die-casts is courtesy of martine8 from eBay - cheers Martine!
