Overview
I distinctly remember seeing this snare come up on a late-night web searching session almost a decade ago and thinking "what the (heck) is that!" I thought I knew all the Mapex snares, but this was something new. Several hours down the Google rabbithole later and I was sold on the work of Shimano Lefty and the Mapex collaboration series. Still very much am!
This is in the vein of the Mapex steel "graphics" series, that includes the Babylonian, Tribal and Kung-Fu. Chrome steel shell with custom Red Dragon graphics, not available in the west.
I had a folder full of these older Mapex Japan images saved from Shimano San, but it's currently eluding me, so these are from a couple of old Ebay and Reverb Listings. The ebay ones (the darker ones) seem to get used a lot and I think they're originally from Mapex Japan / Shimano Lefty. I'm trying to track down my old copies, but these will have to do in the meantime.
If you happen to own one of these, please do get in touch.
Photos from an Ishibashi's Reverb listing and an ebay listing from kunoichi_music_square_for_players
