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JD/Merek Dragon - "Melvin"

Firstly, a little history on this toy (assembled from various sources):

The dragon was originally designed by Kaijima circa 2003, to be sold by JD and Pongo. A handful of units of a prototype version were produced, presumably for acceptance purposes. Pongo made some changes to the design, in particular a shift from the predominantly white-and-orange motif to olive green. After Pongo's unfortunate passing, JD was unable to go into production alone. Chunksta and Merek took over as interested parties. They then altered the design and artwork further in an effort to make the toy more feasible to produce, also scaling the toy up (from 5ft to 7ft) in the process. (Other changes were made such as reducing the number of colours and making the artwork symmetrical.) However, their ignorance of the full history of the design has created some bad blood between the parties involved. Nevertheless, Merek and Chunksta remain the sole distributor of these toys. It is rumoured that approximately 200 units were produced. It is also rumoured that supplies are running low.

For curiosity's sake, here are some pictures of the original design:
 

With that said, I had followed this project in an "armchair" capacity for almost 6 years until I finally had the means to get one of my own. I am very glad to have one; it may not be the original design, but it still has a lot of personality and it very lovable!

I have named my dragon "Melvin".
Tags: own, bought-new, dragon, personal-favourites, specially-produced, toys-with-names, merek
Manufacturer: Jetsonic Creations
Obtained from: Merek Geiger (aka Draco)
Origin: China/USA
Features: 7 air chambers (body, 4 legs and 2 wings), extra-large valves, single-layered wing membranes, lapped seams, 7ft high
Vinyl type: Heavy duty, thick gauge, smooth, slippery matte tan/brown -and- medium-to-thick gauge low-gloss bright green
Aesthetics: Extremely cute or realisticExtremely cute or realisticExtremely cute or realisticExtremely cute or realisticExtremely cute or realistic Overall Score:
88%
Build quality: Rock-solid constructionRock-solid constructionRock-solid constructionRock-solid constructionRock-solid construction
Air retention: Stays inflated for monthsStays inflated for monthsStays inflated for monthsStays inflated for monthsStays inflated for months
Boinkability: Reasonably boinkableReasonably boinkableReasonably boinkableReasonably boinkableReasonably boinkable
Stability in water: UntestedUntestedUntestedUntestedUntested

Comments

Posted by Inflatableraptor on Thu 13th Aug 09, 11:50pm
I love these dragons. thems very nice, Merek however dosent like me. i had to go to ebay to get mine. x3Mines called Rulk.I love the gallery you put up here. its very well done, as well as owning/documenting some rare/hard to come across toys. Nice one!
Posted by Tmdrake on Thu 10th Sep 09, 8:36am
The dragon is very nice, though I am trying really hard to get the design for the 5ft one. Being the fact I am about 5~ ft...the dragon is a heck of allot bigger than me...lol.
Posted by mike young on Tue 16th Mar 10, 2:01am
i am trying the best i can to find one...where can i get one of them, it doesnt matter old or new
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