[Gemini-Phoenix]

I actually bought mine quite late. Must have been 2004 or even 2005, so I'm guessing it was one of the last ones left in stock on the Sony website, because a few weeks later they had all been sold. I paid full price as well, when a standard fat PS2 cost half as much. These were essentially the same price as a launch model PS2! I think the PStwo had either just been released or was about to be...


There's a bit of a story behind this actually - I initially fell in love with these special PS2's when they were first featured in an early Official PlayStation Magazine UK, and thought I would never ever get the chance to own one. Years later, I had myself a decent job which paid well, and accidentally discovered that the American PlayStation store had some still in stock, albeit at a stupidly high price. That didn't bother me, as the exchange rate was good back then.

However, Sony America wouldn't sell me one on the grounds that these were intended for sale only within America. But I managed to get around this by getting an American friend to buy one on my behalf and ship it to me. I probably own one of the only American red PS2's in the UK!

At the time, I was really into collecting American PS1 and PS2 RPG's, which was how I stumbled upon these for sale as I was looking for an NTSC U console to play the games. As it happens, I never actually got around to getting a step-down power converter, so it remains unplayed, along with my Japanese pink Hello Kitty Dreamcast! I've only ever had it out of the box once to take pictures, and it's been stashed away ever since!

Like I say, I think the low numbers may have been amongst the last units to have been sold. First in, last out as it were


Oh, and just to correct something in your initial post - These were on general sale, but only via the official Sony PlayStation sites. Several were given away as competition prizes back in 2001 for the PS2's 1st anniversary (which is what I believe these special edition console commemorate)