Your sweeping statement bugged me. That's all.
My only intention is to debate, not argue, since I find this topic interesting & I don't want you to think I'm stirring up sh*t with you just for giggles. I researched this subject as best I could a few months ago & finally concluded I would never find a defenitive answer.
Quoted from robertmee:The topic has been discussed to death on RGP and the consensus has always been there's WAY more marilyn's than the 200 that M. Ritchie has thrown out there.
There's also a consensus that humans are somehow responsible for climate change. And yet, we have hard data that proves drastic climate change has occurred many times preceding our existence on this planet. I know this doesn't have anything to do with pinball...just making a point. An RGP consensus doesn't prove anything imo.
Quoted from robertmee:Just a quick google of Marilyn Taxi for sale, brings up 100 hits easy. Unless someone's selling the same machine, figure that 100 is just 10% representative of what's out there, that's easily a 1000 Marilyn's
Out of what, 7000 or 8000 estimated machines produced? If we suppose for a moment that 1000 is the number of Marilyn's in existence, based on your google search, compared to the theoretical total number of Taxis produced, that would be 13% or so.... which makes it less than "not rare at all." So a CC at 900 units is rare but a Marilyn Taxi at 1000 isn't? And how are you searching? What about a Lola search? I just tried the same thing & got anywhere from zero to 222,000 hits for each version, depending on my search terms. The vast majority of the hits I got were parts, forum threads, nonrelated to pins, etc.
Quoted from robertmee:My guess is WMS kept this little dark secret off the books to avoid any lawsuit from Monroe's estate.
That's a logical conclusion, and one that I came to myself, but also one that keeps us perpetually in the dark & open to speculation. The real number might be 200 or 6000. We just can't possibly answer the question of Marilyn rarity without solid data.
All I'm saying is, I won't declare the Marilyn version to be rare if you agree not to declare that it isn't. In the end, it really doesn't matter since we'll likely never know anyway. It's up to each collector to decide if one version is more desireable over the other... or not... for their own reasons. Rarity isn't something we can prove or disprove at this point in time & anything else is purely opinion based on hearsay.
Btw robertmee, nice collection. You have several titles I'd love to play someday.