The Danger Days Item That’s Impossible to Value
From hoodies to sweatshirts, posters to keyrings, there’s no shortage of My Chemical Romance merchandise available online. But for many collectors, Danger Days is an afterthought. The era is too recent to be truly valuable, and there aren’t many “rare” pieces out there–unlike the Bullets and Revenge eras, which have limited edition pieces that went out of print years ago.
And yet, the Danger Days era introduced a piece of memorabilia so rare that most fans don’t even know it exists.
This piece is so rare that seeing it surface on eBay is an event in itself. The band commissioned a limited edition run of this item, but it wasn’t something that they offered on the store. In fact, if you were in the right place at the right time, you could’ve gotten this item for free. This item dates all the way back to the album release party on November 22, 2010–when the band had a lot more in mind than a simple concert.
To celebrate the album release, My Chemical Romance played a show at the House of Blues, where they performed new songs and a handful of old favorites. But before the show kicked off, they had a surprise in store for the fans. With the help of director Jon Rivera and production designer Jason Fijal, the band set up a “Zone 5 Fun Fair” outside the venue.
The fair was fully stocked with games, booths, prizes, and even a tattoo artist. Draculoids wandered around in full costume. If you played one of the games, you had the chance of winning a prize. And one of these prizes was a gift like no other: a limited edition Mousekat figurine.
Commissioned from Pretty In Plastic, a toy and art installation company in Los Angeles, the pieces were made in three days and shipped off to be distributed at the record release party. Artist David Zajdman sculpted the piece–his first production sculpt for the company. Mousekat’s eerie smile and cute-yet-creepy demeanor was captured with the help of artwork provided by the band.
There was no announcement about the pieces to entice fans to attend the show. As a result, most fans had no idea–and still don’t know–that these pieces even exist. Getting your hands on one of these figures was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And once the show was over, they were gone, never to be released again.
So where are these figures now?
At this point, tracking down all fifty figures is nearly impossible. We don’t even know if all the pieces were given out at the fair. Some are owned by fans, while others were given to friends and crew members like actor Steve Montano and director Robert Schober. Other figures could be part of a valuable collection, tossed away in someone’s closet, or buried under trash in a landfill. We really have no idea where they ended up.
On rare occasions, the figures have been known to show up on eBay–but at a price. One fan reported auctions skyrocketing to over $250. As a limited edition item with an extremely specific frame of release, this item is one of the rarest pieces of My Chemical Romance memorabilia in existence. As such, it can be nearly impossible to value. Fans looking to own one of these figures can only keep an eye on eBay and hope that they find an auction that isn’t too ridiculously priced.
In the end, this one-off piece of merchandise that was given out at a carnival has become a collector’s item like no other. If you get your hands on one of these figures, hang on to it! You own a piece of My Chemical Romance history, and all the stories that go along with it.
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[Originally published 03.04.2018]