Yes, no lie. Penn and Daiwa formed a partnership in the early 60's. Daiwa made the parts, and shipped to Penn for assembly. These Penn spin casters were built, boxed and stored away in a back room at the Penn factory. Several years later a few did escape and make it into circulation, but Daiwa still had parts to make more, so they were painted different colors and rebranded as a Daiwa reel. These Daiwa reels were only sold in Japan. The early versions of these Daiwa reels even came with a cloth pouch that proudly confirms the Penn/Daiwa connection. My thoughts are these are very much a worthy addition to a Penn collection. Knowing what to look for is half the battle
Huge thanks to Mike Cacioppo for his time and dedication for the documentation of the history of Penn reels. Do yourself a favor and buy Mike's Penn History book. We affectionately call it the Penn Bible. More widely known as the blue book. A 2nd yellow book that has copies of every page of every catalog from 1932-1957. The green book helps with identifying reels and has a comprehensive price guide. I own all 3 and I constantly reference them for my own inquiries about Penn reels
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