Known as the 1000 series, the first three issues – 1040 (4/0), 1060 (6/0) and the 1090 (9/0) were offered in a wood display case. These were sold in both European markets and by Garcia starting in the late sixties. In 1977 Mitchell introduced the 1120 (12/0) that was only distributed in Europe. The 1000 series of big game reels were not made to compete with Penn as some believe, but to compete with the Californian brand also made of anodized aluminium side plates. It is the Mitchell 600 series that was originally designed to compete with Penn. It was later on when Penn came out with their own series to compete against all metal reels! (Updated October 5th, 2008 by JP Gumprich)