I have seen some shimano gear unavailable in the us before
does anyone have a link to any reel makers or companies that have gear not avail to us markets just curious whats out there

Try Ebay. There are a few outfits selling Shimano out of Malaysia. I haven't noticed them selling reels that were not available in the US, but I am sure they would have access to them.

There are a couple of Japanese websites that have english pages and will sell into the U.S. stuff that has rarely been seen here before. But that stuff is expensive. As a general rule anything in Japan costs twice as much as it does in the U.S. and that includes Japanese made products.

Make sure you know what you are buying. Some of there reels won't work for the type of fishing that we do here. You are right they do have some cool looking reels. THomT

http://www.japantackle.com/

Check out the lines. Braid colored just like lead core. I put a topshot on a couple of reels this year and so far so good. I figure it might fade out like PP in time.