well folks, i got hit over the head by the bait mokey.....HARD!!! i went and bought a daiwa alphas r-edition!
(the alphas is the supped-up japanese cousin of the daiwa sol.)

pics:

very small and very sleek!




no, it's not a toy!


sits VERY low on the reel seat!



yep, only 6 oz.

so, more about the reel: it's priced a little higher than a 6.3:1 zillion but much lower than a steez. wieght is only 6 oz. it is 8 bb reel w/mag force v breaking. holds 120 yd. of 12 lb test. this reel is touted as being a finesse reel, and with good reason.
the feel of the reel out of the box is very tight (swedish engineering has nothing on this!), light, and well put together. i spooled it up with 12lb line and put it on a 7' castaway mag-medium slx rod. the first lure i threw with it was a 1/4 oz. black rooster tale. let me tell you, i cast so far that i could see the spool through the line at the end of the cast! quite impressive. first fish i caught was a ~2 lb. LM; the reel performed flawlessly and the drag was smooth as silk. soon after i landed another ~2 lb LM also on the rooster tail. next, to test the 'finesse' aspect of the reel,i switched up lures. i tied on an 8 lb FC leader and tied a 1/16th jackall wacky jig head with a wacky rigged powerbait dover crawler (small finnesse worm). i cast the light rig more accurately and further than my spinning rig. broke off a fish on this rig and decided to change up again. this time i used a 1/16th oz tungsten bullet weight with a light wire hook and a zoom finesse worm. this rig cast well, and on the first cast, i caught a 12" LM.

i will be using this one a lot!!

wow,  that is a dandy reel. 

haha! yeah, it is an (very) early christmas present! found it at a great price so we bought it early(plus, when it comes to waiting to buy fishing toys, i am about as patient as a 5 yr. old )

 thanks for all the comments. it is truly an incredible reel and i cant wait to see how far it'll cast normal bass lures (greater than 1/4 oz.)

Now why did I have to open this thread? Made me want to bust out a credit card.

That is one beautiful reel, E. Congrats.

There is purple alphas that I wouldn't mind adding to the arsenal, but I need to get a pixy first. Like you, I can wait until the right deal comes along.