The first three Emerson Lake and Palmer albums (self titled, Tarkus and Pictures at an Exhibition) are arguably the first true Rock Mini LPs. They were released on 21st September 1994.

These had been preceded by a much earlier Lotus and a US release of some Rolling Stones albums repackaged for Japan a few short months before these. Neither of these earlier releases was true to the original vinyl although the Stones came close.

The earliest true Minis were two series of MCA Jazz releases from March 1994 (MVCZ-26 to MVCZ-45) including this example: Death and The Flower.

Over the years a number of promotional boxes have been released for "The Who". These have included "Manufacturer", "Disk Union" and "Indeterminate Origin".

Here is a selection...

Tarkus promo box and obis released to accompany the first K2 24 bit release of the first five ELP albums.

The artwork is darker than the album cover. It came with 6 promo obis, 2 for Trilogy.

Some of the images shown here include all but one of the Tarkus Mini LP releases spanning 1994 - 2008

In late 2008 Caroline Records in the USA released a number of albums by the following artists: UFO, Jethro Tull, Quicksilver Messenger, Brian Eno, Roxy Music, The Raspberries, Kate Bush, Blondie, The Band, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Van Der Graaf Generator (full list below).

Unlike the suspect Universal releases these are 100% Japanese. The only difference between these and the Japanese (apart from being as much as 50% cheaper) is a sticker on the bar code of the obi.

As at March 2009 most of these are still available at Amazon.

Here is a comparison between a genuine official copy of Aerosmith Pump made by Universal and a Russian counterfeit copy. In the picture, the real one is on the left and the fake is on the right.