Launched at the Winter NAMM Show in 2001 (along with its Cherry sibling) these were arguably the top of the range Mapex kits, even above the Orion Series. Certainly they were more expensive, and they are definitely rarer to find these days.

With the exception of the snare drum(s), which contnued as part of the standard range until 2008, it's remarkably difficult to find specific details of these kits. Despite a photo being shown on the back of the range specific 2002 catalogues, they don't actually appear in any catalogue. Well, not one I've ever been able to track down. If you happen to have one, please do get on touch! 

Digging around on the Mapex Drums website for 2002 using the WayBack Machine I've managed to grab some basic information on the components to include in the spec list. There are genuinely way more than I thought! The WTB2218SEWN Bass drum option has an asterix next to it on the site, but there's no information as to what that means. I'm assuming a "Special Edition" of some type? 

On a side note, the Mapex site's history section has a tiny copy of an advert showing the options, but irritatingly it's almost impossible to read. It's also in the wrong section of the timeline: it says 2004, but they were definitely released and on their site in late 2001 .

As a summary, I'm going to quote a short online article from Pro-Music-News from 2001.

"At winter NAMM 2001 Mapex launched the Deep Forest project combining the heart of the cratftsman who can see the beauty of his creation in the natural wood before the first cut with the soul of the drummer who can hear the perfect tone of his instrument before he begins to perform. The limited edition drum kits of the Deep Forest series are handcrafted from select walnut and cherry logs and are designed to meet the demands of professional performing drummers as well as the recording engineers' needs.

Each shell is rotary cut from a single log and matched for its color and tone before put into full drum sets. The shells of toms and snares are 5.1 mm strong and the bass drums feature 7.2 mm shells. The Deep Forest instruments are hand rubbed with a wax finish. The Mapex Deep Forest walnut kit is the first all walnut instrument for almost a century.

Sets come with a 14x5.5" snare drum, a 22x18" bass drum, 10x8", 12x9",14x11" and 16x13" rack toms including hardware. Additional components are available. The new Mapex Deep Forest drums will also be showing at the Mapex stand in Hall 8 at Musikmesse Frankfurt"

Whilst the above says the set comes with the 14"x5.5" snare it was more generally advertised with the 14"x6.5" snare. 

Although the Deep Forest kits aren't technically Black Panthers, the Deep Forest range of snares were always included in Black Panther catalogues, so I'm including them.