In a move so surreal it seems like satire, MSI Taiwan has launched a promotion that lets customers exchange nine ‘Lucky Dragon' figures for an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080.

The Lucky Dragon figurines were part of a promotion tied to the launch of the RTX 50 series. Customers who bought one of the special Vanguard-branded Launch Edition graphics cards would get a collectors box containing not only a graphics card but also several collectibles, including the figurines.

In total, there are nine normal variants of the dragon figures, including an Astronaut, Kung-Fu master, and Sumo Wrestler as well as one special ‘Secret Edition' Moai statue version.

MSI dragon figurines become a hot commodity in Taiwan

According to Hong Kong-based news outlet HKEPC, MSI Taiwan will swap nine of these dragon figurines with one brand-new RTX 5080. The tricky part is that in order to get these figurines, you first need to have bought one of the special Launch Edition Vanguard RTX 50 series cards. The same RTX 50 series cards that have already become notorious for extremely limited stock levels.

Some people in Taiwan are offering money to anyone who owns these figurines, with one person offering NT$4,000, or about $120 USD to anyone willing to sell the figures. Since only 1,000 of the dragon figures were made, they are quickly becoming a valuable commodity.

Supposedly, a number of the Launch Edition cards containing the figures were sent to reviewers and influencers, so customers in Taiwan might be best served by asking local YouTubers and tech sites for any spares.

This situation just further highlights how dire the stock situation is, with people paying hundreds for tiny figurines for an outside chance of owning a new graphics card. It can be compared to the promotion in India where the chance to buy an Nvidia GPU at MSRP was raffled off to three ‘lucky' winners. At least with the MSI promotion, you will have some cute dragon figures.

About the Author

Rebecca Hills-Duty

Writing and journalism experience at VRFocus, UploadVR, The Escapist, HTC, PC Gamer, Tech Radar+ and Dexerto. Can sometimes be found playing with retro tech.