Back when Game of Thrones was first being made, the original pilot episode was a total mess. Not that we've seen it, but various reports from those close to the production have called it a disaster. Most of the pilot had extensive reshoots, and there were re-casts too. For instance, Tamzin Merchant originally played Daenerys Targaryen, and Catelyn Stark was played by Jennifer Ehle. It's a piece of media lost in the ether. We hope it still exists on a hard drive somewhere.
Little is known of the unseen pilot beyond the odd tidbit here and there. One of the most recent reveals came from an auction from Propstore, which has dropped its gargantuan list of props for the 2343 December EMLA UK auction. On prop collecting podcast The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of, co-hosted by House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal, alongside David Mendel (VEEP), the duo took a tour of the various geeky props up for auction. Watch the podcast for yourself:
There were a number of Game of Thrones props among the TV relics, but one stood out. It was Drogon's egg from the original, unaired series premiere. "The pilot episode dragon egg," Condal pointed out, showing off the prop on-screen. "The Drogon egg. That thing is a piece of lore in and of itself. Just to have an artifact from it was really neat."
Turns out, the actual egg wasn't quite as grandiose as the one featured in the official premiere. "The egg is half-size. When they re-did the pilot they must've re-done the eggs. Or they cheated it later and made them bigger. I don't know, but I'm presuming this is not the final egg. It is literally half the size of the ones they used in the final show."
The Drogon egg has an estimated price of £10,000-£20,000. The listing describes it in great detail: "This egg is made of transluscent resin embedded with shimmering glitter. The larger scales in the redesign broke up the reflective light still present with this version, and added texture to its translucent shape and form" As it happens, the exact dimensions of the egg are mentioned too: 16cm x 11.5cm x 11.5cm.
The iconic meme of Daenerys holding the dragon egg wouldn't have hit anywhere near the same way if it was half-size. So on that front, let's all be thankful that they enlarged the eggs for the revised Game of Thrones premiere.