The handwriting was ontthewwall when the stopped producing the Python and started producing th Anaconda.
“The handwriting was on the wall when the stopped producing the Python and started producing the Anaconda.” [.44 Special, post 39]
You have the timeline inside out.
Colt’s Python was produced from 1955 or so into the first decade of the 21st century. Custom Shop offered it in special limited-issue configurations until about 2013 or so.
Their Anaconda was produced from 1990 until 1999 as a standard item, and the Custom Shop sold limited editions for a very short time past that. They overlapped.
The Python has a legendary reputation but it wasn’t innovative at all: simply a somewhat refined target version of the same double-action swingout-cylinder revolver Colt’s offered from about 1890 on. Poorly suited for day-to-day field use, it could not take a steady diet of full-power 357 loads for long without loosening and getting out of time. Owed its accuracy to extra-tight bores and carefully matched chamber throats (long a feature of Colt’s target revolvers), and its easy, smooth action to careful fitting and polishing, requiring extensive hand work by skilled craftsmen.
The Anaconda (MM Frame) was simply the largest, heaviest version of a basic design Colt’s introduced in 1969 as the Trooper Mk III in 357. Owing little to previous Colt’s designs, it exploited newer manufacturing techniques and materials, and required less fitting. Accuracy could be good but trigger pulls were atrocious at first and never did progress beyond average. All Mk III and Mk V DA revolvers did earn a great reputation for strength and durability.