There was also an identical one called a " Speed Pedal". I just sold a small kit and included a very nicely functioning Speed Pedal with it .All three came as hi hat stands and bass pedals. They can be made to be perfectly functional but are pretty entry level. Now:--- I have a Pro Pedal and a Top Pedal sitting right in front of me. They came in two incarnations ; the earlier ones had leather straps and a channel for the strap at the topend of the footboard and the later ones had a chromed steel strap looped around a rivet at the top and yes ,one may have been put with Pearl kits and one may have been put with Star kits but they were made in the same factory. Star and Pearl were pretty crude operations in those days and probably both, purchased hardware from some foundry that made this stuff.-----not dissimilar to M*******S and B****R K**G both buying their patties from a company by the name of ALL BEEF. As you said Ralf, there is a different number of bars on the top and heel plate of the footboard but otherwise the aluminum casting is identical, right down to the strengthening ribs and mold marks. The one with the steel ,strap even has the hole underneath the toe where the leather strap used to be fastened with a screw on the earlier models.
These are certainly better pedals than most of the entry level stuff made today and if the friction points are greased properly and kept greased, they work pretty good. -----however their achilles heel is just that-----the locking strap is only attached with one screw, right under the heel plate and it falls out and usually becomes stripped after only a few years. You see a lot of them around , without that strap. I usually put a machine screw right through the heel plate and peen the end so it becomes a threaded rivet and then it is there for good; decent starter pedals and the footboard won't snap in two if you accidentally step on it in the dark!