Well, I also think the whole stencil drum badge thing is pretty interesting. The badges help identify the maker and date the drums as well, but it does get confusing at times.

For instance, when the stencils started being made in Taiwan, many badges (I'm thinking of Lyle, Ruethers, and Royce, specifically) were black ovals, like we had seen from Japan, but did not state the country of origin. Some early MIJ stencils had nearly identical black oval badges but said 'Japan' under the brand name and air vent. (I found this out while looking at some Stewart drums - apparently Stewarts were first made by Pearl, then Star, then Pearl again.)

I think that many, if not most of the questionable badges you find will be Pearl stencils, either MIJ or MIT. Star seemed to be pretty consistent with their "World's Supreme Quality" badges. And lately my theory has been that Star was around for a shorter period of time than we had previously thought (and also, I agree with Jonnistix that there seems to be a stylistic connection between the early 70s Hoshino drums and the drums that Tama would produce shortly thereafter.)

But to get back to your question, some of the badges that didn't say Japan on them may actually be MIT drums. Then again, the chrome script badges (Pearl, La Boz, Lido Supreme) didn't say Japan on the script, but would have it on the strainer, butt, possibly the hoops...

jonnistix...care to comment on this topic??

....I'm confused....some of them make sense, others don't, how's that?

I think most, if not all of the plastic ones are Pearl stencils, as they used that rectangle for far too long. "World's Supreme Quality" and "Finest Quality" seem to be without a doubt made by Star.

I'll have more on the subject later.