Nice looking kit there Mikey.
I guess that's my point regarding the "rarity" quesstion. These are unique kits, few and far between. Reminds me of the story of Bill Ludwig's re-aquisition of his own name in 1959. to make things right with the world again he came out with the the "Transition" badge. His story carries much more flavor of course than the Camco/Tama/DW story, no question.
The interesting thing is that we do not place much stock on transition rarity from a collector's point of view. Ludwig "Transition" badged drums don't seem to be more in demand than most other vintage Ludwigs excepting the transition COB Supraphonic.
Are Tama Superstar shells, of the higher end? I confess, I know D---all about Tama, except they produced a lot of the Japanese "junk" from the sixties under various and sundry names ranging form Stewart to Apollo in the form of copies of Slingerland, Gretsch, etc.
From the quality of the shells, at least on the 1979 kit I have, you can see and hear that Tama in the late '70's was on a mission to compete with better drum makers in the US, hence the aquisition and division of Camco, a quality drum maker, between Tama and DW.
So, to put the name "Camco made in USA" on the badge of a Japanese all maple shell, call up 'ol Elvin to endorse, there was an attempt at high quality! I think it was successful from an engineering/acoustical perpsective. Check out the finish on these after thirty years... an American finish on a Japanese shell assembled by Californians using Japanese lugs that are high end in quality compared to say a "Stewart" lug? From a collector/historical point of view, a cool story to tell in American drum history. Of course, we all like the DW end of the story better than the Tama end or do we? :) electricit So, the drums you see in the pictures, are they Camco like it says on the badge, Tama or DW? A nice mix anyway....
~K
