You did the right thing. If I had known they came off I would have got a set!
Yeah I almost missed out on them because I didn't like the look. I thought that that was a super price on a set but didn't want drums that looked like that. Then someone posted on the DFO that you could peel that off. I thought the white was painted on the shell and then the chrome looking bits were screwed onto the shell, which is what it looked like. But no it was just one single two tone piece of very thin aluminum stuck on with some sort of acrylic adhesive. Once I found that out I snagged one of the last remaining new sets. It was a pain to pull each chevron off but once you got it started it would peel off cleanly leaving no residue or marks behind. The aluminum piece was destroyed in the process so it's a one way street. Also the chevron was the only "badge" identifying them as Gretsch drums. I fixed that by putting on new badges. Nicest brand new set of $700 drums I'm ever likely to own.
Getting back to the topic at hand I think someone did mention the Slingerlands with the cardboard shells. That has to be almost the lowest point in any classic American drum company's history. The shells were sonotube which are cardboard concrete forms. Literally the same thing as the tube you find in the middle of a roll of carpet. I'm unsure how they expected that to hold a bearing edge. Especially since they had already tried Masonite shells back in the 50's with poor results...so let's try something even softer. If they had impregnated the cardboard with a thermosetting plastic resin of some sort they might have had a fighting chance (it would have been akin to what Remo did later) but no, just plain cardboard. Certainly a sign that things weren't going so well at the once mighty Slingerland.
I crossed paths with one of these cardboard sets many years ago. A friend of my mom was looking at a set for her grandson and asked me what I thought about a set that was for sale locally for $125. I went over to look at them and it was a 5 piece Slingerland set, white wrap, double set-o-matic, wood bass drum hoops, matching snare...all looked good on the surface and $125 for a set of Slingerlands was a no-brainer. The only oddity I noticed was that the badges were some sort of foil stick-on rather than the typical aluminum one. Little did I know. She bought the drums and I offered to take them home and clean them up (they were kind of grungy). She thought that would be great and I hauled them home. When I pulled off the first head it was a WTF! moment. I vaguely recalled hearing about these and here was a set in the flesh. I got them sounding "okay" and as far as I know her grandson was happy with them...not really knowing any better. They couldn't be returned so I didn't point it out to them. I felt sort of bad...although for $125 it still wasn't a terrible deal as all the hardware was worth more than that and they were playable, if probably not gig-able. I don't think he pursued drumming long enough to find out, but I have no idea what became of the set. A year later I bought a CB-700 set (quadra-plus type configuration) at a yard sale for $35 just to get the Tama/Camco pedal that was included (there were two pedals, the original and the Camco, I offered them $25 for just the pedal I wanted pointing out that they still had a pedal to include with the set that were asking $100 for, they refused to separate the pedal but offered to sell me everything for $35) and I gave the concert toms to the grandkid (perhaps as a way to make up for not noticing the cardboard drums).
I've heard tell that some of the lesser later Ludwig Rocker series drums had shells made from a particle board sort of material (sawdust and glue cast into cylinders I assume). I don't think I've ever run across such an animal but if that's true that would be a pretty low point as well.
