Royalstars went till the very end of the 80's

If they did there is no record. They do not appear in any literature after 1985. In 1986 they stopped production of the Superstar & Imperialstar lines in favor of the Crestar,Artstar,& Granstars. Makes sense they would have done the same with the Royalstars as they came out with Beatstars which led to Rockstars.

Tama Historian (from the Tama Forum) that wrote the Tama history book had the details. From memory they were made till 1988, perhaps not in the US market after '86.

No different than the Starclassic Birch which continued in Japan well after being deleted from the rest of the world.

Similarly the Performer B/B was available outside North America for about 18 months before being sold there as they were clearing out stocks of the 100% Performers in that market.

First of all: a great idea! Thanks for that!

Oooops.

Is this really correct? I always thought that 'Perfect Percussion' were the first drums under Tama. Rare (maybe very rare), but due to many hardware parts over taken from Star, I still think that drums with such badges state the very beginning of Tama.

Attached please find a badge from such a drum kit.

But also maybe, that the 'Perfect Percussion' badges just indicated the transition time, when Star switched over to Tama. Who knows?

Cheers, Ralf

Ralf, thank you for that. I honestly didn't even know those badges were around. From everything I've seen ( In Catalogs ) by '74 their drums featured the T badge. But it's hard to see what kit had them first. Reason I say Swingstar was the first line under the Tama name is that aside from all the previous stencil names, it was a name that they continued to use for a long time, as you're well aware.

Great project. Had never seen that badge as well.

Regret only thing I can contribute is pointy lug "82"Swingstars and "??" Royalstars 22" bass are the same except for lug count. RS does weigh quite a bit more.

Thanks for your efforts !!

Creighton

FWIW, I have a Perfect Percussion branded kit.

It has a Star tom holder, same lugs as early Imperialstar albeit different threads for the tension rods and wrapped in chrome steel sheet.

I'm confident they at Star shells that look identical to Imperialstar, but without Zola coating.

They were pulled out of a dumpster out the back of a church.

Currently in the process of restoration.