Over the years I have had three Tama kits, the first in the late 1970s was an imperial four-brother tom kit, which i used professionally for a couple of years. I chose Tama on the strength of sound produced by Stewart Copeland of the Police, I wanted a similar, snappy and lound sound from my kit. I wasn't disappointed, Tama delivered. A number of years later, late 1990s, I bought the budget swingstar kit, which although the cheapest from the range produced by Tama, the plywood shells produced a heavy tom sound. The snare was slightly ringy and thin in sound quality but, when I gigged with the kit mic-ed through the PA and dampened to my own spec preference, I was happy with the kit. It was quite robust and I gigged with it for a couple of years. I purchased my second Swingstar kit, second-hand two year ago, it is a swingstar hybrid with a 14" floor tom fixed to the ride cymbal stand with a Rockstar snare, in gunmetal grey finish. The quality overall is far superior to the Swingstar kit I had previously. The fittings, pedals and stands are all good, robust quality. The kit is fitted with Evans batterheads and the sound and response of the kit is good. I would have preferred a 16" floor tom rather than the 14" tom fitted to the cymbal stand, although it is slightly quicker to set the kit up but, the 16" floor tom is both stronger and deeper in sound. However, the kit is loud and sharp and the Rockstar snare is a cleaner and faster sound than the Swingstar snare. Overall, the gunmetal grey kit looks good and sounds far better than the previous Swingstar model. The Tama Swingstar kit is a good budget kit that would make an ideal, quality beginners kit but, it is also a kit that any comptetent drummer would be pleased with.

Cheap but very good sound. Durable.

My Kit:
5 Piece Platinum Grey(22,12,13,14,16)
Ambassador on Snare
Powerstroke III on Toms
Superkick II on Bass Drum

Pros:
Very Good Hardware
Very Nice Finish
Great boomy sound
Value for money
Brilliant bass drum (dont use a reso with porthole)
Very Comfortable Throne

Cons:
Unattractive bassdrum hoop
Smothered Sounding snare (may be the skin)
Came with sh*t camber cymbals (immediately replaced)

Summary:
Sounds Excellent!
Looks Great!
and omg! Great value for money!
Solid Hardware also

I made some mods and it's easy to make this drum set look even better. The heads lasted a long time. I smashed this drum set and put it back together and it still sounds good. The only bad point is the clutch on the snare broke. The Tama Swingstar is a good kit for a starter and even more.

I like the older Tama drums, 70's and 80's, seems they put a lot into the Swingstars and Superstars, the hardware was heavy and the drums were heavy, I have an old set of Swingstars with the badges with the models numbers stamped on the the badge and they seem so much better than what is being put out now. The bass drum head says SWINGSTAR by Tama , I think they were proud of that set when it came out.

A warm ringing noise is produced thanks to the mahogany shell and works well with a double pedal. I would recommend this kit to any beginner or intermediate drummer.