Hi all. I have a vintage TAMA Imperialstar which I am currently restoring. I would like to know the year of manufacture. The kit is a deep Royal Blue. I have been told it is a 'Stuart Copeland' style set. The serial numbers are:
22 inch Bass Drum 124338,
10 inch concert tom 032554,
12 inch concert tom 015928,
13 inch tom 105554,
14 inch tom 118105,
16 inch floor tom 113605.
Please can anyone let me know the year of manufacture? Thanks. Ahmed. UK

That's looks exactly like my first set. Same sizes too! The finish was called "Midnight Blue," however it is darker than the midnight blues of later Tama sets. My serial numbers were:
22 Bass Drum 98865
13 tom 98627
14 tom 98630
(concert toms added later)
10 concert tom 068495
12 concert tom 067777

You might get more visibility to your question in the "Vintage - Imperialstar" section of the Forum. It would also help to have close-up shots of the bass drum tom mount and base, leg spurs as well toms dampers, but from what I can see on the pic and an educated guess on the serial numbers, I would say 1980. Latest would be early 1981, but no later than that. Looks like smooth bass drum mount and ratchet-type tom mount (assuming it is original) would peg it as pre-1981 for sure. We tried to co-relate serial numbers to year of manufacture in another thread, but it's difficult to trace that. We (loosely) concluded that 9XXXX serial numbers are probably 1979 and 1XXXXX numbers are probably 1980-1981. Badge serial numbers started with the year from 82 to 84 (82-XXXX, 83-XXXXX and 84-XXXXX). After that, they were 8-digit serial numbers.

Definitely 1980. The threaded bass drum spurs and "smooth" bass drum mounts and ratchet-style tom holders were discontinued in early 1981. If your floor tom legs have the same threaded spikes as your bass drum, it might be pre-1980, if not it's most likely 1980. Your bass drum T-rods appear to be smooth, which would make it no later than 1980.

Like I said earlier, my kit looks exactly like this and it was purchased in 1978 (I was in 8th grade and my dad and I went "half-ers" on it!). The concert toms I purchased in 1980. My serial numbers are smaller on the main kit than studio_1999's. I would say then that studio's kit probably is from 1980!

Thanks again guys for all your input. Its much appreciated! Ahmed.