There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
As for cat 3, "decorative" means they are not mainly designed to spin. But there is then an overlap between cat 1 and cat 3, e.g. the Billetspin: they have a complicated design but they are good spinners (as I believe, because I've never been able to buy one). In such a case, I consider them in cat 1. I therefore write cat3 = decorative/junk, meaning that their design misses the main function of a spinning top (IMO): spinning for a decent time. Once more, this cat 3 is a purely personal classification. Others may have more consideration for tops that don't spin, like the overpriced mass-produced ForNeverSpin, but the only thing they evoke to me is, I wasted my money buying them.
An alternative way of classifying tops would be to keep only physical categories 1 and 2 and to have a transversal classification: exceptional/excellent/good/.... But now the "..." means I'm too lazy to spin tops that are not at least "good" and decide whether they are medium, bad, very bad...
I missed out on the two-tone versions of the Lambda and am disappointed about that (I really would have preferred the Aluminum and Brass instead of the solid Brass that I have). For that reason my Vorso edges out my Lambda as my favorite.
But, again, they are both beautiful in their own rights.