So far, there have been three versions of the official tatakon (taiko controller.) The 1st one had a shiny surface, the 2nd one had a more matted, softer rubber face, and the 3rd one has slots in the base stand to hold the bachi (the plastic drum sticks.)
The 1st one was horrendous, since the shiny surface would start to peel and it looked ugly. It also suffered from some faulty wiring that made it break pretty fast.
The 2nd drums were better in that hitting it wasn't as loud as the 1st one, and the wiring inside is a little different so it lasts longer, but the rim sensors are notorious for coming a bit loose after a while, so it would either do phantom hits (the rim would activate even if you only hit the center, or even lightly tap the bottom of the drum), or just not register at all.
The 3rd drums' insides were completely redone, and thus a BIT harder to service, but from what I heard, they're much better than the 2nd generation. They also have a nice little placeholder in the drumstand to hold your sticks when you're not playing.
The US version comes with the 2nd generation drums, and if you're importing a bundle, then getting either the 2nd Anime bundle or the Nanadaime bundle will nab you the 3rd generation tatakon.
You should have gotten the US version, though, since it's cheaper to get that for the drum, and just import the games separately, and to be fair, the song list wasn't that bad for a US music game. The only gripe I had with it was the pop songs did NOT have an Oni chart different from Hard. :\
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