Thanks for the photo Kelly. Without it I would never know what one looked like. Thanks.

BTW it is a nice looking band. Bet what it goes around isn't half bad either! :-)
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No likey:
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Little known fact:
Of all the colors in the spectrum, blue is an appetite suppressant. Weight loss plans suggest putting your food on a blue plate. Or even better than that, put a blue light in your refrigerator and watch your munchies disappear. Or here's another tip: Dye your food blue! A little black will make it a double whammy.

Blue food is a rare occurrence in nature. There are no leafy blue vegetables (blue lettuce?), no blue meats (blueburger, well-done please), and aside from blueberries and a few blue-purple potatoes from remote spots on the globe, blue just doesn't exist in any significant quantity as a natural food color.

I don't eat my cigars but I do think of them as something tasty!!!
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OpusX, Ashton ESG, and Maximus Diamond Crown, are by far the best looking.
the Playboys are just plain cheap and gay...wont ever smoke one their so cheap looking.
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Favs: RP Winter Collection - Clean, Classy and Pops of the dark broadleaf
Alec Bradley Tempus - Unique
La Riqueza - Very Cuban traditional box is cool too
San Cristobal - Colorful and bold

Lame: Nub
Davidoff
ALL Fuente (except opus)
ALL Ashton (except san cristobal)
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The ugliest ones for me are
The Brick
Man O War
Oliveros XL
Gurkha
RP Fusion
Don Kiki
Indio Puros
Flor de Oliva
Taboo ( sorry Rob )
Actually, if Taboo had a classier looking label, I have a feeling these would have even wider appeal. These smoke like a more expensive cigar, but the label is a bit cheesy.

My faves are from the simple classics on many CC's like Montes, Cohibas, or nc like Tats, Padron.
I realy like some of the ornate ones like Padilla Anniversario, Gran Habanos 3 Siglos, most Camacho, Carlos Torano usually and especially the Virtuoso. That looks awsome against the dark wrapper. Same with Onyx Reserve. I like some of the modern designs like CAO Brazillia (not so much the Italia, don't know why) and the CAO MX2 is unique. I also like the classic reds like H Upmann, Punch, A Fuente.
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i like them simple.

i dislike anything that has pictures of people on them.
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Playboy and gay in the same sentence???:-)

Cheap maybe???:-)
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Exactly what I was thinking upon seeing the thread title.

And good things always seem to happen after a PAN26 in my experience :-)

OP, my friend Andrew Herfd' with you the other day. Good to know there are more of us around here then I thought.
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If you look at the box art, all of the Cuban marca gold medals were handed out a century or more ago at various world's fairs and such. For example, Romeo y Julieta's boxes have the medals labelled Jerusalem, Melbourne, Paris, Brussels and "Alveres" handed out between 1885 and 1900. H. Upmann has Chicago, London, Paris, Vienna, Moscow, Porto and a bunch from Spain from the late 1800s as well. One of the medals on the Cuban Bolivar band says "Leopold Roi des Belge" in reference to the famous (infamous perhaps) King Leopold of Belgium. Unfortunately the ones on Partagas, Punch, Hoyo de Monterrey, Por Larranaga, El Rey del Mundo, Ramon Allones, La Gloria Cubana and Fonseca art and bands are indeterminable or don't say at all. As far as non-Cuban brands like Arturo Fuente and La Aurora, I think the flanking gold medals are part of a generic, classic cigar band design that you see among lots and lots of brands like El Rico Habano, Punch, La Gloria Cubana, La Aurora, Arturo Fuente, Gran Habano and many more I can't think of right now.

As for my favorites and non-favorites, I'm a classicist, so I like the old-school Cubanesque designs, with La Aroma de Cuba [and Edicion Especial] being a favorite as well as La Riqueza, La Aurora, all Cuban Hoyo de Monterrey bands, Cuban H. Upmann (the new colored band), Cuban Punch, Cuban Romeo y Julieta and Cuban Fonseca. I dislike most generic, modernistic and cheap-looking bands. CAO, non-Cuban Dunhill, Arturo Fuente (excepting the Anejo version), Flor de Oliva, Arganese, Taboo, Drew Estates, Buccanero and Rocky Patel are the worst offenders of my taste. Contrary to logic, band art does have an affect on my buying habits. As for contemporary designs, I do have a weakness for the Ashton Magnum, Diamond Crown Maximus, Davidoff, San Cristobal and Tatuaje bands. Some of the Camacho bands are pretty cool too.
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Love the CAO MX2 and LX2
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I think the Taboo band is really not good..

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I enjoy the more minimalist bands. The NUB are a perfect example of a band I like.
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I think the Perdomo labels are beautiful. I don't love the cigars, but would buy a frameable print of that label. I also like the La Riqueza and Cruzado labels...simple, but classy.

I used to be in the wine industry, and I really think labels and product names have much more influence than people want to admit. For the occassional (once a month) cigar smoker, is it a coincidence that everyone knows Arturo Fuente and Macanudo ? Could part of the reason be that the names sound exotic yet they are easy for Americans to pronounce ? In the wine world, has Merlot become the red wine of choice for the masses because it's a french, exotic word that can be pronounced ? What about Dom Perignon ? Do non-wine drinkers confidently order a bottle of "Dom" because it's easy to pronounce and is a status symbol ?

Same thing with label art. I used to rep a product called "Q.C. Fly Pinot Noir" with a big giant fly on the label...ugly as hell...couldn''t sell that stuff at all. But the wine was really good ! Crap wine with pretty labels sold all day long.
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I like San Cristobal, Cuesta Rey, and Alec Bradley Harvest 97 bands.

I dislike all the Tat, One Off (friggin' hippies), and Sancho Panza.
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Favorite: Davidoff. Simple and very elegant.

Least Favorite: Puros Indios. The end. :-)
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Agreed! Though the Zino and Winston Churchill bands are pretty catching too.

My least favorite: nub
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Favorite - San Cristobal - Just so damn cool and colorful.

Least Fav - OneOff - A weak @ss orange peace sign...come on?


:-)
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opus x of course... love those goldish band... more curve..more complex... ol' skol style..

hate those very simple band like tat..just a font with no design at all... might as well don't put a band at all...
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We'll all have to get together soon!!!:-)
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Further proof of this can be found in the shampoo aisle of your local store. The difference between a $1.99 bottle of shampoo or conditioner and a $5.99 bottle is the packaging. The eyes of the women are drawn to the unusual bottle. I have verified this with several women I know, including my wife. They admit it, and lament it.
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