broomerang
Double Eagle Member
Valid points. There are definitely some speeds of drivers that are overlooked. 8 and 10 most notably. I'd even say 11 too if it weren't for the Wraith. Speed 10 drivers simply got obsoleted. Beasts are still sorta popular, but Monsters, Starfires, Orcs, and Flashes sure aren't.
I think the only speed 8 driver Innova even makes is the Archangel, and everyone knows that thing is a hunk of junk. 8 is a bit of an awkward speed for a driver. It can't decide if it wants to be a fairway or distance driver.
Didn't Val bag the Starfire as her Sig disc? Monster is too OS to be very useful for anything other than utility so I don't think it's worth mentioning. The Monarch would be a better disc to mention as it's so largely overlooked I had forgotten it even existed until I looked on the website before responding (Outclassed by the Roadrunner). Flash is OOP. It was a mold that suffered from extreme inconsistencies in production thanks to it's very strange rim shape.
tl:dr so many good discs on the market nowadays the relative popularity is subjective at best. It's impossible not to find 3-4 options in each slot nowadays.
Escape and Volt are both speed 8. I haven't thrown an Escape but the Volt is a really good disc. Both were/are very popular. Teebird3 and TL3 are both listed as Speed 8 as well and they are pretty popular. Not as popular as the Teebird itself but it's worth noting that quite a few pros are throwing them over the OG mold. Mantis is speed 8 as well.
Orcs and Beasts would be a lot more popular if they were marketed more, and they are really good discs. Marketing really does impact a disc's viability in the market. Wraith was the "fastest" disc when it came out and Ken Climo threw them. That really gave a leg up compared to the Beast. If you believe that the best pro throws the best discs you probably lean towards his choices over the choices of the players he beat consistently. We're all suckers for this kind of comparative psychology if we're not practicing mindfulness.
Worth mentioning that Sexton still bags Orcs and Barry still bags the Beast (one of his Sig discs).
The PD is a speed 10, well it's really like a 9.5 but it's one of the most popular molds in the world.
Speed 6 is probably the most overlooked class with the least amount of popular options among most manufacturers. The leopard being the only Innova mold I can think of being popular. MVP/Axiom has a lot of discs in the Speed 6 class though, some of which are really good: Crave, Resistor, Relay. I'm not familiar with newer Discraft but there seems to be love for the Zombee.