When I compare club badges I genuinely think that ours is one of the best. I know I am biaised in my views, but as they go through the Premier League badges at the start of the weekly Foxtel show here in Oz, ours rolls out down Tower Bridge and is pick of the crop for me.
This is not an argument between crossed hammers and the castle, because they both look the business to me. That's why the design is so good and should not be significantly altered. The crossed hammers are truly associated with us and should be rightly be carved all over the world wherever fellow Hammers wander! Equally, the complete badge with the castle, should always be our official badge.
I certainly don't mind having a shirt for a season or two with just the hammers - it looks good in light blue on the claret shirt for example. But the proper crest always looks good on white shirts, so I'd have no problems with a mix of badges on different shirts.
Some have mentioned about the days when we played with no badge - the 60's and 70's for example. This is true, but there was always a special shirt should we get to a final. And, in my experience, since 1964 onwards, that special shirt featured a badge with the castle.
I think we could try a simple badge of crossed hammers for league games, and a another shirt used for cup games that had the full badge on it, hammers and castle.
Remember, form is temporary, but class is permanent. And our badge is class.