Gillette
Gillette started selling adjustables in 1955 with the Serial Toggles.
Serial Toggle |
There were no adjustables manufactured until the first quarter (D1) of 1958 when they manufactured two FatBoys and two Toggles. The Red Dot FatBoys and the two Toggles were only produced for the first quarter (D1). Thereafter it was only the FatBoy, which had a very short run of about 4 years.
That remained unchanged until the last quarter (F4) of 1960, when they sold a run of Toggles and Bottom Dials.
I'm purely speculating here - I think that by the end of 1960 they were already thinking of phasing the FatBoy out and the Slim (read Improved FatBoy) was already on the drawing board. Once this decision was made, Gillette decided to get rid of the soon to be outdated stock, and released these Odd Balls with some marketing and now 60+ years later it has left us wondering how these razors fitted into their timelines. The fact that these were sold with cases and literature leads me to believe that they were definitely not for testing.
Red Dot FatBoy | Chrome Toggle | FatBoy | Bottom Dial | Toggle |
They then introduced the Slim in the fourth Quarter of 1961. In comparison to the FatBoy it had a long run of about 8 years.
After that the Black Beauties were introduced in 1968, firstly the 84mm handle and a year later the 109mm handle.
The Black Beauties were produced until 1988 which marked both the end of the Gillette Adjustable era and were also the last double edge razors produced. If we ignore the Gold plated versions there are four "different" versions.
Slim | Super ADjustable 84 | Super Adjustable 190 Brass Base |
Super Adjustable 109 Plastic Base/Gillette knurl |
Super Adjustable 109 Plastic Base/Diamond knurl |
Gillette Franken - Adjustables
I have these two here because, although they are Franken-razors - all the pieces are Gillette.
They are also under the Franken section
Franken FatBoy | Franken Slim |
Although not an Adjustable in about October 2019, after a break of about 40 years, Gillette announced a new DE Razor which was called a Gillette Heritage Safety Razor kit.