Nice find! I know you'll enjoy it. Now, if you like the Slim, consider picking up a Super Adjustable ("Black Beauty") for the next spot in your collection. I used that razor almost exclusively from the time I was in college in the mid-1970s, until the Sensor came out around 1990. It's far and away my favorite of all the Gillette TTOs. Great feel, weight, balance, and it looks classy as heck. It comes in long and short-handle versions. Until recently, I preferred the short handle, but now having spent a little time with the longer one I'm starting to lean the other way. See how the craziness starts to set in once you get going with this?
I used it this morning and loved it! Hopefully sometime today my 'Net issues will get solved and I'll be able to post my SOTD
Oh I TOTALLY want a Black Beauty! It's already on my "must have list".. I stil want a Fatboy also but now that I have a Slim, it moved further down the list...
For what it's worth, and of course everything is a matter of personal opinion, I think the Slim and Black Beauty have it all over the Fatboy. I have a Fatboy, but hardly ever use it. I thought it was oddly-proportioned and clunky. The Slim and BB are much sleeker and I think, more comfortable to work with. Keep in mind that despite the Fatboy's iconic status with collectors today, back in the early 1960s Gillette thought the Slim was such a significant improvement in design that they discontinued the Fatboy after only four years of production, and never made it again. Of course, if you're a collector, it's hard to resist having a Fatboy in the fold. I sure like having one, but when I go to the cigar boxes to pick out a razor for the day, I almost invariably select something else.
@Chef Bill - I ain't callin' you wrong, but I sure ain't agreein' with you on that one! My huge distrust of corporations makes me think Gillette's FatBoy-to-Slim migration was fueled by COST REDUCTIONS <echo x 3>. You slim down that handle and save $0.0001 per razor. Times a gajillion and that's a savings! Few big corporations pay much more than lip service to quality. Throw out the quality baby with the savings bath water? No problem! Just increase your marketing budget. NOW... I'm with you on admiring the Black Beauty, though. I think it just edges out my Slim. Though I like my Fat Boy, I think the Slim edges it out.
Out of the 3 gillette adjustables the slim is my favorite due to overall heft and balance however the SA shave is very comfortable some day I will have one in my collection.
Cost savings may have been a small related benefit, but I think it would be hard to make the case that the Slim was inferior in material or manufacturing quality to the Fatboy. Gillette discontinued the Fatboy in favor of the Slim because the company was following the popular and prevailing design trends of the early 1960s. After four years of Fatboy production, the company had learned how to reduce the size and complexity of the TTO mechanism, and fit it in a thinner handle. This was important because by the '60s, thinner, sleeker, and faster were the keys to just about everything new. It was the beginning of the Space Age, and consumers were fascinated by new technology and modern design. Think about other consumer products of the early '60s, and how they compared to those of the 1930s, '40s, and early '50s. Everything from cars and major household appliances to radios, TVs, telephones, and fountain pens became slimmer, more streamlined, and simplified. Jets were pushing old propeller planes out of the picture. Glass and steel were replacing brick and mortar construction, changing the look of cities. New houses, schools, restaurants, and retail stores all featured long, thin, clean modern lines. Unnecessary ornamentation was eliminated. Then, as now, Gillette was a big sponsor of professional sports. Think about how the new stadiums built in the late '50s and 1960s - such as Dodger Stadium, Candlestick Park, Shea Stadium, Busch Stadium, and RFK Stadium - were designed and built compared with Yankee Stadium, Cleveland Stadium, Tiger Stadium, The Polo Grounds, Wrigley Field, Fenway Park, and others built earlier in the century. I remember going to the New York World's Fair in 1964/65 as a boy and being fascinated by all of the exhibits that focused on technology and futurism. In 1964, the "must-have" car of the year was the brand-new, small, fast, sporty Ford Mustang. (So what did my father buy? A Buick Special. That's another story...) One of the most popular exhibits featured the "Car of the Future." It looked a lot like today's Prius. Razors and many other personal care products followed the same trends. As one of the first adjustable razors, the Fatboy represented an important transition in razor design. But it followed the aesthetic of a bygone time. It was big and heavy. I'd call it "clunky." Not surprisingly, it was produced for only four years and never made again - not even as a "retro" edition. The Slim, and its successor, the Black Beauty, remained mainstays of the Gillette line, with their designs virtually unchanged, for nearly 25 years.
