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Why was the fatboy only made for 4 years?

I'm a big fan of de razor, and to me the fatboy is better than the slim
so why was the fatboy for 4 years and slim for 8 ??
i wish it was the other way round- with fatboys selling for half the cost of a slim:cursing:
 
In my own personal experience, the late 1950s and early 1960s were when electric shavers were really very popular, and Gillette was forced to experiment with a lot of things, such as their colored Flare Tips, and eventually, even colored handles (black). The "Slim" really isn't greatly different in my own hands, from my personal Adjustable 195 razor. They shave almost exactly the same for me, but the Slim was nevertheless, "New" for awhile.

Now, has anyone else got the real story, straight from the proverbial horses' mouth?
 
i like the handle of the fatboy.its really easy to grip it and open and close. i have had a few problems with the slim in those areas.
one thing with my own fatboy is that its hard to get the water out of it after shaving, whereas the slim is easy to shake dry. maybe thats the reason.
 
My hands may be somewhat larger than average; my fingers, at least, are too long for many of the work gloves that are supposed to be "large sized". I really like the medium length of the first three Gillette Adjustables - - they seem to "fit me" nicely, while most Gillettes are usually somewhat "too short", and therefore somewhat less natural feeling in my hand.

The fact of the matter is that back when it was new, I was using Schick Injectors, and didn't get my first Adjustable 195 / fatboy until relatively recently. My original pair of Slims and my Super Adjustable were all purchased between 1965 and 1968, and I still have them all.
 
According to this National Geographic documentary (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_F71tHiYz4) 70% (from memory I think it said 70% it was certainly a large majority) of men in the 60's were using electrics. Obviously it was a newer, cool product and seeing as the 60's were all about being different from your father's generation it makes sense young people would take up electric shaving. I think Kiwi has it spot on, Gillette had to get creative perhaps the idea was to market products for a few years and then introduce a new model to keep things fresh. Perhaps the cost of such a sturdy, well made razor was too much. I don't know but it's fun to speculate. An intersting aside to the 70/30 split in the 60's is the trend has now completely reversed and there's now 70% of men wetshaving, admittedly mostly cartridges but still interesting.
 
i heard that too, about the fatboy costing a lot more to produce than the slim.i wonder how many fatboys compared to slims were made? and what was the price of slims originally?
 
Not sure how electric shaving conquered anything, there isn't one built that would actually give a close shave (maybe a twelve year old would), the ones from the 60's must have been like trying to get a shave from one of those little air fans.
 
When I began shaving, the electrics of that day just yanked my soft peach fuzz out by the roots instead of cutting it off; I gave that up quickly. The only real razor in the house was my Mother's, an SE of some sort, and it did works nicely. She called around to family members, and all of my Uncles used electrics, however, her own father had preferred wet shaving, and was a straight user, but a Maiden Aunt had a safety razor he had used, and another SE she claimed had been my Mother's, and which she didn't recognize.

Eventually, I had three DEs and an SE as family heirlooms, and was on my way.

After college, I tried electric shaving again. I got "acceptable" shaves when I went over and over and over multiples of passes in the area of a dozen, which left my skin greatly irritated within a few days if I repeated shaves with the electrics as few as three times in a row. Thirty years after that, maybe just 25, I tried Norelco's cordless razors, and got a reasonably decent shave with far less effort, but similar skin trouble after several electric shaves in a row.

I did, and still do, carry one of those shavers in my car, in case I am running around on one of the days that I haven't shaved (typically weekends), and decide to go somewhere that I need to look less scruffy.
 
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