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We have another ad for playsuits in a wide variety of styles. One of our HBC readers remembers games at the time, but he and his mates did not have such formal outfits. We do not know in what catalog the ad appeared. We are not positive about the date, but believe it was 1967. The ad is not dated and in fact could have been in use for several years. The black and white format suggests that it first appeared earlier. They were the Ranger brand of playsuits. I'm not entirely sure of how they were marketed.
We have another ad for playsuits in a wide variety of styles. We notice Davy Crockett (or Daniel Boone), Robin Hood, U.S. calvary, cowboys and girls, Native Americans, and spacemen. Notice how the costumes are mostly American characters.
One of our HBC readers remembers games at the time, but he and his mates did not have such formal outfits.
I'm not sure in what sizes these suits were made.
Note that all but one of the characters are boys. This is rather interesting as generally girls like to dress up more than boys. Of course hese are all action characters associated with games boys might play. Presumably girls would have been more likeky to play house or school. Note that the one girl costume is a cowgirl. We wonder why this was chosen for the one girls' costume. This raises another question. Apparently playing Indian was especially popular an=mong the boys. Apparebntly this was not te same for the girls.
This was not a magazine or catalog page, but rather a sign in a store window. A British reader provides us some background. "I remember the advert here being in the form of a poster that the local toyshop would put in it's window - normally around Christmastime after it had taken down the posters for "Brocks" fireworks in November. It was originally in colour. These suits were in boxes which also had this picture on the front. They were stacked on the top shelves of the shop so I don't think they sold many. A mate of mine asked to look at one once but the woman in the shop couldn't be bothered to get the steps and probably knew that he didn't intend buying - they were very expensive. There were other costumes aimed at girls - nurses outfits were popular. Remember at the time, the primary professional occupation for girls were teachers and nurses. Perhaps the cowgirl is included here because it is more of an "action" character. I think more of these girls' nurses outfits were sold so they didn't seem to have to advertise them and these were on a lower shelf."
We are not positive about the date, but believe it was 1967. The ad is not dated and in fact could have been in use for several years. The characters involved help date the image. The frontier character would not have appeared before the mid-1950s when Davy Crockett appeared in American television. (The figure may be Daniel Boone, which would being the date well into the 1960s.) As this in England, this means it would have been a few years later. Thus we think that the poster would not have been earlier than the early 1960s. Our English reader, however, saw it in a store window about 1967 and we have archieved it here because it is the only definitive date we have at this time and we know these suits were being offered for sale at this time.
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