Rigbee Toy Ad – October 3, 1968

It might be hard for today’s youth to understand, but there was a time when parents had to utilize the layaway system for many of their purchases – especially Christmas gifts that weren’t needed right away.

The concept of layaway was quite simple. The shopper selected their items and paid a deposit for the store to hold them. Then the shopper made a series of timed payments until the bill was paid in full, when the items being held were finally released.

Anyway, if a shopper was going to use layaway for their Christmas gifts, then they had to start shopping for them early. That’s the idea behind the above ad for Rigbee’s Bargain Town, which ran in the Lorain Journal on October 3, 1968.

(I wrote about Rigbee’s before, back here.)

But getting back to that ad. There are the classic Lincoln Logs for 79 cents (about $5.73 in today’s moolah).

I tried to find a nice color image of the Lincoln Logs can in the ad, but this photo (below) was the closest I could find. The lettering for LOGS is the same, and the kids are similar, but for some reason this can says ‘American’ instead of ‘Lincoln’ as in the ad.

I also found a photo (below) that looks exactly like the Lincoln Logs we had.

But as you can see, ours weren’t Lincoln Logs either. They were American Logs as well. No wonder I never thought of the sinister guy on the can as Honest Abe. I hope that’s wood he’s hacking away at.

The ad also includes Winking Heidi. A lot of these dolls survived, because they are all over the internet. Is that because they were a cherished keepsake? Or did their novelty wear off so quickly that they weren’t played with enough to get broken – and discarded?

The Playskool Tyke Bike is another vintage toy that is quite ubiquitous online. 

To me, this largely unappealing creation looks like it was slapped together using leftover parts from other toys (the handlebars from a bike, wheels from a wagon, etc).

Lastly, there is the most expensive item in the ad: the Blazon Spring Horse. Only $6.99 at the time of the ad, but it would cost a whopping 50 clams today (assuming the US Inflation Calculator website is accurate).

Here’s what I think is a close match for the spring horse.

We had a spring rocking horse at our house too, although I don’t think it was a Blazon. You can see it in the background of this photo of me as an unhappy Buckaroo.