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Today Letraset provide resources for the graphic design market, including digital fonts, but originally (as the name suggests) they were the pioneers of rub-down instant lettering, & in consequence have had a huge influence on just about every aspect of popular culture.
At some point in the early 1960s someone at Letraset realised that since kids thought it great fun to mess around with instant lettering, there might be a market for toys designed around this technology.
So Action Transfers (initially as "Instant Pictures") were born.
My own particular area of interest is the series of Panoramas that appeared in 1965. Letraset (later 'Waddington/Letraset') Panoramas consisted in 3-foot (in a 3-section fold-out) backgrounds together with sheets of rub-down 'Action Transfers'. These started with one sheet of black only & one sheet of white only transfers, & as the technology developed, spot colours were added until eventually full-colour (CMYK) printing emerged - which is, of course, how all modern transfers are printed. The transition from one colour to four spot colours took place in 1966; full-colour had arrived by 1967.
Other companies licensed Letraset's technology, including Waddingtons, Patterson Blick, Gillette (as Kalkitos & Presto Magix) & many more.
Action Transfers are the worst kind of ephemera, since once they've been done, they're essentially rubbish & are invariably thrown away. Nobody keeps their old Action Transfers! On the other hand, if you ever do find one, it should be very cheap - despite its rarity. Lots of the 1970s / 1980s ones do surface, usually from old unsold shop stock, but very little from earlier.
I decided that as, at the time, there were no websites & no information available on the web, I would contact other bidders for Letraset products with a view to sharing information & generally helping each other out.
There is no longer anyone at Letraset (or Acorn, who took over the transfers side of the business) with knowledge or records of Letraset's pre-1970 products, so it really is a case of piecing together information from whatever sources can be found; the products themselves, adverts in comics & magazines, etc.
The thing is that what started as a field empty of information is now positively verdant. Just as Action Transfers came from nowhere in just a few years, so has SPLAT uncovered a wealth of information in a comparable time.
The membership of the Society for the Preservation of Letraset Action Transfers is still growing quickly. SPLAT started in 2003, but only officially gained its name on 13th October 2004.
At the moment SPLAT is entirely informal, but as numbers have continued to grow, it has proven necessary to moderate exchanges; this is after all normal for any Internet group. Anyone is welcome to join as long as they have a genuine interest in the subject, which they can easily show by 'putting their money where their mouth is' & buying (or having bought or bid on) a Letraset Action Transfer.
But — hey! Don't pay US any money; SPLAT is free! Just send us your Bank Account details… or maybe not. Er… no, definitely don't do that. But if you like, you can join up & then complain about the unfunny jokes.
(If you are interested in joining, please follow the instructions above.)
Benefits of membership (which of course is free) include notices concerning upcoming offers & auctions, questions & information, shedloads of useful tips & tricks on a wide variety of relevant topics, & quite often even FREE GIFTS from generous members.
We also have private sales & swaps, a (nearly) complete chronology of all of Letraset's (& associated companies') products, members' "Wants" lists; & some members have even displayed their personal collection catalogues for cat burglars to assess.
All this takes place on our Forum which in no time at all has become hugely successful, gaining new members, finding new items, and increasing our knowledge immensely. The Forum is private and secure, and open to SPLAT members only.
So we hope to see you there!
Martin Gibbs of Letraset says:
"I can certainly remember the products you describe. These were produced by the now defunct Letraset Consumer division. The transfers were printed here at Ashford on a large rotary gravure printing machine.
"Letraset exited this business many years ago and it was picked up by some ex-Letraset people who run a business called Acorn who are based here in Ashford."
Chas Issett of Acorn says:
"In essence, I am probably now one of the few people around who can answer your query, having worked from 1973 to 1980 in the Letraset (Consumer Products) department responsible for bringing the children of the time such delights as Action Transfers and Rub down Fun Time Doodles.
"You are correct in that Rub down transfers were originally one colour, in the late sixties - black & white. I can recall seeing samples when I first joined in 1973 but doubt if any exist now. Colour versions were introduced in the early 70s, being printed initially by 4-colour gravure, on the reel. By nature run lengths had to be very long to justify cost of set up and cylinders, both of which were very high. Some of the early Action Transfer Panoramas were printed by this method, but by mid-70s 4-colour litho printed transfers were more widely available, and more cost effective.
"Through 1970s Letraset Consumer Products sold a wide range of transfer based products, based on both character (Star Wars, Super Heroes, Disney to mention but a few) as well as non-character series (Birds, Nature Panoramas and Giant Panoramas).
"In 1976 Letraset purchased an Italian printer, who my company now represent on an exclusive basis, who became the manufacturing base for all Letraset litho rub down transfers. The gravure machine was sold and production of four colour transfers in the UK and Ashford ceased. (Letraset exists today and continue to print single colour sheets for the graphic market as well as 'Specials' ably managed by Martin Gibbs and Mike Travers.) The move to Italy was based on a Letraset contract to supply multi-colour rub down transfers to Gillette (the Razor and Pen company), worldwide, under the Kalkitos brand name. This contract continued on until the late 70s, when due to diminishing sales it was cancelled.
"The demise of the Gillette contract co-incided with declining sales of Letraset's own products - possibly as a result of the early advent of computers, as children found other ways of spending their time and money. Certainly we also met a lot of opposition from the retail trade who maintained that such pocket money products were no longer worth stocking. The retail business was sold to Thomas Salter in the early 80s and then on the demise of Salters, (1985-ish) taken up by Peter Pan Playthings, who also went into liquidation in the late 80s.
"My company Acorn and the Italian factory have continued on from 1980, by concentrating on special tailor made productions and promotions. Sadly the proportion of rub down transfer jobs has fallen to practically nothing, although the gap has been filled by Temporary Tattoo - skin transfers. I would imagine that no original material exists from the 70s retail products, this having been passed firstly from Letraset to Salters, who having gone into liquidation would have passed it onto Peter Pan."
Here are a couple of scans from some Letrasets in my personal collection. They were scanned at 600dpi & they have been reduced in pixels to one quarter of their original size, making them a little larger than twice life-size (but nice & small for easy downloading).
Please click on the thumbnails to view the full image in a new window. Hopefully there will be some more scans coming soon…
Another member of SPLAT, StellarX, has produced a website which is packed full of excellent examples of Letraset Action Transfers. See for yourself at www.seven-wonders.co.uk!
