Rummaging -- Stanley Challenger?

[twertsy]

No pics but I was rummaging through the socket drawer at the local pawn and came across several "Stanley Challenger" sockets. What are these? Googled, found nothing. Searched the Stanley line on the Proto site, nothing. Anyone have any info on this line?

 

[zzzz]

Old equivalent to proto's blackhawk tools?

EDIT: Found this here.

I believe Challenger was phased out around '02. Stanley had a big fire sale on ebay about that time and was selling Challenger cheap. Sometime after that is when Blackhawk started showing up as their less expensive line.

From some notes I've made my time line guess is this:
Challenger (brand under Penens) dates back at least to 1951 continues to late 90's or very early 00's....I don't know if it was a continuous run or if they stopped and restarted it over the years.

Blackhawk was purchased by New Britain around 1953. New Britain closes around 1984. National Hand tool buys Blackhawk and Husky names but then gets bought themselves by Stanley around 1986.
At some point Stanley discontinues Blackhawk USA....I'm thinking early to mid 90's? They get Blackhawk geared up as an Asian company and then replace the Challenger brand in the late 90's early 00's.

 

[twertsy]

I've seen, and own a ton of Proto Challenger stuff, but I've never seen "Stanley Challenger" before this etched into tools, in this case sockets. They look and feel much like the Stanley Professional line and, in fact, "Challenger" is etched in below Stanley exactly where "Professional" is on those sockets.