Riders of the Range, A Pepys Game
First Published: 1953, A Pepys Game, Pepys Series Games, St. Cross Street, London
Illustrator or Designer: Not Credited
Contents: 44 Cards + Rules Booklet
Riders of the Range has 44 cards: 4 Ranch cards, Yellow Green Red and Blue. 36 numbered cards (made up of 4 sets of 9 ) these cards have the same image for each number and only differ in their Ranch colour. There are also 4 Danger cards, each of these shares a colour with a Ranch but all four images are different.
Riders of the Range cards: Ranches, Yellow Green, Red & Blue. Numbered cards 9 - Around the Camp Fire, 8 - The Corral, 7 - The Gun Fight, 6 - Luke Roping a Steer.
Riders of the Range cards: Numbered cards 5 - The Stampede, 4 - Six-shooter, 3 - Mary and her dog "Rustler", 2 - Luke, 1- Jeff Arnold, the Rangerider on "Dunny". Danger cards: Red - Cattle Rustlers, Blue - Indians - Green - Outlaw.
Riders of the Range cards: Danger card: Yellow - Rattlesnake
Riders of the Range was produced with permission of Eagle magazine, whose masthead logo is much in evidence. The game is based upon Riders of the Range a long-running strip feature.
Jeff Arnold in Riders of the Range, Eagle 16th May 1952
The series in Eagle was written by Charles Chilton who had had earlier success with a BBC Radio Series based on the same characters and also called Riders on the Range, it ran from 1949-1953. All episodes of this radio programme were broadcast live and no known recordings survive.
There was also a 1949 American film called Riders of the Range the name may have been an influence, possibly a subconscious one, on Charles Chilton.
So Pepys' Riders of the Range is a card game based on a comic strip, that was based on a radio series, that might have been influenced by the title, but not the characters or plot, of a film.
The illustrators of the card game are not credited and none of the Pepys cards look like the work of any of the Eagle illustrators who worked on the strip.
In 1953 Castell Brothers produced produced four games featuring Eagle magazine characters, two card games (Dan Dare and Riders of the Range) and two party games (Space Ships - The Dan Dare Treasure Hunt and Round Up - The Riders of the Range Action Game). Pepys also produced an Eagle Bond Junior Stationery Set, presumably at the same time.
Game & Version Details
 | Riders of the Range - Card Back |
 | Riders of the Range - Rules Front |
 | Riders of the Range - Rules Back Games Advertised Win-A-Lot, Muffin, Famous Five, Riders of the Range, Speed, Circus Snap, Happy Families of the World, Rhymo Dominoes, Picture Dominoes, Farmyard Cries, Cinderella, Woodland Happy Families, Woodland Snap, Skid-O, Faraway Tree, Snow White, Contraband, Chase, Disney Wu-Pee, I Commit, Sylabex, International Football Whist |
| |
 | Riders of the Range - Box Back |
 | Riders of the Range - Box Top |
 | Riders of the Range - Box Side Left |
 | Riders of the Range - Box Base |
 | Riders of the Range - Box Side Right |
 | Riders of the Range - Box Back With Flap |