Les Bidasses en Vadrouille is French movie made in 1979, and was the first of several starring the French band band Martin Circus. The title translates to “The Soldiers on the Move,”and it looks like they were “soldiers” in at least three titles. Here’s a translation of the plot synopsis:
After the big maneuvers, four young soldiers, René, Sylvain, Gérard and Alain, arrive at the end of their military service and take a two hundred kilometer ride with a latest model AM17 assault tank nicknamed “the Invincible” in order to reach their base. Forced to clean the machine, the soldiers will cause panic in a market and involuntarily commit a hold-up.
Part of this zany journey involves an extended skateboard (planche de skate) sequence.
It looks like someone tried to copy the Santa Cruz Jessee Neptune model from 1988, but he or she wasn’t as good as Jim Phillips and didn’t know much about Roman mythology either. The spear and the helmet makes the ‘God of the Sea’ look more like a Viking dressed up as Neptune. Not the first time this graphic has been butchered. Sold on eBay (in 2014) for $18.58 after 6 bids.
Funny, as I was putting some finishing touches on this post I found an almost identically laid out image in a post from The Skateboarding Hall of Fame. On the left you see a Munsters coloring book published in 1965 0r 1966 depending on the source. While trying to research a post from Skaterock, an image search led me to Skate and Annoy of all places, go figure… and a post made back in 2013 with a link to a now dead web site where I originally found a low res image with no context. Turns out that was a photoshopped image of a Munsters coloring book. A coloring book you can find for purchase occasionally in the usual places that sell vintage items for about $25, as well as a modern day reprint you can buy for $35. You can also buy a poster reprint of a modified version the cover. There’s a collector out there who owns the original 15″x20″ painting. Some of the text is an overlay. What about the picture of Eddie Munster riding a skateboard? Well as early as 2010 you could buy that on a t-shirt, and you still can. But what about a photo reprint? The original seems to be a closely guarded item, because everyone seems to be recycling the same low-res version, sometimes with their own watermarks. When you’re done reading this post, don’t forget to check out the plastic model kit of Eddie on a skateboard.
Vol. 2, No. 21, of Laugh was published in June, 1990 by Archie Comics. Goddamned Archie…. This issue has story featuring Sabrina the Teenage Witch, called “Zoomin’ Broom!” In the story, Sabrina gets a broom from her aunts for her birthday , even though she wants a car. Looking for a way to camouflage the broom, she saws off the bristles and nails it to the bottom of her old skateboard to create a hoverboard! Hold on is that canon in the witching world? I assumed if anything, it would have been the broom head that made the broom fly. Back to the story, while skating with her friend Charlie, they run into some male chauvinist pigs (come on man, it’s the 90’s!) at the skatepark and she shows them up. Then they catch the Vultures concert by hovering overhead the outdoor venue. Unfortunately, Debbie Harry was nowhere to be seen.
This cartoon is from Finnish cartoonist Marko Raasina, the creator of Nerd and Jock. You can see some of his work here, and get his exclusive content at Patreon.
In honor of Halloween here’s a terrifying ghost named Casper. This is issue #96 of Casper’s Ghostland (and all his friends) from 1977. Harvey Comics is sort of the Hanna-Barbera of comic books, as in cheap and not very good. Casper rides a “sky board” on the cover, floating above an unnamed child on a skateboard in case you don’t get the joke. It’s good thing the motion lines and puffs are coming from his leg and not his rear end. Can ghosts fart?
As seen on Facebook Marketplace, going for an absurd price ($600) even if it is from 1996. The tombstone covers up most of the mummy’s skateboard so you barely notice it. Cardboard, 47 inches tall and the eyes light up. Boo!
Witness the Hot Wheels Skate Flush & Go Skate Bowl from Mattel. From that fisheye lens shot you’d think this must be 3 feet across, but it’s not. Man, I’m really having to restrain myself from making poop jokes in this post… The set comes with one board and one pair of fnigerboarding shoes and lists for about $35. What’s the size of a Hot Wheels fingerboard compared to a Tech Deck? Has the fnigerboarding industry sat down together for a roundtable discussion on scale nomenclature or was there already an ISO standard? Who cares? This fingerboard play set is the… (self control)!
Way back in August I texted my friend Mark Conahan to ask him if he’d like to go to a newish skatepark that opened in June that was about a half hour away. Mark instead suggested we go to one that neither of us had been to, a brand new park in Sandy, Oregon that was maybe 45 minutes away. I drive through Sandy on the way to Mt Hood several times a year, and I didn’t even know they had a skatepark. A hurried web search turned up the park district page with exactly one picture showing a close cropped view of a kid skating. It didn’t look too impressive but it did appear the park was finished so I figured why not check it out? Three of us loaded up the car and drove out there. When we pull up we found the the entire thing under construction! There’s no mention of this anywhere on the parks page. In fact the new park is due to open sometime in November (Update: Nov 2nd!) and the page still isn’t updated. We nosed around a little, took some pics, and then decided to check out the town’s local skate shop since we were already out there. The new park looks like it’s going to big and fun, and BDK Boardshop turned out to be quite a surprise!
