Fisher-Price PXL2000 Camera

The PXL2000 was a camera released in 1987 by the toy company Fisher-Price. These things cost around $200, which is about $590 these days. They were discontinued after about a year, probably because that was a lot of money for a kid’s toy. A verified working camera that isn’t “as-is” will set you back around $500 today. I first became aware of these back in the day because Dan Estabrook of Contort mentioned a skate video being shot on this camera, and this would have been anywhere from 87-89. I never saw that video, but I did keep my eyes peeled (unsuccessfully) to buy a camera of my own. Fisher-Price made a print ad for the camera that featured skateboarding, as well as a TV commercial with incidental skateboard content.

Here’s the print ad. Skateboarder is in the upper right hand corner.

Here’s a detail of the skateboarder. I can’ tell if that’s his tongue hanging out, but this kid exudes a wacky quality, almost Extreme®™! The ad says the screen images are simulated, but the footage is low quality due to the fact that these cameras recorded in black and white on audio cassette tapes. Run lengths were limited to about 11 minutes max per tape.

The skateboard kid also appears in the manual, which amazingly enough can be downloaded from the Mattel web site. (Mattel bought Fisher-Price in 1993.) It’s less of a manual than a product sell sheet.

Here’s some stills from the TV commercial. Although it opens with a tape being pulled from a boom box covered in skate stickers, there is no skateboarding in the commercial. There’s also a skateboard in the background of a few shots.

Here’s the commercial.

I searched for some skate videos that were made on this thing back when it was current, and the closest I could find was this 1990 video shot on VHS that has interspersed PXL2000 footage, easy to spot because it’s low res black and white.

There ave been a handful of skate videos that feature PXL2000 shot footage. Here’s a 2018 edit shot by Rob Fraebel. Note: The commercial shown at the beginning has some modern superimposed footage shown on the TV.