Invaders of the Heart

I must have sent away for a catalog from Action Sports in 1984. I just found the postmarked envelope with full color one sheet and photocopied price list. I think that tagline is supposed to read “The 1 Ultimate High.” Aside from the vaguely Celtic typeface, it’s an interesting choice for a time when any given correspondence with a smaller skate brand seemed to have about a 50% chance of including a short handwritten a religious message. I’m not sure why I sent any for this catalog in 1984, since I never really rated the Action Sports brand. I think it might have been because the Invader had a sly look to it.

Mini or street versions of “full size” decks didn’t really take off until a few years later. In this case Action Sports were ahead of the curve. Check out those Kamikaze decks too. At one point I think there were 3 simultaneous Imperial Japanese flag graphics available from different manufacturers, Sims, Nash, and Action Sports.

The invader.

Look familiar a few years later, eh Santa Cruz Skateboards?

Action Sports Knight Rider… Ouch. This one is embarrassing.

It’s the Cobra board that still says “Snake” on the graphic, in case you were wondering what family or genus or whatever it’s called… Oh yeah.. SNAKE! It’s on a roadway, so they missed the opportunity to call it the Street Snake! Actually they do have a street sale and a Cobra in the price list so who knows which one this actually is.

Action trucks, not really notable at all except for the fact that in the price list it says you can get them in magnesium for only 10 bucks more!

Era appropriate two tone wheels.

Interesting price range for these boards as completes, $47.95-$75 with the main difference being that the concave boards are more expensive. At this point Brand X was still selling more or less flat boards too.

I first met House of Neil, the cofounder of Skate and Annoy in 1985. He moved to USA from England and his skateboard was an Invader, but it was unrecognizable, having been covered entirely in skate stickers, mostly of the paper, DIY variety. He still has it, and here’s what it looks like below. However, when I met him it still had handmade wooden rails (!) that were painted red.

When I first came back to the States in 85 this was my board until I bought something decent. But this has a certain place in my heart still. Most everything was hand painted and the majority of the stickers were handmade at a copy place on sticker paper. Alans Skate Shop was the only skateshop in northwest England in 1984. We would have to get 3 trains and it took about 2 hours to get there.

Early Skate and Annoy sticker!

They sold Seaflex boards too!

Enjoy the era appropriate song “Invaders of the Heart” by Cheap Trick, released in 1983.