Another moment in Alibaba greatness… This skateboard that, according to some of the descriptions and videos, actually dispenses a mist of some kind that is backlit by led lights to make it look like rockets. The descriptions are astonishingly vague on how this works. Nor do they offer any additional info in the listings that say they have a “music speaker.” The same product is listed by different agents, all with a different, amusing name.

I thought Gashapon was the brand name but it turns out that’s what the Japanese call those little vending machines that you can buy miniature toys from. More or less in the style of what we’d call gumball machines in the US. This is the Little Boarder set, and like the advert says, Anything goes, little boarder! Indeed, these are just tiny skateboard figures attached to mostly unrelated food items.

About a year and a half a go I was at KPub waiting to place an order for some very delicious Korean food when a video for an unknown (to me) Kpop band showed up on the TV screen on the wall near the counter. I assume it’s Kpop, maybe it’s Jpop or some other pop. These dreamy boys cavorted in skateboard related scenarios, complete with subtitles. I have no idea who this band is or what the song title is. I believe there was more “skateboarding” in the video but I didn’t catch very much of it once I decided to try and capture it. UPDATE: Video identified thanks to Steven Aycock. Band: Ateez. Song: Wave. Skatepark?

Artist @suzushiro333 has a series of Manga/Anime style illustrations called Maid to Skate that features… well, maids in formal attire skateboarding. While all of them exhibit a certain amount of humor, some of them are quite beautiful and you can tell the artist either skates or has at the very minimum done a really good job of studying. If you appreciate it, there is some merch available.

There are famous examples of skate able transitioned walls in architecture that have appeared in skate photos over the year, but this new one from Nameless Architecture in Daejeon, South Korea takes it to a new level. Source: Dezeen. – Thanks to MC for the tip.

It’s a Pink Panther jumbo post! – Thanks to Cool Steve for 99% of this.

I think this web site is called WHATSUP. (WHATSUP???) Follow this link for pictures of a crazy concrete dragon built for skating in an art exhibit they may have something to do with Vans.

Do you want to see a guy in a samurai costume exhibiting professional levels of skills in surfing, soccer and other pastimes, like say… skateboarding? Bowl and street skills, no less. If so, look no further than this Nissan foods commercial for Samurai Noodles.

Hard drive cleaning time:  Freeing makes PVC anime figures and accessories, mostly scantily clad stuff in the vein of your typical Hook-Ups graphic. Even when they aren’t scantily clad, they still look like Sorayama robots. These must sell like gangbusters. I mean, who wouldn’t want a highly posable figure of a sensuous, big breasted mannequin riding a skateboard or a scooter? The skateboards all come with snowboard bindings, which is unfortunate. I’m not sure what the purpose of these is. It’s possible they are the plastic anime-centric equivalent of those small wooden manikins used for figure drawing.

Michael J. Fox made some commercials in Japan for the Honda Integra in the late 80’s and early 90’s that were essentially designed to remind you that Fox was in Back to the Future without having to pay Robert Zemeckis and and Bob Gale. This is a print piece that looks like it was probably a magazine feature and not an advertisement. The Chris Miller deck dates to 1988 according to Art of Skateboarding, but the print piece appears to be from 1989. Because I first saw it on FB, it’s nearly impossible to trace to it’s original Internet source, but it might be this Michael J. Fox fan Tumblr. Unfortunately, there’s no real information about what it says or what it’s from. It’s likely related to the commercials because although none of the 5 versions I saw contain any skateboarding, a few contain scenes with the red guitar shown in this print piece. UPDATE: Added a vague translation.