Josh Baker spotted this Miller Beer fiberglass skateboard made by the folks at R.A.C.O. and noticed it wasn’t among those in a previous post. Apparently, (allegedly?) the going rate is $315. Insert joke about flat beer.

Yeah, I’ve never heard of Thor Skateboards before, and neither has Michiel Walrave, except for this one.

This Punk Skull (as I imagine it would be called) model is a rebranded Valterra – the deck is Valterra (same shape as one of their Skate Zombie shapes), the trucks, wheels, plastics…all Valterra. I now wonder if this graphic was used first under the Valterra umbrella. I’ve seen a lesser quality dept store board with the same graphic before. Either way, super rad looking mid 80s tank.

Agreed. Michel has a massive collection of obscure toy store and D-list brand skateboards. Check out @michielwalrave for more.

Many moons ago (I think I had a different phone…) I worked out a deal with Doc SkateRock to import some of his books over to the states and sell them at a reasonable price, just to make it more attractive to buy here in the USA and Canada. Well I finally got everything sorted out on my end so now is the time for you to BUY THE BEST BOOK ON VINTAGE SKATEROCK! Sure, I prefer to call it skatesploitation, but I didn’t write the book.

• 192 pages
• 7“ format
• hardcover
• about 350 colored scans of record covers and labels
• plus many photos and extras
• year of release: 2012
• printed in Germany

Because this required some bookkeeping I had to set up an actual store instead of a couple of PayPal buttons. I’d say that was the reason this took so long, but regular readers (and Doc) knows that isn’t true.

A “must” accessory for every skater! It’s the skateboard horn! Push the button, make the horn warn.

Not a lot is known about this skateboard horn, but it seems to be mid to late 70’s vintage. Turns out the UM-2 batteries are basically Japanese C-cells. I like that the person riding the skateboard is also wearing some sort of safety monitor or crossing guard sash. Good stuff.

– Thanks to Alphonzo Mills for the photos.

This edition of Australian pro skateboarders and companies I did not know existed is brought to you by Ken Macleod, who posted a picture of a Ken Gibbons pro model. I tried to find something about it/him (Ken) and that led me to the photography of Chris Stroh, whose portfolio is primarily surfing, but also includes some 80’s era skateboarding. That’s Ken in the photo above, in the bowl at a place called “Five Dock,” circa 1986. Unfortunately, Ken was the victim of a hit-and-run and died in 2006. I scraped the web for more bits and pieces on Ken and Bonzer and managed to find a few items.

Thanks to Don Brown for sending in these pics of a BMW Mini that he picked up. I’ve never seen one of these in the wild. We have covered this before, but it’s nice to have some bespoke pictures. This is luxury, novelty skateboarding circa 2002. Still no idea why there is a strap on it, but It sort of looks like a flip flop. One thing we did learn this board is made out of plastic and not some high performance composite.

I’m a couple weeks remiss in posting about the death of Otis ‘O’ Barthoulameu. Anyone who read skate mags in the 80’s will remember that “O – Photo” byline. Encinitas Magazine has a remembrance of O that spans several spreads and start on page 24.

This unassembled Ben Lexan Skatewing was won on a cruise many years ago, and has sat in storage since then until Jamie Shain decided to help their mother-in-law do some cleaning. It’s funny because I’ve often wondered how they packaged these boards for shipping, being as unwieldy as they are, and now I know. Trucks (regular, and auxiliary) and handles came unassembled.

– Thanks to Jamie for the pics!

I just made almost 70 additions to the Vintage Skateboard Magazine Ads gallery, bringing the total to 617. This last batch is primarily from Skateboarder 1975 V2 N3 and Skateboard World Nov. 1977.

Pep #331 (November 1977) features a one page story with Archie skateboarding titled “Tide Ride,” as well as a Youth Opportunity Sales Club ad in which you can earn a skateboard by selling 16 boxes of greeting cards.