During the finale of Men in Blazers they aired a TV commercial for the Mini Cooper Countryman featuring Tony Hawk hauling his kids out to a waterpark in the middle of the desert. While trying to find the commercial online saw that he had ditched Jeep and signed some sort of extended agreement with Mini USA last year, appearing in several videos. And thanks to longtime contributor Matthijs, I also had some pictures of a weird MINI Skater, which is small skateboard with a built in strap binding produced by the Mini Cooper parent company some time around 2002. And just when you thought you couldn’t get enough MINI skateboard action, MINI released some augmented reality glasses that pair with your MINI to provide enhanced safety and visibility. I am not making this up! Whenever there’s a need to illustrate dangerous pedestrian (no driving) behavior, you can bet you’ll find a skateboard or two, and even a dog.

Lactantia smart milk from Canada. Is that a missing skateboarder? Lactantia sounds like the name of a villainess in a Russ Meyer film.

– Thanks to Kevin Live (Yes, I’m cleaning out my inbox)

This image came from TheTruth.com about a year ago. Another installment in the car as skateboard series, or in this case, model truck. Must have a skateboarder in charge of this setup, because instead of a straight 50-50 grind they went with an alley-ooo.

– Thanks to Kevin Live for the tip, last year.

This not the first time skateboards have been used to sell feminine protection. Recall Stayfree Maxi Pads in 1978. Playtex has a print ad and a TV commercial in rotation for their Sport Ultra Thin line of pads. Who is this woman (Update: She is Nikki Rose Quinlan.) and where was this shot? Catch the commercial and the advert after the break. Somewhere in this post there’s a joke about helmets and pad nannies, but I can’t find it.

Bow before my arcane knowledge of useless skateboard related information. This Valterra Rad-isaurus looks suspiciously similar to Denver the Last Dinosaur. Both appear to be released in 1988, although I can’t tell for sure about the Valterra board, the copyright is hard to read. They both appear to be the similar species, and they both wear mohawks and sunglasses, but only the Rad-isaurus has pants. Denver is obscene! Won’t someone please think of the children? Follow me dear readers, and we will tackle the question that archeologists have been pondering for decades: “What happens when a group of pop-a-wheely, BMXer, fun-loving, skateboarding, and rock-music-listening contemporary kids open an ancient dinosaur egg?”

Tony Hawk for the the Sony Action Cam, otherwise known as a Go Pro camera with an awkward form function. The promo video on loop in the display features Tony Hawk and Lizzie Armanto, selfie sticks and and even a bracket for mounting it under a skateboard. I should have got a screen cap of that bracket, as it looks like there is no skateboard specific bracket, but the video did briefly show a camera snapping into a bracket in front of the rear truck. I ‘d like to see how the made it work with their universal bracket. “Retired” sports figures are still used to sell products, but Tony’s the only one who can still perform up to the standards that made him famous in the first place. He’s not standing around with a bottle of talcum powder like Shaq.

Hey, have you heard of Thrasher? Yeah, me either until just recently, but I guess they’ve been around for a while. I thought I’d throw them a bone by directing some web traffic their way. I hope they succeed. The images above are from the always entertaining Certified Pieces of Suck, and this compilation has some actual LOL moments. I only wish they’d tell you where they are located.

This is the second and last installment of Fun to Draw Skateboard Action book. Along with the familiar misnomers and weird physics, the second half of the book features a couple of filler pages with some “totally rad” action and an exercise to match the safety equipment with the part of the body that it goes on.

“Skateboard Action” was a popular title for kids books in the 80’s, as this is not the only book to use it. Skateboard Action from the Fun to Draw series was published in 1989 by Hamburger Press. The illustrations are by Ed Francis, so the blame for mislabeling has to go with the author Debra Rowley. It’s got 36 pages jam packed with goofy little fox on a skateboard cartoons and the typical 4 step drawing instructions you find in these things. The illustrator has the human figure basics down but occasionally has difficulty placing the figure in relation to ramps and coping. It’s as if someone went through a skateboard magazine and cut out the skateboarder from each photograph and the illustrator used them as a reference without knowing how they related to the real world. The illustrator’s take on aftermarket 80’s skate graphics and fashion is spot on and worth a chuckle. Part one of the installment after the jump.

Congratualtions son, your photo is going to be used on some product packaging! Millions of people will see it and you’ll be famous! You’re looking at DryNites sleep diapers for rippers and bed wetters aged 8-15. They were spotted (tee hee!) in the Prisma supermarket in Kuopio, Finland. It’s a serious problem that some kids have. These are no doubt super helpful, but they didn’t need to traumatize the kid on the package. He’s surely going to be ridiculed, no matter how many radical (or upside down) skateboarding silhouettes are on the bag. The product is sold in 21 countries, but the US isn’t one of them. There are lots of active lifestyle and bedtime pics on the DryNites sites, but I can’t be expected to go through them thoroughly searching for skateboards because I have to go to the bathroom.

– Thanks to Nicolas Bouvy for the photo