Up for auction we have rare and hard to find Fisher Price Skateboard and the Little People Asian Boy who rides it. Fisher-Price Little People are an iconic toy. They started out being constructed entirely out of wood in 1960, eventually adding plastic bits and ultimately ended up being molded out of plastic completely until they were discontinued in 1990. In 1997 Fisher-Price revamped the Little People. Although they are highly detailed injection molded pieces, (seen above on the right) they are ironically somehow more generic looking than the very simple original versions. The classic little people had a school play set in the late 80’s that came with a skateboard toy for the kids to ride. It looks like it has bindings (kook!) but surely is less painful to ride than the new version that is more akin to a butt plug.

… are soon parted. While sifting through the surf and skate detritus at 4Q Conditioning the other day, I became obsessed with an old model of Rat Fink on a skateboard called Superfink. All of the sudden I needed one right away, despite the fact that I was completely not into monsters and hotrod stuff as a kid and preferred WWII airplane models. The original Superfink model came out in 1964, but was reissued by Revell in 2004. Ed Roth’s official site is out of stock, but I found one soon enough for $13 bucks. The vintage ones don’t appear to be showing up for sale anywhere, so I pulled the trigger and it showed up on my door step a few days later. As usual, I dissected and over-documented almost all the fun out of it. As a result, I’ve taken to adding the word “fink” to words whenever I can. “Fink” is such a cool word. Repeat it over and over in your head. If you don’t like it, then fink you!

Lego Shop item #9247 is a set of minifigures called Community Workers that includes what appears to be a guy in a speedo suit on a skateboard. [Source: Gizmodo]

Whoah man, did you see that new Vans Finger Fracture skateboarding game for the iPhone? Well it’s not real. Vans has no official or unofficial involvement. It’s a concept only and there are no plans to develop it. One big tip off would be that the game screens are lifted from Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. Some of the gaming and gadget sites are all a buzz about it, but a quick email confirmed it’s just an entertaining idea now. Also entertaining, Borat must be writing the documentation that says “To make an Ollie…” There’s more concept pics after the jump.

Some people obsess over skateboards. Some people are obsessed with Smurfs. Sometimes there is a tiny bit of overlap, as is the case with the Blue Dudes and Hidden in the Woods. [Photos Clockwise: TBD, HITW, TBD]

A computer game called Peggle, kind of a pinball or Pachinko kind of game has this “skatepark level.” The game is funny, when you clear the level you get the Ode to Joy music as you enter Extreme Fever! Funny graphics. Bobcat, this might be up your street with unicorns and rainbows. You can play the demo for an hour then it’s twenty bucks.

1987’s Skate or Die spawned an NES only sequel in 1990 that was imaginatively titled Skate or Die 2. No word yet on whether Nike has plans for a shoe based on Skate or Die 2. I don’t remember this game at all, but there’s probably a lot of info to sift through. Apparently, you accidentally run over the mayor’s wife’s dog on you skateboard, causing the mayor to ban skateboarding. Then you have to skate through the ghetto avoiding thugs and dragons, etc.. you know, normal skateboarding stuff. Unlike the other skateboard “simulators,” Skate or Die 2 looks more like a regular walking adventure game with skateboards pasted onto the feet of the characters. In some of the frames of the sprite animations (old 2D gaming terminology) the skateboard almost disappears. Oh yeah, you get to carry a gun too. Actually, it’s getting more and more realistic as time marches on. One thing that is worth checking out is the theme song, or at least the first 30 seconds of it. It’s got a very heavy Devo vibe. Check it out after the jump.

Shoe fetish. I don’t get it. I’m only mentioning it because it’s a good excuse to post a bunch of shots from the home version of Electronic Arts’ Skate or Die video game that came out in 1987. This isn’t even Nike’s first shoe inspired by or in tribute of 80’s skateboard video games. If they really wanted to do a tribute shoe, they should re-issue the red and black canvas Air Jordan’s that everyone wore while skating and playing video games. If you think skateboard forums are annoying, you should check out some of the sneaker forums where users have tons of Google ads in their signatures as well as bad Microsoft Paint graphics about how the user and/or their crew rules and everyone else deserves a beat down. Awesome community you’ve got their. Makes the comments on SnA look like one big hippie love fest. A little bit of shoes and a lot of Skate or Die after the jump.

I had versions of myself from various points in my skateboarding career but I couldn’t find that memory card. I haven’t played in a long time.

My kid got this Pro Skaters action figure for X-mas from an unaffiliated third party – a non-relative, non-skateboarder. “Rodney Stone” has magnets on his feet, and is supposed to be the most articulated Exteme!™ action figure. I don’t have a lot of Exteme!™ action figures to compare him to, but the others must be really stiff since most of Rodney’s articulation is concentrated on the way his feet rotate in circles around his ankle joints. Rodney couldn’t bend over to pick up his board if his little plastic life depended on it. Check him out, he’s on the “Vert Team” according to his jump ramp. He’s also a fan of big air.