Category Archive: Toys
Toys that flopped
I hope Biker got his royalty money advanced up front from Tech Deck when he signed off on Biker Sherlock’s Extreme Challenge. Do you remember back in 1999 when luge was all the rage on the Extreme!™ sports circuit? I think the “extreme challenge” in this toy was trying to justify the $35 purchase price. I don’t think they had many production runs of these.
Xmas ornaments
Wow, that was fast. No sooner do I post about not finding any new skateboard-themed Christmas ornaments this year, then Paige sends me three links. There are nine ornaments after the jump, plus a ton from last year as well.
A skateboard is/is not a toy
Not sure how I feel about this one. Although one of the twelve nominations, the skateboard was not one of the 2007 inductees to the National Toy Hall of Fame (Housed at Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY). This year’s winners are the Atari 2600 Game System, Raggedy Andy, and the Kite. Roller skates, and by extension, inline skates are already members, and so is the bicycle. Raggedy Anne was already in the Hall of Fame. Did you know the Hall used to be in Salem, Oregon? Yeah, me either. Dr. Brad, this G.I. Joe is for you! [Source: Priced Nostalgia – pissed that My Little Pony didn’t get in! ]
Cheesy Lego skate vid
Skateboarding Bet is a short stop action animation made with Legos that look like they came from my set I had as a kid, considering you can get fancy skatepark Lego sets these days. It’s short. It’s here. You might as well watch it. You’re just here wasting time while at work, right?
More Tony Hawk interviews, flotsam and jetsam
Clearing off the hard drive here. Tony Hawk was on MTV’s TRL (OMG Totally AWESOME!) where they interviewed him afterwards. Apparently “The Birdman bigged it up to Ryan Sheckler…” Err… yeah. Then he Gave Ryan some advice (stop crying when you don’t win?) on the Life of Ryan. Fat BMX reports that Rick Thorne interviews Tony Hawk for another social networking great white hype TRIG.com, except they don’t provide a link. However, Mr Thorne assures the readers that you should sign up for Trig.com because “it’s smokin’ My Space and I think It’s good 2 keep U wit tha times.” I’m sure he’s not getting anything from them. Let’s see… Some kids interviewed Tony Hawk at a Toys R Us store but Courant.com wants you to pay to read it now that it’s more than 30 days old. I wonder if those download fees are offsetting the loss in ad revenue? A couple weeks ago the gaming sites were a buzz about the possibility that Tony might be considering a balance board type controller for use in a skateboarding game on the Wii platform. I guess you need to keep the “I”‘s lowercase when typing in Wii or else it…
I can dress myself
From the One Step Ahead catalog comes the I Can Dress My Doll, uhm, doll, for teaching little kids how to work thier clothes. Looks like that skateboard is surgically attached to the kid’s hand. Not shown, Ryan Sheckler’s Special First Purse.
Playing with toys
Another in the many skateboard related toys being pushed for the hiolidays. This Playmobil Skate Park comes recommended from Parents magazine.
Live or Memorex?
File under poor execution of a good idea. GameDaily has a gallery of images comparing real photos of pro skaters and their Tony Hawk video game series counterparts. Unfortunately only a few of the 11 sets manage to match the “pose.” Check out these photo mashups showing off Tony and the rest of the cast as they display some of their signature moves, in-game and in real life. Apparently Bam Margera’s real life signature move is to sit on his ass, while his video game signature is a benihana. The best matching sets are Tony Hawk and Ryan “Mr Awesomely Humble” Sheckler, as shown above. Only if you are bored. GameDaily is a super slow loader.
Toy catalog time
It’s vaguely near Christmas again, so the toy catalogs are already in the mail. Time was when you could get a semi-legitimate skateboard from your toy catalog. I got one in the mail from Fisher Price that features Earth Ace, one of the Planet Heros. He skates on the moon. “The moon. This is what I’m talking about. Hey! Look out!”
Seven days of bad skateboarding video games
Day three: Professional Skateboard Simulator
Day three: Professional Skateboard Simulator for the Commodore 64, from 1988. Yeah, Commodore 64 again. Noticing a trend? It looks like they Photoshopped (well it was 1988 so MacPainted) Jeff Kendall’s face onto a guy skating a Mark Gonzales board on vert. They used to run the occasional pic of the Gonz on vert, this might have been copied from one of those. Actually, the guy has a Read and Destroy sticker on his helmet, so it’s likely lifted straight form the pages of R.A.D.. UK readers, help a brother out. I heard that the new Pro Skateboard Simulator 10 (Ryan Sheckler edition) has a level where you practice running out of the arena crying if you don’t win first place.











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