The Olympics came and went without the chatter surrounding the initial inclusion to the games in 2020. NBC featured a few seconds of skateboarding in TV commercials and yet they didn’t seem to promote it much otherwise. I watched quite a bit of the events split between about 5 different channels terrestrial TV, but only managed to catch the women’s park finals despite having the TV on in background and scouring the channels regularly. Someone in programming decided show a metric tonne of handball, filed hockey and water polo instead. I imagine it was easily accessible streaming via Peacock, but I wasn’t interested enough to look for it. One thing that I did notice this time around was the lift on the ban of skateboard brand names on the graphics of the board. In any case, this concludes my essay on Skateboarding in the Olympics, except to say that Tech Deck released a bunch of 2024 Paris Olympic fingerboards, including a few sets with obstacles. One of those sets was for Sky Brown, who actually won a bronze medal.

If you were exposed to it as a child and have a good heart you’re likely a fan of Richard Scarry’s children’s books and characters. Lowly Worm was always one of my favorites because he was so ridiculous looking and had such of zest for life despite not having any appendages. Super 7 has a line of licensed Richard Scarry merch that includes action figures and this very excellent t-shirt. After a quick inventory of my Super 7 related posts Ive realized that I’m constantly complaining about the price, so I’m not going to continue the traditions. I’m the proud owner of this t-shirt thanks to Father’s Day, and even if it wasn’t a gift, it’s still reasonably priced. You can get an action figure combo with Huckle Cat and Lowly that unfortunately does not include a skateboard but is still moderately priced. On the right is a rug spotted at a street fair in Bellingham Washington. I can’ recall if this is an actual illustration from a. Richard Scarry book but my gut says it is, and if I ever get to that storage unit I’ll see if I can find out what book it came from. Cars and…

They keep cranking ’em out. I don’t have an affinity for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but they are starting to wear me down. This Mondo Gecko figure from Super 7 is pretty cool. $55 cool? I’m not so sure. Maybe if I made better decisions in life and didnt waste so much time, effort and money on skateboarding ephemera I wouldn’t have to think twice about it.

The same folks behind the Bones Brigade series of Reaction figures are taking preorders for a Poochie figure, the infamous character on the Simpsons. It’s pretty cool if you know the history of the the character. In fact it’s right up Skate and Annoy’s alley, except for that pesky $55 price tag. How is it possible that we never covered the Bones Brigade figures here? They were released during a dark period in Skate and Annoy history. These images are renders. The figures have not been produced yet.

This is (un)fortunately not a real action figure. It’s AI and photoshop work done by @hypeverse.

First of all, Tech Decks are still a thing. Based on my casual perusal of the toy aisles over the past 2 decades it appears they were in a slow decline from their heyday in the 2010’s, but they are still out there releasing new products beyond the endless release of popsicle stick graphics from Element and the like. We get a lot of PR mail sent from various companies, and occasionally I’ll actually reply (usually in a flippant manner) something along the lines of “That sounds amazing! Why don’t you send me a (insert Extreme!™ product) for review? Most often times that is met with no response. However, not the case with The Berrics Transforming Park. Join me, dear readers, as I fulfill my implied contractual duty. Check it out!

Skateboard Rally, a radical predicting outcomes game with a skatepark that looks liek it was designed by A.I. You can get yours from Lakeshore Games, or wherever action-packed comprehension skill games are sold. – Thanks to Tim Gordon for the tip.

Travel way back with me to… 2001, a virtual space odyssey. Oh to live back in those halcyon days, when the future promised to be totally wireless and 3D! Come with us on a magical journey to explore Skateboard Blitz, the MGA Electronics VR3D™ game. It has True Color! – Thanks to Adam Jett for the tip.

Just when you thought Tech Deck has had run its course. Shredline 360 is a motorized turntable with swappable obstacles that is 20″ in diameter when fully assembled. It’s a little small and janky looking for the serious fingerboarder, but I can imagine a little kid getting stoked about this and spending a lot of time with it. Yes, I am aware that I used the term “serious fingerboarder” without irony.

Here’s a round up of some Smurf action that hasn’t already been covered on Skate and Annoy. This definitely should have been split into more than one post.