Anybody know what the deal is with these plastic boards? I see them on eBay every once and a while. At first I thought it was some off the shelf Santa Cruz stickers stuck on some new Chinese crap in order to pass it off as “old school.” I’ve seen construction like this before, and I want to say it’s a late 90’s phenomenon at the earliest. However, that sure does look like an old school truck mounting pattern. I give up. Are these bona fide NHS gear from a past era? Don’t get offended. All the major skateboard companies have done sketchy things in the past. Or in fact, are these the work of a con artist with a stack of stickers? Sa ka roulé has amassed a stack of photos of these injection molded mysteries.

File under another good idea that is 20 years too late. Beavis & Butthead skateboards from Globe. – Thanks to Boy at skatemalaysia.com for the tip.

Andrew Maunsell is a toy designer by trade from Sydney Australia. He’s collaborating with Greg Bennett from Bennett Surfboards (Not affiliated with Bennett Trucks) in Brookvale, Sydney. Bennet produced a skateboard brand called Golden Breed in the 70’s. The result is a series of two old school hybrid skateboards based on old 60’s era shapes and technology, with a little bit of updating. The trucks were originally NOS Fairfax steel wheeled contraptions, but the steel wheels and axles have been replaced with Metaflex wheels and solid axles. The decks are the brand new Fiji White Cedar hand screened. The first 50 “Big Surf” are vintage longboard style, and the second 50 (still in the works) are going to be shorter with a dragster theme. Andrew doesn’t have a web site yet, so if you are interested you can contact him via email, available if you download this flyer. Loads of pics after the jump. I love the aesthetic of this era of skateboards. Andrew says the modified trucks actually turn well too.

Spotted at an REI store in Washington. Thanks to John Aguilar for the photo.

In this edition of counterfeits we have a fake Brand-X deck. The original team deck from 1987 was designed by silkscreen-artist Bernie Tostenson. In the late seventies and early eighties Bernie was working for Sims where he created the famous ‘Winged logo’ and Brad Bowman’s ‘Superman logo’. In 1984 he and Bud (a photographer and salesman) started Brand-X. They ran the underground company for about 5 years illegally  from Bernie’s garage, where Bernie did all those crazy silkscreens. He said these were the happiest years of his life and they had fun, while the big companies destroyed the soul of skateboarding. In 1988 Brand-X made a partnership with one of their distributors and did well for about one year, but the story goes that the new partner stole the Brand-X name, fired the whole crew and amateur team, hired cheap artists and screeners and let the company die in only a few months. Bernie still designed for Flip in the nineties. He died in 2009. For sale at 2dehands.be. [Sources: Disposable 1 and 2 by Sean Cliver]

It’s September of 1967. You’re a horny adolescent boy and the Playtex Bra adverts aren’t due out in the paper for a couple of days. What are you going to do? Why, buy a copy of Henry’s Mod Teen Adventures of course! It’s jam packed with lots of quickly drawn buxom girls in short skirts bending over, falling down, and getting tangled up at the slightest provocation. SAT question and answer: Henry’s Mod is to the Rolling Stones as Archie is to the Beatles. The insides are not nearly as sophisticated as the cover. Interesting that “MOD” looks an awful lot like “MAD” as far as typography. There’s a guy on a sailboard on the cover, but that’s the only skateboard you’ll see in this mod, mod world. I unknowingly bought this from Scott Starr. The first thing I did after receiving it was accidentally get the scotch tape from the protective bag stuck on the comic while taking it out. Full goobered up cover after the jump.

I know the editor/publisher Michael Brooke, and we’ve had this discussion here on S&A about the editorial content of Concrete Wave before they switched to an unabashed longboard/downhill format, so we don’t need to rehash all that again. However, when I saw this article I immediately went to the kitchen and poured myself a cup of coffee, just so I could do a spit-take! Honestly though, this is the sort of article I would have expected from Skateboarder Magazine in the mid 70’s. To be fair, this was in an issue with a cover story on longboarding as therapy. Apparently there is an operation that uses longboarding in family therapy. OK commentators – I challenge you to try some gentle ribbing instead of a reactionary meathead approach.