With a price of $80 (!) I thought this might be something special but it turns out that “Rara Bambola Skateboard Girl Vintage Anni 80 Avventura Daisy Tanya Hong Kong Nuova!” just translates to “Rare Vintage 1980S Skateboard Girl Doll, Daisy Tanya Adventure, Hong Kong, Brand New!” I did a little digging and couldn’t find anything rare, (or anything else) about it. The seller may be trying to past off as Dashing Daisy related, but it doesn’t get close to rising to that level of quality. It’s not Barbie’s little sister Skipper, nor Skipper’s friend Fluff, or even Cool Times Ken. It’s maybe a step above Skateboard Action Teen but I think it’s just another entry in a long line of cheap Barbie knockoffs. On the plus side, it does have “rooted hair and vinyl head.” Made in Hong Kond, labeled in English, but someone in Italy thinks they are worth a lot. What’s Tanya got to do with it?

As seen on the U.S. Dept of Justice web site. Tony Hawk is one name I did not expect to see. To cut off any unwarranted accusations, if he was there to get married, he wouldn’t be there for the illegal activities. Those wedding day pictures are probably ruined though.

– Thanks to Bobcat for the tip.

Archie 361 looks a little 90’s but it’s actually dated October 1988. There’s a wind-skating cover and a brief bit of skateboarding in one of the stories. On the inside cover there’s an advert with an illustration of a kid holding a skateboard and wearing an M&Ms shirt you can order. There’s also a “Mini Frog” prize you can earn in an Olympic Sales Club ad. Boss shot of Barney dressed up as a new-wave punker while trying to steal Fred Flintstone’s Pebbles cereal.

I love a good, weird and crappy skateboard, especially when it’s from a foreign country. To look at these you would think they came from the Eastern Bloc. But no, they came from an Italy and a man named Icaro Olivieri. He was apparently quite an innovator in hockey, and a manufacturer of all kinds of sporting goods under the brand name of GIOCA, which translates to “Play.” I stumbled across one of these while looking for Tres Assi boards. It looks like Gioca might have made real skateboards at some point, but I couldn’t find any picutres outside of the advert in the bottom right corner.

Adam Cox shared photos of two Flyer Landsurfer t-shirts from the 70’s. This is the front and back of one of them. Morris Vulcan was the UK-based manufacturer, Flyer was the brand and Landsurfer was the line. Or maybe it was actually “Flyer Landsurfer?” I can’t really tell. There’s currently one Landsurfer advert in the gallery, I thought I had a sticker tin he gallery but I was remembering a very small run (25) of reproductions I had made myself. Is it Landsurfer or Land Surfer? It depends on if you look at the t-shirt or the advert. More pics after the jump.

Skate Wizards is a role playing game in the vein of D&D but extremely simplified and a lot funnier. Our friend MC picked up a copy at Dark Future on Sandy blvd in Portland and brought it to the mini-ramp session last night. No, we didn’t break out into a spontaneous game in the middle of the flat, but we’re defiantly going to give it a… wait for it… roll. I played D&D in my younger years and with my kids, so I was definitely intrigued. I started digging around a little, and the more I saw, the more excited I got.

Huge news for PDX. Cal Skate has been a fixture in the Portland, Oregon skate scene since 1976. Other shops have come and gone, some loved, some not so much, but Cal Skate has always endured. Chris Nukala has been hanging around or working at this shop since he was 8 years old, and now he is officially the new owner. Former owner Howard Weiner was instrumental in promoting skateboarding in Portland. One local shop famously wouldn’t get behind the Skaters for Portland Skateparks program because the first park wasn’t going t one built near their shop. Not the case for Howard… Chris has been and will continue to be an advocate for skateboarding in Portland, above and beyond measures that just affect his shop. Did I mention he’s a music promoter too? I’ve known Chris since he was probably 14 years old. We would sometimes take him to contests and even “sponsored” him for a bit. He was always so eager when it came to skateboarding. It truly couldn’t have happened to a more deserving or hard working individual. Congrats to Chris, and congrats to all of us in Portland.

Source: Willamette Week

I thought this was AI slop at first but this appears to be a real OJ Wheels product that you can actually buy. Add to cart, you’ll see! I’m a sucker for good wheel packaging and the novelty of it all. These are interesting. They look good but that print is going to be gone after a few short sessions and I’m not sure what you’re supposed to do with the tray… oh yeah, a “rolling” tray. Very silly, but I’m glad they made them.

How long will it be before AI robs us of hilarious translations for cheap Chinese products? It’s entirely possible that “Interactive fun happy parent-child time” makes sense. There’s always “It is not easy to swing even in situations of eccentricity or weight change” to fall back on. I love that the top graphic on this coaster board is a happy dinosaur riding a skateboard. This mostly looks like a good way to hurt a small child. If you want to hurt a small child you can buy one of these on Amazon. The product title includes “skateboard” but the description has a more catch name, a rebalancing board.

Spotted inside Portland’s amazing new airport, this wall mural for Sizzle Pie pizza. This is not the first time they’ve used skateboard imagery, but somehow I’ve neglected to document it here until now. This is a pretty good appropriation of Keith Meek’s Slasher graphic by the legendary Jim Phillips.