At this point I think there must be a place that sells the logic board for this type of LCD game intact for finishing and repackaging as you see fit. I think I may have picked this up from the dollar bins at Target. Gameplay: Things come down the road and you push buttons to avoid them. Very boring. Kind of funny considering you used to have to pay upwards of $70 ($20 from 1977 adjusted for inflation) for the same programming logic with less interesting graphics. Yes. I’m talking about Mattel Electronics handheld games. Instead of a 2 dimensional LCD silhouette, you were stuck with LED blips. How did those old handheld games cost? I want to say around $20, but it might have been $35 or so. There was no skateboard version, but it was the same game as Auto Race. Aesthetics did pay tribute to Mattel Electronics with a board series. I like them because I’m nostalgic for old toys (HELLO!!!!!!!) but I’m pretty sure these are just lifted straight from the old advertisements.

It’s skateboard polo in the Laff-A-Lympics,There’s a caveman, but no caveman slides, and everyone pushes mongo. That’s 1977 for you. – Thanks to Kevin Cann for the vidcap.

Yes. Thanks to an update from MC, you can now view the animation outtakes from the surf movies this graphic was taken from.

I found this great flyer somewhere on the Interwebs™, but my spotlight comments got wiped out so I can’t credit the source. I’m sorry, so sorry… that I was, such a fool. I think this is from the early 70’s. UPDATE: Sidewalk Surfer is online. The web site says they’ve been in business since 1977

Man, for a cat so heavily into jazz, you’d think he’d be hip to the lingo and not trip over such a simple thing like “skateboard park” instead of laying a clam like “Skate Board Park.” This album dates back to 1979. I don’t know jazz, but Joe Farrell must have been somewhat respected, because I do recognize the name of his keyboard and piano player, Chick Corea. I do know one thing, this album cover is outstanding, even if it wasn’t the record exec’s bag. The CD re-issue has a completely different cover. Dig some fly album artwork and hear Farrell blow on this hot plate after the jump, unless you’re out to lunch, like that crumb behind Joe on the cover. – Thanks to Matt for the tip, and AllAboutJazz for the translation.

Bootz and Glitz has a roundup of some skateboard exploitation songs from the 70’s. Some of the tracks appear on This is Skateboard Music, and a bunch of them have been featured here already, but there are a couple new ones. These guys up top are the Swedish band called the Boppers. They may look like a late 50’s early 60’s act, but they were in fact a 70’s revival act. I’m still not sure that the first track from the Downhill Racers belongs in that post. Check out Bootz and Glitz. – Thanks to Eric Shea for the tip.

This spread is from the 1977 Theodor Seuss Geisel book titled Please Try to Remember the First of Octember, written under the pen name of Theo LeSeig, as in the case of all the children’s books he wrote but others illustrated. It seems he saved the Dr Seuss name for books that he both wrote and illustrated. Notice that LeSieg spelled backwards is… Geisel. What a clever man, if I do say so, er, uhmmm, myself. Enlarge-o-rama.

This 1978 Pepsi commercial has everything; street skating (well, sidewalks), a dog on a longboard, hockey helmets, gorilla gips, flyouts, freestyle, soft volleyball kneepads, skateparks and more. Watch the video, courtesy of skate and surf film historian Scott Starr, after the jump.

I forgot this one when I made the Wheel Packaging post the other day. It’s Banzai Products wheels. The corresponding check boxes are all blank, so it’s impossible to tell which ones these are. It’s curious that Banzai Products repackaged another companies trucks (ACS) and sold them. ACS stands for American Cycle Systems, by the way, and were still seen advertised in the early issues of Thrasher, if my memory serves correctly. Getting back to it, these NOS Banzai wheels sold for $47 on eBay. Banzai also made a wicked aluminum board too. It’s funny how in the U.S., anything Japanese was considered exotic in the 30’s, evil in the 40’s, cheap and crappy in the 50’s and 60’s, and then Radical in the 70’s and 80’s.

I’m a sucker for vintage skateboards, and also vintage packaging. I love how 70’s era skateboard parts were packaged with hang cards and shrink wrapped, made for hanging from those pegs, like you could go to hardware store and pick up some riser pads, trucks and wheels. I got caught up in the moment last month, so I had to let these two items go.