Skate Muties from the 5th Dimension #4

TDK tapes, so real.

This is a TDK advertisement shot at Venice Beach circa 1989. I’ve seen this up on ebay before, actually but this one actually comes from the Google Books, repository, adjacent to the digital knoll. It’s from “Spy” magazine… ha. Remember that one? I’m looking at the shape of that board and thinking that might be […]

New rip-offs for sale

While wasting time on Alibaba.com, I saw a lot of bootlegs. Especially the more recent Tony Hawk designs from Birdhouse seem popular to rip off. If you order a minimum of 100 decks, you’ll get them for a few dollars a piece. Yes, I definitely took most of these pics from the sellers, but what […]

Phony Hawk

On this edition of counterfeit skateboards we have a pretty good rip off of a Tony Hawk claw board. In fact, it’s decent enough to fool the casual viewer. When you look at it up close you realize it’s a bit off. The main drawing is inexplicably off center and the tree branches are not […]

Rood Dood

Dominion was a Canadian company that made completes during the 80’s. This one from ’88 says ‘rood dood’, wich should probably be pronounced as ‘rude dude’. To me it’s confusing, because ‘rood dood’ means ‘red death’ in Dutch (ain’t that so, Matthijs?). But the interesting thing here is that this board seems  a diss on […]

Rad Rod

Garbage Pail Kids. Rad Rod. 1988. Wait, why does he only have 4 toes?

Bad Cats & Cat Eaters

During my last pilgrimage back to Chicago I stopped by Logan Hardware again to buy some records and play some video games. I picked up my favorite Devo release, available on vinyl for the first time. At least I think it was never released on vinyl, but in any format, the Hardcore Devo demo tracks […]

California Girls

I feel sorry for the “model” who got a big break only to end up bent over facing away from the camera with a Jimmy’Z fanny pack and her ass being the main attraction of the poster. “Look Ma, I’m on a poster!” Unbelievably, the seller thinks this is worth $79! I made an offer […]

Crappy skateboard of the month

Rip Skates was a (crappy) budget brand from Surrey Skateboards, a skateshop in the UK that exists since 1977. The shop in Surrey closed down, but you can still visit them online and buy their new stuff or check out the cool pictures of the good old days. The graphic on this deck looks great, the ‘monster […]