He-man vs. shrimp vs. Element vs. Sk8 Bali

This bootleg is one of the funniest crappy/80’s bootleg deck I have ever seen. The Thrill Seeker graphic looks like He-man getting busted attempting to devein a giant shrimp. He-man doesn’t look happy at all and the shrimp seems scared a hell. It was found on ebay, but it didn’t sell. I’m not surprised, because the seller […]

Best Image Training for Surfing and Tube Riding.

It’s never simple. I’m already wasting a lot of time compiling a Huffy skateboards resource, and in the process I find an 80-ish skateboard that looks like someone accidentally included the Instructions or marketing materials on the actual graphic. It’s absurd enough to warrant its own post, but then I find another wonderful example. No […]

Huffy Skateboards, Thunder Boards, Quick Thunder, Thunder Star, Thunder Bolt, and more: Part 1

There are rabbit holes and then there are all engulfing black holes of time wasting. I Had an idea to do a quick post about a clear plexiglass skateboard from Huffy from the 70’s that I thought was interesting. Huffy sure wasn’t the first bicycle company to get int o skateboarding (probably ACS,) and wasn’t […]

God of Thunder, Concaves, and Rock and Rolls

Yeah, I’ve never heard of Thor Skateboards before, and neither has Michiel Walrave, except for this one. This Punk Skull (as I imagine it would be called) model is a rebranded Valterra – the deck is Valterra (same shape as one of their Skate Zombie shapes), the trucks, wheels, plastics…all Valterra. I now wonder if […]

Cavalcade of Crappy AISI Skateboards

Like many things (most) on this site, this post started out as a relatively simple showcase of a board from Michiel Walrave to add to the crappy board series. And because it was a company I’d never heard of I tried to learn a little more about it and found out there are barely any […]

Sell Cheap Crap to Earn Cheap Crap

As a kid I can remember seeing ads like this in the back of comic books and other publications aimed at adolescents. The gas is, you send away for some sort of sales kit, most likely a catalog and some motivational text, and then you could sell greeting cards and who knows what else to […]

Dutch Street Suckers

Check out this early 80’s “Street Sucker” from the Netherlands. The graphic and two-tone wheels look like something distinctly American, although there is no visible company name to be found. – Thanks to Michiel Walrave for the pic.

Ride the Popularity Wave

When a plain old skateboard isn’t enough and you need to add a motorized sound to get the kids excited, the Irwin corporation has you covered. The advert is most likely from a 1965-66 Playthings Magazine, an industry publication for toy retailers. A suggested retail of $1.98 ( Under $17 according to the US Inflation […]

Nash Soundboard: Part 2

  Sure, it’s been 11 years since we posted a Nash Sound Board, but there have been new archeological developments thanks to reader Vivi Kristensen.  This version of the Sound Board has moved the radio compartment from the tail to just behind the front trucks, and all mention of the Nash brand on the board graphic […]