Kids meal toys at Taco Bell are (were, most likely) really cheap Weird-Ohs brand fingerboards. I am officially losing my mind now, because I swear I already did a post about some Weird-Ohs branded magnetic figures on a skateboard, but I can’t find it anywhere on the site. I can’t link to it, but the figures were on skateboards that were kind of crappy, so it’s no surprise that the freebie kids meal toys at Taco Bell are even crappier. It’s a shame cause the Weird-Oh legacy is pretty cool. If they did it right, a lot of people would really dig them.

I prefer “Vacuum Cleaner, sucks up Budgie” As seen in the April 2010 issue of In Touch Weekly.

Sure, we tease them about their $75 trucks and fingerpants, but deep down we’re still brothers. At first I thought this was an item we’d already posted, but this application of stickers in a sink is not for marketing purposes. It’s just clever for it’s own sake. Now someone just needs to invent fingerskatestoppers. – Thanks to Eric Cherry for the tip. [Source: 9GAG via Flickr User Laser Bread]

Man what a sensitive group. All I did was poke fun at the fact that these toy miniature skateboards were somewhat absurdly priced. I’m sure it’s expensive to have tiny trucks cast in small quantities, and if that’s your thing than go for it. However, don’t come over here and expect me to publish comments like “suck a bag of…” or “F all you haters!” I was reading an article by one of the lead developers of WordPress titled 6 steps to kill your community. What’s step number one? Don’t Moderate: Don’t Moderate. Allow anybody to post anything regardless of whether it contributes to the conversation or not. Stupidity, libel, hate, curse words are all okay because in the comments you have plausible deniability. Make sure people know that whatever they post will live forever, and anything goes. The few smart people you did have in your comments will enjoy responding to these folks. Advertisers love being next to a good fight, too. So yeah, I’m over trying to get people to play nice. A difference of opinion is fine, even welcome, as long as you aren’t just out to insult anyone/everyone. I’m not going to waste time trying to…

That’s right. $75 professional quality replacement trucks for your fingerboard. My kids have handfulls of Tech Decks, and the axles on the trucks are always the first thing to break. I’ve switched out trucks and wheels for my kids so many times… but this is just a smidge too much. I suppose if you’re going to go ahead and spend $30 on replacement wheels, with bearings even, you’d want them to go on a quality truck. They even sell replacement parts for Black River trucks, like axles, bushings and kingpins. Of course, you’ll want to spend anywhere from $26 – $52 on a fingerboard deck. You could save money by picking up a complete for $28 to $60. These things seem to be a European manufacturing phenomenon, (France, Germany, Poland, three brands out of the Czech Republic!) but there are American brands included.

Or so says recent new father Danimal – Congrats! However, I have it on good authority that “Dad” bought this for himself for X-Mas, and not for his firstborn, shown here. This particular bowl appears to have made the rounds with skaters of a certain age this year. I know three people whose “kids” got one. More details on this particular artifact later.

Skateboarding begat fingerboards. Fingerboards begat tiny plastic ramps. Tiny plastic ramps begat… FINGER PANTS!!!!!!! Actually, these Finger Pants aren’t exactly new. Back in the 80’s there was a fingerboard sold that came with a glove that you wore. The glove had the upper torso of what looked by a Ken doll attached to it. Two of the fingers were cut off and were decorated like little Hawaiian shorts. It also came with a pair of tiny plastic shoes and socks molded in one piece. It’s something I have in a box somewhere, but that’s never here, nor there. These came from Wall Mart. There’s a URL listed on the package, but the skatemonstertoy.com domain appears to have expired. It’s such a great product, they had to name it twice. Finger Pants, and Shred Threads! Look at the illustration. If these pants fit to scale, the top of your junk would be visible. Awesome.

Skateboarding has spawned some interesting cottage industries. I just found a guy making fingerboard skate obstacles under the name Stone Tech Ramps. The halfpipe, bowls and street obstacles are made out of some sort of resin that must be lightweight. You can see a kid above lifting up one of the massive bowls without a problem. The scale of the ramps vs. the Tech Decks have tipped further towards gigantic. There’s a wide variety of obstacles, and you can easily spot his earlier work where he didn’t quite have the casting method down. The stairs and would-be sharp edges have the appearance of rock left under a waterfall for 50 years. Prices are pretty high. That half pipe will run you $95 and one custom bowl has a buy it now of $165! Smaller obstacles start around $16. These are hand crafted, one of a kind toys, but still, that’s a lot of coin. Check out a hilarious “review” by a nonpartisan source. It’s a kid whose “friend’s uncle” makes these things. Stick with the whole thing, it’s great how he bashes the Tech Deck gear, using sounds as a benchmark. he’s a regular Billy Mays in training.