I lurk on the web site Action Transfers web site on a recurring basis ever couple of years, mostly waiting for them to post the Battle of Midway set I had as a kid. Action Transfers was the brand name for the dry-rub decals made by the Letraset company. Aside from making the lettering that 80’s zine makers (and graphic designers, I presume) loved so much, they also made sets containing illustrations you could place on the provided scenery. This is essentially Colorform sets that were permanent once applied. Sure, you could do that with stickers too, but this method somehow seemed more glamorous. What you are looking at above, however, is a plain old iron on t-shirt transfer. It turns out “Action Transfers” occasionally produced t-shirt transfers as well, and why not? It was originally all screen printed. These two skateboard designs are among the few documented shirt transfers on the Action transfers site.

In modern times the skateboard transfer conjures images of going bowl to bowl, or spines on a miniramp. In the 70’s the skateboard transfer was all about t-shirts. This guy either has a gigantic stock of these or he’s completely unable to sell them, because I see these same couple of t-shirt transfers for sale all the time. Hot Dog on the dates to 1977 and Asphalt Animal is from 1978. I like how the seller backlights them so you can see what they look like on a shirt, minus all the parts where it doesn’t adhere or gets wrinkled. As you can tell, I never had good luck with t-shirt transfers as a kid.

Another fine offering from the folks at Topps, T-Shirt Factory Iron On’s from 1988. They definitely carry on the tradition of Garbage Pail Kids, another Topps product. These iron-on transfers are maybe about 5×7 inches. I don’t actually have this, it was floating around at a party I went to. I did some due diligence when I spotted it and snapped some cell phone pics once I saw there was a skateboard graphic.

Hawaiian Punch iron on transfer. The seller says it appears to be from the 80’s but that doesn’t look like 80’s era iron transfer technology to me. I’m thinking closer to mid to late 90’s. UPDATE: Added pics of an 80’s era Hawaiian Punch skateboard. UPDATED UPDATE: This board came up in discussion in the S&A Facebook group and coming back to this 2012 era post with 2012 era low res graphics was embarrassing. Added some better pics of the board from a 2021 auction. And because it was Josh Baker that brought it, up an image search also turned up his 2013 post of the t-shirt transfer that has much better pics.

“Like wo-ow, he must be headed for some kind of cosmic freak out!” OK, I’m quoting Skateboard Madness claymation scene from memory, so maybe that’s not exactly right. These two (1 – 2) iron-on skateboard t-shirt transfers from the 70’s are available where else, but eBay. I beleive it was in the R. Crumb documentary where he revealed that he hated how the hippies had appropriated the “Keep on Truckin” illustration. Not sure what h’d have to say about “Keep on Boarding,” except for maybe Street is neat! Now that the market is saturated in skateboard graphic books, I’d like to see a well done book covering only skateboard t-shirts. Wouldn’t you? Catch these two groovy transfers after the jump, and what the hell, why not watch the Skateboard Madness claymation sequence, as well as a “tribute” after the jump. Hey, look out!