Corn Man!

Corn Man is currently a big seller over at Obvious Plant, so it’s only fitting that he makes an appearance on a skateboard on multiple t-shirt designs and a “First Edition” Holographic skateboard sticker the has already sold out. Obvious Plant must like skateboarding too, this is the 3rd time they’ve been feature her so they deserve their own tag.

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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 pics old AISI boards out there. You might think maybe it’s actually “AISL” and not “AISI” but those searches returned nothing.

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National Skateboard Championships Patch

Trying to figure out the authenticity of vintage skateboard themed items can be tricky with all digital reproduction methods and relative cheapness in production/reproduction methods compared to yesteryear. These two National Skateboard Championship patches pass the eye test however, and seems date to 1964 and 1965. Theres not really anything out there (online) on these.

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Nerd and Wimps? “No!” I say.

These are part of a set of Northworld Novelties stickers from 1986. No Wimps! No Nerds! I can remember seeing these back in the day and always assumed the were bootlegs but it looks like the actually licensed Wimpy from King Features and the Nerds Candy critters from Sunmark, who owned that brand at the time. These are scans a not photographs which is why the look washed out. Why? Once again, today’s LED scanners are unable to properly reflect neon colors. The true colors are quite vibrant in the group photo though. No Nerds and No Wimps were often seen in the company of the infamous “No Fat Chicks” stickers at the time. – Thanks to Jason Harrison for the pics.

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GT California Woody

Brightly colored plastic boards are what comes to mind when I think of Grentec, which is was I was surprised to see this GT California Woody. It features Max-trax trucks and an aluminum flat bar on the bottom, something they used on some of their plastic boards as well. It also has a rare for the era 2 color screen printed graphic on the top.

Thanks to Bill Dowell for the photos.

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Ok Boomer

This showed up in my feed and I have no idea what the hell it’s all about other than the company To The Stars appears to be somebody’s art project, and one of those somebodies is a guy from Blink 182. The plush toy allegedly says things when you press the beer can, but they wont tell you what. Is that supposed to be Russ Howell? This makes me want to Blink 183.

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The Volcanics and The Ripper

Classic surf music from the Hi Tide Recordings label and the The Volcanics latest release Concrete Carver. This is not an advertisement, I just happen to enjoy some surf music mixed into my library. During covid I discovered thier label mates the Surfrajettes and have been listening to surf music a little more than usual lately. Album art and music video after the jump.

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Drop Into Hot Wheels Skate with Tony Hawk

This is less than brand new, but I just had fingerboard fatigue, or maybe it was Tony Hawk fatigue, or maybe it was both. Mattel is selling fingerboards, and although they don’t appear to be branded as a Tony Hawk product he appears in a commercial and theHawk name is sprinkled on the products in a sort of innocuous manner. It almost like they are trying to downplay it, which makes no sense unless they are only hoping for an initial boost and don’t want to have to keep paying him down the road. A big point of sale on these is the inclusion of shoes for your finger, which itself is not new if you remember Mattel’s Real Men series from the 80’s. Hang on… why cant I find a link for that on S&A? I actually have one them… I can’t believe I haven’t posted that yet…

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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 all your neighbors and extended family in hopes of earning enough credit to get some free stuff from the advert. It was your job to take the orders, collect the money, send it to the company and then deliver everything when they mailed it to you. This scheme for using a child labor farm sourced from comic books has been around for a long time, probably dating back to the 40’s with Grit, which amazingly, is still a thing. The practice of bribing kids with the potential to earn prizes probably had it’s heyday during the 60’s and 70’s. Here are 2 examples from the late 80’s and early 90’s in which you can earn a Nash or Variflex skateboard.

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