Oh man… I love Obvious Plant in like a twin separated at birth. I myself already have a Sneppy T-shirt, but I can’t get behind these Sneppy themed “Skate Blords” because each one defaces an original Peanuts skateboard toy, which to readers of Skate and Annoy ought to be sacred! Still these are damned funny. The artist behind Obvious Plant makes fake, absurd, and often absurdly funny fake toys. Some of them are akin to bad knockoffs you find in cheap markets, while others are just subversive and weird. These toys are then clandestinely placed the shelves of real stores for the unsuspecting consumers and bewildered register operators. And because you can’t pay your mortgage with fake toys, Obvious Plant sells t-shirsts and the like, as well as the occasional one-off toy at collectable prices. Sneppy and “Wood Sock” both sold for $350, while “Cheppy Brown” sold for $550. These aren’t auction prices, these are list price. I believe the original versions of these peanuts toys date back to the 80’s or early 90’s. These are the plastic versions, and not the metal versions that look very similar. It’s hard to tell for sure because Peanuts merch often lists really old copyright dates that dont always reflect the year they were manufactured. Check the imposters and some variations of the originals after the jump.
Longtime astute readers of S&A might remember seeing a previous version of Betty & Veronica in a Wheel Zeal story in a Betty & Veronica comic from 1976. Archie series reuses stories and story titles all over the place. Heck, they even reuse comic book titles. The series from the 1976 issue is called “Archie’s Girls – Betty & Veronica.” This story appeared in issue of just plain old “Betty & Veronica” #138 from 1999. It is indeed a separate series because the numbering sequence is different. I’m not an expert on the Archie series by any means, in fact I’ve always loathed it, even as a kid. Digging into these skateboarding appearances in the Archie series has made me way more informed than I’d like to be. However, just because I hate Archie doesn’t mean I didn’t buy this comic book! In my online archeological dig I also managed to find an expired auction for the “original art” for this story.
Go around! Go under! Develop skill and style with Skateboard Derby. The professional action course! This is an extremely rare find from 1977. It’s new in the box and never used, and priced accordingly at $499. To be honest, I’m more interested in the packaging and instructions than I am the actual contents. Although the contents are basic pieces of wood, some hardware and vinyl flags, it’s easy to imagine how exciting this would have been to open and set up as a kid in the 70’s. Our plastic banana board-riding crew used chalk and plastic cups for our slalom course. This would have blown our minds… There is one advantage to using chalk though. We used to draw oil slicks, flames, pillboxes with artillery installations, and other assorted hazardous obstacles all over our courses. Skateboarding war is hell.
Maybe the preferred domain name already had squatters, or Sick Tricks wasn’t Extreme!™ enough. Syck Trix is an indoor skate training accessory (or complete board) that is made by affixing (via velcro) two small inner tubes contained in nylon or possibly neoprene bags, to the bottom of a skateboard. The inner tubes take the place of trucks and I would imagine cut down on some of the noise if you’re indoors. If people keep making them, we’ll keep posting them. I kid you not, I keep trying to type “syck trix” and it has auto corrected to “suck truck” more than once.
UPDATE: So syck, we already covered it 5 years ago! 5 years? I can’t believe they are still in business.
Oh the things I find to buy when I’m actually looking for something else. A positive balance on a PayPal account does not last long when I’m scrolling through skateboard related ephemera. This is the September 1975 issue of Sports Illustrated, with a feature called “Wheeling and Dealing.” Scanned and ran through the OCR for your enjoyment. File it under Things I buy so you don’t have to.
I found this 1960’s era TV commercial for Gleem toothpaste in the Prelinger Archives. I was actually looking for a Bell Telephone commercial featuring Patti McGee but was surprised to find one that I’ve never seen before. The actual date is unknown but it is mostly likely around 1965 or 1966.
I was doing some speculative snooping around online looking for skateboards advertisements in comic books circa 1965 and found another skateboard story and cover instead. The first issue of Tippy Teen has a publication date of November, 1965. This looks like a second rate copy of Archie and the gang, (not that Archie is first rate…) because it’s drawn by the same Samm Schwartz that drew Archie until he left MLJ to join Tower and spearhead… Tippy Teen.
Well now… this is something. Is this the ultimate eBay auction? You’re looking at roughly 3,000 cut (but not finished) skateboard blanks, NOS from the 80’s wood shop of “Wee” Willi Winkels. Yes, he of the famous Corvette hippie jump fame in the 70’s, and most importantly, the person who brought laminated maple to the world of skateboard decks. The asking price of 90k (!) works out to $30 a deck. As amazing as the find is, it doesn’t seem like a reasonable investment considering they are mostly unfinished and in need of multiple passes on the router, not to mention painting, sealing, and screen printing. It’s an interesting auction for sure.
MotionVFX is selling a Final Cut Pro plugin they call mSythwave. The purpose is to emulate 80’s effects in a manner that is actually a little more advanced than actually excited at the time. The demo real and tutorial features a Back to the Future spoof as well as some dummy titles like “Miami Skating Venue” and “SK8 Crew.” I’ve been thinking about lookingintot some new plugins fro the next installment of Found In a Box VHS Theater, because the channel changing transition was manual and labor intensive, not to mention not very good, and holy $%&@! That last installment was 5 years ago! I need to get back on that horse again.
