Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Slam


Slam is best remembered for their track "Wild Riders of Boards," which appeared (and named) Thrasher's 3rd skate rock compilation. Slam hail from Sweden and started releasing material on their own Slam Records in the mid '80s. In 1987 they self-released the End of Laughter LP, which was also released by Seattle's Subcore Records in the US (Subcore also released the original version of the Accüsed's The Return of Martha Splatterhead). The LP features an alternate version of "Wild Riders" and features the above artwork in the insert.

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Wafflesaurus


49% waffle, 51% dinosaur, 100% skateboarder. This Eggo dinosaur is printed on a floppy rubber frisbee from 1992. I'm not sure if he is actually called a Wafflesaurus but it seems like he probably is. 

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Robby Rabbit


Robby Rabbit is an uncommon Sanrio character first introduced in 1976. He seems to always chill with this bee dude but I can't ascertain if the bee has a name. I actually can't find much of any info on Robby himself; apparently he just wasn't cute enough to cut it next to Hello Kitty and her ilk. At any rate, Robby is doing a 1-footed wheelie on blue side of this coin purse. The red side finds him holding his board.

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Down by the Bay


The Imposters 2nd appearance on BPA comes in the form of their 3rd 7" EP.  Unlike their debut 7", which features a great pool skating action shot, this cover features the 3 band members sitting with their boards (including a Santa Cruz era Duane Peters). The 7" was released in 2011 on Richmond's Headcount Records. Although the cover pales in comparison to their first skate cover, the record itself delivers 3 excellent surf punk tracks.


Saturday, December 13, 2014

California Sports Duck


This duck is a Kinder Surprise and is part of a set of ducks participating in "California sports." You can see what all that entails below, but most seem to be just be associated with warm weather. He's got a derpy eye thing going on, although I don't think that is on purpose.

Edit: I think these are supposed to be chicks. From 2007.



Wednesday, December 10, 2014

The Champion


The Champion is a keychain of a monkey riding a board. The board has a battery in it and made the board light up. This feature worked when I first took him out of the package (there was a battery-saving spacer to remove). 24 hours later he no longer worked. 24 hours after that he partially lit up. 24 hours after that he worked no more, which is the state he remains in today. His board says e-Bape, which I have yet to figure out what exactly that is, but they make some other monkey-themed toys.



Saturday, December 6, 2014

Reason of Insanity / El Desmadre


Florida's Reason of Insanity and Texas's El Desmadre released this split 7" EP on the Death Exclamations! label in 2008. Both bands play straight-forward hardcore punk. The cover features a skateboard amid a crowd scene of zombies, sort of like an undead version of What Happens Next? debut 7".

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Troll Doll


Troll Dolls have been around since '59 and have rode multiple waves of popularity. It was only a matter of time before someone nailed one to a skateboard. This guy was made by Russ and although he's riding an early '80s pig I think he might be from the '90s.

Saturday, November 29, 2014

NakNak


NakNaks are stackable, mildly articulable figures made by Hasbro in the early '00s. All the figures were the same shape (although some had small hooks on hands and/or feet) with different images and could be stacked to make towers. There was apparently some kind of game that had overly complicated rules but it seemed that the primary goal was to stack them as high as possible. The Stunt Stackers were a line of NakNaks that came with accessories such as skateboards, rollerblades and snowboards. This skateboard has square wheels so it can be stacked upon and also tiny holes along the rails that fit into the hand hooks. This is not the dude that came with the skateboard but he is the dude that came with this skateboard when I found it.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Latch Key Kids


Everything about this Latch Key Kids 7" reminds me of high school, from the oversized Planet Earth t-shirt and bad hair cut to the small wheels and noseslide marks. This EP came out in 1995 and sounds like they were heavily influenced by Epitaph and Fat Wreck Chords bands (a number of bands on both labels appear on the thank you list as well). This is probably something I would've liked at the time and been embarrassed about it now, but thankfully I had not heard this until just recently. As far as skate covers go this is pretty weak - not sure why they didn't just take a picture of this kid actually skating.

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Pif


Pif is a dog from the French comic strip Pif et Hercule. He first appeared in 1948 in the French Communist Party newspaper L'HumanitéThe comic was later turned into a cartoon and at some point Pif even got his own magazine. For some reason his name was changed to Spiff when exported the English-speaking world. He hangs out with a black & white cat named Hercules, with whom he has the standard cartoon animal friend/enemy relationship. Pif is seen here as an enamel pin from 1991.

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Mini Aliens II


I came across this dude at a Goodwill in Frederick, MD. He was still in a 25¢ gumball machine and it took 4 quarters to get him (after getting a snowboarder and 2 rollerbladers). It looks like he is making the cardinal sin of skating in flip flops (something that Del Taco's Neena was guilty of).

He is about the same size as another gumball machine green alien that appeared on BPA in its first month.

Edit: Turns out this is from a rainbow series:

Atari


Atari's Skate Tuff EP was released in 1999 on Siton Records out of Belgium. The band was a staright edge youth crew hardcore band from PA. When I hear a band described as "youth crew" I usually right them off pretty quickly but the cover art on this one made me check it out. Amid songs about the scene, friendship, and being true til death; the title track stands out as being very short and about skating.

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Mousin' Around!


I've been going to the York Pinball show for a couple years. Each year I hope to see Skateball or Radical!, the 2 skateboard theme pinball games. I have yet to see those games but it is always fun to scan playfields for random skateboard references. The above graphic of 2 mice cruising on erasers-turned-skateboards was found on the playfield of Mousin' Around, whose backglass graphic is featured below (along with a fat, lazy cat for good measure).

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Winnie The Pooh


Winnie the Pooh makes his debut appearance on BPA as a tiny figure pushing on a very flat board. This figure was released in 2006 by Zaini, an Italian chocolatier who makes surprise eggs similar to Kinder.

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Brother Buzz


I picked up this record from CSR at their super cheap 7" sidewalk sale.  I was expecting some 3rd rate '90s punk but it is actually more of a grunge record. Brother Buzz were an early punkish/grunge band from Seattle who didn't put out much more than this 7" from 1992 on Empty Records. The band morphed into Kent 3, a much more prolific Seattle band that I have never heard of. The dude on the right has a sweet Powell Peralta Ripper but I can't quite figure out the board on the left.

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Donald Duck V


Donald Duck's 5th appearance on BPA finds him doing some weird dance on his board. His board and helmet are remarkable similar to those in his first appearance. This figure is quite a bit larger than that one (about twice the size). He's padded up and also ditched his plain blue shirt for a Hawaiian print one. This figure has an '88 copyright and was made by Bully out of Germany. Other past appearances by Donald include bendy Donald and two enamel pins


Friday, October 31, 2014

Dracula


Here to wish you a Happy Halloween from BPA is Dracula or some other vampire high-stepping on a skateboard with a tombstone on the back. It's also got some unusual fenders going on in the back as well as pull-back action. This guy is from 1991 and says Spearhead on the bottom but I can't find any further info on him.

Edit: Found his partner in package! This is from a 1993 Creepy Creatures set.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Circle of Hate


Circle of Hate was a Dutch punk band active in the late '80s. Their sole release appears to be this 7" EP from 1989 on Super Seven Records, one of the plethora of labels associated with Mystic (which also includes Thrash Records, whose skateboard logo appears on the inner label and is scanned below). The front cover does not feature any skating, but this record happened to facing the wrong way as I was looking through the bin so I saw the above rear graphic, which features a close up drawing of a grind on some Gullwings. Check out the title track below complete with some skate lyrics.

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Pullbax


This dude was made by Peachtree Playthings in 2000. It looks like they put quite a bit of time into making him look pretty realistic but they have him riding a board that is proportionally up to his armpits. It doesn't look like this was intended to be a longboard although he is in a bit of a downhill stance. This figure was advertised as "Motorized! Pullbax" and includes "Dual Action Micro Motors" (which just means that both trucks have pullback action). He also originally came with a small launch ramp.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles


The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have taken their time getting on BPA, even though they have a plethora of skateboarding toys (Mikey did make a brief appearance in Mondo Gecko's 2nd appearance). Their BPA debut as the world's most fearsome fighting team comes in the form of a bandana from 1990. These guys look pretty much like the late-'80s cartoon versions. Blow up of the main graphic is below. Not sure why Leo and Donnie feel the need to skate with their weapons out. Check out the border graphic of skateboards.

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Sk8niks


I recently found this 7" EP in the used bin at Celebrated Summer Records in Baltimore. I was a little skeptical at first since the name was so close to the Skatenigs, but when I saw these dudes were from Japan I figured it would be insanely fast thrash. And I was right. It looks like the ghouls on the cover have made a skateboard out of the band members... or not - it's hard to tell exactly what is going on. The drummer has a stick-figure skater tattoo on the side of his head, so if that is not a skateboard this record still qualifies on a technicality. The other side is a band called Traffix, which are a not-quite-so-fast-but-still-pretty-damn-fast punk band, also from Japan. No idea why they put a Nazi armband on the mummy. The record was self-released in 2001.

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Gutter Skater


The Gutter Skater is a Trashie, a figure from the Trash Pack line of toys. This line looks straight out of the '80s gross-out fad. As far as I can tell these are just collectable figures, although there seems to be some associated card game. These are by far the thickest skateboard known to mankind. This is the 2nd time riderless, personified skateboards have made an appearance on BPA (the first being Sonic's line of Sidewalk Surfers).

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Dino


This Dino figure is from 1991, back when cereal still had prizes inside. He came in boxes of Fruity Pebbles and probably Cocoa Pebbles and maybe even the short-lived Dino Pebbles, which featured dinosaur shaped marshmallows. In addition to skateboarding, there were also skiing and rollerblading figures. Since they couldn't make pads or helmets in the Stone Age, Dino has to settle for turtle shells.


Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Smash


Thrasher's 4th skate rock volume was released in 1986 and is entitled Smash. It is the last volume to be released on vinyl until volume 13 in 2009. Smash tails off a bit in quality from the previous Skate Rock installments. It opens up with a Skatemaster Tate rap which is a sign of things going downhill. It does feature an excellent eponymously titled McShred song though (later released on the McRad discography - not sure the exact difference between the 2 bands).