X-Concepts and their hit Tech Deck line were a smash hit and led the fingerboard trend due to their contracts with massive skate brands like Birdhouse, World Industries, Blind, etc.
Likewise, brands like Blind, World Industries, PIG, and Toy Machine had their mascots turned into toys in The Skate Crew by 2001-2002.
And the Dudes? I mean the Dudes were such a smash hit they grew arms, had a video game, trading cards, and spawned similar dude lines like Grimm Dudes and Creatures.
But, when you're the top dog, everyone wants a piece. People are going to try to copy your formula. But, without that organic growth and community of fans, most attempts will not be able to have the same success.
Tech Deck and Tech Deck Dudes saw its share of this, but no brand sticks out to me NO RULES CREW. No Rules Crew already existed around the same time Tech Deck debuted as stickers and were printed onto shirts for kids that had extreme characters.
Chito Arelleano, designer of the dudes, revealed in a podcast he was working on designs for a company providing shirts for No Rules and Tech Deck when they approached him to make designs of their finger character logo in new looks. This spawned the Dude line on shirts then as toys.
But, back to the No Rules Crew: These characters are like a too-cool-for-school blend of the dudes, 50 cent machine Homie figures, and other lines popping up in the late 90s/early 2000s.
The No Rules Crew weren't originally made into figures to ride the boards. They purely existed as characters on actual skateboards, stickers, and shirts for kids.
But, after Tech Deck blew up, No Rules did begin making their own fingerboards. After Tech Bikes and Quads, No Rules started making their own.
After the dudes debuted, No Rules tried 1 or 2 waves of their mascots on boards. Noticing a pattern?
They lasted about 20 years making die-cast boards, bikes, carts, and ramps. But, the line expanded into digital media, retail shops, video games, and more.
The old original packaging shows the company that trademarked the lines was "R&S Trading Co. Inc. based in Irvine, CA. But, the toy line lived on in China and became a hit kid's line there.
The old original packaging shows the company that trademarked the lines was "R&S Trading Co. Inc. based in Irvine, CA. But, the toy line lived on in China and became a hit kid's line there.
The brand also made Monster Trucks?
The later kids are more inspired by the Dudes.
They also remind me of that meme show called "The NutShack".
Looking at these, it's a clear mix of copying the dudes and the art style of The Homies toy lines which were big in 2002-2004 too.
The girl on the right with purple hair has the same purple hair and style as Candie, there's a blue hoodie dude that looks exactly like G1 Billy. The line had an alien after Rozz debuted.
The yellow visor kid is clearly copying the generic dude with the yellow visor found on Tech Deck stickers, keychains, and card backs in 2000-2002.
Vending Machine Stickers:
The franchise continued making t-shirts:
Compare that shirt above to the shirt below (late 90s first few shirts), it's clear how the art style evolved.
Love this Guy Fieri-esque shirt!
I did find one pretty bad shirt: it has some pretty offensive character names...
Oh dear lord, they named one black kid Swab (cause of his afro) and the other CornDawg?! Jeez... The font on the tag is also just the GTA Vice City cover changed to "No Rules Crew: Skate City".
As I said, they also made figures. This one is of "Mac" from the above t-shirt:
They had a GAMEBOY ADVANCE game too, would it shock you if I told you it came AFTER Tech Deck's video game where you play as Finger Guy (Rodney)?
So, Tech Deck and their dudes weren't things I really recall seeing in movies or kid's shows. They had ads on kid's TV stations (Nick, Cartoon Network, Kids WB) and in magazines (MAD, SI Kids) They became big on their own merit. X-Concepts was a ground-up company, it wasn't a subsidiary of anyone until Spin Master acquired the company for its Tech Deck lines in Jan 2007.
I say that, because, NO RULES CREW despite being a much less popular line was able to get some product placement with a poster of its characters in Freaky Friday (2003).
Yup. That is future Academy Award Winner and 2x Golden Globe winner, Jamie Lee Curtis, standing out of the center so we can clearly see a NO RULES CREW product placement.
Maybe this was not a paid product placement and the set designers just grabbed random cheap posters for a 6-10 year old boy at a KMart for the bedroom set? But, still, I get a chuckle that this exists.
This picture is from 2010, and look behind the mascots, they had mall shops in Bejing, Wuhan, Shanghai, and probably many other Chinese malls.
It's on their old Website, which was active until 2018 selling shirts and boards in China!
What a weird world, this brand someone pushed through from the late 1990s into 2018. But, the dudes ended in 2009 as did Tech Deck's Skate Crew figures.
They even sponsored an event at a Chinese mall to sell F1 Go Karts?
I don't even know how to respond to this horrific mask. One Eye Jack peers into my soul and I will never sleep again. That's all, folks.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.