< Back to Blog

Welcome to Hell - huge Toy Machine skateboards drop in stock

ed t
As we edge into February we've been blessed with a huge Toy Machine skateboards drop which gives us an excuse to delve in loyal pawn history. Toy Machine skateboards was founded from the ashes of the earlier abortive Ed Templeton and Mike Vallely 90s skate brand TV (as in 'Television') in 1993, and was Ed's first solo-effort following his huge success as the headline pro of New Deal Skateboards. Looking back on the trajectory of Toy Machine since (which incidentally has to be one of the best brand names in skate history), it's hard to to think of it as the tiny brand populated by a bunch of largely unknown skaters that it began life as on their inaugural video release 'Live!' (see above) Featuring such household names as Charlie Coatney and Pete Lehman, (although admittedly backed up by Ed T, a young Ethan Fowler and Jahmal Williams), Live! made Ed's decision to ditch the mighty New Deal at the height of his fame seems somewhat foolhardy to say the least. However, in much the same way that the creepy vegan predated the highwater Dickies trend by two decades, his decision to start up Toy Machine skateboards under the Tum Yeto distribution umbrella as a solo effort also found vindication (and more) as time progressed and the team picked up various heads who would go on to to have a huge impact on skate culture. Toy Machine skateboards drop Toy Machine skateboard's second video 'Heavy Metal' (1995) introduced an entirely new team (with the exception of Ed T) with the likes of Josh Kalis, Satva Leung, Panama Dan and Jamie Thomas hopping on. Heavy Metal also introduced the world to the filming and editing skills of Jamie Thomas and set the scene for the truly epoch-forming third Toy Machine video, which we'll come to in a minute. The third full-length release from Toy Machine a year later in 1996 saw Ed T's fledgling enterprise finally come of age and drop what has gone on to be one of the most influential skate videos of all-time. Not only did Welcome to Hell set in motion the second wave of Pat Duffy inspired handrail mania, it also resurrected the tradition of slam sections, alongside blowing global minds with the first ever proper female street skater part in the form of the utterly timeless Elisa Steamer section. It probably sounds like an exaggeration read in 2021 but honestly, Welcome to Hell changed everything. If you've never seen it before - prepare yourselves. Obviously, from 1996 onwards Toy Machine evolved further, lost team riders, acquired new ones and has gone on to create a lot of noise to this day, even within the extremely crowded skate brand universe of 2021. If you want to know more about the ups and downs of Toy Machine life span then you'd be well advised to give Ed Templeton's Epicly Later'd series a watch - peep below for the first one. Anyhow - that's it for now - stay up hombres!
< Back to Blog