TDD T-Shirts

These are images from t-shirts that we have come across on eBay.  They are youth sizes.
If you have another, send us a photo.  

T-shirt #1
Logo shirt from 2000 or 2001.

T-shirt #2
An early image of Mikey.

T-shirt #3
Early versions of Mikey, Dr. Digit, Billy, Stevie J, generic, generic.  

T-shirt #4
An early version of Billy. 

T-shirt #5
G1 Stevie J.

T-shirt #6
G1 Nick (times three).

T-shirt #7
G1 Slam (no arms) drawn like his G3 figure. 

T-shirt #8
G3 shirt featuring Chito, Billy, Lenny, Eddie, and Sven. 

Tech Deck the Halls

I am surprised that Tech Deck does not make Christmas or holiday-themed merchandise every year.  I am not just talking about the defunct Tech Deck Dudes, but even their little fingerboards.  They are small, frivolous items that just have "stocking stuffer" written all over them.  At least they should.  Even for people not into fingerboarding -- maybe they are into skateboarding -- get them this little Christmas-themed miniature skateboard.  It could even be a tree ornament for the skater in your life.  I know their graphic designers could come up with a funky series with unconventional Christmas images.  I am always looking for unusual Christmas stuff -- maybe something with a zombie Santa or a robot Santa or a scary snow monster.  Who knows.  I can also picture kids thrashin' through grandma's Christmas village with their new holiday Tech Decks.

Anyway, they made this, once upon a time.

Tech Deck Dude #138 is Snow Ballah.

 

This is the only Holidude ever marketed at retail.  This was one of the first new designs from the Spin Master takeover in 2007.  He has an awful name and a really boring design,  but what I find even stranger is that he is the only Holidude.

 

It makes no sense.  It's like they started a new line -- named a brand new series -- and only put one figure in it.  The driving force behind collectibility falls apart when there is not more than one to collect.  This guy was a huge flop.  I can't help but think that if they had just released three or more Holidudes -- instead of just this one loner -- the idea would have been a seasonal success.

I was certain Snow Ballah was the only Holidude until I saw this oddity hit eBay:

A Santa version of Sumo San!

These must have been given out at the X-Concepts Christmas office party in 2007.  Maybe they were celebrating selling the company to Spin Master.  Who knows.  It certainly is an awesome piece.  And not because it comes in a silly box or because it is "limited edition" -- it is awesome because it is a cool figure and kewl idea.

Sumo San as Sumo Santa. What a great idea.  (I kinda think Santa San would have been a better name, no?)  I also like that they re-wrote the bio, which is something they never do. 

  

Man, I wish I had bought it.  It was a BIN with a "best offer accepted," so I know the buyer got it for less than $15. I did come across it while it was live, and it stayed listed for about three days.  I had a chance to go for it, but I was pretty new to collecting TDD and I had no idea it was truly rare.  No other TDDs go for that much.  Anyway, in hindsight, I would easily pay $15 or more for this Dude.

I wrote the seller to see if he had any more -- and -- of course not.  I also asked him if the reindeer image opposite Sumo Santa was also made into a figure.  He said yes but he did not know which character it was.  Then, about one month later, look who shows up on eBay...

 

It's Cluckers as a reindeer!  

And, although his job is to guide Santa's sleigh -- they did not give him a shiny red nose.

Or any nose for that matter.

Although the outcome is the same -- I don't own this figure either -- the story is a bit different. This seller listed Cluckers at auction with a $100 opening bid.  That is the auction price, not a BIN.   It ran for one week, no one bid, and the seller never listed it again.  Ever. 

And that is the only time I have seen each figure.

Of course I still want these two figures, but the max I would pay for them is about $40 each.  And that's with shipping.  And, yes, I will open them up and give them a photo-shoot for this site.

Anyway, back to my original point. 

After I learned of these two figures, I could not believe that the designs never made the retail rounds.  I think about that silly Snow Ballah out there -- all alone in the cold -- and it blows my mind that these two other figures were not also released as Holidudes.  There could have been an actual Holidudes series -- just like I had imagined!  The designs, sculpts, molds, and copy already existed -- why the heck didn't these go to retail?  And don't give me some nonsense about, "this was a special limited edition gift for employees."  Sure.  We all know about making variants with alternate paint-jobs and different packaging.  It is a shame and a waste that these two awesome sculpts were never made available to fans and collectors.

Update: Someone listed Sumo Santa on 11-15-17 for $50 BIN with shipping.  It sold right away, before I even found the listing.  

G4 Single Packs

These are the Tech Deck Dudes released in single "Street Crew" packs by Spin Master.

They were released in themed series.  However, the themes were not specifically named or numbered. The first four series had 6 figures each, and the last seven series had 8 figures each. These packs also had mini street-scene diorama pieces and some accessories related to the scene/theme and not necessarily the character. These figures have plug-feet (instead of magnets) and also plug-backs (to hold the skateboards or attach to the dioramas). Even the re-released figures are distinguishable as G4 by these features, (c) Spin Master, as well as, distinct paint variations.

The images shown on this page are the specific G4 paint variations (almost always still in the Street Crew packages).  This page is intended primarily to show what paint variations of the re-released figures are unique to G4, as well as, what new characters were introduced at the very end of the toyline (#138-#164).  Much more detailed information is provided on each character's individual page.

BLUE denotes the brand new characters in each series.

2007 series - "street" theme
For this series only, they did not put an "also in this series" list on the packages.
This is also the only Street Crew series with magnetic feet. 
These are the first figures with plug-backs.



071 - Eddie - street punk
082 - Barney - street cop
096 - Turbo - street performer
124 - Cheeze - "street enforcer" (The Warriors)
138 - Radd - 1980's skater (or #135)*
139 - Clobber - Mr. T (#139A)**

*Per packaging and mold, there are two figures labeled as #138 and no figure labeled #135. The solitary "Holidude" named Snow Ballah was released first and should have been given #135.  But, because he is far more common than Radd -- and very easy to find new, in packages clearly marked #138 -- I have chosen to reassign Radd as #135.  However, when looking at how the G4 figures were released, it becomes evident that he should not only be the true #138, but also that he is also the very first newly designed figure from Spin Master (and not X-Concepts).

**While many TDD characters have had different versions of sculpts, Clobber is the only character to ever have both an "A" and a "B" marker as part of his mold.  Both figures came out around the same time.  #139A is the regular "Street Crew" version, and #139B is Clobber in a hot dog costume. 139B was exclusive to the Vanformer playset.  Also, when Spin Master took over, Clobber became the mascot or spokesperson for the toyline.  He can be seen in the TDD commercials of 2008.    

2008 - martial arts
All figures now have plug-feet and plug-backs.  No more magnets.

019 - Nick - Snake Eyes
020 - Bruce - Kato (Bruce Lee)
032 - Fu Man Finger - Sensei Wu

052 - Ronin - samurai
133 - Feng Long - Long Feng

140 - Robo Supreme - Ultraman

2008 - warriors

038 - Erik - viking
047 - Aztec Bull
048 - Henry - knight
099 - Aztec Cluckers
141 - Leon - Spartan (300)
142 - Mulungu - Zulu warrior

2008 - movies

041 - Bull - Sitting Bull
047 - Duke - John Wayne
068 - Frank - Frankenstein
119 - Phinger Tut - The Mummy ("Finger" on G4 package)
125 - Neal - a movie producer
143 - Coyne - James Bond

2008 - comic book characters
each series now has 8 figures instead of 6

008 - Zobo - Dead Clown color variant
016 - Superfinger - Batman color variant

114 - Thunder - X-Men color variant

120 - Shadow - super-villain (Gunslinger Spawn?)

126 - Lump  - The Hulk (magenta variant rather than purple)

144 - Outrage - Onslaught  (Marvel)
145 - Mood - Dr. Doom (Marvel)
146 - Aquamander Man - Christian Jacobs (Aquabats)

2008 - Halloween

010 - Shik - mime
030 - Bonz - Grim Reaper
031 - Draco - demon/dragon (also in fantasy series)
034 - Adam - zombie
055 - Jack - Headless Horseman
147 - Nate - TMNT

148 - Stuart - Teen Wolf

149 - Murry - Ghostbusters

2008 - more movies

040 - Fred - Robocop

053 - Brad - Godzilla

054 - Arnie - Terminator

089 - Shanks - The Dude (The Big Lebowski)

127 - Hunter - Hunter S. Thompson (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas)

150 - Lucasberg - George Lucas + Steven Spielberg

151 - Stavron - Blofeld (James Bond) / Dr. Evil (Austin Powers)

152 - Ventura - Predator

2008 - space

011 - Rozz Cow - alien dressed as a cow

029 - Boog Rogers - Boog with a laser

038 - Space Erik - space viking

042 - Cosmo - astronaut

049 - Mort - Megatron (metallic variant)

153 - Dylon - Cylon (Battlestar Galactica)

154 - Katsuji - Keyop (G-Force/ Battle of Planets)

155 - Ziggie - Ziggy Stardust (David Bowie)

2008 - fantasy

031 - Draco - demon/dragon (also in Halloween series)

046 - Willy - cyclops

048 - Henry - knight

079 - Art - Kratos (God of War)

121 - Theodore - wizard

156 - Bob - Bob Ross

157 - Archerveld - Legolas (LOTR)

158 - Perry - Harry Potter

2008 - ocean

006 - Sven - beach bum

017 - Tiki - Polynesian tiki idol

027 - Woody - pirate

044 - Rasta - Rastafarian

058 - Rick - diver

081 - Splinter - Jacques Cousteau

159 - Momona - luau singer

160 - Kip - Chuck (Cast Away)

2009 - more comic book characters

the last TDD series ever

014 - Petey - Hellboy

016 - Superfinger - Spawn color variant

085 - Simon - vampire (Twilight?)

161 - Mickey - Marv (Sin City)

162 - Mad Freak - Madman (Image Comics)

163 - Nightwatchman - Night Owl (The Watchmen)

164 - Mite - The Tick (New England Comics)
000 - Ultimate Zero - Forbush Man (Marvel)

G1 Magazine Ads

Print Ad #1

Someone on eBay was selling this ad, torn from a magazine.  I wrote the seller and asked if she knew what magazine.  She did not know for sure, but her best bet was Mad.  This is the photo from the listing.  It is a bit blurry. 

The advertisement is designed to look like a movie poster.  This is the text at the bottom:

X-CONCEPTS presents
a TECH DECK DUDE production
FRANK N. FINGER and E. N. FINGER in "FRANKENFINGER"
Music by RAP MASTA THUMB
Executive Producer RING FINGER
Directed by INDEX FINGER
THIS PRODUCT NOT YET RATED

Then 22 figures are shown.  These are all from Crews 4, 5, 6, and 7.  They are mixed up; not grouped by these Crews.  This is the 2002 batch released after the reissue of Crews 1-3 with newly added magnets but before the introduction of dudettes in Crew 8.

The most interesting thing is that "E. N. Finger" is shown in the artwork, even though this figure (released as "E. N. Stein") did not come out until Crew 12.  Notice that he is just a drawing whereas the other dudes shown are photos of their figures. 

Print Ad #2

Here is another magazine advertisement once listed on eBay.  This one was from Sports Illustrated for Kids.  This is designed to look like 9 trading cards that you could cut out and separate.  This is a lightweight cardstock with perforations between the cards.  One side features a dude, and the other side features the checklist of that dude's crew.

The back of the ad features the checklists for Crews 3 thru 11.  Some artwork varies a bit from that on the packaging for these crews. For example Julio (Crew 3) was never released in the design shown. This is the updated design for the re-release of Billy (Crew 11 version). 

It is also interesting that Phinger Tut and Tag both show #000 in this image.  Phinger Tut was eventually given the #119 (making him the last G1 figure, numerically), and Tag was never given a number at all.  Also, the #000 was officially given to Ultimate Zero in 2009.

G1 Mini Dudes

If you ever come across a Tech Deck Mini Dude, it is from this keychain series.

The full set was 11 tiny (one inch) figures on keychains:  Lenny, Stevie J, Tank, Spin, Tek, Petey, Nick, Crash, Flake, Zobo, and Bruce.  In other words, it is all of the Crew 1 figures minus Shik -- who I believe was withheld due to a likeness to Harley Quinn.  Shik was even removed from the standard-figure Crew 1 lineup when magnets were added (but returned with the same sculpt in Crew 3). More information on the G1 Crews can be found here.

The Mini Dude keychains are pretty rare.  I have only seen them come up a few times in eBay lots. The first time I saw them, these four were in a used lot with many other figures and boards:

A few months later someone listed another huge lot of Tech Deck items that included these three, in-package Mini Dudes:

These keychains were distributed by Fun 4 All in 2001.  A couple years later, this company was re-named Basic Fun.  To this day, this company dominates novelty keychain licensing partnerships.  They have partnered with Bakugan, Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokemon, Ninjago, Ben 10, Transformers, and probably 100 other toylines.

The Mini Dude keychains were certainly the earliest Tech Deck licensing partnership.  Other early partnerships were with Toy Island for the RC Dudes and Jazwares for the Talkback Dudes. 

G1 Talking Dudes

These are the Electronic Voice Command Talk Back Motorized Skateboard figures. What a mouthful. These came out in 2002, distributed by Jazwares.  To be clear, the figures are standard dudes in every way, it is just the boards that "talk."

It turns out that these are indeed exclusive figures, even though they are not promoted on the packaging as such.  They are exclusive only by extremely small details -- usually just the shade of the shoe color.  It is surprising that they did not make obvious color variants like all the other package types.  Oh well, more "collect them all" minutiae to decipher.

G1 Giant Dudes

If you ever come across a Tech Deck Giant Dude, it is a figure from one of the RC boards.

These were made by Toy Island and came out in 2002.  There are eight Giant Dudes total:

#002 Lenny (from Crew 1)
#005 Stevie J (from Crew 1)
#009 Crash (from Crew 1)
#015 Tank (from Crew 1)
#019 Nick (from Crew 1)
#023 Rap Masta Thumb (from Crew 5)
#029 Booger (from Crew 4)
#051 Manga (from Crew 4)

Five of the eight Giant Dudes are characters from Crew 1.  Of particular interest to the collector, is that these five dudes are also among the eleven Mini Dudes. So, there are exactly five TDD that were once available in three different sizes.  It would be cool to see a photo of Lenny, Nick, Stevie J, Tank, or Crash with all their different sized versions together.

G1 Dudettes

There were twelve dudettes in the entire run of TDD.  They all came out in 2002 during the G1 (armless) phase.  Not a single dudette was re-released with arms (nor was a new dudette ever added to the toyline).  These images come from the G1 poster.

These additional images were taken from the TDD website when it was active. You can see that the artwork was updated for only four characters.  Arms were added to Cutie.  Laverne, Whitney, and Barbie were substantially redesigned.  Despite the changes to the images of these characters, I reiterate that no new figures were ever made. 

Laverne and Laura came out in Crew 8.
Yoko came out in Crew 9.
Andie and Natalie came out in Crew 10.
Barbie came out in Crew 11.
Suzy, Crystal, and Candie came out in Crew 12.
Helen came out in Crew 13.
No dudettes showed up in Crew 14.
Cutie and Whitney came out in Crew 15.

Andie has 5 variants.
Suzy, Laverne, Crystal, Yoko, and Barbie each have 3 variants.
Natalie, Helen, Laura, and Candie each have 2 variants.
Cutie and Whitney have only one figure each.

This makes a total of 30 dudette figures derived from the 12 characters. 

The single versions of Cutie and Whitney are the hardest to find.  Crew 15 was the last G1 series and had a very limited production since the toyline was being revamped with G2 (arms).

The dudettes can be found in the first series of trading cards (2003), but were replaced in the second series (2004).  They were replaced with cards that show more than one dude hanging out together or these strange cards where a G2 dude was looking at an image of his armless G1 self.  Weird.

Additionally, Yoko, Helen, and Natalie can be found on these back-to-school folders that came out in 2002.  I am betting the idea here is that they wanted you to sync these with your foreign language, world history, and health classes.  Hey, Helen and Natalie didn't even bring boards.



I mentioned that no other dudettes were ever created.  Yet, we do have to say that one other female figure does exists, and that is Pam, #112 in the Creatures series.

There are also three females (Toof Fairy, Cindyrella, and Red) in the Grimm Dudes series (which is not part of the TDD numbering system), but still worth a mention.  

Grimm Dudes

The 12 Grimm Dudes are bizarre incarnations of classic fairy tale and nursery rhyme characters.  They are not part of the TDD enumeration whatsoever.  However, they are very creative, well-designed, and well-made. They seem more like small McFarlane or Mezco figures than anything from Tech Deck. 

Chapter 1 (2002)

3Pig -- A mutated version of  The Three Little Pigs which is a English fable from the 1840s (not from the Grimm brothers).

Big Rad Wolf -- A play on the Big Bad Wolf from the pig tale and also Little Red Riding Hood.  Here he is holding a leaf blower to help blow down the house of  3Pig.  

Lumpity Grumpity -- A scary egg-creature relating to the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme from 1717 (also not from the Grimm brothers).

Peter Rottentail -- A roided rabbit with mice in a bandolier.  The name comes from Peter Cottontail, the 1910 storybook character (also not from the Grimm brothers). The idea of the abused mice probably relates to Little Bunny Foo Foo who liked to scoop up field mice and bop them on the head.

Prince Harming -- A slacker-take on Prince Charming.  Here he has a guitar and beer.  Prince Charming relates to may fairy tales, one of which is Sleeping Beauty, which was collected by the Grimm brothers (though the tale is centuries older).

Toof Fairy -- Based on the Tooth Fairy of English folklore (again, nothing to do with the Grimm Brothers), this version has a pair of pliers behind her back.  She gonna get yo teef. 

Chapter 2 (2003)

Cindyrella -- A wacky take on Cinderella, which is a very famous tale collected by the Grimm brothers.

Pine-noseo -- A weird take on Pinocchio, a specific character from a specific Italian story that came out in 1883 (not a Grimm's tale at all).

Red -- Ah, a bratty Little Red Riding Hood figure.  This one is among the tales collected and published by the Grimm brothers. 

The Meeces -- The Three Blind mice, mutated into a single being much like 3Pig from Series 1. Of course, "Three Blind Mice" is an English nursery-rhyme from 1805 and has nothing to do with the Grimm brothers. 

Tweedle Dee-Dum -- Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum also mutated into a single being.  Of course, these are characters from Lewis Carroll (Through the Looking Glass) and not the Grimm brothers.

Johnny Badseed -- Here we have a parody of Johnny Appleseed who was a real person (John Chapman) who famously planted apple-trees across Ohio and other parts of America.  (Not Germany, and again not associated with the Grimm brothers.)

So, being very generous in our assessment, we can at best associate only 4/12 of these figures with Grimm's Fairy Tales.  They are Cindyrella, Prince Harming, Red, and The Big Rad Wolf. 

Packaging

We are still looking for Chapter 2, let us know if you can help.  We do not need packaging or boards.  

TDD Playsets

These are the Tech Deck Dude playsets that we know about.  We are only featuring playsets that include dudes.  Tech Deck branded sets without dudes are not relevant to this site.   Also, G1 Deluxe Packs, G3 Action Packs, and the RC Dudes are featured separately.  If you know of any other sets that should be featured here, drop us an email.

G1: Daredevil Race Set
This set came with the version of Tank with the "Z" on his helmet.  I don't know what the Z means.  There is no context for it.  Also, it seems like this set would have two figures since it is a "race." Most likely, there is another version of this set with a different exclusive G1 dude.  Basically you buy this set twice, you get two exclusive figures, and now you can race them.  Other sets shown on this page do the exact same thing.  At any rate, I don't know what other figure would have been a part of this set.  For example, there is no other figure with a random letter on his head. 

G2: Launch-A-Dude: Lighted Stunt Set
As shown, it came with a weighted Hot Feet board and exclusive red Tek.
A set with the same box-image and parts instead came with the G2 version of Dave.

G2: Downhill Dude
Now this is a race set! 10 feet instead of 3 feet. Came with real-metal boards for extra weight.
Came with two tracks and two exclusive dudes: Lenny and Sumo San.

G2: Dragstrip Race Set
This is the playset that features the exclusive G2 Stevie J.  This red-shirt Stevie J is the only G2 figure of this character.

G2: Dragstrip Race Set
This is a re-release of the playset above. This image has a G2 version of Jack, but shows Moto on the box.  We can assume that these were both available in separate sets.  I don't know if these color variants were exclusive or not -- the box does not specifically say.  I know G2 Jack also came in green and purple.  Perhaps they also came in this set or, more likely, some other package type.  The gray version of this figure is G3 (bendy arm) and came with the PC game Bare Knuckle Grind.

G2: Loop & Grind Race Set
This image shows the G2v2 version of Tek, but has Fred on the box.  We can assume they both were available within separate versions of this playset.  This sculpt of Tek has several color variants in both G2 (static arms) and G3 (bendy arms).  The G2 Fred seems to have only one coloration and probably is exclusive to this set.

G3: BlastBoard Obstacle Course
The BlastBoard characters were the first bendy arm figures. This set came with Timbo -- shown on the box wearing black.  There is also a version of this figure wearing yellow and another wearing red.  They definitely came in other package types.  It is also possible that another character could have come with this same playset (like the examples above). 

G3: Big Bounce Action Set
Came with a version of Whiplash that I have only seen in green.  The regular G3 Whiplash is a similar mold but does not wear glasses, he is sitting down, and he has a magnet in his butt. The figure in this playset does not have a magnetic butt.  He also has a bulls-eye target on his head instead of Whiplash's usual cautionary vectors.

G3: Bowl-A-Dude Action Set
Came with super-boring Crash.  A black-and-gold variant of this Crash figure came in a G3 "Sport" themed 3-pack with Moto and Cluckers. A third version of this Crash figure has a white hat and came in the single pack.

G3: Last Dude Standing
This is the first appearance of Aztec Bull and Aztec Cluckers.  They both appear again in G3 single packs, and G4 single packs.  Those versions are slightly different by paint and plastic.  This is the only time they came with two weapons each.  The inspiration for this playset was surely the movie Apocalypto which came out at the same time.

G3: Dude Rides
The Dude Rides are pickup trucks with magnetic attachments.  The truck molds are the same, and there are five sets.  They correspond to the themes of the Magnetic Action Packs.

Red truck: Came with Norman (Scuba-Squad)
Green truck:  Came with Dr. Digit (Special-Ops)
White truck:  Came with Boog Rogers (Astro-Nots)

Blue "deluxe" truck: Came with a variant of Boog Rogers and all the attachments from the other three sets.  Also, Boog Rogers has a variant within the G3 single packs. Another variant of Boog Rogers was also recycled in the G4 single packs.

Maroon "deluxe" truck: Came with a variant of this particular sculpt of Norman plus all the attachments from the regular Dude Rides packs.  These are the only two versions of this sculpt that I have seen.  It would stand to reason that Dr. Digit also has a "deluxe" truck with a variant figure.  However, I have yet to find any evidence of it.  There is a red version of this Dr. Digit sculpt, but it came in Clash Crew 2 packaging.

G4: Vanformer Action Set
Came with an exclusive Clobber and a tiny Sturgeon (in the outhouse).

The existing Vanformer was colored to look like the famous GMC van of the A-Team.  The designer (Paul Wilson) also submitted specs for a version to be colored like The Mystery Machine of Scooby-Doo fame.  That one was never produced.

G4: Serpent of Doom Action Set
This playset came with an exclusive version of Art.  He does not have bendy arms.  This is the only figure from either the G3 or G4 run without poseable arms.  Such an odd thing to change.  But as noted elsewhere, Spin Master did not really care much for consistency.