Junior Flyer Skate Board thumbnail 1
Not on display

Junior Flyer Skate Board

Skateboard
ca. 1969 (made)
Artist/Maker
Mettoy Ltd (manufacturers)
Place of origin
United Kingdom (made)

9-ply plywood elliptically shaped board with a graphic printed in red showing the name. There are two sets of black plastic double wheels with metal trucks attached to the underside of the board, one at each end.

Object details

Categories
Play
Children & Childhood
Outdoor Games & Toys
Object type
Skateboard
TitleJunior Flyer Skate Board (manufacturer's title)
Materials and techniques
plywood decked, metal trucks, plastic wheels
Plywood
Metal
Plastic
Brief description
Junior Flyer Skate Board made in the UK by Mettoy in the late 1960s
Physical description
9-ply plywood elliptically shaped board with a graphic printed in red showing the name. There are two sets of black plastic double wheels with metal trucks attached to the underside of the board, one at each end.
Dimensions
  • Length: 58cm
  • Width: 16cm
  • Depth: 8cm
Style
Mid 20th Century
Production typeMass produced
Gallery label
(01/06/2017)
Skateboards

Many of the earliest manufactured skateboards had plywood ‘decks’ (boards). These designs, made of simple cut-out sheets of flat ply, could be easily recreated at home by attaching repurposed wheels to a sawn piece of plywood. Board shapes changed to suit new styles of skateboarding, most obviously in the late 1980s when they started to be moulded with kicktails at either end. From the late 1970s skateboarders began to build large, plywood-clad DIY ramps so they could skate in the freestyle way that increasingly defined the sport.

1. Roller Derby Skate Board
1959–60
Manufactured by Roller Derby
La Mirada, California, USA
Painted 5-ply plywood; steel trucks and wheels
V&A: B.9-2017

2. Junior Flyer Skate Board
About 1969
Manufactured by Mettoy
Solihul, Britain
9-ply plywood with printed graphic, steel trucks, rubber wheels
V&A: B.10-2017

3. Homemade plywood skateboard
About 1975
Maker unknown
Trucks re-used from a Pro Class skateboard, with Free Roller wheels
9-ply plywood, steel trucks and polyurethane wheels
USA (possibly New York)
V&A: B.11-2017

Plywood: Material of the Modern World
V&A 15 July - 12 November 2017
Associated objects
Collection
Young V&A Collection
Accession number
B.10-2017

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Record createdDecember 21, 2016
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1375351/junior-flyer-skate-board-skateboard-mettoy-ltd/
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