Dave's Transformers Artifacts Rant Transformers Finger Boards Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Artifacts/FingerBoard1 Finger boards are essentially skateboards scaled so that your fingers are about the right size to be legs, and you ride them around with your hand. People who are really good at it can do most of the same skateboard tricks with finger boards that can be done with real skateboards, although the "grab the board" tricks require really weird fingernails. CAPSULE Finger Boards: They're cheap, and it's a cute idea. But unless you're a finger board collector already, I'd recommend just grabbing one for the novelty value. Or to have your Robot Heroes ride on. $1.97 at Wal-Mart. RANTS Okay, I bought all six. They're cheap. These guys fall into that weird "licensed materials" zone where things like Transformers candy and posters live. It's clear that when Dreamwave when bolts-up, Hasbro just grabbed all their posters and other display artwork and tossed it in the Bin Of Things To Send License-Buyers. I don't know the details, obviously, but I'd guess that there's a number of packages companies can buy, with varying amounts of art. So some pieces, like the movie Optimus Prime's face, show up a LOT, probably being in the basic package. It looks like Imperial bought one of the better art packages, that included the right to modify the art. Because while some of the finger boards have simple excerpts of posters, others have had the art modified to look more like street art. Packaging: 7" (18cm) tall and 5" (12.5cm) wide Universe-style blister card with the yellow grid on red space pattern and the art from Classics Optimus Prime in the usual spot for character art on Universe cards. All cards are identical, even the serial number (24855) is the same on all six. At the bottom front it just says "FINGER BOARD" in the name slot. Black circles on the right and left middle proclaim "EXTRA WHEELS!" and "Includes: Metal Tools, Metal Trucks". The card back repeats the background of the front, including Optimus art. Insets at the top show instructions for changing out the trucks and wheels. Along the middle under "COLLECT THEM ALL!" are pictures of all six boards. The usual legalese and barcode are at th ebottom of the cardback. They're all packaged in flat-fronted oval blisters with the bottom (art side) of the board facing out. A tiny lug wrench, screwdriver, spare wheels and screws are under a piece of tape on the inner blister tray. The spare wheels are merely a different color, not (as far as I can tell) a different texture. So there's no performance difference, it's purely aesthetic. All of the boards are 3.5" (9cm) long and 1" (2.5cm) wide, significantly larger than Tech Deck boards. They're all made of white plastic with chromed metal trucks and dark gray "sandpaper" grip top surfaces. Scale's a bit hard to call, since there isn't a standard skateboard size, but it's around 1:10. A little big for the usual action figure size, but not enough to look weird. Unlike Tech Decks, there's no metal plate inside the board, so magnetic figures can only stick to where the trucks are screwed on, and it's not a very strong connection point. The wheels in general roll poorly, having lumps and mold flash on them. Mind you, these are pretty much the lowest end finger boards available, so this isn't too surprising. You could probably swap out the wheels for ones from a higher quality set if you really wanted to use these for finger boarding tricks. The tiny screwdrivers are 3cm long and phillips style. If nothing else, these are a nice source of tiny detail screwdrivers, for getting at tiny parts or putting in the hands of Transformers. The handles are a little too big for 5mm peg holes, but nothing a little filing can't fix. I'll go through the boards in order from left to right as shown on the cardback. All art is purely on the bottom side, with the top of the picture being at the front of the board...or so I'm gonna call it. The boards are symmetric, turned up at front and back by equal amounts. BOARD: Axe Optimus Prime Main Wheels: bright blue Alternate Wheels: ghost gray Art Notes: Optimus Prime swinging his energy axe, I don't recognize the source piece, it's not one of the posters I have. All done in shades of blue and black, with Autobot symbols of various sizes at the front end. A gothic script "Optimus Prime" is written behind the art. This is one of the more heavily modified pieces. BOARD: Poster Optimus Prime Main Wheels: red Alternate Wheels: dark blue (Optimus Prime color) Art Notes: Taken straight from the Pat Lee "Transform and Roll Out" movie- style poster of a crouching Optimus Prime, one of the first posters Dreamwave released. No movie-credits writing at the bottom, but the Transformers logo is at the front end. BOARD: Poster Megatron Main Wheels: magenta Alternate Wheels: red Art Notes: From the Pat Lee "I Still Function" poster, otherwise same layout as the one above. BOARD: Mace Megatron Main Wheels: light blue-gray Alternate Wheels: black Art Notes: May be taken from the same art as Axe Prime. Light blue-gray on black background with purple-outline Decepticon symbols at the top. Below Megatron is a scroll reading "Peace Through Tyranny". BOARD: Rising Sun Prime Main Wheels: dark red Alternate Wheels: yellow Art Notes: The main figure is G1 Prime standing more or less at attention, I don't recognize where it's from. It's been altered to look more sketchy, done in just black and white with a red "rising sun" style burst behind it. The top and bottom have tiny Megatron poster images, so this is really a two-character board. BOARD: Bumblebee Main Wheels: yellow Alternate Wheels: light blue-gray Art Notes: I think this is from the all-Minibots cover. Full color straight piece, with a background that has the Transformers logo in in half strength twice, as if you were looking at it but your eyes were swimming. Notable for being the only board not to have Megatron or Optimus Prime. Dave Van Domelen, bought these a month ago, finally getting around to reviewing.