Then along came Altered with their crazy self-propelled electric skateboards.

With models ranging from the off-road capable Green Machine 2.0 to the more traditional looking zebrawood Big Dream, each board has a unique personality.

Most models run on a hefty 36-volt rechargeable battery pack, which powers a belt-driven electric motor. While you’re in motion, you can adjust your speed using a wireless handheld throttle control.

The high-end (600-watt) models can hit 19 to 20 MPH without breaking a sweat, while the entry-level Wombat (250-watt) tops out at 12 MPH.

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Prices range from $599 to $799 for the beefy 600-watt models, with the 250-watt Wombat selling for just $399. Altered just recently took the wraps off their 2009 editions and expects to start shipping most models before the holidays. You can check out the full line over at Altered Electric Skateboards.

LEGO artist extraordinaire Nathan Sawaya’s recent project is this super sweet LEGO skateboard. It’s actual size, and based on the close-up picture of the wheels I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s not actually ride-able.

According to the artist, his inspiration came about thusly: “My friend recently bought a new deck and it only took me a few seconds of staring at it before I realized what my next project would be. I didn’t want to imitate any particular design, so I came up with my own. I call it my NATEboard. Because my name is Nate. And it sounds like skateboard. And I’m lonely.”

It seems hard to believe that a guy with such insane LEGO talents could ever be lonely. Seriously, there must be tons of girls who would love to meet a bricksmith of this caliber, right?

You can see more of Nate’s Lego projects at The Art of the Brick.

[via ChipChick]

Gameplay takes place in an unusual top-down view. You control the game by placing two fingertips onto the skateboard’s surface and flicking the board around to do tricks. Sounds weird, right? Just imagine your two fingers as tiny little legs (dangling from the torso of a teensy little Tony Hawk) standing on the surface of the skateboard, and it starts to make a lot more sense. To see the game in action, check out this video clip:

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Now if only I could get that awful, generic video game guitar rock out of my head. Eeesh. Hopefully that won’t make the final cut. Anyhow… The game is being built on a 3D physics engine which gives you the freedom to create your own tricks with a flick of your fingertips. Touch Grind will also feature an online level editor, which will allow community members to create and share their own skate parks.

The game’s maker, Sweden’s Illusion Labs (the same guys who brought us the superfluous iPint beer simulator) claims to be the first game to take full advantage of the system’s multitouch screen. While I’m not sure of the accuracy of that claim, it does look like a quirky little game, and should be worth checking out when it hits the iTunes App Store this October.

This is recycling at it’s best. Thin strips of reclaimed skate decks are artfully layered to create a unique and colorful watch. It would make the perfect accessory for the erstwhile punk teen turned corporate bad-a$$.

And then there’s the actual, you know, watch part: super stylish analog display, with Japanese quartz movement and LEDs for nighttime time-telling. It’s not waterproof, but I’m betting you didn’t expect it to be.

You can see the tear sheet and look at a couple more close-ups of the watch here. It’s not for sale yet, but you can drool over/purchase previous Nixon Rotolog series watches at the Nixon website.

[via Kris Lovett]

Whether you’re just a hot shot and want to show off your moves, or you’re sick of taking a face plant on the curb when skating in the dark, the LED skateboards are sure to draw attention. Depending on the model, you’ll get anywhere from 29 to 54 bright LEDs embedded into the wood deck.

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The boards are fabricated out of Canadian 7-ply hard-rock maple, and include grip tape and a thin lithium ion rechargeable batter mounted under a protective plate on the bottom of the board.

Photon sells Light Boards either as a standalone deck, or as a complete skateboard with trucks and wheels. Prices range from $110 for a deck to $200 for a fully-outfitted skateboard.

[via Geekologie]

The little camera straps onto any helmet and can be aimed with a laser-targeting system. Press one button, and it’ll record your hijinx onto an SD memory card (the cam includes an anemic 32MB card, but memory cards are cheap these days). Resolution isn’t thrilling at a maximum 640×480, but what do you expect for 50 bucks? The camera also has a built in microphone to record sound and can transfer videos to your PC via the helmet cam’s USB port.

I can’t wait to get one of these and strap it to my cat.

[via Video Thing]

Here’s a video of the robot in action:

PLEN’s 18 joints can be controlled remotely using a Bluetooth phone and can run for about 25 minutes on a single charge. Created by Systec Akazawa, PLEN is available from Plen Japan for 262,500 Yen (appx. $2220 USD)

[via thisnext]