Meccano – Le Roller-Side

France. Pif Gadget. 1978. Le Roller-Side – also marketed as ‘The Outrider’ was not a skateboard but shared some similarities.

This superb 1978 French Meccano advert shows Le Roller-Side, a three-wheeled street toy based on the popular skateboard. Back in 1978 my brother had one of these and was the envy of all us other kids in the grove who mostly had skateboards. Le Roller-Side was called The Outrider in the UK and US. One of our friends, who neither had an Outrider or a skateboard, ingeniously employed an Action Man scout vehicle as his choice of “wheels”. Between us all I think we suffered a fair amount of bruises, scrazed knees, ripped knuckles, plus shredded jeans and trainers… sorry mum!

France. Pif Gadget. 1981.