Town & Country Surf Design Characters (Image Heavy)

Anybody remember these T & C characters from the 80's? I had tons of T & C t-shirts.

Da Boys

Joe Cool

Thrilla Gorilla
Remember those hats?

[ Edited by: ZuluMagoo 2007-01-17 20:58 ]

Old Skool!
:tiki:

I remeber Thrilla Gorilla and the gang quite well. Although I didn't remember what TC stood for. Maybe that's why I couldn't track them down when I was looking to see if they're still around.

My wife's still mad that I got rid of the shirt when it got too small. Apparently you're supposed to keep everything they ever bought you, even if there's never any hope of it fitting ever again. :(

Oh My Gawd! I had a T-Shirt with the 3 Tikis on the top picture! It said, "Pray For Surf!" underneath the graphic and was done in a primitive style font. The front had the T & C (Town & Country) Yin Yang logo too!

Talk about flashback -- I bought this shirt brand new from Hobie Surf & Sport on PCH in Corona del Mar over 20 years ago.

On 2004-02-17 21:42, ZuluMagoo wrote:
Anybody remember these T & C characters from the 80's? I had tons of T & C t-shirts.

Aaaaaah! Junior High Flashbacks! :lol:

--cindy, Torrance teen boogie-boarder

Oh man, T&C t-shirts were practically the required uniform at school when I was a kid. My brother and I had the T&C surfing Nintendo game, I especially remember the gorrila from that. I don't remember it being a very good game, we mostly played Mike Tyson's Punch Out and Kid Icarus. And Zelda, of course!

I had most of those too. Pop, the Hobie in CdM just closed after 20 years of business. Now it's some Persian rug store. Aren't there enough of those f*ckin places already?! There are plenty in Newport and CdM.

It was when I bought the T&C Surf Designs game, that I first knew what it felt like to be 'shafted'

The Horror...The Horror

In Junior High all I wore was T&C shirts dickies pants and black canvas slip on Vans. Now I wear Hawaiian shirts, Dickies pants, and black canvas slip on vans. Boy it's been a bumpy ride.

Ey anyone remember Le Tigre shirts, thsoe were cool too

On 2004-02-29 23:39, suicide_sam wrote:
Ey anyone remember Le Tigre shirts, thsoe were cool too

I had one in pink and one in lavender! :lol:

Bump. I had a request from someone looking for these guys to fix the broken pic links.

Zulu

I did a little surfing and found this website www.stevenazar.com. Steve is the artist who created all of the classic 80's T&C characters. Here is an excerp from his site:

Whatever Happened to the Classic T&C Characters?

In the late eighties, for reasons unknown to me, there was a dramatic split within the T&C organization. The net result was that the Hawaii-based group, who founded the company and owned the rights to the T&C name and logo went one way, and the California-based group, with whom I had developed the classic characters went another, retaining the rights to the characters only.

The Hawaii-based people have continued to prosper as T&C Surf Designs, although their clothing line has never duplicated the success they achieved when they were using the characters.

Despite several attempts, the California-based people had very little success marketing the characters on their own, without the brand recognition and loyalty that the T&C brand justifiably commanded. Having sold my interest in the characters, I was largely excluded from any attempts to revive the characters as a separate entity from T&C. Their efforts suffered from the work of artists who had no real appreciation or understanding of the characters, and the results sadly speak for themselves.

In short, the Logo never did as well without the Characters, and the Characters died without the Logo.

Are the Classic T&C Character Designs Still Available?

No. They have not been produced for more than a decade. Barring a miraculous reconciliation between the parties involved, they never will be again. Sometimes the original old shirts become available on Ebay, and command a handsome price.

Is There Any Chance of Nostalgic Investors Reviving the Classic T&C Character Designs?

Again, no. T&C is still alive and well, and has been getting by quite nicely for years without the characters. Due to what I sense are deeply held personal reasons of the key players involved, T&C will never seek to again utilize the characters in conjunction with their name and logo.

Steve also has some fantastic old T&C artwork on his site, as follows.

[ Edited by: ZuluMagoo 2007-01-17 20:59 ]

Not only did you find the artist and tell us the scoop, but also putting up all those beautiful art works and drawings. I nominate your post for "Post of the Year" honors at the annual Internet Awards. Bravo sir.