Vato Rat Design (2 Viewers)

Franzister

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Greetings!

With so many awesome custom chips designed by fellow PCF members, was inspired to come up with my own. It took a little while to think of a theme that would have some personal meaning to me and some of my long-time friends. As a throwback to my adolescence, I chose to go with Vato Rat for the inlay (artist Craig Stecyk) popularized in the early 1980's by skate boarding company Powell Perelta. It reminds me of Junior High and my rebel years lol. "Rat Bones" AKA Vato Rat, is an iconic image of early 80's skateboarding and one that any of my oldest friends will readily recognize- to me, it's very nostalgic. How many of you are familiar with it?

Originally I saw it as black and white when my buddy asked me to do it in color. Next thing I know, I've done about a dozen iterations. The original inlay is white with the black image and the original "BONES" across the top which I eventually cropped out leaving just the Rat Bones image and added denominations.

I'd like to see a design of it with an inner ring design of some sort but I have no idea how to do that haha. If anyone knows of a tool where I can make this happen, please let me know! Additionally, I'd love to hear your feedback and I'm not sensitive to critiques :)

Designing and posting this makes me feel like I'm becoming part of the community here. Thanks so much for checking it out.


Vato Rat Original.png

Vato Rat B&W.png


Vato Rat Color.png


Vato Rat Grey.png
Vato Rat B&W Alt.png
Vato Rat Black.png
 
It is hard to pick a spot to start helping as there are so many black chips, I would suggest start by creating your favorite black chip and work from there. Black is also a color I really love on chips but it pops less if there is black in all other chips as well.
 
Can't say it was my "first"... but I too had a LM mini!!!! (And it was blue like my shirt too!! Although the "highlights" were pink!! lol) Indy 159 trucks and Powell rat bones wheels... and by that point, no rails or anything the sort! hahaha While the deck was relinquished to the "graveyard" (hung on the wall of a local ski/skate shop, owned by a friends father) I STILL have a deck with those same Indy trucks!!

Needles to say... I TOTALLY love the Vato design!!! (but definitely step back on the black... I mean hell, you could certainly go the route of bright/neon colors, it was the '80s!! -or close to it.... AND it seems all the kids are totally into bright colored chips these days anyway!! lol

Definitely can't wait to see the finished product!!
 
Can't say it was my "first"... but I too had a LM mini!!!! (And it was blue like my shirt too!! Although the "highlights" were pink!! lol) Indy 159 trucks and Powell rat bones wheels... and by that point, no rails or anything the sort! hahaha While the deck was relinquished to the "graveyard" (hung on the wall of a local ski/skate shop, owned by a friends father) I STILL have a deck with those same Indy trucks!!

Needles to say... I TOTALLY love the Vato design!!! (but definitely step back on the black... I mean hell, you could certainly go the route of bright/neon colors, it was the '80s!! -or close to it.... AND it seems all the kids are totally into bright colored chips these days anyway!! lol

Definitely can't wait to see the finished product!!
Thank you for your feedback. I play poker, but not that much. Although i've been playing for 30 years, the cardrooms I play and stakes I play, we only use one color chip haha... not many home games either. After getting some feedback, I now understand the idea of "dirty stacks". Although I like how the all black mockup looks, an all black set of chips sounds like a horrible idea LMAO! I 100% love the neon color set concept so thank you for the idea. Oh, I had this Gonzalez deck. I especially liked the graphics.
1683805297954.png
 
Thank you for your feedback. I play poker, but not that much. Although i've been playing for 30 years, the cardrooms I play and stakes I play, we only use one color chip haha... not many home games either. After getting some feedback, I now understand the idea of "dirty stacks". Although I like how the all black mockup looks, an all black set of chips sounds like a horrible idea LMAO! I 100% love the neon color set concept so thank you for the idea. Oh, I had this Gonzalez deck. I especially liked the graphics. View attachment 1133309
Had one of those too.. albeit an earlier Vision model, and red:
CF66613B-527F-478C-82DB-77B6D9C15029.jpeg

During winter months I flipped it around backwards, and used it as a “snowboard” !! I cut and mounted 2 thin steel rails on either side of the bottom and then bolted 2 strips of molding from a car so I could “strap” my feet to the top!!
Woohoo! Stupid stuff we did as kids!! Haha
 
Had one of those too.. albeit an earlier Vision model, and red:
View attachment 1133379
During winter months I flipped it around backwards, and used it as a “snowboard” !! I cut and mounted 2 thin steel rails on either side of the bottom and then bolted 2 strips of molding from a car so I could “strap” my feet to the top!!
Woohoo! Stupid stuff we did as kids!! Haha
That's awesome. I would just (try to) ride a plain deck. It was hard! lol. Dunno if you're on insta, but this profile will take you back https://www.instagram.com/thepastparticiple/
 
Old school skater here! Still looking for Animal Chin.

This is my favorite of your black/white design… this spot pattern doesn’t get used much but you found a Good reason. With those crossbones. I like the white one too.

If you are going with this Powell type rat, maybe a red/yellow Alva chip, a white/red hosoi chip…. You could do that vision - crazy fluorescent chip.

Or you could do a chip featuring each of those iconic Powell designs. Hawk mountain cabalero etc.

I love the idea and nobody has done it yet!

I’ll be watching!

BTW, that pink lance mountain deck was my first real board. Wish I kept it!

FD2543A9-A193-4A1B-885C-7C926F319BF7.jpeg
 
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Old school skater here! Still looking for Animal Chin.

This is my favorite of your black/white design… this spot pattern doesn’t get used much but you found a Good reason. With those crossbones. I like the white one too.

If you are going with this Powell type rat, maybe a red/yellow Alva chip, a white/red hosoi chip…. You could do that vision - crazy fluorescent chip.

Or you could do a chip featuring each of those iconic Powell designs. Hawk mountain cabalero etc.

I love the idea and nobody has done it yet!

I’ll be watching!

BTW, that pink lance mountain deck was my first real board. Wish I kept it!

View attachment 1137714
Thanks for your input... I've been taking my time and trying different color combinations and inlay ideas. That chip is my favorite as well and I'll probably use it in the set. Even though it was pointed out to me the black and white chip set won't work, I still think the mockup looks cool :)

Your idea about using the different Powell designs is the route I was thinking too. A different denom for Hawk, Mountain, Cab, Guerrero, McGill, and of course Mullen, then have Ripper on the back. Including Rat Bones, that's 7 denoms so maybe that's a Tourney set... Still playing with the colors and sheesh the graphics are a pain! Probably hire someone to help with that.
 
BB Cash Chips.png


I love the dayglo colors but the compatibility issues with the other color types makes it a pain. It looks like that with big spots, there aren't any issues, but smaller spots causes problems.

Just learning about the CPC spot levels... With a circular inlay, $/chip in this configuration:
L4- $3.02
L7- $4.02
L8- $4.34
L9- $4.66
L2- $2.49

Taking into account minimum order requirements for 5 unique chips, that's 500 chips. to simplify, I'll assume 100 of each chip

100 L4 = $302
100 L7 = $402
100 L8 = $434
100 L9 = $466
100 L3 = $249

Total= $1853.
 
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With a little tweak and very similar design, the prices become:

100 L4 = $302
100 L3 = $275
100 L4 = $302
100 L4 = $302
100 L2 = $249

Total = $1430 ($423 less)

The issue with Split Spots is when there is a Dayglo body with small non-Dayglo spots. They will still produce the chips, but add a 20% upcharge because of higher numbers of manufacturer rejects due to Split Spots.
BB Cash Chips 2.png
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