Johnny Layton Week: Toy Machine Ad Archive

Day 3 of Johnny Layton Week continues. The first two days we had a two-part interview with JLAY. (Here's JLAY PART 1 & JLAY PART 2 if you missed them.) With Daniel Lutheran Week we raided his cellphone and planned on doing the same with Johnny until we got an unexpected email from Ed Templeton. We had hit up Ed to see if we could get the ad Johnny had mentioned with his dad in Iraq with the spray painted tank what we got instead was every single ad Johnny has ever had for Toy Machine. We were like, "Well, damn! What we have here is an overdose of awesome!" So we bagged the cellphone photos and hit up JLAY to discuss his favorite and least favorite Toy ads and all the adventures in between.

JOHNNY LAYTON'S TOY MACHINE AD ARCHIVE OF AWESOME

That’s in Australia. That was on a Toy trip and I believe Bradford took that photo. Dude, Harmony took the worst slam on this rail. That’s all I remember from that day. I did the gap to crooks and Josh was trying gap 5-0 and he just air footed and put his foot on the rail and flew 15-feet straight to his hip or shoulder. He took the hardest slam I’ve seen. It’s one of those slams that stands out in my mind. Josh got worked at that spot.
I know this rail is right by a whoopdie doo ledge that I think Alex Olson skated. This photo is from way back, I’m wearing some kind of Active Rasta shirt so Ed went with the, “No friggin’ hippies, ok?” You can’t skate for Toy Machine if you have dreads; Ed is not down with dreads. At that time I think he was fucking with me, putting some Rasta, hippie-shit in my ad. I was never a hippie. I’m one of the cleanest people, if you know me. In that way I’m no way a hippie. But everyone smokes weed these days and in that sense I guess I am. I like the outdoors and hippies love the outdoors; I’m right there with them.




That’s in China. I am sweating balls in this photo. It was so hot, oh my gosh. Dustin Dollin was skating this rail with me. He did a kickflip noseslide to fakie and I was blown away. Shocked. Just skating with Dustin…he can do pretty much anything, you’re like, “What the fuck? This guy is insane!” I did a front blunt shove on this rail, I think it was in my Good & Evil part. I was so hot and it was so humid in Hong Kong and we went back to the hotel and it was so ice cold with the AC and I got so sick. I remember puking and being sick for a whole 48 hours. I had to lock myself in my room for a day while everyone was out skating. I was so bummed. That was my first out of the country trip with Vans aside from a demo trip to Canada. I didn’t ever see this ad and then someone had a magazine at their house like three years later and I was like, “What? I never saw this ad.” Maybe I didn’t get an email from Ed, usually we’ll get an email from him with our ad or whoever’s ad is coming out.




I don’t know what Super Mondo Extreme is all about but this rail is in Australia and this was on a Vans trip. I remember I got back from this trip and Ed was super-psyched because all the photos I got on the trip I was rocking Toy Machine really hard. Mike O’Meally shot this photo. I always liked the sky in this photo. He shot the backsmith in China as well. This is at some school in the middle of nowhere. I remember we tried skating some crazy full pipes that day. I was shooting with O’Meally a lot at this time. I was doing front feebles on everything at this time; I love that trick.




That portrait of me skin and bones was in the hotel in Barcelona on some Toy Machine trip. Ed would always barge in and shoot photos. I think I was sharing a room with Matt B and Billy. On that trip Billy filled up a water balloon the size of a bowling ball and threw it out the window and it cracked the windshield of a car. The police came up to our room and there was hash in the room; we were freaking out. We answered the door and the cops took our passports. It was one of my first times out of the country so I was like, “Fuck, dude! What’s going to happen?” The cops came back and gave us the passports back and said the people that got their window broken are going to come back tomorrow and deal with the cost. We were like, “Ok…” but no one ever came and we flew home and everything was fine.
The front board is in Moreno Valley. I can’t remember how we came up on that thing but that day Billy Marks did a lipslide and somehow he smith grinded it and that is sketch, man. I 50-50’d it and it’s aluminum and it grabs you. He got away with a smith grind and that’s shocking because his first try it stuck and he somehow spider monkey’d his way all the way to the bottom. I remember that being a pretty scary frontboard but soon after Heath Kirtchart had a cover backlipping it. I want to go back to that thing.




This switch flip on these stairs in Lake Elsinore, pretty much five minutes down the road from where I grew up. Whenever they built something out there we knew we had to find it and skate it because there wasn’t shit to skate out there. So we’d go skate these stairs all the time, I think I was 18 right there. It was right after I gotten on Toy and Vans. I’m wearing those Rowley white shoes so I’m on Vans at this point. I was probably filming for Good & Evil right there. I don’t know why that clip never got used. A friend of mine filmed this; I think I forgot about the footage.




These are two separate photos of the tank and my dad in Iraq that Ed photoshopped together. My dad did spray paint that on the side of the tank; that’s real. My dad was there as a contractor and always had people protecting him because those were who Saddam’s people were kidnapping, the contractors. It was a sketchy time for him to be over there but it was damn good hazard pay. That was around the same time I was filming Good & Evil. My dad sent me an email with these photos and I was like, ‘I bet Ed would be psyched to see this.’ I sent it to him and a week later I saw this photo that Sean Peterson shot of the backlip with the photos my dad sent as part of the ad. I was so, so psyched that my dad was part of the ad.




That’s the Brea rail. I remember the kink got cut off and we were one of the first people to skate this rail and then it got killed over the years. I think it’s been kickflip backlipped and tons of shit done on this rail. Now they took the center rail out and you can skate the stairs. I went there six months ago to skate the stairs and they redid the landing, it’s a little better than it used to be. The side rails are still skateable. This is when we were well on our way of filming Good & Evil. I was so excited that my first video part was in a Toy Machine video. It was an exciting time and it was really motivating to skate with all the guys. Diego was the main motivator. He was on fire at this time, same with Billy. Matt B got on flow around the same time that I got on the team and we’d always be filming together. Eventually Matt proved to all of us that he’s the shit. He’s the best dude. If I had to pick a video part that I like my own skating I’d say Good & Evil. That’s the one that made me kinda blow up. We won video of the year. It was a serious video to come out at the time and I think it was one of the better videos to come out around that team. It was hard work but it all just fell into place. I just skated as much as I could and it worked out right. Being part of that video made me into the pro I am today.

JOHNNY'S GOOD & EVIL PART

Rincon…that thing was so fresh at the time. I remember the rail got taken off and this is like 30 minutes south of where I grew up. I remember I lit it up with Sean Peterson. I didn’t see this photo for a while. I think this is my 3rd or 4th ad. I wasn’t even on the team yet when I shot this photo; I was still flow. I went back with Sean Peterson and did a backlip fakie on the rail on top of the hubba to the right. Greco back 50’d it long time ago. That night Sierra Fellers kicflipped over the rail, back 5-0 on the rail and then he also did switch pop shove it and switch heelflip down the big four all in one night. That’s the kind of shit he was doing. He would completely kill a spot at that time. I think he was on Mystery flow at that time. That’s summer of 2003, almost 10 years. That’s a long time ago.




This is my favorite Toy Machine ad. Burnett shot the photo, the spot is sick, it’s a school deep IE like San Bernadino. There’s a 10 stair rail there that everyone skated and then they redid this part of the school and I was like, “Look at that spot!” That bank to rail right there Appleyard just had a backtail photo on the hip of it. Grif Dog had a fastplant on it. I witnessed him fastplant and completely miss and almost kill himself but somehow save himself so fast. I just like this ad. It’s an ollie, it’s just basic, with the California palms in the back, rocking a Toy Machine board, 30 minutes from where I grew up. I’ve been skating that spot forever. I skated the 10-stair when I was 16 years old.




I think I went back like five times to try that, I could never put it down. The bank is super mellow, you have to put a sign at the bottom of the ramp and that bar is really close to where you pop, you kinda have to have the right speed and ollie as high as you can and try and keep the board under your feet. I ollied this thing and Bradford got super pissed. He took me to this spot; it’s down the street from my house, it’s three minutes from my house. He was like, “Stacy Lowery tried it, it’s backside for Stacy.” I said, “I’d rather go frontside,” so I tried it and I was clearing the bar and it was getting dark so we decided to come back another day. I hit him up to go back. His story might be different, but I hit him up and he was on a mission with Leo and I was like, “I’m going to the spot, meet me there.” And he never showed. Griffin was there and had his camera and he shot it. I was psyched I ollied it and Bradford was like, “Who shot it?” I said Griffin and then Ed ran it as an ad and Bradford got bummed, he was like, “That was your cover, dude. That was your Skateboarder cover. It’s not going to be on the cover since Grif shot it.” But me and Bradford eventually got another ollie cover which I’d rather have a cover of me ollieing Pulaski over this thing. This thing is down the street, Pulaski is a legendary spot.
Griff was shooting a few photos at the time but he has a focal point that was off a couple times. Ed called him out in one of the Toy Machine ads for Nick T. A pole jam. Ed put, ‘Photo by Griffin Collins. Focusing a little more on the fast food restaurant in the background than Nick T’s trick.’ But he still ran the photo.




I’ve had a lot of ollies for Toy Machine ads; I like to ollie. Two double rail ollies for Toy Machine, whoa! This is Parks Middle School out in the parking lot. I think Gravette crooked this rail. To this day I still have not seen this footage. Grant Schuebert filmed it and I tried to get the footy and it never happened. This is probably four years ago. Soon after this ad came out Bradford was like, “Oh, I shot Gillette doing that,” and Gillette’s sequence came out in Skateboarder right after. I’m going over both rails and behind the post. It was scary, I bailed my board into that post a couple times and the board came back and got me in the chest. It was pretty sketchy.




That was a random day. I think Griffin shot that photo too. Two Grif Dog ads, damn! That’s in Torrance. I think Haslam has a kickflip hippie jump on this thing; I was blown away. Oh, there’s a UFO in the sky! Look at that shit. I don’t know what’s with the near beer; I don’t drink near beer. This was one of my board graphics. But I don’t know why the near beer.




I think we were just dorking around and Bradford was like, “Let me shoot that.” Then Ed ran it as an ad. This is my least favorite Toy Machine ad because I’m just ollieing a fucking fence into mellow-ass bank. I don’t know what’s up at the top. He drew my hands going into my pants with some weird little elf shoes. No, Ed has never asked me to pose naked. I think I kind of intimidate Ed. I think I may have bullied Ed in the past a little bit, I kicked a soccer ball at him as hard as I could and he thought he broke his arm. I punched him in the stomach when we were playing that game where someone looks at your hand below your waist and you have the circle you get to punch him. I got him pretty bad. One time I made him cry. I love Ed and we have a great relationship. He’s awesome, he’s the best boss anyone could ever hope for but I think I intimidate him sometimes, a little bit.


In this episode of Adventures With Chris Kevin Barnett tells the story of Johnny making Ed cry:


Season 3 of AWC starts today on OFFTHEWALL.TV