He invented a number of skateboarding tricks, including the “Caballerial” (a 360 backside ollie from fakie), won countless competitions on vert ramps and in street contests.
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After a series of successful skateboarding contests, Caballero joined the Powell Peralta Bones Brigade professional skateboarding team in 1979 - a team he still rides for today. In his own career, Caballero was fueled by the same determination and fearless approach as his childhood hero. You can go out there and be creative and bring excitement to people in the world.” He also showed me that even though you might be broken and bruised you could come back and continue pushing the limits of what is possible, assuming your body is still intact. “When he said he was going to do something, he didn’t back out. “What he always represented to me was a person that overcame fears and a man of his word,” says Caballero.
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He would remove closers from screen doors and install them on the frame to look like shocks, put on aftermarket plastic fuel tank and accessories and, of course, clip a playing card to the front fork so that it would sound like a motorcycle when flipped through the bicycle spokes. And he would soup-up his bicycle with anything he could find to make it look like Knievel’s motorcycle. He made a big impact on my life, my career and my interests.”Īt age 10, Caballero would set up bicycle ramps and little garbage cans to jump over outside of his home. “Evel Knievel was an icon who I grew up seeing on TV, in the toy stores and in movies. “I love that I grew up in the ’70s,” says Caballero. (Eric Hendrikx for InsideHook)įor Caballero, who grew up in an era when stars like Bruce Lee, Clint Eastwood and Steve McQueen were action gods of the time, the guy on the motorcycle in the white jumpsuit represented a sort of danger and excitement he craved as a kid.
This was a really cool find,” he enthuses. “The action figure, the bike and the energizer are all smaller than the U.S. Reaching deeper into his display case, Caballero pulls out a scaled-down version of the Stunt Cycle that was released only in Japan. In the 2000s a reissue included a centennial red-white-blue variety. He has every variation of the Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle in his collection - the original ‘70s launch ramps were manufactured in yellow, red, blue and orange. “I was so inspired by this single toy,” says Caballero. It’s a toy that I distinctly recall scraping my knuckles on the concrete sidewalks while winding the crank as fast as I could to send Evel down our neighborhood cul-de-sac. There is no forgetting the memorable 1970s Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle - a remarkably well-engineered toy with a ramp that you could torque-up with a lever crank before letting the 6 inch action figure on a motorcycle jettison into action. One particular wall displays more than 100 original skateboards from the 1970s.Īnd while I could happily peruse these magnificent collections for hours, I’m here specifically to see Caballero’s prized Evel Knievel toy collection a nearly complete assemblage of branded puzzles, carded and boxed action figures, play sets and adventure set - it’s a private museum dedicated to highlighting the glory of one of the most iconic motorcycle daredevils of all time.Īs Caballero reaches into his glass display case and begins to bring out items to show me, I can’t help but relish in the nostalgia, recognizing some of the pieces in his collection from my own childhood. There are display cases filled with skateboarding memorabilia and the walls are decorated with paintings, silk screens, original drawings, electric guitars and skateboard decks.
Welcome to The Collectors, a series in which we profile the people behind impressive private collections.Īs I enter into the home of professional skateboard Steve Caballero, one thing becomes apparent pretty quickly: The guy is an avid collector of things.
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