The Best Celebrity Tie In Pinball Machines Of All Time
Posted on 18. Aug, 2009 by Ross Everett in Arts and Entertainment
Pinball has always been big on celebrity tie ins. As a result, weve got plenty of good machines to choose from since aside from a few missteps the industry has done a decent job of creating celebrity tie-in machines that work for their demographic and are compatible with the pinball ethos. For our best evaluation the quality of the game a factor well only be part of the criteria.
Well also consider the collectability of the machine, or more specifically consider if the theme enhances or detracts from the machines value to the pinball enthusiast aftermarket. This is may seem like a somewhat subjective criteria, but its actually a very important consideration to pinball collectors.
5) Eight Ball by Bally Manufacturing (1977):
Some would question if it belongs on the list at all for reasons we’ll discuss in a moment. If you didnt live through it, you have no idea of what a big deal Fonzie from the TV series Happy Days was during the mid to late 1970s. His popularity spilled over into other areas of popular culture, such as re-popularizing the leather jacket and bringing the word nerd back from the dead.
Eight Ball features Fonzie and a comely female companion in a pool hall. Or does it? The intent is certainly to suggest its the iconic Happy Days character but theres no reference made to his name. Nor is there any other Happy Days iconography present on the machine.
4) KISS by Bally Manufacturing (1979):
The makeup wearing heavy metal band was perfect for a pinball machine theme. The machine depicted the band in all of their earlier glory and featured polyphonic renditions of classic songs like Rock n Roll All Night and Shout It Out Loud. Ive always liked how the graphics look more pinball like than I had first anticipated and are actually somewhat restrained (at least by KISS standards). The machine was fun to play, and was very popular with a production run of 17,000 units.
3) Wizard! by Bally Manufacturing (1974)
Wizard is often incorrectly named as the first licensed celebrity theme machine, but it definitely set off the flood of tie-in machines in the latter half of the 20th century. The machines artwork is long on stylish symbolism and short of specific references to the film. Thats helped the machine age well and remain a sought after collectable up through the present day.
2) Playboy by Bally Manufacturing (1978)
A pipe smoking Hugh Hefner and a bevy of bikini clad Playmates grace this homage to the magazine. With the Chicago roots of the magazine, a pinball machine tribute would have been a natural notwithstanding its significant cultural influence. The machine art is by Paul Faris, whos considered one of the best ever by pinball geeks. The machine is a blast to play and captures all of the cool of Playboys early days including Leroy Neimans Femlin cartoon and digitized music based on the theme to the Playboy After Dark TV show composed by Cy Coleman. A perfect union of a great theme, amazing artwork and fun gameplay made this a very popular machine upon release (18,250 unit production run) and is prized by collectors even today.
1) Evel Kneivel by Bally Manufacturing (1976)
The Last of the Gladiators on a great pinball machine. The fact that I could end the description with that sentence should convey why this is #1 on my list and completes a Bally Manufacturing sweep of the top 5. This was one of the first machines to be made almost exclusively with solid state scoring as the industry moved away from the reel based electromechanical scoring that had been the norm since the 1930s. A simple, but fun to play design with all sorts of officially licensed Evel Knievel imagery. With the death of the legendary daredevil last year this machine is harder to find than ever. Fun gameplay combined with a theme that is off the charts in terms of cool makes this my choice for the best celebrity themed pinball machine ever.
Related posts:
