Wednesday morning I got up and decided to check my email early. Not really sure why, maybe it had something to do with the pinball machine I missed the other day that was a great price and local to boot. In any case, there was a guy in Arizona who was selling a twilight zone pinball machine a very reasonable price. I thought hey, may as well check on it so I fired off an email to him.
By the time I was at work I had an email waiting for me with a bunch of pictures of the machine. Nobody (or should I say no single person, heh) had beaten me to it this time! You could have knocked me over with a feather. This is where some of the shots I posted below came from.
My wife has been feeling sad/guilty for quashing my pinball dreams for some time. Earlier this summer I was planning on sinking upwards of $4500 into a TZ machine. That's kind of a scary amount of cash. I was so delirious at that point though that I was willing to do it. Real life came knocking however, and we just couldn't have done that and finished the basement both. Go figure.
Anyway, the point here is that Bon was quite excited by the fact that we suddenly had a shot at a relatively nice machine for about half that price. My "Pinball Jar" has right around half the funds for the price of this current machine, so including driving down to pick it up (gas, food, hotel, etc) we'd be out $1500 or so on top of that. Not a horrible deal really.
The deal cincher was talking to the guy on the phone. He's rebuilt this machine from the ground up. "cool" addons include the gumball machine has a light and gumballs added and the 3rd magnet is installed on the right ramp. (The 3rd magnet was in prototype machines and removed for production machines due to cost issues). He also listed a number of other things he has added, such as replacing the clock circuit board, a diverter magnet to reduce ball bounce on the power ramp and a few other small changes. All of the top few that I wanted to have done were already finished. Can't beat that. (For anyone who is interested, you can look at some of the mods here)
So, long story short (too late!) Saturday September 23rd I should be in Flagstaff Arizona picking up my very own Twilight Zone pinball machine!
It's going to be a long drive, but I'm okay with that!
11 comments:
SWEET! I hope this deal doesn't fall apart. Seems like a long drive though.
You could almost drive to Vegas from where you are. We'll be there next month for our 10yr anniversary, one of the things on my must do list is playing some pins at the Pinball HoF.
Yeah, I've been to vegas 3 times in the past 10 years or so. Driven twice. I think this trip will be longer than a drive to vegas.
wohoo!
Now to figure out where to put it until the basement is done. ;)
The dining room is always a good place for pinball. That's where my machine was when I found it!
Nope, the dining room is where the popcorn machine lives. This baby is going in the front room where the piano we were babysitting used to live. Then when the basement is finished... viola! One arcade game, one Mame, a pinball and the popcorn machine mysteriously dissappear (along with the TV and sundry entertainment hud).
AND, I am going with Dadguy to pick it up while my sister watches ALL THREE KIDS! You say long drive? I say long date!
Sound like a great time! None of my family lives close by to use as babysitters. Actually my sister in law is only 50 miles away, but she's done her share of babysitting for us and I don't want to have to return that favor!
Just ship that popcorn machine over here. I think I can make a spot for it.
Ahem... actually that is MY popcorn machine!
bon- details, details... I know it's your machine, but I know you'd give it up to have a pinball machine. Wouldn't you?
mmm... well, I would for a mint condition Adam's Family! you got one you wanna trade?
I think I just wet myself.
No, but I have a 27 year old Flash. It's practically an antique. You gotta come get it though. I can almost taste that popcorn! LOL
The sad thing is, that's my "new" machine. The old one is from 1971.
Nobody, we need to get you a new pinball machine. I'll keep an eye out for a gorgar for you.
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