Saturday, July 18, 2020

PINBALL FROM THE BLACK LAGOON


In my last two years of High School my second home was the local bowling alley. It was a cool social hangout where you actually had to interact with fellow humans instead of by cell phone. We played countless hundreds of games there and when we got hungry there was a restaurant on the premises where we could fill up on swell, greasy, diner-style food. And for the right kind of payoff, we could entice the owner's son to hand us a couple of six packs of beer out the back door once in a while.

One of the other pastimes offered there was a row of pinball machines. In between bowling, we'd stand at these noisy entertainment devices for hours, winning and losing and attempting to avoid the dreaded "Tilt!".

Many years later -- 1992 in fact -- along came a pinball machine that I would have probably given up half my bowling time to play. Designed by John Trudeau, the Creature From the Black Lagoon pinball machine made by Midway Manufacturing Company and released under Bally games looks like a helluva good time.

If you want to own one, you can spend part of your stimulus check (and quite a bit more) on this refurbished model from The Pinball Company.


Creature from the Black Lagoon pinball machine was designed by John Trudeau (“Dr. Flash”) and released by Midway (under the Bally brand name). It is loosely based on the movie of the same name. The game’s theme is 1950’s drive-in theater. Its major feature is a holographic creature, set in the middle of the playfield, that lights up and waves its “hand” back and forth during multiball play. The holograph is set behind a green plastic insert, so that the monster appears green. The game was licensed from Universal Studios by Bally so that the backglass artwork, the cabinet artwork, and the creature looked like the original movie actors and monsters.


Game Features:

Flippers (2), Pop bumpers (3), Ramps (2), Vertical up-kickers (2), Kick-out holes (2), 2-ball Multiball, Whirlpool ball funnel, Video mode. Hologram of the Creature appears below the playfield and lights up at certain times.

WEIGHT 250 lbs
DIMENSIONS 56 x 29 x 77 in
PRICE $8,999.00

Everything you need to know about this game can be found HERE.





EXTRA: Below is a CFTBL "standee", standup promo card for the pinball game.



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