Ok, so the bigger my collection gets, the more I want to add unusual, novelty-style pins to enhance the variety of my line-up, especially since I often have non-pinball people over, and I like seeing their reactions to different pins. Just yesterday I scored one of my holy grails, a nearly perfect A.G. Soccer-ball. I have wanted one of these ever since the week I bought my first pin, when I saw an A.G. Soccer-ball and A.G. USA Football in a Philadelphia collector's line-up (he was downsizing from 50+ pins, but his head-to-head pins were not for sale). So what pinball machines come to mind when you think of novelty pins? Also, what concerns would you have? Some the first things I think of are glitchiness (a la Baby Pacman), or potential difficulty finding parts due to limited production runs. Ideally, it would be nice if these pins are fun to play too, lol. Some of the specific novelty pins that I think of are:
-A.G. Soccer-Ball or A.G. USA Football - head to head concept is pretty cool
-Joust (pinball) - head to head, two player action, but with the Williams feel that I have come to like a lot
-Hercules - impressive size, but clunky and not particularly fun from what I'm told, though I have yet to personally try one
-Strikes 'N Spares - seems cheap and fairly easy to come by, despite relatively low production numbers, which reinforces that its best role is probably as one component of a larger collection
-Banzai Run - only reason I consider this a novelty is the flippers in the back box. I can't remember seeing one for sale for the past two years, though, so owners don't seem to want to let 'em go, which is a good sign for how much fun the game must be.
-Baby Pac-Man (already in my collection) - how can you beat combining one of the all-time greatest video games and pinball? People can't seem to help but exclaim, "Cool!!!" when they see it. Not known to be particularly reliable though, lol. Granny and the Gators doesn't have the appeal of a Pacman theme, but obviously deserves mention, since it shares the same platform.
I hesitate to add RFM and SWE1 to the list, although the Pinball 2000 format is a little bit of a novelty. Once again, guests who see my RFM are usually fascinated, and always want to give it a try. In fact, the machine usually remains on for the rest of the night ;D
Wizard of Oz and The Hobbit could almost be added as well, but that might be stretching things too far, since the only reason they come to mind is the presence of an LCD flatscreen in the back glass. In reality, this "novel" feature is really only a long overdue and logical progression from the DMDs that have remained in vogue for the prior 20+ years. So while these pins excite me, they probably do not truly fit the "novelty" genre I am intrigued by and focusing on in this thread.
What other novelty pinball machines am I missing? Also, please chime in with your experience with some of the pins mentioned above!
Vancouver, WA
Abbotsford, BC
Sana'a
Cessnock
Weitersburg
Villejuif
