Woodcliff Lake, NJ
As a kid I stood on a crate and played pinball and Bullseye Baseball in my uncle's basement. It was so cool to watch the paper score numbers ding higher and higher as the ball flew around the play field. An interactive game with mechanical parts was so intriguing.
Then as a teenager in the early 90s, I played at local arcades, FunHouse, Addams Family, Medieval Madness, a few others were always around. But my ultimate favorite was Theatre of Magic. The action was great and the illusions and ramps kept me excited and playing. I always dreamed of owning one.
In 2005 the feeling was uncontrollable, I needed to start looking. Once in a while I would find a beater, probably from an arcade or boardwalk, that was over-priced. Little did I know this was a desireable machine...
I finally contacted a pinball "broker" who found one for me in ok shape but still over $4,000 before shipping and his "fee". And he didn't sound trustworthy at all.
Eventually, after 3 years of on and off casually looking, and almost losing hope as arcades stopped having pinball machines, I saw an ad pop up.... $3,500 and it was LOCAL!!! The same day it popped up, I called to confirm it was a real TOM and I wasn't dreaming. He said he got about 2 dozen calls right away, but since I was local I could get there first. I grabbed my friend and a wad of cash and we drove the 30 minutes to check this thing out.
The guy had about a dozen Pins in his basement, from an original KISS with custom LEDs (which I had never seen before) to Attack from Mars and Black Knight. Oh my God what a man cave. I checked out the Theatre of Magic, but had no idea what to look for. He showed me the motor on the saw blade which was also new to me. It was a large ugly looking motor and I never saw it working but didn't care at that point. (I would later remove it.) I played a couple games, and it worked but I was buying it, no matter what.
We humped it out of there and into the van and back home to the garage as fast as possible. What a score! I was so excited. Good old TOM was mine at last. We played almost ever day, and enjoyed working on it, replacing parts as needed and reading everything about it. Higher and higher the scores went...
After a few years of Pinside forum reading and looking at everyone installing cool MODs, it was time for an upgrade. I needed to get rid of the rusty legs, wax caked parts and dented rails. I needed to get TOM to where he was meant to be... The Living Room Piece!
A complete professional restoration and upgrade was needed. (really that is the only way "The Woman" would allow it from the garage to the living room) I heard of a guy who does the whole thing, complete tear down, and restoration, clear coat, LEDs, etc. I saved up some cash and waited a couple years to get it done, and now, it is in the Living Room.
I had a local tech install some cool LEDs and work on some other tweaks but it is nice and shiny with gold legs and trim, a new cabinet and artwork, working Tiger Saw, completely stripped and redone play field, and much more. My childhood dream of owning and playing a beautiful Theatre of Magic pinball machine every day has come true.
Now what...
