I have watched a couple of documentaries mentioning the existence of a Country Bear Jamboree Pinball custom made by Disney. This machine it's one of a kind. it was at the Country bear Jamboree Store in Disneyland before the attraction closed. Does anyone has any details of pictures about this machine?
I'm wondering if it wasn't really a pinball machine, but a coin operated putting machine. I have no info, but that reminds me of putting games I've seen and just wondering if normies would call it "a pinball machine?"
Good luck.
Quoted from TheLaw:I'm wondering if it wasn't really a pinball machine, but a coin operated putting machine. I have no info, but that reminds me of putting games I've seen and just wondering if normies would call it "a pinball machine?"
Good luck.
Thank you! It may also be a re-theme of a EM from the 60's. Unfortunately, I don't have any other details about it.
Maybe a re-theme of this?
https://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=1218&picno=54457
The mechanical action of the bear is similar to the golfer manikin.
.................David Marston
Quoted from dmarston:Maybe a re-theme of this?
https://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=1218&picno=54457
The mechanical action of the bear is similar to the golfer manikin.
.................David Marston
That it's definitely a probability! I wonder where the other bears were placed on the table...
I'd highly suggest that instead of trying to dig for a one-off custom on a pinball site, try to go to a Disney enthusiast site and see if any of the Disney historians have any information. WDWmagic.com may be a good place to try.
If it was done as a retheme by WDW imagineering or a local shop, there may not be a lot of public knowledge to pinball folks. But perhaps some of those who have connections inside Disney, or have photos from their heyday's could help uncover more about this machine.
I will say this.. If you go on the current ride (Winnie the Pooh) that now sits where Country Bear Jamboree used to be, turn around and look behind you as you go through the ride. They did not tear down CBJ and actually repurposed it. A few of the old Country Bear decorations still exist in the ride, such as the animal heads that used to be above the doors. You just do not see them from the regular seated position of the Winnie the Pooh ride, but if you look behind you from time to time, they are still there.
It makes me wonder... If you walk backwards into the Winnie the Pooh store, will you be able to see this Country Bear Pinball machine??? 
Quoted from Yoko2una:I'd highly suggest that instead of trying to dig for a one-off custom on a pinball site, try to go to a Disney enthusiast site and see if any of the Disney historians have any information. WDWmagic.com may be a good place to try.
If it was done as a retheme by WDW imagineering or a local shop, there may not be a lot of public knowledge to pinball folks. But perhaps some of those who have connections inside Disney, or have photos from their heyday's could help uncover more about this machine.
Thats a great idea. I will definitely try that next. Thank you!
Quoted from Calfdemon:I will say this.. If you go on the current ride (Winnie the Pooh) that now sits where Country Bear Jamboree used to be, turn around and look behind you as you go through the ride. They did not tear down CBJ and actually repurposed it. A few of the old Country Bear decorations still exist in the ride, such as the animal heads that used to be above the doors. You just do not see them from the regular seated position of the Winnie the Pooh ride, but if you look behind you from time to time, they are still there.
It makes me wonder... If you walk backwards into the Winnie the Pooh store, will you be able to see this Country Bear Pinball machine???
Well you are in California. You can do a site survey and see if you find any information 
Quoted from Yoko2una:I'd highly suggest that instead of trying to dig for a one-off custom on a pinball site, try to go to a Disney enthusiast site and see if any of the Disney historians have any information.
I've tried, and it is almost impossible to even find pics inside the Main Street Penny Arcade back in the day, let alone the one in Bear Country. And many other things.
As a kid that grew up minutes from Disneyland and went to Bear Country when it first opened and for years after, I don't even remember this game.
Honestly, the novelty of Bear Country did not last very long. At least for me.
Best site I have found for all things Disneyland past is-
Quoted from o-din:This is all I got.
"Teddi Barra’s Swingin’ Arcade survived the arrival of Critter Country, although video games replaced some of the old-fashioned, one-of-a-kind machines."[quoted image][quoted image]
Thank you for finding these pictures. Interesting selection for sure.
Quoted from pinballphotos:Thank you for finding these pictures. Interesting selection for sure.
You're welcome!
I've spent hours when I was at work looking for old Disneyland tidbits on the internet, but anything about the arcades is very scarce.
Can't find anything about Space Mist which they served outside Tomorrowland Terrace and was presented in dry ice to give it that effect.
Can take you an an Adventure Thru Inner Space though just as it was when I was 5 years old when it first opened. Before the late 70s when all the loogies were hanging from the snowflakes.
Quoted from o-din:You're welcome!
I've spent hours when I was at work looking for old Disneyland tidbits on the internet, but anything about the arcades is very scarce.
Can't find anything about Space Mist which they served outside Tomorrowland Terrace and was presented in dry ice to give it that effect.
Can take you an an Adventure Thru Interspace though just as it was when I was 5 years old when it first opened. Before the late 70s when all the loogies were hanging from the snowflakes.
Haha love this! You can see the clothing and hairdos from the era. That's quite an interesting journey just to presence a snowflake. I guess they didn't have a lot of content back then lol
Like I said, I was 5 years old when they first redid Tomorrowland and it was quite a thing to behold. By the late 70s, maintenance wasn't Disneyland's strong suit, but it was a great place for teenagers like myself at the time to hang out for around $10.
Started taking my own daughter there it the late 90s with passes year after year and the new Tomorrowland was never as spectacular. But we had a lot of fun.
Quoted from o-din:Like I said, I was 5 years old when they first redid Tomorrowland and it was quite a thing to behold. By the late 70s, maintenance wasn't Disneyland's strong suit, but it was a great place for teenagers like myself at the time to hang out for around $10.
Started taking my own daughter there it the late 90s with passes year after year and the new Tomorrowland was never as spectacular. But we had a lot of fun.
I don't remember when they re-did Tomorrowland, but I do remember the first time i went with a friend without my parents in 1974. We cut in line at on the matterhorn about 5 times. Kids could get away with it.
It was the same weekend America Sings opened up, replacing the old GE Carousel of Progress. A week later, an employee got crushed when the building rotated between scenes.
There have been a surprising number of fatalities there.
Quoted from RTS:There have been a surprising number of fatalities there.
Helicopter crashes and someone falling out of the Matterhorn are some of the first I remember hearing about. Then my young daughter looking at Thunder Mountain saying it did not look safe and a few weeks later we found out it wasn't. But, with the amount of visitors, you are more likely to get killed driving there. There is also the urban legend some guy had a heart attack when the Haunted Mansion originally opened as a walk thru. Then it sat there closed for years before it became a ride.
One of my earliest memories was getting scared shitless in this thing that I was going to fly out of it as I don't remember seatbelts and I was riding high on mom's lap. I was only two or so as that is when it shut down to make way for the new Tomorrowland which opened in 1967.
Quoted from o-din:Helicopter crashes and someone falling out of the Matterhorn are some of the first I remember hearing about. Then my young daughter looking at Thunder Mountain saying it did not look safe and a few weeks later we found out it wasn't. But, with the amount of visitors, you are more likely to get killed driving there. There is also the urban legend some guy had a heart attack when the Haunted Mansion originally opened as a walk thru. Then it sat there closed for years before it became a ride.
One of my earliest memories was getting scared shitless in this thing that I was going to fly out of it as I don't remember seatbelts and I was riding high on mom's lap. I was only two or so as that is when it shut down to make way for the new Tomorrowland which opened in 1967.
The 1955 "futuristic" vision of the Astro Jets reminds me of this old Far Side comic.
11e3be1fa97b580753c6c9b9f5f0c341 (resized).pngQuoted from RTS:The 1955 "futuristic" vision of the Astro Jets reminds me of this old Far Side comic.
They had real car headlights on them. lol.
Still, the second incarnation of Tomorrowland from 1967 is still the best.
Apparently they came up short with the budget the third time around and it shows.
rocketjets_1 (resized).jpgA large amount of Disneyland Main Street Arcade Games were shipped to Orlando.
There was an auction maybe 20ish years ago, that had around 100 games from Orlando and Ca.
These pieces werent in the announcement, but the tags were on all the games.
Stuff went real cheap at first, then phone calls went out, and some of the rarer pieces soared in price,
as the gossip was Copperfield was bidding on the Automatons and fortune tellers.
I owned a Bromley little Pro from Disneyland, it was covered in Formica, and not likely the game in question, but the wear on the "figure" was far less than the rest of the game.
It made me think they replaced the figure with another, as a repair, or maybe as suggested, a character
was used.
We did not have a pin as such in Country Bear in Orlando, that I have seen.
Quoted from OLDPINGUY:A large amount of Disneyland Main Street Arcade Games were shipped to Orlando.
So, is that where those pitch and bats I used to love ended up at? I know at least one of them had to be a United Star Slugger or something similar. There were no pinballs but they did have a couple of bingo machines.
Quoted from o-din:You're welcome!
I've spent hours when I was at work looking for old Disneyland tidbits on the internet, but anything about the arcades is very scarce.
Can't find anything about Space Mist which they served outside Tomorrowland Terrace and was presented in dry ice to give it that effect.
Can take you an an Adventure Thru Inner Space though just as it was when I was 5 years old when it first opened. Before the late 70s when all the loogies were hanging from the snowflakes.
Brought to you by Monsanto.
My first trip to Disneyland was for my 5th birthday, and Innerspace was one of the free rides that didn’t require tickets. I was scared shitless when I saw the cars go through the shrink ray and they showed them getting smaller and smaller as they went up until they were just a bunch of little balls blowing around at the top. When I entered the “Monsanto Mighty Microscope, I expected to go up the through the scope and be shrunk, but unexpectedly took a sharp left turn and really thought the ride was cool. The narrator was spooky as hell though. Again, because it was free, we went on it 3 or 4 times.
Quoted from o-din:One of my earliest memories was getting scared shitless in this thing that I was going to fly out of it as I don't remember seatbelts and I was riding high on mom's lap. I was only two or so as that is when it shut down to make way for the new Tomorrowland which opened in 1967.
I felt the same way on Space Mountain. I was a tall 5 year old so just barely made the height requirement. No seatbelts, just a lap pull down bar that stopped at my moms lap, not mine. I held on for dear life. If I let go, I’m sure I would have flown out. Luckily we couldn’t afford to go on it again as it was an expensive ticket.
Quoted from vicjw66:Luckily we couldn’t afford to go on it again as it was an expensive ticket.
Luckily for me my daughter was too small to go on last summer, so I didn't have to ride it again and re-aggravate childhood trauma.
Quoted from vicjw66:I felt the same way on Space Mountain.
We waited years for Space Mountain to finally open and by the time it did I was around 16. We went to one of those nighttime private parties that were not so private where rides did not require tickets. Needless to say we were pretty spaced the first time we rode Space Mountain.
I could tell a little more about that evening but let's just say it ended in that little room off Main Street where they put all the bad people.
I think the Main street penny arcade had this or something very close. My bad memory thinks the cabinet of the BCJ arcade game in question was shaped like a pinball cab with similar golfer motion as this. On this one the Ball raises from beneath the rotating golfer and sits right in front of the putter.
Annotation 2020-06-10 183805 (resized).pngQuoted from TheLaw:Luckily for me my daughter was too small to go on last summer, so I didn't have to ride it again and re-aggravate childhood trauma.
I finally talked my young daughter into riding it right when it became Rockin' Space Mountain with The Red Hot Chili Peppers blasting Higher Ground. It was really a very impressive makeover of the ride.
Quoted from Vino:One accident happened on the old skyway.
They put cages on them when I was a kid and eventually removed them.
Death at DWorld closed them down there.
Quoted from Vino:One accident happened on the old skyway.
They put cages on them when I was a kid and eventually removed them.
Hole stayed open in Matterhorn forever and looked odd.
Did they finally seal it shut?
Skyway is the other time they put us in that room for swinging the buckets and shutting it down twice on the same ride.
They sealed up the Matterhorn inside and out where you could no longer see all the tracks and cars racing around the inside or the skyway and added a couple yetis and strung two cars together in the late 70s. When they closed the Skyway in the 90s, they sealed the holes in the side.
Quoted from pinballdork:I think the Main street penny arcade had this or something very close. My bad memory thinks the cabinet of the BCJ arcade game in question was shaped like a pinball cab with similar golfer motion as this. On this one the Ball raises from beneath the rotating golfer and sits right in front of the putter.
[quoted image]
Yes, that may be the game that they used for this. I'm just curious to understand the layout as other figurines were placed on the playfield.
Thank you for your addition to this thread!
Quoted from OLDPINGUY:A large amount of Disneyland Main Street Arcade Games were shipped to Orlando.
There was an auction maybe 20ish years ago, that had around 100 games from Orlando and Ca.
These pieces werent in the announcement, but the tags were on all the games.
Stuff went real cheap at first, then phone calls went out, and some of the rarer pieces soared in price,
as the gossip was Copperfield was bidding on the Automatons and fortune tellers.
I owned a Bromley little Pro from Disneyland, it was covered in Formica, and not likely the game in question, but the wear on the "figure" was far less than the rest of the game.
It made me think they replaced the figure with another, as a repair, or maybe as suggested, a character
was used.
We did not have a pin as such in Country Bear in Orlando, that I have seen.
Wow I'm sure that was an amazing auction. Thank you for the information!
I don’t have a lot to add to the discussion, but wanted to pass along how great a thread it is. Brings back so many memories. I remember listening to the Country Bear Jamboree record on vinyl time after time when I was a kid. Really good stuff.
Quoted from o-din:This is all I got.
"Teddi Barra’s Swingin’ Arcade survived the arrival of Critter Country, although video games replaced some of the old-fashioned, one-of-a-kind machines."
[quoted image]
[quoted image][quoted image]
Very cool. What is the game next to Fish Tales? I can’t make it out
Quoted from Rdoyle1978:Very cool. What is the game next to Fish Tales? I can’t make it out
Indiana Jones Pinball Adventure ?
Quoted from o-din:Skyway is the other time they put us in that room for swinging the buckets and shutting it down twice on the same ride.
They sealed up the Matterhorn inside and out where you could no longer see all the tracks and cars racing around the inside or the skyway and added a couple yetis and strung two cars together in the late 70s. When they closed the Skyway in the 90s, they sealed the holes in the side.
During college in the early 80's we got caught smoking pot on the Skyway, when it was inside the Matterhorn. Apparently they had cameras in there.
When we disembarked, we were greeted by an undercover Disney cop. One of my college pals was able to sweet talk our way out of trouble, avoiding the Main Street lockup. He's a rich lawyer in San Francisco now.
Hey FullTiltJack thought you would be in to the legend of the Country Bear Disneyland, rarest machine of them all... rumored that the Country Bear had a built in s'mores-maker in the back side that would only unlock once you get the high score. It's been lost for a long time, rumored to be hidden somewhere buried in the rockies in a treasure chest.
Just stopping by admiring this 9th wonder of the universe, cheers pinsters!
There are some old black and white photos floating around somewhere of the old shooting gallery they once had a Country Bear Jamboree (not to be confused with the shooting gallery at frontier land).
This was a bunch of the old Seaburg Ray of Light rifle games like Shoot the Bear and a several others custom built into one enclosure/exhibit.
Quoted from Coindork:There are some old black and white photos floating around somewhere of the old shooting gallery they once had a Country Bear Jamboree (not to be confused with the shooting gallery at frontier land).
This was a bunch of the old Seaburg Ray of Light rifle games like Shoot the Bear and a several others custom built into one enclosure/exhibit.
Definitely a possibility. I just want to see something!!
Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, become a Pinside+ member!
Philadelphia, PA