We got ours yesterday in the mail. Haven't opened it as its a present for Christmas. I will say the box was larger than I expected. Can't wait till Christmas morning for my daughter's reaction.
(Topic ID: 252859)
Quoted from Krh13:We got ours yesterday in the mail. Haven't opened it as its a present for Christmas. I will say the box was larger than I expected. Can't wait till Christmas morning for my daughter's reaction.
Same here.
Topeka, KS
Quoted from Krh13:We got ours yesterday in the mail. Haven't opened it as its a present for Christmas. I will say the box was larger than I expected. Can't wait till Christmas morning for my daughter's reaction.
the box is bigger than you think but the machine is actually than I thought it would be. I got one a couple days ago because I buy everything pinball related.
Has been a great conversational piece and our child and friends have been playing it Non-Stop.
Sweet, best miniature tabletop pinball ever!
1FD0BA08-CCA3-45F2-AFEB-5AD10AE228AE (resized).jpegB44D48C8-4D76-410C-83BA-3EB96E859515 (resized).jpeg41FA28B1-9618-42FC-8E85-6ABE5D6F3710 (resized).jpeg01240FAC-3204-44EE-AC4A-D95200B3937B (resized).jpeg5BDC39CA-6F1B-45A3-9744-873084623760 (resized).jpeg
Quoted from PinRob:Sweet, best miniature tabletop pinball ever!
[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]
Nice!! I thought there would be one at expo, but I never saw anyone with one. I think I may get one for my girls
Quoted from 2manypins:the box is bigger than you think but the machine is actually than I thought it would be. I got one a couple days ago because I buy everything pinball related.
Has been a great conversational piece and our child and friends have been playing it Non-Stop.
How’s the playfield holding up? Any chipping or dimples? Glad they’re having fun- and it’s a fun conversation piece
They have one available for play at No Quarter in Nashville. They currently have a high-score selfie league for it as well. It is a lot more fun that I anticipated.
01F1D394-BA64-430F-9B33-ABE3D0B66884 (resized).jpegA23E0F32-425F-4005-AFE3-3BEBC318639B (resized).jpegD0469DC9-CFC2-4790-9710-81A775A6B56C (resized).jpegED52496B-0F0E-4F2E-8E99-F04E4369765B (resized).jpegDCF47AB4-3210-4097-8AC4-12C219A0C94C (resized).jpegA3077FFA-69D5-4D59-A5A3-2D0AE69036E6 (resized).jpeg449C7CF0-A573-4ADC-91FA-767E5F17BE80 (resized).jpeg
1 week later
I missed the sale. If this goes on sale again before Xmas I’ll snag one for my daughter.
Any more reviews?
I picked one of these up last week on vacation. It's really cute and well done for what it is.
I'll be opening mine up to see what hacking can be done.
Quoted from Coz:How’s the playfield holding up? Any chipping or dimples? Glad they’re having fun- and it’s a fun conversation piece
Playfield is fine and no dimples. My eight-year-old son plays it everyday. My high score is 137000 and some change.
Quoted from 2manypins:Playfield is fine and no dimples. My eight-year-old son plays it everyday. My high score is 137000 and some change.
Awesome! I hope to get one for my girls, looks fun
You guys suck. Your positive comments forced my hand (ouch). Order placed. This will be my daughter's first NIB. She gets a NIB before I do! My Christmas shopping has apparently already started...
For any Canucks looking to buy one for their daughter/son, mine was $180+HST from Chapters/Indigo shipped to the store.
How do I add this pin to my Pinside collection?
On Pinside at the Machines tab, I searched for The Flip Side, just Flip Side, and also tried American Girl, and not found.
Guess I can send Robin or Martijn a PM and request it be added. Edit: Done earlier today.
Quoted from Fifty:You guys suck. Your positive comments forced my hand (ouch). Order placed. This will be my daughter's first NIB. She gets a NIB before I do! My Christmas shopping has apparently already started...
For any Canucks looking to buy one for their daughter/son, mine was $180+HST from Chapters/Indigo shipped to the store.
How do I add this pin to my Pinside collection?
I don't think you'll regret it. We've had a lot of fun playing it.
Quoted from Pinball-is-great:On Pinside at the Machines tab, I searched for The Flip Side, just Flip Side, and also tried American Girl, and not found.
Guess I can send Robin or Martijn a PM and request it be added. Edit: Done earlier today.
I think it should be added to the database too (it really is a pinball machine just small in size) That said I messaged Forceflow and he said it was more of a toy. Messaged Robin and no response. 
Quoted from Wolfmarsh:I don't think you'll regret it. We've had a lot of fun playing it.
But will this really hold a kids attention over your full sized machines? My kid loves to play my pins, I can’t imagine he would think much of a toy pin after having access to arcade pins.
Quoted from vicjw66:But will this really hold a kids attention over your full sized machines? My kid loves to play my pins, I can’t imagine he would think much of a toy pin after having access to arcade pins.
No, of course not. It's a $150 miniature toy. It doesn't even come close to an actual pinball machine.
But that's not why I bought it. 
1 week later
I posted a review and some gameplay footage. I also spent like an hour watching my gameplay frame-by-frame to figure out the rule-set. There are some really cool touches that make me think it was designed by a pinhead. The rules aren't entirely trivial--there's a 10-second 10x table multiplier that you can extend by hitting the right targets. It tracks your high score across power cycles. It tracks your number of balls and your ball time and awards you bonus at the end of the game based on it. It doesn't score until the ball hits the ball trough and is plunged into the playfield. The fan between the pop bumpers creates pretty decent pop bumper action. There's a gate that keeps the ball from falling back down the ball chute just like on a real machine. The playfield is even angled at 6.5 degrees just like a real machine! Looks to me like it was modeled after Gottlieb's #top-card (1974).
It plays really well. Lots of the flipper skills you use on a real machine work the same on this one: trap, hold pass, flick pass, tip pass, live catch, etc. It's a lot of fun. I'm having a good time with it.
Quoted from Lawlor_and_Order:You then have to hit a standup "Add Bonus" to light the WOW multiplier. You then get 1000 points per bumper hit and 10000 for every other standup-style target hit, until the multiplier turns off (after Y number of hits, which I haven't figured out yet.)...
...there's an odd end of game bonus that took me a while to figure out, and it's apparently 10 points for each hit during the game, or for each "Add Bonus" hit, plus Z times 1, I haven't figured out Z except you only get it if you've had a long game
The 10x WOW multiplier is on a 10-second timer. It lights whenever you hit one of the left/right stand-up targets and then turns off 10 seconds later. You can restart the timer and extend the duration by hitting one of the left/right stand-ups again before the timer runs out.
Like you say, the bonus is completely unrelated to the bogus Adv Bonus targets on the playfield. It’s also not tied to the bogus bonus lights at the bottom of the playfield—those just cycle every 6 seconds regardless. It’s disappointing. The bonus for balls 1 and 2 is always 1,000. The bonus for ball 3 is calculated as 2% of your total score, with a minimum award of 1,000. So, you only get additional bonus (over the standard 1,000) if you score over 50,000. Would have been cooler if they’d based it off number of hits and actually advanced a bonus multiplier like the playfield says.
25% off today only.
https://www.americangirl.com/shop/p/julie-pinball-machine-gdw97
Use Promo code FAV19
That's $112.50 for the item. The caveat is you need $125 for free shipping. So you either pay an additional $13 in shipping or add $12.50+ in other items for free shipping.
Quoted from RobertWinter:25% off today only.
https://www.americangirl.com/shop/p/julie-pinball-machine-gdw97
Use Promo code FAV19
That's $112.50 for the item. The caveat is you need $125 for free shipping. So you either pay an additional $13 in shipping or add $12.50+ in other items for free shipping.
Thank you! My daughter (and I) will be very excited for this on Christmas now.
1 week later
American Girl is actually owned by Mattell. As others have said their stuff is top-notch. I am not surprised that it plays well. Honestly, it is probably a good sign for the pinball community that AG came out with a decent working model. It will help keep kids interested in the game!
1 week later
Ok, this is actually kinda fun and has a surprisingly high 'one more game' factor. It has been getting played steadily over the last 2 days. Easily 70+ games so far with 228,480 being my best score. I find the best way to play is to hook my thumbs under the front legs for stability. The build quality is pretty good. All wood and chromed steel, including the 'side rails and lockdown bar' which I expected to be plastic. My scoop eject is a little wonky. Have to slap the button to get it to pop out to the right flipper. I would love to take this apart and tinker with it. It looks like it may just be 4-6 screws to get access to the playfield, but I haven't worked up the courage to try yet. I was prepared for disappointment, but instead I am pleasantly surprised. Feels *almost* like getting a new EM.
20191206_164845 (resized).jpgQuoted from Betelgeuse:This is actually kinda fun and has a surprisingly high 'one more game' factor. I am pleasantly surprised.
So that covers what you like about the game. How about what you don't like about it, aka the flip side?
Quoted from littlecammi:So that covers what you like about the game. How about what you don't like about it, aka the flip side?
Well, like I said, the scoop kickout could use a little work. kyle5574 mentioned a similar issue. I'd like to see if it can be tweaked. Other issues had also been mentioned, like the bonus lights not really tying into the scoring. Though, the WOW insert does indicate when 10x scoring is running. I did put a mini tie wrap on the plunger rod to extend it out a little further, so it was easier for me to get my fingers behind it. Of course, solid state flippers would be nice. It is a toy pin for sure... it probably could be cheaper, but they poured some quality into it.
My 14 year old daughter used to be into AG and it’s all stored away. I might get this for her for old times sake.
Quoted from Budman:My 14 year old daughter used to be into AG and it’s all stored away. I might get this for her for old times sake.
Sounds suspicious.
Quoted from BradAlbright:kyle5574 now that you've zeroed in on the wonky scoring and bogus bonus lights, is it still fun for you and are you still happy with it? Or did that kill it for you?
It’s definitely still fun. They got so many things right. Can’t fault them too much for their bonus scoring. Would have been really cool if they’d counted the number of target hits instead though. ...this thing needs some new Arduino guts and a pinhead designed ruleset 
Quoted from vicjw66:I assume there is no tilt? Can you take the playfield glass off?
No tilt mech. It looks like the rails and glass are secured by screws which are accessible from underneath, but it's hard to be sure.
Quoted from kermit24:Better gameplay video with sounds! It looks like a rotating mech in the middle. Sounds like Mata Hari opening chimes.
Wow, Julie scored 18,200 and has her own pinball outfit!
I bet the unicorn on Deadpool will come out at any moment and give Cloe an extra ball...
And Julie has a "different" type of phone... called a rotary phone!
I don't think I can watch this more than once without laughing hysterically and losing my mind...
Julie even has bunny named Nutmeg and he is really soft...
Plus the pillows say "LOVE"... I just can't stand it...
Not sure that information is relevant, but it is apparently true, according to Cloe...
Reply
Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!
Donate to PinsideGreat 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, subscribe to Pinside+!
