Since I wasn’t happy with the CPR plastics for the bad wizard, I decided to take some time and novus 2 to the original plastics. I was surprised how well they cleaned up. There are spots on the print side that I didn’t want to scrub too hard on, but overall they cleaned up really well. The pop bumper caps lost some color, but also cleaned up well.
The clear areas still have a decidedly “smoky” tint to them; but the novus did a fine job tearing down the grime. Previously the Special light would only be seen as a red haze thru the 30+ years of grime accumulation. The only crack in the set is in the plastic covering the Special target at the lower right screw. This is also likely to take additional beating as I play it. I don’t know if there’s a way to stop-crack plastics or otherwise mend them, but I think I’ll put the new plastic in its place - despite the small amount of orange missing on the newer one.
Speaking of getting a beating, I noticed while cleaning the center target plastic that the edges at each post was literally beat down. The plastic isn’t cracked at all, but definitely domed where the old rubber wasn’t sufficient to keep the ball from pounding down the plastic. That center plastic really needs a light...but I suspect it'd warp the plastic even more with the heat build up between the posts.
It’s funny, the game seems to play faster now that it’s all spruced up. I was playing it this weekend with some younger family members (first time playing pinball, and they liked the EM bad wizard better than the BK), and it seemed slower then. Playing it after polishing the plastic seems to have really livened up.
I have a couple months to play and tweak before ms. wizz will want the space for her xmas village. I think I can get a good deal of both in before then. I think I’ll completely rebuild the pop bumpers and already have a flipper rebuild kit. Other than that I have a Flag 1 that won’t flip (wants to burn up a coil – surprise!), some pf light issues, and some switch gaps to adjust. Otherwise it’s now completely playable, and really fun. Its amazing how challenging and addicting a simple layout and game play can be. Some modern analogs that come to mind would be games like tetris or bejeweled; not difficult but will keep you coming back for more. Plus I really like the old school chime box counting down the double bonus.
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