Playboy
Bally, 1978I sold a 1978 Bally Playboy a few months back. I shopped it out and noticed the playfield was plastic. Not having worked on many older games I thought nothing of it. I was just looking at Mata Hari on IPDB and it said that the prototype games had a plastic playfield and the production games had a wood one. Is this the same for Playboy? Did I have a prototype game?
If it was indeed a plastic playfield it was a unique pin. Bally experimented with plastic playfields around then.
I have seen a Speak Easy(4) with one.
I have a Speakeasy (2 player), and it has a plastic playfield. It shows almost no wear, and when it's waxed up, there are some wicked ball spins. It's really groovy. I have never heard of a Playboy with one of those. Just Speakeasy and some Mata Haris.
I have a Harlem Globetrotters with a green playfield (underneath; the artwork is standard). I always thought they were fiberglass. It looks just Speak Easy. The play surface is super flat and smooth.
I've worked on a Flash with a (fall-a-)particle board playfield. Every wood screw hole was stripped, just awful.
Allan
It looks like an overlay? Maybe? Is it the heavy Mylar one? Pretty popular a few years back on Playboys and KISS games.
Quoted from dothedoo:My friends Night Rider is dark brown, not green.
Cool. I would LOVE to have one of those playfields for my Night Rider. It would be the fastest EM on the planet.
Does anyone know the history of these things?
-mof
ebay.com link: Bally EIGHT BALL DELUXE Pinball Prototype Playfield ULTRA RARE FIND
So what’s the word on these plastic PF’s?
Do they last and what are the areas of concern other than stripped screws etc...?
This came up in a recent podcast I did with Tommy Skinner. My cohost Dave spoke about plastic Harlem and Mata Hari playfields but Tommy and I were familiar with Speakeasy. We had no idea they did it with the other titles. This is the first time I have heard of Playboy in plastic.
I sold a stripped speakeasy Pf about 15 years ago. I believe it was to be wear resistant. Stay tuned for Deep Roots upcoming games. Something similar?
I need to listen to podcast again. I’m sure Dave gave an answer.
Quoted from jbovenzi:Well, we know also that Bally Rolling Stones had plastic playfields. I know of two instances of this.
Not much info on these things from what I can tell. Seems there were several they tried this on, if it was truly wear proof why did they stop making them? Cost prohibitive?
I'm would think over time you would have trouble with screws for mechs stripping from the underside...in my mind the screws just wouldn't last as long in plastic as they would in wood, but I have no idea why.
From what I know every standard width non multi-level game made between Night Rider and Speakeasy had at least a few made in plastic. Generally if still in its original cabinet it’s serial number is less than 1100.
Quoted from Nhpolarbear:My cohost Dave spoke about plastic Harlem and Mata Hari playfields but Tommy and I were familiar with Speakeasy. We had no idea they did it with the other titles. This is the first time I have heard of Playboy in plastic.
Dave (your cohost) has played the Harlem Globetrotters with the plastic playfield at my house a bunch. It is amazing how well the game has held up over the years. It's still slick and fast. I have it right next to another HG that has a wooden playfield.
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