(Topic ID: 236746)
Wesley Chapel, NC
South West Rocks
Nantes
Quoted from Qman97:Bally Surfers for me! First pin, still a fun game even after owning for 10 yrs or so
Mine too, except I've had mine just a bit longer. 47 years.
Also have a Nip It.
Quoted from jasonp:Stand up and be counted ...
[quoted image]
What's the Design Tribute image from?
Here's the patent (note the inventors at the bottom):
Zipper Flipper patent (resized).jpg
And an assembly removed and ready for a good cleaning.
Four Million BC Zipper Flipper (resized).jpg
/Mark
I have three. I’m working on an Op-Pop-Pop now. I also have 4 Million BC and Hayburners II. Hayburners II is not a Bally, but one of only four Williams games to have zipper flippers. They are not typical zipper flippers. They don’t close the gap completely but move out of the way when launching the ball from the oscillating turret shooter.
It’s too bad that more zipper flipper pins weren’t made. They are so cool and I feel lucky to have three of them.
Pics available if anyone is interested.
Quoted from MarkG:What's the Design Tribute image from?
...
/Mark
A higher res version here:
https://pinside.com/pinball/market/classifieds/ad/64482
Basingstoke
... Funny thing is I just recently bought these from 3 different non pinheads within an 1 he drive from my house . These are still out there in the wild.
Pics of the Op-Pop-Pop I am restoring:
The flipper bushings are different on these zipper flippers, part number C-649. I am replacing the Nyliners as well, part number C-537-5.
Unfortunately, Op-Pop-Pop was formerly used as a mouse house. I had to replace 25-30 wires or cover them with heat shrink tubing. I hate those meeces to peeces!
Before restoration:
crazy_flipper_bat_color (resized).png
Has anyone ever seen flipper bats of this color before? Those sling shots are pretty wild too, never seen them before.
After restoration:
after_restore_full_playfield (resized).jpg
#op-pop-pop will be popping straight out on op route when I'm finished with the restoration.
Quoted from Cheddar:Unsure of I should add 4 Queens. Not Ted Zale, but Zipper Flippers
Fun game, a good ruleset, and gameplay.
My only gripe was that you could only collect the on playfield special once when lit.
I did a semi-restoration on it but ended up selling it as it still needed more work and money than I was willing to spend on it. Went to a family as their first pinball machine. Dad was stoked. Their sons eyes lit up when he saw it, he was so excited, must have been around 12 years old. He reminded me of when I was his age and saw a cool new pinball machine fresh on route to play.
DSC09715 (resized).JPGDSC09717 (resized).JPGDSC09781-1 (resized).JPGMy current zippers are Bazaar, Cosmos, Dogies, Nip-It and Surfers.
Gone but not forgotten are Fireball, Op Pop Pop, Capersville, Dixieland and Medusa (not a Zale).
Of the 9 remaining Bally zippers, I’d like to have a Rocket III and Rockmakers.
E8449B80-C5C3-4B02-BCBD-CE3D5225A1CB (resized).jpegFB301F97-D45F-4A32-A2B3-7738BCF88D16 (resized).jpeg71C95DC2-A264-4464-A53C-FB998ACBD586 (resized).jpegQuoted from Ballypin:My Op Pop Pop had the same baby blue bats WITHOUT any lettering.
Same here.
Quoted from Ballypin:My current zippers are Bazaar, Cosmos, Dogies, Nip-It and Surfers.
Gone but not forgotten are Fireball, Op Pop Pop, Capersville, Dixieland and Medusa (not a Zale).
Of the 9 remaining Bally zippers, I’d like to have a Rocket III and Rockmakers. [quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]
Great line-up. My 1st zipper flipper game was Medusa. I tend to forget that Medusa has the zipper flipper feature. As you state, it's not a Ted Zale design.
To the best of my knowledge, light blue flippers are standard for Op-Pop-Pop.
.................David Marston
Quoted from MarkG:Here's the patent (note the inventors at the bottom):
Joe Lally, VP of engineering at Bally.....
20190224_230757 (resized).jpgMy Surfers has the red flippers. There are both red and white pictured in this thread. Interesting. I think the red is factory, couldn't swear to it though.
It's interesting that there are more of these around than we might think, given the low production numbers. I know there's even one in Norway, I sold my original glass to a guy there. Cost him more to ship it to Norway than I charged him for the glass.
I know Herb Silvers restored one awhile back and sold it on, no idea what has become of it.
I see you liked my Ted Zale poster. I believe the original printed poster is 20X28", but I cannot remember offhand.
There is one game missing from the poster and list, as Bally never made a flyer because the game never actually made it into full production. The "ultra rare" Joker (Bally, 1968) with 110 units made. The one shown in the quick photos below is S/N #1001 (the FIRST game of this title off the production line). Courtesy of the Michael Jones collection. I took care of it, and added it to your list, along with the export games, Cosmint and Alligator which actually are wired different than their domestic counterparts. Joker has average gameplay. Not many left today, as I only know of 8 total in the entire world presently.
I have most of the games now except Joker, and once you worked on these Bally's it becomes easier to get them going unless they have been gutted. Parts for zipper flipper titles can be a nightmare, unless you are a hoarder.
37116400_672999836375883_3561786133413101568_o.jpg37152662_672999746375892_1713171912168833024_o.jpg37204418_672999949709205_3010830876893249536_o.jpg
Here I am teaching some history to another pinball collector about the Bally "zipper flipper" developments and Ted Zale from the 1960s with some of my restored lineup behind me. I continue to take additional photos to complete the first compiled draft of my Ted Zale book which is falling a bit behind, unfortunately. I do still buy duplicates of zipper flipper titles for safekeeping and trades.
Ted Zale Games.jpg
23270584_538497016492833_3974115903424007485_o.jpgQuoted from EMsInKC:I know Herb Silvers restored one awhile back and sold it on, no idea what has become of it.
That may have ended up with me.
I think the guy he originally restored it for, reneged on payment or traded it in for another.
Herb then traded it to me for a
Quick Draw (OK condition) he wanted to be the base of a restore project
and a BankABall project pin (with trashed PF) that I had.
The Surfers was all chromed out, as usual on most Herb restored pins
and had a repro BG (paper between plexi) and repainted CAB.
Played fairly well.
Game is now in the fine hands of PPM in Alameda CA.
pasted_image (resized).pngpasted_image (resized).png
these are photos Herb sent to me to entice the trade
Something that has not been seen often in the pinball world in over 45 years since factory production, and may not be seen again for a very long time. THREE Four Million B.C. EM pinball machines (Bally, 1971) side-by-side together once again. My game is the one in the middle, in "purist" non-LED colored form. All three games were originally owned by a single collector who seemed to *really* like this title.
Quoted from EMsInKC:My Surfers has the red flippers. There are both red and white pictured in this thread. Interesting. I think the red is factory, couldn't swear to it though.
It's interesting that there are more of these around than we might think, given the low production numbers. I know there's even one in Norway, I sold my original glass to a guy there. Cost him more to ship it to Norway than I charged him for the glass.
I know Herb Silvers restored one awhile back and sold it on, no idea what has become of it.
I am almost 100% red flipper bats are correct. I changed mine out to white because the Reds were cracked and I didn't want to bust them. I still have the originals tucked in the coin box
Crap! I wish I would have known about the back glass I could use one.
Quoted from Qman97:Did Herb Silvers re-produce the back glass? I would be interested in a new one even if it's paper between plexi
Steve Azzam (aka BGRESTO) has already reproduced this Bally backglass and has the image archived ready to be reused.
FINAL REPO:
Quoted from xTheBlackKnightx:There is one game missing from the poster and list, as Bally never made a flyer because the game never actually made it into full production. The "ultra rare" Joker (Bally, 1968) with 110 units made.
I played this at Pinball Expo one year. Great art, but the game deserved to flunk market testing. Quite boring to play, IMHO.
.................David Marston
Quoted from xTheBlackKnightx:Steve Azzam (aka BGRESTO) has already reproduced this Bally backglass and has the image archived ready to be reused.
FINAL REPO:
[quoted image]
Good to know. As for Herb's, it was done by Gary Conway, as was mine. This was before Steve was into the repro business. Gary's repro is two pieces of film that are sandwiched together between pieces of glass. It actually looks pretty darned good. Steve's repro is a leap forward in technology. I might invest in getting his, they are really, really good. Steve fills a great need in this hobby, since Rob Webb and Shay will never do titles like this, or other basic one offs that Steve does. I've restored several games I would never have touched had it not been for Steve and his repros.
I'm extremely picky about backglass condition. It's something that everyone notices right away, if you've got a flaking glass with bulbs showing through, no matter the condition of the rest of the game, it just drags the whole game down. That, and the lower apron condition, since it is right there in your face. That's why PPS's issues with Pinball Rescue sucked so much, because just like Steve, Lee and Gordon were filling a niche nobody else really did, and now it's gone.
Quoted from pinwiztom:That may have ended up with me.
I think the guy he originally restored it for, reneged on payment or traded it in for another.
Herb then traded it to me for a
Quick Draw (OK condition) he wanted to be the base of a restore project
and a BankABall project pin (with trashed PF) that I had.
The Surfers was all chromed out, as usual on most Herb restored pins
and had a repro BG (paper between plexi) and repainted CAB.
Played fairly well.
Game is now in the fine hands of PPM in Alameda CA.
[quoted image][quoted image]
these are photos Herb sent to me to entice the trade
Interesting in that there is at least one mistake on that one, the lower bumper did not have that kind of cap. It was always lit and it was always 10 points. It used a green sunburst cap with no lettering. The two upper caps were yellow sunburst with no lettering, and of course, as discussed above, the flipper bats where red with white lettering but those are about impossible to come by now, so that part of the restore is understandable. Those bumper rings...ugh. The playfield on this game is beautiful and at least mine has worn really well, except for a spot below the kickout hole where I did a not very good job of touching up and they mylared. Other than that it is pristine.
Mine might eventually get a repaint, the cab and head paint is getting kind of chalky/flaky. I have all three coin chutes on mine which I have not seen elsewhere.
When you sent it to PPM, was it in this condition? The reason I asked is last time I talked to Herb about his game, he said it went to some surf shop and then it got put in the window of a restaurant or something and it got sun faded really badly. It appears he must have done more than one of these.
I had the opportunity to buy another Rocket III locally and I couldn't resist. I really wanted an original backglass and the local game had a great one. So I swapped my Bgresto repro glass for this nice original, as depicted.
I guess that I'll be offering the other Rocket III for sale with repro backglass, in the near future.
20190227_225211 (resized).jpg
Vancouver, BC
Quoted from manitouguy:Beautiful games guys – how come I’m not seeing or hearing anything about Gator?
Both Alligator and Gator are average, but fast Ted Zale games with basic shot geometry.
They are not "zipper flipper" titles that people really go after to obtain aggressively.
My games are STILL sitting in storage, unrestored, and likely to be so for some time.
Alligator1 (resized).jpgAlligator10 (resized).jpgAlligator11 (resized).jpgAlligator12 (resized).jpgAlligator13 (resized).jpgAlligator14 (resized).jpgAlligator2 (resized).jpgAlligator3 (resized).jpgAlligator4 (resized).jpgAlligator5 (resized).jpgAlligator6 (resized).jpgAlligator7 (resized).jpgAlligator8 (resized).jpgAlligator9 (resized).jpgGator-x1 (resized).jpgGator-x2 (resized).jpgGator-x3 (resized).jpgGator1 (resized).jpgGator10 (resized).jpgGator11 (resized).jpgGator12 (resized).jpgGator13 (resized).jpgGator14 (resized).jpgGator15 (resized).jpgGator2 (resized).jpgGator3 (resized).jpgGator4 (resized).jpgGator5 (resized).jpgGator6 (resized).jpgGator7 (resized).jpgGator8 (resized).jpgGator9 (resized).jpg
Quoted from EMsInKC:When you sent it to PPM, was it in this condition? The reason I asked is last time I talked to Herb about his game, he said it went to some surf shop and then it got put in the window of a restaurant or something and it got sun faded really badly. It appears he must have done more than one of these.
What Herb provided me was in real nice condition, All chromed out.
Also, though, I now seem to remember that the bumper caps were all same color (blank)
and the flippers were colored Orange or Red, not white; or at least the upper one.
I will have to re-examine next time I am at the PPM annex in Alameda.
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