Gonzo as soon as I could do it.

Not really cool, but over the top.Card Trix 007.JPGCard Trix 009.JPGCard Trix 008.JPG

That's history... I would clear over it to preserve.

Using that logic, no game would ever get restored as it's all history.

Water damaged cab? Hey, it's part of the history of the game. Someone took a crow bar to the front door? More history. Broken backglass? Same thing.

If someone put that on the side of your house, would you just leave it there?

That might be interesting to me if it was on a crapper wall. Other than that, no.

It would be great to keep in some way but, in my opinion, not on the machine

Scan it and make a wall hanging.

That's cool as far as crap you find on a game goes...

That is awesome!
I would NEVER remove that.
E

On a "300" that I just got.

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Can we come over and scribble on your games then?

It would probably make them look better!

I would not be able to repaint that crap fast enough

This is a great idea.

Tough call for me, I like that kind of stuff. I was torn on replacing control panel overlays on my video games that were burned up by cigarettes resting on them... Thats the way I remember them.

At the very least, I'd take great pictures of it and restore the cabinet. When I first looked at it, I thought the Mick Jagger "costume" was from much later than the date on the art, like Start Me Up era. I looked it up, and sure enough there are pics from him wearing that goofy getup in 1973. Pretty cool!

Add a poll...did you plan on restoring the game 100%? If not, I would keep....what else are you going to do? OF COURSE the guys that repaint every single game they get to make it look like it is in a factory showroom are going to hate it...if that's you, repaint, if not, it's a great piece of history/folk art...people pay money for that stuff.

That's a... you pick 'em... there.

I personally don't like graffiti on my games.

I had to have some 'cosmetic surgery' done to my River Boat to get rid of some. However, I have some small initials carved in the face of the head on my Sky Line. I 'might'...'might' leave it there, because it is very small and done rather neatly. But I certainly could have 'lived' without it.

The other on River Boat looked like chicken scratchin' that some 1st grader did, couldn't get rid of it fast enough.

My Jet Spin was formerly the "neighborhood machine" in a suburban rec room and area kids would write their high scores on the backbox. I took some photos before refinishing the cabinet.

HighScores5.jpgHighScores7.jpgHighScores6.jpg

Jim was a proud man that day.

I repaint them when they need repainting. Some of them have been repainted, others haven't. I'm not averse to originality one bit. Truthfully, I'd rather have them in nice original condition, it's way less work.

But this isn't originality. That's not how the game came from Gottlieb.

Oh yeah....bring some beer!

Scratched in scores and names are common as dirt, saving them doesn't make sense. This 'graffitti folk art' is a bunch more rare (but not neccessarily valuable). I wonder what folk art collectors would say vs. pinball collectors. Could there be a folk art collector that thinks this is the coolest thing since sliced bread and night baseball? "It's a shame that this fantastic art piece is weighed down by some worthless old mechanical game..."

A scan would be a record, but would not preserve any value the art piece has.
That being said, my opinion (as a world renouned folk art collector - check my EM cabinets) is: The piece of 'art' has minimal value as folk art. Your call. If you want to remove it, take some pics and then get the stripper.

Don C.

How bout some playfield graffiti

--Jeff
fhink.jpg

This is on the side of a Four Seasons I got recently.. going to leave it there, no reason to eliminate it.
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Leave it!6458972633_9071be9e51.jpg

Maybe a thin piece of laminate with the correct art could be attached in a way to cover and preserve the "folk" art. Magnetic tape and / or Velcro?

Do a Google image search for pee chee artwork or pee chee graffiti.
I so remember those days of pee chee mayhem. I spent awhile reliving my youth checking out the pee chees.
I wish I'd kept some of mine... or not let Mom throw them out.

Cool idea, but it's side art. If he's got 15 machines, nobody's going to see it anyway unless he pulls it out of the lineup. I think it'd be cool to be able to say, "Check this out," and pull it out. Yeah, Mick looked like that.

Exactly...you see the side of 1 or 2 of your machines usually.

I passed on a re-import WH2O years ago (the only WH2O in that container shipment) that had swasikas carved into all the exterior cabinet faces.

Still looking for a game with a phone number added and "for a good time call..."

I'm with you...I would leave it as is. Just trying to think of something that would be the best of both worlds.

My 4 Square is at the bottom of some steps, and as I walk down the steps I see someones name and score gouged into the top of the game. It always gives me a bit of a smile. There is a history to most of these games. They were in bars, arcades, laundromats, and all over the place. And somewhere along the way a guy was so proud of the score that he put it there forever. If I ever sell that game I might even get stupid and carve my high score into it. But for now I'll be content to write it in dry erase marker on the glass

Krud Kutter will clean that off. Looks like a nice original cabinet to save.

I'd keep it if it was particularly well done, but I'm not crazy about that work. Unless you know the people signing the art?

Here is my entry, and yes, I did repaint. Damn you Zel & Mel!!

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Totally agreed. I'd preserve that for sure. You might even find someone who'd want the machine just for the graffitti in that instance. What kind of impresses me is that someone had the time to do that and not get caught.

I usually leave graffiti alone on the pins unless it is something vile. I like the look of the cabinets in their original state. I only touch up chips, scratches and dings. Stuff written on in pen or marker gets mean greened off unless I like it.

No way. There is cool and there is not cool. This is not cool. Sand it down and stencil as close to factory as possible.

It truly was an all star band back in the 70s. With Rod Stewart as "The nose".

Pete Townsend got shafted on that theme. Scrub, sand, fill and repaint that blasphemy.

It's funny how polarizing this graffiti is. I'm conflicted myself. I think I like it better than some of the super bright white heavily webbed repaints.

we had a fire that stated "James sucks d*ck" lucky it was on the underside

True love on a GTB Pro Football cab - the romance has since ended

PFhelcl.jpg

Ha... "the romance has since ended" I 'like' it!

don't you guys ever look at the graffiti and wonder where they are now?

Not seeing the cool factor.
The art isn't that good.
I vote get rid of it.

High scores scratched into a game? How interesting.