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» Creature Porn - A Bryan Kelly CFTBL Restoration

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Creature Porn - A Bryan Kelly CFTBL Restoration

By Damonator

7 years ago

Topic Heartbeat

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76 posts
53 Pinsiders participating
Latest reply 7 years ago by sulli10
Topic is favorited by 20 Pinsiders

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Creature from the Black Lagoon Bally, 1992

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There are 76 posts in this topic. You are on page 1 of 2.

46

#1 7 years ago

Damonator

Pinside+ Addict

9y 109K 2,857 32 1

For my first restoration thread (and the first machine I've ever had professionally restored), I'd like to do something a little different. Rather than make several posts with a few pictures sprinkled in - I'd like to show everyone what the entire restoration process is like from start to finish. There were a few emails exchanged at the beginning, but the remainder were texts and pictures (over 300 pictures!). Since Pinside limits a post to 8 pictures, I elected to create a single page on my website with all of the texts/emails/pictures in the order they were sent and presented in a conversation format.

I had never spoken with Bryan before this project, but after working with him and meeting him in person at Expo, I can tell you he is the real deal - incredibly nice, humble and super talented. I'm jealous of those lucky enough to live near him and hang out with him on a regular basis. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire process and will not hesitate to use him again on another restoration.

I'll post a few "after" pictures in this post, but feel free to post any of the pictures from my webpage in this thread.

The webpage is located here:

http://www.damonator.com/pinball/creature/creature.html

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Post last edited 7 years ago.

0

#2 7 years ago

tpn2011

Pinside member

Gulf Shores, AL

11y 55,400 1,416 4

That's a thing of beauty right there

0

#3 7 years ago

dmacy

Pinside+ Frequent

11y 151K 9,664 1

Wow! Stunning!!!

0

#4 7 years ago

Damonator

Pinside+ Addict

9y 109K 2,857 32 1

Someone asked - the full cost breakout of the restore is included at the end of the page.

0

#5 7 years ago

Skypilot

Pirates Life Pinball Co

10y 155K 6,560 31 1

Absolutely gorgeous. Bryan does beautiful work.

Enjoy!

0

#6 7 years ago

Crash

Pinside member

11y 134K 13,760

How did you create a webpage from your iMessages? That's really nice!

0

#7 7 years ago

MnHotRod

Pinside member

10y 77,700 1,098 7

Wow, beautiful. Thanks for posting the detailed back and forth between you and Bryan during the process. There is a crazy amount of work there that nobody knows about until they do it, or read through your interaction throughout the entire process. Hard to imagine how many games Bryan has done to be that at ease through the process. Very cool.

0

#8 7 years ago

Damonator

Pinside+ Addict

9y 109K 2,857 32 1

I used iBackup Extractor to pull the messages - but unfortunately you can't specify what size to extract the pictures as...and the default option is to pull tiny little pictures. I had to extract all the images from the conversation, resize and re-insert them one by one.

If anyone has used another tool that allows you to specify the image sizes (or pulls them as full resolution), I would love to use that in the future.

0

#9 7 years ago

GRUMPY

Pinside member

9y 92,300 8,483

I'm not a big fan of chome, but it looks great in this case. Very nice!!

0

#10 7 years ago

sparechange1974

Pinside member

7y 71,650 842 9

Wow! That's better than new, thanks for sharing so much of the process, what a talent!

I saw an ad he put up for a similar speaker panel a couple months back, I believe he offered his left nut for it in the ad and there the panel is on your game. That's customer service!

0

#11 7 years ago

sparechange1974

Pinside member

7y 71,650 842 9

Seriously can't stop looking at the pictures... .so impressive

0

#12 7 years ago

Damonator

Pinside+ Addict

9y 109K 2,857 32 1

Quoted from sparechange1974:
Wow! That's better than new, thanks for sharing so much of the process, what a talent!
I saw an ad he put up for a similar speaker panel a couple months back, I believe he offered his left nut for it in the ad and there the panel is on your game. That's customer service!

FWIW - he offered his left nut in exchange for the speaker panel to be used in the next Creature in his queue.

It took me quite a while to find the chrome speaker panel (thanks Stu) and LED speaker panel mod (thanks Gordon). At least one of the mods hasn't made it to production yet - the LED Ramp Chase board by Bill Ung... but the prototype I'm using is working really well. GI OCD makes a *huge* difference on this game, but the factory ramp chase board isn't compatible.

0

#13 7 years ago

swinks

Pinside+ Addict

beautiful game, congrats, and awesome work Bryan

love the chrome, will favourite for when I get my game restored.

0

#14 7 years ago

Gort

Pinside member

Battle Creek, MI

8y 46,050 276 3

Wow, what a beautiful game. Just finished reading the emails and seeing the steps to completion. Thank you for sharing everything. Its awesome to see a master like Bryan Kelly do his work.

0

#15 7 years ago

woody76

Pinball Marketing

7y 138K 6,580 7 97 2

Looks amazing. I'm going to put a chrome package on mine.

0

#16 7 years ago

Gerrard17

Pinside member

9y 58,900 564 2 53

Awesome! thanks for sharing and also putting the pricing up there, most of us are quite apprehensive of putting a cost out there but it gives us a good idea if we ever want to go down that road.

0

#17 7 years ago

Cash_Riprock

Pinside member

10y 50,050 1,724

Congratulations to you the owner and Bryan the restore-er! That looks just beautiful and all the documentation is super nice to have/do.

Enjoy that game!

2

#18 7 years ago

Damonator

Pinside+ Addict

9y 109K 2,857 32 1

Quoted from Gerrard17:
Awesome! thanks for sharing and also putting the pricing up there, most of us are quite apprehensive of putting a cost out there but it gives us a good idea if we ever want to go down that road.

I don't think my costs are representative - in fact I think it's the most expensive restore he's done. It's my wife's favorite title so I wanted to put as many tasteful mods in it as possible.

My guesstimate is that a basic restore without so many mods would run $6-$7k on top of the game cost.

0

#19 7 years ago

DadofTwins

Pinside member

I read through the thread and that is a cool look into your transaction. He seems like a real down to earth guy and that makes it even nicer. Absolutely gorgeous machine. The nicest pin I have ever "seen". Congratulations!

0

#20 7 years ago

GRB1959

Pinside+ Frequent

Hi Damon,

Wow, you did a really nice job documenting your CFTBL restoration performed by Bryan Kelly. As expected for a Kelly restoration, the final restored game is absolutely beautiful. That CFTBL is a show piece and should provide your family with many years of pinball pleasure.

Congratulations on the great looking game. I didn't realize that Bryan was so willing to provide progress photos during the restoration process so I guess I will have to bug him for some progress photos now of my TFTC restoration.

Bryan does great work, has a slightly warped sense of humor (which I like), is an honest straight shooter and is very easy to work with as you have found out as well.

Gord

1

#21 7 years ago

Bryan_Kelly

Pinside+ Frequent

11y 121K 7,952 8 1

Quoted from GRB1959:
Hi Damon,
Wow, you did a really nice job documenting your CFTBL restoration performed by Bryan Kelly. As expected for a Kelly restoration, the final restored game is absolutely beautiful. That CFTBL is a show piece and should provide your family with many years of pinball pleasure.
Congratulations on the great looking game. I didn't realize that Bryan was so willing to provide progress photos during the restoration process so I guess I will have to bug him for some progress photos now of my TFTC restoration.
Bryan does great work, has a slightly warped sense of humor (which I like), is an honest straight shooter and is very easy to work with as you have found out as well.
Gord

Buy a smart phone, Gord, and I'll send you all the pics you want. That's what I did with Damon. I click and send. I hate doing it any other way.

0

#22 7 years ago

GRB1959

Pinside+ Frequent

Thanks Bryan. I do have a smart phone that I share with my wife as she works from home and uses the land line for her work. PM sent with the smart cell phone number.

Gord

0

#23 7 years ago

kklank

Pinside member

9y 96,550 3,342 41

Good lord Damonator. Machine looks awesome. Mr. Kelly rocks!

0

#24 7 years ago

MikeHogue

Pinside+ Frequent

8y 80,150 351 23

Fun read. Thanks for the link.

Nicest Creature I've ever seen. Period.

Eventually I'll get around to mine. If it turns out half as nice, I'll be very happy.

Love all the mods too!

0

#25 7 years ago

McCune

Inactive member

My favorite part was the T nut tool.

0

#26 7 years ago

Imeh

Inactive member

9y 56,650 1,415 10

Great example of a very talented restoration. Beautiful!

0

#27 7 years ago

dmbjunky

Inactive member

7y 95,400 6,791 91

That machine looks so...so good. I'm want it baaaad.

It's a shame no one has figured out how to reproduce the hologram. That's one of my favorite things on CFTBL.

0

#28 7 years ago

bigd1979

Pinside member

9y 132K 14,114 9 74

One word AMAZEING

0

#29 7 years ago

bigd1979

Pinside member

9y 132K 14,114 9 74

Quoted from dmbjunky:
That machine looks so...so good.
It's a shame no one has figured out how to reproduce the hologram. That's one of my favorite things on CFTBL.

I believe they were by pps? I love the mike d lcd hologram mod as it adds so much more to the game

0

#30 7 years ago

GRB1959

Pinside+ Frequent

Quoted from dmbjunky:
It's a shame no one has figured out how to reproduce the hologram. That's one of my favorite things on CFTBL.

Pinball Dreams (Henrik Maurer) from Germany did reproduce the CFTBL hologram and they did a very nice job on them. They are currently sold out and I am not sure if they are going to do another run of them or not. Henrik replied in the following Pinside thread a couple of months ago regarding the possibility of doing another hologram run for CFTBL.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/creech-holo-part#post-2705078

Gord

0

#31 7 years ago

OLDPINGUY

11y 170K 12,422 7

Thank you for taking the time to assemble that, and share....I learned alot! .....about beer too!

A Work of Art!

0

#32 7 years ago

GreenMachine19

Pinside member

9y 61,300 1,382 4

I have a tv in my shop as well to have a little background noise while I work. No Dr Phil though. Amazon Fire TV.

0

#33 7 years ago

PinballMikeD

Pinside member

Jacksonville, FL

10y 78,150 3,015 2

Enjoy the new machine. Bryan does great work.

0

#34 7 years ago

ForceFlow

Pinside Moderator

8y 221K 27,967 263 18

Really interesting to see this restore unfold in almost real-time. Nice!

0

#35 7 years ago

mwong168

Pinside member

11y 62,550 1,720 10 49

She's a beauty Damonator and great job on the restore by Bryan as usual.

0

#36 7 years ago

chad

Pinside member

10y 128K 12,779 9

Awesome looking and love the chrome door!

0

#37 7 years ago

Fifty

Pinside member

8y 74,400 2,185

Just wow.

0

#38 7 years ago

DareDevyl

Pinside member

10y 32,650 127 8

Awesome, Wow, Fantastic, Incredible. Not enough can be said but thanks for sharing that Dominator and great job Bryan.

0

#39 7 years ago

jellikit

Pinside member

9y 102K 4,179 1

It needs to be said... Bryan Kelly is RICH! RICH with SKILLS!

Brad

0

#40 7 years ago

zr11990

Pinside member

13y 87,050 6,581 9 1

Beautiful, I just did mine with a naked PF. It looks great but I didn't go all out like you did. Its a damn shame there is no alternative for a apron except those stickers. They aren't fluorescent and they don't look nearly as good as the original stickers that came on some of them.

0

#41 7 years ago

Whysnow

Pinside member

11y 186K 35,237 28 1

Quoted from McCune:
My favorite part was the T nut tool.

what does a guy need to do to get one fo those?

1

#42 7 years ago

Bryan_Kelly

Pinside+ Frequent

11y 121K 7,952 8 1

Quoted from Whysnow:
what does a guy need to do to get one fo those?

Be a friend of Mr. McCune's.

6

#43 7 years ago

Bryan_Kelly

Pinside+ Frequent

11y 121K 7,952 8 1

I can not tell a lie. I honestly think this is the nicest, "classiest" looking game I've ever done. Personally, I think the chrome makes a Creature look fantastic.

I had a gentleman deliver me another Creature to restore, just when I finished this one. As we unloading his, he's telling me a few things he's been thinking about doing to it, possible trim colors, etc. I told him to come downstairs and take a look at Damon's game. We took about five minutes to check it out, inside and out. He then looked at me and said, "I'll take one just like this."

And I said, "okey dokey."

0

#44 7 years ago

zr11990

Pinside member

13y 87,050 6,581 9 1

Where are you getting the PFs?

0

#45 7 years ago

Bryan_Kelly

Pinside+ Frequent

11y 121K 7,952 8 1

Quoted from zr11990:
Where are you getting the PFs?

Private individuals. Damon and I were lucky enough to source two. One went in his game and the other I bought from him for the next one I'm restoring.

0

#46 7 years ago

spfxted

Pinside member

Saddle River, NJ

11y 139K 24,424 4 9

Loved reading the back and forth between you two!

0

#47 7 years ago

zr11990

Pinside member

13y 87,050 6,581 9 1

I have my old one that I want to have turned into the nude version like the ones that Gene did and cleared. Don't know what I will do with it but Im going to do it anyway. Maybe swap it out again.

0

#48 7 years ago

Thor-NL

Pinside member

10y 96,650 2,246 8

Absolutly gorgeous !!!
Congrats to the owner, and a tip at the hat to Sir Bryan !

Great you both were willing to share this 'adventure' with us all, Thanks!

0

#49 7 years ago

High_End_Pins

11y 140K 11,259

Looks great. Nice job Bryan.

0

#50 7 years ago

pintechev

Inactive member

9y 91,300 4,437

Absolutely incredible. What a work of art.

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