Looks great. R&B is a great fun game.

The theme turns me off, but I have heard from many that it is a very good game. I have never played it, but would like to.

Very nice. I just bought a R&B and baisicly all the parts you just mentioned. In buying my plastics I found a guy who had a repro lion and arm. When I get home I'll send you his info.

Game is awesome, I was fingering the one at Mgc, but it was out of my price range. Still want one

Looks pretty sweet, RussMyers! I've never played R&B before, but it does look fun. Looking at your pics, I really do like the artwork & colors they used on this game.

Yuppers. I used to watch the cartoon as well, but I thought this was based more on the movie that came out - no?

I would still like to put some time into it. I would likely buy it if one came up, of course, that doesn't say much =)

It has a great nostalgic lure for me. I have never played it but why not? I will put it on the list of pins to play!

Good job and would love to play a R&B too one day.

There's one at the east gate cinema in Madison wi. Lmk when you're in town!

The artwork does a great job of capturing the 60's TV show; Aesop & Son, Peabody & Sherman, Fractured Fairy Tales, Dudley Do-Right, and Rocky & Bullwinkle.

June Furay did the voice work for both Rocky and 'Talky Tina' on TZ.

I was a huge fan of the show and our R&B machine got me started in the hobby. That pin will stay in our collection for a long time.

Steve (in Escalon, CA)

I'm in the process of restoring a Bullwinkle pinball I recently purchased. Although the playfield, ramps, and the hat trick backbox are in perfect working order, I got the machine for pretty cheap since the exterior cabinet paint job is pretty beat up on side and front.

So I'm just restoring everything else into pristine condition where I can. To Russ: I really like you idea of replacing the posts with colored ones. If you don't mind me asking, could you list the online places where you ordered all your parts from? I'd like to check them out myself as I may do something similar, though I will be going the black rubber route.

Speaking of cointaker, I'm not sure which I should go with. They have a game-specific kit for Bullwinkle, but I don't think it uses the anti-ghosting LEDs. I'm wondering why buy the kit when you could just directly order the anti-ghosting LEDs? Their web site is a bit confusing on all the options. It's not very well organized or "polished" web design I should say.

Anyway, I just got a brand new DMD in and installed that tonight. The original one in there was nearly 20 years old, and it was starting to show slight signs of outgassing on some animations. Now everything is razor sharp and perfect with the new display.

Thanks for the list of places you order from. I've already been ordering various parts from Marco, Mad, and Bay Area. I got the DMD for the best price at Mad Amusements. You can't beat $159 when the other sites are wanting near $200 and sometimes over $200 for one.

_{Post edited by FirebrandX : typos}

Just one more quick question, Russ:

How many of each color of star posts did you end up ordering to replace the boring DE ones?

Thanks!

You slept since then?

Thanks man. I'll just order like 25 of each clear and blue, and then 5x red and yellow should cover everything. I'm doing pretty much the same job on my machine as yours, except I'm going with white flipper buttons like the originals. While blue is my favorite color, the white ones seem to match the overall scheme better and pop more.

One last question: Where did you get those circular plastic wafers that act as protectors on the screw posts?

Fun game, worth the effort! I have the whole cartoon series on DVD too; lots of "grown-up" (not risque) humor in these episodes, not just for kids.

Cool thanks! I just ordered a bunch more pieces for my restoration project. Here's a snapshot of my current progress log:

http://www.firebrandx.com/downloads/pinballrestorationproject.png

My Cliffy protectors and colored posts arrived today. I just spent the last 3 hours stripping the old hardware out, dremeling off rusted parts, installing new rubbers in the stripped areas, and then finally installing the protectors and posts. I did the same theme of color-matching the bomb posts and it does look slick. For the post near the Aesop hole, I went with metallic silver.

At any rate, I was a bit shocked at all the damage that had been done to the jackpot ramp over the past 20 years when I stripped it out and inspected it closely. The Cliffy protectors now hide all the damage from view, but I'd sure feel a lot better with a new ramp at some point in the future. Unfortunately the guys that make the reproduction ramps got snake-bit after their WABAC ramp was a poor seller, and they tell me they're not going near Bullwinkle again.

Edit:

Nevermind. Turns out it was blue wrap coating that can be peeled off.

I have seen a R&B before and it was a black cab. Maybe they painted it black themselves or an early production game. I like the blue myself. You did great work their my friend!

I had a sudden bout of inspiration concerning the Red B.O.M.B. target's rear post. At first I went with Russ's idea of using a red star post, but it just didn't match as well as Cliffy's colored rubber posts do. So it occurred to me to try slicing a Cliffy post and force-fitting both ends on the original DE metal post. Although a bit crude of a prototype, the effect worked perfectly! Here are some pics of the modified post:

bullwinkleredbombpost01.jpg bullwinkleredbombpost02.jpg bullwinkleredbombpost03.jpg

Beautiful. I did the same thing on my Judge Dredd subway posts and it REALLY helps keep the rubber ring from getting scissor cut by the ball. Great job on the resto!

Yeah I've been meaning to do this to my Judge Dredd. I replaced the rings by the subway and within 2 weeks it's already tearing there.

So I found a R&B for my collection, curious if you have a pic where you mounted the toys?

I got another batch of LEDs from Cointaker as I'm in the process of designing the G.I. lighting scheme now that I've got the insert LEDs completed. For testing, I had ordered warm white frosted premiums, cool white frosted premiums, cool white 2-LED premiums, and cool white super Retros. Of the lot of them, the cool white frosted premiums really stood out as the best look. If you wanted an authentic retro lighting feel, then the warm white frosteds were best for that.

Thus far, I have used blue frosted premiums under the return lanes & upper lane guides (looks awesome), and then I used pink frosted premiums in the two sockets behind the SAVED targets (also looks awesome). I used a RED 2-LED premium for the shielded light in front of the NELL table, which helps to show the danger of the situation. The rest of the G.I. in the playfield I'm just going to finish off with cool white frosteds, though I may experiment with a couple of green frosteds just to see if they work with the overall scheme somewhere on the board.

So the one thing that's been bothering my about my restoration work on my Bullwinkle machine is the lack of options for restoring the ramps. I managed to get a new WABAC ramp installed. but the right "Ball Entrance" ramp had some severe damage at the bottom where it gets secured to the playfield. Furthermore, the metal flap for it was severely rusted. As luck would have it, I found a site in Norway that had a near perfect entrance ramp in stock! It's a miracle someone didn't snag it before me, so I quickly ordered it. Now all I need is a new decal for the "return" ramp, but I wouldn't mind just buying a new one of those as well.

Just finished restoring the original green Wells/Gardner coin buttons (which they no longer make in green, so hold onto them if you got 'em) and installed them with green LEDs from cointaker. They look quite attractive now! I attached a pic, but it's not very clear (should've used a tripod).

Also, I purchased a new Nell table decal from Bay Area Amusements. I had to disassemble the Nell table to swap the old decal out, and I'll say that removing the Nell log was quite tricky! Nell is riveted to the log, so you have to slightly loosen the nuts, then slide the log forward a half-centimeter so the screw posts are now in the wider slot area holes. Then you have to continue to loosen the nuts while lifting the log up the posts until it comes completely off.

At any rate, the Nell table is now almost entirely rebuilt from new parts except for the long hitching post plastic and the Nell log assembly. I took the opportunity to use plastic PETG 1/2 inch washers with the top mounting screws in order to protect the decal from damage. The old decal was shredded around the screws, so the new decal was a vast improvement. The plastic washers will keep it that way.

pinballcoinbuttons.jpg

Send you a PM

Just got in a replacement entrance ramp from Norway, and also a set of NOS slingshot art pieces from a local dealer. Here are some comparison pics:

Bullwinklescans_-_Repro_Comparison_01..jpg bullwinkleentranceramps01.jpg bullwinkleentranceramps02.jpg

I spotted that one a while back and was tempted by it, but the damage to mine is so small that I decided to use my time and money on some of the more critical issues. I dread to think what the postage to the USA was because it was pricey just getting it to the UK.

The entire cost for it with ensured and tracked postage ended up being $90, which is still a better price than if I had found a local dealer with one. They usually charge $100 for a ramp.

Good to hear you got it sorted at a good price. Work on mine has ground to a halt lately but i've still got plans for a number of jobs on it.

Just about to upgrade the software to v1.3 and also regap and foam the BOMB targets to make them trigger correctly and prevent air balls.

Arakissun let me raid his R&B for all the remaining parts I needed, including a replacement backglass. All I have to do now is cross my fingers and hope nothing goes wrong with the shipping from Bulgaria.

Replacement backglass? A NOS one or just one that's not got the nose damage?

Well done on that - it's quite a find as nearly all the ones i've seen have the same damage, mine included. Luckily mine is relatively minor so I might just do a touch up on it for now. It's probably the most I can hope for.

Make sure you post plenty of pictures once it's all done please.

It's not NOS, but it doesn't have the severe scrapes and flake spots my current one does. Once I get everything in the mail, I'll take more pics.

Thanks FirebranX. Damage to my backglass is relatively minor - just a single small piece is missing from the nose so i'm hopefully I can colour match it and touch it up. For now it's got a piece of tape on the inside to stop it getting any worse. I believe there's a mod I can also do that will prevent the problem from occurring in the future but i've not got around to doing that yet.

The money pit continues:

http://www.firebrandx.com/downloads/pinballrestorationproject.png

Currently waiting on two more shipments, one being from Pinrestore.com to replace all the remaining old screws and nuts, and the other to finish off the flashers in the playfield with LEDs. Speaking of which, I tallied up the cost of my custom LED job that used all premiums, and the total came to $255 USD. That covered everything from coin mechs to the backbox.

Might not be for everyone, but to me R&B is some of the best art i've seen on a pinball. The backglass IMHO beats out most other DMD's. If the theme were on a B/W it would be a top 10 I'm sure. Anyhoo............ opportunity for some other toys might be tied to this.

Looking good Firebrand.

I've just got my legs, lockdown bar, side rails and backbox brackets back from the powder coaters. Had them all done in fire engine red and I must say they look pretty nice.

Will be refitting the legs later with nice new chromed bolts, felt leg protectors, new levellers and leg protectors (to prevent the powdercoat from being pinched by the bolts).

Should look nice once done. Side rails will be left off for now as I need to get new glass channels and nowhere in the UK stocks them right now. Hopefully will grab those closer to christmas.