I recently made a very inexpensive Indiana Jones pinball topper for my "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" re-theme, which can be found here:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/my-poor-mans-indiana-jones-eldorado-city-of-gold-retheme
I thought I'd make a separate topic as well though just to highlight the topper, as it can be used for the Stern and Williams pinball machines as well. I figured there might be other frugal pinballers like myself who might be interested in an inexpensive topper option.
In total, this topper cost me $20 Canadian. I bought the figure used for $20 off kijiji (Canada's version of craigslist), though I'm pretty sure they can still be found new for $30-40. I already had the model contact cement, and was able to print and laminate the background myself for free.
In the near future I plan to add lights to the topper, but I think it would still look decent even without any lights.
Ok. So the figure I used is from 2007 by Gentle Giant. It was sold at Disney theme parks, but is still decently available to order online. Its 7 inches tall, and has 14 points of articulation. The level of detail is quite nice. It comes with a base and removable items such as hat, whip, book, sword (not a machete), revolver and fertility god gold statue. I decided that to fit the Temple of Doom theme, I would use the hat, whip, book and revolver. But for anyone with the Stern or Williams Indy pins, this figure could easily be used for one of those too.
The removable items the figure came with fit loosely, so first thing anyone nudged the machine, the items would fall off, and the figure would fall over off the base. So I used a bit of model contact cement to help hold the items to Dr.Jones (no time for love Dr.Jones!) and to hold Dr.Jones to the base.
This on its own looked ok, but I figured that to get it to look more like a traditional topper, it needed a bit of a flat background behind the figure. I also think that when I get the lighting done, having the flat background will look even better. For the background, I simply image searched the web for "mossy stone wall", and found an image I liked. I then printed it, cut it out, laminated it, cut it out again, and then slid it between the rock blocks and rock column on the base of the figure.
And presto! One custom Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom topper for $20 Canadian total.
As stated before, it will look even better once I get some LEDs rigged up to it. I will try to remember to update this thread once I do.
Thanks for reading!
Trumansburg, NY
Barrie, ON
