It'll hit 25k and higher . . . there is a super collector out there that isn't going to let this game get out of reach, talk about a game that virtually never comes available.

The bids suddenly dropped to $13,000 from $20,000. I wonder what happened? Someone bid the 20k with a dummy account just to see how high the person in front of them was bidding then withdrew it? Sneaky.

Would be really great to see this game going to shows. I hope whoever is lucky enough to land it does bring it to some shows to be seen. Will probably win a few contests at the various shows it makes it to.

I see another poster in this thread says he has a verbal on the machine. If it goes through then big congrats on the amazing score!

I hope it works out for you and the game makes it to many pinball events!!! Good luck.

Interestingly, back in the day, Nintendo wanted Donkey Kong to be named King Kong and they couldn't get the rights either . . . so King Kong became Donkey Kong. I'm sure it is staying out of the public domain the same way Mickey Mouse and all the other old copyrighted and trade marked characters stay out.

Here is an good on point review from an education article (that is expressly in the public domain):

Anything copyrighted prior to 1923 is in the public domain. (Practically speaking, this includes anything published prior to 1923, since publication without copyright put the work straight into the public domain. But note this possible exception in some western states for some 1909-1922 foreign works that were not published in the US before 1923.) Due to a 20-year copyright extension enacted in the US in 1998, copyrights from 1923 or later that are still in force will stay in effect through 2018 or longer.

Certain works copyrighted in 1923 or later may already have entered the public domain. In particular, works published in the US before 1989 without proper copyright notice, and works published in the US before 1964 whose copyrights were not renewed, may have entered the public domain. However, works from 1923 or later that were originally published in countries outside the US may still be copyrighted regardless of whether they were printed with proper notice or renewed. To research whether a book's copyright has been renewed, or needed to be renewed, see this article.

Works never published prior to 2003 (and never registered for copyright prior to 1978) are now in the public domain in the US if they are by authors who died more than 70 years before the most recent New Year's day. (For 2013, this means authors who died before 1943.) Although this new rule does not put any previously published material into the public domain, it may allow some long-lost manuscripts and collections of letters to be published online as "new" online books.

Yea, that mouse is tough. I love how South Park portrays him in episodes he appears in. Anyone remember the episode where the Jonas brothers refused to go on stage? We_refuse_to_go_on_stage.jpg

While I am just speculating and trying to extrapolate from the data in this thread, it sounds like they made the 9 prototypes to show to the IP holders and (for whatever reason) getting the IP turned into a greater challenge than they thought it would be. Perhaps there were multiple people owning one facet of the IP and they had to deal with third parties they were not expecting to deal with.

During the pendancy of the deal, they got the rights to do back to the future and just re-themed most of the playfield to back to the future. Again, just speculation.

Alright, so I did some quick research on the King Kong IP issue so I could stop speculating. This is interesting (and funny enough ties in with my comments on Donkey Kong earlier):

"Universal’s King Kong movie debuted in 1976, but it wasn’t an original story. Rather, the movie was a remake of a movie with the same title made in 1933 by RKO General. The 1976 remake came with its own round of litigation, with many parties claiming to have at least partial rights over the name, characters, and plot of the movie. Universal, however, argued that no one did, and that the characters and plot were in the public domain. In the subsequent litigation with Nintendo, the court noted this inconsistency, using it as part of the basis for finding that Nintendo’s Donkey Kong game did not infringe upon Universal’s rights (if any) over King Kong. Nintendo prevailed, and, when Universal appealed, the next court admonished Universal for its inconsistent legal logic.

Finally, Universal’s conduct amounted to an abuse of judicial processes, and in that sense caused a larger harm to the public as a whole. Depending on the commercial results, Universal alternatively argued to the courts, first, that King Kong was part of the public domain, and then second, that King Kong was not part of the public domain, and that Universal possessed exclusive trademark rights in it. Universal’s assertions in court were based not on any good faith belief in their truth, but on the mistaken belief that it could use the courts to turn a profit." - abovethelaw.com

I sure hope this game makes it to a couple shows. Anyone want to do final price predictions?

My guess: $26,450 (I think there will be a couple super collectors vying for it at the end).

With still three days to go I would guess most of the people who have the means and desire to bid on an item like this will be made aware of it (if they are not all aware of it already).

The pinball world is small and for the uber collector that doesn't patron pinside they likely have friends that come here and have seen this thread and alerted them to the auction. I still think it ends a hair under 27k but as others have said I also wouldn't be surprised to see it go for over 30k.

There was a very nice gentlemen who brought his BBB to the TPF. I understand both BBB and King Pin make regular appearances at a show in California (not sure which one). Very cool when the rarer games make it to shows for everyone to enjoy.

Some collectors really enjoy showing off their collections. Hopefully this King Kong goes to one of those gentlemen's collections.

This title has crossed the 20k threshold.

Seeing that backglass makes me curious, is there a good way to restore a backglass that has had flaking issues like that?

Jeez, I had no idea you went up to 9 . . . I remember when your thread when you got the JP. I bet you would have laughed had someone said a year later you would have nine!!!

6 hours to go, 25% lower price so far.