Just picked this up from Walmart.com. Took forever to put together, but not really too difficult. A pinhead will have no problem. I always wanted a bowler, but the are expensive and hard to move. Really a well made game and fun to play. All for about $350 shipped. I do recommend for any gameroom.
F92155F8-1C3E-4C6B-8E92-4AEDD4B9F984 (resized).jpegQuoted from Travish:Looks like a nice surprise.
After you have it together how hard would it be to take apart far enough to move?
Honestly. Very difficult. Unlike bowlers and Skeeball it doesn’t split in two. You’d have to be able to move this 10 foot, 175lb beast all together. I put it together near where I would install it, and moved it with furniture glides into place. It will stay with the house if/when I move. If you wanted to remove the head from the lane, it’s 6 bolts. But not sure how durable it would be that way. But, for $350...I can live with that.
Quoted from Travish:I could live with it if the head will come loose from the lane and then the lane go out a doorway in one piece? It looks narrow enough for the lane to go out a 36" door?
Thanks
Yes, the lane and head can separate. It’s 27” wide I think...so would easy fit through 36” (all doors in my house are 36”). If the head is separated, I’m thinking it’d be plenty durable if you are kinda careful. The material used is really good quality, and tons of screws and the wood material is high density. Not solid wood, but high density. It’s really heavy duty built.
Looks great! What size are the balls?
I have the MD Sports Roll and Score skee ball game and we were also pleasantly surprised with the quality. We just had a birthday party and it was played for 4 hours straight by everyone from 2 years old to 70 and it performed flawlessly.
How difficult is it to play? I hesitated on the skee ball because I thought it might be too easy but it's difficult enough to keep adults interested. If it's challenging enough for adults I feel like my parents might like it.
Thanks for sharing!
You’ll love it. At times the pins partially drop/up, but not totally, so not complete. Just like a pin that rocked, but won’t fall. It’s a lot of fun. Definitely worth the work. Just be patient when putting it together. I think this is a win.
I think the balls are 4”...at first I thought kinda light, but once I played, they are perfect. You have to not hulk the ball, but finess it, to get the strike.
Just think what it was like when United first came out with their 14' ball bowlers.
No split alley. 400 - 450 lbs. of 14' bowler..
I found pics, but no videos of your bowler. I wouldn't mind so much to see that
little baby in action..
Quoted from Mopar:Just think what it was like when United first came out with their 14' ball bowlers.
No split alley. 400 - 450 lbs. of 14' bowler..
I found pics, but no videos of your bowler. I wouldn't mind so much to see that
little baby in action..
I second that! I'd love to see a video of this thing in action!
Quoted from dnapac:I’ll work on some video tomorrow. Some people have complained about the speech, but I find it fun, not irritating. Really, there are only a couple bits of speech. Other sound effects I think are very good too.
Please do a video. Thanks for posting
Don't know if I'd ever want something like that in my house... But, if I get a bigger game room, and if I ever have kids I would imagine something like that would be really fun. I'd imagine having family tournaments would be really cool with it.
Very nice, thanks for sharing!
The start up speech is the same on my skee ball. It also does not have a volume control on it and we thought it was a little too loud so I just put a piece of hockey tape over half of the speaker and it brings it down to a nice level
Quoted from wdennie:Wow, and to think I just spent 3K on a 10 strike
Williams "10 Strike"? You didn't get hurt..
Quoted from Mopar:Williams "10 Strike"? You didn't get hurt..
Benchmark remake, which is fine, but I think this is way cooler
Update: Sadly, the electronics (pins and mechanism and opto) is made with very poor materials. My pins started to fall off due to cracked plastic where they attach to the main mechanism. I had to get a new one from MD Sports. I re-enforced these clips with Gorilla Tape and hot glue...hope it works. My opto, that senses the ball return and resets the pins went bad. Again had to get a replacement. MD Sports is very responsive, and parts were all covered, but disassembling part of the game and installing the parts was my problem. The opto they sent was for air hockey, and the harness was incorrect. Stripping the wires and soldering to correct the problem was up to me. It all works again, but without some knowledge of electronics and soldering, this is a disappointing game. I shouldn’t have had to do this when it was less than 2 months old.
Wondering if your repair is holding up?
I really want either a puck bowler or a ball bowler for my gameroom but the size weight and expense of them has kept me away.
Nope. This saga continues for me, and at least 1 other person are in the same boat. The opto sensors fail after a few plays. They’ve sent me different sensors and a different pinhousing (the main electronics) and it still failed. Just yesterday I got a package from them that included all electronics, a new pinhousing, new display, new sensors, and new power button. I’m really getting sick of taking this thing apart and putting it back together to play just a few games. We’ll see if this works. If it fails, I will buy and install my own own optos...after that...it’s a paper weight. With all the trouble I, and the other people have been through, MD Sports should just refund our money, but that’s unlikely. Buyer beware.
Quoted from Mopar:Just think what it was like when United first came out with their 14' ball bowlers.
No split alley. 400 - 450 lbs. of 14' bowler..
I found pics, but no videos of your bowler. I wouldn't mind so much to see that
little baby in action..
I will attest to this - I have a old ball bowler and those bitches are 8 feet tall (good luck trying to use a hand truck) and FILLED and I mean FILLED with switch stacks top to bottom - 400 pounds maybe for JUST The head. I had STI deliver mine years ago and it still stands out of my mind of the most difficult game ever to get DOWN the steps. I had a huge Jamacian guy with me at the bottom and we were straining every muscle while the skinny Mexican guy at the top who spoke no English handled the hand truck. Every step it went down was what I would imagine it is like to have a baby in terms of pain and fear. Finally the Jamacian guy looked at me at said 'Hey mon, if shit go wrong, we run'... That's all I needed to hear at that point. Lord knows how I'm getting it UP when we move... Sorry for the kinda off topic story - I just never have a chance to tell it and it's funny !
Anyway - nice pickup for $ 350 that's a lot of fun right there, the bowlers are always a hit in any collection and having one no matter what it is is cool.
Quoted from dnapac:Nope. This saga continues for me, and at least 1 other person are in the same boat. The opto sensors fail after a few plays. They’ve sent me different sensors and a different pinhousing (the main electronics) and it still failed. Just yesterday I got a package from them that included all electronics, a new pinhousing, new display, new sensors, and new power button. I’m really getting sick of taking this thing apart and putting it back together to play just a few games. We’ll see if this works. If it fails, I will buy and install my own own optos...after that...it’s a paper weight. With all the trouble I, and the other people have been through, MD Sports should just refund our money, but that’s unlikely. Buyer beware.
Bummer. Sorry to hear about all the trouble. I still have their skee ball and it has hundreds maybe thousands of games on it and it still works flawlessly. Guess I will have to go for a puck bowler in the future.
Any update on this? I saw on your YouTube video a year ago that you said it’s finally working and I read online they have a new and improved pin setter. Thanks
Just saw this. I gave up. I took that thing apart so many times and had every electronic piece replaced at least once. The optos kept failing. It was a favorite to play among my friends, but only worked 10% of the time. It has been dismantled and halted to the dump.
Quoted from dnapac:Just saw this. I gave up. I took that thing apart so many times and had every electronic piece replaced at least once. The optos kept failing. It was a favorite to play among my friends, but only worked 10% of the time. It has been dismantled and halled to the dump.
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Alton, IA