Hi everyone-

A couple weekends ago, I went on a local op warehouse run with a friend of mine, and ACTUALLY turned good deals in this crazy pinball market. We were allowed to pick over their "to be shopped" inventory of about 200 games in mostly junk condition. After a couple hours of combing, we picked up out a trio of machines, No Fear, Whirlwind and Independence day. No Fear was a stellar condition re-import with a shattered playfield glass (3" of glass on the PF), Whirlwind was missing a display and ID4 was missing a DMD. I kept NF and WW, my friend took home ID4. All machines prices were negotiated and purchased on the spot without powering the games up (yikes!). We did however get to open them up and check for completeness.

After a day of glass removal and shopping, No Fear was back in action! It was only missing a few minor parts (spinner, a few rubbers, etc). Aside from that, zero playfield wear and only two broken plastics, which have both been sourced.

After I got No Fear squared up, I jumped into Whirlwind. A new rottendog LED display got my game to boot, however it wasn't saving data with fresh batteries installed. I decided to remove the battery holder and do a remote battery pack which solved the backup-data problem. I also noticed the interconnect board was burned up on the GI (headers and connectors), so I replaced them all around. After patching the lift-ramp (soon to be replaced with a complete new ramp), the game plays error free!

The pair is a welcomed addition to my current lineup of WCS94, JD, DM and Flash. Whirlwind seems to be the 'fan favorite' out of the bunch when my guests play.

It took me a week or so and about $300 to get my bargain games up and running. All said and done, I am still below fair market value (2011 prices, not the inflation prices) on both games (which is not a regular thing in the 18 or so games I've owned). All in all, it was a great experience, one I would absolutely do again!