All four legs seem to be still on it in the photo though!

Hey, personal experience! I was given a Jungle Queen that someone had tossed in the dumpster after a very careful head removal - much like the photos above, although they also made sure to make the job complete by cutting the harnesses just a few inches away from the plugs.

I *STILL* haven't gotten around to restoring it yet, however the basement mildew covering the playfield cleaned up surprisingly well. One of these days I'll get working on it. The backbox went back together decently enough with some clamps and Titebond.

The more I look at that face, the harder I laugh.

Goddammit.
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During trailer unloading this morning after MGC, there was a... mishap.

If you know what a backbox is supposed to be shaped like, you can probably tell this was bad. Goodbye, nice repro backglass. I am, however, very relieved that the bottom panel held strong enough to protect the display and the electronics. Gory as it may look, the damage is cosmetic, and having built cabinets from scratch, I promise the Black Knight WILL rise again.

I guess the best all-around advice is "don't be stupid." But here's an itemized list of things that could have prevented this accident.

1. Have another person. Anyone else on the ground behind the trailer could have pushed back and prevented the game from falling.
2. Lower angle on cart. This would have been fine alone had I watched how steep I was holding the cart when lowering it off the trailer. For the other games - particularly the ones I nervously unloaded after this one - I had the cart standing at about a 45-degree angle, possibly less, which put its center of gravity close enough to my end to stabilize the games. This one, I wasn't thinking, and had it steep enough that the game's weight carried it over the wheels upon hitting the ground, thus letting it roll completely over.
3. Weigh more than 150 pounds. Or rather, don't spend the 1/10th of a second wondering if it will stick the landing, and instead grab anything fastened down to pull it back in my direction before the game's own force is heavier than me.

4A) Don't be too tired and impatient to bother with straps. Turns out those extra few minutes might actually be worth it. Even when you're moving five games and want to be done with it.

In the immortal words of Sinistar, "BEWARE! I LIVE!"

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Display is fine, phone camera just doesn't like the scan rate. Vacuumed up most of the glass. There were a few things that seemed oddly loose or out of place on the playfield, which is a bit odd because playfield seemed mostly untouched. Could've had things come loose just as a result of show use, not really going to worry about that right now.

The most important thing is, somehow the insert panel managed to support the weight of the entire machine (without damaging the bulbs???) and the electronics are fine. After taking this photo, I turned the volume down to pre-convention levels and played a full game with minimal troubles. It's definitely not pretty, but the parts that matter have survived. I keep reminding myself that this was always one of my worst cabinets and I'd had restoration on my mind for a long time.

Am considering throwing on some brackets and a stupid-looking printout of the backglass just to get this thing marginally good enough to join the other three games going to a local convention this coming weekend.

Haha, that was the first thing I thought of when I saw it hanging there!
Honestly, I wish I could leave it that way for the time being just for the potential hilarity of a rocket launch. But unfortunately I will have to resist that urge and remove that plunger until the game as a roof again. I could easily see it come right back down and either shatter my playfield glass too, or bounce its way back into the backbox and short something on the MPU.