A good pinball friend of mine who is local used to buy operator's inventory in the 70's and sell it by the truckload - pins, juke boxes, slot machines, etc.. He ended up with a collection of a dozen or so wedgeheads. He now is near 70 and wants to sell all his wedgeheads and buy Chicago Gaming remakes, a Twilight Zone, and an Addams Family. He is selling five wedgeheads to me and the rest to the general public. The funny thing is he didn't even know he had these samples all these years:

Strange World - 1st sample made 01001 S
Hit the Deck - 1st sample made 01001 S
Blue Note - 3rd sample made 01003 S
Buccaneer - 87th sample made 01087 S

The Strange World was on location in South Carolina and ended back up in Illinois.

The Blue Note was on location in Peoria, IL (where I live)

I still have to see if I can figure out where Hit the Deck and Buccaneer came from.

BTW, if anyone from South Carolina ended up with what looks to be an engineering test sample schematic for this Strange World, contact me. It is basically an engineering blueprint copied - the size and color (cream) are different than standard production ones and it seems a little larger. Some have "Engineering Test Sample" stamped/written and copied onto the schematic - some don't. Of the 3 sample schematics I have been only one is labeled Engineering Test Sample.
IMG_20191118_074209985 (resized).jpgIMG_20191117_101741866 (resized).jpgIMG_20191118_074138377 (resized).jpgIMG_20191118_074306185 (resized).jpgIMG_20191117_101756147_MP (resized).jpg

Good question.

Thanks Alex. I should go buy a lottery ticket asap.

Thanks Alex. Very lucky. I need to buy a lottery ticket asap.

Let's say it's a guess. It came here to IL with no schematic.

Thanks!

I'll check it next time I go over to his house.

Unique color combination for sure - thanks for sharing. My 01087 S Buccaneer has the same colors as the standard production run.

Just a follow-up.

Got a phone call from Steve Young the other day and he told me he has original sample schematics that he can run copies of if anyone wants one. I'm not sure if he has every game but this is nice to know.

He also said just because you see an operator sticker on a sample game doesn't mean that game hasn't traveled to other states in the US besides that one - makes sense.

Thanks Dave

Interesting back story. Steve said pretty much the same thing to me the other day about Gottlieb but I like your Bally addition.

JR
Sorry, forgot to answer your question on the red playfield inserts on sample HtD. No, it does not.