Check rgp. It's all there

I have one f/s if anyone is interested

Maybe so, but it gives a good idea about the obstacles that are just as valid now as they were then. You want one now be prepared to pony up some serious cash.

Like i said, google rgp. Heck, search here. It's been talked about before.

Why not just link us to alllll those countless topics?

IPB got caught up with - "it's next in line" - I even called once and they told me they were getting test pfs back from the printers. Never got run again. Maybe there was a stack of blanks when Rick got the goods....

Why should I do your research for you? It would take me just as long as it would you?

Then it sounds like its buried and not easy to find. Let's get a discussion going instead of trying to dig up ancient archives

I have a question why do taf playfields wear much more than any other it seems ? Ive been looking at getting one but most are worn? Is it just because it was played so much compared to others at the time like tz , ij and sttng? Or is it the way its made and the magnets that cause it ?

WMS playfields from that era sometimes had thin clearcoats or clearcoats that did not stick well to the plastic inserts.

Rob

IPB repro here, only a few hours left. No interest for some reason..

ebay.com link: Addams Family Pinball Playfield like NOS

I'm sure there will be some furious bidding in the last 15 seconds of the auction.

NOS one here...

ebay.com link: NOS Williams Playfield The Addams Family RARE New Old Stock Replacement

Didn't the repro not have the serial numbers in the purple area and the NOS did have the number. I think that is a reproduction but I am not sure.

Well, you are probably right, but all of the NOS ones Ive ever seen, had the original insert on the lower left under the apron, the IPB ones did not. The NOS one I bought recently does have the barcode in place of the purple spot. I had bought one of each.

IMG_3144.JPG

And one more repro here...

ebay.com link: Addams Family Pinball Playfield Restored Clearcoated Bally Williams

Given other NOS PF's go for 1500++(and then some +'s), given how rare any TAF PF's are, I actually don't think that is a horrible price.

There is one real easy way to tell if a TAF playfield is an IPB repo. If you look at the red carpet that leads up to the left ramp, the IPB payfield has no carpet texture / print. NOS TAF playfields have carpet texture / carpet print in the red. The reason for this is that IPB didn't realize they were missing a screen when running their playfields. They ran a bunch of playfields and approved them. They then realized this carpet print was missing way after it was too late. Gene didn't want to lose money so he said ship them as is.

True story. Have a bunch of others that are funnier.

Thanks
Dougram

Must have been in the first generation runs. The carpet pattern is much more pronounced in the IPB 2Nd Gen I bought versus the NOS I bought. But so far the stray insert in the lower left still seems to be the giveaway.

I love these stories, please tell more . I'm wondering how long it took before someone noticed and how much if any drama it caused. I knew about the outholes missing bevels, not pre-drilled or t-nutted properly etc but not the carpet texture. I assume the pro restorers leave it when they C.C them, I'm imagining Ron Kruzman staring through a magnifier painting texture back on carpeting.....

IPB didn't route the chair hole. you had to do it yourself. Some IPB blue inserts are differant shades on the same pf. They didnt know enough to not mix lots of colored inserts.

Either that or he was reproducing one of the TAF playfields made by Lenc Smith....

http://www.hsapinball.com/HSA_PINBALL/hsa147.html

I can't imagine spending that much on a playfield

A repro MM playfield is usually $900, so $300 more for a much harder to find PF does not seem out of line.

I suppose. It's just a really big chunk of change.

If you weren't around in the era of no repro PFs, the prices have come down a good amount on a lot of things that used to be unobtanium, from playfields to plastics to ramps. I do agree it is still expensive (that pf is more than I have spent on any game except a WH2O)

No doubt.

The harder to find ones (not F14s or something like that) have ALWAYS been expensive. MM pfs (NOS, pre-repro) were going for well over 1.5k. Not anymore. As I said, the unobtanium parts used to be much more expensive, and as they were repro'd have come come way down.

NOS HS ramps before repro'd - 200 bucks easy. GnR G ramp before repros - 500. Now you would be hardpressed to get 50 bucks for a NOS HS ramp (Since the plastic is garbage), and when the repro G ramps were available they were 130 bucks or so? (of course now that they are getting hard to find, they have krept back up.)

Yes, as things get more expensive to produce, the prices will go up accordingly.

I dropped about $3600.00 including shipping between those two I bought.

No Way! I saw that, should've mentioned it when I posted the link!

I sold my triple cleared IPB pf a couple years ago for $1200. Prob get double that now. It was gorgeous. Just never ended up with the game.

Supposedly Rick got the rights to make TAF pf's in his purchase of IPB, but just like Gene he is sitting on the license watching for it to hatch.

Un-drilled NOS is likely a second with issues. I'd avoid that, personally.

It was all drilled, it's in MI at the moment with the game undergoing a high end restore. It received 2 coats of auto clear, and the original NOS barcode was under the diamondplate. It had all the proper end date and other stamps on it.

IMG_3145.JPG

You know, someone above commented about what happened when IPB figured out the carpet texture was missing. It was so funny. No one wanted to tell Gene as someone internally at IPB approved the first few samples. He was pissed when he found out. They had outlaid a bunch of money for the run so they started selling them at a discont when people started complaining. They had the artwork but no screen. They laid out more money to have the screen remade for later runs.

A lot of real funny shit happened while I was helping out at IPB and I saw a lot. I was there on day one when all the WMS pallets showed up, and was involved in unpacking and inventoring everything. Given Gene is out of the hobby now, I am gonna start a thread each week called I Remember When IPB.... It will have a funny story or internal drama for the time. More to come.

Thanks
Dougram

Looking forward to that.

Damn. Gene had several TAF playfields at the Texas a Pinball Festival a few years ago. On the last day of the show, he was selling them for $500 each. Now I wish I would have bought a few... or 10.

Oh yes I see what you mean now, well, I think I do remember him telling me he had to drill at least the pop bumper holes, and there must have been more. I never studied the 2. I did the side X side pic then boxed them both back up.
As the story goes, I had been the ""list"" at IPB for over a year, found and bought the repro during that time, then the NOS came along, I bought it, then sold the repro this year. looking at some of the progress pics, all holes have been drilled as needed. I was happy with the IPB one till the nos came along, 90 percent of all the parts being used on my game were nos that I had been collecting for a few years including the ramp assy, so it was fitting to go with the nos playfield. In the end I never really liked the colors on the IPB one, I did prefer the cloud detail though over the nos.

If you want a rundown on the list of licenses that pertain to remaking TAF, have a listen to the latest Pinball Arcade kickstarter campaign. They are trying to raise $98,000 to make a digital recreation of the machine.

Now some of these image licenses won't pertain to the playfield itself, but it is certainly one of the more complex playfields in terms of license fees to reproduce.

License discussion kicks in (pardon the pun) at the 5:20 mark:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1067367405/pinball-arcade-the-addams-family