It will be a miracle if this thread survives the local censorship, but let's give it a try.
Although it is perfectly acceptable in the American culture to show and display war maimed and killed human beings as well as the most extreme violence, ugliness and monsters in movies and Newscasts, rendition of the naked female body remains the absolute taboo in the popular culture. The early British Puritan pioneers did such a good job in their time and the result on the American psyche, went way beyond their wildest dreams. How can you claim to be Independent when a large portion of your daily behavior and thoughts are still greatly influenced by these narrow-minded English puritans, so eager to define the conduct of the new world human beings?
That statue by Augustus Saint-Gaudens (Irish sculptor emigrated to America) symbolizes the rigidity and sternness of the mid-Nineteenth Century American upper class, with its stick and Bible in hands. Anyway, enough talking about a very sad period of the so called "American Renaissance".
Please exit this thread if:
- You are younger than 18 years old.
- You are afraid of naked women.
- You cannot stand the beauty of the human body.
About 15 years ago, I acquired a Bally Playboy playfield, fully populated. I could not get the whole machine because of marital misunderstandings and refusal (WAF). So, I had to contend with just the playfield and future hopes that one day I would be in a position to own the entire machine. Well, that has not yet happened, but we are getting closer.
The Playfield was shipped from Texas to NC, and suffered a brutal shock near the grotto ejection mechanism, damaging slightly the wood, during the transit. In retrospect, it is a miracle that nothing worse happened, in light of the poor packaging and the difficulty to ship something as heavy and bulky as a playfield, in a cardboard box.
As you can see, there was a lot of work to be done on that playfield:
- The plastics were warped and broken. Fortunately, I managed to find on Da-Bay the missing triangle and CPR came up a few years later with a nice Plastic reproduction set that I quickly purchased.
- The center area was completely destroyed. Obviously, the wood was gouged in places and all the markings were long gone. All this due to the silly mentality and greediness of the Pinball operators of the mid 70's and early 80's: "Penny Wise, Dollar Foolish". Yes, why replace the small piece of rubber located at the end of the shooting rod, when you can save 25 cents not doing so? When the shooting rod (with no rubber) hits the ball, it leaves some marks and scuffings on the surface of the ball, turning this essential component of the game, into an instrument of destruction. The damages to the playfield could have been avoided by simply replacing the rubber tip (and the ball) for good measure.
- The grotto ejection mechanism (not visible on the picture) had bent and broken the wood during the transit.
- Multiple parts of the playfield were damaged by the abrasive ball, such as the face of that poor top-right Bunny. Hugh, in his Penthouse building behind the tall windows protected by curtains, was invisible, prematurely erased from endless delights between the arms and legs of some of the most beautiful women of that era.
To put it simply, there was a lot of work to do. Please keep in mind that at that time there was no CPR playfield reproduction, no Decals and no overlays for that machine. I was pretty much on my own.... to do something perhaps, different....
Yves