kirabug's idea files

Transporter: The Rescue, Bally, 1989.

If you were thinking Jason Statham, no. Very no.

This is another pin based on a science fiction theme, but what exactly that theme is I’m not sure. From left to right, we have:

A woman in a space suit trapped in a reddish-yellow cone (possibly a pyramid). There’s a tentacle from a monster wrapped around the cone possessively.
A monster. Quinti-laterally symmetrical? Five eyes, five mouths, a big scary opening at the top of its head that could be some other kind of mouth, tentacles, some kind of crab claws or maybe the end of one of the tentacles menacing the camera. The monster is the same orange-red as the cone with the woman in it.
A man in a space suit coming in from offstage right, carrying a gun. The patch on his shoulder says UN Orion and has a bunch of patches on it indicating lots of service. The gun looks suspiciously like a Colt revolver, which, my dude, won’t fire if there’s no oxygen and you are wearing a space suit.
The presumed-backpack the man is wearing has the Jackpot lights built into it.

The background has what is either a green dome or a very large green moon rising on what is otherwise a barren plane. Something ominous is glowing in the leftmost corner.

Yeah, absolutely no Jason Statham.

October 20, 2023October 28, 2023

Genesis

Pinball

Genesis, Gottleib, 1986.

One would think looking at this backglass that it was based on a science fiction movie, and it sort-of is, but nothing you’ve probably heard of. According to the Internet Pinball Database (IPD) entry for Genesis, designer John Gottleib based the concept on a 1927 German film called Metropolis.

Anyway, the backglass is eye-catching in how different it is from most designs of its era. It’s a photo of three people, an old man dressed like a mad scientist, a younger woman with big 80s hair and lots of fishnets, and a younger man possibly with dwarfism dressed in a black leather vest but no shirt.

Behind them one can see a wall of devices, all painted the same matte grey, a weird looking machine to the left and a screen of some sort to the right. Definitely hearkens back to the age of b-movie science fiction, even if the exact plot is known only to the designer.

October 19, 2023October 28, 2023

Spider-Man

Pinball

Spider-Man, Stern, 2007.

Spider-man as a movie has been rebooted so many times even Marvel can’t keep track of the retcons. I’m pretty sure this one is referring to the Tobey Maguire one from 2002, and possible some of its sequels.

Spider-man in his trademark blue and red suite is dead center of this backglass, mid-swing between two buildings that are both out of view. Behind him a bunch of other characters from the movie(s) — Green Goblin, Sandman, Venom, Doc Oc, and a few I don’t recognize, are all in a darker palette. There are some explosions behind them, and behind the explosions is a cityscape.

Less boring than the Iron Man backglass, for sure, but Hollywood just isn’t great at this whole “interesting image” thing.

October 18, 2023October 21, 2023

Ultraman Kaiju Rumble

Pinball

Ultraman Kaiju Rumble, by Spooky Pinball, 2021.

I know nothing about Ultraman except that the main character is Ultraman. He’s dead center of the backglass, shooting some kind of white beam at a Godzilla-like monster who is mostly off-camera left. Behind him to the left is another Godzilla-like monster.

Behind him to the right is a jet, a bug-like monster, a monster spouting yellow rays toward the center of the backglass, and the snout of a monster that could be a rhino if his horn wasn’t on backwards and he didn’t look like he was wearing a helmet.

In the bottom right corner some humans in orange jumpsuits and helmets comfort a strange looking fuzzy monster and menace everyone else with ray guns.

This probably makes sense if you have any idea who anyone is, but i do not.

October 17, 2023October 28, 2023

Chicago Cubs Triple Play

Pinball

Chicago Cubs Triple Play by Premier, 1985.

The bottom third of the backglass is an illustration of Wrigley Field’s outside gates, with their famous red sign, and lots of people heading toward the box offices.

The top two thirds of the backglass are two drawings of pictures. Illustrations of photos are always cool, right? On the left, the view from up in the nosebleed seats of the grounds, with home plate closest to the camera. On the right, a zoomed in view of the famous and old scoreboard in Wrigley field.

Across the top is the name Chicago Cubs (where the word “Cubs” is embedded in the o of Chicago, like their logo at the time) and the words “triple play” in scare quotes. As a baseball fan, I do fear the triple play when my team is up, but I don’t think I fear it enough to put it in scare quote.