Sounds like the title of a B-movie, I know.... but I can assure you, it's really more of a love story.
It's been roughly a year since I finally broke down and came out of the closet... I love classic Stern pins!
It was a hard pill to swallow for a DMD and EM loving lad like myself who'd always laughed at the thought of classic 'Sturds"
But, it wasn't long after I'd taken my first steps into exploring early solid state pins that I was ensnared by their shameful lure and digital bleeps, blops and bloops.
I love the Bally and Williams games from this era, but 1980's Sterns are decidedly different. I've heard them referred to as "cheap, pretty and fast…" Now, I'm not sure how cheap they are anymore, but they sure as hell are punishing and as beautiful as they are mean. Not to mention they have some cool rules and objectives for the era.
I had the good fortune of acquiring a Meteor for my first foray into this dark corner of pindom. A fantastic game and I still love it, but it wasn't long before space-rocks and ICBMs gave way to bodacious beauties.
I had set my sights on some rare birds. Star Gazer, Quicksilver and Seawitch. It seems no coincidence that stern artists and designers were angling for the prepubescent male market with these strong female heroins/characters. I jokingly refer to them as "hippie chick, fishy chick and alien chick"… or simply "the ladies". Seeing them all together, they compliment each other beautifully. Each of these games combines great speed, creative shots, captivating sound effects and gorgeous artwork into pure pinball fun.
Given the rarity of some of these, I was extremely lucky to score these titles all within a year. I did have to trade a pretty decent DMD to acquire the Star Gazer, but the other two were found this Spring during the Allentown trip. I even cast my net across the Atlantic and ended up with a 2nd Quicksilver; from Serbia of all places! That 2nd example was sold off pretty quickly and helped to fund the others.
They are all here now and finally lined up in the workshop where they each await some long overdue attention.
So, with good weather on tap for the next few months, I'm setting myself the challenge of getting all 3 of these ladies refurbished, repainted and restored before the year is out. I know... it's not like I don't have other projects, but I am happiest when I have a dozen plates spinning in the air. My Fathom project is on hold until my playfield and parts arrive and the '66 Batman re-theme I'm doing with Monkeybug is also ongoing in the background. It's been a while since I documented an actual restore though, so I'll cover the progress here.
To preface, all machines are mostly working, so at least I can play one or two while working on another.
Star gazer is in the best shape out of the three so I'll probably start with the lowest hanging fruit and do SG first.
My goal is to have these complete before the new year… so I'm setting a very aggressive target date of December 31, 2016.... or 179 days (roughly 2 months per game).
I enjoy working under pressure.... so let's see how I do juggling these 3 pins and my other projects.
Stay tuned!
