High Speed - Production Run vs Flyer?
Michael Minchew ii
clearly indicate a playfield plastic with a helicopter on a 1" post above
the ball shooter lane. Were these actually produced? Never seen one any
machine anywhere. Anyone want to sell one?
Also, for any HS experts - flyer also shows a metal post with a white
rubber ring rather than a post with a yellow sleeve supporting the
playfield plastic on the lower right corner of the center stoplight slap
targets. Was this a design change. Any comments welcome.
Mike Minchew
Bill Ung
|I got a flyer for my 86' Williams High Speed today and the pictures
|clearly indicate a playfield plastic with a helicopter on a 1" post above
|the ball shooter lane. Were these actually produced? Never seen one any
|machine anywhere. Anyone want to sell one?
I have one mounted on my machine. They were indeed produced. As I
understood it (this may be wrong), they weren't put on because it
was thought they'd break too easily. How or why, I don't really
know. It IS on the flyer, and it wasn't on any production game I
saw.
I got mine by ordering a plastics set. This was a few years ago, so this
item is likely to be gone-gone-gone by now. HIGH SPEED will be 10 years
old this February. Still, no harm in hunting. HIGH SPEED was a high
production game.
The plastics set cost a pretty penny, $99.00, if I recall. However,
to my delight, I got a keychain coaster, the helicopter, and the
"Hot Action Pinball" backbox plastic (the arch over the beacon light).
In retrospect, it was still a pretty big chunk of change, but I
guess it was worth it.
|Also, for any HS experts - flyer also shows a metal post with a white
|rubber ring rather than a post with a yellow sleeve supporting the
|playfield plastic on the lower right corner of the center stoplight slap
|targets. Was this a design change. Any comments welcome.
Uncle Willy could probably help you with this more than I. I don't
have a flyer handy (they're at home).
--
Bill Ung
u...@filenet.com
HIGH SPEED: "Dispatch this is 504, suspect got away."
EARTHSHAKER: "Ooohhh, bitchin!!"
WHITEWATER: "Dang, lost another one!"
Kingndi
The helicopter plastic and it's mounting post were included in
the parts bag shipped with every HS. We kept it in the bag
because we thought it might get ripped out of the wood in
shipping. Compared to what we ship bolted on to the playfield
today, this was very naive of us. It may also have been that the
manufacturing department did not want to handle the playfield
with the helicopter mounted on the rail in production. I seem
to recall some influence in that direction. Almost certainly, LED
will remember the exact reason; I'll ask him.
I do not recall the answer to the type and color of post used
in the photo vs. production. Everything is always rushed, in-
cluding the photo shoot for each design. We sometimes
make changes to playfields after the photo shoot is done.
Pinball is strange in that all bugs, ball hang-ups and other
problems may not show up until the game is played many,
many times. Internet did not exist, so pinball addicts could
not communicate the problems they experienced. Even with
your help, there will still be changes made to pinball machines
after the photo shoot of each model is done.
Regards
Steve Ritchie
Bill Ung
|
|Guys-
|
|The helicopter plastic and it's mounting post were included in
|the parts bag shipped with every HS. We kept it in the bag
|because we thought it might get ripped out of the wood in
|shipping. Compared to what we ship bolted on to the playfield
|today, this was very naive of us. It may also have been that the
|manufacturing department did not want to handle the playfield
|with the helicopter mounted on the rail in production. I seem
|to recall some influence in that direction. Almost certainly, LED
|will remember the exact reason; I'll ask him.
Thanks for the info Steve. I'm interested to know what LED remembers
about it too.
As for it being in a "parts bag", I've never seen one of these.
Perhaps there are hundreds, if not thousands of those little
helicopter plastics lying in back room and bottom drawers of
file cabinets in arcades around the country. Or, maybe they
eventually got tossed. :-(
I have *never* seen a game on location that had that plastic
installed. In fact, I only know of one other person who has
one (not counting anyone at Williams).
|I do not recall the answer to the type and color of post used
|in the photo vs. production. Everything is always rushed, in-
|cluding the photo shoot for each design. We sometimes
|make changes to playfields after the photo shoot is done.
From the photo, it looks like a thick post, something about
.8cm in diameter. I ended up using one of the real skinny
posts, since I had one on-hand, and it works beautifully.
Maybe someday I'll get an accurate post in there, but I
don't consider it a very high priority item.
|Pinball is strange in that all bugs, ball hang-ups and other
|problems may not show up until the game is played many,
|many times. Internet did not exist, so pinball addicts could
|not communicate the problems they experienced. Even with
|your help, there will still be changes made to pinball machines
|after the photo shoot of each model is done.
Clip-and-Save, indeed!
Nice to know you guys appreciate our input, as opposed to us
just being those rabid fans (which exist just about everywhere)
who are more of a nuisance than assistance. We certainly hope
to be the latter. :-)