Re: Fundamental Questions about Repro Parts

On 3 Mar 2006 06:51:30 -0800, flearl@xxxxxxx <flearl@xxxxxxx> wrote:
I don't want to start a flame war but have some questions so
I can understand why there aren't piles of quality repro parts
available.

Money.

I see a lot of posts giving "Wayne" hell, don't know him or why that
is. Why is that?

"Wayne" would be Wayne Gillard, a guy in Australia.

If Williams, Bally, and Gottlieb are out of business, who has the
rights to their products and why aren't there any quality repro parts
available?

Williams / Bally are out of the *pinball* business, but are very much
still in business. They licensed some of their rights, and sold old stock,
to Gene Cunningham. They sold the remaining rights, and some other stuff
to Wayne Gillard. Gene has incorporated Illinois Pin Ball to make, sell,
and license reproduction parts as well as to sell the stock he bought
from Williams. Wayne has set up The Pinball Factory.

Gottlieb are out of business. Their intelectual property rights are now
held by Mondial.

There *are* quality repro parts available.

Steve Young has a whole line of repro Gottlieb parts, mostly for their
EM games. Shay has been producing repro backglasses for a bunch of games.
Some stuff has come out from other sources, licensed and not. James at
Pinball Inc. has some really nice ramps available. Not to blow my own
horn, but I have repro plastics for Bally's Fireball available now, and
there are other repro plastics sets in the works. A couple of guys in
Canada are working on repro playfields for several games.

Then there are other aftermarket parts like Kerry's or Cliffy's hole
protectors, Darrin's cabinet stickers, Allen's stickers and stuff, and
various other things.

What happened to all of the molds or spare parts when these companies
folded?

The parts that had been delivered sat in warehouses and were eventually
sold off to Wayne, Gene, and a few other people. Parts that had not been
delivered may have languished at the suppliers that were making them
before being sold off, or scraped.

Molds, as I understand it, mostly went to Gene. Silkscreens and artwork
seem to have been split between Gene and Wayne.

It would seem that any flat plastic could be reproduced with lexan.

Lexan works, but PETG is easier to work with for silkscreening and laser
cutting.

Are these parts molded or cut out? Where can I get flat plastic clear
stock that is like what came on the machines?

If you just want to cut out some pieces, you can get sheets of clear
Lexan at your local hardware store.

If you're looking to repro real silkscreened plastics sets, then your
printing company will have the supplies needed to do the work.

What or who is NAPPA, are they making repro parts, when and what is
available, and who do I contact?

NAPPA is a recent arangement of several guys working with Gene to
license and produce repro parts. I don't think anything new has come
out, yet, but that's probably just a matter of time.

Is there an underground repro market that makes quality stuff?

Probably, yes, at least on the "underground" part. Quality may be
hard to judge, especially if you're not sure where the parts are
coming from. Google may be your best friend here.

Thank you for your explanation on these topics, just trying to
understand why there is a market need for spare parts that has not been
met.

Money.

There's a market for some parts. But getting in and actually making
anything costs money. If you want to involve professional companies in
making parts, they want to get paid. That means that you front the cash
to get something made, then hope to sell it.

The problem is that where there's a need, you see the prices on the most
hard to find parts go up, but as soon as the repro exists, that kills
demand and the price drops back to a more reasonable level. That makes
it hard to turn much of a profit on repro parts. So how many thousands
of dollars worth of _fill_in_the_part_here_ do you want to own?


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| David Gersic http://www.zaccaria-pinball.com |
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