Mini Pinball Machine from American Girl
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- čas přidán 16. 11. 2019
- "The Flip Side" is a fully playable 1:5-scale pinball machine made by American Girl. It's 7" wide, 18.5" tall, 11" deep (19.1 cm x H: 47 cm x D 28 cm), and weighs maybe 4 pounds. Wooden cabinet and metal legs. Takes 3 C-cell batteries. Electronic scoring with high-score memory. Electronic sounds, with adjustable volume control. Working, spring-loaded plunger. Mechanical flippers.
$150 from American Girl
www.americangirl.com/shop/p/j... - Hry
At 5:47 I say that bonus is calculated as 20 points per second of gameplay, but that is incorrect. Although the bonus indicator changes based on time, the bonus calculation is not related to time. Bonus is calculated after the third ball as 2% of total score, with a minimum bonus of 1,000 points.
It would be really cool if some company made mini versions of some classic tables.
Keith Fulkerson YES! Or if Stern sold their mini playfields as separate small machines, like their Munsters or Stewie sub-playfields. I'd buy those in a second.
I bet eventually new wave toys will
And now they have but, (DOH!)...unplayable.
I'm an AG collector and just recently bought this pinball machine because it was on sale and I have fun memories of playing pinball as a kid. I never really ~understood~ the game though. This video and the subsequent teardowns have helped me understand the gameplay better and appreciate the thought and design elements behind this item. I'm really looking forward to seeing the final gameplay of your modded machine (right lingo?) when it's all done. Thanks for all the attention and effort you've put into this machine and these videos!!!! 🙌😊
Got one for my wife its the only one I can find on any e-market toys. This one of a kind. Look so realistic miniature. Made of wood and metal mechanical parts. Better then all plastic pinball toys and digital. Toys. Rare cool toy!
I just bought this for my wife because of your video.. Can't wait hope it gets here before Christmas..
I wish they would recreate some old machines in this style. Not sure I want to buy an American Girl one lol
Never before has the words "take my money" had so much meaning
Holy crap, I’m not even in the core demographic for the toy line, but I want it!
What a beautiful tiny machine. And such neat retro styling too.
Yeah! It feels like a small pinball machine, rather than just a toy. I suspect it was designed by somebody with a passion for pinball. Maybe they brought in a pinball consultant? George Gomez at Stern had one really early...suspicious.
This machine is far superior to most tabletop pinball games. Definantly worth considering for a small machine.
This is actually better than the recently announced NWT Black Hole Replicade
That is so cool! Thanks for sharing it.
Nice, thanks for the review!
Very entertaining and fun to watch. Thanks for posting this.
Thanks for your exceptional review- been looking for a detailed video on this amazing little machine and finally found it. And looks like you've got two of my favorite machines - Elvira and Cyclone! I agree with the other poster too - would love to re-theme this. Maybe a heat-gun would loosen the glue to get inside. I have a question - what actually ejects the ball from the scoop - the left flipper button?
Richard B Thanks! The left flipper is mechanically connected to a lever under the scoop. It's supposed to eject whenever you press the left flipper button, but mine doesn't work very well. Looks like it would eject reliably if I filed the edge of the scoop hole down a bit, but I have to be a able to get to the playfield to do that.
Gonna be looking out for a deal on one of these!
Would be awesome to see this merged with the mechanics of the Tomy Astro Shooter.
This is great, thanks Kyle! How feasible do you suppose it would be to take it apart for a custom retheme?
I was going to take it apart because I wanted to fix the scoop eject. I think filing down the playfield around the hole would fix the ball getting stuck. I got as far as taking the legs off and I saw the cabinet was glued together under the legs, not screwed together like I'd hoped. I decided I didn't want to mess with it and take a chance of ruing the great build quality. I hope somebody does it though.
Hello there. Great review on this as I'm sold that I had to get one. Just a question, did your model have any scratches on the outside of the plastic cover and the inside? I had one on the inside and had a small scratch in the back so I returned it and now the second one had the same exact scratches inside where the blue flower in the upper left corner pass the bonus and ends in the green flower in the lower right corner. But this time around there is no scratch on the back but there are minor scratches on the plastic which does not really bother me as much. I was just asking if this was the case, then I would just keep this and not bother returning this all if the rest of the models have small minor defects on them. I think they had only two in stock and I got both and unfortunately had those very minor blemishes.
RedKaneda I can see some seams in the plastic on the playfield, but otherwise I don't see any defects on mine.
@@kyle5574 oh okay so you have it as well. Yeah mine is in the play field as well. So I guess some unfortunately have some blemishes. Thank you so much for your reciew and your feedback.
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Is there anything else like this or is this the mini pinball machine other than homemade ones that exists?
Tomy made a few variations in the 80's (Atomic Pinball, Astro Shooter / American Pinball). Radio Shack made one too (Air Pinball). Those are both popular and I hear they play well, but they're old and would probably need some repair. There's a bunch of other tabletop toys like that from other companies. But none of those are designed to look like a real machine and they're not as sturdy and nice as this one. BRIO has a tabletop table, but in BRIO fashion, it's not electrical and there's not much mechanics to it. There are 3/4 scale virtual machines from Arcade1Up, Toy Shock, and others--and custom desktop custom virtual machines--but those are virtual. I'd consider this small machine "real pinball". And there aren't many choices for small, real pinball. There are smaller scale machines like Zizzle, but somehow people on eBay think those are worth the price of a full machine. And there's Stern's The Pin meant for home use, but by the time you're spending that kind of money, you should probably just get a full machine. In short, I haven't seen anything like this anywhere else. I think it's pretty cool.
Does that scoop actually kick the ball out?
Yes, the left flipper button kicks it out. It doesn’t work well though. You have to hit the button several times to get it out. Sometimes I end up tilting the machine I little to help it out.
This looks really cool. I think you nailed it with the Top Card comparison; it absolutely looks like it was modeled after that. My daughter is just growing out of the American Girl stage (damn, why couldn't this have come out last Christmas?), but I may need to pick this up anyway. Do you have a daughter or did you get it for yourself? The American Girl stuff is always overpriced, but this is a good deal by any standards. Now where can I find one of those cans of Two Brothers Pinball beer on the West Coast?
Stephen Peters No daughter here. I got it for myself! It's a good beer. I haven't seen it around recently, but it's still on their website. Looks like Arizona is your closest source.
I’m an old Skool guy and bought this for myself, 59 years old-(told you I was OLD Skool!) and received it today! I’m very happy with it! Great quality and heaviness about it, and as mentioned, awesome detail! It’s made SO WELL, and works great! Lucky for me there are no scratches on it whatsoever, not on the gameplay field, on the front display, or on the sides, etc. Was happy about that! I do have a couple of issues with it, though, and the worst thing is the sound. It’s not loud enough-even on the highest setting! You’d think with all that goes into making a piece like this the sound would be much louder! Also, little hang-up with the ball settling into the slot when you pull the plunger back as well as in the upper left hand corner behind the bumper there. As in the video above, you can see the user has to slap the thing around (it’s actually funny) to jolt the ball loose! All in all, though, these are minor issues, though I’d give anything to make it louder, I must admit! Still, I’m very happy with my purchase, but don’t count on me telling anyone it’s actually for a doll! LOL! 😉
Cute Lil Toy ..
Yeah I was just thinking Id like something like this the other day, the theme leaves something to be desired though.
It’s the best small pinball machine I’ve ever played and definitely worth the purchase as-is especially if you were already thinking about getting a small machine. Theme-wise, I’m just happy it isn’t plastered with American Girl logos. And the art is really well done for what it is. If you’ve got some initiative and graphics skill I think you could retheme it. The sounds are generic and there isn’t any graphics or speech to worry about. The wooden cabinet disassembles easy enough, so you could sand and repaint it. The play field is accessible enough and is in two pieces-a clear plastic overlay and then the underlying plastic playfield where the art is. I bet you could separate them, make a vinyl overlay for new artwork, and recombine them to have a nice shiny surface. I think you could sand-down the back glass and apply a vinyl overlay, or just go ahead and apply it right over the old one. Check out my first tear down video for disassembly. I don’t have the artistic skills to retheme, but I am working towards replacing the electronic guts with an Arduino and writing new software for it (rules, sounds, light show, and maybe some rudimentary alphanumeric graphical effects).
How much?
$150 on the americangirl.com site. $139 for one one ebay now.
Got mine for $119! Google it and you’ll see it right there! Why pay more?!
#GirlyIndeed?
Not worth the 150 or whatever price tag tho.... Wayyyyyy to much money