'No fear' went for 782!
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Ebay Auctions 2015
- Thread starter Paul
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Nah, didn't even bid on it. It's not on my wanted list..
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2011
- Messages
- 2,807
believe him? I don't see a bill of sale in those papers and it seems odd that he didn't turn it on for a single picture. I wonder if it works or if it sat ignored in bright sunlight all that time until the batteries popped. It mentions a video but I didn't see that either, but then I am on my phone.
Shane there's not a fixed price in euros instead as it's currently about 1.3 so should be in our favour. Anyone local could go czech it out?
even in a box its still a Popeye
Andrew, I'm the same as yourself and never seen a Popeye but I think that it should down to personal enjoyment and not what everyone else has to say about it. I'm sure some pins are badly though of but work out as a good pin for the money.
I'd quite like to try a Popeye, was tempted with that one on eBay in Warrington recently, but it was too far to view.
It's filthy, cracked plastics, ball marks in ramp, decal on spinner thing peeling, lock bar has rivets in it!
No way is HUO.
No way is HUO.
A lot can happen to a pin in a home in 21 years, HUO it may be, but "brand new condition" is obviously bull****.
Popeye is nowhere near as bad as its rep, it's a fun little game. Toot toot!
Popeye is what it is but it's nowhere near as bad as Bugs Bunny Birthday Ball.
Last one on ebay went for something like £ 830. I'd have had a punt as keen to own one and find out for myself but need to sell first. For 2k however this guy mush have been smoking Popeye's spinach...
Lock bar with rivets in it! Looking at the playfield doesn't look like the glass has ever come off! So how do you get to its in the lock bar! 
Popeye is a great game, not sure I'd want one as my only pin but in a collection it would be a great addition.
Any WPC game you can still get for under a thousand has got to be worth owning while you still can.
I'd buy a (nice) Popeye just to settle some unfinished business I have with that game... They had one in the Showboat arcade on Skegness seafront in the mid-90's. I played it a few times as I passed through the local arcades most days but did not have a ****ing clue what was going on. I need to understand, learn and finally conquer it.
Re Popeye
Stevr Ritchie from 2010
Some Popeye Facts and My Opinions and Recollections:
Barry Oursler designed the game, but it was Python's theme, including
the weird euphorics-influenced eco-connection.
Python was not, and never will be a game designer. He will SAY
anything, truthful or not. This is not to say that he didn't come up
with many good ideas for the games he worked on, but he never drew
anything more than sketches except when doing the artwork for the
playfield, back glass and plastics. A pinball designer makes a full
scale drawing of his games with all components shown. He does the
fitting of components and at least some of the mechanical
engineering. A pinball designer chases down and looks after every
component and mechanism on his game. He deals with a BOM, management,
and other members on the team. Barry was the designer of Popeye.
The game designer was not always the team leader of the pinball teams
at W/B/M. If another member of a team was more suited to carrying the
vision and dealing with other members, then he would take the reins
with the designer's permission. Barry liked to let others on his team
lead things. Steve Kordek, Chris Granner and Python were probably
the most influential on Barry's teams to my recollection.
Popeye was the game that followed ST:TNG. Popeye didn't make money on
the street. The theme was stinky and the geometry was funky, chunky
and clunky. No real players liked the hidden shots and generally poor
visibility that allowed function to follow form. Its hard-to-play
upper playfield didn't win it any friends. Graphics and art were just
nasty, and speech, sounds, script and music were less than stellar.
Popeye was expensive to build and carried hefty tooling and mold costs
that were never amortized. Williams lost money on Popeye, something
that hadn't happened for many many years prior.
The real reason that Popeye is/was universally despised was that all
of the Williams/Bally/Midway distributors were signed up to take
minimum amounts of every run of machines we manufactured. They were
not upset when they had to buy minimum quantities of ST:TNGs and other
titles, but they were very angry that they had to take a minimum # of
Popeye machines. To make matters worse, Willy raised the price of
Popeye! The theme was ridiculous. Who cares about Popeye? Popeye
was nothing in Europe (our second through fourth ranked markets) even
when it was fresh. Not one distributor cared for the license. We who
were in charge should have stopped the game, because we all knew that
it was a steaming pile well before it was released. There were
politics involved, and I seem to recall that we couldn't get anything
on the line quickly enough if we did not release Popeye to production.
The distributors were screaming and making threats of lawsuits and
dumping Willy as a represented manufacturer. Eventually Williams
canceled the minimums clause in their contracts with distribs. Popeye
had a very bad stigma attached to it for a long time which, of course,
was played up by our competitors. Some people say Popeye was "the
beginning of the end" of pinball at Williams. It was hard to sell
large runs of games after Popeye. The failure of pinball cannot be
blamed on Popeye, but it sure didn't help our business.
I do not agree that less people like wide bodies than regular width
games. They were harder to design because of the slightly larger
spans of time required for the ball to get to the targets. The worst
wide body width was Stellar Wars/Superman/Pokerino. Until I/we moved
the flippers and slings into the same familiar location as a narrow
body, they were really horrible in my mind. Some designers went crazy
with more flippers and more drain space between them! The outer orbit
shots were actually miserable to make because the ball was so far down
the flipper end in order to hit them. The ball doesn't carrying much
speed or power at that angle. The widest games are the ones that I
never want to make again. The Superpin width was/is much better. I
can design in at least one more shot in a Superpin width, and more and
larger toys can be utilized.
I do have to admit that my favorite playfield size to play and create
within is the standard 20-1/4" X 46" I would like to make a longer
(48") game someday, but it is not a high priority.
I don't enjoy dumping on others games, but don't try to tell me that
Popeye was a good game. If you enjoy playing it, that's certainly
your prerogative. Most Williams engineering/management folks don't
want to think about Popeye. It was an awful time in Williams
history.
Regards,
Steve
Stevr Ritchie from 2010
Some Popeye Facts and My Opinions and Recollections:
Barry Oursler designed the game, but it was Python's theme, including
the weird euphorics-influenced eco-connection.
Python was not, and never will be a game designer. He will SAY
anything, truthful or not. This is not to say that he didn't come up
with many good ideas for the games he worked on, but he never drew
anything more than sketches except when doing the artwork for the
playfield, back glass and plastics. A pinball designer makes a full
scale drawing of his games with all components shown. He does the
fitting of components and at least some of the mechanical
engineering. A pinball designer chases down and looks after every
component and mechanism on his game. He deals with a BOM, management,
and other members on the team. Barry was the designer of Popeye.
The game designer was not always the team leader of the pinball teams
at W/B/M. If another member of a team was more suited to carrying the
vision and dealing with other members, then he would take the reins
with the designer's permission. Barry liked to let others on his team
lead things. Steve Kordek, Chris Granner and Python were probably
the most influential on Barry's teams to my recollection.
Popeye was the game that followed ST:TNG. Popeye didn't make money on
the street. The theme was stinky and the geometry was funky, chunky
and clunky. No real players liked the hidden shots and generally poor
visibility that allowed function to follow form. Its hard-to-play
upper playfield didn't win it any friends. Graphics and art were just
nasty, and speech, sounds, script and music were less than stellar.
Popeye was expensive to build and carried hefty tooling and mold costs
that were never amortized. Williams lost money on Popeye, something
that hadn't happened for many many years prior.
The real reason that Popeye is/was universally despised was that all
of the Williams/Bally/Midway distributors were signed up to take
minimum amounts of every run of machines we manufactured. They were
not upset when they had to buy minimum quantities of ST:TNGs and other
titles, but they were very angry that they had to take a minimum # of
Popeye machines. To make matters worse, Willy raised the price of
Popeye! The theme was ridiculous. Who cares about Popeye? Popeye
was nothing in Europe (our second through fourth ranked markets) even
when it was fresh. Not one distributor cared for the license. We who
were in charge should have stopped the game, because we all knew that
it was a steaming pile well before it was released. There were
politics involved, and I seem to recall that we couldn't get anything
on the line quickly enough if we did not release Popeye to production.
The distributors were screaming and making threats of lawsuits and
dumping Willy as a represented manufacturer. Eventually Williams
canceled the minimums clause in their contracts with distribs. Popeye
had a very bad stigma attached to it for a long time which, of course,
was played up by our competitors. Some people say Popeye was "the
beginning of the end" of pinball at Williams. It was hard to sell
large runs of games after Popeye. The failure of pinball cannot be
blamed on Popeye, but it sure didn't help our business.
I do not agree that less people like wide bodies than regular width
games. They were harder to design because of the slightly larger
spans of time required for the ball to get to the targets. The worst
wide body width was Stellar Wars/Superman/Pokerino. Until I/we moved
the flippers and slings into the same familiar location as a narrow
body, they were really horrible in my mind. Some designers went crazy
with more flippers and more drain space between them! The outer orbit
shots were actually miserable to make because the ball was so far down
the flipper end in order to hit them. The ball doesn't carrying much
speed or power at that angle. The widest games are the ones that I
never want to make again. The Superpin width was/is much better. I
can design in at least one more shot in a Superpin width, and more and
larger toys can be utilized.
I do have to admit that my favorite playfield size to play and create
within is the standard 20-1/4" X 46" I would like to make a longer
(48") game someday, but it is not a high priority.
I don't enjoy dumping on others games, but don't try to tell me that
Popeye was a good game. If you enjoy playing it, that's certainly
your prerogative. Most Williams engineering/management folks don't
want to think about Popeye. It was an awful time in Williams
history.
Regards,
Steve
Those of us older enough will remember picking up machines from companies like crown leisure with boxed Popeye's stood forlorn in the corner for years. TAF had been around £2500 NIB and St tng £4000 but Popeye was £4500! Everyone from Williams down to the local op lost money so when good games followed like WC94 distributors erred on caution and bought less games. I know many ops who stopped buying new after Popeye and kept running games like TAF IJ FT etc. Earlier filler games like millionaire bad cats swords of fury and BBBB had been the same price or even cheaper than the previous game not hiked up . imagine if wrestlemania had been a grand more than star trek? Yould think stern were mad. Williams bally however were dominant in 1993 and maybe with hindsight arrogant to think ops would support duff games
This guy is now advertising a RFM, could be a nice Road trip for the right person!
So another Godzilla has just crawled out of the woodwork. To my knowledge that's the 3rd in 6 months. Strange how these things go.
And now Neil's Godzilla is also back on. It's the end of civilization as we know it
OP
OP
New Thread for 2016 started here : http://www.pinballinfo.com/community/threads/ebay-auctions-2016.32250/
Therefore will close this one
Therefore will close this one
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