Wanted Used plastics (any game, any condition)

[PeteB]

As I now have the ability to reproduce plastics perfectly, I've got a keen interest in getting as many games made as possible - mostly the ones which people desperately need and aren't available or already being reproduced.

All I need is your old plastics, doesn't matter if they're not a complete set, or scratched, bent, chipped etc, as all the artwork will be recreated anyway but we need to measure for correct sizing etc.

I will pay beer tokens for decent ones!

...or donate the money to this forum
...or donate to a charity of your choice
...or give you a discount code for my website

You decide.

Whatever you have don't bin it. Please send them to me so we can save more pinballs!

 

[Sgt GrizZ]

Brilliant

 

[stoptap]

What about scans Pete ? Any use to you ?

 

[Arv]

Yeah scans, I have that balls of steel archived off somewhere.

 

[thecroquetkid]

This is great!

 

[Wiredworm]

I've dropped you a PM. There's some decent 600dpi scans of plastics for R&B; i've sent you a link.

 

[Tony]

Pete,
Do we get the plastic back, after you've measured them?
Ta Tony

 

[stoptap]

This has been needed for AGES. I need a few odd plastics here and there and spending £150 a time is frankly ridiculous.

 

[PeteB]

What about scans Pete ? Any use to you ?

Yeah scans, I have that balls of steel archived off somewhere.

I've dropped you a PM. There's some decent 600dpi scans of plastics for R&B; i've sent you a link.

Yes I can use scans provided they are done on a decent scanner that doesn't throw up wobbly images. Need to be at least 300dpi. It's difficult to do without having the originals to check against, but not impossible. The scan needs to keep the scaling exact and true.

Pete,
Do we get the plastic back, after you've measured them?
Ta Tony

I'd prefer to keep them as reference material which is why i'd offer to buy them.

 

[Anton]

I have a brand new set of Earthshaker plastics from pinball centre. Not sure if I want to fit them as the yellows are slightly orange. If there was a deal on the table for yours then happy to lend them to you, or cut a deal on some decals for the ES.....

 

[ronnie63]

Maybe not so in demand but I have a full set of Hurricane plastics?

 

[PeteB]

I have a brand new set of Earthshaker plastics from pinball centre. Not sure if I want to fit them as the yellows are slightly orange. If there was a deal on the table for yours then happy to lend them to you, or cut a deal on some decals for the ES.....

Apart from colour issues how does the artwork compare to your original plastics? Is the resolution good? I'm just thinking making a repro of a repro may not make for the best quality. If it's ok and you don't want them we could trade for a set of decals?

I don't know how soon I'd be able to get ES done but when I do I could definitely do a deal on a set of new ones for you.

Maybe not so in demand but I have a full set of Hurricane plastics?

Are they originals? I'd take em if you don't need/want.

 

[stoptap]

I really think you need to nail the notion of making them from a good scan Pete. What a service it would be if people could request a certain plastic from a game (like my Spiderman Doc Ock plastic that is missing) and a forum member removes theirs, scans it, send you the scan and you can make the plastic.
That would be stupendous.

 

[Anton]

Apart from colour issues how does the artwork compare to your original plastics? Is the resolution good? I'm just thinking making a repro of a repro may not make for the best quality. If it's ok and you don't want them we could trade for a set of decals?

I don't know how soon I'd be able to get ES done but when I do I could definitely do a deal on a set of new ones for you.



Are they originals? I'd take em if you don't need/want.

I'll take some photos but they are pretty good. Will come back to you over the weekend. Certainly cutting a deal will work with decals. The other option is to wait till I strip the machine down...but that won't be till end of year. We have options though!

 

[PeteB]

I really think you need to nail the notion of making them from a good scan Pete. What a service it would be if people could request a certain plastic from a game (like my Spiderman Doc Ock plastic that is missing) and a forum member removes theirs, scans it, send you the scan and you can make the plastic.
That would be stupendous.

In an ideal world that would be great, but it's not going to be like that I'm afraid. Producing these plastics is still expensive and very tedious work, so we'd never be able to just produce a one-off piece. We have to be able to fill up a full size sheet with as many pieces as possible. My idea is to offer mini kits like the 6 piece set of Robocop plastics I do (see photos below), and eventually, full sets for games which have no othe repros available.



I won't make anything from scans. Scans are nice as a reference (and usually a requirement) but this is essentially just photocopying stuff which is why a lot of the other plastics out there lack detail and have incorrect or washed out colours. Artwork must be completely redrawn in vector format for the clearest image and best colour density. Like I say, very tedious work, but worth it in the end.

 

[Sutol]

What about plastic protectors Pete.
Is that an avenue you would think of pursuing?

 

[PeteB]

What about plastic protectors Pete.
Is that an avenue you would think of pursuing?

Maybe. I never really liked them or saw the point though. To protect vulnerable pieces all you need are some clear PETG washers. They stay relatively well hidden and don't interfere with spacing on most things.

 

[Kevin]

Pete are you after just any used plastic and not complete sets if so call me tomorrow on 07970 696759 I might be able to help.

Regards Kevin

 

[Sgt GrizZ]

Maybe. I never really liked them or saw the point though. To protect vulnerable pieces all you need are some clear PETG washers. They stay relatively well hidden and don't interfere with spacing on most things.

In some cases though a plastic may extend over for example a target bank and it's impossible to protect with a washer. They def have their place I'd say in bulletproofing a game.

 

[stevebm1]

great news.what sort of prices are we looking at though,obviosly some plastics are tiny and others huge

 

[Tony]

After being stung many moons ago for a single plastic to complete a table, I must admit to collecting plastic's as I've been going along with the thought of this will come in handy (unfortunately seldom does!!)
So I've got a few!
I'll dig them out and message you Pete, is the idea that you want to trade? Or buy out right? Is it particularly tables your after? It would be great to support Pete in this venture as it's often the postage from the US that makes these so expensive and his Refurbs are a great inspiration
Ta Tony

 

[PeteB]

In some cases though a plastic may extend over for example a target bank and it's impossible to protect with a washer. They def have their place I'd say in bulletproofing a game.

Ah yes fair point. Well, it's not really hard to increase the size of the cutting line by a couple of MM and then cut black pieces of plastic so I will definitely make these available for games which haven't got protectors already.

great news.what sort of prices are we looking at though,obviosly some plastics are tiny and others huge

Depends on how many pieces in the mini set and their sizes. It will be a lot cheaper than spending £200 on a full set of crap copies though. Having said that, I fully support the silkscreened plastics made by CPR. They are excellent quality and well worth the money!

After being stung many moons ago for a single plastic to complete a table, I must admit to collecting plastic's as I've been going along with the thought of this will come in handy (unfortunately seldom does!!)
So I've got a few!
I'll dig them out and message you Pete, is the idea that you want to trade? Or buy out right? Is it particularly tables your after? It would be great to support Pete in this venture as it's often the postage from the US that makes these so expensive and his Refurbs are a great inspiration
Ta Tony

That would be great Tony, thank you!

All tables considered. Ideally I would like to keep them so I've always got a reference. I can buy them from you or trade for something else etc.

 

[cooldan]

did anyone raise the topic of copyright yet?

 

[PeteB]

did anyone raise the topic of copyright yet?

Hmm nope, doesn't look like it. Wanna be first?

Speak now or forever hold your peace.

 

[cooldan]

Not me [emoji2] and I hope you didn't post on Pinside already, we know how *that* ended up!

 

[PeteB]

Not me [emoji2] and I hope you didn't post on Pinside already, we know how *that* ended up!

Actually I'm very proud of how that went, so will be posting about this on Pinside soon.

I'll raise a glass to Pinside chaos any time.

 

[DRD]

Fantastic that you are doing this

If you can get the colours right, I would consider focusing on mini sets. Or at least running full sets and mini sets in parallel to see what sells and then refining your model accordingly.

This could enable you to cover more games and get more of a "copy, paste" production line going with the associated lower production costs.

eg making 6 piece easy break kits (7) times will require a lot less design time, production time, stock holding and money than making one full set of 42. And I think you could make more money and satisfy more customers this way

My fish tales only needed 2 of the usually broken 3 boat plastics for example. The only other damaged plastic was hidden at the back of the game so I bought a mini kit rather than a full one.

Some plastics rarely or never break on games. So logically - does it make sense to go to the trouble of making these ? We have all got plastics sets lying around where most will never get used, even when we refurbed really shagged out games.

My funhouse was a really tired example but only needed a few plastics out of the full kit I bought.

A few plastics are particularly vulnerable and are usually broken on pre refurb examples. I am sure that guys on here would happily share the data with you. You could ask something like ..."of all the games you have owned, which plastics were damaged"

I think that patterns will emerge very quickly as we all know that games have their well known and unique vulnerable points in addition to obvious ones like slings, saucers and captive balls

Fish Tales - the 3 boat plastics
Whirlwind - Skillshot
Shadow - vertical at the front of the mini pf and the brick plastics near the mini of upkicker

Etc etc

Good luck with it. We all want you to succeed.

 

[johnwhitfield]

Any chance you would consider making plastics that are better than the originals? The low res crappy images on Spider-Man and LOTR would look so much better if they could be redone (Same images but better resolutions).

 

[stoptap]

Any chance you would consider making plastics that are better than the originals? The low res crappy images on Spider-Man and LOTR would look so much better if they could be redone (Same images but better resolutions).

That's an interesting one. I would seriously consider a whole new plastic set for Spider-Man if it were higher quality.

 

[DRD]

Maybe even get prototypes from stern before production commences and sell them properly printed ones for use in new games. Stern could call them vsle or whatever.