Pinball Feature: Custom Side Art Blades

This is a neat way to add extra art and visual appeal to your pinball machine using what are called side art blades. This is an area where many third party artists & entrepreneurs are finding clever and creative ways to mod pinball machines to increase their value and appeal. I talk about this and show you some examples.

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The art of pinball (part 1)



Pinball is many things: Commerce, gambling, history, reflections on social times, science and technology as well as art. In this episode, we take a look at some of the art. These are pictures I’ve taken of various games featured at the Lone Star Pinball Museum near Houston. Special thanks to Dan Ferguson for his hospitality. I hope you enjoy them!

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First Look: A vintage 1940 flipperless woodrail pinball

For more than a year, I’ve been drooling over a particular pinball backglass I’d seen in a private collection.  I finally managed to pick up the machine and am pretty excited.  This is another daunting project: A pre-flipper, pre-WWII vintage woodrail pinball game from Genco.  “Big Town” was produced in 1940, and as you can see from the backglass, it’s got a beautiful vintage art-deco look.  To me a perfect example of how glorious pinball art can be.

Here are some still images of the machine: