Fire the Canon

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[pinballhistorystuff]

Bobby Orr’s Power Play (Bally, 1978). Design by Greg Kmiec and art by Dave Christensen.

Happy 2018 Winter Olympics! In honor of my home countries and the games, I thought I’d slap together a little post about a great Hockey pin; Bobby Orr’s Power Play. After Sega’s Rodeo, BOPP is the second solid state pin to have an up-post @ the center drain. 

The idea of the Blackhawks vs. all of Canada is pretty funny to me, especially because there are often Canadian players on American teams (and Bobby Orr is, himself, Canadian). This is also interesting because Bobby Orr only played for the Blackhawks for a short time. Orr initially played for the Bruins and figured his next contract would be his last, so he was looking for security and good money. His agent, Alan Eagleson, never told Bobby about the far better offer the Bruins were making. Orr signed with the Blackhawks instead. He apparently never really felt at home in Chicago and was pretty upset when he found out Eagleson withheld the information about the Bruins deal. Orr only played about 26 games with the Blackhawks. There’s a great article about the whole saga here. 

As much as I love the Blackhawks, this machine would make a lot more sense if Bobby Orr were wearing a Bruins jersey. 

I’ve heard tell of a few BOPP’s with a Power Ball (Bobby Orr’s Power Ball) which sounds like a lot of fun. This is a great example of a nice pin that bridges the gap between the old EM’s and the new late 70′s solid states. 

[pinballhistorystuff]

Fleet (Jr.) (Bally,1934). Flipperless, E.M. Designed by Herb Breitenstein. 1c or 5c play. 

I was daydreaming about pinball schematics and patents the other day and decided to do a google image search. I came across a small image of a patent for Bally’s Fleet and thought it looked really neat. There was something strikingly simple and elegant about the look of it and I was instantly interested to know more about this old pre-war pin. 

Fleet was designed with seven electric cannons. Cannons could be loaded with balls and when the action hole was hit, all cannons would fire, sending the balls up the playfield. A Fleet Sr. and a Fleet Jr.; were both produced. The Fleet Jr. had two less trap holes, was a bit small and without long metal rails on each side of the playfield. 

From The Billboard, June 23rd,1934: “Probably the first time in history of pin games that a machine has depended for action on a positive propelling force instead of the natural attraction of gravity in a slanting board.” 

It’s odd to me that there is no note whatsoever about Bally and the only credit listed is “Automatic Amusement Co”. I’m guessing that’s a distributor? Why wouldn’t Bally or Bally Manufacturing Co. be shown anywhere on this flyer? Answers, please! 

Source: IPDB http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=881