The Best Celebrity Themed Pinball Machines of All Time

Having more or less successfully plumbed the depths of pinball history for the worst celebrity themed machines, we’ll now climb the highest heights and look for the best.  Fortunately, we’ve got plenty to choose from since aside from a few missteps the industry has done a decent job of creating celebrity tie-in machines that “work� for their demographic and are compatible with the pinball ethos.  In fact we’ve got so many that we’ve got to establish a higher level of criteria to whittle down the list.  You’ll recall that for our compilation of “worst celebrity themed machines� we made no judgment on the quality of the machine itself.  For our “best� evaluation we’re going to do the opposite and make the quality of the game a factor. 

We’ll also consider the collectability of the machine, or more specifically consider if the theme enhances or detracts from the machine’s value to the pinball enthusiast aftermarket.  This is may seem like a somewhat subjective criteria, but its actually a very important consideration to pinball collectors.  Another way to look at this component is to consider the machine’s “floor appeal� in your den or rec room.  A classic machine with a timeless theme like “Fireball� or “Mata Hari� will always look cool. So, too, will a machine featuring the right celebrity.  You wouldn’t have any problem displaying a machine featuring any of the celebrities on this list.  On the other hand, a machine with the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles� or John Goodman and Rosie McDonald in “The Flintstones� is something I don’t want in my home no matter how much fun the gameplay.

Finally, its worth noting that I’ve intentionally eliminated machines with fight sport related themes including ones featuring Muhammad Ali and Rocky Balboa.  I’ll be examining fight sport related machines in detail down the road, so there’s no reason to deal with them now.

As before, we’ll go in reverse order from #5 to #1:

5)  Eight Ball by Bally Manufacturing (1977):

This is a somewhat controversial machine in pinball circles, and some would question if it belongs on the list at all.  We’ll get to the controversy in a moment.  If you didn’t live through it, you have no idea of what a big deal “Fonzie� from the TV series Happy Days was during the mid to late 1970’s.  You could

even make a case that he’s the most popular and influential TV sitcom character ever.  His popularity spilled over into other areas of popular culture, such as re-popularizing the leather jacket and bringing the word “nerd� back from the dead.

Eight Ball features Fonzie and a comely female companion in a pool hall.  Or does it?  The intent is certainly to suggest it’s the iconic Happy Days character but there’s no reference made to his name.  Nor is there any other Happy Days iconography present on the machine.  Debate rages to this day about whether or not it was a licensed image of Fonzie, or a lookalike doppelganger changed just enough to skirt copyright laws. 

There are those who hate the Fonzie imagery on what would have been an excellent machine regardless of the backglass.  Others (myself included) consider this a very understated and tasteful homage to the biggest name in pop culture at the time.  A full blown “Happy Days� game with Potsie, Ralph Malph, Richie and “Mr. and Mrs. C� would very likely have been overdone and certainly would have become dated very quickly.  The way it turned out, Eight Ball has a timeless essence of cool.  In any case, it was very popular and for many years its production run of 20,000+ units was the largest ever.  It also inspired a couple of sequels, the “Roaring 20’s� themed Eight Ball Champ and the “Cowboy Bar� themed Eight Ball Deluxe.

4)  KISS by Bally Manufacturing (1979):

The makeup wearing, fire and blood spewing rock band almost begged to be immortalized with a pinball machine theme and in 1979 they were.  You could make a case that this was a poorly timed release as by 1979 KISS was considered to be running on fumes, having just released their “disco inspired� album “Dynasty�.  Fortunately, the machine depicted the band in all of their earlier glory and featured polyphonic renditions of classic songs like “Rock n Roll All Night� and “Shout It Out Loud�.  I’ve always liked how the graphics look more “pinball like� than I had first anticipated and are actually somewhat restrained (at least by KISS standards).  The machine was fun to play, and was very popular with a production run of 17,000 units. 

 3) Wizard! by Bally Manufacturing (1974)
Captain Fantastic by Bally Manufacturing (1975)

These machines were both inspired by the film version of “Tommy�, the classic rock opera by The Who.  The storyline of both the original and the film were chocked full of pinball imagery, so the extension into the “real� world of pinball is a natural.  While the film was a critical and box office disappointment, the pinball machines it inspired became classics.

“Wizard� is often incorrectly named as the first licensed celebrity theme machine, but it definitely set off the flood of “tie-in� machines in the latter half of the 20^th century.  There were some pre-release rumors that it was based on the machine played by Tommy Walker’s nemesis “The Pinball Wizard� in the film, but those are also incorrect.  The machine’s artwork was created by Dave Christiansen and its long on stylish symbolism and short of specific references to the film.  That’s helped the machine age well and remain a sought after collectable up through the present day.  Who lead singer Roger Daltry and Ann-Margret are depicted on the backglass.  Perhaps due to the film’s disappointing performance, the Wizard machine wasn’t considered a “blockbuster� with a production run of 10,000 units. 

If all you know about Elton John is his campy, openly gay post “I’m Still Standing� work its hard to appreciate the fact that in the mid-1970’s he was not only the biggest rock star in the world but one of the most critically acclaimed.  Much of his work during this era is downright amazing, and his popularity landed him a small but significant role in the film version of “Tommy� as ‘the pinball wizard’.  He’s only on-screen for 5 minutes or so, but he steals the show and his remake of the Who’s song “Pinball Wizard� was easily the best of many remakes on the soundtrack.  The imagery on the backglass with the oversized boots is taken directly from the film.  This machine was hugely popular, with a production run of 18,000 units and remains highly prized by collectors.

2)  Playboy by Bally Manufacturing (1978)

A pipe smoking Hugh Hefner and a bevy of bikini clad Playmates grace this homage to the magazine.  With the Chicago roots of the magazine, a pinball machine tribute would have been a natural notwithstanding its significant cultural influence.  This was the first of three Playboy licensed machine (subsequent releases were a 1989 “35^th Anniversary� machine by Data East and a 2002 Stern Pinball release that offered both clothed and nude Playmate options) and in my opinion the best.  The machine art is by Paul Faris, who’s considered one of the best ever by pinball geeks.  The machine is a blast to play and captures all of the “cool� of Playboy’s early days including Leroy Neiman’s “Femlin� cartoon and digitized music based on the theme to the “Playboy After Dark� TV show composed by Cy Coleman.  And, of course, Playboy’s legendary bunny head is everywhere.  A perfect union of a great theme, amazing artwork and fun gameplay made this a very popular machine upon release (18,250 unit production run) and is prized by collectors even today.

1) Evel Kneivel by Bally Manufacturing (1976)

"The Last of the Gladiators� on a great pinball machine.  The fact that I could end the description with that sentence should convey why this is #1 on my list and completes a Bally Manufacturing sweep of the top 5.  This was one of the first machines to be made almost exclusively with solid state scoring as the industry moved away from the reel based electromechanical scoring that had been the norm since the 1930’s.  A simple, but fun to play design with all sorts of officially licensed Evel Knievel imagery.   With the death of the legendary daredevil earlier this year this machine is harder to find than ever.  Fun gameplay combined with a theme that is off the charts in terms of “cool� makes this my choice for the best celebrity themed pinball machine ever.

Next time, we’ll take a look at some other excellent celebrity themed pinball machines that fell just short of making the list.