Black Knight repro playfield reservations being taken now

[ChadTower]

See here.  These guys do incredible work, I've seen the Centaur playfield they produced in person.  It was better than NOS.  If anyone here has a Black Knight or wants to, now is the time to jump on this, these will go fast and the price on a repro playfield always jumps very high after the run sells out.

I'm in for one myself. 

[Buddabing]

I wonder if they will be doing translites also. BK backglasses get really trashed, too.

[ChadTower]

Not them but there is another company that has had them available... I'll see if I can dig up a link.


EDIT:  Backglasses.  I'm pretty sure I emailed them a while back and it was in the $225 shipped range but don't kill me if that amount is wrong.  I need one of these myself too, mine is trash.

EDIT2:  Cab stencils.  So this makes stencils, backglass, plastics, and playfields available.

[shardian]

How much is a mint condition BK worth?

[ChadTower]

Hard to say now, the price on a game always jumps wildly when a quality repro playfield becomes available.

[shardian]

So it is reasonable to assume that the value of the game will increase enought to justify spending $600 on a new playfield?

[ChadTower]

That depends on the condition of the one you're replacing.  If you're replacing one that's already decent, possibly not.  Mine is pretty bad with a lot of bare wood spots, especially in the middle.  I got it cheap, fully working, but the playfield, cab, and backglass all are rough.  In my case it will be worth the $600, I think, but also because this is a keeper game for me that I always intended to go the full restore route on.  I have a thing for games with early 80s robotic speech (this will sit next to Fathom).

[modessitt]

I've replaced a KISS playfield with one of those $600 repros that the customer bought before bringing me the game.  While I didn't think the original playfield was that bad, the customer obviously thought so.  I can tell you the game looked really beautiful with the new playfield and would probably bring a lot more money to a buyer who cares more about beauty than about originality, if the guy ever sold it....

[ChadTower]

I'm not sure who made the KISS playfield but it wasn't these guys.  So far they have made Fathom and Centaur.  I haven't seen the Fathom but I did spend ten minutes staring slackjawed at one of their Centaur playfields in the fall. 

[modessitt]

I don't recall who made the KISS playfield either, although I heard that they got sued for copyright infringement and discontinued production....

[JONTHEBOMB]

f) "starburst" inserts will be used in place of  "faceted" inserts.  We will NOT use flat/standard inserts.

What is the difference between "starburst" inserts and "faceted" inserts?

[ChadTower]

Really just a minor detail on the shaping of the plastic.  Some of the games of that era used a fairly unique insert type for which the tooling seems to have vanished and as such there isn't enough demand to justify recreating the molds and all that.  They're going to go with a slightly more common insert style, which of course has some of the RGP people up in arms, but eff them they stabbed a baby.  I would rather have a great new playfield with a slight difference from original than none.

[JONTHEBOMB]

Is there anything stopping the playfield from wearing down?

Or are there any preventive measures that could be taken if the new playfield is purchased?

What I am thinking is if you buy one of these reproductions, several years down the line the playfield will wear down and be in the condition of the original playfield.

[ChadTower]

Reasonable maintenance will stop it from happening.  Ops didn't take care of them back in the day and they got played hundreds of times every day.  Neither will happen at home.

Plus, these new ones are being clearcoated.

[Tailgunner]

I'm in for one.