One of the projects I've been working on has been replacements for the missing Who-mobile stickers on DW. I scanned the one on the ramp from the parts game, double teamed it with Photoshop and GraphicConverter, and went through about a zillion printing tests. The photo at right shows an early test for size and color. I finally arrived at one I'm satisfied with, so I printed a bunch on the nice glossy paper. This weekend I plan to run some endurance tests on them, possibly give them an extra seal depending on the results of the tests, turn them into stickers, then cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war. I plan to make a few extras and share my bounty on eBay and/or Mr. Pinball. When I have something worth showing, I'll post a pic or two.While I had the glass off, I decided to take care of a few odd cabinet-related jobs that have been sitting around for a while. I replaced the molding in back that holds the playfield glass, because my original one was cracked and I had two to replace it with (I had forgotten about the first one when I bought the second). I put a lock on the coin door... not because it swings open like my Black Knight's does, but more because it should be there. Both of these items got me thinking about other things I need, and while browsing around Marco's site for tangentially related things, I was stunned to find a backbox lock assembly. Since mine is completely missing, yoink! I think I had searched for the backbox lock on Illinois Pinball's site, but nowhere else. I ended up buying the lock plate (I have a spare lock) from Bay Area Amusements... it was $1 more than Marco, but BAA had the playfield glass switch in stock so I went with the dealer who had a quorum of items. More toys!
Like Stephen Colbert, I have been a strong advocate of Wrist Health in pinball since discovering that doing squeeze ball exercises reduces the amount of wrist soreness after pinball shows. Lately, though, I fell off the wagon because I was let down by my tools. I had an awesome balloon filled with sand, which was great until it broke. Then I had a green ball filled with little green beads, which was fantastic until a hole opened up and the green beads started emigrating... I tried to re-patriate them, but like the INS found that it was a losing battle. I got a free gel-filled ball from a vendor at my company's user conference in May. It started off feeling like a breast -- the squeeze ball's Hellenic Ideal, imo -- but a few weeks of hard-squeezin' segmented the insides, which left it unpleasantly mushy and definitely non-breast-like. Then I tried a foam ball someone had at work, but after two weeks the painted exterior disintegrated and I ended up with green flecks on my pants. Finally I tried an inflatible dog toy, but it deflated under the constant pressure. Plus it was ribbed for a dog's pleasure but not mine, and it hurt my hand. So at last I decided to lay down sheckles for the real deal, and after a fruitless retail search I found one at Amazon that I kind of like. It's egg-shaped and comes in five levels of firmness. I chose medium, and two weeks in it is holding up pretty well. My only complaints are that it is a little smaller than I would like and it can be very cold after a night in the car with the temp in the single digits.
All for now, hopefully more sticker news soon.
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