Tomcat F-14 from West Germany during Cold War!

markymarky99

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Just picked up a tomcat, the coin door threw me as it has 3 coin mechs, thought maybe the machine was hacked x. Turns out the few that were shipped by Williams overseas came from the factory with 3 coin mechs. Seriel number matches those in West Germany and Netherlands. 1, 2, and 5 Deutschmarks
 

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The "few" that were shipped overseas is actually about half of the machines produced ;). Three coin slots is usually the dead give away for a wpc machine that was reimported to the states (although its easy to change a coin door).
 
Half of williams Tomcat F-14 pins went overseas in 1987 ? But yet not one can be found on the internet ? Search this machine and there's plenty available BUT not one with a 3 coin slot. Interesting statistic.

Is the 3 slot coin door too big for a front graphic from the factory? Just a black front on this one. I'd like to see another one to know but again, couldn't find one. I'm sure there are 7000 more out there and someone can get a pic for us to know.
 
Found one. This is "out of stock" but still up on a European website. It does show the F14 artwork below the coin door. In1987, this was a real middle finger to Communism. Luxury items like pinball machines certainly not allowed right over the wall in East Germany. The fact that it's an American badass war plane that has a goal of taking out a Communist General as the theme was very controversial. Their were all types of obstacles in getting pinball machines to West Germany. Perhaps other counties weren't so strict (many still saw pinball as gambling and had laws against it). Is it possible this machine was smuggled around the wall and played in some rich politicians basement in the GDR? The machine is in English unlike other pins with German writing throughout. Hard to imagine some teen in 1987 playing on this as right across the wall other teens were starving to death. 😳
 

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Half of williams Tomcat F-14 pins went overseas in 1987 ? But yet not one can be found on the internet ? Search this machine and there's plenty available BUT not one with a 3 coin slot. Interesting statistic.

Is the 3 slot coin door too big for a front graphic from the factory? Just a black front on this one. I'd like to see another one to know but again, couldn't find one. I'm sure there are 7000 more out there and someone can get a pic for us to know.
https://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=804&picno=43690 more pix of these coin doors. Looks like your machine around the coin door someone painted it black, you can see the williams stickers they painted over. These are common coin doors for overseas machines.
 
There are also single slot coin doors that were for overseas (I thought that's what was done to system 11's)
Quite a few machines that went to europe or wherever have also come home to the US.
The giveaway is the 220v label.

Some people will be bothered by the fact that it's a reimport others don't care.
 
Wonder why they painted over the Tomcat F-14 on the front? By the wear on one side they Probably had it smashed up against another machine and perhaps didn't want the TOMCAT F-14 To be so noticeable? As a child of the 80s and now a history teacher I just find this machine to be very intriguing. You have the arms race with Russia that crushed the Soviet Union and here's a Tomcat pinball machine possibly inside the Berlin Wall or one of the first things free East Germans saw and played when the wall came down.
 
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