I love hearing behind-the-scenes stories from the pinball industry, much like the story that George Gomez shared about a cancelled Stern Pinball Hunger Games pin recently. I have another one for you all.
This one involves Jersey Jack Pinball. Apparently, the current owners of the company the Abess Family, have quite a bit of input in the theme selection process for games. According to what I have been told by multiple people, they were pushing really hard at JJP for a Bob Marley pinball machine...to the point where the Company even secured the license. Supposedly, none of the designers there really wanted to work on that theme and ultimately Jack convinced them to go in another direction.
If true, I think that was a wise choice. I personally really like Bob Marley's music. I have it in my Spotify rotation. The Live stuff that's on there is really good. Having said that, it's pretty slow for pinball. Yes, some of Elton John's songs are slow, but at least he has a long history with pinball between the super popular 1976 Bally game Capt. Fantastic and The Brown Dirt Cowboy and his 1975 rendition of the song Pinball Wizard. What do you think about Bob Marley as a theme for a pinball machine?
It's been really quiet out there with information on Jersey Jack and what the theme might be for Mark Seiden's game, which is up next. The longest standing rumors for JJP are The Matrix (I believe that one may have originated with Kaneda), Harry Potter Wizarding World (that one shockingly came from industry veteran Joe Kaminkow) and the oldest of the rumors all The Muppets (which came out in that big leak years ago). There's been a lot of smoke surrounding JJP and the Jim Henson properties. As far as I can tell, the Bob Marley pinball idea has been tabled (so to speak...pinball humor lol). I honestly have absolutely no idea what is coming up next from them. It will be fun to be surprised.
As is often the case, I am relaying what I have heard from knowledgeable people and I was not actually present for any of these meetings so this is to be considered a rumor albeit a strong one.
A Marley pinball would have been terrible. I love the muppets but with a $12k and $15k price tag that would be a really tough sell. Hell any theme now is at that prices.