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Red &
Ted's Roadshow
Not a popular or well known table but none the
less still in my opinion a totally underrated one which can
still be picked up at a bargain price! From the master himself
Pat Lawler, it is a typical Lawler pin following on from TZ
and retaining many of the same features found in many of his
his designs, If you enjoyed TAF or TZ you will find RS a
natural progression from them with added features. I am one of
Lawlers biggest fans and currently own 3 pins designed by this
genius, in fact I sacrificed my TAF in favour of RS as I found
it more challenging and at less than a third of the cost of a
decent TAF I think it deserves the recognition.
So why such a bargain? Well it don't have the prettiest
cabinet & PF artwork! Also its not the most popular theme
(bulldozer travelling across USA) these along with its cheesy
Country & Western backtrack don't give it any favours for
first impressions! However I am not a fan of C&W but it works
well and has you kicking your heels when you achieve the
jackpot. As for the bulldozer thing, it goes with the
demolition theme and is enhanced by a wicked shaker motor!.
Anyway these minor flaws are outweighed by plus points.
The Cabinet & Translite
Its bright blue as are the legs so it takes some
matching your home surroundings unless you have a few pins,
then who cares! :-) The translite art is by John Youssi and
works well, actually its hard to fault any of his work. Note
the picture of Carlene Carter on the billboard. (the voice of
Red)
The Playfield
RS is a wide bodied machine just like TZ, STTNG or JD, if you
haven't had the pleasure of playing a W.B. table they are a
whole different experience utilising over 10cm more PF. Moving
from a W.B. table to a standard one takes quite a lot getting
used to giving you the impression something is amiss. The fist
thing that jumps out at you are the heads of Red and Ted these
are the main toys and are tour-de-force of mechanics. First
introduced on FunHouse AKA Rudy (another Lawler pin) you now
get double the experience but with more humour, these guys had
me in stitches the first time I played and their one liners
will stay imprinted on my brain forever. Like Rudy (FH) the
eyes move left and right, open and close and also blink
randomly if enabled through software, at the same time both
these guys mouths move in sync with the speech making it so
real its scary!!! After locking the first two balls Ted falls
asleep, lifts his dozer blade and gives you a clear shot of
his open mouth for start of multiball, but unlike Rudy Ted
swallows the ball with a big gulp then the fun really starts!
Apart from Red & Ted there is the blaster shot which brings to
life the shaker motor which literally rattles the cabinet
around enhancing the whole experience. There is a second
plunger which gives you a skill shot again similar to the
steps on FH and four flippers giving numerous shots described
in more detail in the rulesheet below.
I have put many hours into mastering RS and I can pretty much
hit any required shot, however like MM the game has so many
play modes it is near impossible to attain Wizard mode on a 3
ball game but one day who knows!. After owning RS over 2 years
now, I have never tired of it, and still find it impossible to
have just one go as it is maddingly addictive. I have now
built up a small repertoire of combo shots mastered while
playing many hours on my own, I keep these up my sleeve for
the next poor challenger to play against me. I can not explain
the sense of achievement I get when indulging friends in a
multi-player game, there's nothing I like more than showing
off my skills on this table. A little grin always come to my
face just before I catch a ball with the right flipper,
transfer it to the left with a rebound from the slingshot and
finish the combo move by shooting the ball straight into Ted's
mouth for a multiball. The grin turns to a big smile and the
look of disbelief displayed on my challenger face makes it all
worth while....cool ain't the word! My
rating Awesome 8.5/10
For a full list
of rules and an excellent playguide by Michael Dunn and Scott
Moorhouse check it out here
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