This is NOT a For Sale posting! I am posting details of my Fish Tales to seek you help in valuing it at this stage, but if anyone is interested, of course you can approach me!

The gallery of images in this post is here if you want to see the full resolution.

I bought this Fish Tales in 1996 from and auction, and have cared for it ever since. I have thought about selling it a few times, but have not been able to as it is a quite example of one of the best pinballs of all time and I couldn’t let it go. Now the time has come…

Overall, I think the condition is excellent. It was in excellent condition when I bought it, and fortunately I have done very little work on it. I believe that it is in it’s original condition and has not been restored, but there is no way to know. All I have done to it is replaced rubbers and balls a couple of times, and replaced the display in around 2000. There have been no electronic faults in my ownership.

I will describe the condition in detail:

Playfield – excellent. It is Diamond Plate (not sure if they all were). The ONLY wear that I can see is feint lines in the spill lanes. The transparent plastic on the central boat is a bit discoloured – a purist may change it – I wouldn’t bother. As far as I know, everything is original – check the high res pictures.













Rubbers – replaced about 5 years ago – very little play since.

Backflash - Excellent. I can't see any issues, but it is hard to photograph without reflections





Cabinet – very good but faded.  Judging by photos online, it looks like the cabinet fades uniformly to to yellow on all machines where the decal has not been replaced, and mine is no exception.  Other than that there a only very minor scratches. Some of the black wood work on the back flash is a bit faded – again a purist would probably re-paint – this is original!








Internals/Electronics - as far as I know all original:










Topper – fully working. Again the plastic has gone a bit opaque. Not an issue, but does not look new. This is available to replace.



Legs – average for the age – somewhat pitted.

Manuals - Original



Issues – I will list everything I know in the interests of full disclosure. I have not fixed these as they don't bother me at all, but of course, they are easy and cheap to do.

1.   Front lock missing.
2.   Backflash lock is in place, but key is broken (I have the pieces). It is unlocked!
3.   Mechanism that holds the playfield up for maintenance is broken or missing (I am not sure how it is supposed to work). I use a piece of wood which works perfectly satisfactory.

That is really about it I think.

Will post a video later when it has uploaded to youTube.

So any insight into the value of a machine like this, would be gratefully received.