The other important thing to remember with CPR - it is STILL their hobby business, so things do take time.
i like their playfields, i like their plastic sets, but i wish they would stop making backglasses until they can get the colors right
i bought a playboy BG, the girls in the grotto are green/brown rather than pink
i know the excuse, that it is a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy, but get it closser or stop trying
It is an interesting topic. Take the Star Trek playfields as an example. The return lane inserts are the "wrong" colour. "Wrong" according to the flyer. I have had over 10 Star Treks in my inventory, or customer repairs, and two of them were exactly the same as the CPR. I've seen proto plastics on that game, and another with a proto backglass. Which one is correct ?
Early CPR playfields relied on the availability of original films. The first run of Fathom playfields were wrong. At the time, the only films on the planet were proto, and that's what they used. People complained, so they waited until the factory films would ever surface. Paragon and space Invaders playfield films were found. Again, protos. Nowadays, CPR predominantly redraw the playfield art, thus eliminating the need for the original factory films. The artists rely on "donated" playfields. The chances of finding a NOS playfield in original condition is almost impossible. Take for example a Viking NOS playfield I have in my possession. The red areas under the factory mylar are a deep red. The uncovered areas are much lighter - almost a different red all together. If there was no mylar, and this particular playfield was submitted as the base for the repro, then the Red would need some sort of compensation, as it clearly is not factory red. So there is a degree of guesswork based on the best possible donor base playfields.
Fathom backglass is an interesting one, as I've had the luxury of having 4 Fathom backglasses next to each other which were very close to what appears on the flyer. Yet the CPR has an area in the top left hand corner that covers much more area than it should. Definitely not right. When I asked Kevin, he replied that they have the original films and they used those.
Fireball backglass was a huge disappointment, and I was highly critical that the artist made numerous mistakes with the flames thicker than original.
Other repro companies suffered the same issues - TAF playfields and plastic sets come to mind.
In almost every case, a replacement is always better than a missing or worn playfield or backglass. In the case of Playboy, I have 3 Playboys without a backglass and 4 more with really poor examples.
