My 7 yr old son helps me with the restores - he has his own Super mario pin that he enjoys playing and showing off to anyone that comes round, He detests anything with a 2"flipper though as they are too hard to play. I like showing him how they work, i can see his mind absorbing all the information without him even knowing it.
He now has a small circuit board with various components on it that will be the CPU of his own pin he is designing ( yeh i know it will never work - but hey! Its his invention!)
He has designed his own Ben 10 playfield with bumpers etc on it - all on paper, so early design stages.
To him - its all in the theme, Ben 10, Spiderman ( or rather the evil enemies). Modern Dr Who etc.
No pins being made with any of these themes, so its hard to get a REAL interest in one and so PS2 and Nintendo DS take over.
...So kids not playing pinball?? Right back in Sterns court im afraid