Collector Value Est.

$1,400–$2,400

USD · Market estimate

Near-mint / restored. Worn or stored examples sell for 30–60% less.

Notable Features

Flippers (5), Pop bumpers (4), Slingshots (4), 5-bank drop targets (1), 3-bank drop targets (2), Ball kicker (1), Kick-out hole (1), Spinning target (1), Standup target (1). Ball kicker lane below flippers propels ball back into play.

Historical Notes

When seen in the movie "Rocky III", this machine had a prop backglass used only for the movie. Only three of the prop backglasses were made, and one was destroyed in the film when Paulie, Rocky's brother-in-law, threw a bottle of Scotch through it. The remaining two are in possession of collectors. We asked designer John Trudeau why the production backglass was not used in the movie. He replies:The coordination with the Rocky III movie was already in process when I started at Gottlieb in '81. Ed Krynski had a whitewood in development for the license tie-in. I guess it didn't play very well, because it never made it to production. The backglasses that were made for the movie were made to fit an existing game - not Rocky (I was told that it was a Force II, but the displays would have to have been moved). The produced game didn't even exist at that time, nor did any artwork. I believe we were pretty close to NOT using the Rocky license at all. I came up with the design that was produced pretty much at the last minute. Later, Stallone was in Chicago promoting the movie's opening. We were told that he might stop by to see the game, but he never showed. I still have my Rocky backglass. The only one I have left that's survived the years. Stallone also did have final approval over the painting for the backglass. Dave Moore had to repaint the facial area twice before it was approved. Sly didn't want the beat-up face for the glass (who can blame him?). Dave Moore did manage to paint himself and me into the crowd. At the foreground right ring post there is a fella with glasses that has his arms crossed (Dave) and another guy next to him with a black moustache and graying temple hair (Me).In the Rocky III movie, the character of Paulie is shown in a pinball arcade throwing an object at the backglass of the widebody movie prop pinball machine, breaking the prop glass to reveal underneath a specially made insert, never used on production Gottlieb games, that had all four score displays in a column on the left side of the insert and the light bulbs were arranged to resemble the character of Rocky with his arms raised, as shown on the prop backglass. Close examination of this movie scene shows the playfield was from a Gottlieb 1981 'Force II'. The lower cabinet art was very generic and the only production cabinet we found that had that same generic art was used on Gottlieb's 1981 'Pink Panther', although the colors were different. The cabinet for an engineering sample of "Rocky" was reused for the prototype for Gottlieb's 1982 'Gold Rush' and can be seen in that listing. On production games, the cabinet artwork that surrounds the coin door shows a boxing ring along with two symbols that possibly were meant to represent flashbulbs going off in the crowd. On most cabinets, the flashes are black in color, and the "nearest" side of the boxing ring is black also, with the remainder of the ring painted in red. We have seen pictures of two games in Europe (not shown here) that have the black and red colors reversed on this cabinet front. We do not know how many of these "Red Flash Rocky" games were made.

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