Here's my Tomy Atomic Pinball game. I had one of these games when I was a kid. I believe the game was originally introduced in 1979 and is still available today (as of 2006). Every now and again I'd see one of these games at a yard sale or swap meet and get to feeling nostalgic about it. So I finally bought me a new one. My new Atomic Pinball shown here is not exactly like the one I had in 1979. The original was called Atomic Arcade Pinball. The body and head were both molded in white plastic and it had different playfield artwork. Even when I was a kid I knew enough about pinball to reject crappy toy pinball machines with their passive springs and rubber bands. But Atomic Pinball is different. This game has reactive bumpers and slingshots just like the real thing! The center playfield features three bumpers and two slingshots (the slingshots are more like rectangular bumpers, but they most closely mimic slingshots on the real thing, so that's what I'll call them). Each bumper or slingshot hit scores a point. There are also two top rollovers that score a point (or points if you can get the ball to pause over them). The three rightmost score reels are actually one reel. So ignoring the two least significant digits, the game scores from 000 to 999. The two orbits are pretty useless and are more likely to lead to out lane drains than points. The best shots are straight up either side of the bumper cluster to the top of the playfield and the rollovers. Getting the ball back down the shooter lane is also possible. The game makes an electronic dinging sound with each point scored and has a blinking red light on the head that just blinks at a constant rate and has no other purpose. As explained below, the game is driven by a motor and gear arrangement that is really quite noisy when running (requires 4 "D" batteries). Starting a new game involves turning on the power, resetting the score reels and resetting the ball counter to "3". When the ball counter reaches "0" the ball cannot be reloaded to the shooter lane.

What's great about Atomic Pinball is that it's as much fun to take apart as it is to play. Imagine you're a ten-year-old with screwdriver in hand staring at all those gears and moving parts! This was defiantly one of my all time favorite toys. Disassembly begins with the removal of three screws that hold the head cover to the body. With the head cover removed the "glass" lifts out. The playfield is held down by a single black screw below the lower bumper. This screw can and should be discarded. The playfield stays in place without it, and the screw just gets in the way of ball flow. There's an electric motor under the white cover on the right. The motor drives the horizontal shaft with all the red and blue parts. Then on the left there is a 90 degree gear box and a vertical shaft leading up to the score reels. Each of the five reactive parts has a black skirt around it. The ball hitting the skirt is what triggers the action. The two top rollover lanes trip the top left bumper to score the rollover points.

Here you can see a white plate underneath everything else. When one of the reactive parts is triggered it presses down on the white plate for scoring. The white plate closes a switch contact on the right which makes an electronic "ding" sound. The white plate also trips the gear box clutch on the far left which turns the score reel shaft and advances the score.

Now here's a close up of the top right bumper. Note how the bumper (orange part) has a U-shaped appendage that loops under the red gear and has a rack gear on its end. Looking down the main drive shaft from right to left, the shaft turns clockwise. The red gear is fixed to the shaft and is always turning. The red gear turns the little white gear. The little white gear is mounted on the blue disk. The blue disk is held by a tab that engages the black skirt. When the ball hits the black skirt the blue disk is released and turns with the shaft. It hits the scoring plate on the way around and then the white gear engages the orange rack gear and pulls down the bumper which kicks the ball away. This is all more complicated than a real pinball machine which just uses a switch on the skirt and a solenoid to propel the bumper.

The left picture above shows the 90 degree transmission for powering the score reels. Note the spring-loaded clutch. The small gear is not fixed to the main shaft. But the spring creates friction between the gear and the fixed hub on the end of the shaft. The large gear has a tab that engages the scoring plate. The tab holds both gears motionless. But when the score plate is depressed, the tab is released and the large gear is allowed to turn one revolution, which adds one point to the score. The right picture shows the motor cover removed. Refer to the pictures above and note the orange and green wires that lead to switch contacts on the underside of the cover. This switch is responsible for blinking the red light in conjunction with the worm gear and cam arrangement. Red arrows show the three cams that open and close the switch as the gear revolves. What intrigues me about this mechanism is the level of engineering and material that was invested into something as trivial as a blinking light that is completely inconsequential to the play of game. It's as if this entire pinball machine were designed as an academic exercise in mechanical engineering. It just begs to be taken apart and explored.

The left picture is of an original Atomic Arcade Pinball with white body and original artwork. Atomic Pinball was also offered with an outer space theme called "Starcom" as shown at right. I believe this version was available in the mid 1980s. Starcom is rare and may have something to do with a broader line of toy action figures called "Starcom".

Shown above are patent drawings for Atomic Arcade Pinball. Click drawing for larger image.

Shown above is an instruction manual for Atomic Pinball. Click drawing for larger image.

Lost your legs? The picture above shows the height and shape of a leg. The remaining dimensions can be ascertained from the leg sockets on the bottom of the game. Replacements could be fashioned from wood blocks or other suitable material.