Check Out Stern’s New Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Pinball Table!

Friends, I have mentioned it before but I was actually in High School by the time that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles jumped from independent black and white comic books to a syndicated animated series and toys. When Turtle Mania was in full swing in the late ’80s, while I had already begun picking up back issues and collections of the original comic books, I imbibed heavily of the mass-marketing Kool-Aid that was taking place with these new version of the turtles. I was far from the only one as both Family and Friends appeared to also be captivated by those charming heroes in a half-shell – watching the live action films and picking up the multitude of action figures as well as the various video games. One of my fondest memories of High School was visiting the local mall with my close friends – on a break during our Sophomore finals to find out that the local arcade had a brand new TMNT arcade game by Konami.

That of course was not the only arcade game to be produced featuring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – but it is the one I am most fond of – we even returned the following day with a pocketful of quarters and a video camera to record our defeat of Shredder. I might actually have that tape in storage – I should dig that out and try to upload it or something in the near future.

Besides the many home video games that were released, it was back in June of ’91 when Data East released a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinball table. I wouldn’t get into pinball for a few more years but as it was TMNT related I still plunked more than a few tokens into it. Having said that – the table that I played 29 years ago looks rather quaint when compared with the version that Stern Pinball is releasing – you don’t have to take my word for it though, you can watch the trailer for yourself!

Better yet there is an additional video that goes into more detail of the Premium and Limited Edition versions that Stern is producing. These are perhaps not for the casual collector but you can visit the Stern Pinball page and check out the differences in the three tables for yourself.