[Restoration] Pumpin' up the Toobin' Tubes

[Superully]

following my HOT TOOBIN' SUMMER ROADTRIP it's finally time to start with the restoration of that fabulous game. as i've said earlier, the cabinet is in good condition overall with one exception: the control panel part is BADLY DAMAGED on the right hand side. have a closer look to understand what i'm talking about. everything's being kept together by a lot of screws, additional wooden boards and a lot of glue 







once all of that has been removed, parts of the control panel literally fall off 



that's one giant gap (for mankind) 



the broken off part of the control panel







the broken off part of the control panel in disassembled state - what a mess 



to be continued ...

[Superully]

the restoration continues ...

in order to repair the damaged right side of the cabinet, i have to remove parts of the white vinyl. i'm using a scalpel to make precise cuts!



with the help of my newly-bought heatgun the vinyl can be removed easily



D - U - N - N - N !!! does anyone need white vinyl?  



after the procedure ...



luckily i've managed to salvage the old wood which i'm glueing back on again



looking good so far ...



filling up the holes and cracks with wood putty



sanded down - looking PERFECT  



next order of business: more broken off parts to be re-attached!



i'm preparing the old wood for the "operation"



re-attached - waiting for the glue to dry



yeah baby, i'm getting there  



one wooden part is that heavily damaged that it can't be used again  



so i have to build that part from scratch (mini-scr33n  ) - no problem because i have another part as a template!



cuts like a knife



finished - a perfect scratch-built replica  



to be continued ...

[Superully]

the restoration continues ...

unfortunately, i can't continue working on the control panel part of the cabinet because i'm still searching for the right kind of vinyl (samples should be coming in shortly though), therefore i'm focussing on the control panel itself for now.

when i saw the panel for the first time i thought it looked good, but then i realized that this is NOT the way a toobin' control panel should look. the original overlay had been removed and some kind of overlay replacement was "installed".



it took me some time (and some money  ), but i was lucky enough to find a NOS control panel overlay - unbelievable. no reproduction overlays are available for toobin' right now, so i guess i was even BEYOND lucky. with the expection of one small dent below the right "paddle forward" words, this CPO is perfect - i'm still dancing around in joy!!!



although i can't wait to put it on, i have to take the typical steps first. the greatest joy is the joy of anticipation , isn't it? 

(1) removing the old "overlay"







(2) sanding down the old colour



(3) applying primer



(4) applying colour - for this control panel i'm using two different colours: BLACK because the borders of the CPO are black and the CPO itself doesn't cover up the control panel completely and BLUE because the upper part of the control panel "collides" with the blue cardboard bezel





after days of spraying, sanding and drying, i can FINALLY apply the NOS control panel overlay. man i'm nervous 





fortunately, everything goes down smoothly - no bubbles, the holes match!





to finish the control panel off, i have to attach the buttons. the red ones still look good, but the yellow ones show some kind of colour wear - the yellow has faded out. have a look 



there's only one good solution for this: get a set of new ones. i'm placing my order with arcadeshop.de and only a couple of days later, a package arrives 



a sneak peak inside. although the replacements buttons are a little bit longer, they do fit perfectly into the control panel 





the control panel BEFORE 



the control panel AFTER 



to be continued ...

[italiandoh]

unbelievable. no reproduction overlays are available for toobin' right now

Good job !
But I hope you scanned and saved the control panel art to a high resolution file before applying it...

Matteo

[Superully]

But I hope you scanned and saved the control panel art to a high resolution file before applying it...

sure i did, matteo! NOS stuff is so rare

[Superully]

the restoration continues ...

let's find out what's lurking in the waters behind that waterfall



in my opinion one of the most intriguing and innovative elements of all the arcade cabinets ever created - the toobin' waterfall mechanism!



the waterfall is fully operational, but one of the neon tubes is not PLUS the two clamps which hold the tube in place have disintegrated





i find two replacement clamps in the bathroom section of a nearby home depot



a quick fix: screwing on the clamps and replacing the old neon tube - here we go, shiny and new!



check out this short video i made showing the beauty of the toobin' waterfall marquee 

to be continued ...

[petieken]

Nice work!
That control panel looks much better now At first I didn't notice either there was a fake control panel overlay.

Thanks for the video of the waterfall, I've been waiting for that Is the waterfall really that noisy or is that sound amplified by your camera?

[Superully]

Thanks for the video of the waterfall, I've been waiting for that Is the waterfall really that noisy or is that sound amplified by your camera?

the waterfall really IS that noisy once the marquee is removed, however, it gets much better when the marquee is put back in place. somehow the sound of it is even calming. you won't notice the sound of the waterfall at all during gameplay because there's a soundtrack playing PLUS a lot of screaming and cursing going on when you're playing this game with a partner! 

[arcadefever]

  Great job !!!

I love the video... incredible mechanism under the marquee...i did not know at all, that Toobin had something like that...
How is the game play ? i never played the game  :?i love the cab....

Keep the good work on it !!!

[Superully]

I love the video... incredible mechanism under the marquee...i did not know at all, that Toobin had something like that...
How is the game play ? i never played the game  :?i love the cab....

nice to see that there are things in the arcade universe that even guys from the golden age of video games didn't know about 

as for the gameplay: toobin' is a fun game, especially with two players, but don't think about playing it in mame with a joystick. as always, there's a reason why the original game has that special button setup. i L-O-V-E that game  it has a lot of levels, you can play it co-op (or vs. - which i think is always a good idea) and there's a lot of strategy involved!

@fever: i've just been to your homepage for the first time - and it won't be the last  nice pics, a lot of info, WOW  where did you get those huge pac-man / ghost figures from?

[DarthNuno]

I love the video... incredible mechanism under the marquee...i did not know at all, that Toobin had something like that...
How is the game play ? i never played the game  :?i love the cab....

Same for me  I didn't know that... I've seen the cabinet back in the Days, but it really didn't pay attention to it... shame on me 

Many thanks for the video. It shows everything, perfect 

It's awesome to see a such mechanism for 'just' a small effect under the marquee 

This restoration will be very impressive... so far so good 

[arcadefever]

where did you get those huge pac-man / ghost figures from?

I bought pacman and one ghost @ the Pac man cafe in Orlando, when it was still open ...
I bought another one on ebay very cheap....

You can buy the all set i think at the namco shop....

[Etienne MacGyver]

So nice to see that doctor Ully is "healing" this badly damaged baby

surchery is open !

What a difference with the CP ! , much better.

The immitationjob was not so bad, but i also had the feeling that it missed something

Good job ully !

btw, i notice now that the "old" CP switched the red and yellow buttons from left to right and opposite.

now its in the correct order

[DarthNuno]

I played TOOBIN' during my last holiday...but for real   



 

[petieken]

I played TOOBIN' during my last holiday...but for real   

 

Did you also find cans in the water to throw at other people?