You wouldn't believe it now, but there was a time when it was hard to get your hands on any new Star Wars merchandise. A decade-long gap between the release of Return of the Jedi and the re-launching of the brand in the early '90s, back when the Star Wars brand sat largely unused aside from a few novels here, a terrible tie-in cartoon there.
I grew up in this period. A huge Star Wars fan, absolutely starved for anything that involved lightsabers or Stormtroopers. I used to haunt yard sales and the rinky-dink model train swaps in my town, scavenging for any old action figures, prizing my collection of paint-chipped aliens and skinny Darth Vaders, missing their capes.
I remember the first time I laid eyes on the Star Wars pinball machine. This glorious mess of tubes, ramps, LCD X-Wings, and a chromed-out R2-D2 presiding over the head of the table. It was gorgeous. I must have dropped my body weight worth in quarters into that machine over the years.
Of course, those lean days are long over. Ever since Lucas decided to go back and butcher the original films with the 1997 Special Editions and then buried the franchise in insipid sequels, there hasn't been a toy shelf in North America without a droid or wookie taking up space. Now that Disney is breathing new life into the franchise and returning it to form, the marketing machine is working overtime. You can get everything from lunch pails to faux-wampa skin rugs for your home.
What does this have to do with Zen Pinball 2: Star Wars Pinball: Rogue One? Well, I'm trying to decide if I've just been spoiled and jaded by the wealth of Star Wars tie-ins available today, or if this table is really as dull and uninspired as it seems.
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