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Writer's pictureJason

Revisiting the Jersey Jack Avatar Pinball Rumor

I love ocean-themed stuff, particularly games. This is one of the reasons that I want a Stern JAWS pinball machine so badly and will probably own one someday.


The rumor that Jersey Jack Pinball has the rights to make a pinball machine based on the Avatar movie franchise has been around for years and years. So why bring this up again now? Well, I've been stumped about JJP's next theme and I'm starting to hear rumblings about Avatar again.


IF Mark Seiden's debut pinball machine for Jersey Jack is based upon Avatar, I expect it to be based on both the first and the second movie in the series. I have pretty solid information that his game is based upon multiple movies integrated into one game.


To show how long the JJP - Avatar rumor has been floating around, below is an article I originally wrote on the subject back in September 2022.


I loved the first Avatar movie when it came out. I wrote the following article before the second film Avatar: The Way of Water was released in theatres. The second movie was fine. The special effects were amazing and the water scenes were beautiful. But it was no where near as good as the original movie.


The previously leaked themes, Avatar and Muppets, are definitely on my short list of guesses for the next Jersey Jack pinball machine. It is entirely possible that JJP has finally kept a theme secret and will shock us all. Time will tell.



"People who have been visiting my pages for a long time, know that I've always been a sucker for pinball machines that have ocean themes, from Bally's 1989 solid state pin Atlantis (which I once owned the prototype machine for) to Gottlieb's 1975 electromechanical pin by the same name to Bally's 1981 game featuring incredible Greg Freres art Fathom to Quetzal Pinball's more recent one-off Captain Nemo Pin...if it has ocean creatures in it, I want it! Heck, I've been a long-time advocate of a manufacturer making a pinball machine based upon the DC Comic Aquaman. Even though the movies were as my boys would say "Mid" the art on an Aquaman pin could be Epic!


With my love for Ocean Pins clear, when I saw the trailer for the upcoming movie Avatar 2 I almost lost my mind when I realized that it's subtitled "The Way of the Water." Why? Because there's been a rumor out there forever that Jersey Jack Pinball owns the rights to produce a pinball machine based upon the Avatar franchise. Given manufacturers' propensity to focus on the newest versions of a property, if JJP was to make an Avatar pin, one would think that it or at least a version of it would have an Ocean theme. That would absolutely blow my mind. Come on, how beautiful would a pinball machine based on scenes from this movie be? I've included the trailer and several pictures from the upcoming film below.


Yes the JJP - Avatar rumor has been out there for years, but the Avatar 2 movie has been delayed for practically a decade so a delay in the arrival of a pin based upon it is to be expected. We all have heard that Jersey Jack's designer Eric Munier is working on a pin based on Godfather and I'm not sure that Avatar is a Steve Ritchie-esque theme, but maybe Avatar is the theme that new JJP designer Mark Seiden was assigned. Or it's rumored that Munier is already working on his game after Godfather, maybe this is it?


This is probably wishful thinking on my part, but I would go bananas for an Ocean-themed Avatar pinball machine. Please make this happen Jack :). My family and I like the Avatar theme and movie that I'd even be happy with another pin based on the original Avatar film, but as long as the second movie doesn't suck, my heart is set on an Avatar: The Way of the Water pin.


Here's an interesting article about all of the circumstances that caused the Avatar sequel to be delayed.


Why Avatar: The Way of Water Took So Long to Make


Audiences have been waiting for Avatar: The Way of Water for 13 years now. With the release date looming, here's why it took so long to make.



Here's a link to the original article:





Stern Pinball's 2010 Avatar pinball machine:







1989 Bally Atlantis:


1975 Gottlieb Atlantis:

1981 Bally Fathom:


2015 Quetzal Captain Nemo:



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4 Comments


JeffS
JeffS
Jul 12

Like everything you’ve said about Avatar. But your comment about water made me think of another great movie with a post apocalyptic theme - Waterworld. I don’t count the Gottlieb version so Mark Seiden could grab it and get busy.

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I actually kind of want a Gottlieb Waterworld lol. I've owned just about every Gottlieb of that era at one point or another. If a local Waterworld came up for sale, I'd seriously think about buying it.

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I would love to see a The Dark Knight Returns pin. You could use video footage from the animated movie. Would make an awesome game especially when Bats fights Clark, the Mutant Leader, and Joker. I would buy in an instant.

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