- Mar 14, 2012
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How do you define your love of pinball? Do you admire it from afar, devour anything pinball related that comes your way, or travel miles and miles just so you can play on a broken machine? Do you care if it’s digital, real, or only in a tournament? Have you ever found yourself staring at one of those table top toy pinball machines in a toy store and thought, “well it could be fun”? One thing’s for sure, and that is people who love pinball also love to talk about pinball. I enjoy writing about these interactions, where two of us flip out over pinball. What follows is one such time…
Molly Atkinson is the owner and operator of Pins & Needles in Los Angeles. It is an honest to God pinball arcade, something that is extremely rare in and around Los Angeles. Sure, there are a bunch of locations around with one or two machines, but a place with 20+? And of the locations that have tables in numbers, Molly doesn’t have a cover charge or gouge people on table prices. She thinks pinball is for the people, and people should be able to play freely.
I first became aware of Pins & Needles a year and a half ago. I was desperate to play on a machine locally, but any time I came across one, it was barely functioning. I expanded my search beyond a 10 mile radius, and discovered the website pinsandneedlesla.com, which promised me of all things, my beloved Rollergames. It was only 29 miles from me, but in SoCal traffic speak that meannt anywhere from 45-90 minutes. A little time passed, and eventually a buddy and I took the trip down to check the place out.
Readers of the TPA Fan Forum might recall the thread I started about that experience. There were some misunderstandings about what I wrote. Feelings were hurt and I was called out for biting the hand that fed me. Molly roared like a vengeful mama bear! Many of you have since declared to me that this is your favorite thread ever in the forum. Seems like it’d be criminal to not find out what makes Molly so full of pinball passion.
On a rainy late morning in LA, I arrived at Pins & Needles. Unless the rolling gate is open, you’d never know the place was there. Bedrock is a large building that houses a recording studio and rehearsal spaces, and has a loading dock that opens up to the street. It is this very loading dock that is Pins & Needles. Inside you have rehearsal spaces, across the street, a motorcycle repair shop. The sound of choppers and bands rehearsing mingle with the wonderful sounds of pinball. Normally Molly doesn’t open up the place until 8pm, so I came armed with In-N-Out burgers, fries, and shakes in appreciation.
[SIZE=+1]BALL ONE – THE PINBALL ITCH[/SIZE]
The first thing I wanted to know about Molly was how she came to love pinball. She tells me she grew up in a small Appalachian farm town. You know the type, rural, not much to do for social interactions. The closest neighbor to her had a pinball machine though. Before you ask, she nor anybody else can remember what machine it was. More to the point, kids weren’t allowed to play it anyways. So Molly’s first experience with pinball was as a spectator, watching the adults sitting around drinking beer, ripping on the thing, and having a blast.
“I’m one of those people that wants to be doing what you’re not allowed to, so I was dying and hungry to be playing pinball for 10 years before I ever really got a chance.”
Flash forward to 12 years ago. Molly was working in costume and wardrobe for TV. Does the name of her place make more sense now? No, it isn’t also a tattoo parlor. Anyways, 12 years ago it all started when owning her own pin became a reality.
“When I moved out here and started working in the film industry, there were obviously higher day rates and I thought, oh cool I can afford one.”
And like many a first time buyer, she got taken. For $1500 she purchased an acid damaged, water damaged, termited Flash with a ripped up playfield and a terrible backglass. And she was happy. “The guy was a real good salesman!” She says it only worked for about 2 months. She had zero knowledge of how to maintain it. Even for something as basic as changing a lightbulb, she’d call someone up and ask, “Do I need to unplug the machine to change one?”
“I did not know anything,” she laughs. A little while later she was dating Keith Elwin, a guy who knows a thing or two about pinball, and he helped bring her up to speed. Yes, THAT Keith Elwin; top pin player, killer tech, pinball photographer, and all around deity of the SoCal Pinball scene. Today Molly is responsible for maintaining all her machines, and she is very comfortable doing it. Keith, who Molly is still good friends with, is still always willing to lend a hand too.
Molly’s second machine was Rollergames, which she received as a gift. She was working on a commercial shoot for McDonald’s. The director had made the producer work into the budget a pinball machine, and he’d bring it with him every day to set and make it available at lunchtime for the crew to play. He recognized Molly for the pinball lover she was, and at the end of the shoot he gave it to her. Sure beats a crew jacket!
From there Molly’s collection grew. She had some loaner games for a while, and her apartment kept filling up and up and up. As can be expected, her neighbors and landlord weren’t too happy about that. Here’s where Molly veers from the average pinball owner. She found herself extremely unhappy in her line of work, doing reality TV. So rather than give up her tables or put them in storage, she sought out a space to rent and put them in, and walked away from her job.
The first location of Pins & Needles was in the back of this “weird little store, off Sunset Boulevard”, which was a WIC store by day, carrying food supplies for low income families.
“I had 10-12 games at the most, started the LA Pinball League out of there.”
The WIC store was open until 5 pm, and then Molly would open up from 9 until whenever. “I don’t even know how nobody went to jail during then. We’d be open until 4 or 5 in the morning all the time, right there on the boulevard, and never had any problems.” That is until the lady that owned the shop decided to close it. Molly was not prepared for that, couldn’t afford the rent all to herself, and needed to move.
“People seem to think I make money with this, which is categorically untrue and I didn’t have the budget to buy the shop.” But then the building P&N is now in, Bedrock, approached her because they thought what she did was cool. They had tons of free space and were willing to make a deal on rent. With that space, Molly started getting more and more games. “Oh man, I got a little out of control!”
Eventually Molly moved from the rather large space within the building to the smaller loading dock, which positions Pins & Needles right on the street. While a loading dock might seem a strange choice, it actually has a certain vibe that works right along with the one Molly puts out. “I keep games in here on free play, at least 4 or 5 all the time. People that live on the street can come in and enjoy them. Just no cigarettes in here!” Molly adds that along with the average Joe coming in to play, you’re “often rubbing shoulders with affluent bespectacled folk who drove over from Bel Air in a Bentley. It’s true. Our richest and poorest locals mix here.”
[SIZE=+1]BALL TWO – HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS?[/SIZE]
The collection of games at Pins & Needles can be quite eclectic. Molly rotates games in and out all the time, as she owns more than can fit in the space. You are not going to find show quality tables here. What you will find are tables that play and function well, even if they don’t look pristine. It takes some effort though. Many of her tables were saved from their deathbeds. She just picked up a Gallahad that she’s going to resurrect. “I think everyone across the board can agree that it’s the ugliest game.” I quickly informed her that I disagree. That would be Genesis, of which she also owns. She likes taking these games that may not look like they have much to offer, but give ‘em a chance. Call it the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree effect.
The other reason the smaller space of the loading dock works better is because it’s more manageable. “I can keep quite a few of these games running, but it’s almost impossible to keep more than a dozen of these junkers going.”
I was quite surprised to see she had a new Stern table on the floor, Metallica. She laughed and said it’s anything but maintenance free. Truth be told though, she simply prefers a different era of games. She loves Gottlieb System 80b’s, Gottlieb wedge heads, Bally Solid States between Mystic and Centaur, wide bodies of the same era, and things like the Stern Big Game she recently got.
“I dig the artwork packages; the layouts are well designed and challenging. I have a nostalgia thing, where I’d get on a table like Frontier and couldn’t be torn away from it. Reminds me of a fun time right when I started getting into pinball on a personal level.
There’s also simple economics involved. Recently she was interviewed by NPR’s ‘All Things Considered’. They were doing a piece on Jersey Jack Pinball and were looking for reactions on the Wizard of Oz table. Problem is, outside of private collectors, nobody had one on location to play. The only reason Molly has played one was because of seeing it at trade shows.
“There’s no $8000 coming out of anyone’s pocket to put one in here. I get that pinball is burgeoning and those with disposable income can play it, but what about the person that doesn’t have a ton of money? Should they just not be allowed to play pinball? That doesn’t sound like a healthy hobby.”
WoZ is also just not her kind of game. “It’s cool, it’s great for pinball, oh my god, it’s so LED’d out and it’s covered in toys…I feel so bad because everybody is always asking what I think of WoZ, but it’s not me. I like Jungle Queen! But I do like some of the new code, there’s some cool stuff there. Me and my friend had a great time playing it, jumping up and down, hootin’ and hollerin’.”
I asked her if she thought the new Stern and JJP tables were just not feasible to operate on location. “I know some operators make it work with the new machines. They might have an in with the distributor, getting it for close to production cost. People that have an income from something other than just their games, like a bar. They’re in a different class that I can’t compete with. There are not that many people that would try and operate games like I do, because it is invariably a bad idea.”
That Metallica she has on the floor? Its final home will be in a new barcade opening up in downtown LA, along with several other of her pins. “I worry about whether the barcade thing is just a trend, but the opportunity to not have to kill myself to operate games is just too good to pass up.” And Metallica didn’t come out of her pocket.
A bar can offset the cost of operating games, but you have to be able to afford the liquor license and everything else that goes into running a bar. Pins & Needles does not serve drinks, does not sell t-shirts, has no means of generating revenue other than the pinball machines themselves. Unfortunately, maintenance alone kills the profit margin.
“The business model I have in here is absolutely, overtly designed to fail. I do it all myself, I have to do it on my own budget which is in the red. Some people don’t understand why I don’t try to advertise, or try to get more and more people in here. The games really can’t handle it. I guess people with bigger tech budgets have an easier time of keeping things going, If I get a ton of people in here, I have to spend the next 2 days workin’ and workin’ on everything, getting ball trails out at the very least or replacing a display at the worst.”
Her Funhouse’s display is starting to go, and she knows it’s gonna be $300 at the least to fix. That’s 600 games of people playing just to recover the cost. There’s not a single table in there that is more than 50 cents a play. Even the Metallica, which most locations ask for a buck a play.
“I’ve never had any money, I come from a poor area, poor family. I’m never going to have a bunch of money, so I’m really good at living on a shoestring. Make it work, give up luxuries to make a point of what you’re doing in life. I’m fine poor, so I don’t care. You’re not going to find too many people that wanna do that, and it doesn’t make a lot of sense on paper. I’m always putting myself down, but I’m proud that I’ve been here all these years doing this. There’s a lot more value there than there is in an extra 50 cents a game. That’s just how I am. It takes a weirdo.”
Sure there are ways she could maybe turn a larger profit, but at what cost to her pinball soul? “I don’t try to pump it up too much, I just wanna keep it for people that really want to play pinball. I don’t do party rentals anymore, I don’t have film shoots in here. I try to adhere to this notion I have to provide open and free access to pinball. I don’t have an entry fee, because that goes against the point of me being here. I want this to be a sorta weird, oddball place.”
[SIZE=+1]BALL THREE – WOULD YOU LIKE FRIES WITH THAT?[/SIZE]
Molly started and hosts the LA Pinball League at Pins & Needles on a regular basis. There are currently about 46 players in it, but that number flexes. “I try to put a cap on it, but then blow it as I feel bad turning people away. But it’s cool, because it’s the biggest non Whopper league in the world.”
That is not a Burger King reference, by the way. Whopper is really WPPR, or World Pinball Player Ranking. People play in various tournaments that the IFPA accepts as qualifying for point totals that help establish world rankings. Not in Molly’s place though.
”A trend that bothers me is people really getting into pinball and then becoming obsessed with themselves. If you have some dough, you’re gonna be able to move up in the Whopper rankings (by traveling). If you live in an area with a ton of tournaments, you’re gonna be able to move up in the rankings. If you aren’t in either of those categories, it’s gonna be impossible for you. The IFPA does a great job, but it’s also just not fair. And then the way people get all hung up about it, tootin’ their own horn or getting super disappointed with a tournament’s points really bugs me. So the last thing I want is people that wanna get Whopper points coming in here. I want people that wanna play pinball.”
“That does mean a pretty drastic reduction in league size…there are people that fly all over the world for tournaments that live within miles of here that have never stepped foot in Pins and Needles because there aren’t Whopportunities. I don’t have a problem with those people, but I don’t need them coming in here”
It also gives her the chance to change things up for her league players. She reversed the flipper inputs on Hollywood Heat and called it Hollywood Shuffle. She raises and lowers the table angles week to week, to keep people on their toes. For her, the fun is in playing pinball, screw whether it’s perfect or not. Shoot, you’re playing in a loading dock!
“The floor goes downhill so water can’t come in. It’s the worst for pinball! And people come in and complain about the level, so I go and put it back to where it should be, but I can’t help it that there is a hill in the cement floor. That’s the first thing people complain about, that the balls are draining because of it. 95% of the time I put my level on it and it’s fine.”
In other words, maybe the reason the ball keeps draining is because you suck! Have a problem with a game, she’ll take a look. Don’t be surprised if she gives you the stink eye if nothing is actually wrong though.
“I don’t do the ‘welcome to Pins & Needles, my name is Molly if you need anything!” People can come in here, there’s a bill changer, if something gets stuck, I’ll fix it. Otherwise I’m gonna hang out with my friends and play pinball.”
[SIZE=+1]EXTRA BALL – “GREED” Gomez Addams[/SIZE]
The price of pinball machines, whether used or new, has gone through the roof. What used to be an everyman’s hobby has now become a rich guy’s. Molly was fortunate, as many of the people I know with large personal collections, to have bought most of her machines before prices went crazy.
“Everyone is retail, plus a thousand bucks when selling. I just look and laugh. $4500 on Elvira and the Party Monsters? Are you kidding me? It’s painful. I laugh so I don’t cry. Until this whole pinball trend thing craps out on itself, I’m not going to be able to get any more games. I’m lucky because I got so much early on. I have folks around town that are like,’I appreciate what you do and will never be able to get this table running, so if you wanna take it on, it’s yours’.”
You know how sometimes people have items or animals they can no longer take care of properly or don’t have the room or energy for, so they just wanna put it in a good home, value be damned? Molly often is called because they know where her heart is.
“People respond much better to ‘Hey, I’m Molly and I run the LA pinball league’ as opposed to ‘Hey, I’m gonna buy your game and turn around and sell it on eBay for $3200 tomorrow!’ LA has a lot of those types that are like, ‘your game’s not working so I’ll do you the favor of paying $100 and taking it to the dump for you.’ I don’t have any fame, but if you look up pinball in Los Angeles, you’ll find my info pretty quickly. So I get a lot of people calling me. People that try and squander others out of their pinball tables are sooo gross!”
The same applies to when she sells a table. “I’ve sold 8 games this year, only one of which was for more than $200.” It’s not so much that she’s undervaluing her tables, but that it sickens her to price gouge. “I think you could sell everything in here and still not be able to afford a WoZ or a Stern” she tells me, despite having a Whitewater, Funhouse, Centaur, Embryon, and Rollergames staring me down.
I mention looking for pins on Craiglist, and she comments that it “has not been fun for pinball for 5 or 6 years.” She also doesn’t hassle people over every scratch or ding if they are offering a fair price. “If it’s $500 on Craigslist and you’re standing there, I’m not even gonna pull it open. It’s a good deal and my customers are gonna be so happy there’s a new game to play.”
She finds herself at odds with the pinball community at various times, which doesn’t sit well with her.
“Pinball is niche. It’s got its own little hidden culture, but it’s so diverse. Who’s an arcade guy, collector, operator, tech, competitive player, modder, LED dude. For a hobby where we’re all supposed to have the same interests, it gets pretty nasty sometimes.”
At Pins & Needles, the machines are the stars. Molly is more than happy to stay unnoticed.
“My station is not as a strong player. I pretty much suck. It’s not as a collector because I have a dumpy collection of games. It’s just as someone that wants to provide access to pinball for others. Fortunately I don’t ask for much in return. No drinks on my games! But even within the pinball community, what I’m doing doesn’t seem that popular. People aren’t very friendly. Personality wise, I can be a real b!tch.”
I find this an odd dichotomy. Is it that those who find her to be a b!tch don’t like the mirror she’s holding up to them? That they don’t like being called out for what she perceives as counter intuitive to keeping pinball alive?
“There’s so much look at me pinball happening. There’ll be a charity saying, ‘Look! Pinball!’, but in the verbiage it’s all I, I, I. It’s not really about pinball. You get a guy who gets into pinball and is like,’ oohh, I’m gonna have a podcast about it, I’m gonna save pinball!’ No, you’re just trying to use pinball to look cool. Stop it! I did some videos a while back for a director, and the backlash against me made it pretty clear that nobody wants to hear what I have to say. So I gave up, figured if I wanna keep enjoying pinball, then I’m gonna have to do my own thing, focus on my little garage of games here.”
[SIZE=+1]FINAL SCORE – ALL HAIL THE QUEEN[/SIZE]
I think Molly has a noble cause. She’s not out to save pinball, but to keep it alive. To do that, people need to be able to play and it needs to be affordable. When The Pinball Arcade was announced, FarSight stated they wanted to preserve these games for future generations to play. Molly’s games may not be AAA titles, but they are strong, playable, and well maintained. You won’t find dirty playfields, what Molly calls ‘paved’ at Pins & Needles. Flippers are strong, lights aren’t burnt out, rubbers are bouncy. I mentioned to her that more than a few of us on the TPA Fan Forum have become table owners because of TPA.
“That happens? People that come in here that love the onscreen stuff, get mad when they play actual pinball. They’re like, ‘dude, this is nothing like..’, which didn’t happen a few years back.”
What I think may have escaped her though is that somebody who was playing digital pinball actually sought out the real thing. I count myself as one of those very people, as I stated in the beginning of this. Since then I’ve bought a table off Craigslist, joined the OC Pinball League, taken up writing about pinball, I host a podcast…uh oh. The irony is not lost on me. Honestly I just love being in the presence of pinball in any shape or form. I think I’m safe from Molly’s wrath!
Molly does have some parting advice. On selling a table... “Never take a check. No matter how well respected the guy is in the pinball hobby, never take a check.”
We did play some pinball together. First we tried a game of Embryon, but she thought it was doing some weird advancing, and the ball save flipper activated about 2 seconds after a ball drained. Turns out it was a bad cap on a star rollover, which she promptly fixed later that day. Her favorite machine in Pins & Needles is Jungle Queen, so we had a game on that. I’ll spare everyone the gory details, other than to say we both had terrible games. I mean embarrassingly so.
I asked what it is about Jungle Queen that Molly likes so much.
“You get so much of the big boobied, sexy lady, googley googley stuff, and here you have a sexy lady that isn’t begging for help from a man. She’s powerful, she’s a strong lady.”
Kinda like the one who owns and operates Pins & Needles.
Pins & Needles is located off the 101 freeway, between downtown and Hollywood at 1623 Allesandro St, Los Angeles, CA 90026. Check the website for hours. And don’t be jerk, say hello to Molly when you go!
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