I finished my ROKR Dinosaur Lab Pinball! I backed the Kickstarter for this one, and I’ve been looking forward to seeing what it would be like to actually build a working pinball machine. It is definitely different from my usual miniature houses and book nooks, but I really enjoyed the change.
The first thing that struck me was just how many parts there were. More than 30 bags! I added little clips with the corresponding letters written on them and stood all of the bags upright in the box. That ended up working really well because I could just flip through them to find the letter I needed.
The instruction book is 59 pages, which made me think this was going to take quite a while. I was really surprised by how quickly it came together once I got going. There are a LOT of pieces, but the instructions were easy to follow and I never really felt overwhelmed by the build.
There is quite a bit of mechanical and electrical work along the way. I used the screwdriver included with the kit for the entire build and did not use my electric screwdriver at all. I was careful to tighten everything securely without overtightening it, especially the flipper components. Everything on mine is working as it should.
It’s pretty cool to see the underside before I installed the wooden bottom cover. Once that cover goes on, you would never know how much is happening underneath the playfield! There are wires, switches, springs, circuit boards and all sorts of mechanisms hidden under there.
And after putting all of that together, you actually get to PLAY it! There are lights, sounds, electronic scoring, life indicators and two different game modes. The three hearts show your remaining lives, and there are all sorts of targets and illuminated areas around the playfield.
I recorded a little gameplay video and didn’t realize until afterward that I had it set to hard mode. 
I switched it over and tried easy mode too, and somehow that didn’t seem much easier for me. I think that has considerably more to do with my pinball skills than the machine!
You can see my finished pinball machine in action here:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Dd72276kT_w/?stkn=OGhrbnhneXFmdDk2
This was one of those builds where I got just as much enjoyment out of figuring out how everything worked and watching all of those individual parts come together as I did from the finished product. Seeing it light up and actually work at the end was pretty awesome.
Thanks for everyone who has been following along!
poping out is great … 30 bags and 59 pages wow … my children used to play pinball when they were young … it looks fantastic!