Tis the season to celebrate all things that go bump in the night, and what better way to celebrate than with Bally/Williams Elvira and the Party Monsters? This machine came to life in October 1989 thanks to designers Dennis Nordman, Jim Patla, and Steve Richie. Nordman has been a designer on all three Elvira pinball machines to date, starting with the first Elvira machine, Elvira and the Party Monsters. This machine features art by Greg Freres, who also did the art for the other two Elvira machines as well! Party Monsters came out shortly after the Belly and Williams merger of 1988, bringing the best of both worlds for this machine.
Elvira and pinball go hand in hand - they can both be campy, and a little mature, but good fun for everyone. I've been lucky enough to play all three machines, with this one easily accessible at Holy Frijoles in Baltimore, Maryland. There's something extraordinary about playing pinball machines at a Mexican restaurant, and Holy Frijoles is one of my favorite places to play pinball.
Bally produced 4,000 of these machines, and they are fairly easy to find in the wild. Comparatively Bally's other Elvira machine, Elvira Scared Stiff, had a production run of 4,028. This game can be a single-player game or can be enjoyed by up to four players. This is a solid-state machine and features fun callouts from Elvira herself. This game also has two dynamic ramps, three bank drop targets, two slingshots, and two flip-up targets.
Pinball machines from this era are just plain cool. While new machines are truly a ton of fun, the late 80's early 90's machines were on another level. It should come as no surprise that Party Monsters is a popular game among players and collectors, but since 2014 prices have largely stayed the same for this game. Right now the median price is just shy of $5,000, which is a lot for an older game. The last time this game saw a price dip was in late 2015 when prices dropped to around $2,700. Since then prices have been stable at around the $4.5K - $5K mark. I personally do not believe there will be another price drop in this game, but you never know!
This is a great game for beginners and seasoned players alike. While not as forgiving as newer games when it comes to balls draining, Party Monsters has a lot going on. It's easy to rack up points, and finding a rhythm with this game can be done during the first round. The callouts are cute, but we are talking about a sound system from 1989, so the sound does come out rather muffled. This is likely an easy fix, but on the other hand, it certainly adds a bit of vintage charm!
I would not compare this game to the other two Elvira games. Each one brings something fun to the overall Elvira mythos. All three machines complement each other, and if you're a fan of campy horror and Elvira I would try to add all three games to your collection. Of course that can run you a lot of money (likely over the $10K mark) so finding and supporting local pinball arcades is a must!
