KISS (fiberglass prototype)

This KISS pinball machine is an extraordinarily rare fiberglass-cabinet prototype from Bally Manufacturing Corporation, with only two units known to exist -- a stark contrast to the roughly 17,000 units of the standard wood-cabinet KISS produced in 1979. Bally's production records credit designer Jim Patla and artist Kevin O'Connor, though Bally engineer Allan Reizman has noted some uncertainty about exactly who developed this unique fiberglass variant, suggesting it may have involved outside partners like Lync-Smith.

Gameplay-wise, it shares the standard KISS machine's feature set: 2 flippers, 4 pop bumpers, 2 slingshots, 8 standup targets, 2 spinning targets, and a 4-bank drop target, along with a backglass light animation where the letters K-I-S-S illuminate as they're scored and animate during Game Over. Bally reportedly explored the fiberglass cabinet to reduce weight and material costs amid concerns about a looming lumber shortage, but the material proved too fragile for the rigors of commercial coin-op use and was ultimately abandoned -- test units even needed sandbags added to restore proper play feel.

The surviving example was recovered in 2022 from a German distributor who had kept it in storage for roughly 40 years, coined for German Deutsche Marks and once briefly operated in a Hamburg bar. As one of the rarest known Bally prototypes, this fiberglass KISS offers a fascinating look at a road not taken in pinball cabinet manufacturing.