Jaws Pinball Getting Blood-Red Shiny Upgrade to 50th Anniversary Premium Edition
Suddenly, fifty years passed like they were nothing. One moment it’s 1975 and movies are just a thing you do now and then, and the next Jaws invents the summer blockbuster. Fast forward fifty years, past E.T, all the Marvel movies, Disney switching from hand-drawn animation to CGI and current the abomination of live-action remakes, Alien/s, Terminator, Star Wars, and more franchises than anyone should try to count, and Jaws is still fondly remembered even if the pacing and tone now seem like relics of a different era. That fifty years also encompassed almost all of modern videogaming history (Pong is 1972 but arcades didn’t really get going until Space Invaders in 1978) but pinball has been around much longer than that. Somehow, though, Jaws never got an official pinball until last year.
The Jaws pinball turned out to be fantastic, with great shots lining up to create a strong flow and a theme that feels perfectly expressed in the table design and its toys. The dangling chum bucket, boat deck upper playfield, pop-up fin target that moved back and forth on a track, and especially the boat table toy with the shark popping up from underneath it when its gameplay modes are activated made for a table that’s as fun to look at as play, and in the eighteen months since release Jaws has racked up a good number of fans. While the table came in Stern’s standard three-tier release, with the Pro model being the budget version with fewer toys and the extra-fancy LE model selling out almost instantly, it’s the Premium version that’s generally considered the standard edition. Now the Premium Jaws table is being redesigned in a new 50th Anniversary edition, and it’s an incredibly attractive table.
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Almost Fifty Years Later, Jaws Finally Gets an Official Pinball
Jaws is a good-looking table with a lot going on, but for sheer thematic perfection, it’s hard to top a moving shark-fin target.
The first and most eye-catching change is the blood-red metallic trim running along all the edges, popping out from the overall blue-ocean color theme of the cabinet. Inside the table its art has been enhanced with a dash of glitter to make the sea sparkle, while the wire ramps have been given a brass powder makeover for a properly nautical feel. If the bright red trim doesn’t make it obvious enough which edition it is there’s also a holofoil 50 Anniversary sticker to drive the point home, plus cabinet and backglass art.
In addition to the 50th Anniversary makeover, Stern is releasing an update to all models with new modes and features, including team play and co-op, plus a final “Smile you sonuva…” mode where, presumably, you blow up the pinball machine with a gas canister and rifle. Or possibly blow up the score with a well-aimed target shot. One of those two. Either way, Stern isn’t done with Jaws yet, and the 50th Anniversary edition is a striking addition for anyone who’s got the space and budget to fit a top-notch pinball table into their collection.
