Promotional Items
Gottlieb produced a variety of items to promote their proucts to the distributors and operators of games. This was done either directly via mailings or at trade shows. Today these items are collectable themselves, and the most common items are the flyers that were printed for each game. On this page we will see some of the less commonly found promotional items which can be divided into 3 basic types: posters, key-fobs and novelties. Let's not forget the 4-page promotional flyer that Gottlieb circulated to introduce their System 80 series of electronic games and explain to distributors and operators its benefits. Shown right are the English (above) and German (below) language versions of this System 80 promotional flyer. No doubt there was a French language version too, as this was also a hugely important market for the pinball manufacturers. |
 
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 | POSTERS - Promotional posters measuring approximately 29" x 23" are known to have been produced for these System 80 games: If you know of others or can submit any images, please let us know! 
KEY-FOBS - For the most part, the Gottlieb key-fobs were not intended as promotional items at all and they weren't much to look at. The fobs were originally to identify new plastic sets, making use of what would otherwise have been unused (waste) material on the sheets. This is why games like Haunted House and Spirit have 2 key-fobs: 1 for each plastics set. Gottlieb started doing this already on electromechanical games in the 70's and continued with all their earlier System 1 electronic games: The format was simple: usually Gottlieb's name and the name of the game, its model number and the catalogue number of the plastic shield set. In contrast, Bally games from the late 70's already sported key-tags with some artwork. These so-called "flag" style key-fobs continued with the System 80 games and it was only by the time of games such as Rocky that the tags started to evolve into more decorative items that could feasibly act as a promotional tool. The primary purpose though remained as simply a key-fob, allowing operators to more readily identify a game's keys and enabling them to access its cash-box faster! There are some interesting anomalies in these items: for example the wrong game number (667 instead of 677) appears for Q*Bert's Quest, and for The Games, the text was hand-written! | |||||||
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NOVELTIES - The rarest and most interesting promtional items are the novelty items where there was actually a slice of creativity in evidence. If you know of any other items besides those shown here, then please let us know!
Thanks to Harold Balde and Steve Doubleday for their valuable contributions of images and information!Return to STORK's NEST PINBALL Last updated 20.March 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
