1956 · Williams
Starfire
Flat mid-blue sky with white cloud banks, airfield with hangars and a chain-link fence at the horizon, green grass strip in the foreground and wooden pinball cabinet visible around the glass edges.
- Year
- 1956
- Maker
- Williams
- Type
- Electro-mechanical
- Display
- Backglass lights
- Players
- 1
Made by
- Design
- Harry Williams
- Art
- George Molentin
Vision analysis
On the backglass
Written by a machine from the photos, so details may be off.
Backglass
- blue
- yellow
- red
- green
Fingerprint: STARFIRE: green-topped control tower with score reels built into faces; yellow-red propeller aircraft flying across upper half with white vapour trails; two blonde women in magenta blouses at bottom corners pointing upward; colored numeral keypads and score displays on tower
The most memorable feature is the green-topped control tower whose faces are printed as giant score reels, including a rainbow-coloured 1-9 keypad with the word MILLIONS underneath. A second hook is the pair of blonde women in magenta blouses at the bottom corners, one on each side, both raising an arm to point up at the tower. The oversized yellow title with a red shadow fills the top left third of the glass.
Setting
- Flat mid-blue sky with white cloud banks
- Airfield with hangars and a chain-link fence at the horizon
- Green grass strip in the foreground
- Wooden pinball cabinet visible around the glass edges
Symbols
- Star-and-bar roundel on the aircraft fuselages
- Red pennant with a black star inside a white ring
- Large numerals 1-9 on coloured square panels
- Score numerals 100 to 900 in hundreds
- Three small reel windows under each score numeral
- Chain-link fence
- Hangars with roller doors
- Propeller aircraft
- Yellow open-top sports car
- Red and green pennant flags
Lettering
- Large italicised script wordmark above an oversized condensed sans-serif title in yellow with a red drop shadow; score numerals in bold outlined sans-serif in red, white and yellow on black and coloured panels
Themes
- Aviation
- Air race
- Airfield
- Jets
- Sky
- Control tower
- Score numerals
- Mid-century pinball
Title on it
- Starfire
Text on it
- Williams
- STARFIRE
- MILLIONS
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 100
- 200
- 300
- 400
- 500
- 600
- 700
- 800
- 900
| Kind | Description |
|---|---|
| Woman | Bottom left, blonde short waved hair, magenta blouse with white collar, smiling, one arm raised pointing upward with index finger extended |
| Woman | Bottom right, blonde waved hair, magenta blouse, arm raised pointing up, holding a small yellow-and-white striped item under her other arm |
| Man | One of three small figures in blue suits and hats standing together on the ground left of centre, near the yellow aircraft |
| Man | Second of three small figures in blue suits and hats, same grouping |
| Man | Third of three small figures in blue suits and hats, same grouping |
| Man | Figure in green overalls climbing a ladder onto the fuselage of the large yellow-and-red jet at bottom centre |
| Man | Several tiny figures on the open glass balcony of the green-topped tower, in blue, brown and yellow clothing |
| Other | Two small seated occupants in the open-top yellow sports car at bottom right, one in a red top |
Illustrated air-race backglass set against a flat mid-blue sky with white cloud banks along the horizon. Across the upper left, an oversized title reads STARFIRE in tall yellow letters with a red shadow, preceded by a script wordmark reading Williams. Yellow-and-red propeller aircraft fly across the upper half: one large twin-tail jet with a star-and-bar roundel on its flank, two smaller jets trailing white vapour, a red jet banking at the upper right, and a tiny red plane near the middle left. A green-topped control tower with an open glass-walled observation deck stands centre-right, its faces carrying score reels: a coloured keypad of large numerals 1-9 with MILLIONS beneath, and black panels reading 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800 and 900, each with three small reel windows below. Tiny uniformed figures stand on the tower balcony. Along the bottom, a blonde woman in a magenta top on the left and another on the right, each with one arm raised pointing upward, flank an airfield scene of yellow and red aircraft, three men in blue uniforms, a man in green overalls on a ladder, a yellow open-top sports car with two occupants, and a red pennant bearing a black star emblem.