{"id":35705,"date":"2026-03-12T17:39:44","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T09:39:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=35705"},"modified":"2026-03-12T17:39:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T09:39:44","slug":"australias-national-film-and-sound-archive-acquires-worlds-first-licensed-star-wars-pinball-machine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=35705","title":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s National Film and Sound Archive Acquires World\u2019s First Licensed Star Wars Pinball Machine"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

The National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) of Australia has today announced it has acquired five rare, Australian-designed pinball machines, one of which is the first licensed Star Wars pinball machine in the world.<\/p>\n

The machines were produced by Newcastle, New South Wales-based amusement company A. Hankin & Company between 1978 and 1980, and are reportedly the only Australian-designed machines from the golden age of pinball.<\/p>\n

While the majority of the machines are inspired by distinctly Australian topics (ranging from the FJ Holden, cricketing icon Dennis Lillee, and surfing through a shiver of great white sharks), Hankin\u2019s The Empire Strikes Back is notable for its status as the world\u2019s first licensed Star Wars machine.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe concept of making a pinball machine like The Empire Strikes Back was not common at that stage,\u201d explained A. Hankin & Company manager David Hankin in the NFSA\u2019s mini-documentary<\/u> outlining the story behind the addition of these pinball machines to its collection.<\/p>\n

The company approached George Lucas, asking if he would be interested in allowing the company to build a Star Wars-themed machine.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the answer, surprisingly, was yes,\u201d continued Hankin.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"
Use the flippers, Luke.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/output><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were flabbergasted. Here we are \u2013 this pint-sized pinball manufacturer in Australia \u2013 competing with manufacturers that were making so many more pinball machines than we were, but he was happy to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

And George Lucas\u2019 payment for the rights to build a Star Wars-themed machine? Simply a personal machine for himself.<\/p>\n

The NFSA plans to have the machines available for future public display in Canberra. <\/p>\n

The NFSA also has a rapidly growing collection of video games that it is preserving, noting the high percentage classic video games that are risk of being lost forever.<\/p>\n

Image: Hankin pinball machine designer David Hankin with the five Australian-designed pinball machines. Photo by Robb Shaw-Velzen.<\/em><\/p>\n

Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You can track him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him things about stuff.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n


\n
Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) of Australia has today announced it has acquired five rare, Australian-designed pinball machines, one of which is the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[813,10969,12247,1900,11310,2410,1387,17917,449,297,5852,3117],"class_list":["post-35705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-gadgets-reviews","tag-acquires","tag-archive","tag-australias","tag-film","tag-licensed","tag-machine","tag-national","tag-pinball","tag-sound","tag-star","tag-wars","tag-worlds","wpcat-32-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}