Can Wonderland Amusements Make Affordable Real Pinball That's Actually Good?

[@MichaelBtheGameGenie]

Hi Everybody, Thanks for watching! What do you think of Wonderland Amusements announcement of a physical 3/4 scale Pinball Machine?

[@petergriffinelectricdrums4164]

😂😂😂😂 You mean you got to look 👀 at A EMPTY BOX 📦 LOL 😆 😂😂😂 YOU didn’t get a look at a prototype lol 😂

[@Wehlfest]

I'd have to flip it but 3/4 might not feel right. Curious if Stern could do some sort of junior model, regular size pinball machine but stripped down at this price point

[@petergriffinelectricdrums4164]

@@Wehlfest - Stern “ USE TO” actually made a smaller more affordable Pinball way back BUT LOL 😂 They’re more affordable was Still $4,000!!!! lol 😆 Instead of their normal price of $10,000! lol 😂 They didn’t make anymore of those they stopped unfortunately lol 😂

[@redsteam1]

Yep. My same thought, too. ​@@Wehlfest

[@targas1008]

Reduction of 3/4 is too much in my opinion.

[@carlo1132]

For around a grand I would buy day 1. It would fill out my arcade well and get me in the door with real pinball, its gonna sell like hot cakes.

[@MetallicBlaze94]

Wow! I can't wait to hear more. This could definitely change the game. At that price point, or one near it, I would definitely buy it day one.

[@S.J.C._Entertainment]

If we can get a solid middle ground between those zizzle machines and stern home pins I’d say there’s definitely a market. Many of the home machines in the 70s were great and were just normal pinball machines in slightly smaller cabs and no coin doors for a fraction of the price. I’m hoping we can get more “legit” cheap home games for a price that’s actually reasonable for the average home.

[@PDubsArcadeLoft]

Video starts at 1:15, he’s improving!

[@tedadamgreen]

🤣🤣🤣

[@Ryan-pr7vq]

I love this whole concept of customizable, assemble-yourself pinball in a box. I'm all over it!

[@R0mperSt0mper02]

Awesome concept, can't wait to see how this product comes along

[@fourthhorseman04]

I’m going to buy one for sure. Very excited for this. At this price point I can buy several real tables and not hurt the bank.

[@Merlin-wo1kj]

I grew up in the arcades (1980's) and love both pinball and VR pinball. Personally I have no desire to setup and maintain actual pinball machines, when I can have 100's of VR tables at my finger tips. I still prefer to play real pinball at the arcade on my days off and VR on the weeknights in my basement...

[@redsteam1]

Neat concept. Tracking, but not sold yet. Thank you so much for bringing us this information!

[@FloppyDiskMaster]

"affordable" is relative. I was scared they'd say it was like $2k, so hearing 700-900 was a relief. "Home arcade" means a house, not a mansion.

[@steveblersch]

The idea has some merit, but we’ll see just how good they end up being.

[@Frank_D]

It's interesting. I wish I had a place for something like that. It is kind of weird to show up with an empty table. Kind of wish they'd at least thrown something in there to give a better idea of the parts themselves.

[@kevinclauson7613]

I'm not hardcore into pinball (otherwise I would have gone to the expo), but with the cheap price point this is something I'm interested in to see how they pull this off. They also mentioned having a prototype at ces

[@ronaldlawrence8879]

Sounds like a great deal...and he reminds me of "My name is Earl"....

[@ryrysonic9]

Possibly they showed the first playfield action yesterday it was very interesting to see lights on it & ramps - wireforms etc,, I guess it's going to be a a Alice goes to wonderland pinball theme!

[@tedadamgreen]

I do have confidence in this team behind this product. Can’t wait to see what finally develops. If they can make a decent physical Pinball Machine at 3/4 or even 2/3 scale for $1,000 or less … they will sell everyone they make I think 👊🏻😎🕹️

[@ChrisNxNW]

As much as I wanna see new companies succeed, I can’t imagine this thing being under a grand and being worth it. I’d gladly pay another $500 or even another $1000 for a good 3/4 scale real pin as I think there could be a market for a smaller pin. Even in the 2k-3k range. And hopefully they don’t use Zizzle as inspiration lol.

[@3dtrekker182]

Honestly, that representative didn't instill much confidence in the product. He didn't even know the size of the playfield. I'm not sure why they even showed up to the show with so little product and the fact that even the physical product would probably be changing says to me that they pretty much brought nothing. Their booth was depressing and that's probably why there was no one around it in all the footage I saw. No brochures, no stickers, or concept art. No hype at all. Not much at all to draw anyone to their booth other than one empty machine. An empty prototype machine only shows that there's nothing to see. The representative mentioned a playfield concept being close to completion. Why not have that at the show? Poor marketing and a very disappointing start in my opinion.

[@CA-tk8yn]

I'd be stunned if we ever see a working machine. I'd be even more stunned if it was decent. You can't show up with just a shell. Too not even have drawings showed he's playing the investor game to aid his income and hoping for some miraculous investor.

[@MichaelBtheGameGenie]

I hope it works but it's really hard to say much of anything at this point other than the team is enthusiastic and it's a cool idea

[@Merlin-wo1kj]

@@MichaelBtheGameGenie I wish them luck.. Ideas are the easy part.

[@TheCornerCade]

I’m in the video! I finally made it! LETS GO!

[@VirtualRobotsRevolt]

Sounds great. I hope it turns out awesome.

[@gevorklalayan1311]

Holy molly, roger sharpe saw this thing. He was probably kicking himself

[@RetroHondo67]

Dmd screen needs to be bigger…for very little extra cost they can dramatically improve gameplay as the dmd communicates with the player modes, score and instructions. Spend there as it makes a large difference.

[@billkirby75]

I saw them there. If it works out, I'd buy one in a second. Very cool 😎

[@Tim_York]

Millimeter MichaelB, unless we have to consume the pinball.

[@s1andman1]

Looking good so far. 800 to 900 will do well. Maybe starwars maybe elvira. Can't wait to see how this goes. Very excited. 900 vs 5900 pinball. Yes please

[@goofyfoot390]

All I heard was it’s a base unit that needs to be assembled by the buyer. A product that we and third parties can mod/fix and improve on. That’s not an everybody’s house hold product. I’m not saying I’m not interested

[@aaronroberts8601]

Intellivision Amico flashbacks anyone??

[@VirtualRobotsRevolt]

Pinball lives and dies by the themes. If they can somehow get more famous themes that will dictate how well it does. Turtles and Star Wars would be fantastic. Alien or Godzilla I would have to get it.

[@blackrum4572]

Very cool

[@lovetheblue6659]

I would rather pay 2K for the AtGames Legends 4K Virtual Pinball. You get unlimited tables with virtually no maintenance requirements. I can't imagine how a 1K physical table could provide any ongoing fun. And then there's the inevitable maintenance requirements of physical machines ...

[@pinfarmer]

I feel like slightly scaling it down wouldn't make a big difference in BOM. Only the complexity of what's in in the caninet. You miss out on a whole industry of standard parts as well. I hope it is successful though.

[@akanicolerocks711]

that would be amazing

[@pawlowskipinball]

Pure mass scale Chinese production play. Licensing Star Wars can't be cheaper than 15-20% of your product price. $800x0.2 = $160 per unit. That LCD screen has to be at least $30 (all LCD's come from China, no savings). If they step down to 36V power supply, maybe $20 (again all Stern Power comes from Meanwell in China). You are at $590, and haven't shipped the game to your main distribution center in the US. Shipping then to customers/retail locaiton. You haven't paid for electricity and factory space in china. No business insurance. If the end game is Walmart, they need to take a cut. Haven't even paid for the game cost (graphics, flippers, coils, circuit boards). 5 employees, that leaves $100 or less per game, per partner if they do licensing. That's a lot of sales volume you need to hit. It's $100,000 per employee per 1,000 units sold give or take. I'd imagine for the work and money to put forth they aren't looking for less than $250k bare minimum each to do all this. So they need to sell 2,500 units minimum. So it's all up to a Kickstarter blowing up or not as to whether this moves forward. Is there going to be demand for 4,000 units or not is really all these is. Arcade and videogames is many millions of customers. Pinball is super small. Well see if there is pinball demand on a wider consumer scale.

[@dalecummins689]

🤔 So, its a single theme, like all real mechanical pinball machines. With that said, for me an average Joe not into big time modding, the theme will have to be something special (Like Dragons Lair from Arcade1Up was for me). If they paired up with say BuyStuffArcade ahead of time for established themes... then maybe.... 🤔 probably not, but maybe.

[@stokjock]

You made it home~! Did your luggage make it home with you? Had a blast at the show and I hope you did too. Too bad our Red/Yellow knight sucked so bad that your sorry Red Knight whooped ours. This Wonderland Amusements will be huge if they can get the price point down to that under $1000 and it's a decent looking machine

[@cleetusvandame]

Michael, to be completely blunt, I think they were unprepared.. Coming to a big show such as Pinball Expo and presenting an empty cabinet with a "concept of a plan" doesn't really instill confidence in people. They seem scattered brain at times and I am not convinced they can put out a product with good quality physical parts for under 1k. First impressions are everything are everything and I don't believe this company did a very good job in creating that environment. Thanks for sharing.

[@targas1008]

I agree, and I‘d be hesitant seeing a kickstarter fail in the past for a pinball project. Reducing size works for a certain amount. See my other post here on making an own DIY pinball with 22mm (or roughly 7/8 inch) balls and reduced playfield size. I‘d say with 1,5k including cabinet they could make it. At least I can and I‘m doing right now. 🙂 Although I just started some months ago, and schedule approx. 2-3 years spare time doing so.

[@chriszeek2249]

That might be “physical pinball” but that cheap thing will never be considered “real pinball” to me. The lowest level of “real pinball” would be the Stern home edition pinball machines - anything less than that will be Zizzle like junk.

[@gevorklalayan1311]

I really hope so lol

[@edt1138]

I'm not really interested in 3/4 physical pinball machines. They would have to be either very cool of very cheap, but probably both.

[@S.J.C._Entertainment]

Have you seen the Bally and Brunswick machines? Those are pretty solid too. Uses actual parts unlike the Chinese zizzle things.

[@edt1138]

@S.J.C._Entertainment No I haven't. Those would probably be very cool, but not very cheap.

[@dregott4975]

No

[@petergriffinelectricdrums4164]

😂😂😂 STERN PINBALL COMPANY IS LITERALLY LAUGHING 🤣 😂😂 Good 👍 luck building all the mechanical machinery to make it work for under $1,000 😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@scottboehmer1975]

Ambitious, but this is going to be a pass for me. I'm more than satisfied with the Legends 4k pinball machine and even if this is a mechanical machine it still seems like it would be a big step down.

[@steveblersch]

The idea has some merit, but we’ll see just how good they end up being.