There is a door. It just doesn't take coins.

We should have fun with this and start taking bets on what the price will be.

Sounds like there might be two versions offered, one with regular legs and one with the crate, which could probably make a several hundred dollar difference in price.

i'll play... $3800 to my door... crate $300 option...

Crap!

I should have gone first.

I'll go $4000.00 shipped, crate $400 option.

i think mine may be tinged with a bit of hope...

Does it come with coin mechs anyway?

And to further clarify, I believe the first was all EM internals and the other 3 were electronic. I think I have seen 2 fan repros so far. My buddy has the full set from CPR and I found him a Continental Cafe to finish out the parts needed, but so far we haven't had a chance to try assembling it yet. The more I thought about it the more I wanted to somehow make is solid state as well.

Correct. The pure EM one is the original. That's the only one I've played, so I'm not really sure what the other feel like as far as any overt differences.

I'm Told More Information is expected In March on this game from Stern.

JJ

I'd assume because of the theme and type of machine they wouldn't expect a lot to be sold. Lets say 500. Would the 500 buyers pay $5000 if they were to pay $4000? I would say yes to that..

So I anticipate a low production high margin product.

nope... i wouldn't...

realistically, it's not money i would be spending on "other machines" (e.g. i'm not going to go spend 4k on other machines today)... this would be a purchase that isn't "taking the place" of other purchases...

as noted earlier, i'm having a hard time swallowing a 4k price tag, although once i get to play one off the line, if it's any good, i'm going to have a hard time NOT swallowing it... add another 1k onto it, and my throat will constrict enough that it won't go down...

Nope. This game needs to be no more than $3500 out the door.

That sounds so....... pure.

3k is my ceiling on this title. There is nothing in it that constitutes the higher price tag imo.

Same could be said about a lot of the newer pinball machines.

Here's what I've learned in my Whoa Nellie! Big Juicy Melons journey. WhizBang Pinball (Dennis Nordman & Greg Freres) made 1 EM game, a conversion from a 1957 Gottlieb Continental Cafe. Dennis & Greg found a total of 4 Continental Cafe donor games. Creating the EM conversion game involved a tremendous amount of labor. Fortunately, Kerry Imming stepped in and developed a solid state system for WNBJM, which included a sound board. That development allowed WhizBang to make the remaining 3 games solid state versions (although they may have made only 2 solid state versions after the debut of the EM).

Each of the 3 or 4 WhizBang games were sold to collectors for about $14K, as I recall. WhizBang sold playfields (2 runs of which the 2nd run had some minor color improvements), decal sets and plastics (which are extra thick, by the way) to several pinball enthusiasts (like me), who ruminated about making a home-grown Nellie and who (like me) did not have $14K dedicated to purchase a single game.

Those of us wishing to do so, discovered that the donor game was as scarce as hen's teeth. A couple of guys tried to use a similar vintage Gottlieb game as a donor, only to discover that the immense conversion task was rendered impossible, without a Continental Cafe because the games shared the same ruleset. Even with the Continental Cafe as the donor, the quantum of work was enormous. For example, both the gobble hole return and the playfield arch had to be modified. The gobble hole scoop had to be customized to fit. CC is a 2 player game whereas Nellie is a single player. The list of challenges is long. This was not a routine playfield swap. There was no blueprint. The WNBJM playfield has a much different configuration from that of Continental Cafe (e.g. multiple gobble holes on Continental Cafe versus a singular gobble hole on Nellie). Consequently, nearly all of those Nellie playfields are likely hanging on walls.

California collector, Brad Grant, set out to make a home-grown version. He successfully made the 1st home-grown Nellie. Learning that Brad was able to tackle the undertaking, I was inspired to give it a go. I was lucky to find a Continental Cafe, which resulted in the 2nd home-grown Nellie (mine). Thus, there are 2 home-grown EM Nellies (Brad's and mine). I suppose that Brad's is the west coast Nellie and mine is the east coast Nellie (I'm in NJ). Melony gets around. I hear that a couple of guys found donor games and have also undertaken the daunting project so a couple more EM home-grown versions may surface.

Below are photos of each version. I outfitted my version with theme-appropriate, puerile melon "knobs" for the ball lift and shooter rods. I used the existing backbox molding and extended it to accommodate the larger lexan backglass. My design mimics the WhizBang cabinet crate design by affixing wooden planks around the cabinet decals. I covered portions of the cabinet with chicken wire. The melon crate "wallpaper"on the backbox is actually a one-of-a-kind montage. The thought of constructing a crate base crossed my mind. But, since my carpentry skills are very limited, I opted for the decorative, fluted wooden legs up front and heavier, pedestrian wooden legs for the rear. I experimented with post colors for awhile before going with a mostly red translucent array. Most importantly, I equipped my game with a 1970s vintage Gottlieb chime. So, at least the sound is politically correct. Who can argue with that melodious chime? Perhaps the Stern version will have chimes.

Brad retained a professional cabinet-maker, Steve Gligorea, to create his game's cabinet. He did so out of some kind of reclaimed fruit crate wood. Brad helped me figure out which parts to purchase, when I was stumped. [Shout out to Brad. . .thanks again!]

The WhizBang versions all included the crate. Artist Greg Freres heard about my Garden State home-grown version. He was kind enough to autograph my game's instruction card. I hope that this post adds to the WNBJM discussion here. Just remember, Nellie isn't the one with the melons. Nellie is the horse.
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My game (Garden State home-grown EM version)
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My game (Garden State home-grown EM version)
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My game (Garden State home-grown EM version)
Image 6.jpg
My game (Garden State home-grown EM version)
Image 5.jpg
My game (Garden State home-grown EM version)
Image 4.jpg
My game (Garden State home-grown EM version)
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Brad's game (West Coast home-grown EM version)
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Brad's game (West Coast home-grown EM version)
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WhizBang's WNBJM
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WhizBang's WNBJM

_{Post edited by ZNET: corrected typos and added some information}

Still waiting to hear the price but I am probably in. If I decide to get one from Stern I guess I may put my Continental Cafe up for sale. Maybe someone can use it as a donor.

I may want to buy it. It will save me the trouble of trying to convert a Whoa Nellie into one.

More expensive then the pin but cheaper then a wwe pro?

I've played ZNET's WNBJM and it's glorious in person. Tons of tiny details that just make it pop.

As for Stern's version I'm going to guess $4200 shipped, $450 for the crate base.

If you're correct on the pricing, I'm out and I suspect many potential buyers are too.

There are four original WNBJMs, one EM, three solid state.

--
Rob Anthony
Pinball Classics
http://LockWhenLit.com
Quality Board Work - In Home Service
borygard at gmail dot com

All I know is that when this comes out, if it has the option for legs or a crate, and they want several hundred dollars for a ridiculous crate that I can't store anything under, I won't be buying a crate.

Not sure that more than 50 of these will get sold if the price is around 4200 shipped.

The front of the crate could easily open to allow storage of crap.

Your wife will want the crate, because it looks better than the plastic tubs you have stuffed under your machines now.

I'm sure she will chime in on this, and I'm pretty sure you will be wrong on that.. We have stuff under the pins that will not fit inside a crate, because it's longer than than the body of the machine. The backs of pins don't sit flush with a wall where they are at.

Yeah...your wife will also love the blatant, non-subtle melon jokes and toilet humor. Your daughter will too by the way.

Actually, my wife does. My five year old is already obsessed with boobs (I.e. Future Spa was "the boobie machine") , so I really don't care about the sterotypical crybaby pee-pants wives. lol..

Why not have 2 versions. The operators, Stern Cabinet with legs, and coin door. The collectors edition just like the photos above, with the crate stand.

Alright, let's be honest. Nobody is buying this game because it's THEE most fun game to play, right?

You're buying it for the art and the aesthetic and the theme. You can buy so many great playing EMs for less than a grand, heck, less than $500! Maybe this would earn better on location because of the theme, but how many people are seriously interested in buying one for their route?

The crate is over the top, but it's pure character and completely fitting for the theme. If I got it, it wouldn't be for the game play, but rather the aesthetic. They hit it out of the park with tying everything together. The finish on the wood on the crate makes the machine feel like it was built into a piece of furniture, and the crushed Budweiser can that is molded into the crate to tilt it up is just the icing on the cake. The Dracula that was custom built into a coffin is the only machine that has come close to executing a theme so well!

It's like comparing a sculpture vs. a vending machine. Yeah, all that stuff doesn't add function to the game play. Neither do toppers, which to me are the equivalent to bolting a big spoiler to the back of your car.

TL;DR: These are both useless wooden toys, arguing about functionality is moot. Go play pinball!

Have her call me.

Frax's wife does. I've been drooling over this machine since I saw CPR running the playfields/backglasses. We don't have any daughters (we do have two sons, one is a month away from ten, the other just turned five), and what they have between their legs wouldn't affect my purchase one way or the other. I'm just waiting to see the price on these to see if it's worth me selling something else to pick it up. (space issues, second world problems)

You're both partially right. I'd want the crate if it wasn't going to cost me any extra cash. Fifty bucks, maybe. If it's the usual four or five hundred for something cool price from Stern, I'm okay without it.

We don't have plastic tubs under some of them (hah) - there's two different cedar chests under two machines, there's the harbor freight lift table underneath one (with a tote behind it, I think), one has a subwoofer, rolls of plastic wrap, and some other crap, and one I've been trying to leave mostly empty so we can access the power strip.

The crate might also potentially affect the way five dmd (two stern, three williams) machines fit along the wall that our machines are currently sitting. If I couldn't slide five machines in there - and it's a tight squeeze (see what I did there!?), the crate wouldn't be worth it at all.

Great game for women and kids...wonderful, tastefully done artwork...very progressive for the year 2015. We may be looking at the renaissance of "family" pinball. Overall brilliant concept...LOVE the subtle double entendre....I ALMOST missed it....big juicy melons! I can't believe they didn't stick with the original title "Soft Core Porn Pinball ". If you have a family and specifically a daughter, THIS is a must have to teach them what's prized in our society. Uggh

You're absolutely right. Teaching our children intolerance, that sex is evil and dirty, and knee-jerk overreaction is SO much better.

I'm sure the girls on Fire Queen, Jet Spin, Atlantis, Volley, Surf Champ, Abra, and Centigrade were all drawn to be "normal" and totally-not-objectifying women, right? And Kiera Knightly wasn't used solely in POTC for her looks..

Pretty sure the epic butthurt over this game getting made is not breaking news, btw.

O......K?

No knees jerking...when I saw this game I thought it was a joke. It is cringe-worthy to me. Picking apart my collection is fine, though not sure which of my games have a woman holding her breasts...maybe I missed it.

She is holding melons. Not her breasts.

Shoot...you are right. I didn't look close enough. Sorry, I take back all my criticism

I agree, it is fine. Just admiring the hypocrisy, is all... not every bloody thing in existence has to be some highbrow affair, or even respectful for that matter. OMG BOOBS! Seriously, have you ever even seen what Japan puts on broadcast TV? It makes this look like a toddler's coloring book.

It would seriously make more sense to rally against any of the Playboy machines if you really wanted to make a moral point than a clearly satirical theme that's poking fun of how old games snuck their sexuality into themes (I know that the last time I went "Hang Gliding", I was totally 15 feet off the ground and zooming by three hot chicks in bikinis!) and then turning that on it's head and inverting it. Meanwhile, the last Stern Playboy featured *actual* nudity, and so little stink was made about it, and it offends so few people, that it's on location in Pinballz arcade the last time I was down there (With the non-nude tiles..sure..), and that when it was released, I heard absolutely NOTHING about it in gaming media, which was at the time, and still is, completely obsessed with boobs.

Or go bitch about South Park Stick of Truth...was watching my wife play that last night and her shrunken character, while shrunken down, fighting an underpants gnome, was squashed by the character's dad's nuts, while banging the character's mom in the background during the entire story sequence and fight with the gnome. Really...there's stuff that's SO much worse out there. =P

so it's a race to the bottom...

Yeah like SP Pinball

Textbook definition of hyperbole here. I don't necessarily love this theme but this is enormously far removed from pornography.

This is a swimsuit calendar at best, and being cartoonish, I would argue it's not even as provocative of such a calendar.

"Softcore pornography or softcore porn is commercial still photography or film which has a pornographic or erotic component, but that is less[vague] sexually explicit and intensive than hardcore pornography."

A woman holding her "big juicy melons" MAY be hyperbole...but the overall point is valid...and all the straw man arguments against my point are fine--opinions. I'm thinking of pinball overall. Seems like you'd want to broaden your appeal...doesn't mean you sanitize it but a woman holding big juicy melons is out there. Embarrassing. Seems like the demo for that is 20 somethings that have yet to fully develop their frontal lobe, or maybe 30 somethings that have yet to have children. Just my opinion. I won't buy it, others will. Free country still so I can say it is embarrassing and not buy it and others can buy it and then have kids and sell it used to you. win win I guess.

I'm here to shatter your assumptions!

I'm almost 35, my frontal lobe is fully developed, I have two children, I'm female, and I have big juicy melons of my own.

I also happen to think WNBJM is beautiful. A standing literal work of art that not only makes me smile but I'd stick in my living room. You know, the one that also has Frax and my two kids living in and around it. There isn't a single embarrassing thing about it - unless you buy it and stick it next to a bunch of beater pins, anyways.

Just because you don't like something doesn't mean that there isn't a plethora of others that do.

By your selectively vague Wikipedia definition, every comic, movie, or videogame with attractive/well endowed/tightly dressed men and women, are some sort of softcore pornography.

It's a marketing gimmick that is proven to work for ages, particularly in pinball, but the intent isn't to get everyone humping the coindoor which is what the definition of pornography would suggest: "Pornography is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purpose of sexual arousal."

Again, I don't care for the machine or theme myself, but if that pinball machine actually incites sexual arousal in me at some point, I will be re-evaluating my life in short order.

Never said that was the case. I'm sure plenty of you will go for it.

The machine, aside from the subject matter, looks great. Having a some lady squeezing her ju--double G's front and center is low brow, tacky, and embarrassing in my opinion. You want to roll that way? Good for you I guess.

in your opinion. Put that to a test of the general public and you might(might not) get a vastly different opinion.

People can parent any way they want. If I had it around my daughter I couldn't see any way around explaining how our society objectifies women and places looks above every other part of you that could be beautiful...and for some reason I have a pinball machine that supports that way of thinking....maybe it'd be a great teaching moment...

ANYway, you guys seem to be really taking it hard that somebody had the nerve to state the obvious

The only good WNBJM news is no news.

Wickerman2 I totally appreciate everything you're saying, and wanted to say thank you. People often reduce this issue to a matter of their own personal taste, which seems kind of low brow. Every room in my house has nudie art of some sort, and I'm the opposite of a prude. Obviously the issue is not MY taste, it's the continued sexualization of women on games; a lot of people would like to see women represented on the games as something other than sex objects. Others don't care and want to see sexy women on the games. It's that old rag. We will never agree.

Either way, I as a female lean toward your side, though as I've explained elsewhere, I'm not much bothered by the art on WNBJM. At this point I don't think anyone in this thread cares about my feelings regarding the game so I'll spare you

People here get a lot of flak for wishing women were represented better in pinball. It always turns into accusations and arguing, and it's tiresome. I just wanted to throw ya some support and say thanks for speaking up. Tough thing to do around here unfortunately.

The game is clearly about a family owned small business and a female entrepreneur. Sounds like you have some personal issues to work out.

Do other cultures get so worked up about cartoons or women and their sexuality? Oh, right.....