I’m not triggered man calm down, you act like me asking you a question is out of line? You’re in here saying Lonnie is the most uninspired coders. Then you say you don’t have a horse in this race so what does that mean? You have no interest in this pin? So I asked a simple question? Why are you in a bond hype thread if you’re going to be Debbie downer?

It’s not him alone anymore. Mike V is a big part of the equation and I can’t think of a Gomez game that didn’t ultimately knock it out of the park.

The Lonnie knock, ancient history. Talking about today

I have interest in the pin due to the theme. It's a wait and see and play it first due to the coder being a wild card due to past experiences. Theme would be an insta buy for me but I'm bummed out by the coder selection. Is there another Bond thread that isn't a safe space towards negative opinions that I should be posting in instead?

I was burned so hard by kiss. Hard to get over that.

Well thanks for the update. Sorry I didn’t read your mind. I’ll do a better job next time of interpreting your comments! Sir yes sir lol

I appreciate that. We can always strive to do better. Continuous improvement!

I’m pumped for the theme too! Yeah I have some concerns about code but I’m trying to remain optimistic. Glad we got on the same page

You can come check mine out first if you want. Unboxing at the house with Tim and Brian when it ships!

This just shows how different we all are and how our taste can change. My wife and I are great fans of Lonnie code now. Not so much a few years ago.

I'm in. I'll drop off this electro dart machine I can't get working while I'm at it.

I used to feel the same way about Dwight with GB and Munsters

Thankfully Stern is taking a team approach these days now that they can afford the additional help.

My main issue with Lonnie is he's proven to be Mr. "good enough." He rarely (ever?) goes the extra mile with the games he works on. He also thinks Rolling Stones is the best music pin Stern has made, which should make you question his taste.

I’d say STH is pretty damn good. I’ll go with the recency bias

I thought you had it going! Booo!

Yes me too. I like STh code and it is similar to AFM. That should work on Bond well too. Close out each lane of inserts will mean you are collecting each Bond girl, Villain, Henchman and weapon. I’ll be happy doing those. Then there’s a bunch of other code and Insider code to explore too I don’t think Lonnie could f* this title up and am counting on him to do a swell job. Pin should find a resting place in the top 50 spot or better. Stern needs to start building some Bond pins now, please.

Speaking of Bond, I hope everyone enjoyed watching Bond films in October I watched them all 2-3 times. I’ve concluded the five Craig films make the best Bond. If you agree, then you’ll probably enjoy watching The King’s Man. The lead is Albert Fiennes and this movie is like the Scottish version of a James Bond movie. Set around WWI this film is similar highest quality to the Craig Bond films. I can’t say enough about it other than noting it was a fresh surprise to discover.

Craig Bonds are my least favorite as a group. Other than Casino, I thought they were just okay. It’s almost like they were trying to rewrite his back story. Which I felt wasn’t needed for this character. Hated the fact that they killed him in the last one. To be honest there are some bad ones with every actor. Die Another Day comes to mind. Ice castle, laser from space, invisible car….lol

He...dies?

I know right

Haha. It's kind of a running joke in our family. When my son was about ten we were in line waiting to see the King Kong remake and ended up next to one of his...slower schoolmates in line. Chatting with the boy's grandparents back and forth, one of the adults offhandedly mentioned about Kong dying at the end, not even considering that ANYONE wouldn't know that since the original was like 70 years old at that point and had widely permeated popular culture.

Right after that was said, cue the sad questioning voice wavering up from the schoolmate, slightly whining..."he dies?"

We still laugh about it and will randomly say "he dies?" in awkward situations sometimes.

Ooop…Sorry my bad.

I agree... I had my problems with Lonnie years back, but he's really hit his stride again last couple of games.

I think iJ4 is the poster child. There was so much anticipation, too bad the game and code ended up being such duds, IMO.

Had my first peek at one this evening.Now I am ready for Thursday, set up day!!! And a bit of music on Friday.

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Hey guys, just passing along more of my shipping info to the forum! Got another email this morning from Dominic at The Pinball Company. He got a production update from Stern saying first run 007 Premium (which I'm in for) is now scheduled for January 2023. Originally they had said there was a chance for late December. Has anyone else gotten any order updates lately from their distributors?

Only heard that the lucky few home users that made this first run "mostly locations only" Pro cut should be getting their Pro within ~2 weeks. Seems weird that they would block out 6 weeks for LEs when they only need 2 at full speed to build all 1000. I feel like at least some Prems will still be shipping in Dec.

Thanks for the heads up!

My distro said possibly Dec.depending on how many units there got at the end of the month!! If not, then by April

Personally I'm hoping for a 2023 date for my Premium. I won't have the money until after the first of the year. If it comes before that I will pass it down the line and wait for another run or move my deposit to Iron Maiden or Dead Pool. Really want Bond though.

Any word yet on shipping for the 2nd batch of Premiums?

Walther ppk .380 gunshot for replay or knocker sound.

Pros soon. Le early dec. Pro again early jan then premium February

Well they have to crank out home pins too you know.........and a final gasp of any expiring licenses games with parts laying around.

But at 500/wk full steam, that's 2000 pins that could be made in that time. That's A LOT.

I'm just happy they are on the line. Cactus has been on hold for a year now

LEs will only be on one line.

You sure?? thought it was early run Pro's , LE's, Prem's and then another run of Pro's?
Distro over here is reflecting that also with the main run of Pro's being delivered after Premiums.

I heard first batch premium still December but this may not be the case for all distros. I’m sure allotment varies.

Perfect for in -home, maybe not for an arcade !

With 70% of games going to HUO , home should take priority these days .

So I was going to buy a Bond Pro day of my distro's announcement, until I heard it wouldn't be shipping until Q2-2023 and Lonnie was lead on code. I personally NEED to see how this now develops before I even consider it (and I love the Connery Bonds). The biggest underlying issue with Lonnie games like AS, Kiss, and GOTG all feel like the same game, and not in a good way. Before you plunge Ball 1 in any of those games you select a mode without even having to qualify it. The modes all feel uninspired - this mode has 5 red shots, this mode has 3 yellow shots, this mode has 4 blue shots... etc. Then there's a 2-ball MB, and 3-ball MB. Beat like 8 modes to get to the end.

The choice of what you have to shoot in a mode, the number of shots, and the colors lit are all grab bag. Compare that with another music pin like ACDC and each song/mode has a part of the PF tied to it (Hell's Bell, T-N-T targets, Rock and Roll Train ramp, For Those About to Rock cannon...etc.). There's actual tie-in to the theme, even where there's really not a lot of "source material" or imagery for ACDC to begin with. Meanwhile in AS/Kiss/GOTG, it's a generic pinball game with artwork over it. No code is tied into the theme and could be copied and pasted into a thousand other themes.

We get to STH and we have some improvements (more modes, more varied mystery awards...etc.), but we saw some things which reminded us this wasn't a Lyman game. The generic flat 1M jackpot in TK MB with boring screen image, imbalanced scoring at times, many modes are again random shots/colors.

Though it's a super fun shooter, many players feel like STH it's one or two steps short of something magical... which I guess is now the ceiling to expect? When we see the foundation of STH's code being used in Bond, it certainly is concerning because all the things that are supposed to be going into it will probably either A) take forever to get working correctly and will require additional/team help to get there, or B) underwhelm.

And this is what the Game exchange is talking about. People put it in order for a game but they don't have the money for it yet and then the distributors going to have to jump through hoops to get it figured out.

I understand what you are talking about, and that's what makes AC/DC one of the best games ever.

However, the integration issues on the other machines is not the programmers fault. It's more of a fundamental design issue with the use of the IP and integration into the physical nature of the machine.

Lonnie can get blamed for slow code releases, but ultimately Gomez designed the machine and how it will play. So it is up to him as to whether it reaches AC/DC levels of integration.

If it comes down to it I'll make it happen. I understand the issue. I will certainly have a discussion with them before I just bail on it. Money in hand or not. It's hard to say "no" when you get the call. Desire outweighs common sense.

I think you have some interesting points.

I think Bond will feel more like ACDC due to how the playfield is theme integrated in a similar way. There is the Thunderball scoop area and jetpack on the premium, the Dr No pop area/dragon, the Diamonds are Forever spinner, Bird One from You Only Live Twice, etc... All the movies are represented in various areas of the playfield visually and/or mechanically.

Stranger Things is a riff on AFM with minimal theme integration on the playfield itself. The bash toy is the main theme integration, along with the TK lock on the premium. (The rest of the theme integration is the projector on the premium doing light shows, and the aftermarket upside down light effect). So yeah, the shooting the flashing light rules don't feel very integrated with the playfield. The integration is mostly on the LCD.

Stranger Things feels like it could have basically been anything. This layout looks much more tailored to the theme. So I think it has a much better jumping off point for a well integrated ruleset.

Locations get priority so that more people can play the game sooner and buy the HUO runs later, basic marketing that actually makes sense for Stern and the business model they have.

Got the shooter. just waiting for the LE to ship

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I simply don't understand people buying pinball machines or any luxury item based on their next pay cycle.

If you're living paycheck to paycheck or something like that, you may want to reevaluate your entire lifestyle.

For me it's not pay cycle. It's budget and planning. I have used my pinball budget for 2022. I placed a deposit on Bond based on the assumption it would come next year due to the various bits of information. I said that if it comes down to it I can pay for it this year and will if needed. I guess I finally managed to offend a bunch of folks and for that I apologize. I won't offend my distro.

That's a good explanation and I wasn't offended by your earlier comment.
I didn't reply directly to you or anyone and my comment was in general. But I can see how you made that connection.

Carry on my friend.

I bet over 50% of United States lives paycheck to paycheck.
The government hand out at $ 600 a week during covid did not help either.