This topic is closed.
I just came across what looks like an Avengers Pinball game that can be produced for US $180 - 999 new at 300 units/month by a company in China. This could potentially ruin the pinball industry in the US and UK. Has anyone come across a machine that might have originated from China?
http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Electric-hot-sale-pinball-Pinball-machine_1758522638.html
Quoted from Carl_694:I six order now. We business do much. Me Love you long time.
Best chit ever! I me want to one now to. you thanks you me. please thansyou 
Instruction:
1: This machine belongs to pinball-type entertainment machine kind of pure natural odds, fair and equitable, challenging and strong.
Classic!!!!
maybe it is the ausie guys new company "thunderbirds" a little bit of competition never hurt.
but to have them pass UL listing will raise the price a bit. i don't think they will like the hot snot that the machine is held together with.
From the FAQ's:
"7.If your company can provide interpreter for us?
Our company will provide the English interpreter for free, as for the rare language we will help customer to seek an interpreter company with favorable price and good services."
Hopefully they won't provide the interpreter who worked on the website!
Quoted from CNKay:maybe it is the ausie guys new company "thunderbirds" a little bit of competition never hurt.
but to have them pass UL listing will raise the price a bit. i don't think they will like the hot snot that the machine is held together with.
Why would they try to pass the UL Listing? Couldn't they just counterfeit it?
Quoted from Carl_694:I six order now. We business do much. Me Love you long time.
Totally.....awesome....post
Oh ya Vonnid D oh ummn VD ummn Vanniue D oh I no KnOw wait cut n paste below - ; (oh u no c that)
Vonnie D Pinball "Gram"Ilins! It's for real come get some! We quote you n ship u n 2 qtr 2015 MO via Chiana oh China,
Quoted from dasvis:My mom only lets me spend $5.00
in the context of the topic.
"FIE DOLLAR FIE DOLLAR !!"
anyway thanks for posting, that is some funny sh1t right there.
"With many years manufacturing and exporting experience we have gained rich experience for malfunction of machine.,we can put an end to these malfunction.If there is any problem our technicians will handle you a solution in details,insert related instruction photos,make you clearly! "
Quoted from Carl_694:I six order now. We business do much. Me Love you long time.
Well hey there little school girl! I'm a little school boy too!
Had to jump on the FMJ quote bandwagon. Not the one I wanted to use but the good ones I could think of from that scene that wouldn't result in a ban were taken.
But in the companies defence, look at all the cool features!
Instruction:
1: This machine belongs to pinball-type entertainment machine kind of pure natural odds, fair and equitable, challenging and strong.
2: test your eye-hand-one capability that your eyesight and hand strength.
3: The machine Total 5 balls, 20 holes, each hole has at least two patterns and a word or number that increases your winning category
And the chance of winning.
4: The machine play: Pull the lever on the right hand side, the ball pops the ball into the hole to the following handicap, this hole will automatically lights
The host will be a corresponding panel showed a pattern corresponding to the ball and figures.
5: first bet you want to challenge the score, according to press the Start button to begin your game starts, the machine will send out 2-6 lights from time to time, increasing
Increase your chance of winning.
6: As long as you have the opportunity to win, to cool the machine will light to show the holes, prompting you just rolled the ball into the hole, you can hit the jackpot.
From my experience my guess is it would go down like this:
You contact Fifi and she would tell you that they have exactly what you want. You tell them you are looking for a reliable suppler and you need a sample of the product that they have pictured. Fifi will tell you it is exactly as pictured and exactly what you are looking for. They will send you a sample for free but it will cost you $527.37 for shipping. You agree and they give you a "tracking" number right away. About a week later you decide to check on the tracking number and see it was a package shipped to France. You contact them about this and they assure you it was a mistake (with the shipping company). They gave you the wrong tracking number. They give you a new tracking number and you see it hasn't even shipped yet. Then you get an e-mail the next day saying it has shipped. Then you get 2 or 3 e-mails per day asking if it has arrived yet (even though they have the tracking information just as you do). The you get a call at 3am from Fifi asking why you haven't replied to the e-mail she sent 5 minutes earlier. You politely tell her to STFU and you will get back with an e-mail, because you can not understand her well on the phone. You read Fifi's e-mail and she says she really hopes you like the sample and wants your skype name so you can talk...not business...just as friends. You finally receive the sample and it is a cheaply made 5 foot long electric car instead of a pinball machine. You contact Fifi and tell her you got a car instead of a pinball machine. She tells you it was a mixup with the factory and she can make it right on the next one or with your first order from her company. She really has exactly what you want. You polity tell her to stuff it and it hurts her feelings and she pretends to cry in the e-mail and assures you her business is a good one. Number 1 in Chine and has been in business since 492AD. Then you say goodbye Fifi and are out $527.37 and only have a 5ft electric car that doesn't work and amazingly for its size looks like it probably only cost $14.97 to build.
So I would only recommend contacting Fifi if you want an e-mail pen pal or a skype friend from the far east.
Quoted from Darcy:The description of the product does not match the photo.
The description is of a gambling machine which is not legal in the USA.
I've been to China twice, I have a chinese wife. They do some some strange things there. Some is legit, some shady. There are very good products and really shitty products. I've also seen shipping labels with diferent items listed than the actual parts that have been shipped. For ease of customs i would think. Last year i ordered a very expensive ultra sonic welder for plastics for my company. Bought it from a very well known american company, Branson, top of the line. The new welder was dropped shipped to me directly from China. No big deal, it was a very good machine in every way and still is. I looked at the shipping docs and it said there were toys inside the crate. Thought that was funny and strange and even showed Branson the docs.
I have traveled all over Asia and China, always looked, never saw a pinball machine anywhere except there is one place in Hong Kong that has a few. Newer sterns. So I would guess that is where they got ahold of one if its real at all. I read something one time that bally/williams had a policy to not sell or ship to asia for this very reason. Not sure the truth but makes sence.
Edit, the wifes looking into it, see it its a real company. She's from near that city
If you look at the picture near the bottom of the page you will see what the machines actually are. More like the old bingo machines than a pinball machine. Pull the shooter and the ball bounces in to a hole to score points.
It wouldn't Surprise me 1 bit ,, USA sends Our American raised Chicken meat to China , then they sQueeze the Schitt out of it and use that mess to produce some Shapely lOOk-n nugget that Our kid's R eating in School's , McD's etc .. ( i know its made of Schitt , but it Sure tastes gOod )
So , an American Stern lOok-a-like Pinball made N China ,, Yea I can C it happening ...
Pin-Pimp , does yr wife have a sister here N the States , I hear the Chinese women R Very Loyal 2 their spouse's .. I Love Chinese food , so I believe that Would b a gOOd Start for a relationship . 
I am out as the instruction set really confuses me.... lul
Instruction:
1: This machine belongs to pinball-type entertainment machine kind of pure natural odds, fair and equitable, challenging and strong.
2: test your eye-hand-one capability that your eyesight and hand strength.
3: The machine Total 5 balls, 20 holes, each hole has at least two patterns and a word or number that increases your winning category
And the chance of winning.
4: The machine play: Pull the lever on the right hand side, the ball pops the ball into the hole to the following handicap, this hole will automatically lights
The host will be a corresponding panel showed a pattern corresponding to the ball and figures.
5: first bet you want to challenge the score, according to press the Start button to begin your game starts, the machine will send out 2-6 lights from time to time, increasing
Increase your chance of winning.
6: As long as you have the opportunity to win, to cool the machine will light to show the holes, prompting you just rolled the ball into the hole, you can hit the jackpot.
So Stern is not the only manufacturer of real pinball machines??? WH WHAT?? 
I am guessing by description that you would be getting that modern bingo looking machine pictured.
Setbola or 5 Etbola whatever it says. 20 holes 2 to 6 lights. it looks to be a 16 hole bingo with 6 lights up by jackpot real on the header.... hmm. Yeah again I am out.
Quoted from BLACK_ROSE:It wouldn't Surprise me 1 bit ,, USA sends Our American raised Chicken meat to China , then they sQueeze the Schitt out of it and use that mess to produce some Shapely lOOk-n nugget that Our kid's R eating in School's , McD's etc ..
So , an American Stern lOok-a-like Pinball made N China ,, Yea I can C it happening ...
Pin-Pimp , does yr wife have a sister here N the States , I hear the Chinese women R Very Loyal 2 their spouse's .. I Love Chinese food , so I believe that Would b a gOOd Start for a relationship .
No black rose, they can only have 1 child there so no sisters. Lol, but yes it's true.
She has a single cousin in Kansas city mo. About 30 years old. And yes I have a very good wife, known her for 3 years, married for 1 now. She's only been in the states less than a year.
Quoted from 2RustyBalls:Where do you think all your pinball life and PPS parts come from?
Leds, light bulb's , condoms , toilet paper , tampons etc ,,,, but Not my Marlboro Lt's .. 
Quoted from pin-pimp:I've been to China twice
I get sent there a couple of times a year for work. I love the markets in Shen Zhen. You can buy all sorts of stuff at amazing prices. 128GB micro SD cards for $12 USD, capacitors by the roll for next to nothing. As long as you do not mind your headphones are beats by Dr Drew, you can get those cheap too. Last trip I brought back a few 10W "laser pointers". You can point at stuff on the other side of town.
Quoted from WonkoTSane:I get sent there a couple of times a year for work. I love the markets in Shen Zhen. You can buy all sorts of stuff at amazing prices. 128GB micro SD cards for $12 USD, capacitors by the roll for next to nothing. As long as you do not mind your headphones are beats by Dr Drew, you can get those cheap too. Last trip I brought back a few 10W "laser pointers". You can point at stuff on the other side of town.
Not all that surprising, it doesn't have to get shipped over the ocean, no customs, no distributor or retail markup.
On another note, I took a chinese class in college, and not that I can speak a word of it, but it became immediatly obvious why chinese to English translations are usually so bad. Chinese grammar/sentence structure is super simple, like caveman speak. So when you do a literal translation word for word you get a disaster like that instruction set.
Quoted from QuarterGrabber:But in the companies defence, look at all the cool features!
Instruction:6: As long as you have the opportunity to win, to cool the machine will light to show the holes, prompting you just rolled the ball into the hole, you can hit the jackpot.
That should be on a T shirt. Seriously.
Quoted from CNKay:you guys actually read that ad? WOW!! that is funny.
Engrish is a very amusing language.
Ever since China entered the World trade organization, the U.S has closed 5000 factories per year. They thought back then that the Chinese were incapable of manufacturing quality goods at cheap prices. Today everything from the underwear and t-shirt you wear to computer electronics is manufactured in China. The Chinese manufacturing capability currently surpasses the U.S. To take a pinball machine like Medieval Madness, strip it down, and make exact duplicates is not far fetched. They easily have the capability to do so and at a price point sub $1000. The more labour intensive something is, the greater their advantage. Planetary Pinball could have easily contacted one of these companies instead of C.G. or Stern to take a Williams Pinball machine, copy it and re-release. I think we will see exact copies of the most popular pins coming from China in the near future. Pinball is not exempt from the same economic forces that drove any other manufactured good to China.
Quoted from BLACK_ROSE:Pin-Pimp , does yr wife have a sister here N the States , I hear the Chinese women R Very Loyal 2 their spouse's .. I Love Chinese food , so I believe that Would b a gOOd Start for a relationship .
Dude, had to thumbs down this. Even in jest that's totally disrespectful. 
Harmless stereotyping can balance on a line but when you involve someone that's wrong. Even if it's a positive. (Aka. "Hey black guy, you're good at sports right? I totally know that!)
Quoted from SuperPinball:Ever since China entered the World trade organization, the U.S has closed 5000 factories per year. They thought back then that the Chinese were incapable of manufacturing quality goods at cheap prices. Today everything from the underwear and t-shirt you wear to computer electronics is manufactured in China. The Chinese manufacturing capability currently surpasses the U.S. To take a pinball machine like Medieval Madness, strip it down, and make exact duplicates is not far fetched. They easily have the capability to do so and at a price point sub $1000. The more labour intensive something is, the greater their advantage. Planetary Pinball could have easily contacted one of these companies instead of C.G. or Stern to take a Williams Pinball machine, copy it and re-release. I think we will see exact copies of the most popular pins coming from China in the near future. Pinball is not exempt from the same economic forces that drove any other manufactured good to China.
I seriously doubt you will start seeing knock-off pins anytime soon. There simply is no market for it. I know it happened in the 80s with High Speed, but the pinball/arcade market was an entirely different beast then than what it is now.
Quoted from dsuperbee:I know it happened in the 80s with High Speed, but the pinball/arcade market was an entirely different
Tell me more.
Quoted from DCfoodfreak:Tell me more.
Steve Ritchie has mentioned it several times, that with the huge success of the game that fakes started being built. I do not remember the specifics, sorry.
But as I said the pinball business was in a MUCH better place than where it is now in terms of sales, so I do not think knock offs would be an issue. MAYBE common components (which we already see in terms of chips and such that are used in other items), but with as small of a market new pins are, knockoffs do not make much financial sense.
Quoted from dsuperbee:I seriously doubt you will start seeing knock-off pins anytime soon. There simply is no market for it. I know it happened in the 80s with High Speed, but the pinball/arcade market was an entirely different beast then than what it is now.
Here is a company that will take any design you have and will manufacture the pinball to exact specs. They have the facility and the manpower to crank out these thinks sub $1000. If Medieval Madness Remake LE is going for $8000 US and its virtually sold out in pre release, there is definately demand to release other titles at say $2000. when you factor in other ppl wanting to make a buck as well.
This topic is closed.
Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!
This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/chinese-knock-offs-could-derail-pinball-comeback/page/1 and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.
Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.
Richmond Hill, ON
Madison, WI
Sana'a
Old Colwyn