As a perpetual pre-order critic (with mostly good reason), Id have to say this was a pretty strong update.

LOVE that they didn't pussy-foot around the issue of refunds....

Good stuff.

The pot leaf is gone. Not much else I can see. Haven't thoroughly gone over it yet though.

Ah so it looks like that the last delay is that PayPal froze the account until shit is sorted.

New thread time?

quick look but gun and pot leaf are removed

I'm glad that the playfield, artwork, music, licenses, etc. are approved...however...

"All official paperwork has been submitted to the IRS and our Paypal partners and we expect to hear from them again any day now. As soon as we have authorization we will be sending out more information regarding the refund process. We take this very seriously and looking forward to resolving the last couple of issues that are outstanding."

Where the fuck was our email stating "we are working on the official paperwork to submit to the IRS and our Paypal partners and will be sending that information out soon"? Why would you just not say anything about that to help quell customers fears?

DP is terrible at communication. Here, we won't talk to you for two months, but then we'll send you a flashy newsletter that says "we've been working on it, but there is still work to be done".

What a joke. I said they were probably just going to send an email saying "we're working on it" and I really wasn't that far off. There is no way it took them two months to find an accountant and fill out some forms, so what the fuck were they doing the rest of the time?

BOOM!

Thanks for the update Barry, Jaap and Team!

Nice looking Playfied.

I am proud to say I'm an Achiever!

Days like this make me Happy I have stayed in. Q2 delivery still on track!

Interesting, with the apparent resurgence in the drug across the US.. Not bad though, if those are the only big changes..!

Not everything is black and white.
Maybe they had to file claim with paypal, paypal had to get Phils side of the story, maybe it had to go to some financial review and so on, these things take time.

I've filed paypal claims, done extensive back and forth on disputes and things. Two weeks tops to deal with paypal (even taking into account Phil's health and his inability to get right back to them). I can see a month, maybe, but even that's a stretch.

Haters gonna hate, waiters gonna wait.

It's positive news at least and I think everything is gonna be alright. I still am SO excited to hopefully have this pinball and really hope it does happen and is as great as it appears it can be.

Go DP!

I know it's not over yet, but when DP start manufacture & shipping in Q2 will this not be the shortest amount of time before a "pre-order" pin has been made? About 1yr from asking for deposit to get your game!?

JJP certainly had my$2000 deposit for years. And $6000 for the last 6 months.

Pre-ordering is not for the faint hearted, but I've got to say that in my option some only get in on pre orders for the possible return it will have in the future or just to say 'yeah I'm in on that' but when it comes to putting down a substantial amount of deposit or settle the amount people bail.

Some say it's due to delays, some say it's bad business, I say it's those who are time wasters!

Spot the difference anyone:

Pre approved playfield.jpg

3e428cc9-1a38-488f-a8fc-910cc8830366.jpg

+1
It looks like TBL will be some serious competition to Stern and JJP with the build quality, game play and toy innovation.

I will be a DP customer second time round.

Pot leaf is gone. This makes me very sad actually. Sucks some of the character out of the game, sorry the license had to wuss out like that.

No more gun. Too bad, but oh well.

The character inserts have lost the attempts to filter them to feel more in line with the playfield art and are now just straight up photos. They look pretty awful unfortunately, but that's obviously something where the license process tied their hands.

Obviously the coffee liqueur part. We can't see things like the spinners to know if Time is still on there.

Without looking at the old design that's all that jumps out at me right now.

Still think the art kicks ass, just feels a little bit like seeing a rad concept car, and then the production model takes out some of the parts you really loved because they didn't mean some standard and had to be watered down.

None of it would be a deal breaker for me if I was still in though, and I'm looking forward to seeing it fully populated again.

easy : )

PF.gif

Looks like they added the nihilists just below the standups to the rug.

Crowbar and briefcase are switched.

Cassette was replaced with the phone.

Edit: ^^^NICELY DONE!

Regarding the time spinners, they did say that they got all of the licensors except for Kahlua. Hopefully those time spinners made it!

not to mention the modders will have an easy go! Bring on the revolver and cue the cannabis leaves!

You did good dude!

The pot leaf is replaced by the Dude's cell-phone... which personally I think is more appropriate since I don't remember seeing a pot leaf in the film at all... but I do remember seeing the Dude's cell-phone quite a lot... so I think this ties it to the film better...

Swapping the gun for the briefcase is no great loss from my viewpoint... Both play memorable roles in the film... Ah, just realised the briefcase was in the original design... Looks like the gun is replaced by Walter's sun glasses and the 'kids homework'...

It's nice to see that the 'coffee liqueur' bottle is the spitting image of a Kahlua bottle... they seem to have gotten it as close as they can get away with on that one

Shhhhhhh. Don't tell Phil.

also like the girls facing forward in top left! actually looks better IMHO Aurich, don't see much change in characters faces........can you explain i'm no artsy kinda person.

Ok it took me a second to get the nihilist faces.. I thought I they all had masks on (which they never did in movie) .. And then I realized clear inserts I guess that's ok, I would of preferred real faces but like the pinhead girl (hand drawn).

Wonder why the dog-tag is bigger on the right drain... I guess they added the design teams names in it so it had to be a bit bigger so you could actually read it...

Dude, from the bottom of my heart, I hope you get your refund first. I really do.

looks like they changed the rug too.

You're kidding right?

I can't even remember now what was on the playfield at Expo. My memory is that they tried to filter the faces a bit like the translite, to make them feel less like photos. But I could be off. Either way they're what they are, obviously the license said "don't F with the photos of the actors dudes" and they had no choice. So it goes, not a huge deal.

Really I still think it all looks great. I don't mean to be negative. I praised the art once and I still feel like they did a killer job.

It's just the risk of showing things early, before approvals. You get attached to ideas that change later.

Good news.

BUT

The refunds are never coming. They don't have the money. Jjst as I predicted, they are going to drag this out.

I want to see official documentation concerning PayPal. This is BS!!!!!!!!!!

Slow down there chicken little. Back away from the keyboard.

Email Barry privately in a week and ask for an update, I'm sure you'll get one.

Or you could just bitch about it here. That works too.

Agree 100%. This still bugs me, but I'll deal with it. It screams Stern in early-2000. I would love to update these character inserts with hand-drawn art like the rest of the playfield.
DP.jpg

I get the concern and I'm not really going to knock anyone for going chicken little and the sky is falling on DP and this situation. But do you really think they would be continuing license approvals, hiring new people to handle the situations and keep dumping more money in if they knew that they were done and heading bankrupt. Doesn't seem too likely a scenario.

Were you expecting deposit refund info to be part of a PR reveal? I would be furious if they sat on refund info and saved it up for another one of their occasional PR blasts. A "new shit newsletter" is not the appropriate forum for handling an issue like these refunds.

I want my refund as bad as anybody, and I'm incredibly impatient by nature. But even I wasn't anticipating and refund info in this newsletter. When they finally have an answer for us, they had better not dress it up with Lebowski jokes....they should just get straight to refunding and get this out of the way.

Also no pot leaf lol...sorry that's weak.

Jeff and Don joined the team of Dutch Pinball USA, Inc. to help us in the transition of the company. All official paperwork has been submitted to the IRS and our Paypal partners and we expect to hear from them again any day now. As soon as we have authorization we will be sending out more information regarding the refund process. We take this very seriously and looking forward to resolving the last couple of issues that are outstanding.

It clearly states any day soon. They can and will only reveal info when it is done and official. As stated in above post DP is putting money in not only hiring US people but also setting up a production line. If you see bankruptcy coming, why do this?

Yep, perhaps communication has room for improvement in the past but in my book this is a solid good update good for giving DP breathing space

They swapped stuff around to replace the pot leaf and gun

They moved the cassette tape on the left side from above the toliet to below to replace the pot leaf.. and put a cell phone in it's place

They moved the crowbar up to where the briefcase was, and moved the briefcase to where the gun was. They filled the crowbar hole with some white paper(?).

The kahlua insert

They added new art in front of the stationary targets to each side of the rug

They changed the girl's art on the left orbit and got rid of the fork going between her legs

I'm not sure why they highlighted the right sling? don't see much different there

Excellent!!

The white paper appears to be Larry's homework

Makes sense that if they are going to remove the gun they'd remove the pot leaf as well.

Sad. Pinball used to say screw political correctness. Not these days.

Here are some close-ups of the pre-production areas that have been changed. I haven't seen the game in-person but the faces don't look that much different to me.

kmpegdzse9juzaqkvyiv.jpg

big-lebowski-pinball-2.jpg

big-lebowski-pinball-5 (1).jpg

x22a.jpg

Yeah I think people are imagining the people's faces being different? The rendering we have today is from solid works or something vs real game has inserts behind / back lit that I think change the visual?

There absolutely needs to be a mode that reveals the jackie treehorn doodle as you progress or something.

Want to bet?

Perhaps the 'old' faces look difference because they're lit and you're seeing the texture of the inserts that they're screened on?

Ozno...this is Don. Please pm me your information, I will personally handle your refund request when we are authorized to do so. In your PM please supply me with your Name and order number.

Looks like they also worked on the bottom and inlane/outlane inserts. The white lettering is now outlined in black.

aeonblack and ozno, I truly hope you were in before machine 200

So you are this Don I assume:

"Don brings 25 years of experience in risk management and policy holder retention. In the service industry, customer service is the trade. Don has a no-nonsense approach to customer service and operations. Being a Pinhead since the age of 14, he is excited to join the Dutch Pinball team."

lol, I can practically walk over now and ask how its going : )

I was wondering this too. But I agree with Aurich that based on the pics alone, the character photos stand out more now from the hand-drawn art than they did in the original playfield design. Bummer, but that's the deal when you work under a license.

Removal of the pot leaf is no biggie to me and probably even an aesthetic improvement. A smoldering joint would have made much more sense (and would be missed). The stylized pot leaf has more of a late 70s feel to me, and The Dude definitely still has one foot in 1969. It's an iconic image, but just doesn't quite work with The Dude's character (he's a fan of the stuff, but it's not like he would ever wear a pot leaf t-shirt). Now if we were talking about a Dazed and Confused pin, you'd need that leaf!

Swapping the gun for the crowbar next to Larry's car seems like an improvement to me -- a useful visual cue to remind you why the car is on the playfield at all.

And I agree that the dream-sequence bowling ladies look better now.

This already looks like a very positive development on the PR/communications front.