There has been at least one :0. It was shockingly tasteful.

Received an uninitiated refund and that first e-mail to the VIPs. This just hit my inbox as the 2nd official communication. Enjoy.

"
Dear VIPs,

We want to reach out to you about the current situation involving the rumours on Pinside. We are aware of the thread and the worries over Dutch Pinball and The Big Lebowski project. It really hurts us that you are involved in this situation, which is something that should be settled in a professional, business manner. Unfortunately, we had no control over our customers being involved and we regret what is happening now. We want to assure you that we are very busy handling this situation privately and in the best possible way without discrediting anyone. As soon as we can share more information publicly, we will do so.

We know there has also been some recent speculation regarding the status of our very exciting pinball project and want to assure everyone that everything is under control without any problems. To that end, we have brought in Roger Sharpe, acclaimed licensing and marketing expert, to help us as we continue with our final approval process. Roger has extensive experience having worked on all of the Williams and Bally pinball licensing for over 12 1/2 years and his personal relationships with all of the movie studios ensures that we are right on target to bring everyone the best possible pinball product. Our apologies for any concerns that had been raised but know we are still on course and will continue to meet our deadlines and promises.

Please keep in mind that we are the guys that brought three awesome prototypes to Expo in October and to Modern Pinball NYC last weekend. We wouldn't been doing that if we had any bad intentions or wanted to defraud anyone. The only reason this is happening now is because of something that shouldn't be discussed publicly.

Again, we want to make an awesome game - and with this going on, we are even more motivated to do so.

We will answer all of your emails in the next couple of days/weeks, but we first need to deal with this situation and keep our focus on getting you your games.

Team Dutch Pinball
?

Way down hill after post like #1250. I read up to there, and a bit past, with great interest and learned quite a lot as a Pinside newbie. The last handful of posts seem to be from parties with more at stake in this than a pre-order/TBL machine.... not helpful imo.

To the OP - keep yo money or git it back if you repaid. Unless you're o.k. with the risk of losing what you have into it and not receiving a game. It's freaking Big Lebowski... I'm keeping my uninitiated refund and Pinballing it elsewhere but omg do I recognize that if I see one of these things in the States in person working in the next 10 years I'm going to feel the urge to offer $15k+ for it.

Lost count of how many times I've seen and quoted and loved the movie. I stopped bowling when I got Pinballs but my word do I make a killer White Russian. TBL was gonna be my first NIB too. Since I've pulled out and gone with another NIB...... I recognize I'll be left with that regret for the rest of my life if TBL ever hits the States.

IMO there is no reason to continue rehashing the DP / Phil / Barry details and speculations to answer the original question. It's now simply a personal choice based on one's own risk tolerance and affinity for a LANDMARK machine that could possibly (read, may not) ever exist.

DP as an entity has more at stake than any of us pre-order holders or abandoners. Speculation on past/current/future 'truths' that we will never know the answer too is largely irrelevant to the purchase decision at this point.