So excited!always wanted.

I'd like to be on the list for this one.

Beautiful

How funny would it be if when people open the box it’s a 3D sculpted pixelated monkey?!?!

I don't even have WoZ yet, but I'm thinking of buying this to in preparation of when I finally get a WoZ.

Following.

You will sell bunches!

Oh hell yeah ! Fly…… fly………

Following. May be interested since I missed out on the other previous monkey from Steve

A lot of us missed out ! Thanks for making your own version of the monkey so we can get flying for less than a grand!

Oh man! Priced out again?

It has to comparable to Steve’s mod or I’m out as well

Anyone spending 1k on a little toy monkey that flaps its wings needs a reality check lol. No wonder stern ups the price each release for a laugh lol.

Exactly! So what price range are we thinking here? How much was Steve’s, like $250 or so?

Excited to see this. Thanks for continuing to make mods for games I love.

I’m all excited. If I can get one then great but at the very least I get to see the product of people who put their time into making a great mod…something I wish I had time to do.

Thanks for making a new mod for WOZ, it’s a beautiful machine.

What for?

Steve stopped making flying monkeys a long time ago, and does not call the shots in perpetuity on who is allowed to make other versions.

It's a free market. Glad to see these being offered to others.

I want one of these if you put together a preorder list , Put me at the top. For those crying and moaning , move on There is plenty of other threads to cry on, this one is for those who missed on the last monkey mod and want this one.

I’m definitely in

Can’t say I’m in until I see the final product, and the price. Until then, I’m just interested.

My personal opinion as a mod maker is that nobody really owns general ideas. A lot of games come with lame plastic that could use an upgrade. More than one person might take a stab at that.

If you're directly stealing from someone else's design, like just straight up copying them, that's not great. If you're trying to undercut someone who's making a mod it's gonna be the kind of thing that might feel fine (free market!) or shady depending on how it's done and who you ask. (There are a lot of Godzilla UFO pop bumper and bridge upgrades for instance, nobody really can say they 'own' those concepts, right?)

A lot of us that make mods only do something for a bit before moving on. We get burned out or whatever else. If you leave a vacuum behind when you finish someone else should be able to fill it. Again, provided they're not just outright stealing what you did for a quick buck. I'd have zero problem calling that out.

Seems to me Steve is done, this is (I assume) a new version with an original design, and that's cool. Unless it's revealed and feels like a ripoff I think there's no reason to have pitchforks out.

There are multiple takes on the VUK building in AFM and, like Aurich said, UFOs on GZ. The only thing I worry about….like any other consumer…what the price is going to be. It seems that folks are curtailing only to rich people and it cuts a lot of people out who enjoy this hobby. I hope it’s not as expensive as Steve’s but, then again, it’s not up to me. They put the work into it and they know what’s fair price is.

This is a free market and I hope this is a situation where someone came in, made something comparable with the same or better quality for less.

It’s going to be expensive. The guy has already made a hype video for it.

Yep. When he directly mentioned the $2k mando topper, it’s obvious he thinks this is worth a ton, so again, I wouldn’t pay $2k for a topper, so I won’t over pay for this. It’s simply a wait and see. My Woz will still be just as fun with or without it.

I'm about to announce a new mod that's quite a bit more expensive than anything I've ever done before. It's also more complicated than anything I've attempted before, in terms of design, materials, and assembly. I think it's neat, see what other people think.

You're right, to a certain extent it's going to be only for collectors willing to pay for such a thing, assuming they find it worth it. But it's not like I'm trying to purposefully block anyone from being able to buy it or be a gatekeeper. As you said, the work you put in ideally sets the price.

The upside—to me at least—of the mod market being a little hot and ridiculous is it means I can attempt something ambitious. If I couldn't charge a lot for this project I'd have to abandon making it, or maybe just do a one-off for myself. It's all just too much work to do for cheap, I'd burn out. And if it bombs because it's too much then so be, it's my own time I've wasted, won't be the first or last time for that!

Not trying to hijack someone else'e thread, and I'm not making something for WOZ. But I do think the silver lining to the heated up prices is it does open the door for people who do want to try something beyond the usual. And it's ultimately up to the buyers and the market to decide if they think the effort was worth it.

$400+ for sure imo. Expensive. But prove me wrong ; )

Well, I'll keep an eye on the thread. I think its great that WOZ still inspires. I had a WOZ RR since they came out (it was my first new pin) and I never had the courage to mod it until this year so I missed out on a lot of good mods but from what I gather, they were very expensive even back then.

So yeah, I didn't realize when I wrote that, this dude already has a history of stealing Steve's design, tried to clone his Wicked Witch. So true to my word I’m calling it out. Read this thread before you choose to buy and decide for yourself:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/wizard-of-oz-woz-flaming-witch-with-realistic-fire-mod-development

Pretty classy move to try and steal his Wicked Witch idea and then what? Wait until everyone forgot before going back to that well? There’s a whole world of things to make and you picked something else from the guy you already tried to steal from? As was wisely said in the last thread you tried this on:

Support original mod makers, don’t buy from people who rip them off.

I'm confused, I thought you were OK with it. For the purpose of a philosophical discussion here, if a person creates a mod, makes very few of them (or not enough to meet demand) then somebody comes in and continues making them, is that wrong?

Going further down the rabbit hole...are people making mods getting license agreements? Who's ripping off who?

This is a hobby with people making fan art. If anyone is going to be upset about copy cats stealing their ideas then I would question whether or not original artist is making money off of someone else's creation...in this case, flying monkeys wearing a vest and a fez. (writing that last part made me laugh a little).

In this court of opinion, I have to side with Pinball Mod Co.
Never bought from them but this wont stop me....unless Steve makes another run, competitively priced.

This one is obviously powered with what looks like lit eyes maybe and wings powered, or on springs. It’s similar, but probably a bit more entailed with power. Yeah, I remember the witch controversy, and I didn’t like it. That said however, if this is different, and Steve is no longer offering monkeys, then I see no problem with something else being offered similar or not. A flying monkey can only accurate one way, so I would expect design to be similar.

Also classy to go negative in this thread.

Steve limits his products so they were never available to everyone who may have wanted one. Right now, this is the only product available.

Being first doesn't mean exclusive rights. Making something that can't be copied would be better. And making something better would also be better.

Competition benefits consumers.

I bought Steves witch mod and did not even own a WoZ at the time. A year later, after not being able to afford a WoZ, I gave it to a friend for his WoZ. Fantastic mod. A short time later, things got better and finally got my own WoZ, but could no longer obtain one of Steves. so bought one from Pinball Mod Co. Great mod and I enjoy my game all the more because of it. Missed out on Steve’s monkey, but always wanted one. Those are impossible to find. Now I might be able to enjoy a monkey mod thanks to OP. If Steve had made more monkeys, would have bought one. i do not understand the criticism. This is a hobby with a long history based on modifying and expanding on others designs and ideas. Thank you Steve for your fantastic mods, but also thank anyone who takes a great idea and makes it better(?) we will see, or at least available so I can enjoy my games more.

Yea, but I get what Aurich is saying. I remember back to the Witch Mod and how all of that was happening as Steve was putting Witches out. There was no doubt it was an outright idea rip-off. One can argue both sides if this monkey is a copy or not, and I guess the final product will tell, but there was no doubt he was trying to piggy-back on Steve's success the first time, and I am sure the same is happening here at some level. I have the original monkey in my RR, and I have a witch 2.0 sitting here in a box because I have been too lazy to replace the witch 1.0.....so having said all of that, I can tell you from experience Steve's creations were all limited works of art, and people need to remember that is why he commanded the prices he got....not just because he filled a void. He spent a lot of hours hand painting and putting those mods together, and I don't think he ever intended to mass produce them, which is a lot of what drove the price. It remains to be seen if this mod is a work of art, or a mass-produced copy that someone is just throwing out there as a cash grab from those that felt left out. I have nothing personal against the OP, but I'm betting it is the latter based on history.

I’m confused why people are arguing about a non-existent thing (yet)…

Its not so much the thing as it is the philosophical debate about artist rights, capitalism and the hobby as a whole.

and so to continue the debate....
I'm still confused about the argument that its a ripoff of Steve's work. The same argument people saying how OP is ripping off Steve's "artwork" should see that, technically, Steve's artwork is a ripoff of another persons costumed monkey (the original art designer for the movie). It's not like Steve was selling a monkey in a tuxedo, its clearly a representation of the movie character and not his own concept of what he images it looks like when reading the book...which, by the way, does not describe the winged monkeys as being clothed.

It would be so great for the hobby if the OP would use his talents to come up with new ideas instead of just copying someone else's work.

We really need less rip-offs and more new ideas.

Yeah, but we also still need more flying monkeys and the market will determine demand

My problem with this whole thing is Steve makes a witch, then you make a witch. Steve makes a crystal ball, then you make a crystal ball. Steve makes a monkey, then you make a monkey. Did you used to date him? When's the Iron Maiden mod coming?

LOL, does his wife look like Steve's wife?