Kholmes. I personally have no problem with your doing this and your ramp would be best for people who only need the one ramp. The original tool I have for police force has both the inner and outer ramps on it. So when I do my run in 6 months, I will have to reproduce both ramps. Since the inner ramp vastly outsells the outer I will be forced to sell them as a complete set. If I did not do that I would be forced to trash the outer ramps increasing the price of the inner ramp drastically. So if you want to just order the inner ramp and have the know how to transfer the hardware yourself and don't care about decals you would be better off buying Kholmes ramp assuming the quality is there. When I produce my ramp, it will be with thicker plastic, all hardware attached and decals. I'm not upset with competition cause in the end, it is better for the hobby.

It's been pointed out to me that I neglected to let everyone know who I am so I've changed my profile. I'm Larry Rosenthal and I bought the ramp manufacturing business from Pinball Inc. The ramps are now being reproduced under the Starship Fantasy brand, www.starship-fantasy.com.

High enough that everyone would be pissed off. This is why I'm going to be selling them only as a set.

My guess is that the price will be right in the $250 range. I can not give you a date certain for release because I depend on 4 companies to manufacture the parts that we will assemble here in Glendale, AZ. I can tell you it is on the short list, 6 months is my best guess and I will do everything within my power to get it done in that time frame.

Both ramps are on the same tool. You can't make one but Schwaggs suggestion is worth investigating. I will see what's possible when I actually run the ramps. I suspect that the thermoforming company would add a surcharge to the cost. While I would save the cost of cnc-ing the ramp there is a problem with all the scrap it would create. It has to be stored and sold on the open market for pennies on the dollar. It's reground and formed into new sheets which I can't use. I only use virgin plastic.

I appreciate all your comments and I will try my best to explain why some of your suggestions are just not possible. Pinball Inc, in June of 2009, produced 100 of each ramp. I currently have 38 outer ramps in stock. That means 62 pinheads purchased the outer ramp even when they did not need to. No one needs the outer ramp is just not true. Some pinheads would rather buy both ramps even if they only need one because they just do not want a 26 year old ramp next to a brand new one. Some buy both ramps just in case because they love the game and don't foresee ever selling it. I am not intentionally bundling the ramps. The original Williams mold as I have said before has both ramps on it.

The obvious and at first easiest solution would be to make a new mold for the inner ramp. I do not use nor will I ever use a urethane mold. To make an epoxy mold will cost around $5000. This means that in order to break even on a run of 100, I would have to add $50.00 to the cost of the ramp. Note I'm saying break even, no profit. It took 4 years to sell the 100 inner ramps. The next 100 will take longer than that because there is always a pop when a new title is produced. The pop will not be as great the second time around. So $50.00 gets added to the cost of the ramps in hopes that I will recover the cost of the mold in 4 to 8 years. In the future I will be willing to use some of the profits to produce ramps that the community needs even though a profit is not possible but during the time I am still paying for the business, I have a negative cash flow each month and I simply can not afford to do this at this time.

Your price for the mold is lower cause you're using a urethane mold.

Where I'm at right now is I have requested 2 quotes from the thermoforming company. One to do both ramps and one to destroy the outer ramp and just CNC the inner. When I get that quote I will decide if it is feasible to produce just the inner ramp and the production of the ramp (s) will be put in the queue to be run. Hopefully it can be done in less than 4 months. We'll see.

Well here's the latest info. The thermoforming company will begin production of the ramps tomorrow. Baring any unforeseen setbacks, it should take them a little over a week to form and CNC cut the ramps. Figure another week or so to get them to me and a day or two to flame polish and assemble. Please don't flood me with emails now. I'll announce here when they are ready for shipment. I am only going to sell them as a set for the same price that was set 5 years ago, $238. For those of you who insist on ordering only the inner ramp you can do so via email to [email protected]. The cost for the inner ramp alone is $208. I was pretty sure this is how it would work out but I did try.

I meant to say I'm only going to sell them as a set on my website.

I continue to be amazed at how many things can go wrong and delay the production of ramps. The thermoforming company decided on their own to change the order of production and "passed over" the Police Force ramps. I am really getting gun shy on predicting timing because it seems I'm always wrong. It's frustrating to you and me as well. Hopefully 2 more weeks.

FINALLY. The ramps are in my hands along with all the hardware and decals. Personally I can't believe how long it took. I hope you can bear with me as I learn the hard way everything that can go wrong and delay production. Ramps can be ordered off the website,
starship-fantasy.com.

Outer ramp $119.00
Inner ramp $208.00
Set $238.00

Hooray!

We were not able to get all ramp orders out today. If you have not received an email from me, your ramps will go out tomorrow.