Quoted from CrazyLevi:Right. Cause Williams was paying $329 for thing mechs in Addams family. About 20 percent of the cost of the entire retail price of the game.
Clearly I’ve been owned.
Quoted from rotordave:You can’t compare the aftermarket price of a part ….
Williams made 20,000 of those. Probably cost them like $25 at the time.
If you built an Addams Family from scratch using Marco parts at retail, it would probably cost you $80,000 bucks to build it.
ADD: A car story just for Levi - I recall in the 80s people were complaining about Holden (GM) spare part prices in Australia. A new car was like $30,000 at the time, a mechanic worked out if he bought all the parts from Holden it was like $250,000 to build one from scratch. Something like that.
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Wow, you are some really smart guys. I was just joking around; it's not like I don't understand inflation, or that manufacturers can get things for much cheaper wholesale.
--but for fun, lets try to break the cost down a little, since we're being serious and all--
So that $330 dollar after-market "Thing" motor is just the motor right. Adjusted for inflation, that's about $150 in 1992 prices.
But that doesn't include the actual molded hand itself, the magnet, the under-pf metal housing/cover and subway system that feeds to the swamp, the various mounting brackets, the attached Opto-PCB and connectors, the various bits of hardware and wiring, and the lift-top box the hand hides in. Plus, you probably need to include the kickout-saucer and switch, since the mech needs it to actually function and be able to grab the ball. Also, while Williams certainly got wholesale prices, they didn't order the parts for all 20,000 "Things" at once. There would have been multiple orders, or order increases, based on how successful the run was.
Given all of that, I don't think it's completely laughable that the true total cost of the "Thing" toy was nearing $200. Maybe not, maybe I'm dumb or crazy, but I don't think anyone around here can actually say with any accuracy how much it really cost WMS to make. I mean, the "Thing" hand is one of the star features of the game, so I wouldn't be shocked if there was a lot of BOM cost put into it. It's certainly the "Wow!" mech of the game the first time someone plays it.
But regardless of how much "Thing" cost WMS way back when, if any of the current pinball companies were to do a TAF remake today, then I think it's easily a $200 toy. Given today's prices and the volumes that our current manufacturers produce at.