That's a good point LTG, they may not be on the sling armature but still, they have mass and they'll be on the end of some mech's armature being slammed around.

I just don't want it to end up like the mess that the SS design was.

I just re-watched the early whitewood videos. The axes look to me to be attached directly to the slingshot armature. Have you seen some secret, later whitewood videos that haven't been released to John Q. Public (me), yet?

--Luke

Metal or molded axes would look sweet. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

agree hoping these are molded in metal and not just some moving plastic.

Man, you guys just don't get it.

So its impossible to have a different design then the scared stiff boogie men? Could they not just add a flat metal bracket on the underside of the playfield that dissipates the force needed to move the axes? Instead of the wood stripping out?

The more weight you're moving on a long arm, the more energy has to be dissipated *somewhere* The more weight, the more cost involved in the mech to move it *and survive* the process over the long run.

Most people would prefer the machine cost $100 less and the objects being "bobbled" were just plastic.

I would prefer the important movable parts not be skimped, there's other places to save a buck. The more realistic the better, case in point: The cannon on acdc looks cheap which is why people modded it. If JJP can make it look realistic with plastic then that will be fine but if its a little cheap piece of plastic with pictures and a rivet its gonna look cheesy and like an afterthought. Its not like JJP has to follow the same mold as scared stiff, im sure there's ways to improve without breaking the bank.

Nah...you're cutting into Mezel's and Pinball Refinery's and Modfather's (etc.) profits. Gotta leave something on the table so other people can make hundreds of dollars off of upgraded pieces of plastic.

And I know! I'm the sucker that buys all of them!

It would be better to get rid of the axes then to have them break.

I think Gary Martins point is, the more weight you add to the arm of the slingshot, then there is greater potential for wear in the mechanism, due to the moment/arm. It would require a stronger force to move it, and when the sling arm/axe returns there is more weight to it, which may cause more wear on stops. I have to agree with him there.

I understood what he was saying, but that doesn't mean the mechs couldnt be designed and reinforced to support it. This is an 8k pinball machine, as I was saying don't go cheap and we shouldnt give these companies a reason to be cheap. If they can make it look good and realistic with plastic then im all for it but putting an arm and a generic picture of an axe on it is cheap. Im buying this machine and its jmo.

No one has played the game and axes are breaking?

No, most people have seen more than me.

LTG : )

That's exactly what I was talking about.

I have one of these on order, paid in full. I'd much rather they put a couple hundred bucks of development into some cool new kind of target *hint hint* than the equivalent of a bobble head axe that flops around when the slings kick.

Yes, I think the axes are cool. No, I'd rather see more R&D and production cost go into making Smaug really awesome than into a fancy diecast axe.

It's a premium game, everything should be premium. Axes, Smaug, targets, ramps, mechs, topper, art, music, sound effects, speech, software etc. If it's on the game at all, it better be awesome, otherwise why bother.

In the video below you can see clearly the axes are made of metal. It even looks like the (left) axe has some kind of dual mechanism, which could reduce the forces on the assembly.

It's more obvious JJP will stick some of those axe-decals on the metal instead of using the easy-to-break plastics as extensions.

I hope the game has seen many hours play with the plastics on the game so there is no problem with broken plastics.

Broken plastics happen REGARDLESS of game/testing/etc.. Steel ball vs Plastic.. Steel wins. There are certain plastics that have a less likelyhood of breaking due to location but testing doesn't eliminate broken plastics so i'm not sure what you on about.

The game play above is without plastics I am not thinking of potential problems from the balls hitting the plastics it is the axes hitting the plastics. As plastics go the slingshot plastics at the start of this thread could not be put on the game in the video with the axes on.