Oh wow… just scrolled through the reviews for Thunderbirds… holy fuckballs.
Wow. Brutal.
Looks like they need to work on the finished product a bit and get some professional designers in to spec out the gameplay… hopefully they took the feedback to heart.

Well, he hired Joe Balcer (Co-credited with Simpsons Pinball Party, did WoZ, Hobbit, Houdini, Oktoberfest, etc), but then Joe was gone before Spinal Tap was even announced, so his total time there was less than a year, so not sure what happened. He's being very cagey about who the designer and software are by for Spinal Tap, and that doesn't bode well...

Looks like purple metal flake armor, with black apron and chrome (?) legs.

The last picture is the leftover plastic after the plastics are cut out. Not many plastics in the set, only 8 if you exclude the slings and lane guides.

Here's a bunch of pictures for those (like me) that (smartly) avoid facebook:
01 (resized).jpg02 (resized).jpg03 (resized).jpg04 (resized).jpg05 (resized).jpg06 (resized).jpg07 (resized).jpg08 (resized).jpg09 (resized).jpg10 (resized).jpg11 (resized).jpg12 (resized).jpg13 (resized).jpg14 (resized).jpg15 (resized).jpg16 (resized).jpg17 (resized).jpg18 (resized).jpg

20 (resized).jpg21 (resized).jpg22 (resized).jpg

If I didn't know any better, I'd be stoked!

Might still be cool, but the odds are strongly against it so far based on past history, avoiding disclosing who did the design and who is doing the software, and how this rollout is going. It's a weird rollout that's not helping them build excitement. Homepin desperately needs a PR firm to handle dissemination of pictures and videos to build excitement while he just concentrates on getting the games made. He obviously can't do both, and when he does PR he ends up saying offensive stuff that turns a portion of his potential buyers off. Better to just leave the PR work to a pro.

A movie that has become a favourite of mine in recent years. I am legit excited to see this game and $7000 AUD is fantastic value for a new in box pinball machine if the price stays the same.

BUT.....yes, I have played Thunderbirds. Firstly, I didn't care for the theme at all and secondly, the game reminded me of 90s Gottlieb System 3. I'm not writing off Spinal Tap because of this.

My pinball purchases are now based on playing a game and then buying when the time is right. I look forward to seeing Spinal Tap in action and hoping they can turn it up to 11.

this will not be a $7k game, expect a price rise, as on the pinball info thread he has alluded to parts costing more and price increase.

Yeah, would be kind of crazy for any pinball manufacturer to sell at $7k these days....

What I heard is Homepin doesn't intend to do any PR or marketing to sell Spinal Tap. That is being left to the distributors. Unless that's changed.

I have seen exactly zero of anything that would qualify as PR or marketing for Spinal Tap from any source at all. Releasing random pictures to facebook of parts doesn't count, but if he coordinated with his distributors the could use them to scrape up some excitement.

I believe this is called the “Red Hot Crack” marketing plan.

I'm keeping an open mind. I love the theme. I can't help but be intrigued by those pics above. I hope its much better than most expect it to be.

ah yes, the silver tongued beast at his best.
Hope you get a Spinal Tap and love it.

Here’s hoping buyers don’t cry, cry, cry all the way…Homepin.

List? That's a -short- list. No one on it yet?

This is the most insane thing ever. It’s like he doesn’t want to sell any games.

This is like if movie studios did zero advertising & left it to the theaters. Or if Nintendo didn’t promote their games at all, you had to rely on GameStop to find out anything.

RIP Homepin…amazed you’ve lasted this long.

back to the top with this important message above.

You have to try really hard to not sell games in this current market. Congrats, you figured it out!

^ shit like this is why i dont talk to people...

Yeah, I think it was just an oversight or a bad cut and paste. The homepage here has it:

http://www.homepin.com/

Canada:
Nitro Pinball

Australia:
Highway Games

USA:
Pinball Star Amusements

Europe:
RS-Pinball

China (PRC):
CBC Pinball

...so looks like one distributor per region.

I resisted responding to that comment from PinballSTAR, but since you're bringing it back up....

I am already on his email list. The only info so far that has been shared is precisely this:

Homepin
* Spinal Tap - COMING SOON !

That's even less info than Homepin has publicly released.... so my guess is Homepin hasn't given any info to its distributors to really share with the buying public.

Ian Faith:
The United States gig has been cancelled...

David St. Hubbins:
What?

Ian Faith:
Yeah. I wouldn't worry about it though, it's not a big pinball country.

If Joe had more information he would provide it. I'm sure he is at their mercy right now with information....otherwise there would be more information sent or posted here.

I'm not trying to suggest otherwise.

Just pointing out that Homepin is saying they won't be marketing their own products and is point us to their distributors, yet they haven't given them any info either. So how do you sell a product without details? The distributor can't make them up on their own. That has to come from the manufacturer, right?

Why would Joe even bother being a distributor for a company who doesn’t want to tell anyone about its product?

I've always wondered why pinballstar is a distributor for basically everyone but Stern. Why not Stern?

When there is info to share Homepin and we will share it. We have seen the game in small snippets, but it was between Homepin and their distributors so we can see some of the game to know what’s coming. Right now there’s nothing to show other than parts coming in until full games are made, working, and Mike chooses to share. It is his company not mine, I follow his lead. When he’s ready, I’m ready, and when there are games to show he and we will be excited to show them. Me, I wouldn’t have even released the theme ahead of time but I think Mike had to due to licensing. It’s coming it’s nice people are excited, so thank you for that.
Joe

lol

unsolved mysteries (resized).jpg

Will he be mailing out ROM chips for updates this time, or is it 1.0 code forever like Thunderturds?

Had to be a female involved.....

Exactly. For each distro there is going to be a different narrative and a different level of quality when it comes to game images and promo video, if any. Why would any manufacturer trying to sell something take that risk?

its seems like you have it mixed up. Its not being 'left' to them to do it, its being done and 'given directly' to them.

the marketing collateral ( produced by homepin) will be given to distributors ( so they can use it to sell games) not first given to pinside trolls (so they can do their usual best to discredit it.)

there will be no sneak peaks here.. pinside users burned that bridge long ago. Its all through the channel. No one is seeking approval or critique of anyone here on that.. its how it is. I dont have to explain it ( i dont work for homepin and i dont sell the games) .. but i just wanted to make it clear. You wont be getting a sneaky look no matter how much you complain, you dont get any special treatment.

When Joe is ready, its his party. Until then. .. no.

By definition, party is more than one.

I understand being stung by the criticism of a bad game, but Thunderbirds actually had pretty good response as the development pictures were being posted. Only when people got to play it did that go in the toilet. Doing Spinal Tap like this will not have any potentially positive feedback (or even helpful feedback to fix glaring problems) pre-release, just the potentially negative post-release word of mouth. Seems messed up, but whatever.

As a confirmed Homepin troll,
I cant wait for more info ha ha ha
My second christmas

At least you got to play Thunderbirds

As a confirmed Homepin troll,
I cant wait for more info ha ha ha
My second christmas

Thanks for bringing that up ,
I’m trying to forget.

We're not saying that's a bad plan, we're saying that 5 months later there is zero info in "the channel", and that's a bad plan. Tell the Homepin dude to give his distributors SOMETHING to tell people.

The timing is probably "off", but at least it's not over saturated.

Artie Fufkin : We saturated, we over saturated. That's what it is, It's me, I did it, I fucked up. I fucked up the timing, that's all. I fucked up the timing, I've got no timing, I've got no timing, I've got *no* timing.

rusty-metal-sign-on-wooden-wall-with-the-phrase-coming-soon-KNF6B6 (resized).jpg

Maybe Mike dgaf because he knows he's going to sell 500 worldwide to distributors so why care? The only people that are getting beat up about this are the 5 people arguing about this on Pinside. Mike = super genius right now.

CG told everyone at a show in summer CCR was coming... then you waited til fall when they were ready to show and sell.
Same thing here. Theme revealed - then we wait a little.
It's great if your excited... if you're mad or frustrated about something, i'm not sure how to fix that.
: )

My preference would be for manufacturers to wait until production is ready to go and actual gameplay video is available when they announce a game. I also wish this would happen after the game has been fully vetted by a group of 'beta' testers. A pipe dream, I know.

The current model of announcing a game, collecting deposits and then shipping games a year or more later is no bueno.

There are sometimes licensing reasons why games need to be announced first or at a certain time, which I think is the case here.

There's alot of 'business stuff' that goes on behind the scenes that sometimes dictate how things are done with every company not necessarily how the manufacturer would like to do it. I know this occurs with every company I work with - some licenses are easy to get along with and have little input, others have many rules, dates, approvals, that have to be followed. Maybe a theme is forced to be announced by a certain date, but can't be shown until all the final art (every plastic / shade of a color), callouts, logos, placement of logos, etc.. are approved.

With Spinal Tap - when it's ready it'll be shown - nobody's taking any money on anything sight unseen here so no harm occurring.

But ya in a perfect word, beta testers, video, all assets can be shown but sometimes it's just not in the cards nor in the control of the manufacturer how to time things... Employees need to be kept on a line so they aren't lost so physical games sometime get made before everything 'programming' wise is done sometimes, etc... Pinball is hard as they say - there's alot of variables they have to contend with you and sometimes I don't see or know...

Hopefully I have been able to share some insight... Again, TY for everyone's enthusiasm - we want you excited so that's good stuff.

People need to be patient. I bet we’ll see Tap before people see Toy Story.

It’s a rock and roll creation that will be revealed when the good lord - by way of the patron saint of quality footwear - is ready.

Think positive! Knowing Mike, the backglass might feature a greased, naked woman, on all fours, with a dog collar around her neck, and a leash…and a man’s hand extended out, holding on to the leash, and pushing a black glove in her face, to sniff it.

I mean, it could happen!

LOL, you act like you’re punishing or getting revenge on us by not showing anything….ooookaaaay, ohhhh no, you got us! LOL

No one really gives a flying koala what Homepin does. It’s just baffling that they’d take the position that “no marketing” is a good idea. They currently have the reputation of being run by a curmudgeonly a-hole that produced the worst pin ever (TBAG). You’d think that after all the work he’s done, he want to sell product. You sell product by marketing your brand and product.

Oh well - but potential customers are just trolls, right?

Maybe we're looking at it wrong. What if he's really a fabulously wealthy, centuries-old vampire that doesn't need money or profit because he only lusts after negative energy needed to sustain him? Perhaps this is all a ruse to create the negative energy that sustains him and we're playing right into it...

That Chinese zombies pin makes more sense in this framing, too.

Or an all black translite?

Seriously, it could be a home run, I love the movie… it could be an awesome pin.
Just need some details.

Also, calling customers “trolls” because they’re excited at the theme and are looking for more details is pretty poor business position. Lots of ways to drum up excitement even if you can’t show all the details.
As a side thought, if you’re buying all the parts etc, I’d think you have approval on the art / IP….

Aside from the hideously butchered photoshop hit job art on the announcement flyer, I don't think he's shown anything on the game with art (playfield, translite, cabinet, plastics). The closest that's been shown is the plastic piece with the playfield plastics already cut out of it. No art.

Purple theme. Part of the apron with Homepin and Spinal tap names/logos, some leopard print on the apron. Some 60’s stylized flowers on some of the plastics… perhaps not finalized art, but if you are running parts, don’t you have an idea how the art will fit?
I dunno - never built a pin, could be wrong there.