Does anyone remember the set that was showcased in the original Toy Story movie? Big purple clamp, a loop and a jump, 10 feet of track, and one HotWheels car. That was the set every baby boomer got as a kid. It’s why they used it in the movie. And at the time of it’s release, the Tom Daniels Red Baron Hot Wheels car was the most sought after car by every little boy with a buck burning a hole in their pocket. You couldn’t afford the Monogram 1/12 scale model, but it only took a dollar and a lot of miles on your bike searching every toy outlet on the face of the earth looking for one. I think it was a toss up between Paddy Wagon and Red Baron when you asked what your favorite car was back then, or Mongoose and Snake, or possibly S’cool Bus...

For a pinball machine looking to capitalize on the brand, and seeing that the buyers are all mostly older... they missed my demographic with this machine.

It's....OFFICIAL!!!

https://twitter.com/americanpinbal1/status/1239979598001168387?s=09

Screenshot_20200317-143022_Twitter (resized).jpg

Screenshot_20200317-143034_Twitter (resized).jpg

Still not on their website. Interneting is hard.

It is rather bigly!

Yeah, I still don't understand their approach, at all.....

"It's Time to Get Hot!" ????????????????????

I am totally missing this sales pitch.

more info here . . .

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/official-hot-wheels-club-challenge-accepted

I'm guessing there is no street price?

Street price is set by the distributors. they can choose to sell it for whatever they want. MSRP is what the manufacturer sets and is usually the lowest price distributors and dealers can advertise a game for. In this case Hot Wheels and Stern Pros have virtually the same MSRP, so it a fair to speculate the street price will be the same too.

incorrect. There is no Street price on AP games. If you have a distributor that is offering it for less, then you have a untrustworthy distributor. Because if he is willing to violate his distribution agreement, who knows what else his word is not good for. Now if your trading in a machine, thats different and allowed. But outright sales by agreement have to be 6295 plus tax and shipping unless you are at a show

Not True
Various manufacturers have different distribution agreements
Some have a minimum advertised price, which mean you can not advertise a price below XXXXXX
Some have an agreement to not sell below XXXXXXX

but when it comes down to brass tacks once a distributor buys inventory THEY own it and can sell it for what ever they want
The manufacturer can pull their distributorship and not sell them games in the future if they violate agreement but that is hard to prove and rare

I guess that’s why. AP games don’t sell ad well as they could.
Well there’s Always the secondary market .

@dandandan Dan, I know your in the business and know many inside things that I dont, but you actually proved my point. You mentioned that a person can sell for anything they want once its in their hands, correct, but unethical and violates the terms, which is what I said

Also, I stand behind my point that AP does not have a street price. There is only one company that has a street price that is not MSRP, and that is Stern. The others, JJP, CGC, Spooky and American Pinball all have set prices that distributors are to adhere to if they follow the rules.

I also know that Stern and CGC both have secret shoppers that go after public advertisement of people selling and message them trying to get better prices. Now what punishment they do, I dont know.

Why would Stern care so much as to arrange sting operations? I can see one distributor getting PO'ed at another if they cant compete with someone who is pricing below an agreed upon minimum pricing (which seems like price fixing, but what do I know). So maybe Stern has to referee in the occasional dispute, but they should just be happy that inventory is being moved. It's only cutting into the distributors profit, not Stern's.

I will say that during a brief time, about a year and a half ago, I was close to starting a business to sell games and I was shocked to learn of some of the business practices that go on in the industry - Stern included. I know enough to say with certainty that this is absolutely something Stern would do. Looking back, I'm so glad I'm on the outside looking in.

you are correct - AP doesnt have a street price- no business has a "Street" price. Street price refers to what a reseller actually sells a product for. there are very strict laws against a manufacturer trying to dictate what a product is sold for. Hence they have have terms like MSRP (manufactured SUGGESTED retail price) and MAP (minimum advertised Price). It all falls under the anti-trust laws.

It's also against Anti-trust laws. Manufacturers can only control advertised prices. However the reality is if a manufacture wants to shut down a distributor they can find ways of doing it. Also the Pinball industry is so small the litigation is probably not going to happen.

That operation a few years ago where Stern wanted you to send your sales receipt in to get a free t-shirt wasn't because they were wanting to give swag away.

I don't recall that. Was it at least a nice shirt?

Same QC person in the shirt line, as the pin line, soooo.

I would love to ask someone at AP if they are actually encouraged by the response so far for Hot Wheels? The vibe in the "Club" thread is incredibly somber and just filled with pats on the back and "looking forward to playing one on location" type comments. I've been around here long enough to know what that means. Who really wants to buy one? There was so much more excitement for Oktoberfest and they barely sold any of those.

Considering what is going on in the world right now, considering that we have not been able to yet release quality game footage, and considering so few have gotten to play it, I think the response has been pretty positive. I get not everyone thinks it is a great theme, but I can point to a lot of games/themes that folks at first blush had doubts about and it turned out to be great games. I'm confident when folks get to experience the game they are going to really enjoy it and it is going to make them smile.

It looks great, can't wait to play one.

Good luck to everyone there -- it's cool how different all three of your machines have been so far. Rooting for you.

I heard some Pretty Positive comments today from someone that played it in New Orleans. Not just played it a few times, but played it over 2 days and he thinks it's a blast to play.
Fast game that flows good.
Looks Great, hope we get one in Anaheim.
Wink, Wink.

Rosh
I’m really looking forward to playing it; looks like it will shoot much better then the other two games you guys have done so far and looks like it will have some killer flow

All three games play different, and Hot Wheels™ clearly has the most speed and flow, if you like that sort of thing

All industry practices are shocking. Its about bottom line, that's the way it is. I would like to know one that has a business practice that isn't shocking.

AP isn't going to shut down any distributors for selling below MSRP. They need every sale they can get during these turbulent times. A sale is a sale. It would be idiotic to prevent distributors from selling your game.

Lol agreed. They make the same amount even if you choose to use them as fire logs. They could care less.

I guess you don’t know what I know then. I’ll just say that there are not too many industries where one company has 90% of the market. I own a structural steel fabrication company so as someone that has seen a fair share of dirty shit in the construction industry I will say that I was pretty shocked to learn what goes on behind the scenes between distributors and manufacturers, in particular Stern. The naivety of your post does not shock me however.

rumour, or substantiated?

i have no inside information but based on the number of games that are currently on location it seems very low. According to pinballmap.com there are 48 copies on location. for comparison sake their are 34 alice coopers and ACNC had a production run of 500 units, 10 Rob zombies with a production run of 200, 67 JJP POTC - not sure what their production run was- im assuming in the 500 range.

It is definitely very low. Much less than even Houdini which flopped as well. Someone in the other thread said if Hot Wheels is half as good as Oktoberfest, it’ll be a hit. Lol, really? It literally needs to be 3 or 4 times better to be a hit for them and sell 1000 units. Why do people insist on ignoring reality? AP needs to start making better decisions.

the first 2 and maybe even 3 all suffer from the same problem. Theme. Gameplay is fine. Lay outs or pretty good but the theme, come on. If this pin had the BTTF theme how crazy would the anticipation be and think of the orders coming in. I hope Hot Wheels is a success for them. I'm certainly looking forward to playing one.

I agree completely. They have shown the ability to produce a quality product and the potential is certainly there to make a hit game - they just keep making a lot of the same mistakes over and over again that hold them back.

This is the general sentiment for sure. Enthusiasm to play it but absolutely no enthusiasm to buy it. It's based on a cartoon geared towards 4 year olds and has that annoying fidget spinner on a stick - come on AP, what are you doing?