I thought I would start a thread to announce I'm getting into pinball mod production. While I've done restorations & scratch builds before, this will be my first foray into mod production. Hopefully my products will be unique to other modders out there. I've always had a love for modeling, painting & an interest in hobby mold casting. With the release of Godzilla, I've had a burst of ideas for unique modifications specifically for this title!

I'll be producing my mods the old fashioned way....from clay, silicone molds & urethane resin castings...produced one at a time. I don't do 3D printing. Everything will be airbrushed & have hand-painted detailing. This old school process is rather time consuming, but I'm pretty confident that I can produce some items that others will be interested in purchasing

Just for full disclosure....this shop is a one man show. I already have a full time job & this is just a side-hobby for me. So my emphasis will be on high quality items produced in small numbers for now. I'll just have to see how things go.

I will never take preorders or get ahead of myself. When items are produced, they will be available for sale immediately in my pinside shop. It's as simple as that. I'm in the process of getting everything setup now. Check this thread for production updates & new information on upcoming items!

I'm just waiting to get my hands on a GZ LE for some test fitting & measurements, then it's full steam ahead!

My first item will be an "Atomic Breath Godzilla" replacement toy for the area near the bridge, then others planned for the future. Stay tuned!
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Think of me as your custom GZ Kaiju mod maker. All custom resin cast with no 3D printing. All of my custom cast items will Kaiju toys featured in the game

PoakyMods upcoming products currently in development….

1) Fire Breathing Godzilla Toy
2) Flying Mothra toy
3) Menacing Hedorah Toy

Stay tuned!

My website is finally up & running! Sign up up for the mailing list on the home page to receive alerts & store updates when products are available to order.

https://poakymods.com/

(COMING SOON)

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Yep my Atomic Breath Godzilla is going to impress a lot of people I think. I'm getting close, but I need to test fit the prototype at this point before I start producing them for sale. Just need to get a few things dialed in. My buddy should have his LE very soon. Perhaps a sneak in a week or so

I'm sure others will beat me to market, but it is what it is at this point.

I actually already have plans to make a Mothra for the rear, and perhaps other figures of Megalon & Gigan. They are on the back burner at the moment tho. I have to get the atomic breath toy finished, then produce a decent run of them to meet demand. I have another idea for the cabinet I'm working on at the moment too.

No spoilers though! When they are finished & ready for purchase, I'll announce

The good news is that I have an arrangement setup for a first-run premium now, so I should be getting my hands on a game for fitting & testing pretty soon!

I'm not doing anything with the building. I think other modders have that covered.

Well some wonderful news this holiday weekend! Godzilla Premium has made landfall into my collection

Now I can finally do some test fitting & start moving ahead on my mod ideas. I was basically in a holding pattern until I got my hands on a premium.

Stay tuned!

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It has been an extremely slow process & a very large learning curve for me personally. Lots of time & money invested on materials & equipment. There's just a new hurdle with each step of the design & production process.

I've been working on (what I thought would be) a simple item to get my sculpting, mold making & resin casting skills developed before I dived into the fire-breathing godzilla mod. It has not been simple. It has literally been 2 steps forward, 1 step back through the entire process. Finding the correct resin with the correct properties, designing silicone molds that will release the item without damage, pressure casting to eliminate air bubbles, dealing with cold garage temps, the curing & cleanup process, on & on. I will spare you all the details. But I'm getting there. Resin casting is a very labor intensive process compared to 3D printing. Especially for one man working out of his garage.

I just want to be sure what I'm making is suitable for sale. This is also taking time away from the BSD & Cheetah restorations I have to get done this year. I wish I had more time. I work 50 hours a week & all this modding is done in my free time.

But I haven't given up yet Pressing on....

So I wasn’t going to post anything about this, but I figured I probably should. I want people to actually see that I have been working on my mods, but it just hasn’t worked out like I expected….

GODZILLA FOOT START BUTTON

I wanted to make a small item first so that I gained experience with sculpting, mold making & resin casting. I figured a start button housing would be a neat easy product to produce without a ton of post-production painting. I used the original button housing as a starting point, then sculpted the foot. I found a clear resin that could be color tinted & cast a “radioactive” glowing effect when it by the start button LED.

There was tons of trial & error to get this to work, as this is all new to me. It took several attempts to get the silicone mold right for casting, then the proper pressure casting technique for eliminating air bubbles & getting a full casting, then the finishing work to clean up the excess flash. I thought this would be a simple item to produce, but the threaded shaft & small tabs were incredibly hard to consistently cast.

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But after finally hardening & test fitting with a perfectly cast unit, I regret to say that I’m just not happy with the end result. The resin is too brittle in the thin shaft areas & easily prone to breaking. There was small percentage of overall shrinkage when fully hardened, so even the functionally of the button was an issue as well.

So it functions poorly & the thin parts break easily. It sure looks nice though!

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So I’m putting this item to bed. Believe me I have spent months trying to get this to work. I won’t be producing it. Please don’t even ask me. I’m not going to sell something that might easily break or poorly function to customers.

GOOD NEWS: I learned a lot making this product, and I’m pretty sure making the fire-breathing Godzilla will be a lot simpler, as there won’t be small detailed functional parts to it & it should be easier to cast. But it will still be time consuming to paint. With that said, I’m moving onto the next product. I’ve even got some more ideas for additional monster molds

I’ve also come to realize the amount of time it’s going to take me to produce these. I’m just a guy in his garage trying to make this work. So I may just do a limited run of XX amount of units & sell them in one small run. Again no waiting lists. Again this is going to take a bit longer, but I hope you have some confidence now after seeing what I’ve done so far.

More to come!

The start button in attract mode……oh what could have been.

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Yep 100% based on Showa Era Godzilla. There's just not a lot of space back in that corner for the head, torso, arms, spines & breath. Still working it out, but I hope to post some progress soon.

After another month of development, presenting PoakyMods next custom item…..

FLYING MOTHRA TOY WITH SPOTLIGHT KIT

My Mothra toy was all custom made by myself, starting with the creation of the silicone mold. No 3D printing here. The toy is pressure cast with semi-flexible urethane resin with the metal mounting rod internally embedded during the casting process, ensuring that the Mothra toy won’t fall off the rod or twist its position during gameplay. Each Mothra toy is custom painted my myself, with incredible attention to detail, then sealed with a flat lacquer overcoat for protection. It is a very time consuming process. To save production time, only the front of the Mothra toy is painted in detail, while the back is painted white.

Mothra is easily mounted to the rear building ball return wire form. A 5v 8SMD cool white spotlight kit will be included for better lighting of the toy. It will contain the hex posts which easily attach on the existing exposed screw in the center of the spiral return wire form. Matrix wiring & alligator clips are included for easy connection to the Mothra flasher behind the Mothra plastic in the back panel.

Some photos of the production process & final product, which some of you might find interesting….

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Mothra spotlight in action

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Now for the bad news….

I’m not really sure if I want to proceed making these, which is why I haven’t officially listed them for sale. It was a long time consuming process to paint. It took me almost 8 hours just to paint one toy. I didn’t expect me to take so long, but it’s a small item utilizing tiny brushes & tedious slow detail work. I also have other items I want to make for this game, and I’m doing this all in my limited spare time.

So I’m debating if I want to move ahead with further production. If I do, I will make a small batch & it will be a limited run. In the meantime, I’m moving onto the next project…. The fire breathing Godzilla

I would also like to make clear….

I am NOT creating waiting lists, and will NEVER take pre-orders for items I haven’t produced yet. I just don’t have the time to invest in that. I’d rather be busy making mods.

When I have a run of items ready for sale, they will be posted in the Pinside Marketplace. Check back to this thread for updates. You will know well in advance when my items will be listed. You just have to be patient. This is a side business for me as I already work 50 hours a week.

Thanks for understanding! And for the support!

Gold powder dry brushed to wing edges. Didn’t want to make edges bright yellow like in the movies.

Something I’m considering. I just didn't think there would be that many people who would want to do it themselves.

Thought I would give a quick update for those that are following. I know updates have been sparse since I began this side project many months ago, but it has taken me longer than I expected. Many hours spent testing, frequent trial/errors, learning new skills, trying to teach myself the process of resin casting, and creating a side business from scratch....all while working 50 hours a week in the real world...

ATOMIC BREATH GODZILLA

GODZILLA: The good news is that I've made significant progress in the last 2 weeks on the development of my Atomic Breath Godzilla mod. The look of the Godzilla toy has been finalized. The silicone master mold is finished. The rotocasting production tests are done. I'm finally able to produce a product that I can reproduce consistently. The resin I chose is strong & impact resistant. The correct location/positioning of the toy near the collapsing bridge is finalized & the mounting plate design has been completed.

FLAME: The Atomic Breath has been sculpted & finalized. It took many hours to figure out the correct angles & mounting options so it will stand up to the motion of the bridge. I also tested different resins to get the right translucent blue tint of the flame itself.

LIGHTING: Godzilla is hollowcast, so that casting technique allowed me to easily run LED lighting up to his mouth. The Atomic Breath was designed to allow LED placement within the flame, so it will also be lighted at the base. While Comet Pinball does not offer the perfect lighting option at this time, I think the bulbs I've used looks amazing. The way I've designed the mouth & the flame will allow a user to change the bulbs themselves, via Comet's many matrix lighting options if they choose. I'm designing the entire mod to be plug and play with molex connections right out of the box, with no soldering required.

FLYING MOTHRA

You may have seen my Flying Mothra mod in this thread. After taking over 6+ hours of meticulous painting just to finish a single Mothra, I've decided that I just won't be able to devote the amount of time it will require to make a fully-painted Mothra available for production. However it is a pretty cool addition to the game, and there has been enough interest from people who want to paint it themselves, so I will make an unpainted Flying Mothra available for sale at some point. I've just been to busy focusing on ABGZ right now.

SALES

I have decided not to use the Pinside Marketplace, and instead I will be selling direct on my upcoming website. I have been working on my website design & setting up the online store for sales. This adds another level to my side business, and the amount of work I have to do, but I feel like it will be worth it in the end. The website will have product descriptions, install instructions, photos, and videos. I should have a blog for production updates, and an email list for those who want notifications when products are in stock. The website is not quite ready for launch, but it's getting close.

A FINAL WORD

I must admit.... I'm pretty amazed with the ABGZ toy so far. And the lucky few who have gotten a sneak peak of it feel the same way. No sneak peaks for Pinside yet, but I should begin production this weekend, followed by painting & the completed product shortly thereafter. I'm hoping to have the first run of ABGZ done in the next 30 days. Then the first public reveal at the upcoming Golden State Pinball Festival in Lodi CA May 13-15, with the initial production run available for sale at the show.

I hope many of you will understand that I'm just a single guy in his garage making these mods. I handle all the design, production, website updates, online sales, shipping & answering emails. That's on top of my regular job, so forgive me if I don't get back to you right away. And I need my time for pinball & beers too you know My items will never be produced in a large scale, only in small production runs if the demand is there. We shall see how things go. I have a lot personally invested so far, and a lot to get done in the next month, so fingers crossed for no setbacks as I press ahead with production. I have have several other GZ mod ideas in development, but I need to stay focused on ABGZ for now.

Lot's of good stuff on the way. Stay Tuned!