She is one of my favorite people in this small, weird, and sometimes dysfunctional community. She is the best.

How about a picture of said crap?

That’s fantastic? Go for it! Whatever makes you happy.

Can’t say anything but good stuff about Melissa in my experience doing business with her.

I'm sure Melissa is a fine person but I have to say that the smart move here was to wait until this thing looked like the real deal, especially after the last Alien fiasco. Then again how anyone is even putting up refundable deposits is beyond me. Why not just wait? Do u really want 1 of possibly only a handful and bottom drops out. Its a dream theme and I wouldn't take that chance. Its tough not to look at from an outsiders perspective that Cointaker is just hungry 4 sales, nothing wrong with that and I mean I like the people I deal with at my distributor 2 but I know their first priority to make a sale. What's with the saint like status? Just curious as there's nothing else to discuss around here.

Yes, actually, because as you said, it's a dream theme and about half what one of the others would cost with the same 'issue'. If it was like the DR scenario, then no, but there's really no way to take a hit on this. If they only make a few but they work, there's really no issue.

Good point. I've been done with taking any kind of chance with pins for a while. Nothing used anymore, I don't want to have to get things fixed or wait for parts, nothing. I wait a year even on Stern releases till they work out the bugs and all that jazz. And I took the chance with the OG Alien and Predator. That didn't help, I got my money back but I don't want to do that again.

Dont think its called a Business if the intention isn't to make money? I believe that would be not for profit. With that said I doubt you will find many if Any examples of taking a gamble and loosing with Coin Taker. IF you want and are willing to bet I don't think there are better odds then betting on Melissa.

Yeah no thanks not here to show off but if you'll follow me down to the basement...
IMG_20190602_215753~2 (resized).jpg

I'm sure that scares the Hell out of kids going to the basement!

Man I like that. U need to paint the surrounding walls black and get a good quality red LED bulb going. Thats the ticket,

Really? then what about monkey business.

OK...??? I purchased the first Alien through Cointaker/Melissa and I received it just fine. What I did was I sent a deposit; waited for them to make it; and paid the balance when it arrived. They shipped it... I received it... I opened and played it. It is really simple. No speculation needed.

I would even take it a step further and say 100's of millions, in just the US alone... just because it's not dead or dying any longer doesn't mean it's now "mainstream".

I have an insane amount of emails and calls from Melissa during the initial fiasco where she made claims and promises that were never true, the biggest of which was I called to cancel my order and she said they will have my LE at my door in 30 days and that Heighway said that. I called Heighway and confirmed she was lying and she made that up. Then she said they will get me the only LE to hit the US first and that its on its way now. Only to hear later she also said this same exact thing to 3 other customers. Again called Heighway and confirmed they never said that and would never make such a promise. Then she jumped on here and said games have hit the water and that she confirmed this, then after 2 weeks of people asking for info, our local internet sleuths found the ship number and it showed it was still in dock....This went on and on and on. And between these emails, she called and made claims that were never true. Long story short, she was taking stuff Heighway said like "we might" be getting games on water soon", and then telling customers "We have games on the water to us right now, and will arrive in 2 weeks!". She stirred the pot big time and you can go back through the thread and read when it happened and that many people called her out on her lies. And that whole "it was easy, I paid for and got a game" well good for you jack, the rest of us preordered/prepaid LE's and never got them, and we got to watch people jump in last second after years of waiting and get an SE. All in this time frame Heighway kept removing features from the LE's and then not reimbursing preorders the difference, then when we said we want to jump ship to an SE just to get a game, we were told we would have to pay the new higher asking price of the SE's. So glad you got what you paid for, the rest of us didnt.

I would expect also a price increase from them soon, with all this 'pinflation' and resource prices going up, I don't see them being able to supply this game at 7777 USD profitable in low quantities (with highly increased transport prices as well!).

On a side note; what the hell happened to the backbox design? It's kind of weird screen size and placement and the speaker grills look odd... it may just be me.

My buddy ordered a game direct through Heighway and talked to Andrew a few times on the phone. Things like, "Its getting packed up tomorrow" and "It is going out later this week" were always thrown around. Don't think for one second that Heighway didn't tell cointaker the same exact thing then tell you they never said that to give you more run around. Andrew was a master scammer and knew what he was doing.

U know Heighway lied and Cointaker made promises and lied whatever, its sales, they lie, that's what they do, that's part of the job to get u to spend money and if ur just figuring this out then I have a a lead on something else maybe u guys haven't heard of but its just between us......................Sliced Bread.

Pinball was a hobby for Andrew his day job was lying to people and as we all know he was extremely good at it! It sounds like you went thru a lot of BS with this fiasco and I am sorry to hear that, but the first thing that comes to mind when I read your post was why would you believe a known liar (Andrew) over Melissa who is giving you the best info she had gotten from Andrew at the time (more lies) as we know he was just buying time "2 weeks"

Standards are still listed as $7,777 + $418 (shipping) on Cointakers website so I doubt thats going to change.. the cost for the LV disappeared tho so that one could possibly change (it was $9,999). I had my deposit in for GNR last year and JJ recently changed the prices on those but I confirmed with my distro that since my dep was in before the price change I'm not having to pay any extra, hopefully the same thing applies with Cointaker for everyone who put in a deposit.

I am victim (as well) of Andrews lies on the phone. His lies were of deadly quality bc they were congruent and told with the passion of someone who tells the truth. Absolutely brilliant.

Thats all fine and dandy about Andrew being a liar...but sounds like you guys didnt read closely at the part where Melissa got on here a few times and said "on the water" or "off loading now" when we found the ship number and it wasnt even loaded up yet at the port nor on the water to us. Then she promised several people the same thing she told me that i will be the first one to get an LE way before anyone else and to keep that on the downlow so as not to piss others off. So no, this wasnt an Andrew lying to her only thing, she herself lied and made stuff up 100%. And i confronted her about all this and she admitted to embellishing what Heighway had told her by fowarding their emails to me, so i read what they told her. Their "starting to get games loaded" turned into Melissa telling us "games on water, almost here end of week". Thats not what they said.....

and this is why I'm cautiously optimistic about it all. Only so many times you can say 'next week' and it doesn't come before it sounds like bs.

I think everyone needs to set their expectations pretty low on this one. It would be hard in a normal world, and it's way harder in the current world. I think some will come, but I doubt we see much before May if not a few months later.

For you to come here and slander Melissa like this is disgusting. Melissa/Cointaker is a reputable distributer who has decided to work with vendors on games that most others wouldn't even bother with like Alien or like TBL. You sound like one hell of a person...

Jeff

Calm down Greta, you sound like a typical pinhead with your fingers in your ears not wanting to hear truth and others experiences. Yeah, the kind that stuck up for Heighway the entire time they kept lying to everyone, just because they didnt want to admit or hear the truth that they were being taken advantage of. As well as hoping to stay in good graces so that if anything did get made, theyd get first go at it for being good loyal servants. If this is what you find disgusting, im sorry for you in this world. Yelp sounds like something that would really send you over the edge. Facts are from my dealing with her, is she was not honest with me and i caught her. So if that upsets the almighty pinheads, then so be it, its my experience and sounds like its happening again....

Just the kind of response I expected. I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest perhaps you're the one not being truthful. It's one thing to provide negative feedback, it's an entirely different thing to outright call someone a liar. But hey, you do you...

Jeff

What kinda PC cancel Dr Seuss crap is that reasoning lol?!?!? Feedback is fine, but dont say liar??? Hahaha, so if i reworded my statement to say she "wasnt forthcoming with the information".....that is more acceptable to you according to your logic?!?!? So long as i dont outright say "Lie"?. Wow....And yet, you just called me a liar with nothing to back up your claim lol, so practice what you preach there. Facts are in the thread for all to see at anytime of my half. I have the emails myself and phone conversation from her, so i dont need proof of what she did. Try and shift focus all you want like a typical, but its all there so you do you....dissembler...

How does CoinTaker collecting refundable deposits make them or anyone else money?

They're just holding it to establish a que for buyers to demonstrate they're serious, first come first served.

Are we really arguing about this?

I see the arguments, but honestly, is there any other way for a distributor to be transparent and fair to everyone?

Let's not behave like anyone is in jeopardy of losing their money like the first go around. PB are the only ones with any risk. If they have the fortitude to pull this off there really are no losers. We just wait and see what happens.

What will be will be.

"decided to work with vendors that others wouldn't"

Do u actually think that decision has to do with anything other than money?

I pretty sure most of us know what's gonna be, but the desire for this theme is so strong we kinda lose sight of the realities involved with a new pinball company.

If it were me taking those deposits, I would take all that cash, put it in a mutual fund or some other low term low risk investment and reap the benefits! And if you want your refund, yes itll take 4-6 months .. take that!

So that boat coming from Europe can take its sweet ass time. Bam!

It’s sad that there’s this level of animosity about the pin when it doesn’t even exist yet.

I have no dog in this fight but if someone is going to cast aspersions about Melissa/Cointaker or anyone else (excluding Andrew/Heighway as everyone knows the score there) then they should put up or shut up. Coming in and dropping bombs without producing evidence doesn’t help anyone.

“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence” ~ Hitchen’s Razor

I think history is the evidence.

It's repeating in some way now. It's already been shown that whatever information people are getting from CT is usually wrong in this iteration.

Are you implying witness testimony is inadmissible?

Because you just did.

Man do I miss that guy.

What witness testimony? Someone saying something happened without evidence (other than their word) is not irrefutable. Where’s the emails? etc

I'm guessing our machines are aboard this ship!

I made this today.

IMG_0209[1] (resized).JPG

As someone who was in on a Heighway Alien preorder, this is all I have to say...

E138334C-0EDA-474D-BC1A-2C4C5E3C8CB7 (resized).jpeg

More likely, the parts to finish building them are in one of the 300+ ships stuck behind it.

Todays update from Cointaker is delivery for Q1 games are in 3rd week of May. Some might be earlier because I am pretty far back on the list for Q1 delivery.

Wouldn’t that make it Q2?

Yep. She said they missed Q1 delivery date.

Gee, well THAT'S a big surprise.....

So Coin-taker has had this game for two weeks now and not a word about it since that first rushed video? Do they have anything planned?

I don[t know wtf is going on over there, but it doesn't make me think very highly of them. I'm not one of those people who are going to call them every day looking for info. They are a distro, they should be advertising and hyping this thing up. The fact they are not really makes you wonder... Feeling this is shaping up to be a repeat of Heighway. Maybe they think it too, but if that's so, why keep repeating information that is probably not correct?

PS. CT didn't make that video. What's the point of them having it?

Cointaker in PA may have had this game for 2 weeks, but it arrived later than it was supposed to - just a couple days before Melissa went on Vacation in Florida. She just got back and is tending now to the backlog of duties.

On the last Buffalo pinball podcast the organizer of the Pin -Brew fest mentioned that the Alien will be there to play if anyone is going here’s your chance to see it in person.

Not on the confirmed list of pins yet, hopefully a late confirmation will show up.

https://www.pinbrewfest.com/Games/Index