What, no photos?

You should hold Popaduik to the same standard as Jack and Rick!

If I had blog access you know I'd be posting them.

I was hoping your crusade in the PPS threads would migrate over here!

MG Cab looks sick

damn it John, why did you spend soooo much time on the art!

I still think he RAZA cabinet will look awesome with the reactor glowing thru the side window!

Can you imagine a world where 2 months ago we thought it was the end for everybody and instead all these guys start cranking out machines. Whoop!

Sounds great to me, but I'm going to wait until I see pics of machines in people's houses before I start celebrating Zidware, DP, Skit B or anyone else.

What factory is this at? JJp? That mega awesome if things are getting ready to roll out!

Looks like Churchill.

Those cabs are giving me a happy tingly feeling down low... just saying "Shaaawing"

My feeling is more towards those 2 cabs becoming the "Lebowski Effect Playin' Protos".

Not exactly a production line, but if I was in on these games that pic would make me a little more optimistic on my chances of getting a pin.

Hmm... very cool looking cabinets... not to be a debbie downer (I'd love to be on a MG and AIW if I was more confident they were actually going to be delivered some time soon)
but who knows when these pics were taken... last year? 2 years ago?... T-shirts on in a Chicago area unheated facility in the dead of winter?..

Would be nice to see more of a finished product..

Yeah it would be nice to see more than the same cabinets that probably went to the show. But that space looks ready to bang a bunch out.

Columbo is on the case! "Oh, and one more thing Jpop, where exactly were you the night of Sunday the 3rd?"

3 cheers for bringing nipples back into pinball! Helen had to do it because Luci couldn't!

I think it's funny to watch the things change. Godzilla grew some more arms, and a horn and a tongue, and the Mars Attacks! guys got new eyes and ears. But Robbie the Robot hasn't had a makeover.

Still, looks like you're getting steady updates now, even if it's more empty cabs and art. Keep it coming and eventually you'll get some real meat. I'm pulling for you all!

Cause he's a 'robot'..

The blog has gotten an update or so a week since it started. Usually of cabs or art .

I just hope after all this protracted waiting, that whenever we see a flipping game it is REALLY far along. Basic flipping at this point would be another kick in the nuts. Speaks to the problem again that we have no idea where things are and what is left to do.

Still nothing but art in the reveals. One can only wish he'd spend as much time on the game play.

Jetstar is an airline in Australia, part of QANTAS, they may have a problem with 'ride the jetstar'

You can see the pedestals for the backbox inside the raza coin door and the backboxes behind them, I found it amusing to see the backglasses in those old fashioned gold leaf type frames.

Bold statements in that update. He states these 2 cabinets are final production models. "Done" He claims from the production models that they can "make cabinets and playfields easily, in lot’s of 30+ a week with a small crew without a sweat".

How does 30 cabinets a week correlate to producing a finished pinball? Something tells me the cabinet production numbers have nothing to do with how many finished pins can be shipped out the door.

I'm also still confused how we're even talking about production when we've not even seen a working game?

Can that leap possibly happen?

I don't understand how some people apparently know this, but you as an "owner" have no clue, let alone been able to see it.

I talked to John for a long time this week. I'm starting to feel that MG will get made and RAZA may follow 3-4 months behind. I think they can crank out 20 plus games per month. So it may actually be possible that RAZA would start shipping this year.

I'm debating on buying a MG or switching my RAZA to a MG if possible, but RAZA has 4 independent ramps and MG just 1.

If John is going to show us up and knock these games out the door, I just wished he could have communicated better instead of clamming up and creating a negative customer experience.

No matter what happens, I will not be sending pre-order money in again. I'll buy games on release. With the glut of pinball coming over the next year or 2, it is a buyer's market and I don't see the need to put my money in harm's way any more.

There is one positive spin you could put on this, although I doubt it would happen, wouldn't it be nice if this caused any makers of small quantities of pinball machines (trying not to use the term 'boutique') to actually produce machines without asking for money up front. Build it and they will come. Say your going to build it and they will wait....

I don't fault the new companies from taking the "easy" pre-order money. There was a time, for about 2 years, where you literally could announce anything and the money door just came flooding open.

But those days are gone and I hope John has a better way to fund his next pins. A normal business would have taken the profits from the first product to fund the next ones, but I don't know how much profit there's left after years of delay.

Everyone should follow that sage example. Every pre-order has been a disaster and a headache. Jpop, Rick, Kevin, DP, whoever. Once they take your money the attitude is "you paid up, I have the cash, but I don't owe you shit, so just be happy to wait over there".

How about instead it's "hey, I have a stack of cash, and if you want it then show me a game".

another problem for people essentially paying in advance many years in advance for these pins. Is that we don't know what's at the end. just some generic Zombie/Amusement park theme and some type of 'Magic' theme.

It's still not clear to me what these pins will play like. Also while RAZA PF looks cool, it is very zany, meaning cute or not at all serious such as Zombies bowling or dunk a zombie booth, at the beginning of the project it was not as clear that this would not be a serious pin. Some people may not like zany pins.

Some may prefer MG or AIW or RAZA. but when John just locks you into a pin you have to take the result. If for example one pin turns out fantastic and one pin turns out so-so. Much like anyone like Stern it's hit or miss if you will like it, maybe you like Met but don't like WWE. But if you just signed up at the beginning without seeing or knowing what the pin will play like, it's a crap shoot.

I believe the least should be a flipping prototype like TBL or WOOLY for example before they start asking for money.

AMH and BOP delivered and I was stoked to be in on that.
MG and TBL i hope will be the same

In fact Charlie said AMH would have never happened without pre orders...
Catch 22 bro

That's not accurate. They self-financed the game until it was finished. Then they took orders as they went to production, first customers started receiving them 6 months later. They had a completed game at shows, flyers and promo videos made when they started taking money.

Big difference between that and sending money in for an idea years in advance.

Read who I quoted

Spooky is the wonderful exception to the rule, bless Chuck.

How was Wooly pre-order a disaster or headache? Did not work out, everyone got his deposit back within a few days... Scott handled things as promised.
Failure maybe (but the story may not be over); Disaster or headache : no.

MMr is probably a headache but does not seem a disaster...

Scott is a great guy, and Spooky has a great team, I would hope that it would have gone smoothly. But we never really got a chance to find out.

I don't consider the WOOLY thing a pre-order in the same sense. There is a finished game being demoed and they are looking for 100 orders to fund production. That is more the Spooky/AMH model.

I think that model can still work.

The one that is broken is the "I have an idea for a great pinball, can't tell you when you'll get it or what it will be exactly since it will likely change a shit ton over the next 3+ years, but please pay me now so I can make it and I'll let you know when I'm done".

Factory? Just looks like a warehouse to me. Where is the *production*?