Extra extra read all about it! Home pin announces new updates on website. You heard it here first son.

Nice, seen it on the FB page

Not sure if anyone in europe have heard of Thunderbird?, i sure havent.
But then again, maybe not that many pinballs are sold here...? (Stern still sell a lot of games, that for sure)

Dont care if they make it or China most stuff on our factory comes from China and its great quality. They got bad stuff and good quality stuff, like i any other country.

Chinese pinball are you serious?

Are Stern parts not made in China and put together by South Americans??

That's not much of an update.

They're mexicans homer, mexicans.

Not necessarily, they can be Guatemalans, El Salvadorans, etc.
South American covers them all.

Except for Mexico isn't in south America. It would also be my contention that neither is Guatemala or el Salvador.

Sorry yeah central america

ahh .. kansas!

Have you seen the work that goes in to putting a wire harness together, don't care where they come from that is one job I would not like to do. Mind numbing to say the least, thank you to whoever takes that job on.

Try to stay on topic gang. This thread has been super contentious and could use on topic discussion to get back on track. Thanks.

Back on topic. Research and development room revealed on facebook.

Can't see this project ending well. Between the buying of pleb second hand industrial equipment and trolling peoples holiday destinations threads mike has clearly dropped the ball.

16 months till the plank is suppose to float and still no mention of a designer or anyone else apart from his boy doing the graphics and mike doing the engineering/"inventing".

I remember seeing these on TV before the Team America movie came out. I thought it was silly but my Mom told me these shows were a huge hit when she was a kid. I had no idea they were that old. It did make the TA movie more funny IMO.

Edit: WOW! I guess I should have read pages 3-18.

I'm skipping the crap in this thread and just jumped to the end. I grew up watching the Thunderbirds (and Fireball XL5) and think it's a great theme for a pin. But it looks like I can't get one here. Are there any pictures of the basic layout or anything yet? (Didn't see any on the homepin website.)

no pics yet, basically not much info has been released yet,
Hopefully Mike can chime in with some updates soon

Hi all,

First can I ask that "FatAussieBogan" respect the direct request from a moderator of this site (in fact directly above his post on this page) and refrain from making wild accusations and rumor mongering. "pleb second hand industrial equipment" - really? You just have no idea do you.......if this sort of comment continues this will be my last post here, I am far too busy actually DOING things to answer to such crap! Please tell us all exactly what you are doing to help the pinball community?

Back on track.

There is a great deal going on behind the scenes - it takes a massive amount of time, effort and money to get even the basics of a factory running before any manufacturing can happen. This has taken a large percentage of my time to date. We started from an empty shell and already have a functioning office and R&D department. Production lines will follow shortly. Currently there are 18 full time staff and several consultants on team. These people are both here in the factory and also in other countries and some are well known to you all.

We are still on schedule with this project (and several others) and my goal is still to have a machine ready for display in Australia at Pinfest in October 2014. I have stated this right from day one and hopefully I can still make that target. The finished machines will be shipping mid 2015 as per my licence agreement.

Regarding advance layouts and artwork I have explained this many times in the past and it seems I will have to repeat it here. It takes time and money to get licencing approval to release ANY licenced artwork publically - I do not wish to spend either the time or the money on this so I have instructed my staff to keep on with the design rather than worry about having things for "show and tell".

I have assembled a very talented team and I am choosing to NOT make this public. Certain things are "commercial in confidence" and this is one of them.

Negotiations are under way for distributors in various countries including the USA, terms of which are again, confidential but basically sort out the insurance issues that arose initially.

I hope to have some more solid information in the next month or so which I will post on my website and should include a preliminary layout but realistically it makes no difference if people see advance layouts or not. It will be the finished product that will either interest people - or not.

To those who continue to try and tear me down I say get out there and start your own pinball factory - do better than me and show everyone how great you are. To the vast majority thankyou for your support to date, we have several things in the works that will surprise many.

Cheers,

Mike

Thanks for the update Mike . Sounds like the factory is coming along nicely . Good news that you are in negotiations with a possible U.S. distributor as I believe there are many genuine buyers interested in Thunderbirds there .

Can't wait until Pinfest this year . I'll be first in line when you pull up to help you unload ( unless that older bloke from Kariong beats me to it .. lol ) . Really looking forward to the prototype and remember if you can't take it back with you then I'm more than happy to store it here for you .

Totally agree, I can't judge a machine by it's diagram at all.

Good on you Mike ... I look forward to getting a Thunderbirds in my gamesroom.

rd

Thanks for the update.

RD, I only just now realized I've been cutting myself short all these years! I need to start adding the 's' to my gameroom

Something I 'can' share is the diagram below (preliminary and subject to change).

The 12 volts 3 amp supply will be 100% independent from all other supplies and be rectified (DC but not regulated) and available to hook up mods, LED undercab lighting etc.

I hope other pinball manufacturers follow suit.

PowerTX_Preliminary_.jpg

Yes Don ....

One game = gameroom

Lots of games = gamesroom

rd

Since you have provided "customer mods" power source, I must assume you also provide a wiring harness for 115 vac bill acceptors?

Thanks for your comments Ken - all Homepin machines at this stage will be full commercial machines and so they will have all of the features that you would normally expect in such a machine including provision for coin mechs and note acceptors.

My mention above is of a feature we are including "from the design stage" that isn't (to my knowlege) found in currently manufactured machines.

It's not rocket surgery.

Too early in the morning for this silliness. I'll be back after I use my teethbrush.

Only 3 AMPS?!?! How will I connect my 1000 watt subwoofer??

Seriously, Mike, good work, I'm a fan of what you're doing and I'm enjoying seeing the facebook updates with the equipment rolling in.

Yes, great to see the factory growing and growing. Love the latest update on Aussie Arcade. That machine is awesome!

here is a snap from the video on the website and the page 2 of the brochure may hint to some possible features

screen-capture-28.png

screen-capture-29.jpg

Inline drops perhaps? That would be neat.

gr3.jpggr2.jpggr1.jpg

Love a good gamesroom.

I can, pretty consistently well. Gameplay is the #1 factor in my opinion of a game, not theme or bright LEDs or glued-on plastic toys, which seem to be predominant factors for many these days. (I grew up playing in the days when most games didn't have licensed themes and sold based on their fun factor alone.)

Doesn't matter anyway, I guess. The Pin Nazi has said "NO THUNDERBIRDS FOR YOU, AMERICANS!"

why did you have to ruin a perfectly rational and constructive post by being a prat at the end?

Don't blame the messenger. Homepin's own words led to this.

and you never had a dummy spit ever? its time to let go... draw a line .. move on.. He's even said there is a plan for a local usa partner ... I live in hope y'all (see what i did there ) ..might quit bringing it up all the time

Home pins chickens are coming home to roost. When a sycophant like fishy tales tells old mate mike his machinery looks old you know it's being done on the cheap. By his own admission the equipment is ten years old. Thunderbirds is promising to be better then coconut island but not as good as tumbleweed.

Hope I get the chance to play one on site but I can't see an op forking out dough on an outdated theme based on creepy man puppets, sorry marionettes.

Mike stick to being the crazy inventor and let someone else from your team handle the pinball public. Wish you all the best with your health.

Fact: All people from the US speak with a Southern accent.

see he gets it... bit of a stir and move on .. thats the way .. now we're having a laugh again and its all good.. No one stereotype can apply to all...

Looking forward to this pin!!

Nice work homepin.

A small update:

ITV - (the rights owners of Thunderbirds) have started to release new artwork getting ready for the re-release of Thunderbirds worldwide. This now allows us to move forward with some of the concepts we have been holding back on and complete a few key sections of the project. We have had to wait until this work was finished by them so that Thunderbirds Pinball could move into the next phase.

Although we have completed many parts we couldn't complete the "finish" on them due to updating of the entire colour scheme overall.

A bit of a glimpse at some changes of the colour scheme in the pic below.

newcolours.jpg

....and FatAussieBogan - I have asked you politely, please knock it off or do I need to ask the mods to ban you? Comments about my health and similar personal attacks I simply will not tolerate. It is not called for, is not constructive or in any way relevant to discussion and against forum rules.

I was really surprised from reading earlier part of this thread that the "no Thunderbirds for America" thing was stated. Besides seeming kind of silly (why cut off a potentially decent market?) I was disappointed because (depending on how it turns out) I think TB is a good theme for a pin (unlike some others here, I guess). So I was poking a bit of fun at what I perceive as the silliness of this attitude/policy, is all.

This isn't china old mate you can't have people banned for disagreeing with you. You reap what you sow. For someone who has an opinion on everything and everyone you are extremely thin skinned when the shoe is on the other foot.

You want to be with the big boys like jack and gary so put an end to your crocodile tears, inspire people with information that this isn't going to be a father and son home brew project and accept that when you endeavor on a venture like this it will generate discussion, positive or otherwise.

Hope you take these words in the right spirit and let them be a bridge over troubled water to you and they assist you in overcoming your biggest obstacle, yourself.

That darker color scheme looks very nice, better than the bright blue in my opinion.

Yeah that colour scheme is sweet! Very retro. Love it.

FatAussieBogan...I have no problem with you 'dissing' the theme or even my efforts - knock yourself out BUT I draw the line at PERSONAL attacks and insults. Just stop it.

You don't like the theme, you don't like what I am doing, you don't like ME! All of that is fine and perfectly OK - attacking me personally is NOT!

Do you actually understand that? How about you brush up on the forum rules, it has nothing to do with China but everything to do with behaving correctly on a public forum.

For the record my son is 33 years old and has his own graphic design studio in Guangzhou employing over 30 graphic artists. His main business is graphic work for Disney/Marvel - if that isn't good enough for you I don't know what would be?

You are jumping at shadows old boy. That's great that your boy is good at drawing. What I'd like to see is the involvement of pinball people in this venture cause after all this is a pinball. You are continually confusing observations and critique with personal attacks and this is why I think you are your biggest obstacle.

I also find that using caps lock makes your point more clear where it otherwise might not have got the reader's attention.