I opened up my box during tonight's stream.

First up were the Better Made Potato Chips. Apparently, they are a Michigan item I've never heard of. I look forward to trying them! Will they be this year's Dot's?
Next, I found a Michigan tumbler which will go into my state souvenir collection. Awesome!
Then I pulled out an Elvira fan. I'll have to practice my fan pop!
Up next is Cassandra Peterson's autobiography, "Yours Cruelly, Elvira," a book I definitely want to read!
In the bottom of the box was a sheet of Elvira cling decorations that will go with some of my artwork in the hall.
In a separate tube was a vinyl EATPM poster signed by Elvira. This will also go with my pinball artwork hanging in the hall.

Thank you, Secret Santa! I love it all!

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Love the cheer… Can’t wait until next year!!
Anyone else eagerly awaiting your recipient to post photos of their gifts?

Thank you Secret Santa Merry Christmas

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Better made has been making chips here in Michigan since 1930 , right in Detroit! The rainbow darks are one of my fav, found in every grocery, c-store, pharmacy, etc in the state. Enjoy those chips. My 10 year old was very upset when then stopped making the dill pickle ridged chips and switched to a different pickle flavor! Also..no , I wasn't your Santa.

That's exactly what his secret Santa would say!!

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Yes and at this point seeing how they log into pinside everyday I don't think mine is posting

Also waiting to hear.

Thank you to my Secret Santa. I had the joy of getting two different packages. I recieved the first one several weeks ago and opened it because it was marked lightly and didn't realize it was my gift. Fortunately I noticed it was marked 1/2. When the second one arrived, I was able to put it under the tree and open it. All of the gifts were so thoughtful and related to my machines. Take a look at the pictures and see all the wonderful gifts. My favorite was teh Brian Allen numbered Whitewater print. WH2O was my first machine and the only machine in my collection that will never leave. Well picked; this is a great addition to basement.

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Just tried the rainbow darks. Great potato flavor with just a touch of bitterness. Much better than Lays!

I would have loved to have tried the dill pickle!

I’m also waiting for my recipient to post. And I know the package was received.

Pinside Christmas day was here! Thank you to my secret santa! I got a few oddly specific things I don't know how he knew . . . I got a T shirt, cap, some cup holders, a work light (which I needed) and here's the weird part, a large can of cheese (which I unfortunately opened and tried before I thought to get a picture.) I love cheese and was very happy to try this new spicy one shipped right from the creamery in a refrigerated package, it's great!

Thank you Santa! I can't wait to do this again next year!

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The deal is, if you received a gift, you should at least post that you received the gift. That takes 30 seconds. Adding pictures and more comments is obviously optional, but a bonus for the person who spent the time and money sending the gift. If you don’t have the time to do so or you choose not too, you may not want to participate in this program. Merry Christmas everyone. Great gifts this year!!!

Actually, it's part of participating...

Well done, Secret Santa! I kid you not, but was looking at some sort of setup to help with soldering smaller parts the day before I opened this. This is perfect and the shirt is awesome, too. Thank you!!

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I pass through Niles every once in awhile! I will now have to look for these specifically. . ! ! It is so neat how some of these specific gifts will have us all looking for new things!

Woke up yesterday excited to open my SS gift. Our family hasn't really exchanged gifts for a while, so this is my only gift. I opened to box to find an envelope and 12 nicely wrapped presents.

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The envelope had some instructions and descriptions.

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I asked my wife to read the letter as I opened the gifts to make it a family event. The letter began:

"12 Days of Crazy Kaiju Christmas!
Happy Holidays Pinsder Wondermellon! My original intent was to have yogurt this in time for you to open one gift a day for the 12 days before Christmas. However, one of your items I ordered for you took a little longer than expected to get delivered so you might get this later than the 13th. So you might have to open a couple a day before Xmas. However its up to you can open in order one day at a time, or change order, or open them all up at once if you prefer! As you may have already surmised, I saw on Pinside that you were getting a Godzilla Pro (IMHO Stern's best modern game to date) so most of your gifts are themed appropriately

Gift #1: It's always good to put yourself in the right mood when opening gifts so enjoy when you open gifts. You said you were an 80's kid so you must have had a few of these back in the day. I know I sure did. This gift also includes treats for your feline friends since you said you were a cat person."

This turned out to be a bag of blow pops and cat treats. Awesome start!

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Gift #2: Here's a little something you can use if you need to order for any parts or supplies for any of your games. A lot of pinheads get gift certificates from friend/family so maybe you can piggyback this with one of those.

The present was a Marco promo code for free shipping!! Sweet!

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Gift #3: You mentioned you wouldn't mind something to hand on your wall. This signed time is from a classic game that you said was on your shortlist. It can be a reminder to "keep your eyes on the prize" when saving up for your next game. Of all the games this designer did, he said this was the best.

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OMG! A signed Monster Bash promo. My wife and I only first played this game about 5 months ago and she fell in love with it. This gift is Awesome!

Gift #4: These are super handy when shopping games out. Can never have enough of these around.

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Microfiber clothes! I have a few of these for cleaning cars, but this will be the start of clothes just for my pinball collection.

Gift #5: Finally, something specifically for your new Godzilla game! This little mod helps dress up Stern's somewhat weak attempt at a Xilien flying saucer pop bumper cap with a bit of blue fluorescent flair. Just unscrew the cap, put this in, then screw the cap back down. easy peasy lemon squeezy!

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This is a blue translucent disc for the pop bumper. Totally Rad!

Gift #6: Like item #4 you can never have enough of these lying around. Super handy when doing maintenance or adding mods. I have like a dozen of them and could still use more as I'm always misplacing them.

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A small magnetic tray. Description is accurate. I have a few of these and always need more!

Gift #7: Due to legal liability Stern must put an ugly epilepsy warning on all their games in the bottom center of the apron. This little graphic is theme appropriate for Godzilla and looks way nicer than an epilepsy warning. It's meant for the prem/LE metal apron as it's magnetic so just use a small piece of double-sided tape to stick on a pro plastic apron.

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I have been watching the Godzilla mods and this was on my list. So happy to have one!

Gift #8: Required viewing to learn all about Godzilla's humble beginnings before he became the international pop icon he is today. Get set of extra features. It's very cool to compare the American cut vs the original Japanese release

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A blue ray copy of Godzilla! I think I have only seen this movie once and that was when I was a teenager. My wife grew up watching the "zipper" movies with her dad on Sunday's. We are both totally pumped to watch this together.

Gift #9: Wise ancient proverb, "The journey of 1 billion points begins with the first push of a start button."

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An amazing 3d start button. I only started modding games with my SS gifts last year. Haven't tried a different start button. Stoked to see how this looks.

Gift #10: The new Godzilla game by Stern puts some annoying advertising about Insider Connected on the backbone speaker panel. Use this little mod to cover it up. Love the look of this logo

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Yes! The other magnet mod I was eyeing. And the best thing, no really installation required!

Gift #11: Here's a fun item you can keep on your bedside stand or on top of your game and an impromptu topper. Smack him on the head like King Ghidorah does and watch him change colors.

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A amazing Godzilla nightlight! Cool Beans!

Gift #12: This is the one that took a while to show up. Its something you asked for so I hope you like it. I use one on my Elvira and like how they look.

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A Godzilla printed blanket/towel thing for a dust cover. I have seen these on other peoples posts and they look so cool. I now have one of my own and it looks even cooler in person!

The letter concludes with
"If you enjoy at least half of the gifts I think I accomplished my goal. Anything you don't like you can re-gift to a pinhead friend. Merry X-Mas and happy holidays to you and your family"

Mr./Mrs./Ms Secret Santa, I loved ALL my gifts. Thank you so much for the thought and effort you put into your gifts. This is our first year as empty nesters as our daughter moved into her own place this summer. My wife and I love the gifts and you helped make this Christmas special!

And another thank you to Les Manley! Thanks for the hard work in putting this together every year! You help make the Pinside community very special.

Opened up my gifts and my Secret Santa knocked it out of the park. All awesome stuff! THANK YOU so much!

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I just wanna thank my SS for another stellar gift this year! This Full size Dialed in print is gonna get framed up and hung in the game room ASAP!And a guy Can never have to many socket sets! Merry xmas and happy new year to all the Pinside SS participants ! And a big thanks to LesManley for Again putting everything together!
Cheers to another awesome year of this and i look forward to the next one!!

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I’m late to the game here! My wife got the packages and hid them under the teee because they said Secret Santa.

Thank you Santa, got this awesome cup holder for Halloween,the Cannon Mod for my AC/DC, glow in the dark titans for the only game I don’t have titans on (not sure how you knew but it’s true) and an awesome protected driver for leg bolts!

What great gifts ans thank you!!

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I am also waiting on my Santee to post.

What is the brand of the socket? I'd love to find one of those.

https://www.pinballlife.com/soft-socket-58-no-scratch-socket.html

Dang, just got my order from pinball life Thursday, guess I'll get next time. Thx

LesManley thank you again. Such a great thing to do. This is the number 1 thing I look forward to every year!

One more followup, had some time tonight so I installed the temple mod on RBION, looks Great!
“The Temple Gate is Open”
Thank you again Secret Santa!

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That metal sign was from the KLOV Secret Santa exchange.

Ok, finally got around to opening my Secret Santa gift (it's been a looooong weekend). Like others have said about their secret santa, well done on the research my secret santa! I'm huge into classic Mustangs and I WILL eventually own a Mustang Premium, so the poster is fantastic. You can never have too many metal Mustang signs. And the Pac Man light is such a fun piece that will really add to the game room aesthetic. I love it all! Thanks again Secret Santa!

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Yay!!! Christmas came and it was FINALLY time to open my gifts. I had two packages from my Pinside secret santa this year. The 1st was one was SUPER thoughtful - a Gameboy Advance link cable, one of the few pieces of classic gaming equipment that has to date eluded me. I refused to pay exorbitant shipping prices for an eBay purchase on this little cable, so I'd been casually looking for years for one to appear locally at a game store or Goodwill. Looks like I can cross that one off my list now!

The 2nd gift is SUPER cool - Wonka Golden Ticket game! It'll collect nicely with my other Wonka memorabilia.

Thanks Secret Santa!

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Now the fun begins anew, plotting and scheming for next years SS...
Already got me some ideas from recent reveals here the last couple days!

Here's the contents of my SS shipment that literally came from up north. My UK package was actually a Lego set I ordered from a domestic company, but was fulfilled from the UK - odd.

I'll open these and post pictures in a few days. Wow, quite an assortment!

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Way ahead of you buddy! Lol

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Wow wow wow!
Secret Santa you are truly a legend! I was thrilled with my gifts, but number #6 blew me away!!

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I apologize for my delay, my gram came home from the hospital on Wednesday, and it’s been... a challenge taking care of her. She’s definitely milking it and enjoying every moment, she demanded I go out and get her ginger ale and orange soda at 11pm yesterday, lol. I can’t blame her, when you get to that age you stop giving a shit and you get a pass to send your family on silly errands.

Anyway, on to the gifts!

#1 didn’t expected TWO bags of Dot’s! I’m excited to try the southern style. Never had them!
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#2 I’m wearing right now! Always love pinball shirts!

#3 we all had a good laugh at this is one. Haven’t had a chance to try it yet, cute little thing!
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#4 Kept seeing all those really cool Artovision 3D shadowboxes people received for gifts, and was browsing them. Thanks so much Santa! Now I’ve got one, totally rad!

#5 the fiber was hilarious!!! My sister came over and asked “who the hell gives fiber for Christmas?!?” Very difficult to explain the joke for those not in the super cool Pinside club!

#6 WOW! You really went all out on that, so cool! I thought this sold out a while ago, so thank you for giving me such an amazing, generous gift.
One of the most iconic mechs in all of pinball, the spinning head of The Machine: Bride Of Pinbot!
This is the genuine, certified, penciled engineering drawing right from Williams! It’s a bit crushed, due to storage, but I’ve read many of the old stories. Basically all these really amazing pieces of pinball history got stuffed in boxes when they closed and a few incredible people condensed them all together to save as much history as possible.

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My lovely GF @mermink’s father does professional prints, framing & mounting for big art galleries and museums. He’ll be making sure to get all the proper archival materials to ensure this is flattened out and specially framed. It’s gonna be preserved and displayed proudly in my gameroom!

Really excited about this. You knocked it out of the park! I’ll post pictures later when it’s all framed up, and when I get the neato Attack From Mars shadowbox all setup in the gameroom as well.

LIONMAN! Thanks SS! Comet Warm Whites and MPU-200 NVRAM will go into a project real soon. And I’m the kind of person who can’t have enough tools because I am forever putting them down and they vanish before my eyes.

(I missed pics of the microfiber rags and I just got home from a 15+ hour drive, so apologies for that but thanks! I run through those things!)

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I actually won this in a pinball tournament and have been meaning to actually start it. Going to put it under my vegetable grow lights and see how crazy Bob Ross can get

Thanks to my SS, package finally got delivered. Some great concert posters for some of my games. The Rush is really old, before Neil Peart was on drums. Thanks again.

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Santa you genius you! What a phenomenal gift and kind letter, every item was PERFECT and the sweater has become an immediate favourite! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from this hap hap happy pinsider!

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Those Tokens are so cool! Ok whoever that SS is, can you please DM me where I could find these tokens, I love collecting them and I have several tokens that I put them on my Pinballs playfield glass as if people are waiting to play. Thanks!

I am not that SS, but I have tokens you may like. A machine I got earlier this year from an estate sale came with a bucket of them. PM if interested.

Thanks to my Secret Santa! Great choices and really appreciate the effort.

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Thanks again santa,

Put several of your gifts to good use today installing the gotg orb mod my wife got me. The magnetic rod came in super clutch when I dropped a screen and nut all the way back by groots head. I can't believe I didn't have one of these already, what a life saver. Magnetic dish was also super handy, and all of the wall art pieces have found their forever homes. Thanks again!

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Anyone still left? If so, obviously your SS will go on the naughty list next year..!

My Elves were slow to produce. My person will get his Monday at the latest. Shame on me and my elves.

The shipping delays where ridiculous, I mailed my package out on the 3rd and it arrived on the 24th.

The Elves Who Got Fired..

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Gift #2 arrived and is a pinball t-shirt with a nice design. I plan on wearing it on NYE over some thermals.

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