Welcome everyone to the official Secret Santa thread for 2022!

The name is Santa, Secret Santa! Since the last five years went off basically as smooth as OG Blofeld's head, I'll keep things nice and consistent for anyone who has participated before and not change anything. I closed the old thread since the registration time frame has now passed and I opened up this thread to keep things clean and streamlined. We can use this thread to post announcements, questions, updates, ship dates and of course to show off all our ill gotten booty that we receive from our secret santas. It's a been another crazy year, so let's really try to end 2022 on a positive note.

Here's how things are going to go. Tonight and early tomorrow I will assign everyone a number and go down the list and randomly draw a secret santa for every participant. I should have everyone's e-mail address, so I will send an e-mail to each person with the name and information I have for who you are to buy gifts for. If they gave me any gift ideas or a list of the games they own that they don't display to the public, I will include those as well. If you don't receive an e-mail from me by end of day, Nov. 16, please PM me. You then will have about a month to purchase gifts and ship them out to your SS. The cut off date will be Monday, Dec. 14th for shipping so all items have a chance to get there by Christmas Eve. You can and should ship them out much sooner as soon as they are ready to go though. The post office will probably be backlogged again this year, so don't wait till the last minute unless you absolutely have to! You can wrap the gifts individually if you want and send them in one big box or even have them directly shipped to your SS if you want to save some money that way. Please do not include your name on the return address no matter what method you choose, use the name "Pinside Secret Santa" instead. That way everyone will know when your package arrives and they won't know who it is from. When you do send your gifts, please send me a PM or e-mail with the tracking information so I can add it to my sheet and cross you off the list. When your SS package arrives, please post in this thread too so the sender knows you got it safe and sound, even if you don't intend to open for a while. People can be worried about porch pirates, so even if the tracking says delivered, your SS wants to make sure you got it and not someone else. And of course, this is an important one...after you open your SS package, post the money shots of all your goodies here and give a proper thank you shout out to your Secret Santa for doing their part to spread a little holiday cheer. If there is one thing we struggle with year after year, it's this. People can put a lot of time and effort into buying gifts and can be very proud of what they buy for you with their hard earned money, so please take a moment to post pictures after opening and say a quick thank you! You don't have to gush over everything and write a super long story, but please take a minute to acknowledge what you received.

Before the fun officially commences, we need to cover some basic ground rules...

*First off, this will be as fun as we make it. If we put in some effort, everyone should have a good time. Please check your SS's public game list on Pinside and the ideas they included (if any) and do some creative investigation. Maybe search their old posts, check out any pictures or their Pinside story if they have one.
You are free to buy what you want, you don't have to get anything that your SS may have suggested for gifts, but please just put the same amount of thought into your gifts that you would want someone to put into the gifts for you and things should be fine.

*On that note, please no public bitching on Pinside about what you receive, that isn't the point of this. This is supposed to be about giving, spreading some joy and adding a little of that childhood magic back into the holidays again. If you really wanted an official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle...but got a football instead...just be thankful for what you received or at least fake it like you would with your in-laws.

*The dollar amount you should aim for when buying gifts is at least $30. That is not a hard cap by any means. Tis the season, so you can spend as much as you feel comfortable with, but please at least hit that number value wise so no one is short changed from a dollar standpoint.

*I will keep track of who shipped packages and when they were shipped. I will send out a reminder to anyone I haven't heard from 1 week before the deadline, but PLEASE, be responsible and buy your gifts and ship them out before the deadline so we don't run into issues with having to track people down and recipients not getting packages in time. This will be especially important this year with the shortfalls USPS is likely to have.

*Finally, most importantly, No dead beat Santas. If you don't think you can fulfill your end of the bargain for whatever reason, please contact me and I can remove your name from the list now with no questions asked. Nothing would be worse for this than someone not following through and leaving someone empty handed. By participating, you are agreeing to be responsible and fulfill your obligation to the recipient. I know unexpected things can happen, so if a Santa runs into any issues, notify me immediately please. The sooner I am made aware, the sooner I can figure a solution to the issue. Once again, if a Santa fails to follow through, and does not contact me ahead of time (to solve the issue), I will have no problem outing them to the Pinside community and we all know how merciless this community can be. This is the only warning you will receive for this, so please let's not have to go there.

I think that about covers it. Any other questions, feel free to post in this thread or PM me and I would be happy to help. Let's raise those Marty Moose mugs, give 2022 a swinging paint can to the face and get ready for a better 2023 with the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny #%&$@ Kaye! Let Christmas begin!

2022 Secret Santas:

1 2Kaulitz
2 67cutlass
3 6point5degrees
4 acitti
5 adava
6 Aflacjack
7 amkoepfer
8 Apinjunkie
9 ArcadeTechNerd
10 ArcadeUpKeep
11 Asylum
12 Atari_Daze
13 atrainn
14 Axaios
15 balt
16 BertoDRINK1
17 bicyclenut
18 biglaw
19 bjab
20 Bmanpin
21 BoilerUp
22 bowtech
23 BroMan90
24 Ceckitti
25 Charliew65
26 Cheberha
27 ChrisPINk25
28 CoachBacca
29 Colsond3
30 Coz
31 Crispy
32 cws204
33 Daditude
34 Dan_Halen
35 DanielJDougherty
36 Dantesmark
37 davidlldennis
38 dddanielll
39 Dee-Bow
40 Demonstyl
41 dirkdiggler
42 dnapac
43 DocFinlay
44 docquest
45 drbrain
46 drewbo81
47 Dr-Tommy
48 EasternBloc
49 ElJefeSherpa
50 EternitytoM83
51 FamDocKevin
52 fastdatasci
53 FatPanda
54 Fezmid
55 FLASHBALL
56 freeplay3
57 Fulltilt
58 gamer-ace
59 Gexchange
60 gliebig
61 Gogojohnnyquack
62 GoldenBeard
63 grantopia
64 Gundam_Pilot_
65 Hadojae
66 hanford29
67 Happy81724
68 Hayfarmer
69 Haymaker
70 HighVoltage
71 hoby1
72 hogbog
73 homegameroom
74 icanswim70
75 illiterate
76 Insane
77 Ironphl
78 Isochronic_Frost
79 j_m_
80 JackG
81 Jaeg
82 Jawa
83 jazc4
84 Jenniebear
85 jesperpark
86 Jets_1479
87 Jimmyhonda
88 Jkush18
89 JNYRein
90 joefox22
91 jonnyqtrek
92 JordyRamone
93 jp1985
94 JRBBRJ
95 Judgeworm
96 K9Marshal
97 Karl_Hungus
98 KidRichard
99 Kkoss24
100 kool1
101 KSUWildcatFan
102 LesManley
103 Liftserv
104 lowbeau67
105 luckycreature
106 MacJedi
107 madamyates
108 Madsientist33
109 Mando
110 marioparty34
111 matiou
112 Mattyk
113 MC35
114 Mcshaney
115 Merendino
116 mickey
117 midcoastsurf
118 Miguel351
119 mikespins
120 Mitoska
121 Mitoska (Son)
122 Mjonesproperty
123 Moelabby
124 Mopario
125 mrSATURN2012
126 Mrsiyufy
127 Mtg381
128 Mudflaps
129 Mundy53
130 NeilMcRae
131 northerndude
132 northvibe
133 NovaCade
134 Nstone4425
135 Number41
136 Numskul
137 Octomodz
138 pacmanretro
139 Palmer
140 PappaDubz
141 Parzival
142 paulbaptise
143 paynemic
144 Pdxmonkey
145 Percula
146 Petie423
147 Phat_Jay
148 Pin_Fandango
149 Pin4myboy
150 pinballjah
151 pinballjah (2)
152 Pinballlew
153 Pinballmonkey
154 PinBall-Newbie
155 PinBobF
156 PinPickle
157 Pintor
158 PlanetExpress
159 play_pinball
160 PoMC
161 Ponzie
162 Propsnsports
163 Puffdanny
164 Purplecheesemonk
165 radfordian3505
166 radial_head
167 RC_like_the_cola
168 RCA1
169 redman822
170 Roberto_tron
171 RobertWinter
172 robnotto
173 rockwell
174 Saltimbanco
175 scootss
176 Secret Santa
177 ShooterMcD
178 ShrinerDave
179 sidetrackedbrew
180 SKWilson
181 SkyKing2301
182 slghokie
183 Sloshy
184 smalltownguy2
185 Soapman
186 somenerd
187 spida1a
188 Spunky1562
189 Staythirsty
190 SterlingRush
191 Steve_d71
192 stubborngamer
193 tbutler6
194 ThatGuyBo
195 the96stang
196 thedarkknight77
197 Thegeekyhusband
198 TigerLaw
199 Tlw7409
200 toasterman04
201 Tomass
202 TonyScoots
203 TonyVrd
204 TreyBo69
205 TroyS
206 Tusken
207 twinmice
208 undrdog
209 vabeachrunner4
210 wamonkey
211 waymon
212 wesh
213 WindRaidor
214 wireable
215 wolffcub
216 ypurchn
217 ZEN
218 zenbone

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Still working through these. Had some more people late to the party, up to 218 now. They should be finished up by late tonight, so everyone should have an e-mail by morning.

Send me a message if you want in. I'm still sending out SS emails throughout the day today, so I can get you in.

They're coming. We're up to 220 now and this is taking forever, so don't fear if you still haven't got your email yet. I'm continuing to send them out tonight and should be finished late tonight. I will post in this thread when all the emails have gone out so everyone can double check and make sure they have theirs.

Ok...that's all of them. 220 Pinsiders total blew out last year's total participants. Everyone should have an e-mail from me now with their information. If I didn't have your e-mail you will have a PM from me on Pinside. A couple people have said that their SS information on the bottom was cut off when viewing the e-mail on their phone. If that is the case, it will show up on a tablet or PC, not sure why a few phones don't display all the info. If anyone doesn't see their e-mail/PM please let me know right away and I will track it down. Any problems, please let me know as soon as they come up so we can find a solution. That's it. Remember the rules about letting me know when you ship, posting when your package arrives and most importantly after you open your gifts. Now it's up to you all, have fun with it and happy hunting!

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Love the DataEast Shoot Out pics and cool to see you still have yours too. Brings me back to when we were talking about scanning the art practically 10 years ago now. I see you don't have the side art on it. I have NOS side art for it that I haven't applied, not sure if I had it way back when we were talking before.

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Either way is fine with me.

I don't think so. Now if you had drank half of that already (alone), that might be...

A box showed up today from JJP with my name on it. I didn't order anything so it has to be Secret Santa related. I always wait to open so I have something fun to open on Christmas Day, so this will go under tree...as soon as I put it up.

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That boombox from New Wave Toys is badass.

https://newwavetoys.com/products/m90-mini-blaster

They make some amazing replica products. It's all so incredibly detailed and fully functional. I have a Space Ace arcade game coming from them sometime in Q1 2023 that I have had on pre-order since March.

https://newwavetoys.com/products/space-ace-x-replicade-overhaul

I appreciate the thought, but in all fairness he did PM and ask me if I minded if he posted that in the thread. I thought it was a fun little gift idea option for people if they wanted so I didn't mind.

I am truly speechless. Something arrived for me today that is so beyond even my wildest fantasies that I honestly am still in disbelief over the whole thing. I need to collect myself and finish work meetings this afternoon, but rest assured I will be following up. I've never had anyone do anything even remotely like this for me before and I am truly humbled. I didn't expect anything like this. I try to lead by example and teach my kids to be appreciative of the things that people do for you and/or give to you. I want them to realize that no one has to do anything for them, so they should always be thankful no matter what. That said, this is uncharted territory for me. I don't feel worthy of this and I don't know where to begin other than to start by saying THANK YOU to anyone who played a part in this. Much more to come on this.

Ok, I've had a lot of people ask me and it's close enough to the end of the day here now. My head is still spinning, but here it goes. I had Zach from Flip N Out pinball reach out to me and say that he had someone who wanted to send me a shirt and a mod for the Pinside SS and he needed my info. I thought that was really nice and I gave him my shipping info. He said it should be here Friday. Fast forward and I get a call from FedEx saying they wanted to schedule a delivery for me. I didn't understand why they would call for a delivery, until they said they had one 370lb pallet to deliver. Needless to say I messaged Zach back and asked if that was serious and he said it was and that he was just a good elf doing his job for Santa. So today the FedEx truck pulls up and the driver opens the back door and I almost fell over when I saw the box. Not only was it a brand new pinball machine, it was a Toy Story Collector's Edition pinball machine. I've had a lot of pinball machines in my life time, but never a NIB one. In fact, the vast majority of them I got were only because I was able to get them cheap and through patience, be able to trade up for other more expensive ones. And now with prices like they are, I honestly never thought I would be able to experience opening a NIB pin at this point. Whomever you are, you made that dream finally happen. I can't begin to thank you enough for this and honestly it all still feels like a dream. When I get it inside and setup I will definitely take more pictures and add more to the story. I just wanted to get this out there for everyone who was curious. There are honestly some amazing people on this forum, I can't believe I was the recipient of something like this. Thank you again!

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Zach said he was fibbing about the t-shirt and mod when I had messaged him back. Needless to say, I was totally okay with that.

I reached out to the SS already. Hopefully he just forgot to pack it or something. I'll update you as soon as I know.

Could...not...resist...

Talked to his SS. He thought he packed it, but is going to look around. If he can't find it, he said he will send another.

This is very important. Also remember that your gifts may arrive in multiple packages on different days, so be on the lookout. Just because you got one gift already doesn't necessarily mean that will be the only gift.

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Today is the day to ship everything out by. If you can't ship today for some reason, just let me know. Communication is key. For anyone still waiting to receive a gift, don't panic. A TON of people wait to ship until yesterday and today. For some it's because they were waiting on things, for others it is a way to help ensure that their recipient waits until Christmas to open gifts.

...and PLEASE...if your gift(s) have arrived make a quick post to say you got them if you are waiting to open. There are some worried Santas that are afraid porch pirates may have gotten to them first if they don't see a post from you.

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I did. I had to move a game out to make space and I have been using the new found temporary space to get easier access and work on a few of my other games before officially sliding TS4 into it's permanent spot. I'll get some pics uploading of it in at least in it temporary spot.

I'm stuck at my in-laws but I wanted to make a few posts before I get home to say thanks. First post is a little update on the toy story 4. Here's it's eventual space and some unboxing pics. I've never seen radcals before. I didn't realize how thick they were. Pretty nice. And I do have to say I think this game is the heaviest game I've ever messed with...and I have a Jersey Jack pirates and I've had a Star Trek next generation. I think I honestly hurt myself trying to set it up. After opening gifts today, I'm really glad I kept that space open because I have even more work to do on my pirates and guns and roses now after the secret Santa gifts. . Some gameplay pics to come when the family gets back from Christmas break. Thank you again SS for the amazing gift! I'm still blown away by it.

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The next Secret Santa gift was a JJP palooza. Actually most of them were JJP paloozas now that I think about it. I got a guns n' roses banner, a guns n' roses Jersey Jack pinball shirt and a JJP pinball shirt. This banner is huge. Something's going to have to come down off the wall so I can make room for it. Decisions, decisions,.decisions. I love the shirts too. They will definitely get worn. Thanks again for the great gifts!

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Finally, the last part of my JJP palooza. I got the jack the monkey mod and the hangman mod for my Pirates of the Caribbean, along with art blades for GNR, some stickers and a really nice card. It's so much fun to have people put personalized thought into gifts every year. I love the mods. I will get them installed this week during some downtime. I'm so glad I didn't put toy story 4 into it's permanent spot since I have even work more to do on pirates and guns n' roses now and I really don't want to hurt myself any further moving it around. TS4 is going to look real pretty once it gets there though. Gives me even more motivation to get everything done as fast as possible. Thank you again SS!

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I was just at Target admiring that the other day. I had never seen it before. Thought it was pretty cool for how detailed it was and it still transforms even.

Hi everyone, now that we are a few days past Christmas it's time to wrap things up from a logistics stand point for SS 2023. In order to do that, please let me know via private message...

*if you have NOT received any gift(s) up to this point.

*if you have sent out a gift that the tracking shows that it hasn't been received yet.

I need this information to communicate delays if there are any that I don't know about to this date and/or track down missing gifts.

Also, this is just another reminder to PLEASE take a second to post pics of your gifts and say a quick thank you if you have opened your gift(s). You don't have to write paragraphs gushing over them if you don't want to for whatever reason, but please post a picture of the gifts and at least say thanks to acknowledge the effort. If you are still waiting to open for whatever reason and have not yet posted that you have at least received your gift, PLEASE do that as well so people at least know they were received and that they don't need to worry.

Thank you again to the vast majority of people who participated, put a lot of thought into the gift giving process and followed directions along the way. It is much appreciated by everyone and it really helps to make this program so special year after year.

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Okay, now that I'm back from the in-laws and things have settled down a little bit, I wanted to post some more pictures of the unboxing and the setup of toy story 4. The game is absolutely beautiful. The sparkle on the playfield looks so nice. The powder coating job is really sharp looking on the game. I haven't even taken any of the protective material off anything because it looks so nice and I want to keep it that way. The coin box came with a bunch of rubbers, some extra plastics, several magnetic pricing cards and some extra figures as you can see. I still haven't moved it into its permanent spot so I haven't added the topper yet, it's heavy enough to move on its own as it is. I'll hopefully finish adding the other stuff I got for Pirates of the Caribbean and Guns and Roses from Secret Santa and then get this baby in it's final resting place and the topper on. One other fun thing is that this game was made on November 22nd and my birthday is November 26th so we were almost born on the same day. I can't say thank you enough for this amazing Secret Santa gift!

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Here's another fun little update. I was thinking about what I could do for the custom image screen on TS4. I remembered back to our family trip to Disney World about 5 years ago now to a picture that was taken on the Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin ride with my son. He had done the pirate makeover before the ride so that's why he was decked out as a skeleton pirate in the picture. I figured this was perfect for the custom image screen, so I went ahead and added it and made the pin even more fun and personal for the family. I always loved this picture, from his skeleton pirate look to my intense focus while shooting aliens during the ride.

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Your SS was still waiting on a part of the gift to arrive when I talked with him on Dec. 29th. He said he would reach out to you personally if need be, but I didn't want to break the "secret" part if we didn't have to. I'll get an update from him.

Just a quick message to all. I have been messaged that a few Secret Santas are going to be sending out some additional fun gifts to their recipients soon. They just wanted to do it for fun and thought it would be good to have a message here posted to potentially be on the lookout and maybe give some inspiration to others to send out a follow up gift to keep the spirit going. Nothing required by any means, but if you have the means and opportunity and want to do that as well, please feel free! Thanks again to everyone who helped make the 2022 Secret Santa program special!

As far as I know, no one got stiffed. There were a couple of people that I talked with who were disappointed in the effort that their SS put into it this year though.

Kids got in a few games of Toy Story before their competitiveness took over and derailed things. I have no idea where they get that from. Seriously though, the game is great for kids, fun and very approachable for them. Proud moment too when they came downstairs to play it unsolicited while I worked on other games. When they were done I finally moved it into its permanent home next to it's JJP brothers.

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That is awesome...both posts! This thread gets a little buried in my history a couple months after Christmas and I didn't see this until now. Pretty fun to see new posts here in April!

Nice! Won't be long now and SS 2023 will be upon us. I plan on opening things up the week before Halloween so keep watch on this thread if you are interested for this year.

Registration for Pinside Secret Santa 2023 is now open...

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinside-2023-secret-santa-program-sign-up-through-nov-13th

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