Hi All, thanks to John for pinging me, did not realize the thread restarted. For those who don't know me, I'm Darren, the guy that created Pinball Armor and still holds the patent. Folks are correct… Really had to put the fire suit on in the early days as my product was labeled as "overpriced" and a "glorified barbecue cover" by plenty of people. But I was okay with that, as a collector 1st that moves more than I would like because my day job, the product did everything I needed. And there was a great subset of customers that loved it as well, which provided great validation, even if I wasn't making any money. We partnered with Stern to produce a run. We tightened up the tolerances to more snugly fit the Stern head, which in hindsight was stupid, because they are too tight for Williams/Bally machines. Oh well, hindsight is 2020! Also, we always manufactured domestically, thinking that "Made in the USA" would resonate with the community. I think it did, but it also devastated the business model, as people rightly cited above that all I heard about was complaints about pricing.
Here's the simple quick and dirty: if someone wants to pick up and run with this, I'm happy to consider selling the patent and transferring my knowledge for a nominal fee. I may have a few extra head covers and leg bags in my basement, plus my full inventory for my games, so there is a few pieces that would accompany. I have a decent list of individuals that have asked me to produce another run which I could also transfer. I would also consider trading everything I previously stated for a game or 2 depending on title and condition.
In the end, I would love to see my product live on, and if I could get a little something out of it, full transparency, that would be nice. The entire journey was incredibly validating in the sense that I actually made something that people liked but financially it never worked out. We spent a fortune on the patent and maybe we were just ahead of our time. Perhaps now it would work.
Probably not my most well thought out post, but this was my quick data dump!
Best,
Darren
Houston, TX
