You are not alone. I reckon it's a great idea.

This should be on the marcet already. Pinball kits.

Heathkit

It's a good idea!

I've been saying to JJP and others for years. Mount the wiring harness so someone doesn't flip it the wrong way and let us do the rest. The price needs to reflect that it was a kit pin.

One hole would be,what if the builder hooked up something wrong and it blew out a board or something else. Who's held responsible? Does the game carry a warranty? What about tech support on a home build from a kit?

I always thought there should be a base game, then you add in options that you want. Maybe the base game would be X amount and if you wanted all the extras it could possibly cost 2K more when finished. The only thing is the code would have to support all options.

Would it work? Maybe

+1

At one point I even tried to talk one of the new pin companies into setting up a build school. You'd buy there kit and build it at the factory or possibly at possibly at a pin show. I think there be a huge interest for a factory guy on hand for a build school where you get to take that new game home with ya. This could avoid some issues with the build.

I would be all over it.
If I am not mistaken, Ben Hecks machine will be available as a kit.

Heathkit really did sell a Bally Fireball pinball machine back in the day.

1978

Pinball 2000 all over again?

Buy one machine and then just buy the kits if you wanted a new machine.

I would have liked to see how well this concept would have done over time.

Na, not the pin 2000 again, you'd build the game as a whole. Basically all the parts would be in a box and you assemble the game from the ground up. We'd have to remember there's a ton of little parts to assembling a pin but I for one would be up for it. What's the worst that could happen??

I would! I think if it offered a different type/style of warranty it could work....

JPOP had this option on his zombie game.
It's an extra $1000 and they send you all the parts and someone from Zidware comes and helps you build it (perhaps even JPOP himself, though that part was never promised).

It sounds like when I bought my lawn tractor. I could buy it assembled for X amount of dollars or on a crate in a box for a few hundred less. I opted for the assembled one in that situation because I feel 5 - 6 hours of my time was worth more then a few hundred bucks.

I love building and even taking things apart, but I know myself, I'd have to get alot more experience with pinball machines before even considering taking on something like this lol but would be fun and afterwards you would have a special pride in the machine you built.

Homepin announced that the new Thunderbirds pin would be available in a kit. But most every body on Pinside showed they were not interested, so Homepin obliged.

I feel the cost savings would have to be dramatic to equal the time and effort put in by the purchaser. So saving $500 off the retail price wouldn't be worth it to me. What do you value your time at??

Some of us would rather spend our time working on something than sitting in front of the TV. Nobody is paying you to do that.

You assume everybody sits in front of a TV with their spare time, maybe you do but some of us are more active and enjoy the outdoors. I like to spend some time moding my machines as much as the next guy but a big task like that would require significant savings to be attractive, to me at least. If you want to spend hours of your time to save a few hundred bucks, hey power to you, that's why it would make a really good option.

I assume nothing.

Ok

Speaking of which, I'm trying to break the habit of wasting time here.

LOL, good one. With karma like yours in less then a year with rating no games I wonder if you ever sleep?

Sleep might be a little over-rated.

I try to only hang here on company time

FYI...all of those neigh sayers were horses.

I've got time to kill at my job, thus the large amount of time spent here. And sleep was not over-rated last night.

If the NIB cost is 8k. How much would a pin kit, which is a box with all the pieces, cost? (Same pin)

Would be nice to know.

Probably 7k but when you have to assemble the machine you will wish you paid the extra 1k.

Of course by the time you assemble it the code will be finished so maybe saving the extra 1k is a good idea.

Realistically, I would think very few people want to assemble an entire NIB pinball machine. If I was the mfr, I wouldn't touch it. Liability, issues with people screwing it up, claims of missing parts (some bogus), having to provide a 1000 page self assembly manual, minimal incremental sales (if any... Really, tell me who isn't buying Star Trek solely because they can't get a bucket of parts instead of a complete machine?).

Also doubt there would be much of a discount for a kit. Stern would not save that much money. Don't think in terms of it not going down the production line. Think in terms of... Could they literally not have someone come to work because of the labor savings? Unlikely. In fact, the labor and special handling required to kit games in low volume probably exceeds the labor to fully assemble. They would have to create a complex assembly manual and count out every last screw and package appropriately to avoid damage. It would probably create more effort, not less.

Still 7k??

Really? Hmmm..... Then this would never be an option for me.

It's a good idea but I can't see any manufacturer offering it because support issues would be horrible for them. It's almost like going down the ikea route but it could take off. Who'd have thought folks would want to buy furniture in a box they have to assemble at home.

I agree, I'm not doing all that work to save 1k. In reality if you need to go to those lengths to save the money you really couldn't afford the pin in the first place IMO.

WTF is a neigh stayer? Someone who refuses to leave the barn??

I would love to build one but the price would have to be at least 25-30% cheaper and I would want the cabinet to be pre-decaled or printed.

Yeah I would do it if the wiring harness and data cards in the back box came fully assembled just to connect to eachother.

But I think the biggest issue about the idea is that if something with the kit your getting is wrong.
Lets say you assemble the whole thing and test it for the first time... like they do at the factory assembly line before they ship it to customers. And it turns out something is wrong, it's not your fault and you can't figure out whats wrong with it.
At the assembly line they often just put trouble machines in a corner and deal with them later...

Ofcourse they can build it up, test it, ok it works and take it all apart, box it up and ship it to you. But that would be even more expensive for them.

So why not just try buy a serious rep. object for a cheap price, take it completly appart and build it up again by restoring it back to it's original state.
Maybe you'll make some $ selling it on?