Andrew, have you, Kevin Kulek and John Popadiuk ever gotten together and had a big circle jerk session with each other? I bet you would make each other smile.
QSS

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Include Barry, Jaap and Phil from Dutch pinball as well.

Ha, I understand that comment. Priceless!

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Do you listen to Kaneda’s Pinball Podcast?

I completely agree. If Andrew does this interview, he is going to bury himself. Another very, very poor decision on his part.

Have at it Andrew.

Question to Martin:

- Are you planning to interview former HP employees as well ? (probably better if not at the same time...)

Martin-
Last request. Can you reach across table and check his pulse. Curious if he has a heart?

check this out to see how much of an abusive scumbag he is...

http://www.pinballinfo.com/community/threads/new-heighway-owner.36701/page-19

He's a master manipulator and the thread Neil just shared shows how this sociopathic git will ruin lives for his interests. This interview is for his gain otherwise he wouldn't do it so why allow him a platform at all when we know he will bs from start to end?

However if it's going to be a brutal public flogging seeing Andy dragged across the coals then I'm all for it but the interviewer must have a solid backbone and not let Andy charm his way out as he turns himself into a poor victim owed money but the big bullies that ejected him out after all his hard work etc...

yes because the man is stupid.

What the whitewood was lacking at that point was the VUK to the left side that would have balanced the Y-ramp and provided the flow to the left side. It would have been fed via a subway from three points: from the main scoop, from a trap door that would open, and from a diverter in the left orbit. I was deliberately trying to make something different from the usual fanshot flow, but it was a complicated way of going about it for a first attempt and 'different' doesn't always mean 'good' (although JJP Pirates is a supreme example of the same principle done right). Making the X-ramp was absolutely the right thing to do to the game later.

I still think Circe's Animal Alehouse would have legs as a more unique style of limited-run game aimed at collectors, but only if - IF - the game is pitched right, which it never was. The mythology aspect should take more of a back seat to the wackiness and the characters having fun, and it should be presented in simpler, high-concept terms with more visuals to look at.

Is his favorite television show “Highway to Heaven” starring Michael Landon?

E38D7280-D34F-4ADD-A3BC-93E8381F4142 (resized).jpeg

Daves Go Fund Me:

https://www.gofundme.com/dave-sanders-fund

Hopefully it will go past the £1000 mark and a lot further..

Wow that forum is madness, Staff says they are not Pinside, as if being Pinside is a bad thing, and threatens to moderate out of seemingly fear of Andrew. WTF

Ask him "where do we send our money now"?

"Do you truly believe Heighway Pinball was successful when sold?"

"Have you got any Australian companies funding your ship project"

A Lot of Brits Don’t like some aspects of pinside, like the idiotic jokes and slagging off of other countries like on this thread,

But we realise that with such a large population, you will have a lot more dick heads, so hey ho. Also you don’t like it when people take the rise out of you, which is very hypocritical but makes life fun for us, as we can have a good laugh at you.

I love pinside it’s great fun, with mostly good guys and lots to laugh at

You do understand that Pinside is not based in the USA...

Glad to hear you love Pinside as do we all!

It's easy to understand how lots of people make that mistake though, I'm sure the membership covers most of the globe but the % of US based must be very high?

No I didn’t know it wasn’t based in the US, and I do like pinside a lot, even the Lucas jokes which are true but from over forty years ago, so you have to be reasonably old in the Uk to get those jokes.

Some businesses fail! Good on him for having a go I say.
Nothing ventured nothing gained. Wish I had the balls to do it.
Maybe if he had made Circe's Animal House first it may have been a different outcome?
Sorry for the people who bought sight unseen, silly buggers!
Is there still hope for Alien to pre-orderers?

1. Do you look in the mirror at all?
2. How do you sleep at night?

Donated. Dave's story posted on Pinballinfo.com is awful. I won't stand for stories of employees not being paid and taken advantage of because they are trapped in a situation.

Let's share this link and see if we can help Dave get on his feet somewhere.

Agreed, feel free to post on any other relevant forums.

gofundme just hit 1000 pounds! in 2 hours.

https://www.gofundme.com/dave-sanders-fund

Awesome, keep it going guys!

Quite a few in the UK knew all about what he was doing to Dave, and how others had been promised pay and remuneration and then promptly left when that didn't materialise. Some of them cheering him from the sidelines, and continually defending him.

But that was when they thought they could get a machine with a theme they wanted.

The whole situation is shameful.

If you are not willing to ask him the hard questions and record his response, or lack of, please don’t bother. He deserves hard questions with facts to back them up.

Does he sleep with one eye open?

Why on earth would you try to resurrect a hydrofoil business that failed long ago?

What was the starting capital that you (or investors) put into Heighway Pinball at the foundation of the company?
Where did that investment come from?

What financial/business advice did you receive before starting Heighway Pinball?
Who did you receive that advice from?

Why were the prices for a machine in the UK so high compared to the US? Especially seeing as they were manufactured in the UK.
Do you feel this alienated the UK market?
Or did you feel that because so many people had had poor dealings with you in the past, that they wouldn't buy from you anyway?

What were the projected sales of Full Throttle?
How many Full Throttles actually shipped?

What were the projected sales of Alien?
How many Aliens actually shipped?

At what point did you first realise that there were financial difficulties?

What did you receive in the sale of Heighway Pinball?

There seems little point asking what happened to the money? How can you sleep at night? Or answering questions that we already know the answers to. etc. etc. We want to hear real FACTS.

There is also no point in him making excuses about manufacturing delays, or quality issues from suppliers, the crippling rent for a factory WAY bigger than needed. These are to be expected with any manufacturing business, and should be factored in to any decision making.

I do not think that Andrew set out to defraud or commit any scam at any point. I think that he is incredibly naïve/stupid when it comes to financial matters (as has been demonstrated in many other areas away from HP which don't need going into here), or running a business. As the bank balance diminished, I'm sure he was thinking along the lines of "If I can just get x amount of money, I'll be able to get this sorted and start shipping games, paying suppliers, paying employees, etc. etc. The same way that a gambling addict keeps betting more and more money chasing the big win that will solve everything - until they're completely in the $h!t.
I would seriously recommend that he gives up on trying to run any business, waiting for the 'next big thing' but rather go and get a job working for someone else where he has no say in decisions made which could impact on the future of the business - as let's face it - his track record leaves a lot to be desired.

That's true. Non of the staff at Heighway Pinball would've worked for a crook in any capacity. He was just an incompetent businessman who over promised and under delivered. I'm seeing it all over again with this HydroFAIL malarkey. I really have to question the intelligence of rich investors. Why? Why would you give this man money!!?

Because a lot of Australians undoubtedly have very strong emotional (nostalgic) connection to those boats flying across the harbor. Much like the emotions many Americans have towards pinball machines. He can raise funds from nostalgic folks, while living on the other side of the planet from them. It's the same fraud, just a different product that is being marketed (both products that Andrew is unqualified and inexperienced, as an executive, to deliver).

My questions are for the folks who have been swindled (either as: employees, landlords, customers, suppliers, investors...).

Have you contacted the attorney general's office of your state or a federal prosecutor (for US)? This is an apparently open-and-closed case of fraud (domestic to the UK, and international). I'm sure any competent investigator will find massive evidence of fraud, if this investigated. I don't know the structure of the legal system in the UK, but there is undoubtedly a prosecuting entity in the criminal-justice system that needs and wants to know about this man. You pay your taxes to pay these folks to arrest people like Andrew. Let them know he has done this. There are even more potential victims in Australia right now. It likely won't fix the damage that was done to most pinball folks, but at least future victims may be protected.

Because he's selling something that they want, passionately. And because he has not yet been arrested for fraud.

I don't think that's the view of all your ex colleagues, at least not anymore.

Sheer incompetence cannot possibly explain all the reports of fraud of varying kinds, abuse, threatening behaviour, constant & often unbelievable or totally conflicting lies, and apparent theft / sale of stolen goods which we are now hearing about.

There's no way you can put that down to naïveté. You don't accidentally do these things because you're not the world's greatest managing director. There's no chance whatsoever he could have got away with all this for so long without knowing precisely what he was doing.

See the leverage he's still trying to exert on Dave**, that's not incompetence, HE'S ABUSING AND MANIPULATING A VULNERABLE PERSON STILL. It's outrageous.

**part of which is almost certainly to try to get Dave to spill the beans on anything he may know about legal action the investors are taking against him - hence why he's so interested in what they're doing, aside from any finance agreements he may have signed in his own name (allegedly using company funds)

Like the majority of others involved, collectively the staff probably didn't want to believe it was as bad as it was, he was what he is, and were either in denial, despaired, or were threatened into acceptance or silence.

Or maybe he'll dramatically clear his name and find explanations for all these victims of his actions that, it would now appear, stretch back to before he even returned to the UK and started Heighway Pinball. Pigs might also fly.

Martin. Don't do it. Cancel the interview. Don't give this scumbag a platform. Nothing good will come of it. The best way to quash his ego is to ignore him.

Martin, tell Andrew that based on Counsel, you have been advised not to hold a Q & A session with him at this time.

MrBally
of COuNsel

I'm sorry but thats incorrect.

For a long time, there have been rumors and stories about how Dave was taken advantage of because of his disability.

I'm saddened to hear from Dave's posts that everything I heard is true.

To me, that is one of the highest offenses. I'm so mad I don't know what else to say.

It makes no difference where Pinside is based. The majority of the members are based in the US.

There is also a larger number of users than most/all other forums, so there will be a larger number of d!ck heads - it just seems that there is a larger PROPORTION as well, which are rarely moderated as strongly as other forums.

1. Did you receive compensation from HWP while there? What kind?
2. Did you have staff working on HWP projects for compensation other than direct wages?
3. Did you have staff working that did not get paid wages? What is your response to the claims and suit that say otherwise?
4. How do you settle for yourself the leader taking compensation when the workers were not getting paid?
5. What was your personal investment into the initial hwp?
6. What is it you claim hwp still owes you?

If I may be so Rude To Intrude(tm), I'd like to suggest that as a long-time reader of Pinside, and poster in Pinballinfo, that the difference is not a judgement of merit but of demographic difference. Pinside is an excellent resource and I read it a huge amount, but what works here would not work in Pinballinfo and I think I can suggest why.

Being UK-focused, and remembering the size of the UK compared to a global forum or just the US alone, most of the posters over there know the names and faces behind all of the other accounts. It's a different ball game altogether having a major spat if you're all likely to meet up in a couple of weeks for a tournament, a swap meet, a machine sale/trade or just playing as buddies. I know from decades of being online that it changes the attitudes on forums immensely.

Being 'afraid' of Andrew is probably the wrong sentiment, but not unfair I suppose. Disturbing details are still coming out, we're hearing from someone vulnerable that is still in contact with Andrew, we know how our legal system can be used as a weapon for vexatious claims without evidence, especially on the claims of libel which, I'll be fair, are complete crap in the UK - all of us in the UK potentially have personal skin in the game so we have to be careful.

Plus, good old British attitude differences doesn't help either, haha.

As much as I have a few words to say to him based on what we've heard from David, I think the interview should go ahead. If the interviewer handles it competently and asks the questions needed (and if Martin does it then I'm sure it will be done very well,) it will serve as a permanent record of Andrew's true self and his attitude. It becomes immune to hearsay down the line. That's important to have.

Here is a Dollars to Pounds conversion tool if you chose to donate.
https://www.dollars2pounds.com/

Guy's, just a wee word to thank you all in relation to supporting Dave, he's had basically a non existing life with HP under the so called management of AH. I really respect those who look after their own, you guy's are a credit..take a bow....As for Mr Heighway, the only thing I have to say is, There are 2 arseholes in Wales, and he's both of them.....

Andrew Heighway with his hydrofoil reminds me of the monorail guy from The Simpsons, except Andrew is a lot fatter and uglier.

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Wow....I think you really missed the point. People did play the game. He lied to a ton of people and no chance for pre-orders to be filled. Good job man

Not a question but would like to see HP bank balance charted monthly from 2011. No company would provide this but Andrew was the only one in a position to know this and it might jog some of Andrew's faulty memory.

I'm a little concerned Andrew will see this gofundme money as a gold mine. With his apparent manipulation of Dave in the past, is there anyone in the UK who can help ensure the money stays with Dave?

This is the most intriguing question.

This sounds like it's going to be a very soft "interview", essentially between two friends, and basically a platform for AH to throw around more legal threats, avoid addressing anything that could remotely incriminate him, or just flat out ignoring anything that he doesn't have an answer for.