Last call for NZ orders ... you have till 10pm tonight to let me know what you want.

Dave.

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That’s exactly where I am. It’s almost $9900 and I love the passion at Spooky. I want to support them. The people are awesome and they are going to go the extra mile to make the best game they can.

Asking us to buy without seeing how the game plays is not a win-win situation here for me. It’s a blind faith purchase. The odds of which are good, though it’s still a risk. I’m going to gamble and say I’ll be able to pick up a Halloween CE used for about $8k in two years. If not, I’m okay. I’m just not going to gamble as there is no main toy and not being able to visualize if I will love it by that gameplay footage is an issue for me with Halloween. Same issue with Ultraman though speculation says it’s going to command more money than what it costs me to purchase today and I could potentially own for free, sell someday and pick up a Halloween.

The downside is Ultraman is likely going to sell out and command higher pricing on the second hand market. So, if I really wanted it, I feel I have to buy it today.

What if Halloween doesn’t sell out? When are non CEs made? Are they going to wait until all 1250 games are sold before a BS or SE is put on the line?

Exactly- no cynicism needed.

Why no gameplay stream?

what is the additional decorative toy on the CE .. sorry if i missed it amongst the hyper posting?

Filters out the unworthy.

Pay $40 for the right to buy the game

Show no gameplay footage

Knife covering the shooter lane for Halloween and science patrol plane on upper playfield of Ultraman.

Protest with your wallet.

$45 the privilege of buying early. You can still buy without a membership.

Are there any advantages to buying directly from Spooky bs buying from a Spooky dealer?

Good luck today for Spooky and hope everyone who wants a game will get one. I hope to play a Halloween and Ultraman on location in the future. Looks like a lot of fun.

Why no gameplay stream?

Knife on shooter lane I believe

If spooky doesn't do enough business in your state, then it is up to you to be an obedient taxpayer and pay your fair share to the government for allowing the transaction to happen.

Delivery and install options if close enough
After hours tech support (for the most part, this currently done by a spooky distributor, not by the company)
Trade in ability
Ability to build a relationship for other gaming options (different vendors, different styles of games, etc)

Gotcha so if I go through a dealer (even though TN is not one of the states mentioned by Spooky) the dealer will not give the option but rather assure this tax is paid I assume?

Any operators hesitant on putting Halloween on location? Game will probably have a non-adult mode but knives everywhere in the art and topper.

We ordered R&M direct from spooky and because they do so much business in OH they withheld the tax for me and presumably remitted to my state.

I think distributors have it the same. Once you cross a certain dollar threshold in a state you must start collecting and remitting taxes to that state.

I'm not sure why people are having such a hard time with this. You are not being forced to buy into the Fang Club to purchase. A perk of the Fang Club is the ability to order 2 weeks before it is officially for sale to the public. You are not being forced to buy without seeing gameplay footage as the game is not yet available for sale to the public. I am fairly confident (and if I'm wrong, I'm wrong) that there will be gameplay footage available by the official public on sale date.

Now realistically, yes, Spooky has grown popular enough that there is a very real chance that they will sell out to the Fang Club members ahead of the public sale date. That is a risk you need to decide whether or not to take. That really isn't Spooky's fault...it's "ours". This was a nice thing Spooky decided to do for our benefit to give us enthusiasts a better shot at getting one as opposed to those nasty muggles. Those that are scrambling in just the last couple days to get a membership really aren't using the perk as intended. You shouldn't be trying to buy yourself a shot...you should be a fan of the company enjoying an extra perk. They probably should have shut down membership purchases about a month ago to avoid this, but imagine the complaining if they would have done that!

Spooky, and really all of the manufacturers, are just always in a no-win situation, aren't they. There is just no making everyone happy.

Best of luck to everyone buying today (for the right reasons, F you to the scalpers hoping for a quick flip).

Yes. Halloween just won't earn at our location. We have as many adults as kids, but the theme just doesn't work for us. Casual customers just don't drop coins in the creepy titles and hardcore pinball fans don't pay the bills. Very glad they are also doing Ultraman.

Sure, but if they get lots of demand, they've effectively changed it from a fan club for us long-time Spooky die-hards to (at best) a $45 adder to the price and (at worst) a raffle ticket for a shot at buying the game. If the next game is one theme (rather than two) I think it'd be good to at least limit the Fang Club memberships sold to the number of machines available.

It won't be long now for many...

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I get what you are saying, but how do they turn that back around? It's an awesome perk of the club to have early access. Do they take that away now and have no "loyalty program" available? Is it better to be F5'ing (yeah that's a verb now, LOL) against everyone rather than just other club members? I honestly don't know. I'm just bummed to see so many people assuming there is some sort of malicious intent or shady marketing behind how they are doing this. Anyone who knows them at all knows that is far from the truth.

Then show the freaking gameplay. It’s not hard, it takes 30 minutes, they did it Rick and morty.

$45 isn’t a barrier to entry if you want one. It isn’t removing serious buyers or giving a perk. It’s just a requirement. They always have good intentions but at this point it’s more akin to a Costco membership than a fan club.

Ordering through PinballSTAR FAQ -

I am getting alot of the same questions so wanted to put them out here for everyone... All of us selling - Spooky Direct and other distributors all have our own systems for ordering... This below only applies to PinballSTAR.

1. You MUST be on our email blast list to get our 'READY TO ORDER' email. To get on our email list you must email us before say 8:30am CST this morning so we can add you. If you email after then we can't guarantee you'll get our email blast.

2. We do not do orders over phone, text, or direct email - it becomes impossible to control our inventory levels - doing it by our email blast and paypal has worked wonderfully in the past as many of you know. If you paid via paypal, and got a confirmation from paypal then you got your game. It's that simple. It will take us a few days to email everyone a confirmation email - please be patient.

3. CHECK YOUR SPAM... many times our emails since they come from our email service will be marked as Spam so if you don't see it in your inbox at 9:00 am CST - check your spam it may be in there.

4. In our email we will have paypal buttons you click to whisk you to paypal where you will pay with one click. You do not need a paypal account, but if you don't have one you'll just have to enter your info vs just having it all prefilled by paypal once you log in. It's easy quick and there is no risk of our website crashing or other potential problems outside of our control.

5. We have inventory levels set for each model - we have assigned them based on our allotment per game (so many for Halloween, so many for Ultraman) and also so many for Standard, Bloodsuckers, and Collectors. We have assigned the majority to Collectors of each game as we feel that is what most want.
We have plenty of games to sell.

6. Fang Club - This is a Spooky thing. It's purchased through Spooky. You need to have it in place to order early today. If games sell out everywhere there may be no later on sale date to the 'non Fang Club' public. So, buy your Fang Club membership today before 9 CST.

7. Can you buy one of each game - yes.

8. We only sell to USA - if you are overseas buy from Spooky direct please. You may get our email blast outside of the USA if you signed up for it, but please buy direct if so.

We are hopeful Spooky will have a glorious SELL OUT day today across the board. Spooky sells direct and there are a very few other wonderful hand picked distributors they work with - myself / PinballSTAR, Chris Meunier / Kingpin, Rob Anthony / Pinball Classics, Tommy Floyd / Nitro (Canada), and others outside of the US I don't know offhand... Any of these folks will do a stellar job for you that's why there's only a few of us - if one distributor is sold out try another you'll get the same A+ service from anyone. Our goal is to work together to promote Spooky and take care of any and all Spooky customers.

Hope this helps... Good luck to everyone... TY for supporting Spooky and your distributors.

Joe Newhart
PinballSTAR Amusements
[email protected]

I'd love to see it too. My guess, and it's purely a guess, is they can't for some license related reason. Thinking about it logically, I'm sure they want to show it to us and would if they could, but they can't right now for whatever reason. Legal stuff is messy, and I'm sure timing and dealing licensing rights is a pain in the butt to do.

Spooky isn't the type of company that is going to purposely hide gameplay because it sucks. There's a reason, I'm sure. But part of the early access ordering is a level of risk. Those in the fang club would theoretically be fans enough of the company to believe in them and give them the benefit of the doubt.

Seriously for those on the fence, just wait. They are making a high enough number of machines that they will be available down the road. I don't think there is enough justification here for the level of FOMO we are seeing. Ultraman I can kind of see being way less units. HW is a very healthy run...more than many Stern titles.

Spooky direct sells out of Ultraman and Halloween within 30 minutes.

Its a lot of games, maybe they wont sell out!

Man had to go to work today! No day off so I can preorder. I dont care if one of the patients is coding in the other room, I need my halloween pinball machine!

So fitting for this title.....

Have someone do it for you!

Worse case scenario.. while I run the code, I will just have my ipad with me to preorder. I will be like "hold compressions".. let me preorder.. "ok resume compressions"

I dont think this is going to be a race to get a game, I mean it is not a PS4 which has the world as its market lol

I’m betting sells out of Ultra not Halloween. (Day one).

Basically Spooky has sold less than 1700 units of their last 3 pins. 3-4 years.

I’m betting not 1250 will step on for Halloween day one.

First no game footage. I’m out completely until I play it myself or see gameplay. Too risky. If that means I miss out entirely I’m fine. I can buy Godzilla or Toy Story or EHOH or next CGC.

Second I’m sure some people will pass on the themes or just bought Mando or waiting for Keith’s next or heck Alien is still out there. I just bought JP premium almost $8k so I’m fine sitting a few out.

Third 1250 is a big enough number. I’m sure they sell out but not one day sell out is not my guess.

You are probably right. The demand for another 500 on R&M from Spooky direct was definitely there day 1. I guess some distributors had surplus a little after that. Not sure if the demand is the same for Halloween - especially since Ultraman will cannibalize a portion of those sales.

Though, it is strange fang club membership "sold out" due to a stock threshold spooky never anticipated (now back in stock, however).

*Edit* Nope. Dumbass browser.

Well, I think I'm going to sit this one out. Love my Rick and Morty, but with no gameplay footage ahead of time I'm not willing to plunk down the big bucks. I love the theme, but I'm not really a big fan of upper playfields... Wish I could have seen the whole package in action to have a better informed decision. Oh well... There will always be something shiny and new on the horizon The FOMO is real... But I'll survive hehe.

I don't at all regret becoming a fang club member... Love supporting Spooky since they are such a great company! Looking forward to following today's insanity

Spooky sold 750 R&Ms on day one. Even though R&M may have been more popular, the pinball market has changed since then, prices are way up, buyers are way more crazy! I see Spooky and distros together easily selling 1000 combined (H and UM) pins. But I don't see either title selling out completely today (none available from Spooky or any distro). I hope I'm wrong. Good luck Spooky!

I think you can tell enough from the short promo video, the pics and the ruleset. Most of you have been in pinball long enough to judge whether you’ll like it or not from what’s already been shown.

This is actually untrue. Spooky only had to sell half of that number from the website for it to technically be “sold out” distributors had the game available for weeks after.

So "Sold Out" only applies to Spooky?

Yeah no gameplay is killing me.
I want a standard which has a whole list of pros and cons running through my head.

But for the first time in a decade in this hobby, there is a new game I’m 100% in love with theme wise. I guess I’ll see how I feel in 45. If evil dead is next, I’m in trouble and the wife already knows it.

Spooky has "sold/allotted" half the runs to distributors.
When their site says sold out it just means spooky has sold the rest of the run, they aren't accounting for any unsold at distributors.

Yeah don’t worry 2nd hand pinside market will be 12,500-15k