Seriously,Pinballstar (Joe) has the best customer service.Of any industry really.
Just relax ,if you have your PayPal receipt,you will be contacted when all the behind the scenes madness is worked out.

Has anyone put together a matrix showing the differences between the 3 models?

i believe this came from Pinball Star at some point.

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Pretty sure so did 85% of everyone else, so we all might be in for a little wait period before we get our machines.

I still think they missed the mark on not keeping the top tier the BSE.

Using a LOT of assumptions.....

1. Pinballstar's numbers that were mentioned on another thread are legit

AND

2. They are true to Spooky's orders as well as the other vendors's allotments

AND

3. Spooky maintains 'only' a 20 game/week average (they need ~25 to hit their 18 month goal, I think? It will be accelerating over time is my point, and I can't factor for that.)

....if 85% really end up being CE's, it will take about 72 weeks from the start of production to get through JUST the CEs for both Halloween and Ultraman. But again.. HUGE grain of salt there.

Actually that is not what I have found.

Rob at Pinball Classics did for me what Spooky and Pinballstar could not.

Highly recommend Rob at Pinball classics if you are looking for outstanding customer service.

On the poll thread here:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/spooky-which-one-did-you-buy/page/2#post-6380497

192 CEs out of 250 orders (ignoring the “I ordered 2 option”) comes to 77% that ordered a CE.

So 80% +/- 5% would be a good guesstimate.

It's cool that the Ultraman CEs come with a plaque signed by Bin Furuya. Gotta say I'm a bit jealous that the Halloween CEs didn't have something really special like that!

Totally agree. Now I feel better

I am very cautiously optimistic. All comes down to the numbers. Hopefully more BSE were ordered than CE. But again I do not expect it to arrive in 6 months. I waited 8 months for my EHOH.

There is nothing to report yet... It took through the weekend for us to sort out just our PinballSTAR orders and they are still changing with people who double ordered with Spooky then us then asked for a refund etc... We finally got our numbers to Spooky Monday who now have to sort the distributors numbers into theirs then develop production schedules for each model. They needed model sales numbers for each game before they can lay things out. From there they will lay out allocations between themselves and distributors fairly and equally. This is a manual process for everyone and then we get people changing things and it slows it down. Anyone who ordered through us and actually took the time to read my email blast before ordering would have seen it clearly states the sorting process can take up to or more than a week and to please not ask for game numbers as all it does is distract us from doing the work that is needed to get you what you want. I have been working 12 hours a day at this and just today started trying to go back through unanswered emails etc... Bottom line is it takes time. If you have a game feel lucky of that - many don't have that even. You will get your numbers when the fine people at Spooky sort them out. Then they will give to distributors who then have to sort them out with our orders. We love that everyone is excited, but no distributor or Spooky is a fortune 500 company with 100's of people employed, we are all very small family run businesses... PLEASE be patient. Rest assured we are all working hard behind the scenes to get this done for you. It's very important to all of us as well. TY for your excitement !

Joe

Thank you Joe. That’s why you have my faith and repeat business.

Expect at least 8 months. And if you need an update, ask the person you bought it from.

Per numbers from PinballSTAR, 85% were CEs. Back when R&M went up for sale, all but 38 of the 750 were BSEs (there was no CE level). It would seem the majority go for the top level trim.

I would also advise everyone to read some of the 'factoids' and numbers I've posted on our PinballSTAR page the last few days about how many game were ordered when - just through us / a small piece of the puzzle... I think 92 in the first 5 mintues... I did that for a reason - so everyone can temper their expectations of timing / numbers with reality. My point is this - EVERYONE ordered for the most part quickly. The guy who ordered 1 minute and 30 seconds in can be 150 down the line... We went through this with GNR - everyone says 'I ordered on day 1' where's my game... Well you and 100's of other people too... So it will take time to get everyone's game made. Spooky is a smaller company. Please be patient - as Charlie says every Spooky game every ordered has gotten delivered. The numbers will be assigned fairly and I frankly use paypal as the major reason being I get a time stamp on every order. I stand back and let paypal do the work - I don't take email, text, or phone orders for a reason. So when numbers do come out you will be somewhere from day 1 to 18 months as Spooky says it may take. Frankly they always beat their own estimates ! Anyway just some further insight to help those that may be anxious. Hope it helps everyone : )
Joe
PinballSTAR Amusements

I think they'll have to if the CE's and BSE's are gonna have numbered plaques attached. R&M did, so they had to know how many would be BSE's before they committed to the plaques being made.

Very good call. So may people don’t realize that even though you ordered day one, so did everyone else. Haha

Would you share what this was exactly?

Here is my method of approximating my game number:

11300 was close to the baseling order number when Spooky started taking orders. My number was 11544, so 244th order.

First 50 made are for special people like friends of Spooky, team members etc and then every other 50 are for distro so I double my number (488+50)

That means I will be around build #533. But as far as the # of my CE HWN, I figure about 75 of the orders before me were UMN (total guess)

So, if my calculations are correct I will have HWN CE#458.

In reality, I am planning on getting between #1 and #1250, just to be safe

Joe said he likes me best and is going to put me at #1.....

I agree with this.

Should have called it Standard - Premium - Blood Sucker's.

You're going to get me killed with shit like that - lmao too funny - thanks for the laugh !

I'm just hoping for sometime this year, that would rock! But nothing is guaranteed, that is for sure. I was a little slow on the draw, on Joe's PP link:
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Thanks Joe
No stress here, just checking i did not miss an important communication earlier this week.

Another way is to assume you’re the last game off the line and if you get it before that date it’s a win!

I like this. No expectations = never being disappointed.

That’s my key to good life. Never get too hyped for anything - you’ll only get disappointed.

As a long time Spooky customer (and distributor), I want to echo what Pinball Star just posted.

- everyone ordered day one

- almost everyone ordered in the first hour (or tried to)

- working out your invoice numbers/time ordered as some sort of delivery ETA is a waste of your time, energy and Pinsides web server space

- don’t stress about when your game is coming

- forget you even ordered it

- it’ll show up when it shows up. This ain’t Amazon Prime.

- go play some pinball and have a beer

Follow those tips and you’ll have a great Spooky experience!

rd

Don’t need an update Chuck, was just curious. I have never bought a spooky pin and others here have more experience with their timeline. And I did ask my distributor and he said could be 6 months. That’s why I came here.

But if you read my post fully I stated that my distributor nitro said could be 6 months instead of trying to come across as a smart aleck and trying to make me look like I am some anxious newbie kid. My wife wants this pin and yeah she is excited for it. She has massive chronic health issues and pain and she’s hoping it’s not too far off.

Marking this for in 10 months...

Yeah...stupid productive Spooky with their smashing sales successes. We wont have much to speculate on for at least a year

Us Aussie and Kiwi collectors are so used to waiting stupid amounts of time on EVERY game, Spooky or not. Sometimes you forget you’ve ordered a game and get a pleasant surprise when your Distributor calls you to say it’s arrived.

Yep. Under promise, over deliver.

That's the only way to do it and stay sane. The only real issues is hoping no one releases a game you really want in the mean time.

Remembering the same commotion over R&M's build order, I'm almost glad I passed this time.

I'll keep telling myself that!

Not slow? Email didn’t show up in my inbox until 10:04 and change. I was 10:05:22

I thought others said same thing, didn’t drop right at 10?

If I end up at the back then somebody will get my spot. I’m too old now, have to think about those things

Email blasts are an imperfect science. Everyone gets the email at a different time. Some lucky.....some not.

That happened to me as well and didn't get my order in until 10:05 :01

We’ll see how it turns out . Maybe different waves?

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My Fang Club order # is in the 800s(815 I think), which I paid for just after ordering a CE.

This is what FOMO looks like lol

Transaction date
Jul 7, 2021 12:47:49 PDT

Since “Joe likes you best” what time did you get your email and time stamp in? Lol

Must be lucky

I went in thinking I want get my game for 18 months cause that is what they said. Just assume this, and if you get it early then its a win.

Happens regularly Zablon . My solution is to order it anyway and hope that I have room by the time it arrives.

I may be pretty high up. I was lucky enough to get my email from Joe@Pinballstar at 10 on the dot. It took me 2 minutes to check out as i had to log in the paypal. My check out time was 10:02am Est.

chuckwurt is nothing but helpful in every thread I see him in. Maybe he was just being preemptive based upon all your "where is my topper?" posts.

Same here. Email didn't hit till 9:04 central

Or come play your.

They need the NZ mainland cheese ad attitude- good things take time

I really don't think chuckwurt meant it in a smart aleck way. I've met him once and he came up to me to introduce himself. Very cool pinballer. What sometimes sucks about the internet and messages is there's no emotion tied to the text so some may take it entirely in a different way than it was intended. No fault to you, but just saying I don't think he meant it that way.

Sucks about your wife's health. Hopefully once Spooky gets all the numbers in order, which they are still doing, you'll have a better idea about when you'll get your game. And I hope your wife finds some relief soon!