I imagine the financial security R&M brought Spooky via an insta-sellout (rather than a long slog through uncertainty) is something they'd to try to replicate. The best chance for that is continuing the move toward more broadly popular IPs than more niche ones. That would disqualify all but a handful of pure horror licenses (Nightmare on Elm Street + Friday the 13th), if even those. The first Scream was a cool movie and I know there are others but doubt people care about them, so that doesn't feel like an iconic "franchise."

Comedy + Horror/Fantasy expands the list a bit. Tim Burton titles (Nightmare Before Christmas and Beetlejuice) could definitely sell a thousand. Evil Dead / Army of Darkness probably too, given its cult fandom.

But out of all of those, I actually think Scooby Doo would be the best option, which I find surprising. I don't sit around watching Scooby Doo, don't collect its memorabilia, and haven't watched it since I was a kid. But the memorable characters, voices, and music, colorful animations, and basic tropes (different mystery monsters to unmask) lend themselves well to pinball and align with the "spooky" brand. Plus they're perfect for kids while nostalgic for parents and can support grown-up winks to adults.

For whatever reason, I'd rather play Scooby Doo than any pure horror pin. Not saying it can't be done, but translating horror to a repeatable fun pinball experience just seems much tougher than with other genres.

But how quickly? I'm doubtful the majority of themes listed here would be quick sellouts

Likely bad for spooky if that's the case

Showed up on some lists. Not saying not possible, just less likely

They have a sales department?

After saying it would not be a horror movie. Got it

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????

For those scoring at home: Kaneda reports exclusive inside info you won't hear anywhere else regarding Spooky's next title!

It is not a movie or horror.
It is Scooby Doo.
It is not Scooby Doo.
It is a horror movie.
It is Halloween.
It is not Halloween.

It's hard to think of a better theme for Spooky's brand, customer base, and production capacity than the original evil dead trilogy. There is no question it would be a monster hit. The only question is can it actually be done? Beyond securing Bruce's involvement, I recall from years back challenges with the producers themselves having access to footage from at least one of the movies or some such things due to rights being controlled by different entities. No idea if that remains the case and an insurmountable obstacle

Just be sure to skip the first five minutes or so! That's what I did unintentionally the first time I saw the movie and thought it was so cool how over the course of the film you uncover the secrets of what's really going on. I liked it so much I got family to watch it with me. This time I saw it from the beginning only to discover the movie begins with VO that explains / spoils everything.

Also, the ending with the bizarre dragon ball z battle or whatever was disappointing

Do a spooky poll in the spooky sub forum

Ah yes, the silent majority of spooky pinball fans currently too intimidated to voice their preference for fast and furious or national treasure over army of darkness

My guess is Happy Days because this thread jumped the shark to listing every movie/show anyone has ever seen.

I loved he-man when I was six years old.

Screw this tease of a thread! Where's the beef??

If spooky has the Pokemon license I'll eat a coatrack of hats

Assuming this is true, perhaps enough attention to demand has been raised for these pins to eventually be made, a la Iron Maiden

Thread status update:

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You all are some interesting characters. Dream theme unlocked: https://iwaspoisoned.com/.

Hours and hours of fantastic reading there. But can spooky bring to life the world under gas?

It's real and it's spectacular

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Smells like it might be Crunchtadas from Del Taco??!

Good/bad news!

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Don't understand the techno mumbo jumbo debates but find them much more interesting than post the name of every movie, show, toy, etc you've ever seen

Hoping for a combination of these:

The Golden Child
The Fountainhead
The Banana Splits
Actual banana splits
Slim Goodbody

Fingers crossed!

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Spooky could definitely make more money for themselves by hard limiting the number of collector editions and raising the price. Seems that ranks lower of the company's priorities than other things.

Agree that Halloween would be near or at the bottom for me of the options commonly discussed here. That said, I'm sure they could do a fine job with it and will likely eventually sell out of most any not totally off the wall theme.

@benheck, congrats on your 100th post in this thread in 45 days. Truly admirable up-stirring! I wonder why people are getting so crazy.

Different direction and something you might legitimately answer that would be interesting: How many people would you estimate currently KNOW the next title? 20? 50? More?

Among many other impressive things about Spooky is their ability to keep the lid on upcoming titles despite being one of the most engaged with the public manufacturers.

Hearing late whispers of a dark horse theme that would seriously test the "spooky will sell out of any title" argument...

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Ultimate Halloween swerve from a company that loves to troll the fanbase???

Note that Ben HAS NOT shot this one down.

Genuinely wonder if the extensive market research going on in this thread will have an impact down the road for titles that aren't currently in production but end up later being pursued (a la Iron Maiden)

Soulswallower

A couple deep cut adult themes you could legitimately do a lot with if only enough people cared (which they surely do not)

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And custom callouts from Clarence

For real, hard to think of a property that would better lend itself to never before seen batshit pinball mind fudgery than Wonder Showzen

Ben has not lied AND you're not wrong.

Presenting Spooky's latest blockbuster title!

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Not excited about the theme but will look forward to the machine unveil.

Picture of young Michael Myers's Castle Grayskull toy

OK, in F13 we root for Jason because he delivers a form of bloody comeuppance to annoying teens and so we cheer his kills. In Halloween, we root against Michael Myers because he stalks characters with whom we empathize and so we cheer when he is killed?

If that's the case, it sounds like a second rule set where you are the villain on a killing spree works better for F13 where it could play as campy, macabre fun than for it would for Halloween where you're stealthily hunting innocents. And if that's the case, it would seem less likely to see it for this game.

Am I totally off? I've not watched either franchise and so am going off the what I've read here.

As someone who's never seen the movie but has picked up the gist from this thread, is there any way a majority of the layout is not a spooky house? Assuming not, seems be a bit surprising to see a company that has made only a handful of games go with big house with upper playfield(s) two out of the past three titles.

believe spooky says it's based on the first movie

wut

Since this is an autumn holiday themed pin going to assume #2 would be Oktoberfest?

Mr. Heck, though the (a?) cat is now out of the bag, I'd still be curious about this!

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/spooky-2021-game-speculation-thread/page/88#post-6356980

Ben Heck's Zombie Adventureland?

Yeah but when that company's two best selling games aren't horror expectations change

I'd assume most of these would be out of Spooky's price range or reach, ATHF being the obvious exception.

Blanche got down. Sophia too. Bunch of saucy broads, the lot of em.

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Alice has already been announced as a forthcoming machine from leading pinball manufacturer deeproot pinball. Learn more about deeproot's Total Pinball Ownership Experience™ (TPOE™), current hit Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland™ (RAZA™), and slate of 14 upcoming titles at https://deeprootpinball.com/.

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No way, no how. Assuming it's not done with hand drawn art by Charlie, soundalike callouts from bug, and video recreations of beloved scenes by the entire spooky family, Futurama would sell better than 95% of the titles mentioned in this thread. (Though the version I described would have its own special charm and with the spooky fanbase could maybe do AMH numbers?)

Ben has cleverly shot down evil dead time and again, but he has conspicuously NOT shot down...

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EDIT: When I wrote this I thought I was responding to the latest comment so didn't need to quote!

Army of Darkness is not a horror movie. People only talk about it as one because it is part of a trilogy that contains a straight up horror movie (ED) and goofy one (ED2). AOD is a campy action comedy with skeletons.

Entries in movie franchises usually stay within the same general genre (even if there's a lot of execution variability), but not always.

Question: What are examples of other franchises that contain movies from different genres?

Agree.

Also:

If it were they wouldn't be having to hold off on the reveal to wrap up final licensing things.

No license. Alice is in the public domain.

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A different ALF that could be interesting!

I get the feeling this artist is going to have as much pinball work as he wants moving forward

Good point.

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Might that be the theme?

I've never seen anything Ultraman related, but a zany Japanese action guy who fights monsters probably lends itself better to pinball than silent knife killer (not saying it will be more popular or sell more).

It would appear Spooky are quite the Ultraman fans...

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Looks cool. Surprised not to see Bowen's name included in the rules credit for Halloween. Ultraman exclusive?

They did things in reverse order. Should have hardened the site THEN their customers.

As someone who's never seen Halloween or Ultraman, I prefer the look of the Halloween pin. However, I could see preferring Ultraman overall if they go Batman 66 style with the LCD presentation.

I realize this is probably unlikely because my expectation is handle the LCD the same way with swapped assets.

Super Awesome podcast just published Halloween / Ultraman episode (that includes Charlie, Bug + the artist)

Well that was certainly interesting.

Odd choice to have the protagonists of a kids show be a group of villainous humans who murder exotic wildlife in faraway lands. But I suppose it was a different time.

And you'd think Ultraman would be in a show called Ultraman for more than 30 seconds!!

To be fair, a knife stabbing into a pumpkin is something millions of families do together every October.

#fakenews sk8ball

Congrats, Spooky!

Read the threads but don't think I've seen this answer: How many of the 1,750 are sold direct by Spooky and how many but distributors?

Congrats, Spooky!

Read the threads but don't think I've seen this answer: How many of the 1,750 are sold direct by Spooky and how many but distributors?

I recall that being the build order, but didn't necessarily see that it was also the overall distribution (though certainly could be)

I wonder if any straight-up Halloween / Ultraman fans who aren't also pinheads actually managed to snag any machines.

Oh, I definitely think some would be interested. I'm just asking if anyone thinks/knows whether they found out enough in advance to be in position to actually secure any.

Oh, I definitely think some would be interested. I'm just asking if anyone thinks/knows whether they found out enough in advance to be in position to actually secure any.

Will definitely be interesting to see. Those folks were probably zeroed in on ordering from the site (rather than distributors) and were also less likely to have a status update support group like this thread when everything was on fire.

Trademark abandoned and available.

There's a difference between booking hotel rooms and building them.

Excellent theme for pinball. Pair it with an excellent game, and you've got an all-timer.

Everyone's been saying it was Scooby.

Are Bug and Luke designing all the games or are there multiple designers/teams like at Stern and JJP?

Is it multi-denominational?

Late to the discussion but wanted to share that I used to idolize Freddy Krueger. But now that I've learned the horrible secret truth about him, no more. I'm sorry if that seems harsh. But, for me, Freddy being a peddy nullifies all of the good deeds he has ever done.

Two-theme design: Back to the Futurama

Various tidbits and tads related to this on yesterday's streaming spookcast.

Clue (likely not the movie) could be a cool theme. Feels more AP though to me.

Looney Tunes could be great. Will obviously come down to creative choices and execution.

Perfect theme for pinball!

These numbers are limits. Not necessarily orders/machines.

What if spooky had the license for the Pep Boys?