In on a CE thanks to Pinballstar. Gave up on the website after 30 mins. My fiber connection didn't make any difference.

I really liked the blue armor on the CE, and I wanted the little extras. Plus, I had the bonus of not waiting so long.

Yeah, I just went a grabbed a few entries. Figured if I win, I can get a Halloween to go with my Ultraman.

Yes, he is generally gigantic, building-sized. Although, I'm not sure if he might have size-changing abilities in some versions/series.

I imagine that a person would need to the comic issue in question in order to find out why he is so small there.

And HW would have worked just fine for Halloween, if it hadn't been for Hot Wheels.

Well Luke and Bug have talked a lot about how they designed this run of games from the ground up to be easier and quicker to build. So that combined with the factory expansions should hopefully keep them on pace.

I REALLY like the blue powder coat on the CE. That's really what sold me on it. I feel like the blue goes better with the art.

I'm actually hoping for an upper-middle build number, as I've got a JP coming in a couple weeks, and hopefully a Fathom in a few months. And so I'd like to space out my buys if possible.

CE #350 from PinballStar. My order went through at about 9:40am, for context. A pretty satisfying round number so-to-speak, and about perfect position for me. I'm guesstimating at least 6 or 7 months before delivery for numbers in that range.

I'm in the 80's for a Fathom ME, and I'm hoping to space out the final bills on them.

Well, that's just my personal guess. But my reasoning was that in order for Spooky to finish all 1750 games in 18 months, they essentially have to ship 100 games a month. And looking at what we've been told, and how they intend to build the HWNs and UMs, there must be anywhere from 700 to 900 games in front of me. Hence, how I arrived to "at least" 6 or 7 months. Could certainly take longer, but I'm expecting it to take at least that long.

That being said, I'm actually optimistic that they will build them even faster than anticipated. I wouldn't be surprised at all after a couple of months, if they are churning out a lot more than 100 a month, given their track record and their purported improvements to build-efficiency and ease.

In my case, I'm not worried about delivery times at all. I've got enough other pinball stuff going on, that later is better for me. But we'll see how it goes. It'll be interesting to see how close to the mark I am.

Cool

Why do you guys care what his number is? Doesn't affect yours in any way whatsoever.

And theoretically, all 500 UMs could have been CEs anyway. Plus, him being last actually just means that everyone else gets their game sooner. Seems like literally everyone wins, and Spooky gets to help out one of their customers in a special way. A customer who also did a great interview with them, and who has been giving them lots of good press.

Like, why wouldn't they go ahead and make his game last if he wants?

He's not getting #500 because he thinks it'll be worth more on the resale; he's getting #500 because he wants more time before his game ships and his balance is due. He and his wife are planning on buying a home outside of the city sometime within the next year, so he want to have that done before bringing a new pin. Seems pretty innocent to me.

You know why he got #500..cuz he had the balls to ask for it! Did any of you whiners ask for #500 and get denied? I swear some of you guys are like tattletales at school.

It's quite common for businesses to bend the rules when a customer asks nicely. And besides, Spooky has always given preferential treatment to friends and family. It's a way for them to say thanks and show appreciation to people that have supported them.

Also, Kaneda pisses away 2000 dollars a month on building-maintenance fees for an apartment that he owns outright. And he doesn't even get good quality internet for all that.. I'm pretty sure making a speculative extra grand on resale of UM because of the # isn't really here nor there for him. And yes, I'm aware he's flipped NIB games before.

LOL! Yep, dumbest thing ever!

Ultraman got a very nice Blu-Ray release recently, and looks really good. Those old shows from back then used actual film-stock, not video tape, so properly cleaned up and transferred, they can look surprisingly detailed. Which thankfully, Ultraman does. Even the DVD-rips you can find on Youtube actually look pretty decent too.

The Spooky crew has all ready stated that the lights will be down-adjustable. I honestly wouldn't stress about it until you've played it in person. LEDs on camera ALWAYS look blinding--it's just how most cameras pick them up. Do you really think that Spooky would release a game that's blinding and uncomfortable to play?

Yeah, bigger footage sure isn't bad. But it seems pretty common to show movie/show clips in a smaller size on these LCD games. Like most recently on Stern's BM66 and EHOH.

Again, one would hope that Spooky would notice such an issue themselves. Either way, it's pretty common for owners to cover-up annoying flashers themselves, or switch out lighter-colored flasher domes for darker ones.

It doesn't hurt to ask about these issues, since it lets the Spooky crew know what we're concerned about. But I'd expect them to playtest these games a lot, and in different environments with different players, so that hopefully the player being blinded or dazzled won't be an issue.

People reserving judgement until they've actually seen and played the pin in person? What are we trying to be reasonable around here all of the sudden?!

To be clear, Ben Heck didn't actually design the boardset, he had a partner who did that. Ben did the coding for the boardset, I believe.

I'm hoping we get a nice dedicated stream of Ultraman sometime soon. I'd like to see more of the game, besides just the JD stream.

Agreed! That's why I picked up CE 259 for $1300, even though I was down for a CE 350 all ready. Too good of deal to pass up, and it gets me a game almost 100 spots sooner. But not too soon, as I want more code updates and the Beta Capsule pre-installed.

When 350 comes due, I'll either sell it or route it then, I suppose.

Yes, full HD ultraman assets are available.

Yeah, there's a nice Ultraman blu-ray out there. And the video quality is pretty nice.

Speaking of small video, that's one of my gripes about Stern's Star Wars. Tons of clips, but most of them only take up a quarter of the screen. Dwight did this to accommodate mode stacking, but it sucks that the clips are still small even when you aren't stacking modes.

So I'm not sure why the clips would be small on UM.

Okay, got it. This thread has always been the most popular one, so that's what I've stuck to. Guess I'll move to the other one.