Thanks guys, someone has claimed it, pending payment.

Edit: Paid and packed up

You are not very good at cleaning your garage. Either that or you are really good at marketing/sales. I supposedly bought the last one from your garage 11 months ago.

You’d be surprised what I find out there.

At some point need to dig up the AC/DC club thread ...

Hi all, looking for feedback on a custom run of 1/1400 scale lit and interactive toppers for ST:TNG. My idea would be to offer a painted, lit Enterprise D mounted on a semi adjustable mount base that would include a detailed light package that would interact (electrically isolated) with game events, have a starfield backdrop, and potentially a separate lcars display for options and manual triggers.

This post is just an initial request for feedback.

Based upon my initial review of time and materials, this wouldn't be cheap. I am guessing around the $900 mark. Perhaps more, perhaps less. It might be something where i could offer a base version, and then option up interaction, backdrop, controller.. but not sure at the moment.

Thoughts anyone?

Well due to a low basement ceiling, I’m not a topper guy. However, I’ve seen some nice ones over the years. However, I think a $900 topper seems to be higher than the market would be comfortable with. I get it that Pinball is all disposable income. But that’s going to be a pretty tiny market.

Point taken, but it would be a tiny production run. I am thinking of a dozen at most.

$900 for a topper? Huge pass, sry...

No worries.. the reality is that it wouldn't be for everyone. Basically each one would have a boatload of hours in it.

It may surprise you, but some people commission studio scale models to be built and it costs them $1000 and up just for the model build. I follow a lot of studio model building pages and some models have 100 hours in them...its crazy.

Anyway, i am still investigating and it wouldnt be for everyone for sure. With 11,728 machines produced.. a dozen people might be interested.

You might find 1 or 2 collectors who are huge ST fans and willing to shell out that cash. But honestly, I think this may be a one-off that you end up producing for yourself. In the end, if you were ever to get near that price you would have to build it, demo it, show tons of pics and videos and build the hype train so people tell themselves they just HAVE to have it. Then you drop the $900 price tag on them. Too late for that strategy, but GLWTS.

All fair points. I am going to proceed and will post pictures when done. I am naturally an optimist and when people pay $350 for a backlit apron that just says star trek.. I am motivated.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback.

I actually looked into that exact model kit and lighting you are talking about. Just based on material cost and some bucks for a friend of mine who was going to help me on the build I ended up shying away from it (and I was way under $500). Ended up getting a used Diamond Select from ebay for $125 (crazy how pricy they got). Yes, no lighting within the ship, just the warp and nacelles, but the higher price just did not justify. I believe there would be a market around 350 - 500, but 900 seems steep, even though I get the value of it. That is a lot of money towards another pin, rather than just an add on.

Rgr

The model itself can be done for less than $500 for sure, and even less if a person is willing to do the model building, lighting, painting (with aztec pattern) cutting out windows and etc.. the time is money factor comes into the equation. The costs that add the multiplier are the lcars panel, integration, and fiber optic starfield backdrop.

So far what i have gotten is more of a critical response to price, and zero feedback on the function and idea.

Think of it this way, the parts alone for the full package might be around 500. Ship, paints, brushes, leds, fiber, glue, control board, lcd display, display controller, power supplies, mounting base, backdrop, wire, interaction board... at 900 you are left with 400 in labor. Ship construction will take at least 15-20 hours if you do it without it looking just horrible, and 10-15 hours for the rest. Divide that together and we are looking at a average $13.71 per hour labor rate. This doesnt even include the R&D time to figure out how to build this thing, code it, etc..

Oh well, ill just present what i have when it's done, hopefully around April.

Oh, and this is the level of model I am taking about: BTW, this guy says he spent 400 hours building this.

Yes, I have seen this model and watched his entire youtube series. It is pretty amazing. And I don't doubt the value, and yes the hourly labor will not really be paid for. I get all of that. And I am not saying you are pricing it to high for what it is. I am saying there is a tiny little market if any.
Do I like the idea? Hell Ya!!! As mentioned before, I was entertaining something similar. Just would not want to spend that much cash on it .
But I will definitely be following your build for sure.

Thanks. The biggest technical challenge is trying to determine if the code can be hacked, so to speak, in order to figure out certain events that only take place in software after conditions are met. For instance, starting a warp effect on the topper during warp 9+.

Joined the STTNG club last night. Basically sold Congo to fund this one, which I think is a pretty fair swap. Both great games.

Anyone else have this issue? (Happening throughout)

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What am I supposed to be looking for?

Art peeling?

Not in my Star Trek (mirror blades). However, I had the exact same issue in my LOTR. They curled up the same way. Looks like crap, and I never figured anything to help them. As far as I know, at that point they are trash. It’s why I won’t buy them again.

My Star Trek LE decals started doing that. I removed them and tossed them in the trash. Will order new ones again at some point. Kinda missing the look they add

Yup, peeling... basically from day one....Every now and then I pull the glass and press it back, slowly reappears

Anyone know what causes the Enterprise ship to stick down? The coil is trying to move the ship, but it’s stuck. Before I tear into it, I was hoping someone might have run into this before. Any help would be appreciated

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I found an old thread describing this issue and how to fix. Will take a look tomorrow

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/star-trek-vengeance-ship-leaning-and-alignment-fix

Homemade super thin double sided tape?

Get some clear spray adhesive. Lightly spray a piece of wax/Baking paper that has been cut into the sizes you need. Let it dry in a mostly closed plastic box or something to keep it dust free.

Stick to the back of decals. Remove wax paper. Reapply decals.

I did this to some clear cooling tower decals on a HUO simpsons I recently acquired.

Cool trick... never heard of this being done. But forgive the stupid question... why not just spray the adhesive directly on the back of the decals and apply (either immediately or later if you want some dry time). Is it because it's too sticky? Must be a reason I'm missing.

Unless you can fully remove that art blade spray adhesive overspray goes everywhere inside your machine. This keeps it to specific areas you can control.

You can see how much overspray is generated by trying it inside a large box. Spray how much you would have on a piece of paper. Let it sit for a day. Touch the insides of the box where you didn’t spray and see how it’s everywhere

Ahhh... makes complete sense. I had assumed you had the blades completely out, but this solution works for when just some of it is coming off. My WCS art blades are almost completely off. I haven’t tried it yet, but pretty sure I can peel the last 1/3rd off and just spray the whole thing.

Help please. Everything is connected properly, but the lights will randomly come on during gameplay and then go off. The lights seem to be trying to display all colors at once.

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Try re seating the connector for that board

Does anybody know what the difference is in ST/Pre vs.A ST/vault ???

ST premium. The upper right flipper suddenly stopped working during gameplay. After checking all the connections, I noticed the fuse under the playfield for this flipper had blown. I replaced the fuse twice and they immediately blew each time when I turned on the game. Any help would be appreciated. 250V 3A

Reflow the solder at the connector. That's what fixed it for me. I may have even added solder.

i have some stainless steel panels in stock, from the final run, last chance to get one

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I had this on my TWD. Get a can of 3M spray mount and a couple of trash can liners. glass off, masking tape the trash can liners over the game. Peel back the art blade a little bit, give the wood side a rub with an old microfibre. Spray the wood side and the decal side, press back into position. Leave for a couple of hours. Problem solved.

Neil.

if you find another one I'd take it please.

Why would that suddenly happen?

Q12 was the issue. Blown transistor.

I am away from my machine...do these fit on TNG?

I assume from the shaker motor.

What's weird is it's just that one board that has this problem. Maybe a manufacturing issue.

Just joined the club. Got a NIB Pro Vault earlier this week. Opened it a few days later just to see it and test everything put didn't play it because I had a Playfield Protector already and wanted to install that first. So I immediately did a top side tear down and installed a scoop hole cliffy, playfield protector, Shaker motor, Titan flipper rings blue on bottom and red on top and blue LED flipper buttons and finished today. I Love this Game, the music and call outs are awesome.

Got a hand full more mods I'd like to do also in time just going to enjoy it for now as is.

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Welcome to the club. It's an awesome game and you won't be disappointed.

Welcome. I have the Prem. but the pro is just as good.

Welcome, BertoDRINK1 - I got my NIB Vault STPro in July and it's awesome. I play it almost everyday, my son plays it several times a week, and even my wife (who is not a pinhead at all) plays it once in a while just because she's a Star Trek fan and likes the call outs.

My wife doesn't play very much either but she actually wanted to play the first game. Hopefully with this pin I can get her to play a little more often.

My wife picked ST also over other pins.

Welcome to the club, I have a Promium. Please consider my mod in the future.