I agree 100 % with this and they had no idea at the time what they had gotten into with Jpop. They have turned it around quickly and have produced a very nice machine with there own assets which is extremely impressive.

Yep. I'm glad I was able to change your mind so quickly.

Oh you haven't, however no sense in arguing you would be surprised what people sign when they have to or shall we say want to

So what you're saying is, you'll make DP an offer they can't refuse?

Think about that statement.....has anyone ever known a lawyer to advise against litigating and telling someone to wait? Sounds more like a stall tactic. I am betting if you dig into this really deep, you will find DP is not the victim they play.

You've obviously never met a Danish lawyer.

OK, you have me there....but I did have a Danish with a lawyer once....he made me buy......does that count? lol

Dude, it's the Netherlands, not Denmark.

Wouw, even I, as a dutch person must say it takes alot of balls to announce a second title when you didn't even finish shipping your first run. Cant think of a bigger "Fuck You" statement to all the customers that have paid alot of money and haven't received shit.

Hey guys - This is from the other thread. Jonathan Joosten aka Unigroove on pinside has agreed to act as an outside party to speak with DP and ARA. Jonathan is big in the pinball community in the Netherlands and owns the magazine over there. He was nice enough to volunteer his time to help. I don't know if it will help or not. I wrote him this in the other thread:

This is a list for Jonathan Joosten aka Unigroove on pinside.

First, thank you so much for being willing to intervene and act as an outside party between DP, ARA, and the Unfulfilled Achievers (those of us who have paid for a TBL, but not yet received one).

Emotions and ideas are all over the board on this issue - ranging from class action lawsuits (not a fan) to pitchforks and torches. I am not speaking for everyone in this letter and others may chime in and add to or throw darts at what I write.

I am sure you know more than the average person about this problem, but will give a short summary anyway. Our main problem is that we do not have a machine and we have been unable to get straight answers from DP on why the machines have been held up. Jaap has lied to us on several occasions regarding these reasons and therefore anything he now says is viewed with suspicion and distrust. The most egregious and recent example was late last year when he blamed the hold up on board issues. He has since admitted that was a lie.

We have heard a small amount of information from ARA and from their point of view, money was the hold up. We don't know how much or what the terms are. From ARA, we would like to know what the severity and nature of the problem is. I can't think of a legal reason for them to withhold at least a summary of that information from us. We would also like to know if they are currently suing DP, how many machines are built and boxed up, and how many complete machines can be built from the parts they have on hand. Does ARA have an ownership position in these parts, or could they be moved to a new manufacturer if ARA and DP cannot come to terms? If they have an ownership position, how much money? And if it is not too much to ask, it would be nice. For us to have a contact person at ARA or get some information from them that corroborates anything that DP says if they decide to work together again.

From DP, we would like a new spokesperson. We have lost complete confidence in anything that Jaap tells us and need someone who is going to shoot completely straight. We would like to know what their cash position is and if they owe money to anyone but ARA (parts vendors). We would like to know what DP believes they owe ARA and what they believe they have in inventory in regards to completed but undelivered machines and parts that could be utilized to build new machines. There is no legal reason they cannot share this information with us, only embarrassment reasons.

This is probably a question for ARA and DP - There are approximately 150 TBLs that only have a $1000 deposit on them and presumably do not have parts ordered yet. Could these machines be built at a new contract manufacturer (maybe even in the states) and the proceeds from those machines be utilized to satisfy the debt at ARA and get that line moving again?

Lastly, let DP know that it is no secret that they are essentially having a money issue. In general there are still enough Achievers out here that are willing to work with them on this, but the 'work with' part has to happen soon and with more transparency than we are currently receiving. We generally believe that the fastest way to get these machines done is through ARA and DP working through this without suing each other.

There are some very upset clients over here that are planning on hiring attorneys and in general creating more headaches and legal problems for them. If they act quickly, they can head this off. But I can assure DP that if all they are going to do is hand us emails like the last one we got and then move on to new projects, that this could get messy quickly.

Best regards,
Mike Hoover

"There are approximately 150 TBLs that only have a $1000 deposit on them and presumably do not have parts ordered yet."

I'm fully paid (had to pay extra for rug and chrome plus price increase) at #190. It looks like there aren't parts on hand to build my TBL.

There's a lot of talk about just paying an extra $1,000 to get machines built. I technically have already.

Sorry Hoss - I am shaky on all those numbers for sure. If anyone has a better breakdown of the fully paid vs deposit only, that would be super helpful. My letter was just to get the ball rolling in a direction. This kind of feedback helps a lot, thanks.

No worries and I appreciate all you're doing! I think I'm at the very back of the Early Achiever line.

It's a callback, dog ...

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-big-lebowski-preorder-club/page/81#post-3673605

I have no skin involved in this situation, although I would have loved to own this pin purely based on theme. I do however have a previous associate who is an attorney in the Netherlands. I could email him questions, but make no promises on when I might receive a fruitful response due to his schedule. Just trying to help out the situation in a simple way I have available.

This thread is becoming very undudelike. Let's try and help DP deliver TBL, not ruin them in the process.

Try to help? I paid them $8500. I've helped. GTFO if you're gonna be a sycophant. That gains us nothing.

I definitely agree but DP pushed us into the post-Dude era of this project. Keeping them afloat and the dream alive is why I'm pushing for the outside party route first. They could get this figured out, but they gotta start acting more like the dude and a lot less like Mr. Lebowski first.

If the Dude set out to make a pin, he'd probably make a couple of drawings on a bar napkin of "The Seattle Seven" and then lose the napkin on the cab ride home.

Also, patience and trust isn't rewarded well in the small boutique pinball company world. Time for truth and transparency.

Rarehero, you need to calm the f*ck down. RTR, being a hothead accomplishes nothing. I'm only saying lets work with DP to solve whatever issue there is to get this back on track. Code's not finished, want a half coded game? I want to work with the guys to make this dream a reality. It's too great a game to not see it through..

They're the nihilists and we're Walter ....except they do have hostages lol

Calmer than you are.

Eternal Life is playing the part of The Dude. I'm playing the part of Walter:

You're not playing a part, you're a real life jerk

If you will read my letter to Unigroove, you will see that I'm anything but a hot head. I believe the path forward is through DP and ARA getting these games done together.

I did have an F-bomb laden post much earlier in the thread (ok, maybe a little bit of a hot head moment), but it was on point and witty.

Being a kiss ass accomplishes nothing.

What does "work with DP mean? Continue to believe their stories and kiss their asses? No. It's not my job to get this "back on track" I'm a customer. I bought their shit. I want my shit! It's THEIR JOB to get it back on track.

Is that my fault, too? They've had a proto since 2014 ...why the fuck is the code not done? That has nothing to do with ARA.

So what are you doing to "work" with them, besides dangling from their ballbags?

Yeah, and you're a fucking cunt. Neither of our personality deficiencies has anything to do with getting us our games.

He's not a jerk, but his fingers often outrun his brain when he's typin away on pinside..

Greg is acting like he's the only person in history to lose out on a speculative preorder...

Give him a break. Apparently he's constantly on the john.

Greg, you sure are pooping a lot. Have you considered a squatty potty?

IMG_0562 (resized).JPG

TheShitrix (resized).jpg

He doesn't need to do anything mom, good lord.

Damn, it's cool to drop the See You Next Tuesday bomb on Pinside nowadays??

giphy.gif

only in the Labowski thread

Generally not the preferred nomenclature, but I'll make an exception here.

I could be wrong, but I am thinking you have your game and all your worried about is code.

These aren't the guys that built the railroads

B/w

This aggression will not stand, man!

I could also be wrong, but seems like the hot-headed behavior in this thread is going to lead to NOBODY getting their Lebowskis. Oh, won't that be an interesting thread.

yea your wrong

Ok. I was wrong about Magic Girl ever seeing the light of day, too.

I believe the lies are deep and what, one phone call to ARA revealed a big one? If anyone thinks this is an isolated incident of one lie I would have to disagree. We have a mediator already who is willing to take on this huge pile of dung so we all can wait and see what comes of this but I for one totally understand the frustration of many when they don't have the gonads to buck up become transparent and tell the fing truth. It makes the people donating their times job that much harder.

Getting ready to say the same thing Billy.

Eternal only worried about code for his pin he's received? That true?

I'm in the same boat you are WC. My game is one of the completed games at ARA ready to ship. I want all 300 TBL's to be built and see everyone get their games - with finished code.

Then my apologies however please understand where the frustration comes from and its not Greg or anyone else on here. Where is DP????????? where is the transparency? They show up and want to sell 12500 dollar BOPS. Are you fing crazy. They think this profit will get the games out of hawk? They blew a ton on showmanship girls and spouting off at the mouth how they are number one and will take over the pinball world. Really? I have zero respect for these guys I actually feel more for jpop who is just a really really really terrible business man but at least has a soul given it's a little misguided at times They also watched Zidware follies, how can you not learn? Narcissism at it's finest ....again

maybe so, but what good did it do. You have a really expensive coffee table that is useless. Just to shut people the fawk up.

My Foxy Lady is a really expensive, useless coffee table. Magic Girl at least powers up and flips a ball around (a badly designed playfield).

not really badly designed. Just missing a lot of the mechanics that the software was written for. So the game gets confused very easily and makes the game unplayable in a very short period of time. If it would have been built 100% like it was intended, i'm sure it would have been at least playable.