Just waiting for final word from the printer, could come today. In the meantime I'm waiting for payment still from these people:

evolution
frg
HighProtein
Jackjet
jrawlinson_2000
msj2222
Paul_S

If you want to get yours when I do the first shipment please send your payment. If you want to drop out because you don't want/need it anymore just let me know, I have people who will happily take your place.

Thanks!

Dang high praise. Thanks for posting a pic, but come on now, I won't be offended if you throw in with Elvira over me!

Got word from the printer that the second run has shipped to me. With the holiday this week we'll see how it all goes. Still waiting on payments from a good handful of people too. I'll break it up into multiple shipments if needed. I'll be in New York for 4 days for business next week too, so gotta see how things work out, if I get them before I leave I'll make an extra effort to ship before I fly out.

Sweet, you were one of the first to get it, glad you're enjoying. Hope to see in in person in a month!

Yup! I broke down my process earlier in the thread, but to recap I basically did a Google image search for Shadow comics, and mocked together a rough composite based on various covers and shots, along with some other random bits and tweaks, things I drew from scratch (the guns for instance) etc. Then I took that and used it as a reference sketch to draw a rough vector version of of it all. Then I could scale that as needed, mess with placement etc. Once I had the scale and general pose down I brought into Photoshop, rendered down to pixels, and did a digital painting over the vectors, to add all the texture and shading. Obviously I heavily referenced that Alex Ross drawing for the face.

I'd never try and pass that off as my own comic book cover, be a bit shameless, but I think I transformed it all enough to make the translite composition feel original.

Short answer: No, this run is spoken for, but I have a waiting list for a third run. Be happy to add you to it. Price is $175 shipped for the translite, speaker panel and instruction cards. Just let me know.

I just got home (for all of 12 hours) about to go pack and head out to NY for the week. I'm guessing the second run prints will arrive while I'm gone this week. As soon as I get back I'll pack them all up and ship to everyone who's paid. Will update when I get back or if I get more info.

I still have I think 5 pre-orders on this run who haven't paid or messages me. I'll message anyone who hasn't one more time, and if they don't respond I'll move them out to the 3rd run list and give them to the first people in line for the 3rd run.

Thanks. Looking forward to seeing your original illustration some day!

Heh. You're #1 on my 3rd run list, if I have any extras from people dropping out you're first in line. I have to send out a couple to people who had problems on the first run, they're the only ones in front of you. Apparently the Swedish post office decided to play soccer (fotboll?) with one of the packages, poor thing was so wrecked the entire contents were trashed. Definitely need to take care of that first. Keep forgetting to figure out how to look into the insurance on that one.

Can do,thanks.

That picture makes me

Back from New York. FedEx claims they delivered the package while I was gone. Problem is, it's nowhere to be found.

Gonna see if it shows up magically, if not on Monday I'll sort out the plan. Super annoying! I'll still make sure they're printed no matter what, but if anyone wants a refund or anything I'll be happy to do that. Why don't we wait and see if they just screwed up and delivered to wrong house or something first though.

Man, here's hoping. It supposedly was delivered on Thursday, so I dunno how long to hold out hope for.

Someone was home within an hour of it being delivered, my porch is hidden from the street by jasmine vines, and there was a car parked in front of the house. I guess it's possible someone stole it from the house still, and now has 35 Shadow translites.

Like I said, I'm gonna wait until Monday, see what happens, and if it's truly missing then I'll work it out, nothing is being canceled. It will obviously delay things though, which sucks, and I would totally understand if anyone wanted a refund and would take care of that. Let's cross that bridge next week.

Sorry for the headaches everyone!

The day is saved!

I live on 168th st. Just got a very nice phonecall from a gentleman on 186th st asking if I was missing some packages.

Heh, I've actually had a couple people do that. They were more actively hunting though, but bought it before having the machine. Thanks!

All I can say is that at some point I'll no longer be able to make these, because there's a minimum print run number, and when the demand drops it will be difficult to do that. So I'm definitely not artificially limiting it or anything, but I would expect that there isn't a whole lot of life left in this. I dunno, I've never even advertised it outside of Pinside, not sure if I will.

Oh man, I'm looking at my cell phone wondering wtf is calling me, and of course he doesn't pronounce Aurich correctly (for the record it sounds pretty much like Oric) and I'm thinking it's spam. Then he turns out to be a super nice life saver. I thanked him profusely.

Funny story, in this case the addresses on the packages actually did say 186th street, just a simple transcription error, and it worked out, so no harm done. But the other day I got 2 boxes from something my wife had ordered and there should have been 3. Third one showed up the next day. Why? Because they'd delivered it to this same guy's house! Since it was actually addressed correctly (and there was no phone # on it) he just drove it over and dropped it off on our porch. Told me about it today when I picked up the translites. I feel like I gotta drop him off a gift or something now, nice guy.

I seriously was wondering for a moment if some perplexed thief was wondering WTF they were going to do with all these random plastic posters.

Started packing up tonight, should be able to ship out the orders on Monday. Gonna try PMing the following people again:

evolution
HighProtein
Jackjet
jrawlinson_2000
msj2222

They haven't paid and/or contacted me, and are in danger of losing their slot.

I'm sold out for this run but gearing up to do a 3rd, I can put you down for that list. Germany is no problem.

Be happy to, your Shadow is bad ass, I love your gun grips!

You're all set, I'll contact people when things get closer.

The only thing I would say is it might be delayed a little with the holiday season in the US, I know my printer said this is their busiest time. I'll update after the second run is taken care of and I know how things look.

Essentially, yes, I'm going by the order people were added, so if I lost X people on the 2nd run the first X on the 3rd run would get the first dibs. You're #11 so probably not something you need to worry about, sorry.

I have more than enough for the 3rd run already, just waiting to make sure the 2nd run makes it okay first, about to mail it tomorrow. That gives me a little extra time for adding people that have been steadily trickling in too. Only catch is with the holidays it might take slightly longer to get the prints made, but shouldn't be a big deal. I think I'll spring for overnight shipping from the printer this time, should make up for it. Also, signature required on delivery.

Awesome, thanks a lot, I love hearing that.

The US orders are definitely going out tomorrow, they're all packed up. I'm working on international, but they're much slower to do, have to deal with each customs form one at a time, no bulk shipping labels, so they might take an extra day. We'll see, want to get them out ASAP too.

Frankly the customs stuff kind of blows my mind. Apparently one guy had to show his PayPal receipts to them to prove the value on the last run.

If you're in the US you should get your 2nd run translite package today, I see some have already been delivered. If for some reason you don't get it today I would think tomorrow.

If you're international your orders are processing through the post office. Hopefully you'll get them by the end of next week, but with customs sometimes things get held up a little, so hard to guess exactly. I saw a pretty big spread on the first run on the delivery dates around the world.

If it's getting close to Christmas and you don't have it and are feeling anxious just ping me, I have tracking numbers we can check the status on.

Sweet, you were one of the random tracking numbers I happened to look at and saw as delivered.

Done.

Excellent. If they made it as far as SC I've got to think everyone should get it today.

BTW I still love seeing pics of your installs everyone!

Got a helpful hint from Galdaien - The protective layer on the translite is a bit of a bitch to take off. He said that he fanned a hairdryer over it first and that made it much easier to peel off. I haven't tried it myself, but passing along in case it helps anyone. I'd just be careful to just warm it up and not overheat it to be safe.

Oh sure, I could do that. No charge, I'll upload a PDF.

If anyone needs a non-free play card, here's a PDF of one with 50 cents instead. Just print on an inkjet or the like and use the crop marks to cut, should print to the right size:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/227626/Shared/shadow-card-route.pdf

I'm not sure. Someone in the first run claimed he was going to route it I believe, but I can't remember if I ever received confirmation of that or not. Maybe in Seattle? I've shipped something like 130 of these by now, so some of the people and stories start to blend a little bit, I could be wrong about that. I love that it's on location though, that's awesome.

Did that 50¢ instruction card print okay for you?

Had a couple inquiries on the status of the 3rd run, so just updating with my thoughts.

The interest has slowed down, I think it's probably safe to do the order soon. I'll add in some extras to cover latecomers like I did last time. No idea if this will be the last run or not, just have to see if interest has been tapped or not.

I'm sort of waiting to make sure the international orders make it okay first, because if anyone's get mangled I'll want to be sure I can replace theirs. Long way to send a cardboard box, I don't trust it. And then we're running into Christmas and everything slows down, have to account for that. So I would think I could probably have them available to everyone on the list early next year.

Sound reasonable?

Hope to start hearing from the international people soon about packages arriving. Sending them so far makes me anxious, so many ways to get crushed and mangled, so let me know if they made it okay. Especially to Sweden!

I just checked your tracking #, actually says as of today it's delivered.

So hopefully there when you get home or something.

I really tried to make sure they'd all arrive before Christmas. As I just said up above that's one delivered to Australia, so they're definitely making their way out there. The tracking can get kind of vague, yours only says

INTERNATIONAL DISPATCH READY

as of 4 days ago. So I can't see where in the system it is beyond that. You of all people better not have any trouble!! (Poor Alex was in on the first run and his package just got mangled in transit, this is his replacement.)

Looked yours up too, as of today it just went to

CUSTOMS CLEARANCE PROCESSING COMPLETE

so that sounds hopeful that it will get delivered soon.

Happy to make custom price cards if anyone is routing it for something other than 50¢.

GET BACK IN YOUR HOLE BALDWIN.

Someone ordered one for her boyfriend as a Christmas present, so really pulling for that one to make it on time.

It's weird how the international stuff works, Australia seems to be the fastest so far. I guess it's all dependent on the local customs, and how long they take to process things. Out of my hands I guess, but hope they all come through fast!

Happy to check anyone's.

Yours said December 18th: PROCESSED THROUGH OFFICE OF EXCHANGE

I have no idea what that means, but it sounds like it's close I guess?

Great, let me know if it came through okay. I sent maybe 22 packages international last time and only one was actually wrecked, so I shouldn't be nervous, but I can't help it.

Honestly it's a bit of a mess, unlike my carefully tuned playfield the backbox is just whatever I had lying around. So I wouldn't really be able to give super specific recs as far as brand/style if you wanted to match mine.

That said definitely cool white, that's what works best with the colors of the translite, and what my mix is all drawn from. I'd probably lean frosted to avoid hot spots, but I'm not familiar with the Comet bulbs.

Awesome. As far as I know you're the first person to get the international 2nd run. Go Australian post office.

Excellent! If anyone else wants a tracking update just let me know. Hopefully they start arriving everywhere else too.

Once these look settled I'll lock in the 3rd run. I thought it was maybe looking final and then I got 3 more people yesterday, so you never know.

Awesome.

I went through the tracking today hoping to see more out for deliveries, but it's all obscure crap like CLEARED CUSTOMS PROCESSING SPACE STATION and whatever that means nothing to me as far as how close they all are.

I think I'll email the printer tomorrow, see what he thinks about the 3rd run timing, what with the holidays etc. Get some sense of what we might be looking at. The pre orders have pretty much slowed down, I'm sure there will be some sporadic interest later, but I think at this point anyone on Pinside with a Shadow knows about this and either has it or isn't interested. Which is fine! I had no idea it would do so well. So never say never, but I won't be surprised if this 3rd one is the last run, or at least for now.

I've been tinkering with an AC/DC project in the meantime, even though I don't have one. Got sucked into an idea and just been running with it. Ironically it's she-devil themed, Stern kinda sucker punched me with the Luci stuff since I had it all in the works before that, but so it goes!

Must be a time zone thing, just woke up to a couple orders from Germany and one from France. Every time I think there can't possibly be anyone else here interested I'm wrong.

Thanks. The speaker cover is really the secret sauce, you just can't change the translite properly without dealing with it. I was lucky to find a printer that could hook it up just like the stock one.

Man, customs kills me. If anyone's curious like I was that's $32.71 in US dollars. Still, like you said, at least it's close.

Nice. Those yellow rails are crazy.

Welp, there goes my restful sleep.

Thanks. Never too late to party!

I believe an order has already been placed for the Shadow you just sold too. If I connected the dots right. (Edit: I did.)

Not at home right now, can't check my tracking numbers, I hope anyone who ordered it for Xmas got it in time. If not should be there soon, did the best I could. The whims of customs can be fickle!

It looks like the bulk of the international orders made it just fine, so I'm no longer worried about them. Even survived the Swedish post office, second time was the charm!

I emailed my printer earlier in the week, but haven't heard from him yet, hopefully he's taking some vacation time like I am. Once I get back in touch with him I'll initiate the 3rd run. Guessing that will be beginning of January, what with New Year's. Once I have it ordered I'll send a PM or email to everyone on the list with instructions.

So if you're interested or on the fence that's basically your window of time before I shut down the list and order. I'll probably get a few extra to be safe, but not gonna stockpile a ton or anything.

As always, if there's enough interest I'll do a 4th run, and if there isn't, then this is possibly it. Thanks everyone!

Awesome. My plans to dominate the globe are slowly falling into place.

Have another drink old man.

alec-drink.gif

Awesome. Time to redo those backbox LEDs!

Just heard from my awesome printer, he's back from vacation and said he can start the 3rd run later this week.

So, last call, if you want to get in on this one speak up.

I have a handful of extra speaker panels that I can sell separately for $50 shipped if anyone wants one. There was some initial interest in that idea in the beginning, but it never went anywhere, so I've just been sitting on them. Came in handy when someone scratched their new one though!

Just PM me if you're interested.

Yes sir, you are #26 on the list! Anyone who's contacted me is good to go, first thing I do when I get your message is copy your username to my Excel file. I'll use it to PM everyone with the payment details when the order has been put in.

o-din sorry you couldn't make Robert's party so we could meet properly. Maybe next time.

Well more like a few weeks, but thanks!

I'm going to leave the list open until tomorrow, and then I'm locking it and giving the printer the numbers. I'll get a couple extra just in case, and usually a couple people drop out, so even if you're late you can always PM me to see if there's one left.

Much better. I'm honestly not really a fan of colored LEDs in backboxes myself, would rather stick with cool white in most cases, but if you dig the look then enjoy!

By the way, I was at a Pinside party the other day (thanks Robert) and the comment I got over and over was how much better it looks in person from people who had only seen photos. Just really freaking hard to photograph in any way that looks remotely close to real life. That probably holds true for the color LEDs up above too.

Okay, I've sent the printer the order details, we're getting this run started. Once it's in production and I have some rough estimate for timing I'll send everyone a PM with the payment info. Thanks everyone!

I'm slipping in a test print for a little side project I've been playing with too, see how that goes. Totally unrelated to the Shadow though.

lol now I feel bad for teasing, it's not DM. I'll fess up so no one else gets hopeful, because it's not something anyone's going to guess. Somehow I got sucked into an AC/DC project a bit ago. Not a game I even own, but I was having fun with it. All I'm going to say now is that I was pretty annoyed when Stern released their Luci version, was crappy timing for me.

Man, you guys are killing me, you're the third person to ask me tonight! Every time I think it's slowed down ...

Good news is I do have a few extras to cover this. And usually a couple people end up dropping out when I ask for payments, so I can always put people on "standby" too if need be to see if one frees up. Just PM me. But you're in my buffer, no need for that. So you're good, I've got you on the list.

Thanks!

Wow, looking really sweet, nice job with the lighting. Really nice tonal matching between PF and translite, agreed!

FWIW I think the backbox looks best with pure cool white LEDs.

I never get tired of hearing stories like this.

Update from my printer:

We are actually under a blizzard here right now and the city is virtually shut down; we are under a red travel advisory, so we cannot leave our houses at the moment.

So I'd expect the 3rd run to maybe go a little slower than planned with the crazy cold weather. Gonna be 76° here today, wish I could send some heat to everyone in the midwest!

Stay warm and safe everyone. I'll update when I know more.

Also, I just got another order, that officially takes my last slot even with the extras I buffered into the order. Now with this blizzard it might be possible to up the print run at the last minute if someone else wants in, otherwise it's down to standby. Usually when I send out the payment request I get a couple people who drop out for various reasons, so standby can work out. Always best to just PM me.

Just talked to my printer, the blizzard was helpful in that the delay meant I could slip in a few more on the run. So I added some more because I keep getting orders even after being full, and I hate turning people down.

So as of now I have a limited few slots left. Just PM me if you want in.

Hey thanks. Really it started as something selfish, I wanted it for my game. But I'm really glad so many people are enjoying it, and it's been a cool and interesting experience to get into the "retail" business, even on such a small scale.

We'll see where I go with this AC/DC project, it's not exactly the lonely, hurting market that The Shadow had, more than enough fish in that pond. But it kinda just fell in my lap and I ran with it. I only do projects I enjoy, so there's really no risk of failure if no one wants it. The people who've seen it have been really positive so you never know!

I dunno who's even still reading this long ass thread of mine, but if you are I'd love for you to chime in on a question:

Someone asked me if I'd sell them my instruction cards. At the time I said no (and I wouldn't have sold them, just given away the files), because I wanted anyone who ordered my package to feel like they had something unique and special. But I wonder if anyone even cares. It's a nice way to round it all out, but none of you are ordering my translite just to get the instruction cards.

So here's my question, would the people who are buyers be annoyed if I uploaded the files to give away for free? I guess I could alter them somehow so they were different, I just wonder if it matters.

Weigh in if you don't mind!

IMHO it looks like it's supposed to with cool white LEDs, but everyone's taste in lighting is different.

It's not that I mind sharing, just maybe better to not post numbers publicly. Probably over cautious, but a lot more than I ever expected to that's for sure. I thought it would be 10.

I haven't tried LEDs with your "so few" method, but I don't have any issues with mine notspotting now. The cool white just pops the colors so much more true, I don't like the yellowed artwork.

Sure thing. Only thing I'm gonna say is that I have a limited number left, and I don't know how long they'll last. I can never tell, every time I think surely it must be done I'll get 3 people PMing me about it. Once they're gone my only option will be to do a 4th run, and that's gonna require a minimum number of people to do. At some point it's gonna get harder to get that group.

I just don't want you to decide you really want it too late is all.

So far people seem cool with it, I'll wait a bit for any more opinions, don't want to make anyone unhappy.

Heh. Of course as I discovered the real challenge is getting them printed right once you have the art!

I agree, if it's cool to agree in a thread where I'm selling something.

I did new cards for my Scared Stiff and shared those, I have some nice Jurassic Park ones that I just need to fix the size on (don't have a JP and didn't realize the DE cards were a different size than the Williams ones!) and I'll upload those too. I should start a thread for that actually. Made them for a friend and he told me they were the wrong size but he never got around to measuring for me.

Edit: Done! http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/free-custom-jurassic-park-instruction-cards

Yes sir, I'm just waiting to make sure the print order is really going first, I don't want to sit on people's money longer than I have to. The way I try and time it while the order is finishing and shipping to me I'm asking for payment. Generally I need that whole time to get everyone's, not everybody is super fast to respond. Then when the package gets to me I break it down and ship to everyone who's paid.

The order is in, I'm talking to the printer, I'm just not sure it's actually started yet. I'll see if I can get an estimate.

Heh, I'm ready to get this out to you guys too. We're just a little behind schedule, mostly because of the freakish weather everyone in the country has been feeling except us. My printer's shop (and whole city apparently) was shut down for 2 days because of a blizzard, which in CA is like saying that you had to close the office because a herd of bigfoot were camping on the roof. Equally crazy sounding!

Anyways, they're trying to get everything back on track, and as soon as he can give me an estimate for being done I'll will pass it along. And at that point I'll send out the PM with payment instructions too. I appreciate that people keep asking me if they can give me money, but I don't want to ask for it until I know we're close.

I need to order more shipping boxes and stock up on tape, I go through rolls of the stuff now.

Thanks! I know I saw you at Robert's, but not sure if we actually formally met or not.

I probably shouldn't have teased AC/DC, it's just hard to not want to put it up to see what people think. Plus there's a story behind it and Stern's Luci, and it's kinda killing me. I'm still tweaking some minor details though, and waiting for the test print, so trying to to be patient. If you were to PM me your email address I might send you a sneak peek though. Because being patient sucks!

Printing update: The prints are in progress now, the run has started, they're just working on reprints for ones that didn't meet the quality standard. Should ship to me by the end of the week. I'm going to PM everyone shortly with the payment instructions.

We'll see if anyone drops out when I PM, but I do have two slots left that haven't been claimed since I upped the print run number at the last minute. So if anyone is on the fence shoot me a PM.

Got a photo of the AC/DC test print, excited to light it up in person. Working on a non-translite thing too that goes with it, but too early to say if it's gonna work out or not.

Just sent all the PMs with instructions. Ping me if you have questions. Thanks!

Thank you everyone who's already sent in payments. Looks like I'm having a slightly higher cancelation rate this run than usual (one person had a great excuse, he just picked up a Shadow and my translite was already on it) so I'm definitely going to have some extras for anyone who comes in late.

Better that than having to turn people away, so don't worry about it.

Did a little trading with Mike Chestnut, art for chrome, ooh shiny!

image.jpg

Just heard from the printer, order should be shipping to me tomorrow. Will update when I have a tracking # and a date.

I've probably received around 75% of the payments so far. If you want me to ship yours out when I get the order and break it down get your payments in, I'll try and turn it around as fast as I can.

Hadn't thought of that, good point.

Sounds like no one objects, so I'll try and get to that.

Shipping update: Got a tracking number, I'll have the prints next Wed.

Waiting to hear from 7 people still about payments, if we've talked already about paying later you're good.

Anyone who's paid up by then will get their package shipped by end of next week.

So one PM'd to ask if I still have extras. I do have a few even if everyone left pays up.

Putting together boxes, I'll be ready to ship them out on Thursday after they arrive on Wed.

image.jpg

So awesome, I love it.

Nice, I made the Orange photo roll.

Sorry I couldn't make it out to INDISC to meet up, hope it was fun. Football superseded watching the A finals, I only caught the round before on PAPA TV.

You're thinking of the black nickel. No, mine is straight up chrome, mirror finish, and bright, but it's so shiny it picks up all the dark reflections around it, like the cabinet itself.

I've heard from everyone on my list but one. Where you at waynetrane?!

Looks like I have 4 left over after people dropping out. I'll just hold onto them for the moment in case I get last minute orders or there's a problem than needs an extra.

Thanks everyone.

Love the new avatar o-din. "I'm glad you changed your last name you son of a bitch."

Wizards: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076929/

I have the prints.

I'll start packing them up and printing shipping labels tonight. Plan is to take them to the post office in the morning. If I can't finish them all tonight then I will tomorrow.

I'm down with the first two parts of your plan, and I don't want Nimblepin's Shadow but I really need to get over there to check out his WOZ still.