Um, with the right art package and more work on the LCD, I think you'll be doing runs of 100s fully pre-sold. In my view, this could sell well into 4 figures, i.e. over a thousand units if the art looks good enough and the price is around that of a Stern Pro.

I hope you get some international distributors.

If the art and the price hit the mark, it'll be my first NIB.

Have you lined up an artist for the playfield / cabinet / translite yet?

Nixies would make a good topper. Cost could then be separated from base product, too.

On the face of it, in that case TA would probably be a bad candidate for manufacture, given the thumping synth / retrowave soundtrack, similar Hotline Miami type LCD graphics (and I suspect art package?), and what some older customers might consider an overwhelming light show. How many 50 year olds listen to or are even cognisant of that kind of music or new pixel shooter videogames?

The reaction to it at shows, from the recent streams and the almost universal excitement on Pinside at the announcement Spooky would manufacture it (certainly way more than for AMH / RZ / Domino's / Jetson's / Alice) seems to suggest otherwise though.

Sometimes people recognise good work, even if the theme or influences aren't a particularly obvious hit for the the market's primary demographic (middle aged men).

Besides, if this at an 'affordable' price, you don't need to market it exclusively to people whose kids are beginning to leave home and retirees sitting on a pot of gold, if it will appeal to a younger audience.

Wasn't really my point that 50+ year olds (or older) wouldn't like it. More that if you were doing product research for people with grey or greying hair, something like this would likely never come up, or would be passed in favour of things with supposedly better 'wrinkly' appeal.

Just my view, but if enough love is put into the art and LCD, I think this can potentially sell better than Elvira 3.

In my view this is a total departure from the Hotline Miami / 80s retro futuristic style that Scott had originally pursued.

This looks more weeb / animé and/or OverWatch, and of that style not particularly great either (my opinion).

Doubt it's final, but I'd be extremely disappointed if they keep this look.

Machine itself, on the other hand, continues to look better and better.

I think the negative reaction to the art is because most people absolutely understood the above was your intention, but they had something very different in their head than what was revealed, and don't feel like what we've seen really matches the expressed vision.

Still not sold on the art style, but that looks WAY better.

The colours are significantly different. It's not just a case of adjusting contrast.

That's a busy looking facility. Guess the new place got 'small' much quicker than they expected.

That can only be good news.

I would be very surprised if it doesn't sell more than all their games produced to date (contract and house).

Indeed. I doubt it. It's not like you're putting it in a large box or crate with empty space, that 2 will fill.

Both air freight and container (ocean) freight concern volume and little else. Until you get to the point of a half or full container load, you'll be lucky to get more than a 5% discount with your agent for booking more than 1 pallet.

If you want an early spot, then place a wanted ad and I'm sure people will be open to reasonable offers.

There's no fixed cap on them, and I think sell through will be good. Particularly if, as rumoured, they make them compliant to international standards and start exporting officially.

This is highly likely to be a one-off shipment via agent(s). As I understand it, you regularly import to NZ, and not just pinball. Your negotiated rates are going to be far cheaper and far more incentivised re: volume than the ones here.

Also, rarely do port fees scale in completely linear fashion as you describe above, in my experience, when you're talking about LCL singular pallets. At least, not through an agent.

The vast bulk of the fees are likely to be inland shipping, anyway, and it's unlikely there will be any discount at all for 2 vs 1 pallets. But maybe he found an agent with a depot right down the road from Spooky (unlikely), and they'll drop off for him, and that's moot. In which case, division of port and bureaucratic fees would be a greater % saving.

Either way, any costs saved via this angle, would likely be dwarfed by what you'd likely have to pay someone to give up their spot for a later one - unless you're lucky enough to find someone with cash flow issues, for example, who wants a short delay.

If they had the production capacity, and thus low time to wait, I'm sure they'd have sold well over 1000 already. Though I suspect they'll get to that benchmark eventually anyway.

It's because it's a pretty cheap TN panel. All TN panels have poor viewing angles and significant gamma shift. The latter, particularly on the vertical plane. Cheap ones more so.

Switching to even a very cheap IPS unit will improve viewing angles a lot and reduce gamma shift.

If you care about image quality, it would be a cheap and cost effective upgrade.