Hello WOOLY Fans!
I have some exciting news for everyone. In March I decided to move forward with finalizing my bill of materials and locking down exactly what it takes to get a few more WOOLYs made. After a deep dive into vendors and discovering what parts were available and in inventory, I found that I would be able to build 4 more WOOLY’s. There are a handful of game specific parts that simply are not being manufactured anymore and I bought the four sets that remained (to go into a full scale production, these special parts will need to be re-engineered and manufactured new). I reached out to four of my first and biggest supporters and we decided to move forward with plans that two of those supporters (also good friends) would physically build their own games alongside me as I built the other two. There are probably many people reading this that may be frustrated in the last statement or wondering why they weren’t included in the build - my only answer for you is that there just simply were not enough parts to cover for everyone, while I would have loved to include more, it just simply was not physically possible at this point and I’m sorry if anyone feels bad because they weren’t included.
So the journey began – ordering parts, managing suppliers, sending updated files out for fab, planning, planning, and more planning. It literally took from March until now to get all the parts in. I will say this once more – the most tedious, time consuming, pain in the ass, dreaded part of pinball building is dealing with parts (ordering, inspecting, managing, and dealing with low stock, out of stock, slightly different stock, etc.).
Last Saturday was the big day when production on the prototype WOOLY’s began. Three guys working in a 300 square foot space on 3 different pins. Quarters were cozy, but was useful to help demonstrate the build and to be able to inspect each step along the way. After 5 days, 3 games were built with an amazing build quality – cleaner wiring, better cabs, better playfield population, etc. These prototypes still used the prototype ramps and fragile 3D printed parts. There are still many things that probably need a tweak, adjustment, production tooling, etc. when moving into full production.
I would like to thank all my suppliers for their help, especially Spooky Pinball for another round of incredible playfields and plastics, Virtuapin for our incredibly well built and precise cabinets, and Multimorphic for top of the line electronics and engineering support. Lastly, I would also like to personally thank my rock star, guru programmer – Frank Gigliotti – who continues to amaze me with updates and enhancements on a weekly, if not sometimes daily, basis that continues to polish and refine our beautiful game.
Anyone interested in licensing the design from me for manufacturing and production should email me at [email protected]. I would love to see more than 6 WOOLYs in the world.
Q: Why the hell did you do this?
A: To prove it could be done. To prove I have a design that can be produced in a reasonable amount of time. To understand completely what my small prototype build costs are. Most importantly to complete my documentation so that I can potentially hand this off to anyone or any company to build WOOLY’s on their own.
Q: Why did you build only 4?
A: I physically could not build more than 4. There were only 4 sets of parts.
Q: Is the music still the same?
A: No, we have brand new, unique, kick-ass music. We have secured a music license. Under our agreement, we cannot disclose until October of this year.
Q: Voice call outs still the same?
A: Voice call outs continue to be worked on and improve with each update. Many have been resampled with better audio. Since expo, an additional 100 callouts have been added.
Q: Why wasn’t I one of the four, I’ve been one of your first and best supporters?
A: Only four games could be made and I had to make hard choices on who could be a part of this.
Q: Are you going to make any more?
A: It is not very likely that I will ever do a small run like this again (no parts), but that remains to be seen. It would be wonderful if a large company that knows how to manufacture pinballs decided to license the design from me and produce them on their own.
Q: Will WOOLY be at the Chicago EXPO this year?
A: To be determined.
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