# Can you buy a brand new pinball machine for less than $1000?

**Source:** Tim Sexton  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2025-05-31  
**Duration:** 36m 20s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO_743RILLs

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## Analysis

Tim Sexton analyzes Wonderland Amusements' Kickstarter campaign for Alice Goes to Wonderland, a sub-$1,000 home pinball machine (80% scale with 22mm ball). The campaign raised $600K+ from 620 backers. Sexton expresses significant skepticism about the $800-$1,000 price target, arguing that manufacturing costs for custom components, labor, playfield production, and software development make this economically unfeasible at scale, despite the company's claims of Arcade OneUp manufacturing expertise.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Alice Goes to Wonderland is approximately 80% the size of a full commercial pinball machine with a 22mm ball (vs. standard 27mm) — _Campaign marketing and Sexton's breakdown of specs; confirmed in multiple sections of campaign materials shown_
- [HIGH] Arcade OneUp has produced over 4 million home arcade games across 130 unique SKUs — _Direct quote from campaign materials: 'Our development team brings extensive experience to the job, having produced over 4 million home arcade games across 130 unique SKUs for the Arcade OneUp line.'_
- [HIGH] The campaign was fully funded by April 10th with 620+ backers raising over $600,000 — _Sexton's opening statement and campaign overview; specific dates and numbers provided in video_
- [HIGH] Early bird tier was $799 (20% off $1,000 MSRP) and sold out after 100 units — _Sexton reviews reward tier breakdown in campaign; confirms 100 early bird units sold_
- [HIGH] The machine suffered LCD display damage during transit to Pinball Expo, causing some backers to request refunds due to inability to see game code in action — _Campaign update quoted directly: 'The prototype suffered some damage in transit... knocked out the DMD, which knocked out the DMD, which is not a DMD. It's an LCD display... Some backers who were waiting in anticipation... seemed to confirm their fears that the game code wasn't real or far enough along.'_
- [HIGH] Stern's cheapest home pinball option is Jurassic Park at Costco for $5,000 — _Sexton states: 'Stern also has a product that they're selling at Costco for $5,000. This is a Jurassic Park home pinball machine.'_
- [HIGH] HomePin's Thunderbirds and Blues Brothers machines cost $4,500-$4,600 including shipping — _Sexton: 'There's a company out of Australia that's building pinball machines in China right now called Home Pin... Blues Brothers... cost $4,600 including shipping.'_
- [HIGH] Sexton believes it is not economically feasible to manufacture a playable mechanical pinball machine at $800-$1,000 retail, even at 80% scale — _Extended argument throughout video: 'I strongly doubt as someone who's quite familiar with manufacturing pinball machines that this is really going to be profitable for this company at $1,000... Not with what they're showing here... It's not going to be easy.'_

### Notable Quotes

> "I strongly doubt as someone who's quite familiar with manufacturing pinball machines that this is really going to be profitable for this company at $1,000."
> — **Tim Sexton**, ~18:30
> _Core thesis of skepticism; Sexton positions himself as industry expert with direct manufacturing knowledge_

> "Can you sell a sub $1,000 pinball machine? Sure, you can sell whatever you want at whatever price you want if you're willing to take a loss on it."
> — **Tim Sexton**, ~20:00
> _Sexton distinguishes between selling at a price vs. achieving profitability; addresses the distinction between campaign promise and business viability_

> "There's just so much space between the $4,500, $5,000 price point and the $800 price point that it just does not seem realistic to me to deliver a pinball like physical gameplay experience even at 80% size at that $800 price point."
> — **Tim Sexton**, ~35:00
> _Directly compares Wonderland's target to existing market reference points (Stern Costco, HomePin); identifies pricing gap as unrealistic_

> "Yes, the code is real. Here's an influencer video."
> — **Wonderland Amusements (campaign update)**, ~15:00
> _Campaign developers responding to skepticism about software maturity; deflects with influencer coverage rather than substantive detail_

> "All those things you add up just like the little bits of time, labor, cost, and all those parts. it very very quickly starts to add up because you don't have the advantage of scale necessarily when you're doing things assembly like this on like a small run of 600 games."
> — **Tim Sexton**, ~28:00
> _Identifies key scaling problem: 600 machines insufficient for automation ROI that larger manufacturers (Arcade OneUp at 4M units) achieved_

> "If you're going to make everything smaller. Also, if you're really attempting to get the cost down, you would need to redesign everything."
> — **Tim Sexton**, ~12:00
> _Acknowledges legitimate engineering challenge: 22mm ball requires custom all components, negating off-the-shelf economies_

> "The implication in that promise there is that either the existing pinball companies are ripping you off in some way or they're just stupid and unable to get their cost down low enough."
> — **Tim Sexton**, ~30:00
> _Identifies emotional/market positioning risk: Wonderland's messaging implicitly delegitimizes established manufacturers; sets unrealistic expectations_

> "A pinball machine costs $7,000, $8,000, $10,000 because it costs $7,000 8,000 $10,000."
> — **Tim Sexton**, ~32:00
> _Core industry defense: pricing reflects actual material and labor costs, not artificial markup; manufacturers need margins for development and staffing_

> "So far you've bought a Kickstarter pledge for a potential pinball machine that should be delivered in 12 months."
> — **Tim Sexton**, ~38:00
> _Reframes backer investment as speculative commitment rather than confirmed purchase; highlights execution risk_

> "200 backer spots filled, 200k raised is honestly not a lot of money. How many salaries could you pay for a year on 200k? Not too many."
> — **Tim Sexton**, ~42:00
> _Applies financial reality check to Kickstarter 'success' narrative; early funding insufficient for manufacturing pipeline at claimed scale_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Wonderland Amusements | company | Developer/manufacturer of Alice Goes to Wonderland; founded by Jerry (last name not provided); based in Philadelphia; launched Kickstarter campaign for sub-$1,000 home pinball machine |
| Alice Goes to Wonderland | game | 80% scale home pinball machine using 22mm ball; $799 early-bird/$1,000 MSRP; Kickstarter campaign fully funded with 620+ backers and $600K+ raised; delivery promised Q4 2025 |
| Tim Sexton | person | Content creator and analyst; professional software developer for commercial pinball machines (7 years); skeptical of Wonderland's manufacturing claims and pricing target |
| Arcade OneUp | company | Consumer home arcade cabinet manufacturer; produced 4M+ machines across 130 SKUs; created digital pinball cabinets; founder worked with Arcade OneUp; similar cabinet design possibly influences Alice |
| Stern Pinball | company | Commercial pinball manufacturer; sells Jurassic Park home edition at Costco for $5,000; market reference point for premium home pinball pricing |
| HomePin | company | Australia-based manufacturer producing pinball machines in China; Blues Brothers and Thunderbirds machines cost $4,500-$4,600 including shipping; market reference point for affordable home pinball |
| Jerry | person | Founder/designer of Wonderland Amusements; previously worked for ThinkUp (company that collaborated with Arcade OneUp on cabinet design); plays prototype in campaign video |
| Pinball Expo | event | Pinball convention/trade show in Anaheim, California where Alice prototype was demonstrated; machine ran 3 days, 10 hours non-stop gameplay; LCD display damaged during transit to show |
| ThinkUp | company | Company where Jerry previously worked; collaborated with Arcade OneUp on arcade cabinet design |
| Jurassic Park (Stern) | game | Stern's home pinball machine sold through Costco; $5,000 price point; cited as reference for legitimate home pinball with real code and playable software |
| Blues Brothers (HomePin) | game | HomePin-manufactured home pinball machine; $4,600 including shipping; reference point for existing sub-$5,000 home pinball market |
| Thunderbirds (HomePin) | game | HomePin-manufactured home pinball machine; cited alongside Blues Brothers as affordable home pinball option |
| Zizzle | company | Historical toy pinball manufacturer; produced compact pinball machines with real slingshots and flippers; shipped in collapsible boxes; reference point for 'toy pinball' market segment |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Kickstarter campaign funding and community reception, Manufacturing economics and cost structure for pinball machines, Sub-$1,000 home pinball pricing viability, 80% scale mechanical design and custom component development
- **Secondary:** Software maturity and game code development for Alice prototype, Comparison to existing home pinball market (Stern Costco, HomePin), Prototype damage and backer confidence/refund requests
- **Mentioned:** Arcade OneUp business model and manufacturing scale advantage

### Sentiment

**Negative** (-0.72) — Sexton is deeply skeptical of Wonderland's economic model and pricing claims despite acknowledging legitimate engineering challenges and prototype progress. His tone is analytical but dismissive of the $800 target as economically unfeasible. He credits Wonderland for campaign transparency and manufacturing transparency but repeatedly emphasizes the gap between promise and realistic delivery. The repeated use of 'I don't see how' and 'it doesn't make sense' conveys professional skepticism rooted in industry experience.

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** Manufacturing economics at 600-unit scale incompatible with $800 target; custom playfield, solenoid wiring, LCD, cabinet assembly, and labor costs accumulate rapidly without automation ROI that larger volume enables (confidence: high) — Sexton: 'For 600 machines, it's very hard to get your cost that low. And with Arcade OneUp, what they did is they scaled up to, let's say, 4 million machines... That was able to help get the price down.'
- **[sentiment_shift]** Backer enthusiasm vs. industry expert skepticism mismatch; 620 Kickstarter backers driven by price/accessibility messaging, while Sexton (software developer, manufacturing analyst) views promise as unrealistic (confidence: medium) — Sexton: 'Now, can you sell a sub 1,000 pinball machine? Sure... But... will long-term, even at scale, is there any way to make one of these pinball machines at less than $1,000? And I think the answer is no.'; notes Pinball Expo attendees 'generally genuinely impressed' but lacked visibility into code maturity
- **[market_signal]** Alice campaign positioning challenges established pinball manufacturers implicitly (Wonderland framing as 'accessible/affordable' vs. existing $5K-$15K options); Sexton identifies this as 'delusional' messaging that suggests incumbents are overcharging rather than reflecting true cost structure (confidence: high) — Sexton: 'The implication in that promise there is that either the existing pinball companies are ripping you off in some way or they're just stupid and unable to get their cost down low enough.'
- **[market_signal]** Existing home pinball options: Stern Costco Jurassic Park ($5K), HomePin Blues Brothers ($4.6K); Wonderland's $800 target represents 84% price reduction vs. next-cheapest option (confidence: high) — Sexton systematically reviews market alternatives: Stern, HomePin, Arcade OneUp digital pinball ($900); no existing mechanical home pinball under $4K
- **[personnel_signal]** Jerry (Wonderland founder) previously worked at ThinkUp, which collaborated with Arcade OneUp on cabinet design; represents talent pool from adjacent arcade industry (confidence: medium) — Sexton notes: 'Now, Jerry worked for a company called ThinkUp. ThinkUp worked with Arcade OneUp to design their cabinets.'
- **[market_signal]** Sexton articulates fundamental skepticism about $800 MSRP target for mechanical home pinball with custom components, arguing existing market references (Stern $5K, HomePin $4.6K) create unrealistic gap (confidence: high) — Extended analysis: 'There's just so much space between the $4,500, $5,000 price point and the $800 price point that it just does not seem realistic'; positions pricing as emotionally driven marketing rather than cost-based
- **[announcement]** Alice Goes to Wonderland officially announced via fully-funded Kickstarter campaign with 620+ backers; 80% scale home pinball targeting sub-$1,000 retail price (confidence: high) — Campaign materials reviewed in detail; $600K+ funding confirmed; March launch, fully funded by April 10th per updates
- **[product_concern]** Prototype damage/LCD failure at Pinball Expo; Wonderland's response vague ('Yes, the code is real. Here's an influencer video') rather than technical; Sexton questions whether 12-month delivery timeline realistic given software immaturity and manufacturing readiness (confidence: medium) — Campaign updates show damage ('knocked out the DMD'), refund requests, and defensive tone; Sexton notes: 'I don't think they look like they have the toys ready for production. It doesn't look like the software is ready... you're having to fulfill like 600 orders... where are they going to fit a run of 600 games in assembly? That's I think that's a pretty open question.'
- **[supply_chain_signal]** Campaign acknowledges tariff risk; Wonderland betting on tariff carveout or reduction for amusement machines without clear regulatory pathway or historical precedent confirmation (confidence: medium) — Update: 'analysts believe that the overall tariffs will be reduced closer to the lower rate or amusement machines like ours will receive a carveout or reduced rate as has historically been the case'; Sexton: 'I don't know this history that he's talking about.'
- **[technology_signal]** LCD display damage during Pinball Expo transit caused backer cancellations; community skeptical that game code is sufficiently developed, prompting Wonderland to defensively claim 'Yes, the code is real' with influencer video reference (confidence: high) — Campaign update: 'prototype suffered some damage in transit... knocked out the DMD [sic]... Some backers... seemed to confirm their fears that the game code wasn't real or far enough along. We've since seen a few pledge cancellations.'

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## Transcript

Can you sell a brand new pinball machine for less than $1,000? Well, that's the goal of Wonderland Pinball's brand new project, Alice Goes to Wonderland. This is a Kickstarter campaign that's fully funded right now, promising to deliver pinball machines in 2025 for less than $1,000. It has over 600 backers and it's raised over $600,000. Let's take a look at this campaign and see what's going on. So, this is the Kickstarter campaign for Alice Goes to Wonderland. Wonderland Amusements is creating real mechanical pinball machines for your home for less than $1,000. $100,000 was the goal. This guy's out of Philadelphia and it has 620 backers. So, it's got a real plunger. Most plungers bounce back and forth, so that one didn't. But, it's a prototype game, so things could change obviously. It's got two flippers down here at the bottom. It's got rubber on the flippers, rubber on two slingshots, three targets. They may be linked together. It's got a couple posts, this big ramp here. It has this little turnaround, this guy, and a spring. A second ramp that comes underneath this one. And both ramps return into wire forms. It also has two pop bumpers up here, three lanes, and uh it looks like an orbit shot around the outside. And then here we get a little look at the uh back glass. So, he's got two speakers here, a little small screen that looks pretty legit. Now, Jerry worked for a company called ThinkUp. ThinkUp worked with Arcade OneUp to design their cabinets. So, this one is $750 for an Attack from Mars pinball machine. Now, this isn't an actual pinball machine. 4.3 stars, 315 ratings. There's definitely a uh market for this stuff. So, here we have Big Buck Hunter here. You can see you can buy it on Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and Kohl's. Great little piece to throw in your basement. What Arcade OneUp has done in the past, they don't currently sell them, is they have made some pinball machines, but they emulate existing pinball machines. They have a screen here under the glass, plus a screen here with a dot matrix display that's emulated. You can see it shrunk down a little bit. And it looks like there's a very similar cabinet design here. Screen about the same size, the same kind of speakers it looks like, and a similar configuration of the cabinet. There's a lot of toys on this. There's the pop bumper caps. There's this big castle. Plus, there's this uh little mushroom with with the bugs on it. And you also have a little decal on the bottom arch there. And you got a little spring toys and other like layered plastic toys. This looks like it has some shape. Oh, the little teapotss. There's a little captive ball. I see there's a little captive ball in the tea area and that what that's what hits the spring target. So, there's some mechanical action there. At Wonderland Amusements. Our goal is simple. To make real mechanical pinball accessible for everyone, affordable, compact, and full of fun. Now, this is interesting because currently pinball machines cost you about $8,000 brand new for commercial pinball machines. These are meant to go on location, really take a beating, and a lot of people do buy these for their home, especially now. You can, of course, buy a real pinball machine, a commercial pinball machine, for less than $1,000. Now, this isn't going to be a brand new game. And this will be a used game. This game might be a 70s or80s pinball machine, but you can certainly find them. And I'm going to go look right now to see what kind of games you can get for less than $1,000. So for $900, I can buy this Ship Ahoy pinball machine. So what can you get? I mean, this is a game that it looks actually like it's in pretty nice shape. This is what you can currently buy for less than $1,000. So for 1,200 bucks you can buy a fourplayer digital working Buck Rogers pinball machine. This is kind of what you get with a commercial pinball machine. They are very serviceable, very easy to get parts for. These things had big production runs. So even then, I mean, this is a game from 1980 and the sale price is $1,200. This Wonderland Pinball Machine, if you look at the reward tier here, is the early bird special. This is $800, $799, a 20% savings off of the MSRP, which is supposed to be $1,000. It's an aggressive target for sure. There really haven't been many games in the LCD era ever that have ever approached this price point. Certainly not new. Home arcade fans have been left out until now. Now, I would disagree with this. Home arcade fans are buying used games. They're buying new games. They have been doing this um with physical pinball machines, but perhaps he's saying more home arcade games or perhaps arcade oneup buyers would be the ones who' be interested in a product like this. Uh it's designed for home use. It's approximately 80% the size of a full-size pinball machine and has a target retail price of under $1,000. And I think that like target retail price is key. Because one thing about retail price is this is going to be based on not only what you can make it at, but how many orders you could fulfill. Because if you could buy things at a larger quantity, then the price can go up. So, if this thing goes beyond Kickstarter and actually gets into the field, the initial retail price will probably be higher than $1,000, I would imagine, for many reasons that I'll get into, but they're targeting $1,000. And they have certain ways that they're targeting $1,000. Dynamic gameplay stories. I think in pinball parlance, these are modes. I don't think anyone calls these stories. Ramps. Rails. Rails. Okay. Rails is also not a pinball term. Usually they're called wire ramps. They're just ramps. Each task is tied to one of eight symbols. Bl. This is boring. I mean, I don't like reading about rules of pinball games that I can't play. I'd rather look at the game. All right. So, there's a 3D rendering here. So, they're saying there's eight unique shots. One's for the targets. One is to the left orbit. One is to the left ramp. One is just up the middle, I guess. Uh, other one is up the middle, but to the other side. Here is around the little U-turn. Here is up the ramp with the big spinner on it. Here is the right orbit. And I guess somehow the ball diverts into this little path. So, this is just a return path. These are pretty simple game rules, I would say. Go through the castle three times. Blah blah blah. Three times, nine times. Three times. And with skillbased lane shots, whatever that means. I think that means skill shots, combo opportunities, there certainly are, and timed challenges, typically known as modes in pinball. Alice goes to Wonderland delivers a dynamic, replayable pinball experience that keeps you coming back for one game more. Alice goes to Wonderland features exciting multiball modes. Hey, he said modes that let you unleash multiball multiple balls on the playfield at once, creating fast-paced, high-scoring action. Thank you, Chat GPT, for writing this. This is the most chat GPT tongue twister I've ever read. Let me do it one more time. Alice Goes to Wonderland features exciting multiball modes that let you unleash multiple balls on the playfield at once, creating fast-paced, high-scoring action. Strategically hit targets, keep the chaos under control, and rack up huge points. Just don't let them drain. This is very suspiciously AI written for a lot of this stuff. I guess it's fine. This is an AI game. So, prototype and action. March 2025. We've got another view of the prototype of the game. Is this what you're getting? Maybe. So, here we are. Jerry is playing the game and you could see that, you know, he's getting good power on the ball. It's obviously a very small ball. The other thing you're seeing with this is like clearly the lamps are just kind of flickering on and off. It claims there's going to be more. There's nothing on the LCD here. This is just kind of in like a test blink mode sort of thing. All right. So, there's your update. It's a game. It has stuff on it. Obviously, the physics are going to be very different with a game like this because when you scale down a pinball machine, physics don't scale with a pinball machine. Physics stay the same way they are. So, it's going to feel different than a commercial pinball machine, especially with a smaller ball, smaller cabinet, different power on the flippers, and a different overall profile to the game. Here are the reward tiers. So, if you don't want to buy the pinball machine, but you just want to throw in some support, you could buy a bunch of playing cards. $20 deck, deck of playing cards that are themed for Alice Goes to Wonderland. So, the early bird had 100 units. Those were all sold out. The 15% MadHatter's Choice, those were unlimited. 315 people bought into that one. The Tweedled D and Tweedle Dum two pack, I guess, if you want to give one to your ex-wife, was $15.98. So, $1,600. I guess it's a deal in like the same It's the same price as the $799 one. So, if you buy two, you save a hundred bucks. And we have the limited edition. This is exciting. The limited edition Queen of Hearts collection for $1,900. Now, this is over twice as much as the $800 tier. So, you're going to get a lot more for this. You're going to get an antique bronze accent. It looks like it's this T- molding here. It's this metal around the glass. It's this metal around here. You're going to get an individually numbered and signed collector's plaque. I guess this is signed by Jerry. And all Kickstarter exclusive add-ons. You get a lighted topper, the Queen's Court 3D character bundle. You get a shooter upgrades. You get the little Hatter shoot, Mad Hatter shooter, Wonderland pinball dust cover. So, a little uh tarp you can drape over your game. Queen's Court character playing cards, the $20 playing cards. And those are the tiers. And then there are also add-ons. So, the dust cover, 50 bucks for that. 50 bucks for the dust cover. This is where the pricing is a lot more where you would expect. So, obviously these are above what they would cost to make. $130 for a shooter knob. Yeah, it's going to, you know, cost less than that if you're selling a bunch of them. $150 for this little lighted topper. And you can see this is pretty much just a flat. Maybe it's a couple layers of plastic. It looks pretty flat. So, they're building it from the ground up. While our Alice table look like a traditional pinball machine, one difference sets it apart its size. Approximately 80% of the size of a fully commercial pinball machine, making them truly unique in the market. So, here's the profile of a typical pinball machine. You're seeing it's a lot shorter heightwise, and it's a lot shorter lengthwise. Why make a smaller pinball machine? Compact footprint prints more easily in home spaces, simplifies shipping, keeps manufacturing costs down. Virtually all modern pinball machines are built for the standard 27mm pinball, meaning all existing components are designed exclusively for that sale. Other words, no off-the-shelf components work with a 22mm ball. As a result, we had to custom develop every component from scratch. Wilbur, slingshots, pop- bumpers, rails, everything. Yeah, this would absolutely be true. You wouldn't be able to get offthe-shelf parts for this. If you're going to make everything smaller. Also, if you're really attempting to get the cost down, you would need to redesign everything. Our development team brings extensive experience to the job, having produced over 4 million home arcade games across 130 unique SKUs for the Arcade OneUp line. It's pretty good. 4 million uh machines built. That's a really high number. This expertise uniquely positions us to tackle the challenges of creating a compact yet authentic pinball experience. Oh my god. This like AI enhanced writing is really grading on me because it's just so much fluff in here that's just nonsense. Okay, so they've got a warranty. One year Kickstarter backers assurance warranty. One-year limited warranty. Um, normal wear and tear not covered. Shipping guarantee. We guarantee that all orders will ship within 12 months of the campaign's close. We don't deliver. You may request a full refund. It's an aggressive schedule. I will say based on what they have so far shipping within 12 months. It mean they don't look like they have the toys ready for production. It doesn't look like the software is ready. I don't know about their OS or anything like that. So, you know, 12 months plus they're having to fulfill like 600 orders or something. They're teaming up with factories that can do it, but you know, where are they going to fit a run of 600 games in assembly? You know, that's I think that's a pretty open question. And they are saying you may request a full refund. They're promising replacement parts from day one that you could buy presumably. They have a little menu it looks like in the game where you can order replacement parts. I've never seen that before in a pinball machine. So interesting. And here's their time frame. So they launched the Kickstarter in March. was fully backed by April 10th. They're trying to fulfill the Kickstarter backers Q4 2025 products ready at the factory. Q3 2025 start mass production in June, which is next month. The final sample in April 2025. So, this is moving along quite quickly. Woohoo! The curtain comes off, not the dust cover. The curtain comes off and the AI art is also on the back glass and it's just a cabinet. And it's quite similar to the arcade oneup cabinet in how it looks. It might be different, but the speakers, the screen looks pretty similar. And then here's some videos of people at Pinball Expo. Their feedback was positive. Many expressed excitement about the idea of an affordable option for real mechanical pinball tables. So, here, let's get into the meat of what people want. Yes, of course, customers would love a pinball machine for less than $1,000. Of course, customers want things as cheap as possible, as fun as possible. The way that Wonderland is hoping to get there is by this 80% size. This still kind of have pinball thing, but we're just still targeting. We're going to make some tweaks. I strongly doubt as someone who's quite familiar with manufacturing pinball machines that this is really going to be profitable for this company at $1,000. I think it's a good target, but I really don't see them getting to $1,000 if they are able to actually get this into Walmart, a big box retailer. Still, the $1,000 is going to be tough. A size they could fit into their homes. Look, I've got three pinball machines behind me. I live in an apartment. It's fine. I can fit into my home. All right, risks and challenges. This is the fun part. Okay, our team blah blah blah. We've done all this stuff. More AI garbage writing. Uh, one of the biggest in hardware production is supply chain delays. While we partnered with top tier manufacturing and logistics partners, unexpected slowdowns can happen. If any issues arrive, we will be transparent with our backers and work quickly to minimize delays. Okay, this is absolutely true. I think this it's good that they sort it out. Another key consideration is quality control. We're taking extra care in prototyping and testing to ensure smooth gameplay. We all has have replacement parts available from day one to support our backers. these quality control problems. You know, more time can usually work out your quality control issues. Uh more labor, of course, all these things cost more money. All right, that's the summary of the Kickstarter campaign. Let's go to the updates here. Fully funded update. They were very excited. We guarantee that all orders will ship within 12 months of the campaign's closed. Now, initially, it was promised that these would all ship by Q4 2025. So, this is now 12 months. So, it's given them an extra quarter. Here's the recap of the prototype. We've been reading all your comments today and wanted to give you all a quick recap of the latest prototype and the feedback we got on the floor. Now, this is where it gets interesting because, you know, they've taken the money under $800. It's here in their branding and they got a lot of feedback on the floor at this show in Anaheim, California. 3 days, 10 hours, non-stop gameplay. It held up admirably. Despite some technical issues, the result was overwhelmingly positive. The good machine look awesome with the full artwork passage package, custom toys, and lighting. Attendees were generally genuinely impressed with how solid the machine felt it played. We demoed most of the weekend with the glass off and the satisfying clunks of the flippers and buttons firing elicited surprised reactions consistently. Some mentioned they were expected to see something akin to the old Zizzle machines, but were impressed at how elaborate and substantial the machine was. Well, of course, because they're all taking it at face value that this prototype is going to be like the real thing, and you never know if that's going to be the case. The Zizzle was a actually commercially produced pinball machine. So, here's a Zizzle pinball machine. These were toy pinball machines made by the Zizzle company. They have real slingshots, real flippers, you know, but they're a similar profile and they shipped in these boxes. You can assemble them and it kind of just folds up. It's a very shallow game. So, this is when people think of toy pinball, they think of the Zizzle games. These actually went into production. These were actually sold in stores. The not so good. Here we go. The prototype suffered some dam damage in transit. Note, for the record, this is not an common occurrence when shipping a one-off handmade sample in non-custom packaging, which knocked out the DMD, which is not a DMD. It's an LCD display. That meant that while the game flipped and felt good, no game code or scoring was visible during the show. Come on. Game code is visible through the lighting and sound effects. Some backers who were in waiting in anticipation to see the DMD in action, still not a DMD. This seemed to confirm their fears that the game code wasn't real or far enough along. We've since seen a few pledge cancellations, which we understand. You have to make your own judgment. We hope to win you back with our next update. Let me give you some background. So, my job professionally for the past 7 years has been a software developer for commercial pinball machines. And let me tell you that I have a lot of work to do. I often have a team of people working on the software of pinball machines because it takes a lot of time to develop and test these games. And it's one of the things that really helps a pinball machine turn from, you know, a little kind of mechanical toy to something that turns into a game. And people are worried about it. Of course, they want to see a display, but a lot of the magic in programming the pinball machine is just making sure the balls go where they need to go and getting the sounds to work, getting the lights to do something cool. There's a lot of little details in putting a pinball machine together through the code that really make it come alive. And I think people saying if they're out at $800 or $850 because of the code, then I'm not quite sure what those people are expecting because this is definitely going to be more on the toy side than on the commercial pinball game side in the long run if it is going to be at that price point. Now, if it goes up in price, it'll be more like a commercial pinball machine. Our take. It's frustrating. Okay. because we're proud of how far we've come in just five months. This wasn't the debut we hoped for, but it was a meaningful step forward. The machine flips, the artwork pops, the bones are solid. Yes, the code is real. Here's an influencer video. What's next? We owe you another update. We're on it. They've been good with the updates. As we speak, new components are in development. Given that we are not in mass production yet, the components have to be custom fabricated, which will take a few days. The post campaign development update, and they're saying that they went to Hong Kong, played the prototype there. I don't know if this is the same one from the show and they shipped it or this is a new one, but it's the game. And our Q4 delivery timelines on track tariff situation. So, obviously, this is going to be a problem. Um, he's saying analysts believe that the overall tariffs will be reduced closer to the lower rate or amusement machines like ours will receive a carveout or reduced rate as has historically been the case. I don't know this history that he's talking about. So, I don't really get that line at all. They want to pay the tariff and not shift the burden to backers. They're really betting big on like this not affecting them. I mean, we'll see. Obviously, the no one knows what the future's going to hold for this stuff. So, that's their latest update here. So, here's what's going on is everyone is taking at face value that these guys can do it, that they can make a sub $1,000 pinball machine. Now, can you sell a sub 1,000 pinball machine? Sure, you can sell whatever you want at whatever price you want if you're willing to take a loss on it. But, you know, besides that, will long-term, even at scale, is there any way to make one of these pinball machines at less than $1,000? And I think the answer is no. Not with what they're showing here. Not with injection molded sculpts. Not with solenoids controlling the flippers and slingshots. Not with an LCD screen and full game code and a actual cabinet and playfield you have to ship in like separate boxes and assemble at home like make a wood pinball playfield and attach all this stuff. It's not going to be easy. Keep in mind that Arcade OneUp has been selling the digital pinball machines for close to the thousand price point. That's all just a mass-roduced screen. You're just using a small controller running software that's already been developed. Actually wiring each individual part is much different. There needs to be some input from the switches, output to the lamps, output to the speakers, all that stuff. It's it's just in my head hard to do this for $1,000. It's hard to do it for $2,000 even with what they're doing. And you know, you can say, well, China can do it or anything, but I just I don't see how that's possible. You know, think of a simple thing like the playfield, right? You get the plywood, you have to design the insert pattern, you have to buy the inserts, you have to program the CNC machines to route the plywood, then you have to glue in the inserts. That takes labor. Then you have to sand it. You got to put the art on it. If you're going to do some clear coat, you got to, you know, treat it with the clear coat as well. And then from there, you have your assembly. So, how do you put all your parts on it? They were using like real post screwed into the wood. And they are saying they're using a wood playfield. You know, all those things you add up just like the little bits of time, labor, cost, and all those parts. it very very quickly starts to add up because you don't have the advantage of scale necessarily when you're doing things assembly like this on like a small run of 600 games. It just doesn't make sense to spend time programming robots to put this together the way it does for microcontrollers and processors and televisions that can be assembled by the hundreds of thousands at a time in a factory. For 600 machines, it's very hard to get your cost that low. And with Arcade OneUp, what they did is they scaled up to, let's say, 4 million machines as they're claiming. That was able to help get the price down. The prices were still close to $900 for the arcade, the full size arcade cabinets. People still complain that those were a little too short. Then they added a riser you could add for an add-on and all these little things to make that experience viable. Here's the big thing with the project is that the people who are looking to buy this pinball machine are commercial pinball machine enthusiasts who are buying what this Kickstarter is selling, which is that yeah, you can buy a pinball machine for $1,000. Not $5,000, not $3,000, $1,000 or less. And the implication in that promise there is that either the existing pinball companies are ripping you off in some way or they're just stupid and unable to get their cost down low enough. And just to break down like the actual cost of a pinball machine, each pinball machine you make, there is a huge fixed cost of the parts and the labor and volume. historically in pinball has never come down to the point where you can justify going to automation and removing some of the labor and perhaps even like standardizing some more of the parts to be on one thing. No, it's this is very customized stuff. The reason people like playing pinball machines is because they're all different. They all have different layouts and with that they all have different art packages. They all have different rules and everyone involved in the design and development of those needs to get paid a wage. Everyone involved in building those and putting those together needs to get paid a wage. And then the parts themselves of course need to get the cost of the raw goods and the cost of the manufacturers of all those parts like the screws and the posts and the flipper rubbers and all that stuff. So, a pinball machine costs $7,000, $8,000, $10,000 because it costs $7,000 8,000 $10,000. And that cost is in there so the business can continue to function and operate and pay people their salaries and wages and compensate them for their time there. We've had so many pinball companies over the past 15 years enter the pinball market and pretty much all of them have come in above Stern and start producing a more premium product with a higher bill of materials and put a higher price tag on it. And over time those prices at those companies haven't come down. In fact, they've gone up in line with inflation and in line with cost of goods. And we've consistently seen new manufacturers come in, underestimate the cost that they could sell the game at, and those costs gradually go up, or they lose money on their first product. And maybe that's a business decision they want to take to get into the market, you're going to come in low. But ultimately, with pinball machines, with how limited they are and how much like one pinball machine can serves a lot of people, you're going to need to refresh the design and come up with new designs and ideas. So, this is really coming in from like people who wouldn't just buy this game for their phone or their computer and people who don't want these commercial games. You're coming in the middle. You're looking for a new audience. So far, the project is just really being pitched to people who like commercial pinball machines. And because these are people who like commercial pinball machines or in Arcade OneUps case, people who liked arcade games, then those people are going to want the features that they had from arcade games. What Wonderland is going for is much more like a toy. However, they're gearing it for those people who are commercial pinball machine enthusiasts, and they're really getting people locked in on this. The price, the price, $800. What are these other companies ripping me off for? I could buy a pinball machine for $800. Well, so far you've bought a Kickstarter pledge for a potential pinball machine that should be delivered in 12 months. So, right now it's all kind of a promise of we're going to do this. Now, doing things through Kickstarter is much more legitimate than doing it through just like online pre-orders. And a lot of pinball people have been ripped off in the past from scams and basically pinball projects that fell through before. So, a lot of people naturally are pretty jaded with this kind of pay the money upfront, deliver the product later sort of things. So, there's a company out of Australia that's building pinball machines in China right now called Home Pin. They have a machine called Thunderbirds and another one called Blues Brothers. It's got two flippers and a pop bumper and it cost $4,600 including shipping. So, Stern also has a product that they're selling at Costco for $5,000. This is a Jurassic Park home pinball machine. A fully playable pinball machine. This is like legit. It has real code on it, real software. It plays pretty close to a commercial pinball machine, but still it feels quite different because there are different things about this game to bring the cost down. You're still talking about $5,000. This guy's planning to build a machine for $800. Stern, the cheapest they can get with Costco, and you know Costco's legit. They vet everyone they work with. That's still at a $5,000 price point with your membership. And the $4,500 for the Blues Brothers. I mean, this is where people are getting into like this is a playable pinball machine for the home. How many of these are they actually getting out there to get all the way down to $800? I mean, there's just so much space between the $4,500, $5,000 price point and the $800 price point that it just does not seem realistic to me to deliver a pinball like physical gameplay experience even at 80% size at that $800 price point. So, here's where you get to the Kickstarter gets funded and here's where you get into the like delusional territory of pinside posting. This guy has zero interest in it. However, you can't discount the fact that all 200 early backer spots already filled and over 200k raised in the first 5 minutes of opening. Sure, you can. 200 backer spots filled, 200k raised is honestly not a lot of money. How many salaries could you pay for a year on 200k? Not too many. Hobby is screaming for an affordable new inbox pinball. Is it? Um, you know, it seems like Stern's been trying it with Costco and this homepin company out of Australia's been trying it. you know, people aren't really buying it off the shelf. You don't see these games come up nearly as much as the hobbies asking for these fully loaded high-end commercial machines, these limited editions, and these uh premium games with extra stuff on the playfield. I would say the vast majority of what the hobby is screaming for is gameplay. That seems to be all they really care about. And yeah, they care about the price of the games as well, but they also care about the price of the game, the depreciation on a game as well. and if they're buying something that they can sell eventually versus something they have to throw out. And with commercial pinball machines, there's a market for these used games that you're selling into. These games are turnurning through people over the years. They're operating them. This $800 pinball machine, there's not going to be any resale value on this thing. A lot of these people are thinking like, "Ooh, it's $800, $850 now, and it's going to be $1,000." I don't think it's going to be $1,000. There's just no way you can get a bill of materials for an 80% scale pinball machine to $1,000 cuz a 100% scale pinball machine with sculpts and toys and a full playfield is nowhere near $1,000 on bill of material. Do you think the extra $7,000 for a Stern Pro is all just fluff and riff Jim Raff and and nonsense or do you think there's like actual work that goes into it? I think that difference between the price of a $1,000 pinball machine to a $4,500 $5,000 Stern home edition game to a Stern Pro pinball machine MSRP is such a huge gap between either of those and people to make comparisons. It's ridiculous. And what you're looking at with the Wonderland Amusements prototype here is just not something that's going to cost $800. I don't care how many times you say China's going to do this and China's going to do that and they're going to make it as cheap as possible. It's just not going to get that cheap and then you still have to put them on a container, ship them to the US, distribute them around the US to the different backers. Those backers are going to have to assemble them. The stuff's going to need to be tested. I mean, there's just a lot here where pretty much the way this works is that there's enough interest. They build these games. They're going to get these $800 games out at a loss. It's really going to come in at whatever it comes in at. Let's say it's $3,300. Let's say that's still super cheap compared to a new Stern home edition pinwall machine at $49.99 from Costco. So, let's say it's $31.99 for this game all in. And that actually includes a sliver of profit for the Wonderland Amusements Company. Okay, now you saved thousands of dollars, but still at that price point, is there an audience and a market for that stuff? Or do you need to get to $5,000 with the Costco homepin edition? Or do you need to get to the commercial pinball machine where all these people who are pinball enthusiasts want the game to be? Anyhow, nobody is questioning the supposed build cost of this machine amounts being thrown around like $400. I don't think so. It sounds very low to me. One flipper mech made in China from a well-known supplier who is known for load prices is $60. Times 2 is $120. Even if you discount that drastically, you are still at 25% of the entire machine cost before making anything else. Costs in China are higher than some think. There's no way they could build what is being shown anywhere near that sale price. I 100% agree with pins for you here. China is not just some magic world where you can just go in and say, "Hey, whatever price I give you, pinball machine for $1,000, make it happen." Because if that was possible, there'd have to be at least one person in all of China or in all of America who would have done it at this point. And we've seen people already, this homepin company out in Australia, they're making games for $4500 in China making everything as low as possible in cost. Getting a license with Blues Brothers, still $4,500. It's magically getting down to $1,000 is not going to happen. Even with these assemblies, you realize Chinese factories are still paying people to assemble these things. They're still paying for the raw cost of goods. Even if they can get the raw goods in their own country, they're still paying the labor. They're still paying the transportation to get them there. It's not magic. It's not like it's free or it's just like some whatever price you want it to be. No, there's real costs there. the same way there's real cost of manufacturing in America where there's still plenty of manufacturing of pinball machines or Canada or Europe or anywhere else in the world. So where this thing sits today is it's a fully backed Kickstarter project. They have every intention of building and delivering this game. They're going to try to the initial Kickstarter backers if they hang on will probably get something eventually. I believe that these people have the experience to actually make and deliver these pinball machines. Now, I think it's very likely that they have underpriced this pinball machine and what they're going for by a huge margin, which means one of three things. So, one, the price of this thing will actually go way up when they finally figure out what it costs to make this. And it'll probably be much more in line with a Stern Home Pit game around $5,000. two, they will significantly scale down and reduce the number of features in this game to get it closer to a $1,000 thing. I don't even think it's possible to do that unless they had, you know, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of orders. I just don't see it happening that way. And three, you know, probably if this project just can't do it, I believe these people will probably just, you know, shut it down, refund the money, and people will probably be fine. I mean, this is through Kickstarter. You're making a risk with any Kickstarter you back. But this is kind of everyone knows how a Kickstarter works. I don't think anyone who's backing this project for $800, $850 or $1,600 is really thinking this is a 100% sure deal kind of thing. And they're able and willing to part with this money if they don't have it. And of course, I wish them the best of luck and I hope that these Kickstarter backers do get their product and I hope that it's a fun game. But I just don't see a way where no matter where you build this thing in the going to cost anywhere close to this $1,000 price point. I definitely recommend for anyone who really wants to get into pinball to just go buy an electromechanical pinball machine that's been shopped. If it's $1,200, $1,500, $1,700, you can play a real 1970s pinball machine that's been worked on, cleaned, rubber restored. You're going to have an actual good experience. and if something goes wrong, you'll be able to get the parts you need to fix it and you'll have a whole network of support online for people who can help you with it. So, that's definitely my recommendation. If you're an entry-level person getting into pinball, just pick up a used game. These games are 50 plus years old and they're still holding up just fine and there's plenty of them out there. People want to swap them, trade them, sell them all the time. [Music] Heat. Heat.

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 38343380-4f09-43c8-bdef-07a1a829c98a*