Discovering the Hidden World of Pinball Art: Ayscrim Studios Interview

Erika's Pinball Journey·video·10m 36s·analyzed·Feb 13, 2024

Analysis

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TL;DR

Interview with Ayscrim Studios creator on EM-inspired wedgehead clocks and new Gottlieb licensing

Summary

Erika interviews Philipe of Ayscrim Studios (Ice Cream Studios) at Pinball Expo about his wedgehead-themed clocks made from modified EM pinball score wheels. Philipe discusses his transition from collecting EM machines to creating miniature decorative art pieces, his solo operation with outsourced production, and his recent acquisition of Gottlieb licensing for reproduction wedgehead clocks. The conversation covers his design philosophy, collaboration with artist Brad Albright, and plans for additional themed designs.

Key Claims

Philipe recently secured Gottlieb licensing for wedgehead clock production
high confidence · Erika states at end: 'he got Gottlieb licensing so now he's making Gottlieb licensed wedgehead clocks his first one that he's released is Kings and Queens'
Philipe is a solo operation but outsources 3D printing, CNC cutting, assembly, and painting
high confidence · Philipe: 'it is just me... I don't build everything I designed everything myself... I have them folded so you know I sort of got that work out of my way I used to paint everything myself now my guy that does the CNC cutting also assembles and paints'
Philipe has two additional themed designs already ready but wanted to release the Brad Albright collaboration first
high confidence · Philipe: 'I do have two more designs lined up that have been ready for a bit but I wanted to get this one out first the Brad Albright one'
Demand for Ayscrim clocks exceeds production capacity
high confidence · Philipe: 'it's a good problem to have that more people want them than you can produce as opposed to the opposite'
El Dorado is Philipe's grail Gottlieb machine
high confidence · Philipe: 'my Gottlieb El Dorado would be my grail would be El Dorado the looks of it... to me it's the most beautiful one I'm into country music and all that stuff so this I really think yeah that's pretty much it'

Notable Quotes

“what's super cool is that the people that get it get it you know like when people stop by they get all the references”
Philipe (Ayscrim Studios) @ ~6:45 — Reflects niche market understanding and community connection around EM/wedgehead pinball aesthetic
“I could have picked like some management system for dental work or something and with the time I have put into this I would be much richer than I am because I think it's the super niche thing”
Philipe (Ayscrim Studios) @ ~7:15 — Reveals decision-making rationale: passion over financial optimization, acknowledging niche market constraints
“it's a good problem to have that more people want them than you can produce as opposed to the opposite”
Philipe (Ayscrim Studios) @ ~11:30 — Indicates strong market demand outpacing supply for wedgehead clock products
“I just want people happy so I'm going to try to produce a bit more”
Philipe (Ayscrim Studios) @ ~11:15 — Production scaling plans in response to demand
“you can just keep the same box and do new designs so I do have two more designs lined up that have been ready for a bit”
Philipe (Ayscrim Studios) @ ~13:00 — Product roadmap: modular design approach enabling rapid iterative releases

Entities

Ayscrim Studios / Ice Cream StudioscompanyPhilipepersonBrad AlbrightpersonErikapersonRobertperson Gottliebcompany Pinball ExpoeventKings and Queensproduct

Signals

?
business_signal: Demand exceeds production capacity; scaling challenges for small solo operation despite outsourcing
high · Philipe: 'it's a good problem to have that more people want them than you can produce... I'm going to try to produce a bit more although you know it is... most of my time'
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market_signal: EM/wedgehead pinball art and collectibles gaining traction as adjacent market to pinball machines themselves; intersection of retro aesthetic appreciation and functional design
medium · Growing demand for wedgehead clock products; artist collaboration model (Brad Albright); community enthusiasm at Pinball Expo
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event_signal: Pinball Expo serves as major showcase and networking venue for emerging artisan products and creators in adjacent pinball markets
medium · Philipe attended Pinball Expo; met Brad Albright in person for first time; product sold out/nearly sold out; multiple interview/content opportunities generated
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announcement: Ayscrim Studios officially licensed by Gottlieb to produce wedgehead clocks; Kings and Queens released as first licensed product
high · Erika: 'he got Gottlieb licensing so now he's making Gottlieb licensed wedgehead clocks his first one that he's released is Kings and Queens'
?
technology_signal: Transition from 3D printing to folded/CNC manufacturing for production scaling; outsourcing model enabling solo creator to scale without hiring
high · Philipe: 'At first these were 3D printed and sent now I have them folded so you know I sort of got that work out of my way... my guy that does the CNC cutting also assembles and paints'

Topics

EM/wedgehead pinball aesthetic and collectingprimaryProduct design and miniaturization (EM score wheels as art/functional objects)primarySmall business production scaling and outsourcingprimaryGottlieb licensing and intellectual propertyprimaryNiche market community engagement and artist collaborationsecondaryPinball Expo as industry showcase and networking venuesecondaryDemand management and production constraintssecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.85)— Enthusiastic discussion of creative passion project; strong community support and market reception; positive manufacturing momentum; genuine appreciation expressed for Gottlieb licensing opportunity. No criticism or negative sentiment detected.

Transcript

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what's up guys in this episode I'm going to share with you an interview I got at pinball Expo for those of you that are newer to the pinball hobby there are two words in this interview that are used that I think would be good to give definitions to the first word is em and that's short for electromechanical and the second word is wedge head now if you're not super new to the pinball hobby feel free to skip ahead but if you'd like to see how I Define these cool stick around now the definition of electromechanical is early games mostly pre 1978 that rely on electromechanical components such as relays stepping units Motors and score Wheels now a wedge head refers to the trapezoidal shape of some cabinet back boxes when viewed from the front this shape resembles a wedge with the top being wider than the Bottom now the person I interviewed I stumbled upon them through Instagram and thought what they did was really cool and wanted to get a chance to interview them to share with you their Journey so with without further Ado let's roll the clip what's up everybody I'm here with Philipe uh with ice cream Studios we're going to talk to him today about his amazing wedge head clocks I get a chance to meet Philipe in person in the flesh so uh yeah Philipe how's it going well going good I got here yesterday it's been an incredible uh event actually I got a bit strong armed by uh by Robert to be here but I am glad I did come and uh talk to a bunch of super interesting people and uh yeah you know I've been speaking all day yesterday people stop and ask questions and are super interested so a very cool event I'm very happy to be here sweet yeah well let's talk a little bit about uh what would you like for people to know like how when did you start making these clocks so yeah the first one I made the you know I've been an em uh I'm an em guy I love the look of them I love I don't play all that much anymore to be honest and I started collecting at first and I I don't have a garage so I do I would do Restorations but always cram low spaces so at some point I had the idea of doing this smaller scale project which which was I just took a regular uh em score wheel made that into a clock and then you know was pretty big uh it was I thought it look cool I posted it online people like the feedback was was incredible so then it got me thinking okay how can I make this into a smaller something that that's reproducible to an next extent so I made this first prototype of my own score wheel that I designed then since then I've been iterating it and building more and more and and so yeah that that's pretty much how it came to be so it's mostly like my love of of VM of the gothly era of EMS and my lack of space for working on actual machines so I came up with this smaller scale thing to work on pretty much nice yeah cuz wed heads is pretty big pretty big asset pretty well you know like they are the smaller pinball machines the wedge heads it's just that you know at some point it is still a pinball machine so you know you know how how how big they are and how how fast they grow in The Limited space so you know that's uh yeah so you know that that allows I can have a table full of cool art you know like like what Brad did for us here and and so you know I can have a table full of them you know instead of uh of of cramming a bunch of pinball machines everywhere you started creating the clock CU you just like like the look of it and you just like felt like you wanted to new chall yeah you know what it's yeah it's pretty much that like I always have a bunch of different projects uh I I work on and at some point I just had this idea I did see in my head what I wanted it to look like and then uh you know of all the different projects I could pick I'm a software engineer so you know I could have picked like some some management system for dental work or something and with the time I have put into this I would be much richer than I am because I think it's the least uh uh you know it's the super Niche thing but what's super cool is that the people that get it get it you know like when people stop by they get all the reference and and and so it it is fun it is and you know it got me here and I'm super happy to be at this event so you know wherever this thing takes me I'm I'm you know it's a win pretty much it's just you right on your production team and then you're you said you're working out on how it's just me yeah so pretty much it is just me but it's uh I I don't build everything I designed everything myself like you know I've got this real here at first this was sent this was 3D printed and sended now I have them folded so you know I I sort of got that work out of my way I used to paint everything myself now my guy that does the CNC gutting also assembles and paints so although I am a oneman operation I do have some stuff that is outsourced and I put all together um but yeah so um and and I have had help also like from I know many super knowledgeable people on because I'm a software guy I'm not an Electronics a mechanical I do know people in those fields so I'll I'll show them stuff and hey what do you think about this and how could I improve that so you know although I have been working on this myself I have you know I've got external help as well to uh to keep me going right on that's awesome it's good to know that you're you've got you're you're figuring your way out you're getting your legs for building this on a more extreme scale because I I know the pin ballers they love it I I I I especially love getting to see new people enjoying your page as well as I've shared it and I've shared with some friends like what I can get a clock and then I'm sure they just add to your your list oh yeah it's like the past few days it's h it just keeps growing so you know I I I just want to people happy so I'm going to try to uh produce a bit more although you know it is it is a good problem to have that more people want him than you can produce as opposed to the opposite so you know it's a it's still a cool cool thing to be uh to be doing definitely do you have any extra designs that you're planning on coming out with like standard or do actually I have two I have other uh um uh themes l so so one thing that's cool about this is like the pinball artwork is something that people are interested in but then in order to have new pinball artwork you need a new pinball machine so you need like new rules and the you know the whole thing whereas this you can just you know keep the same box and do new designs so I do have two more designs lined up that have been ready for a bit but I wanted to get this one out first the Brad Brad Albright one it's a great and then I do have other ideas of stuff I'm working on like little prototypes but you know one thing about this is that it's super simple and then people come up sometimes with ideas hey you should do that and maybe it should connect to the internet and do this like no no it's just it's just a clock it does nothing else hey is it an arm clock no nothing it's just just the time and so I think that's sort of the idea to keep it simple like that and you know again I can barely just like just producing what I have now and what people want takes up most of my time so uh but I do have other teams lined up I like the doing the art also then I got to this one maybe other people want to use it as a canvas also the future so we'll see what comes up how did the collaboration come about did you reach out or he reached out to you I reached out I think uh it started with there's the I think he's going to be here this weekend there's the guy that does the lit frames so you know the the frames for the uh uh you can put trans lights in so he got in touch with me through uh Instagram and then he was friends with Brad actually he does stuff for Brad and then I've been aware of Brad since he did some uh a lead Zeppelin uh rethe that I saw on pinside and I thought it was incredible he nailed it and ever since I followed him and then uh yeah so through um the the lit frames guy I got in touch with Brad and then I told him hey I like what you're doing I give you like you do whatever you want we'll make it it's uh you I trust you to do something cool and he did so uh and then we just met here this weekend for the first time you know we had talked on on zoom and stuff sweet well I'm glad you've been enjoying the show and that You' almost sold out of all your shirts so people here at the show um I know this video to I think I think your your uh your your video you did with the shirt that's what that's what it yeah I appreciate it maybe I don't know you know probably it's fun for me to make it's fun for me to help like promote more pinball people I think what this is is really cool and what you've done and created this sign I I love this too and the fact that it's like got Le's old logo like very inspired by I'm a big got Le fan as you can see so it's all it's all all an homage to God Le to an extent so uh yeah it's uh thank you do you have a favorite God Le game well I like my my God Le El uh sorry my God Le uh uh was right I'm looking Grail would be elderado the looks of it like I I have never played it though so maybe it's not as fun as as looks but I don't care to me it's the most the most beautiful one I'm into country music and all that stuff so this I really think uh yeah that that's pretty much it I had the two Centigrades I know this is a gril for many people uh so uh it's uh it's it's a beautiful machine as well but yeah the El Dorado again the wedge head the wed to me it's it's spot on but there's so many like the Got Deep stuff there's so many beautiful ones uh from the 60s and 70s uh yeah you know I could I could have 20 of them and uh yeah well sweet well thank you so much really appreciate it thank you have a good uh have a good Expo and it was nice talking to you and uh thanks for the support yeah definitely thank you everyone and uh thanks for following hope you found this video interesting a really cool new thing that just happened for Philipe is that he got Gotti licensing so now he's making Gotti licensed wedge head clocks his first one that he's released is Kings and Queens you can go ahead and find it on his website which I'll link down in the descript description below I thought it would be kind of fun to ask you guys what's your favorite wedg head pinball machine go ahead and comment it below I'll see you guys on the flip side later I hope you enjoyed this video something really cool that just happened for Philipe is that he got ice cream Studios he got ice cream congrats pH you got ice cream um however other manufacturers also use this design I don't think we need that I'm just wing wanging it I'm a J guys I like literally I'm on a journey let's jump in ha