Mirco Announces their Next Product...Poorly

Cary Hardy·video·19m 6s·analyzed·Mar 15, 2022

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.028

TL;DR

Mirco's Totan 2.0 kit announcement backfires due to poor quality teaser images and failure to address playfield defect concerns.

Summary

Cary Hardy critiques Mirco Playfields' marketing of their new Totan 2.0 kit, arguing that teaser posts featuring poor production quality (sloppy cutouts, warped playfields) undermine their credibility given existing quality issues with JJP playfields. Community responses, particularly from Kaneda, emphasize that Mirco should address known defects transparently rather than launch new products. The company's minimal social media engagement and casual response ('THX fixed') further damage their reputation.

Key Claims

Mirco playfields have documented quality issues affecting JJP, Dutch Pinball, and Highway Games machines
high confidence · Hardy and multiple commenters (ML Huntsman, Mark Nellis) reference warped playfields with clear coat problems, with Huntsman describing a 9-ball playfield 'warped like a potato chip'
Mirco does not respond to customer comments on social media despite valid questions about quality issues
high confidence · Kaneda explicitly states 'you're not even responding to any of the comments on Facebook' and notes 'they don't respond' when Hardy reviews comment sections
The teaser images for Totan 2.0 show poor cutout quality that appears unprofessional and highlights manufacturing defects
high confidence · Hardy repeatedly criticizes the close-up photos, stating 'this is hideous' and comparing them unfavorably to what his daughter could do; Kaneda notes 'Zoom in on those star cutouts. Pretty sloppy stuff'
Totan 2.0 kit will include new speaker panel artwork with illuminated gems/jewels and enhanced software
high confidence · Hardy analyzes official Mirco announcement image, identifying seven additional jewels to obtain and speaker panel replacement mechanics
Mirco's only response to customer feedback was a casual 'THX fixed' abbreviation, perceived as disrespectful corporate communication
high confidence · Hardy documents Mirco's response to Jeff Willard Jr.'s comment about website typo; Ran Davies comments that 'THX is an insult'

Notable Quotes

“We are all for better playfields, field. But may I suggest a bit more self-awareness? Clearly you are excited about this innovation, but this community isn't looking for a teaser campaign. We just want you to address the elephant in the room and talk to us transparently and with specifics.”
Kaneda (Chris Koulouris)@ 3:52 — Sets the core community critique: Mirco should prioritize addressing known defects over launching new products
“It hard to be excited about this Quite frankly, this picture does not look like the new product will be some new playfield formula that can withstand a hammer test. Given that the past four JJP games have all had Merco playfields with known playfield issues, resolving the playfield issues is what customers really want to see.”
Mark Nellis@ 4:51 — Articulates the logical fallacy of Mirco's strategy: new products undermine trust when core quality issues remain unresolved
“Oh my god. Mirko, it's like you just don't get it.”
Cary Hardy@ 0:00 — Sets the emotional tone: Mirco fundamentally misunderstands marketing and customer relationships
“if you have a problem with your product would you think it'd be a great idea if you took a close up image of it and all of it's hideousness and then posted it up as a teaser pic for the whole world to see. I don't get it.”
Cary Hardy@ 7:51 — Crystallizes the core criticism: teaser images highlight manufacturing flaws rather than generate excitement
“Fix your playfields. We don't want to buy anything from you until you figure out how to get your clear coat and warping playfields done right. Get the fuck out of here with whatever these sneak pics are about.”
ML Huntsman@ 9:50 — Direct customer statement: new products are unwanted unless quality issues are resolved first

Entities

Mirco PlayfieldscompanyCary Hardyperson KanedapersonMark NellispersonML HuntsmanpersonJersey Jack Pinballcompany Dutch PinballcompanyHighway Gamescompany

Signals

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community_signal: Mirco's minimal social media engagement (not responding to comments) coupled with casual corporate communication ('THX fixed') perceived as disrespectful to customers
high · Kaneda: 'you're not even responding to any of the comments on Facebook'; Ran Davies: 'abbreviating...to thx is an insult'; Hardy criticizes 'THX' as unprofessional
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sentiment_shift: Significant sentiment shift: community wants quality fixes, not new products; Mirco perceived as tone-deaf to legitimate customer concerns
high · Kaneda: 'this community isn't looking for a teaser campaign'; Huntsman: 'Get the fuck out of here with whatever these sneak pics are about'; Mark Nellis: 'resolving the playfield issues is what customers really want to see'
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community_signal: Community interest in Totan 2.0 exists but conditional on Mirco resolving playfield quality issues; product upgrades perceived as secondary priority
medium · Hardy: 'I am interested in the 2.0 kit...depending on what it's selling for at TPF, if it's available, I might get it'; Multiple comments frame new products as unwanted until core quality resolved
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event_signal: Texas Pinball Festival will feature Mirco's Totan 2.0 kit presentation and seminar; demonstration units in game hall; kit availability limited to TPF and direct website
high · Mirco announcement: 'At Texas Pinball Festival, we will present the brand new Totan 2.0 kit'; 'First kits will be available for pickup or order at TPF and same time only on my website'
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market_signal: Mirco's teaser campaign strategy fundamentally misaligned with community expectations; quality images highlighting defects undermine rather than generate excitement

Topics

Mirco Playfields quality issues and reputationprimaryTotan 2.0 upgrade kit announcement and marketing strategyprimaryCommunity sentiment and customer accountabilityprimaryCorporate communication and social media engagement failuresprimaryJJP playfield quality concernssecondaryTexas Pinball Festival announcementssecondaryTales of the Arabian Nights playfield customizationsecondaryPinball product marketing best practicesmentioned

Sentiment

negative(0.15)— Hardy and the community are overwhelmingly critical of Mirco's announcement strategy, marketing execution, and failure to address known quality issues. The tone is frustrated and sarcastic. Community sentiment expressed in comments is hostile, though some interest in the Totan 2.0 product itself exists if quality concerns are resolved. Mirco's minimal engagement response ('THX fixed') further damaged sentiment.

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.057

Oh my god. Mirko, it's like you just don't get it. What's up guys? Welcome back to my channel where I talk and do everything pinball. um if that sounds interesting to you then hit the subscribe button down below how do i not know that by heart but uh i'm drinking make sure i get this right here dead guile rogue one uh it's an oldie but goodie i say oldie uh i've liked this beer for a while just haven't had it in a while so i figured time to bring it back anyways i know some of you out there are beer guys like me now you know what i'm drinking let's get down to business for those of you that do not know who miracle is they are a german-based playfield and plastics and other stuff like that manufacturer and they have been in the shadows as of lately especially due to the defects that are found on Guns N' Roses playfields. They proudly post that they do JJP, Dutch Pinball, and Highway Games. The thing is, for those of you that have purchased through Mirko, it is not just JJP. You've got an iffy chance on whether or not you're going to get what you expect. And I say that because I know people who have bought from Mirko and they've got something that is great. But I also see, not in person by me, but I also see online images of products they have purchased through Mirko that I would not be happy with either. So there's definitely room for defects. But the main thing that you need to understand before diving into what they are revealing to the world is a lot of people are very aware that they do have issues with their playfields. that being said let's move on now the first little hint that we got actually was released before mirko actually gave us anything and that was the fact that they were going to be a texas pinball festival and their seminar was i think it's the the title of it is the forgotten tales or forgotten tail either way when i saw what it was called the seminar i was like totan something to do with tales of the arabian knights i was like it's gotta be why would you name it that but i could have been wrong but i was like totan the thing is i i didn't know that they were going to go to what i believe they're going to on this right here so their very first hint that they put up on their social media is this picture of a mpu obviously because it states on the board itself mpu one and of course the nice little star logo americo playfield made in germany and this is their playfield or the picture of the board and it says first teaser pick of new product revealed at Texas Pinball Festival. Now, I'm definitely going to be reading some of the comments to you because some of these comments are honestly fucking gold. The first one being from Chris Koulouris, which is also known as Kaneda. I can almost guarantee you that every post that Mirko makes, you will see him somewhere in the comments section. This one reads, We are all for better playfields, field. But may I suggest a bit more self-awareness? Clearly you are excited about this innovation, but this community isn't looking for a teaser campaign. We just want you to address the elephant in the room and talk to us transparently and with specifics. To date, you're not even responding to any of the comments on Facebook and there's a reason it's called social media. I look forward to seeing what you have at TPF. And what he says here reigns true. If you look through the comments section on all their posts, they don't respond. Some of them valid questions, some of them also obviously trolling, but a lot of them can be stated as obvious questions and they should be able to respond to but they don The next one is from Mark Nellis It reads It hard to be excited about this Quite frankly, this picture does not look like the new product will be some new playfield formula that can withstand a hammer test. Given that the past four JJP games have all had Mirco playfields with known playfield issues, resolving the playfield issues is what customers really want to see. Without a doubt, if you have a product that you are making and it just seems like it's shit, hold on, stick with me, my story gets better. We have a new Playfield. It's also shit. And if it continuously comes out, do you think unveiling a new product is going to put a lot of faith in what you're doing whenever your previous items have been shit? And the next one I like is from Cody. It says, it helps playfields cure? Question mark, because that's what he's hoping the next product is going to be. Something that helps them improve their product. The next one is from ML Huntsman. Weird. I guess we aren't allowed to post a picture in this post? If I could, I'd show you how my Mirko 9-ball playfield is warped like a potato chip. Completely uninstallable until I do something about it. That would be awful. And it's like, really? Is it that bad where you can't even install the wood rails? Would the wood rails really not straighten that out over time? Maybe? I don't know. Otherwise, you shouldn't be getting... God, I would be fuming if I received something that you more than likely spent $1,000 on. And the next one from a Mr. Willis. Awesome! Looks like you're going to be making something else I will never purchase from you. zero care about quality with your business ouch and i know i'm reading a lot of ones that you can probably consider trolling but here is legit one it says this is from morton andre i don't know what that name is what's the status of all the chipping and issues on existing playfields what's the plan to make all those good now that should be that's a legitimate question right i mean just like hey do you guys have a plan on the known issues that we're aware of nothing and their next post is this it reads teaser pick two i mean it's almost it's as if you're like just telling us hey guys if you fake our products for shit before wait till you get a load of what we're making next you think you hate it now but wait till you drive it this is it's like you just don't get it if you have a problem with your product would you think it'd be a great idea if you took a close up image of it and all of it's hideousness and then posted it up as a teaser pic for the whole world to see. I don't get it. Teaser pics are supposed to excite people, not put a spotlight on how shitty it looks up close. Now, the next pic I'm going to be showing you, I showed my wife, because we have the game back here, guys. I own a Totem. So when I showed the wife the picture that I will show next, with the backbox and everything she's like that looks pretty good and then i showed her this picture right here and she's like that looks pretty shitty i'm like yeah because it's like they didn't even try it's like they had all these they had at least this one i'm pretty sure my daughter could do a better job of cutting out in between these lines than whatever did this this is hideous i just don't understand how they who are making this product can post a close-up picture of it showing all of this bad and then be proud of it no when you create something and this is coming from a just a content creator let alone someone who's creating a product for you to spend more than likely hundreds to maybe even thousands of dollars on I would want to show you something that I'm proud of so this scares me that they are more than likely proud of this because they like hey check this out here your teaser of the greatness we got a brewing for you and it horrible I mean this is not good This is what you would see as like just all bad So let's read the comments section, shall we? And first up to bat is ML Huntsman. We've seen him previously. Fix your playfields. We don't want to buy anything from you until you figure out how to get your clear coat and warping playfields done right. Get the fuck out of here with whatever these sneak pics are about. Thumbs down. And then we have Kaneda again. Zoom in on those star cutouts. Pretty sloppy stuff. Mirko, we're going to ask you again. Please stop with this nonsense and address the plate build issue us owners have had with JJP Plate Builds. Can you at least acknowledge you are reading posts? We will take thumbs up, a gif, anything that connotes you care. and like i said guys you go through all these likes all these replies nothing except for one brian states why are the cutouts so sloppy and they are this is just sloppy work i don't know what they need to do on their end on this but definitely is a machine or person that did it more than likely a machine that they took it out and they held it up and they were just like this looks good let's put on a game take a close-up picture of it and get people excited what is going through your fucking mind because that does not get anybody excited if anything controls concern and then as of today they finally reveal what they will be talking about at Texas Pinball Festival with this image right here. At Texas Pinball Festival, we will present the brand new Totan 2.0 kit, the Forgotten Tales, with new software and great features. There will be two games in the game hall with our system installed to play. First kits will be available for pickup or order at TPF and same time only on my website, mercoplayfields.com The kit will not be available through any distributors. More details will be posted shortly before TPF. Regards, Mirko. And now honestly when I saw this image I was taken back. I was like uh mmm and I think it's because I'm not accustomed to seeing art on the speaker panel for this game. and then I see this and I'm like I don't know if it coalesces with the game it seems a little off at least from this image I don't really know how I feel about this yet I think the portion around the screen and the portion inside the speaker panel that has really horrible cutouts the art kind of meshes well with the plastics inside the game but what's throwing me off is the blue portion that's all over everything so it looks like we're going to be getting an additional one two three four five six seven gems to obtain or jewels to obtain on the forgotten tales let's just say dlc but that's what it looks like is that this kit is going to involve switching out our speaker speaker panel for this panel and these are more than likely going to light up behind it like you see on a number of games. But that's going to be something that's going to be involved in it. What sucks is that you're going to have to deal with the fact that this art that could be better is on the game. So let's go through the comments shall we? MLHutsman is back again. Seriously, that looks like shit. Fix your playfields first, then move on to lame ideas. I do like the idea of new code, but that art panel is ridiculous. Fix your playfields. Then Kaneda returns again. The only forgotten tale is your clear coat process. Burn! Cody says a product for a product with a cured playfield And then Huntsman comes back with a sequel with how about miracle playfields 2 jeffrey jones jr does rubbing the lamp let us wish for playfields that don't have clear coat issues mark nellis if the software breaks they won't have to use washers to cover the damage like on their playfields it just won't work at all jeff Willard Jr. posted a comment that evidently drew up enough attention to Miracle where they responded. His comment states, Might want to check your website you posted. I think you left off the S on the end. Miracle finally responded. I want to say it took him three hours, but they tagged him and said THX fixed. Now, for the love of fucking God, you are a company. Or whoever is behind the computer is representing a company. You shouldn't be responding with THX. You're shortening the word thanks or thank you. This is not good. I can understand maybe I would let thanks slide. like okay but how about thank you fixed something a little better than thx wow and holy shit a guy named ran davies and he said abbreviating the word thank you to thanks is disrespectful however thx is an insult i'm not the only one okay i thought maybe i might have been too picky about that but okay so i'm not the only one and they've already said that they will be releasing so mirko has already stated that there will be further information and details that were going to be revealed to all of us in the upcoming days leading up to TPF. But I might sit in on this seminar just to see what fun might, just to see what all kind of questions might be asked during this session. I'm pretty sure Kaneda might be there. I might be sitting next to him. So, but without a doubt, I am interested in the 2.0 kit. Like I said, I own the game. So having a kit that expands on a classic title like Tales of the Arabian Nights, enhancing the code, which is the sore spot on the game because the code is rather simple. So I don't know what the cost of this kit is. They tell you to go to their website. You go to their website. I can't find anything about this 2.0 kit anywhere. I've typed in the search panel 2.0. I've typed in Totan. I've typed in Tails. Nothing. The only thing they have is the Radcals for Totan and the Plate Build for Totan. But I'm not seeing anything else. But without a doubt, I am interested. And depending on what it's selling for at TPF, if it's available, I might get it. I don't know. We shall see. With that being said, I'm going to wrap this up because I might edit this tonight. I might not. It's already late, but it's spring break. I don't have to get up early to take the kids to school. So tell me, what are your thoughts on Viraco's latest announcement with Totem 2.0? Obviously, we've heard some of the comments and their concerns. Leave that aside. leave their playfield issues aside what do you think about the fact that tomatan is going to be getting a resurgence leave me comments down below give me the thumbs up subscribe button ding my dong that way you can be notified of whenever i upload something for your viewing pleasure but until next time guys peace out Thank you.