Happy Monday everyone. I figured that it's check in with a few pinball odds and ends as we wait for the next big announcement the hobby, Stern Pinball's likely August reveal of its next cornerstone game X-Men (I'm not saying '97 any more because the latest rumors are that the game is based on the comics, not the series, but we'll see).
First up we have Dutch Pinball Exclusive. They announced late last week that it has selected the highly regarded German company Buthamburg to manufacture the playfields for its upcoming Alice's Adventures in Wonderland pinball machine. This news seems to have been received very positively by the pinball public.
Speaking of Stern Pinball, there's been some chatter on Pinside that they are going to announce another sales outlet in the near future to help sell games, which are rumored to be piling up. The Pinside discussion centers around the possibility that Stern may revisit selling pinball machines through the membership-based warehouse retailer Costco.
Stern has tried this in the past with somewhat stripped down versions of its Batman Dark Knight and Transformers pinball machines. Stern has also tried selling pinball machines through the mega on-line retailer Amazon over the years. I just looked at the Amazon page for Stern and it currently does not have any inventory listed on the site.
Stern's most recent attempt to sell less expensive games to more of a mass market with its "Home Edition" line of games, which included games such as Jurassic Park and Star Wars seems to have lost steam.
I personally have absolutely no firsthand knowledge that Stern is going to make another attempt to expand the pinball market like this, but it's interesting to talk about since the whispers are out there.
Last up we're heading Down Under to Australia. Fortunately, it's not to talk about the mess that is Haggis Pinball. Instead, I am going to talk about Vector Pinball again. A number of months ago I wrote an article about Vector's game Eightball Fury.
Earlier this month Vector shared on its Facebook page that it is going to produce another pinball machine. This one is a licensed game called "PETER BROCK - King of the Mountain."
Two limited versions of this game will "be available shortly to Celebrate a famous Australian motorsport icon and his incredible 9 wins at Bathurst." The two versions of the game are called the "79 Torana" and the "84 Commodore."
The pin is priced at Priced at $11,900 AUD including the country's 10% GST tax (which buyers from outside the country do not have to pay).
I have no idea who Peter Brock is, but this does remind me of one of my favorite classic arcade games, the 1989 Leland Corporation game "Ironman Ivan Stewart's Super Off Road."
The playfield looks as empty as Barry O. BBQ Challenge and layout is very similar (minus the 2 LCDs screens) 🤔