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Writer's pictureJason

New Wave Toys Unveils New Line of Replicade Mini Pinball Machines

After teasing that something pinball-related was coming for the past several days, this afternoon New Wave Toys, the manufacturer of miniature replica arcade and vending machines, officially unveiled the prototype of its upcoming replica of Gottlieb's 1981 pinball machine Black Hole.


The upcoming 1/6th scale Black Hole machine is not playable, but it does replicate the actual machine's attract mode, lighting and sounds and knocker. It also has blacklight cabinet illumination and plays simulated games. Like the original game, the mini pin also has a replica spinning galaxy disk in the backbox. The game accepts mini coins.


New Wave Toys has plans for a whole series of MINIPINS, with Black Hole being the first. The replica pin is priced at $199.99, but I believe that there is a 20% off coupon on the New Wave Toys website. The estimated ship date for the Black Holes is Halloween 2024.


The Replicade mini arcade games seem to be pretty popular. I don't personally any after vowing to cut back on buying collectables, but last year I actually broke down and pre-ordered the Company's upcoming Zoltar machine that moves, talks and dispenses actual fortunes. That breaks my personal rules on both pre-ordering things and collecting "stuff" lol. The mini Zoltar ran into some production issues and was delayed. The latest word is that it should be ready around April.













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17 Comments


As a comparison, Best Buy had the Arcade 1Up Attack from Mars virtual pin for $150 for the holidays.

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That's not a fair comparison and you know it. Best Buy did not put them on sale readily and widely available to the masses for $150. A handful of local stores had an extremely limited quantity of old stock on hand, that were placed on final fire-sale clearance just to clear them out. The number of people who were able to get it for that price was probably somewhere in the dozens. Totally unfair to compare a new product to something like that.

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My bad. Somehow I clicked on something else and it said $399. Even at $200, it’s a bit of a joke in my humble effing opinion.

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The price isn't really out at all of line with other stuff in the boutique scale model and collectible statuette market, especially considering this also has lights, sounds, motorization, and OLED displays in the bill-of-materials.

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Yeah big pass. Should have been digital and at least playable.

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Yeah, but the mechanical complexity required for something like Black Hole is orders of magnitude beyond that American Girl toy. Just as one example, the engineering and manufacturing required to build a functioning 5-panel drop target that's barely an inch long alone would be approaching NASA robotics levels of mechanical precision. The price of this as a fully playable mechanical recreation at this kind of miniature scale would probably be closer to a Rolex watch, than to a $200 display piece.

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Very cool, but why not start out with the 79' Bally Kiss? Black hole? really?

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Because maybe they weren't able to work out a licensing deal with Bally's current rightholders (to say nothing of dealing with KISS and licensing their likeness)? You seem to be assuming that they had equal ease of access to license any manufacturer they wanted, and it's almost certainly not that simple. And besides, Black Hole is a classic that sold nearly 9000 units, putting it within the top 100 best-selling pinball machines of all time.

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With all due respect, I think this is the most ridiculous offer I’ve seen. A replica pinball machine for $400 that you can’t play? I’m a total no for a $400 quasi nightlight. What’s going on here? Am I missing something?

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Jason
Jason
Jan 16
Replying to

Not that it's cheap, but I think that it's $199 and 20% off rather than $400.

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