I don't know much about Dutch Pinball but do they have a factory like JJP or Stern or are they going to get the machines made by another manufacturer ?
If they have a factory, does anyone have a link to a video or photos of their factory.
There is already a thread on here about Dutch Pinball and The Big Lebowski:
http://aussiepinball.com/index.php?topic=11391.45There are many, many threads on Pinside about them now but probably the one with the most information is here (24 pages long):
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/tbl-playfield-layoutmy-thoughtsHave a look around their website, there is a lot of info there about their team:
http://www.thebiglebowskipinball.com/about_usThese guys are super organised. They have a facility where they are developing the machine and it is pretty impressive, but they have partnered with another big Dutch manufacturer to do the production run.
As for getting the machine here, this is an email I received from Phil (their marketing guy) about the delivery of Australian orders a couple of weeks ago:
G'day Mates,
Each of you that's getting a blind copy of this mail has already preordered (THANKS) or has expressed an interest, but not yet done so (WTF).
Preordering closes in two weeks, and we are guaranteeing our price until then. What is a little difficult for you guys is the shipping. The first of you to pre-order was within 1 month and the most recent pre-order was last night (thanks again to you all).
What that means is that the first TBL to ship would be mid-Q2, and the latest would be end Q2.
So, if this proposal ok with all of you:
I would have the assembly guys do extra quality control testing on all your machines to make sure they are 100% perfect before going out the door.
I would then consolidate all the Australian pre-orders into 1 container and ship them together to the cheapest port (at this point, Melbourne, but that may change).
TBLs would then be offloaded, and shipped individually to you.
The shipping costs would be divided evenly amongst all of you.
It will take a little extra time to get you all of your machines, but it would significantly reduce the shipping costs per machine.
The alternative would be shipping the TBLs as one-offs.
Please let me know your thoughts on this idea. It is 100% opt-in, but I think it is the most reliable, cost-effective and fair solution.
And one last thought:
If you know of any other Pin-heads interested, please feel free to let them know about this idea. The more orders I can consolidate, the lower the cost per unit. But also let them know that pre-orders will close on October 19 -- even for the Aussies.
Take it easy, Dudes -- I know that you will,
Phil
