{"version": "1.0", "type": "rich", "title": "So, I got to play the WHOA NELLIE! BIG JUICY MELONS pinball table and it left me with mixed feelings.\n\n The distressed-wood...", "author_name": "kontextmaschine", "author_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "provider_name": "kontextmaschine", "provider_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "url": "https://kontextmaschine.com/post/116349342438/", "html": "

pinballforever:

tron-a-thon:

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So, I got to play the WHOA NELLIE! BIG JUICY MELONS pinball table and it left me with mixed feelings.

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The distressed-wood cabinet is actually lovely, both visually and tactilely. The game itself is a throwback to the old electromechanical pinball tables - no ramps or additional playfields here. The art is lively, well-executed, and bursting with vivid color, and really fucking stupid. Same with the sound design - abundant and executed with care, but all the vocal bits I heard were unfunny variations on \u201cBOOBS LOL\u201d.

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Was it fun? It was OK. Didn\u2019t remotely come close to any of the other super-new tables at the Midwest Gaming Classic - I got to play THE BIG LEBOWSKI, AMERICA\u2019S MOST HAUNTED, and THE HOBBIT - or, honestly, most of the older tables (it was hard to not buy the SPANISH EYES table one guy was selling, but I don\u2019t have a place for it right now).

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My understanding is that this machine will be selling for around $6K. For $6K you can get a hell of a lot better pinball table, and it probably won\u2019t have the wince-inducing, backward, sexist imagery of WHOA NELLIE!. Hopefully the next time Stern makes a table without a licensed theme, it\u2019ll be something I don\u2019t feel embarrassed playing, not just for myself but for the hobby and industry as a whole.

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(So, nerkles informs me the design is from Whiz Bang Pinball, and Stern\u2019s just manufacturing it)

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Stern getting a black eye over this machine and it doesn\u2019t matter that they didn\u2019t design it. My guess is 90-95% of sales will go directly to the collector market. Nobody in their right mind would display this in public for commercial use unless the venue was a strip club or XXX bookstore.

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As far as hubba-hubba-ha-ha it doesn\u2019t strike me as far off from Scared Stiff, honestly. (Also, I live in Portland, so strip clubs and sex shops seem like reasonable locations for a table.)

That said you\u2019re right about it being a collector table, between the theme and the old-school styling. But that\u2019s just why I think it\u2019s a clever move for Stern to pick up and distribute it - they can use otherwise idle production capacity without cannibalizing sales from their 2-a-year operator market, while building a relationship with Whiz Bang that might see them becoming a designer stable and \u201cimprint\u201d for neo-retro tables (like how Buell was Harley-Davidson\u2019s imprint for streetbike styling, say).

Stern\u2019s clearly trying to figure out how to balance collector and operator markets, I think that\u2019s why they alternate themes between midlife crisis brands (Harley, Mustang, Metallica, AC/DC) and brands with high youth recognition (superhero movies, WWE, Walking Dead).

I think this fits the strategy, I suspect the kind of guy who wants retro style but would rather shell out 6k than learn to fix a $500 EM won\u2019t be put off by the theme. I mean, have you seen the Pinside forums?

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