While we spoke of a new challenger to the video game side of the business last week, newcomers are landing in the world of pinball as well. Today’s company is called Homepin, a company based out of China with several members from Australia. Their first pinball machine? Thunderbirds, based upon the classic 1960s sci-fi marionette TV show of the same name.
Homepin themselves started as a company who re-manufactured old pinball control boards to revitalize ageing machines. They originally announced Thunderbirds back in 2014 via this promo but as seems to be the case with everyone starting up a pinball production company, creating a playable machine is much harder (and more expensive) than it first appears and it was delayed until now.
Those issues out of the way, they have teamed up with Australian distributor Highway Games for worldwide sales of the game, launching this trailer to promote the release (they are looking for other distributors to carry the game, contact info for that is given at the end of the video below). They also describe the game thus from their website:
Thunderbirds immerses players in all the action of the International Rescue team, featuring authentic character voices and original music. The playfield includes Tracy Island with its retracting swimming pool and palm trees, which combined with the animated panels and authentic artwork on the backbox, create a retro effect combined with modern twists. With the ultimate aim of defeating International Rescue’s nemesis The Hood, the multi-gameplay of this machine makes it suitable for both novice and experienced players alike.
As you can see below, this game is a little more traditional in it’s design, eschewing a full color LCD display in the backbox for an orange matrix display. The playfield does not have any talking marionette heads but it does have one of the Thunderbirds vehicles, a drill toy, a constantly moving target and a moving ramp.
I’ll keep an eye out for this at Amusement Expo 2018 in case someone brings one; what do you think about this release from what has been shown so far?
