Most new pinball machines seem to follow a distinct reveal pattern: Get a quick tease, then a full video trailer+photos, then production comes along a short time later. For the latest pinball machine that was revealed the other day, we’re on phase 2 of that process. Here’s the official trailer for Weird Al’s Museum of Natural Hilarity, with commentary from the artist himself:
As mentioned the other day, this is the first licensed theme for the P3 Multimorphic Pinball Platform. As you would have noticed in the trailer, it’s a pinball machine where instead of using a panel of wood with art and lights embedded into it, most of that portion has been replaced with a video screen. It still has the mechanical bits, although things like flippers have to operate a little differently to produce the same effect. This one has 5 flippers and toy elements from both the Weird Al TV Show (Harvey the Wonder Hamster) and the hilarious movie UHF. It also has lines recorded by Al, which is the kind of thing you’d want in a pinball machine carrying his name. I would love to hear what lines he recorded for things like tilts…
Here’s the wholly mechanical portion of the playfield:
Since this is a music-theme, it has to have the artist’s music and they have included 17 songs, some of which are his originals with some of his famous parodies thrown in. Too bad it doesn’t have Albuquerque, although given that the song is 11+ minutes long, I can see why it’s not included. This list should please fans, although he has such a huge catalog that you’re probably going to miss something; This also fits the bill of “whimsical,” which is a good thing when it comes to pinball tables:
The playfield screen does show animations from many of these songs and album covers, although I wonder if it will include clips from his concerts as well as some of the parody short films he tends to play at those.
Pre-orders for the game open on Feb. 28th, and I would assume that units will begin shipping out shortly afterwards. The only problem is that the P3 platform costs a bit more than a typical Pro or Standard model pinball machine, however it does appear that pricing has gone down for this release from the norm: $8300 for a full, kitted out cabinet; Just $3000 for a kit that goes into an existing P3 machine. Normal P3 cabinet costs with a single kit were around $11k, so the price decrease certainly helps, which means chances of finding one out in the wild are going to be higher.
This one also sports a Limited Edition with a really cool topper (that’s how a topper should be done), but is limited at 227 units.
What do you think about this? As a Weird Al fan, I find it quite tempting to put into my arcade, apart from the price. More details on it are found at P3’s website.
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