Quoted from Pharoah007

China is the king of makeing something cheep (and thus low quality) so I would say 50% would be EASY for them.

A good number of the parts are already made there .. labour is cheaper but not that much cheaper

You never know? Maybe China can save pinball - not everything they make is crap. Besides they don't make it if we don't buy it. Anyone remember a great automobile made in Japan during the 70's? Didn't think so ... but they certainly got it right in the end. However, I don't see them starting out making high-end quality pins that can take a beating on location. ok, I'll just sit hear dreaming about a pinball renaissance.

Quoted from tom_454

You never know? Maybe China can save pinball - not everything they make is crap. Besides they don't make it if we don't buy it. Anyone remember a great automobile made in Japan during the 70's? Didn't think so ... but they certainly got it right in the end. However, I don't see them starting out making high-end quality pins that can take a beating on location. ok, I'll just sit hear dreaming about a pinball renaissance.

Ummmm, the Japanese starting making cars in the 1930's, if you don't think their cars were any good until
recently, then it took over 60 years for them to get it right.  I don't think pinball has that much time.

And other than being in the same part of the world, I really don't see what Japan has to do with China anyway.

Quoted from Sparky

Then your pins and most of the stuff around you is crap because many components are made in China... just not assembled.

Assembly would certainly be an issue. Think back to when VW set up shop in Mexico. There were tons of problems from cars that previously were trouble free.

Duane

Quoted from tom_454

You never know? Maybe China can save pinball - not everything they make is crap. Besides they don't make it if we don't buy it. Anyone remember a great automobile made in Japan during the 70's?

China is not Japan! The Japanese are committed to continuous improvement and strive to make small improvements at all steps. Over time this results in a superior product. Small steps done consistently equal great gains over time. This is how they over took the automotive market. Thus far China is committed to the lowest price at any cost resulting in general crap products.

Duane

China is the new Japan
China and Japan are becoming interchangeable.
Japan's economy is in serious trouble.
They refer to the last decade as the lost decade.
Their economy hasn't grown in 10 years.
Take the wealthy GM worker problem and multiply it across their entire economy.
Japanese manufacturers are increasingly cutting corners in order to survive.
Some Sony examples-
The laptop batteries that they were shipping that were prone to bursting into flames.
Their playstations that had quality issues.
The CCD's in Sony cameras that were in plastic IC cases that were corroding and leaving dark pixels in pictures
The only reason that Japanese cars tend to sell as well as they do is based largely on perception and peoples memmories of previous vehicles, The quality gap that was there in the 70's and 80's is gone, or a lot narrower. manufacturers in other areas of asia like hyundai and Kia now produce cars of equal quality at lower prices.
Increasingly GM and other north american manufacturers are importing parts from China and India and cutting their costs and increasing their quality levels again cutting into Japans export based economy.
China is already increasing the quality of some of their exports, they are following Japan's lead.
We now live in a globalised economy and the only way to increase your standard of living is to get people to pay more for the same product and the only way to do that is to increase quality, the Chinese are already starting to climb that ladder.
China's half a billion inhabitants living on less than two dollars a day will provide the menial labour that will make Japan and Japans manufacturing industry completely irrelevant within the next 15 years!
You can quote me on that

Quoted from Sparky

On a more serious side... is there any news on the Medieval Madness builds?

No offense, but all the poor schmucks that got conned into giving this crook money should be getting nervous by now...

I bet I can build one from scratch faster than he can...

Nobody got canned by Wayne Gillard....I got my money back and anyone else who put a down payment on MM can get it back too.....

In Short, China can make quality items but  we ask for crap by wanting cheap products. In other words, the product is as good as we want to pay for it.

Quoted from ALJO

Nobody got canned by Wayne Gillard....I got my money back and anyone else who put a down payment on MM can get it back too.....

How much interest did Waynanus pay on your deposit that he kept for x number of months ?

When real estate development deals in Ontario have gone in the crapper the developer has had to pay deposits back with interest ...

me thinks Wayne made a boatload of interest off of these deposits at a minimum (and if I am wrong and he paid interest then my bad)

Quoted from 1

In Short, China can make quality items but  we ask for crap by wanting cheap products. In other words, the product is as good as we want to pay for it.

Historically Japan was the 'cheap' place to make product  in the middle of the last century (as your parents or their parents .. if it said made in Japan in was considered inferior and cheap) not just cars but electronics/cameras etc ...

China followed the model that the cheap end of the market is the easiest to exploit but as skill sets rise and incomes rise (even from $2/day to $4/day) the manufactoring sector has to produce items with larger margins to allow for the higher standard of living of the factory labourer. As Tim noted Japan is in a boatload of trouble and has been for awhile but he also didn't mention the largest negative factor for the Japanese which is that they are averaging way less than 2 kids per family and are therefore shrinking as a population.