WPC-style Widebody Virtual Pinball Cabinet - Fully Trimmed

The fully trimmed widebody cabinet VirtuaPin has built for me is FANTASTIC! The sheer quality is very impressive.

Several major ideas for my cabinet customization are based on the complete systems shown at the VirtuaPin Site and on the famous Big Bang Pin project from Chriz99 that probably everybody has heard of.

Building my cabinet took quite some time. CEO Paul Maletich seems to be a perfectionist, and that seems to have added a bit of time to my order. What helped me through the waiting time was to know that Paul Maletich is "the founder of the #1 virtual pinball site on the planet", has an excellent name in the community, and is absolutely committed when (Virtual)Pinball is concerned.

VirtuaPin succeeded to realize my customization ideas exactly the way I had imagined - starting with routed slots for the playfield monitor, over countersink Start Button and Coin In Button, placing of the Flipper Buttons and Magna Save Buttons, up to round holes for the fans, and other features.

After taking a closer look at the widebody cabinet build, I am impressed how everything is perfectly designed down to the smallest detail. I like the TOTAN cabinet art I ordered and of course the precise positioning of the decals.

I am particularly pleased that the backbox already contains some wooden slats. My 32" LED TV will perfectly fit into the backbox, and there are even some additional components included - speaker, grills, plexiglas for the speaker panel/DMD.

I also ordered a real DMD (Vishay orange LEE-128G032B) and I like it very much. I have run a few tests, including typical test patterns, and it seems to be noticeably brighter compared to the "3rd monitor solution" and has superior viewing characteristics. Minimal manufacturing tolerances of the Vishay display due to the 8x8 blocking of the LEDs - some of the LED blocks seem to be "more orange" than others, for example - is absolutely fine with me.

The cabinet was extremely well packed for the shipping (ocean freight) to Hamburg in Germany! Some additional shipping costs are charged by the shipping company after the cabinet has arrived at the port in Hamburg: ca. 130 EUR ($175) plus 50 EUR ($67) if the shipping company clears it through the customs (I used that service). And of course in Germany I have to pay the usual taxes for importing fantastic things from the U.S.A.

Some work is left to me to install all my force feedback items in the widebody cabinet. I mounted and tested all components on wooden boards. Everything works fine: LEDWiz, Mot-Ion, Plunger, RGB-Flashers, Solenoids, Replay Knocker, Shaker Motor, Gear Motor, etc.

If VirtuaPin would offer a complete system with these toys included I surely would order such a complete system from VirtuaPin next time. I really underestimated the number of working hours such a DIY project can consume.

If building the cabinet had been faster I would give 6 out of 5 stars. But the wait was worth it.