# Episode 818: "Kaneda Has The Power!"

**Source:** Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2023-07-04  
**Duration:** 23m 44s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-818-has-85573404

---

## Analysis

Kaneda discusses He-Man Pinball as an upcoming Stern release, emphasizing nostalgia's power and design requirements (original cartoon clips, inviting gameplay, themed LE variants). He pivots to sharply criticizing Haggis Pinball's financial instability, self-financing, accumulated vendor debt, and pattern of pre-selling future games while struggling with current production—urging transparency and factory tours. He argues Stern's dominance in IP licensing leaves boutique manufacturers with inferior deals.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] He-Man is confirmed as a Stern Pinball game in development — _Kaneda states this as fact opening the segment; positions it as a known property being licensed to Stern_
- [MEDIUM] The He-Man cartoon aired 1983-1985/87, marking a 40th anniversary — _Kaneda estimates the run but is uncertain ('I think it was 85'), suggesting the 40th anniversary timing could align with upcoming Comic-Con announcements_
- [MEDIUM] John Borg is likely to design He-Man, not Jack Danger — _Jason Knapp reportedly suggested this; Kaneda cites it as rumor while noting Jack Danger's recent Foo Fighters success_
- [MEDIUM] Haggis Pinball is self-financed entirely by Marty with no external equity investors or secured bank debt — _Anonymous email with attached documents reviewed by Kaneda; documents summarize company structure showing sole shareholding and lack of secured debt_
- [MEDIUM] Haggis Pinball has registered secured debt charges from wood, plastics, and printing vendors for unpaid goods — _Anonymous email documents detail trade creditor secured debt; Kaneda confirms reviewing documents but receives info anonymously_
- [HIGH] Haggis Pinball pre-sold 5-game series tickets from day one despite struggling to complete game one — _Kaneda describes this as a documented red flag: 'they sold those like series tickets deposits that were like good for the next five games'_
- [HIGH] Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinball was too difficult and poorly themed due to reanimation instead of original footage — _Kaneda criticizes TMNT's brutal difficulty (ball drain on left, design by John Borg), reanimated clips, and lack of Foot Clan battles as design failures_
- [MEDIUM] Randy Martinez is rumored to be the artist for He-Man — _Kaneda cites rumor and notes Martinez has said He-Man is one of his favorite properties next to Star Wars; only experienced with Star Wars artwork_
- [HIGH] Stern Pinball moves to a new factory in August with increased production capacity, potentially enabling four cornerstone games per year — _Kaneda states this as known fact and speculates on impact of increased manufacturing room_
- [MEDIUM] Venom pinball is expected to release in approximately two weeks — _Kaneda speculates Venom is imminent but still believes it, not He-Man, will be the next announcement_

### Notable Quotes

> "Stern Pinball getting a license like this is good news from a manufacturing standpoint. It's good news that they have great designers that grew up loving He-Man."
> — **Kaneda**, opening segment
> _Establishes Stern's manufacturing advantage and designer nostalgia as positive for He-Man theme execution_

> "Manufacturing kills everybody, especially when you try to scale up manufacturing. It is so expensive to get your arms around the overhead cost of becoming a decently sized pinball manufacturing company."
> — **Kaneda**, Haggis Pinball analysis
> _Core insight explaining why boutique manufacturers fail—directly relevant to Haggis's situation_

> "The fastest way to make a million dollars in pinball is to start with five million dollars and you quickly lose everything as you try to become a pinball manufacturer."
> — **John (Jack Bar owner), cited by Kaneda**, Haggis Pinball analysis
> _Industry wisdom encapsulating manufacturing economics and risk in pinball_

> "If you can't do that, you don't deserve anybody's money. Come on, Marty. You go on your own podcast and you deflect, deflect, deflect for a year. Enough deflecting."
> — **Kaneda**, Haggis Pinball challenge
> _Direct call for transparency and accountability; strong indictment of Marty's communication strategy_

> "A brutal game is a bad design pinball machine. You can still make a pinball machine hard without making it brutal to play."
> — **Kaneda**, He-Man design philosophy
> _Core design philosophy statement; explains why TMNT failed and what He-Man must avoid_

> "He-Man, for me, it's a non-negotiable. It has to be the original show, has to be the original voices, or I would never go for it on this game."
> — **Kaneda**, He-Man requirements
> _Clear criteria for He-Man success; criticizes TMNT's reanimation approach_

> "Stern Pinball is going to sell more He-Man pinball machines in one day than Haggis Pinball will sell of pinball machines ever."
> — **Kaneda**, transition to He-Man
> _Stark comparison illustrating scale disparity between Stern and boutique manufacturers; shows Stern's market dominance_

> "Everyone else is Scottie Pippen and freaking Keith Elwin is Michael Jordan, right? Scottie Pippen doesn't become Scottie Pippen without Michael Jordan."
> — **Kaneda**, designer discussion
> _Positions Keith Elwin as elite designer; frames him as a teaching force elevating other Stern designers_

> "Almost every single property that you want to see made into a pinball machine. Stern Pinball has first dibs probably at everything. Everyone else is just making the leftovers that Stern Pinball doesn't want."
> — **Kaneda**, Stern IP dominance
> _Market analysis of Stern's licensing power; explains why JJP deals are inferior and compromised_

> "Your health and happiness are the most important thing. And every day we are above ground and we get to argue and complain and get excited about pinball is a blessing, people."
> — **Kaneda**, closing remarks
> _Personal reflection on perspective; indicates personal/family hardship context for the episode's tone_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Kaneda | person | Host of Kaneda's Pinball Podcasts; 590 Patreon members; provides insider analysis and criticism of manufacturers |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major manufacturer getting He-Man license; moving to new factory in August; produces four cornerstone games per three-month cycle; dominates IP licensing |
| He-Man Pinball | product | Upcoming Stern game; 40th anniversary of original cartoon; requires original footage/voices to succeed; potential designer John Borg or Jack Danger; potential artist Randy Martinez or Jeremy Packer |
| Haggis Pinball | company | Australian boutique manufacturer; financially unstable; self-financed by Marty; has accumulated vendor debt; pre-sold 5-game series; struggling to complete Fathoms production; Centaur remaster announced next |
| Marty | person | Owner/founder of Haggis Pinball; avoiding transparency; deflecting on podcasts; criticized for lack of communication and factory tours |
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pinball | product | Stern game designed by John Borg; criticized for brutal difficulty, reanimated clips instead of original footage, lack of Foot Clan battles, poor theme execution |
| John Borg | person | Stern designer; rumored for He-Man; designed Indiana Jones (criticized); designed TMNT (too difficult); has many games in portfolio |
| Jack Danger | person | Stern designer; designed Foo Fighters; teased He-Man but may not be assigned to it; Jason Knapp suggests Borg more likely |
| Keith Elwin | person | Stern designer; positioned as elite/tier above other designers (Michael Jordan comparison); game coming February; rumored to be designing Jaws |
| Randy Martinez | person | Rumored artist for He-Man; confirmed Star Wars artwork (described as 'nice looking'); He-Man stated as one of favorite properties; mixed track record |
| Jeremy Packer | person | Stern artist; style described as perfect for comic book/He-Man aesthetic; better suited to He-Man than Jaws/Godzilla |
| Jason Knapp | person | Industry source; suggested John Borg (not Jack Danger) for He-Man; interviewed by Don (volume issues noted) |
| Venom Pinball | product | Upcoming Stern game; expected within approximately two weeks; anticipated to be next announcement before He-Man |
| Jaws Pinball | product | Rumored Keith Elwin design; planned for February release; potential 50th anniversary tie-in mentioned by Kaneda |
| Centaur Pinball | product | Haggis Pinball's next release after Fathoms; remaster of classic game; Kaneda notes zero market interest at $10,000 price point |
| Fathoms Pinball | product | Haggis Pinball's current game in production; 200+ units still to be built; bottleneck preventing company financial recovery |
| Spooky Pinball | company | Boutique manufacturer; grew slowly (unlike Haggis); benefited from Benton Wisconsin property/facility support; family/friends labor model; successful manufacturing model |
| Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Boutique manufacturer; receives inferior IP licenses that Stern doesn't want; uses muted footage without voice syncing; makes deals without full asset packages |
| Ghostbusters Pinball | product | Cited as example of brutal/unforgiving gameplay that ruins theme enjoyment |
| Rick and Morty Pinball | product | Cited as example of brutal, holding-on-for-dear-life gameplay that prevents player engagement |
| Foo Fighters Pinball | product | Recent Jack Danger design; well-received; demonstrates Danger's design capability |
| Comic-Con | event | Potential venue for He-Man or Venom announcement; timing speculation based on 40th anniversary alignment |
| Don | person | Podcast producer; interviewed Jason Knapp; criticized for poor audio volume levels |
| John (Jack Bar owner) | person | Industry contact; coined manufacturing economics insight: 'fastest way to make a million dollars is start with five million' |

### Topics

- **Primary:** He-Man Pinball announcement and design requirements, Haggis Pinball financial instability and transparency crisis, Stern Pinball IP licensing dominance and manufacturing capacity expansion
- **Secondary:** Pinball game design philosophy (brutal vs. inviting gameplay), Boutique manufacturer business failures and scaling challenges, Nostalgic IP and emotional resonance in pinball themes, Stern designer hierarchy and creative capabilities
- **Mentioned:** Limited Edition variant strategy and customer value perception

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.35) — Positive enthusiasm for He-Man theme and Stern's capabilities, but strong negative sentiment dominating the episode toward Haggis Pinball's financial practices, lack of transparency, and industry pattern of boutique manufacturer failures. Sharp criticism balanced by empathy for manufacturing challenges. Closing remarks reflect personal hardship affecting overall tone.

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** Haggis Pinball exhibits critical financial distress: self-financed by single owner, accumulated vendor debt through unpaid invoices, pre-sold 5-game series before completing game one (confidence: high) — Anonymous documents reviewed by Kaneda detailing company structure (sole shareholder, no bank debt, no external equity) and trade creditor secured debt charges for unpaid wood/plastics/printing
- **[sentiment_shift]** Market rejection of Haggis Centaur remaster despite polish; community demanding original IP rather than remasters from troubled manufacturer (confidence: high) — Kaneda: 'Nobody really cares. Nobody is clamoring for a $10,000 Centaur.' Advises Marty to show original game instead
- **[community_signal]** Nostalgia as primary emotional driver for successful IP adaptation in pinball; 40th anniversary timing may align with Comic-Con announcement (confidence: medium) — Kaneda on nostalgia power: 'The most powerful thing emotionally... is nostalgia. The power of nostalgia is extremely powerful'; speculates He-Man or Venom at Comic-Con for anniversary tie-in
- **[design_philosophy]** Criticism of brutal game design (TMNT, Ghostbusters, Rick and Morty) as poor thematic execution; argument for inviting, accessible gameplay over difficulty for difficulty's sake (confidence: high) — Kaneda: 'Brutality is bad design... you can still make a pinball machine hard without making it brutal to play'; cites TMNT left-side drain problem and John Borg's excessive difficulty
- **[licensing_signal]** Stern Pinball holds first-dibs on major IP licenses; boutique manufacturers (JJP, others) receive inferior licensing deals and compromised assets (muted footage, no voice syncing) (confidence: high) — Kaneda: 'Almost every single property that you want to see made into a pinball machine. Stern Pinball has first dibs probably at everything. Everyone else is just making the leftovers'
- **[market_signal]** Stern moving to new factory in August with expanded production capacity; potential shift from 3 to 4 cornerstone games per year (confidence: high) — Kaneda states as fact: 'Stern Pinball is moving into its new factory in August' with speculation about increased output capacity
- **[community_signal]** Kaneda facing personal/family health crisis affecting podcast tone and perspective; references 'bad news in the family' and emphasizes health/happiness over industry drama (confidence: high) — Closing remarks: 'We got some bad news in the family this week... Your health and happiness are the most important thing'
- **[community_signal]** John Borg likely assigned to He-Man design instead of Jack Danger; Danger pursuing other projects post-Foo Fighters (confidence: medium) — Jason Knapp reportedly suggested Borg for He-Man; Kaneda notes Danger's recent Foo Fighters success but implies Borg more likely assignment
- **[announcement]** He-Man Pinball confirmed as upcoming Stern release with 40th anniversary positioning; expected designer John Borg, artist Randy Martinez rumored (confidence: high) — Kaneda opens segment confirming He-Man is happening at Stern; describes it as licensed property being made by major manufacturer rather than boutique
- **[product_concern]** TMNT pinball criticized for reanimated footage instead of original cartoon clips, poor theme execution, lack of Foot Clan battles, and brutal difficulty that prevents engagement (confidence: high) — Kaneda extensively critiques TMNT: 'It's why a lot of us, when we saw the pinball machine, it just felt weird'; 'John Borg made it way too hard. The ball drains on the left side of that game all day long'
- **[rumor_hype]** Keith Elwin Jaws design expected February 2025 release; potential 50th anniversary positioning for Jaws IP (confidence: medium) — Kaneda: 'Keith Elwin's game is going to come out next February. The rumor there is that it's going to be Jaws'
- **[business_signal]** He-Man should use dual Limited Edition strategy (He-Man vs. Skeletor variants, similar to Transformers Autobots/Decepticons) to differentiate $13,000 pricing and increase perceived value (confidence: medium) — Kaneda recommendation: 'Make 500 He-Man editions and 500 Skeletor editions... Make the Skeletor editions purple... really try to mix it up a little bit'

---

## Transcript

 Oh, welcome everybody to the world's most slanderous pinball podcaster, your host, Canada. We're at 590 club members. Thank you for the support. We're going to get back up over 600. I'm not worried about that. Happy 4th of July, everybody. You might hear Killian playing in the background, but I had to do a show this morning. We're going to talk about He-Man Pinball. We've been hearing about He-Man now for a few years, so there's a really good chance this game is happening. But now what gets people really excited is that the game is not going to be made by some boutique company that's going to struggle to get He-Man out into the world. It's going to be made by Stern Pinball. Now look, Stern Pinball getting a license like this is good news from a manufacturing standpoint. It's good news that they have great designers that grew up loving He-Man. We're going to talk about the power of nostalgia. And we're going to talk about even though most of us have outgrown what we were into when we were kids. There's no denying the sheer power of nostalgia. And if you get it right and you hit nostalgia in the bullseye, this could be a very, very well received pinball machine by the community. But you got to do it right. I don't think they did it right with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We're going to talk about how Turtles got it wrong. But He-Man has an opportunity to get it right. And before I go on to He-Man and why I think it's a great theme for pinball, I got a little anonymous email that came into my inbox about Haggis Pinball. See, this is what happens when you start to sort of kick the tires a little bit, when you start to poke the bear, when you start to ask some questions about what's going on in pinball and what's going on with these companies. And then you get a company like Haggis who struggled to make game number two, and they're now gonna want people to give money towards game number three. Once you start to kick that can down the road, people start to share some stuff. But again, all of this stuff comes to me anonymously. So you have to take it with a grain of salt. But there are documents attached to this email that explain what this email is all about. And it's two things that I got. I got the company structure and then some known debts that are associated with Haggis Pinball. So let me just summarize it for you right now. And I'm more than happy to share these documents with anybody who's interested. But I can tell you right now, after we confirmed that Centaur is going to be the next title from Haggis Pinball, nobody really cares. Nobody really cares. Nobody is clamoring for a $10,000 Centaur. And if I were Damien and I were Marty, I would read the room a little bit. I think they need to show something original. They need to show something new. They're not going to get 250 orders for a game that you can go buy today for much less money than this. It doesn't matter how sexy you make the game. It doesn't matter what you do with the code. I think people are clamoring for an all-original new game. And if you've got War of the Worlds and you want to show us what Marty can do, and you're going to make a modern pinball machine with modern everything, I think that's the smart move to do next. The problem is with Haggis, they've boxed themselves into a corner. Remember he sold those like series tickets deposits that were like good for the next five remake games? Five remake games? They barely can get game number one out the door and they've already taken deposits on four additional titles. All of this from day one has been a red flag to anybody who's been following this hobby as long as I have. Most of you have seen this movie too. This happens. It's like these people, they love pinball. They take their own money and they run in and they think it's going to be easy to scale up pinball manufacturing. So let me summarize what these documents are saying about Haggis Pinball. First bullet, Damien currently owns Haggis as a sole shareholder. This is strange that there aren't any other equity investors funding the company. Tied with the fact that Haggis doesn't have any debt secured against the company from an Australian bank means that he has financed the creation and running of the company purely from his own cash reserves, which is pretty unusual. Right there, you kind of understand now why everything has been turned off, why they have not been transparent. And look, all of us, we have to have a level of empathy for Damien to start a company like this and put all of his passion and his love into pinball is an admirable thing. But what happens to all of these people who get stars in their eyes around pinball is simply this. Manufacturing kills everybody, especially when you try to scale up manufacturing. It is so expensive to get your arms around the overhead cost of becoming a decently sized pinball manufacturing company. remember Spooky Pinball wasn't paying for any costs associated with like their warehouses because the town of Benton Wisconsin was giving them like the property for nothing or the buildings for nothing and then remember Spooky Pinball built their company with family right it's like their family and friends are who were putting these games together I think it still their family and friends I mean the entire population of Benton Wisconsin is basically building spooky machines But for Damien to go from building like 50 Kelts machines to building 500 Fathoms you then going to have to hire people You're then going to have to do a lot more work and you're not used to it. And the fact that all of this is out of his own pocket is kind of scary. He's a father. He's a husband. I think he worked in IT or some other area and made some money. But as my friend John at Jack Bar always says, the fastest way to make a million dollars in pinball is to start with five million dollars and you quickly lose everything as you try to become a pinball manufacturer. All right. So here's the other document I got about Haggis. It's the known debt stuff. And this is the part where like it gets a little bit concerning, but it also makes total sense why they need to raise revenue. It says Haggis has a number of trade creditors, wood, plastics, and printing who have registered secured debt charges against the company because they have purchased goods for the production of pinball but not paid them. The way these debts have been registered means that Haggis Pinball is selling pinball machines which are constructed of parts that other companies currently have a registered security interest over. All right, so look, I don't know the ins and outs of pinball manufacturing. I don't know how you work with vendors. I don't understand why a vendor would send a company its goods or services if they weren't paid, right? If you're selling haggis wood or plastics or printing stuff for them, why would you send them stuff if they didn't pay their invoices? But this is how the world works, right? A lot of times work is done and stuff is given to contractors before the invoice is paid. And so look, it's not a mystery to any of us that Haggis Pinball is probably in a situation financially that is not the best. And here's my advice for Damien and Marty and everybody associated with Haggis. You're not going to claw your way out of where you are if you remain in secrecy. We've seen this before. You're not going to claw your way out of this financial situation by announcing your next game before you finish production of The Fathoms. The only way out, and I understand this, I know this is the hardest advice for them to take, the only way out for Haggis Pinball is to be honest, to be truthful with a community that will understand what you're going through. But if you continue to hide and hide your feet in the corner of a fake production room, if you continue to go radio silent, and then you're going to try to pull the wool over people's eyes by announcing another game when you still have 200 plus fathoms to build, nobody's going to go in on it. And look, nobody wants to see any company fail. Nobody wants to see any company fail. But going about it this way, we've been burned too many times by boutique companies doing this. They robbed Peter to pay Paul. And the red flags around this company are everywhere. And look, it's Damien's company. It's Marty's company. And look, if someone were speaking about my pinball company, right, if some blowhard in New York City had a podcast and he went on the airwaves to his subscribers and he said, hey, look, this company is in a little bit of trouble. they're self-financed and now they're going to try to pull a fast one by selling another game when they haven't finished production of the current game you think i would just sit back and take it if i knew what that person was saying was incorrect no and look i get it it's a horrible place to be and you're probably staring at the numbers if you're damien and the numbers don't work out nobody made these companies grow as fast as they grew and i think haggis's biggest mistake is unlike Spooky, they didn't grow slowly. They barely sold any Keltz machines. And then instantly they had a big factory. Instantly they had all this room, all this overhead. And then they also had nobody to build the games. So you got the orders, but then you couldn't build the games. Every day that factory is not turning out machines, you're losing money. And the more days you're in the red than the green, it's not going to work out. So look, we'll see what happens. But as I say to everybody, be very cautious about giving deposits. Make sure they can make the games. Don't buy a game until it's in a box, especially from a company that has proven they are not going to get you the game when they say the game will be ready. And I do challenge Marty and Damien to stop hiding. Come out. Defend your company. Talk about your company. Nobody's going to be fooled by some polished video you're going to put out. Nobody's going to be fooled anymore by some jovial tone of voice. We want to see a factory tour of Haggis Pinball, Damien. Come on, Marty. You go on your own podcast and you deflect, deflect, deflect for a year. Enough deflecting. Go on Facebook Live. You took people's money. You tell people you want new money. So simply go on Facebook Live, walk around Haggis Pinball, and show us what's going on on a random day. If you can't do that, you don't deserve anybody's money. Oh, man, Canada's all heated. Let's talk about He-Man. Enough about Haggis, right? Stern is going to sell more He-Man pinball machines in one day than Haggis Pinball will sell of pinball machines ever. All right, so He-Man. Do I love this theme for pinball? One hundred percent, yes, I love He-Man. I'll tell you why. It's a cartoon show that anybody who was a kid in the 1980s grew up watching He-Man and Skeletor and Ram Man and Battle Cat and She-Ra and Castle freaking Grayskull and I've got the power. The show is on air. I believe it was 1983 to 1985 or 87. I think it was 85. I think there's like three years of He-Man. So here the crazy part It is the 40th anniversary of He Now look if we follow what we been saying that Stern going to make anniversary editions of games does this now maybe suggest that He-Man is going to be what they show at Comic-Con, and it's going to be the 40th anniversary of He-Man shown at Comic-Con? I still think it's going to be Venom, but let's talk about He-Man. We already know Venom is in the works. Let's talk about He-Man. Who is going to be designing He-Man? Now, Jason Knapp said it's probably not going to be Jack Danger. And Jack Danger has been teasing He-Man now for a while. Now, after coming off of like Foo Fighters, I think people are very excited that the designer for any future Stern machine might be Jack Danger. Jason Knapp seems to think it's going to be John Borg who takes He-Man because Jack Danger wants to do something else. Now, I thought John Borg was going to do Indiana Hilton Jones because he made the other Stern Indiana Hilton Jones game that wasn't very good and he wanted to make up for that failure and so look I don't know if you ask me who would you rather have design He-Man Jack Danger or John Borg I mean that's a tough one people Jack has one game John's got many many games I mean everyone would probably just want Keith Elwin to design everything if we were to be honest like let's be honest for a minute like at some point everyone would rather just have Keith Elwin because he's just a level above everybody right now. And that's a good thing because everyone else underneath him at Stern is learning from Keith Elwin. Like this is how you get better. You have someone more talented on your team and they improve your gameplay. Like everyone else is Scottie Pippen and freaking Keith Elwin is Michael Vecennia Jordan, right? Scottie Pippen doesn't become Scottie Pippen without Michael Vecennia Jordan. So in terms of who's designing it, I don't know. Now look, as a theme, this is the part where I'm like, is this a dream theme for me? Is this a dream theme for the pinball buying community? Now, look, it's a subjective thing. For me personally, it's not a dream theme. Like, I haven't been mentioning He-Man all throughout these years as a pinball machine I would love to see. But what this machine has going for it is the most powerful thing emotionally when you think about stuff that you click with on an emotional level. And that is nostalgia. The power of nostalgia is extremely powerful. And when you get it right, it's really hard to resist. And so if Stern Pinball can make a He-Man machine that needs to be loaded with toys, it needs Castle Grayskull, it needs to have I have the power. I was thinking about like the code in the moment when He-Man says, I have the power and the lights are going crazy and you feel like you're going from Adam to He-Man, that transition and the game and the music and everything going on, it just is perfect for pinball because it's so much fun when that happens in the show. But it needs to have toys. It needs like a medieval madness kind of castle, gray skull castle. Like if they make He-Man and there is not a drawbridge that comes down, then what are we even doing here in pinball, right but the most important part of getting this game right unlike ninja turtles is they need to get the clips from the original cartoon that we grew up with i don't want to see some reanimated version i don't want to see new voice actors i want to hear the voices from the cartoon i grew up with i want to see the show i grew up with they need to get the original he-man rights if they can't do it that way. Don't even bother making the game. It was really weird with Ninja Turtles. It's why a lot of us, when we saw the pinball machine, it just felt weird. It's like, why are they reanimating these classic scenes that already have the show animated and animated better than Stern could ever do? So I was disappointed in that in Ninja Turtles. The other thing about Ninja Turtles that nobody really wants to talk about, it didn't really feel like Ninja Turtles, right? You're not really battling the Foot Clan. There wasn't really that many interesting toys in Ninja Turtles. It just felt a little stale. And then the game itself was very hard. When you ask people why they really don't like Ninja Turtles, it's because it's too hard. Like, John Borg made it way too hard. The ball drains on the left side of that game all day long. You never feel like you can get into the game. And I do think you need to make He-Man, Masters of the freaking Universe, you need to make it a game that's a little bit more inviting i'm tired of themes that get ruined by brutal gameplay because brutality is bad design i mean this when i say it a brutal game is a bad design pinball machine you can still make a pinball machine hard without making it brutal to play like ghostbusters is brutal it's not fun to shoot that game and there are some games out there that are just ruined by brutality of gameplay. Games like Rick and Morty are like that. You're just holding on for dear life. You never can really get into the game. And I know the excuse is like, I don't like long ball times. I want a fast game. It mixes up the monotony of my collection. And I get it. Yeah. If you have a huge collection, then you might not mind a game that plays like that. But I think He-Man needs to be a game that's a little bit more inviting. Dare I say it, I wouldn't even mind a damn fan layout. Who cares? There's a reason why a fan layout is so popular, because it's damn fun to shoot. And you can get through the game, and you can hit the shots, and you know where the ball is at all times. A fan layout. It's why so many classic games have utilized it, if they can do it right. The other thing is, who's the artist going to be on He-Man? Because He-Man has such a distinct art style. Now, the rumor is, it's going to be Randy Martinez. And he said that next to Star Wars, He-Man is one of his favorite properties. Now if you go look at Randy Martinez artwork I like a little bit of a mixed bag because he done one He thing that kind of weird I hope his style syncs up properly with the He look and feel And we haven seen Randy Martinez do anything other than the Mandalorian Arguably, the Mandalorian is a nice looking game. So I don't want to get too down on whether or not he's going to crush it until I see it. But look, it's a safety with all Sterns right now. It's like, who do you want to design it? Keith Elwin. Who do you want to do the artwork? Most likely Zombie Yeti. And look, Zombie Yeti's art style is perfect for comic book stuff. So it's like perfect for stuff like He-Man. I would argue his art style is better for He-Man than it would be for something like Jaws or something like Godzilla. So, He-Man from Stern Pinball. Now look, when might we see this game? This is the other big question because I thought we were going to get Venom in like two weeks, which I still think it's going to be Venom. Then what is next? Keith Elwin's game is going to come out next February. The rumor there is that it's going to be Jaws. So who knows? But I'll say this. Stern is moving into its new factory in August. So we all have to remember that. That Stern was on a three cornerstone schedule when they were in their old factory. So what do you think is going to happen when Stern Pinball moves into its new factory with even more room and more ability to manufacture? will they get to a point where they have four cornerstone games a year? Every three months, a new Stern. It already feels like too much, right? Because there's only so many times you can ask people to spend like $7,000 to $13,000 before your own buyer base runs out of room and money. But I think because He-Man is a super fun property, I think because He-Man is campy and nostalgic, I think it's a great theme for pinball. and it hits the core pinball buying demographic on the bullseye. But here is the thing I think Stern needs to do. I don't want to see 1,000 LEs that all look the same. Because He-Man is such a special property that has heroes and villains, I really hope Stern makes 500 He-Man editions and 500 Skeletor editions. I think they need to do that. Make the Skeletor editions purple. make the He-Man like the green and the red and really try to mix it up a little bit because for this much money we need to see Stern put more of an effort to make these LEs truly special remember they did stuff like this with Transformers with like Autobots and Decepticons we've seen them do multiple LEs with games like ACDC and stuff like that and now that these games are costing twice as much money as the Transformers, they surely can make us a He-Man and Skeletor edition of this game. Okay, so that's my take on this. Stern's just not going to stop, and this is why Stern is so successful. They're going to give something for everybody. Think about the ends of the spectrum. Led Zeppelin on one end, and He-Man Masters of the Universe on the other. Like, if you like 80s cartoons, they're going to give you stuff. If you like music, they're going to give you a ton of music to select from. If you like movies, they've got so many different iconic movies in pinball format, not to mention TV shows. They get all the big properties. And then reality starts to set in that almost every single property that you want to see made into a pinball machine. Stern Pinball has first dibs probably at everything. Everyone else is just making the leftovers that Stern doesn't want. If you want to see G1 Transformers, who's going to get it? It's not going to be Jersey Jack. And that's why when we see Jersey Jack getting a property, think about it. They never get any assets. They never sync up the video with the voices. They never get everything. And it's like, those are the deals that Stern doesn't want. And remember, Stern hasn't made a game ever the way Jersey Jack is making them. They don't show you clips from the movie that are just muted left and right, they at least get voice actors to go over the voices, or they do an all-original adventure like Jurassic Park. Like, they kind of still know what people want, and they still try to get as close to the source material as people remember. But He-Man, for me, it's a non-negotiable. It has to be the original show, has to be the original voices, or I would never go in on this game. So we will see what they do. Will it come out in a few weeks? Will it be Venom? This is why I love pinball podcasting. I love all of your support. Thank you guys so much for being a member of the Canadian Club. More great episodes coming. And look, you got back-to-back episodes. No one else is doing it like this. Oh, my boy Don, he just interviewed Jason Knapp with the volume levels, Don. He got to get the volume levels up. It sounded like Jason Knapp was down the hallway when I was listening this morning to the show. Everybody, tons of great content out there. Tons of great reasons to be happy and alive in this world. Every day above ground is a really good day. We got some more bad news in the family this week. I don't want to go into details about it, but I'm going to say this right now. Your health and happiness are the most important thing. And every day we are above ground and we get to argue and complain and get excited about pinball is a blessing, people. It really is. Love all of you. Thank you so much. Later. He meant He meant He meant He meant He meant

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

---

*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 165f07ce-fb86-45a3-8f64-34088c96fbea*