# Episode 654: "Weird Al Sells Out?"

**Source:** Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2022-03-02  
**Duration:** 20m 27s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-654-al-63253877

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## Analysis

Host Kaneda celebrates Multimorphic's record-breaking sale of 227 Weird Al's Museum of Hilarity units in one day, positioning this as validation that licensed themes—not unlicensed originals—are essential to the company's long-term success. While acknowledging the achievement, Kaneda contextualizes it against Stern's production scale, speculates on fulfillment timelines (June est.), and warns that execution quality and delivery transparency will now determine whether Multimorphic can sustain momentum and build a viable P3 ecosystem.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Multimorphic sold 227 Weird Al games in one day—more than they've sold in the past eight years combined — _Host Kaneda, opening remarks; stated as confirmed fact about Gerry Stellenberg and Multimorphic's sales record_
- [MEDIUM] Stern manufactures more games in three days than Multimorphic has sold in eight years — _Kaneda comparative analysis; illustrative rather than precisely verified, but commonly cited industry fact_
- [HIGH] Weird Al has sold 20 million albums, giving it significant crossover appeal — _Kaneda, contextualizing Weird Al's cultural footprint to justify demand for the pinball game_
- [HIGH] Weird Al's Museum of Natural Hilarity sold out at $13,100 per unit without hesitation, a price higher than Guns N' Roses Collector's Edition — _Kaneda, expressing surprise at pricing power and customer willingness to pay_
- [MEDIUM] Kaneda predicts first Weird Al shipments will begin in June (approximately four to five months out) — _Kaneda speculation based on production dynamics; explicitly framed as a guess, not confirmed by Multimorphic_
- [LOW] Licensed themes outsell unlicensed games three to one — _Kaneda opinion/assertion at the end; stated as conviction but not backed by specific data_
- [MEDIUM] The P3 platform now has 250–300 units in the wild due to the Weird Al sale — _Kaneda estimate; represents rough market penetration calculation, not a verified count_

### Notable Quotes

> "Well, he did it. The crazy SOB did it. Gerry Stellenberg successfully sold 227 limited edition versions of Weird Al's Museum of hilarity."
> — **Kaneda**, opening
> _Celebratory opening line establishing the episode's central news and Kaneda's tone of amazement at Multimorphic's achievement._

> "In one day, he moved more platforms and more games than he's done in the last eight years."
> — **Kaneda**, early
> _Core claim quantifying the magnitude of Multimorphic's success relative to their entire operational history._

> "Stern makes more games than this in three days. In three days Stern makes more games than Multimorphic has sold in like eight years."
> — **Kaneda**, early
> _Contextual reality-check: framing Multimorphic's win within the broader pinball industry scale and manufacturing capacity disparity._

> "Jerry has always touted this whole thing as being the future of pinball, like looking forward, being innovative, approaching this hobby differently. But if you really think about it, the stuff that actually made his company successful were the tried and true tactics of the pinball industry."
> — **Kaneda**, mid
> _Identifies irony: Multimorphic's success came not from platform innovation alone but from applying traditional industry FOMO/limited-edition tactics (the inverse of their stated vision)._

> "Jerry now can only make licensed themes. And I mean it when I say this. This is it, Jerry. Nobody wants Cannon Lagoon. Nobody wants Lexy Lightspeed - Escape From Earth Earth. Nobody wants Cosmic Cart Racing. They want licensed themes."
> — **Kaneda**, mid
> _Kaneda's prescriptive business advice to Multimorphic: abandon unlicensed originals and commit exclusively to licensed IP for survival and growth._

> "It is easy to take deposits, easy to take orders from people. Now the hard part begins. Now they have to make these games."
> — **Kaneda**, mid
> _Pivot from celebrating the sale to identifying the real challenge: manufacturing and fulfillment execution. Sets up the narrative of trust vs. delivery._

> "If you're weird Al number one and they can only make 10 a week, it's going to take a while to get to 227."
> — **Kaneda**, mid
> _Highlights the unknown bottleneck: Multimorphic's actual production capacity per week, which will determine fulfillment speed and customer satisfaction._

> "This is what pinball is about. You know, here's a funny thing. Who's going to get games out first? Fathom or Weird Al?"
> — **Kaneda**, mid
> _Raises competitive tension: Weird Al's delivery timeline vs. other boutique releases (Fathom), suggesting Multimorphic may face reputational risk if they slip._

> "Jerry, you found what works for your platform. Find licensed themes that are a little bit niche. Get the license for them and make games like this."
> — **Kaneda**, late
> _Direct strategic guidance: niche-licensed IP (rather than broad mainstream) is Multimorphic's optimal market positioning for sustainable sales._

> "The ball is in his court. But for once, Jerry has the ball for a little bit, right? Stern's not in the new pinball game right now."
> — **Kaneda**, late
> _Observation that Multimorphic has a rare window of opportunity while major competitors (Stern, JJP) are inactive or delayed; execution will determine if they capitalize._

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Multimorphic | company | Boutique pinball manufacturer; achieved record-breaking sales of 227 Weird Al games in a single day; known for P3 modular platform priced at $2–3K per game. |
| Gerry Stellenberg | person | Creative director and leader of Multimorphic; orchestrated the Weird Al game design and licensing deal; achieved company's greatest sales day in eight years of operation. |
| Weird Al's Museum of Natural Hilarity | game | Multimorphic P3 game based on Weird Al Yankovic; released in limited edition of 227 units at $13,100 per LE; sold out in one day; priced higher than Guns N' Roses CE; described as having strong gameplay and shootability. |
| Kaneda | person | Host of Kaneda's Pinball Podcast; industry analyst and commentator; known for critical takes on game design, licensing strategy, and manufacturer business decisions; advocates for licensed themes over unlicensed originals. |
| Stern | company | Major pinball manufacturer; comparison point for production scale (manufactures more games in three days than Multimorphic has sold in eight years). |
| Spooky Pinball | company | Boutique pinball manufacturer; Kaneda criticizes recent games as lazy and unpolished; notes community disappointment with gameplay and user interface issues; cited as negative example of poor execution. |
| Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Boutique pinball manufacturer; mentioned as competitor facing delays (Toy Story shipping delays); Kaneda references their Cactus Canyon topper strategy as a model for monetization. |
| American Pinball | company | Mentioned indirectly; referenced as a boutique competitor in the niche licensing space; Kaneda implies their unlicensed title strategy (e.g., 'Dialed In') underperforms vs. licensed themes. |
| P3 platform | product | Multimorphic's modular pinball system; features interchangeable playfields and game kits; lower cost than traditional machines; ecosystem expansion hinges on user base growth and third-party developer support. |
| Cannon Lagoon | game | Unlicensed Multimorphic P3 game; cited by Kaneda as evidence that original IP games do not sell; grouped with Lexi Lightspeed and Cosmic KartRacing as failed unlicensed attempts. |
| Lexy Lightspeed Escape From Earth | game | Unlicensed Multimorphic P3 game; cited as unsuccessful original IP title; Kaneda argues it demonstrates market preference for licensed themes. |
| Cosmic Cart Racing | game | Unlicensed Multimorphic P3 game; cited as poor-performing original IP; Kaneda uses it as example of what Multimorphic should abandon. |
| Heist | game | Multimorphic P3 game; mentioned as existing game that could be swapped into the P3 cabinet alongside Weird Al via the modular system; used to illustrate cabinet flexibility. |
| Guns N' Roses Not In This Lifetime (Collector's Edition) | game | Stern game; price comparison point ($13,100 Weird Al LE is higher than this game's CE pricing). |
| Ultraman | game | Boutique pinball game; Kaneda notes that 227 Weird Al sales is double Ultraman sales, illustrating the magnitude of Weird Al's success. |
| Rob Zombie | game | Boutique pinball game; Kaneda argues Weird Al has more crossover appeal than this title; only 300 Rob Zombie games made, placing Weird Al's 227 in context of niche boutique releases. |
| Fathom | game | Upcoming/recent boutique pinball release; Kaneda speculates on delivery timeline vs. Weird Al, suggesting potential competitive shadow-boxing on fulfillment speed. |
| Ben Heck | person | Industry figure; Kaneda credits him with long-standing advocacy for licensed themes as essential to pinball success. |
| David Fix | person | American Pinball figure; Kaneda cites his unlicensed 'AP Strategy' as fundamentally flawed and unlikely to work in market that demands licensed IP. |
| Weird Al Yankovic | person | Musical artist; basis for Multimorphic's game IP; credited with 20 million album sales and significant crossover cultural footprint that explains game's appeal. |
| Kaneda's Pinball Podcast | organization | Podcast show where this episode aired; part of the Pinball Podcast Network; forum for industry commentary, game reviews, and analysis. |
| [name withheld pending review] | organization | Network umbrella for pinball podcasts; referenced in episode outro. |

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** Multimorphic achieved record single-day sales of 227 games (estimated $2.95M+ in deposits), exceeding their cumulative eight-year sales total in one day. (confidence: high) — Kaneda: 'In one day, he moved more platforms and more games than he's done in the last eight years.'
- **[product_strategy]** Multimorphic's success was driven by licensed IP (Weird Al) rather than their platform innovation; Kaneda argues this signals a strategic necessity to abandon unlicensed originals. (confidence: high) — Kaneda: 'the stuff that actually made his company successful were the tried and true tactics of the pinball industry' and 'You sold more in just six hours than you did in six years because you made a licensed theme game.'
- **[market_signal]** Weak price resistance: 227 units sold at $13,100 per LE (higher than Guns N' Roses CE) with immediate sellout, indicating strong FOMO and brand loyalty among Weird Al fans. (confidence: high) — Kaneda: 'people spent $13,100 without even blinking. All gone.'
- **[collector_signal]** In a market oversaturated with 1,000-unit LEs, a 227-unit release creates strong exclusivity perception despite modest absolute numbers, driving purchasing urgency. (confidence: medium) — Kaneda: 'in a world in which there are now 1000 LEs of everything, all of a sudden being part of a little club of 227 people starts to feel like a really appealing thing'
- **[manufacturing_signal]** Multimorphic now faces major fulfillment challenge: unknown weekly production capacity (est. 10–? units/week by Kaneda) will determine delivery timeline and customer satisfaction. Delivery speed is now critical to brand momentum. (confidence: high) — Kaneda: 'How many can they make a week? Because if you're weird Al number one and they can only make 10 a week, it's going to take a while to get to 227'
- **[business_signal]** Weird Al sale likely increased P3 install base by 225–300 units, reaching critical mass for third-party developer support and licensing partnerships. (confidence: medium) — Kaneda: 'We've now got probably 250 to 300 P3s out there because of Weird Al, maybe more' and 'he always needed to get a user base up'
- **[sentiment_shift]** Multimorphic gains momentum and credibility after years of platform skepticism; community sentiment shifts from 'will this work?' to 'they finally cracked it.' However, execution risk remains high. (confidence: high) — Kaneda: 'I mean, this is what pinball is about. You know, here's a funny thing... I feel like Jerry had a very good day.'
- **[competitive_signal]** Multimorphic benefits from a rare competitive window: Stern and JJP are inactive or delayed in new releases; Spooky facing quality-control backlash. Timing creates space for boutique player to gain share. (confidence: medium) — Kaneda: 'Stern's not in the new pinball game right now. Jersey Jack Pinball for some reason just can't seem to ever tell us when Toy Story is going'
- **[product_concern]** Spooky Pinball games widely perceived as unpolished and lazy; year-long gameplay complaints and late-stage UI overhauls signal internal execution problems and customer dissatisfaction. (confidence: high) — Kaneda: 'I don't want you to put a game out in the world for an entire year and now you're not happy with the user interface. I think people are kinda over it. I think people are really disappointed in spooky'
- **[design_philosophy]** Kaneda argues licensed themes (niche, with existing fan bases) are 3:1 outselling unlicensed originals; Multimorphic's pivot validates this thesis after years of unlicensed game underperformance. (confidence: medium) — Kaneda: 'You give me a license theme that has a fan base and you are going to outsell any unlicensed game three to one.'
- **[operational_signal]** Kaneda identifies transparency about ETA, production capacity, and delivery milestones as critical to maintaining customer trust and momentum post-sale. (confidence: high) — Kaneda: 'It is going to come down to transparency, it's going to come down to honesty about their ability to make these games'
- **[product_launch]** Weird Al LEs sold via bank wire deposits (non-chargeable) with ETA-dependent refund policy; estimated first shipments targeting June (4–5 months out per Kaneda speculation). (confidence: medium) — Kaneda: 'It was a bank wire, people. You can't do credit card chargebacks' and 'my guess is that Jerry is going to tell people that the first Weird Al's will start to arrive in June'

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## Transcript

 We've been spending most our lives living in an Amish paradise. I churned butter once or twice living in an Amish paradise. I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said I... Well, he did it. The crazy SOB did it. Gerry Stellenberg successfully sold 227 limited edition versions of Weird Al's Museum of hilarity. I keep having to get the name right. So I want to just say this. First and foremost, congratulations to Jerry and team over at Multimorphic. I mean, this man has brought this platform around for like eight years. And yesterday he had his greatest sales day ever. In one day, he moved more platforms and more games than he's done in the last eight years. So I do want to congratulate him. earned something in a very successful day. Now we also have to look at it in a little bit of context people. You know, don't forget that Stern makes more games than this in three days. In three days Stern makes more games than Multimorphic has sold in like eight years. But this company is not trying to be Stern. And what Jerry has always needed to do, he always needed to get a user base up and he needs to get The P3s into homes across the world because then his platform Starts to make more sense It makes more sense for developers to start to make kits for the platform if they know Their kit can be sold to hundreds of people right? It's not gonna work if you only have 50 games sold so it is really good news for them It is great momentum for them to get these games sold now Now, was I surprised that a licensed themed game, even though it was Weird Al and it's not my dream theme and you know my reaction to Weird Al was like, what Weird Al? But Weird Al has sold 20 million albums and as I've learned over the past couple of weeks, there are many of you in the pinball world that consider Weird Al to be a dream theme. And so moving 227 Weird Al games all of a sudden doesn't really seem like it's that hard to do, right? When you just think about it, right? This is twice as many games as Ultraman. I mean you gotta start looking at this stuff in context. I would argue that Weird Al has more crossover appeal in pinball than even Rob Zombie, which only 300 Robzombies were made. And in a world in which there are now 1000 LEs of everything, all of a sudden being part of a little club of 227 people starts to feel like a really appealing thing, especially in pinball now, right? I've said this, like this entire industry is oversaturating what it means to be limited, what it means to be exclusive. I do think one of the funny and somewhat ironic things we witnessed yesterday was this. Jerry has always touted this whole thing as being the future of pinball, like looking forward, being innovative, approaching this hobby differently. But if you really think about it, the stuff that actually made his company successful were the tried and true tactics of the pinball industry. C multinational Don't forget to subscribe toxic to Laugh Meat.mp3 I applaud them for this because this is how you do it. You told people we're going to make this many. He created the right amount of FOMO and people walk through the door and hand it over $2,000. It was a bank wire, people. You can't do credit card chargebacks, but we do know that once you get your ETA ship date, if you're not happy with that ETA ship date, they will give you a refund. Now this is a great day for them but here is the thing It is easy to take deposits it easy to take orders from people now the hard part begins now they have to make these games I am super curious as to when Jerry will say game number one of Weird Al your ETA ship date is this and I don mean the kit because it a lot easier just to make the kit Samuel Picasso ieeves, Hai's, Wow! Pierre Dave An, I'm going to be talking about the most fun P3 game to date. It looks like it shootss the best. It's got a theme that people like. It's basically the best game on this platform. And so I would have to imagine that you would buy it. Now at $4,800 bucks going in on the LE is not cheap though. So maybe you went for the standard, but all $227 are sold. Here's the other thing I thought when I heard that it sold out in one day. Jerry now can only make licensed themes. And I mean it when I say this. This is it, Jerry. I hope you learned a lesson yesterday. Nobody wants Cannon Lagoon. Nobody wants Lexi Lightspeed. Nobody wants Cosmic KartRacing. They want licensed themes. You sold more in just six hours than you did in six years because you made a licensed theme game. You can't go backwards now. So this is the turning point. This is the tipping point. He is finally learning what I've been saying and the rest of the industry has shown him all these years. And Ben Heck has been screaming about this forever. It is also the reason why David Fix's AP Strategy will not work. It won't work. If you want to be successful and set your company up for long term pinball success and create a user base and a fan base and a marketplace for your company, you need to make licensed themed games. and it worked. And I'm happy it worked because I've been saying it forever. Jerry put a licensed theme on this platform. Now, is this the license I would have chose? No, but I think they were very realistic with their KPIs. I think 227 was very reflective of a couple things. How popular Weird Al is and how quickly they can make games. That is the big question now. When do you think people will get their games? Here's my guess. If I'm a guessing man, my guess is that Jerry is going to tell people that the first Weird Al's will start to arrive in June. So I think it's going to be about four to five months from now in which people will actually start to get their games. Now, that's just half of the equation because the other part and this is the hardest part. How many can they make a week? Because if you're weird Al number one and they can only make 10 a week, it's going to take a while to get to 227 because the other thing is this is it a lot faster to just make the kits versus making the whole year. I'm not sure, right? Nobody else is doing it this way. Nobody else has like cabinets and the base platform and then the kit. So we shall see how efficient Jerry can be. And the other part, right? And we've seen this with Spooky. This is a numbers game now. Like Jerry needs to decide how much money do I want to invest in talent and how much money do I want to spend on people coming in? Like labor costs. How much money do I want to spend on getting more people With a Closed Caption. I know that doesn't sound very efficient. As I said, Stern would make all of these games, all of them in just three days. I mean, think about how crazy that is. Stern could fulfill the Weird Al Ellie orders in three days. And so we don't know yet what people's ETA will be. We will find out sooner than later. You speculating it might take Jerry a month to figure out what he going to say the ETA is Now do I think people are going to bail on this no I mean Jerry could pretty much tell people six months or eight months because these are weird owl Fans like we know that the majority of the pinball buying community. They're not like p3 fanatics They haven't really bought into Jerry's platform. They haven't you know why I know that because they didn't buy this thing Give them a free gift and send a brochure At derniagroup에서 MCP Floyd應該, M 다� majestic을 받은 pun는 아직 말인게www previously thwe가 그리�wig래 간신하게 계속 안 오고있습니다. Artistry Can 열�omy of the All that's out there kerned in The Pinball Podcast is brought to you by the Pinball Podcast Network. I'm your host enhanter I'm John Papadiuk and today I have two story précered directly reflectory suffice. The first story Clement is this one of AmazingLex'sORT kunnenanieật Network Web. Set up anything. I mean it when I say it. If this game didn't have the screen and if it wasn't inside a P3 cabinet, if it was just a Matt Andrews art package regular pinball machine on wood, I bet you he would sell even more. I mean that's just me. We'll never know. We'll never know but that's just me because it's 13-1. That was the most surprising thing is people spent $13,100 without even blinking. All gone. If you ask me like a year ago, Chris, would Jerry Stelenberg be able to sell 227 Weird Al games for $13,100, a game more expensive than Guns N' Roses collector's Edition? I would have been like, you're nuts. You're nuts, but here we are. But I'm happy he did it. I'm happy they sold. I'm happy people are excited to get their games. I mean, this is what pinball is about. You know, here's a funny thing. Who's going to get games out first? Fathom or Weird Al? Haggis Pinball all of a sudden looks like, man, I feel like Jerry stole a lot of Haggis Pinball's thunder with this game. I do. I feel like, you know, we kind of look at the boutique companies in a separate bucket, right? These are not the big operations. These guys are not trying to sell thousands of games. They're really trying to sell just a few hundred every six months. You know, I feel like Jerry had a very good day. The other thing Jerry's not going to do is I'm going to be smarter with the ETAs. I think he's going to be smarter managing expectations because this is it. Like this is it for Jerry. He finally got people to come through the door. He finally got people to buy into his vision. And yes, it's not a huge amount of games sold. He's not the new George Gomez of the pinball industry, but this is a beginning. He finally has some momentum. He's always needed to get through this door first. He's now got it. And if I'm going to give him some marketing advice, Jerry, you found what works for your platform. Find licensed themes that are a little bit niche. Get the license for them and make games like this. All you need to do, Jerry, all you need to do to be successful is get a licensed theme that can attract between like three to 500 people every new game, right? And it's got to be a theme that like activates these niche sort of like subculture fan bases. And if you can do that, you'll be really successful in getting to your goal because think about it like this. We've now got probably 250 to 300 P3s out there because of Weird Al, maybe more. You then go afteroro Thank you for watching I was wondering yesterday I wonder if anybody bought this and didn realize what they were buying into Like they don realize the modular system of it I wonder if any like just casual weird fans like saw this and got one and now they like wait what heist Like what cosmic Kart racing I don know I don know It doesn really matter The games are sold There's a lot of positive energy coming out of yesterday for this company and I think it's good. And now it's in Jerry's court. To maintain this positive energy and this momentum, it's going to come down to transparency, it's going to come down to honesty about their ability to make these games, and then it's going to come down to, I think the most important thing is this, is the game good? Is the game going to be great? Does the game shoot great? Is it fun? And I've heard from people who have played it that the game shoots great and it's a lot of fun. You know, you think about spooky, it's the opposite. People are not happy with the gameplay. They're not happy Knowles, Spooky Pinball, Canada in the Aces I've never seen since I've been covering this hobby and look at what their years been like it hasn't been good I mean I see spooky now being like we're gonna change the user interface on these games I don't want you to put a game out in the world for an entire year and now you're not happy with the user interface I think people are kinda over it I think people are really disappointed in spooky I think they I see those games as being somewhat lazy and they never should have gone out that unpolished. So Jerry, it looks like this game might be done, right? I don't think Jerry showed this game incomplete. I don't think Jerry's going to ship this game to people with half the code inside it. And so that's exciting. I mean, I hope that's the case. The ball is in his court. But for once, Jerry has the ball for a little bit, right? Stern's not in the new pinball game right now. Jersey Jack Pinball for some reason just can't seem to ever tell us when Toy Story is going Converse, www.ukiuii.com extra cinemas MEL scrunchiXp G Skinnet I think his greatest challenge is going to be fulfilling the orders. I also think he needs to make another topper. That topper is awesome, Jerry. I think you pulled a Jersey Jack mistake. I think you should look at what they did with the Cactus Canyon topper. Just be like, oh yeah, um, there's also a standard plus of Weird Al where you can get the topper because you can make so much money with the topper. You know what's funny about having a topper on a P3? Because are people really going to take the topper off if they put the heist in? I'm going to be so Frankenstein. You can have Lexi Lightsspeed art on one side of the cabinet. You can have Cosmic Cart Racing on the other. You can have a Weird Al Topper and you can have a heist game inside the machine all at once. That's what Kaneda should do. I should get a P3 and see how many different games can I have represented at one time and just confuse people when I take photos standing in front of it. Anyway, I just want to say congratulations to Jerry and team. Look, I've said some like really specifically the containment past scenes результат of Amberünstt klamnky at MickPone, Manager's part of the networking forbiden uw まั ל� NaturalEvvenUrhotStory surprising胡�ahn lets not knob difficult to date, currently has to miseryshed, it is true there not only undelayableImanity not only You're only going to sell like a handful. I think he learned the lesson that it's worth investing in a good license more than anything. We don't want food truck. We don't want dialed in. We don't really want legends of Valhalla. We don't. I don't care what anybody else says. You give me a license theme that has a fan base and you are going to outsell any unlicensed game three to one. ... Thank you for watching. Have a great day. And thank you so much for the support. You can probably hear I'm losing my voice a little bit. It's the end of the day. But I still wanted to get you a show. Later. There's no cops or traffic lights living in an Amish paradise But you'd probably think it bites living in an Amish paradise Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Yeah!

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-08-04 | Item ID: 99e9813a-5219-4f02-9d0c-1c89293e5d98*