# The Pinball Show Ep 112: Shaken Soon **Source:** The Pinball Show **Type:** podcast_episode **Published:** 2022-09-12 **Duration:** 90m 57s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://www.thepinballnetwork.net/e/the-pinball-show-ep-112/ --- ## Analysis The Pinball Show discusses Stern's imminent James Bond 007 announcement, revealing it will be a Sean Connery-era themed cornerstone release designed by George Gomez (not Steve Ritchie, who left for Jersey Jack). The episode covers rumors of price increases, Christopher Franchi's non-involvement in artwork, potential Super LE variants, and speculation about game features including an Aston Martin DB5 with ejector seat. Secondary coverage includes Zach's collection downsizing before a new facility, American Pinball's upcoming Galactic Tank Force preview, and Pinball Brothers' Queen machine delays. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] James Bond will be revealed and available for sale on Tuesday, September 13th on SternPinball.com at 10 AM Central — _Craig Bobby segment confirming official Stern announcement via Nap Arcade and Neil McRae_ - [MEDIUM] The James Bond game is based on Sean Connery Bond era, likely a mashup of multiple Connery films including Goldfinger and Thunderball — _Craig Bobby reports 'consensus at this point' but acknowledges ongoing rumors about which Connery films_ - [HIGH] George Gomez is the designer; Steve Ritchie started the design but left for Jersey Jack before whitewood was complete, so Gomez started from scratch — _Gomez confirmed this on Marco Specialty Stream per Craig Bobby_ - [HIGH] Christopher Franchi will not be involved in James Bond artwork despite previous patching up with Stern — _Craig Bobby cites confirmation by Christopher Franchi_ - [MEDIUM] Stern may announce another round of price increases with this Bond release, potentially making it one of the most expensive Stern cornerstones — _Craig Bobby reports rumors with no confirmation on exact price or affected titles_ - [HIGH] Stern will offer limited LE units for sale directly on SternPinball.com exclusively to Stern All Access Club members ($40/year subscription) — _Craig Bobby from official Stern announcement details_ - [HIGH] James Bond will first appear publicly at IAPA European Trade Show in London September 12-15, then at Chicago Pinball Expo October 20-23 — _Craig Bobby cites Neil McRae/Nap Arcade confirmation_ - [MEDIUM] George Gomez referenced a scuba diver action figure as part of the game, suggesting underwater sequences related to Thunderball — _Zach and Dennis speculate on screen grab from Marco Specialty Stream; NAP Arcade commenter identified it as scuba diver_ - [HIGH] George Gomez stated the game will include the Aston Martin DB5 'complete with ejector seat' — _Gomez quoted directly in Marco Specialty Stream interview discussed by hosts_ - [HIGH] Pinball Brothers Queen machine will not appear at Super Awesome Tailgate Party on September 24 due to supply chain and production delays — _Craig Bobby reports Pinball Brothers sent regrets to organizers_ ### Notable Quotes > "There's another surprise related to James Bond...I did the cornerstones and then stay tuned. Big surprise." > — **George Gomez**, Marco Specialty Stream (mentioned in episode but not timestamped in transcript) > _Suggests potential additional trim level or unrevealed feature beyond standard Pro/Premium/LE tiers; repeated multiple times during stream_ > "It's very dear to me, very much like Batman 66 was...my favorite Bond is Sean Connery and his favorite Bond car is the Aston Martin DB5...no surprise, you're going to see it in the game, complete with ejector seat." > — **George Gomez**, Marco Specialty Stream > _Confirms Sean Connery era, personal design philosophy, and specific mechanical feature (ejector seat); compares to his Batman 66 approach_ > "Just shoveling stuff in every day, but it's just not going as fast as I'd like." > — **George Gomez**, Marco Specialty Stream > _Dennis interprets as potential shade at code/rules development; raises questions about timeline pressure given September 13 release_ > "Shaking soon" > — **Stern Pinball (official teaser)**, Pre-recorded teaser trailer > _Grammatically questioned by hosts (should be 'Shaken Soon' per James Bond 'shaken not stirred' reference); Zach jokes it refers to included shaker motors_ > "Do we have something else coming out? Do we have another trim level? Is there a Super LE about to come out?" > — **Dennis Creasel**, ~35:00 > _Reflects community speculation about potential 60th anniversary special edition variants not yet revealed_ > "Well, I've got another new game coming in...Fathom Revisited yes Mermaid Edition" > — **Zach Minney**, ~04:00 > _Reveals Zach's incoming custom build (Haggis Pinball's Fathom remake); indicates active collector activity during episode recording_ > "I've had Iron Maiden forever. It's the oldest one. You wanted it to be Archer anyway." > — **Dennis Creasel**, ~10:00 > _References Bowen Kerins' original Archer homebrew that Jersey Jack later commercialized as Iron Maiden; highlights designer lineage awareness_ > "Why is this company seemingly more concerned in trying to associate themselves with a failed game and designer from five years ago versus the future of American Pinball?" > — **Craig Bobby**, Craig Bobby segment > _Criticizes American Pinball's focus on Magic Girl sponsorship as poor business strategy relative to competitor momentum_ > "Don't piss off the whales." > — **Zach Minney**, ~31:00 > _Colloquial reference to high-end collector/investor segment; emphasizes need for transparent reveal of all trim levels simultaneously_ > "If you have Scrooge McDuck bins of money...and you have one of your hallmark top three themes of all time, don't you think that somehow, somewhere...you're included somehow." > — **Dennis Creasel (discussing Joe Kamikaze)**, ~32:00 > _Expresses expectation that prominent designer/businessman would be involved in major Bond theme; notes Kamikaze historically handles special runs not cornerstones_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Stern Pinball | company | Announcing James Bond 007 cornerstone release September 13, 2022; George Gomez designing; new price increases coming | | George Gomez | person | Chief Creative Officer of Stern Pinball; designer of James Bond 007 cornerstone; experienced anxiety/insecurity about release quality; quoted extensively on design decisions | | James Bond 007 | game | Upcoming Stern Pinball cornerstone release (Sean Connery era theme); features Aston Martin DB5 with ejector seat; first public showing at IAPA London Sept 12-15; Chicago Pinball Expo Oct 20-23 | | Steve Ritchie | person | Previously worked on James Bond design for Stern but left for Jersey Jack Pinball before whitewood completion; Gomez restarted design from scratch | | Christopher Franchi | person | Stern artist/designer; will NOT be involved in James Bond artwork despite recent reconciliation with Stern; notable absence from cornerstone | | Craig Bobby | person | News correspondent for The Pinball Show; reports Stern/industry news including Bond announcement, American Pinball updates, Pinball Brothers delays | | Zach Minney | person | Co-host of The Pinball Show; Flippin' Out Pinball operator; owns 30+ pinball machines; actively selling/trading to fund new facility; new games incoming (Stargazer, Fathom Revisited) | | Dennis Creasel | person | Co-host of The Pinball Show; owns 8 games in collection; debating which machines to sell for space; knowledgeable about design lineage and industry history | | Neil McRae | person | UK correspondent (per Craig Bobby); confirmed James Bond rumors for Stern several months prior; also confirmed IAPA/Chicago Expo details | | Nap Arcade | organization | Pinball arcade/news source credited for confirming Bond rumors and providing information about public appearances | | American Pinball | company | Sponsoring Magic Girl remake; upcoming Galactic Tank Force game preview at Super Awesome Tailgate September 24 (artwork/theme/logo only, no full game reveal) | | Galactic Tank Force | game | American Pinball's next game (original non-licensed theme); artwork/logo preview September 24; full game several months away | | Pinball Brothers | company | Developing Queen-themed pinball machine; will not appear at Super Awesome Tailgate due to supply chain/production delays | | Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Steve Ritchie's current employer (after leaving Stern); context for Stern's design restart on Bond | | Haggis Pinball | company | Manufacturer of Fathom Revisited (Mermaid Edition) custom build coming to Zach's collection | | Joe Kamikaze | person | Prominent designer/manufacturer; historically handles special runs and themed games; notably not mentioned for Bond involvement despite James Bond being a hallmark theme | | Chicago Pinball Expo | event | October 20-23; confirmed venue for James Bond public playable appearance post-IAPA London | | IAPA European Trade Show | event | London, September 12-15; first public appearance venue for James Bond 007 | | SternPinball.com | company | Stern's direct sales platform; offering limited LE units on September 13 at 10 AM Central to All Access Club members only ($40/year subscription) | | Bowen Kerins | person | Designer of original Archer homebrew; later commercialized as Iron Maiden by Jersey Jack; referenced in context of Zach's collection | | Total Nuclear Annihilation | game | Spooky Pinball game; Zach owns one purchased 2019 for ~$6,000; now priced at $9,000 (Spooky's current pricing) | | The Big Lebowski | game | Dutch Pinball game; Zach selling (pending sale); owned for immersion/original frame poster and piss-stained rug collectible | | Avatar | game | Ellie version; Zach selling due to rumors of potential remake by another manufacturer (tied to James Cameron's recent sequel films) | | Deadpool | game | Stern Pinball game; Zach has one listed for sale; still considering whether to sell | | Marco Specialty Stream | event | Stream where George Gomez guest-starred to discuss Insider Connected platform and James Bond details; source for quotes about design and surprises | ### Topics - **Primary:** James Bond 007 Stern Cornerstone Announcement, George Gomez Design Philosophy and Anxiety, Stern Price Increases, Potential Super LE / Special Edition Variants - **Secondary:** Zach's Collection Management and Sales, American Pinball's Galactic Tank Force, Pinball Brothers Queen Machine Delays, Christopher Franchi's Non-Involvement in Bond Artwork ### Sentiment **Mixed** (0.55) — Episode shows enthusiasm for James Bond announcement and Gomez's design approach, but significant concern about price increases, production delays (Queen machine, Galactic Tank Force timeline), and uncertainty about game features. Zach's personal segment shows some frustration with collection downsizing necessity. Dark humor throughout (screaming goats warning, bad impersonations) suggests underlying anxiety about market conditions. ### Signals - **[business_signal]** American Pinball's strategic focus on sponsoring 'failed' Magic Girl remake rather than building momentum for Galactic Tank Force future release (confidence: medium) — Craig Bobby critiques company positioning as head-scratching given competitor releases (Stern/JJP momentum) and Magic Girl's five-year-old failures - **[community_signal]** Debate over 'Shaking Soon' vs 'Shaken Soon' teaser wording; Zach jokes it indicates included shaker motors for all models (confidence: low) — Hosts acknowledge grammatical concern; Zach's shaker motor theory lacks confirmation but reflects community speculation - **[design_philosophy]** George Gomez comparing James Bond approach to Batman 66; emphasizing Sean Connery era with Aston Martin DB5 and ejector seat feature; potential underwater sequences based on Thunderball scuba diver imagery (confidence: high) — Gomez quoted directly on stream; scuba diver action figure visible in screengrab; hosts speculate underwater ball physics implications - **[market_signal]** Speculation about unrevealed Super LE or special 60th Anniversary edition variants (possibly 60 units) beyond standard Pro/Premium/LE tiers (confidence: medium) — Gomez repeatedly hinted at 'surprises' on stream; hosts note Stern has never done Super LE on cornerstone previously; concern about collector backlash if not revealed simultaneously - **[licensing_signal]** Sean Connery Bond era confirmed as theme basis; consensus suggests mashup of multiple Connery films with Goldfinger and Thunderball as top candidates (confidence: high) — Craig Bobby reports consensus; Gomez quoted stating Sean Connery as favorite Bond and DB5 will appear; scuba diver/Thunderball underwater elements suggested - **[market_signal]** Direct-to-consumer sales model: Stern offering limited LE units on SternPinball.com exclusively to $40/year All Access Club members on release day (confidence: high) — Craig Bobby confirms September 13 at 10 AM Central release details; notes units expected to sell out within '007 minutes' - **[community_signal]** Christopher Franchi explicitly excluded from James Bond artwork despite recent reconciliation with Stern; represents shift away from his involvement (confidence: high) — Craig Bobby cites confirmation by Christopher Franchi directly that he will not be involved - **[personnel_signal]** Steve Ritchie's departure from Stern to Jersey Jack forced George Gomez to restart James Bond design from scratch despite Ritchie's prior work (confidence: high) — Gomez confirmed on Marco Specialty Stream that whitewood was incomplete and design restarted; Ritchie already at JJP - **[market_signal]** Stern announcing another round of price increases with Bond release, potentially making it most expensive cornerstone to date; retroactive application to previous titles suspected (confidence: medium) — Craig Bobby reports rumors but no official amount confirmed; speculates Godzilla Premium may increase retroactively - **[announcement]** Stern officially announcing James Bond 007 cornerstone on September 13, 2022; first public appearance at IAPA London September 12-15 (confidence: high) — Craig Bobby confirms via Nap Arcade/Neil McRae; official teaser released; SternPinball.com direct sales planned - **[product_strategy]** Pinball Brothers' Queen machine will not appear at Super Awesome Tailgate September 24 due to supply chain and production delays (confidence: high) — Craig Bobby reports Pinball Brothers sent formal regrets to event organizers citing delays - **[technology_signal]** George Gomez suggesting code development pressure despite September 13 physical release deadline; 'not going as fast as I'd like' on unspecified element (confidence: medium) — Gomez quoted; Dennis interprets as potential shade at code/rules team; raises questions about final quality given timeline pressure --- ## Transcript Warning, the following episode contains adult language and screaming goats. Listener discretion is advised. The Pinball Network is online. Launching The Pinball Show. This week on The Pinball Show, it's all about Bond. James Bond. You knew I was going to do it as well as what we know, what we think we know, and what we don't know about the upcoming Stern game. We talk about significant changes to Stern's production schedule. Spooky Pinball's new TNA. We chat some GTF, the late queen, bad impersonations. Damn, that late queen joke was way, way too clever. And, of course, pinball market trends. This one becomes a mess quickly toward the end, but we are still proud to call it episode 112. Pinball is a game of skill. For some, it's a passion and a lifestyle. It's time for the Pinball Show. It's pinball with personality. Hey, what's going on, everybody? A couple of golden pussies here with Dennis Creasel and Zach Minney of the Pinball Show, episode 112. Isn't that what the Bond reference? Wow, that's dated. You know, I'm kind of feeling a little bit like alphanumeric displays. I'm just feeling a little old today. Feeling a little old and gassed out, huh? A little outdated. What's the Bond thing? Am I on it close? I'm not a Bond aficionado. Yeah, I think you were pretty good. Pretty close. Very Goldfinger reference-y, but given all the rumors that have been swirling, not a bad one to pick. Was there Gold? It was Goldfinger, not Goldmember. I keep thinking of the Austin Powers. Yes, you're thinking the third Austin Powers movie, not the, as it happens, third James Bond movie. Oh. Extra relevant. Mike Myers knew what he was pulling from. And then Golden Eye. There was also Golden Eye, but between those was the man with the golden gun. Wow, all this gold. I love gold. I'm waiting for the next Bond movie to be Golden Thighs. You get it? Goldfinger. I do. Eye. How's it going, Dennis? How about I give you a golden sigh? I'm good. I'm doing fine. We got a whole lot of not quite news. Oh, so close. But almost. Oh, if only we delayed recording. But you know me. I do know you. I wasn't even going to ask. Don't ask. Wasn't even going to ask. We're going to give these people as much as we can regarding Sturm Pinball's upcoming release of James Bond 007. You know what, Zach? Before we kick it over to Craig Bobby, the pinball show's news correspondent, something that I like to do on Eclectic Gamers Podcast is kind of get an update about what's going on in your life with the hobby. With Tony, I'll be like, what video games are you playing? What pinball games are you playing? How far are you walking? Yeah, well, we don't need to go into the off-topic stuff in this show because we know the listeners are very, very particular. They're prickly with that. So, what's been going on, Zach? I haven't heard about you and your games in forever. Okay, well, I'll update you my life. Do you have updates? Yeah, still looking for a new back. Got to work on that. I've got the pool is gone, as you know. Pretty soon, hopefully, the house will be gone. Our house goes up for sale today. Fresh new pin barn just built. Brilliant strategy. Thank you so much. What a long story that would be one day. And one day. Oh, it's interesting. But I am under an NDA. I cannot discuss that right now. So we are breaking ground, hopefully, on a new facility, a new home here very soon. So I'm clearing out some space, Dennis. I have a hard time because my wife, my wonderful wife, Nicole, is like, hey, look, we've got a lot of expenses coming in and out. Is there any way you can sell one of your fucking 30 pinball machines or maybe five or ten to help fund some of this stuff? Money's not growing out of our ass. So I looked at my 30 games, and I don't know what to get rid of. And I did sell two this last week. So you knew what to get. Well, I guess you knew, but now you don't know. I don't. I knew at first, but once you're down to 30, the choices just get so hard. Honestly, I'm such a privileged bitch. It is. I'm just like, holy crap. It is very hard. What a tough world you're in. I know. I'm down to 30, and I just can't make choices. I couldn't make a choice. So pending sale right now is The Big Lebowski. I hear that. You know, I still have never played it. I hear it's a really good player. so you disagree or you've grown weary of it after owning it for so long it is a solid shooter but it's nothing that grabs you layout wise it's the mechs, it's the story that's what you're buying there the code's not all that deep I don't know, I just liked it because it had the original frame movie poster that came with it and the piss stained rug you liked it because of the immersion the immersion Okay, well, now it's gone the way of the white Russian. It's leading. Into the tummy and out into the world. Another one was a theme that I just, I'm in love with, but there are rumors in the future that we may see this title remade by another company. So I'm getting rid of and pending sale is my Ellie version of Avatar. I never heard a rumor about Avatar. I need these things for Rumor Corner. Oh, really? There's been speak with the James Cameron follow-up films coming out. I guess that makes sense because they're finally coming out with a second movie. But Navi multiball. Oh, the white ball. Yep, got rid of it. So it's leaving as well. And I'd like to clear out some more space. I'll tell you what, I've had Deadpool for sale to Ellie. I don't know if I can sell it. All right, so how many are you trying to sell? Is it just one more or what? I would like to sell about three more if I could. because I've got another new game coming in. Damn it. Okay. I was going to ask you. I mean, now, normally, like, if this was Tony or if you were asking me, I would quickly run through all the games I have because I don't have 30. So it wouldn't ruin the whole show. Basically, here it is. I've got 10 Sterns. I've got 10 Bally Williams. I have three DMD Sterns, two now that Avatar is gone. And I've got a couple JJPs, a couple CGCs, and a couple Spookys. That's what I got. Okay. I see what you're saying. All right. Well, I mean, obviously, based off of the numbers, it would make the most sense to sell more out of your Stern and Nellie Williams lineups because of tens a lot. But they look so good lined up. Yeah, yeah, but they still look good when there's like nine of each. I think I am going to list for sale my museum-quality roadshow. That hurts because – Oh, okay. I would definitely sell a roadshow because it's not fun. But it – oh, no. Okay, so that one – all right. So we got roadshow. The previous owner of that game is on the apron. It's the management, the Carter, Bill Carter or something. He was the original owner. Is he like the son of the former president, Jimmy? No. I don't have a – Is that Jimmy's son? Jimmy Carter impersonation, but I'm not. You don't know what it sounds like because it's before your time. I was thinking, Jimmy, start. No. Oh, my gosh. Sorry. All right. So Roadshow might be leaving as well as, oh, fuck, maybe Corvette. Oh. Corvette. It took me four years to find a museum quality Corvette. Yes. You've spoken so lovingly of it. All right. What are the ten? I'll just ask this part because the last one needs to be a stern. I'm sorry. You're getting rid of two Navy or Ballet. So what are the ten LCD sterns you have? Very quickly, I got the L-1-4. That's Godzilla, Avengers, Iron Maiden, Jurassic Park. I also have Stranger Things LE. I have Mandalorian, Star Wars Comic Premium, Guardians of the Galaxy, Deadpool, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. So that's hard because I love all of those. No, you don't. I do. No. I thought maybe get rid of an Elwynn. Sell Iron Maiden. You've never been a big Elwynn fan. You don't like to admit it because you know your customers are. But go ahead and sell Iron Maiden. You've had it forever. It's the oldest one. You wanted it to be Archer anyway. You know how sad it is for me to have to do it? Because this truly hurts me. I'm talking a lot. It fucking hurts, man. Do you get rid of Avengers or Iron Maiden? I think Iron Maiden. I think so. Because I'm also assuming you've owned it longer. So let it go. I mean, you've had a longer time with it. Personally, I feel like I understand Iron Maiden more, but that's part of the reason why if I had your lineup, I would want to keep Avengers. I just think there would be more for me to learn with it. And I haven't beat it yet. I haven't even got close to really digging in that game. I mean, other options would be, you know, I hate to ruin your Star Wars lineup, but you could get rid of Mandalorian. You know what? Here recently I thought about if push came to shove, I'd probably get rid of Mandalorian before Deadpool. But the topper. I'm waiting for the topper. I know you've been waiting for the topper, but you're tired of shooting the middle of the game. There are three sterns I would never get rid of, period, dot. Can you guess those three? I would guess that they are the Walking Dead. LCDs. Because, yeah, Walking Dead and Ghostbusters I'm not getting rid of either. Okay. All right. I would guess you are not going to get rid of Star Wars comic. Not part of my three, but I'd have a hard time getting rid of that. Godzilla. Correct. Never. Okay. You know, I'm really not sure. I'm inclined to say Guardians, but. No, I can't get rid of Guardians. Maybe I will get rid of Guardians. Email them on network at gmail.com. Should I get rid of Guardians or Iron Maiden or Mandalorian? No. The three. So what are the other two? Three-star and LCD screens that I will never sell. Godzilla LE, Jurassic Park Premium, Stranger Things LE. Oh, I forgot about that. You named Stranger Things. Yeah, I wasn't going to ever suggest you get rid of Stranger Things because I know you love it. Yeah, the Star Wars Premium comic, Turtles LE are on the second tier level. Turtles is a toughie. That's a mean old bitch. It's good to have a few of those in the lineup too. Yeah. Sorry. Sorry for ranting so long, but I do have one. No, I think the listeners appreciated the introduction and understanding of your collection, whereas I'm trying to decide because I have eight games currently. Yeah, we have talked about what's leaving yours. Yeah, I haven't decided yet. So my main room where I have room for seven games, I can't fit any more in without all of a sudden blocking the ability to pull the glass out of them. So I have Buck Rogers, Total Nuclear Annihilation, Firepower. You're getting rid of Firepower. That's the one I've been leaning towards. Star Trek Pro, Walking Dead Pro, and Godzilla Premium. And then in the garage, I have Sinbad, Solid State. And you want to pull that in. I do. And so I've been playing it in the garage. So the ones I've been thinking about, as you noted, Firepower has been the one I've been leaning towards because it's sort of the same era. It's only a couple years newer. but I've also been thinking that I could probably sell Total Nuclear Annihilation. Spooky's decided it's $9,000 now. So I could sell mine under that because it doesn't have every single mod and it's used. And obviously I'd be able to get quite a bit more than when I bought it back. I bought mine in 2019 but they were still going for $6,000 back then. Is this true? So I've been thinking about that. But then maybe I should wait. I almost feel like Firepower leaves for Sinbad because that kind of makes sense era-wise. And then TNA also leaves in the change of events here whenever one of the next newer games comes out that you're very, very interested in after playing on location several hundred times. And that's kind of been where I've been leaning. Yeah, I can see that. Wow. I got a new game coming in. What's the new game? You did mention that. Yeah, here's the hint. Well, I do have a Stargazer coming in built from the ground up, but that's another story. the one that I have had ordered for a while and it's actually I think it just got off the plane that is a I do know what this is what's coming to me is no not alien I'm sorry I lose track of all these super slow manufacturers that's a mermaid that's a one mean ass mermaid that's what a mermaid is the siren that's what they say under the water they're not sirens sirens crash you upon the rocks not drag you under the water Fathom Revisited yes Mermaid Edition Mermaid do you think Haggis will put out a James Bond inspired alternate art package for Fathom called Live and Let Dive bloop bloop bloop bloop bloop shaken not stirred shaken shaken do you expect me to talk no mr ron we expect you to not a bad couple jokes there god this episode sucks already it does let's go to craig bobby Hello and welcome to Top Stories on the Pinball Show. I'm Craig Bobby. Top Stories on the Pinball Show. Sexier than a Dennis Creasel, Keith Elwin, fish paper, Godzilla subway, Vuck fix, we have news from Stern Pinball that they will reveal and sell their next cornerstone title on Tuesday this week, September the 13th, in the theme of the world's most famous secret agent, James Bond. This confirms that the rumors going back a couple of years were in fact true, that a James Bond machine was in the works at Stern Pinball. Our ongoing thanks going to Nap Arcade and our secret UK correspondent, Neil McRae, yet again, for confirming this rumor correctly several months ago. Now, there are tons of rumors still swirling out on the interwebs about this next release, including which James Bond Stern will be licensing. The consensus at this point is that it's definitely based on the Sean Connery Bond era. However, the question remains whether this is based on several Connery Bond films or just one, with top guesses going to a Connery film mashup covering several of his films, most likely including Goldfinger and Thunderball. And of course, who may be designing this next Stern cornerstone, you say? Well, Stern's not-so-secret designer and chief creative officer George Gomez, and most likely his usual A-team crew a la Deadpool, have taken over from whatever flaming wreck Steve Ritchie left behind when he abandoned ship for greener pastures over at Jersey Jack Pinball last year. No news on the coder or artist for this theme, although it has been confirmed by Christopher Franchi that despite patching up previous riffs between himself and Stern Pinball, Christopher Franchi will not be involved in any of the artwork for this James Bond title. And though there have been rumors of a super limited edition machine with this release, my source isn't so sure. I'm hearing now that Stern may be putting a premium on all the LEs below the number 10, with the seventh one obviously being a highly sought-after unit number. My guess is that Stern is keeping that one for something big, but they haven't given any indicators on anything beyond the normal pro-premium LE tier model to date. And it looks like in keeping with a growing industry buy direct trend, Stern will also be offering up a small number of LEs for sale on their own SternPinball.com website on September 13th at 10 a.m. Central for those that aren't already on a distributor list for one of those highly coveted LE models. Keep in mind that this direct sale is available only for those Stern All Access Club members, which comes with a $40 a year subscription price tag. So make sure you're signed up for that ahead of time, as those units will most certainly sell out within 007 minutes of becoming available. And speaking of paying, one of the more unfortunate sign of the time rumors that are also swirling around with the latest Stern release is that Stern will in fact announce another round of price increases, potentially making this Bond release one of the most expensive Stern cornerstones to date. Say what? And although we have no word on how much that price increase might be, or on what other titles it might affect, I suspect Stern will once again retroactively implement this increase across all their previously released titles. Meaning that that Godzilla premium that you've all been waiting for probably, although not confirmed, but probably will be going up again in price. Say what? Now, want to play a James Bond before you pay? Well, get ready, as we now have also learned, again from Neil McRae and Nap Arcade, that James Bond will make its first public appearance at the IAPA, a.k.a. the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions European Trade Show, in London from September the 12th to the 15th. And if you can't get a last-minute ticket to that show, have no fear, as Stern will almost certainly have many units of the James Bond game available to play stateside at the always popular Chicago Pinball Expo from October the 20th to the 23rd. Meanwhile, in other industry news, we have Dave Fix, a five-year-plus veteran of the pinball hobby, one of the organizers of the Chicago Pinball Expo, and executive vice president of American Pinball, teeing up some more head-scratching moves lately. Yes, aside from lunchboxes and action figures ideas, this time with American Pinball's recent sponsoring of a one-off reincarnation of the long-defunct Magic Girl game. Psh! Earth to David Fix. Come in, David Fix. I know I haven't been active in the hobby for five years, but I do know me some good business, so why is this company seemingly more concerned in trying to associate themselves with a failed game and designer from five years ago versus the future of American Pinball and their next title release? And let's face it, as their competitors in Stern Pinball and JJP continue to release compelling, popular, licensed-themed titles of their own that are mostly, Godzilla aside, available to own right now. Now, speaking of American Pinball in the future, courtesy of the Super Awesome Pinball Show podcast, who made an announcement that attendees at the Super Awesome Tailgate Party on September the 24th this month will get a sneak peek at American Pinball's next game, rumored to be a non-licensed original theme called, wait for it, Galactic Tank Force. Specifically, the preview will give attendees a preview of the game's artwork, the theme, and the logo for the theme. They are not, however, going to show the full game or the back glass, as the full game will probably not be ready to go on sale for several months. Will Galactic Tank Force be an out-of-this-world failure? We shall have to wait and see. And if you are planning on attending the super awesome tailgate party this year in the hopes of getting a first-play look at the Pinball Brothers' new Queen music pin, Take note, it seems that the Pinball Brothers have sent their regrets to say they will not be bringing The Queen Machine to the show, citing various supply chain and production delays with that title. So just a jam-packed and exciting week over at the Top Stories News Desk this week, Zach and Dennis. Always a lot to talk about and be excited for whenever Stern announces a new release. For The Pinball Show, I'm Craig Bobby. Catch you on the flip side. Maybe Craig saved the day there. Maybe. I hope so. Thank you, Craig. That was quite... He's found out a lot. He found out more than... He did. Now that he's expanded beyond Stern, he's been bringing in all sorts of information. I'm still thinking of... Shaken. Shaken. This last week... Shaking soon. What? Hold up. I do have issue with that. Why are they calling it shaking soon? It's weird. Let's jump into this. This last week, Stern Pinball released a teaser for their new Cornerstone game release, James Bond or 007. We know that this year marks the 60th anniversary for this franchise, so it makes sense that they're doing that, and we'll talk more about that. But they released this teaser trailer. I'm not going to show you anything video-wise. It just gives you the title, but it says Shaking Soon, and I thought, maybe this is picking nits here, Dennis, but shouldn't it have said Shaken Soon? I would agree. Here's what I think happened. Shaking. I think because shaken makes it sound – all right. So like you say it shaken soon. It sounds like past tense and then the future. And so I feel like someone kind of like school teachered it up and was like, well, no, we have to say shaking soon. And then people will get it. But it sounds weird because they never like say shaking in James Bond Now the thing I been going with is telling people because I just think it sounds like it makes a lot more sense and I sure Stern greatly appreciates this is that they clearly indicating that all of these games are coming with shaker motors by default Oh, that's your big thing, yeah. Shaking soon. Because how else it's going to be coming, and how would it shake without a shaker motor? Free shaker motors for everyone. Oh, no. God. Well, they've announced a new price increase, so the shakers are coming. The shakers are coming. And the Shakers are, uh, Stern Pitmobile will not be releasing Shaker Motors for all of the models except probably the Alley. Have they confirmed that with you? They have not confirmed or denied that with me. Oh, someone's putting carts in front of horses who has no place in doing that. I'm just trying to look out for you. You know, I have spies all over the place. I have many informants. I have more than just. Craig Bobby, disguised as mahogany furniture, may know the truth. What we do know about this game is it's going to be a release date of 9-13-2022, which is, if you're listening on Monday, is tomorrow. Game designer, Gomez. George Gomez. You used to like him, and then you started talking about selling his Corvette. But I've been loving his Deadpool. So Gomez did confirm that it is him on this next Cornerstone. It is a Cornerstone release, typically a pro premium LA model. He said that on the Marco Specialty Stream, where he guest starred on there to talk about Insider Connected, he had a lot of things he was discussing regarding this upcoming release from Stern Pinball. He said Steve Ritchie was working on the game prior to leaving for Jersey Jack Pinball, but the whitewood was not near complete, so he started over. Started fresh on a brand new design, so we're not going to see anything from that Steve Ritchie James Bond. He also said, quote, there's another surprise related to James Bond and, quote, went on to say, quote, I did the cornerstones and then stay tuned. Big surprise. Said it about four or five times during that stream. Wow. You know, shaker motors are kind of big. Well, depends on what kind of shake you want because Dennis got that red trimmer. Red trimmer. Man, shake your note boards broken there. george also in this interview he had all kinds of stuff he is giddy he's ready to go he did say he's anxious nervous anytime a new release comes out especially his own he gets anxious and nervous um he he's very uh insecure at times with his designs even though he's a genius in design saying i never feel like they're good enough or just i don't know what to do but uh he held up what looked like i thought it was like a mech of the game and people were reporting on hey held up a part of the game and showed us and took it down really quick, and his webcam was kind of jackety because of the Skype trying to do the background thing. But to me it looked like a ninja action figure with swords. Yes, I saw the screen grab of it on Nap Arcade. Right? It looked like a figurine. Yeah, I could see where people would think it was a mech at first because of the stuff pointing up, and then when you look at it more, it's like, okay, no, it does look sort of humanoid, and we're seeing parts to mount it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can't say that I came up with this. There was actually a commenter on NAP Arcade's blog page that said the figure is an action figure of a scuba diver. A scuba diver. When I look at it, and they're like all in black, and it's like, yeah, okay, I could see that because in Thunderball, Sean Connery, James Bond movie, there were underwater fight scenes with all sorts of scuba divers. Oh. That would – and then maybe that thing in his hand is like a knife. Yeah, or what's the knife on the end of the gun thing? Yeah, like a spear gun. Yeah, so it could be that. Hmm. You think it takes place underwater this game? Well, I mean, that would really mess with the physics of the ball. Yeah. If we were to... I don't know why we would submerge our pinball underwater. World underwater. The theme. The theme. there's probably some LCD elements where you do some modes that are underwater or something but he went on to say once you see all of the surprises all of your favorite villains will be there but you're going to have to wait to see the surprises I put a little Craig Bobby spin on the pacing there but surprises surprises you're going to have to wait to see the surprises once you see all of the surprises all of your favorite villains will be there So, is this just semantics here, or are we not going to see all of the villains prior to all of the surprises, which would be the Cornerstone Pro Premium Edition? Basically, do we have something else coming out? I don't know what's going on. Do we have another trim level? Is there a Super LE about to come out? You know, I've been seeing a lot of speculation, a lot of talk about the Super LE, but if they're doing that, it's going to be revealed with all the other stuff, right? I would think so. It has to be. Otherwise, you're going to have potential LE buyers who are going to get super pissed. Speaking of the sea, you're going to have pissed off whales. They're not going to buy two games. It's going to be a mess if you don't reveal them all together. Fuck you. Gumi's not my homie. Yeah, don't piss off the whales. So, I mean, I'm not saying – also, they've never done a super – Well, I mean, granted, I guess that would be a surprise. They've never done a Super LE on a Cornerstone. No. Cornerstones are Cornerstones. Pro, Premium, LE. If they do a studio run, that's where you get your no pro, but you get a Premium LE, Super LE, or Signature LE. Yeah, yeah. Never before have they done that. And where the hell is Joe Kamikow? Because with this rumor about a possible additional trim level celebrating 60 years of Bond, thus what people are saying maybe 60 Super or Signature LE units, how in the hell is Joe Kaminkow this is everything to him theme wise how is he not involved in this see i'm not i'm not as familiar with him and and his relationship with the james bond franchise versus things like batman aston martin car like he is yeah but if they didn't need him to get the license then they don't need him for this just knowing he's never he is at least not in the modern era, to my knowledge, he has never been involved in a cornerstone. Sure. He does special runs, not plebe stuff. But just put yourself in his shoes. I can't. I'm too poor. If you have Scrooge McDuck bins of money, and you have the capabilities and history of pinball manufacturing and design, and then you have one of your hallmark top three themes of all time, don't you think that somehow, somewhere, and you're great friends with Gary Stern, like best friends, you're included somehow. That's like if Goonies got made and I was a billionaire, my ass would be a part of it. He's going to get the 007 limited edition. That will be how he's involved. You know it'd be true. Possibly. Search your feelings. Well, other things we do know is that George Gomez, he said this theme is very dear to him, very much like a Batman 66 was. he said that his favorite Bond is Sean Connery and his favorite Bond car, because George is a big car guy. You guys know that. Favorite car for Bond is the Aston Martin DB5, going on to say, quote, no surprise, you're going to see it in the game, complete with ejector seat. That's neat. But I was thinking about it. I was like, well, wait a minute. Maybe he's just referencing the DB5 as you're going to see that in the game. That could be a video thing, right? complete with an ejector seat. You're going to see clips of that. But it could also be a flat plastic of the shape and then a fuck is the seat part. Like a ball lock and then it just flips it up onto a wire form or something. Yeah, or yeah, it feeds up onto a wire form. That's how I would imagine they'd do it. Is it the Gollum shot on Lord of the Rings? Getting a little softer there and it kicks it back up and onto the wire form. So, yeah, maybe put like a car in front of a buck like that or something or a half car or something. I don't know. I want it to just fly up and hit that glass. That's what I want it to do. It seems like no one wants to let the ball smack the glass anymore. Almost like Goose. Oh, prematurely ejecting and hitting. Rest in peace, Goose. I don't think they'll do that. I don't know if we'll see that. But we do know George Gomez is a car guy. So I think you might see a physical Aston Martin DB5 in there. Or, if they couldn't get the rights to it, a strangely redesigned Jeep DB5. The GP5. The GP5. We redesigned it. We got a lot of Jurassic Park sculpts. What can we do? Just put the steering wheel on the other side and call it a day. I'm sorry. They certainly won't cheap out like that. I don't know what they're going to do with this game. He was discussing his anxiety and nervousness and insecurities on new releases, and he was talking about what I'm thinking is the code of this game, because he said, quote, just shoveling stuff in every day, but it's just not going as fast as I'd like. Now, maybe that's a throwaway statement. Nobody's been talking about it, but when I heard that, I heard, okay, well, you know the release is coming Tuesday. Thus, we know the game is done physically. But what couldn't be getting done fast enough that you're still kind of bringing up? Maybe that's code. Maybe throwing shade at the rules people. I'm just thinking about his last two releases, whether it had anything to do with him or not. We know early Deadpool code and early Batman 66 code very much less than desired. Early Batman 66 code. Stanky. I still remember. That was rough. Shit was stanky. So was Deadpool, though. Remember, both of those two games, when they came out, people were like, eh, eh, soft, soft openers. And hot finishers, hot closers. Speaking of, we know that Christopher Franchi did not do the artwork for 007. He said so in the most recent Super Awesome Pinball Show, Pinball Podcast. Then he was talking about burning bridges with Stern, that he didn't burn bridges. They all love him, but they're just waiting for a project that's right for him. But then again, they were talking about Joe Kamenkow. Now, if he comes back to do something with Stern, he's kind of bundled in with Christopher Franchi, which makes me think that there is no Cam and Cal affiliation because he was like, yeah, you know, if Cam and Cal came in, I think I would be doing another Stern game because he prefers my art, we're good friends, and Christopher Franchi can't play things off that well until, you know, I'm eating crow. But I don't know. I'm so confused with this. I'm not confused about the fact that there's going to be a price increase, Dennis, on James Bond. Yeah, a lot of people are thinking it's just for the LE, but I don't know if I can confirm because I haven't been to the seminar yet, but word on the street is that there is a price increase for Pro Premium and LE. That's what my street words have been telling me as well. I don't know how much. My little birds. I don't know how much, but, I mean, we got 11.1 is MSRP for an LE. Wouldn't shock me if it's 11.99. Nine, nine. But Stern sometimes will go gradual. I mean, historically, they did. And granted, this last year, we did see like pros went up $900. But I do remember they argued like 400 of that was insider connected. Well, and prior to that. But inflation has been a lot worse this year than it was last year. I can say as a dealer prior to that, all of the increases were like 100 at a time. Like every year, you would get a 100 increase. and that was it for a couple years and then we got hit with that big one but I don't know I was kind of thinking maybe no price increase this next release but you're seeing it here let's blame Toy Story 4 the real question is whether or not that means that all Stern Pinball products will see the same increase or will there be a gap in time like we did with Godzilla came out, new price structure all the other games starting January 1st will have that new price structure? Do we see it immediately? Do we not see it at all? Do we see it maybe on only games ordered thus far or only new release games thus far? I don't know how they're going to figure that out. I did ask and their official answer was all will be discussed during the dealer seminar on Tuesday. Well, I'm going to guess that they'll follow their typical form and that will be this price increase will only affect James Bond and future games, but as of the start of 2023, all their produced games will match the new pricing. And people who have ordered currently will get the older current price unless and until they haven't gotten their game yet and it starts the new year and then Stern does. I do not like this where Stern's just like, now all of a sudden you all have to eat it even though you've technically ordered. I know. The Elvira people have been on order for over a year. It's a bad look, Stern. It's a bad look. But I guess when you're the big dog, you can do what you want. And they technically, I don't care what anybody tells you, they technically do not have a set price for Elvira House of Horrors Premium, period. They don't have it. I don't care if you go on Flip N Out Pinball's website and you see $98.99. I don't care if you go on another dealer's website and see the old MSRP for it. Technically, they have not changed the price of that prior to the Godzilla increase in price. I know it's odd, but the last I heard was of Gary Stern during the Godzilla price increase. I specifically asked, hey, what does that mean for Elvira? And at that time, Batman 66. Batman 66 was a moot point because in January that was their last run or December last run ever. But Elvira still sticks around. People ask, am I going to see a price increase on Elvira? I said, I don't even know what the price is right now. And I've called to ask them, hey, what is the price on Elvira? And they say, we will know. We will announce closer to reproduction of it. So we technically don't know what that price is. You know, I sort of wonder if it's just going to end up getting canceled and not reproduced ever again. They seem almost hell-bent, Zach, on not building it. But why are they taking so long? I don't know. I mean, they ended up doing the 40th, so we knew they had the parts. Yeah, but the design was by Dennis Nordman, and he's not one of the regulars, so maybe he used parts that were just so much different than what the regular team is used to use. I don't know. It's like they don't like building it. Well, I've heard from the factory that it is one of their hardest games to build, and it does have one of the highest bombs, and it's kind of a pain. But they've got so many orders for Elvira, I don't see them walking away from it. I really don't. Now, maybe they do one giant-ass run and then they call it quits, but I don't know. We're still, they have not changed that schedule. It still says November. Okay. And speaking of dealers, us distributors have been given our LE allotment numbers, so we know how many LEs we have coming. At least I do. I don't know. I'm pretty sure everybody else does. And Stern is doing this again where they're selling a handful of LEs direct through their subscription-based insider service. Mm-hmm. Gotta get that money without cutting in the distros. Bradlee Ching, Bradlee Ching. They've done it before, haven't they? They've done it before. I hope that if they're going to do it, they'll do it again. They replicate what they did last time, which was literally a handful. It wasn't many at all. It's not like they did the whole JJP. They didn't do the whole spooky. What don't we know about this upcoming title? A lot. We don't know a lot still. What don't we know? Where are the leaks? I was promised leaks. Why is the ship so sealed? I can't believe I don't know who the rules person is. Nope. No clue. Is it Taino? I think it's Taino. That'd be my guess. Artist. Who's the artist? We don't know. We know it's not Franchi, but that doesn't narrow it down very much. Could be Johnny 00 Crap. It could. It could be a new person is the problem. Ooh. What about the engineers? Then it's almost impossible to guess. No, don't know. Harrison Drake? Maybe. What if there are no engineers? Oh, who's doing the sound? Jerry! Jerry's got to be on the sound, right? Yeah, I would think so, too. But we don't know. We don't know for sure. We don't even know if they have assets to the films. This might be a world under James Bond's universe. Gomez has indicated that his favorite Bond is Connery, but I'm still wondering if Lazenby is going to be on the sides of that pro. Good way to try and make people up by. Do you want to get stuck with the Lazenby edition? No, no. I still think George does what George does, and it feels like a Batman 66 kind of thing. We get Sean Connery as James Bond, and then we get all the different villains, because we all know most of the greatest villains from the Bond franchise come from those Sean Connery years, right? The henchmen, you get the guy stroking the cat, right? The Dr. Evil lookalike. Well, all right, but Blofeld, so Blofeld for Spectre, sure. Sure, I mean. Goldfinger. Goldfinger, yes. Jaws is Roger Moore. Oh. No Jaws? Well, you've got to have Jaws. He's like the most popular villain. Yeah. Maybe that's why he was saying, when all the surprises come out, you'll see all of your favorite villains. You can't say that, George, if Jaws isn't included, right? Yeah, I mean, because Jaws was late 70s. He was in The Spy Who Loved Me, and then he was in, again, in Moonriker. What if this is my final pitch? What if this is like a Bill and Ted or a Back to the Future? They're going to the time capsule where Sean Connery is the common version Bond. You get the universe like Jurassic Park's turn pinball game, but then they sprinkle in villains who have come back, and you get all the villains into a new storyline. It's very current. Now I'm just imagining the call out to Nedry. You've got to stop these villains from Bond. Get to the paddock. Shoot the bad guy, Wamp. Shoot the bad Wamps. I don't know. So who knows? We're going to know very soon. A lot of people right now are listening to this later in the week, and they're like, oh, fucking talk about old news. We do know that the Global James Bond Day is October 5th, 2022. Maybe we're getting something then. If it was any other company, I would joke maybe the game will come out by then. But we already know this is coming out before then. This is coming. Coming in hot. And a lot of people are excited. Speaking of coming in hot, we have some other things coming from Stern Pinball. notably the production update that I'm about to give you guys. We saw on a video Led Zeppelin Pros are online. They've been shipping. We got some Led Zeppelin Pros. Star Wars Pros have been shipping as well. They said this coming week likely we're going to see some Led Zeppelins continue with those Pros and the premiums. Still going to run those premiums. And the following couple of weeks we're going to see any leftovers from any of the Star Wars Premiums runs, Pros, Led Zeppelin Pro premiums, as well as that last call of Guardians of the Galaxy Pro. And then, my friends, the end of the month, maybe even last week, that's going to be that dedication to James Bond pros. Makes sense. Got to clear the docket. That's right. Clear that pallet. Here comes Octopussy. Was Octopussy anything or am I just making that up? No, it's a Roger Moore also. That's a Roger Moore. Yes. That was for, I'm trying to think of it to this day. For a long time, it was the only one where the theme song wasn't the name of the movie. Man, we got to get David Dennis on here with you. They went nerd now to Bond, that guy. Well, he's like a hardcore, like I get a sinking suspicion he's a collector. He's not been able to sleep on his stomach for the last month. All right, so we got that. So the end of the month is James Bond pros. As a reminder, I think the rollout always goes to the certain arcades first. They get the priority. Yeah, I know. I never get the first pro. Then also just general location pros go out first. That's a mandatory. And then they'll move on to LEs. And then they'll move on to premiums and pros. And then they'll go back and forth. But I think mid-October is when you're going to start seeing James Bond LEs move out of the factory, if not even sooner than mid-October. But I'm thinking mid-October. And sadly, it's a big update. Sadly, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pro and Premiums, which were moved up from December to September for that last call, they've now been bumped back to December due to some crowding in production scheduling and new Cornerstone releases. Bogus. Bummer, dude. Back to Q4, April. So we've got Bond coming. We've got a lot of games coming from Stern Pinball. I still think we may see something else released and announced in December to jumpstart back on that regular production schedule so that end of December rolling out in January, Cornerstone release. I think we'll see that as well. I don't know who that would be. My guess would be… Jack? I think so. Yeah. I think maybe Jack. Maybe on a music pin. Uh-oh. Let's talk about something else. Spooky Pinball. Ah, spooky. Some people have argued inaccurately, but I can understand the sentiment, that Total Nuclear Annihilation is a music pin. Beep. Yeah. That was not edited together. That was our impeccable timing. Spooky Pinball releases another run of Total Nuclear Annihilation. 250 units, likely running more at some other point, so it's not like this is an LE run or anything. It's the same game. It comes with mods and enhancements plastic protectors shaker motors knockers custom armor all the bells and whistles topper all of that good old stuff No discussion on additional code, though. Scott Danesi, he was kind of teasing that there for a while, saying the new game will come out with a new multiball, maybe a new song. But the original owners are going to get it as well as an update. But it was kind of a point that they didn't discuss when announcing this recently. I think that the code would be available to anyone with a P&A, so it's not really relevant to the sale. And I also read that Scott was still testing because he wasn't sure that the multiball actually – he was trying to make sure that the new multiball didn't break the game and make it too easy or something. A lot of people have a lot of opinions about this recent release. I think mostly to reflect their opening price at $9,000 plus tax and shipping. Whoa. $89.95. How much are you charging for shipping if I were to order one from you, Zach? And you can't order from Flip N Out Pinball because they chose to sell it. What about Cointaker? Will Cointaker sell it to me? No, they won't. No, they won't. What? I can say that any of us can find one for you, but no. Spooky Pinball has elected to sell direct only on this run of TNA. No dealers. Well, I don't need either of you to find me one because I went just before we started recording and was able to add one to my cart. So Spooky appears to still have them quite available. They do. They do. Word is that they sold more than 100. So I'd say overall a successful little relaunch, but haven't sold out. and they're producing some games up there in Benton, so they'll probably have these out within the next handful of months. Do you think this is a good move with price, with no dealers, with the timing of this T&A? What do you make of this? You know, I don't really have any strong thoughts about the dealer or no dealer aspect to it because to a consumer perspective, I just don't know. I suppose it's probably not – well, and you're a distributor, so you could explain better what your thought process is regarding your relationships with companies. But I would assume it's probably frustrating in the sense that if someone normally goes through their distributor, it's a little inconvenient to have to go through Spooky. I think from the distributor standpoint, though, that probably, like, if someone sold me Alice Cooper and Rick and Morty, I'll probably end up calling my distributor for TNA help if I needed it, even though it's not really relevant. Oh, man. that that's when those dealers get a little salty yeah that's when the salt that's when the salt comes out of the shaker as they say so you know that it it does help it kind of feel a little cash grabby like okay well we're not cutting them in didn't they also have some information on the i should have rechecked this about like no transfers on the orders yeah they just like want this to be some super low effort super big dollar then the price going up is totally understandable obviously you have the additional items involved coupled with inflation i saw some people like trying to like inflation calculator this and saying well it was 6,000 in 2017 i actually commented on this because like it was 6,000 in 2019 too you don't just get to go back to the start they sold it at the same price the entire run it took years so it's like you know it is what it is i get it i'm trying to find the ceiling stop the flipping uh that it didn't sell out immediately actually surprised me it didn't surprise me i mean now i was guessing this before i knew the price but i just figured that that's normally what we've been seeing with spooky and there's been a lot of talk like as has spooky's luster worn off are they do they not get the boutique pass as we say a lot as you know zach has been a lot of anyone who has a podcast knows from their email boxes boutique companies get get a much bigger pass than large companies you get a A lot of fanboys that come in and don't think you should be critical at all. A lot of protectors. Spooky used to be like that. Not a lot of people are giving them a lot of grace anymore for their decision. Well, you're absolutely right. Their company has transitioned and changed quite a bit lately as well, I would argue. So we've got the younger crew running a lot of the day-to-day operations where Charlie was leading on that in the past. Not so much anymore. anymore charlie's still part of it but i would not say the majority part of it and then we have decision making of selling and pre-selling games and halloween and ultraman before showing the actual game itself which kind of you know wore thin on some of their most adamant adopters and then you get the increased prices and then you get the increased delays and in creating these games I think they've always been transparent, but with their communication, which they do a good job of, but there's still areas that fans and pinball enthusiasts are finding can be filled out a little bit more to get them back up to their PR and their reputation in the past. Because I don't think it's as strong now as it once was. I mean, the nice thing about TNA is it's a known entity. It's a well-respected game. Yes, people love it. And I think actually in a way it will – assuming they go ahead and build all 250 units because my understanding was they were ordering all the parts for all of that and everything. So assuming they do that, one of the things I've always wished for Spooky, just me as a consumer, is for them to be able to have a pin and you actually contact them and it exists or will exist soon and you can just buy it. Sure. And that's how I got my 1.0 TNA from them. One last of the room. Yeah. They had a few units left from their last – they did those in batches of 50, and they had some left over. I think at the time I contacted them, they had two, and I was able to buy it, and they were able to ship it essentially immediately. I say essentially because there was a snowstorm that delayed it. In this instance, though, let's just say that they end up here with somewhere between 50 and 100 units that are not sold and built, and they're sitting on them. What happens in that scenario? It could be best case. They're able to sell them at the $9,000, and they just don't sell them in a huge rush. And people can contact them and get a TNA, and that's pretty cool. Or it takes up a ton of their space, and I'm not at the point where I think they'll have to fire sale them or anything. But I think part of the issue is they found that even with a known game that's really well-respected, TNA is a fairly simple game. It has absolutely no nostalgia tie-in with a theme to drive it to new people. You basically have to be into pinball to want to get a TNA. I agree. But it's a good line filler. It's a good line filler. I think from a business standpoint, it was a good move to launch this when they did, making 250 units. Price-wise, I don't think it's maybe a horrible price if they weren't expecting to sell 250. If they sold it for $79.99, they would have sold all 250 in one day. But is that what they want to do? I don't know. I don't even know if, let's say they sell 150, 200 of these things. They have 50 more that have not been produced. I don't know if they even build them. Maybe they just say, okay, well, once we get 50, we'll just do a small run of the remaining 50 of the 250 and sell them. Or maybe that's when, and I don't know if this will work well for them, but maybe then they think, well, then we'll just sell the last 50 to dealers, see if they're interested in those. I don't think dealers are going to be as receptive as maybe they think they would be, just out of principle. Not with them, not if they've sat. That's the thing. Yeah, we don't want no sloppy seconds. Right, right. To me, we have to remember Spooky's model is different than all the other companies. They very much, and TNA has been like the one exception, but they very much relied on everything being limited, everything having a raw count to drive all of their sales. Ever since America's Most Haunted, that's been the approach. So here's what I would do if I were them. If, let's say, they move a couple hundred and they're still sitting and the 50 just aren't – no one's putting them in the cart and buying them after they've built the first 200. I would go back if I were there. I had my druthers. My druthers, I worked it out with Scott, would be to go ahead and build the last 50. Change the announcement to say we will never build this again. We're limiting it. We're capping it. The total number of units that will exist is 800. These 250 are the final. Then they sell immediately. Yes. I think that would let them move the units. But they want this to be a catalog title. I don't see them doing it. So they need to build – like if they want to build the 250 to keep their line busy enough to get – because they need that time to further refine the rules for their next game or whatever. Then you want to go ahead and do the build. They don't want to sit on them and they're like, we don't have the space for this. We don't want to have to deal with storing them. We know the distros aren't going to pick these up because they know they're not going to be able to sell, especially with this. It wasn't a promise, but we could even put a negative spin on it. Threat of only 250 being built in 2022. It's like you're not. They've always relied on that, that false scarcity that they create to move units. Saying that you're only building 250 at the end of this year doesn't mean that's meaningless. That is because there's 550 out there plus another 250. so just say you know what we can't go back to the well on this anymore final call final run super duper promise the game is now limited at under a thousand units there you'll move them that's what i'd do i'll be done with it i don't think it changed the market on these some people are arguing oh the market went up on these now my game's worth more no yes that's why i'm thinking maybe i need to sell and i don't think that's necessarily true i think listener what has happened is i think the market was pretty high on them and people just didn't realize it they thought you know i'm still 6500 for my tna i think it probably through the pandemic and the rest of the increase in the marketplace on secondary market i think it probably went up to 7500 8000 8500 that's why spooky struck it at 9000 if anything i think they created that ceiling at $9,000, especially when you don't sell out immediately. Now it is $9,000 below, period, dot, guaranteed. So you're at $8,000 for a team. And those that saw what happened with games that had a base price of $6,000 and then – I mean, I remember when I got mine back when times were sane and they had stopped making them, for quite a while that game used was like $5,500. It dropped like most stuff does. But I could see where people might have said, hey, I'm thinking about getting one of the 250 because I saw games that were new in box, $6,000, go in for over $1,000 more. So I'll get my $9,000 game, and then if I get tired of it in two years, I'll be able to command $10,000 for it. When it doesn't sell out immediately, even if they ultimately do sell all 250, it doesn't feel like – as you noted, it does – I'm not sure it gets above $9,000. Maybe, you know, in 30 years. I'm not going that far out. I think it's been out long enough. I mean, one could argue the whole Jersey Jack, Willy Wonka thing where the CE sat and they sat and they sat and then they sold for less and they sat and they sat. But now, after a couple of years, it has jacked up where those damn things are, you know, $14,000 again. But the problem was not as much time has passed as did people to find out what Willy Wonka was. Willy Wonka was never beloved from the get-go. It built that earning where it sits now, where TNA was beloved from the minute it came out. So it had all potential to show the highest growth there, and it just didn't. And I think people when you're – another thing to factor in is a lot – I mean I know I'm an anomaly compared to a lot of people who buy new and box games in this hobby in particular. People – it's not like – in my view, it's not really an investment piece. If you had to sit on it for five years for it to finally get above value or – I completely agree. It's not like – that's not the way it – that's not the way you make money. It's not the way you buy. I buy low and sell high. And it's like most of my games I've bought. Actually, every game I have sold, I sold for more than I bought it for. My average ownership period on a game is like three plus years, though. And we're talking like a couple hundred bucks on a lot of these things. So it's just like it's not. Well, that's what a lot of people are saying to me. They're like, hey, I see that you have Jersey Jacks, Toy Story 4, CEs. You still have spots available. I'm like, yeah. And they're like, well, I can almost bet you, man, if you just even if you don't have buyers, take them and sit them. They're going to go back up. And while I could very much see that happen, that is still a very big risk for someone in my position to take. So sure, they might, but business-wise, is it smart to sit on that for a year, three years, five years? There's so many, because one of the things is, yeah, you write down on your sheet, just like I do, like how much I bought it for, how much I sold for. I'm not factoring in what the inflation difference was when I bought versus when I sold. A hundred percent, yeah. And you've got to – like if you're talking large quantities, these – with me, it's games I'm playing. They're just – they're my collection. Storing games in boxes costs money, costs space. Time, yeah. It costs time to deal with the inventory. Would the money not be better used just putting it in an index fund? I mean they're all sorts of – like when you're talking investment, it gets a lot more – It's tricky. advisor do not consider anything i'm saying is giving you financial advice i it's it's a game that i'm not interested in playing yeah it's tricky it's tricky and speaking of things that are becoming ever more tricky is american pinball man oh man we hear things we see others we i mean there's all kinds of stuff what have you heard what have your elf ears heard well i know that coin taker tailgate party's coming up in september we were supposed to see a lot of this game but But it has been – there's been kind of an edit to temper expectations because at the coin-ticker tailgate party, the game's not going to be there. The game's not going to be shown. The back glass isn't going to be shown. The play field's not going to be shown. They're going to give you little tastes of what's to come because, per Christopher Franchi, he said that Dave Fix doesn't want to show all of his cards because the game's not going to come out for another three months or so. So another – whoa, whoa, whoa. I didn't hear this interview or this episode. That's what Franchi claimed. So why show anything at all? But – okay. Yeah, no. I'll be more than willing to rant slash question that. But, okay, so that means they're not going to make Expo either then. That's what it sounds like. Two games a year to zero games a year. Legends of Valhalla came out last summer Zach What is going on? What's going on at American Pinball? This white wood was developed By me before I even worked For American Pinball Where is my game? Where are my engineers? Swear to me I am the Alpha and the Omega I am the Cardi B and the cardigan. The world will look upon my tanks and despair. They will come from space. You will fold the head down and then be able to drive it around and help the Ukrainians stop the Russian incursion. It's always the Russians. Oh, man. Thank you, Nordman. That is true. Yeah, the strong rumor is Dennis Nordman on the original themed Galactic Tank Force. And I had, this is alleged, this is alleged, I had received a report through my EclecticGamersPodcast.gmail.com from someone purportedly close with American Pinball that this actual game, it has undergone a lot of revisions since then, but the Whitewood existed before he was with AP. Oh. Interesting. Don't know if it's true or not. Just a rumor. Okay, all right. I'm not rumor cornering that. I'm giving it here. Damn, that felt rumor corner-esque, but okay. But here's the thing, and I've brought this up before. So David Fix has been at American Pinball for a while, and the only thing we've seen is an outside developed Legends of Valhalla. And now if what you've said Franchi has indicated is true, three more months makes me think we're not going to see this game this year. Yeah, this year. Maybe not. Maybe he's lining up for a Texas pinball. I mean, they don't need to launch it at a show. No, he launches them on location at two places. Yeah, don't get me started on that. No sizzle needed. So is this why they're bringing in Magic Girl? Because Expo, which I thought was the weirdest thing, because it's like you're going to, I assumed that the tank game was going to be at Expo. And I thought, why are you bringing in Magic Girl? all that's going to do is distract from your reveal of games you're actually going to sell. And now I'm like, well, I guess he ain't got anything else. And it sounds like Franchi is on artwork here too, which is kind of odd because Franchi does IP property. That's what he does. Photorealism IP style guides that he goes all – like that's what he uses. So it's a weird mix-up. Well, maybe they're using like T-91s and Shervins and Abrams. They're like real tanks. I was going to say, it's probably a joke there, but I have no clue what reference it's in. Put some thrusters on it and stuff. The thrusters. Let's go into hyperspace. Because they're space tanks, right? They've got to fly, right? The tanks have to fly. I hope they do fly. American Pinball, if you're listening and the tanks don't fly, go back and make them fly. I hope they fly and sound like they're in the Jetson. GTF! Same goes for Pinball Brothers. They were supposed to bring their new Queen pinball machine to the aforementioned party for attendance to play. The Cointech Tailgate Party. But licensing, licensing has made the trip not possible now. Queen is not going to be at that show. Look for the show. So look for the game. I'm sorry. I just – Cargo Symbol Expo. I know. Have you ever been like, yo, we're going to have this like epic party. And you're like – you get there. It's like there are no girls. Now there's no booze. There's one bag of Fritos that someone already had opened it like two months ago, so they're real stale. Oh. I'm just having this – I'm just having this like – I was promised this party, and now it's like, I guess Alien will be there. I don't know. I'm sorry. So Cardi B couldn't make it, but we got to look alike or sound alike. It's Cardi Z. I mean, come on. And she's doing call-outs for Galactic Tank Force, so GTF. Come on. She's going to seem wop. but in Galactic Tank Force. I want to see Dave Fix dance to rap music. That would be fun. So Queen, the earliest possible is going to be Chicago Pinball Expo, but the Pinball Brothers themselves said on the Super Awesome Pinball Show that that's not a guarantee either. That's just what they're hoping, and it's because of licensing things. And in their defense, in Pinball Brothers' defense, they did note months ago that they were not promising that this game would be at the tailgate they said whoa whoa whoa you're all making it sound like we're only like three weeks out gotta love pinball alright ladies and gentlemen it's about that time you warmed up for it Dennis? got your comfy on? let's just get it over with got your comfy on Ka-ka! There. Hooray. Looks more fitting for a woman. Do you have a good Sean Connery sound? I just want to open up Pinball Market Trans with it, but... Not really. Turning up this week is Stern Pinball. Damn. It's almost like everything they do is right now. Every single time another company does something, they chuckle and they laugh. Because if you're not doing it like Stern, you're doing it wrong. Speaking of starting pinball trading up is Iron Maiden. Oh, man, you're wanting me to get rid of it, Dennis. I guess that's a good thing. That's a pass the time. Oh, okay. Shit, I've got to listen to my own advice then. For sale, Iron Maiden LA. Buy, buy, buy! Previously owned by Travis Meary. We'll hear more about him in this market trade. You will? Wow. Yeah. What spoilers. I know. Iron Maiden is up. They're not making them for the rest of the year. People are still wanting to complete their Elwynn collection. Iron Maiden was the first one that came out. So especially the premium LAs, you're seeing, oh, fucking the pros are up there too. So they're more than MSRP for a brand new one, even if they're planning on running more. It's just the way it is. I think last I seen a pro, a pro was like in the eights, almost $8,000. See, this is why, to keep Nicole in her finery, this is why you've got to sell. I know. I don't want to, though. Well, it's not always about what you want. It's about what you need. You know, it's hard to make decisions between this pen or that. And trending up this week is this or that's in general. How about that transition? Tots. Well, as Dennis has coined them, tots originated from, they originated back from the Portuguese and from the way back in the 18th century. Yeah in translations the would you rathers got corrupted into tots That right That right They became popular in our neck of the woods via Straight Down the Middle This or That Then Watches with Dennis emerged, used a similar format to throw up a This or That regarding timepieces. Here recently, we've seen Joel Engelberth dip his hand into the well of – He straight up took Straight Down the Middle's Todd's and just played them. He just played them. I didn't stay up and watch it. So they did a stream where he took the most recent SDTM video, and they made decisions with the audience as well. So that was fun. Then I tune in the following day, and damned if I didn't see RetroSingo doing a YouTube video based on the straight down the middle recent this or that. You see, I've told you for a long time now that there is a big desire to see more of that. You have pushed it. I know they're not the most high-performing viewer-wise videos on YouTube, but they do generate discussion. A lot of discussion, and tots don't lie. I only report the trends here. And the episode The Watches Wine, which you were on. Yes, it was a blast. One of five entertainers. Well, we had yourself, Tony from EGP, David Dennis from Silver Bowl Chronicles, Craig Bobby, and myself. Yes. Thanks for the insight. You see, I do mine live, so I can use YouTube to run the polls. I can't have the nice overlays and stuff because of that, but I can run the polls and really get the chat interacting. It was smooth. It was very smooth. Well, I do a lot of pre-prep for it to try and make it smooth. It went really smooth. I had a blast. I didn't have much knowledge about timepieces. I'm going to share something with you. I hadn't told you this before. Oh, no. When we were getting ready, I was doing the pulling to try and arrange for everyone to be able to find a time and all of that. I had everyone locked in. I was talking to Tony after recording EGP, and I mentioned that you were willing to do it, but you were really nervous because you didn't really have any expertise in wristwatches. And Tony looked at me and goes, well, that doesn't stop him in pinball. That snarky son of a bitch. That's right. I thought, I'm going to hold that back until we're done with the talk, and then I'll share it. I can't get mad at it. When insults are good like that, I'm not going to get mad. He likes to deliver those burns. He likes to poke a fellow Zach. He's a poker. And, you know, I think on EGP, he's seen as the nice one, not me. Really? Yeah, even though he's far more. He's been a little salty lately. Yeah, far more aggressive. No, he doesn't. Actually, on that last EGP episode, I had to go back and make some significant edits to one of the sections because I'm like, you know. We can't say that. I told him ahead of time, I'm like, I don't know. There might be a liability thing here. I need to clean this up. You're like, I have to do this on the pinball show. I didn't expect to have to do it here. I felt like I held my own on the watches. No, that's right. I was trying to. The thing with a tot, and I know with pinball, obviously, you want to have experience the game. Sure. But you were worried about just having to judge wristwatches by their visuals. But that's basically what they're judged by. So that's why I was like, it's not going to be a problem. As long as you have eyes to see, you'll be able to judge them. Listener, you have to go watch this. It was such a fun collaboration. Dennis hosted it very, very well. And even if you don't know much about watches or horology or anything, it was a blast. I loved it. And there were some strong takes within that. And a little bit of pinball stuff sprinkled in there as well. so I think everybody will enjoy it. Pinball got mentioned a lot. Of course, that's what happens because I know everyone, all the people I know are in pinball. So you bring in all these pinball people and you end up going, well, I'd rather get this with the cash because then I could buy a Godzilla. So it goes. Yeah, very, very cool. Tots, very popular. Training up this week is Tots. Go follow, like, and subscribe to Watch With Dennis as well as joining the Double D Club, the WWD Club. GTF! I'm just going to yell that from now on. I don't know why. Also trending out this week is A couple television shows I've been watching You alluded to it earlier in the show Well I'm talking about The Lord of the Rings Everybody was hating on it Not everyone, I saw someone ask me On one of our Kansas City pinball discords And he's like, what was my thought This was after the first week And I was like, I'm holding out judgment I've been entertained so far The only part, I was struggling With all the characters they were introducing and bouncing between. And I'd say, you know, if I had to pick, like, what's my least favorite to follow, so far it's been The Hobbits, but I've never been a huge Hobbit fan anyway. But overall, the show, the production values are great. I like the acting. It's actually pulling a whole ton of stuff. I like it. I've been loving it as well. It's a visual spectacle. I was sitting here watching it and, like, almost jaw-dropping at times, like, oh, wow, look at that. But yeah, my only criticism. After the first episode, I thought, okay, well, now I've got to remember 43 characters to follow here. And to be fair, that was one of the things Peter Jackson did with Lord of the Rings. These are hard to remember names. And Peter Jackson took grief early on when Fellowship was coming out, because Arwen is actually a composite character, because there's so many characters in the book. It's like, we've got to merge some of these characters together so that we don't get overwhelmed. Man, I've been enjoying it as well as training up House of the Dragon, the Game of Thrones. That was my doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo. Because they even play the Game of Thrones intro now in the intro. Boo-boo-boo. Yeah. The long opener. They're like, did you get mad when you watched the first Game of Thrones season and there were no dragons until the last episode? Here are dragons, everyone. Oh, my God. Yeah. Here's your dragons. You want a stolen egg? Here it comes. Yes. So good. It's still very much like Game of Thrones, the original franchise. I'm very confused, but I love every second of it. So I don't know who's who. I'm like, she's badass, but that's not my Felicity. The only thing is there's Felicity's grandma. I don't fucking know who these are. That is, they had one of the, I guess, sort of MacGuffins perhaps to drive. I don't know yet because we're not very far in. The story has been this pirate group. And it's just like, and he ties people up and lets the crabs get them. Yeah. Every time I see it, I just go, crab people, crab people from South Park. Oh, no. No, nothing. didn't he? You didn't know it? I feel like my references just are not good. Well... I don't even know James Bond films. What the fuck was I watching in my life? Those are the TV shows I'm watching, Tim. Okay. Was there another one I was watching? I don't know. Let's trend some shit down this week. Trending down this week is Stern Pinball Spider-Man. Which one? The comic one or the... No, the original. Just the original Spider-Man. Not the Gottlieb, but the Stern 2000s. Spider-Man. It was always, for some reason, kind of... It was like a Lord of the Rings, holding a higher price like a Simpsons pinball party. Always kind of holding a higher price. They don't make them anymore. You don't see them around often. And when you do, they're beat to hell because they were really gnarled up in arcades. But they were always kind of steady in the sixes, especially during the pandemic. It's like, ooh, $6,800 for a really nice Spider-Man. Nope. Now they've floated right back down into the fives. So if you're wanting to buy Spider-Man, I think now, next couple months. Don't get it the holiday. The price will go back up a little bit. But mid fives now for a really nice Stern Spider-Man. That's not the black edition. That's not the comic edition. Those are going to go for a little bit more. Don't overpay for the black Spider-Man edition, though, because it doesn't go for much more than the original, the red edition. But in the fives now, I found that very interesting where I see other titles, older Sterns like Indiana Jones kind of making a comeback for some reason. That one's selling now more than Spider-Man. Can you believe it? You mean Stern Indiana Jones? Stern Indiana Jones is selling for more than Stern Spider-Man. That game is not great. I think it's just because we're seeing the Bally Williams one. That's the darling this year. The 2022 year is Indiana Jones. And then you're hearing about a new release, Indiana Jones 5 with Harrison Ford. You're seeing a little bit of trend on the Stern one as well. I mean, I guess. To me, that's like seeing a bunch of Transformer toys from your youth on eBay go away for money, and you can't afford it, so you buy a GoBot. Go buy the 4K disc of Michael Bay's Transformers. I'll kill you! From Optimus Prime. Yeah, that was really on brand for him. Good job, Michael. Nice job, Mike. Where are your fucking ugly turtles at? Why don't you just swoop low with a telephoto some more? I should have quit after Bad Boys. All right. What else? So I want to turn it out. Damn it. We still have more. I was trying to be positive. So trending down this week is, well, it's the building of Bitronic because that burned down. Oh, yes. Oh, poor Super Hoop. Oh, Super Hoop. And I had just received word recently that Super Hoops, like people are canceling orders or trying to cancel orders because people aren't getting their Super Hoop. Yeah, nobody knows where in the hell these things are at. Yeah, that's a Quitzel. I think that's how you say it. Quitzel Design Super Hoop. Quitzel. Quetzel. But Bitronic is the Spanish manufacturer that this is their first game, their first pinball game that they've been building. Nap Arcade has some photos up, and I can smell them. I can smell those photos. Charred, not burned. They are crispy. All streaming down this week is Travis Meary. Not TPN's own Travis Meary. Oh, Travis. He was getting heat this week. Why? People are commenting that on the a newcomer of a favorite show for a lot of people is the Triple Dream Pinball Podcast with Tom Graff, Travis Meary and Joel Engelberth. Some people feel like Travi is a little mean to the sacred Engelberth. I thought they razz on each other back and forth quite evenly. They do. But, you know, Joel has this like nice guy. Midwestern all shucks, man. Yeah, he's got. There you go. That's it. He's got that all shucks thing going on. The Columbo thing. I don't know. And, I mean. Travis is a competition player. Unless he's talking about Halloween, people can't seem to see through it. I guess Joel is more one of us. I guess that's what it is. Yeah, I mean, Travis could be, you know, competitive trash. Maybe that's what it is. Riff Jim Raff. Tom is a high-level competitive player, too. But he keeps his mouth shut. Yeah, but, yeah, contrary to popular belief, Tom doesn't talk. So maybe, I don't know. Poor Travis is getting beat up. We've got to look up for him. Travis. You like compared him to like peanut butter or something. He's the peanut butter of the PB&J. You've got to have him. You've got to have him. I prefer that to be the most on my PB&J. I want more peanut butter than I want jelly. A lot of triple drain listeners seem to have a nut allergy. They like their jelly. They like their jelly and Joel. Oh, jelly Joel. Jelly Jolie. Jelly, jelly, jelly. preferably strawberry and tom is the bread tom's just bread you try eating peanut butter and jelly without bread it's messy doesn't work out well you need that balance nice wheat one of your kids ever said i want pb and j but no bread i don't like bread well kid open up your palms best of luck my hands are sticky we're gonna we gotta get Travis trending back up because I think the people are wrong here. But, hey, I'm just reporting the facts. That's all I'm doing here. And I want to report to you a way to save some money in this week's Deal of the Week. Buy, buy, buy! We're going to feature our sponsor, Flip N Out Pinball. Guns and roses are $11,000. Plus, then you've got to pay for shipping. Right now, we have a used model for $99.99. That's a damn steal. I think it might even have our blades on it. Hot damn. I'm going to take that. I'm going to slash the price. I'm going to give it to you not for $9,500. That would be good enough. $9,400. Bam. Buy, buy, buy! Freaking hell of a deal for a J.J. P.L.A. $9,400? Eat it up. Nom, nom, nom, nom. All right, pushies. He doesn't say pussies, does he? Octopussy. That's Roger Moore. Damn it! Why do I want him to... He says Pussy Galore because that's the name of the character in Goldfinger. Does he call her Pussy? Yes! Oh, well, look at you, Pussy. Pussy Galore. Pussy Galore. Is that really Pussy Galore? She introduces herself. My name is Pussy Galore. Oh, is it? That's right. I can't remember what he said. I think, was it, but of course you are. Of course you are. I'm going to check because I can't remember what his comeback to her was. Oh, and he goes, I must be dreaming. That's his quote after it. Because he wakes up on the, I think on an airplane. Okay. And sees her. because he gets drugged or knocked out in some capacity. Anyway. And as always, I'm just here to report the facts because numbers don't lie, pushy. Neither do I. Pinball Marketringe. I don't do a good show. No. John. This whole episode is really bad. What is, John Connor? And the listeners don't know the part where you're like, after we got done with the stern part, we're going to get done with the rest in 20 minutes. Oh, my gosh. No. Yeah. I said, yeah, right. You go, watch me. Watch me. Push me. 40 minutes later, here we are. Maybe I'm like an Indiana Jones Last Crusade kind of junior. Maybe you're like Indiana Jones and the one with Shia LaBeouf. Crystal Skull. Dennis, where can people catch you? You can catch me on Eclectic Gamers Podcast. They can email me if they want to ask me anything, eclecticgamerspodcast.gmail.com, or go to facebook.com slash eclecticgamerspodcast and send a message with Messenger tool. I check those pretty regularly. Do you think Pussy Galore is going to be in the new game? She's got to be in there, right? Yes, she'll be in there. I just want a Stern game to say Pussy Galore. Guilty. You can catch me at the pinballnetwork at gmail.com, as well. Straight down the middle, we got a new video out. This or that we talked about. That was a lot of fun. That was a lot of fun. I think I picked all of them correctly. Minus the Halloween pick for some of you guys. I think I did good. Flip N Out Pinball, sponsor plug. Product showcase this week is a duo. It's a doubler. Stern, Star Wars Pro, and Led Zeppelin Pro. Get you a Led Zeppelin. They're going to be gone forever. Why? Because Ray Day said so, damn it. Will he ever not be on a music pin? I sure hope so. Maybe he's doing the code. No. No. No. No. No. Oktoberfest Classics, we've gotten. Well, look, people, I've got a lot of games right now. Bye, bye, bye. Bye, bye, bye, all day long. Oktoberfest Classic, Mandalorian Pro, Mandalorian Premium, Rush Pro, Rush Premium, Star Wars Pro, possibly some premiums as well. Led Zeppelin Pro, soon some premiums. Cactus Canyon Remake SE, they're ready to ship. That might be like one of the hottest games this year. I would say from a sales standpoint. SE Pluses, we still have spots for those. Toy Story 4 LEs, we have spots for those. And the CECs, you probably get before an LE. So put your CE spot in and get, it's a pretty game. Unboxed one for a buddy lately. TMNT Pro pre-owned, we got for $6,100. That GNR LE I talked about in Deals of the Week. We have nude Guns N' Roses as well. We also have Insider Connected kits. We do pre-orders for Alien, Queen, Elvira 40th, we've got one. Accessories galore. Oh, my God. Topper galore. I'm stuck on this. Oh, my God. Why are they even talking about this stuff? Maybe she's going to be on Topper finish. Slab her around a little bit. See, I'm turning to Jimmy Stewart again. Holy cow. Oh, that is so wrong. I was going to say, if they're doing a top, honestly, if they were doing all the bonds, the obvious topper is to pull from Goldeneye and put, what was her name, on the top. What's her name on the top, really? yeah her last name like i remember ivana on the top i don't remember natalia on i don't remember her first name but on the top because pierce brosnan makes fun he's like on the top and she goes on the top on the i was re-watching that yesterday so oh that's kind of like see i only know references to allison powell she was the one that killed she killed guys by squeezing them to death with her thighs oh nice kind of like how you you've choked the life out of this episode i know I have. It's okay. I'll go all the way. It would have been better to put seats around the set and sell tickets. I'm looking for a James Stewart quote. Why? Never treat your audience as customers, always as partners. I'm just... Not as customers, but as partners. Imagine him having them STI tests. I'd get around a lot. Oh, my God. See, I get my old people mixed up. I don't know. What was he famous for, though? He was famous for... Jimmy Stewart. Probably that Miracle on... But Miracle, Harvey, I guess. Yeah, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. That's the one I'm thinking of. Jimmy Stewart. Classic. Not actually a very good movie, but... Really? Nah. Okay. Last week at TPN, a lot of stuff happened. Silver Ball Chronicles happened. Aussie Pinball Podcast happened. The Triple Drain Pinball Podcast. Final Round Pinball Podcast. The Pinball Tapes. The Master Class Edition. Yeah. All of those over the last couple weeks. Yeah, it was a busy time. Absolutely. As well as the Three Strike Knockout Tournament over at District 82. That happened on September 9th. Fox Cities Pinball. Go watch the VOD of that. And go back and watch the VOD of Watches with Dennis, this or that, second edition, I believe. Yep. Tots. Tots. What's coming up this week at TPN? Any guesses, Dennis? Oh, I think there's a fall classic here soon. Isn't that what the Pinballers and North Star are hosting? Yep, yep, yep. That is coming up September 17th, so right around the corner here, as well as the Hot Chip Challenge. We got a little bit. That's September 24th, hosted by the Wild Dog Arcade, but that just sounds fun. It's 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, September 24th. They're going to be eating a bunch of hot stuff. they're going to end with the hottest chip ever so that's who took all the chips from the tailgate you bastards I'm still going start we can't let it go already what is this I don't know what it is I'm tired and I've been doing too much editing we're going to get a flurry of podcasts likely this week to discuss Stern's newest release that's what happens especially all you lazy-ass podcasters out there that have been sitting around, oh, Stern's got a new release, let's do a podcast for his impressions. I'll be happy to listen to them, though. I love it. So for Dennis Greasel, I'm Zach May. And to pull a partial quote from one of Zach's most famous James Bond movies, do you expect me to talk? No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to buy. And always practice safe pinball and buy, buy, buy, pushy. so dumb god this episode sucks so bad I'm still fucking done with this episode just burn it just burn it not even the audience deserves this and they deserve a lot they don't even deserve this I'm just sad that I couldn't find a James Stewart quote that I like it has nothing to do with anything we're talking about it doesn't there's nothing let him go Jimmy Stewart doesn't belong in this episode. We don't belong in this episode. You know, people are people no matter where you go. People are not people. Every time a bell rings, a pinball gets its ramp. If I had my own career over again, maybe I'd see myself. Speed it up a little. George Bailey. That's who I'm thinking. It's a Wonderful Life. George fucking Don. That's a lie. Yeah, and I was saying like Miracle. I'm thinking Miracle on 34th Street, which is some other movie. Yeah, my James. I don't know. I've only seen like that stuff once. My James Stewart quickly turns into Don Knotts. It's a fine line, Andy. I got my bullet. All right. I'm fucking done. Oh, turn off my little heater. Peter? It's fucking September. Oh, I thought you said Peter. I mispronounced it. That's turned off, too. My Peter. My Peter. My Peter can't get... I know, I like to be warm when I'm working. Like a lizard. Yeah, warm rock. Here's a gun. looks more fitting for a woman. You know much about guns, Mr. Bond? No. I know a little about women. This is just as bad as listening to the Beatles without earmuffs. What was that one? The fuck? As in Goldfinger, Bond gets up to grab a new bottle of alcohol for himself. They're the closest to the actual assets. What do you mean? All right. I'll cut that somewhere way before that. Okay. Probably for the best. GTF! _(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: a12cb26d-8adc-476f-ac9a-280701bd6428*