# DPP #127 "A fresh bunch of awesomeness!"

**Source:** Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2024-06-04  
**Duration:** 37m 37s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/donspinballpodcast/episodes/DPP-127-A-fresh-bunch-of-awesomeness-e2kg9s1

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## Analysis

Don discusses the launch of 'We Are Pinball' (WAP), a new co-hosted podcast with Genghis, addressing community drama and speculation around his pinball opinions. He clarifies his nuanced views on Venom, the Foo Fighters topper pricing, and recent Stern production schedules, while emphasizing inclusivity and fun over gatekeeping. He shares June production intel: John Wick LE shipping, Jaws Pro/Premium reruns, Iron Maiden/Black Knight reruns, and speculation about a mystery July release tied to Metallica or Godzilla anniversaries.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] John Wick LE units are shipping this week; distributors are requesting addresses and boxing units — _Don states he has fresh production schedule from Stern Pinball; reports LEs are being tagged and boxed for delivery 'this week'_
- [HIGH] Jaws Premium will be run again at the end of June due to earlier parts issues — _Don confirms Jaws Premiums were held back initially for parts reasons and are being produced again in June as promised_
- [HIGH] Iron Maiden Premium run coming into July alongside Iron Maiden/Black Knight Pro reruns — _Don receives ticker update mid-podcast confirming Iron Maiden Premium production alongside other reruns_
- [MEDIUM] A mystery Stern game is scheduled for July release — _Don states 'there's still some kind of mystery game coming in July' with speculation about Godzilla 70th anniversary or Metallica (Ride the Lightning released July 1989)_
- [HIGH] Venom Premium has become more enjoyable after beating Null boss and unlocking replay mechanics with character selection — _Don describes beating Null as 'tipping point' after ~200 plays, enabling character selection which changed gameplay enjoyment trajectory_
- [HIGH] Don is selling/trading off games from his collection due to space constraints — _Don states 'the rest of the year is going to be bringing some heat' regarding new releases and he knows he'll need to 'let some things go'_

### Notable Quotes

> "I don't want to be some grumpy dude out there gatekeeping the hobby for everybody. There's enough of that."
> — **Don**, opening
> _Sets philosophical tone for episode and response to community drama; defines his approach to content_

> "Two things can be true at the same time. The Foo Fighters topper can be pretty incredible as a product...and it can also be incredibly overpriced."
> — **Don**, middle
> _Clarifies his balanced criticism approach; addresses topper controversy directly_

> "My Venom's already been sold. I've been looking at the market and actually considering picking up an LE down the road now that the prices have really come down, because I do enjoy the gameplay."
> — **Don**, middle
> _Demonstrates consistency of opinion and willingness to reassess as market/game evolves_

> "I'm not going to respond directly to any of this business that's out there...I'm not mad, I'm not enraged...I'm not even mad, I'm just disappointed."
> — **Don**, middle
> _Shows restraint in response to community criticism; references parental disappointment metaphor_

> "We are pinball is what he came up with...perfect. We'll capitalize on the parody of that trademark process."
> — **Don**, early
> _Explains WAP podcast naming origin; Genghis spotted 'We Are Paddle' venue in Copenhagen_

> "John Wick LE owners, all five of you will be getting the LEs here pretty soon."
> — **Don**, late
> _Humorous reference to extremely low LE production numbers; indicates scarcity of John Wick LE variant_

> "If we get to 100 [Patreon members], I agreed to do two [John Wick Translight giveaways], so that would double everybody's chances."
> — **Don**, late
> _Patreon incentive structure; currently at ~93 members with growth target communicated to audience_

> "Jaws Premium, great game. The upper play field, it's fast, it's fun. The shark coming up interactive is super fun."
> — **Don**, late
> _Strong endorsement of Jaws Premium as standout game; identifies key differentiator (upper playfield)_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| We Are Pinball (WAP) | organization | New podcast co-hosted by Don and Genghis; named after venue 'We Are Paddle' in Copenhagen and Cardi B song; Facebook page launched; episodes on Spotify, Apple, Google Podcasts; email: wearepinball69@gmail.com |
| Don | person | Host of Don's Pinball Podcast; co-host of new We Are Pinball podcast with Genghis; passionate community figure addressing drama and sharing industry intel; Patreon-supported (at 93 members, target 100); game collector/operator |
| Genghis | person | Co-host of We Are Pinball podcast with Don; European perspective (based in Copenhagen); YouTube video creator; interested in Amiga hobby, solid state games, System Ones; operates pinball machines |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major manufacturer with June production schedule including John Wick LE/Premium shipping, Jaws Pro/Premium reruns, Iron Maiden reruns, mystery July release speculated to be Godzilla 70th anniversary or Metallica |
| John Wick Pinball | game | Stern Pinball release; LE units shipping this week; Premium version has 'three to four little fun mechanisms' but Don questions if worth $3k premium; Don has one on order; part of his 4-game Stern rotation program |
| Jaws Pinball (Premium) | game | Stern release with upper playfield; reruns scheduled end of June; Don finagled way to secure Premium; considers it 'the game to have'; leaving his collection for Pacific Northwest |
| Venom Pinball | game | Stern Stern Premium/LE game; Don clarifies balanced criticism: Pro is D-grade, Premium is C+; enjoyed after beating Null boss and unlocking character mechanics; Don added spinner mod; considering picking up used LE |
| Foo Fighters Topper | product | Aftermarket accessory for pinball machines; Don defends it as well-designed but 'incredibly overpriced'; compares to luxury goods (Vision Jet example); community drama around product emerged |
| Iron Maiden Pinball | game | Stern release; Pro and Premium versions being rerun mid-to-late June into July; Don had Premium, loved it; Pro still 'good enough'; Elwyn flipper; music by Iron Maiden band |
| Black Knight Sword of Rage | game | Stern release; Pro version being rerun mid-to-late June; mentioned alongside Iron Maiden reruns |
| Mad Pinball | company | Distributor/retailer partnered with Don; Jeff is contact for Jurassic Park Premium production intel; provides discount code to Don's listeners |
| Kerry Hardy | person | Pinball content creator; dropped announcement on Patreon today that excited Don before clarification; produces alternative John Wick Translight (gun version) that Don is giving away |
| Scooby-Doo Pinball | game | Game in Don's collection; recently returned to after weeks of playing Jaws/Pulp Fiction/Labyrinth/TCM/Looney Tunes; Don plays as Fred character; has upper playfield multiball and Scooby character mode |
| Jake Danzig | person | Pinball player known for playing Scooby-Doo Pinball frequently; mentioned as keeping game 'blown up' |
| Metallica (Ride the Lightning) | game | Potential July Stern mystery release; 35th anniversary of Ride the Lightning album release in July 1989 (Don initially unsure of year); Don speculates this could be July mystery game alongside Godzilla 70th anniversary speculation |
| Godzilla Pinball | game | 70th anniversary rumored for July; potential candidate for mystery Stern July release; Don references Drake building mechanism from Godzilla as example of compelling premium mechanic |
| Deadpool Pinball | game | Stern release; premium has sparkle glitter ball and full-size action figures; Don finds it fun but missing major standout mechanism; some production runs mentioned for mid-to-late June |
| Led Zeppelin Pinball (Pro) | game | Stern Pinball; Don grades it D; had good games on location but doesn't elevate game to high tier |
| Bond/James Bond Pinball | game | Stern Pinball; Don grades it B-; popular in community; suffering from missing upper playfield/major mechanism like John Wick; lacks compelling reason to upgrade from Pro to Premium |
| Spooky Pinball | company | Boutique manufacturer; Don doesn't expect releases until winter/snow in Wisconsin (mid-January at earliest); contrast to frequent Stern production runs |
| Deezerland | venue | Pinball arcade/museum in old Florida Mall (formerly Artagon); operates ~200 machines; Don questions if 'works more like a pinball museum' where machines don't all need to function; location Don plans to visit while in Central Florida |
| Jerry Burry | reference | Rick and Morty episode reference Don uses to illustrate his 'that was always allowed' philosophy about people leaving/making choices without announcement |

### Topics

- **Primary:** We Are Pinball Podcast Launch, Community Drama/Response, Stern Production Schedule & June Releases, Game Design & Premium vs Pro Layouts
- **Secondary:** Venom Pinball Reception & Reassessment, Foo Fighters Topper Pricing Controversy, Patreon Growth & Listener Incentives, Pinball Collecting & Game Room Saturation

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.55) — Don is generally positive about pinball hobby and excited about new releases/WAP launch, but frustrated by community drama and disappointed by gatekeeping/interpersonal conflict. He maintains measured enthusiasm for games while critical of some design choices and pricing. Defensive tone when addressing speculation about his opinions, but ultimately philosophical and forgiving.

### Signals

- **[community_signal]** Launch of We Are Pinball podcast as co-hosted platform with Facebook community; inclusive philosophy emphasizing fun over gatekeeping (confidence: high) — Don formally announces WAP with Genghis; establishes Facebook page, email (wearepinball69@gmail.com); next episode planned end of week; explicitly invites community participation
- **[event_signal]** 40th Pinball Expo announced as 'biggest one it's ever been'; positioned as indicator of hobby growth/expansion (confidence: high) — Don states '40th is coming up, the biggest one it's ever been. So the hobby is still growing and still expanding'
- **[sentiment_shift]** Internal drama/gossip cycle regarding Don's game opinions; community speculation about his Venom/Bond positions causing fallout (confidence: high) — Don addresses 'crazy wild accusations' and 'toxic cloud' blowing through community; people questioning consistency of his opinions across platforms
- **[competitive_signal]** Venom gameplay depth unlocked through progression systems; character selection changing gameplay mechanics improves replayability and enjoyment arc (confidence: medium) — Don describes beating Null boss and accessing character selection as 'tipping point'; ~200 plays required to fully appreciate mechanic innovations
- **[design_philosophy]** John Wick Premium criticized as lacking compelling upper playfield/major mechanism to justify $3k premium upgrade; mechanical innovation insufficient (confidence: high) — Don states premium needed 'some kind of upper mechanism thing...not saying John Wick needs an upper play field, but it needed some kind of like upper mechanism thing'
- **[market_signal]** Don's game room saturation driving collection pruning; planning significant sales/trades; hints at restraint on new purchases through 2025 (confidence: high) — Don states 'I'm going to need to probably let some things go here' and 'may not buy anything else for the rest of the year, and maybe into 2025'
- **[community_signal]** Don transitioning from solo podcast format to co-hosted collaborative show (WAP) seeking 'more conversation and less shouting into drywall' (confidence: high) — Don explicitly states desire to expand into 'long-form format' with co-host; describes difficulty finding available collaborative partners in 'smaller, insular' hobby
- **[market_signal]** Premium tier pricing ($3k+ increases) not justified by mechanical differentiation; community/buyer resistance evident (confidence: medium) — Don critiques John Wick Premium value proposition; references Venom/Bond Premium limitations; suggests upper playfield or major mech required for premium justification
- **[product_strategy]** Don added spinner mod to Venom to increase 'kinetic enjoyment and satisfaction'; aftermarket modifications improving base game experience (confidence: medium) — Don states 'I thought the game needed a spinner so I added one and that increased my kinetic enjoyment and satisfaction of the game'
- **[product_strategy]** Stern executing planned June reruns (Jaws Premium, Iron Maiden/Black Knight) after earlier production delays (confidence: high) — Don confirms fresh production schedule; Jaws Premium rerun 'promise' kept; Iron Maiden Premium newly announced mid-podcast via ticker
- **[rumor_hype]** Mystery Stern game in July heavily speculated to be Metallica (Ride the Lightning 35th anniversary) or Godzilla 70th anniversary (confidence: medium) — Don notes both anniversaries align with July; emphasizes Metallica as strong rumor; acknowledges uncertainty but provides timeline context
- **[business_signal]** John Wick LE extremely limited production (Don jokes 'all five of you'); scarcity/FOMO strategy evident (confidence: high) — Don states 'LE owners, all five of you will be getting the LEs here pretty soon'; indicates exceptionally low production numbers vs typical runs

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## Transcript

 what's going on everybody don west coast on over here don on the west side just hanging out about the recording studio just wanted to say what up and thank you for listening thanks for being part of this community springing up that offshoot of pinball we're all just having fun let's keep that in mind. Hey, yo, let's hit it. Don's Pinball Podcast is coming at you, episode number 127 for this, God, what is it, Friday, Tuesday? I can't even keep track anymore. It is June. June Pinball Power Month. Well, this game's coming out, but they're ones we've already played before. Let's talk about that and what's going on in this hobby. Welcome, everybody, back to the show. Two things about me and pinball. I have fun with what I'm doing, but I only want to do it if it is actually fun and I can be helpful. I don't want to be some grumpy dude out there gatekeeping the hobby for everybody. There's enough of that. There's enough hobbies that are like that. Are you guys into metal music at all? Have you run into this dude with the old leather jacket who's just like Mr. Gatekeeper, looks completely unhappy, stands in the middle of the pit just looking like grumpy? What are you doing, man? I think the hobby has moved past you. Your enjoyment is no longer within the sphere, man. There's tons of other stuff to do out there. Check out model trains. Do slot car racing. Get into aviation. Go play on a lake. Go touch grass. Go do something, right? So I'm in here playing some pinball, having a good time. And in that spirit, I've got a new project that I launched. Now, I've made it no secret that I've had this secret. It's no secret but a secret. I've had this desire to go into a more long-form format, not go into but just expand into. I want to have a podcast show or what have you that's semi-frequently, infrequently, maybe every week, maybe every other week, just whenever there's news, but like with somebody else. So it's more of a pinball conversation and less of just me shouting into the drywall wall in front of me. And so I mentioned this on the Patreon. I was discussing it last night with everybody in the Discord. But there's not really tons of people just kind of rushing in like, hey, I'm available. Let's kick this thing off because our hobby is a little smaller, a little insular. and then within that you've got people that would be interested in recording and then within that people that have the availability and all that stuff. So try different things. Triple Vuck, I think it was a great idea for an international podcast but everybody's an individual and is allowed to make their own decisions whether those are good decisions or poor decisions. So wish everybody well. But my buddy Jengas and I have been doing content for a while here and he's extremely enthusiastic about pinball, of course. so let me listen to the guy. I am too. I have fun with what I have fun with. I mean, it's not a front I put on, right? So he approached me saying, hey, Don, let's do a podcast. I want to do a podcast. He does a lot of YouTube videos. He's into the Amiga hobby, a lot of the older solid state games and System Ones and all that business. He operates. Also, he's got a European perspective, which I think is great. Let's match that with what I'm doing here. I at least know how to run this mixing board and get content up. So it offered to help. And so we put together a concept, and then we were kicking it around, wanting to get started. You go through the names just like you're a teenager in high school, writing down all the names of your dream fantasy band, and 98% of them are cringe and another 5% are ultra cringe. And then he comes at me one morning with just the gold. He has an epiphany. He's out in Copenhagen and sees this place called We Are Paddle, WAP, and just has that up there. And, of course, there's the Cardi B song, which is just legendary. as far as just as a cultural touchstone, as a moment of female empowerment, what have you. And I'm like, well, perfect. Let's just take that. We are pinball is what he came up with. And I was like, perfect. We'll capitalize on the parody of that trademark process that's out there. People know what it means, and we can kind of play it off like we didn't realize. And it would be kind of funny because, after all, what we do should be fun. So the first We Are Pinball podcast episode is up. We've got a Facebook page. It's up on Spotify. It's on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts. The podcatcher should be catching it, that first episode out there. You know, we're getting his studio side up where it needs to be for, you know, podcast recording. So there's a little bit of audio issues. If you suffer through those for about two minutes, the rest of it went pretty well, and we're just going to get better from there. But not only that, we started a Facebook page for it at We Are Pinball, and everybody's invited to come hang out. If you've got something to promote, something to talk about, you know, come on in there, man. Let's discuss it. nobody's banned. Nobody's not allowed in there. Just don't be a jerk, man. You know, don't come hang out at our bar and, and, you know, throw drinks in people's faces. That's not cool, man. Don't do that. You know, but if you want to be down, like, let's do this and let's, you know, kind of grow and we'll kind of cross pollinate and everybody can come in there and chillax and have a good time. We'll discuss pinball just like another forum, right? Um, you know, forums like pin site are great. Uh, they're a little antiquated. It's a little harder to keep up with all those, you know, you got a hundred pages of conversation and you have to click and load each one it's hard to do on a mobile device facebook tends to work for that and for people in the target demo tend to be on facebook and not so much the instagram so it's easy to scroll on uh but go check it out join it up post some stuff up there let's comment on some mods it's coming on some pinball machines let's generate some content and then uh whenever news has aggregated to the point that we can have a good say hour-long conversation uh then we'll go ahead and record and i think the next one may be coming at the end of this week so we are pinball wop Number two, we've got an email address. We are pinball69 at gmail.com, so go ahead and get at us. This is hilarious. Yeah, you know, but that's, you know, we're just doing this, you know, for fun, right? And I've been listening to some of the other content, I guess you could call it, that's been generated over the last 96 hours or so, and I'm just kind of sitting here like, you know, okay. I mean, it's always been allowed, you know, to be a little grumpy sus if you want. I personally don't see what the point of all that is. I see jealousy come out. I don't think there's any reason for that. I think if we all work together, we can all rise together. The Pinball Expo, the 40th is coming up, the biggest one it's ever been. So the hobby is still growing and still expanding, much like this universe that we're into. So we're pushing new frontiers. There's room for everybody. So there's no need to be jealous or insular or hater or whatever else you got in there, right? You know, so it was hard because, you know, of course you want to jump out and you want to say, okay, all of these crazy wild accusations that are coming, I should probably speak to them. But then it's like how much energy or how much oxygen do you want to give to, you know, a toxic cloud that's blowing through? But just to clear up a couple of things, I like Venom from Stern Pinball, the premium in the LE. My views on it are that the Pro doesn't feel like a full enough game. But the Premium, although it's not, I mean, it's not Jaws, right? It's not James Bond. It's not Deadpool. But it's fun. I had it. The first 75 games I played on it, I enjoyed it to a point, and then I started to really kind of hate it. And I was hard bagging on that game because I was stuck at null, man. And it was preliminary code. You know, but I'd maxed out my levels. I've done everything that I could do. and I was kind of soft-locked on my account at beating Null, the boss of the game. Once you beat him, you get to unlock one of three secret characters and then play through the game again and build up your levels again and things. And so, you know, once I finally beat the guy, that was really the tipping point. Then my score or my levels reset. I got to play through again. Then I got to go through and battle people again, try out the different characters. And then all through that time of, you know, about 200 plays or so, I learned the shots of the game. I learned the rules of the game. They were simple for my simian brain to understand, and then my enjoyment really peaked up at that point, and I discovered, like, okay, now I get what they were going for in this premium layout. Now, you know, you pick a character, the gameplay changes. I love that. It's not on the Pro. It kind of sucks. I've had some good games on the Pro in location, but I've had some good games on Led Zeppelin Pro in location. It doesn't make it, you know, a high-tier game. It's still like a D. I would give Led Zeppelin Pro a D. I would give Venom Pro a D. And I would give a C plus to Venom premium and bond would probably come in as a B minus. So that's kind of like how I feel. Let's be personally, man, people love bond. People are trying to convert me into being a bond lover. Um, I have fun when I play the game on location, but to bring it into my own personal game room and shell out the multiple thousands of dollars required to do it, you gotta have a high bar to set It suffers from something similar to what John Wick is suffering from where the premium isn that compelling past the pro It missing that one big mech James Bond is missing that one really severely interesting game-playing mech, upper playfield, lower playfield, something that just doesn't have it. Deadpool suffers from the same thing. It's fun to play the premium. I do like the sparkle glitter ball. I like the fact that there's full-size action figures instead of plastics. I like the little ramp that comes up, but it doesn't have a major mechanism that's there. Iron Maiden kind of suffers from this. Games come in all types, and I didn't design the thing, but this is what they're presenting me with. These are how I feel about it. So the idea that I'm running around pinball shows, this bad-mouthing Venom, and then come on here and say it's great. What the hell? I don't have nothing to gain from that. My Venom's already been sold. I've been looking at the market and actually considering picking up an LE down the road now that the prices have really come down, because I do enjoy the gameplay. It's still fun for me with Venom. Stick on it for a second. When I go out on location and play Venom and scan in, I'm picking up my game right wherever I left it off last time, as long as it's on Insider Connected. So I do like that. It's fun to pop in there every now and then. I went and played a game at Logan Arcade, and I was right back to where I had left off, fought Grendel. It was great. You know, walked up, did that, played a bond, and then went on to Robocop or something. And I think that's still okay. So a couple of things can be true. um venom pro doesn't feel like a full game to me um i need to have spider cheeks and uh you know the venom premium is fun still to this day i think that's fun um i thought the game needed a spinner so i added one um and that increased my kinetic enjoyment and satisfaction of the game um you know venom kind of strikes me as a game that somewhere during development some kind of major mechanism was removed from it just how i feel don't know if it's true or not um but i don't think the game is bad. I enjoy it. And I don't know that it'll ever have a renaissance like Bond has or like Stranger Things because it just doesn't have that extra little thing to it. But the game is fun and I have fun playing it. So do with that what you will. Let's talk about the Foo Fighters topper because this was coming up also. People were getting irrationally upset about this product. And I've maintained through my discussions with anyone that would listen that two things can be true at the same time. The Foo Fighters topper can be pretty incredible as a product, as a topper, as a cool interactive thing for your pinball machine and it can also be incredibly overpriced and I think those two things are true. I think those two things can be true. It's great and it costs too much. Think about a luxury watch, think about a luxury car. They can be great. The aircraft I'd like to buy, the Vision Jet, $2.5 million or something. Looks great. fly-by-wire. It's got that single yoke control on the left and the right, depending on what seat you're in. It's got leather seats, six people, plus some baggage. Flies incredibly fast. Looks super sleek. As a personal jet, this is the future product that I want. It's $2.5 million. There's no way in any universe I can afford that or the upkeep for it or anything. So two things can be true. The thing looks awesome, and it's way overpriced. But that doesn't mean that the crew behind designing the Foo Fighters topper did anything wrong. I think they did an incredible job there. For that price, I would have liked to see a lot more, something a lot more compelling, more tooling that was done, a little more interactions, a little more movement, maybe some hands that came out, I don't know, something. Some new call-outs, some new modes, fireworks, explosions, pyrotechnics, moving can lights, servo motors, I don't know, something for that price. So that's why I think when I say this before, or my level of enthusiasm for that product is eclipsed by the price for the product, that means it's a safe no-buy, and I feel okay about that. So I'm not doing a great job Win Schilling the Foo Fighters toppers, which is great, because if I was, there'd be exactly no benefit I'd be getting, because no one's paying me to do that. Mad Pinball's been kind enough to partner with me to do the show. The only thing they ask, they say, Don, we don't want you to change what you do. We love what you do. Talk and tell people exactly what you think about the games. just if you would happen to mention where you buy your games from and how to reach out to us if they're interested, that's all we need and so that's been the arrangement the whole time I don't get a financial percentage back if you use my name or my discount code when I give things away they're things that I've either found a way to buy in bulk and make it affordable to give out or I use the Patreon funds to help fund that to give back a portion of what we're doing or somebody that wants to promote a product will send it to me and say hey, review this, give it out to your people you know and so that's what I do or if it's super cool I'm going to hang on to it because I want it right because again I am an enthusiast about the hobby I like this cool stuff you know that I do I thought about going through all the episodes that I've done since I've started and like add up the time you know 20 minutes here 15 minutes here then like the 35s the 40 the longer ones like how many hours have I been sitting you know putting this out there not that you know once I hit 60 hours I need some sort of award or anything but I'm just curious for my own how many game plays how many score real spins have I had here spinning my wheels through this so I'm not going to respond directly to any of this business that's out there it's always okay for people to put their opinions out whatever they are I mean adults are allowed to make their own decisions even if those decisions are what we would consider quite poor and completely pointless go ahead I'd ask that people maybe don't be jerks about stuff because that seems unreasonable. But again, you do you, boo. And you just got to be able to live with whatever consequences you're looking at. But yeah, geez, that was a lot this week, man. And it bummed me out a little bit. It was hard to do my Sunday live because I'm like, yeah, I feel like, you know when you did something completely stupid like juvenile dumb and your parent looked at you and they're like, I'm not even mad, I'm just disappointed. That's how it felt. I'm not mad, I'm not enraged. Nobody got at me. I'm not going to put money in your Patreon, Don. I'm going to give it to somebody else. It's your money. Do whatever you want with it, man. Why are you coming to me? I don't guard your wallet, buddy. I try to offer some value in exchange for the Patreon contributions that I get. And I think we've got a good relationship because we keep building. And we get great feedback from people. We got the Discord going, and we're doing giveaways. This month coming up, we've got another Translate giveaway, and it's John Wick, and it's the alternative Translate. I got a whole shipment of them in. So right now I'm planning on giving away one, but let's see how the month goes. I'm seeing like 93 people on the Patreon, most of them active members right now. We get to 100. I agreed to do two, so that would double everybody's chances across the board right there. So if you were on the fence and thinking about, like, should this be the month that I go ahead and give Don five bucks and just see how it goes and check out all that extra content, might not be a bad time to do it because it could push us up over the hundred where we get double giveaways. And then you paid five bucks and you got yourself a free Translight. I mean, it's a John Wick one. It's the alternate one. It's a Cary Hardy approved edition. Hope he doesn't mind me dropping his name there. But it is the gun version. Essentially, Translight is a backlit poster, and so you can get these things printed up. So I'm not selling it. Giving it away just for fun. But, yeah, that's a free benefit. So I hope that works to kind of encapsulate some of my response to everything that's been going on. It's kind of like that scene in Rick and Morty where Jerry was at the Jerry Burry, right? There was those Jerrys from all the other dimensions. And it's a place that Rick and Morty can drop their Jerry off to go play with other Jerrys. And, you know, it's on an alien space station or something. And, you know, the Earth 376 or whatever Jerry gets fed up. and he's like, I'm leaving. And he marches out past the lady at the desk and she just looks at him and says, that was always allowed. You know, it's like, you don't have to announce your departure, man. This isn't an airport. You know, go ahead. You do whatever you want. It doesn't bother me. And I've said before, you know, I don't give ultimatums that'll make people choose. You know, I've been in hobbies before where somebody rules their little forum and they gain a following and then, you know, they get into a spat because of course it happens. With somebody else that runs something equal or better or worse, And they say, okay, anybody that's a member of that forum, you will be banned from this forum, so it's time to choose. And I was like, that was the lamest thing I've ever seen an adult do in my life, at least online, or at least outside of police videos. So I just decided to go ahead and cancel myself off right there. You forced me to choose. All right, we're done. So when I get an ultimatum, it's either something ridiculous that's not even on the same level. You're either with this group or you favor your family. It's like, okay, well, that's a really easy decision, you know, later, my dude. You know, so if you like consuming content that somebody else makes out there, that's fine. You don't have to, like, stop. I don't care. If you enjoy it and you're having fun, I mean, I feel great for you. Have at it. I don't judge you harshly if you want to participate in that. I just don't want to personally be involved in it. But if you do that I still interact with you just like I always have you know judge you by the content of your character and not the content of the content influencer you follow I guess So I just wanted to get that across That was really the gist of it, the main point. But yeah, man, having fun in pinball. Like today, I came downstairs, packing for a trip. Central Florida people, if you want to meet up, let me know. Post on this Facebook post or join the Discord because I'm going to be back in you. I still need to check out some of the pinball places down there. I guess I should go to Deezerland at some point. It's in the old Florida Mall. Now it was Artagon for a while. They had the great Van Skate Park back in the day. used to love that place. And then it kind of just all fell apart. But now some guy bought it and has something like 200 or something pinball machines. But the reports that I get are kind of, you know, it works more like a pinball museum and not a pinball arcade. The difference being, if you call it a pinball museum, you don't have to have all of your games working at the same time. because if it's not working, it becomes an exhibit, much like how an escalator never breaks. It just becomes stairs, right? So it's kind of tongue-in-cheek way of saying that your arcade is too big to be managed properly. But maybe I should go check it out because, I mean, I do have fun with pinball. But I came down here as I'm packing everything up, and I fired up Scooby-Doo. And just coming back to it after immersing myself in Jaws and Pulp Fiction and Labyrinth and TCM and Looney Tunes and everything, Scooby hadn't been getting the most love in the last four or five weeks. So I fired it up again and played like five games as Jeff, the guy with the ascot, Fred. And, man, it's a fun shooting game. I've got it balanced properly. So off a cradle, you can pop the balls right up into the spinners, go through the modes, and then it plays like a theme park. You can play down on the main area battling the main villains, or you can go and play in the upper play field for a while and get the multiball going, Or now you can try to go for the Scooby character mode or the topper mode that's in there. There's just all kinds of little areas of the game to play around with and focus on. Super fun. I get why Jake Danzig plays it all the time and keeps blowing it up. So it's fun just to come back to these games. I'm looking at a fairly full game room here. At some point, I'm going to need to probably let some things go here. So if anybody's interested in something that I have, slide me an offer and we can talk. No reasonable offers will be refused. I'm not in a sell-off. It's just that it's getting a little crowded down here, and I know that the rest of the year is going to be bringing some heat because I've been talking to some people and getting some sense of things. I don't have any major things to break or any reveals to ruin because, honestly, I don't know. But what I do have is kind of a loose idea of a timeline in the near term and then in the rest of the term for 2024. So here's my sense because people love this. I love this. When people talk about I got the rumors of the next games coming out, I am there, man. Kerry Hardy dropped something on his Patreon today that made my heart get a little arrhythmia for a second until I found out, okay, it's just him kind of priming the pumps and everything. But for the month of June, I've got the production schedule from Stern Pinball fresh off for this month at least. It's been covered before on the Pinball Show. I've got some leakbacks that came back from me. But really right now, we know we're seeing John Wick LE in premium. They're going out. The LEs are shipping. The distributors are asking for addresses right now. They're being tagged and being boxed up and will be going out this week. So LE owners, all five of you will be getting the LEs here pretty soon. And check out that back glass if you can get yourself to see an LE in person. Fantastic. When I said it looks like the best back glass ever, I didn't necessarily mean like I think that art is better than anything that's ever come before. I mean like the finish on it really just puts it a step above anything I've seen before. It's unlike any other back glass that I've seen in pinball. Outside of things that incorporate gameplay, Banzai Run, of course, I guess, would have the best back glass because there was a whole pinball machine inside of it. Circus Voltaire had that ping-pong ball to throw around. Terminator had that shot that was kind of gimmicky. Big Guns has some fun stuff in it. Somebody put a gumball machine in the backbox. I think that would be fun. Anyway, it looks cool. It looks really, really cool. Go see one in person. Those are shipping out. Premiums will be on site. You can see if those three to four little fun little kind of mechanisms make it worth the extra three grand for the price of the machine. I think that's kind of a hard sell. I think if it had something, not saying that John Wick needs an upper play field, but it needed some kind of like upper mechanism thing, something else to lock into the continental building to like open up like a dollhouse. You can see battles going on inside of it, you know, or like a little ramp that pops up. You can fire balls into it. I don't know if thematically that makes sense with John Wick. I've only seen the first one. But, like, something like that would have put that just up at the edge, and I think that's kind of where us, the pinball buying public, that's what we're looking at. If we want to go premium, which we do, we want to really desire, like, screw the pro, you need to have the premium. But, like, something else-ish should have been in there. It didn't have to be the Drake building from Godzilla, but just a little something. But see if that is compelling enough for you. I think it's super fun. I have a John Wick on the way, and I'm still waiting to see, to reveal which version that is. But yeah, I can't wait for it. And I think it'll be fun to have a game on the ground floor. This is 4 of 4 of the Stern rotation program that I started. So it'll be ending with John Wick, and then I don't know where I'm going to go from there. I may not buy anything else for the rest of the year, and maybe into 2025. We'll see. We'll see how things go. I have plenty of games I definitely don't need anymore. So we'll see how that shakes out. But that's what's going on this week at Stern. Jaws pros and premiums will be run again at the end of the month. This is when Jaws was announced. The premiums initially, they were holding back the run for reasons. I think it was part issues. But we were going to see that promised run again in June, and here we are. Here we are in June. So I'm glad I did finagle my way into getting a premium so I could have it all souped up. I think this premium will be leaving here, heading out to the Pacific Northwest here pretty soon. But if I didn't go in on that, then I'd have to wait until now to even get in on Jaws. and we're already in the season of the WIC, man. So Jaws Premium, great game. We're still waiting on it. That's the game to have, man. That upper play field, it's fast, it's fun. The shark coming up interactive is super fun. The extra wire form, I'm always a fan of that. So, yeah, Jaws Premium I think is the way to go. The drop targets add so much more than the stand-up targets do. It's just a fact of life, man. It's just a fact of life. I have to have it. What else do we got? Mid to late June, Jaws Pro, Jaws Premium. and then Iron Maiden and Black Knight Sword of Rage are being run again. The pro versions. So again, Iron Maiden Pro, a good enough game. You don't need the premium. I had the premium. I loved the premium. I'm glad I got it. For me, the extra little mechanisms, I had to have them to have all the features. But the pro is still a heck of a way to go if you want to get one of those. Even if you want one, you don't necessarily have to get the new in-box. The new in-box is still being produced. We'll kind of keep a cap on the used game prices. Maybe you can go pick one up for $1,000 less used somewhere. Iron Maiden's a great game. The music's awesome. It's an Elwynn. Come on. A perennial classic. Also, Jurassic Park Premium is supposed to be run somewhere. I was waiting on a text back from Jeff at Mad Pinball. He was going to let me know if he had any insight in when that was going to take place. Oh, here. I think I may have gotten a ticker into the newsroom. All right, race fans. Turns out there's going to be an Iron Maiden Premium run done as well going into July, and then it looks like some Deadpools will be made too as well. So that's fun. So that's fun to know. So Stern will be cranking out some games. What else is going on? Spooky Pinball, I don't expect that we're going to see anything until the snows hit in Wisconsin. And probably snows hit and they're at least four and a half inches deep, which probably puts us at mid-January, maybe, mid-January. Otherwise, from Stern releases, there's still some kind of mystery game coming in July. Now, we all know that the anniversary for Godzilla is heavily rumored, the 70th anniversary. But there's one other Metallica anniversary that's happening in July. I think on the 24th, the Ride the Lightning was released in 1989. God, I can't remember the year. But there is a Metallica rumor, and there is a Metallica anniversary also coming up in July. What's going to fill that hole? We'll wait and see. What do I want to see? I want to see a Spike 3 system with a bigger LCD screen, a powered amplifier, and just cranking Metallica tunes. And then it's a game I probably will watch, and if I ever get one, it may not be until 2025. when I'm ready to kind of move some things around. But I would like to see it. I would like to see it come out, and I want that premium layout. You know, you've got to have a spinner. What else do we got? Totally lost. Oh, the Godzilla, yeah. Okay, so at some point, Black and White Godzilla will probably come out. Godzilla is a game they're probably going to make again for another eight years or so, I would think. Sounds like from distributors what I've been hearing. Even though sales have slowed off going into the summer, supplies of new and boxed Godzilla premiums are still in short supply, and there's still demand. I've got at least a couple of people that are after me now for my Godzilla premium with the topper, with the full powder coat, and the Stumbler mods, the Tokyo sign, the fire-breathing Godzilla, all of Lior's mods he had available for it. The whole thing is – posts have been switched out. It's the whole deal, man, the whole deal. I've got the best looking Godzilla premium I've ever seen. Plus I got the topper on it redid the team holding like the whole bit man and people are after me So if you interested slide me an offer man Maybe we can work something Otherwise, that game is amazing, and I'm not really looking to sell it. But I guess my arms could be twisted because, again, you know, there's only so much room in the showroom here. So Stern will have another Cornerstone this October. Man, who's going to buy all these games? What's it going to be? Is it going to be X-Men 97? Haven't heard that quite yet. But Spooky Pinball will have something out Probably, I would think first quarter 2025 Definitely not by Expo But what's coming up? Texas Pinball Festival might be a little late So it'll probably announce around the same time They did Looney Tunes at TCM this last year So go Team Spooky American Pinball, are they going to have A company by Expo? Are they going to have a brand new game by Expo? So when I was thinking back to what David Fixit Told us all on the podcasts gosh, that was about six months ago that he had a poster for the movie 300 in the factory and that was the motivation to try to get their goal of building 300 games in 2023 and I think from what he was saying they were on track to do that but that boggled my mind because hanging out at the Spooky Factory they crank out a thousand or more games a year so what the heck now I know Barbecue from what I'm hearing isn't selling gangbusters Galactic Tank Force, I don't know that sales are still running out of the factory on that. So if this company does have a banger, which I believe they need, man, everybody wants to see the American pinball just kill their game. But are they limited to only building 300 a year if that happens? Can they scale? They seem to have the facility for it. I've been in there a couple of times. Fantastic looking place. So maybe they would have to grab some people from the Amazon factory across the street to bolt some things together. but what's their capacity for a game so they can produce per year? I would like to see that tested because that would mean that they had a game that was just in demand and we couldn't wait to get so that would be fun what's CGC cranking out? well it sounds like they're going to start production on their LEs, that's rumored to happen probably by the end of summer which would give them a couple months to maybe get all 1,000 made and then would we see that medieval madness run again that's been rumored since IAPA November of 2023 yeah which was now like six seven months ago uh that that run was coming that's what they told me on the show floor well there might not be wrong it's still coming but when exactly uh will we see the medieval madness reruns released uh revealed before spooky or after spooky next year 2025 shaping up to be a as far as like the new normal for pinball cadence a fairly strong year i can't wait to see what spooky's next themes are i don't know what they are but i know they're excited and they've mentioned that in this market, and I think this is an astute observation, in this market for games to sell and be successful, they've got to be banger themes, AAA, take my money now, which as pinball fans is what we want. We don't want to see a game release that we're like, I mean, okay, I guess. I wish it had these 10 other things to it, but maybe. I don't want to be milquetoast about it. I want to see, did you see this reveal? This is a number one day one buy. Can't wait to get one. I want my location to get one. I'm trying to get my rich friend to buy one invite me over, that's what we want let's get excited it's nice that we have some people that are in the community that are also fans at the level that we are and really understand yeah dude, we're getting it and if we don't get the licenses because it's so hard to work with we can't get all the assets the spooky next one I'm excited about who else is there? at least Jersey Jack, cranking out their game of the year Elton John, is that what's going to take the Twippy this year? I think with the spooky releasing two games. Kind of sabotage some of their votes. So, yeah, I think it would be three-way between the duo of the Spookies, Jaws, and Elton John for Game of the Year for 2024. What do you think? What do you think? Am I wrong? Am I wrong? Am I right? Am I on the right thing? Would it be funny if, say, Elton John takes Game of the Year, and then Jaws is number two, and then Looney Tunes and TCM are three and four, but if you add up the votes for Looney Tunes and TCM together, that they were actually at the top? Wouldn't that be interesting? I think I'd give them an honorary Don Award for that because that's the kind of pedantic stuff that I would totally enjoy and participate in. So that'll be fun. I think it's all the major companies. We'll see what else shakes up for the rest of the year. Toppers are coming out. The rumor for the Jaws toppers is it's going to be the billboard from the Amity Village. I like that. If it has some sort of effect in it where, like, a light can switch or, like, a UV light can come on and it would switch over to the vandalized portion of it, I think that would be so cool. especially if the lights interact with like the night modes that we have and like this the the the night search multi balls and stuff i like to see some interaction from it i think that could be fun and if it was just essentially a billboard without a need for any tooling without a need for any moving parts that we could see a topper that's not twenty five hundred dollars please please uh the godzilla topper was around a thousand i think for a nice interactive topper this turn can do if They can come in around that price point for Jaws. Yeah, that would be compelling. Now, there was this rumor that there'd be two versions. And I can see, let me speculate on this for a little bit. I can see certain pinball doing this and this be a viable product for them. Okay, so let's say they make a topper and they target around $500, $750. It functions as a topper. It's a big billboard for the game. So you put it in your arcade, draws interest over there. Classically, that's what these things are supposed to be doing. And also for the homeowner that has to have a topper on everything or it doesn't look right, At least they have something that's not $3,000. But let's say they also do a version where there's a lot of tooling, moving parts, flashing lights, three dimensions to it, interactive modes, and it's, you know, $2,200, let's say, but it's limited. You know, we're only making 500 of these. We put a stamp on it. That R2-D2 topper behind me doesn't really integrate with the game all that much. There's not a whole lot that looks to be to it. and it came out for a fair price when it was released. But on the secondary market, it is in high demand, like multiple thousands of dollars demand, and that's because of that limited plate on the back. There's only 500 made. That's all that will ever exist. Some will be lost due to attrition, and then there's even less in the world. So if Stern Pinball, maybe not for every machine, but came out with an affordable topper design that was compelling and interesting for everybody that would be available, and then also have kind of like a high-dollar one that you can put a lot more into, a lot more value in there, and then put the biggest value on it by having a stamp saying there's only 300 of these. I think there'd be room for that. I'm going to put that out there because I think that would address a lot of the things. All right, the Foo Fighters topper is $2,000 and looks cool and everybody wants one. So that kind of sucks, though, because that's expensive and that's your only option. Either go without or cough up the money there, Brondo. So what if they had a $700 one that was like the plastics and the lights and had the interaction, which is really what we want. And then there was a $2,000 version with a stamp that said, we're only making 600 of these, and that's all that's going to be made. And a portion will be donated to the family of the drummer, or something like that. I could see that working. That way the high-end collectors really feel that they have something special, something that will hold its value, it will be a fungible asset for the future, and everybody else gets to get a topper without shelling out a third of the cost of the game that they purchased. I think that would be a nice gap. And again, not for every game, but I think for titles like Jaws, maybe John Wick, but just the bangers. Godzilla, come out with a limited edition topper, a limited edition anniversary black and white topper. We could see them do it with that. Wouldn't that be funny? Wouldn't that be funny? Because they told us that, and rightly so, that they don't want to go back and rerun other LEs and add numbers out there for games that they made before. So what if they do come out with a 70th anniversary Godzilla premium black and white version, but there's also an add-on limited edition black and white topper that unlocks extra modes and that's the one that's limited at 500 boom checkmate stern you shrewd marketing guys i think i may have figured it out and that's a way that they could offer the 500 unit exclusivity and get the cash for it and still not make the le pinball machine owners feel like they're being degraded i think that's the way forward i take that with that we'll go on out i'm going to hit the outro music, be sure to email me. I've been getting emails crazy from people. I love the support, man. I'm not going anywhere. We're still doing this. Go check out WAP. Maybe we make it 10 episodes. Maybe we make it 1,000 episodes. I'm going to make every episode as engaging and fun as I can make it. And if at any point it becomes not fun, not helpful, or toxic, then I'm just not interested in pursuing it anymore. So if it exists, it's going to be fun. And if you want to be a guest on the show, man, come on. We're just going to have pinball conversations and fun times. Don's Pinball Podcast at gmail.com is how you can get to me. We are pinball69 at gmail. If you want to get froggy and talk to either myself or Cengiz over there in Denmark, be cool to everybody. Have fun playing pinball. Come on, play some games with me. Challenge me. I learn by being challenged. And, yeah, let's all just keep having fun. That's what I'm doing. Don't be a nerdy hater. Later. you

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: d8c30d41-cd6f-4dc6-be78-55dc89eea8d0*