Shoot me down, but I won't fall, I am Dight Dandy! Welcome everybody to Canada's Pinball Podcast, two more sleeps to Christmas! Who's gonna get a pinball machine under the tree this year? Let's welcome our new club members. We got Busta386, Sean Spear. We got Dan F. Guys, welcome to Canada's Pinball Podcast. Let's do this. Let's go around the pinball horn on this episode because a lot is about to happen in the pinball space. Can you feel it? Those Beetlejuice games are just like lining up, waiting for those populated playfields to go inside. we are going to see Beetlejuice Machines going out the door in January, right? This is just like a couple weeks away. We are going to get that Stern Pinball the next game. Is it Pokemon? Is it Transformers? It's Pokemon. We're going to see that most likely January 6th, which is the beginning of CES over there in Vegas. We've got Winchester Mystery House. I give you guys credit who have a Winchester Mystery House spot because none of you are selling it for a profit. We're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about Dune. You got two weeks to order your Dunes. We've got stuff happening over at American Pinball. Apparently, people are going over to the factory and they're excited about their next pinball build, which, by the way, might arrive at TPF in March. Do you believe that? I don't. Who's designing it? Are they really going to get a game out in the world in March? I don't know. We'll talk about that. And let's just go around the pinball horn. I think a lot of people out there are starting to realize a lot of really great pinball is out there. I've seen some stuff recently with my own eyes, and I can say this without any hesitation. 2026 is going to be one of the most amazing years for pinball ever. I think it's going to get bookended by some mega moments. and I think everything in between is just gonna be the gravy. We're gonna get Beetlejuice, Winchester, the new Stern, maybe the biggest IP ever, Pokemon. And then we're gonna get Sonic the Hedgehog middle of the year. Then we're gonna get Back to the Future and Goonies at the end of the year. And also the next game from Keith Elwin. Is it gonna be Fallout? Is it not? It doesn't really matter, right? It's a new Keith Elwin game. A lot of exciting stuff happening in pinball. Now, if I were to give an overall assessment of where the hobby's at, you really have to knock it out of the park. And this is why it's such a fun time to be in pinball. And for those of you who are new to the hobby, welcome to pinball. The prices are through the roof. But the good news is this. I know and I've been speaking to everybody at every company. Everybody is really doing their best to put as much as they can into these games. It's getting to a point now where a lot of us are out of room. And if you're going to bring a new game into your collection, it really has to be worth it. I see people debating every single day, what's going to go? Some of you, it's five pins. Some of you, it's 10. Some of you, it's one like Kaneda. If I'm going to move that Guns N' Roses out, something really awesome has to move in. Is it going to be Beetlejuice? Is it going to be Sonic? How do I get that thing down the stairs? Let's go around the horn. Let's start with Stern Pinball. So obviously, Pokemon is just a couple weeks away. Now, I have some news I don't think anyone else here has heard. One of the biggest orders for Pokemon is not going to be the distributors you and I know. I am hearing that Costco put in an order for 3,000 Pokemon games. So they're going to make a sort of home edition of this game, a la what they did with Star Wars. And Costco is a humongous order. It does beg the question, even if you can bring all those games to Costco, should you? Because right now, Stern is sort of suffering a little bit from the perception issue that they're cheap, that they're not worth the money, that all these like spike three changes are cutting corners. They're not real enhancements. And so showing up at Costco with something that's like $5,000 or $5,500, how much sense does that make? Is that going to get new people into the hobby? I do know this. It is really, really hard for all of these pinball companies to really measure how many new people are we bringing into the hobby with each one of these moves? And are these Costco games a gateway pin or a gateway drug to get these people hooked on pinball and then buying more of our like everyday product? So I am hearing that Pokemon is not like spectacular. I'm hearing that it is going to be another underwhelming game a la Star Wars. So I don't know, right? Because George Gomez is on this and he's finishing what Jack Danger started. It's a strange combination, in my honest opinion. I don't think George Gomez is a Pokemon fan. I know Jack Danger is, but he clearly was fed up, if you will, with what is now seemingly becoming the, I don't know, it's not even like a secret anymore. that Stern Pinball over there culturally has become a bit of a toxic work environment. And you can kind of feel it. You can kind of sense it. And I think if I'm looking at Stern right now, I think that is the number one issue they are facing right now. I know on good information that a lot of people are looking to leave. I know on good information that people have left and recently gone over and down the street to Jersey Jack Pinball. And so it's hard for these designers though, because there are not a lot of homerooms for these designers. I think John Borg might've waited way too long to land over at JJP. I also don't think JJP wants John Borg. Do they want Jack Danger? I think it's hard. I think a lot of these guys have a lot of personality and they have a lot of reputation that goes along with them. And so if you're Jersey Jack and you're going to get to a point now where you're making two games a year, they're going to make Potter. They're going to make Sonic the Hedgehog. They've got Mark Seiden. They've got Eric Minier and they've got Steve Ritchie. They really don't need another designer. But let's go back to Stern. So we've got Pokemon coming out most likely January 6th. If this game is not ahead, what does that mean? How quickly will they rush out Transformers? Now, I don't think they're going to rush it out quickly at all. I think the big issue they're facing right now is that The Walking Dead, I don't think they ever expected The Walking Dead to do so poorly. They probably were anticipating they would somewhat consistently sell this Walking Dead remastered throughout the end of the year and into the next year. The orders are not there. The game is already plummeting in price. And so I think most of you out there are not really into Pokemon. And so I think we going to see another really soft beginning of the year to Stern Pinball And then it going to become Elliot Elliot Eismin Transformers Now I hearing very good things about Transformers Can wait to see it But they better have Stan Bush's You Got the Touch in this game. And they better get the voice of Optimus Prime into this game. And they better do it justice. I am hearing that they are putting a lot into this game. And look, Stern just needs something, right? They just need something that makes everybody universally look at it and say, that is awesome. If I were to give them some advice, I think they need to get more into these games. I think the toppers need to launch on the LE. I think they need to figure out how to make the decals look even better. I've seen some stuff coming, people. And I'm going to tell you right now, the problem with Stern is they're looking really cheap next to stuff from JJP and from Spooky and from Barrels. And those three companies are going to keep making their platforms look even better. So if Stern just wants to keep doing the same thing, they're going to have less and less excitement and enthusiasm. All right, let's go next to Jersey Jack Pinball. The second largest pinball company in the world. Harry Potter's are doing phenomenally well. I think they've made about 1,800 CEs. I think there's another 1,200 or so to be made. 3,000 CE orders they got roughly. They've sold more CEs than arcade editions. It almost begs the question, do they need three tiers with this platform? But look, in the end, this has been a super successful game for Jersey Jack Pinball. You don't hear me talk about it that often because there's nothing really to say other than people are really enjoying it. I think a lot of people consider it to be one of the best pinball machines in a very long time. And I've been saying it for a while. I think a lot of new pinball collectors, even the old pinball collectors, collecting pinball and just owning machines for years. I think there's going to be new titles that sort of become the standard foundation for what you build a collection around. And I think Harry Potter is going to be that. I think games like Beetlejuice are going to be that. Oh, and I almost forgot. I got to go back. Rewind with Kaneda right now. Jaws 50th. Jaws is now the number one game in the world. They just released the accessory package to Jaws 50th. I think it looks good. Initially, I didn't like all the red. Now I love it. And I think Jaws 50th is ending up the game where if you're going to go in on something, I think it is the number one game at Stern Pinball this year that gave everybody the best value. And it's shaping up to be one of the best Stern machines of all time. Now that's incredible. They really got past the whole shark doesn't eat the ball thing. And I think where this game just wins, if you love Jaws, it connects with you on such an amazing level. I think we're going to see the same thing with Beetlejuice. We're seeing it right now with Harry Potter. There's just a lot of smiles to go around. It's good, right? This is what we want. We don't want games that can only sell during a very short window. What we want are games that sell really well at the beginning, but they're also just really good games that people want to hold on to for a long time. And I think Potter is one of those games. I do think Beetlejuice is going to be one of those games. So Jersey Jack, we are looking at most likely Sonic the Hedgehog sometime in June, July. So middle of the year, this company will have two legitimate games on the line. And they're going to be running Harry Potters all the way up until the end of the year. Then we're going to get Steve Ritchie's Sonic the Hedgehog. And then after Steve Ritchie, we will see the next game from Mr. Mark Seiden. I don't know what Mark's game is. I don't think it's a music pin. I think it's going to be another movie related IP, which is good. I think the pinball world in general is a little over music pins. And if we do get another music pin, just make it different. Michael Jackson, maybe Eminem, you know, something different. We don't need more dad rock music. So Jersey Jack is going to have a really great 2026. And I will say this, talking to the people over there and getting to know them better and listening from people who are over there, this is another company where the culture is really in a great place. And it's not a company that's cutting corners. It's not a company that is like removing things from the games or rushing people to get their stuff out. I think the culture at JJP is going to be felt in the future products of this organization. I also got an exciting rumor about something that is going to launch with Sonic the Hedgehog. They are finally, after all of these years, I think they're going to finally connect all of their games with their version of connected pinball. It's not going to be called Insider Connected. But what makes me really excited about the Jersey Jack connection, because this company has the camera, you're going to be able to see the person you're playing. And that is amazing. You're going to be able to look at your friend who also has the machine you have, and you're going to be connected via the video and via the camera. And that all of a sudden gets me so excited, way more excited than just getting lame badges like Insider Connected. They're really going to be heads and shoulders above everybody else if they can connect the games that way. So look for that to come sometime in the middle of 2026. And again, it just goes to show you these companies that are innovating, that are bringing things into the market that haven't been done before are going to be the companies that people want to support. All right, let's go now to Spooky Pinball. As you know, Beetlejuice Machines are on the line. They're making four games at once. Four games at once. I'm looking at you, David David Van Es. You said you're going to do two. Spooky's doing four. What are they making? Like Scooby-Doos and Evil Dead and Beetlejuices. And I don't know what else is still left to be made. I don't even know. But January is going to be an exciting period for Spooky. We're going to start to see these Beetlejuice machines go out to customers. It's going to be amazing. Everybody by now should have their number of what game you are, which is good because then you can kind of map out your year. You're going to be able to know sort of within a ballpark of a few weeks when you're going to need to pay in full for your game. It's fun. I mean, it's great. Like, I love being 999. I'm at the end of the year. By the time I have to give them my money, I will already be giving my deposit on the Goonies. And I'm just going to keep it going. And look, I'm going to try to find space for these games, but I'm just holding on to them because I will eventually, whether it's in this house or open up a pinball bar, these games are going to go somewhere where I will be able to unbox and enjoy them. So don't worry about me I going to take possession of Beetlejuice 999 I think Spooky is just going to have a great year building all these machines And I need to open up I got a holiday gift from the folks over at Spooky I have not opened it up yet I gonna do a live unboxing of it sometime this week Maybe I'll do it tomorrow on Christmas Eve. We'll invite everybody on Facebook, on YouTube, on Patreon. I wonder if I can go live on all three at once. I've never tried that. So great year for Spooky Pinball. I think they've got the mojo. I think they've got the magic. I think they've got the good vibes. And again, I think their culture right now is seemingly the greatest company culture in all of pinball. And they've done it right. And they've grown from a tiny little company to a company that's now making a thousand games a year. And everybody is very happy with them. And I think they also understand there's a point where you just don't want to grow too big. Because if you grow too big, too much pressure puts pressure on your culture to figure it out. and I feel like when you look at Stern, they really do look like a company that's panicking because all the private equity money they took has put them under the microscope and it just feels like they're staring down the barrel of this gun and they don't know how to get out of it. I really think Stern has no way out. I'm just gonna guess, but I think in just a couple years, Stern Pinball is in big, big trouble. I mean, imagine if they lost Keith Elwin. If Keith Elwin just went somewhere else, Imagine how much trouble Stern Pinball would be in. That's how vulnerable they are. All right, so after Spooky Pinball, let's go over to Barrels of Fun. So Barrels of Fun has their FOMO for Dune Pinball. There's eight more days to order your Dune, or it is likely your last chance you'll ever get to order it. We'll see how that goes. I don't know. I don't think they're going to get like hundreds of orders. I don't see tons of people on the pin side thread saying, hey, I just ordered it because of this new sort of countdown, if you will. I think it's not going to be impossible to get a Dune the way it's impossible right now to get a Winchester. And I think everyone's just excited for this company to move on to Winchester. I think everyone looked at that topper preorder as a bad move. You know, I don't really see people say that a lot about barrels, but I do feel like David's move there, it was uncharacteristic of him. And it's not how this company normally operates. And it does feel like a weird cash grab moment where there's like a cash flow issue. And you see, you've got people now and they're like, well, how tall is the topper that you haven't even made yet? How tall is it when it's actually sitting on a machine? And these are just things people need to know. And they don't really know because they haven't even made the damn thing. They haven't actually physically put it on top of a game. And you know, for a lot of people out there, every inch or half of inch matters if you're trying to figure out if you can actually fit a $1,600 topper on top of your game in your game room. Look, I think everyone is excited for Winchester. I'm excited for Winchester. I just want these games to get on the line. I want people to get them. And I want to see if it lives up to the hype. And that is my thing about Winchester. The hype is there, baby. The hype is real. The FOMO is real. And heck, people are not selling their games. I just saw people giving up their Harry Potter spots because they're just like going to get a Winchester now because there's no urgency to hold on to Harry Potter because they can go buy Potter whenever. I think they're going to make Potter CEs for years. So yeah, if there's only 525 Winchesters and no show games, you better like hold on to your spot because they're not going to pop up very often. But it's still going to have to be an amazing game to hold, to stay in people's rooms. It's going to have to be amazing because there's just so much coming out that if it's only mediocre, I don't think people are going to hold on to it forever. But we don't know. I don't know yet. You don't know yet. The question right now is when will Winchester make it onto the line? Because they haven't said yet. They haven't said yet. Now let's count the months. This game was revealed at Expo in mid-October. October, November, December, January. Probably not in January, right? More like February or March. So we're probably looking at six months after the game was revealed, it will be on the line. That's a pretty long runway to get to manufacturing. Typically, it's like a two-month window between reveal when a boutique reveals the game and then the game is on the line. I don't really have anything to say on CGC other than do you think we're going to see something new after this remake of Medieval Madness Merlin's Edition? I see people selling this game a lot. The goodwill with this company is kind of gone. I think people are kind of just exhausted how long these guys take to execute. The rumored game that I heard is after this is Twilight Zone coming back. Personally, I don't think all these old games coming back is going to be as successful as it would have been like six, seven years ago. I just think there's so much new modern pinball that is so good. It's not like it's that hard to find a Twilight Zone. So that is what I'm hearing they are gonna do next. The long rumored game is Mark Ritchie's Halo. We've been saying it for years. Unfortunately, if it is Halo, I don't think anybody wants it. I don't think that property is really popping in culture. So hopefully they moved beyond that. So not a lot to say about CGC. let's go over to Dutch Pinball Alice's Adventures in Wonderland I am going to ask them in a week how many total did you make how many refund requests have you had I talked to Melvin last week he said they only got two two refund requests so I think people are going to hold on to these games because they're going to want their back to the future spot my issue now and my concern now I got to be candid here it's back to the future I'm worried about this game now I'm worried about this game because I spoke to someone who saw it and they were excited. They saw the Whitewood and I got this sense that they weren't blown away and that they wanted there to be a few more things in it that were just like, wow, that they want Melvin to get more involved in the project. And I think what Dutch needs to do now, because this game is roughly almost a year away, I think everybody over at Dutch needs to get into a room and I think all egos, all stubbornness, everything has to be checked at the door. This now needs to be an effort where everybody over there is working together to make this a magical game. And I'm worried that they're sort of still compartmentalizing the development of it. Melvin's over there making Raza, adding all this magic into Raza. And he's got some good ideas for Back to the Future. I just think him and Barry, and I know it's hard. It is hard to have like two people's design philosophies colliding, especially when there's only so much room under the glass. But the thing about pinball is it's such a different world than when the Big Lebowski came out. You know, Barry's only made the Big Lebowski. And pinball's changed a lot. Keith Elwin wasn't even a name anybody knew. The way these companies have advanced over the years, and this company has made just one game. So it is not like Barry's been refining his skill and they've been manufacturing mechs for the last like 7 to 12 years. They've only been making the same game. And five of those years, the company was basically making nothing. People are waiting for their Lebowski early achiever editions you know their pre spots and all that stuff went down with ARA And so here we are right This is like really Dutch Pinball second game in 12 to 13 years What other company had a 12 gap between games Doesn't really make any sense. And I'm a little worried that old habits might die hard. They just don't have the experience making another game until now. And so I hope they get it all together. I really do. We know the demand is there. and that's the other part they need to figure out. I'm getting nervous about how they're gonna like manufacture these things because the demand's gonna be through the roof. The rumor I'm hearing is that there are gonna be 88 SLEs, 88 for America and 88 for Europe. That's cool. I think that's a good idea. I think they're gonna sell out instantly and if Christopher Franchi puts on the cabinet a big DeLorean like he did the Batmobile on Batman SLE, take my money now. And I know people already are like trying to figure out how to get on the list for one of those Back to the Future SLEs. Look, the thing about Back to the Future, it's got the movie assets. It's got all three movies. It's going to just crush on just theme alone and assets. But we just also want a game that is as fun to play as the best modern games in the market right now. And you know me, I'm always a little confused why it would be hard to make a game as good as a Keith Elwin game when you can simply study his designs. It's not like Keith is working with a material that only he has access to. It's not like he has some cheat code advantage. He doesn't have any proprietary or patented thing happening whatsoever. However, he just like knows the way a game should feel and he knows how to lay a game out that just gives you so much great kinetic satisfaction as a player. Why would it be hard for everyone else to do something similar? And yet it is. And yet here we are. Well, the thing is this, though, that's the secret is it's not just Keith. It's Keith's entire team that makes his games magical. And you know who they are. They know who they are. Maybe I just don't know who they are, but he's got his whole team and they work together to make sure all of it comes together because that's really what makes a game magical. It's not just the layout. It's the software. It's the mix. All of it is an orchestra in concert together to make the pinball playing experience magical. All right, so Dutch Pinball, we're gonna get Razzes out probably sometime in April. 333 Razzes. That will be the bridge to get us to Back to the Future. Can't wait for that game to be shown. I know I've seen it and it's got some really neat stuff. They're going to sell everyone. He's going to sell these Razzas pretty much instantly. They really are cool. And when you see the wider screen, it's got the wider Deep Root screen. It's going to be neat. And the code and all the stuff, you know, I don't know. It's just kind of like this game that's finally going to get made. And, you know, you're not going to worry about getting it. So I think they're going to sell everyone easily. All right. So who are we missing? American Pinball apparently is making stuff in this factory. They're making some other sort of arcade machines. And they say they're going to bring a new game, maybe to TPF. I just don't buy it. I don't like American Pinball because of what they did to me personally. I accept any apologies they want to give to me. They have not. But I just think karma and this company is going to play a big factor with how people receive them moving forward. I really don't like giving them much air time. I think they've made so many bad decisions. And my question now becomes is who is their George Gomez? So if this company is moving in the right direction, who's steering the ship? Until I know who that is, I don't have any faith they're going to make a good game. And that's all I'm going to say about American Pinball. But hey, if their new George Gomez introduces himself to us and talks about their new philosophy and tells us who's designing their games, who's doing the code, what kinds of themes we can expect, sure, I'm on board to change my mind. I think it's stupid to not keep an open mind. But there was some dude that visited the factory last week and he said his son saw two titles for pinball machines that were original IPs. And it's like, really? There's no room in this market with Pokemon, Beetlejuice, Star Wars for original IPs to work. Roz is different. And it's not even like an original IP. It's got enough awareness all these years. But man, if you want to come out of nowhere now with something completely original, it'll have the same results that Galactic Tank Force had. All right, who else am I missing in the world of pinball? We've got all these companies in Europe. Pinball Brothers with Predator, only 300 sold. I don't know. Next from them is supposed to be Tales of the Arabian Nights or Circus Voltaire. Are you going to buy a John Papadiuk remake by the Pinball Brothers? Or maybe that's Pedretti. I keep getting confused. I think it's Pedretti. Pinball Brothers, I don't know what's next. Pedretti's going to be, I think, Circus Voltaire or Toten. They obviously are not going to do Big Bang Bar just yet, but that's another remake. Look, the whole remake world, I'm over it. It's not exciting. These games have been around for 20, 30, 40 years, some of them. I'm not excited. I heard they might be bringing back Addams Family as well. I'm just not excited. We can get these games easily. To me, what makes pinball exciting is the here and the now, the games that are pretty new. I don't want to keep looking in the rearview mirror. The future is looking so amazing for pinball. I don't really care about these remakes. Our friends in Switzerland making this Resident Evil game. I look forward to seeing more of that. They said they're going to share stuff with me exclusively. So look out for that. Who are we missing? Hexapinball is making that Louis Vuitton game for like $115,000. How do you go from Space Hunt to Louis Vuitton for $115,000? I don't get it. I really don't get it. We've got Turner Pinball. I don't think anyone ordered Merlin's Arcade or they didn't sell that many. So I think Chris Turner needs to figure out how to go get an IP people want. And then we've got Multimorphic P3 with Jerry. Portal, I feel like I haven't seen people unboxing it. I just don't know, man. You know me. I just don't know how the Multimorphic is going to keep doing. I don't. I just think at the price now, because Portal All In is expensive. The module itself is like the price of a Stern Pro almost. I just don't know, man. I don't know. I don't think it's going to catch on. I think Jerry really needs to figure this out. I think he could have had one of the most successful boutique companies of all time. And instead, he just had this dream to make pinball differently. And come on, it hasn't really worked out. The numbers don't lie. He's a nice guy. He had a dream. But man, look at what Spooky's doing a year. And look at what Multimorphic is doing a year. Any questions? I'm losing my voice, people. The reason there's been a delay on the podcast, I'm a little under the Carl Weathers. But everybody, we'll be back with more episodes of Canada's Pinball Podcast. we'll talk to you soon Kaneda out Thank you.