Episode 768: "Will Somebody Ship Something!"

Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)·podcast_episode·23m 5s·analyzed·Feb 10, 2023

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

Kaneda critiques high-priced game delays, licensing choices, and mod pricing while previewing TPF announcements.

Summary

Kaneda discusses delayed shipments of high-priced games (James Bond 60th, Scooby-Doo), expresses skepticism about Avatar 2 licensing and Stern's rumored next title (Foo Fighters), criticizes pricing trends and mod IP infringement issues, and previews Texas Pinball Festival announcements. He advocates for players to wait for proven gameplay before purchasing expensive machines.

Key Claims

James Bond 60th edition is supposed to ship this week (mid-February) and will be the first major unboxing to watch
medium confidence · Kaneda opening statement; based on announced release timeline
Spooky Pinball's Scooby-Doo is very close to shipping to consumers and operators
medium confidence · Kaneda's observation of production photos and production status
David Fix confirmed Galactic Tank Force by American Pinball is coming out in March
high confidence · Kaneda states he reached out to David Fix directly and received confirmation
Avatar has been optioned out as a pinball machine IP
medium confidence · Kaneda citing something he saw on Naps Arcade; claims he previously presented Avatar pitch to John Landau
If Jersey Jack makes Avatar 2, it will underperform similarly to The Hobbit licensing deal
low confidence · Kaneda's opinion/prediction based on his view that Avatar 2 didn't culturally resonate despite box office
Lior's Guns N' Roses topper was taken down due to copyright issues with Guns N' Roses
medium confidence · Kaneda reporting that video/images were removed; cites IP infringement concerns
Stern's next game is likely to be Foo Fighters designed by Jack Danger
low confidence · Kaneda's speculation based on Jack Danger's increased social media activity about design stress
Turner Pinball (buyers of Deep Root assets) will fail due to 'bad karma' from the J-Pop/Robert Mueller fraud scandal
low confidence · Kaneda's opinion; references $61M stolen from elderly investors in Deep Root project
Pat Lawler's Toy Story 4 game was in development for two years and is not an original idea
medium confidence · Kaneda's critical assessment of the game's design and development effort

Notable Quotes

“I thought by today we would have seen people unboxing this James Bond 60th edition... I thought somebody with their Porsche or their Ferrari, who's wealthy enough, would have paid someone to go to Stern and pick up their game for them.”
Kaneda @ opening — Sets up the episode's frustration with shipping delays and high price points for unreleased games
“I don't think it's inappropriate if you're talking to Keith Elwin to ask him, hey, what do you think of the price of this game? Because I want to hear Keith Elwin say it... Are you ready? Canade has got his cargo shorts ready.”
Kaneda @ ~2:30 — Signals Kaneda's intent to directly challenge pro players on pricing justification at tournaments
“This is what a pinball machine, just from a visual standpoint. This is the kind of game we want in pinball. Bright, colorful, a welcoming theme that everybody knows.”
Kaneda @ ~5:00 — Positive sentiment toward Scooby-Doo's visual design and theme accessibility
“Like we've, have we ever seen this before in the history of pinball where you had one pinball artist working on two separate company games and they're coming out at exactly the same time. It's going to be interesting to see how this all plays out.”
Kaneda @ ~7:00 — Notes unusual market dynamic with Christopher Franchi doing art for both Godfather and Galactic Tank Force
“Who really wants an Avatar 2 pinball machine?... This movie, I don't think it's going to catch on culturally... I think if Jersey Jack makes Avatar 2, I think it's going to go down a lot like The Hobbit.”
Kaneda @ ~12:00 — Expresses skepticism about Avatar 2 licensing despite box office success; predicts JJP licensing failure pattern
“I'm here to tell you right now, I am buying that game. I am buying Big Trouble in Little China. I am buying Fifth Element. You know, I'm buying The Last Starfighter.”
Kaneda @ ~14:00 — Reveals personal wishlist of themes (Top Gun Maverick, etc.) that resonate better with him than Avatar 2
“So he wants to make 350 of these things at $2,300 a pop... That's more money than Eric Menier makes, than Keith Elwin makes. Like that is insane.”

Entities

Kanedaperson Keith Elwinperson David FixpersonJohn LandaupersonJack Dangerperson Christopher Franchiperson Dennis Nordman

Signals

?
product_launch: James Bond 60th Edition expected to ship mid-to-late February 2026; first major unboxing video pending
medium · Kaneda opening: 'The game is supposed to be on the line this week' and 'We should see it probably next week' (timeframe mid-February)
?
product_launch: Spooky Pinball's Scooby-Doo is 'very close' to shipping to consumers and operators based on production photos reviewed
medium · Kaneda: 'I've been looking at these production photos of Scooby-Doo... Spooky Pinball looks like they are very close, and I mean very close, to getting this Scooby-Doo and the first runs of this game out'
?
machine_intel: Galactic Tank Force by American Pinball confirmed for March 2026 release by David Fix
high · Kaneda: 'I reached out to David Fix, and he's confirming that this game is coming out in March'
?
licensing_signal: Avatar has been optioned out as a pinball machine IP; if made, expected to be by Jersey Jack per Kaneda's connections with John Landau
medium · Kaneda citing Naps Arcade post and his previous pitch to John Landau (Lightstorm Productions executive producer): 'If we are going to see an Avatar pinball machine, I fully expect it to be a Jersey Jack machine'
?
regulatory_signal: Lior's Guns N' Roses topper (with Axl Rose skull imagery and 300+ LEDs) was taken down from public view due to copyright/IP infringement issues with Guns N' Roses
medium · Kaneda: 'the video was taken down, the images were taken down, and apparently there is copyright issues with Guns N' Roses and this topper'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.069

0:00

You can bet your bottom dollar in time you're gonna be mine. Just like I should, I'll get you good. Sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up. Ah, welcome to Gannetta's Pinball Podcast. It's Friday. I thought by today we would have seen people unboxing this James Bond 60th edition, right? The game is supposed to be on the line this week. I thought somebody with their Porsche or their Ferrari, who's wealthy enough, would have paid someone to go to Stern and pick up their game for them. So we're still waiting on gameplay for this super-duper expensive single-level James Bond game with absolutely no movie assets in the entire game itself other than the ugly artwork. Look, I just want to say this for the record. I don't think it's inappropriate if you're talking to Keith Elwin to ask him, hey, what do you think of the price of this game? Because I want to hear Keith Elwin say it. I want to hear him articulate how he sees $20,000 in value in this game. Of course, he doesn't want to be asked that question. And it's the first question I'm going to ask him when I see him maybe at Texas Pinball Festival. Are you ready? Canade has got his cargo shorts ready. All right, so look, this game has not shipped yet. We should see it probably next week. And here we are, we're heading into mid-February, Super Bowl weekend. We got Valentine's Day next week. When are we going to see the next unboxing? I think it's going to be this James Bond game. And I also think Spooky Pinball looks like they are very close, and I mean very close, to getting this Scooby-Doo and the first runs of this game out to some consumers and operators. And I want to say this. I've been looking at these production photos of Scooby-Doo. And the game looks good, people. I love the colors. I just love the way the game looks. Look, I don't know how it plays yet. I haven't flipped it. But this is what a pinball machine, just from a visual standpoint. This is the kind of game we want in pinball. Bright, colorful, a welcoming theme that everybody knows. And I just love it that we're going to get Scooby-Doo versus the dark, slow, dramatic world of Godfather versus Galactic Tank Force by American Pinball. I'm here to tell you right now, I reached out to David Fix, and he's confirming that this game is coming out in March. And I asked him, I said, hey man, can we get some teasers to this game? And he said that he would send me the teasers when they are ready. So I look forward to seeing this game. I think what's going to be really funny is we're going to get Godfather versus Galactic Tank Force, the double Gs, both with art packages by Christopher Franchi. Like we've, have we ever seen this before in the history of pinball where you had one pinball artist working on two separate company games and they're coming out at exactly the same time. It's going to be interesting to see how this all plays out. I still love that people are holding on to this dream that Eric Menier's game is not going to be Godfather. I saw on Naps Arcade something that I've been telling everybody for a long time, and that is that Avatar has been optioned out as a pinball machine. And I think I told you guys this story that I was presenting to John Landau, who's basically the executive producer of the Avatar movies. He owns, like, Lightstorm Production. He's friends with Leonard Abbas. So if we are going to see an Avatar pinball machine, I fully expect it to be a Jersey Jack machine. But I want to ask each and every one of you a question. Who really wants an Avatar 2 pinball machine? I mean this. Like the movie was okay. I enjoyed it, but I don't want to see it again. It didn't leave this indelible impression on me the way the first Avatar movie did. I think I saw the first Avatar movie like seven times in the theater. Like it blew our minds seeing that movie for the first time. This movie, I don't think it's going to catch on culturally. And I don't care what the box office says. And I think if Jersey Jack makes Avatar 2, I think it's going to go down a lot like The Hobbit. You know, it's like Jack has no luck licensing movie properties where he thinks it's going to be a huge blockbuster hit. And this is the thing about Avatar 2. It's just like The Hobbit. The box office numbers are phenomenal because every geek will go see it. But it's not about whether or not the movie made money. Did that movie emotionally really grab people and click with them? And I'm going to say this, the much better movie to make is Maverick. Whoever makes Top Gun Maverick as a pinball machine, I'm here to tell you right now, I am buying that game. I am buying Big Trouble in Little China. I am buying Fifth Element. You know, I'm buying The Last Starfighter. I have a list of like really nerdy themes that I would love to see made into a pinball machine. But Maverick's not even nerdy. It's just mainstream. Now, the big hurdle will be Tom Cruise. Will he want his name, image, and likeness to be in a pinball machine? I'm not sure. And that's going to be the big hurdle to overcome. But again, if you're Mr. Abbott, like the billionaires all know each other. Like he has more money than Tom Cruise Isn that crazy And I bet there like a billionaire phone where you just pick it up and it connects you to any other billionaire in the world or 500 millionaire or 800 millionaire and you can talk to them over like an expensive glass of cognac and you can explain to Tom like, Tom, you've conquered the movie world, but you should conquer the pinball world and you've never been immortalized in the right way in a pinball machine and I think he would bite. All right, so look, we've got Scooby-Doo shipping any day now. We've got this James Bond 60th shipping and I really hope you guys unbox something you enjoy because you haven't seen any gameplay footage. I still think it's crazy. What else is going on in the pinball world? Well, did you see this expensive topper from Lior for Guns N' Roses? Guess who didn't see it? I didn't even get a chance to see it because the video was taken down, the images were taken down, and apparently there is copyright issues with Guns N' Roses and this topper. So here's what I was told the topper looks like. It is Axl Rose, it is his skull, and then there's, I guess, two revolvers behind him, and then a crowd behind him, and there's like 300 and something LED lights. If there is a game that does not need more LED lights, it is guns and roses. And the lights on the play field are amazing, but I don't think we need more LEDs on the topper. So he wants to make 350 of these things at $2,300 of pop. And look, I did the calculations and I know he's not going to profit this. That is $805,000. Now let's just say he's charging you double his costs. So he's making $400,000 just on this topper alone. That's more money than Eric Minier makes, than Keith Elwin makes. Like that is insane. And I guess it just begs the question, and this is interesting for the entire mod world, is for some of these modders who are getting very, very close, if not crossing the line into IP infringement, should they be allowed to make so much money by sticking something onto someone else's game? I mean, we're at the point now where some of these modders, I think, are actually making more money than the designers. And if you're these pinball companies, I know you can't stop people from modding your games. And I think some of the mods out there are absolutely amazing. I love a lot of the mods for Batman and Godzilla. I love the mods for Lord of the Rings. There is just great mods for almost any game. And I know some people hate mods. And I'm just curious what people think. Email me at canadapinball at gmail.com. Do you think someone should be allowed to sort of rip off, you know, the Axl Rose skull image that the artist made for the GNR game? And you're going to sell this thing at $2,300. And also like, look, Lior knows what he's doing and he knows the FOMO, right? He's only going to make 350. Like he knows that there are 500 CEs. He knows there's 5,000 LEs, but man, I'm in the wrong industry. Like pinball podcast isn't making me much money. $5 a month people struggle to pay. This guy's going to make more than most of our salaries just on one single topper mod. Wow. We all should probably get into the mod business, people. It can't be that hard to do this stuff. And I will say this, all of these pinball sculpts, they're so overpriced. Do me a favor, go look at Sideshow Collectibles, go look at all the different like anime sculptures that are out there and see how much money they cost, how detailed they are, $2,300. dollars that was the price of twilight zone when it was brand new so we'll see what happens we'll see if he's allowed to sell this thing it's an interesting story that they yanked down everything do you want to know another ridiculous thing i saw there is a lord of the rings a standard edition lord of the rings pinball machine new in box on pin side guess how much money this gentleman wants And that game has been in a box since I think 2004.

10:06

The thing has been sitting in a box for freaking almost 20 years. And he wants $22,500 for a new in box Lord of the Rings. It's not even an LE. And his big selling point is it comes with the little plastic figures that the LE doesn't have. And let me tell you right now, you can buy those little plastic figures for like 50 bucks. and they're still available. So what happens when you unbox a $22,500 Lord of the Rings game? Doesn't it immediately become worth like $8,000? And isn't the only value that it's still in a box? And then it begs the question, will pinball, will some pinball collectors look at this like toy collectors? You know, there's toy collectors out there. There's toy collectors out there that they love the stuff that's still sealed in the cardboard box as it was shipped to toy stores. Like they don't even want to open up that box, let alone get to the pristine toys underneath the cardboard box. Like this is just ridiculous. Like these are toys meant to be played. And the moment you unbox that game, you just lost over $10,000. So I don't understand why someone would price it at that. If you were to ask me what is a new in box Lord of the Rings worth, I would say at most at most At most Again I wouldn even want one Why would you want a new box game like that Wouldn you want to play it I rather have one that been set up that been kept in good condition, that everything's been dialed in, and then you get to enjoy it. I'm going to use a argument. It's like buying a used car with like 50 miles on it. You can't drive it because the reason you paid so much for it was because it only had 50 miles. I'd rather get a car with 15,000 miles that's so much cheaper, but the same car and the same experience and then go beat on it for the rest of my life because we're all going to die. That's the thing. It's like these things are toys like you have to enjoy them and best believe people the moment Canada has a house. I'm going to unbox my guns and roses. Derek is going to fly from Texas and help me set it up. I'm going to set up my Batman 66 SLE and I'm going to play pinball every single day I can until the day I die. I don't like the fact that I don't have a pinball machine in my home right now. I envy you guys who can wake up in your tighty whities, put on your Scooby-Doo slippers at three in the morning and go downstairs, crack open a beer and start playing pinball. That sounds so amazing to me. If you spent a week in my Gucci shoes, you probably would be so bored because the routine is pretty damn claustrophobic. And you know you married the right wife when you're not killing each other in a one bedroom in which your baby, who's almost two, Killian's going to be two years old, the 26th of this month, he's in the same bedroom with you. So it's been a very, very interesting two years. I love Brenda, so thank you for putting up with me, Brenda. Now look, we've got high price games left and right. Let me throw out a scenario because we've got a lot of high price games. If you were to say, Chris, I'm going to give you $20,000 and you have to buy one pinball machine. And the answer for me is simply this. I would not go anywhere near this James Bond. And again, I know this is a huge amount of money to spend, but I'm just telling you right now, if I was going to buy anything between 15 and 20,000, right, I would probably buy one game. And there really is only one game at that high, high price point that I look at still to this day with some envy. I look at this game and it's beautiful. Every time I see this game, it makes me smile. I think they nailed it. And I think this game is one of the most beautiful looking pinball machines ever. And I hear from owners it's one of the best shooting pinball machines ever. And the reason why this is one of the greatest Stern machines of all time is simply this. It's because Stern didn't even make it. The reason this game has one of the greatest mechs in all of pinball is because Stern didn't make it. And that is Elvira 40th Anniversary. This game is unbelievable looking. I'm really struggling not to get one right now. I know it's $20,000, but Dennis Nordman made this game on his own. And he will tell you, Stern Pinball yanked stuff out of this game. He originally had like the wavy ramps like in Whitewater, and Stern yanked that stuff out. Like he will tell you over beers what he originally had in this game. Now that does not take away from the game itself. But man, that's it. If I had $15,000 to $20,000 burning a hole in my pocket, I would absolutely go get an Elvira 40th. And I think you could probably get one for like $18,000. I see a lot of them around $20,000 new in box. And it's also another situation. I would probably just get one opened up, right? Because again, the moment you open it up, you're losing money. And also for these collectors who have it, they're not putting thousands of plays on these games. They're only putting a few hundred. All right. So everybody, what do we think Stern's next game is? What do you think? I want you to email me at canadapinball at gmail.com. What you think the next game is from Stern Pinball? I'm starting to think it's going to be Foo Fighters. I think it's going to be Jack Danger's next game. I feel like he's been more vocal lately on social media about designing the game, about not being at TPF, about the stresses and the pressures. And I've talked to Jack Danger. I love Jack Danger. He's a good friend. And I know he's nervous, right? And I bet he's nervous because of dudes like me. Because the moment he releases this game, he is going to be open to criticism. And Jack Danger is not really used to this, right? I mean, he made the Jurassic Park home version and what a great game that was, right? But nobody looked at that game with real high, high expectations, right? And a $5,000 pinball machine or whatever that game costs, that doesn't invite the larger community to give feedback on, right? It's not designed for those people. But now that Jack Danger is making a cornerstone game, like he is going to be open to the entire community's feedback, good and bad. And I think what's going to be interesting is if it is Foo Fighters, right? If it is Foo Fighters, for a lot of people, this game is going to be criticized more for the theme than the design. And look, if it is Foo Fighters 2, I bet he made it with the band themselves and Dave Grohl. And I bet he's like really happy. And I bet he's over the moon to have that opportunity. Because it's still the Foo Fighters. Like they've done more than most of us have done in our lives. And it's easier for us sitting in offices and PR agencies to criticize a band that sold like 20 million albums. and also was one of the original founding members of Nirvana But the thing is this you got to read the room And whenever I do surveys like what themes do you want to see Godfather always at the bottom Foo Fighters always at the bottom And why, if you're going to put all the effort into making a pinball machine, would you make a theme that doesn't have a ton of following in the pinball world? A ton of enthusiasm in the pinball world? We are one month away, people. Are you ready for this? Because not everything is going to be launched at TPF. So let's go down real quick and summarize what we're going to see over the next month and a half. We're going to see American Pinball's Galactic Tank Force. Chicago Gaming Company and Raw Thrills are probably going to show us Pulp Fiction. It is going to be a single level Mark Ritchie designed game. I've been saying it for like a year and a half now. Jersey Jack Pinball is going to come out with its next machine. Knowing Jersey Jack, I kind of feel like they might delay past TPF. You know, I told you you were going to see Jersey Jack number eight, February 20th. I'm probably going to be wrong because Jersey Jack is always late on their stuff. We might see Multimorphic's new Scott Denise game. The Pinball Brothers are going to be showing up with Queen. Spooky is going to be bringing Scooby-Doo. Stern Pinball is going to bring its next game. The one I don't get is this Turner Pinball. Turner Pinball is the group that bought all of the assets from Deep Root. And I'm just going to say this right now. Whoever is behind all of this Turner Pinball stuff and whoever is connecting themselves to the Deep Root fiasco, I think you guys are going to fail. And I'm telling you why you're going to fail. All of the bad karma, it has to go somewhere. And every single thing that J-Pop has touched has turned to crap. I actually think it's disgusting that anyone would want to salvage what went on over at Deep Root. 61 million dollars of mostly old people's money that robert mueller stole because he lied to them Went to the deep root project this guy deserves to be in jail and nobody should be lifting a finger To help make these games raza was garbage I'm going to upload all the deep root videos to my canada pinball youtube channel If you haven't seen them go to canada pinball on youtube you can see them and you'll see what I mean. This game was always junk. John Papaduke is a hack. Like he doesn't know what he's doing on his own. And when he was at Bally Williams, the engineers over there made him into a superstar. Without the engineers at Bally Williams, the guy is not capable of making anything interesting. So there's a lot coming in March. And look, TPF, for those of you who don't know, is March 24th through the 26th in Frisco, Texas. I will be there. We're going to do a happy hour and we're going to hang out and we're going to have a good time, everybody. I hope you guys have a great weekend. Enjoy the Super Bowl. I definitely feel like next week on Canada's Pinball Podcast, we are going to be able to finally discuss this $20,000 Keith Elwin James Bond machine. And look, I'm just going to end this show by saying, did you see that Disney announced Toy Story 5? If it couldn't get any worse for Toy Story 4 owners, now you're not even going to have like the final installment of Toy Story. It's just all so bad. Somebody needs to go get the license for the real Toy Story movies. And I was just thinking about it. Reach for the sky to infinity and beyond all of the stuff we love about the Toy Story world we needed in pinball form I know Jersey Jack people hate me they come at me they defend Pat Lawler Pat Lawler whiffed it's not about showing an old man respect he didn't show us any respect he made a game that he was working on for two years and this is what he puts into it not even an original idea in the game okay And look, and then you want to go charge us $12,000 to $15,000 for this game, and we're supposed to show Pat Lawler respect? Come on. If Pat Lawler wanted our respect, he would have made a game that blew us away. He didn't. But I still think if Jersey Jack has a relationship with Disney, I don't know, maybe buy back all these Toy Story 4s, bury them in the desert like Atari's E.T. game, and give the world the Toy Story we want. It's not going to happen. What's going to be so fun to watch is to see if Jersey Jack with a straight face is going to release Godfather and say the price tag is $12,000 to $15,000. I'm excited. I love the fact that all of these companies now have to look at us with a straight face, price these games this high, and if these games aren't blowing our freaking socks off, and I don't even wear socks. That's how good these games need to be. These games are all going to struggle to sell. they are they're not going to sell and then these distros are going to be sitting on a ton of inventory and then they're going to blame me because i'm telling everybody to wait and see i'm telling everybody to keep your money in your wallet until you play a game that you know is magical why is that a bad thing to encourage in the world of pinball everybody have a great day and i will be on my facebook live tomorrow 10 a.m eastern standard time saturday morning spectacular canada out