All right, we are live. How's every We're going to have to do this. We're gonna have to share screen and go right here because this is it. This is it. This is it. This is the most badass baller move I've seen in pinball marketing in a long time. And it just goes to show you like when you've got when you've got a wizard in your corner and you got magic ready to go, you don't need to do much, right? You know what I'm saying? like one image here speaks more volumes than all the stuff we've been seeing over the last few weeks. And And you know, I sent Ken Cromwell a note today being like, you guys just like did it. You just like you were lurking in the shadows and you've just dropped what I think is the biggest baller move I've seen in pinball marketing ever because no one no one does baller moves, right? Nobody does baller moves. They They simply uh they either do the same playbook, right? They show underneath the Brenda is handing me my glasses so I can actually read your comments. They've um they usually show underneath the playfield. They talk about a new feature. We're going to talk about it, right? It's like I I'm I'm watching everybody's marketing moves and it's like, hey, we got new glass, right? I mean, people literally taking credit for anti-reflective glass as if that matters in 2025. Like, we're going to start taking credit for leg bolts next and shooter rods, which is this is the shooter knob right here. But this is going to be a crazy few weeks. Um, and we're going to talk about it. And I love it. And I love I love like I love punching back a little bit. I love the confidence in this move. I love what it's going up against. And I love that there's going to be a Royal Rumble over the next four weeks of four titles. And y'all know you're not buying four games. Y'all, y'all y'all know you don't have the room for four more games, but this is this is a damn baller move. We're going to talk about it. All right, we're we're definitely going to talk about more of what happened today. Um, let me try and pull up right now. Hold on. I'm going to see if the screen might go black, gang. Hold on a sec. I want to see. go. Hold on. This is the other thing happened today. Yeah. you know, they've got this like sort of um this thing they're doing barrels right now, this like this marketing strategy of like we're going to remind people um of where value lies and we're the best bang for the buck in pinball. And look, that that's cool, you know, nothing wrong with that. I I David Van Es did get back to me today and that seems to be their strategy of of putting more in the games and giving people more for their money. And you know what? I I can't fault them for that. I think it's uh it's what people want right now. We're We're living in very expensive times and for $10,000. But yeah, like juicy time, right? I mean, it's like it sounded like Tron music. Canada, are you ready for two pinballs? Kong and Harry Potter. Pinball. Yeah, it's more than two. It's four. It's going to be King Kong, Harry Potter, Dune most likely, and Predator. Okay. So, I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna get to all your comments. I just want to say I I think out of out of all the marketing I've seen, you know, it's like look, Stern's got Elwin. They they've got Elwin's like having the closer, man. He's the closer. He He's He's Gleng Gary Glenn Ross. He's the Alec Baldwin character. He He drinks the coffee. He gets the deal done. He gets the customers to line up for him. He's the best most bankable thing in all of pinball right now is Keith Elwin, right? So Stern's got him making King Kong and and it's like it's ready, right? It's coming in just like a week. All right, so that's like juggernaut, right? How do you beat King Kong? Well, Harry Potter gives you a damn good fighting chance. And Harry Potter is the biggest theme in pinball since Star Wars. It is the second biggest theme in the history of pinball. And so that's really, you know, interesting, right? Is like we are going to get we are going to get the second biggest theme of all time made into a pinball machine by a company that knows it needs to make a statement, right? But man, okay, so the reason I love the move today, the reason I love the move today of like you can you can basically, you know, they know they're they're not raising the price. They basically are gonna have everybody curious to wait and see Harry Potter before I don't know like are you going to buy I think look the the hardest game now to break through is going to be the barrels game. It's like the timing couldn't be worse. It's like you're you're getting it from you're you're trying to fight a a two-front war against the best designer in pinball right now and the second biggest theme in the history of pinball that might even be the biggest theme ever in pinball because there's never been a Harry Potter pinball machine and there's been a plethora of Star Wars pinball machines over time. And you know what? None of them are good. None of them are good. So, if if they knock Harry Potter out of the park, I it'll be the best the most popular theme integrated properly in the history of pinball. So, I I'm excited, gang. I really am excited. But I also, you know, I want to say I think Jersey Jack's marketing around Potter's kind of been funny to me. It's like they're just kind of sitting back being like, "That's cute. That's cute. Maybe if I were you, I wouldn't spend my money on anyone else's product. If I were you, you know, as everyone's getting these media days and flying people out to go see their product, you know, okay, cool. You can order your Harry Potter next week, too. It's It's fun, right? It's really fun to see all this. So, like, gang, was there something today about like dunepinball.com? Did like I did someone say like Zack I don't I'm confused. I don't know. I've been working all day, so I have no idea. Did Did Zach like trademark that URL along with like Harry Potter pinball? Is that what happened? Okay. It was a troll site, right? Okay. That's what I thought cuz people were making other troll sites. Um I I think it's going to get um I don't know, right? When I see that I just I I feel like Barrels of Fun is sandbagging us with Dune. I I really do. I really do. I think it I just I still I still to this day think it's going to be, you know, something else. Like maybe it's Goonies. Maybe the thing that eats the ball is is, you know, what's his name? Like Chuck Chuck. Uh who who's the heavy kid? Ch. Why is the name I can't The name is escaping me right now. Sloth. Chunk. Chunk. Yeah, sorry. It was Chunk. Why did I want to say chuck? And he's like chunk, you know? He's always eating and he's eating the candy. Like maybe he eats the balls and that's how you lock a ball. I don't know. I don't know. Like a week from now, we're going to see it. I I will say this, the teasing of the parts, it's not it's not working. That That lighting system does nothing. You know, it's funny because um Is that lighting system is it stealing is it stealing what the lighting system is in um Alice's Adventures in Wonderland? Like very similar to what Melvin has in his game, but you know, look, lighting shouldn't be like hard to do, right? These These are LED lights. They They are not expensive. uh branding these LED lights as like unique like patent pending innovations is comical to me. Uh you know none of them are really like wow like and in fact I think a lot of them even when I saw that barrels one I was like well I hope it's not Dune because if it is this rainbow lighting system makes no sense for a movie like Dune. And I think what a lot of these games are forgetting is the lighting should reflect the theme and the lighting should uh be indicative of of the light sources from the theme. So let me give you an example. If you've ever played Lord of the Rings, it really only works with the the white warm light because it it connects to that more like middle earth vibe. When you do the RGB full color inserts people do and you throw rainbow puke into the Lord of the Rings game, it absolutely ruins the game. And so whether it's Dune or I I even think Harry Potter to me is not a rainbow puke light scheme. So I think these companies wanting to light up every game like a Skittles Christmas tree isn't really the way to go. And I'm all for like modern lighting, but I think the lighting should reflect the game. You know, I noticed that when I played Evil Dead, I like the way the lighting worked and it wasn't, you know, crazy rainbow puke and and inserts were lit so you knew what to shoot at. That's the other thing in some of these modern games. You have no idea, especi Elton John being Rainbow Puke kind of makes sense because it's like 70s disco which is very rainbow like and Elton John's whole thing is this sort of rainbow world. So I I think it works with Elton John. Um, Spooky been having a fantastic lighting since 2017. Stern's lighting is the worst. Like, it's it's the worst. Like, have you ever seen a Stern game in a track mode even look as good as like Big Labowski's attract mode from 12 years ago? Uh, total nuclear annihilation. That light show embarrasses anything that's in a Stern. Like Stern to me is like it's like they it's strange like you know they they still dominate and they still dominate by volume but they really have struggled to consistently, you know, put what should be in these games by now. And a lot of that is like they win on gameplay, right? They win on gameplay. They win on themes. And this is the big difference now, right? Stern's not used to this. They're not used to having a competition that's securing some pretty damn good themes and also delivering some incredible bang for the buck, right? They're not used to this. Like Stern Pinball doesn't get Pulp Fiction, somebody else does. Stern Pinball doesn't get Rick and Morty. Somebody else does. Stern Pinball doesn't have Harry Potter. Somebody else does. Stern Pinball doesn't have Back to the Future. Somebody else does. So, they're they're not used to this. They They were like the only player in town and they were laughing at all the the other companies that weren't really securing anything amazing. Like even Jersey Jack's themes to be honest. Wizard of Oz. Yeah. Hobbit. What after that? What was it? Dialed in. Pirates of the Caribbean without any assets. Eh, you know what I'm saying? Like hasn't really been Toy Story 4, Avatar Stern already made it, you know, Elton John, you know, it's like where? Like, come on. Come on. You know, and now we're going to get Harry Potter, right? And we know they wanted Harry Potter. That's why Joe Camnikau was so bitter. People don't talk about this. Like that was one of the most bitter, petty things I' I'd ever seen, you know, because, you know, Joe's a super successful guy and if there's anything multi-millionaires with million-dollar car collections who have, you know, Joe gets his way, he didn't get his way here. And for him to uh rage announce that JJP had the license like that, it's crazy, right? That was like the first time we'd ever se I I've been covering this hobby for 12 years. I've never seen anybody anybody ever do that. Like it it's like not really professional. But yeah, I used to talk to Joe. He He blocked me. I don't know. I don't know what happened there. Just Just who knows? He block you know. It is what it is. Like I haven't I haven't really thought about it much because I'm not even sure what I did. Um, plenty of Stern games have No, they don't. What's a Stern game with great lighting? Name me a Stern game with lighting that is anywhere as good as modern spooky games, modern JJP games. Um, and you know, I'll wait. Jaws lighting is great. Um, bro, go play Evil Dead and then tell me Jaws lighting is great. Metallica rem. No, I was just on a Metallica. Those um those uh what are they? They're like they're like tic tacs on the side of the cabinet. The expression lighting system is so bad. Like I I don't understand like why it's like tic tacs. Like why couldn't they run the length of the cabinet? I don't. And you can't really create m that much of an atmosphere with those. I mean, look, they're fine, but they're not. Again, they're they're like out of all the expression lighting systems in pinball now, it's the worst. And this is the company that should have the best R&D and the best innovation. You know, Jaws lighting is beautifully coded. All right. Well, I'll take your word for it. Um, look, Jaws is a great game. It's held its value, you know, out of all the modern Sterns, it's the only one that, you know, at 13,000, it's held its value. Alltime block list. Yeah, man. It's It's funny to me that people still after all these years, I mean, I've been blocked on Pinsside now. Shesh, it's been uh 12 years now. I've been blocked on Pinsside. 12 years and the world's second favorite pinball podcast is is uh is still not allowed back. So, well, it's fun. Retrojango is hanging out again on uh on the Facebook page. It's nice to see him there. Uh he's he's something though like I can't message him. I I don't know what he did. I can't PM him anything. So, I guess, you know, it'll it'll I can reply to his comments on my page. Yeah, it's cool, man. I don't want to be back on pin side. I I the the days of arguing with those alcoholics, I I find no enjoyment in it. And anything of value on Pinside, which is usually the owner's club, is is easy for me to pop into uh and and engage or just read up on what what what's happening with these games. I mean, that's what I use Pinside for, gang. I love seeing people's game rooms. Uh, I love seeing uh people's, you know, the owners club and and talking about owning the game. We're going to go back real quick. This is it. This is it. I mean, think about this move today. Let's just talk about this from a marketing standpoint. You're one week out from Stern Pinball and Barrels of Fun is about to reveal their new game. So, you know, you have the dominant theme. You know, that's not a JJP page. All right, fine. I it it whether Zach did this or not, it doesn't matter. They basically they basically have told all their game. Um what does it say down? I got this from Naps Arcade. Let me see here. What does it say here? I mean it seems let's see what is this what is this again on the ball I open what is it at the I think isn't that like the quiddage ball that like isn't that thing like fly Wait. Well, you know, just the fact gang that that they are, you know, they've told their dros, let me um stop sharing. The fact that they've announced to their distros like it's coming. You can here's the details is great. I mean, it's great. I'll tell you this. The fact that normally JJP will ask you to take this stuff down. Um, but they're not, right? They know they know what they got. Um, gang, all the non all the all the deposits on JJPs have always been non-refundable. So, I I don't I don't know why anyone's confused by that. They've been non-refundable since Toy Story 4, since Godfather, since Avatar, and you know, since Guns and Roses, since you So, Jersey Jack has had non-refundable $2,500 for his CE for about five years now. So, uh I don't know why anyone's confused by that. So, I think what's going to be interesting is seeing what they do with the amount of Harry Potter CES because uh you know the rumor is that they're going to have a window by which uh they'll take as many orders for CES as they get and they're going to make that many. So, that that's definitely going to like, you know, just kind of squeeze the collectibility for sure. like you're not going to have the FOMO uh and you're not going to have to like, you know, fight to be on a DRO list to get one because I think they'll they'll make you one if you want one if you order it within a certain time frame. Look, it's a smart business move for Jersey Jack. They're going to the demand for a Harry Potter CE because again, like nobody really wants $12,000 Ellie's, they know that. What what's wise about this move for them is they're basically going to flip the order volume. So, they're going to get like thousands of people to order CES and they're not really going to care that the Ellies are not going to get nearly as many orders. In fact, I guarantee you that if JJP opens up the window for CES um to be ordered more than a thousand, they will easily get more orders for CES than Ellies. Um, and it'll end up being like the Ellie will actually be more limited than the collector's edition. I think there I think Jack's gonna say he got 5,000 orders. Like Jack, for those newbies here, Jack did this before. He did it. If you remember when he did it, he did it on dialed in. He said, "Hey, we're only going to make as many as we get orders for." I believe it was midnight on New Year's Eve. game was launched and like you know I think they launched the game at I think it was like expo there was some time frame and then he's like we got 150 orders it was like it was like such an exact number crazy right how far we've come like there was no demand for dialed in no demand Chris do you think Potter will have a better toy than the scram Um, what's what's the scram? Is Is the scram the What? What's the scram? Is that a Harry Potter thing? I should know. Oh, the scram. Oh, the shrimp. Is that the the crab avatar toy? Okay. Uh, yeah. yeah. Uh, the scoop that becomes a ramp on Avatar. I Yeah. Yes. Yes. I I think this from from what I've heard of people that have seen Harry Potter, it is loaded. It is packed. It is going to have a lot of stuff in it. Um, that's what I heard. I mean, I I as Jack said, it's got three levels of play. I I expect this thing to be uh, you know, Eric's Eric's like his opus. I haven't heard Eric talk about a game like this in a long time. You said Toy Story was great. No, I didn't. And No, No, no. I said I heard rumors, but the moment I saw Toy Story, I never said it was great. Here's the thing is like I gang, unless I've seen something like I'm just reporting back to you what people are telling me. Um, what I heard on Toy Story early on was that it's a lot of fun to shoot, but it it's not packed. You and Brenda said Wonka was amazing. You know, look, I gang, I gotta be honest. I gotta be honest. Um, Willy Wonka still to this day it it is probably Jersey Jack's, you know, best game probably. I I mean that I it's probably to this day their best game uh for, you know, in terms of like the total package of what it delivers. The reason why I'm disappointed in Wonka is I thought when I went to see it at Jersey Jack, Jack said it was going to have all the assets in there and I asked about like the songs and the musical. He said everything you want is going to be in there. And then I also like when he was describing how Wonka Vision was gonna work, I was so enamored by what he described and none of that made its way really into the game at all. Wizard of Oz is not the best. Wizard of Oz is a terrible shooting game. It's a terrible shooting game, guys. Like I How does anybody enjoy the way W shoots? Like all the shots are right up the middle. The left outlane drain the state fair is just punishing and not enjoyable. W is just a terribly like h like it's a terrible design layout. It really is. It should have been more casual and fun and inviting. Instead, Joe Balcer like made it brutal. I I just I don't find was to be fun to shoot. It's beautiful to look at. It's a stunning game, but it's it's a it's a clunky mess. I've never really been a fan of any, you know, look look um W didn't just sell based on theme, gang. was sold because look at the damn thing. When they made Wizard of Oz, Stern's games were photoshopped dragon drop crap like empty crap. And it was only $6,500 gang and a Stern was like $5,500 and it looked like like garbage. You remember W came out when what Stern had like Transformers and you know stuff like that? Like it was only after Wizard of Oz that they did AC/DC. Um but look, I think Jersey Jack's got a lot to prove with this game. you know, Jersey Jack's been a company with deep pockets and, you know, short um, you know, like their pockets are deep, but the masterpieces they've made is a short list. And I think they're a company that's never quite put it all together. And I' I've been saying this about Jersey Jack um all these years is I think the reason why we've been so sort of um you know disappointed if you will is that our expectations for what they can bring to market I think have been uh have have never been met. I I mean that like when Jack says every game was going to get better than Wizard of Oz. Like the games are beautiful. I mean you got to think about it gang. It took this company about eight years. eight years, maybe nine years, actually. I think it was 10 years. It took this company 10 years to finally address having mushy flippers. Like seriously, like a lot of people's issues with the feel of a Jersey Jack game was the flipper feel. And they finally figured out with the IO board how to like get more snap. And that's only really after kind of Steve Ritchie came on board. Um I I think Harry Potter playfields are going to be a mixture of of Bader and Mirao. I I don't think one supplier can do all the Harry Potter playfields. It just seems like the orders are going to be so big. Um, look, Pirates of the Caribbean. Um, it's it's a it's a game that like it it it's it's a beautiful atmospheric game. It's got the maybe the best upper playfield in the history of pinball. It's got so much in it and and I haven't spent enough time on Pirates of the Caribbean, I have to be honest, because the people that love it, I mean, they love it. Like they they like they swear by it and and it it's left an indelible impression upon the owners like like no other Jersey Jack game. the rarity of it has arbitr like you know artificially elevated the price to the realm of it just being silly. I I'm not supposed to say anything because it's not it might be it's a it might be a few years out but yeah you might not have to buy one used Canada. What are you doing, Canada? You're not supposed to give like anything away for free. You're supposed to charge people five bucks. But let's just say, let's just say, and maybe some things that were supposed to spin are going to spin again. Oh, d did it again. Canada did it again. Just got to stop. Gota stop. Maybe they're Oh, shoot. No, we got to sell these Harry Potters. Um, yeah, I'm excited. You know, I think um I don't know. I'm I'm like I'm really like I'm really nervous for Barrels. I I'm not I I don't even think Pinball Brothers have a chance here if I have to be honest. It's like I I just as much as I love Predator, I just I can't see the Pinball Brothers punching at the same weight as Harry Potter and Eric Miner and Keith Elwin and the team on Kong and and even Barrels. Like I just I just Pinball Brothers as a company hasn't shown us that they know how to make a great game. And so Seems like it's going to be the same players on the field. So, why would I now expect them to do something epic? So, um does the new barrels of fun game have 20 coils in it? Is that is that is that been confirmed? vaults 23 coils. Yeah. No, Carrie's Carrie seemingly um you know Carrie's done a good job getting you know getting some good info out for sure. Um, I just think I think everybody is feeling what I'm feeling right now. I don't care right now about rumors or it's got lighting or glass or coils. Like it's like you got to show it now. Like at this stage, it's like we're a week out, week and a half out. Like it it's put up a shutup time. It's put up shut up time. I know Harry Potter is going to present tremendously well. I do. I I just I I know Jersey Jack is not going to have a problem getting people into Harry Potter. Like the big question marks to me are still like theme integration. Are they going to have muted clips or not? And like how are they going to handle eight movies? Like I hope they don't over complicated. It It makes me nervous. It's a company that has a history of over complicating uh IP. Uh, but it's Joe Katz, which makes me a lot happier because I think Joe Katz, unlike Keith Elwin, knows how to make a game much more approachable and much more fun. I I do. I I think, you know, when Keith came into the room with the avatar diner menu of how you play the game, I I literally was like, I I got to go. I got I'm not doing this, Keith. I'm not doing I'm not collecting 22 song notes. I'm not doing it. I don't want to do this. I don't even know the names of any of these places. I don't even know the names of these characters, let alone I don't even remember music being a part of the damn movies. Like, I'm not doing this. I'm not going down this road with you. I don't want to collect 35 Guns and Roses patches. I don't I don't want to do it. I I don't want to do it. I I eight Guns and Roses patches would have been enough. Like, it would have felt like I don't know, like you could actually get your head around it. like I don't want to con collect 35 patches. I don't want to have it. So like these four patches create a bundle. When you go deep into like how Guns and Roses is coded and then you like realize like how brutal the game play is with the balls draining left and right. All right, you made the game really hard and really deep. I I you know I don't I don't think that's a recipe for fun. It's just just the way I feel, man. Um the um the Avatar lower playfields are terrible. They're just boring. They're I mean they're just boring. I'm not like they're terrible. They're just boring. I I don't I don't I I don't know how they got past the Whitewood stage on those. My computer wheel of death is going, gang. So, hopefully um it doesn't quit. So, if it quits, if it quits, it it'll be a night. We got a nice got a nice number here. 110 people. I mean, there's more people here than I am getting on my Saturday morning. So, um yeah, this is a easy hour for everybody, right? Like nobody's really working now. Um it looks like most people just want the ball to get out once in the lower. Yeah. Is Harry Potter for sure movie based? And yes, it's movie based. Jack's already said they have all the assets to all the movies like like he literally said that like word for word. Do you guys think it's Dune? Like it do you do you think it's going to be Dune or are we going to get sandbag and it's Goonies and they know it's Goonies and they're just playing all of us. It would be the greatest switcheroo in the history of pinball marketing. I don't think it's doing either. I just 23 coils sounds like a big sandworm. He said, "But I know Mad Max. I don't think it's Mad Max." I don't know. Right. I mean, like, at least the at least we're still wondering, right? We all knew it was Harry Potter. We all knew it was King Kong. We all, you know, I mean, Chunk could eat the ball, you know, or Sloth, you know, those two could eat the ball. Yeah. So, I I started speculating on whether or not it was Little Shop of Horrors because in Little Shop of Horrors, I think somebody has the the license for that theme and it fits within the Barrels of Fun kind of title and Audrey 5 would be a really cool mech that could eat the ball and talk to you. So, I don't know. Does anybody here know? Does anyone here know what the barrel's theme is but won't say? Watch every bit one be like, "Yeah, me me." Uh, if anyone has Super Mario Brothers Mario, it's me and a Mario. It's a stern. Stern is gonna have a Mario Brothers. Well, look, if anyone's gonna get G.I. Joe, it's going to be barrels because Brian Savage basically ran the G.I. Joe fan club for like 20 years. So, Minecraft would not sell at all. Like, nobody. It's just just Minecraft's like like Gen Z. Ramps has a little shop of horrors. Great. Well, the the reason why like Minecraft doesn't work. It's the same way like I don't know if like Lego really works, right? I mean, you can make a pinball machine look like a Lego world and that might work, might not. But I just I just don't know like if having just a Minecraft world under glass is what people really want. Especially in the pinball buying demo. Duke Nukem what didn't even sell as a as a video game. Look, I think Big Trouble and Little China Space Balls would be fun. Yeah. I I think what I get excited about in pinball is the the real potential for uh these boutique companies to just make small batch runs like 500 to a thousand is like you know lot easier to do that opens the door for a lot more properties that aren't super expensive but man Harry Potter we got Harry Potter Bugs. Bug is here. Um, well, Futurama I think we might get from Spooky one day if Ben Heck has anything to say about it. I I do hope Spooky Pinball, you know, think about they they made 500 Ultraman's and I I know Ultra Man is like the game they don't want to talk about. You know, Ultra Man is Spooky Pinball's version of Atari's ET video game, you know, for Atari. You know, I think uh if if they could, Spooky Pinball would go buy up all the Ultra Man machines and and bury them in the desert somewhere and just never have the game like be connected to their company ever again. Uh but like if if they had the the guts to make Ultra Man, then why not Meatloaf? And And I mean this like if Ben Heck and Spooky decided to like make a 500 run or should be a 666 you know hell the devil's number a bad out of hell if they made bad out of hell like one and two like bad out of hell pinball I I mean seriously you can't get better pinball rock and roll opera music than Meatloaf like I'm I'm serious. serious when I say this like I'm serious. Ultra Man is better than Jetsons. I mean come on that's like saying I don't know that that that's just that's not a that neither is Jetsons is a proof of concept. That's all that is dead or drug. Oh my god. Ultra Man, I walked away from my deposit and like I didn't even care. They were like I I was like, I'll pay you more money to just like give me a, you know, a total recall on my purchase of that game because I I just I don't know, man. I don't know. Look, it's a it's gota it's got to be fun if you're bugging the the team over at Spooky right now. And by the way, guys, I gotta I gotta admit, man, like me me praising you guys and like giving you guys shout outs has has created a little bit of a, you know, I I'm getting like vibes from my barrels of fun friends that maybe it's not it's not so fun to be inside the barrel is all I'll say because I I think they literally I I think they see you guys and they should. I think there's like a competitive spirit between the two companies. There's obviously some history between the two companies and I don't even think it's negative, but I think I think you guys took it up a notch and I don't think they were expecting that. And I think getting Franchie on board was like the final like it's like it's it's like it was such a smart move. And I don't know if they have like the ability to punch back like visually and aesthetically like with where you guys are at right now. Like it's it's that Evil Dead's like it's just like so damn sexy. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. It is barrel should come here then instead of being buttth hurt about it. Well, look, I I I've said this to to the my friends over there, you know, and I and I I feel like I don't I I don't know. It's just it's just not in their DNA. Like they they want to build a company based on secrecy. Fine. But it's weird like in their like statement yesterday like we on you know we want to be as transparent as we can. We just don't want to stand in front of the camera. Can should get a free Evil Dead for helping sales. Yeah. Give me give me game number 889 but just call it Beetlejuice. Okay. Can I get Can I get Evil Dead number 889? But just, you know, or Beetlejuice number one, whichever way you guys want to do it, it's fine with me. Um, so look, I I think I think what would help Barrels of Fun, you know, because when I saw like the lighting TE's today, and I know they've got 20 something coils, it's like I what what what's missing? What's missing is we're a week out and I want to see David Van Es being like, "Gang, I can't wait for you to see my game in a week." You know, I don't care. Do it at 3 in the morning. I've been working all day. These 23 coils, man, I can't wait till you see what these things are firing, right? Something like I don't know. Don't Don't brand a new LED lighting system as in like horizon lighting. We made $20 lights do this and we're going to give you great value at $10,000. You know, you know what I'm saying? Like, oh yeah, for $10,000 you can now have glass that's anti-reflective. For $10,000 the glass should be anti-reflective. You know, I feel like Chris Rock. like these pinball companies are now taking credit for stuff they shouldn't be taking credit for. You know, Chris Rock was like, you know, dads are like, I'm not in jail. You're not supposed to be in jail. You're not supposed to be in jail. You're not supposed to you you can't take credit for not being in jail. And it's like, hey, we got we got like $20 lights in our game. You're supposed to have $20 lights in your game, you know? Like, I don't understand this. Like, pinball glass that reflects is terrible to look at. Like don't don't start taking credit for all this stuff, you know? It's It's just it's just like I I don't know. You know, it's like I miss the good old days when people were like innovating like the dumbest stuff. Like remember the Robert Mueller the the box that the game went into the pin pod, you know? Like it was like, "Yeah, but man, that won't even fit through a door." and he literally got these pinball media to go there and assemble it in front of him. Like, it's one of the greatest pieces of pinball content ever. I've saved it all down. It's on my I think it's on my YouTube channel because I just I just didn't want to live in a world where we forgot that like six or eight pinball media went over there and actually didn't laugh in the guy's face. It's ridiculous. I'd be seriously I wanted to buy one of those pin pods and and podcast from it and make it at my like a soundproof booth or something. I mean legit like gang, we're in a hobby where Robert Mueller went up on stage and said he was going to make more games in one year than all pinball companies combined. Right. And they clapped. They clapped. Nobody coughed and was like bouch, you know. No, they clapped. Steve Bowen was up there. Just wait. Steve Bowen did the podcast tour. Just wait till you see what we got. I I literally literally I mean, I think the only Steve Bouting game the world will will bang on is Barbecue Challenge. Like, you you can't say this stuff, you know? It's It's too he's controversial. He he's a controversial figure in pinball. He's He's not celebrating, you know, like people who say they want to make pinball machines that have absolutely no experience in manufacturing. Like why is he doing this? Like what what's this is not good. Like we got to make sure everybody feels welcome. Is Is TPN done, Josh? I I did I didn't I didn't listen to the latest show. Um, I have to imagine, you know, Zach, um, he's probably just over a lot of it. I I Is he not doing the pinball show anymore? I I think they'll still do like the flipping out videos, though, right? I mean, like, I get it, gang. I get it. I'm not going to lie, I'm going to be completely honest with each and every one of you. It's I I love doing my show. They are still doing the show. Oh, there's TPN is over, but the pinball show survives. Oh, yeah. I mean I mean getting like TPN was like never I it was never really like a thing, was it? Like it was just a logo on everyone else's content. So like TPN going away, but the pinball show surviving is makes you'll never feel and you know what I'm saying? It's not like it was the nWo. Like you'll never feel a void. The The biggest show on it was the pinball show. So like I you know look it when it was created it was interesting, right? It was like this network of of the world's best pinball content creators without me and Christopher Franchie invited, you know, you know, Jack Danger wasn't invited. There was all that drama at the beginning, but in the end, like it ended up just being like, all right, it was just like a way to to uh to sort of aggregate, if you will, a whole bunch of content. you know, Zach Smart like a whole bunch of content leading people, you know, to his his company. Uh, never never had a problem with anybody trying to like increase their awareness. You know, I think what always surprised me is the uh the reverse is the amount of people that make content for for seemingly like no gain whatsoever. other than like just the I guess the love of making the content, right? Which is fine, but you see it now. It's like the amount the inordinate amount of effort certain people put into making pinball content. And in the end, like you know, a lot of them are newer. They haven't been doing it for as long as I have or Zach has or Franchie has. Um, you know, they just burn out. Can we get back to pinball? Just got an email from Pinball Star taking Potter pre-orders. Like I probably got that email, too. Let me find it. Hold on. Oh, we're about to get spam. Uh, let's see. I didn't I didn't get cat. Um, let me refresh. Maybe I got it to my I think my pinball star might be my other address. It's weird that like uh nope. I didn't get it. Can you Can you uh What were the details of the pinball star? Okay. Well, we knew we knew all that. So, nothing's changed. I mean, like I there's nothing new. Well, Marty is uh he he entered into the final round the moment he got into business with Damian, you know. So, well, I gang, I don't need I don't need the hookup because I just think they're going to they're going to make as many Potter CES as they get orders for. So, uh, you know, you know me, like if they only made a,000 Harry Potter CES, this was my this was my thing. I was like, I guarantee you they will sell for 20 grand on the secondhand market, right? If they only make a thousand, I I won't be able to test out that hypothesis because I think they're going to take as many orders as people give them. So I, you know, so now, you know, I'm I'm a buyer if I'm a buyer because I want to just buy it and and keep it and enjoy it. I'm not a buyer to scalp. Uh because again, I I think Jack is going to announce they got 5,000 orders because he because because it it does Jack no justice to be honest about the order number because think about it. if he gets 2500 orders for a $15,000 game, he's just gonna say, you know, so and and think about it. So those people order and they have to give a think, okay, think about this, gang, because you know, Canadian's a little bit smart. I did go to boarding school, uh, that was very expensive and then private school. You so I I can I can do the logic here. Okay, so think about it. If Jersey Jack says, "We're going to make, okay, let's say we're we're going to open up a window for a week for Harry Potter CE orders." Let's say 2500 people roughly legitimately place an order. Now, placing an order means giving a $2,500 non-refundable deposit. Okay? So he locks in 200, you know, 2500 times 2500. Okay, I can't do that math. Sorry. Something some millions of dollars, right? Um, so then 6.25 million. Thank you. Okay. So, but what happens? You don't know. You don't know. Only he knows how many actual orders he got. So, what happens when he says, "All right, he knows he's got 2500 money today in the bank or this week, but he also knows the demand for this game is going to be strong for 5 years, gang. We've got 4,689 CE orders." You know what I'm saying? So, he just he could announce that he's doubling the amount of actual orders he got because he's got half of those are non-refundable. So, he doesn't care and he doesn't have to prove that those other 2500 orders are even real. There's no transparency here. And it it it's only to his benefit to just announce a large number and he'll only do that after all that deposit money has been secured. So, it's how I think if I'm if I'm them, I I care more about getting people this game, eliminating scalping, and just opening, you know, you know, making sure we get the highest margin back on the most amount of games, and this will be the most profitable Jersey Jack game of all time. And instead of watching the secondhand jackasses like Canada sell these things for 20 grand, I'm going to sell 5,000 for 15 grand. And we'll sell everyone because it's Harry Potter. I think that's what's going to happen. Yeah, Chris, don't undercut yourself. You're way smarter. But I just think that's what's going to happen. I think that's what's going to happen. Like and also like there's something to be said gang in like all right like Jersey Jack just destroyed he destroyed um scalping just you know if you want the best version by the best version. I'm not going to like I'm not going to let scalpers, you know, take money off the table that could be ours. And I'm not going to like force people who want it to pay an inflated price. No, no market adjusted price here. Everyone who wants one gets one, you know. So, I think it's going to be Yeah. Well, built like on the secondhand market. Now, this game will also go the same the same direction as Guns and Roses. Well, they will make so many Harry Potters to the point where like nobody will ever have a problem getting one where nobody will really even care that much about the difference between a CE and an Ellie. And yes, of course, they will uh become so ubiquitous, but the good news for Jersey Jack is, you know, they need to buy themselves some time on this game because Steve Ritchie's game is not moving along as fast as they would like. And, you know, they've got Richie next and they've got three to four more games coming, you know, in development. But also, gang, the thing about it is this. It's like I think we're all now accepting the new reality of pinball that everything you buy is most likely going to be a hugely depreciating thing. And so then, you know, you can, I think, wisely wait it out a little bit and swoop in and get a home use only game. And And I don't even think home use only. I think you're going to be able to be knocking on dealer and distro doors and get really good deals on everything. Um, so I, you know, I I think it's going to be, you know, I think it's going to be like a really um it's it's going to be a buyer market on everything. I think a lot of you guys Here's what I also think is going to happen. I think we're going to get over the next two to three years some of the best pinball we've ever seen. We've ever seen. And I think what's going to happen over the next two to three years is we're going to get games that make a lot of the older stuff feel dated. And I think a lot of you are going to want the new stuff. And to get the new stuff, you need to get rid of the old stuff. And to get rid of the old stuff, you're not going to get anywhere near the price you think you were going to get for your old stuff. And it's just and I think what's gonna happen is this. It's like it's like the auto industry like only the current hot version is really going to hold and everything and you're going to see some I think you're just going to see some significant losses like you've never seen before. And I mean it. We will get to the point where games like Venom and John Wick Pros will be $3,000 like within two to three years. And it's fine. Like it's only natural that you've oversaturated or you've made so many products. And again, there's like 13 companies pumping more into the market every year. You know, it's only natural that uh the only ones that will become collectible almost will be like it was back in the day. It's like, think about it. Like Adam's family wasn't like the what the collectors sought out. It wasn't Twilight Zone. It was like King Kong cuz there was only like a handful of them. It was Kingpin, right? I mean, it was Pinball Circus. Like, it's going to become the same. Like, there's only going to be like a minute number of games that are truly collectible that are hard to get. and and some of those might even be games that, you know, never fully got manufactured at the volume it was supposed to. And gang, here's what's crazy. I we always stop thinking about this. This is just the here and the now and like Back to the Future's coming out this year as well. Portal for the win. I, you know, look, I I think Portal is probably the best game by Multimorphic to date. I I just don't think anyone's having uh putting Portal in the same playfield as, no pun intended, right? It's not the same playfield as these other games right now. And the problem with multimorphic and you know the problem is like you just it just requires such a large commitment to go in on that platform. You're not just buying one game like Portal. You're kind of psychologically agreeing in your own head uh to buy multiple games because that's the whole point. If you're not swapping in and out the playfields, the whole business model and the whole platform then makes no sense. That's the tough part. Now, if Jerry lines up five or six amazing games, but it's also tough now, too, because Portal just the modular part is like five six thousand. So, like I don't know like he's not this it doesn't work all of a sudden. Like you're paying almost the price of a storm Stern Pro to put in just onethird of the play field. That's That's like that's that to me like defeats the whole purpose now. No point in talking Alice as most America shut out. Does anyone want to talk Alice? I I just want to see Alice gameplay. I mean I every morning I'm like Melvin, can I get some clips of it being played? Like the game is pretty much done. Um so yeah, gang, I got um this was fun. This was this was a fun hour to do. Uh, Bill Brandice, I I noticed you're not a member of Canadas Pinball Podcast. Uh, the amount of time you listen to me live, you could be listening in your Ferrari car stereo to the world's one-time favorite pinball podcaster. Everybody, I really do appreciate you guys hanging out. Uh, it's been a lot of We're I'm going to Scotland Thursday. Work has been really uh really rough lately. A lot I'm on a lot of of new stuff. There's just a lot of assignments. There's new people I'm working with. So, I'm I'm struggling to find my footing right now in my career. I won't I won't lie. Like, I just feel like I'm I'm either on like a lot of stuff or there's just like a lot of I don't know. There's like growing pains, but I'm like I feel like too old to to like to prove myself over and over and over again every every year. It's just like I I'm good at what I do. Let me do what I do. and you know, let's crush it. Like, I don't like I don't like micromanagement. I don't like committees. I I just, you know, every time I try to just do anything creative, I run into a wall of other people's opinions and approvals. And it's just it's just like just let let me go. Like, let me build teams that get it and let's go. That's how I like to do work. I don't like committees. I mean, I just I just I'll give you an example of just like something I just tried to go on a little bit of like let's just name our conference rooms you know, something more fun. Problem is is like, well, how do you decide, right? Who wants like I don't know, like I just thought it'd be fun to name it after pop culture destinations, you know, that are iconic, right? They're not going to go in and out of season. So, it could be like Jurassic Park, Hogwarts, Death Star, you know, I don't know, Hawkins, you know, you could think about like Riven Rivendale. like you can just and then you know everyone's got an opinion then you know we don't want to name them after conference I you literally get this feedback we don't want to name them after conference rooms that could offend people offend people I don't even understand what that means like I'm not what what would be like I'm not naming the conference room like Tanaman Square you know I don't understand like it's not you know I'm not naming the twin towers like I what what could? And this is why this is why I love doing the Pinball podcast because it's just like I don't know. I just want to give you guys some thoughts and opinions about what's happening in pinball. I don't have an editor. I don't have a deadline to hit. I don't have a boss. I don't have a manager. I don't have like uh you know kids to mentor. I don't have like company goals to hit. I don't have a growth target. You know, look, I the the more I tried to put a growth target on my own show, the I went in the wrong direction. When I stopped caring about it, I went in a better direction. So, I just I I just think like I appreciate my point being is I appreciate you guys hanging out and I appreciate the connection we have here uh as a hobby and as a community. And I mean this when I say this, like I I feel grounded in in our conversations and with all of you. And I think what I think what we all love about pinball and this hobby is we can come through the door of this hobby and we can be who we are. And I think in a lot of other places in life and a lot of our jobs, like we kind of have to leave ourselves at the door and be who they want us to be. sucks. It sucks. I I don't know. You know, and it's like I could go down a whole tangent of like it sucks like being anxious like that, living in fear like that, and and trying to always just be someone you're not. Like it's all the cliches in life are true people. You know, you only feel free when you're when you're living life to the beat of your own drum. And when you're when you're not, you're not free. You're not free. They could spin it any other way. You know how they usually spin it like it's like we've got culture, you know, it's like this thing about like company cultures. It's like just you know know what's culture like Italians have culture, the Irish have culture, the Chinese have culture, you know, America's got its c but like when a company says our culture, I don't know, you guys got food recipes, you guys got did you write songs? I'm I'm sorry, but like you don't have a culture until you've made music. Until you've like created a dish that the world loves, until you've like penned a book that like captured a moment in time. You know, you know what I'm saying? It's like it it's just it's funny to me. It's funny to me. And the best companies that do have the culture, they they have, you know, they don't have to talk about it. You know, you know what I'm saying? It's It's like it's like when you have to talk about your culture. And I'm not saying like I actually do think my company has a very strong culture, don't get me wrong, but I've noticed this trend out there. The more companies talk about their culture or their efforts over here and over here, it's usually because they're like trying to mask like the lack of the very thing they're taking credit for. You know, it's like if a band said we make really good music, you know that band does not make really good music, right? It's just the way it goes. Anybody? Everybody, what are you doing streaming on a Tuesday? Oh, you're late to the party. All right, everybody. Have a good night. If you're not a member of Canadas Pinball Podcast, I really would appreciate I know I know tariffs, I know taxes, but I really would appreciate uh you guys signing up. If you're if you're just stumbling upon this content, I feel like these are all the usual suspects. But uh Canad Pinball atgmail.com, if you like what you see here, there's a podcast that goes along with it. Uh it's three times a week. You're gonna get the latest and greatest happening in pinball uh in a unfiltered way with no cursing by the way. No cursing. A father came up to me years ago and said, "Hey, Chris, can you not curse on your show because my son listens to it and loves your podcast." That was about seven or eight years ago. So, it's like PG. Who knew? The controversial guy doesn't need to use any controversial words. I should give you a tariff. Yeah, like we're pretty clean in chat, too. I will say I kind of don't accept like bad behavior. The Will Smith a podcast. You know what's annoying about that? I gotta go like Will Smith's trying to make a comeback by becoming like a hardcore rapper again. Like Like it's weird. It's like it's like still sad to me seeing his attempt. No, Will. Like, no. It's just not going to work. Anyway, thank you, Josh, for upping your sub. I really do appreciate it. I'll give you a shout out, Josh, in the Raise the Roof Club. All right, everybody. Have a great night. I got to go work now. Yeah, I'll be working at midnight. Decide to do this instead of work. I don't I I I'm also just tired of working after six o'clock, 7 o'clock every night. Like it's just like what we we I spend all day in meetings and then we have like 10:00 check-ins the next day. So it's like okay so so that's modern work now. Like we just meet all day long. I got you my kids come home at 600. I want to at least like have time with my children and dinner and like and then I go back to work again exhausted start all over again. You know, someone said it to me that they're right. Like, Like, bro, like we pick jobs. We pick jobs where we get homework every night. Like, damn, he's right. All right, everybody. Have a good night. Love you guys. We'll chat soon.