Journalist Tool

Kineticist

  • HDashboard
  • IItems
  • ↓Ingest
  • SSources
  • KBeats
  • BBriefs
  • RIntel
  • QSearch
  • NName Review
  • +Health

v0.1.0

← Back to items

DPP #107 "Trent Kennedy interview! More JAWS!!"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·35m 39s·analyzed·Mar 7, 2024
View original
Export .md

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

Jaws mod interview: Trent Kennedy's shark scoop mechanism design, production timeline, and technical implementation.

Summary

Don's Pinball Podcast episode 107 centers on Jaws pinball and features an interview with Trent Kennedy of Interactive Pinball about his 'Jaws the Ball Eater' mod that adds a shark-shaped scoop mechanism to the game. Kennedy discusses his rapid design and production timeline, technical details of the 3D-printed mod system, and plans for variants across Pro/Premium/LE versions. The episode includes Don's personal Jaws experience, Texas Pinball Festival coverage plans, and discussion of European pinball market dynamics and other manufacturer updates.

Key Claims

  • Jaws Premium machines arrived with significant dust/sand contamination, possibly from assembly and packaging without protective glass cover

    high confidence · Don's direct experience with his Jaws Premium unit; described as 'half a pound of sand and dust inside the machine'

  • Trent Kennedy received his Jaws Pro on Thursday, completed working design by Friday morning, and released video on Tuesday (5-day turnaround from receipt to public demonstration)

    high confidence · Kennedy's direct statement: 'I got the pro on Thursday night... woke up on Friday morning, started working on it... released the video on Tuesday'

  • Stern uses economy-of-scale production approach where single playfield base is used across Pro/Premium/LE tiers, with higher-tier features built-in but covered with metal on Pro models

    high confidence · Don confirms pattern seen with Foo Fighters (Dill Danger Post example) and Kennedy leverages this hole design for shark scoop implementation

  • Jaws the Ball Eater mod will be priced at $475 USD plus shipping (shipping estimated at 1.5+ kg material weight)

    high confidence · Kennedy: '$4.75 plus shipping' (likely typo for $475), confirmed with '1.5 kilograms of material once it's in the box'

  • Kennedy aims to begin manufacturing mid-to-end of March with multiple pre-orders already committed

    high confidence · Kennedy: 'I'm aiming for mid-end of March, so in a few weeks... I've got a large pre-order list'

  • Shark mechanism uses DC motor with cam mechanism rather than servo motors, chosen for reliability over servos which tend to burn out

    high confidence · Kennedy: 'DC motor with, like, a cam mechanism underneath the shark head... I just find DC motors to be much more reliable'

  • All components of the mod are 3D printed using durable materials with reinforced Z-direction for structural integrity

    high confidence · Kennedy: 'it's all printed with really thick walls and durable materials... if you reinforce that with a screw or something, then the material is essentially the same strength as a solid piece of plastic'

Notable Quotes

  • “I got the pro on Thursday night. I played the shit out of it... woke up on Friday morning, started working on it, had it fit, went through a few iterations, and released the video on Tuesday.”

    Trent Kennedy @ ~27:00 — Demonstrates rapid prototyping and production capability using 3D printing technology; establishes timeline of concept-to-market demonstration

  • “It's a DC motor with, like, a cam mechanism underneath the shark head... I just find DC motors to be much more reliable. Yeah, after replacing servos that burn out, yeah.”

    Trent Kennedy / Don @ ~32:00 — Technical decision-making rationale for mechanical reliability in aftermarket pinball mods; highlights servo motor failure issues in consumer applications

  • “I never intended for it to change the rules. The video release, I changed what I'm calling the afterbox... but yeah, so no change to the rules of the game whatsoever.”

    Trent Kennedy @ ~42:00 — Kennedy's design philosophy maintains original game rules while adding mechanical novelty; addresses community concern about mod impact on gameplay integrity

  • “I make things that I would want, and then people find out about them, and then they start asking me how to order... making something that you yourself want is a pretty good way to go about it.”

    Don @ ~58:00 — Articulates organic mod business model approach; validates market-driven product development from personal needs first

  • “Not yet. I should be picking it up next week, my Premium. And, yeah, I'll be in development for that portion of it... expect a video for that in the coming weeks.”

    Trent Kennedy @ ~45:00 — Confirms planned variants of mod for Premium/LE tiers; indicates iterative development approach across machine versions

  • “I'm aiming for mid-end of March, so in a few weeks... I've got a large pre-order list.”

    Trent Kennedy @ ~65:00 — Production timeline and demand validation; demonstrates successful community adoption of mod despite initial online skepticism

Entities

Trent KennedypersonInteractive PinballcompanyJaws the Ball EaterproductJawsgameDon's Pinball PodcastorganizationTexas Pinball Festival (TPF)eventPinball Brotherscompany

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Pinball Brothers on track for next music IP release; ABBA-themed game in development with topper production completed and shipping imminent

    medium · Don: 'there's this very strong ABBA rumor for the next music pin from Pinball Brothers'; Lior confirmed topper shipping status; ABBA joke suggests codename or internal discussion

  • ?

    community_signal: Growth in international pinball podcast content; new Australian podcast (Phantom Tilt Pinball) launching with early positive reception from established US content creators

    medium · Don listened to all 4 episodes from Ryan, Kimber, and partner in Western Australia; describes appreciating 'new perspectives, particularly internationally'

  • ?

    community_signal: Strong demand signal for Jaws Ball Eater mod despite initial skepticism; large pre-order list validates community appetite for mechanical enhancements to recent releases

    medium · Kennedy reports 'large pre-order list' and 'definitely worth pursuing'; initial Facebook comments included skeptics ('who the heck would want this thing?') but direct messages exclusively positive

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Aftermarket mod design approach prioritizes rule preservation and non-invasive installation; Kennedy explicitly rejects rule changes and drill-less mounting strategy, maintaining original game integrity while adding mechanical novelty

    high · Kennedy: 'I never intended for it to change the rules... no change to the rules of the game whatsoever... no extra holes you need to drill in your playfield'

  • ?

    event_signal: Texas Pinball Festival logistics indicate industry-wide participation with significant inventory movement; Don reports Stern packing ~50 machines in single trailer for TPF

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.107

0:00
And with that, let's get to a very Jaws-centric episode of Don's Pinball Podcast. Starting now, hit me with that music, maestro. I can feel it here for episode number 107. What's Jaws? It's all sharks all the time. Shark Week distilled into one podcast. We also have an interview with Mr. Trent Kennedy from Interactive Pinball, creator of the Jaws Eat Ball mod for the game. That's the name for right now. We're going to get to that right now.
1:00
And no one does an intro like this guy. They call me Mr. Intro. What's going on? 107, we're back here to celebrate all things pinball and all things people within the pinball community. Now, if you saw the Jaws unboxing that I did a few days ago, you were in for one heck of a treat. We had a good time. We set the machine up. And then just it looked like somebody must have taken this play field straight off the beach because there was like half a pound of sand and dust inside the machine. I don't know what happened. Maybe my machine was being assembled and then kind of left, you know, to the devices over the weekend with no glass on it and all the dust kind of settled. And then they boxed it and shipped it. Anyway, I got the thing here, and I had to deal with dusting. I'm still dusting off all the corners, man. It's like after you've gone swimming for a while, you know, and you come back and you're sitting at the tiki lounge there, you know, in your rented cabana, and then you reach down your waistband and there's just all that sand in the creases, man. That's what I'm getting. So what I'm saying is this is probably the most true-to-life theme pinball machine that we've seen from Stern in a long time. It comes from sand from the beach or dust from the factory or whatever it is. Nevertheless, everything is working mostly well with the game. as you may have heard from some other people the little Sopranos boat up there with the shark pops out underneath it does hang up on the plastic, there's a fine tuning adjustment I have to do, but I'm enjoying the game, the game is a complete blast, I mean, you know I was able to play this on location as soon as it hit interium and I was struck right away by the amount of the assets in the game now I've got the premium, I've got one of the first ones off the line it's set up, it's at home and I'm enjoying the heck out of it a quick little review here the upper play field none of them had some more time with it it's easier to get up there than it was with foo fighters right you know you don't have to have like the perfect shot to get up there but it's fast man you need to react quickly or you're not going to have chance for anything the foo fighters upper play field you can sit there and loop that you know five or six times if you're you know relatively well seasoned um this one i'm lucky if i can get two shots off up there um most of the time you know 25 or so i can get that extra ramp that extra wire form is great though man the one that loops up off the top of the orca comes down drops into a 180 then goes right up into that 180 lane over on the left through the spinner i love it that's a great shot i just came off of a new gc 439 million points or something not the trillions that the people are getting in florida through that exploit mind you but you know pretty good for me had a Great time on it. Built my own shooter rod. I've got the Godfather Lions on there. That joke just will not die. But yeah, Jaws is definitely holding up. And there's just a flurry of mods incoming for this game. I picked up some art blades from, I think it was Pin Graphics. They're looking pretty cool, man. I've got to say, I've got to say, totally digging them. So I'm liking this game. I'm liking the build. I'm glad that we got some extra little bits with the premium as well. Came with that really cool graphic apron. and then we got some of those angled side armors. So that'll save you $60 from Pinball Life if you're into upgrading armors and such. Nevertheless, the game is fun. It's holding up relatively well. Hopefully you dug the unboxing and everything. Now, I reached out to Mr. Trent Kennedy as soon as I saw his video of his kind of bonkers mod that he came out with. So we're going to get to that interview kind of towards the end of the show here. It's already recorded. I recorded it about two days ago. but it's up there. We answer a lot of questions really get into how did this guy turn this mod around this quickly. I mean the pros were just coming off the line and he's like oh hey here's my interest list. This thing's going to be going into production for the pro. We'll get into the details of it but basically it's a shark shaped scoop that eats the ball and pops it back up into a wire form. It's cool man. It's cool. Also I can remark that my Looney Tunes and my TCM are both holding up fantastically. Having a good time playing those. A couple of loose screws is really the totality of the issues that I've had. Code's still a bit early, so every now and then you come across a little bug there. It'll shake loose after a while, or you just quick reset, but new code will be on us before they probably get to machine number 50. Speaking of getting to machine number 50, it looks like they've got a van or a trailer that they could fit about 50 games in. They're packed up and heading down to TPF. All the other companies are getting their stuff ready. TPF is coming up in a week. I am so incredibly psyched to be there. I got so much stuff to do to prepare to get down there. But I'll have my recording equipment at my booth. I got the map. We're right next to Rocket City Pinball, kind of adjacent to Multimorphic, actually. So that'll be fun. I'll be adjacent to the Princess Bride. Anybody want a peanut? We're going to go over there and play the hell out of that game. I can't wait. So stop by the booth. I might even be there. The booth will be the base of operations. I'll leave little notes. on when I'll be making appearances. Otherwise, I'll be cycling around that whole floor. There will be prizes to be won at TPF, courtesy of Don's Pinball Podcast. So be sure to come by and get the details for that. What I'm thinking of doing, and I still have a couple little details I've got to iron out, but I'm thinking we need to do some kind of scavenger hunt. We can't just go around, find Don, tell him whirlwind to get a prize. That is now way too popular. I'll run out of all my prize packs in the first 10 minutes I'm there. So I need to do something a little different. And I'm thinking scavenger hunt involving some of the other companies and merchants at TPF. What this would be is I'll have some kind of secret token, and I'll go hide it at booths, maybe under the table, maybe under a machine, maybe behind a back box, maybe just a little corner peeking out from a stack of T-shirts or something. Maybe in a pile of Translate you'll find something. Maybe like, I don't know, something like a golden ticket or whatever. If you find it, you come by the desk, redeem it for a prize. How about that? That'll be fun. It'll encourage people to kind of go and explore, go to all the booths, peek around, look in the hard-to-reach places, and maybe find something. It's something that one of the big indoor water parks in the Kalahari does. During the holidays, they'll take a Polar Express ticket, and they'll go hide it in a gift shop. They'll hide it somewhere in the water park resort. If you find it, you get a free, I don't know, bucket of chocolate or something, whatever they give the kids at the indoor water parks. I'm going to take that energy and try to apply it to TBF. We'll see if it works. I will drop a show before TBF starts that will have all the finalized details once I get to them. I just got to get some buy-in from the vendors that I haven't even approached yet. So that's all going to happen. It's going to be fantastic. What else can I say? My spooky pinball machines are holding up. Jaws here is firing on all cylinders. It's getting modded to the hilt. This will be the next game probably available from the Don Coats Customs Chop Shop that I run here. I've got a couple people that are preferentially interested. If you want to get on an interest list and then if deals fall through, I'll just go down the list. We'll find somebody that wants a completely modded Jaws Premium once I'm willing to let it go, probably sometime around June or July. Also, I've got the banners ready, the Willy Donka banners. Already have people buying them. I'm about to ship out the first shipment, and then I got some more on order. So if you still want one, $99 shipped to your house in the U.S., add an extra $10. I'll go to Canada. If you live in Austria, Germany, or France, or Australia, all places I'm sending merchandise, we'll figure something out. Usually it's like $20, $30.

  • European pinball markets (France, Germany, Austria, Netherlands) face significant pricing disadvantages due to VAT and import taxes, requiring development of better distributor networks

    medium confidence · Don discussing conversation with 'pinball industry insider' about international market forces and pricing premiums for European customers

  • Pinball Brothers working on ABBA-themed music pin (rumored, not officially announced)

    medium confidence · Don: 'there's this very strong ABBA rumor for the next music pin from Pinball Brothers' based on conversation with Lior

    • Stern Pinball
    company
    Keith Elwinperson
    Liorperson
    Jerry Rampproduct
    Phantom Tilt Pinballorganization
    Camelot's Pinball Leagueorganization
    Foo Fightersgame
    Rick and Mortygame
    NAP Arcadeorganization
    Alien Ripley editionproduct
    Kalaharicompany

    medium · Don: 'looks like they've got a van or a trailer that they could fit about 50 games in. They're packed up and heading down to TPF. All the other companies are getting their stuff ready.'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Stern Jaws Premium units received with significant contamination (sand/dust), suggesting potential assembly line or packaging quality control issues

    high · Don's Premium unit contained 'half a pound of sand and dust inside the machine'; suspects machine left uncovered during weekend assembly then boxed without cleaning

  • $

    market_signal: European pinball pricing disadvantage due to VAT/import tax structure creates premium cost burden on players and operators; emerging distributor network expansion in multiple European territories

    medium · Don conversation with industry insider about France, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, UK markets; European customers 'paying like premium or more prices just at the pro levels for sterns'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Aftermarket mod addressing perceived gameplay gap in Jaws Premium mechanism; shark scoop mod provides alternative ball path and mechanical interactivity not fully present in original design

    high · Kennedy designed mod in response to expectation gap: 'we had ideas for mechanisms... there would have been... a shark that rose up from the playfield to at least eat the ball now the game that we got came just short of that expectation'

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern's deliberate playfield reuse strategy across Pro/Premium/LE tiers creates both cost efficiency and aftermarket opportunity; holes/features built-in but covered on lower tiers enable rapid mod development

    high · Kennedy identifies and exploits covered hole intended for premium tier feature; Don confirms pattern from Foo Fighters (Dill Danger Post) showing intentional design reuse across tiers

  • ?

    technology_signal: Rapid adoption of 3D printing for complex pinball mod mechanisms; Trent Kennedy designed and validated entire shark scoop system with sub-surface routing components in 5 days using 3D printing with reinforced materials

    high · Kennedy completed Pro design iteration within days of receiving machine, using printed components for geometry too complex for metal fabrication; moving forward with Premium/LE variants using same technology

    • 8:47
    Also of note, my gargoyle topper. I feel like I talking about myself here My gargoyle topper I sold the first one and it shipped out to a paying customer This is a product I haven even launched yet but the award homebrew Gargoyle Light Up Topper that I made for my Elvira House of Horrors is in production. The first production model has gone out. It looks even better than the one that won the award at the Pinball Expo back in October. So I'm hoping to get that launch ready soon. Also, speaking of toppers, I'm currently in development for my own Jaws topper. And I don't care if anybody buys one. I want this one. I'm going to put it up on my Jaws. As soon as it's done, I will share it. We'll talk about it. And if somebody's interested, I don't know. Maybe I could be convinced to make another one. We'll see. All of that and more also on the podcast. There's a lot of news coming right now on the podcast. Phantom Tilt Pinball, new guy out in Western Australia, 12 hours from Perth. He's doing podcasts. I've listened to all four episodes between him, Ryan, and his wife, Kimber, which shows up. And they really kept me company on a long drive that I had today. So thanks for that. Go check them out. Always great to have new perspectives, particularly internationally. I was talking to a pinball industry insider today regarding the other markets that exist beyond the borders of Eagle Land Freedom USA. And not just Canada, but also in Europe and the certain market forces that affect our friends over there. Uh, France pinball is huge. Germany's pinball is huge. Even Austria is on board. The UK don't play all day. Dutch pinball in the Netherlands. And probably there's some Belgiques out there playing pinball too. These guys have to deal with value added tax that's added on imports that go out there, uh, that we export from the U S to Europe. It's, it's kind of awful that they have to pay like such high prices, you know, basically paying premium or more prices just at the pro levels for sterns. But they're working on getting more distributor networks out there. Super fun. Also, I like the fact that there's still some homegrown European companies. Speaking of which, I had Pinball Brothers reach out again today. Their topper for the Alien Ripley edition, or all editions, is now shipping or is shipping adjacent. Like in the next week, they've come through. Lior's the man. He delivered it. There's a cool little video that they've shared. I think it was featured also on NAP Arcade, showing the tail of the alien xenomorph whipping around on top of this awesome-looking diorama of a topper.
    11:19
    I was talking to him, you know, because there is that, you know, don't tell anyone, but there's this very strong ABBA rumor for the next music pin from Pinball Brothers. But I was joking with him, and I asked him, so was the code name for the new topper Dancing Queen, you know, given that it's the queen xenomorph and it dances around? I thought that was a cool little ABBA joke. It turns out that Lior had named this thing the Queen Topper because it's the alien queen, which caused some confusion because they have another game called Queen, one that doesn't have a topper. Does the alien topper also work on Queen? Wouldn't that be nuts? Who cares? That's just a little tidbit for you. Take that, fold it up like a handkerchief, stick it in your pocket, and go about your day with that business. All right, we need to get to this interview with Mr. Trent Kennedy out of Kamloops, British Columbia. I think it's British Columbia. Or is he in Alberta? Man, which of the ten provinces is this guy in? Nevertheless, here it is. I'm going to go ahead and just drop it in, and we'll just, like, we'll fade away, man. We'll fade away right to Mr. Trent Kennedy. Let's go. All right, so earlier this year, Stern Pinball has blessed us with the pinball machine that was rumored, and it finally came to fruition, of the 1975 action-horror-amazing-monumental-film Jaws. And in our heads, as we were thinking through this Keith Elwin layout, we had ideas for mechanisms that we were going to see. was there going to be an orca that sank into the ocean but sure enough there would have been a shark that rose up from the playfield to at least eat the ball now the game that we got came just short of that expectation but trent kennedy was not going to take that lying down he sprang into action and brought us the shark eating ball mod for josh trent kennedy how are you doing sir great great thanks for having me yeah thanks for coming on man interactive pinball is that your company's name yes and you're from camlouise now people may know you from the jerry ramp which i got myself one of those. Game-changing mod for Rick and Morty. Made that portal shot just even more fun. And then here you are. We're just on the eve of LEs even getting into people's homes, and all of a sudden a video drops showing a shark eating a ball, traveling subterraneanly under the waves, and then popping up into the wireform. It was nuts. We weren't expecting it. That was amazing that you brought that in. What's your process, sir? Yeah, I saw that portion, and I kind of assumed that the pro, so the version that I've released is for the pro right now, and I saw that there was a large hole for the shark to come up in the premium in LE, and I was looking at the play field from the images, and it seemed like the metal piece where the captain ball is was just covering a larger hole, so I was like, I can make something work there with the shark to eat the ball. And yeah, so I designed a subway, a buck system, and all of that. I had that prepped and ready for when I received my pro, and when I received it, I was able to do some adjustments to my design and get it to fit pretty quickly. I got the pro on Thursday night. I played the shit out of it. Well, no swearing. Okay, let's go with it.
    14:18
    Played it with my buddy on Thursday night, and then woke up on Friday morning, started working on it, had it fit, went through a few iterations, and released the video on Tuesday. That's amazing. So you use kind of a loophole in Stern's production process, and I've seen them do this before with Foo Fighters, where to conserve and use economies of scale, they kind of make the one play field and then take the little extra bonuses that are in the higher tier levels and just kind of cover them up with metal. We saw that with the Dill Danger Post that would pop up with Foo Fighters. I mean, there was a hole in that play field, and they just simply covered it for the pro, so it wasn't there or it wasn't available, but it was there. So there is that hole, that pit in the middle for the shark to come up on the pro, They just found a way to cover it. Ah, so you took advantage of that, and that's how you got in there. Yeah, yeah. So I was able to switch out the captive ball. I'm able to keep the three optos that are there for the – now they're in front of the shark's head instead of, like, behind the captive ball. Okay. So you still have the three shots to hit, and now you're hitting it with, like, the ball you play with rather than the captive ball rolling over those optos. Okay, so your shark head stays fixed in place. It doesn't raise or lower from the play field, but it moves side to side?
    15:29
    Yeah, it thrashes back and forth when you get a direct shot and it enters into the mouth. And did you do that with a servo, or how did you mechanistically make that? No, it's a DC motor with, like, a cam mechanism underneath the shark head. Oh, okay. So much more, like, you can get reliable servo motors, but I just find DC motors to be much more reliable. I like the way you're thinking, yeah, after replacing servos that burn out, yeah. Yeah, they, yeah, yeah. So you've got that. Now, is that scoop, that scoop then is always open and available then, right?
    16:01
    It is, yeah. Okay. And then drops. It's a tough shot, though. I mean, I can repeatedly hit it a few times, but it's not as difficult as the Demogorgon, but it's probably a little bit more difficult than getting up the rush ramp into the time machine. And then for the subway that's underneath there, Was that an off-the-shelf product that you found that was already some vacuum form? Or is that printed? No, it's all printed with really thick walls and durable materials, so I'm not worried about it. I've been doing a few different versions of ramps, and once they're installed into the machine, then they're strong. With printing, the issue is the Z direction is your weak direction, and if you reinforce that with a screw or something, then the material is essentially the same strength as a solid piece of plastic of the same type. Okay, so I've watched through your video, but I haven't really seen what's going on back with that Vuck there. So did you make a wire form that jumps up to the other wire form there, or is that a printed channel too?
    17:01
    The whole thing is, yeah, it's printed components. And, yeah, I've been doing durability testing on it all, and it's all rock solid, so I'm very excited about it. And it needs to be printed because of the geometry. It's really tight in certain areas in the back. So to be able to manipulate metal into those shapes, it wouldn't be as easy to do. I bet. And repeatable. And the cost would just get crazy. So I'm trying to keep the cost down for this mod. Yeah, so that kind of explains how you were able to get this from concept to, you know, working prototype as quickly as you did. Because you were able to just kind of custom do the design and then print it there. is there a ball that's staged back there on the Vuck? Because it seems like it comes pretty quick No, it is quick I calling it a fast Vuck and it a way that it enters into the head of the plunger And the switch arrangement that I have in there it just allows it to pop up right away Earlier versions, I actually was just looping around like 10 balls in this one little kind of buck shape that would come back right into the entrance. And I'd have 10 balls in there just shooting around constantly. And, yeah, it's like a machine gun that just keeps going. Okay. It's pretty awesome. So I've only been able to play Jaws on location, so I haven't got a huge sense for the rules and everything, but does this change the rules? Will the gameplay much at all? Not at all. I never intended for it to change the rules. The video release, I changed what I'm calling the afterbox, so the portion that guides it back onto the wireform. I changed that just before the video, and I guess it was registering the right ramp opto sometimes, but that was never the intention, and I didn't think people would notice. I did notice it right before I released the video, but people are sharp. They caught it. I don't know. Okay. But, yeah. So no change to the rules of the game whatsoever. All right. So right now this has been developed and designed for the Pro, but are you still thinking, is it possible to do one for the Premium LE? Have you been able to look under the play field of one of those yet?
    19:04
    Not yet. I should be picking it up next week, my Premium. And, yeah, I'll be in development for that portion of it. I've got, again, the majority of that one designed. I just need to do the fitment, so expect a video for that in the coming weeks. And would this be, so are you planning on, for that, there's a whole mechanism that lifts that boat out of the way and then the shark bash toy comes up out of the play field. Are you thinking of changing that shark bash toy that comes out to have a way to go in there or just remove the whole thing and put in what you have with the boat? No. Okay. No, I'll keep the captive ball for the premium because it's just another added element to the fun. and yeah when the boat rises on the premium and I assume they shut those optos off because the ball actually rolls to the back to the front of the boat over top of optos so it wouldn't work to totally replace that mechanism unless I added in an extra switch somewhere but yeah this will be I'm planning to replace the shark that's in that with the shark that can eat the ball I want to also retain the bash feature too so you can either hit the shark or get it in the mouth I'm thinking about maybe having an optional double hit with a switch in the back, but I don't think I'll implement that. I want to keep the rules the same. I haven't seen if you've made an install video that's detailed or anything yet, but what all is included here? I see the shark that goes up on the top of the playfield, and then you've got the VUX system and the channel underneath. Is it just those two parts?
    20:36
    There's probably about 20 parts. I'm going to most likely have some of them pre-assembled, but just the way that they're installed you need to kind of put them together onto the playfield as well.
    20:55
    I'll try to keep as much pre-assembled as possible. Install is going to be fairly straightforward. There's no extra holes you need to drill in your playfield or even the backboard at this point. Yeah, and there's, like, a control board, like, circuit that is going to be mounted to the bottom of the subway.
    21:15
    There's a couple switch integrated into it, like a box system. So, yeah, it is pretty complex, but I'm going to create it for the install in a way that's as simple as possible for people. Okay. And then to power this thing, are you just using alligator clips to another, you know, area, or does it plug into a board? Just for the LED, we'll have alligator clips, but the rest of it is I'm going to spend the time and crimp proper connectors for everything. Okay. That's awesome. Yeah. All right. So I guess practical questions. What are you calling this thing? Is it the Sharkinator? Is it the Gobble Jaws?
    21:58
    The Jabberwock? Jaws the Ball Eater. Jaws the Ball. All right. I like it. I like it straight to the point. Tells me what it is. Have people been already pre-ordering this? I know you had an interest list, but are people putting deposits in? Where are we at with these? No deposits. I don't take deposits for these items.
    22:18
    I've got a large pre-order list. We'll see how many people end up wanting it in the end. I'm not doing any commitment-based thing. But if you're on the list, then you're going to be getting it first when I start manufacturing. Okay, okay. because I already saw a lot of the hot takes popping on the Facebook. When I saw it, I was like, this looks amazing. It adds dimensions and kinetic movement to the game that's not otherwise there. But then, of course, I saw some comments initially early on like, who the heck would want this thing? But then I guess the real tell for how popular this is is, do you have people signed up on the list? It sounds like you do.
    22:54
    Yeah, and I mean, I didn't know how it was going to go. I wanted this for me. so I decided to do it and then the response has been negative and positive online but just messages to me have only been receiving really positive stuff so I'm happy about that and I mean I guess the telling tale is how many people are signed up and yeah it's a good amount and definitely worth pursuing for me so I'm going to spend the time to make it easy for install and nice and durable for people I think that's a good take I've been dipping my toe into mod making, you know, flipper toppers and kind of simple things, just learning 3D printing. But what I found is I make things that I would want, and then people find out about them, and then they start asking me how to order, and then that leads to, you know, something that I actually put on the pin side shop. So, you know, it sounds like, you know, making something that you yourself want is a pretty good way to go about it.
    23:49
    Yeah. And that's kind of how I got into mod making. I made a few mods for Twilight Zone that I had released a while back, and then I made the Jerry ramp, and that was just for me. I just really wanted something underneath that plastic the first time I played it. I was like, this is just a lot of real estate. Something could go here.
    24:09
    And, yeah, so then I made that for me, and I actually put Rick and Morty up for sale, and people saw the ramp, and everybody was inquiring about it. So I was, okay, I guess I could make this and spent a lot of time kind of perfecting it for, like, consumer use rather than just something for myself. So that's the difference. Like, when I make something for myself, it's not consumer-grade. It's good enough for what I want. And then if there's enough interest, then, yeah, I'll make it so that people can purchase it. Yeah, and I like with the JerryRamp that you actually put a micro switch in there so that, you know, you're still registering that shot against that stand-up target that it replaces. But it just adds an extra fun option. And it's not an easy shot to make at all. You know, it's not like it made the portal easier. But I found that it did two things. It did give me, you know, something extra to shoot for that was really satisfying to hit. But also, any shot that was fair up that, you know, original trough when it would hit that, I think it was PTG, PETG, when it hit the ramp there, it seemed to kind of convey the ball up there and not rattle as much as the original steel did. And I actually had the spooky guys over to try it out, and they were having fun with it. So, yeah. Oh, cool. Yeah, you got good reviews of Mark's there. So, yeah, that was definitely fun. A part I really liked about the Jerry ramp was at the end of the Meeseeks multi-ball when you are Jerry, you're Jerry in that moment, trying to get the tomato into the soup can or the pot. And it's just a really difficult, like it's difficult at the end of that multi-ball, so you're kind of put into Jerry's shoes, like everything's difficult. So now you've got to hit that shot. and it's actually hitting the shot through the air because it jumps and then goes into the portal, which is the hole. So I don't know. It was just, I don't know. That always made me smile at the end of Meeseeks Multi-Ball. Yeah, yeah. And when you're doing something like that where you're creating like a new ball path, there's always the risk of kind of almost tarnishing the gameplay and taking some of the challenge out of it. But that was designed in a way that it really does add something new that's still difficult but rewarding to hit. So that was fun. So it's like when Game Genie came out and breathed new life in your NES game. You know, you're like, yes, this is great. It allows me to enjoy it even more. So, you know, I like that. Yeah, I had a lot of people message me that same thing. Like, I was thinking about selling it, and now that the J-Ramp Center is sticking around for a while yet. Perfect. Pretty cool. So how do people order one of these things? Is it still emailing you to get on an interest list and wait for further instructions?
    26:34
    Yeah, if you go to interactivegamball.com, there's a page for Jaws the Ball Eater. and there a sign up for the wait list there That a lot easier for me to deal with all of the interest It just goes right into an Excel sheet for me and then I can just automatically email back when the product will be ready Yeah, rather than to try to keep on top of Instagram comments and Messenger comments and then TikTok things and Snapchat which disappear and all the AI. I get you. You know better than me. It's a lot. All right. So did you settle on a final cost for this?
    27:09
    Yeah, $4.75 plus shipping. $4.75. Is that USD? Yes. And the shipping, I'm not – I can calculate it, but it's over 1.5 kilograms of material once it's in the box. So there's a lot of material there. Okay.
    27:29
    Perfect. And then so people that would email you to sign up, they're obviously not committing right at this point, but they're on the interest list, and then when this is available, they get contacted, and then you sell to them. and if they don't want to go to the next one. So there's really nothing to lose if you want to get your spot in line then.
    27:44
    Yeah, yeah. All right. And then do you have kind of a timeline of when you want to put these into production?
    27:51
    Yeah, I'm aiming for mid-end of March, so in a few weeks. So soon. So that's pretty quick then, in a couple weeks, not sometime in 2025.
    28:02
    Yeah, no. Yeah, I'm going to be putting Jaws on location. I started Camelot's Pinball League with a buddy of mine actually we met through starting Nick who was on the live stream that I did we started Camelot's Pinball League and so we have machines in a bar so I'll be putting Jaws in there so people can be testing it it's Alchemy Brew and people want to come try it out should be getting it in there early next week it sounds like you've got a test rig set up back there too yeah so I've been bashing various designs of the shark head in Rush, actually. It's kind of sitting where the ramp of the time machine is. Alright. What did you actually make the shark head out of itself?
    28:46
    I'm leaning more towards TPU. It's going to be 3D printed and hand-painted. Here's a mold right now.
    28:59
    Yeah, I was going to do Pet G. The teeth do hold up, but I just wanted to go with something a little bit more durable and flexible. So it's almost a rubber-like material. I don't know if you've tried printing with TPU. Oh, yeah, yeah. It's pretty cool material. It's got some give, but, yeah, it is stronger. I'm using it actually to make those little pinball support feet for the legs. Oh, cool. Yeah, it's silicone, so I can print those myself. And, yeah, they're pretty durable.
    29:26
    And so the sides of the mouth, it looks like there's some bumpers or something there. Is that all printed the same material, or is that like a rubber that you put in? those are just generic rubbers um so the teeth don't directly get hit but i want to make the teeth as durable as possible you don't want to start with a missing tooth when you're playing the game so um yeah there's going to be um standard rubbers on either side of the shark's face so that if uh you can if you're replacing your rubbers down the road you just remove those as well there's little inserts you just undo two screws from the bottom of the play field and then and there'll be two inserts. You pull the rubbers out, replace the rubbers, put them back in, and put the two screws back in. So serviceability is a big thing for me. I mean, I root machines as well, so it's got to be easy to do and easily maintainable. So, so far with the Shark Head and your test rig there, you haven't got any split lips or anything?
    30:20
    Yeah, no, I have on earlier designs, but now it's getting to the point where it'll be over. I did one another day. It was 4,000 hits straight to one single tooth over and over, and it didn't split. That's awesome. So I'm going to continue testing it. And like I said, the teeth don't get any direct hits, but I just want to make it durable. Yeah, and you've been around for a while in case anybody did have any issues with a split or something or needed some support post-launch. Oh, yeah. All right. Well, dude, that's exciting, man. I was just amazed at how quickly you came up with this, too. The game was barely getting out, let alone you're out there in Kamloops. like, BC, right? And then all of a sudden it's like, hey, everybody's talking about, like, the meme was just starting, like, the Sharky Ball, right? And all of a sudden, like, here it is, like, ready to go, with a VUX system and a subway and everything, you know, which was, that was impressive.
    31:13
    Yeah, for the Pro, I was originally envisioning a ramp, kind of, like, using the three octo, so you kind of hit through the shark's mouth over one of the three octos and onto the wire form. But this is more fun because you get essentially a baster. You're hitting the shark in the face, and then it also is like it can eat the ball if you hit it with a clean shot to the mouth. I have a much better understanding of it now. I know one of the concerns initially was like, okay, so you turn this into a scoop, so basically that shot that was up into the shark that was, you know, or that shot up into the ball that was dangerous, now that danger is gone, but, you know, you're only hitting into the buck some of the time. Most of the time it's still a dangerous shot. It is, yeah. If you hit either side of the mouth, it's like hitting the post on either side of the captive ball. So it's not safe. And even if you hit it pretty square on the mouth, if you graze one of the rubbers, it'll rattle and go in a different direction. So, yeah, it's not a safe shot. I mean, if you're good enough to repeatedly hit it in there, sure. Sure, it's a safe shot, but yeah. Man, I want to try this out. Did you manage to get one to anybody that's going to be at Texas in the next couple of weeks?
    32:25
    Yeah, I'm working on that. I want to get it to Texas, so I think that it will be there. Yeah, that would be fun if there could be one on the shelf where we could all try out because there's going to be tons of regular JAWS pros. So if somebody could get a pro there, mod it out so we can try it, that would be fun, I think.
    32:41
    Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'll let you know. I'm working with a distributor to potentially get one down there for people. I want to make it there, but I've got a baby on the way. Oh, congratulations, sir. The due date's just around Texas Pinball Festival. I'd love to be there, but I don't want to miss the birth of my first son. Perfect, yeah.
    33:05
    There's a ball disappearing into a hole pun there somewhere, but I'm going to let it go. But I want recognition that I thought of something. All right, well, cool. Anything else you want to talk about with it that we didn't cover yet?
    33:20
    I know what's going on location. and been doing a lot of testing. Where's your location at? It's at Alchemy Brewing in Kamloops. Okay. All right. Yeah, beautiful town, not only for the shark-eating ball that you can go play on location, but also check out the local area. Love to make it up there at some point.
    33:40
    Yeah, if you do, hit me up. Trent, thanks for coming on and let us know more about this. That's awesome. I can't wait to see some more. I'm going to go post some stuff. I'll briefly check and see if I've got any other follow-up questions from the patrons. nothing just yet, but I'll go ahead and post this here soon, man. All right? So thanks for joining. Awesome. And please come back on the next time you create something amazing like this.
    34:02
    Yeah, will do. Nothing in the line yet, but it's just kind of a whatever I feel enough creativity to start designing, I'll just go for it. Awesome, man. Well, thanks again.
    34:15
    All right, so that was fantastic. Thank you so much, Trent, for joining us there. I've been having a great pinball day, man. I love playing pinball machines. Jaws is killing it. The two spookies are great. I found myself a Black Knight Sword of Rage. What else is going to happen? Pulp Fictions are shipping. All that and more. If you want to get in on any of these things, go ahead and email my buddy Jeff over at madpinball.com. Tell him that you want a Jaws. You want these two spookies. I know you want these two spookies. Flip a coin. You can't go wrong with either one of them. Or maybe you want something used. Maybe you want to do a trade deal. Maybe you want something that no one else can get. Maybe you really want a punty factory and he might have one used. Who knows? Whatever you want. Even rumored titles. Email jeff at madpinball.com. He will hook you up, sir. Delivery to your door. You know, go ahead and put on your own white gloves because he only offers that in the Cleveland metro area. But all that and more will be at TPF very soon. I'm so excited. I can't wait. Anything else? I think that's it. Go ahead and hit my outro music there, maestro.
    35:14
    As always, Don's Pinball Podcast at gmail.com. Great way to get a hold of me. Otherwise, you people have found the way to the Facebook page because I'm getting inundated with messages constantly. And I love it. If you want merchandise shipped to you, I've got a whole line of shirts. Every size is in stock again. We got restocked. So order stuff. You get free stickers and everything. Join the Patreon. $5 a month. Get free stuff there too. And monthly giveaways. Later.