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Pinball Industry News: December 2019 Re-cap

Pinball News & Pinball Magazine Pincast·podcast_episode·1h 15m·analyzed·Dec 31, 2019
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.035

TL;DR

Dec 2019: Stern Stranger Things ships same-day, Spooky Rick&Morty sells out 750 units, Team Pinball Punny Factory revealed.

Summary

Jonathan Euston (Pinball Magazine) and Martin Erb (Pinball News) recap December 2019's pinball news, highlighting three major game reveals: Stern's Stranger Things (immediately available for purchase), Spooky's Rick and Morty (750 units, sold out within hours), and Team Pinball's Punny Factory (in development with Andrew McBain). The episode discusses launch strategies, licensing, design philosophy, and community reception across manufacturers.

Key Claims

  • December 2019 was the only month of 2019 with three new games revealed from three different manufacturers

    high confidence · Jonathan Euston states this directly regarding the month's significance

  • Stranger Things was available for purchase on the same day Stern officially revealed game details

    high confidence · Both hosts confirm this was likely a first for Stern, with machines also appearing at locations same-day

  • Rick and Morty sold all 750 units within a few hours of pre-order opening

    high confidence · Martin Erb explicitly states 'sold out within just a few hours' of Fang Club exclusive release

  • Rick and Morty Bloodsucker edition premium was $525 more than standard edition

    high confidence · Martin Erb corrects Jonathan's estimate, stating 'Five twenty five I think' for the difference

  • Rick and Morty production will take approximately 18 months to complete all 750 units

    high confidence · Martin Erb states 'that does raise the question, should they have gone for more units? but then again we don't want to compete with Stern they don't want to be a mass producer and this is already going to take them 18 months'

  • Stern needs to sell games on hype before people play them, as they tend to flip machines after playing

    medium confidence · Martin Erb reports this as rumor: 'I also hear rumours that Stern needs to sell those games basically on the hype before people actually started playing them because once people start playing them, they are just going to flip them'

  • Stranger Things is based on seasons one and two of the Netflix series

    high confidence · Jonathan states 'the game is based on seasons one and two of Strangest Things'

  • Rick and Morty is Scott D'Anessi's second released game

    high confidence · Martin confirms Scott D'Anessi was working on Rick and Morty while people were waiting for Haunted House Party

Notable Quotes

  • “this is the only month this year that we had three new games revealed. I think it's pretty impressive, really, right at the end of the year. And from three different companies.”

    Jonathan Euston @ early — Emphasizes the rarity and significance of December 2019 as an exceptional month for new game announcements

  • “it was available to buy on the very same day that they revealed the details of the game to the public not only that it was even on location the day of the reveal it was yeah people could go and play it”

    Jonathan Euston @ mid — Highlights Stern's rapid distribution capability and same-day availability, noted as likely unprecedented

  • “If you're going to leak anything, do it in the weekend”

    Martin Erb @ early-mid — Casual observation about leak timing strategy, commenting on Stranger Things promotional video leak

  • “I would say the majority of people don't have a Netflix subscription. And even those who do don't necessarily watch or enjoy Stranger Things. So you're targeting quite a small audience here.”

    Jonathan Euston @ mid — Critique of Stranger Things theme accessibility and market reach, suggesting limited appeal outside Netflix demographic

  • “all 750 had gone... There were two versions available... the standard edition and the blood sucker edition... it seems that almost everybody has gone for the Bloodsucker edition which again kind of makes that not so much of an advantage. The standard is going to be much much rarer than the Bloodsucker version”

    Martin Erb @ mid — Analysis of Rick and Morty edition sales strategy and market response, noting scarcity inversion

  • “having the games available straight away while wonderful is also has a bit of a downside because it means that there's actually even more of a time delay between the game being released and what could be considered a final version of the code”

    Martin Erb @ late — Critical analysis of Stern's same-day release strategy trade-offs regarding code maturity

  • “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a very strong rumor... we try to stick to the facts and the fact is that steven's mutant ninja turtles is a very strong rumor”

Entities

Stranger Things PinballgameRick and Morty PinballgamePunny Factory PinballgameStern PinballcompanySpooky PinballcompanyTeam PinballcompanyBrian EddypersonScott D'AnessipersonAndrew McBainperson

Signals

  • ?

    product_concern: Community reception to Stranger Things reveal less enthusiastic than Rick and Morty; hosts attribute this to theme accessibility issues and licensing limiting humor appeal

    medium · Jonathan: 'compared to Rick and Morty I'd say the response to the reveal of Stranger Things was a bit less enthusiastic... okay yeah we've Okay, it's interesting. We watch the stream. Cool. What's next?'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Rick and Morty features improved Scott D'Anessi ball lock mechanism using drop targets and horseshoe center shot, with potential 2-3 ball capability using pivot post design

    high · Martin discusses 'improved Scutanese ball lock' with 'drop target that can be raised in front of each of the entrants' and 'up post halfway around the horseshoe which allows a ball to be locked on each side'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Brian Eddy's Stranger Things design homages his earlier titles (Attack from Mars, Medieval Madness) with two-flipper fan layout, center shot, and ramps, suggesting design continuity strategy

    high · Martin: 'it's a paying homage to his earlier titles, Attack from Mars, Medieval Madness, with it being a two-flipper fan layout with ramps left and right'

  • ?

    leak_detection: Stranger Things promotional video leaked via Gmail account claimed to be from George Gomez, with Dropbox link containing unreleased Stern video showing Premium model with projector feature

    high · Jonathan and Martin confirm they both received email with Stern promotional video link before official reveal; Kaneda first to publicly share leak; Stern responded with teaser video

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.226

0:00
Stranger Things Revealed Rick and Morty Revealed Pony Factory Revealed Hi, my name is Jonathan Euston. I'm the editor of Pinball Magazine and I'm here with Martin Erb as the editor of Pinball News and we're here to look back on the month of December 2019. And I know we always say this, but what a packed month it was. Really? Oh, I had no idea. No, I thought it was kind of quiet, you know, like nothing going on. Well, as Rick just said, yeah. I mean, it's three new games revealed. Nothing very much happening, I suppose, really. Right. Apart from the other things we're going to talk about, which normally seem to stretch out to an hour or more. Right. So it doesn't matter what's been going on. Okay, so three new games revealed.
1:04
I think this is the only month this year that we had three new games revealed. I think it's pretty impressive, really, right at the end of the year. And from three different companies. It's not like Stern is cranking out three new games every month, although we had a month that they cranked out two.
1:23
Yeah, that's right. It's been a busy year for Stoners. We'll look back on in the Pinball News Review of the Year, certainly, and I'm sure other people will be looking back on what's been going on in the industry. Which sort of brings the questions. Are we doing a 2020, or sorry, a 2019 recap of the year podcast?
1:45
Oh, perhaps we should do a clip show, the best bits from all our previous podcasts. No, I know what we should do. we should do a best of Gary calling in.
1:58

Martin Erb / Jonathan Euston @ late — First mention of TMNT as strong rumor for Stern's next release

  • “Team Pinball are not really a manufacturer they're more a game designer house”

    Jonathan Euston @ late — Clarification of Team Pinball's business model versus manufacturing, relevant to Punny Factory production plans

    • Dave Sanders
    person
    George Gomezperson
    Jack Dangerperson
    Eric Priebkeperson
    Kanedaperson
    Jonathan Eustonperson
    Martin Erbperson
    Todd Tuckyperson
    Fang Cluborganization
    Pinball Expoevent
    Netflixcompany

    licensing_signal: Netflix subscription and viewing patterns affect game theme appeal; binge-model reduces weekly hype cycle compared to traditional TV scheduling

    medium · Jonathan questions how many people watch Stranger Things; Martin notes Netflix binge model differs from weekly episode scheduling that builds anticipation

  • $

    market_signal: Rick and Morty Bloodsucker edition sold out preferentially, making standard edition rare despite being cheaper; scarcity inversion from typical LE strategy

    high · Martin: 'it seems that almost everybody has gone for the Bloodsucker edition... The standard is going to be much much rarer than the Bloodsucker version'

  • ?

    community_signal: Scott D'Anessi was working on Rick and Morty while community expected Haunted House Party; represents shift in designer priorities or licensing acquisition

    medium · Martin: 'It turns out to be he was working on Rick and Morty all the time, which makes me want to ask, like, when are we going to see Haunted House Party?'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Stranger Things uses projector feature as exclusive differentiator for Premium/LE models versus Pro, with fold-down screen ramp as mechanical innovation

    high · Hosts discuss screen is 'divided into three sections with a larger center section which can hinge and can fold down to the playfield level' and becomes ramp to bash Demogorgon toy

  • ?

    product_strategy: Punny Factory game design by Dave Sanders with Team Pinball, developed iteratively with Andrew McBain input; manufacturing location (US vs Europe) to be determined based on customer geography

    high · Jonathan: 'if there were buyers in the US, it would make sense to build the games in the US. If there are sales in Europe, it makes sense for someone like Team Pimble to make them'

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is strong rumor for Stern's next major release following Stranger Things

    medium · Martin: 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a very strong rumor' for Stern's next title

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern's same-day release model trades code maturity for sales velocity; second-hand market evidence suggests customers flip machines before final code releases

    medium · Martin: 'Stern needs to sell those games basically on the hype before people actually started playing them because once people start playing them, they are just going to flip them'

    • Oh, wow. That would be good. Yeah, we could release that as a special bonus podcast. Yeah. I think people will enjoy that. Yeah, it might be quite short, but I think brevity is probably the best thing in a situation like that.
    2:14
    Right. So, anyway. Sorry. Yeah, so anyway, moving on. Yeah. So three new games revealed, and we're starting off with Stern's Stranger Things, although Rick and Morty were revealed a week prior to that, but there's a good reason for us to start with Stranger Things, because of the three pinball machines that actually were revealed the past month, Stranger Things is at the moment the only one actually being in production and available for people to buy.
    2:48
    Yes, that's right. and in fact in a I don't know it's a first for Stern I think it probably is it's it was available to buy on the very same day that they revealed the details of the game to the public not only that it was even on location the day of the reveal it was yeah people could go and play it so that's I mean that's pretty impressive I think to have got the game out not only to distributors but also to operators without there being such a massive leak. Well, that's not to say that the whole launch was leak-free. No.
    3:28
    We were kind of involved in a little bit of that, but I'll let you give a few details of what was leaked prior to the official announcement. Well, first of all, we have to give credit where credit is due, And I think the first leak of a Stranger Things promotional video was shared by Kaneda.
    3:56
    That's right. He was the first, and of course, in typical Kaneda fashion, he didn't bow down to anybody. And he didn't take it down, as far as I know. um the funny thing is uh we were both um approached by email from an uh a gmail account that uh suggested that it belonged to george gomez who is a stern pinball stern pinballs vice president of game design for those who don't know um with a link to a uh a dropbox file where that same video could be downloaded.
    4:43
    Let's just say what this video was. This was a stern promotional video, I believe. I think it was actually produced by them, but not published and not released officially. It showed the premium model of Stranger Things, which is the model that and the limited edition have the projector feature which has a projector under the apron on the playfield projecting images onto the screen the spinner and some stand up targets and drop targets as well now that was done in a very dark environment and it came out it was leaked before Stern officially announced the game. Right, although that was just a day later that Stern came with the official announcement. And following the leak, which happened in the weekend, by the way, which is always a good time to leak things because nobody's in the office.
    5:49
    So if you're going to leak anything, do it in the weekend. But during the weekend, Stern did respond, so to speak, by coming out with a, let's call it the Christmas lights teaser video,
    6:10
    which is basically a short video that was shared on Stern's social media with the wall with the alphabet on it and the Christmas lights across it. And there were blinking lights above certain letters. letters and if you put them in order and the way they were blinking it uh spelled coming soon so so that that that got out during the weekend and those in the know of the who know the show might or have him understood the link and i think even at the end it said stranger things and netflix so uh if you the cat was basically out of the bag but we had no idea what it looked like other than obviously that teaser video showed it.
    7:02
    Some say it was removed from YouTube, some say it wasn't. Really don't care. Stern came out with the video and even more footage of the game because there was also a video made available on the day of the reveal in which all the features on the premium model, I think, were sort of highlighted.
    7:31
    And, of course, Jack Danger had a Deadflip livestream on his Twitch channel with game designer Brian and Eddie and a few others where gameplay video was streamed and people could get a taste of what the game is currently playing like. Yeah, just a little correction there. The only thing that's been shown so far is the pro model. We haven't seen anything of the projector in action, I don't think. I think that's correct. Well, I think the Jack Danger stream was indeed the pro model, I think. the video on the website of Stern where I'm referring to. I think Stern has three videos up there including the promotional one that we both received but also a more an extended one that is highlighting certain features and I think from the top of my head because I don't have it in front of me, I think that was actually the premium model or LE model but oh well.
    8:39
    So anyway Anyway, if you want to see the videos, check the Stern website. And if we look at the, because we've been talking about a game that has been revealed, and we haven't talked about the game itself yet. So, Martin, what are your thoughts on Stranger Things Pinball?
    9:00
    Well, I think, as Brian Eddy himself said, it's a paying homage to his earlier titles, Attack from Mars, Medieval Madness, with it being a two-flipper fan layout with ramps left and right, a center shot. Although I think it's fair to say it's slightly enhanced in regard to the shots available there. And obviously the big feature in it is the screen, big in terms of the size of the mechanism itself. Yeah, and for those who haven't seen pictures yet, we're talking about a screen, a sort of a wall, which is actually on the playfield.
    9:47
    It's kind of like a drive-in movie screen, I guess you would describe it. Yeah. That sits in about the same place as the castle, or maybe slightly forward from that, in Medieval Madness or The Sorcerer. So a little bit forward of that because it's a screen which is divided into three sections with a larger center section which can hinge and can fold down to the playfield level. Right. And when it does that, it reveals a... It becomes a ramp. Yeah, it becomes a ramp where you can shoot the bash toy and shoot into it, actually. Yeah, the Demogorgon or whatever it's called. Yeah, the Demogorgon. Yeah, exactly. It's probably worth saying at this point that neither you or I have actually watched the series, have we? No, I'm completely unfamiliar with it.
    10:38
    And I'll give you my thoughts on what I've seen so far of the game. If you look at the playfield layout, yes, it reminds a lot of Medieval Madness, Attack for Mars. I thought it also reminded at least me of Lord of the Rings, because obviously that has the Bell Rock toy in the center where basically now is the other Bash toy,
    11:07
    which has like where you have to shoot the ball actually into the Bash toy, which is some sort of Demogorgon beast, and you shoot it where it's supposed to be is the head, which is like a ring. So that explains Lord of the Rings, that kind of thing. And since the game also has that magnet ball lock, at least on the premium LE models on the back panel, that sort of reminded me of Twister.
    11:40
    And I think the whole artwork package actually has a sort of Sega 90s feel to it, at least to me. Right, as being a montage of various elements from the TV series, rather than it being, I would say it's not original artwork, because it obviously is original, but it does feature a lot of different elements from the TV series itself. Different scenes and so on. Put together into a montage. But I do feel for the artist here to work on that, because the play field itself is actually packed full of inserts, and there's very little space to really let the artwork shine. So I think it's a difficult job, but I think you've done pretty well considering it.
    12:30
    And, yeah, so the game is based on seasons one and two of Strangest Things. There's currently three seasons available.
    12:41
    And what's interesting is that because it's based on these two seasons, That's actually also part of the inserts that you mentioned on the playfield, where the inserts on the left have to do with season one and the inserts on the right with season two.
    13:00
    So when Brian Eddy was explaining it on the Deadflip stream, I could sort of understand and see that as a progress from Medieval Madness and Attack from Mars. And so it made sense.
    13:18
    Now we just have to wait and see how much fun the game will be once code is being developed further, because currently we're at 0.75 as a code update that was announced earlier today when we were recording this. So we're still a long way from 1.0.
    13:47
    It could be interesting. The only thing is I sort of had a bit of an X-Files feel with the music, which is obviously music that is in line with how the show is, which is good.
    14:09
    Well, it's not really exciting music. It's more like, yes, it's... Yeah, it's very low-key and sort of ambient, isn't it? Yes. It's not something that stirs you into excitement about the game itself. Right, and we're in the middle of an exciting bimbo machine here. Come on, let's make the music a bit more, you know, upbeat and... Oh, well, but that's just me. in general I would say that compared to Rick and Morty I'd say the response to the reveal of Stranger Things was a bit less enthusiastic I would say but that might be just me that I didn't read all the posts on Pinsight and other social media and so on but my impression was that okay yeah we've Okay, it's interesting. We watch the stream. Cool. What's next?
    15:10
    That's a bit harsh to say, but that was sort of the feeling that I got. I didn't get the feeling that people were getting very, very enthusiastic about this game, which is a pity because a lot of people have been looking forward to Brian and his new game.
    15:24
    Yeah, I have to say on a personal basis that I thought the theme didn't help because I wonder how many people actually watch Stranger Things. I guess amongst a certain demographic who get Netflix and watch it and enjoy it, then that's great. But I would say the majority of people don't have a Netflix subscription. And even those who do don't necessarily watch or enjoy Stranger Things. So you're targeting quite a small audience here. and I think that it's not something which instantly is accessible to people who don't know anything about the theme like you and I and we look at it and we go, okay, I don't understand what that's about, what's this screen, don't understand that, what's that lab that is showing there, you know, it's not instantly gettable by people like us. In all fairness, I guess that's true for, I'd say, 80% of the themes that Stern has licensed in the past 20 years for me. So, I mean, I didn't watch CSI, NBA I don't care about, 24 I didn't watch. I'm not much of a TV junkie, so to speak.
    16:40
    What's interesting, I understand that there is quite a hype for Stranger Things, But obviously, the behavior of people watching or following such a show has changed in the sense that with traditional TV shows, you have an episode or a new episode every week. and with Netflix usually the entire show the entire season becomes available from whenever it's becoming available and people binge watch it or a lot of people do that so basically they watch the entire season in two days and then they move on with their lives so yeah you watch the entire season and then you go watch something else and obviously everybody can do that in their own time so um that's not building the the the hype and anticipation of of having to watch an episode on a fixed time slot every week on a special day of the week so yeah i'm not sure whether um stranger things is is released in that in that format or not because i'm um been seeing a few sort of things about, teases about what's going to happen to various characters in the next episode. So that kind of suggests that you can't just watch them all straight away. But anyway, that's by the by.
    18:14
    So that's Stranger Things, Stern's latest game. Which has, I think, well, I like the layout and it does feel very familiar to me in that regard, even if the theme itself isn't. So I think it's a good compromise of giving people who maybe don't know Stranger Things something that they do understand. Right So we just have to wait and see Obviously compared to Brian Eddy biggest hits being Medieval Madness and Attack from Mars This one is a license and it a rather serious one So at least I didn't get any humor so far from the stream. And humor is definitely something that helps in pinball, and that's actually a very nice bridge to Spooky's reveal of Rick and Morty, which is also a show that I was not familiar with, and if I'm not mistaken, neither were you. No, no, it's another one which we haven't been watching, and in fact I'd actually tried to watch a bit of one, and I think it was probably not a good idea jumping straight into the first episode of season four, because there's a certain amount of assumed knowledge, I think, it's fair to say, for those who've been watching the previous three seasons. And it didn't make a huge amount of sense and just seemed slightly annoying to me, but that's probably heresy to all those people who absolutely love Rick and Morty. And I know there's a large number of them because the game was revealed and there was a limited number of machines available, 750. and they were initially only going to be available to those members of the spooky, what they call the Fang Club, F-A-N-G Club, which is kind of like the Stern Insider program. So that gets you extra information and a bunch of goodies as well when you sign up for it. And that game was originally going to be like a two-week exclusive to members of the Fang Club. as it turned out, that was all moot because the game sold out within just a few hours. And all 750 had gone.
    20:50
    Some, I think, maybe went to distributors. So maybe there are still some available, if you know who to ask. But I doubt it. I think they've probably all been snapped up by now. There were two versions available. In Canada.
    21:05
    Well, maybe. Yeah. Two versions available. the standard edition and the blood sucker edition people could choose which one they wanted when they ordered there was a small premium I think on the blood sucker edition, not a huge amount, I forget exactly between six and about six hundred dollars I think wasn't it? Yeah, five twenty five I think. Five twenty five between five and six, yep for the blood sucker edition which is it has the same play field, the changes are cosmetic but judging by what they are it certainly seemed worthwhile going for that the other advantage to getting the Bloodsucker edition was that those will be made first and the standard editions will be made at the end of the run it does seem that almost everybody has gone for the Bloodsucker edition which again kind of makes that not so much of an advantage. The standard is going to be much much rarer than the Bloodsucker version, definitely. But you have to wait probably for about 15 months to get a standard edition. The Bloodsucker ones can be made first in the order in which the orders were made.
    22:19
    And starting, I guess, in the new year, if not already. I think they might actually be making them already, but I think in the new year.
    22:28
    And we haven't, of course, mentioned that this is the... I think we mentioned it last time, didn't we, that this is the Scott D'Anessi game number two? Yes. Because it was announced. If you were waiting for Scott D'Anessi's Haunted House Party, then this is a huge disappointment. I understand that. It turns out to be he was working on Rick and Morty all the time, which makes me want to ask, like, when are we going to see Haunted House Party? But, no, it's Scott D'Anessi's second game. This one does have ramps. But it also has an improved Scutanese ball lock, which in this case, again, works with drop targets, just like on total nuclear annihilation. Only this time, we're looking at a horseshoe in the center of the playfield where you can loop the ball around. And there's a drop target that can be raised in front of each of the entrants. and thus way creating a ball lock. And they're currently still looking into whether it's going to be locking two balls or possibly three. They have the technology to do three, but I'm not so afraid that Eric Priebke, the programmer of the game, may not like storing three balls in there, although technically it would be possible. yeah the difference I think what makes that possible is that there's also an up post halfway around the horseshoe which allows a ball to be locked on each side separately and to be used as captive balls or the post can be down and the two balls can be knocked onto one side and none on the other which would allow a post to come up and make the empty side available for a third lock but it adds a whole level of complication to all kinds of things when that happens, because you have to keep track of more balls in there and work out what you're going to do in every circumstance and every combination where those balls can be. Right. So, yeah, I understand the reticence to add a whole load more pain to the programming of that. But it's a nice toy. It's a nice, simple mechanism in terms of the actual parts involved, and gives a lot of opportunities of things you can do with them. Right. And, again, a very creative way of Scott and Easy basically using off-the-shelf parts and coming up with something rather innovative.
    25:06
    Yeah, which he's shown himself to be very good at before, of course, with the TNA. Yeah, and not to say that Stranger Things doesn't have innovation. I mean, we have a fold-down ramp,
    25:19
    which if you don't count the drawbridge from Medieval Madness, that's a first. and a vertical ball magnet lock on the back panel in Stranger Things.
    25:32
    It's also sort of a first. Yeah, I was a little bit underwhelmed. I didn't think that was such a great toy. I mean, maybe it could do some wild things, but at the moment it just seems to be another place to grab balls, and of course you have to worry about the potential, what's going to happen with the balls get magnetized? Right. Is that going to cause problems?
    25:59
    And also, what do you do about it in between balls, in between players? If one knocks two balls and then in a four-player game, those two balls are going to be held there for the rest of the game until it's their turn again?
    26:14
    Yeah, I don't know. You have to release all the balls. You can't just release one. Right. And what if another player starts locking balls up there as well? If there's already two balls, then what? Yeah, you can steal the multi-ball, I guess.
    26:28
    Yeah, I guess that's definitely a possibility. But anyway, let's not go back to Stranger Things again. No, no. But congratulations to Pookie on selling out 750 units.
    26:44
    Obviously, that does raise the question, should they have gone for more units? but then again we don't want to compete with Stern they don't want to be a mass producer and this is already going to take them 18 months of their production facility and then again they might have gone for a thousand or maybe even 1250 I guess who wants to wait two years from ordering a game before they get it Whereas Sterner, you know, Sterner releasing the game on the day they announced it. Right. But, okay, so now if we're getting back to Stern, that probably Stern's stronger selling point at the moment, that you order a game and you basically take it with you immediately. Because aside from Jersey Jack and American Pimble, who might have games in stock, Stern is definitely on the manufacturing end the best and the quickest to provide games into people's hands so to speak, especially when it comes to new titles but I also hear rumours that Stern needs to sell those games basically on the hype before people actually started playing them because once people start playing them, they are just going to flip them and wait for something else, which is not a nice thing to say, I realize that, but I'm just reporting on what I've been hearing.
    28:31
    And it's just a business model, I guess. I mean, if it's your business model too, okay, so we design games and we announce them and we sell them, and if people don't like them, they sell them again, but that's not a problem, that's what people can do. and other companies announce a game and it takes them 18 months to build all of them and that means you might have to wait 18 months before you get your game.
    28:57
    I don't know if anybody else is getting a certain amount of interference from Jonathan's microphone. If you are, then I'm sure we'll be doing all we can in post-production to try and minimize the effect. but yeah I actually agree that having the games available straight away while wonderful is also has a bit of a downside because it means that there's actually even more of a time delay between the game being released and what could be considered a final version of the code being out there because it provides less time for the programmers and the animators and the sound designers and everybody else to get all their work done. If the game is released immediately, it's announced. Previously, it would be a couple of weeks or so where they could have a little bit of leeway there to catch up. But that's gone now, so the game is out there, and that's what people are seeing, and that's what they're reviewing, and that's what people are buying or not. That's what they're basing their purchasing decision on, what they're seeing out there right now.
    30:07
    Right. And it also means that people might be deciding, like, okay, they bought a new game, and while they know that code is still being developed, they might already decide on selling it because, for whatever reason, and not wait until the game improves with more code. Anyway. but again, congrats to Spooky for securing the Rick and Morty license and doing a well a home run I would say while selling out all 750 units if I were Spooky, I would extend the license immediately and do a second Rick and Morty game to go into production after the first one yeah, could do, and it's interesting that those two games are both very good examples of the ability of both companies to keep at least a certain amount of their work secret. You know, Stern got the games out, manufactured them in the factory, got them out to distributors before anything really leaked out. And Morty was also under the radar license until Spooky decided to announce it. So, you know, congratulations to both those companies on keeping their work well and truly undercover until they were ready to review it. Yeah. That doesn't mean that there's no speculation on the next titles. Well, for Spooky, that's going to be a while, at least 15 months. Yeah. But for Stern, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a very strong rumor.
    31:51
    We haven't discussed that yet. No, we don't tend to do rumors. me well we we try to stick to the facts and the fact is that steven's mutant ninja turtles is a very strong rumor so we can report on the fact that this is being rumored that's true yes i'll give you that as it's christmas well it's almost almost the new year now at the time we're recording this. Right. And then on to the third reveal of actually what is true I guess for you Pimple News.
    32:30
    Yes. So I'll let you do most of the talking about it. Okay, thanks. A while ago I had a conversation with Andrew McBain and the team from Team Pimple who are based in South Wales. You might remember them from the the game called the mafia which yes well you were there and i was there at the same time in the factory to report on that game well um let's go back a bit to to andrew andrew um is the man behind um the pinball adventures series of books amongst many other projects that he's been working on um you might equally remember there was a little bit of sort of turbulence when that first started with Todd Tucky from TNT Amusements, who was lined up to, I don't know, front,
    33:26
    either, depending on who you talk to, either the first issue of Pinball Adventures or the entire 10 series, 10 book series. But so some misunderstandings there, which were eventually sorted out. The first one was, the first issue was printed in a bit of a hurry and rushed out before it was proofread properly or laid out properly, I'd probably say, and on poor quality paper. But Andrew took all that on board, reprinted it, re-edited it, and sent out replacement copies to everybody who got the first copy. Not to me. No, you didn't get yours? Okay, I'm sure you get yours. I still have the crappy copy, which is going to be worth a lot of money someday. Absolutely. I don't know he wanted the original spec so you might get a replacement copy so the first four of those have been published I think and there's ten coming out and besides all that he's he does a book series on what he calls punnies which are sort of visual word plays I guess is probably the best way of saying it and not only books but there's also been some various other merchandise t-shirts as well featuring particular punnies of his and then he announced a while ago he wanted to get into manufacturing of pinball machines and in order to do that because he hasn't hasn't got any manufacturing knowledge or experience himself or capability yet certainly not the design side of it he contacted team pinball after Romain from the team was at Pinball Expo talking about the making of the Mafia and basically got in touch with them. They developed a game designed by Dave Sanders who designed Full Throttle and Alien, much of Alien, for Highway, Highway Pinball. And Dave came up with the game design which Team Pinball built up some prototypes for and are in conjunction with Andrew, constantly in contact with him, because Andrew had a whole bunch of features and ideas and thoughts about what he wanted in the first game. He wanted lots of drop targets, he wanted varied target, and various other playfield shots, I'd say. and Team Pinball worked with him to produce what it was that he was looking for and Andrew provided the artwork based on the punnies.
    36:17
    His title is The Punny Factory, which is basically what the books are about, which is about this place, this mythical factory which produces these punnies, in which there's been an explosion and punnies have been released and you have to go around and try and capture them. And that is the theme of the game as well. So the whole bunch of artwork, a whole bunch of graphical assets, which can be used in the Punny Factory pinball. So he's provided the back glass, the playfield artwork, although that's all been a development process with Team Pinball. Originally the game was only a single ball game, but Team Pinball wanted it to be multi-ball so he did Andrew, it would be a good idea so he got on board with that so added another aspect to it and they had a ball trough into the game which wasn't previously there so some more development work and yeah, so I was fortunate enough to get to go and visit the factory, play the game talk to the team there and then talk to Andrew about the whole process and so the game is at the moment there were there were two prototypes which team pinball have built up and are sending over to andrew for his approval and once he got them and he happy with them they not just sending the play field they sending because Andrew will be making the cabinets who will be getting the cabinets made himself, rather than Team Pinball making cabinets.
    37:58
    Team Pinball are sending over the play fields in frames with all the control systems, almost like a mini cabinet, which the play field sits in and it has the boards which are connected and just plug them in and the game can be played in the frame without having to put it into an entire cabinet so they're sending two of them over to Andrew for his approval and then basically it's up to Andrew what he decides to do how he decides to get them made whether he's going to get them made in the Team Pinball facilities although Team Pinball are not really a manufacturer they're more a game designer house. So the game could be made, if there were buyers in the US, it would make sense to build the games in the US.
    38:44
    If there are sales in Europe, it makes sense for someone like Team Pimble to make them and ship them more locally. So that's the basis of the Pony Factory game, which, as I say, you can see on the Pimble News site now. Right.
    39:03
    And And, well, we still have to wait and see when this game goes into production and how big production will be. But I'm still happy for Team Pinball to have this project to be working on. You played the game.
    39:27
    Any comments? I haven't played it, so I'm just curious. It's a simple game. it's deliberately intended to be that way it's a sort of family friendly thing Andrew was one of the things Andrew really wanted in the game was for it to be once he put the multi-ball in to make it fairly multi-ball heavy he likened it to a game like Class of 1812 where it's not difficult to get back into multi-ball again so yeah you can do that fairly easily but there's a lot more strategy to it than just going into multi-ball because ideally you will although you might qualify multi-ball early you actually want to qualify it several times to build up the jackpot values beyond the base and make it more of a challenge so although you can just if you've got casual players who are not familiar with pinball then you can get instant gratification with a two ball multi-ball, those who know a little bit more about the game will want to defer that and put some more strategy into it.
    40:36
    But yeah, some nice ideas in the game, I'd say. You know, like having to spell out Punny Factory can be quite a lengthy process, but they've built in a feature where there's a sort of roving stand-up target, and if you hit that, it completes it all in one shot. So that's a bit of a challenge as well. There are other hurry-ups in there, and I also like the way that the very target has been used for a super jackpot feature during multi-ball, where basically the harder you hit the very target, the greater the multiplier on the super jackpot. So you don't want to miss that shot, because it could be very costly in terms of points if you just nudge the very target and just get it at times two, rather than what it could be, times six.
    41:29
    Right. Okay. And congratulations are in order for Team Pinball as well, as Janos and Oti, who are two-thirds of the team, who are also a couple in real life, had their first baby. yeah indeed actually as almost exactly at the same time that we were doing the article so i was down there a couple of days before before at gave birth and um then things were a bit quiet for a couple of days that was quite understandable uh but uh yeah it was only it was only a couple of days and then we were straight back into uh sorting out um assets for the article and of getting it all signed off. So, yeah, congratulations to them.
    42:15
    Right. Okay. Well, in other news, there's a couple of topics that we can discuss. Deep Root Pinball,
    42:27
    who are working on several games to review, have now announced their press date for their launch event.
    42:41
    They will be having this launch event the 25th of March, which is two days before the Texas Pinball Festival starts in Frisco. The event will be in San Antonio, Texas, at the Deep Root facility. And Martin and I have both been invited to be in attendance, and we will be reporting from there as well.
    43:10
    Yeah, absolutely. Robert has published on the Deep Root website, deeprootpinball.com, both a sign-up form if you wish to apply for a position at that launch event, and also there's a full schedule showing when everything begins, which is basically 8.55 in the morning and continues throughout the day. but it is interesting that they are covering all aspects of production both from the design and the manufacturing as well and there's a tour of the facility so you can see how everything has been building up over the past couple of years though the only game mentioned I think so far is Raza isn't it I think Yeah, Resident Zombie Adventureland, which was shown at the Houston Arcade Expo last month, which we talked about as well.
    44:14
    So in November we're talking about it. But yeah, no other titles or game indications were mentioned in the current program for that day. That might still change. I think it would be highly disappointing if, I think previously there were rumors that at least five games would be announced once they were ready to announce. It would be slightly disappointing if it was only Raza, I think. But then again, we should be happy with anybody who is even willing to do something. Yes, it's probably worth stating that this is an invitation to what they call the long-anticipated launch of the Deep Root Pinball Company. It's not a launch of any particular game, although the Raza will be available. We've seen it already, so we know that game exists. But there's no specification or detail about what else we'll be showing. but it is about the launch of the company I think rather than any one particular model Right, now speaking of Texas based pinball companies there's another one which is Multimorphic in Rambrook if I'm not mistaken near Orton so it's a little bit out of the way but actually on the route if you're travelling from San Antonio to Frisco And they announced that they have extended their warranty for their games and game kits.
    46:02
    We now have a two-year warranty on these products, which is quite unusual, I guess, for pinball games. And he also announced an upcoming free software update for Cosmic Kart Racing.
    46:19
    Yeah, that's an interesting development, because Cosmic Kart Racing, as it was first shown, was a, I guess you could call it a unique concept in gameplay. It was certainly very different and designed to kind of hedge.
    46:35
    Well, it's a multiplayer game, really, isn't it? four-player, whether they're physical humans or whether they were AI players. Right. But their new version is more standard, I should say, more familiar three-ball option with modes and multi-balls,
    46:57
    which they described as a more traditional pinball experience, which is good. It's an alternative way of using the same hardware to deliver multiple games, which, of course, is what Multimorphic and the P3 pimple platforms really have been all about. Not only just being able to swap the upper playfield module, but being able to use the same upper playfield module for multiple different games. And this is effectively a second game for the Cosmic Kart Racing module.
    47:32
    Right. oh well looking forward to that and I'm sure that Multimorphic will make a will have a big presentation at the Texas Pinball Festival in March as well being based in Texas this is the first game of theirs I think to include being able to play games against other players over the internet direct head to head matches so that's That's the first game for anyone, I think, really, who's been able to pull that off. So that's a big coup for them. Yeah, actually, it's interesting that Internet connectivity seems to be a big thing for other manufacturers.
    48:19
    And it's a topic that people have been asking questions about. But in all fairness, as interesting as Internet Connected for a game might be, as a player, I don't think that really matters that much.
    48:43
    You should start with a fun game to begin with, and whether you can update it when the game is not being played or in downtime, whatever you want to call it.
    48:58
    Yeah, sure, that's nice, but it's not adding anything for the player, I would say. No, I'd say probably the first instance of providing anything that useful to the player themselves was actually from Dutch Pinball, wasn't it, with the Brider Pinbot 2.0 kit initially in the Big Lebowski, I suppose, after that, of being able to have internet connectivity in order to provide a sort of global scoreboard on the game. Yeah. I think so, yeah. You're right about that. Yeah. But it is surprising how slow everything's been in getting internet connectivity built in. I know Jersey Jack Pinball have done it with their game updates. I think all their models now are updated over the internet. but there's not all the benefits that you would imagine would be possible once a game can connect to the internet. No one has really pushed that in any hugely new areas yet. I'm sure there are lots of ideas about making it robust and also secure. There's a lot of extra software programming. We know that the software side of things is a big enough headache or workload as it is now without adding that whole other world of pain. Right. And since you already mentioned Jersey Jack Pinball, why not Jersey Jack Pinball?
    50:31
    They revealed a new code for Willy Wonka, code update, various bug fixes, and gameplay improvements and so on, as well as a new topper for Willy Wonka for both the standard and limited edition games.
    50:53
    Can you tell more about the topper? Do you know more? It has no physical animation to it, but it does have backlighting effects. It's a kind of waterfall effect. There is a boat on the back glass, or on the topper itself, which is on water, of course. So this produces a watery effect using LEDs, much as has been done with, I guess, kind of like the... Whitewater. I was going to say the... Well, I don't think it's that impressive. I was going to say more like the Black Knight Sword of Rage flame effect, but the other way around, I suppose, coming down rather than going up.
    51:41
    Right. It's available for $300. And as you said, yeah, well, these days that's cheap for toppers, as we will talk about a little bit later.
    51:54
    And that's available for the standard limited edition. And the collector edition of the CE games came with a topper already, but I think it was a rather less impressive one than this one. So I think I've seen some CE owners expressing their unhappiness, shall I say, about the fact that they've got a topper, but it's not as good as this new topper which has come out, and they're expected to pay another $300 in order to get the best-looking topper, which they thought they were going to get. But, you know, such is the market. New products come out all the time, and you can't... Something which is developed as an aftermarket add-on, you know, it can't be added in. It can't be predicted when you're making the game in the factory. So, you know, somebody else could come out with an even better topper, and then you have to buy that instead. So, in this case, it happens to be Jersey Jack themselves who are selling it. Right. Okay. So, unfortunately, that's all the news for Jack. And while I was hoping that we could reveal more, we were sort of hoping. I suppose you could mention about the candy codes, which were added in as a software update recently. Right. I know that Kevin, the Kevin man of Buffalo Pinball, has been compiling a list of what the candy codes are and what they do. it seems to be almost like reverse engineering to try and work it out because I don't think Jersey Jack pinball are revealing too many details themselves so go to the Buffalo pinball website and I'm sure you can if you've got the game or want to play the game and you can see what these codes do and how you activate them in the game right, ok then moving on to I'd say American Pinball.
    53:51
    Yeah, American Pinball had way back when they first announced Oktoberfest, which was Pinball Expo 2018. I think that's correct, isn't it? In October 2018. They had some prototype games, which I think they had two on the actual reveal in the seminar where they did it, but I think they had produced five prototypes in total.
    54:21
    And they kept those. They didn't sell them. But now they've put them up for sale. Yes. One of the differences in these prototypes is that the artwork changed on the cabinet afterwards because the main characters were sort of blocking the name of Trollpath. I think that's one of the biggest changes that they made.
    54:48
    in order to please do enlightening and everybody else. Yeah, there was also, of course, a change to the back glass with a monkey there who was doing something which was... He was doing something that monkeys do. Yeah, well, maybe, if they're allowed. but that particular monkey was removed from that part of the back glass and these prototype games don't restore that they don't have the original artwork there so that's those are the five prototype Oktoberfest games American People's is if you are interested in buying any of those I don't know if they're still available at the time of this recording or whether they've been sold but to contact your American Pinball distributor and inquire through them. Don't go straight to the company.
    55:49
    The distributor is your route to buy one of those. Right. And American Pinball was also sort of in the news, I would say, because the theme for their third game, which is expected to be announced or revealed at the Texas Pivotal Festival. Yeah.
    56:16
    The sort of leagues, or at least, well, people started talking about it, supposedly that theme is Hot Wheels.
    56:28
    Yeah. Okay so everyone casting their mind back to what was it the 70s Or was it the 80s Where Hot Wheels were a thing Well I think they're still a thing. At least you can still buy them, but back in those days, I think you could buy them for a dollar or so, and they were very deep and collectible, I guess. Yeah, everyone had them. They were ubiquitous.
    56:57
    Anyway, so that theme was rumoured to be the third game for American Pinball, which, as you said, are planning to reveal at Texas. So it's going to be busy at Texas with Deep Root. I should also mention that Deep Root will be at Texas with a big presentation and also some VIP access to various areas as well. which we haven't got details of yet, but I know they're going big on Texas.
    57:36
    The San Antonio event is a press launch, so the Texas Pinball Festival will be their big public launch.
    57:45
    And American Pinball will be there reviewing their third game at the moment. That's the current plan anyway.
    57:51
    I thought they did actually say they were going to be announcing game number three at Expo, back in October. But that obviously changed. I did, yeah. No, Texas now. Okay, so now I heard a rumor. Sorry.
    58:12
    Should you start or do you hear it? No, I heard a rumor about the Hot Wheels license. And since it's a rumor that hasn't been anywhere else I'm not going to be dropping any name but the rumor is that American Pinball was not the only pinball company that got the Hot Wheels license other or at least one other pinball company was interested in it and under the impression that they had it exclusively but apparently not and now remains to be seen who has the license does one of them have to change the game that they designed for that if they already did for that team or what is going to happen well we'll be seeing two Hot Wheels games come out well that might also be the case, that would be a first actually having the same team used by two different manufacturer almost at the same time although Pirates of the Caribbean come to mind but there was quite some time in between those two games. Yeah I was thinking more of World Cup Soccer and World Soccer Challenge they got the Premier Cup that came out at the same time that wasn't a license of course but it was based on the same World Cup event that was held in the US that year 1994 World Cup Soccer was a licence Yeah, World Cup Soccer was Yeah, it was an official licence But World Soccer Challenge Was a I wouldn't say it was a rip-off, but it was a tie-in Should we say Yeah, so, but We'll have to see whether How that plays out With the licence of Hot Wheels And who ends up With it And releasing that thing Hmm, okay yeah sorry can't name any names no so just to see how what happens with that whether that game whether we do get two or whether that game comes out one of them comes out as something else or whether one of them is just dropped completely I'd be surprised they put a lot of development into it anyway so that's American Pinball and their plan to reveal their third game the Texas show I understand that you have some news about Mike Kalowski and what he's been getting up to with Homepin. Yes. Well, we already announced that he's working on a bimbo machine for the Chinese market, which is translated as China Zombies.
    61:07
    Definitely not Chinese Zombies. No, it's China Zombies. He explicitly expressed it to me that it's not Chinese, but China. Anyway, So they have been getting ready for production of the first batch of games. And they did some improvements on the thickness of their side rails, which are, I have to say, ridiculously large, especially on the player end of the game. as the side rail sort of widens all the way up to where it actually goes.
    61:52
    It touches the leg, the top of the leg, which is covering quite a big space. I mean, all you have to do is cover the clip. because the only reason the protection is there is to make sure that you don't wear out the print on your details. Yeah. So that's rather big. But they improved the thickness of those from 1 millimeter to 1.5 millimeters. and they showed some photos on their Facebook of the cabinet and some parts on a pallet for the production of games and the side rails and legs of the game are both red blood red although they're not allowed to show any blood with the zombies are they I think yeah well okay we have made of the blood bread but they are dead yeah people can draw their own conclusions on that right so they're working on that and I think they were expecting to be already in production but apparently well they're on their way but not there yet oh well and I do have some news of my own as well we have saved the biggest story to I won't say the last, but nearly the last.
    63:22
    Right. So, well, good news for everybody who is missing out on Pinball Magazine number two, which is the issue that focuses on the career of pinball designer Dennis Nordman.
    63:36
    It is being reprinted right now. It's already at the printer, and it should be available the second week of January.
    63:44
    And when Pinball Magazine number two originally came out. It was just released as the magazine and later on I started doing special sets of postcards when a new issue of Pimple Magazine came out. And such postcards would be limited to like the first few hundred copies that were sold that would get a set of postcards. Yes, for this reprint, I again worked with Argentinian photographer Santiago Tufo, and we put together a set of postcards that will be available with the reprint. But obviously, there's also a lot of people that already bought Pindle Magazine No. 2 and didn't get the postcard set back then because there wasn't any.
    64:45
    So the postcard set will be made available for sale in the Pinball Magazine shop separately as well. And it's just going to be for a few dollars.
    64:56
    And so you can complete your issue two of Pinball Magazine with the postcard set. I shall need to get some of those. yeah well I'm sure you know your way how to get them that is pinball-magazine.com yeah exactly yes you're very well informed how good of you well you know I like to know things yeah well good for you so hold on speaking of people who like to know things yeah well you have to get away with that because my phone is ringing but it's ringing in the other room and as you know I'm tied to a headset yeah but I can't pick up the phone and I have a slight suspicion who is calling and as much as I would like to pick up the phone as much as I would like to pick up the phone I can't move away right now would you like us to wait while you go and get it um well oh I don't oh I think it's I can't hear you yeah I think it's soft ringing but oh that's how bad we didn't plan for that did we no and it's stupid of me to have my phone in the other room it was I can hear it ring but oh well it's almost the new year where we're recording this so we'll do a new year's resolution where we will definitely try and get Gary on as early as possible in the new year. So I'm sure he's got a lot of, well, by now, he must have a huge amount of things he wants to say to us.
    66:41
    We've been going for a while, he hasn't got on yet, so I'm sure he will store those things up and let you almost have a podcast for himself, to be honest, in the amount of material he's got. Oh my God, don't give him any ideas.
    66:56
    Well, his podcast, he thinks his podcast is about him, but it's not really. it's almost entirely about us, isn't it? Well, actually, it's more about the pinball industry, and we're just hosting it. But Gary likes to interfere.
    67:12
    But speaking of Gary, well, I don't want to jinx it, but there might be the possibility that we are doing a podcast together with Gary in the new year. as we will be traveling with Gary in between the Texas Pinball Festival and the Midwest Gaming Classic show.
    67:42
    So in between those shows, we're likely to record a new episode. And with Gary there, you never know. It will be the end of the month. Yeah, it will be the end of the month. The March edition will be due out at the beginning of April, the end of March. So, yeah, and Gary will be with us. So no promises, but fingers crossed, he'll be able to be there live. Yeah.
    68:08
    Unless something comes up, but you never know. Yeah, I'm sure something will crop up, but I don't know, maybe. Let's see what happens. Right, okay. So you were, I was interrupting you because my phone rang, but you had some other news. I was just going to go back to a few things from Stern, which we didn't mention. We were so tied up with the Stranger Things reveal that we should also just mention that there's been two new releases of code for Elvira's House of Horrors, 0.89, which have added a couple of new deadheads, Mummy and Beachhead. Changed some of the rules as well. What's a beachhead? I don't know.
    69:00
    And mummy, I mean, seriously, I'm sorry, but just hearing those names, I mean, if we reference it to Scared Stiff, where we had Cheesehead, what's the joke with mummy?
    69:17
    I don't know. I haven't seen it, so it might be hilarious. Beachhead. oh well I guess play the game and find out but I'm already scratching my head well it's nice that they're adding more new characters absolutely yeah but um ok please continue yeah they've also changed a couple of the way the modes work the unhappy hour and drive me crazy um where making a lit shot puts a minimum of 15 seconds back on the clock so even if the time has run out and you're into the grace period you can still make one of those last shots and bring the mode back from the dead, so that's nice and there's some new high scores for the multi-balls more speech and lamp effects, I don't know if there's any more Elvira in there, I don't know if there's any more humour in there and they've also added support for the headphone kit which should have been there really from the start I don't know if it would be a part of their sort of base operating system, but apparently it wasn't, and now it is. So if you've got that headphone kit, good news for you.
    70:31
    Also, new code for Jurassic Park, 0.96, almost at release level, or fully complete level, I should say. Right. Where they've added exciting news, you've got another five seconds added to every mode by default, and probably the biggest thing, they've added a huge number of new high school records. Fifteen more high schools for completing various things or doing various things and getting the most points or doing them in the shortest time. So you've got a loop champion and a combo champion and a dinosaur champion and a T-Rex champion. So they'll all be scrolling by on the display during a trap mode, a bit like Iron Maiden, I suppose, whether it's a large number of high school records for that as well.
    71:26
    Obviously, a couple of rule changes and bug fixes for that. And the one that everybody's been waiting for, of course, is the Star Wars topper.
    71:37
    Well, everybody except for me, but okay. What? Oh, my goodness. What better timing than with a new movie coming out? But the Star Wars R2-D2 Topper, we're taking orders for it now. I'm not sure it's actually available yet, but you can buy it. And as you were just raising the tone of your voice at $300 for the Jersey Jack one, this one comes in at $750.
    72:08
    Oh, like it's nothing. And the funny thing is I already hear people speculating that they are going to buy these and expect them to flip them in a couple of years for even a lot more money. Well, they are limited to 500.
    72:23
    And they fit all three models. You're not limited in that sense to only having it on the limited edition or the premium. It fits on the Pro as well if you want to spend $775 when you have the shipping in as well to put that on your Pro model. but as you say I think a lot of people are looking at this more as just another Star Wars collectible and with only 500 around quite a rare one at that and 750 even rarer right so oh well I'll be passing on that one but then again I don't have a Star Wars pinball machine either so I wouldn't know where to put it yeah well I'm not sure that's a requisite it'd look nice in it's box sitting on the shelf somewhere I'm sure yeah just appreciating in value so yeah I think that is all the news that I've got have you got any more?
    73:25
    no I think I mentioned the reprint of Pimple Magazine number 2 didn't I? yeah you did it might be worth mentioning it's alright so well we're recording this December 30.
    73:43
    So I'd say I wish all our listeners a happy ending of 2019 and a good beginning of 2020. Yes, a very happy new year to everyone. Hope all your dreams come true in this, well, at least the realistic ones. And let's hope it's another fantastic year for pinball. Certainly, you know, for all the things we've been trailing coming up in 2020, it looks like it's going to be a very busy year for the industry and for those of us who report on it. Right. Okay. So let's continue doing our reports and recaps. Absolutely. And we hope you enjoy them. We hope you enjoyed this look back at the month of December and a slight look ahead to what's going to be coming up in the year 2020. So thank you all for listening, not just to this podcast, but to all our podcasts throughout the year. And all the support that we get from you whenever we're at shows or other events. It's really heartening to hear all the positive comments, and we're always open to suggestions. And, you know, if you've got any ideas of things we can add or do differently, then please let us know.
    75:04
    Yeah. Okay. So that's it for 2019, for December 2019. Thank you very much for listening. And we'll be back next month with our January 2020 update. Bye for now. Bye-bye. Happy New Year.