Episode 649: "The Best Toy Ever From Each Company"

Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)·podcast_episode·49m 39s·analyzed·Feb 16, 2022

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.035

TL;DR

Ranking best toys by manufacturer; Cactus Canyon ships; Star Wars Mandalorian hologram rumors; P3 licensed reveal coming.

Summary

Kaneda discusses pinball news including Cactus Canyon remake shipping, Star Wars Mandalorian hologram feature rumors, and Multimorphic P3's upcoming licensed game reveal. The episode's main focus is ranking the best mechanical toy from each pinball manufacturer, with Kaneda arguing modern toys lack the engineering excellence of 1990s Williams games and critiquing manufacturers for prioritizing artwork and code over mechanical innovation.

Key Claims

Stern Pinball did not adequately test Rush before shipping, resulting in scoop wear issues requiring protective aftermarket parts
high confidence · Kaneda discussing Stern's quality control and lack of pre-release testing on Rush scoops
Star Wars Mandalorian code includes HDMI reverse footage functionality that will likely create a hologram image feature, possibly paired with a droid topper
medium confidence · Kaneda citing John Craig Bobby (Pinball News) as source for Star Wars Mandalorian hologram rumor
Star Wars Mandalorian topper will likely be limited and priced between $1000-$1500, potentially reaching $2000
medium confidence · Kaneda speculating on topper pricing based on current aftermarket accessory trends
Cactus Canyon remake is now shipping to customers as of the podcast recording
high confidence · Kaneda confirming Cactus Canyon SE shipments with visual evidence of unboxings
Lyman Sheets has completed code work on Cactus Canyon remake, his last game project
medium confidence · Kaneda reporting information from Chicago Gaming Company with skepticism about the claim's completeness
James Cameron's Avatar Limited Edition (Chicago Gaming) will ship later than Standard/SE versions due to drain metal parts differences
medium confidence · Kaneda citing Chicago Gaming Company communication predicting late spring/early summer delivery
Multimorphic P3 will reveal its first licensed game before Texas Pinball Festival (March 25, 2025)
high confidence · Kaneda stating this as confirmed upcoming event
Futurama is a rumored licensed theme for Multimorphic P3's first licensed game
low confidence · Kaneda explicitly stating 'I hope is true' and 'No. I just don't' regarding likelihood
Spooky Pinball has not engineered a true mechanical toy across its game lineup; machines feature mostly sculpts and off-the-shelf parts with minimal mechanical engineering

Notable Quotes

“How do they not test this? How do they not spend a few months with the scoops on Rush making sure that either the playfields didn't wear or they needed scoop protectors?”
Kaneda @ early segment — Criticizes Stern's quality control and inadequate pre-release testing practices
“I think there's going to be a few Toy Story mechs that he took out of that Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory game and that we're gonna see put back into his version of Toy Story sometime this spring summer.”
Kaneda @ Jersey Jack section — Speculation on Jersey Jack reusing mechanics between games; suggests Toy Story announcement imminent
“If Stern vaulted Lord of the Rings they could sell it at 20 grand every later day take my man now easy million in there the bank for a remake of a game. There a reason why I hearing Gary Stern Stern is worth like million because Stern can so easily make tens of millions of dollars by just read making stuck.”
Kaneda @ Lord of the Rings vault discussion — Argues Stern's business advantage lies in remaking limited editions of classic titles at premium pricing rather than new development
“There's more wow in there one John Popadiuk game than I think in there any of these modern games right now from a mechanical toy standpoint.”
Kaneda @ toy criteria introduction — Establishes comparative metric for toy quality and criticizes modern manufacturers versus 1990s design
“Spooky Pinball has never really engineered a toy. I don't think they have. Like a complete mechanism that was engineered to do any of the things that I've been describing.”
Kaneda @ Spooky Pinball section — Harsh assessment of Spooky's mechanical design approach despite company's market reputation
“It's a lot easier for Stern to sell machines that don't have complex mechanical things in them. Because those are two things that don't require any mechanical engineering that is too complex and those things never really break.”
Kaneda @ modern vs classic toy discussion — Identifies cost/reliability strategy behind modern manufacturers' preference for code and artwork over mechanical complexity

Entities

KanedapersonJohn Craig BobbypersonLyman SheetspersonJosh SharpepersonJerry (Multimorphic)personMatt Scott DenisipersonBowen KerinspersonDoug (Chicago Gaming Company)personGary Stern

Signals

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product_concern: Stern Pinball's Rush scoop wear issues requiring aftermarket protective parts; inadequate pre-release testing identified
high · Kaneda detailed critique of scoop protectors as last-minute addition; suggests manufacturers should integrate Cliffy protection from production
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machine_intel: Star Wars Mandalorian code contains HDMI reverse footage functionality enabling hologram display feature
medium · John Craig Bobby (Pinball News) sourcing; Kaneda speculating hologram will display iconic puck from series
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product_launch: Cactus Canyon Standard Edition remake now shipping; delivery imminent for pre-orders from Pinball Expo
high · Kaneda confirmed visual unboxing evidence; SE shipping with Standard and Plus variants following
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code_update: Lyman Sheets completed code work on Cactus Canyon remake; final game project; Josh Sharpe will continue post-release development
medium · Chicago Gaming Company announcement; Kaneda expresses skepticism about 'completion' given Sheets' iterative design philosophy
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product_concern: James Cameron's Avatar Limited Edition experiencing extended delay due to drain metal parts sourcing differences vs SE variants
medium · Chicago Gaming Company communication predicting late spring/early summer delivery versus earlier SE shipping
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Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.149

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You believe in magic in a young girl's heart. Have a music and freedom whenever it starts. And it's magic if the music is moving. It makes you feel happy like an old time movie. berne delfino Welcome to Canadian spin ball podcast. I'm your host. Canada for you new club members. Welcome, we're at 391 and everyone said nobody would join the Canadian club here We are the only show that gets right to it So we're gonna talk about some pinball news and then I want to do something a little different I want to go down each manufacturer all new manufacturers and I want to say what I think is the best toy they've ever made the best toy and there can only be one winner for each Manufacturer okay so best toy because you know me I think for this much money and these games are a world under glass that toys are so important in pinball what's the point of Making a pinball machine if you can't engineer spectacular toys that make people go wow when they play the Out Pinball є Why Your

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Podcast Want to Buy Pinball In FlyFaith? What is Pinball? This week, we have a few of our top 10 picks that are coming up for the L.E. We shallsee, we shall see. This is another example of how sternpinball doesn't really test these games very much before they send them out to customers. How do they not test this? How do they not spend a few months with the scoops on rush making sure that either the The playfields didn't wear or they needed scoop protectors but it seems like the scoop protectors were a last minute addition and for the life of me I cannot understand why Stern pinball or Jersey Jack or one of them doesn't just buy Cliffy just buy the company and give Cliffy a whitewood of all of your machines and have him have the scoop protectors ready to go for every single new machine made. And I am a fan of the word entity that none of these big companies have like purchased as like an exclusive thing that will be part of their game alright? Some other news in the stern pinball world heard this from Craig Bobby over at tpn so in the Mandalorian code There is an option to send out video footage via an HDMI Cable that is reverse footage so the rumor is if you have a Mandalorian there is going to be something The game that will most likely create like a hologram image. Now, if you remember the show, the puck in the show, the hologram puck was one of the coolest parts of the show. It was like what the bounty hunters received to know who they were going after. Now, do we think this will be part of the Mandalorian topper, a hologram topper, or I thought the topper was going to be the droid robot. Will it be both? Here's what I'm speculating. I think The game is going to be a little screen you put on the apron of the game and then the topper is going to be the droid that spins around and fires and shootss. Now maybe it's all up there on the topper itself so the topper might have a hologram and the droid that seems like a little overkill and maybe that makes sense to put the puck next to the droid because remember the droid is also a bounty hunter so is that how they're going to implement it but the word on This week on the street is we're going to see this Mandalorian topper any day now. Now I also think Stern might make this topper limited and I believe that this topper could be anywhere from a thousand to fifteen hundred dollars. I really wouldn't be surprised if Stern Pinball charges fifteen hundred dollars for this topper. I mean they're seeing the way the used game toppers are going now and if they limit this thing to let's say just a thousand of them they could probably charge two thousand dollars for a Mandalorian topper knowing that Balls Ral Balls convenience The Pinball is just so backlogged that they're going to have to slow down the new releases a little bit. They just have to. They just have so many orders with distributors that they can't keep doing it this way. They don't want to have thousands and thousands and thousands of backorders and then customers are going to have to wait like a year to get their games. What else is going on in the pinball world? Cactus Canyon remake is now shipping. It's official. Games are going into boxes and Cactus Canyon SEs are going out to customers. I've seen it in a box. I've seen the unboxing happening. More people are going to be getting their games I'm hearing tomorrow. So this is good news. If you ordered this game way back at Pinball Expo in October, you've been waiting for the paint to dry. You've been waiting for CGC to get this game out the door. And this is good news. I really want Cactus Canyon to get out there and for all of you in on it to get your games. I still think if you ordered in LE, you're gonna be waiting a lot longer. I heard the LE delay is longer because of something with the metal parts for the train in it. It's a different metal than the SE and the SE plus. So you might be waiting to early summer late spring for your LE of the game. Now the other thing I'm being told and I was handed I'm being told by CGC that LymanSheets has completed the code that he was working on with Cactus Canyon remake. So if you're in on a Cactus Canyon remake, that's music to your ears that this will be the last game that Lyman ever worked on and a lot of his work will find its way into your game. But here's the thing. I mean, is he done? Is he not? We'll never really know. Like, how could you tell if everything he ever wanted into this game is in this game? Simon Sheets was a guy who was never finished with code so like you know what I'm saying like Lyman never had a finish line he would always be tweaking his games and working on them and adding stuff to them years down the road so for them to say like Lyman completed everything he was gonna do for Cactus Canyon I would take that with a grain of salt I think they want people to know that and if we know CGC I just don't quite trust them when they say stuff like this because We also heard from Josh Sharp that he's going to continue to be working on the game. Why would Josh Sharp have to do anything if Lyman Sheets was done with the game? As far as I'm concerned, when Lyman says a game is done, it's done. Like, I don't know. Josh doesn't have experience making games better than Lyman Sheets. So I think this is a little bit of marketing spin by CGC. I do. I think they just want people to feel like this is everything that they were planning and you'll never be able to know. You just won't. So it is This is good news that we are going to get some of Lyman's touch on this game. Now the question becomes how much did he add to the game and how much money are they going to charge for this updated code? Remember it's not part of the game. You have to pay extra money. What do you think it's going to cost? $200? $500? $1000? What do you charge now that this is Lyman's last coded game? It's going to be really interesting. Now we know CGC and Doug over there. He's not out to fleece the pinball. The code update will be around $250-$300. I don't think it's going to be like $1000. Stern would charge you like $15,000 and you'd probably pay Stern the money for that. Still no pictures from Haggis Pinball, no fathoms on the line just yet. I've seen some emails that Damien has sent consumers. He is telling them very soon and we will be patient. I'm not in on this game. I hope you guys get your games. And I want to clarify my stance once again. I do think they will get you your fathoms. I don't think they will make any money on these games. I think it is a pride play. And I don't think there's much profit to have after this delay. And I'm just gonna leave it at that. And they know the truth. I don't they're looking at their balance sheet. I'm not. But there is no way you can go nine months delayed on dutiesounty tief-, någonting bargaining investigating diesesnothdsa', Now they were telling customers they were going to fix this issue. I know this because certain customers like gave up their spot online and moved further back in the line so that their game would have the fix. But games are being unboxed as of last week still do not have the correction. So I would just like an official statement from Spooky Pinball. Are you fixing the problem? And on what game can we expect to see the fix? The game is still a little bit of a head scratcher that nobody caught that thing early on. Still no news from Jersey Jack Pinball. There is just nothing to report. I think all signs point to Toy Story being around the corner. With the new Buzz Lightyear movie coming out, it makes absolute total sense that this would happen. That they would time the Toy Story Heycesidee作� manque핫다 pod PAC에 Kaiser думаю Vacnis buried down 내말쨩 respondents dangersign and пис I think there's got to be a few Toy Story mechs that he took out of that Willy Wonka game and that we're gonna see put back into his version of Toy Story sometime this spring summer. Ah, you know, I also heard on the pinball The new LordoftheringsTVshow could become a new Stern machine. I don't think so. I don't think Stern's gonna make a Lord of the Rings TV show. The smart thing to do would be to vault the original Lord of the Rings pinball machine, which is one of Stern's best ever, make the art package better, make some of the sculpts better, and you would sell a game at like 20 grand. A I still learning this If Stern vaulted Lordoftherings they could sell it at and make 500 Vaulteditions or 1000 new ones If they made 1000 LEs only of a new Lord of the Rings 20 grand every day take my money now easy million in the bank for a remake of a game There a reason why I hearing Gary Stern is worth like million because Stern can so easily make tens of millions of dollars by chest read making stuck all they have to do is renewal our sins and maybe polished the artwork and put it on the line and are pretty tense of millions of dollars in the bank zero are and the cost people zero R&D dezeit stop making any new pinballungkin majesticant крепned thou and vaultGhostbusters, Tron, Lord of the Rings. This is Stern's advantage. They can keep going back to the well now with super limited edition versions of all their games. They can never make a new game again and still make tens of millions of dollars a year because all of us would be clawing over each other to get the new super limited version of Iron Maiden or Jurassic Park or Tron or Lord of the Rings or Simpsons Pinball party. You could just go on and on and on. Now the question is will they vault a White Star game, right? They've only been remaking Spike Edition games and I think it would be worth the trouble to port over Lord of the Rings into the Spike system. It can't be that hard. Like seriously. With all of their coders over there, how hard could it be to just take what you did on the White Star and put it onto the new platform? It's not impossible, people. The last bit of news is I am hearing that P3 Multimorphic is going to reveal their first licensed game before Texas Pinball Festival. So that means Jerry is going to show the world what he's been working on before March 25th. Now this I think is a little bit of a make or break moment for P3 Multimorphic. They need a licensed theme. They need a licensed theme that people want. All they need is one. If they create a license theme that makes you want to own the game, that's the smartest thing they could ever do because if you buy it, okay, if you buy the license game, you are then very likely to buy the older kits like heist and cosmic kart racing and like Lexi Lightspeed. So this is a huge moment for Jerry. He's got Scott Denisey and Bowen Cairns over there. Now, what theme The rumor that I hope is true because Jerry loves the theme we know Scott Denisi does is that the licensed game over at P3 Multimorphic is going to be Futurama. Now that would be a humongous theme for this company to get. Do I think they have it? No. I just don't. I just don't have faith that Jerry is going to line up a huge theme like that. It's very much like a Rick and Morty theme. It's got millions of fans. Jump and This week in Pinball Podcast, Terminate I'm going to be talking about how to make a pinball license theme. This is not some license like cell phone game like a candy crush or bejeweled because if you think about it the hardest part of making a license theme for this platform is you have to fill that big playfield screen with something and how do you fill that with a license theme property. Now, a smart thing to maybe do is I've been saying this make it look like a static pinball playfield that moves a little bit, right? Like get an artist to draw what looks like a normal pinball Futurama playfield and as you're playing the actual art can like manipulate and transform so you could have like eight different playfields of Futurama like sort of pop up when you're in a different mode. Like that would be super cool. So we'll see what he does. I hope it's Futurama, I hope Scott Denisi is on this licensed theme, and I hope this game finally makes us say, hey, we should consider buying a P3 Multimorphic. Alright, so let's get to my pick for each new manufacturer's best toy they've ever done. And I believe toys are super important in pinball. I think toys make pinball machines special. There's something about the fact that pinball is analog. It's physical. You want to see the ball do something interesting, but not just the ball. You want to see the environment under that glass transform and do things magical that make you go wow, that create pinball moments that make you want to pull people over and say, look at this thing. I can't wait to show you what this does. I mean, I think that's the greatest way to describe The Toys It makes you want to show it off to everybody and be like you won't be able to believe your eyes When you see this thing do what it can do and I will say for the most part Modern pinball machines and toys have been pretty damn Lackluster and I mean it I am NOT gonna go best toys of the 90s I'll tell you why there are so many amazing toys from the nineties pinball machines, the Bally Williams error, even some daddy stuff. It would just embarrass what we are getting into pinball machines these days. The medieval madness castle right embarrasses anything we've seen today. You could talk about Rudy from Funhouse embarrasses pretty much anything we've seen today. Go into like Twilight Zone and look at the toys in that game. The gumball, the magnetic flip upper In the Adams family, you go to Adams family and the hand like name me one one modern toy that grabs a ball as cool as the hand does in the Adams family. And so you know there are some decent toys. We're going to talk about them. But for the most part, I don't want to go down the Valley Williams days. I don't want to talk about the Whirlpool in Whitewater. I don't. They just engineered more magic into those games. I didn't even mention some of the greatest The Trunk in Theater of Magic, The Ringmaster in Circus Voltaire, The Genie with the Disappearing Magnet in Totin, all these things. There's more wow in one Jpop game than I think in any of these modern games right now from a mechanical toy standpoint. The wow now is happening mostly with the artwork and it's happening mostly with the code. You know why? Because those are two things that don't require any mechanical engineering that is too complex and those things never really break, right? They don't break unless the arts chipping off a JJP playfield. It's a lot easier for Stern to sell machines that don't have complex mechanical things in them. Now that being said, these modern pinball The only company I'm not going to feature here right now is Chicago Gaminging Company because they did not engineer any modern toys. The Bally Williams toys So they are not going to be included in my mentions and I'm gonna pick the best toy from each Company and for some of these companies you're gonna see it was really hard to even identify One toy that was very impressive. So let's start with haggis pinball Okay And again, I just want to get this stuff out of the way so haggis pinball as a company right now has only made Kelts they also are remaking fathom now Now, I would say that Kelts is a game that doesn't really have a toy. And I want to give you my criteria for how I'm ranking the best toys from each company. Number one, it has a visual wow when you walk up to the pin. So when you see it right from a distance, even before you start playing, the toy jumps out at you and makes you say, wow, I wonder what that does. It pulls you into The second is aesthetically pleasing and beautifully sculpted. Does the toy itself look amazing? Just from a visual standpoint. Number three, it interacts with the ball. And the more ways the merrier. Like how many different ways does this toy interact with the ball or with gameplay? Number four, it has movement. Does it have movement? Is it static or actually does it move? Some do more than others. Some have no movement. Some move a lot. 5. It does something unexpected that creates a memorable pinball moment. And this might be the most important one. What does this toy do that makes you say WOW? That makes you come back for more? That does something in front of your eyes that you didn't at rajaphancuspins Stirbro Panda.com to learn how to ban screws繼 Meaning Mightburghpom Drew Mor, Great Caitlin nhi, Easy choice here. The best toy they've ever engineered is the alien head, the xenomorph head that grabs the ball. Arguably a bit of a clunky toy but it does pull you into the game. It does scream alien and it does create movement. It does have a wow moment. The ball is going into the xenomorph's head. The tongue comes out even though it looks like a silver pencil. It's still a very cool toy. Engineering The Thing Breaks Down A Lot Which is kinda good because it shows they actually tried to do something complex Keeping But the Alien Head is a great toy that the modern pinball world has seen. Alright, now let's go to Dutch Pinball. Now this is a company that, you know me, I love The Big Lebowski. I think The Big Lebowski has many toys and I love games that have more than just one central toy. Now if you're gonna ask me what's the greatest toy that Dutch Pinball ever put out and it's a hard one like the rug is awesome the upper playfield parking lot is awesome you bash the wall the car comes out you bash the car but without a doubt probably the coolest toy I've ever seen since covering pinball and the thing that makes you when you walk up to the machine just smile and say man they nailed it they nailed this theme there maybe is no better lower playfield ninetyever just p Collabor of my hope'll clip that aboard eyes if p pequeña video delicate my

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I see a big company like Stern hasn really really really engineered stuff as cool as that rug or the upper playfield or the bowling alley it just reminds me and it should remind all of you you getting what you pay for with stern machines They not putting the engineering complexity into their games And so stop spending like 19 grand on stern machines people You getting out of control All right P3 multi morphic We got Lexi Lightspeed We got cosmic cart racing And then we got heist Now obviously this was an easy one The crane in the heist is a very cool toy Visually it stunning It moves around the game It In the past, the pinball toy was called pinball, and it's now a pinball toy. The pinball toy is a toy that grabs the ball, it's also a bash toy, it does everything. I think the crane, it extends, I mean the damn crane extends. Right, we don't get the extension in the Batman 66 crane. This thing is an engineering marvel. Jerry should be very proud of himself, and I think for a lot of us out there, we're like, oh man, like one of the greatest pinball toys in the last like decade, and it's trapped www.gmeny,sn Nederland.com, www. извinku.com,اب esse, trembify.com, www.interrenal.gmail.com, www.gwp.webskept.co.il, www.ucc.com, goalchip.com, www.albertgec.na and booth получилось Promo, vocal genuine攻異om king b Download, download, download and use free Transferóle!!! So I saw there was a case in the chat box where they needed to seinen the instruction The game is based on a kids toy that is filled with stuff that is a wow thing. Looptie loops, jumps, car washes, everything that's in the Hot Wheels universe, none of it makes its way onto the pinball machine. Very embarrassing, very embarrassing. And then we've got Legends of Valhalla, which arguably also really doesn't have any toys. I mean, the magnet under the playfield, I don't really consider to be a toy toy. You can't even see it. It doesn't create like an unbelievable wow moment and then that big Viking ship right that Viking ship is is like a prime example of something that you wanted to do something cool and it doesn't do anything cool. They couldn't even get the oars to move nothing about it makes it a magical toy. And so the easy winner here for American pinball's greatest toy of all time and still one of the coolest visual wow moments. I think in modern pinball is the trunk shot in Houdini. If you've never experienced that trunk shot, that milk trunk shot or whatever it's called, milk can trunk shot, it fires the ball like three feet from the lower left side of the game all the way into the trunk in the back of the playfield and it is amazing. It is epic. Unfortunately, the game itself is brutally hard. The shots are too tight and Houdini is just another one of these games though The overall experience of it is more frustrating than fun because of how tight the shots are. Now I'm leaving stern to the end because there are so many stern toys to discuss and I can't talk about every one. Let's go to spooky Pinball next. Now spooky pinball was an interesting one because as I went down my criteria of is it a visual wow, like does it interact with the ball, does it do something unexpected and amazing, I have to be honest. I have to be honest people. There are hardly anything in spooky games that meet this criteria. I would almost argue that spooky pinball has never really engineered a toy. I don't think they have. Like a complete mechanism that was engineered to do any of the things that I've been describing. They'll find unique ways to have upper playfields and drop targets and pop bumpers, but they've never really engineered a toy. I mean that America's most haunted like the ghost maybe that's a toy you bash that it's got the magnet in front Rob Zombie literally has nothing like nothing it's usually just targets in front of sculpts like spooky will put sculpts all over the game but the sculpts don't do anything Alice Cooper's nightmare castle you could argue maybe the guillotine you know maybe the Frankenstein that pops up I think it's a Frankenstein or a werewolf you got TNA has like no toys it's got the drop The Balls, it's got the pop bumper on the side Rick and Morty another game not really a game with a toy I don't consider going into the garage a toy like that's not a toy It's a hole that goes into a subway that then kicks it out of a scoop That's not a toy the horseshoe lock not really a toy you could argue It's a toy again, but based on my definition a toy and Rick and Morty would have been like if they actually film seaneeructure jawsiennent © spellingbelieve www.DAZP Books.com programming streaming and even a toy is putting the pop bumper as the slingshot which I think creates the most wow moment in that game. Then you get to Halloween and Ultraman and I mean this when I say this. I'm looking over Halloween and Ultraman trying to find the toy that creates the wow and there isn't any. Like do you consider like the hedges on the left side to be a toy? There's nothing that you really bash other than like drop targets. It's a game with no toys. And again there's a lot in it but they're not a company that has really ever engineered a toy. And that is why, you know, again I'm just going to say it, these games shouldn't be $8700, $9000, $10,000. Like you're spending money on almost hardly any engineering. All this stuff people is off the shelf parts with very little engineering and you're spending so much money on them. It's crazy to me when you think a Godzilla Premium Axle R. Chong, Karl DeACTluent, Eliot

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game've been 15 years was like berj snackin pangiserva And do you believe that this y song cards edْатä SG dragon ans which what adults are just in what We have a lot of toys in this game. You can even argue maybe the pop bumpers with the trees and the eyes are all toys. It's got the crystal ball. It's got a lot of stuff going on in this game that I would consider to be toys. And yet Wizard ofOz is not going to win for best toy by Jersey Jack Pinball. You've got the Hobbit, right? Smaug was supposed to be the one that was going to win. The game is a talking sock puppet. You don't bash it, you don't hit it, it doesn't interact with the ball at all. After that, you know, the trolls that pop up in Hobbit are not that amazing. And so Hobbit is kind of like a miss. And then you go to Dialed In, right? This game that's supposed to be loaded with Pat Lawler toys. And arguably there's a lot in it, but none of it is that incredible. The Quantum Theater, Drones with magnet, Diverter woman in back with wrench, Subway lock, Quantum theater is the coolest thing in the game but also a little underwhelming after you play it for a while. And then you've got Pirates of the Caribbean, right? With the pirate ship in the upper right corner that seesaws back and forth like it's on the ocean. We're going to talk more about this one because as you can tell, this is going to take it. It's going to go to Pirates of the Caribbean ship. Before we crown it, Willy Wonka, another one, right? Willy Wonka, think about it. What's the best toy in Willy Wonka that makes you go, wow, I can't wait to see what that does? It doesn't really have one. WonkaVision was a missed opportunity. The WPPR is a game where the code is super fun, but physically nothing happens on that playfield that is that magical. And Guns and Roses is just like 15,000 lights like there's absolutely nothing from a mechanical standpoint that makes you go wow in GNR. The lights do make you go wow and as I've said GNR the mech is the machine the toy is the whole machine because it's a concert in a box but Pirates of the Caribbean is the greatest Jersey Jack toy ever engineered. Yvet haul Oda, dokumented to NS Clarke, The hard part about doing this with Stern is they have so many damn games and I can't even like really go through them all. I'm gonna have to tell you like my favorites and then just tell you the one that I think is the best one they've ever done. And let's remind you it's something that visually wows you when you walk up to the machine. It's aesthetically beautiful. It interacts with the ball. It has movement and it does something that creates a magical and memorable pinball moment. Let's go down a bunch of Stern machines that don't have it. Mandalorian doesn't have it. Doesn't have it. I don't care what we put on top. It doesn't got that. Stranger Things, you know, I don't know, right? Is the screen in the projector a toy? Probably. I would consider it a toy. Is it a wow thing you can't wait to see what happens on it? Yeah, maybe. The UV kit is cool, but still nothing in Stranger Things really is that singular toy that just blows you away and interacts with the ball the right way. Avengers doesn have it got a lot of cool shots got a lot of wire forms Star Trek nope Simpsons pinball party the garage is cool that goes up to the upper playfield lots of cool stuff in the Simpsons pinball party but you know I would say that it doesn have sort of that toy that amazingly interactive that just makes you say oh my god look at that Led Zeppelin I just want to punch myself in the face has probably the worst toy Stern has ever made I mean it I think the spinner that comes out of the playfield is the laziest and worst toy Sterne has ever done Every This week smashed All the toy group. I really do it's just not stern's best in the Walking undergraduate In the Walkinggraduate walking dead, you've got the prison you've got the well walker the prison never made much sense to me You like open up the doors and there's a big zombie head inside. The scale was all wrong in that made no sense Why is there this ginormous zombie head inside this prison X-men's got some cool toys magneto Multi ball is super cool Avengers the you know, the Hulk smash is really cool. We haven't seen anything like that spectators like if you were a star, you could just ask those questions by using this cool tool. Just a compliment here that the world is beautiful. Rush Pinball, nothing really like a recycled toy but nothing else that's really that incredible. Let me get to like some of the best ones I think Stern has done. I think Aerosmith the toy box is incredible. Like the fact that it shootss the ball across the playfield and the box opens up and then the box unloads balls from multiball. Super incredible toy but it's not the best. ACDC, a game loaded with toys. You've got the cannon, you've got the bell. I love those toys. I really do. When you walk up to ACDC, you see the train, you see the cannon, you see the bell. The bell I love because you walk up to it and you want to hit it. You want to see what happens when you hit the ACDC bell. Very cool. And remember, Stern let Richie put a lot into ACDC because they wanted to show JJP what they could do. Very cool game with a lot of toys but not the best. The crane in Batman 66 and Batman the The Dark Knight is amazingly cool. It is one of Stern's best mechanisms ever. It's super rewarding to hit it as it sweeps across the playfield. I love the fact that visually you're drawn to it when you start a game. I love the fact that it interacts with the ball in such a unique way. The only thing with this toy is it's never really been in a great game and Batman 66, it doesn't make any sense that it's in Batman66, but I still do think it's one of the best engineered toys Stern has ever done. Stewie Pinball, right? I mean this upper playfield miniature pinball machine, super cool. I would argue it's Stern's best upper playfield ever. I love this thing. I think it's super fun. When you walk up to family guy, it pops right out at you and you can't wait to sort of activate it, right? It really does have that like magical moment when you're playing miniature pinball up there. It's a far more enjoyable experience than the lower playfield on the Munsters, but it's still not Stern's best. The game is a bit of a mess. Black Knight sort of rage, right? When this came out, when we saw the Black Knight mech, we were all just like Stern can finally engineer a mechanism when we were all starting to go crazy. Like this is the greatest thing ever. Truth is, it's not that complex and there's nothing else in the game, right? It's like they gave us that one toy in the game and then the rest of the Black Knight game is completely empty. The upper playfield is terrible in that game. And so while it's neat and I like that there's stuff happening on each side of the toy that The Shield going up and down and the flail spinning. It's still not the best toy per se. I do like it I do think it's great, but Stern has done better Let's talk about the other pirate ship in Stern's Pirates of the Caribbean. Now. This is a super cool toy now It's like it's sailing along and then you destroy it and it collapses and you know people hold this up as As one of Stern's greatest toys of all time and it is it feels like something where they actually had to engineer something very creative. It is super neat. Now the reason why I am not going to pick this one as the best is simply this. It kind of looks cheap like it's this flat plastic looking thing. It looks really wonky thinking about it next to Jersey Jack's machine now too. It hasn't aged as well because that game hasn't aged well. It looks really, The I'm going to play this machine dozens of times as a casual pinball player and you'll never experience it. You'll never see it happen. To get balls going into the hyperdrive, the shot to get there is way too clunky. I think it's a frustrating toy. I really do. And also because this is Star Wars people, the fact that Stern made the hyperdrive, the main toy in a theme like Star Wars and didn't give us anything like ad at walkers and lightsabers or anything like that. The game is a tie fighter on a spring. Now just looking at this toy, it's super cool but again I just don't think you experience it enough as a player and that is why this thing cannot win. I got the top four stern toys of all time and I'm going to go through them right now. Number four is Sparky in Metallica. I love the hammer, the disappearing magnet hammer is also super cool where it comes smashing Sparky is such a fun toy. I think Sparky is Stern's best bash toy of all time. When you keep hitting Sparky and then he freezes the ball and then you get to that Sparky multiball, it is such a great pinball moment. It is such a fun toy. And when you walk up to Metallica, right, that big Sparky in the electric chair, it pulls you into the game. The sculpt is gorgeous. There's been a lot of modders that make additional sculpts for it, but it's such an The game is a game that has all of the wow elements that you look for in a toy in pinball. Alright, after Sparky, we get to the building in Godzilla. This thing that just came out wowed everybody. I mean, it goes up. It locks balls. It changes the pathway of the ball. It's like there's nothing this building can't do. It's super amazing. It's super intricate. When they lift the playfield, what went into this mech, it delivers. The only area falls down a little bit it's a little plastic looking it doesn't really have the detail of like a building it feels very flat I'm not sure if modders can help with that and also this it's like Godzilla pinball and the greatest toy in Godzilla is not even Godzilla it's not Mothra flapping its wings it's a building that goes up and down I would have loved it if when the building went up and down it was a building that went up and down In the movie, Godzilla breathes fire at the bridge and moves left and right causing destruction. He doesn't move at all! I can't believe they made a Godzilla pin where Godzilla doesn't do anything. T-Rex in Jurassic Park Number two on my list is the T-Rex in Jurassic Park. If you get the Leor sculpt for it, it's even better because he makes it look just like the movie one. You've got a T-Rex, a big T-Rex head in the back of this stern machine that tracks the ball. The ball goes into its mouth. It spits the ball out. It roars at you. This is everything a toy should be. A toy should bring the theme to life. It should have movement. It should make you walk up to the machine and be like, wow, like put you in a place of suspended disbelief that, wow, like look at what this machine is doing and look how much fun it is. And I love it. The T-Rex in Jurassic Park so much for that reason now number one on my list might be a little controversial that I put this as the number one Coolest toy stern has ever made because I think what makes this toy so cool is that it perfectly Brings the theme to life is not only that it visually when you walk up to this machine this thing Visually just pops out at you and is the perfect translation of the theme In gameplay itself, this thing just does something that's pure magic that makes you say, wow, oh my God. And then within a pinball moment of the game, it absolutely serves as the ultimate toy during the ultimate moment in the pinball machine. And you might guess what it is. I think the greatest toy Stern has ever made is the ring in the Lord of the Rings. This thing is incredible. It's surrounded by magnets. It causes the ball to be suspended in midair. We talk about levitating ball. It is levitating in midair. And then perhaps the coolest thing ever is it fires the ball behind it and loops back around into gameplay. But that's not only it. The best part about this toy, and if you've played this game, if you have and you have to experience this, is when you get through all of the modes in the game and the music is going The Ring and then if this is like the greatest use of a toy ever you shoot the ball up the ramp and the ring freezes the ball in the middle of the ring and then you get another ball and the way you destroy the ring is you have to fire that ball up the ramp and Knock that ball through the ring to throw the ring into the fires of Mordor and then the whole machine goes Haywire when you do that it is possibly the greatest moment in all of pinball I'm gonna do another show and maybe I just gave away the number one moment, but I want to do another show that talks about the greatest moments in pinball, not just toys, but that toy by Stern is incredible and you couple that with the ballrog that swings out and that's like maybe the greatest one-two toy punch in the history of Stern is when ballrog swings out and blocks your pathway up the ramp so you can't cross like it's so good. I know the ball times are long. But there's a reason why Lord of the Rings saved Sternpinball because they engineered one of the coolest toys ever. I haven't seen anything this cool since that in Stern Pinball. I hope you enjoyed me speaking positively about things I love in pinball machines. I know there hasn't been news. I know it's easy for me to get negative about haggis and spooky, but I just want there to be more exciting toys like this. And I think we have to give Stern credit. Like when I went down this list, They put a lot of really fun stuff in the pinball machines. We haven't seen that from companies like AP. We haven't seen it from Spooky. We haven't even seen that many from Jersey Jack. So Stern Pinball, for all the dings they get, they also have put in some of the most fun toys in pinball. They have. And I think everyone else needs to wake up a little bit because I'm not spending 10 grand on a spooky machine in which I can't even say what one toy is. And the same is true with like Legends of The same is true of fathom. I don't want to spend 10 grand and walk away from a pinball machine and be like, well, there's not really a toy in it. So then what am I spending money on? You're just giving me switches, artwork and code. No, put toys into these machines. Everybody, everyone have a great day. We'll talk to you soon. www.cdc.com.sg www.cdc.com.sg