there's my intro music for episode eight here don's pinball podcast happy friday everybody we made it to the end of the week and boy did a lot of news get dropped right as we head into friday and it's still going there's still new news coming out got some rumors and another sponsored dealer spotlight for you guys all that and more it's coming up quick give me another 10 seconds so i'm gonna finish off this fego moon mist and we're gonna get at it can you tell that i have a little bit of energy and i don't know that it's all of this fego moon mist uh this morning woke up rolled over out of bed and saw that a saturday morning spectacular was going on by a noted uh podcaster canada you know a guy i've been listening to for a while I listen to all the podcasts and went in there and left little comments as I do, as I do enjoy those Saturday morning live streams. And man, your boy got a shout out from the K-Man himself. So it feels good to be noticed. I mean, I've tried to make it no secret that I'm on the scene now. I'm recruiting listeners. I'd like to get more people to listen to the show. That way I can get more feedback and I can become better. So I do have a profile on Facebook and sometimes I'm logged in as that profile. sometimes on my own personal one, but I dropped in the comments because I think it's good to show support to people that are out there and they're making the content for us. And so when I did that, I got boom, got picked up and recognized and got some advice. And so I welcome that. That was fantastic. So shout out to you, brother. Thanks for the recognition. Anybody else out there, you got feedback, you've got a podcast, you got more experience than me. Let me know what can I do to improve. I want to, you know, hang with you guys. I want to grow into this community. I mean, everyone I met so far has been fantastic. I come to find out right in my own backyard, there's a whole group of pinball folks. I met them at the tournament and then went over to a house, and a lot of people in town have arcades similar to mine. So we're going to start hosting some shindigs of our own over here. Very excited about that. I got the snacks. I'm going to get set out. Anyway, let's jump into ongoing coverage of the Bond topper. Let's start with that. So this topper, which was marketed as being exclusive to buyers of the 60th anniversary edition of Bond for a suggested retail price of around $20,000 for this game, of which there's only $500. Those were the people that were assuming they were going to receive this exclusive topper. And we saw pictures of it. It was only pictured with that version. So I can see how people would think that. Reasonable people would expect that the only way to get this was to go and jump in at that level. Fine. And then it was released that there'll be another additional $500 available for purchase for $999. So $1,000 for this topper. I've seen the video of it in action. Nap Arcade's got a link to the video. It's still up. And, you know, it's plastic. It looks like the James Bond logo and has some cool RGB lights. They look like they're synchronized with the gameplay. It's still a plastic box for $1,000. I don't know how else to put it. they did just announce that the designer, Keith Elwin, who in all respects seems like a great guy, is going to be autographing these things, but exclusively for the 60th anniversary edition. I guess that's separating it from the other retail version to follow up. I don't know what to think of that. I'm sure for anybody that purchased this, the topper alone wasn't the thing that got them to get it, but just the overall package of exclusivity and the bragging rights. And now, you know, other people are going to be having your topper. If you're into, you know, the sort of topper ownership, I guess that may affect you. So always big news in the realm of topper. Keeping with that, I saw some posts that came and made later this morning. There was a listing. It looks like a listing for two new in box bonds, 60th anniversary editions, brand new in their box. Apparently, they're going to be coming from a distributor somewhere, and they're going for the low retail price of $21,000, which is $1,000 more, first off, than they were released on the Stern site. Okay. This title could also be found on other postings for $17,500. So, got, what is that, $3,500 less than this duo of 21Ks. And from what I've been reaching out with the distributor friends that I've made so far, there are some still available. So if you want one, I would contact every distributor and find out what their price is and negotiate yourself one. That's going to be better than buying sight unseen from some rando on Pinside. Two for $21,000. Bless his heart. I mean, if he could find two buyers for those, fantastic. I know what they're going to get. And that is an exclusively signed version of the $1,000 topper from Stern Pinball. moving on what else dropped um there was an email floating around which i've seen posted on facebook so i think it's out there in the public now from our friends at american pinball letting dealers know that there's going to be a conference call or some other uh multimedia extravaganza sometime in march for their new title rumored to be the galactic space mustache mario force uh or something Something with tanks in space now. At this point, if it's anything less than a tank floating in space shooting lasers, I think it's going to be a letdown. Not that I was going to say it's not that that's the company's fault, but really with this thing being teased, they have to know that people are talking about it, that the galactic space force has been floating around out there. They should really some sort of little nebulous teaser just to kind of hone us in. And if it's not a floating space tank with space treads, I think there's going to be some letdown. So they should get out ahead of that story unless it as good or better of an idea than that Boom That my hot take So I guess we can look for more information definitely by March Man March is shaping up to be pinball super March With the Texas Pinball Festival coming up in March, we have Spooky Pinball is probably going to have their new game on display. Is it going to be playable? I think, you know, if they're going to be shipping this thing by the end of January, like they were saying, with units going to customers by February, Why wouldn't there be one there? So in March, we're going to have probably hands-on debut for most of the public at Texas Pinball Festival, Scooby-Doo. American Pinball is going to be releasing news about their machine, at least. We don't have a release date, but we should have release information that should be permeating the nebulous sphere of influence of pinball. So we should know about that. also uh didn't stern pinball on that uh production schedule have a month of march totally blocked out with nothing listed there like wide open for them to be making their next game rumored to be venom and i'm rumored to be waiting to purchase one of those because i want to unbox that shiz if that is the case so super march super march is coming i think there's probably even some more nugget infos that are going to be dropping too and i'll cover that more when we get to the rumors section Also, some news just dropped. It looks like Queen Pinball has received an update. Has Queen Pinball received a customer yet is my question because I haven't seen any of these unboxed. It was there, playable. They had two machines playable at Pinball Expo in Schaumburg, Illinois. When was that? That was October. It seems like a year ago. They had the game set to only two balls. So you had to wait in line at least two to three people, and then you were able to play two balls of Queen, which I did, and then it would be back to the end of the line. So I only got two balls on Queen the whole time. It did maintain a weight of about two to three people pretty consistently, so you had to wait for that. I get the idea that they wanted to run more people through it, but I think I would have expected that extra ball, especially since I only played the game once. It's not like I was going to have 20-minute ball times, yo. It looks like some people, they might have been the pinball brothers themselves, were there on site. I talked to them a bit. There was another Queen machine that was behind their curtain, and when they were tearing down, you could see it. So I went up to the guy and I'm like, hey man, if you got that one ready to go, I got my truck outside, let's make a deal. And he was obviously flattered but was not ready to talk about that one. Maybe it's a non-working condition. So I mean, code was like bond code. I mean, it was basically nothing that was there. Did play some music, so I was happy with that and I got to hit the flippy shots and spin the spinny spins. So that was fun. I will say at first I was like, oh man, they're not using album versions these songs that we all know. They're using live versions. But I think it kind of hit good. I mean, the music's still good. The live versions were great. Obviously, they're from a quality live recording. So I would like to see more about Queen. I would like to go find one on location that I could spend some decent time on, maybe get three or four games through it. What I'm not looking at doing is making room in my downstairs for it. So I don't know that there's enough there there for me. What else was from the last week? Oh, Spooky has been just steadily dripping like a very bad David Fawcett with a faulty seal. Information and little goodies about Scooby-Doo. They just had a video showing four huge, four or five huge boxes of their color coated ramps. I guess they're back from the powder coater. They look like enough for about 40 games or so from each one. So it was cool they did a little video there and showed us all. I gotta reach out to the guys at Spooky here pretty soon because I gotta imagine they have to have a workable machine or playable machine on site somewhere maybe your boy can come down there i already asked him if i could come do a tour they said sure anytime just let us know and come on down and since they're local to me i'm gonna see if they'd be okay if i could pop on by oh man wouldn't it be fun to just slap a few balls around an early build of scooby-doo we'll see if that happens moving on next segment trusted dealer spotlight we're back with another trusted dealer spotlight this is a segment i dreamt up and thought of doing just to highlight people that i've successfully had good purchases and interactions with because so much of this occurs online it's not face to face and the fear of scams are always there so this time i'm highlighting sparky pinball maker of and purveyor of pinball mods but also these great steel toppers they steal shadow toppers they call them so they've got uh about eight or so machines that they're covering right now maybe it's even 13 i've bought two of them what the hell oh there it is um i bought two of their toppers so their toppers come uh they're they're kind of like they're three flat uh powder coated metal strips right um almost like a what is called a diorama and so one of them goes on the back in the you know the back field of the top of the topper their stern machines have machined holes for these so he's taking advantage of that so he's got three rows of steel toppers so they create this kind of shadow boxing diorama effect um they're fairly simple they're also fairly cheap i mean these things are 125 which if you look at the realm of the two thousand dollar toppers for 125 put a topper on your machine it's no longer bald man um so i've got two of these the first one i got was for rush it's got kind of the starman logo motif um you can even purchase a light strip to put at the bottom there and it kind of lights it up or it's fine on its own. And I think it looks great on top of there, especially as to date, there is no Rush Topper. I guess there's a rumor that there was a video from Stern and in the background, somebody was able to see a wiring harness that said Rush Topper or something. So they're in production, but I'm sure the expression lights are also in production, right? Also, I bought the Godzilla topper too after I got my rush and installed it and saw how boss it looked and this one really cool I really like the look of the Godzilla topper go on a sparky pinball He on pin side is where the store is now And you can see a list of all his toppers And the Godzilla topper it just has this sort of like 180 degree radius of like a setting sun there in the back And then in the middle distance is a green Godzilla. And then the foreground is a city skyline. So looking up at it from the player's perspective, you get this great city skyline. There's buildings on either side with a bridge right there in the middle. and through the bridge you can see Godzilla silhouetted against this yellow sun. It's fantastic. It takes up the whole area on top of there. And for $125, plus I think it was only $30 for the light strip, you've got a topper for a machine that nobody has released an official topper for yet. And, I mean, at this rate, maybe two years before we get a Godzilla topper. I don't know. No cap. So the only other good topper I've seen made was from that guy that's down in St. Louis. I talked to him early on. That was one of the unofficial ones. Showed up at Jack Bar back in the day. It's animated. It looks great. It's plastic flats that are also kind of dioramid. But it was $625 or something back then. Who knows what it's worth now? But for $125, I thought I'd take a gamble on the Rush. It looked fantastic. It arrived well-protected. It's wrapped in saran wrap and shrink wrap and bubble wrap, so there's no dings or anything on it. It installed fairly quickly. I think the screws were actually already up in the machine Maybe they shipped with them Otherwise they were provided Because I sure as heck didn't buy any new ones And then I went and I got a Godzilla So he also has a James Bond topper out right now And this thing is fire man I'm looking at it So it also has that three dimensions It looks like Bond standing there in the back Classic pose, pistol raised And then there's the red spiral Like rifling shot Right there, that iconic James Bond 007 intro shot and then there's four bond ladies in the foreground silhouetted looking fantastic so this i kind of want this just for my desk this looks awesome and it's still 125 get that delivered if you got a bond throw it up there um even you know you know if you can get if you're gonna go in on a thousand dollar topper fine but failing that 125 cannot go wrong with this especially with silhouetted lights that thing's awesome i love it um his black knight's amazing he's got him for Munsters, Metallica and ECDC, Walking Dead, Gardens of the Galaxy, The Four Dudes, Angamora. So Three Dudes, Angamora looks like Rocket standing there on top of Groot. Silhouetted against the same kind of sun as Godzilla. A little more orange and there are some mountains in the foreground. There's an Aerosmith, the Deadpool. I don't know if that's a triple depth one or just a double. And then he's got a Beatles silhouette. So check it out. There's a Batman 66 there too. Good luck finding that topper. He's got one for $125. Get them all day. sparky pinball i'll have to email him and give him a shout out oh it looks like it's time to wander over to the rumor section so there's a lot of stuff that's floating around man this spring is going to be great with all this news and rumors bubbling so first off the deck uh cgc chicago gaming company um and raw thrills somehow the guys that make those uh what are the jurassic park shooter rides or games at the arcades i guess the rumor is first off that raw thrills once again into pinball now are these guys designing pinball and then having them built by someone else are they trying to ground up this thing i don't know i guess this company's fairly big right do they do big buck hunter um so the rumor is pulp fiction by somebody and it had been that this was going to be a the first kind of just ground up original machine from chicago gaming company known for their remakes um but now you know is that going going to be under them are Are they going to be building it for someone else? Is there a problem with their building structure, given that there was such a delay with the Cactus Canyon coming out? These are why these are rumors, man. Nothing is set in stone. Also, Twilight Zone is strongly rumored to be being remade. So for fans of that white body, sure. I've heard some speculation that maybe it's not the best idea to take a machine that's complicated to build and has one of the most top-selling games of all time in which there's got to be at least 11,000 working models out there in the universe. What is the market for a remake of Twilight Zone? But there it is. But who's making it? Is Rothrills coming out with it? Is Rothrills coming out with it built by CGC? Is all of that wrong? Was all of this right at some point, but now everything has changed? Who knows? This is just what I'm hearing. And I only report the speculation that I'm hearing, plus my own hot takes. Let's see. What else is coming up? Big Bang Bar. We talked about this Capcom game for a little bit. Now, I became aware of this game just because of its rareness, right? So apparently this was a game that was produced by Capcom, manufactured by who knows. I mean, I'm sure people know. I just can't think of who off the top of my head. But this game was made and then was going to be released or maybe was released in very limited supply. And then something went wrong and it just stopped there. Then some other guy came in, resurrected it, and then just about went broke making them. And then now this is going to be the third run or make or third crack at this title by somebody else. So because of its scarcity, it does command a fairly high price. Because of its gameplay, I don't think it commands that I have a price. Now, I've got an Ultra VP. I've got a virtual pinball machine in my lineup, which I love this thing. I was playing it for two hours last night. Haters going to hate on virtual pinball. But look, I've got a good machine. You've got to try this machine. I want to do a whole show on it because I think it's that good but it's got big bang bar in there Actually, it's got two versions of it slightly different graphics and lighting between the two and so I've played this game a bit It okay I don know if it just my lack of pinball skills or what but there a game called strange science I don know if you guys have come across this It it a game That it got some unique aspects to it which I will totally give it It also not a very good playing game for me It strange Now, Junkyard is strange, but it's fun to play, and you can learn and get better at it. Strange Science, I've tried several times with these weird wonky plastic rams and these unconventional layouts and the Atom Smasher, Auger Boar, Archimedes Drill there. I don't know, man. Try this game out if you come across it. Look it up online. It's a strange game, and that's kind of what Big Bang Bar plays like for me. Plus, there's alien women moaning, so there's that. It's a unique game for sure. I don't think if I was sitting there clamoring for top five games I'd want to have remade so I could put it in my basement, I don't know that I could honestly say that that would be one of them. Check it out. Play it online. Play it online, and there might be a place to play it on Steam. I've got it on my VP. Come over to my house and play it. See what you think. It's unique. I'll give it that. It's unique. It's high-priced right now. But is that just due to scarcity alone or because this is like a hidden gem, awesome playing game? I don't know. I don't think so. I'll have to see what happens. Again, this is rumor at this point, and rumors, you know, they can be totally legitimately going to happen until they're not. And if there was never an official release, you know, it evaporates. And then you're like, bro, you were wrong with that. We heard about this rumor and it didn't come true. It's like, well, it may have been true at one point. That's the nature of rumors. If I could aside for a second, we live in a moment, right? We have our past, our past is our memories. We have our future. It's unwritten, unlimited pathways. But at any one point, our existence is in a moment. And so in this moment right now, this is the rumor. This is what we've heard. This is what we can discuss. You could say, well, this guy sucks. His rumors are never true or they're only half true. Rumors are fickle. They're true at a time and then they're not, but they're what we can talk about in the moment. We see this with Disney all the time. The Disney park bloggers will make a call like, this ride is in development. We're going to get a Western River expedition and there's concept art. It's coming and then it gets canceled. And then when it doesn't happen, people look back and say, look at this guy. He was so wrong when this rumor was so right at one point, you know, shoot, you know, they've been talking about a indoor Mary Poppins ride for the UK pavilion Epcot and Dick Van Dyke himself was at D23 and announced this thing and then gone. It's not happening. It's not at me. So that's the nature of it. So take rumors with a grain of salt, of course, but you know, be appreciative that people are bringing the rumors. I mean, that's how I get them. That's my mindset. And that's coming from, you know, the themed entertainment industry, where I had a lot more experience before I got into pinball. Aside has ended. Let's end on a high note here. Stern Cornerstones coming out. Somebody online there, K-Man, shout out to you. I'll give you credit, is going to release next week what he believes strongly that the next four Stern Cornerstone games will be. I'm excited. I can't wait. I love this kind of speculation. I mean, when I'm not playing pinball or about to play pinball, we can speculate on it, right? So I came up with my own list, and I'll see if I'm correct. Now, the next four Cornerstone machines, it's probably the next 24 months of production, given that they've said that they're going to do about two a year now. Venom has been strongly rumored for so long. This has got to be the next one, Venom. And then Foo Fighters sounds like it's coming. So Brian Eddy on Venom, Zombie Eddy on both art for Venom and Foo Fighters is what I've heard. Zombie Eddy's done a lot of posters for Foo Fighters. I'm hearing it from multiple sources. I'm sure those will be the next two. Could those be swapped in order? Could we be getting Foo Fighters in March and Venom later or in two years? Sure. But I'm going to call Venom next, Foo Fighters after that with that Jack Danger guy. He did the Jurassic Park Home Edition. Fun game, played it. It's cool. Cool layout, solid dude. So with him and Zombie Yeti on art, I could see Foo Fighters being fairly awesome. What else? This is where it gets a little hazy for me. So the next thing I came up with for number three was Jaws. Elwynn on Jaws. I've heard that several times. That may be just wishful speculation. It could be something completely different. Maybe we're getting the Dark Crystal. I don't know. But I'll call Jaws Elwynn since I have to make a third. And then since I have to make a fourth, I'm even less sure on that. Back to the Future. I mean, can you make that game? What's the licensing on that going to be like? You've got Christopher Lloyd. You've got Robert Zemeckis. Or was it Spielberg? Plus Michael J. Fox. Plus Huey Lewis, man. I mean, dude, can you make Back to the Future without the music of the great Huey Lewis and the news? I mean, power of love, dude. Power of love all day. So, I don't know. I've also heard Masters of the Universe, which I see is much easier licensing-wise. this is basically a product that was only made to be licensed, right? The cartoon existed to sell lunchboxes, to sell plastic swords, and battle cats. So I think I'm going to give Master of the Universe an edge out ahead of Back to the Future just because I think the licensing for it would be so difficult to bring something that wouldn't be just here's Back to the Future Part 3 only or something. All right, so we'll look forward to hearing what those Stern Cornerstones are. And we should know by next week. Hit me. As always, thank you to all the new listeners. If you're coming in and listening to me, give me some feedback. Don's Pinball Podcast at gmail.com. Also, Don's Pinball Podcast on Facebook. We've got a Discord. The link is through there. You can tweet at me through the Disky. Or what do you call a tweet on Discord? Is that a disc? Anyway, throw your discs at me. Holler back, guys.