When I saw the American Pinball team dancing around, smiling, streaming a four-year-old game, I couldn't help but think, this is the theme song for this entire company. Happy Friday, everybody. Welcome to Kaneda's Pinball Podcast. I mean, what did we really expect from the team over at American Pinball? We're going to talk about that two-hour stream in which they only had about 20 seconds of actual news. We're going to talk about what we think this means for American Pinball Incorporated. We're going to talk a little bit about Elton John and Jaws. There's a lot of conversation going back and forth between these two games. I put up a poll. Which game would you rather get if you were given it for free as a loaner from Canada? Some shocking results from that poll. Jersey Jack is making some moves. We're going to talk about that. There's about to be a topper on top of Labyrinth Games. We're going to talk about that. And then we're going to end this episode with a couple things I saw recently that have me doing pinball backflips in my head. All right, everybody, let's just rip the bandaid off. It's been a few days since I took two hours out of my time to watch American Pinball stream Hot Wheels. Now look, they told all of us to tune in for some big news, big announcements, and I'm just going to give you the abbreviated version. The news is this. They have brought on Lloyd to do customer service because there are two customer service people quit over at American Pinball. But not just Lloyd, ladies and gentlemen. We're also going to get Maurice. Some people call me Maurice. I mean, I don't even know how to, like, unpack this American Pinball stream. I'll just say this, people. In life and in business, do you really expect this company that has made every boneheaded move a pinball company could make is all of a sudden going to improve? They're not going to improve. You know, this whole thing, it's just a charade. And I know all of this started with like this rumor that they were for sale, that someone out there would actually be crazy enough to buy American Pinball, a pinball company that has done nothing over the last eight years, but make games people don't want. The next game is gonna be a Berrio game, which is going to be a spin-off of the food truck game he was working on. And it's going to be a barbecue theme, a BBQ-themed pinball machine. And so, look, you got one game that tanked the company, and now you're going to get another game where you could stick a fork in it. And that's American Pinball. They're not even really worth discussing. You can totally see the genesis of this company. You've got Ametron. You've got Mukesh with a lot of money. He's got his nepo baby nephews and cousins. So he sets up a pinball company for them to run. They hired John Papadiuk as their first designer. They then hired Joe Balcer. All of the talented people have left American Pinball. They made a Dennis Nordman game that nobody else would make. He had that game in a garage for 10 years and he somehow hoodwinked David Fix to make the game. David Fix is stuck in like 1986 he thinks the world operates like it's 30-40 years ago he does not know how to run a modern pinball company but again he's working with these nepo babies they have no idea how to run a pinball company nobody has a creative vision over there nobody knows really what they're doing and when they get up there and say hey we're not going to sell this company of course you're not going to sell the company because nobody would buy that company. And then when they say we're in it for the long haul, like what does that even mean you're in it for the long haul? You know what it means, ladies and gentlemen? It basically means that they have enough money to keep that Mickey Mouse operation going for years to come. That doesn't mean they're going to make great games. It doesn't mean they have any talent. Does anybody know what Steven Bowden even does every day over there? Can you imagine like opening up the door and just trying to figure out what Steven Bowden is doing today for eight hours a day to warrant a single salary. You know, I would love, I would just love to do Steven Bowden's review over what he's done in the pinball industry when he's worked at manufacturers, and it would basically be a short review, and it would sound something like this. What would you say you do here? I mean, the whole thing is a total joke, ladies and gentlemen, Not to mention they're going to spend two hours streaming a four-year-old game. And did they add any loop-de-loops? Did they add a jump? Did they add a car wash? Did they add anything to the game? And then the game itself, like the camera was all washed out. The colors looked horrible. Everything about this stream. And you know what? The big announcement was, other than Lloyd and Maurice, that they're going to be making their own new board set for these games. Who cares about making new board sets? for American Pinball Machines. It's like having a restaurant in which nobody wants to eat the meals you're making and then asking everybody to tune in for a big announcement. And your big announcement, we're making new plates. We've got new plates and silverware for this restaurant. Nobody's even eating the main dish American Pinball. And the fact that you've had this much time to maybe add something sexy to Hot Wheels and you couldn't even do it. Ladies and gentlemen, American Pinball is never going to make a hit pinball machine. They are never going to make a game that's going to make you want to give them your money with all the other great pinball happening around them And the reason why they not going to do it they don have the talent they don have the passion and they don't have the common sense to wake up in 2024 and realize how to act like professionals, how to act like adults, and how to act like a company that even has an ounce of a clue what the pinball buying demographic is looking for. But you know what they do have? they've got more James Rees you know what the funny thing is is the final thing i'll say on this is i heard another rumor now this is just a rumor the reason why they have to make their own board sets is that american pinball owed jerry over at multimorphic a lot of money for p-rock boards and so that's the reason why they walked away from that deal who knows who cares i am not gonna buy an American pinball machine anytime soon. And after seeing the way this company behaved, I would never want to associate with a brand that just displays no swagger and it's 100% amateur hour. All right, let's talk about some real pinball companies out there in the world today. So all right, so look, we've got Jaws Pinball. It's making its way to customers. We've got pro machines going out the door. We're gonna have those LE machines on the line in February. There are still LE machines available. This is crazy. If you need an LE machine, go on to Pinside. Call up Mike at Automated. I know he still has Jaws LE machines in a box coming to him sometime in February. So you didn't miss out. I did see people unboxing Jaws. They're getting shipped with like those cheap 3D glasses, the paper glasses. I know they put the Stern logo on those glasses, but it was a golden opportunity for Stern pinball to just justify these prices with some hard plastic 3D glasses. It would have been nice if every Jaws LE came with like hard white plastic 3D glasses and had maybe your game number on it. Just something unique. I just can't get over the fact that you're going to spend this much money and they're going to mail you like a $2 pair of glasses. So Jaws is making its way out there. And then we've got Elton John. And I'll tell you this right now, ladies and gentlemen, I'm starting to see a lot more enthusiasm in the pinball space for Elton John than I am for Jaws pinball. I even put up that poll on my Facebook page. And I said, if you could have either Jaws or Elton John for the next six months as just a loaner, take price out of the equation. You don't have to buy it. Just which machine, after seeing both machines for the last month or so, which one would you rather have? And I'm shocked to report that more people would rather have Elton John. And I'm not surprised by that because I'm hearing more universal love for Elton John. It is probably Jersey Jack's best game to date simply because it's the best shooting game. It's the most fun to flip and it has like high energy rock and roll Elton John music and the light shows are amazing. And you know, the different modes are really making people giddy. And I'm just going to say this right now. I do consider a pinball mode that does incredible stuff with lighting to be a magical, memorable moment in pinball. I mean, when you think about it, what can a machine actually do to create a pinball moment that you want to get to? The mode itself is going to only have so many things it can do. It could trigger stuff with the mechanisms. It could do stuff with the call outs. It could do stuff with the lights and it could do stuff with the LCD screen and the visuals and the music, right? That's coming at you. And I think Jersey Jack Pinball, when you look at all the pinball companies out there, they really have nailed it when it comes to doing amazing stuff with the lights to make a magical moment in pinball. They also have done great stuff with music and sound and lights coming together to make a memorable pinball moment. And so people were talking about playing Elton John in a bar and you get to Superstar and the music cranks up to like 11 and everybody from the bar starts to come over and watch what's going on in the game and the lights are going crazy. That's incredible. That's a pinball moment. And that's something where like if you own an Elton John in your house, I bet that's going to feel like a mode like there and back again or Batusi mode from Batman, you know, just a memorable pinball mode that you can't wait to get to. And I think people are overly harsh on Jersey Jack at times saying like, well, all they do is put lights in games and that's it. Would I like there to be more mechanical magic in Elton John? Absolutely. But I'm going to be 100% honest with you right now. This is just my feeling. If I had to choose right now between an Elton John Platinum and a Jaws Premium or LE, I would much rather have an Elton John Platinum. There is something about that game. When I put it next to Jaws, I can see where the passion went. I can see where the value lies. I can see the effort that went into Elton John more than I can see the effort that went into Jaws Pinball. Jaws looks like a lot was taken out. Jaws looks a little bit like a mess. It just does to me. When I see all the code bouncing all over the place and all the clips are going all over the place, it just feels like they put those four movies into a blender and it's just all over the place. It's like, I'm putting chum in a bucket. I'm throwing a stick to a dog. All this stuff is just colliding on top of itself. And at least with Elton John, like, you know what you get. It feels like a game that a little bit easier to get into and to understand And then you just put the two games next to each other There only one that looks like it somewhere in the ballpark of what we should be spending on these games. And look, that just means that Elton John looks much more nice and expensive and polished than Jaws Pinball. It does. It looks like a game that should cost much more money than the Jaws machine. The problem with both of these machines is they're both significantly overpriced. Like if Elton John Platinum was $9,500, a lot of us would have ordered it. I don't want to buy it for $12,000 because I know it's going to slide down to $9,500 in just a few weeks. And Jaws Pinball LE, forget it. That LE is not going to hold its value. It's going to slide back down to $10,000. And the Platinum, I don't know what to tell you with the Platinums. They're going to make Jaws Platinums for five years. So I don't even want a Platinum edition of Jaws. I don't like the Translight. I just don't want that game. And so the other thing is this, you know, if you're a Jaws fanatic, I understand why you like Jaws. But when I look at both games and I look at both streams, Elton John has so much more energy, has so much more personality coming at you than Jaws Pinball. Now, look, that's because the themes are radically different. You've got this flamboyant rocker from the 70s and 80s and 90s who makes some high energy music, who's rocking out on a piano and has all of these classic hits. And so it's a lot easier to get the energy levels up in that game. And then you've got Steve Ritchie, right? You've got this layout. It's like finally a fun Steve Ritchie, amazing flowing game in Jersey Jack trim. And you combine that speed of a Steve Ritchie game with the high energy music of Elton John and then the beautiful, beautiful artwork of Christopher Franchi. And all of it comes together so nicely in that platinum edition. And I'm like, man, they kind of nailed it, right? They made the best $9,000 Jersey Jack game ever. The only problem is they charged us too much money. And then I look over at Jaws and it's a slower movie. It doesn't have the energy. How exciting is it going to be to keep tying knots over and over again and just going on missions to catch different sharks? It just doesn't have the same vibe. It doesn't have the same sort of appeal to me. As a theme, I don't think it's as good for pinball as the pinball wizard himself, Elton John. And that's just my feeling on it, people? I know, I know. Music pins might get old, but that's just my take on these two games. I would rather have an Elton John. Now, here's my thing, people. As I look at these two games, the other thing I was thinking about this week is both of these companies are stubbornly not going to lower their prices. I don't think Stern's ever going to lower their price, and I don't think Jersey Jack is. Now, when I look at both of these manufacturers, with the Stern machine being 13K for an LE. And when you buy a topper, a Stern is like 14 or 15,000. So their pricing is pretty much the same as Jersey Jack. Remember, Jersey Jack gives you way much more in its collector's edition than Stern does in its LE. So they're almost like on an even playing field, all right? So when I look at both of these companies, I can't help but think that Jersey Jack is eventually going to get to a theme and make a game that shoots great like Elton John and has all the bells and whistles we know they can do, they're going to grow into their price. They're going to make a game where we're not going to be so pissed off that it's $12,000 or $15,000, right? When they start making like the Matrix or Harry Potter or Top Gun, I'm also hearing Jersey Jack Pinball might have the license to the Beastie Boys, okay? And I think Jersey Jack's themes coming down the road, I know they're excited about them. They just hired Sean Irby, the creator of 8-Ball Beyond, that amazing homebrew game. So they've got all this talent in-house, right? You've got Eric Meunier. You've got Steve Ritchie. You got Sean. You got Mark Poseidon who made that Metroid homebrew. They've got a lot of people in-house that are talented. We know they can do talented stuff. They've got a great coding team over there. You know, if they can just get the music a little better, they've got Jean-Paul de Win who does some of the greatest animations in the history of pinball. Eventually, Jersey Jack is going to connect all the dots. They're going to put all the pieces together and it's going to be Top Gun, Matrix, Harry Potter, Beastie Boys, and when they do do that, they will be able to command these prices. Stern Pinball will not. Stern Pinball does not look modern. It does not look innovative. They have not innovated much in their games. They've taken their old games, they've connected them to the internet, they're giving away badges that look like stuff for Girl Scouts, and that seems to be all you need from them. But when you look at a Stern game and you put Jaws next to Elton John, it is absolutely comical, people. How can you not see that this looks twice as good as that? How can you not see the materials and the effort and the lights and the modernization and the screen? Everything is so much better. The sound system, everything, the rad cows, everything in that Elton John game is just a level above everything in Jaws pinball. And if you're going to buy a game now at these prices, you're most likely going to buy something that you're not going to want to sell. And I just think Jersey Jack is such a nicer package, but they always shot so horrible. And now they shoot amazingly well. Now you can buy an IO board and make your Guns N Roses play the way it should have on day one And that going to go a long way people And it not just like flip or fade The only person who sad right now with this new IO board is the pin monk fan system guy Mr Pin Monk because he's not going to sell any more of those fan systems because this fixes the problem. And I'm hearing from people, they put that IO board into Guns N' Roses and instantly they're putting up their highest scores ever. Instantly, they can backhand the left ramp with the left flipper instantly. Like Jersey Jack finally, after all of this time, is about to put all the pieces together, but they still haven't done it. They still haven't done it. Elton John is not it. It's still not the theme everybody wants. It needs some more toys in that game. And if they can get something like Matrix with more magical toys and wow moments and put it all together with that lighting system and the sound. Nobody can make an immersive pinball experience as good as Jersey Jack. They just need to put it all together now. And Stern, on the other hand, I think is in trouble because I think Stern is going to keep coming out with these expensive games. Their games don't look anywhere near the price they're charging for the games. And I think after Jaws and after the Jaws hype winds down, and I think the Jaws hype is going to wind down real fast. It's not as good as Godzilla. It's a good game. It's not a great game. It's not the greatest theme for pinball. And I think in a couple months when Jaws hype is all but gone and Stern has to come out with another game and distros have to buy these games in bulk, I don't think people are going to be running to throw $13,000 at all of these LEs, you know, and almost $10,000 for a premium. Stern's got a big problem, ladies and gentlemen. It's hard to look at their games and be like the pro machine is half the price of the LE. And it's almost painful to say it in LE is twice the price of a Stern pro. They are ripping us off, ladies and gentlemen, That is not a good look. All right, so we will see what happens. If you own a labyrinth, get ready for the topper. There are toppers shipping out to people. It's funny, like you can style the hair of the goblins. It tells you, like you could use hairspray and scissors and customize their hairstyles to your liking. Just be careful, ladies and gentlemen. It's real wig material. And they tell you, do not use a hairdryer because you could melt the hair on your labyrinth topper. I never thought I would say those words in the 10 years of doing Canada's Pinball Podcast. What else is going on in pinball? Well, that's pretty much the news, ladies and gentlemen. I'll tell you why I'm not buying an Elton John right now. I'll tell you why I passed on all of my Jaws Ellie spots. Because very recently, as of like last week, I got to see some stuff. I got to see some new stuff on Alice in Wonderland. I got to see Alice being colored in and I got to see maybe a little stuff on Back to the Future. I'm not going to tell you what it was, but I'm just going to tell you this. It has me so excited. I can't wait to see these two games. I can't wait to see what Dutch Pinball is doing in 2024. And it makes it so easy to wait. It makes it easy for me to wait for Elton John to slide down to a price I'm willing to pay. It makes it easy to wait on Jaws because it's not a dream theme and those games don't look anywhere near the money they're charging. It makes it easy to wait on Labyrinth because that's not a dream theme for me. It makes it super easy to wait on Looney Tunes and Texas Chainsaw, two themes that don't really speak to me. They're not sold out, by the way. I think Spooky must be a little bit nervous, just a little bit, not a lot, that more and more people now are waiting on the sidelines and they're just going to wait to see what the secondhand price is on both of those games and just wait it out because after they make like 400 of each, they're going to be easy to get. And by the time they get to 400, we're going to be seeing Stern's next game. We're going to be seeing Pulp Fiction ship. We're going to be right on the eve of Alice in Wonderland. I mean, a lot is going to happen in pinball. We're also going to get to Jersey Jack's next game sometime in late summer. You know, 2023 just ended and now we're into 2024. And now we're going to slide quickly to TPF. We're going to slide to the spring and summer, and then we're going to keep getting more pinball machine. And that's why I love this hobby is if something today is not speaking to you and you think the prices are too high. The good news is there's thousands of games for sale at any given moment that are classic games. The good news is these companies, they need to keep their lines going. So they're going to keep making stuff. And the greatest news of all is if you just want to have fun with pinball every single week, every single month, all you got to do is join Canadian Pinball Podcast. And we talk about it in such a fun way. We get you energized, we get you pumped, and it doesn't cost a fortune and you can wait. And that's the most fun of all is just watching your checking account grow and grow and grow and you're not writing checks for like $10,000 to $15,000. You send $5 a month. Some of you send more and I'm very thankful for everyone who sends $5 or $100. I'm very thankful for each and every one of you. And this is where the party's at. This hobby is always about the community and you don't have to spend a fortune to have a ton of fun in pinball. The manufacturers don't want you to feel that way. The distros don't, but I do. Ladies and gentlemen, have a good Friday. We now go back to American Pinball and the song that's playing inside that company as Steven Bowden tries to figure out what to do today. you