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DPP #46 "Toppers! Space Hunt vs Punny Factory! Mod review round up!"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·29m 28s·analyzed·Jun 5, 2023
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.028

TL;DR

Don reviews toppers, new games, and pinball accessories while discussing market dynamics and production updates.

Summary

Don discusses recent pinball news including Godzilla and Rush topper releases, Space Hunt pricing concerns, Punny Factory's market performance, and Pinball Adventures' accessory products. He also covers Galactic Tank Force's location earnings and production status, while reviewing various community mods and products.

Key Claims

  • Godzilla topper is $1,000 and should ship soon; pre-orders sold through completely with 15+ deposits waiting for future builds

    high confidence · Don, talking to his distributor; confirmed as of the day before the podcast

  • Rush topper costs $1,700 (slightly cheaper than $2,000 Mandalorian topper) and has more functionality

    high confidence · Don, based on personal purchase and use

  • Space Hunt base model costs around $9,500; with powder coats approximately $11,000-$12,000

    high confidence · Don, referencing Hexapinball's official pricing announcement

  • Punny Factory priced at $6,500 base, showed $6,000 show special; Signature Edition with black-embossed birch cabinet sold out (only 10 made)

    high confidence · Don, citing show reports and Pinball Adventures website observation

  • Galactic Tank Force earned $967 in first month at Ad Interium arcade in Chicago; two-to-three-month lead time currently

    high confidence · Don, citing Pincast interview with David Fix and NAP Arcade article

  • Galactic Tank Force has a bendy stand-up target problem; fix involves a reinforcing bracket being finalized and mailed to consumers

    high confidence · Don, citing David Fix's Pincast interview

  • Space Hunt debuting at Flipper Southwest in France on June 10th

    high confidence · Don, referencing Hexapinball's event announcement

  • Punny Factory pre-orders show 67 units remaining, suggesting 40-50 already sold/allocated

    medium confidence · Don, based on observation of Pinball Adventures website inventory count

Notable Quotes

  • “I took this garden variety zip tie, took a picture of it, put it up on Pinside, paid $18 to list it as a featured ad, and I got a couple of chuckles.”

    Don @ early in episode — Humorous commentary on the Godzilla topper price point and FOMO culture; demonstrates community sentiment about pricing

  • “The market do what the market do. I think the message is going to fall on some deaf ears with fat pockets is what's going to happen.”

    Don @ Godzilla topper discussion — Expresses skepticism that community criticism of topper pricing will affect Stern's strategy given strong sales

  • “My hope is that the game is at least as good as this song is to me. This is a freaking earworm jam, dude.”

    Don @ Space Hunt section — Positive sentiment about Space Hunt's theme song despite pricing concerns

  • “This machine, I think I can go on record now and say that it is overpriced for the U.S. market for what you receive.”

    Don @ Space Hunt valuation discussion — Clear positioning of Space Hunt as overpriced for American market but potentially fair for Europe

  • “He said it was okay. It was loud, of course, at the convention, so it was hard to really hear all the sounds.”

    Don, relaying feedback from friend Ryan @ Punny Factory section — Cautious early hands-on impressions of Punny Factory from a trusted source at the show

  • “If I was an operator and I bought this, what is it, $7,500, $8,500 game, and I got $1,000 back in my first month, I mean, that's pretty cool. Let this thing run for eight months at a pace for itself.”

    Don @ Galactic Tank Force earnings discussion — Positive framing of GTF location earnings for operator ROI perspective

  • “I would think they would have waited to ship the games until they have this fix fixed Because otherwise, what's going to happen? You're going to get your game home...and then this fix is going to come in.”

    Don @ Galactic Tank Force production concerns — Criticism of GTF's approach to quality control and customer satisfaction during manufacturing issues

Entities

DonpersonStern PinballcompanyHexapinballcompanyPinball AdventurescompanyAndrewpersonDavid FixpersonGalactic Tank ForcegameSpace Huntgame

Signals

  • ?

    product_launch: Godzilla topper officially revealed at $1,000 with full sell-through of initial allotment; 15+ deposits waiting for future production runs

    high · Don's distributor confirmation; strong market demand despite price criticism

  • ?

    product_strategy: Stern topper pricing has doubled from historical levels (~$500 to $1,000+); community attempted boycott failed as market absorbed full supply

    high · Don's discussion of community sentiment vs actual sales results; comparison of historical to current pricing

  • ?

    collector_signal: Pre-order FOMO strategy driving collector purchases despite unseen product quality; Don bought Godzilla topper before reveal and absorbed the risk

    high · Don's personal purchase decision; discussion of market dynamics rewarding early commitment

  • $

    market_signal: Space Hunt pricing ($9,500-$12,000 base) significantly exceeds comparable Stern Pro models in US market but aligns with European import-adjusted pricing

    high · Don's detailed pricing comparison and market segmentation analysis; acknowledgment of deliberate European market focus

  • ?

    product_concern: Galactic Tank Force experiencing bendy stand-up target structural issues; retrofit fix being mailed to customers post-shipment

    high · David Fix Pincast interview; Don's critique of delayed testing and post-sale fix approach

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.088

0:00
What's going on all my lovely friends out there welcome to Monday we're here for another week it's Don's Pinball Podcast coming at you this is episode number 46 can you believe it I got a whole smattering of things to get caught up with since I spoke to you last time man that's about four days ago unless you were on Patreon then you got a little bonus episode about two days ago let's get into some views and reviews we got some topper news and a smattering of other interesting little tidbits to discuss today on the episode which starts post hence monday morning coming to join all of my lovely friends and listeners hey let's gather around the campfire okay scoot your carpet squares forward toast that marshmallow and jimmy quit running with the hot chocolate come on now you're gonna spill it on somebody now everybody get around let's talk about some toppers i guess we'll start with that it's monday i just cut off the night shift and I want to cuddle up with everybody and we'll go over some stories from the last few days that I've come across. All right, first off, let's get some views on Godzilla's Topper. It was announced, it was revealed, it is the $1,000 and it should be shipping at some time soon. I haven't seen any unboxings yet. I do have one on order. I did buy it before it was revealed and I'm kind of okay with that and I'll get to that. So I talked to my distributor just to see, you know, is this thing coming yet? They haven't currently shipped. He hasn't received them yet as of yesterday when I was texting him. So I guess we're going to see those maybe probably soon. When they did the reveal, they announced that these things are pretty much ready to go once they're revealed. But that's been – it's been a week now. That was Tuesday, wasn't it? Was it Tuesday? Was it a little bit more than that? Regardless, they should be coming out soon. Now, it's a smattering of flat plastics, but the lights do look good. I think the video reveal didn't capture all the functionality of this thing. So I'm hopeful. You know, we've heard a lot of the comments, you know, the fire-breathing aspect of the Godzilla looks like an upside-down cotton candy cone, which it do. We'll see what it looks like when it's on top of the machine. Oh, did you guys notice that I have already created a Godzilla mod for the topper already? And it's listed on Pinside for a low, low price of only $15, including shipping. What? Back to now!
2:17

  • “You can effectively pause your pinball game...while you go refill your drink, run to the bathroom, answer that work phone call, chase the dog out of the room.”

    Don, describing Pinball Paws product @ Pinball Adventures accessory section — Demonstrates practical value proposition of aftermarket pinball accessories

    • Punny Factory
    game
    Rushgame
    Godzillagame
    Hansperson
    The Games Peoplecompany
    Ryanperson
    Ad Interiumvenue
    Flipper Southwestevent
    Northwest Pinball and Arcade Showevent
    Loser Kid Podcastcontent
    Pincastcontent
    NAP Arcadecontent/venue

    manufacturing_signal: Galactic Tank Force currently operating with 2-3 month lead time despite having multiple production lines; production capacity constraint

    high · David Fix statement on Pincast; Don's skepticism about supply planning

  • ?

    venue_signal: Galactic Tank Force earning $967 in first month at single Chicago location (Ad Interium); positive operator ROI early signals

    high · NAP Arcade article; David Fix Pincast interview; Pincast tagline 'out-earning Foo Fighters on location'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Community expressing design criticism and price fatigue on premium toppers; boycott sentiment failed to impact sales due to FOMO mechanism

    medium · Don's discussion of community message being ignored; despite criticism, Godzilla sold through completely

  • ?

    product_launch: Space Hunt public debut scheduled for June 10 at Flipper Southwest in France; testing phase observation for market reception

    high · Official event announcement; Don's expectation of gameplay reviews and updates following weekend

  • ?

    business_signal: Pinball Adventures (Andrew) expanding product line beyond Punny Factory game into accessories (Pinball Paws, Pinball Wedge); diversified revenue model

    high · Don's product reviews and testimonials; retail pricing ($29.99-$30 accessories)

  • ?

    product_launch: Punny Factory showing 67 refundable pre-order deposits remaining on Pinball Adventures website; suggests 40-50 units already allocated

    medium · Don's website observation; inference based on inventory counter visibility

  • ?

    content_signal: Loser Kid Podcast cross-promotion and listener engagement; Don's Pinball Podcast gaining recognition within tight community media circle

    medium · Loser Kid Podcast shout-out on air; Don's expressed pleasure at external podcast recognition

    • So what I did as a bit of social commentary, and because I am a little pluckster, I took a look at what one people's main complaint has been is the Godzilla figure is the same one from the machine. It's up on top of the topper and secured in place with what appears to be a black zip tie, similar to the one that's on his tail in the machine itself, right? So what I did was thought, you know what, that's customizable as anything else is. So I found a fluorescent yellow zip tie that you could replace the OEM edition black zip tie with to give that atomic nuclear look. And so I took this garden variety zip tie, took a picture of it, put it up on Pinside, paid $18 to list it as a featured ad, and I got a couple of chuckles. And really, in life, isn't that all we're after is a couple of chuckles? So we'll see what happens. I hope the folks that run Pinside aren't too upset. I don't think they can be with the $18 I gave them. I understand they wouldn't want me clogging up their marketplace with a bunch of silly meme jokes about topper mods. So that's the only one I'm going to do. Maybe I'll take it down in a bit, but it has been viewed by 200-something people, so I am thankful for that. Maybe it was a little bit trolly, but hopefully some people got some chuckles and some yucks, and I think I'm happy with that. I mean, my modicum of effort adds a little mirth to somebody's life. Very good. Also, if you want to have this version, $15, and you can get it free shipping to you. And as a special bonus, if you mention this offer and you order my zip tie for $15, from Pinside, I will include a t-shirt of your size of choice. So that's a deal. That's $10 off the normal price of a t-shirt. So just for my listeners, a little bit of extra stuff. And you can advertise that you went ahead and bought the $15 zip tie with free shipping on Pinside for Godzilla. Send me a t-shirt size and I'll get you one, man, with a fresh zip tie. And then you can put it on your topper and look fresh, man. I think actually when I get my topper, I may swap it out for that just to show like, hey, look, this is the best mod I've ever seen. So they'll be shipping. I did talk to my distributor after the reveal, you know, once it sunk in that, you know, there's the sunk cost of $1,000 for this Godzilla topper. And I'm like, hey, buddy, you know, I mean, I wasn't going to just, you know, refuse to pay for it. I mean, I knew the risk I was taking on. But I asked him, like, have people been contacting you asking for maybe can I at least just get some store credit I want to pass on this thing? And he said, absolutely not, not one. Not only did they sell through completely of their initial allotment, At that time, you had about 15 other people that, since the reveal, have sent in deposits waiting for future builds of it. So I think the message that a lot of people in the community were trying to send to Stern by, hey, let's not buy this thing, let's demand a little bit more creativity for our toppers, especially when they're costing $1,000,
    5:03
    when it wasn't that long ago that they were half that price. The market do what the market do. I think the message is going to fall on some deaf ears with fat pockets is what's going to happen. So we're just going to see some more of this. I guess ultimately you don't want to be disappointed with your purchase. So, you know, it's hard to say. You know, you should wait until the reveal to see if you want it. But then you're probably going to be waiting a year or more if you don't jump at the reveal. But if you jump at it, you're going to look like a sap if you paid a lot of money for something that's not very good. So that is pinball. I guess that's the hobby that we are in. Now, a lot of other people are not phased by this FOMO. They're like, you know what, I don't even use toppers anyway. Or those lucky folks that have game rooms with low ceilings and don't even have to consider it anyway. Who's really better off? Regardless, let's talk about the Rush topper. I got mine. I got it. I took it out of the box. It was all fresh and mintly new. I took the bags off of it that it came shipped with, and then I put it up on top of the machine, and dang if it's not fun, right? $1,700 Rush topper, slightly cheaper than the $2,000 Mandalorian topper. and I think it has more functionality though. It doesn't have a cool screen, but it lights up. It's got a dial on it. It's got a chicken head knob. It's bright orange for some reason. But you know what? I will say that the first time that I got that topper bonus from the roll the bones scoop and then I got to look up at the topper and look what the flashing lights were and I got awarded an extra ball. I mean it didn't make the whole thing cost effective, but it was pretty neat. And so now every time I hit the scoop and I get the Topper reveal, I'm like, what am I going to win? What am I going to win? Come on, Topper, tell my fortune. Give me something cool. So I suppose it comes down to if this was a game that I bought for my game room and I was just going to have it for a bit and flip it, I don't know that it would be worth it. Actually, no, it would not be worth it to put the Topper on it. But I love Rush. I mean, since turning 40 years old, something happens to an American Caucasian male where all of a sudden World War II becomes way more interesting and you start to get into Rush. I haven't got to the point that I'm wearing tight jeans and new balances yet, but it is something that can happen, so be aware of that, at least in North American culture. And I believe in candidates who write a passage. So I was already kind of into Rush when I saw the reveal of this game and then I kind of knew like I need to probably get one And then I played it at Expo and I was like yeah I should probably get one And then I came across an LE at a good price and I jumped on it Man you know I loving the thing I not looking at flipping this at all And I've had some offers from some friends of mine that have come by and checked out how cool this LE looks. So for me personally, I think that all led to a decision that, you know what, let's work a couple extra shifts. Let's put this topper up on top of there. And, yeah, I'm getting some renewed interest now in a game that I've owned for a year now. So that is the power of the topper. Perhaps it'll lend itself to Godzilla. I don't know much about the new mode, the basically locked topper DLC that you get with the Godzilla topper. But I'll report back when I get that, and that'll be probably in a few weeks, I am guessing. So I'm digging my Rush topper to get that out there. I thought the gears were going to have mental interchanges and the plastic was just for show. But no, no, no, no. No, no, the plastic is driving the gears. They are plastic gears. So we'll see, and hopefully that holds up. let me run down the rest of the things that I have to talk about. Space Hunt, man, that earworm of a song.
    8:24
    Yes, Space Hunt, give it to me. My hope is that the game is at least as good as this song is to me. This is a freaking earworm jam, dude. I'm digging it. So Space Hunt's going to be debuting this weekend now on the 10th, June 10th in Flipper Southwest down in the south of France. near the Bordeaux region where Hexapinball is located. Well, we did get another reveal, though, over the week. There was a big photo dump of Space Hunt, and I did share it on the Facebook page. You can go check it out there or at Hexapinball's page, whatever, UDU.
    8:58
    But they did come out with the cost, and so that caught me a little bit off guard. This was a game I looked at and I thought, you know, for value, at $5,500, I think, you know, a lot of these would get moved, right? However, the price basically comes out to around $9,500 or somewhere in there for the base model. Say what, right?
    9:18
    And then it's another $2,000 if you want one with all the powder coats and whatnot, which, I mean, why wouldn't you, right? So for around $11,000 to $12,000 for Hexa Pinball's initial offering, when you put that up against a punny factory for $6,500, I mean, it puts things in a little bit of a different context, right? So, man, so I got Rush LE for $11,000. I don't know that I would exceed that cost to take a chance on Hexa Pinball's bright pink space hunt, no matter how much of a jam that one song is. Rush comes with more jams, remember, right? Tom Sawyer, come on. So, you know, Hex's Pitbull's Machine will be officially unveiled, I guess, for the public to play the first time at Flipper Suduest in France this coming weekend. So I'm hoping to see some new, you know, some more gameplay and maybe some reviews from some actual people that are just playing it. The layout looks okay. I hope it shoots well. You know, when you see all those metal ramps, there's always a chance that if the, you know, the CAD is off just a little bit, In the software programming, you're going to get a bunch of rattle ramps and rejects, and I think that will sink this project. So hopefully they took the time, got the engineering where it needs to be, and this thing is at least a fun shooter and has some flow to it. They have that gravity well upper play field, the hang down green thing. People say that looks like a tilt-bob sensor, but I've been looking at the pictures now that they've released more of them, and I don't really see any kind of mechanical linkage in there. So is this thing just decorative, like one giant dangle earring that's hanging up there? Can I swap that out for a different earring? Can I put a fluorescent zip tie on it? I guess. Anything goes, right, in this hobby. And I've just been taken aback by how pink the art is. I mean, this is a – maybe it glows cool under a black light or UV or something. But this is one big pink space hunt guy is what it is. And it costs twice as much as the Stern initial offering, which is what everybody is comparing it to. Now, the clap back to that is, you know, people say, well, the price of a Stern Pro is $6,700. This thing is going to start at $9.5 and go to $12 potentially, plus shipping and things. What is wrong with your brain, guys, coming out with a market of this price? But if you compare the prices apples to apples or palm to palm in Europe, Stern Pro costs around that $9,000. So I think they're marketing that as the benchmark that they're tying this to. They're saying, well, this has enough offering as a Stern Pro, and I think we'll have some disagreements on that fine point. But I think for folks in Europe, the cost is going to be around the same price as what you could import and value-added tax a Stern Pro. So that's the argument that you're going to hear every time you mention the price. So this machine, I think I can go on record now and say that it is overpriced for the U.S. market for what you receive. And I think they understand that and they're okay with that because it's not really where they're looking at selling this thing. Within the European Union and their open trades, sorry, UK, It looks like this will be either bargain priced or price to match what you can get from the Stern Pro. Game play is what's going to make the difference. So I'm going to go ahead and say I really can't wait to play this, which usually is code word for your game sucks. I don't think the game sucks. I think the layout looks fun. I think it looks fine.
    12:23
    It's just the value for me, though, is definitely not there. I'm at least 4K lower. I'm at least one R2-D2 top or lower in value for me to go in on this game, to put in my game room basement. But we'll go ahead and play one on location and see what we think. Otherwise, you know, I mean, it looks fun. And I can't wait to see what else comes from the company. Hopefully they stick around. But for the European market, I think this thing may actually do fairly well. I haven't seen them release an edition size, you know. Are they just running 150 to 200 of these things like we see with people's initial offerings? Possibly. We'll probably get some more info this weekend, and you'll hear about it here once they do release it. What's next? I'm just going to keep going down my list. I got Punny Factory next. Punny Factory is out to play at the Northwest Pinball and Arcade Show in Tacoma, Washington, last weekend. I actually talked to my friend who was out there. Shout out to Ryan. How you doing, buddy? He got to flip this thing, and he said it was okay. It was loud, of course, at the convention, so it was hard to really hear all the sounds. But from the sounds from the live stream, I think they sound a lot like Don Knotts and some factory music. But who knows where the code was at that? Maybe there will be some more audio engineering to take place. But Punny Factory is out there. And it was for sale for a show special, and I even saw their show special listed on Nap Arcade's photo that he shared. But what I couldn't see was the price. But from my moles on site, this $6,500 game was listed at $6,000 for a show game, so if you wanted to get one. You know, when looking at the pictures again, I mean, I think, you know, I don't know. There's not a lot of ramps. That's kind of my personal jam with pinball is I love me some ramps. I love me some subways. I want the ball to travel interesting places, and I want an interesting mechanism to interact with. This is definitely a passion project from Mr. Andrew at Pinball Adventures. Thank you for the shout-out on Instagram, by the way, man. Way to go, buddy.
    14:11
    You know, so it's another game I can't wait to play, and we'll see what happens, where the market is as this thing goes. I did go on to Pinball Adventures' website, however, and noticed that, you know, not only did the Signature Edition sell out, I believe there was only 10 with that, you know, black-embossed birch cabinet. But when I went to look at the pre-order of refundable $250 deposit for Punny Factory, they said there was 67 left. They're actually putting a quantity on there. So does that mean that the 110 regular edition of Punny Factory is one of the way sold out Potentially Or it could just be some other Maybe they didn release how many pre on there But there's 67 of them left. So at best, it looks like 40 or 50 of these things may have already been sold or allocated to consumers. Hard to tell for sure with a refundable deposit because there's really no risk on the consumer's end there. But, you know, we wish Pinball Adventures all the best. You know, this guy's passion project, it's his little side hustle. And what a little ingenuitous guy he is. I'm going to go right into it. I got a care package from Pinball Adventures. Thank you so much, sir. He bought some T-shirts from me and then sent me a whole bunch of swag. And that is always fun. I should have done an unboxing video. What am I thinking? Anyway, among the T-shirts and other accoutrements from the factory there, I also got a couple of their other products. Now, this man, Andrew, hey, he is an inventor. He's got ingenuity, it seems. He's got a whole line of other pinball accessory products separate from Punny Factory that I think are worth checking out. So one of them, fantastic little product, called the Pinball Paws. He sent me one of these. It retails for $29.99, $30. You get two of these devices. Now, what this device is is a neodymium magnet with a plastic armature, and it will allow you to effectively pause your pinball game. So the way this thing works is you cradle up a ball, and then it's a magnet with a plastic arm on it, little thing, about an inch and a half long, and you just slide it right over, and it will hold your button down for you while you go refill your drink, run to the bathroom, answer that work phone call, chase the dog out of the room, tell the kids to stop making all that racket. And this is something that solves a problem that I had come across but didn't realize it was a solvable issue. I thought I just had to deal with it. How many times has this happened? You know, you're actually getting a good game going, and then, you know, worker someone calls, and you're like, dang it, I've really got to take this. You know, the bathroom is flooding, the plumber's calling, he's lost, or I've got to run upstairs and grab my dominoes or what have you. So you can just cradle your ball up and then just reach over to where this thing magnetically attaches, either on the side armor for most traditional games, or if you've got lollipop rails, even better, more places to put it. You can keep this thing locked on your side rail out of the way until you need it, and you slide it right over and hold your button down. Problem solved. So a fantastic deal or a fantastic product that I've been finding uses for. My wife loves the dang thing, you know, because she's always chasing the dog out or yelling at the kid or something. Or, you know, maybe she just, you know, all of a sudden needs to make a sandwich because I'm on my way home and she has to run to the kitchen, but she's in the middle of a good game, you know. Who's thinking of the housewife in these situations? I'm going to get yelled at once she listens to this. So Pinball Paws is a product. You get two of these little armatures. and effectively you only need one per game. So if you buy it and get two, you've got it for two of your games. $29 comes in a great little carrying case and it comes in a multitude of colors. So that was cool. But that was not all. He also sent me a pinball wedge. This is another product around the same price and it's interesting, right? So this is basically a plastic ball the size of a pinball with one of those magnets on it and a little rubber stopper ring. And this thing, this is fantastic. So this thing goes into your launch lane and sticks on the strike plate for where the balls eject out of the trough onto. And you put it right there, and then if you need to lift your play field, it keeps your balls from falling out of the trough when it's in a vertical position. What? Now, typically when you go and raise your play field, you need to take all the balls out, throw them in the pin cup there, work on whatever you're working on. Then you have to get your fingerprints off the balls, put them back in the game, and then go back to play. So it's kind of like one of those minor hassles that you're like, I could kind of skip this, but then it could end up leading to more work when I bust a plastic or something. So, okay, fine, I guess I'll do this. So this little tool, again, it's magnetic, so you can stick it on a side rail when you're not using it. And then when you need it, boom, pop it right out, pop it in there. And for your sterns and such, you can lift the play field and not have to eject the balls every time.
    18:34
    It's the kind of tool that when you use it, you're really going to appreciate it. I bought myself a sheetrock hoist, right, for doing sheetrock on ceilings. That's a project I don't do hardly ever. but when you do, it's the best dang tool ever, and it's so fun to use, and so is this thing. So you can also order this from Pinball Adventures. So it solves a problem that we all kind of had, and it was an inconvenience, and this is a way that you can mitigate that. Also, they could be a fun gift for friends or a giveaway or a consolation prize for a tournament or something. $30, man. This guy's coming out with some products. He's got a whole other line of things that we can get to. So for transparency, he sent me these as a homie. so I got to try them out. But I'm actually going to buy myself a set of at least the pinball paws because I'd like to keep one kind of within reach from other games because there's been other times now that I have the thing where I would like the paws, but it's two games away and I can't run over there and grab it. So I'm going to get a couple more of them. So that's the pinball paws. What a cool little product. I should do it on a video and demonstrate. What else? Let's move down the list. Let's keep going. Number seven, Loser Kid Podcast shout-out. Thank you so much, guys. Josh Rube, Scott Larson, what a couple of gems. They've been listening to my podcast, which is something that I'm always happy to hear from people that listen. You know, I'm recording this in my home sound lab in the unused basement downstairs where I do my 3D printing and other projects. And it's fun to hear, like, what I generate here is connecting with people outside of my bedroom. So thanks for that, you know. So Loser Kid Podcast, one of my inspirations, right, one of the podcasts that I listen to because I love those sultry, sultry Utah accents that come from them. So they gave me a nice shout-out there. So thanks for listening. And, yes, I plan to stay family-friendly. I don't need to swear on here. Go ahead and play me in front of Grandma. Play me for everybody. This is a podcast for everybody that's out there where I can share my enthusiasm for pinball. So thank you much to those guys. Let's do another product review. So my buddy Hans over at The Games People, I just have a list of things to go through here because this is where we are on a Monday morning commute. So he created a mod for Rush that I think is fairly fantastic. So this basically is an art piece of eight different Rush albums, album covers, album cover arts, mounted on some PVC, black PVC plastic that bolts into the back of the play field. So the back wall of the play field that you're staring at, which right now is with Stern, has an acrylic of the cartoon characters on stage. You can cover that up with this and have a list of about eight of their different album covers and he's even open to customization. So this looks similar to how the topper looks where you have the different album covers that light up. So his mod includes the plate that goes in the back. I put pictures up on the Facebook page. It also includes some swap outs for the LED lights so they're more like the LED spotlights. So you kind of like do almost like a track lighting effect on the album covers themselves. And then as you're playing, it gives you something visually to look at the back of the play field or right now it's just kind of that pink plastic. So I like this mod. This mod retails for $80. plus $10 shipping. You can get it at the Games People on Pinside. Look up TGP is their handle there. And it's on the marketplace there for Rush. So fantastic thing. Now, he did send me a review copy for this, and I'm glad he did so I could try it out and give him a little shout-out and talk about it. And I do like the mod. I really like how it looks in the back there. So check out the pictures and everything. I told him I was either going to send him for it or I was going to review it and send it back So full transparency there Yeah I do like this modification I smitten with it So the decision is coming Is it shipping? Is it buying? That's coming up soon. But go check it out, the games people at Pinside TGP. What else I got? That was number five or so. We talked about Andrew Pinball Adventures.
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    Got another thing to plug. I'll do that at the end. Let's go talk about GTF, right? Can I do an episode without talking about Galactic Tank Force? So the, what's it called? Pincast did an interview with David Fix, where he addressed some things that are swirling around. So I guess David Fix is found, first off, so that's fantastic. He wasn't stuck in a well somewhere. So the tagline that ran on NAP Arcade is, the GTF is out earning Foo Fighters on location. Say what? Okay, fine. So the article goes on to mention that Ad Interium, which is one of the places that GTF is available in Chicago. It's a big arcade at one of the malls, the Woodfield Mall. It earned $967 in the first month. So that's cool feedback. It's cool to hear about that. I mean, if I was an operator and I bought this, what is it, $7,500, $8,500 game, and I got $1,000 back in my first month, I mean, that's pretty cool. Let this thing run for eight months at a pace for itself. Well, what's better than that? So the reason, though, however, hang on, let's talk about this. The reason is probably out-earning Foo Fighters on location, and even then they mentioned some locations. Is there like 8,000 Foo Fighters out on locations and there are eight Galactic Tank Forces? Maybe. I know of two. Tilt's got one. There's a GTF at Interium. I'm sure there's probably a couple of other ones that have been bought from shows or something. But I don't know if it's more than ten. I don't know if there's more than ten public locations. So, of course, you know, if you've got people in the Chicago metropolitan area that want to check out Galactic Tank Force and the only one that's available publicly is at Interium, yeah, it's probably going to out-earn the probably 750 Foo Fighters that are also out on locations. So I think let's grain of salt that a little bit. You know, I'm happy that the game's doing well. I'm happy it's working for operators. This is how I play the game was at Interium. I put about 10 plays through it. I'm going to be going back here later this week to go see Pulp Fiction and probably put a couple more through Galactic Tank Force. Let Monica play it. She hasn't even played the dang thing yet. But let's temper that a little bit. But really, what are we saying? The gameplay is great in location. I think people aren't beating down a door to buy this game. so people are going to spend maybe $50 to go play it on location and get their fill. It's kind of all expected. So some marketing spin there from the fix man. He said that if you order one today, they're currently on their line. They say they have two lines, and this is what they're running. There's a two- to three-month lead time. I would have thought by now they would have had enough supply built up, or I thought maybe they were holding release of these things until they actually figure out how to fix the bendy stand-up target problem. but he addressed that too and says that they've just finalized the purchase of whatever fix they came up with, some sort of reinforcing bracket, and they're going to be mailing those out to consumers. Again, this is kind of a thing where I would say, hey, consumers, we're working on a fix for this. We're going to get your game as soon as we can. We'll give you some store credit in the meantime to go buy some T-shirts or something. I don't know, or include some kind of topper or some such. Anyway, I would think they would have waited to ship the games until they have this fix fixed Because otherwise, what's going to happen? You're going to get your game home. You're going to rip that thing open. You're going to start playing it, start bending the crap out of your stand-up targets, and then this fix is going to come in, and then I'm still not sure exactly how this fix is working. Do you have to remove the whole mechanism and put it in there? Do they recommend that you not play the game until you get the fix? That kind of sucks. I think the whole thing is kind of unfortunate, and I'm surprised it wasn't seen earlier. And I still don't like the explanation that we got of why this led to happening in the first place. Well, guys, we just don't have a way to test this thing 500 times before we put it in a box and start selling it. Yes, you do. I mean, that's the whole point of testing, right? We didn't have a time to test this. They said this on the live stream that we had it in the factory, and we encourage people to play it as much as possible to uncover any issues, but there's no way to play it 500 times to find out. Now, you can take this mechanism and make a little plywood mock-up for it, and a mechanism that just fires a ball every five seconds at the stand-up targets, do it 5,000 times and see what the heck happens. What happens after 100 plays? What happens to it after 1,000 plays? What happens to it after 5,000 plays? What is to be expected? And it should be done with every mechanism on a pinball machine. Are you kidding me? You think Stern does this? They come up with a mechanism? You think that George Gomez's rocket wasn't smacked around 10,000 times before they decided to put it in the machine, you know, playtesting? Come on, guys. That's not a reassuring answer from a pinball manufacturer. There was just no way to test this thing before we put it in and started selling it to people, especially for $17,000 signature edition. Can you imagine how upset you'd be? Man, anyway, I'm going to go and listen to the full thing because I love me some fixed time. But that's coming. And then he also had some other cop out. He was complaining about a VUC issue or a magnet issue and said, well, we had the wrong balls in the machine. These were high-carbon balls. They're supposed to be low-carbon balls. Again, even if that's the case, don't say that. Just say, yeah, there were some initial issues. and during the testing and adjust phase, we figured it out, and so they're going to be going to consumers and they're going to be fantastically fixed. So I'm going to go listen to that interview. The last little thing I'll get to today is another shout-out. Have you seen these wooden signs that have been popping up? So there is an artist. I'm not sure who the artist is, but he has a contact named Jim on PinsideJAH, and from him you can order a wooden sign, excellently crafted, You know, some thin veneer plywood stacked three-dimensional wooden signs with a big Stern logo on there and then a big round insignia for several different games. Talking about Jurassic Park. Talking about Mandalorian. Talking about Foo Fighters. I saw this thing and fell in love with it immediately, and I went ahead and bought myself one. They arrive in a box. It smells a little smoky there. I think there's some wood burning going on. But, yeah, they're around $200 plus a little bit for shipping. If you want one, reach out to PinballJAH on Pinside. don't tell him anything just tell him what you need he does do custom signs I did get one of myself printed up with my pinball logo I think it's fantastic if you want yourself a wooden sign from your game room whoever is making these is open to custom orders so if you have some custom art and want a cool inlaid multicolored wooden sign made go ahead and message my boy Jim pinballjah at pinside I think that concludes episode 46 of Don's Pinball Podcast I love everybody that's here, man. Thanks for the shout-outs. We're doing nothing but spreading joy and kindness and searching for a way to be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world. I hope that's not too platitude-y for you. What's coming up this week? Who knows? It's Monday. We're probably going to get some news drops. Maybe there will be like six brand-new pinball companies by this afternoon. And when that happens, you will hear about it here on Don's Pinball Podcast.
    29:06
    As always, email Don's Pinball Podcast at gmail.com. Check the Facebook page out. Give me a follow. I'm trying to get to 1,000 followers. Wouldn't that be dope?
    29:17
    Have a good day. Have a good week, everybody. I'll be back with you.