The Pinball Show Episode 128 covers major industry developments including the announcement that Jersey Jack Pinball has acquired the Harry Potter pinball license (reportedly after Stern missed a deadline), rumors of JJP also acquiring The Matrix license, Stern's shifting production schedules across multiple titles, severe supply constraints on accessories like Expression Lighting kits, and discussion of emerging pinball manufacturers. Hosts Dennis and Zach Manny address critical commentary on fence-sitting in pinball media while celebrating a fun Whirlwind 2.0 discussion from their Patreon content.
Key Claims
Jersey Jack Pinball has acquired the pinball license to Harry Potter from Warner Brothers
high confidence · Craig Bobby reporting, corroborated by hosts Dennis and Zach; Joe Camenow's Facebook post announcement; described as exclusive reporting by NatArcade
Stern's bid for Harry Potter involved Cam and Camenow missing a key deadline, which opened the door for JJP to win the license
medium confidence · Craig Bobby citing Loser Kid Podcast and NatArcade reporting; hosts express skepticism about this explanation
JJP is rumored to have also acquired The Matrix license, to be designed by Steve Richie
low confidence · Craig Bobby explicitly labels this as 'strictly a rumor' from NatArcade; emphasizes this is speculation following Harry Potter announcement
Stern is currently producing across at least five active production lines with Jurassic Park Premium, James Bond, Iron Maiden Pro, Foo Fighters, and other titles
high confidence · Zach Manny reporting from personal dealer experience with direct shipping notifications and Friday production videos from Stern
Expression Lighting kits are being severely rationed, with dealers receiving only 1-10% of their orders
high confidence · Zach Manny, a major dealer (Flipping Out Pinball), describing personal experience and frustration with allocation
Rush Pinball will receive one last run from Stern before discontinuation
high confidence · Craig Bobby reporting; confirmed by hosts
Two new pinball manufacturing startups are being teased: one unknown company (seen at Texas Pinball Festival and PinFest) and Hexa Pinball from France launching 'Space' in June
medium confidence · Craig Bobby reporting promotional materials and announcements
Stern prioritizes machine production over accessories because machines generate higher raw profit despite potentially lower margins
medium confidence · Dennis speculating on business strategy; Zach Manny agreeing based on dealer experience
Notable Quotes
“the most hallowed and sought after pinball license in the land of Muggles and wizards has been in fact acquired from Warner Brothers by none other than a good old folks over at Jersey Jack pinball”
Craig Bobby@ 13:18 — Official confirmation segment for Harry Potter JJP license announcement
“This Is The Stuff legacies are made of people so trust me jjp knows exactly what they have and are setting out to do this title right”
Craig Bobby@ 13:44 — Underscores the magnitude of the Harry Potter license in industry history
“I wanted to quit this week Dennis I wanted to hang it up man it's been like if my energy is not here it's been hell being a pinball dealer this last week”
Zach Manny@ 21:22 — Expresses frustration with accessory supply chain chaos and customer expectations
“the problem is Stern Pinball probably isn't going to respond to every dealer because it is very inefficient now there's still a balance as to giving some communication out there but the problem for dealers is if there's one customer that asks me where am I at in line”
Zach Manny@ 24:00 — Highlights communication gap between Stern and dealer network affecting customer service
“I don't think there's a mark because they're selling to Distributors it's not a marketing reason as that I can come up with for stern to deliberately trickle Out Accessories I think that's just not where their core of their business is”
Dennis@ 26:39 — Discusses Stern's apparent deprioritization of accessories as strategic choice
“Harry Potter becoming a pinball machine you said it would never happen I don't know if I'd ever say never but it came out from a Joe kamenco post on Facebook”
announcement: Jersey Jack Pinball officially acquires Harry Potter pinball license from Warner Brothers, ending months of speculation
high · Joe Camenow's Facebook post announcement; corroborated by multiple sources; Craig Bobby reports as confirmed news not rumor
?
rumor_hype: JJP rumored to have also secured The Matrix license with Steve Richie as designer
low · Craig Bobby explicitly states this is 'strictly a rumor'; sourced from speculation following Harry Potter announcement; NatArcade reporting
?
product_strategy: Stern reportedly lost Harry Potter bidding war to JJP; speculation that missed deadline opened door for competitor
medium · Cited from Loser Kid Podcast and NatArcade; hosts express skepticism about deadline explanation; alternative theory: JJP's superior relationship with Warner Brothers gave them advantage
?
manufacturing_signal: Stern operating across approximately 5 concurrent production lines with multiple titles shipping weekly
high · Zach Manny reports direct weekly shipping notifications for James Bond, Jurassic Park, Foo Fighters, Iron Maiden across different weeks
?
product_concern: Critical shortage of accessories (Expression Lighting kits, Rush Toppers, Godzilla/007 Toppers) with severe rationing and allocation chaos
high · Zach Manny (major dealer) reports receiving only 1-10% of ordered quantities; lack of communication on allocation logic; customers frustrated with first-day orderers not receiving products while later buyers do
Topics
Harry Potter pinball license acquisition by JJPprimaryThe Matrix pinball rumor for JJPprimaryStern production schedule and capacity managementprimaryAccessory supply chain constraints (Expression Lighting, Rush Toppers)primaryMedia responsibility and fence-sitting in pinball commentarysecondaryNew pinball manufacturer startupssecondaryWhirlwind 2.0 critical receptionsecondaryDealer-manufacturer communication and customer service challengessecondary
Sentiment
mixed(0.55)— Positive excitement about Harry Potter license and production activity, but significant frustration over accessory supply chaos and dealer communication gaps. Discussion of media ethics adds philosophical nuance. Joking tone throughout lightens criticism but underlying stress is evident.
Transcript
youtube_auto_sub · $0.000
warning The Following episode contains adult language and screaming goats listener discretion is advised [Music] the pinball network is online launching the pinball show is here again to save you from silverball boredom and gasply inaccurate information on episode I'm sorry for the pinformation thing on episode 128 Dennis and I give you Stern Pinball production updates CB is back and peppier than ever we talk Cam and cow going kapow for Harry Potter we Deep dive into what we know about Harry Potter pinball and what we may see in the future oh and pink Slash Godzilla Edition the great reproduction debate 2.0 the art of saying nothing while using a lot of words and actually killing with kindness pinball market trends The Legend of Zelda tears of the Kingdom for click bait purposes deals of the week and much more you can't buy this kind of passion people finishes the way we started a game of skill for some it's a passion and a lifestyle only I can live forever it's time for the pinball show it's pinball with personality [Music] welcome back everybody this is the pinball Show episode 128 with your host Dennis Crystal and Zach Manny hey Dennis yo a wizard Zaki I would I would not be a great wizard I don't believe no you'd be a Ron style wizard yeah who the hell called but somebody called me Weasley lately no not Weasley is in the the weasel yeah easily but no like the the character they were like you're the one Ron Weasley to I think they called the Greg bone the Harry Potter and I uh I feel more the sidekick yeah and I feel more potterish I gotta say I feel more potterish than Weasley when it comes to I mean I don't I guess like in the realm of pinball you are involved in more things so you're maybe more of the main character but yeah like think about it like all the editing work and stuff that you do for this show and for straight down the middle right like Harry didn't do any work like he was a bad student that's like Hermione stuff okay so um maybe I heard no that's more your thing I think somebody called you the Hermione yes someone did but we're not gonna go into that I I I'd even take Snape I feel more akin to a Snape but Ron Weasley yeah I don't I don't see it what was the what's the blonde girl who's all like look at the how the Moon is and isn't that Weasley it's still we usually I think it's Weasley's sister no no no no the blonde one the weird Luna or whatever her name was she wasn't in the first time in the bathroom look I don't know this though I didn't read the books wasn't there that one but when they're dead yes that was like a weird ghost water baby thing we don't count that yeah I you know what I I found fun then we'll get into the the pinball news this week Dennis but I found very interesting when we did a patreon exclusive for the pinball show our takes on on the the uh the scare Bros and the Whirlwind 2.0 a lot of people hear that because a lot of people are part of our official TPS Club but it was interesting to then listen to other media creators give their takes on Whirlwind 2.0 having many of them not heard our takes uh I I enjoyed that thoroughly yes it's been interesting because sometimes you know uh just whether it's subconscious or consciously you pick up on things when you hear other podcasters and it it bleeds into maybe your interpretation but some of them were fence sitting so there wasn't there wasn't any strong strong takes and I'm like that's pretty it's pretty easy to take a strong take on this EGP being the only one because you had you know but you know but I knew what we had said because while I hadn't actually listened to that bonus content I was there to record it so uh so my you know my I was already informed perhaps in part by knowing your positions on it um because we had talked about it already you know that's a sort of an interesting thing I've had this discussion from time to time not related to Whirlwind but about this like content and and podcasting and you know there's been a lot of Not A lot's not that's probably not accurate but let's say there's been some I don't know if accusations but there's you know the discussion like the fence sitting thing and I've had this conversation with with a few people because to me it's there's like a line think of it like the like the line in the middle of a highway or on a road right that striped line okay you don't want to be in my opinion you don't want to be someone who's just like trolling for the sake of trolling calling out things calling out individuals in particular and just like running them through in a hobby it's it's I think it's pretty distasteful on the flip side when you're in a really small hobby like this sometimes people get into uh when you're not used to it when you're not say you're not professional media and stuffing start doing all of this you have this opposite reaction where you only want to say the positives about everything and so when something's not good the the closest you can really get is to kind of stay in the middle or fence set as as you had expressed it and I don't think that's very healthy for the consumer so I've always and again this is my own philosophy I've always tried to be on the be on the striped line like I don't like calling out individuals I don't like criticizing like if I think a game is bad I think I need to say a game is bad because I think I do a disservice to people if I don't give my honest opinion on it but I'm not there to try and tear down the people who made whatever the product was because they're professionals and they're trying to do the best that they can but you can't I feel you can't get away with you do a disservice if something's not good and you act like well maybe it's okay still it's like um no it it's if something's bad people need to know that it's bad but it's also you shouldn't call something bad just for sport no does that make sense yeah yeah yeah so that's where I'm like I see that in all sorts of hobbies you know video games and everything else this is all you know this sort of thing comes up the struggle that we have here in pinball I think versus a lot of other more established Hobbies Hobbies with more people in them I should say is we don't have a professional media that can serve as a touchstone for that um it might be different if we really did like if there were real journalists always covering everything about pinball and actually doing like investigative pieces because you can always say like podcasts would all be because we are entertainment we have to remember that we're not journalists infotainment right infotainment uh well some some might you know go different directions entirely and just want to be pure entertainment and that's fine but without the ability to have journalism as a touchstone uh I think things can spin out of control and people can get lost really easy and knowing what what is and isn't objective and that's sort of a I don't know it's we're I'm getting a little philosophical at this point so I'm gonna shut up but no I like it I think that's a good long story short didn't surprise me that you see a lot of people when they they and I can't speak for them because I don't know what their stances were because of what they said but when they're normally positive people and then they're kind of uh milk toast on it it often suggests to me that maybe they hate it but they didn't want to say it but I don't know for sure I think the ultimate tell generally there's a couple tells for fence sitting and one of them has to be we could go through a list but one of them has to be I'm really looking forward to playing it well you know oh that's probably guilty of using that one a lot too I'm really looking forward to playing it because again and if I haven't played it like I haven't played whirlwinds like but what if it's you know there's still the what if now I might think the what if is a two percent chance that's gonna change my mind but you again you want to be fair so if the only positive thing you have to say is yeah I'm really looking forward to catching it at a show and getting my hands on like that that's your tell right there that uh the the person may not be that into it I felt I questioned our analysis on it uh listener if you have not heard that as part of the official TPS you got to go listen to it I think it's called The Exclusive content it's called Suey and me and uh I had so much fun in this I haven't had that much fun on a podcast segment in a while just because we were rolling like it was good we were back and forth it was like Abbott and Costello and it was genuinely funny good stuff um that was but you always like it when we when when it you know shows often we we often go a few episodes where there's just not a topic that works like that for us right so that's right and we were riffing it's hard to force it it was yeah and it was all improv it was all uh extremely fun but uh the takeaways from that I had a couple people message me uh laughing about our discussion of sui uh basically listeners is a [ __ ] and piss monster that featured in Whirlwind 2.0 uh pretty a pretty well-known pinballer uh did mention they they caught my they liked my uh what was it uh Conker's Bad Fur Day reference that's right which is a little a little rare video game throwback for you folks and I was so upset that not one media person talked about after watching that trailer video that there was damn Mac and Me stolen after the episode that that movie didn't do well that's why I said it's such a [ __ ] movie why Would you steal from that but no that but that's the thing Zach you can't be mad because they probably didn't see it it was it's so like if you weren't there at the time uh in the 80s when Matthew came out this is not a film you go back for so but it's like a cult classic just because people hate it so much this is like you and The Croods too no one cares but you it was so good so for all you've been sitters out there I've got your number whenever I hear you say look you know props to them for bringing something to Market and I'm looking forward to getting my handsome playing I we were we were tough we were tough on Whirlwind 2.0 because frankly this is the not too strong of a take but it just it looks horrible but pretty much every aspect of it except for one or two Choice titles um one being in the multiple title of something about the the storm and the other being total chaos besides that I'm pretty sure everything else is just really bad but uh but you got to go back and listen there's no replicating in here there's it it uh it was a blast sui you know what else can't be replicated Craig Bobby he's back I you know what I've heard that he he saw the Craig signal up in the sky it was the symbol of the rush pinball machine that he has the soul Canadian without uh lacks and um he came to our Aid I thought it should be like just a fresh lighted signal at the sky of like a mahogany desk yes that's what it that's what it should look like I want to make a whole line of uh like things in in pinball offices that Craig could disguise himself as I I we'd sell them as toys we call them Craig formers trick formers yes Furniture in Disguise yes craigformers serving as our spies what will you do when Craig will come for you and steal all of your pinball secrets for the pinball show thank you yes hello everyone good to be back and welcome to the pinball shows top stories I'm Craig Bobby my God where has that time gone remember the old saying miss a day and you missed a month well nothing could be more true right now in the pinball world as you may recall way back in February this year prior to the Texas pinball Festival it was literally raining new game announcements from every game manufacturer out there and in the past couple of weeks we've been swamped yet again this time with new game rumors new pinball company startup news companies canceling titles without notice R.I.P rush and yes more new title rumors so let's not beat around the bush with more Trader chatter let's get at her first up can we please all rise and salute and address the pinball equivalent of the massive two-ton elephant in the room yes Harry Potter pinball will in fact be made okay Holy Spirit activate activate activate all right let's go if my sources are accurate on this and trust me my sources are always accurate the most hallowed and sought after pinball license in the land of Muggles and wizards has been in fact acquired from Warner Brothers by none other than a good old folks over at Jersey Jack pinball and they are rolling it over in their hot little hands right now trying to figure out how many millions of dollars they can make off this absolutely Blockbuster of a pinball license that literally only comes around once in a lifetime This Is The Stuff legacies are made of people so trust me jjp knows exactly what they have and are setting out to do this title right Joe Cam and cows certainly knew how big the pot of gold was that he had just lost which would seem to explain his bombshell of a sour grapes Facebook post last week preemptively announcing to the world that in fact JJ P had acquired the pinball rights to the Harry Potter film franchise folks if you don't think acquiring these licenses are an absolute dog fight and that the competition isn't as stiff as anything you've seen on TV or the movies you haven't been paying attention now rumor has it that in fact the stern kamikau bid was originally the front runner in this fight however thanks to the most recent loser kid podcast and an online article published by the leading pinball industry news site nap arcade it is rumored that the camon cow bid was later thrown out after someone at Stern missed a key deadline which opened the door for jjp to leverage their good relationship with Warner Brothers and swoop in and snatch that Harry Potter license right out from under cabin cow now do I believe that story not really I just have such a hard time believing that Warner Brothers would be that tight that they would exclude the world's leader in the pinball world over a missed deadline no mysis suspicions is that in the end jjp won this based on their previous great relationship with Warner Brothers and that that silver old Fox Cam and cow was simply out foxed in his own Hen House by his chief competitor and Wiley sales veteran and founder of Jersey Jack pinball Jack Guarnieri now speaking of Warner Brothers no sooner had the Harry Potter rumor spell been cast by Joe camon cow taking the pinball World by storm when Along Came another almost equally as exciting rumor once again thanks to nap arcade sleuth reporting not only had jjp acquired the rights to Harry Potter but in fact they have also acquired the rights to the second of the Holy Trinity of Pima licenses with a third being Back to the Future which Stern and Joe Cam and Cal already have yes jjp is rumored to have the rights to wait for it the Keanu Reeves sci-fi trilogy The Matrix is being designed by a former long time Stern designer and God father of pinball himself Mr Steve Ritchie say what now I'd like to emphasize that this Matrix news is strictly a rumor but a hot one nonetheless as this is what happens when the spotlight gets on a company and people start nosing around and putting their Neo and Morpheus cosplay outfits on [ __ ] gets weird yo and all manner of rumor and speculation and News starts popping out well I'm so exhausted from following these massive rumors online that I'm almost too tired to talk about not one but what appears to be two separate teases for new pinball company startups the first was seen on a keychain that was being handed out during the Texas pinball Festival this year which read an amazing machine is coming with the image of a flipper turned on its end with an electrified pinball underneath it to make it look like an exclamation point weeks later this same message was posted on a sign at the entrance of pinfest in Allentown hmm not to be outdone a second new company hexa pinball from across the pond in Europe in the southwest of France of all places is promising the launch of their new unlicensed pinball title called space at the salon De pontenak in France on June 10th and 11th of this year so stay tuned for more information on this wacky title it has appeared out of nowhere well I wish I had the energy to report on more guys always lots going on but I do need to call Zach many here and get him to update his notes waiting list information to see if I can get on a bunch of different waiting lists now the first list I'm getting on is for the last run of Rush which you hear to hear first will be getting one last run from Stern Pinball and then I'm getting on jjp's Harry Potter and Matrix pinball I really hope Zach hasn't blocked my number yet for the pinball show I'm Craig Bobby catch you on the flip side thanks again Craig appreciate that it's good to have you back buddy one more week and you're about to get fired hahaha oh poor Craig he brought he brought some Goods there he did most of which we're going to discuss we'll jump into the big story this week is Cam and cow going kapow for Harry Potter uh that's my Parker headline but yes yes we're gonna stay true to the pinball show and we're going to talk about Stern Pinball first people want to hear them updates they want to hear what the king is doing yes production is always the key question that comes in yeah and the king is confusing me that's what they're doing last week they had some Jurassic Park premiums moving out of the factory which I wasn't expecting for a couple more weeks so they're shuffling things up just a bit but Jurassic Park premium is probably rolling out this week as well we've seen some last week Dennis we'll see some more this week it feels right now like Stern Pinball has five production lines the way that different titles are flying out each day I get a Friday I get a notice from Stern uh and my shipping broker that it two different titles were shipping to me from Friday it was going to be I was getting some James Bond premiums and Jurassic Park premium and then right before that I got some James Bond pros and I believe this week in Friday's production video on social media first term pin while they were showing some Foo Fighter premiums I'll probably be getting that flipping out pinball some Foo Fighter premiums come in so there's just a number of different titles that are going off the line coming on the line going off the line coming online I don't know how they keep track of all of that not to mention the accessories line as well with things coming in and out [Music] okay you heard it here hot off the press right now I'm receiving information the Stern Pinball continues to switch up their production schedule just a bit where we originally seen some Foo Fighter premiums on the line in last Friday's video those are actually being bumped yet another week as well as James Bond premium we're not going to see James Bond premium this week that's going to be the following week hopefully as well this week is going to continue to be Jurassic Park premiums and how about this Iron Maiden Pros the plan is for Iron Maiden Pros to be hitting the stern line this week Stern still has some lingering Foo Fighter limited edition games that they want to that they want to complete they're hoping to do so by the end of this week [Music] laughs but what about Rush Rush was discontinued I don't care who cares what else all right what about expression Lighting on that accessory line Zach oh this last week I about quit it's weird I just I wanted to hang it up man it's been like if my energy is not here it's been hell being a pinball dealer this last week yeah it's been it's just been horrible this week I feel bad for customers because they're expecting products and sometimes when schedules change for these manufacturers and things don't come out when we think they're supposed to or or some come out which leads everyone to think that all of them have come out it puts dealers in a very precarious situation or no I know there's been a ton of excitement for the expression lighting kits they're very popular so let me ask you and you know obviously say you choose not to disclose if you want to just not disclose so you've mentioned yeah the issue about not all customers being able to receive did you I assume you have a certain uh quantity ordered with Stern I think that is that how it works yeah I think it'd be safe to say the flipping out pinball purchases probably one of the largest quantities of accessories from consumer dealers in the country okay all right we buy a shitload of Toppers okay yeah yeah I've seen your wall so all right did you get 50 of your expression light order uh I see where you're going I I'm we I'll say I'm only going to ask two questions that's the first one okay no we didn't all right did you get ten percent oh see those were it something is going on with the expression light all right let me let me change the second question did you get 25 I wanted to quit this week Dennis I wanted to did you get one percent uh I got one percent at least yeah okay okay what's really tough for for me and not that I'm being a whiny dealer but a lot of time is spent I put this there's a nice thread on pin side uh that talks about what's on the line at starting this week and sometimes as dealers will chime in there to kind of give updates to people if they're quite like I wonder what's this I wonder when this is coming so if we have the information sure we'll jump in there and I've seen tilt in there I've seen other people in there we'll jump in and clarify some questions maybe uh so I'll do that as much as possible what is difficult sometimes and feels like lack of communication from some of these manufacturers like okay well when are you making some how many am I going to get from my order when can the reason we're asking certain is because we are being bombarded from customers rightfully so probably um where my product is that I ordered the problem is Stern Pinball probably isn't going to respond to every dealer because it is very inefficient now there's still a balance as to giving some communication out there but the problem for dealers is if there's one customer that asks me where am I at in line on Foo Fighters premium where am I at in line on Godzilla premium where am I at in the line for The Rush topper when is the rushtopper coming out have you received any more information regarding the Godzilla topper hey I remember that I went on the rumored list for [ __ ] Bon Jovi can you tell me where at onset rumored list I'm so what I'm saying Dennis and listener is oftentimes I'm spending hours as a dealer answering questions that aren't leading to anything there is no information if there was information that would be dispersed out so a lot of my job is really tough and excruciating because instead of being able to do you know getting shipping going or fixing a website or doing other dealer things I am answering questions the same damn question with the same non answer at this time we have not been given any information your guess is as good as mine if you're telling me that your buddy stealer said this I I don't know because dealers haven't been given this information so either your buddy is Craig Bobby's mahogany table or they're just [ __ ] lying to you it's takes so much time to answer all of these questions and I feel horrible because I don't have the answers to why you know if you order a lot you don't get as many or if you don't order many you only get one but it looks like you ordered a lot I I don't know what the answers are but yeah I wanted to I want to throw it all away this week one to three so the answer is you didn't get all that many out of your order well yeah we gotta we got a nice bundle of Rush Toppers uh and I'm gonna be honest with you here's the problem we we got a decent amount of Rush Toppers but it is hard to understand why customers aren't getting their Toppers if they ordered the first day that the product was launched right yeah I could see that I agree if I ordered the first day a product was launched and I see all of these people getting their top or some of these people may be ordering weeks upon weeks later or my Marco specialty is having something in stock you know a month after announcement yeah it is tough I have no answer for it though what do you do in that situation Dennis because I pulled my [ __ ] hair out Master carries heavy burden hey so push camera strap the rest Hoppers are coming out expression lighting kits are coming out they're trickling out uh and the none of none of these accessories will ever come as quick as possible do you think that is do you think it is on purpose maybe that drives up the fomo a little bit denser or do you think it is legit apart no I I I don't think it I don't think I don't think there's a mark because they're selling to Distributors it's not a marketing reason as that I can come up with for stern to deliberately trickle Out Accessories I think that's just not where their core of their business is and they probably just de-prioritize it not out of maliciousness or strategy or anything it's just they make pinball machines and they're still I don't think if I were to If I Were a Batman Zach it would be they're still not fully comfortable with this idea of making and selling accessories I think they're Stern in particular I think is still very much stuck in this we sell The Operators right kind of mindset I well and I think pinball machines make more money oh there's only so many hands that can work on the products I mean the margin on on it you know I don't know what the margin is on a say topper versus a pinball machine but the raw dollars of profit I would assume is much higher on the pinball machine even if the margin was lower like let's say they made a margin of 50 on a pinball machine and 60 on a Topper but the raw dollars would still be there on the pinball machine yeah so it's tough the other information I have for you listeners is that when it comes to stern accessories like the rush topper um I'm not sure when they're going to do their their next big run of Rush Toppers when it comes to expression lighting kits I've been told that they're still in the process of of of that run so um we we had some that arrived to us that we got out we will be receiving more in this run when that second run is for expression lighting kits I I don't know I haven't been told and I don't know any information on Godzilla Toppers and I don't know any information on 007 Toppers that they announced I have no damn clue who would have thought that Toppers were gonna bring me down Dennis yes almost ironic isn't the isn't there like an old Fable or something that the person that is obsessed with something is the thing that ends up killing them but no what is that yeah there's probably no no that had to do with like baby theft and gold weaving oh you know you know uh historic medieval European values uh trying to think what what like now I'm thinking of um I got a blueberry for a daughter I see the gum that turned into the blueberry yeah those are just disobedient little brats speaking of disobedient brats let's talk about Harry Potter and his wizard friends over at the Warner Brothers lot I mean they were kind of like disobedient they were right yeah I mean I kind of felt bad for Snape at the end because they were like always sneaking out of class and like traipsing around causing trouble you [ __ ] thank you I could have taught you how to brew evil but you skipped class what was that one real quick I hated that one teacher she did such a good job because she was she seemed like such a [ __ ] maybe she's just a [ __ ] man it's just a [ __ ] dark arts I think she stole that from Snape she was teaching that class or something I don't know it wasn't the big googly-eyed girl I liked her uh you know what I'm talking about yes no she just had thick glasses but I call her googly eyes this is the extent of my knowledge when it comes to Harry Potter yeah the redhead kid you get the ginger the googly-eyed and the [ __ ] teacher yeah headline pinball Cameron cow goes kapow for Harry Potter I you know what I had to say it again just because I thought it was clever this has been all the talk Dennis everyone's talking about Harry mother truck and Potter Harry Potter becoming a pinball machine you said it would never happen I don't know if I'd ever say never but it came out from a Joe kamenco post on Facebook the kids still use a Facebook but Joe Cam and cow came out and posted essentially saying guess what kids jjp has Harry Potter it is what it is you guys don't have to speculate any longer uh they got it they locked it in [ __ ] off and then you heard exclusively on the pinball Show episode 127.5 myself kind of tell you I think that was that was not a trolled account that was not a hacked account uh that sources that I was hearing saying yeah that's very much true Jersey Jack pinball has the license to produce Harry Potter pimple yeah Zach I don't think I think they have the license to produce Harry Potter four oh what was that the prisoner ass command well you know no no wait maybe it was I don't know what four was six is the bad one don't do six because that's the one where they live in the tent oh God that Harry Potter and the timber that was the that was a bad movie like like I'm going out there to say that when I the Order of the Phoenix was five Half Blood Prince six seventh was Deathly Hallows part one and two yeah yeah part one was the is the worst of the I'd say part one so Number Six movie was probably the worst not probably it was the worst Harry Potter movie followed by so many people are gonna [ __ ] eat no they no everyone will agree with that they might disagree with my second one which would be um which would be Harry Potter number two movie the Chamber of Secrets yeah with the Basilisk that was not a very good movie either um I'm a fan of the prisoner asked me and I like them yeah no um one is a classic of course it's the starts at all that would be an obvious one the theme around three four five and seven could all which one had the Mac and Me rip off don't be zombies crooked what oh give me your sock dog that's my precious yeah I need it hurts us it did magic wands oh my gosh so Harry Potter was a thing and then sorry sorry sorry I keep I'm transitioning all of our discussion into a you know a good set of films but let's go back to Harry Potter no Harry Potter's great actually I enjoyed that I didn't read the books but I didn't enjoy it like as a series I enjoyed it and getting back to my uh my never ever not ever never which okay maybe I did say that like you know eight or nine times the the main but I did emphasize at least in one of those times I did emphasize that was solely based off of the totally non-substantiated report that JK Rawling was totally anti-pinball and I also acknowledge I have never seen the evidence for that but you have to but if it was true and she was dead set against it then it was never going to happen unless she changed her mind or she no longer controlled the rights anymore those would be like the two things that could shift the you know move the needle yeah and shift the tides and on cam and cow's post there was a rendering of uh of a Stern machine with you know with a uh a cloak if you will of Harry Potter artwork now we thought well that's weird that's why people thought maybe it's a fake nobody knew what to think the media and pinball were going back and forth you had you had media say no it's it's fake it's all [ __ ] this is just this just came and cow trolling no this is it was what it was now as to the motive of why Joe gaming cow did that we can discuss that here in a minute but let's dive in more to Harry Potter as a pinball thing okay I think it is safe to say that uh Jersey Jank pinball has secured the license for that now what makes us question things is Joe Cameron Cowell has kind of teased Harry Potter and being close to WB and working to try to get this license and him coming out you know and throwing the gauntlet down saying that they do they have secured that we thought that this if anybody's going to secure a big old license like this it would be Stern Pinball especially Stern Pinball um or spooky hell I mean [ __ ] it's spooky not jjp then last week on the loser kit pinball podcast they had on Christian line and Miss Penn a Christian line used to do a podcast called super awesome pinball show with Christopher franchi who is an artist in why am I telling these people listen to pinball podcast Chris Frenchy's close to kapow and close to Joe camanchal so much so that I made this made the assumption that Christopher franchi did that rendering and Christian line had some interesting information being close to Chris franching and did say on that podcast Christopher line confirmed that the mock-up was in fact Frenchy's artwork and it was going to be used as a Stern machine prototype to sell to Warner Brothers as a machine that could be made it was taken to Warner Brothers and to JK Rowling Christian line went on and believed that ham and cow was able to loosen up the JK Rowling and Warner Brothers group to the idea of Licensing Potter for pinball he said quote how it got from Stern to Jack Guarnieri there's the mystery end quote so Christian line all but confirmed that uh yeah gaming cow was right up in there loosened up JK a little bit he's probably getting this information from franchi who rendered up the artwork who now coincidentally enough does artwork for jjp hmm yeah so what happened there how in the hell does camera cow go in there get close to securing a license and then it's slipping into the hands of Jack Granary and jjp when we had that troll post from Jack Guarnieri on the launch of Godfather which is just ridiculous timing hey I I still um especially because it's this Potter game would be so far out that's still I think was a a big big big mistake but but saying that aside that just reminded me of ah you know don't take this listeners don't take this as too judgmental but take it quasi-judgmentally y'all's ability and willingness to bend yourselves into ridiculous logic pretzels uh never ceases to shock me and the number of you who on the doorstep of the already built Godfathers in cardboard boxes about to show up at shows we're convinced that it was going to be Harry Potter this is why this is why I don't pay attention to a pinside thread with 2 000 posts that claim every single possible conspiracy theory because some of these go waywayway off the deep end yes they do and what a shock when it was still Godfather how it mysteriously didn't magically transform into Harry Potter I guess magic is fake I'll push to also say that uh but some people are asking well when did they get this license have they had it for years upon years I'm going to venture to tell you listeners that this feels very recent to me I agree it feels very honestly honestly if it was all that far back it would have been a part of the leaks we had with all the other confirmed games so let's not I mean we do know there was a there's a backstop on this and in hindsight whenever we did have a picture of Jack Granary trolling like that I think that was him probably speaking out when he shouldn't have that he was he was in discussions with Warner Brothers and that was him basically saying hey you guys might cramp on Godfather is a thing but look who Papa G is talking to this might be a possibility he didn't want to confirm it or anything but he wanted to take a picture because he was feeling pretty good about maybe discussions thus far that's what I would guess I mean it's a it's a huge license it would definitely be something to be excited to get and I think that came and cow blast this out in the way that he did many calling not me but many calling unprofessional I think he blasted out out of frustration and I said in 127.5 keep in mind there may be frustration toward jjp from Cam and Cal maybe possibly but I also would encourage people to think of other possibilities as to why he may be frustrated now if you go to nap arcade nap arcade made an update on this whole posting and this whole thread that says quote I heard through the grapevine that Cayman cow laid all of the groundwork for a Harry Potter pinball machine but someone at Stern dropped the ball didn't get their bid in in time so Jack used his good relationship with Warner Brothers to swoop in and snatch the Harry Potter license out from under them [Music] now I have no information as to the swooping of this almost as if it was all said and done someone swooped in to get it from under them with as I read that kind of feels uh kind of feels uh I don't know I think of the whole Godzilla thing all over yes that's exactly what I I'm thinking of yeah and you know and that's where I'm not gonna I'm not gonna weigh in on whether or not uh someone who who worked on licensing isn't actually you know an employee of stern or jjp you know was or wasn't unprofessional I didn't see a lot of quote unquote unprofessional accusations when spooky got all pissy about Stern getting God's you know swooping in and getting Godzilla and then saying about it and saying that they didn't get Godzilla because Stern got it I mean they remember that it was I mean it was they said hey Stars screwed us I would say uh it is the most negative I think I can recall ever seeing spooky officially as like a company going out after someone else because you know normally they're all posting like all this happy stuff look at how we share shipping container and all that stuff that no one really cares about and and then with this though they were mad they were I mean they're like Stern came I mean the way they described it I remember in my my mind you know in the Memory Palace of what I'm envisioning the way they described it I just envisioned spooky sitting you know in a bunch of flannel around this mahogany table which is probably Carrick Bobby in disguise with all these suits representing Toho these long-term you know Japanese masters of Kaiju movies yes and then like Gary Stern and Jody dankberg like 300 Spartan kicking open the double wood doors coming in throwing down a pile of cash and picking up a license which was like a literal like Godzilla figurine that's how it symbolized because Japan's very into symbols and walking out with it that's how I envisioned it and everyone else is like sitting there jaws on the table get your jaw off of me die liner there's got to be guideliner on Jody dankberg at that point look it's just like they go and but Gary and Jody go in with her with their three-piece slick Chicago suits and as soon as they they get out of there Gary Gary rips his off and and jumps on the back of his Harley and Jody tears his open and he's got like a five-finger Death Punch t-shirt on instead and he goes to the nearest concert that's how I envisioned it the way spooky told the story but anyway back to Harry Potter yeah yeah to me this is a bad case of the old fashioned squirts uh and and spooky whenever you're whenever your passion bin gets full it's gonna squirt out now there are in life good Squirts and bad squirts right we all know the bad Squirts and we all know the good squirts I'm not here to tell you what kind of Squirt it is but it's a passion squirt that's what happened to Joe kamikal he had a bit of a passion squirt he cared about it it's so close and it didn't happen if the if the Grapevine report that that nap arcade shared is valid I I mean I could unders can you imagine listeners can you imagine if you just worked really really really hard putting something together and someone else failed you failed the whole project and all of your work was not only wasted but went to arrival oh wow I think that the the pinball Show patreon Club is going to get really interesting in the future because this is my life Dennis I've been through all of this yes I understand now the side effect though of it was really interesting babies you're talking about the side effect of the squirts I'm talking about the side effect of this announcement this information regardless of how it came out that it's been leaked out essentially you know the interesting thing about that coming out I thought on the triple drain pinball podcast that Travis Murray had a really good take a take I agreed with which is why I think it's really good of course that yeah obviously so about like because some people I saw initially when this came out they're like well Joe did this to hurt jjp it's like but that's not how this works like if people are now pulling money out of buying pinball in order to save for Harry Potter that doesn't just hurt Godfather sales it hurts everyone and it hurts Stern the most it does hurt Stern yeah because Stern has the biggest market share there are plenty of people that aren't like just quote unquote jjp Fanboys that only buy jjp games there were people that could have been very well like saying I was gonna order of Foo Fighters but I want Harry Potter Harry Potter's dream theme this money's off the table now because not only do I now believe that it's definitely going to happen it's going to be jjp so you know it's going to be expensive or it's a perception thing too like it's a brand perception thing too I thought stern was the king like what happened there um and I thought Joe Kamika was the one that gets everything nobody can defeat a camping cow when it comes to licensing yeah I mean and I could see where where Joe might obviously that's going to affect maybe you know that's where Egos and personal perception and and what the public thinks I don't know how much of the pinball collector Community really knows much about who goes for what licenses I will say jjp does have a track record of having good licenses it's not like uh I mean again we've heard for years that they had Toy Story the whole negative reaction was that when we found out they ended up doing Toy Story 4. it was like Toy Story is a legendary big deal really big deal especially working with Disney and Pixar yes absolutely but they have slipped lately Toy Story 4 decisions made there are interesting god well and we could see we could see interesting decisions made quote unquote what we would as collectors call mistakes with Harry Potter we just don't know yet that's what I'm that's what I'm wondering I'm wondering Dennis when it comes to this license and jjp potentially having it might there be a reason why Stern didn't lock it in uh uh if Stern had like write a first refusal I can't think of a good reason not to get Harry Potter I I just can't I I I can't think of it what would you like do you have one in mind that you could uh things that come to my mind are no asset such as Pirates of the Caribbean that Jersey Jack did yeah that didn't stop Stern from doing Jurassic Park so I don't buy that one pricing pricing is a better one but again they did the million dollar license beetles and if it's a chemical range thing my assumption was going to be it's going to be a kapow collaboration that means no pro model and an SLE model uh so there's plenty of opportunity to gouge up that pricing yeah and again we never heard historically like the problem with getting Harry Potter was Harry Potter licensing is really expensive we see Harry Potter with other things like slot machines and stuff all the time uh what about philosophy of Brandt political stances that that's a good and that's an interesting one I I should have actually I was thinking about this the other day and then today I for some reason wasn't um it depends uh I would think if anybody said we don't give a [ __ ] about politics and business it would be Stern but I know I mean has posted a lot of things that sometimes can be interpreted as very political yes I mean here's the I mean so I'm of two minds of it one is this is the company and still and I just I've been in the hobby so long so I know this is a while ago but it's the company that released well Nelly uh and so part of me is like are they really that that sensitive to to let's say uh Progressive concerns yeah I'm gonna stop you there I think their presentation in the last two years is significantly and drastically different than how they present themselves as a company back in whoa Nelly time I agree uh that said however there was recently a Warner Brothers endorsed Harry Potter video game and online there were a lot there was a lot of pushback because of JK Rowling's political views a lot of calls for the game to be boycotted uh things of that nature and that game has done incredibly well financially I have not played the game but the game is done incredibly well financially looking at that I would think Stern would say whatever controversy there is around JK Rowling it's not enough to actually impact the sales what about if it was the assets to the new Max streaming series of Harry Potter and not the films itself and that kind of gets back to your your first point about like no assets like so the discussion of different assets and I just again because of other games that they've done like Deadpool being based on the comic uh Harry Potter Harry Potter I would imagine yeah if you remember when Jack danger was doing the free marketing advice on Facebook of hey could you guys get behind the novel uh Harry Potter remember like that was just by happenstance him being curious well and that's the thing like I would I would have assumed that if for some reason it's too hard to say what's the the big barrier with the movies would probably be like actor licenses if they have individual control that's where because it gets complicated I would assume if Harry Potter can be licensed they could at least do are inspired or based off of the books and I think that's still a green light because the books were just amazed I haven't read them but a lot of people do yes I think they would too but if it was the max series I don't know I I'm playing devil's advocate here there are some you've raised some good hypotheticals I just just ultimately I still like if I were to if you were telling me pick between all these options you've listed out or picked between the Grapevine option of that they just didn't get the bid in I'd still pick the bid okay I just it's it's such a this license is a cash printing machine it's the same reason why when we've heard again we don't know it's true or not but all the reports are you can't do anything with the movie assets with jaws and people still want it they just want the ball to be the shark what if they put their bid in but they were outbid by about bid by Warner Brothers or and or JK Rowling just liking the the portfolio of a Georgia Jack product sure I think that's reasonable especially if there is a let's say that again we never saw like we never read an official conference I never did but let's say that JK what I don't what we'd always heard was she didn't like pinball not that she hates the game of pinball but that pinball is something that children like to play but then it shows up in bars so let's run with that that's a good that's a good theory let's say Stern got their bid in jjp gets their bid in and jjp goes hey by the way look at our pricing model we've abandoned our standard edition games we don't Target operators these are for homes still pushing barcades like no other right now Stern with The Insider connected and their whole production model even though they've gone more and more homeowner Stern is all about trying to get those pinball machines on Route wherever they can and that has become mostly bars at this point and Georgetown Arkansas a lot of family friendly like you know sure so here's what we're doing Wizard of Oz look at this trailer we did with the little girl and the excitement when she did good on twice story this is what Jersey Jersey Jack is a home owners experience and then and then they they point and they say look at how affordable you can make money at a dollar a game on a Stern you can't do that with a jjp Stearns are about bars as we discuss all this it's always good for the listener at the end of the day I I don't know what happened but I think Jersey Jack pinball has a license I think they have probably I don't know about full assets but they have the film assets I think it's going to be based around the film and I think that's what it's all going to be about and probably enough so to be even more so than the Wizarding World of like a Jurassic Park by Stern uh I think they probably are going to get music I think they're going to get pretty much everything how to execute it that's what I'm worried about because I worry that I just [ __ ] love Stern games and I worry that if I'm if I'm jjp I know this has been discussed by other people by forums and such but I'm honestly going to agree and say that I in in Jersey Jack's position if I had this license I would push Warner Brothers and JK team to milk this damn thing for multiple product releases I really would a minimum of three and my idea Dennis would be the following make them different because jjp they don't build games fast fast so you could spread this out to where consumers potential consumers would want to purchase multiple products as part of a set if the games are different so you release the first one covering the first film or the first two films the second one the middle range of this franchise and then the last one being the whole you know those we don't speak of battle at the end in the Deathly Hallows and all three games being different but being able to access certain portions of the game if you achieve certain things throughout the three different uh three different products thus maybe a wizard mode that you can only reach if you've reached the wizard mode of the other two or other three games boy oh boy wouldn't a new connectivity launch from Jersey Jack pinball be huge using this as your launching pad the Harry Potter theme and license yeah I I mean I see the potential for it but I I this is getting a multi-color Wonka ball territory I just I know I don't I just I think that's way beyond their capabilities um I would that would sound I would juice this thing and I well I see the idea and I don't think it's a bad strategy to say try and do a Trilogy uh especially given the breadth of the content I expect there to be just one game I think this is wishful thinking I think there's a lot of gambling that that uh not gambling in the uh JK Rowling fear constructs all right no she that's the bar so she didn't have a problem uh the but I mean because I I mean I've seen some people you know true Potter heads are like I want there to be seven games which is just ridiculous uh and then there's that's two Potter head and yeah and I see you know okay the idea of three but uh some I mean there are some risks with that I get it because it's like well this is such a hot theme there's two things going for Harry Potter it's such a hot theme and it's never been done before like Star Wars is a hotter theme but we've had multiple Star Wars pins and but I think you really need to have multiple versions to quote unquote maximize the The Profit that's true that's true because you also run risks like okay well Jerry let's say uh let's say jjp becomes the Harry Potter company for the next three years because they're making three games one a year so now you've written off everyone who's not into that theme their price point assuming they don't make some dramatic shifts like bringing back a standard which I again I've heard speculation about I don't think they do that in fact I think these prices go up because they know that the license is going to move units I just think it's a long time to stick with just one theme and what happens if the first game is not seen as very good you could try and point and say well we got different designers and different coders on the next ones coming but have you burned too many bridges and the number of whales that are going to be in the position to drop 45 000 to have all three of them is not significant enough versus the fact that they can go well yeah that's great but you know we go ahead and we do uh you know something else like uh Goonies we could sell out of CES as well so why why stick with just Harry Potter and run uh you know their suspense with the second game came out people will be like well I can't buy that one because I don't have the first one so yeah that's kind of weird it's just really interesting idea my so guess will be this will be one game it will be based off of multiple films I don't know if it'll be based off of all of them did you want to speculate on who's going to do it yeah let's do let's do all of that because some standard body or wide button um standard I hope so yeah I think I think they're done with wide bodies I know they talk up that they could go back to it and that's true but I just don't think they will a lot of uh other podcasters and and speculators in the hobby have said that like you were kind of insinuating the price is going to shoot up rocket is I guess it depends what you think about rocketing but yeah I'll I'll go ahead I'll I'll I'm willing to put out a prediction and I'll say I no standard edition just like there haven't been for the last week I think they're done with that okay again that feeds into that strategy as well if they were telling hey you know our games don't show up in bars you can't be offering a sub ten thousand dollar iteration um I think Ellie's go up to 15 and CES go up to 20 at least so both see an increase yes I am going to disagree uh-huh gaspi sounds I'm with you I I see no need to do a standard they'll stick within a two two-tier model and I think ultimately pricing the the correct answer objectively is pricing is going to come down to the market at the time of release ultimately that's what's going to happen these are bombs high enough where they're making a profit as to what they price these things at it's it's going to come probably like within two months of them launching a product does that sound weird listener it's true it's true yeah but what's going to be a big difference between if this game comes out in a year and this game comes out in three years because if the market is for some reason super hot okay they might go up but if the market continues to kind of soften even more so I can see them actually reducing the price I can see it but to get to get into more households because who's let's not joke ourselves they're not making five thousand of it well they just make closer 500 GNR if not all of them so I can see that but uh I can see the CE going up absolutely they're going to push on that they're going to get that thing up to us as much as that CE that's what they're going to do going forward in any company going forward they're going to juice that CE for whatever they can but for the other model I think they're kind of seeing Godfather sitting and Toy Story 4 sitting and GNR setting I don't know if they can't pull the trigger on a 12th well no I and this is where I'm gonna again okay yeah you're right if the market changes enough I think what your prediction is would actually be valid that's a big turn off for people I'm drawing I'm drawing a lion in the sand and what I think is going to happen here's here's how here's why I think it's going to be the way I'm saying it is I think they realize that they misread that the market was not going to continue to go to the moon at the end of the pandemic and they raised their prices too much however it looks too bad to lower them back down so what I think they're doing is they're going to try as hard as possible to hold the current pricing until Harry Potter and then they'll say well we need to do an inflation adjustment at this point with the fact that they should never have gone to 12 and 15 it was way too high they misread what the market was going to do they thought everything was going to be like GNR and it's just not so you don't think this is coming out next by Steve Ritchie No in fact I think uh I think they give this game to mark seiden whoa whoa the Metroid the Metroid pinball guy oh the new guy absolutely what better what better license it's going to Sprint money no matter what okay that's what you're not going to go in let him build his confidence he's gonna have a it's gonna be a successful game he's gonna feel great about himself yes he's going to be able to bring his idea because here's what's going to happen look I know everyone doing that I think like triple Jane everyone said Eric Eric and then they're probably some people like who want to see uh Richie doing it's like you know what you're people think they know what you're gonna get when you get either of them you bring in the new guy get blown away by his new ideas and it's gonna be a winner no matter what builds up confidence in your in your new designer I think it's a smart move do it do it what about Professor Lawler's name coming out of her he's never coming back no no he might want to oh he's never coming discussing Poseidon's a nice dude but what do you think ukulele don't think that that siding would be who they decide no [ __ ] way are you and Mark Harry Potter wow Dennis have you been dropped on your head as a baby to come up with that idea no it's a great really strong argument it is but at the end of the day it's passion squirts say no [ __ ] way what no way even mark seiden would say hail not touching that what no Mark's saying give me uh give me a hot title doesn't like this is a hot title this is smoking hot I didn't see the argument for theme's sake but there are a couple themes that no it goes above most games don't sell off the designer they sell off the theme let him he's a peacock who comes and fly let him fly I don't think he won Mark I don't think you're listening but if you listen I believe in you you can fly you can do this don't let these guys don't let these naysayers put you down I don't think uh Steve Ritchie is would do it either I don't I don't think they would what about that someone posted a meme where Steve Ritchie was like in Wizard robes I saw that I think Steve Ritchie would do it but I think timing wise if I'm guessing I would say we get a Steve Ritchie at the end of the year it's not Harry Potter what'd you think about maybe you hadn't seen this rumor it was amongst all the rumors because all the rumors are there they're all the rumors are rumoring and the Rumor was Steve Ritchie is a Potter fan and he was promised Potter if he would jump ship to jjp and after what happened to him with Led Zeppelin that's what he did I'm I'm saying no to that because I think it's wrong in multiple areas you're gonna see what everyone else says you're gonna say Eric I think Eric Minyard for timing because they're gonna want Harry Potter to get out here they have Mark seiden I think I would guess after Steve Ritchie and probably to your argument of probably a really good title that sells itself and we give it to sidon I can I'll get behind that uh but then I agree with you that that Richie's next and Richie is not uh Harry Potter but and I think it's Mark after that Designer Mark is new I'm talking about a new jjp designer have they hired anyone what about a veteran designer from a different company that comes over to jjp now look what are you saying Steve Ritchie is not a spring chicken yeah but you just said bring a veteran designer over to J like they have three designers right now they have plenty of designers they don't need any more how long do you think Steve Ritchie is at jjp I think probably five years or less which equates to one to two titles or less yeah but they only put out one to two titles a year uh 12 month cyclist plenty of time for a designer in today's era for whatever reason I think Steve Ritchie has two games tops at jjp if not just one I think that fits with my timeline of five years or less don't forget he's been there a year and a half already I'm saying that when Steve Ritchie leaves they're gonna have more than two designers if they bring in the replacement before he leaves or not they wouldn't have to I mean Eric's got a lot of experience at this point they don't need like Steve to train up the Newbie but they're trying to pump out two a year I understand that you think that anyone will you ever worked at Eric can maintain that pace while they train up the third person between the two of them honestly the person probably goes under Eric because Eric's got a lot more experience bored whatever leave Stern he's just so in it uh he'll retire there he'll like I don't I don't think they take a Stern designer is that what you're suggesting a Stern design I wonder if they've ever pushed first turn designer Steve yeah I know that's what I'm saying like I wonder if they you know I wonder if he's the only one um I mean maybe they've had discussion it's just like if you're getting a share of game sales and stuff it's like like Stern's up just a better place because that's like no no I I don't really think any of the stern designers I well there's no spooky designer say what no Chicago games no no you don't need to you don't need a question we got the the whistling bird in the mine cart they could bring balser back oh hello maybe Steve says hey Mark had a lot of fun doing Pulp Fiction you want to bring my brother over but how long does he last he's been very happy over at play mechanics sure um other than that nordman's not going over there why not no why not I think jjp gets it by now no no why not because man gtf is why the last five years ten years of his career is why like but no with phone number is House of Horrors is a very successful popular game so it's so much so that they don't like making it and we just never see a Stern thing because they just don't like rotating toys I don't know that's why all those carousels on Batman 66 break they don't like those either I think we see Harry Potter in 2024 late or summer 2025. yeah I think 2024 I think it's next year wow would be perfect perfect timing for Mark to release it do it to wrap it all up here nap arcade posting his article on Facebook and who chimed in oh yeah Dennis Nordman know the uh the passion squirt oh Joe Cam and cow he comments like he starts commenting on people like oh yeah you're not a fan of me huh like he's not only was he bold enough to make this post but days after it was like it was a drunk post well he's been on a bender for a while then because he's still shooting off squirts of passion here and there he responds to nap arcade talking about uh you know whether this is true or not and said you're right on all accounts or are you do you think you know the story one day I'll do a fireside chat with Rob Burke and as Paul Harvey says and now you know the rest of the story it's fun to speculate but only I know the key to why a Harry Potter game will ever be made by someone stay tuned and then he goes on to post after other people of like saying oh it's unprofessional he'll post is it that's funny he's just he's all in man well you know in a way I I kind of get it I mean it's not like any of any of us like any pinball tires or anything like we don't like he doesn't work for us he can kind of do what he wants he's not it's like he's not with any of these companies if he's like a freelance licensed person it's interesting to do the unprofessional claim um I get it I get where people are coming from because it feels like he's undermining all the businesses that he works with but I mean I guess we find out whether or not they want to work with him anymore or you know honestly though from his perspective I'm assuming it's he doesn't really need the pinball side at all he's doing pretty good I think he's what we've what we've termed in the past an episode here at the pinball show he's got that bpe man that big pinball energy and he doesn't give a [ __ ] but you know it gets interesting I'm going to use a little little story time with me because uh uh oh well you know like one of my least favorite things is having an accusation of unprofessionalism especially if I think it's inaccurate which if it applies to me I think it's inaccurate so uh and this was it you know professionally uh we had something you know is there some there's some health things that were going on uh and I went I was I I didn't I shouldn't say I went to the media I was getting media calls a lot at this point because they were this was in the pandemic and there are lots of updates people wanted and in one of them I I criticized one of the uh one of the advisory teams that I was put on it was it was as big as like 30 people and call any individuals out that I said we were moving too slow and you know we should have had we should have been done by now we should have had our recommendations out and one of the organizers of that group got very upset with me and and said that she felt that I should have gone to them and talked about it internally rather than being unprofessional and talking to the media about it which did not go over well with me and let's say what I said I don't even remember what I said in my 10 minute rant back but it was probably worse than what chemical posted uh the thing was though that this person who was speaking to me who came from a different perspective I think you know from a nursing background okay and I came from a public administration background is we have a professional obligation to share things with the public it's actually part of the code of ethics and nurses obviously come from a different environment where privacy sort of Reigns Supreme and there are rules about that so sometimes you know we just have different views of what is and isn't professional yeah I don't know about this I was I was a little surprised with these posts personally because I'm just kind of like I'm not seeing like the there's not a public need to know any of this stuff as much as I criticize pinball for in my mind being in the Dark Ages with this whole let's keep all the licenses secret until we reveal the game like a big surprise and I'm like I get the arguments you know I've heard like the Josh Sharpe arguments about you want to maximize what's on the line currently but the more and more this goes to homeowners this is like video games and people buy the license and in video games you find out about games years ahead of time and it's not a big deal yeah and if I'm in this situation of Joe Cam and Cal and I want to be known for being one of those large figureheads in an entire industry regarding especially licensing and I didn't get I'm not affiliated with one of the the most sought after licenses in an industry this is probably what I would do to stay relevant [Music] I didn't see anywhere and maybe he did because I didn't follow all these Facebook groups some people sent me some screenshots but did he anywhere like say this didn't happen because someone at Stern dropped the ball no publicly because I didn't see that this is just this is just this is coming and I've I you know I've heard all sorts of theories from the he thought you know that this would sabotage Godfather sales too he didn't want uh podcasters to be able to milk this as a as a rumor and report and so he's just like I'm just ending it this there's no reason to draw it out I think he's just using us podcasters as the stepchildren we're pawns slapping us around you're you're projecting stop Joe stop ouch who pinches you're a grown man okay that's Harry Potter pinball we'll uh you know what Dennis uh for whatever it's worth I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on it at a show and playing it that's a beautiful fence you've built oh no and I wish all the best for all the companies that's right yeah there's the other one there's this one I want you I just hope it's successful so look I hope you have lots of success I'm rooting for them I said this well I haven't said this in a while I've said this before I don't I never really got a lot of pushback because I think people understood where I was coming from but I actually don't root for companies I I don't and I don't mean again I don't mean anything yeah like if they were like if they were to hire me I would I would care but I don't work for them so their success or failure is irrelevant from my perspective I want there to be good games and if there were no more pinball companies we could still have a hobby and we would just celebrate old games so that's how I see it I'm not wanting anyone to lose their job or anything but it's just like when I guess uh it's one of those things when you think about a little bit it's like gosh don't you but don't you really hope that bond does well for Sterns I don't care I don't want it to work or not work it's it's I'm neutral to it I'm neutral I'm neutral I'm neutral to the success of of uh Foo Fighters and I'm neutral to the success of Godfather and I think one plays better than the other and I think both are good games but I'm not like not really like it's not a sports team I'm not rooting for it that's why people put you on a pedestal in this house I don't think they put me on a pedestal they do I was cracking up this last was the last couple weeks I was reviewing some Canadian stuff and he was he was [ __ ] on me for something about sponsoring shows and that's bad now or something because of my company sponsoring shows well like Expo and stuff or no like the uh like different podcasts which I'm saying you know oh they're in the they're in the back pocket of [ __ ] boss all this stuff like you know he's a [ __ ] marketer but doesn't understand sponsor whatever um I call it being smart in business but it cracks me up because then he said a couple times now I think he realizes he's saying it I'm like dude you you can't like that's not part of your narrative he's like yeah and I wasn't gonna [ __ ] on punny Factory or pinball Adventures because the owner was part of my patreon club so I was holding off but now that he's not now I can [ __ ] on him like dude what like pushing me is biased but then nobody sees that all right oh nice when you sit on it because he's not paying you like that's the definition of bias but let's talk about pin Slash no bias in there Godzilla Edition there was potential bias for me and I should say that living out pinball was a premier sponsor and supporter of IE Pinball's ping Slash and proudly so uh-huh so you better not say anything mean about pin Slash no I would say things mean because I me Zach as an Enthusiast is different than my company flipping out pinball does it get murky yes does it get me in trouble sure but it is if pink flash sucked I'd be like yeah sorry Carl I think [ __ ] blow it's it's nice that's back where earlier in the episode where I was talking about how you know the line in the middle of the road and for me it's like you just want to in my you know my Approach is always to spend I just want to be honest I'm not I don't want to be mean to any entity but I'll say the things I like and the things I don't I don't feel like I need it to be balanced like if there's one thing I like and 12 things I doubt then there's you know I don't like it and that's how it is but it's not personal and that's where you know I think it's important to not like go around and say oh look they dropped the ball on the Harry Potter license let's start let's start calling out names on shows and saying they should be fired and stuff like that that's not that's that's where you're like yeah controlling for clicks and stuff so that's like oh I call it shitty human being it's I think it's unhealthy for the hobby but it's also unhealthy for the hobby to be like but I I hope you do really well with your turd monster hey I'm rooting for when I don't mean it when I don't mean it I can't root for a company that's stealing Mac in me but here let that go Mac needs all the exposure that's probably a positive all right but anyway we're talking about pin Slash we're not talking about math another very successful rendition of pen Slash uh did you watch any of it no I watched some of it well you're sponsored you had to you know didn't have to but I watched some of it and uh for competitive Pinball it's enjoyable I like I like the format conceptually as a it does work better as a viewing experience but I just don't generally watch competitive actually played in my first tournament this year yesterday whoa how'd you do I have been really bad I I don't know how I ended I mean I won my money back so I guess I did okay and that is about the extent listeners as to how interesting competitive pinball is on podcast right there oh I just honestly I was like if you didn't win I really don't give a [ __ ] I did no yeah yeah I won five I won my five dollars back that's there you go you need to know this was it was it is uh it's very professionally done I love the tutorials prior to the different tasks because I I'm not a big fan of this whole uh going head-to-head time based I don't like that uh but you know to each their own I'm not probably the Target demographic here um so see that's negative about ping Slash uh zmac Zach McCarthy edged out Escher Lefkoff to win this thing and spoiler alert it if you haven't watched it now that's your own damn fault in um so the the Young Guns yet again zmac edging out I'm sure and then shout out to our friend Ray day who finished third place congratulations to all three of them I feel bad for rated because why he was so young he didn't even drink but he's old now he wasn't even old enough to drink I don't even know if he could sign up to the military when we first met him how many is he old enough to drink yet but now they won't even take me and now he feels he feels like he's in the awkward teen face and these babies are out here just winning over uh winning over the field hang in there Ray day I'm still rooting for you some great tpn that is the pinball Network representation as well [Music] don't don't be like us we'll keep your back healthy we're an AARP welcome welcome my friend send me on the card yes let's sign him up early well it's like it's like professional sports man once you hit like 25 it's like you old you need to retire it's like unless you're a quarterback you done that's right yep it's not like you're a thoroughbred we're not going to take you out back and shoot you but hey we're gonna you're gonna be a stud here in a minute uh some great TP and representation as well on pin Slash Godzilla Edition this year madman Robert Byers finishing 16th Place I think he's still part of tpn hottie hottie hottie coming in in 17th Place Mr Silver bowler himself Mike finishing 19th and the Stephanie I just call her the Stephanie because that's Stephanie Trump finishing 22nd wow I didn't realize there were that many in in the plan Slash well you know what we are the network that's true well we are a network I think there are multiple networks what in multiple networks [ __ ] tenant what is this Inception I haven't seen I haven't seen tenant don't spoil it you know what I haven't either and it's a bad Christopher Nolan fan of me I have not seen it yet my son kept pushing and he pushed it so hard that I was like you know what else I've done that before kind of turned me off I don't really want to watch it now and I heard because you've bitched about the audio being you can't hear it the audio mix was really bad with inception for the theater I heard 10 it was even worse so really yes I don't know someone in editing needs is messing it up because the odd like it like it's not that the music and and sound effects are bad it's the balance get Jason from pinball party yay on it to fix it the cinema audio video nerd in me like I research there's actually fixes that different production companies are instilling in streaming services to fix this and manufacturers of TVs they're different settings called like fixing [ __ ] dumb Cinema imbalances settings where they'll boost up uh focal levels and dialogue levels so that they balance out better but yeah that's their streaming services and manufacturers that are trying to correct that now because for example my living room I can't watch a film I cannot watch a film unless I'm pressing up and pressing down on volume up and down between effects and all because I I can I'm getting old ready it's not just you but I'm getting old where I can't hear the dialogue I can't make out what they're saying it doesn't matter really how loud I put I just I don't know if it's the Acoustics in my you know in my living room but I can't [ __ ] hear it and then it's the the mind my problem is my old eyes Zach and some of these films when they activate the HDR mode if it's in dark environments I can't see anything it's like all black see I'm visually I'm like I'm like an eagle like a whole I've been I've been messing with the set well it's a settings thing because the HDR is like okay in certain things but it's I'm usually okay with audio unless the now you go on YouTube sometimes you know you know how it is you'll find some channels some upstarts or whatever and they they don't know sound mixing yet and they it's really bad like they put in the music and it's just it's over the vocals and there's nothing you can do to fix it you can turn it up to hear the vocals and the music will hurt your ears it's just I can't and I'm not getting out an equalizer and and fixing it that way so we're the pro at a lot of things one of them you know is pinball the other Maybe audio video and stuff maybe the other is other gaming devices like yourself with EGP but we're also master debaters I had to take away that way yeah I I see that and what you know an episode or two ago is what people are look I didn't give it this title but people are talking they're calling it The Great reproduction debate Dennis they're they're talking about you and I's back and forth regarding cgcle versus the original and what real collectors yes and uh but people are quite split on this they were they really were we did get an email that I found interesting from a Mark he said hey guys first up love your show now Zach an original he didn't put a sign there I'm just doing it for effect but he said an original is and always will be preferred option for a collector it has nothing to do with incandescent lights or rules you [ __ ] he didn't say you [ __ ] again for emphasizing for effect here fact is it is a copy remake is just a nicer word for people who cannot get the real thing whoa Mark easy here bud so I'm already pissed off at this so-called [ __ ] Mark guy he says I'm talking about original and mint condition of course oh oh how convenient now Mark he goes on to say I had an mm listener it's probably Medieval Madness and virtually out of the box condition of course I'd put in LEDs and mods that does not make it not original no okay arguments can be made he goes on to say at the time I sold my mm for 16 500. and my friend sold his remake for just under ten thousand the guy who bought mine saw the Remake ad advertisement as well and said he would never have that his word imitation in his house who always says numbers don't lie question mark oh what a [ __ ] [ __ ] Mark cheers guys Mark and he says he's from like France or something like that which makes the whole pricing thing irrelevant I don't understand anymore okay Mark if that's your real name who's first off who spells their name Mark with a c rather than a k but I digress nothing that you've said here really made much sense or furthered your position or point of view and may I just say that your snarkiness in here is picked up on and not appreciated [Music] because yes what is this guy getting on it was missed I just found this very pretentious and I loved it at the same time no I I thought it was I thought it was funny um no we and we had someone they mentioned on pinside we had a discussion on our patreon discourse Discord was hard on this thing yeah well uh because you know I got myself in a little bit of verbal trouble because I used the word real a phrase real collector that's right in in my well now in my defense Zack the sole reason I used that term and then didn't Define it was because as I knew who would piss you off so so that was bait that was meat that was red meat and listeners I'm sure most of you even if you disagreed with what I was saying I think most of you sympathize and understand that I needed that right I needed I need to do that from time to time you just you gotta push Zach has got buttons like we all do that trigger him and one of his triggers is the notion that he is not at the upper echelon of the hardest core of collecting in pinball so that's why I use the phrase real quick tickled the button he didn't have to push it yes well whereas and what I was getting at though was kind of what Mark and his email was getting at which is you know when you think of a collector and there are different ways you can do it and there are different ways of collecting and as I even noted in that episode I personally in my pinball collection would rather have the remakes for a lot of the reasons you listed Zach the when it comes to like collecting of the historic artifacts uh or whatnot we usually think in terms of uh originality yes and so now for some people they don't think that that's applicable in pinball the same way it would be with I think someone on pin side use the example of baseball cards or coin collecting or whatever because they said that you play them and I agree yes and I agree with that as well but our whole discussion which I think a lot of our listeners on both sides of it lost sight of was we were talking about in the whole the whole context was why didn't the classic editions do well for fathom and all the cgc games versus all the all the you know enhanced screens and stuff that's because if you're willing to consider a remake and I was describing that as you weren't after the quote unquote real collector or I should have said the original collector mindset why wouldn't you get all the bling and stuff in the remake because the classic is still just a copy so if you're like I want it to be as original as possible if you're a collector of originality then you just want the original in the first place that was what I was trying to say while also goading you i i rate my I rate my uh performance on that at 70 I still think I did pretty well my my only blunder in my view was saying real collector and not original collector as the phrase yeah but then you did that for on purpose and it worked I did so but retrospect I think I would have won more listeners to my side had I said original and I think I still could have pissed you off yeah but I'm not sure I have to think on that but not too much because I I honestly I'm kind of I'm kind of done with this discussion yeah so am I uh because I think we wrote it as far as it can be written very true Dennis so much so that in Discord even after they were all going back and forth and it was good I was I was chomping some meme popcorn but then I was like honestly I think I'm just gonna side with Dennis now because I'm tired of talking about everything yeah but no one believes that you really sided with me because you you're like uh the Galaxy Quest people never give up never surrender Snape he's in that movie too by grab Thor's hammer what a savings sorry Hans Gruber do you think Hans gruber's gonna be in uh Harry Potter does he gets his likeness even if he's passed no but who's going to do the Die Hard pinball machine we should have gotten in the 80s so even [ __ ] bring up Christmas I I don't have the time today to be the perfect December release uh you know what talking about collectors and whose Wii U collectors or not I have to be a real collector Dennis because if I wasn't there's no way that I could create a new segment that I'm calling Collector's Corner and you can hear that exclusively on patreon yeah I was gonna say I can hear the hear the song Too Collector's Corner Zach's got the collection before Dennis did so if you guys sign up to the pinball show which is a patreon membership you can go to patreon.com the pinball show sign up for ten dollars you can hear this exclusive content as well as being a part of our private club membership Discord channel it's a lot of fun or you can jump up to the 25 level get even more perks including a decal a private it monthly hangout with us you can also pick a topic and stuff and other things or bump up to the hundred dollar level and get yourself a paywall polo you can come on the show you get your own nickname oh my gosh people are loving those things and you get one-on-one private behind the scenes dirty filthy industry gossip news and NDA worthy information between just yourself myself and Dennis it's private don't tell keep it but yeah if you guys want to hear Collector's Corner sign up now and then jump into Discord to discuss we also while we're talking about a dentist I'm going to give some shout outs to our screaming goat club members that help make some of this possible and that is a big thank you to the Bobcat Rodney seed tried to thank my wife so the panther thanks Rob kineticist Colin the Falcon Frankie the Shaker million Shaker Motors and David the fox she's sweet Joe the Bell oh Charlie love you and one of our newest members Jabs himself Mr Steve now the votes are in Dennis remember last episode we said we don't know or should we go with the wolf should we go with the Bumblebee or should we go with the Maestro for Steve J so we gave it to the official TPS club members to decide we put that on patreon as a poll and uh Dennis do you know the results of this I don't okay so surprise for you as well listener we do have some results and the results are a lot of votes actually we had uh the majority of our club members voted which thank you team they voted a split decision 50 50 between what the Bumblebee and the Maestro none of them voted for the wolf okay so 50 50. wow okay so we're split here did you see the clever thing that I did the last episode whenever I did play the Maestro what song I played I just fly to the Bumblebee yeah that was cool yes I thought that was nobody messaged me and I thought [ __ ] there's really a lot of work on my part if I get no recognition I'm so I'm pulling a hammock out there but uh I do have a tie breaker because I went back through and I put this in their Discord as well and I'm so neurotic that I made sure that people voting in our Discord dentist wasn't replicated like I made sure wow yes look that's I I don't like to be wrong I understand and people as a side note if I'm gonna argue something I'm right just stop what about where you gave up and agreed with me oh I guess I was a lie you're my horcrux there Dennis there was one person who did vote in Discord that did not vote on the official patreon poll and they didn't vote for the wolf so they are making a decision here without even knowing it that person was none other than Craig Bobby catch you on the flip side Flipside comes in and votes Bumblebee so uh at this point he's got two nicknamese I don't know so thank you guys for all the support as a reminder to the listeners our next TPS live Zoom hangout is going to be for those part of the pinball Show screaming go and Nordman levels on May 31st 8 P.M Central mark your calendars be there let the juice loose it's good stuff over there all right Dennis we had a lot of Harry Potter talk I wonder if any of it's going to show up in this week's oh Market Trent thank you [Music] this you probably thought two years ago the pinball market trends is just a little bit of fad and then a year ago you thought God this thing's got to die down but it's still red hot but my organ trans is still it's still in the mouths of many still in the in the ears of a lots people love the pinball market trends do you think the segment ever gets old uh yes not not subjectively but like objectively numbers don't lie we only report the facts well um I mean no I mean when anything is based off of like a market thing like that uh it would always be evolving because the Market's always evolving so no not from that context so it continues to trend oh there's still some people holding out they're like wait a minute I will not I'm holding strong five dollars all day long ten dollars you're a step child to me yeah you're not gonna do it and side note I want to thank you Dennis because you could have made my editing so much easier two weeks ago when a lot of people may or may not know that when I'm editing this show the drop-ins just bumblebay like that drop in alone takes time because you gotta find it the the different sound effect you gotta find them out there then they're not you can't just Google something and it pops up the perfect thing it takes some time to find it then you gotta clean it up a little bit and put it in there if I would have just listened to you Dennis you told me where to find that bumblebee drop but me not paying attention oh no yes this trailer it was for 45 minutes I searched sorry I just had a reasonable buff and Bumblebee interactions I I tried to search engine everything to find that little [ __ ] call that one little one second call out of Bumblebee and then I I about gave up I really about gave up and then I went back and listened to you and you were like in the in the second film trailer I'm like if that [ __ ] guy there's no way that he is right and he's referencing the trailer to the follow-up film Transformers and I went there and damned if it wasn't there and only there I could find it nowhere that was a very it was very uh informative trailer I just remember it quite well so I kicked myself in the ass I lost an hour there but yeah inside baseball here that's uh that's hey that was so trending up bumblebee training up is jjp oh they're primes jjp is training up I can't Trend up bumblebee yet until I see this latest Transformers film have you seen it yet no I have not I don't I haven't seen any in the theaters since uh the third one I think look at you support Jazz more than I do I didn't go see them jjp I gotta trained up jjp this week because they secured that Harry Potter license so come on just when I thought they failed me with uh maybe you know a lesser than theme of Godfather Toy Story 4. they totally redeem themselves unless they [ __ ] it up but I think we're good I think we're good here um I don't know what the next title is or if that will be worthy but I know Harry Potter works so I've got to give it to jjp and Jack Guarnieri uh for securing this license if it's true who knows what if when we're all saying it's about to come out and then we hear that it's going to be Godfather oh my God [Music] speaking of Godfather didn't talk about it in the bulk of the show there but I'm thinking that Godfather see we're going to start seeing those roll out the next couple weeks as well I have those not gone out no not yet okay no yeah I think Jack originally said spring so yep we're closing out on the spring here I think it's going to happen all this trending up this week is Joe Cam and cow wait a minute how can he Trend up if jjp is trending up he's the one that didn't get the license and then made the spectacle of himself on social media well look whether it's for the right reasons or not who am I to say he's still training up and like Dennis was saying is it unprofessional I don't I don't know he he's informed he's informed the people giving you more information than any manufacturer ever would yeah he got a giggle or two out of me it's all a matter of perspective a lot of times that's right he's uh he's passion squirting Here There and Everywhere and I'm not gonna be left with my mouth open that's all I can say also training up this week is the legend of Zelda tears of the Kingdom I I that's the thing I guess the whole tears of the Kingdom thing or um is it have you played this no I don't own a switch so [ __ ] here we go with that isn't it yeah you can't play Zelda on the other stuff I know it's like you can't play jjp game on a Stern cabinet I get that well it's kind of different since you don't plug a GP game into a cabinet on your my head when it comes to gaming is still cartridges PlayStation CD does not fit into the Nintendo 64 slot that's yeah right and that's still basically true do they not do the whole downloading thing they do but they're still you can go to the store and buy like a card base does it take to download a game I would think you need like servers yeah I mean some of the games are getting up to a hundred gigabytes at this point okay then what's the standard what's the standard storage on a on a PlayStation 5. you know I don't know what they're they I think the different skus come with different size drives but um let's say around a terabyte so 10 gigabytes so not much I mean no no no no it's yeah it's yeah like with my next books I think my Xbox has has half a half a terabyte so 500 gig and then I have another two terabyte external drive I have plugged into it that stores games is it like my Mac and it almost shuts itself even close to a full storage no it's not some crappy Apple product so it works easy now easy it's it actually and in full disclosure for biases I I do actually own stock in Microsoft and I do not in Apple so some of these things might be to Advantage my own Investments be careful [Laughter] I didn't even know about that about you no I only no that's a that's a recent stock purchase before people oftentimes talk about you and I being opposites you know the Abbott the costellos the the the Kirk and Spock I think that's pretty accurate we are very much in an Apple PC because I am I I never thought it was that way I thought a Mac lover like no yeah I was gonna say you're a Mac and I'm a me that's why you're the greatest legends of Zelda I think I probably would like this game um oh yeah no it looks fun yeah I just everybody's talking about it we've lost all of our pinball coders from working over the last week or two you know what all seem to be playing this the same thing happened last year with Elden rain which I also didn't play you are right the Sakura Shadows never die twice or whatever pissed me off too much I'm like I'm done with you from software and you're nonsense what is it with you every time I listen to EGP you're playing the most [ __ ] up games I'm like can you not at least make it a little bit more mainstream gameplay-wise oh I'm gonna have some good ones for the next time I played three new games and they're all weird oh it's gonna be like I've played a game that I downloaded on my phone it was a free app I'm like what yeah who plays this junk that's how play mainstream stuff the little guy needs help too they need support too no it's all about mainstream baby go big or go home Disney everything that's where I've been stuck on Ultra ended up training up this week Disney documentaries I've been watching how Disneyland was created a lot of archival video footage of Walt Disney I've been watching that I don't I've been on the Disney thing have you ever been to Disneyland I I haven't but I really really want to go I want to go to all the Disney so Tokyo Paris I want to go to [Music] that's interesting and I want to tour behind the scenes in all of it I just love theme parks and how they're engineered and how they are I just love it I'm such a nerd when it comes to that there's a whole YouTube channel about theme parks I know and like gone once have you seen defunct land yeah that's uh that's a lot of fun I just love all of it okay where am I at now oh okay I'll Trend something you're trending a lot of stuff up all right trending down this week is the 2.0 oh no and not all 2.0 systems you know it's just the ID of 2.0 to me is fantastic Dennis but here lately you know we got the Whirlwind 2.0 the fun house 2.0 even the Toten Tales of Arabian Nights two point they've all been Duds I feel like they're ruining such a great idea only people were able to do it wonderfully thus far have been haggis with fathom Revisited and Chicago gaming to some extent with the real collectors versions of the uh the Le's and the essies what I'm saying is I haven't lost hope but some of y'all are harsh in my mellow chilling my buzz man on some of this 2.0 stuff we'll mess up my Whirlwind [ __ ] off Suey you're still macking me we got issues don't get me started with punny prison holding captive Don Knotts and now talks of other pinball companies coming out I don't know kind of tired of anything coming out new pinball this just feels like half-assed pinball we should call this 0.5 Temple I'm all four new companies and new products that are badass some of this stuff doesn't take a psychologist that can read people to know or a marketing Guru to realize that they're half-baked ideas they're not great ideas and I've always said it if you're going to take Precious time out of your life to do something damn it do it great or don't do it at all so trending down this week is Whirlwind 2.0 also trending down this week is Pinball 2.000 it's pinball 2000. have you seen the prices on Star Wars episode 1 and Revenge from Mars more specifically sw1 the prices are falling out on these games you can get them for like the upper 2000s this is a fully functional pretty badass pinball platform pinball 2000 it's Antiquated sure looks dated I get it but it's still very much everything pinball and pretty damn good layouts on both of those games pricing is dropping on the pinball 2000 platform right now in the secondary market like I said Star Wars Episode 1 which in my opinion is hated on more than it deserves I'll take that game alone more than I would some newer titles but yeah you can get that in the upper twos right now even Revenge from Mars in the threes lower threes wow it's summertime so your ice cream scoop is softening in general but it's melting quick on this one all it's trending down this week a bit is jjp I I know the company's training up but the Guns and Roses right now turning down a little bit a lot on the secondary Market we bring up GNR a lot here on PMT but right now there's a GNR Le that's sitting in the low Eights on the market just sitting CES you can get now easily in the 13s sitting I think one of the most interesting stories in the next two to three years is going to be the story of Jersey Jack fennel what they bring to Market how they present it to the world and how and if their products and games evolve in this industry it's going to be awesome to be a part of and this week's still the week bye bye bye Save A Buck or two there's a Star Wars premiums probably sold by now but it's in Memphis seven thousand dollars on pinsides got 20 plays it's a brand new Star Wars premium seven thousand dollars ridiculous if shipping wasn't so expensive then I would buy that and resell it damn seven thousand dollars it's one of the Stern's greatest games ever made and you know what I Gotta Give I'm not gonna do a training down but Ron Hallett [Music] the it seems like we're talking more and more about slam tilt each and every week and then they talk about us so you know we're cozying up with those those fellas over there Ron Howard I thought I thought he and I were close I thought we were what the kids call brass but he said something this last episode that turned me a little sour Dennis we know that he loves Star Wars It's the stern game he always has to defend it to usually wrong Bruce and he does that so well but this last week he [ __ ] on Star Wars premium he said the pro is the better the better model and basically the premium was [ __ ] and he lost me there I I loved him before that and then he just lost me because Star Wars premium is worthy of owning whereas Star Wars Pro no I'm not saying it's not worthy of owning it's just you're missing out on one of the greatest mechanisms and payoffs and pinball history that cracks open reviews it's not even really that toy it's the mechanism of the hyperloop it's the hyperloop I know you're a hyperloop feel the sound of the materials the the effects and the payoff of hitting it with time you know collapsing on you it's pinball Perfection and you can't [ __ ] on Star Wars premium without me saying something but that's a deal of the week another deal of the week this week courtesy of Flipping Out pinball is a Godfather oh The Godfather Ellie came in used there's not that many plays on it I think I had it marked all the way down from for 12 000 news marked down to 10 700 or something like that courtesy of deals of the week we're gonna knock that thing down all the way to 99.99 I'll be you got it you got it but the only way you get that is that you have to say it was a deals of the week on the pinball show and you don't have to be a patreon follower preferred but you don't have to be deals of the week got my Spider-Man in so no bounty on that still looking for Dolly Parton radical and Congo only minty and as always Dennis I'm just here to report the facts because numbers don't lie and neither do I apparently Ron Howlett does this is pinball market trends we're Ron where can people catch you Dennis I can always reach out to me a collectorgamerspodcast gmail.com that's the easiest way to send me a message oh that works it does I can talk to you on Discord if they follow us through our membership on patreons patreon.com the pinball show it's good Spotify discords yeah yeah no but why are you pushing Chicago emails the pinball show at gmail.com uh the pinball show Facebook we got a tick tock we get a Discord um straight down the middle go follow like And subscribe to the video series there flipping out pinball helps support this show and the product showcased this week is the stern headphone kit and Shaker Motors I have both in stock over flipping out pinball you can go to flippingoutpinball.com or email me at Zac z a c h flip the letter N Out pinball.com or you can text me 812-457-9711 the stern headphone kit Vince do you have these on your game yet no I don't play with headphones though so I never look at them someone told me that you can use it as an external uh volume control too I thought that was kind of oh that's interesting yeah yeah so uh we I haven't had these in stock for a couple of years finally got some back in stock and people do love them and they easy to install right on the coin door there a lot of people put them on all their spike games so listener if you don't have one of these maybe try one out and then if you do have one but they're not equipped on all your games get fully equipped are you fully inside her connected uh yes is it warm Jurassic Park premium still got a couple of them in stock The Godfather Ellie new Andrews James Bond Pro and premium new and used even the 60th anniversary edition new and used alien LV still on sale Jurassic Park Home Edition Star Wars home edition Oktoberfest Deluxe one left oh in the vault we still have that black knight sort of Rage limited edition vinyl y'all are gonna be left without it and be looking for one might as well Buy It Now and also recently added to the Vault was The Stranger Things replacement projector people love those got a couple of them so get them all you can Toy Story 4le new and used I got a CE still uh new Ultraman Halloweens new ready to go turtles Pro is used Mandalorian premium new and used I have Turtles premium new a couple left Star Wars Pro there you go really Star Wars Pro Led Zeppelin Pro and premiums Insider connected kits I got it baby order an escalera tune into flipping out with friends flipping out with friends I think on a Hiatus the next two weeks because Joel is on vacation or a work function maybe both I don't know what he's doing he's got a beard tpn last week TBN last week yeah we had uh episode 29 a pinball party podcast that's an episode with Rachel and KO I think Rachel shares a lot of really interesting information uh she was the the those boys gotta watch out they're gonna lose her show there that was a good one then uh episode six of pinball innovators and make podcast that was the interview with the past Aaron Davis yes yep yep love fast then we had episode 30 of silverball Chronicles that was the episode focused on Wayne nyans and his career is so long it's only the first part of it I gotta be honest didn't didn't uh load that one up yet because yeah Wayne had an interesting life I I enjoyed that episode and then uh episode 37 of triple drain pinball podcast which was the it was billed as the discussion about the Harry Potter rumor but there actually was a tremendous amount of discussion about tournament pinball at first oh yes there was that's right a lot about the European uh tournament coming up oh and lunch boxes because I guess they have lunch boxes lunch boxes no no thermos though lunch boxes they pulled a little day fixer didn't they where are those lunch boxes where are my Galactic tank forces Dennis [ __ ] have they have they got the mod yet to stop the drop or the targets from airballing I'm waiting for the mod for them just to respond back to the dealers to tell us when we're getting the games that we've paid for all right you know oh okay you have your you have your priorities and I have mine oh my gosh Come on AP we're Dennis I gotta stop saying that King cromwell's back now [ __ ] even what am I going to say instead of it you know may we say nothing we stop that you wanna should we stop that sure it hurts your brain to think up stuff anyway that's true well I could I could say what's wrong say you can have last word Dennis and I and I always remember folks believe in Mark Mark you can do it Harry Potter is yours no there's no way there's no yes I will visit this one thing jjp I've never asked anything from you and yes I've never bought any of your games but let me have this one get give it to Mark do it well and always practice safe pinball and look I get it it's tough It's hard and it may hurt but when push comes to shove try to hold in your passion squirt give them hell came a cow [Music] it didn't she you know how difficult it is to find a good pillow [Music] he's like trying so hard not to just do this like impression right now no I I don't actually the last time I needed pillows I just went on Amazon and like clicked on highly reviewed ones in order really if that works I mean that's how it worked for me I've become very particular when it comes to what would you call it pillow preferences hmm I uh I I had a great pillow and my wife stole it now ever since then I've been searching for the perfect pillow again and coming in short read the label on what she took yeah it doesn't have any labels oh you cut the label off yeah it tickles my ear now I so I've been on the search and I've gone through six pillows until I found one and last night was the first night that I slept on it a little off-gassing so that's that's probably creating cancer but I think it I think I might have a winner Maybe but I'm very picky it can't be too fluffy and then your head sinks into it you feel like you can't breathe it can't be too firm because then what are you doing you almost why don't people measure it almost has like the L in your shoulder and head they should measure that and that should like a shoe I think pillows should be measured like shoes there I said it but yeah I have to get the ones with the gel have you had the pillows with the gel yet no I've not done gel memory foam and then the gel to keep your head cool a lot of people also say a a Marc Silk sap pillow case so it didn't rip out your hairs my precious hairs I don't know I didn't know that the cotton ones were like shredding people's heads if they're you know they're not they're not as good uh linen like flax linen pillowcases I was waiting for you I use burlap I sleep on a sack of potatoes the only problem is when the the eyes start to grow out like the scare bro yes [Music] [Laughter]
Zach Manny@ 30:24 — References the surprising nature of the Harry Potter license acquisition
“when something's not good the the closest you can really get is to kind of stay in the middle or fence set as as you had expressed it and I don't think that's very healthy for the consumer”
Dennis@ 5:21 — Philosophical statement on the responsibility of pinball media critics to give honest opinions
“I I don't have the answers to why you know if you order a lot you don't get as many or if you don't order many you only get one but it looks like you ordered a lot I I don't know what the answers are”
Zach Manny@ 25:24 — Expresses frustration over arbitrary allocation logic for scarce accessories
supply_chain_signal: Dealers report inadequate communication from Stern regarding production timelines, allocation, and product availability
high · Zach Manny spending hours answering identical unanswerable customer questions; no information dispersed by Stern; pinside threads show dealer frustration
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product_launch: Stern discontinuing Rush; will receive one final production run before cessation
high · Craig Bobby reporting; hosts confirm
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rumor_hype: Two new pinball manufacturing startups teased: unknown company (keychain/sign at festivals) and Hexa Pinball from France launching 'Space'
medium · Craig Bobby reports promotional materials from Texas Pinball Festival and PinFest; Hexa Pinball announced for June 10-11 launch at French salon
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design_philosophy: Host Dennis articulates philosophy on media responsibility: avoid targeted personal criticism while still providing honest negative assessments of products to protect consumers
high · Extended monologue discussing balance between accountability and professionalism; contrasts 'striped line' approach against both trolling and empty positivity
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sentiment_shift: Whirlwind 2.0 received notably critical assessment in hosts' Patreon exclusive; multiple positive creators appeared to fence-sit in their public coverage
medium · Hosts reference detailed critique from bonus content; note that other podcasters gave muted takes despite apparently not having heard the TPS critique; suggests independent negative reactions
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business_signal: Stern's strategic deprioritization of accessories suggests company still primarily oriented toward operator/arcade market rather than home collector market
medium · Dennis theorizes Stern not comfortable with accessory business model; prioritizes machines due to higher raw profit dollars despite lower margins on toppers
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content_signal: Hosts celebrate viral success of Whirlwind 2.0 critique segment in Patreon content; describe it as improv-driven, high-energy, fun-to-create content
high · Hosts reference positive listener feedback; describe segment as 'Abbott and Costello' style riffing; note it was genuinely funny and engaging to produce