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Pinball Junk Drawer Episode 77 - Lumberjack Johnnys Round Up

Poor Man's Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·28m 10s·analyzed·Jul 18, 2025
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.026

TL;DR

Casual pinball discussion mixing game impressions, tournament recap, and brewery visits.

Summary

In this casual episode of Pinball Junk Drawer, hosts Foghorn Leghorn and Craft Brew Sally discuss their recent visits to Lumberjack Johnny's arcade, where they compared King Kong, Harry Potter, and Pulp Fiction pinball machines. They reflect on attending a women's pinball tournament at Bells and Chimes Fox City, visited breweries including Stubborn Brothers Brewing in a converted vaudeville theater, and shared personal pinball gameplay observations. The episode features their typical meandering style with brewery recommendations, snack reviews, and upcoming travel plans.

Key Claims

  • Harry Potter pinball will keep Jersey Jack afloat for a very long time unless something weird happens with the IP owner

    medium confidence · Host discussing Harry Potter's commercial viability and licensing security for JJP

  • King Kong is a smooth shooting game with a lot to do in it, preferred over Harry Potter by the host

    high confidence · Direct comparison at Lumberjack Johnny's arcade after weeks of reflection

  • Pulp Fiction is an easy-to-beat game that's quick to finish

    medium confidence · Host personal assessment based on gameplay experience

  • Rachel won her first Wisconsin women's tournament in pinball

    high confidence · Direct report of tournament result at Bells and Chimes Fox City

  • Stubborn Brothers Brewing is located in a converted vaudeville/movie theater with original 1800s architectural elements

    high confidence · Detailed description of venue renovation and features visited by hosts

Notable Quotes

  • “I would lean towards King Kong. I don't know. It's just my preference. That doesn't mean it's better or worse.”

    Foghorn Leghorn @ ~11:00 — Expresses personal game preference while acknowledging subjectivity in pinball evaluation

  • “There's like that knee-jerk reaction to defend the machine you've bought. Not Harry Potter, any machine. Any machine, yeah. You're waiting in line, you pay 10 grand. You don't need to hear somebody on the internet talking smack about it.”

    Foghorn Leghorn @ ~13:30 — Commentary on buyer psychology and defensive reactions in the pinball community

  • “I had such poor scores. It was like eight million or ten million. I was like, my ass. I put that back to five.”

    Foghorn Leghorn @ ~18:30 — Humorous self-deprecation about gameplay performance on Elvira

  • “Right in the 50. Right in the 50. Yes. When you do the dead ball style it's it always works.”

    Foghorn Leghorn @ ~25:00 — Explanation of skee-ball technique teaching moment with co-host

  • “I'm going to be like trying to watch that auction site and be like I could have had Sky Kings for $150”

    Foghorn Leghorn @ ~70:00 — Expresses regret about missing an EM pinball auction while traveling

Entities

Foghorn LeghornpersonCraft Brew SallypersonRachelpersonLumberjack Johnny'slocationBells and Chimes Fox CitylocationStubborn Brothers Brewing CompanylocationSchwanolocationKing KonggameHarry Pottergame

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Host expresses confidence in Harry Potter's long-term commercial viability for Jersey Jack Pinball, suggesting strong IP security and expected sustained sales over years

    medium · 'I know Harry Potter is going to be made for years and I know it's going to be... in our reddable cellar sure for for jersey jack... this is gonna make them this will keep them afloat for a very long time'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Host preference for King Kong over newly-released Harry Potter despite its premium status and beautiful design suggests emerging community skepticism about JJP's flagship title or at least recognition that personal gameplay preference doesn't align with marketing/collector hype

    medium · After weeks of reflection playing both machines side-by-side: 'I would lean towards King Kong... I would take Pulp Fiction as dumb as that sounds'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Host identifies lack of 'boopy doops' (musical/audio emphasis) as a factor in reduced play interest for newer machines like Harry Potter and Elton John

    low · 'I our problem with them is there's no boopy doops'

  • ?

    product_concern: Hosts note that women's pinball tournaments feature cooperative atmosphere with machine-teaching dynamics, suggesting community value in accessibility and learning-focused gameplay

    medium · 'The women, the women's tournaments are always like everybody tries to help each other... It's less goofy'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.084

0:00
Now who's responsible, I say, who's responsible for this unwarranted attack on my person? I say, I say, I say, pay attention now, boy. This is, of course, Foghorn Leghorn presents the Pinball Junk Drawer. You all asked for it, I say, you all asked for it now, you're gonna get it. Boy, oh boy, are you gonna get it. Go, I say, go away, boy, you bother me.
0:25
And just like that, we are back. A day late and a dollar short, but we're here. This is the only pinball podcast for your ears and your butt. My name's Foghorn Leghorn with me as always. Craft Brew Sally. Yes. And a little bit of before we turn on the record button, what would your alias be, Craft Brew Sally? If you were hiding from a stalker or whatnot, I think I'd do something like zap, like rock jaw. It'd be like, oh, zap rock jaw or zap, zap like, I don't know. Huh. something big mclard huge no that's that's a mystery science theater one it would imagine it would definitely be like zap and then just not rosdower that would be funny because that would be that other mystery science thing that had to be like like dirk hard peck zap zap hard peck what would your what would your uh i was thinking maybe imaging i wouldn't go with the last name i would just go with imaging with an i not an e oh wow like like prince or share yeah oh why not imaging no imaging imaging like like you're like you're a copier like what does that mean no emo gene like a lady's name oh like an emoji like i like i like i'm a poo emoji every day you can be a different emo jean yes I would just like to be the poo emoji you'd get all the mail that thing's used all the time you'd get so much mail you'd be like every kid under seven would be you'd be like here's another letter for poo emoji I don't think you thought this through correctly I didn't even go there here we are though emo jean I-M-O-G-E-N-E.
2:30
Where the hell is that from and from? I don't know. Does that mean something? Is it like a secret hidden? It is not. Well, now we've given away our aliases, so we have to think of something. We'll have better aliases. I don't know if I'll ever think of something as good as Zap Hardback. Watch out for the poo emoji. Here we come. anyway this is about pinball everyone and uh right about now you're like you're reaching for the cancel button don't do that we're back don't leave us we have a we have a trip planned tomorrow we're going down and you have managed to scout out possibly an arcade yes and two breweries well yeah no oh no kidding craft brew sally is living up to her name imogene which is which is dutch for beer drinker the um maybe that's why we've got those wooden shoes on clickety-clack clickety-clack i imogene here's your beer poo emoji no they know so wait hold on a second now you did you look did you look up the arcade or you just you like you did you check it had pinball or is it gonna be it's it looks like it's a combination of both brewery pinball and arcade no i don't know about the brewery i didn't look for that i bet it does you know the bad thing is though i hate when you're like you get your hopes up and you walk in a new arcade and then like none of the ice none of the inner uh stern connected is working oh you can't find anything you're like come on man but uh yeah what are you gotta do so it looks like it's a barcade barcade those are it's um i o arcade bar i o arcade bar all right well we'll give you okay it says chill space in a refurbished warehouse with craft beer bar snacks retro arcade games and pinball and soon to have our sticker somewhere yes which by the way if you want your own pinball junk drawer sticker send us a shoot us an email with your name and address and we'll ship it out free of charge and you'll be the envy of friends and enemies alike you're gonna show up with your enemies like hey check out my shiny sticker they'll be like i hate you but that is a pretty righteous sticker so you know not a whole lot going on we did go to lumberjack johnny's before you went to get a second time but we'll get to that later yep um I you know and I went there explicitly to like I was like I'm gonna go after some weeks and months of reflection I'm gonna go and I'm gonna play King Kong and I'm gonna play Harry Potter because they have them right next to each other yep and then they have uh Pulp Fiction right next to that one and of the three I would take Pulp Fiction as dumb as that sounds I do like King Kong I like the way King Kong shoots. I like, there's a lot to like about that, that pinball machine. Yeah. Honestly, it's a smooth shooting game. There's a lot in it. There's a lot to do in it. I can tell that. Yeah.
Pulp Fiction
game
Metallicagame
Jurassic Parkgame
Ghostbustersgame
Incredible Hulkgame
Elviragame
Sky Kinggame
Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
Stern Pinballcompany
Poor Man's Pinball Networkorganization
5:35
I would fear if I bought Pulp Fiction that I would finish it quickly. Yeah. Because I kind of have felt like I've almost finished it already and I'm like, I guarantee I haven't. But, it's a very easy to beat game, I think. But it's still funny and cool. Yeah. You know. Yes. I would play that just to hear the call outs. I know. Just to remember when I had cartilage in my knees and, you know, had hope for the future. So way back when, when that came out, I really liked it. And we were, you know, kind of new to Florida. We had just started our new adventure. When did it come out? 90, well, 95 or 96. Oh, goodness. I was still at Bob Evans. Huh. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. back when we had cartilage on our knees and hopes and dreams of the future anyway but yes but i don't know i'm not um harry potter i'm not sure about it i still am not either i i want to love it because you should love it it's your thing yes you have a lot of money invested in harry potter i do i i even have harry potter pens yeah i just can't like i play it and i get it and i guarantee like if we owned it like yeah I played a lot like I'm not disparaging this game no it just doesn like when I play it I like usually I die fairly quickly yeah you know but I haven had like the game on it you know you know and I don know if I ever will to be honest with you Because if I go I even play Metallica sometimes, and I don't particularly like Metallica. I like the band.
7:14
The game to me is kind of like real hit and miss. I'll have a really good game, but then I'll have five in a row that I don't look like I know what pinball is. And I don't need that from a game. Like, it's just, there's something about that game. It's just, I don't know, you know? But back to Harry Potter, like, I went there going, I'm going to play King Kong and Harry Potter right in a row to see, you know, where I stand on this whole subject. And I would lean towards King Kong. I don't know. It's just my preference. That doesn't mean it's better or worse. You know, like, the CE is gorgeous. It is a beautiful game. as most of the Jersey Jack pinball machines are really beautiful. They have a lot of visual appeal. The sound and lights are always top of the notch. Yeah, I mean, it's a gorgeous table.
8:09
Some of the shots just come right straight back at you. I'm not one that moves the table around. You know what I mean? Yeah, you don't do a lot of nudging. No. Did you play that at the tournament you were at? No. It wasn't part of it. No. I didn't play it either. Okay. Did a lot of people, were a lot of people playing it? Yes. And what were their impressions? I don't know. I wasn't really paying attention. Yeah, you're in the middle of something. Yeah. Because I still, it's hard to, like, as soon as a new machine comes out, it obviously, like, even if people criticize it, the people that have already bought it are in line to buy it. are kind of like say you're nuts and you don't know what you're talking about. And there's like that knee-jerk reaction to defend the machine you've bought. Not Harry Potter, any machine. Any machine, yeah. You're waiting in line, you pay 10 grand. You don't need to hear somebody on the internet talking smack about it. And that's understandable. This is something you bought, something you were looking forward to owning.
9:13
It's just I don't know how much I would play that one. I even like I like Elton John and I don't play it that much yeah I think our problem with them is there's no boopy doops yeah no I see no yeah and as dumb as that sounds I do play machines I play the Incredible Hulk every time I'm there I know shouldn't it's a terrible game but it's just a dumb there's always credits on it so I just go and you know yep don't worry folks if you're looking for an Incredible Hulk machine there's still one for sale in Appleton for 26 grand or $2,600. I have a feeling it'll be there for a while. I'm not sure I'd pay. I don't even know if I'd pay like $500 for an Incredible Hulk. That game is, I don't know. It's starting to grow on me. At first when we would go there, I'd be like, I don't really like this game. Then I had that one really good game. Yeah. I joke, I play it every time I'm there. Well, it does always have credits loaded. Yeah. So I play it. and it's not a it's not a machine i hate it's just a real floaty kind of yeah yeah you know there's nothing special about it really it has a couple interesting shots i guess but what were we talking about doesn't matter so long story short uh you know i know that i and again i know harry potter is going to be made for years and i know it's going to be it's going to be in our reddable cellar sure for for jersey jack yeah i mean this is gonna make them this will keep them afloat for a very long time you know unless the something weird happens with the with the uh the very hard to deal with ip owner uh-huh but i don't think so i think they have that at this point it's done yeah they're just gonna keep cranking them out yeah well do you think that'll get renewed again well do you think they'll get it renewed interest when that new show comes out aren't they doing another show i think they're doing like a series with children like babies when they were born i'm not sure i haven't really looked into it because i think i'm more of a the original like original trilogy star wars people yeah yeah right i did yeah i don't know yeah so enough of that nonsense nothing's been going on in our pinball world i've been playing streak is still going for me uh i i did i had two days in a row i had knocked i had put the i used to i put the machines on five ball while we when we first get them for a while yeah just to like unlock stuff and hear stuff and see stuff and then i knock it back to three ball just so you're not spending an hour playing godzilla so i i had moved the uh Elvira back to three. And like two days in a row, I had such poor scores. It was like eight million or ten million. I was like, my ass. I put that back to five. So the last two days have been back to I feel good about Elvira. I'm not ready for the... It's a different mindset when you have five balls than when you have three balls. It honestly is. It is.
12:23
It's so important to try and stack points and get points in the beginning instead of just letting the game play. So I don't know. I guess I wasn't ready for the humiliation of a terrible score on Elvira. Aw. Yeah. It's back to five. That's hard. It is hard. Like when you changed it on Godzilla, I was like, oh, damn it. Well, we can change it back. Right. Eh, whatever. So now enough of this nonsense. What have you gotten? You had an event. Yes. It was the Bells and Chimes Fox City. Nice. This time. so yes it was uh the pin pin golf pin golf yeah you like the pin golf i do like the pin golf i feel like it's more reachable for me if you know what i mean by that yeah you can have one good ball and you're in it yeah you know it's the the head-to-head thing is a little intimidating for me still i don't play that i don't play as much as i should and yeah i noticed you you don't turn these on now that you're streak ending you're like no you don't even like care about the you're like no i don't play that anymore so sad i know and i want to start my streak again but i don't know so yeah so we played i met up with rachel again this time and it's always fun to hang out with rachel poor man tribe member yes poor man's pinball network tribe member yeah um so we played a nine hole pin golf and then Rachel finally won her first Wisconsin women tournament first place That sounds hard to believe I know Because she always wins It always seems like she's in the top four. Yeah, she is. Well, congratulations, Rachel. That's awesome. So we played Jurassic Park, Metallica, Ghostbusters, 007. Ghostbusters? Ghostbusters. Do they have a Ghostbusters there? Mm-hmm. that's new there isn't it i don't know huh okay go ahead sorry uh 007 the 60th anniversary stranger things king kong black knight and deadpool all right very good so did you have any like stand out like you really had a great game on one like hole-in-ones yes i had a hole-in-one on Jurassic Park. Would not have guessed that. No. Jurassic Park's not my favorite. Yeah, I think it's like 35 million is the whole, like if you get it on your first ball.
15:03
I don't hate Jurassic Park. No. There's a lot going on there. There is. It just is a, there's a couple like layouts where I like it, but then you like go, I don't know. You know. And Rachel keeps trying to teach me all the tricks and stuff, but I'm not good at it. Oh, you're good enough. You're getting better. I know. it's just i'm not good at like doing shots when i'm told to do a shot do you know what i mean yeah so why and then what you had all in one of that did you do it really good on any of the other ones not so much okay so you didn't bring home the second place i did not bring home a trophy at all that's okay you didn't win a uh last time you won a spooky hat yeah this time you didn't win anything there were no duck races or cat races this time should be mandatory really i know right I love those things. They're so fun. Yeah, they are. But it was a nice night. It was. Yeah. They're always fun. Yeah. The women, the women's tournaments are always like everybody tries to help each other. Yeah. And, you know. It's less goofy. Yeah. So, yeah. And we did, you know, I am very thankful that we have Lumberjack Johnny's so close to us. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. What a great venue. Yeah. You know, they have skeeball there. Oh, yes. Yes. Now, here's a little fun thing. I taught Crafter Sally who is a self-proclaimed ski ball maniac my trick and she was like her head was blown her mind was blown. Mind blown. See I've done this thing like as long as I can remember I noticed that the reason that the balls don't go in down the center those really tight ones is because they're carrying spin. So I always throw the ball that it's like a skids off the side like a dead ball right towards the ramp so that like it hits it kills the momentum and then like hooks back in like so you're literally doing a dead ball when it gets to the hole and they drop in easier and because crafty saw you at first a couple of went over the other side which said i there's i've never done that before so either i was still asleep or i don't know what the hell happened but like and she's like what are you doing i was like well this is how I did it and then I showed her and she tried a couple and was like oh my god. Right in the 50. Right in the 50. Yes. When you do the dead ball style it's it always works. I think I was really used to 8 foot and these are 6 foot maybe. Maybe. I don't know. There's something different about them. They're nice though. I think they are a little shorter. Very fun. Yeah. If anybody's selling a ski bowl go ahead and reach out to us. Don't put that out there. I made that mistake and was like oh man now I look like a chump. Because somebody will have a really nice one. And you're going to be like, I don't want to pay nine grand for a skee-ball. Okay. An affordable one. Still, don't bother.
17:56
How are we going to transport it? I don't know. And we're going to be down in Madison this weekend. Yes. And Saturday, there's an auction for this. An auction popped up. And it has all these collectibles. And it's mostly nonsense and sports stuff and crap like that. But they have a pinball machine, like an old one. In Madison? no no nope in appleton oh we're gonna miss it the auction is like starts at 9 a.m and it's like a sky king one of those like ems it's an old em yeah nice shape too i was like damn it but we'll be at a brewery after the show i was like oh what was the answer that we'll be at nuclearis you know yeah whatever so what else you got pinball related anything well no but i have something craft brew relate well yeah i guess i shouldn't say craft brew related because it's not really but we were at the uh woodman's grocery store okay and they had pringles and fun flavors so we bought this can that we're going to try on the air oh i'm all logie from that arby's we just ate i know i'm ready for a siesta no it's just you just have to have one okay but these pringles it says limited edition i bet beer can chicken beer can chicken so we're gonna try light beer with yes it looks like light i guess is that miller yeah miller light beer yeah so this is a pringles for those of you listening outside of the country pringles is like it pretends to be a potato chip but it's actually just like a paste that's made to look like a rounded kind of a thing i guess pringles are everywhere all right so all right sorry you're gonna hear us chuck yeah well it doesn't smell like beer does it I don't know. I'm not seeing it.
20:03
Do you taste... Well, I guess a little bit of beer, huh? Nah. I think it's as flavorless as light beer.
20:11
What are you going to do? Not much chicken. Not much beer. That's a no for me, dog. So save your money. Yeah, don't... Put that money towards, you know, pinball. All right. Or craft beer. Yes, or craft beer. All right, we're going to drop in everyone's favorite music for everyone's favorite segment. Craft Brew Sally Gonna have to put your journal down Craft Brew Sally Child You've been to all the breweries around You've been running all over the town Tell me what to drink until I fall on the ground Yeah That's right, people.
21:02
And we back So this past weekend we went to what was that Schwano Schwano To the flea market. Yeah. We haven't been to a dirt mall since Florida. I was getting a little uppity. So I found Schwano.
21:24
A really large dirt mall it was supposed to be. And it was sort of underwhelming. but there was a lot there there was after the dirt mall we decided we were gonna go and get some lunch and foghorn found a brewery this time wow well not so much i was reading the list of restaurants near me and my phone was like this place and this place and then i said the name of it and and crafty was like oh my god it's near i was like yeah 0.3 miles i guess we're going there and that's where we went yes so we went to stubborn brothers brewing company you've had their stuff before i have they they make a lot of stuff that i really like like they have the drop top which is like a sun drop okay shandy kind of thing and they have a cherry drop top which really reminds me of that um cherry drop the that brewery that closed that pigeon river they had a cherry drop I love that I think there's still two boxes of it over there is you should probably drink it before it goes bad I know right this was in a really cool building it was like in an old vaudeville movie theater it was a vaudeville theater then they converted it of course to a movie theater like it had the orchestra pit and it had all this stuff and then they like they did this renovation for like a few years it said to make it the brewery but this place still was like an old theater you know you walked in there was the it just all the furnishings around it like all the all the trim and all that kind of stuff was just that old really old 1800s like theater stuff and i guess that was the stuff that was in it they just modernized some of the stuff to make it you know make it a working uh brewery but it was good it was really neat because they still had like so you like walked in onto the main floor and then like if you walked all the way to the back of the building you could look down where the orchestra would be yeah because they still had the they still the stage set up there but then they also had tables down there you know and then they had a second floor and then they had a third floor for like venues and all that stuff it was a really big space there for like a wedding reception or yeah i could see it because they had a bar up there so you know yeah that'd be a really nice place to have one so the beer you had a you a flight of beer i did and what'd you have in there i had polka haze ipa pina colada sour fruited uh grapefruit paloma and a hefeweizen oh nice i do like hefeweizen yes you do was any now where are you like uh standouts or where you want oh that pina colada you like that pina colada one oh yeah yeah i know we were going to get one for my mom yeah it was like this it was called boiler maker peanut butter whiskey porter that's a no for me yeah that you can put that right with the with those pringles right no thanks well i asked for a sample of it because some of those are really good and some of them aren't well and plus this a four pack was 30 bucks so right So we're like, can we try that first before you buy that? And it was way too whiskey. It was really a strong, like, I took a sip and I was like, no. Yeah. No, no. I don't even know what percentage it is. A million. Yeah. I think it was like a million percent. But it was. Yeah. So. Not something that. And, of course, every time we go to one of those places, usually we get a tin, like a sign. yeah they didn't have any of those but craft brew always gets a glass yes i have a glass from almost every brewery that we've been to and uh and i got a boot this time i'm so excited yeah this is one of those glass boots yeah and i said well you're not gonna be excited about it the first time you drink out of it because no matter how you try and tip it you're gonna splash yourself in the face with beer so it'll be kind of cool and you're gonna be like i'm gonna wash this and put this right on my shelf right there right with all my other brewery glasses exactly oh there's a reason the old lager glasses are tried and true right just what you drink beer on you know i mean like i have some really neat glasses though oh yeah there's some crazy stuff i remember the first time we saw one of those it looks like a beer can but it's a glass oh lost their minds yes now everyone has them right okay boring you know yeah i didn't surprise i didn't have a boot before yeah no kidding but it was a good time expensive we had we had our food and we had a flight and we had that glass and i was like oh my god i'm getting like a lot of money from us but it's they usually do yeah well when you eat at a brewery you're you're gonna pony up you know like they they don't mind the beer is usually reasonable yeah for what it was i mean the food was good oh yeah it was really tasty i was uh i was really full my stomach was like oh my god i almost i wanted to go to sleep rent the top floor and go to sleep for a couple hours right but no we got in the car and drove back home yep yeah so good time so you stubborn brothers you give them a highly oh yeah they have a lot of good beers out there all right well there you have it How can they reach us if they want to, Crafter Sally? They can email us at pinballjd at gmail.com. All right. Or visit our Facebook page and like and follow it. I don't know about that. I don't think we've done very much of that lately. I've been putting some stuff up. Oh, okay, cool. I still, every now and then, I look through the old newspaper articles and I pull some out. There's been lots of interesting stuff, but I don't do much with it other than read it and try to learn stuff. learning's good alright we're done I'm done you're done okay thanks for listening everyone we will see you next time with maybe this glorious trip to this barcade down in Madison, Wisconsin and maybe two breweries yeah I have a feeling two breweries and all the time I'm going to be like trying to watch that auction site and be like I could have had Sky Kings for $150 oh man and we'd have to rent four stout men to help me move it up some weird-ass staircase, but... I know. We'll see. All right, thanks for listening. We'll see you next time, one and all.
28:01
That's it, man. Game over, man. Game over.