Can't nobody tell me nothing, can't tell me nothing. Sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up. Welcome everybody to Kaneda's Pinball Podcast. Happy Friday. We made it another week. It is December 12th. We are getting so close to Christmas and right after Christmas, we're going to get the new game from Stern Pinball. Isn't it crazy? In just like three weeks, we are going to see this new cornerstone game. A lot is riding on this game. If this game is not a hit, Stern is in trouble. I think Stern is in trouble either way. As I think about what we've been talking about with Stern this week, and I saw someone post on Pinside, everyone's favorite Stern shill, Neil McRae, zero cabinet failures on the new bracketed way to make cabinets over at Stern. And here's the thing that these Stern apologists don't get. When I go to Ikea and I buy furniture and it's got those little pegs like the Stern cabinet and it's got brackets, I don't expect my dresser to fail or my cabinetry to fall apart, but it's still cheap because I bought it at Ikea and it came flat in a box and I assembled it. You know, this isn't like true craftsmanship happening now over at Stern with these cabinets. And I think what people don't get is simply this. It can not fail and be cheaper. Okay. So that's what they've done. They've made it. So it's just a cheaper product, but here's the problem. They're charging the most they've ever charged for pinball machines. And so when you open up your new Stern Spike 3 and it's got a $30 Raspberry Pi and a new cheaper cabinet, are you really going to be excited to spend more than you've ever spent on these games? And it becomes like so crystal clear the dilemma this company has. You know, I don't care that they have to find like new efficiencies and ways to make more margin to stay more profitable You know, they've got a big ship They've got hundreds of people that have to go through that door every day And george and company have to pay for their salaries their health care their benefits. It's not easy And you know, I just don't understand though because the moves they make as a company continue to feel like They're moving in the wrong direction You've got an industry now, and this is the thing I don't think they anticipated, right? Because I think Stern was sort of operating in a little bit of a bubble. Like if we do this, they will come. If we just keep putting things in boxes, they'll buy it regardless of the loss of value. I don't think what they anticipated though, it's not about like their product per se, because I think in their minds, they're making the best versions of their games ever, right? They can't understand why The Walking Dead Remastered is not selling. A little bit later on in the show, I'm going to pull up the Pinside Marketplace, and you're going to be shocked what these games, new in box, are selling for on Pinside. Map pricing out the window. You can now go get this game for thousands less. So the stern apologists out there, they really don't have any foundation to stand on. These games are losing, instantly losing thousands of dollars in value. What they did not anticipate, because they do think they're making the best games they've ever made. They did not anticipate that the competition would get to where it's at today. They did not anticipate Spooky Pinball would be putting Beetlejuices in boxes in just a month that look that good, that have all the assets, that have mechanisms like that. You got to remember, like a few years ago, Spooky Pinball was making stuff that made Stern look two to three times better. Now the reverse has happened. Beetlejuice looks two to three times nicer than what Stern is putting in a box. They did not anticipate barrels of fun, putting games like Dune and Winchester out into the marketplace. I get the volume is small, but it doesn't matter. Like I said on the last show, same price. If you're a customer of pinball and you're a part of the pinball community, you're really excited that the boutique companies are now offering products at this level with this much theme integration, with these many mechs, with beautiful artwork. I mean, go look at a new Stern machine. Look at the decals on the side. It's like they stopped even doing the foil decals. They keep cutting back more and more. You know, when George Gomez opened up the backbox and was like, hey, let me show you something special that these LE buyers are getting. I don't think you know this. This is an exclusive. And he shows a speaker, lighted speaker housing case as something that they should be proud of. They've lost the narrative. This company thought like HDMI out was something to boast about on the new Raspberry Pi Spike 3 operating system. It's almost like they don't even know what to say anymore. And you can see it in George. He seems exhausted. And I want to ask each and every one of you, when was the last time we heard from anybody over at Stern where they sounded excited? Just think about that. What was the last thing you ever heard them be excited about? I'm excited about Beetlejuice. Look at the spooky family. Look at the Emery family. They're doing backflips all the way to the bank and they deserve it. And they're having the best damn holidays of their lives. You know, happy Luke and Bug are right now. They're probably the only two guys happier than Kaneda. You know, they are having so much fun over there. In fact, I just got a great email from Morgan Emery. She's like, Chris, I just wanted to let you know that we have the numbers for your five Beetlejuice games for your club members. Are you ready, people? we are going to get for each and every one of you the opportunity to get game number 501 502 503 504 and wait for it are you sitting down joe newhart are you even listening 505 so we are right smack dab in the middle I love it Canada will be game number 999 And they are so happy. And these games are going to be fully loaded. So if you get one of these games, it's going to be butter cabinet, topper, everything, the ghost glass, everything. Everything will be on these games. You are not allowed to take any options off these games. You are getting a fully loaded Beetlejuice. Now, I still don't know how exactly I'm going to handle this. I will say this. I am going to do it most likely after the holidays. So don't worry. A lot of people are traveling. A lot of people are focused on their families. I want you to be present with your families. I don't want you to worry about missing out at all. So don't worry. These games will not be allocated to buyers before January. So I just want to let everybody know. And they're going to go for MSRP. I'm not scalping these games, even though these games are going for well over $10,000 right now. So super excited. It's going to be a really fun beginning of 2026. We're going to get these Beetlejuice games out the door. We're going to get Stern Pinball's next game. Let's talk about it, man. Is it going to be Pokemon? I'm in the thread, the next Stern machine, right? And these people are posting Pokemon stuff. I'm really, really worried that they don't get how small the percentage of people in this demographic are into Pokemon. We're not adverse to it. So maybe Pokemon might do for a lot of us what Godzilla did. Now, look, we all grew up with Godzilla. Godzilla is just universally lovable, right? He's been around for 70 freaking years. Like, you never meet anyone that's like, you know what, man? I really hate Godzilla. He's stupid, man. there's a guy in this. No, he's adorable. We loved his cameo in Pee-wee's Big Adventure. He's always been this adorable thing that comes out of the ocean, post-atomic Tokyo. He stomps on tanks. And even though humans know that tanks are not effective, we keep sending tanks at Godzilla. Godzilla, baby. There was a moment in a recent Godzilla movie that got really heartfelt at the end where someone said like, maybe there's a little bit of Godzilla in each and every one of us. I love stuff like that. Pokemon doesn't really have that campiness. It doesn't have that like 70 years of generational, cross-generational love. Now look, it is the biggest IP in the world. It just is. It's the biggest IP in the world by far. So you'll never see me argue that there's not a lot of Pokemon fans. It's just, does it cross over with the pinball buying demographic? People 40 to 60 who have disposable income. I can't wait to hear like, you know, some of the old curmudgeons on pin side that are the stern apologists be like, yeah, man, I'm really into Jigglypuff and Pikachu these days. You know, you're not, you know, you're not. And it's kind of strange to me that Transformers is sort of being disregarded, yet Transformers is perfect for this demographic, because remember, this isn't like the Shia LaBeouf Transformer, the Michael Bay Transformers, this is the Transformers that we all grew up with, so I'm sort of surprised that Transformers is being like, ah, it's just another Transformer game, are you kidding me? Like, this is the Transformers, we always want it. This is G1. Now look, I've been saying it. I don't think Stern knows this franchise well enough. I don't. I think if Elliot Elliot Eismin's making it, he did not grow up when Transformers was big in the 80s. He was like born when Transformers was like popular. The problem Stern is going to face is this. They're going to make it on the TV show and they're not going to make it on the movie. And anyone who really knows Transformers that wants to make the most amazing Transformers pinball machine knows that the Transformer movie is where it's at with the soundtrack, with Unicron, because you got everybody. You've got all the original guys you love, Hot Rod, Rodimus Prime. You've got Optimus Prime. You've got Galvatron, Megatron. Everyone's in it. And look, if they make a Transformers pinball machine and in the back of it isn't like Omega Supreme as a base or Fortress Maximus, right? And they don't have a huge Unicron head. See, they don't know this. I feel like Stern is sort of just like giving their designers assignments. So if you hand Elliot Elliot Eismin Transformers, that dude has to go watch all the episodes as a grown adult. And that's the issue. True passion, right? True passion comes from designers who grew up with these IPs. You know what I'm saying? It's like it forged an indelible love affair between the person and the property. You're never gonna get that giving Elliot Elliot Eismin the Transformers assignment. You're never gonna get that asking George Gomez to finish Pokemon. The dude has never seen a Pokemon episode in his life. So if he's working on Pokemon, we're in trouble. But I still have some iota of faith that if Keith Elwin is a Pokemon fan, all right, cool. Like, I didn't realize he was. But if he is, that's awesome news if he gets to do it. If his talents are applied to Fallout and they give Pokemon to George Gomez to finish, I don't even have to, like, see the game to tell you right now it's not gonna hit. It's not going to have the one word, the one word that I think Stern is lacking, the one emotive thing that is the most important word in all of pinball. You will never get a great pinball machine unless the people making it have genuine passion. Passion is the most important thing in pinball. when I look over at Spooky Pinball they're oozing passion like passion is coming out of every pore of the Spooky family when I look over at Jersey Jack they got the passion man they do I think Jack has just handed them some terrible themes but that going to change And it changed with Harry Potter but they got the passion Damn it. I know barrels of fun has passion because if I said they didn't, David David Van Es would call me every single day to remind me how passionate they are. And I kind of appreciate that about David. It's like he's trying to convince me they have the passion. And David, you do. They have the passion. You know why I know they have passion? Because they get upset, right? People that are passionate about what they're working on, they respond when people say things that are negative, right? I want to see a reaction. Imagine pouring years of your life into something and some internet blowhard who hasn't been in the gym in 15 years say you're lazy and you suck. You know what I'm saying? Of course I would jump in and be like, who the hell are you man i'd be like stevie in eastbound and down who the f are you man who the f am i right i'm keith freaking elwynn baby shut up canada you couldn't design a paper airplane so you know what i'm saying i just don't think stern has the passion and i think the reason they don't have the passion anymore is because i think they brought in people from outside of pinball who don't have the pinball passion they took a job doesn't it feel like we're getting games from people now that are just answering the assignment. Where's the passion? Where's the wow? Damn brackets. Look at those corners, man. Look at the corners in those cabinets. That is the cheapest thing I've ever seen in pinball manufacturing. And then the apologists are like, well, it's still stable. You know, it's not going to, the moisture is not going to affect it. It's cheap. It's cheap. I don't care if it falls apart or not. It's cheap. So we are going to see a reckoning in 2026. The companies with the passion will have the profit. See, this is the thing that George and Seth don't get. Guys, you know, all your cost cutting measures like we wouldn't notice. It's not good to be in Costco. It's not like, you know what I'm saying? It's like Costco is where you go for budget items. Like if I bought a Ferrari and then all of a sudden there's one at Costco, What brand did I just buy? Branding matters. Just because you could do something to get a few more sales doesn't mean you should. I think you'd be a lot better off. Think about how much more money they would make if they actually made a good Star Wars game versus throwing a bunch of crap in Costco. You're not allowed to say this, Kanae. It's Friday. It's the holidays. The kids are healthy. The kids are happy. Why are you so upset? I'm not upset. I love this. I love that you guys are here. No one else talks like this, man. You know, look, I see some of these other content creators and they're like on the side of Stern. They're like defending their use of cheap cabinetry. Why? Why are you doing it? Why are you doing it? Why are you on the side of them? It's cheap. Anyone who's worked in the woodworking industry will look at that cabinet and say they went cheap. There is nothing about that that is an improvement. Spike 3 is turning out to be nothing but a cost-cutting measure. That's all it is. Right? Look at the lighting in Star Wars. Is it any better than the lighting three, four years ago? No. Nothing. It's just cheaper. Yeah, I get they say they have more computing power, but what is the computing power doing? What are you actually powering? What was the last wow mechanism Stern made? Now, think about it. Like I could just ask that question and just, we could just have silence for the next five minutes. The last wow mechanism that Stern has made, $13,000 games. Well, not anymore. Let's pull up the Pinside Marketplace right now. You ready for this? If you pull up the Pinside Marketplace and I'm looking at games that are around like $10,000, this is brand new. This game just came out. the Walking Dead remastered for sale in Suffern, New York for $11,500. Brand new, new in a box. This is a brand new game. It's a brand new game. This game just came out. So instantly you've lost $1,500 on your game. So anyone out there, if you just bought a Walking Dead remastered LE for 13, how do you feel? Stupid. And like I've been saying, it's stupid. Another one, new in box for sale. $12,000. I don't get it. I don't get it. Like literally. And this guy's like, look, I'm selling my remastered LE. I put down a thousand dollar deposit and I owe $12,000 balance. Machine will ship from distributor. Be like, why would you put down a deposit on a game and now you don't want it? I don't even understand these people. You know, it's just left and right. D&D, LE, $11,000. Okay. Another $2,000 loss. All right. Here's the best buy on this marketplace. Big Bang Bar, number 69, baby, 69 for $40,000 or best offer. Makes no sense. A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles LE in a box, 10 grand. Wow. Here's a funny one. D&D in a box LE, 13,000. Why? Why would anyone buy a D&D LE for 13 when right above it is a game with hardly any plays for 11? So that box is worth $2,000. Stranger Things LE with the topper. Okay, this is interesting. This game was going for like 19 at the height of COVID. Remember when Stranger Things LE? 19, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, here we go. 11,500. The market is course correcting. Now, if people remember, Stranger Things LE was originally like 9,500. So this person's still making a little bit of money, but the crazy days are over. Here's an X-Men LE, Uncanny X-Men. How much do you think? $9,900. But it's sitting. Because these games have been selling for around $8,000 recently. Here's another Uncanny X-Men LE. $10,000. Not going to sell. A Tron LE. This is one. This is Australian price. I don't know what the US would be. $22,000 Australian. So I heard the Australian market is really, really tanking. Rush LE How much do you think Rush LE I think Rush was was Rush the first game that was like Wasn Rush like right after Godzilla Didn't it go like Rush was, I think, $11,500. And then Foo Fighters, I think, was the first $13,000 game. This Rush LE, here we go. Ready? $9,750 unsold. Another D&D Tyrant's Eye LE 11.9 unsold. Metallica Remastered Premium 10.5 unsold. I don't know if I have to say I'd sold at everything. It just, it sounds more dramatic, right? Here's a game, Elton John CE, sale pending at 12.5. So, you know, Elton John CE was 15. It didn't really tank. That's kind of normal, right? After two years, you expect a $15,000 CE to sort of lose a couple grand. Like that's normal depreciation, right? What you don't expect is Godfather CE to go from 15 all the way down to eight, gang. Eight is what they're going for. That's a $7,000 loss. A Harry Potter collector's edition, new in box, $14,900. All right, that is the asking price. John Wick LE, baby. How much you think? less than 100 plays with the topper. Okay, so how much was the John Wick topper? I want to say it was like $1,000. So this is $14,000. You can now get it with less than 100 plays, $9,900. Okay, not sold, right? I bet if you offered nine on the table, he'd take it, which is another $4,000 loss. Actually, it's a $5,000 loss because of the topper. Here's a Godzilla LE. See, the prices are coming down, man. It's crazy. Godzilla LE, $12,500. See, I remember when Godzillas were consistently holding around like $15,000, $16,000. And the reason it came down is obviously because of the anniversary edition. Here's an anniversary edition for $11,500. You're not going to get that for the anniversary edition. You know, here's another Godzilla LE. So this is what's funny about the pin side marketplace. This guy wants 14. So you've got the same exact game selling for 12.5 and someone wants $1,500 more. Ladies and gentlemen, here's my conclusion on all of this. Everything's starting to come down significantly. It's good. It's gonna be a buyer's market. I think the FOMO rests with the boutique companies that have been making magic lately. Stern's next game in January, to me, it's everything. Like if this game is another flop, I think they're in big, big trouble. I really do. I don't think this company is used to this. Like they thought Walking Dead Remastered. Think about it. If George Gomez is true and says that it is 70% effort of making a full game went into making the Walking Dead Remastered. So let's just believe him on that. That's a lot of work to release a game that's a flop. And the game is a flop. The fact that it's brand new and in a box, you can now get it for $11.50 instantly, an absolute flop. And I'm not sure if anyone's calling meetings over at Stern, but someone should be accountable for the decision to bring this game back to market because it was a bad decision. If it was another game like Batman, Tron, Lord of the Rings, it's not a flop. There was no demand for this. And the fact that the biggest pinball company in the world with a marketing team, with a CMO, with an outside PR agency, they have all this stuff with hundreds of employees who should know this industry in and out. The fact that they made that decision makes me feel like they're done. Like they just don't get it. They didn't hire the right people, aka Kaneda. They don't listen to the community ever. Seth did one sort of survey and that was it. And they really have spent all this money, all this effort, zombie Yeti getting this new artist, you know, texting Canada in the morning because I think it looks like a Skittles bag exploded over half of their games. You know, they don't get it. They really don't get it. And what's sad is it's really easy to get it if they just slow down, hit pause. if I were them, I would just bring in like 10 people, a couple of content creators, a couple of tournament guys, a couple of collectors, bring in a 10 person focus group and do a reset, like a 2026 reset. The problem is all of their decisions for next year have already been made. They're going to bring back ACDC. We don't need more ACDCs. They just don't get it. Like what is the value in burning 6,000 people that already have an ACDC, you're not going to attract enough newbies. The sales are not great. Their remastered strategy is not working. And all of their games are looking cheaper than they ever have before. The speaker grills don't look better. Again, who are they using to focus group any of this stuff? And we're here to help you, Stern. Stern, right, we're here. Like for $5 a month, if they had just followed my advice all year, they wouldn't be in this predicament. Instead, they keep hiring from outside pinball and no wonder they're bringing in people who really don't have a passion for pinball. They just took a job and they're answering an assignment. And companies with real passion, their products are running circles around Stern's latest product offerings. Everybody, happy Friday. I'll talk to you soon. Thank you for being a club member. Give your friends out there that are not Canada Club members the gift of Canada this holiday season. Because it really is the gift that keeps on giving the whole year. That it is, Edward. That it is. Later. Till I can't no more.