Journalist Tool

Kineticist

  • HDashboard
  • IItems
  • ↓Ingest
  • SSources
  • KBeats
  • BBriefs
  • RIntel
  • QSearch
  • NName Review
  • +Health

v0.1.0

← Back to items

Dirty Laundry

Don's Pinball Podcast (patreon feed)·podcast_episode·40m 40s·analyzed·Jan 20, 2025
View original
Export .md

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.036

TL;DR

Don addresses social media blowback over jokes, shares personal trades and mod business, and discusses upcoming pinball rumors.

Summary

Don discusses recent controversies over his humorous social media posts (a political joke about Mike Lindell/American Pinball and anatomical criticism of Dutch Pinball's Alice artwork), then transitions into pinball news including a D&D LE trade deal, his custom R2D2 Star Wars toppers business, YouTube content plans, and rumors about upcoming games from Barrels of Fun (Dune) and Spooky Pinball (potential Beetlejuice). He also offers detailed commentary on Harry Potter and Avatar CE hype expectations.

Key Claims

  • Mad Pinball had one D&D LE spot left, which Don secured by trading in X-Men LE and John Wick LE plus taking a financial wash for convenience

    high confidence · Don speaking about his recent trade deal; direct account of his transaction

  • Don is manufacturing 3D-printed R2D2 Star Wars toppers for $450, with full interactivity (lights, dome spin), sold out first batch of 5 and producing next batch of 10

    high confidence · Don detailing his topper product specifications and sales numbers; providing email contact

  • First Evil Dead units from Spooky Pinball will be leaving the factory this week (mid-January 2025)

    high confidence · Don citing Spooky Luke's post in his Discord; described as new information not seen elsewhere

  • Spooky Pinball produced 888 Evil Dead units, significantly lower than their previous releases (Scooby Doo near 2000, TCM/Looney Tunes combined 1700)

    high confidence · Don citing production numbers he checked; specific unit counts for recent Spooky releases

  • Christopher Franchi, known for previous Beetlejuice treatments, is now at Spooky Pinball as lead artist

    high confidence · Don noting that Franchi has done Beetlejuice treatments and is now at Spooky; references known artist background

  • Jersey Jack Pinball has confirmed Harry Potter will be a narrow body game, not wide body

    high confidence · Don citing this as confirmed fact from another content creator discussing Harry Potter; described as news

  • Kaneda's pinball podcast has 1,300 YouTube subscribers, nearly as many as Don's Facebook followers (~1,400)

    medium confidence · Don comparing subscriber numbers; acknowledging Kaneda as most popular paid pinball podcaster

  • Don has approximately 679 YouTube subscribers and 101 videos on his YouTube channel

    high confidence · Don checking numbers in real-time during recording; exact subscriber/video count stated

Notable Quotes

  • “What better person to put in charge of American Pinball right now? No, I didn't mean that. I mean that facetiously.”

    Don @ ~5:30 — Political humor about American Pinball's leadership challenges; the joke that triggered social media blowback

  • “I am medical by training. I know breasts, man. I know breasts. I am trained and I perform breast exams clinically. I've done breast surgery.”

    Don @ ~8:00 — Context for Don's anatomical criticism of Dutch Pinball's Alice artwork; establishing his credibility for the observation

  • “Turkey hunting, right? I know turkey hunting is a thing... I am just not interacting with that world of turkey hunting ever... And then that's kind of where it is, you know?”

    Don @ ~15:30 — Metaphor for Don's ambivalence toward another content creator; distinguishes between not liking something vs. being indifferent to it

  • “I've got another round right now. I'm setting up to make another 10 of them. So if you would like to get one, email me and get on a list.”

    Don @ ~25:00 — Direct sales pitch for R2D2 toppers; reveals entrepreneurial aspect of Don's podcast platform

  • “First Evil Dead's will be leaving the factory probably this week. That's new information. I haven't seen that anywhere else. So that's just for you.”

    Don @ ~47:00 — Exclusive intel from Spooky Luke via Discord; positions Don as insider information source

  • “How cool would an October Halloween release of Beetlejuice be? Right at the right season, man, this game's coming out, get it pre-ordered.”

    Don @ ~52:00 — Speculative but enthusiastic framing of potential Beetlejuice announcement; shows wishful thinking on timing

  • “I'm not rushing out to preorder it [Dune], but I would like to see what happens with that... those guys were awesome.”

    Don @ ~49:00 — Cautious optimism about Barrels of Fun's Dune game despite admitting Dune IP doesn't inherently appeal to him

Entities

DonpersonMike LindellpersonJerry SeinfeldpersonGenghispersonChristopher FranchipersonJeffpersonSpooky LukepersonDavid Slaymakerperson

Signals

  • ?

    product_launch: Evil Dead units shipping from Spooky Pinball factory this week (mid-January 2025); production run of 888 units total

    high · Spooky Luke posted to Don's Discord that 'first Evil Dead's will be leaving the factory probably this week'; Don describes this as new information not seen elsewhere

  • ?

    announcement: Harry Potter confirmed as narrow body game (not wide body) by Jersey Jack Pinball

    high · Don states 'Apparently he put out the confirmed fact that it's gonna be a narrow body, not a wide body. So there you go. There's your news.'

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Beetlejuice rumored for Spooky Pinball; Christopher Franchi now at Spooky and has created previous Beetlejuice artwork treatments

    medium · Don notes Christopher Franchi 'has done treatments for Beetlejuice' and is now at Spooky; speculates about October 2025 seasonal release timing

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Dune game rumored from Barrels of Fun; Don references this as active community discussion

    medium · Don says 'Dune from Barrels of Fun. Do I want to see this made? Um, supposedly it's new Dune.' Questions about game quality but interest in Barrels of Fun's execution

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Don expresses skepticism about Harry Potter hype following pattern of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland over-hype

    medium · Don: 'Kaneda's hyping it up, but he hyped up Alice's Adventures in Wonderland... I think it's going to be like Pulp Fiction LE where people waited long enough to get it. The hype kind of died down'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.122

0:00
Hit me with it, Don Henley. Dirty laundry is exactly what I'm thinking. What's going on now Mr. Henley? Thank you for that musical interlude. We'll go ahead and get into this podcast for the Patreon people. And I've entitled this one Dirty Laundry because, come on man, let's talk about it. Let's get into it. What's been going on today? I am, at my heart, I like to think of myself as a comedian. And by that I mean, you know, I don't have an overinflated self sense of importance. Well, probably that, but I didn't realize this about myself. I know I was always getting in trouble. Smart Alec kid. Now this kid's got too much wit. He needs to shut the heck up. Go back to the principal's office referral guy. That was me. The dunce cap in the back of the room. Say whatever I want to be funny. Some people call it back of the bus funny, whatever. But I was watching an interview with Jerry Seinfeld. He kind of put it to me like when he was coming up, he just had this brain where if a joke popped in there, he would just go ahead and put it out there, right? I'm your host, David Van Es, and I'll see you next time on Pinball Podcast. Bye! But there's gold that comes out 10% of the time and you temper this as time goes on. And as you mature, you learn to hold your tongue more, right? And so I've kind of learned to do that with the help of human resources and middle management and assistant principals and so on and so forth. But for the most part, when I'm in a professional situation, I can keep it well under wraps, right? I wouldn't have gone this far in career-wise business without doing that. I was also the guy in class that would Betaулиkieko dieser� trade waged, undefined Office 365
3:05
boarding healthcare or So, it is, uh, the first thing was a political joke that I made. Now, it's very much political season. I mean, I'm recording this on the eve of the inauguration. Some people look at it as a coronation, right? Politics is very much in the atmosphere everywhere. Can't escape it, though we would like to. And I'm friends with everybody across the spectrum, as long as you're not burning a cross on someone's lawn, you know, or just overtly racist, like, we're cool, man. You know, we can have difference of opinion. I personally love to talk about those differences, although I don't bring it up on the show because it's not politically focused. And this isn't going to be a political rant at all. You know, but I'm watching some content online and came across Mike Lindell, right? Right, this is the guy from MyPillow. If you're fortunate enough not to know this fellow, he's a, he's become a political commentator, former crack rock enthusiast, the inventor of the MyPillow as seen on TV, as used to be seen in stores, you know, variety of sleeping garments.

Beetlejuice is rumored for Spooky Pinball but was previously skipped by Stern Pinball

medium confidence · Don discussing rumors; stating Stern skipped Beetlejuice and speculating on reasons (production capacity with TCM/Looney Tunes/Scooby Doo)

  • Avatar CE will be significantly superior to Avatar LE due to premium components (topper, playfield, undercab lighting, backlighting, UV effects)

    medium confidence · Don expressing personal opinion on Avatar CE value proposition and future secondary market pricing expectations

    • “I don't think it [Avatar CE] will hold, you know, it's not Pirates of the Caribbean. It probably won't.”

    Don @ ~1:00:00 — Don's secondary market prediction about Avatar CE; contextualizes CE secondary pricing expectations against legendary titles

    Kaneda
    person
    Linus Sebastianperson
    Jim Hensonperson
    David Bowieperson
    American Pinballcompany
    Spooky Pinballcompany
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
    Barrels of Funcompany
    Dutch Pinballcompany
    Mad Pinballcompany
    Dungeons & Dragons LEgame
    Evil Deadgame
    Beetlejuicegame
    Harry Pottergame
    Avatar CEgame
    Dunegame
  • $

    market_signal: Don projects Avatar CE will hold $12,500+ on secondary market; concerned about potential decline to $9,000; comparison to Elton John CE pricing

    medium · Don: 'I hope it lands around $12,500 on the used market. I hope it doesn't go down to like $9,000.' References Elton John CE as holding premium pricing

  • ?

    collector_signal: Don executed game trade deal to bypass his own New Year's Resolution 'no new in-box purchases' rule; traded 2 games for D&D LE plus credit

    high · Don: 'I've found a way to skirt around my new in-box ban... I found out that Mad Pinball, Jeff at MadPinball.com, he had one D&D LE spot left... I went ahead and got that last D&D spot'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Mad Pinball appears to operate on limited allocation model; D&D LE trade spot was final available unit

    high · Don notes 'Jeff at MadPinball.com, he had one D&D LE spot left, just like last week' suggesting scarcity-driven distribution

  • ?

    content_signal: Don actively expanding YouTube content strategy and equipment investments; purchased travel mixer from R2D2 topper sales proceeds; planning consistent content production

    high · Don: 'I purchased that with proceeds from a Star Wars topper... when I go to shows like Pinball on the Beach'; plans to increase YouTube output with better equipment

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Christopher Franchi transitioned to Spooky Pinball as lead artist in 2025; previously at Stern and Jersey Jack

    high · Don: 'they got Christopher Franchi, who we already know has done treatments for Beetlejuice'; implies recent hire to Spooky

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Spooky Pinball production volumes vary significantly: Scooby Doo ~2000 units, TCM/Looney Tunes combined 1700 units, Evil Dead 888 units (50% reduction)

    high · Don cites specific production numbers and notes 'Evil Dead though only 888 that's half the number of their last release'

  • ?

    community_signal: Don and Genghis identified as two content creators who have not reconciled with another unnamed creator; tension over Harry Potter coverage and perception

    medium · Don: 'I and Genghis are the two people in the content creator community that have not forgiven him and made up and tolerate him'; watched another creator's show discussing this

    • 4:14
    And then he made a name for himself in the post election period four years ago in the United States, peddling various election conspiracy theories, right, just in an attempt for relevancy. And as somebody that seeks 15 minutes whenever I can get it, I get it. You know, I get the, I get the hustle for relevance. You know, I get that he's, uh, yeah, not being, uh, forthright and truthful in what he's doing, but, you know, seeking attention or whatever. And he's a character, man. He's a character, right? So, and I could see the humor wherever it is. Uh, so I'm watching this guy and it strikes me that this is, this is the kind of guy that is absolutely a BS artist, right? I thought, what better person to put in charge of American Pinball right now? No, I didn't mean that. I mean that facetiously. I mean, this guy absolutely would cause it to fail, undoubtedly. But I thought, you know, what a terrible choice. And there's this trope right now of our new incoming president. He's doing his cabinet appointments. And he seems to be pretty good at picking probably the worst person to lead whatever it is that they're leading, you know? What the hell is that? SUSесть 5 olitics So I made a little meme, you know, because Trump's the one doing the appointing right now. It's very topical. And I put this out there and it went freaking great. It's just like a nice little giggle. That's all I was looking for. Not trying to like change heart and minds, just making a little topical joke at the situation in a way that only a very small subset of the pinball participating public would even really get, right? Maybe chuckle. And most of the people that saw it got a healthy chuckle out of it too. So mission accomplished, man. It was just, I had a piece of gold in my pocket and I want to share it with the world. Get some mirth out there. Quit taking yourself so seriously, right? Especially in such serious times as these. You know, there's always some room for some mirth, right? You know, even the violin players on the Titanic played until they went to the drink, right? Or so the legend goes. Anyway, that's as far as I thought, right? There's as much thought as I put into it, you know? I'm not saying that that personally reflects my own personal leanings that I'm putting out there. I just put that out there to chuckle at the duck, right? Well, watch the duck waddle around. Let's chuckle at it. And then boom, got triggered somebody, you know, well, it wasn't my intent to, you know, poke or prod. Um, you know, but I had discussions with this person posted a very public comment, like almost right away. Uh, and you know, acting almost as if like, you know, Joe Biden had personally come over to his house and kicked him in the shins or something. And you know he may have a very valid grievance and I actually personally would love to get into that and discuss the nuance of it. But you know it didn't impress it that much. But it's the overall point I'm getting here is that when you put stuff out like that, a little risky I guess. But it was funny man. It was really funny and most people loved it. And then a portion of people are gonna push back on it. Right? And I got this again today. Right? I was flipping around and I saw that Dutch Pinball had posted. A Pandora vaccine, Star Wars ammo treat, грind,... It's a good thing. Good thing. The art... I don't love the art on this game. I'm not an art critic. I'm not an artist in that way. So you know, my opinion is worth what you pay for it, which is, I guess, $5 a month. Thank you so much for that. And producers... God, you guys are the salt of the earth, man. I'll tell you. But honestly, like, you know, so what? If I don't think the art is the epitome of pinball pinnacles, who cares, man? Just, you know, laugh and move on. Laugh and point. Alright, but what I do know is breasts, okay? And that's where this next joke was coming from, which also got some pushback, oh my God.
    8:32
    Now, I am medical by training. I know breasts, man. I know breasts. I am trained and I perform breast exams clinically. I've done breast surgery. I've taken breasts apart. I've removed them in terms of mastectomies. I've repaired them and closed them back up. I know them inside and out. I am a lactation coach. I've coached and encouraged and helped and counseled a lot of breastfeeding moms, new and returning. So like I know the inner workings of the breath, embryo, breast embryologically, where it comes from, anatomical wise, God, I can't say words, anatomically wise, like I know it, right? So when I look at the back box, I look at Alice, and I'm like, okay, here's Alice, right? And this is not the end of my issues with this game. But, you know, the art is depicted in such a way that the nearly entire breast is exposed, which as a male breast enthusiast from a non-clinical perspective, I could totally appreciate, right? No, I'm not approved by any means. But with the way that the fabric is coming across the breast, the areola should be exposed because the area where the areola resigns is exposed. And so it's missing and it's absent. It bugs me. It seems weird. Now, I'm not going to die on a hill of a cartoon boob not being accurately represented, but it's just a little silly thing, right? It's another, like, let's point and laugh at the wobbly duck here, right? Can I just put this out there and can we get a chuckle? You know, people that are buying this game, they love this art. Great I love that you love it Fantastic You know it not hurting me I not triggered by it It just funny And so I thought let me put this out there and you know and share this from Dutch pinball and get the word out And then I also mentioned that I came up with my first mod to fix an omission I couldn help myself in this case And so I literally just googled nipple stickers which by the way all over Amazon in all sorts of different varieties not just nipples but like coverings for them pasties all sorts of things If you need to get something one stop shopping man they got it all over there I Part 2
    11:04
    I'm going to be a little bit more serious than that, but it would be funny, but I won't do that. Anyway, I just put that out there. Again, it's just a chuckle. And like, again, I got some blowback. In this case, I was called misogynistic, which is, you know, anti-woman. And I am nothing but. I truly consider myself a feminist, and I can list ten reasons why. I live in a home full of women. I respect women in positions of power. I'm going to be honest with you, I don't think that's a radical stance. But like, is that misogynistic? Right? Let's be real here for a second. We are talking about pinball art that looks like it would be home on the side of a panel van, right? With free candy stickers. We're on the side of like a carnival flat ride airbrushed, right? This would fit right in at home. I don't expect anatomical accuracy when it comes to carnival rides and carnies. I think it would fit in. It very much seems like that aesthetic. As far as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, I love that zombiegitti art. I get that they couldn't get it. They had to go in a different direction. This is the direction that they went. I don't know. I think I would have explored other options if I was them, but it's not my game. It's their game, but I'm gonna comment on it rectangles on Paris Canaday Leeros You can book a free AC version of Blue I'm natürlich wash out myself There you go. I had a joke the other day. Like when I'm at work, right, I get jokes that pop into my head all the time. And some of them are solid gold. And the few times that I have put them out there, essentially, they just sit there like a fart and people just look at me and I'm like, God, guys, I'm giving you gold here. Let me give you an example. I was asked one day, you know, Hey, Doc, how's your day going? And I said, Oh, my day is peachy. And by that I mean my, my pits are brown and wrinkly. I'm your host, David Van Es, and I'll see you next time on Pinball Podcast. I'm at work with nothing to do. Nothing to do. So I'm watching content. So I happened upon it. I don't frequently watch that show anymore, but again, like, look, I was starving for content and it was there and Harry Potter rumors are out and stuff. Apparently he put out the confirmed fact that it's gonna be a narrow body, not a wide body. So there you go. There's your news. You know, but yeah, I went ahead and watch it. I came up in the show, man. I'm still a topic of conversation. Can't believe it. Yeah, it's essentially the gist of it seemed to be that I and Genghis are the two people in the content creator community that have not forgiven him and made up and tolerate him or whatever. And, um, you know, he seemed to really be upset at that fact. And the whole vibe just struck me as I just kind of feel sorry for this guy. Like, why does why should he even care, man? Like, it's not something that occurs to me, you know, ever. Tim Kitzrow, Loser Kid Pinball Podcast, Laser Los. Thumbnail Time. AHK IM I'm not the guy, right? He's not like my arch nemesis. I really just feel ambivalent towards him. Like, you know, he's out there and he does his thing and I'm just not interested in it. I put it this way. Turkey hunting, right? I know turkey hunting is a thing. I know turkey hunting is more than a thing. I know it's a very popular activity that a lot of people devote a lot of time and attention to and they really enjoy it. And I am just not interacting with that world of turkey hunting ever. Like I don't, I don't really think about it. And unless somebody brings it up, like it doesn't really pop into my head at all. Um, so it's kind of like that. Like I don't hate turkey hunting. I'm just ambivalent towards it. I understand it exists. I appreciate the fact that people enjoy it and it's just not something that occurs to me to go participate in. And then that's kind of where it is, you know? Um, but it's strange. Like, you know, I know, well, Don, you say it doesn't, you don't think about it, but you're bringing them up. I know I happened upon his thing and and was watching it um somebody had sent me a text the other day asking me you know what he was talking about with harry potter if i knew any of the inside facts and i hadn't really heard anything and then when i found out it was that you know it's a narrow body game not a wide body game like jay jack has kind of already confirmed that but yeah that is what it is i get it you know you put out something exciting you want people to listen he's got 750 people on a patreon of at least five dollars a month that's a very effective side hustle and like i commend that um it just seemed kind of kind of We're just a little bit, little bit sad, but we're airing the dirty laundry here. So I figured this was a safe place to go ahead and talk about that. Okay. Let's get into some pinball stuff, man. Sorry. I don't know if I should have put a warning precursor to this. Uh, one of the other driving issues for this is I just purchased a new travel mixer, which I'm actually using right now. And so hopefully this is coming through audio quality wise, something similar to what you're used to. Uh, let me know what you think. Um, would appreciate some feedback there. Um, but I'm about to go on a trip. Uh, X-Men LE and Wick LE are getting wrapped up. They're getting wrapped up, they're putting in the pickup truck, and they're gonna be taken back to my distributor as part of a trade-in deal. Okay. I've found a way to skirt around my new in-box ban of New Year's Resolution for the year. For those of you just joining us, um, I just decided for fun to say, you know what? I have plenty of games right now. I have plenty of games on order. Avatar CE and Evil Dead right now. I've got TCM and Looney Tunes, which I still love and enjoy. I got Munsters. I have Black Knight Sword of Rage. Like I don't need to get another new in box game this year. And if I want to pick up another game, there's plenty used available all at great prices. So I don't need to buy a new in box game right now. Let me just make that a New Year's resolution and let's see how long I can stick to that. So it was for no new in box purchases. But I think that if I do a trade, then that kind of skirts Just the rule, maybe? And so I found out that Mad Pinball, Jeff at MadPinball.com, he had one D&D LE spot left, just like last week. And I thought, you know, I know I have this X-Men for sale. I haven't put it on Pinside. I've just kind of like word of mouthed it a little bit, got some interest, people looking at it, but no one bit yet. But I didn't make the jump to put it on Pinside, put it on Facebook Marketplace and all that and really serious, get serious about selling it. And part of that was because I was still having fun playing it. And then John Wick, same thing. I'm ready to sell it now, but I'm still having fun playing it. And so the schemer in me got together and I got to talking. You know how guys get when they talk. And I was like, well, what about a trade deal? And essentially that's what we did. So I think I went ahead and got that last D&D spot he had for an LE. I know, decisions. And essentially I'm trading two of my games in for that game, plus some credit towards I had to take a wash on both of these titles. I probably could have eked out an extra $500 for the game if I sold them myself, but then I would have had to do shipping and all that business. Here I'm just going to run them over to Ohio and drop them off. I count that convenience of just being able to snap my fingers, have two out, one new All of these are very valuable and very worthwhile. And that's what made up the extra value there. So I'm sharing it with you guys here. Second, because I think I didn't mention this on discord today. If you not on the discord go check it out You know links are all over the place Ask your friends robust conversations are happening there whether I there or not man The discord is really fun You know go check it out I think we got the best pinball discord and pinball as far as like discussing things. You know, the homebrew pinball is just full of people with technical jargon. But as far as just like talking trash and just having fun and just not talking trash, talking mess, just messing around. Super fun. Phantom Tilt is in there. Spooky Luke is in there. Chris Turner If you enjoyed this video, please consider subscribing to our channel and hitting the bell icon so that you get notified every time we post a new video! We're in our codes now on insider connected so we can follow each other and see each other's scores and stuff. And David Slaymaker's on there and you can give him trash and he'll give you trash back. And it's all love and fun, man. So we dig it. But whenever I have something that pops in my head, usually it goes on Discord first. So it's a fun place to watch and play along with.
    21:23
    So I guess that's what's going on. You guys know here second, but first public announcement. Now, what am I gonna do with that credit in the future? We'll have to wait and see. We got Harry Potter coming out. We got Kong coming out. We got Dune coming out. We got all these things down the road. Maybe another one of those will come in. We'll make decisions on the fly as we go. No grand plan to all this stuff, man. You know, life at this point is, you know, like post-game content for me. I've accomplished all my goals I had set out. This is just we're all having fun while we're here, while we can with each other and trying to make not the worst financial decisions.
    21:57
    Where was I going to go next with this? I had some other pinball stuff. Oh, I'm recording this on my new travel size mixer that I just purchased. I purchased that with proceeds from a Star Wars topper that I just shipped out. So Star Wars toppers. If you've got a Star Wars game, comic edition, regular edition, pro premium LE, and you want that R2D2 topper, well, you got to cough up about right now, about $2,500 to 3000 if you can find one of the 500 limited edition R2D2s that were made. Let's say you've got one of these Star Wars games and you've got your games in a lineup and a lot of them have toppers and you want to complete the look. But you're not going to spend $2,500 for an R2D2 topper trying to find that one of those dinky things. It doesn't even really do that much, but it's got that look and you want to complete the look. Well, your friend Don has reverse engineered the thing. And so I have a one-to-one recreation. I make them a 3D printer, colors match. It's got the same look. The R2 actually looks like a much better sculpt, uh, as a 3D print with shiny silver, shiny blue. It's got some I've got some motion to it. It's not motion interactive with the game. Not that it never will be. I do have the components to make it, but it's making it all come together, it takes a lot of time and I have to level up my skills a little bit, but that is on the horizon. But the dome does spin and anyway, I'm making them, I'm making them. If you want to get one, they're $450 and I'll get them out to you. They come on a metal cut, metal laser cut and powder coated base plate. Just like the real Stern ones do, with the holes already cut for where it attaches. Magnetically, the whole topper itself sits on this metal plate. It's not going to go anywhere. Neodymium magnets hold it in place. You can adjust it and such if you need to. But then the whole thing seamlessly just uses the existing bolt patterns on the top of your Stern machine to go in there. There are lights that are interactive with the game. You plug them into one of the GI bulbs in the back of the playfield, and then when the lights go on, lights go dark, there's lighting effects on R2. It looks good. I've made six of these now, okay? And the first round was five of them. They went very hush hush, just word of mouth, couple of friends, and they sold out almost immediately. I've got another round right now. I'm setting up to make another 10 of them. So if you would like to get one, email me and get on a list. I did share this to the Star Wars owners page. You can check it out there for pictures. Email me, I'll send you photos, videos, whatever, if you wanna see this thing. But for 450, you can deliver this thing to your house, put it on top of your machine, And you get like, honestly, I'm looking at it right now. It's the same size, same look, very shiny dome, R2D2. Like it looks awesome. I measured, I had one of the original ones and it's one to one, it's the same size. I just want to put that out there for you guys. I'm not advertising this on pin side. I'm not putting it out there, but if you want one, I have them about half built right now. I just have to sit and put the rest of the parts into production and I can crank them out in a matter of weeks. If you want to get one, email me at donspinballpodcastgmail.com. I'm just sharing that with you guys, all right? But I sold one of them and I used that to buy this new travel mixer so that when I go to shows like Pinball on the Beach, when I go down to Spooky Pinball, when I go down to Stern again, it'll be a lot easier for me to take my mobile studio now. And so that's all due to the love that I get back from the community. I love what I'm doing here. I have around $1,400 that are 1,400 people that are following the Facebook page. My YouTube, I have to check to see kind of where my numbers are at there. But you know, again, I think it's, I think it's a thousand, um, right around there. Let's see. Let's check it right now in real time. Huh? Let's view Don's Pinball Podcast channel. I have subscribers 679 and I have 101 videos and I don't put out content very regularly. So I get that. Um, Kaneda on his pinball podcast, he's the most popular pinball podcaster in terms of, uh, subscriber base that's paid. Uh, he has 1,300, right? Uh, almost as many Facebook followers as I have. That's what he has on his YouTube channel. The pinball world is small. I was watching a video game influencer commenter and the Nintendo Switch 2 is about to come out. Linus' tech tips, right? This guy was just shouted out by Stern Pinball the other day because he covered CES and he talked about the new pinball machine. This guy has 22 million subscribers on YouTube, which is enough to make... That's a job. His income from sponsors and everything is like, you know, really good income there. So water get up insideaus ayudar es es stimulador se quedase elis Physical Ulcer El Toro. ooey By I guess the subscriber numbers because I don't have 22 million people and getting tons of ad revenue. But what I am getting is a pipeline to make my mods and get them in the hands of people and buy and sell games. And that's been providing a way for me to make this happen. So thanks to all of you that are listening. We are small and we are mighty here. I don't even know what I would do with 22 million subscribers. I would hopefully like to springboard this into more consistent YouTube content. I think there's a real need for that. There's a niche there that I can totally fill and I'm looking to move in that as we go through 2025. So hopefully that will happen this year and give me feedback. Let me know what you want to see. I want to do it right. I want to have a set built. I want good camera, good lighting, so we can have some quality equipment coming out, quality content coming out frequently for you guys. I think that would be super fun to do. So look for that in the future. Hopefully we together collectively can make that happen. What else is going on in pinball? Let's talk about a couple of rumors. Dune from Barrels of Fun. Do I want to see this made? Um, supposedly it's new Dune. Dune's always been a little bit offbeat, a little bit creepy. I gotta tell you that back when the original Dune came out, I did see it and I was like eight. And all I remember is it's just really creepy. It doesn't grab you like Star Wars does, at least not to me. You know, it doesn't grab you like Star Trek. I'm your host, David Van Es, and I'll see you next time on Planet of the Apes. Trendy
    29:03
    Like that alone wouldn't have gotten me into that game, but the fact that Jim Henson and Bowie and Labyrinth and the Sculps and how cool were the barrels of fun guys? Man, those guys were awesome. And that topper, one of the best toppers in pinball, love the interactivity, even though it was just heads turning and just on the sides, but like the lights and the sounds that came with it make that game. And so I really kind of see what they have to come out with in terms of this game. I'm not rushing out to preorder it, but I would like to see what happens with that. Betelgeuse is rumored from spooky pinball. I had heard them comment once that if they are making Betelgeuse, it wasn't going to be one of their next games. We got Halloween, we got Scooby Doo, we got TCM and Looney Tunes and Evil Dead. And now they got Christopher Franchi, who we already know has done treatments for Betelgeuse. We know that Betelgeuse was skipped over by Stern for reasons, and probably that reason You ain't Thanks for watching Tcm and Looney Tunes you come up with like 1720 in total units which is a lot if you take a Scooby that was near 2000 which is a lot and so you know they had a whole year didn make all the Scooby yet it not sold out yet as far as Looney Tunes and Tcm that 1700 that still big numbers if you combine them all as to one release to build throughout the year when it comes to Evil Dead though only 888 that half the number of their last release So there's a chance that, you know, once Evil Dead does sell out, I should check the numbers here and see where we're at. But once Evil Dead either sells out or sells as many as it's gonna sell this year, probably earlier in the year, they're gonna be kind of on top of everything. Especially because I heard from Spooky Luke, he posted to my discord, this is why you got to be my discord member, that the first Evil Dead's will be leaving the factory probably this week. That's new information. I haven't seen that anywhere else. So that's just for you. Um, but with the games leaving this week and it being January and they're going to hit their stride by March, um, by the time they get to November, they'll probably need to do another release. So I think we're going to see something. I think it's going to be, oh, how cool would that be? And I don't know if this is their next theme or not, but how cool would an October Halloween release of Beetlejuice fricking be? Right at the right season, man, this game's coming out, get it pre-ordered. Let's do this. Oh my God. I would love it. I have to say, when I walked in the room and I saw that it was Evil Dead, I was familiar with the license, but I was a little disappointed it wasn't Beetlejuice. The next time I get invited to walk into that room early, Beetlejuice might be in there. Oh my god. I'm gonna 3D print a Zagnet bar and put it in there. That fly's gonna be in there. I'm gonna... oh god. Anything that's missing in that game, I'm gonna be putting in there. It's gonna be Beetlejuice under glass. I'm gonna play in that world. Out Just keep soaring, guys. Keep soaring. I'm so excited about what they're bringing out. And if rumors are true, gosh, dude, I'm not going to spoil a release or anything. Actually, I can't spoil a release because I don't know what they're coming out with. So I honestly don't know. I'm just going off and parodying rumors. But I mean, come on, man. How cool would that be? Like, it's our next game. We see that teaser and it's just like a little sandworm in the background. Any Tim Burton theme would be a theme I would love to see in pinball. All from Pee-Wee's Big Adventure to Frankenweenie probably. Frankenweenie would probably be Nightmare Before Christmas. Let's do that instead. But my God, man, can you imagine? How awesome would that be? All right, Harry Potter. Am I going to get it? I don't know. Kaneda's hyping it up, but he hyped up Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. And I don't see that game, you know, when it does finally come out and people get it. I think it's going to be like Pulp Fiction LE where people waited long enough to get it. The hype kind of died down, reality set in, and it's kind of like, eh, just give me my I'm going to go ahead and take this game. It's ready to ship right now. Honestly, I think that's where that's going. Avatar CE, I hope it lands around $12.5 on the used market. I hope it doesn't go down to like $9. That would be just completely tragic. I don't know if it'll stay at lofty levels like Elton John's CE is, which it absolutely is, but I think Avatar CE, with the whole package, the CE of Avatar is so much better than the LE one. The LE one I don't even want. Even at like $9,500 I don't know that it would jump on an Avatar LE. I gotta have the good topper, I gotta have the good playfield, I gotta have the baiter, I gotta have the extra UV, I have to have the undercab light and the backlighting against the wall to make my blue corner and when the eclipse comes in it's like a whole event from the monitor viewing the planet from space onto the blue that's washing across the carpet All of that stuff. So, you know, I think it's gonna be a great game. I think it's gonna be a great game, but it's gonna be a great game because you're gonna be able to get in the back of the wall to the game field going all bioluminescent and then hitting that Eclipse Spinner and getting a jackpot. That's what I want. That's what I want in that game. And you don't get that in the LE. You don't get it in the LE. You get it in the CE. This is gonna be one of the better CEs. I don't think it'll hold, you know, it's not Pirates of the Caribbean. It probably won't. It's not as good of a shooter as Elton John, though it has more adventure in it. For me personally, I like the theme better. I think it's gonna land in that maybe you know 13 every every now and then somebody may fire sell it for 12.5 but I don't think it's gonna go to 9. I don't think it's gonna Toy Story. I don't think it's gonna Godfather. I think this one's got more legs. Harry Potter will it stay up there for the CE? Probably for those collectors. Do I necessarily need it? No. Would I buy it? We'll have to wait and see what they come out with. I just can't believe it's March. I think that's too soon. I really don't want more pinball releases this front loaded into the year. But it looks like that's probably what's gonna happen. So holy crap and a half and some garbage What else is going on phantom tail pinball podcast go listen to it. He's gonna have Vincent pros on Procy who did the art for Dungeons and Dragons. I can't wait to get this game in my house I'm gonna I'm gonna go ahead and bolt it to the ground
    35:49
    Now bolts can be unbolted so but I want to lock it in there and just like bathe in this code and play this game and to Latinus cube myself and I love love all my characters and like that's what I want to get lost in in Dungeons and Dragons and I'm very much looking forward to that in a way that I'm not doing with John Wick. I'm thinking of this as like John Wick LE is going back to the distributor for D&D LE as like an even side to side swap. I think that makes sense. It would technically be a swap plus cash. I think that's fair. And for me, longevity and play wise, I think I'm going to get a lot more fun out of having that D&D than it will for have John Wick for an extra year. Although a little piece of me is always gonna miss the wick, man. Yeah, I'm thinking I'm back. I love that every time it happened. I just wish the game had some more in it. It is fun to shoot. Not a terrible game. Definitely better than Venom. But come on, come on, the code, the leveling system had to make sense, man. What are you doing? What are you doing? This has been a Patreon episode for everybody. This has been the Dirty Laundry. So check out Phantom Tail Pinball Podcast next week. He's gonna have this interview I'm your host, David Van Es, and I'll see you next time on Dungeons & Dragons.
    37:22
    Who's the guy that did the ninja clips art that did the art for Looney Tunes? I'm blanking on his name. I think it's another Brad. No, I'm thinking Brian Allen.
    37:33
    Brad. Why? Okay. I'm getting my guys confused. Okay. Brian Allen did the cool art with fun house and he does those cool alternative back glasses and he does that stuff. And then there's Brad Albright, which I think, what did he do? He did like the art on Motorhead. Was that Brad Albright? And then there's like another Brad that did the Ninja Eclipse. He's got the glasses. Ah, man, it's gonna come to me. It's gonna come to me. I should walk over to Looney Tunes and read his name off of there. Maybe that's Brad Albright. Then who's the guy that did the Motorhead art? I know he's like the ginger headed guy. I don't know. I'll think of it. I think it's just like a lot of Brad's and Brian's in pinball art. All right, sorry for the rambling. Otherwise, I'm gonna check out everybody else's pinball podcast, jeffatbadpinball.com. You wanna order a game, I know a lot of you have been doing it. Great feedback from both him and you guys. We're making a great ecosystem here. Um, who else can I shout out real quick? Uh, Fresh Pinball Podcast is one that the Mad Pinball guys do. I'm halfway through their new episode. I love it. Um, never miss one of those. Never miss a fan until for sure. And even to this day, given some of the friction, I still listen to the Pinball Nerds Podcast and, uh, you know, it's, it's a hot and cold relationship. Well, okay. Let's see. Um, it's hot and cold on his end. I've just been warm the whole time. There have been numerous
    39:18
    I'm not trying to be a jerk on purpose. I'm not out here to be an edgelord. I just think of things that I think are funny and I put them out there and often I don't think them through and I'm not perfect. So let me know, man. I'm a work in progress and I'm committed to continuous quality improvement. Don Henley, bring us home.
    39:48
    Oh, stay warm everybody. It is frigid with a wind chill negative 13 right now in Wisconsin. It's freezing my nostril hairs together. It's terrible. Let me know what you think of the audio on the new mixer. I'm still working to optimize it. Pinball at the beaches in I'll see you guys later.