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Pokemon LE Pinball Unboxing take 2!!!

Don's Pinball Podcast Live Streams (YouTube)·video·analyzed·Apr 8, 2026
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Don unboxes Pokémon LE #60, discusses Stern quality concerns and LE features.

Summary

Don from Don's Pinball Podcast unboxes his second Pokémon LE pinball machine (unit #60) from Stern, replacing his first unit (#20) due to issues. He documents the setup process, discusses early quality concerns emerging as machines reach customers, and details the LE features including powder-coated legs, better speakers, and a premium shooter rod. Don notes several minor design choices (unpadded coin door, flat Pikachu tail, basic buck signage) that could be improved and mentions aftermarket modifications available.

Key Claims

  • Multiple Pokémon LE units are experiencing issues as they reach customers, raising questions about whether Stern is rushing production.

    medium confidence · Don mentions hearing from people getting Pokémon machines on-site: 'I'm hearing now that people are getting these Pokémans on site, that little little issues are cropping up here and there. To the point that people are wondering like is Stern, is Stern rushing it a little bit, brother?'

  • Don's first Pokémon LE (#20) had a problem that required Stern support intervention; he requested unit #60 as a replacement to avoid being ranked lower than a Canadian collector.

    high confidence · Don states: 'I had a problem with my LE. Zack hooked it up, flipping out... This came at perfect time... I decided 20 was too low of a number, so I called my distributor... I can't have a number 20. Give me something at least if Canada's 50, I got to be higher than that guy.'

  • The Pokémon LE includes better speakers than the Premium version, and a premium shooter rod with custom Pokémon-themed design.

    high confidence · Don confirms: 'Better speakers on the LE, premium ones are tiny. Absolutely. They're supposed to be better' and notes the shooter rod is 'master ball shooter rod with Pokémon back plate.'

  • A $199 Raiden Mods modification adds a sculpted, servo-based moving Pikachu tail to replace the flat plastic default.

    high confidence · Don states: 'there's a $200 modification for this game from Raiden Mods that he's doing that actually changes the Po- Pikachu tail into a sculpted servo-based movement disorder tail' and later 'Raiden, I think you're getting an order.'

  • Stern is now using zip ties on cash boxes and has changed the cash box lock mechanism from a smooth round bar to a laser-cut metal flap on Spike 3 systems.

    high confidence · Don observes: 'Stern has started doing zip ties on the cash box' and 'One thing I don't like with it is instead of having that nice smooth round bar that locks into the interface on the cash box lid, now it's just a a metal flap like they uh laser cut out uh the mounting bracket and flip it up.'

  • The Pokémon LE T-moldings are protected with blue tape despite being straight yellow (not fragile chrome or gold variants), which is unusual.

Notable Quotes

  • “I'm hearing now that people are getting these Pokémans on site, that little little issues are cropping up here and there. To the point that people are wondering like is Stern, is Stern rushing it a little bit, brother?”

    Don@ 2:26 — Documents early quality concerns emerging in the field with Pokémon LE units; signals potential manufacturing or design issues affecting customer satisfaction.

  • “Stern requires a new quality manager. I mean, quality should be job one followed by safety and fiduciary responsibility.”

    Chat commenter@ 12:18 — Reflects community sentiment about quality control issues; Don doesn't directly dispute this criticism in context.

  • “Like I'm so glad I'm so glad I had a live stream going. I didn't have to explain anything. I was like, here. Here's what happened. I did my best. I'm sure Stern's going to be cool with it.”

    Don@ 16:20 — References an incident from the first unboxing where something went wrong; highlights how live documentation serves as warranty/evidence protection for collectors.

  • “there's a $200 modification for this game from Raiden Mods that he's doing that actually changes the Po- Pikachu tail into a sculpted servo-based movement disorder tail... It's only $199. Should I just go ahead and I might have to I might have to.”

    Don@ 28:11 — Signals strong demand for third-party aesthetic mods; Don's immediate interest suggests the stock Pikachu tail is widely seen as a design weakness.

  • “By the way, if you're not powder coating your cash box lid to match the armor, like are you even even really playing pinball?”

    Don@ 22:36 — Reflects collector culture emphasis on aesthetics and customization; suggests powder coating cash box lids is now a standard collector practice for LE machines.

Entities

DonpersonPokémon LEgameStern PinballcompanyZackpersonRaiden ModspersonFlippin OutcompanyRetro RalphpersonBarrels of Funcompany

Signals

  • ?

    product_concern: Multiple Pokémon LE units experiencing unspecified issues as machines reach customers; community questioning whether Stern is rushing production.

    medium · Don: 'I'm hearing now that people are getting these Pokémans on site, that little little issues are cropping up here and there. To the point that people are wondering like is Stern, is Stern rushing it a little bit?' and chat criticism about quality manager.

  • ?

    design_innovation: Raiden Mods offering servo-based animated Pikachu tail ($199) as response to stock flat plastic design perceived as weakness by collectors.

    high · Don immediately expresses intent to order mod: 'Raiden, I think you're getting an order' and acknowledges flat tail limitation: 'I want a resin tail and I wouldn't mind if it moved. It's only $199.'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: LE pricing at 2x Pro tier doesn't align with cosmetic upgrade choices (no foil decals, no rad cal graphics); questions raised about value proposition of premium tier.

    high · Don: 'But I will say this... you can always rad cal just regular non-foiled graphics, and they look spectacular... from what I heard from people in the industry, it's like six times the cost of a decal. Um but this game is twice the cost of a pro. So, what are we doing?'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Stern made several Spike 3 mechanical changes: zip ties on cash boxes, laser-cut metal flap cash box lock (replacing smooth round bar), blue protective tape on T-moldings.

    high · Don observes multiple changes directly: 'Stern has started doing zip ties on the cash box' and 'instead of having that nice smooth round bar... now it's just a a metal flap like they uh laser cut out uh the mounting bracket.'

  • ?

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

0:03
I don't know, I say we just go. Let's get a Let's get an intro going. Boom, I got my retro Ralph gloves on. Boom boom, jazz hands are ready to go. And it is me. Hello, how you doing? Don's Pinball Podcast Pokémon Edition. This is round two. Everybody saddle up. I don't know why I'm channeling the Macho Man right now, but I am ready. I'm ready to unbox this right here. As you can see, Pokémon LE by Stern Pinball. Stern Pinball Pokémon. I forget what they're supposed to call it. Pokémon Pinball by Stern. Poke Pokémon by Stern, the Pinball Company or some crap, whatever. How you doing? How you doing? How's your mom and them? Please tell me Tell them that I said I asked them how they were doing. Let's get over to some chat real quick, and then we're just going to do a casual unbox here, guys. This is a different machine. This is not fixed. This is number 60. I decided 20 was too low of a number, so I called my distributor and I'm like, "Zack, dude, you got to hook it up, man. I can't have a number 20. Give me something at least If Canada's 50, I got to be higher than that guy." So, he did me a solid, got me 60, came in at Poliwag. I'm ready, man. I'm ready. I can't have like like Canada outrank me, right? Ranked up to level 60. What's up, Wired Altech? Wired Altech. I think you should go by I think Wired Al be better. Do you guys want to see the chat when I do these? Cuz like I can I can bring them in just like that. Boom. We got some chat. All right. This is going to be like low-key unbox. This was This came at perfect time. I had a problem with my LE. Zack hooked it up, flipping out. He's like, "Dude, don't even worry. We got you covered." He sent me the crate. I uncrated on Facebook. You can go check that out, Facebook Live. And then we got this sucker in the house now. The other one is all wrapped up in that snug pin armor, available from Barrels of Fun. Don's got a set. They're 400 bucks. Make it's like the easiest way to pack stuff. Up, brother. My premium has been shutting off, working with Stern support, man. So, I'm hearing now that Now that people are getting these Pokémans on site, that little little issues are cropping up here and there. To the point that people are wondering like is Stern Is Stern rushing it a little bit, brother? I got to fix my window here. Can you guys see the chat okay? There we go. We'll bring it in a little bit more. We can do We can do chat. We can do unbox, but these are fun, man. These are fun. Tell you what we're not going to do. We're not going to be ginger with this box, cuz we're not going to need it. I can tell this thing is solid. I went all around the box on Facebook Live just now. No nicks, no cuts, no coconuts, man. We're ready to get into this thing. Let's go again. Um my premium has been shutting off, working with Stern support. That's weird, dude. That's weird. Having déjà vu last guy look different. True that, true that. But, you know, in life things uh change. Uh Poliwag, that's true. Especially when you add in crippling social anxiety to a pinball personality, this is kind of what you get. No cargo shorts. These are DeWalt cargo pants. I've leveled up. I think I'm ready. Uh Stern is now number one with customer support. I mean, you know, no new poster. We'll find out. We'll find out. Hey-o. Number 60. Truck this side only. This will be the side of the bottom of the game, so you can actually lay this down flat, put it into your truck if you need to. This one has never been laid flat. We did it old school. Took it out on the movable dolly. How should we open her? Uh I'm not saving this box. I'm done saving boxes. I got boxes for days. Let's just open it up. Well, you don't really need to Oh, I missed that. You don't really need to do this. Well, maybe if we do this, we can get it out of the way.

high confidence · Don notes: 'This is just some blue tape that goes on to the T-molding... Um these are just straight-up yellow. You can get 20 ft of this stuff for $19 on Amazon... they went ahead and and protected them. Just I don't know. It's a little... kind of neat.'

  • Pokémon LE ships with the bolts pre-installed to prevent rattling and loss, which Don views positively.

    high confidence · Don states: 'Stern does a cool thing here. They ship with the bolts in place. I think that helps keep things from rattling loose.'

  • The Pokémon LE game was born/manufactured on March 23rd according to Don's observation of factory dates.

    medium confidence · Don says: 'This game was born on March 23rd for those of you keeping track. So I watched the Stern factory Friday' and notes they were working on a non-Pokémon game, suggesting production may be shifting.

  • “What can you do, you know? What what can you do? I mean, stuff's going to happen in pinball. Got to be graceful with it. None of that was planned.”

    Don@ 15:57 — Philosophy about handling on-stream mishaps; reflects the informal, forgiving culture of pinball streaming and community.

  • “Pokemon is fun smooth shooter fun for all skill levels. I agree.”

    Don/Chat@ 10:16 — Confirms Pokémon's positioning as accessible, casual-friendly despite also having depth for competitive play.

  • “This game is twice the cost of a pro. So, what are we doing? What are we doing here?”

    Don@ 33:16 — Critiques value proposition of LE at premium pricing; questions whether cosmetic upgrades (foil decals, rad cals) justify the cost differential vs. Pro model.

    • Spike 3
    product
    Dungeons and Dragons LEgame
    Stranger Thingsgame
    Hilton Savageperson
    The Walking Deadgame
    Insider Connectedproduct
    Star Wars Fall of the Republicgame
    WrestleMania LEgame
    Monster's Premiumgame
    Avatargame

    product_strategy: Pokémon LE bundled with premium shooter rod ($225 retail value) and better speakers vs. Premium version; positions LE as value-add despite 2x price premium.

    high · Don: 'Better speakers on the LE, premium ones are tiny' and 'Stern probably afford that second shooter rod. The generosity knows no bounds. I'm glad the LE included it at least.'

  • ?

    collector_signal: Collectors track and compete on unit serial numbers; Don explicitly requested upgrade from #20 to #60 to rank higher than Canadian collector.

    high · Don: 'I decided 20 was too low of a number, so I called my distributor... I can't have like like Canada outrank me, right?'

  • ?

    content_signal: Live unboxing streams serve as official warranty/damage documentation; Don notes value of having incident captured on camera for Stern support interactions.

    high · Don: 'I will say is there any better warranty recording documentation than a freaking live stream... I'm so glad I had a live stream going. I didn't have to explain anything.'

  • ?

    venue_signal: Distributors (Flippin Out) actively support content creators by providing loaner units and technical assistance for unboxing streams; signals ecosystem integration.

    high · Don credits: 'Thanks to Flippin Out for all the help. I got to do two Pokémon LE live streams. That's great. Because of the help that I got from Zach at Flippin Out.'

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Collectors discussing desired mods: moving Pikachu tail, upgraded buck signage, custom light-up Pokédex elements, foil decals, rad cal graphics.

    high · Don lists mod candidates: 'I think I just need a moving Pikachu tail that's sculpted... maybe something cool to put up here with a Pokédex' and discusses foil decal alternatives.

  • ?

    community_signal: Real-time chat participation during unboxing with game recommendations, mod suggestions, and quality criticism; engaged moderation and community input.

    high · Multiple chat interventions including Hilton Savage reference, spec questions, and 'Raiden, I think you're getting an order' leading to customer conversion.

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Don observed Stern factory working on non-Pokémon game despite ongoing LE production, suggesting pivot away from Pokémon run toward next title.

    medium · Don: 'I watched the Stern factory Friday. I'll just talk from behind the cabinet here and it looked like they were working on a game that was not Pokemon I kind of figured they'd be cranking these out until they're all done.'

    • 4:10
    I'm going to change things up. We're not saving it. We're not saving it.
    4:16
    Oh, number 60. Let's get Let's get feisty. Oh. Oh. Mm, smells like smells like a pinball machine. Packing material from the top. Ooh, look at this goodness. This is what you find on the top of a $24,000 pinball machine. Packing materials. Packing materials. All right, we don't want to get hit with those later. She's right here. This coin door. Can you see it? Needs to be powder coated to match the rest of the armor. Just no no buts or coconuts about it. We're going to have to do it. First thing is do not cut this strap until we're set up. Let's get the legs out of here. I'll set her back down.
    5:02
    Hey, easy. Who's updating? All right, Dungeons and Dragons might update here. >> [snorts]
    5:07
    [snorts]
    5:07
    [snorts] >> So, out of the box you're going to get
    5:09
    So, out of the box you're going to get
    5:09
    So, out of the box you're going to get these guys, the cardboard tubes that the legs come in. Now, these are LE legs. They're powder coated. They're pretty, brother. Ooh. So much miscellaneous cardboard. She's got legs. See See what kind of legs we got. Stern number one with needing support. Oh, Hilton Savage. Going on 5 months with a badly chipped The Walking Dead. Hilton's Walking Dead did get Dude, dude, it's chipped like a guacamole bowl, man. I don't know I don't know what you did to that thing, dude. So, Hilton got his his Pokémon LE. So, here's what I do with my front legs. I put them up about an inch or so. So, I got carpet and I got a lift cart. And if I bury these to the bottom, which you can do for the front legs, my lift cart doesn't quite doesn't quite make it in there, but if I just put a little inch Let's put a little inch. It's perfect. So, I'll do that for both of these guys. Don, it's a Stern. Fully expect sixth time to be the charm. Listen, guys. I know like What's the opposite of a Stern fanboy? Those people are definitely out in force. Pokémon's a stirred or whatever. Stirred. Come on, adults acting crazy. As always, to make sure that these legs measure up. Oop. I put them down next to each other. Measure the tops. Dude, we're set. We're solid. We're good. So, we're already prepped there. The front legs are ready to go. Let's get the back legs ready. Ooh.
    6:47
    Like watch watch some of the JJP unboxings, man. There is like there's so much in there, so much magic, so much satisfying plastic stuff to unwrap. Stern's a little bit more uh What's the opposite of complicated? What's the opposite of like your relationship with status? It's complicated. That's kind of what this is. Essentially, there's the leg boxes and there's the game. It's kind of it. It's kind of all you get.
    7:14
    Just an inch. No more. That's I've heard an inch is plenty.
    7:21
    Ooh, leg condoms. Look at how pretty this guy is. So, there's no flake. There's no illusion. It's kind of a a matte finish. I guess you could say it's got a little bit of gloss. So, I do like I do two fingers in the back, man. Two of my fat fat man fingers right in there, so they're snug. That's where I put them. I eyeball one of them, and then I measure the other one off of this one. And that tends to put it at just around kind of the right pitch of what you want. Kind of the right pitch of what you want. What you what you what you want.
    7:58
    At least I'm good at setting up games here. By now, I've learned something, right? You don't need to look at my laptop. That's kind of stupid. All right, can you see over here? I got my lift cart. So, we're going to put these at the same 2 in.
    8:20
    And again, we'll just put them down, measure them. Couple more cranks. Couple more Christmas with the Cranks.
    8:35
    Couple more. Whoa. Oh, we got a suicidal pinball legs here. Have you guys played Pokémon yet? What do you think?
    8:50
    I think it's fun. I think it's not the most technologically advanced game I've ever played. But, I think the story, the code, the callouts, they're fun. She lied. I'm holding out for the next Kastner. Aren't we all? If dude can only make three games a a year, I think we'd all be happier, right? All right, so let's Let's talk about the game. Let's get the focus back on the game here and not on my laptop as much. There we go. All right, so here's the process. Let us cut her down in front here. I'm just going to take this whole panel off.
    9:30
    I have the retro Ralph gloves on, so you know you know we're talking safety here. [snorts]
    9:43
    If I stay within a centimeter of the side, it should be good. All right, look at that. There's the bottom of a game. Oh, look at this twisted strap. Peeves, right? The the pet peeves for these packing straps and like my cargo straps that I use in the truck, I like when there's no twists in them. This one's twisted and it's got bent here. This little little attention to detail is all you really need. Pokemon is fun smooth shooter fun for all skill levels. I agree. All right, so Stern does a cool thing here. They ship with the bolts in place. I think that helps keep things from rattling loose. Helps from keep them getting lost and also like they're where you want them. So I don't have to go hunting for them. They're not in another box.
    10:45
    My power ratchet is somewhere. So we'll go ahead and take these out. I should throw This is the point where you would put a cup holder on. I don't have one handy. I got a box of them upstairs. We'll figure all that out later. But we'll take one of those front legs that we prepped earlier.
    11:05
    I'm kind of sassy. I like to powder coat these to match. It's not good if you're going to keep taking them off and putting them on cuz they'll get scratched very very easily. But if you were the weird kind of obsessive, it's something you can do. It's kind of fun, you know. I did it with Stranger Things. I don't do them on every game now. It's probably better to get anodized bolts and then they won't get scratched as much, but
    11:36
    there we go. All right, man. So I'm going to put this other leg on. I'm going to put my my lift cart my scissor lift cart underneath. I'm going to pull the game forward on that and then use that cart to lift it straight up in the air. Then we're going to put the back legs on and that is going to be so much easier than probably how I did my first 10 games where I was doing the whole hernia lifting. Go watch my Avatar unboxing. No lie, I was on stream and I didn't think I could lift that game, but I didn't want to let the game beat me on stream. So at the risk of a herniated disc, I went ahead and lifted that thing and I was successful. Stern requires a new quality manager. I mean, quality should be job one followed by safety and fiduciary responsibility. Did y'all get your taxes done?
    12:37
    Actually had one of my state returns get rejected so I have to go deal with that.
    12:53
    I don't know. It's like I'm filling out a state as an out-of-state resident. Do people in other countries [snorts] do they have to submit taxes every year or cuz it just get drawn out automatically? Feel like we have this convoluted taxing system in the US. All right, man. There she be. We're going to lay her down. Helps to hold the IKEA cabinet together. Yeah. So this is my tactically my second Spike 3 cabinet. All right, so we're going to put this boy right about there. Yeah, there you can see you can see it. We'll come forward.
    13:33
    All right, eagle's landed. Can you see it? It's not the most graceful thing.
    13:44
    But what we'll do is crank this guy up and here I am herniating no backs.
    13:56
    We'll take off the last of the packing materials. We'll move this whole box back out of the way. You know what? I think that's going to be my go-to way of doing these. >> [snorts]
    14:03
    [snorts]
    14:03
    [snorts] >> That was so easy. That was easier than
    14:05
    That was so easy. That was easier than
    14:05
    That was so easy. That was easier than what I'd been doing. Ooh, hope that didn't scratch the leg. All right. What did I do with my Klondike bar? I'm just using I'm just using a ratchet to do this. Can you guys see okay?
    14:31
    You guys, what's Orbital Albert been doing? This game was born on March 23rd for those of you keeping track.
    14:45
    So I watched the Stern factory Friday. I'll just talk from behind the cabinet here and it looked like they were working on a game that was not Pokemon
    15:02
    I kind of figured they'd be cranking these out until they're all done.
    15:14
    When's the next Stern media day? I want to make sure I'm in town for it.
    15:22
    I got like seven new jobs starting. It's going to make it hard. All right. See if we can see if we can rotate her. See if we can rotate her. Yeah, that worked.
    15:41
    You guys see what we're working on now? Look at that Pokemans.
    15:46
    When I watched your other Pokemon live I almost said you handled it well on stream. >> [laughter]
    15:49
    [laughter]
    15:49
    [laughter] >> What can you do, you know? What what
    15:50
    What can you do, you know? What what
    15:50
    What can you do, you know? What what what what can you do? I mean, stuff's going to happen in pinball. Got to be graceful with it. None of that was planned. I will say is there any better warranty recording documentation than a freaking live stream of like, listen, I just pulled it out of the box and this is what I saw?
    16:14
    Like I'm so glad I'm so glad I had a live stream going. I didn't have to explain anything. I was like, here. Here's what happened. I did my best.
    16:26
    I'm sure Stern's going to be cool with it. Man, look at all these cat characters.
    16:32
    All right, so I mentioned that I dropped this. It didn't scratch, by the way. But if you do scratch your powder coat, not the end of the world.
    16:42
    You can go ask somebody online. They'll tell you which powder coat color this is. It's commercially available. It's not proprietary. And then you just go down to your local powder coater, have them bake it off, spray it, recook it and you're good as new, man.
    17:02
    Not the end of the world. You want to sell [snorts] a game but it got a scratch on it. You can fix it. Hell, I've redone decals before. Nothing is insurmountable. All right, so there you go. The Pokemans. I think what we'll do is we're all wondering, of course, how does it look? Does it have the same problem? We've got to that point that it's time to open her up.
    17:31
    Let's see if we can Whoa, shoot. This is not the most graceful swan in the dungeon.
    17:45
    Coming around, toot toot. There we go. All right. Baby got black.
    18:07
    Did you get a different name number? Different game number. Concrete hard to hard to to. Yeah, number 60.
    18:17
    I don't know what the plan is for for the old number 20. Look for a scratch and dent deal soon, I guess. I might want to I might want to email the guy now just in case. All right, so what did we get? Same thing as last time. Safety and setup. Pinball on location. First time setup. Install in a proper area at location. Very good. We are going to go take these instructions. We're going to put them in a drawer and we're probably never going to look at them again. Clean machine inside out and check leg levelers for free operations. Very good. Very good advice. Very good advice.
    18:56
    That'll be for the plug, Doug. All right. So this being the LE, there's some extra wires back here.
    19:04
    We're going to make sure we don't grab them into anything that we shouldn't get stuck in. Going to cram them in there.
    19:16
    And I think I think that's good. All right. Oh my goodness. Would you look at this? Look at that. These back glasses look so great in person. Very satisfying limited edition number 60 of 750. All right. The little transducer plates here, they look all right. Little blue tab. We'll just pull that guy off exposing the screen. All right. Next up we got a certificate of authenticicity. It's authenticicity. This will also go in a drawer never to be seen again, but that's what they look like. Take a screenshot, go to Kinko's, make your own, or whatever you want to do. But there she is. The Pokémon alley. This will probably travel with the game. I have a whole drawer of these things. I have to try to keep them so when I sell the game, like the new owner can get it. All right, satisfying parts. Let's take off all this blue stuff protecting the armor.
    20:20
    Oh, put that in a pile with the ones from the game 20. All right. Dude.
    20:29
    Tell you what, I don't see anything busted in here. That's a great That's a great thing. All right, there's four pieces of paper that are here stuck to the glass. Congratulations on your new SPI HD glass. Don't use ammonia on it. We got the Insider Connected. Please update and connect to the internet. We got this thing that comes with every game about the achievements you can get with Insider Connected. Here's an account setup guide. Very easy to do if you've already set up a game. You can grab a QR code from it and scan that QR code in the next one. It'll connect to your Wi-Fi. It loads all the passwords and it adds it to your account. Super easy, super simple. Oh, man. I want to play it. I just want to play it. Uh here's what we're going to do. Um
    21:20
    I don't I want to pull this game back so you can appreciate it in all its glory. However, what I don't want to do is have this unsecured back box slapped down. So what I'm going to do is let's uh let's unbox
    21:35
    the uh coin box and all that. I'll open it up off camera here or I'll I'll open the coin box.
    21:47
    Oh, yeah, Stern has started doing zip ties on the cash box which I just cut. And then there's a cotter pin. So one thing I'm not digging on the Spike 3 system Whoa. Shoot. All right. We'll do this little unbox here. One thing I don't like with it is instead of having that nice smooth round bar that locks into the interface on the cash box lid, now it's just a a metal flap like they uh laser cut out uh the mounting bracket and flip it up and then that's what goes onto this. And while functional, it just doesn't have the right, you know, panache. I didn't screw in the back box lugs. Thank you, Joel. They're in here in the cash box. So By the way, if you're not powder coating your cash box lid to match the armor, like are you even really playing pinball? That'll be one of the first things we do with this game. All right, so just like the last one, we got the shooter rod, the power cord,
    22:54
    and the baggy with the balls and importantly, no no that's it. The uh the bolts for the back box. I don't want to move this thing until the back box is secured. Better speakers on the LE, premium ones are tiny. Absolutely. They're supposed to be better. We'll take a look at them here in a second, but this is as far as I got, by the way, with the the prior unbox. So there's just two simple bolts back here, two hex bolts. We're going to go secure this head so when I move it back, it's not falling to the ground and smashing. Smashing.
    23:30
    Remember The Thornberrys? What a crazy cartoon that was. Eliza Thornberry, you look like a bush baby. What a freaking cartoon. Why yes, I would like to I would like to see some Nicktoons in pinball form. I'm going to secure these back box bolts here. Pardon the intrusion.
    23:57
    I wish I had more of a mobile camera to take you guys around all this stuff.
    24:14
    It's a bush baby. Yes, Nigel Thornberry. They had that monkey kid. What a weird cartoon that was.
    24:24
    All right. In the center. All right, now on the regular lift cart, we're just going to push it back.
    24:42
    Second, can you guys see? I'm asking like you can talk to me. There we go.
    25:03
    Oh, Pokémans. Now, I have some alcohol. These balls come a little bit greasy from the factory. There's six of them in this bag. And I want to clean them off with alcohol and a little wipe just to get the oil off. If you play it without it, it's going to cause tons of grime all over your playfield. Here is the last time you'll be seeing the tilt bob for this game. Well, I guess you can't see it, but looks like that. We're not putting this in. We don't have time for that kind of nonsense. All right, so six balls need to go in the game. The power cord has to go in the back. Let's unbox this shooter rod. This is just the regular Stern shooter rod. Got to get some meta Ray-Bans, right? I'm late to the Yu-Gi-Oh unboxing. Oh, man, if only. All right. Bubble wrap. Oh my goodness gracious. There she is. The master ball shooter rod with Pokémon back plate. As shooter rods go, that's cool.
    26:06
    So I haven't played a game with this. I've played Pokémon games with the regular one. I know it works great. Sometimes you have to change the spring strength here cuz these can shoot a little softer. But it does feel good. I mean, that's a good feeling shooter rod. Round, feels good in the hand. Got some good tactile bits to it. You know, this is countersunk under there. This is raised a bit. You got the top little I guess Poké breasts or whatever those are. Like so when you feel it, like you feel like you got a hold of something. Which, you know, when I'm looking at a shooter rod, that's all I'm asking for, man. Give me something that feels like I can just Okay. We're going to install this later. Three bolts on the back. You undo them from this one, pull it out, put this one in, three bolts, done. Super easy. Comes preassembled. I love it. Not like the ones I sell where you got to transfer all the hardware. What do we got to do? Let's take the glass off.
    27:10
    All right, close the coin door before you pull the glass off. This glass came out very easily. The last one I had was pretty tight in there, pretty snug. This one feels solid, man. All right. We got a paper. We got a paper. What does this homework say? Remove cable tie and plastic bag before operating the game. Thank you very much. So oh gosh, they put a a snuff hood over Snuffleupagus back here. Over Meowth.
    27:58
    Breathe. Breathe, Meowth. Don't asphyxiate. Look at good sculpt, good sculpt. All right. So there's a $200 modification for this game from Raiden Mods that he's doing that actually changes the Po- Pikachu tail into a sculpted servo-based movement disorder tail. Cuz right now that is just a piece of flat plastic and I didn't realize like it's not a sculpt. Like I want a resin tail and I wouldn't mind if it moved. It's only $199. Should I just go ahead and I might have to I might have to. Stern probably afford that second shooter rod. The generosity knows no bounds. I'm glad the LE included it at least, you know. These things go for $225. Too much for a shooter rod, whatever. Um but at least it's included as I feel like I get a little more value with the LE.
    29:00
    And this playfield Oh, I can raise and lower this one. I couldn't do that with the last one. All right, I don't think I'm going to bother checking all connections and everything. I'm just going to fire it up. Yellow. What do we got? Couple more things to do. I mean, they're not like pinwoofers. The tweeters are tiny. I want just a speaker upgrade to slot into here, I think. I'm not even sure what the amplification is like. Big screen though, pretty empty. Let's see. Oh, this comes out very easily. So my Star Wars Fall of the Republic or whatever, this was in there very tight and a Retro Ralph had the same issue. This one came out no problem. Nice mirrored back glass. It It good, man. It looks good. Otherwise, that's a pinball machine.
    29:55
    Goes in easy. Click click click All right. Very satisfying. We'll pull these off of the T-moldings. Yes, dude. That is very yellow. That is very purple. The purple and yellow do complement each other. I do like it. All right, this one I don't know. So, I don't know why they're doing this, okay? Um This is just some blue tape that goes on to the T-molding. And you see this with T-moldings that are a little bit more fragile. Uh ones that have a chrome applique to them or the gold ones that like uh WrestleMania LE has, Monster's premium black and white has the silver. Um these are just straight-up yellow. You can get 20 ft of this stuff for $19 on Amazon. And you can change these to whatever color you want. Couldn't be simpler to put them in. But they went ahead and and protected them. Just I don't know. It's a little It's cool. I like peeling stuff off. I mean, I'm not complaining, but kind of neat. Uh all right, so the apron has just a little card on here with instructions no one's going to read. Um I think I'll 3D print something cool to go in there. Uh what else do we got? Uh I mean, this thing's going to get probably tons of mods for it. Charmander on one side of the spinner and like an explosion fire bolt on the other one. Pokéball doesn't have anything holding it in place, no packing material to remove. Meowth al- al- also doesn't look to have any packing material. There is a piece of a zip tie back here. And it looks like not the one that I cut to take Meowth off, but maybe it was. We'll get rid of that. I think I just need a moving Pikachu tail that's sculpted. And uh I don't know, maybe something cool to put up here with a Pokédex is, but other than that, I think it's ready, man. The flap underneath the Pokéball it lifts okay. There's no no tape or anything on there. She's probably ready. So, I think what I'll do is I'll plug her in. I'll go get the balls cleaned off. We'll put them in there. We'll install the new shooter rod, and then it'll be game play time. Fire it up, Don, already. Uh I'm thinking about that mod, too. Nothing to weigh it down, just plywood and flat plastics. Uh what else we got? Damn, wouldn't it have been sweet if they would have done foil decals? Um Oh, yeah. Now, I'm let listen, okay? The decals. The foil looks great. Do I have anything with foil decals? Uh D&D LE currently has foil decals. I love it. Uh I think that's the only one that I have with foil decals at the moment. Yeah, we got a we got a butter Ultraman. I've got a decal to Evil Dead. All right. But I will say this, uh you can always rad cal just regular non-foiled graphics, and they look spectacular. They feel great. Like on the side, you're like, yes, that's what I want the feel to be. In the grand scheme, does it make a difference? No. If you're casual pinball person, you wouldn't even know, really. But I would know, and I would love to have have had a rad cal type thick plastic plexi printed graphic on the side rather than just a decal that goes over there. Um from what I heard from people in the industry, it's like six times the cost of a decal. Um but this game is twice the cost of a pro. So, what are we doing? What are we doing here? Huh? Poliwag's in the house. Is it Poliwag? Yeah, Poliwag. Cuz uh Poliwhirl is the evolved form. Poliwag. So, we we got us a Poliwag here. Nuno, how you doing, buddy? How you doing? I tried, man. If I got one more of these, it would have went to you. At some point, someone's going to make a better sign over the buck.
    33:42
    Oh, yeah. I mean, and that would be a simple thing to do. This is a very simple just piece of plastic. There are four screws that are holding it in. Um two of the screws are actually bolts that go back to the LED light board. Um I can have something printed today that would be that it it just holds on with two screws. At least you get something that's got some more depth to it. Um I'm sure Stumblor's going to do something ridiculous. Uh but yeah, I think I think that would be a very very simple fix to something that's a little bit more robust. And I think that's what you'll see. Uh plastic protectors obviously have to redo the rubbers, switch out the posts. There is a red post uh by the ball guide for Charmander. I appreciate that cuz I don't have to change it. The standard black ones though, uh they just lack some they're just so standard and vanilla. Um I think a custom printed sculpty something to replace the plastic in front of Pikachu so it gives some dimensionality to those rocks that are in front of him. And maybe on the side here as well. Uh plenty of space for some fun stuff in the back here on that back plastic. The plastic back here over this ramp. But honestly, the game's going to be fun without all that. I did see kind of an overdone um citrus swirl over here that over the punch bowl. And uh I think that was probably a little bit too much. I'm going to put the glass in after I put the balls in. We're going to fire it up. I'm going to update it. I'm going to log in. And I'm just going to hang out. I'm just going to play for a little bit cuz I haven't in weeks. I've been on the road and everything. So, yeah. Raiden, I think you're getting an order. Um cuz I I kind of wanted Hey from Perth. Shane, how you doing? Hello from West Virginia. Hello, sir. How you doing? How you doing? At some point, someone's going to make a better sign over the buck. Yep, Poliwag's here. Raiden made it cool. Pokémon LE. This one looks fine. You know, I want to power it up, but I want to like obsess over it a little bit. And then I want to list the playfield. I want to go through the Spike 3 cabinet just nerd over it. That's very boring to watch on live stream. So, we'll wrap this one up. And then uh we'll get some game play going. Probably not tonight, but maybe a little later in the week when I get some more of my equipment here and going out to the other house. From Retro Ralph's gloved hands. This is Don. Yeah, what's up? Uh what what's good, Don? How you doing, B Dawgs? We're done. We we unboxed it. She looks great. I have no conceived notions that she's not going to play well with others. And I'm going to I can't wait to see the lights and everything. My wife's never played it. We're going to fire it up. We're going to play it, okay? So, be good. We'll be back. We'll do more live streams. But this was fun. I'm glad it worked out. Thanks to Flippin Out for all the help. I got to do two Pokémon LE live streams. That's great. Because of the help that I got from Zach at Flippin Out. What a cool guy.