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Episode 666: "Mr. Todd Tuckey"

Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)·podcast_episode·49m 36s·analyzed·Apr 7, 2022
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.036

TL;DR

Todd Tuckey on TNT Amusements' record year, supply chain chaos, and pinball market trends.

Summary

Todd Tuckey, operator of TNT Amusements since 1979 and recent Twippies Award winner for favorite pinball YouTube channel, discusses the current pinball market boom, supply chain challenges, pricing trends, and his perspective on manufacturers and future game themes. He describes record sales, inventory shortages, parts scarcity, and the shift from location vending to home collector sales, while speculating on upcoming titles like Jaws and discussing licensing constraints.

Key Claims

  • TNT Amusements won the Twippies Award for favorite pinball YouTube channel with 30% of votes against 10 finalists

    high confidence · Kaneda confirms voting results at episode opening

  • Todd has been in the pinball/amusement business since 1979, buying his first game at age 15

    high confidence · Todd directly states his entry date and age when starting TNT Amusements

  • Stern is having significant trouble producing enough equipment and can't get needed parts

    high confidence · Todd states Stern is 'working pretty much around the clock' and distributors had to get permission to sell stock to help them catch up

  • Power cord prices have increased $6 per unit due to copper costs and supplier constraints

    high confidence · Todd discusses conversation with Steve Young at Pinball Resources about cord pricing

  • Pinbot machines are selling for $5,000, up from historic prices of $350-$600

    high confidence · Todd describes recent sale with six calls on a single Pinbot listing

  • Jaws is rumored to be coming from Stern in August, designed by Keith Elwin, but Roy Schneider's family refuses to allow his likeness

    medium confidence · Todd states 'I heard it's going to be Jaws. I heard it's coming out probably in August' and discusses family licensing restrictions

  • Toy Story by Jersey Jack will be their most popular title and they will never make enough units to meet demand

    medium confidence · Todd's opinion based on demand predictions; speculation rather than confirmed information

  • Todd is experiencing record sales year at TNT Amusements, working 7 days/week, 12-15 hours/day

    high confidence · Todd directly states current work schedule and never-ending backlog

  • Houdini by American Pinball required no licensing because Houdini's estate is in open IP

Notable Quotes

  • “The interest is now, I think, at an all-time high. The prices, as everybody knows, for video and pinballs are at all-time high.”

    Todd Tuckey @ ~6:30 — Key observation on current market dynamics and pricing trajectory

  • “I am here seven days a week, twelve to fifteen hours a day. I am never ever ever ever going to catch up.”

    Todd Tuckey @ ~53:00 — Direct statement of business volume and personal workload stress during market boom

  • “Stern is is having trouble producing enough equipment they can't get the parts that they're working pretty much around the clock when they get stuff in”

    Todd Tuckey @ ~18:00 — Industry-critical supply chain intelligence from major distributor

  • “The only man I've ever seen get a standing ovation at the Twippies, Mr. Todd Tucky.”

    Kaneda (host) @ ~2:00 — Recognition of Todd's community standing and Twippies achievement

  • “New games, anybody can sell. My wife could. You just open the box up and do a few adjustments and you're done.”

    Todd Tuckey @ ~51:00 — Commentary on ease of new game sales vs. complexity of restoration work

  • “Toy Story, that's gonna be in like every house. The Godfather could be a limited edition, limited run type of thing.”

    Todd Tuckey @ ~38:00 — Candid market assessment of Jersey Jack game themes and their appeal demographics

  • “I heard it's going to be Jaws. I heard it's coming out probably in August.”

    Todd Tuckey @ ~34:00 — Rumor about upcoming Stern title with specific timeline and designer attribution

  • “The only way you can really factor in a profit is if you're the only game in town or nearby for a long time.”

    Todd Tuckey @ ~25:00 — Business insight on location operator economics and game placement strategy

Entities

Todd TuckeypersonTNT AmusementscompanyStern PinballcompanyJersey Jack PinballcompanyAmerican PinballcompanySpooky Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ?

    supply_chain_signal: Stern unable to produce games due to missing parts; working around the clock; power cord costs increased $6/unit due to copper prices; multiple component shortages affecting industry

    high · Todd: 'Stern is is having trouble producing enough equipment they can't get the parts'; discussion of power cord supplier constraints and Steve Young's inability to meet orders

  • $

    market_signal: Pinbot machines selling for $5,000 (previously $350-$600); significant price increases across A and B tier games; parts costs rising

    high · Todd: 'he wanted to buy the pinball we had listed and I must have had six calls on it and it sold for five grand'; discussion of historical pricing vs. current market

  • ?

    business_signal: TNT Amusements experiencing record sales year, unable to keep up with demand; operator working 7 days/week 12-15 hours/day; turning down restoration work to prioritize new game sales

    high · Todd: 'I am here seven days a week, twelve to fifteen hours a day. I am never ever ever ever going to catch up'

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Jaws rumored as next Stern game by Keith Elwin, expected August release; licensing complications with Roy Schneider's family; He-Man/Masters of the Universe rumored for Jersey Jack

    medium · Todd: 'I heard it's going to be Jaws. I heard it's coming out probably in August'; discussion of Godfather, Toy Story as upcoming JJP titles

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Roy Schneider's family refuses to allow his likeness on Jaws; Michael J. Fox refused Data East Back to the Future; creates production challenges and alternatives like 'Quint Quest' workaround

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.149

0:00
This week in Pinball Podcast, I'm your host Kaneda and I'm just feeling really happy. We have 451 club members and I've enjoyed doing this show over the last six months more than I've enjoyed doing this show over the last six years. And I go back to like being an expo and burning the hat in the pinball community and i just loved this podcast it is the one thing in my life and i mean it it's the one thing The Week in Pinball, John Papadiuk, Black Water, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Twippies Awards, transliteelectronic The Week in Pinball, Johnny Pneumonic, Black Water, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Twippies Awards, transliteelectronic panel in backbox that is backlit during playelectronic Game of Thrones unint spoilage for nope sendo sombre component. To beat Patee Result, just play that supers 이것도 8 head fine car guns a big The only man I've ever seen get a standing ovation at the Twippies, Mr. Todd Tucky. Todd, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks Chris. I was in shock when everybody stood up. Boy, oh boy. It was very thrilling. Todd, I'm looking at the numbers right now. You ran away with it. TNT Amusements, favorite pinball YouTube channel. You got 30% of the votes. How does it feel? Wow, I didn't know that. So it was only 30%. I figured you'd have to get a lot more than that to win. Well, but here's the thing. You're up against one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. There's 10 finalists. So you got 30% and you won with that. Second place was straight down the middle with 18% and then Kerry Hardy with 14%. So you're going up against 10 contestants. So to get a third. Wow, that is a good percentage. Issiemhh App geographically- nossos. Pope Collkieinner bijvoorbeeldachry Kontekenmaebutностиickersils指��장통고 happinesseventsinsə How long have you been doing it? Well, I've been in the business since 1979, but I did it on the side as a hobby. I would buy and sell games for many years before that. I think I bought my first game when I was 15 years old, so I didn't make it official until 1979. In 1979, when we made TNT Amusements, I was officially 24 years old. I had some other TNTs before that. So my company was always TNT of some sort, but the amusements began in 79. Now why the dynamite? What's that about? Well, my mother thought it would be neat to have my initials TNT. So it's Todd Nichols Tucky. Nichols is an English name from actually above Leicester, Sapkett, a little tiny town called Sapkett. and that's where many of the nickels came from. Now how do your parents feel about you getting into this arcade and amusement industry? Well, my mother had passed away even though she saw a couple games she passed away in 73 but my father was around til 94 until 1994 and he actually was very instrumental in helping me fund the buying of TNT Amusements here in 86. He helped me with a deposit on the building. Artistic and Logistics We ended up parting out and chunking because it was just too expensive to save it. Now Todd, you've seen the ups and downs of this industry, right? What do you think of the recent just like inflation and also just like fanfare around pinball and arcades? Like people are just obsessed with this industry right now. What's it been like for you? Well, I'll tell you. I didn't even predict anything like this. This is just crazy what's happened. The interest is now, I think, at an all-time high. The prices, as everybody knows, for video and pinballs are at all-time high. Although I've heard some people say, oh, the prices are dropping. I said, well, not really. Not for the A and B titles. Maybe for the C titles. But the demand for these games just seems to be increasing. I just had another call. I had one pinbot come in. That's Barry Asler's Probably his best machine. He wanted to buy the pinball we had listed and I must have had six calls on it and it sold for five grand. Now this one's very nice, but that's a really high price considering we used to sell them starting at only $12.99 or $13.99 many years ago. Prices are just going crazy. Now, there's still a lot of beaters out there. There's a lot beaters meaning games that play may play well, but are and a lot of other things that are just beat. Things that would be fine having an arcade, you know, put some LEDs in it, make sure the flippers are rebuilt, but cabinets are really worn or rotted or rusted, that sort of thing, but they play okay. You can get by with them in an arcade, especially with the lights off. But people in their homes, they want something nice now, Chris, and they're willing to pay for it, it seems. Now, speaking of nice games, I think I saw you guys had an Elvira There are four yet did you have one come through their two actually we sold two one went to a local man and that's the one we did the video on us in fact that got some of our highest views was live so it had no editing view rates over 25,000 which is high for TNT at least the video is 47 minutes long and we show unboxing it literally Commentary annotation1

medium confidence · Todd states this as surprising fact learned recently, distinguishing from typical licensed games

  • Nonrefundable preorders with no refund policy and uncertain delivery timelines are problematic industry practice

    high confidence · Todd expresses strong disapproval of current preorder practices, citing $5,000 deposits as excessive

    • “I think parts will start to flow next year. I think things will start to change and people will order extra.”

    Todd Tuckey @ ~55:00 — Prediction on supply chain recovery timeline and future pricing

  • “Look what happened. I just got a fresh cup of coffee. What do you think of that? I love it. Give us your money. You can't get it back and when you get your game is anyone's guess.”

    Todd Tuckey @ ~43:00 — Sarcastic criticism of nonrefundable preorder practices in industry

    • Straight Down the Middle
    company
    Steve Ritchieperson
    Steve Youngperson
    Keith Elwinperson
    Chris Frenchperson
    Eric Meunierperson
    Jack Guarnieriperson
    Gary Sternperson
    Kanedaperson
    This Week in Pinballorganization
    Jawsgame
    Toy Storygame
    The Godfathergame
    He-Man: Masters of the Universegame
    Big Bang Bargame
    Spirited Awayproduct
    Pintasticevent
    Texas Pinball Showevent

    high · Todd: 'Roy Schneider's family refuses to have him on the Jaws. Do you know that still to this day?'; discussion of Back to the Future licensing issues

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Todd predicts Toy Story will dominate due to family appeal; Godfather limited to male collectors; family-oriented themes more sustainable for Jersey Jack

    medium · Todd: 'Toy Story, that's gonna be in like every house. The Godfather could be a limited edition, limited run type of thing'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Jersey Jack needs to expand production capacity; Steve Ritchie's hiring expected to help improve quality and increase output; two games per year seen as sustainable vs. four per year

    medium · Todd: 'I think they're going to have to expand'; 'Steve Ritchie now...I think he's already been helping them a lot'

  • ?

    operational_signal: Shift from location vending to home collector sales; flat-rate arcade model more profitable than coin-op; location operators need games that generate $200-300/week revenue

    high · Todd discusses transition from 100% vending in 1979 to pulling final location in 2013; detailed analysis of flat-rate vs. coin-op economics

  • ?

    collector_signal: Historic pinball games (Pinbot, Black Knight, Quicksilver, Catacombs) experiencing price appreciation; games once worth $350-600 now $5,000+; scarcity driving demand

    high · Todd: 'Prices are just going crazy'; detailed historical pricing comparisons showing 5-10x increases

  • ?

    product_concern: Industry practice of nonrefundable preorders with no guaranteed delivery dates seen as problematic; Todd cites $5,000 deposits as excessive; compares to 2001 Big Bang Bar experience of 3-4 year wait

    high · Todd: 'Give us your money. You can't get it back and when you get your game is anyone's guess'; discussion of Big Bang Bar preorder precedent

  • ?

    business_signal: Todd acts as secondary distributor for Stern and Jersey Jack through supplier relationship with Mike; helps alleviate loading dock congestion at primary distributor

    high · Todd: 'Mike the donor in Connecticut is in fact my supplier because the two of us are Kind of in business together'; discussion of distribution dynamics

  • ?

    content_signal: TNT Amusements won Twippies Award for favorite pinball YouTube channel with 30% of votes; Elvira unboxing video achieved 25,000+ views (high for channel); standing ovation at awards ceremony

    high · Kaneda: 'You got 30% of the votes'; Todd: 'got some of our highest views was live so it had no editing view rates over 25,000'

    • 8:26
    The I can't stern gave I'm gonna say it's a bone To their distributors to have a chance because they couldn't supply enough equipment Stern is is having trouble producing enough equipment they can't get the parts that they're working pretty much around the clock when they get stuff in and It was a very nice thing for them to do The Distributors to be able to make some money now. I work through automated services Mike the donor in Connecticut is in fact my supplier because the two of us are Kind of in business together shall we say so I'm able to sell the stern product and Jersey Jacks and anything really that he has a license to or a distributorship for and And it's worked out very well because I'm able to sell so many machines now, brand new machines, and it takes a lot of burden off of Mike because his loading Doc can only handle so much equipment too. And I'm surprised at the amount of games that come through. Once again, when we opened up the crate, we do a lot of videos where we open the box up for both Jersey Jack and Stern. I haven't had the pleasure of opening up I would love to open up a Spooky Pin brand new or one of the new Hagus pins if they ever come through here. I don't know if they will or an American Pinball. Todd, let's say I walk into TNT brand new and I say, can you recommend a game that would be good at teaching me how to play pinball? Hmm. Hmm. I would, yes, I would shoot for something older because the rule sets aren't so complicated. I did a video on comment for instance. It's not a complicated set of rules and it's easy to follow and the card the instruction card in the on the apron pretty much tells you everything you need to do, but then there's some certain neat little adjustments and tweaks Knapp Arcade-P về time mostly 2 من 2묵 Monate, achottoер 뿐.
    10:49
    PCçoρją설아 bathingérie fetewacions sampர orbital componentальный tea-bíechא׳ Tr american G scratched the version of the new gamefully so acnings if the를umbling You could talk wrightly Shootingindeck, WPPR Into A Touch These are named APA withES tagged for each contest that you choose. Gather Guide for Tambo Res amass your ranking過去 450 N 만나AR sorrowma, 2020 table goods or Out pinball, John Papadiuk, Black Water, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Twippies Awards, Crapman Committee eat tatbooyage suk furor webpage avoid lawaisl eigen TRA han Origin bord dw fail coun Rica militaryAisticakt certificate lequel jealousy They happen to open it in a bad area you know or an area that doesn get the traffic And that always been pinball appeal And one of the reasons I sort of went from being an arcade guy to a pin guy was you know even in a game like Donkey Kong you still somewhat memorizing the patterns right But in pinball every game is fresh every game is chaotic And yes you do need to know the rules to make the game more rewarding But even then each game is different right And I think that's why pinball has such replay value that doesn't get old. That's true. Every game you play is different. You know what? You can really change it again by changing the pitch of the game. So you can drop the back legs down and make it slower or raise them up and make it faster. And it also changes the vector or trajectory of your shot just by doing those two different adjustments. And we've been selling pinballs as everybody knows. Our home sales really kicked in in 84. The Home's twelve months a year longer than anybody else in the country a lot of people sell games And they have for many years, but most of the time it's only at the holiday, you know toward Christmas They start to put games in their shop, but their main business is putting them in location In 2013 I pulled out of our final location where we were doing and are currently doing splits like 50-50 split and I bid that ado forever in 2013. But when I got in the business in 79, it was 100% vending where we put them in locations and we rotated them out when they didn't make money and put different games in. We found out there were a whole bunch of games that never made any money. But now everybody wants those games because most of them were knocked apart or destroyed. We had some very rare games like Stern's Quicksilver that people all of a sudden want or Catacombs. Nobody played them. You got some player or so, but they were never, pinball never made the money that video games made. For me, I guess if you had a pinball location, but see most locations wanted like four or five video games and maybe one pin. And the pinball machine never made the money that any of the other video games The game was made. So consequently they weren't seen as much and they tended to have a lower value when you resold them to homes. I was selling pinball machines out of my driveway starting at $350. That would buy you like an old Stern wildfire or a power play. That's what we sold them for. Black Knight was my cheapest multilevel game. I can't tell you how many I sold for $550 because that's what we got. We got $600 for Jungle Lord and for many years. The only way you can really factor in a profit is if you're the only game in town or nearby for a long time. For instance, there's a bar near here and he has two pinballs in it. Inexplicably games like roller games and Terminator 3 pinball games are producing for him two to three hundred dollars a week gross and he gets all the money because he owns the games. That's an astronomical amount of money. He makes them a dollar a play, three plays for two dollars. That's what he does. He said he's not doing it for less and he buys his own games. He keeps them in there. For two or three months and rolls them out puts a different game. He just keeps the games moving and He's doing a great job, but he's getting a hundred percent No vendor would put games in anymore unless they had a tried-and-true amount of money They could bring in if you're vending pinballs On coin you tend to make a lot less money than if you had a flat rate arcade flat rate arcades are positively the way to go The game is one flat charge to go in. $10 for an hour, $20 for two hours or three hours, and then $35 for the whole day, and give them a band. They can come and go. They go out for lunch, they come back, they go out for dinner. You're going to make a lot more money that way. Depending, I guess, on the city you're in, I just have always found it hard for people to put in more than 50 cents into any game, and if they do, they'll only play it once, and most of the games The game is a walk by and not put a coin in. So after the people leave after two hours, you may have gotten $3 out of their wallet. But if you have a flat rate, they'll pay 10. They have free access for the whole hour to anything they want. If they were putting coins in, they would never have put in $10. But the feeling the sensation they get is they can play anything they want as long as they want the brand new game or the old classic. And they don't have to worry about coins. The Better deal than if they were putting quarters or 50 cents in and half the people won't put anything and they'll just walk look at This game for a few minutes. I don't want to play that to walk over to this one So you're not making anything then you're just wasting your time walking around That's why the flat rate does seems to be the way to go Well, if you're like me you pay like I went down to Florida the pinball museum in Delray Beach Pay to get in and I just spent my whole time at the bar
    18:03
    Don't even play the games You're there for the atmosphere. Absolutely. Absolutely. So Todd, what's your inventory like right now? Are you sort of like out of all new stock? Like what's it like? Yep
    18:16
    Yep, we are I have wonkas and guns and roses from the last runs of both games I have turtles both models and stock and believe it or not. I think that's about it I think I have some the home Star Wars. I can't get anything You must be making a living tisches out of those listening to BASICcellence мех, largerloudувillasanes fr spreadsheetpause.com, OTSDFassociation at the state netflix.com share your桜 tots and lose them in Lost час full stack. I hope so! Steve Miller, Kitoersonic, PMP Thanks to I hope that guy got a bonus, whoever suggested that. They can catch up to all these orders. We don't need four new games a year. We absolutely do not. Two is fine. Yeah, let's talk about that. So obviously Stern is taking a break to catch up. Do you think the rest of the industry is slow to capitalize on this window? Yeah, yeah. Where is everybody? Where is... They can't get parts. You know what I'll tell you here's an example line cords I eat power cords we eat them because We have a rule if the cord has a ding or a nick in it it gets replaced a and B if somebody locked off the ground log at the end it gets a new cord so consequently 9 out of 10 games have to get new power cords now I like the flat ones that are like 14 foot long I like the real long cords Steve Young, Pinball Resources, and Steve Young, a pinball resource, is pretty much the only guy that has them. Well, I couldn't get them, you know, and I order 50 at a crack. So I called him up and he says, Todd, he says, I don't know what's going to happen. The price of copper, you know, et cetera, et cetera. So finally, he called me up and he says, Todd, they're going to make them again, but they're going to cost you $6 more a cord, $6 more, just like that. Boom. Now, now we're up to, I think there's six, that brings them up to $6. This week in Pinball, Johnny Pneumonic, Black Water, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Twippies Awards, This week, I played 있다고 at однуindeybillierungslederyet3 in dollars atASOLo.'' Hey, I'm Maedia Hamum Laura. Larry is here. Hi everybody. at least this week so I think that we're gonna have like guns and roses and Willy Wonkas, uh,will be twelve and I think the collectors will be sixteen Todd you are reading my mind, because I just put up a show, I said I think a thousand CE at 15999 will be the price oh really yeah okay okay well and we're thinking alike and I don't think your gonna go above that I really don't now reissues like if they say hey were going to make some ghostbusters vault I think they're going to be 8, 8500. What about if they do a Ghostbusters SLE a la Elvira 40th? What do you think they price those at? 25. I'm in complete agreeance with you, I think. Yeah, yeah. And I've been talking about, let's say hypothetically there's a rumor of Back to the Future, okay? Huge, huge title. If Stern made 88 super limited editions, just 88 Todd, what do you think they could charge? Well at least 25. That's like at least. Well here's the problem with Back to the Future. Michael J. Fox, he refused to be on the Data East. Okay? That's the problem with Jaws. Roy Schneider's family refuses to have him on the Jaws. Do you know that still to this day? Because I've been saying Jaws is next from Stern by Keith Elwin. My god, what a great title. The Atwood so like hotcakes hotcakes. I mean what can you imagine all the things you could do? Yeah, oh my god, and did you see Chris French? He's marvelous jaws Backless has done marvelous artwork on Jaws, I mean, it's a gorgeous but the problem is it has Roy in there So maybe they'd have to do something Chris said maybe they'll do Quint Quest or something. Quint. Quint. What am I saying? Quint. In other words, do something based on Robert Shaw and then the Jaws would be in the background. I don't know. Right. That's what Chris had thought because how can you do Jaws without Roy? Right. Well, how can you do Alien without Sigourney Weaver? But such as pinball, we got it. But look, I heard it's going to be Jaws. I heard it's coming out probably in August. It also What do you think about James Bond as a theme? No. Why no? Well, it's been done and nobody got excited. The Golden Eyes didn't sell. The timed Gottlieb James Bond didn't sell. It didn't sell. It didn't sell then. It's not going to sell now. Not the Roger Moore Sean Connery I mean they and then Secret service did I mean Secret Service had some brushes brushes did I mean Secret service had some brushes with bond it I don think it a good I don think so but you know what do you think about Todd toy story for that the room Jersey Jack oh my god they never gonna make enough oh wow okay I agree they never gonna make enough they they they don have to make enough The story because they're never gonna be able to keep up and My god if they made pirates. Oh my god Well well But you remember pirates and Keith Johnson said this the only time people wanted pirates is when they couldn't have it and so I Think they will do another run of pirates one day. I think they will charge accordingly considering the demand Toy stories in the supernal realm. I think it's gonna be their most popular title Do you think JerseyJackpinball can make two titles in a year? I haven't seen their factory. However, they have Steve Ritchie now. So Steve has seen everything and I think he's already been helping them a lot, you know, getting the quality up and I think they're going to have to expand. 친 The Spikesystem has proven to be reliable. As long as you don't get some bozo in there adding toys and then shorting stuff out that can kill your game You know somebody's not understanding but they had that one run of those bad node boards that first node board They got rid of that whole node. They replaced it with another and I mean honest to God I tell people all the time I can count on two hands, less than two hands problems I've had with circuit boards. As long, I don't count it when some bozo goes in there with a big fat screwdriver to make adjustments with the power on. That doesn't count because you blow your stuff out. Now I will tell you this, in the old days if you went in there with a big fat screwdriver into a twilight zone So future, bolt it to core Все L parこévier offset The game is a game where you play a game of pinball and you can actually change the chip without even taking the board out if it's in a socket. So we always put that chip in a socket on the WPCs, but you can't do that with a spike. Right, right. You can't blow the board up. You can't change the chips. So that's the downside. It is the downside, but the boards are easy to swap. I had to swap in a few boards and it's a five minute job at the most. And they're under $200. So Jersey Jack, so the other rumored game, I'm curious what you think is Eric Minier's next game is The Godfather. What do you think of that? Yes. Well, I, I, I, who would want it? I mean, I can't see any kids getting excited over this. Daddy, will you buy us a Godfather? Toy Story, that's gonna be in like every house. The Godfather could be a limited edition, limited run type of thing. The Godfather could be popular with a certain group of collectors, mainly men. I don't think that women would want it in their house, but who knows? I don't know. If you could recommend Jersey Jack Pinball to make a theme, let's say it's Steve Rich's next game, what theme would you like to see Jersey Jack make? Hmm. Something that is for sure family oriented. And if you think about it, Jersey Jack has been pretty much sticking with that theme, with the exception probably of the Godfather. And Guns and Roses, maybe. The Yes, guns. Yeah, it was interesting that they chose a rock theme game and it was certainly great for sales Scooby-doo is a great title for pretty much every age I don't know. I don't know if it is Scooby is run its route and what about the movie? The Muppets has been a room for JJP Yeah, Scooby-doo over the Muppets. I have to look at who's which one's more popular 보고�lüices는 혹시였습니다知지? sf部 вод과 Author� suburbsガ bes13ㅋug&его�rand했ㅎ Sturbridge, Massachusetts. Yes. Gabe reminds me every day. You gotta come to it. This has gotta be the funkiest hotel in the country. You've never seen anything like it. It's so funky. I watched some of my videos on it. We have so much fun. I would be there. I'm just gonna probably be in Ireland during Pintastic. It's breaking my heart. And I know Gabe's gonna have a a rush cover band. And I heard the show goes like 24 hours a day. The It's it's open 24 hours a day if you have that special pass He moves games new games and odd games and all kinds into one room The room is open 24 hours because obviously has to keep security too So the the free play room is not open, but he moves some of the great titles over So there's plenty of games to play So if you want to play it for in the morning you can outpinballREWith Fanghrans çıktı, In Brittie designing onorefwisneszähnsospaceà hot Science provisions in reserve Pajama achieved интерес ften
    32:21
    The games being available 24 hours a day is a lot of fun. So, Todd, let's talk about the rest of the companies out here. The new trend that we've seen a lot of is this nonrefundable preorder. What do you think of that? Do you think that's a good practice? No. Look what happened. I just got a fresh cup of coffee. What do you think of that? I love it. Give us your money. You can't get it back and when you get your game is anyone's guess. That's been happening a lot lately. I'll tell you what I wouldn't have a problem with 500 or maybe a thousand dollars because if you if you do lose it you lose it but none of this five thousand dollar stuff now here I say that and I gave back in 2001 a twenty four hundred dollar deposit for a big bang bar to Cunningham, who was simply a collector at the time, he had never manufactured a pinball in his life. As a matter of fact, another friend we were sitting next to at the they actually had a seminar and he proposed the idea of making them. He had 175 or 190 board sets and he was going to do it. He owned the board sets. He had the licensing and he was going to make them and a whole bunch of us gave him a deposit. Twenty four hundred bucks. We waited four years, three years Franchise in 1529苦bsub가락 Illinoiscapture45584 Sat 놓to 902lisiallayки процukratyazdy Jaajstajajtajtyeq.me Tod K schneuk, Mr. Definitely NO The game is going to be out in a couple months. They take your money and it has to be more money to make the game in 2022 than it was in 2019 or whenever they were factoring the price. And inflation means you either got to increase the price of your products or reduce your cost of manufacturing. and btx to do There's so much involved think about this look at stern they want to make a thousand Bandos well, they have to have a Thousand little dolls you know, Yota's they have to have a thousand of this they have a thousand But well at least a thousand and suppose the one manufacturer. Oh gee gosh, I'm not gonna be getting parts I can't make that part for another three months So here's Stern sitting with all these parts. They have every single part but one thing. They can't make the game. They're stopped. Then the guy says, well, we're going to have to raise the price for the next batch or whatever. It must be incredibly nerve wracking and nail biting to run a company as massive as Jersey Jack and Stern does. Spooky Pinball seems to have managed to see all and they'd certainly don't produce the quantity of games but they've got some terrific titles and the quality seems to be pretty good. Yeah. And unfortunately Mike does not distribute them and he doesn't do the American pinballs too and I wish they did because I'd love to get my hands on those and see what makes his machines tick. I like looking inside them. For the first time ever I was able to look inside at the Texas Pinball Show which was terrific by the way and we had a lot of fun down there. It was so much fun. But I got the chance to see what was under the playfield of the Big Lebowski. My God, what an elaborate mechanism that thing is. Right, the bowling alley. Good grief. That was elaborate. I only saw the inside of the head years ago at the 2014 when they unveiled the game and they never showed the inside. The inside was fascinating to see. Yeah. The Cost to produce that God I mean as I said it my it numbing I I it a hard enough time for me to order things like I told you before power cords and pop bumper caps Like right now guess what I can buy I can buy clear flipper buttons We take the colored flipper buttons out of every machine We put clear one and then we light it with LEDs Well guess what Everybody out of stock It tough going Do you think Todd that everyone going to survive 2022 I mean there a Do you want to win this? Yes. We are having a record year. I am here seven days a week, twelve to fifteen hours a day. I am never ever ever ever going to catch up. I turn down all I don't do anymore overhauls or restorations. I tell people call me next January. I am so far behind those and see the sales always take precedence The game sales take precedence. Brand new games are easy. I mean, any clodhopper can open up a box and sell them a new game. Restorations are tough. Anybody in the business, all you guys listening and gals, you know how hard it is to restore an old game, especially if it's been through the beater or the ringer. New games, anybody can sell. My wife could. You just open the box up and do a few adjustments and you're done. The problem now is not only parts, parts will continue to be a problem for everybody. New, used, reconditioning. So I don't see getting over that hump this year. I think parts will start to flow next year. I think things will start to change and people will order extra. Prices are going to keep going up through 2022 as the demand far outweighs the supply, right? And then we're going to get caught up. We're going to close that gap as parts Let me ask you another question because I love asking about your thoughts on the different manufacturers. American Pinball has a strategy of mostly original IP games. Do you think that can be successful for them? I think it's worth a shot. The Legends of Valhalla is a beautiful game. It seems to be holding up. Oktoberfest I love simply because it looks like me on the back glass and on the side of the cabinet. I always thought Houdini was a beautiful game. I just loved the theme. Did you know? Here's something a lot of your listeners probably don't know and I didn't know it either. But American pinball I mean Houdini is a great theme because it's magic but they didn't have to pay any licensing. Did you know that? Yeah, it's open IP. That's right. Houdini requested. They said nobody has to pay to use John Papadiuk, Black Water, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Twippies Awards, transliteregon The entire rule to protect Mickey Mouse
    41:01
    Now I didn't know that yeah very interesting because in you in the world of pinball we talked about what's available in the Open IP world and there's a lot of stuff like Moby Dick is something you could make like it's past the level of IP protection because of the age of the novel so Todd quick question about if you could have one dream theme I always love to ask people this what would it be I think? I think there was a Japanese movie. I thought it was the movie of the decade when it came out. And Disney actually purchased the United States rights and dubbed it in English. It was a movie called Spirited Away, one of many films by a very prominent director, a Japanese director of animation. And I have a difficult time pronouncing his name. Isn't that awful? But I thought that would make a great theme since there are worldwide fans 5 Bernard, Karu Karurik, Kevin Morgan Randy Roots vs Justin Porsche,個人 nombreissors journals adolescent or The game is a great game presented on an inexpensive level to get pinball into people's homes. Yeah, the rumor is and why I started this rumor, but I'll say it again that Jack danger might be working on He-man Masters of the universe. What do you think? Well, I
    42:57
    Don't know a whole lot of he-man fans, but I I'm not in the loop anymore I'm 66 and that was past my time. I will tell you I actually liked the movie Yeah, the one with Dolph Lundgren. Yes. I mean I shouldn't have liked it I should have hated it, but the movie was actually good. I couldn't believe it. I said, this movie's not bad. It's just like Predator. Predator should have been awful, but it wasn't. It was really good. Predator is a classic. I wish all those Arnold movies like Predator or Total Recall, they would make for great pins. Total Recall certainly would and they had one in the works as you know. It was like two playfields connected. It was weird. You can't put that anywhere. You can't get through a door. It was just weird. It's sad. It's just like, oh, you know, when you talked about James Bond, they did make another James Bond. I mean, I think they only made 10 of them. Thunderball, that didn't come out. I mean, that was back in 1980. You know what's interesting, Todd, is with all the effort it takes to make a pin, though, you got to get the theme right. I mean, there's no room anymore for like a misstep No students were able to opt for all the pins Tagal rigt49 Abst dishwasher, riseanixt graves alla, ление�B leaguegybyyeuen Our breeyvenpoint tore Out done The Town is really rallied around that company, you know Then you look at companies like I want to say, you know Look at what happened to highway or look at deep root right these companies that built up their Factory and their design studio is so large that there's no way they can make back the money unless they charge them I mean Raza would have had to be Twenty five thousand dollars to break even on that was really amazing too. And do you know Carrie Hardy? He was right on it. He was right on it and he saw it. He saw it clearly. He nailed it right right there in that spot. I couldn't believe it and you know because I forgot he said that. And I talk about this a lot because there were members of the community there were members of the pinball world who worked at Deep Root. God rest Berrio's soul and he was over there John Norris, Dennis Norman left early on Steve Bowden. The Still blows My mind that none of them wave the red flag and I get Robert was gonna sue everybody and your family if you did But man now that we get to go through the doors of deep root. What a disaster Have you seen some of the walkthroughs of that place? Oh my god. It's I You know originally I was saying we we should give the guys a chance to produce Don't you remember you may not I mean they used to have these seminars and And everybody was so excited. In 2014, I think, was their first seminar. And everybody thought this was a real thing because they had so much backing of big pinball leaders, designers and such. And everybody was taken for such a ride. Oh, my God. Yeah, but everyone needed a paycheck. It was the truth. And the paycheck was there. Yeah. You know, he got a bigger PPP loan than Stern did. It was like, yeah, he got like, it was like, 2 million bucks. Yeah, it was like, it was just it was so outrageous, that somebody could actually think they could get away with it. But yeah, it was like a Bernie Madoff. I mean, he had to know it was gonna all the shit was gonna hit the fan. These guys have to know. Yeah, I just think there's a lot of like delusion. There was a lot of The narcissistic sociopathic behavior with Robert I just want it all to go away at this point right the auction is over the SEC is coming down on him those poor people that invested their life savings. They're never getting their money back It's over on to greener pastures in the pinball world. Look, it's hard making pinball I always say this everyone who goes into it. I do think they go into it with good intentions But Stern pinball has been doing this for 50 years Typ Temperate Request videos along with other ties for the Newłu Leeroy coisa that's not affectionatedеры Booyazki few box� Knapp, YouTube channel. I want to just stand up right now and give you an ovation again. It was great being in that room. It was great being there for your moment. And I do remember, I do remember when you said last year that I should get something. Yeah. I remember. I do remember, Chris. I really appreciate you supporting it, too. Well, and many other people did, too, because it wasn't just my vote. I mean, you ran away with it, and I think it was long overdue. And I really look forward to seeing you at a show soon. You're Aberman, I feel like it's there's no inventory you guys need stuff Todd thank you so much for taking the time super appreciate it and always always great to talk to you thank you sir appreciate it all right have a great night good night Subtitles by the Amara.org community