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DPP #99 "Why don't we see games and movies release at the same time anymore?"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·39m 29s·analyzed·Feb 3, 2024
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Don covers Labyrinth acquisition, Jaws gameplay analysis, and why movie-game tie-ins don't happen anymore.

Summary

Don discusses American Pinball's stability, his incoming Labyrinth machine from Barrels of Fun with shipping logistics, a charity pinball tournament in Toledo, and extensive commentary on Stern's Jaws release and market positioning. He also explores why pinball machines are no longer released simultaneously with movies, contrasting 1990s tie-in strategy with current industry economics, and speculates about contemporary licensed themes like Taylor Swift that could broaden pinball's audience.

Key Claims

  • American Pinball is not currently for sale despite industry speculation

    high confidence · Mr. Fix has come out and said you know unequivocally that the company is not actually looking for a buyer right now it's not for sale

  • Labyrinth will have a maximum production run of 1,100 units

    high confidence · There's 1,100 of these games that are going to be made, well, a max of 1,100. We'll see how many actually end up getting made

  • Stern has already manufactured approximately 6,000 Jaws Pro units

    medium confidence · So the pros, they must have made 6,000 pros already. And they're just like, they're going to be everywhere.

  • Jaws LE machines will likely resell for approximately $12,500 in secondary market

    medium confidence · if you wanted to resell your JAWS LE, I think we'll see them for probably around $12,500 here pretty soon

  • Expression lighting kits (LED Zeppelin, Rush, Foo Fighters versions) use identical hardware with only sticker variations

    medium confidence · Each one of these expression-like kits are exactly the same, with the only change being the sticker that goes on the outside

  • Jaws Premium orders will begin shipping last week of February through first week of March

    medium confidence · the premiums will be, uh, the last week of February. First week of March is what I'm expecting to see that

  • 1990s pinball machines released simultaneously with movies due to movie industry marketing budgets and theatrical distribution economics

    high confidence · These games were released at the time of the movie as part of a promotion. They came out of the marketing budget for the film.

Notable Quotes

  • “if you appreciate that sort of artistry, puppetry, integration, that's what's really selling this game”

    Don @ ~23:15 — Explains the core appeal of Labyrinth beyond just theme recognition; emphasizes craftsmanship

  • “Stern is just such a juggernaut of a machine they can reveal their game in January get it out of the factory still in January get it on location here locally and abroad at the same dang time”

    Don @ ~31:00 — Highlights Stern's manufacturing and supply chain dominance relative to other manufacturers

  • “if you've got like a little ADHD brain, it's perfect. There's like flashing lights and a ton of stuff to do at the same time”

    Don @ ~45:30 — Describes Jaws' multi-layered gameplay design philosophy compared to simpler mode-based games

  • “awful movies make great pinball machines”

    Don @ ~67:00 — Core thesis about why 1990s tie-in pinball games succeeded despite poor source material

  • “I would like to see them get back to that if possible. You know, we don't all have to go to these like grandpa themes, these 70s rockers, though we love them.”

    Don @ ~75:00 — Critique of current licensing strategy favoring legacy IP; advocates for contemporary themes

  • “She's huge, man. She's like the largest pop star in existence right now. Like she's like 10 Katy Perry's.”

    Don @ ~82:00 — Illustrates cultural relevance of contemporary IP for potential pinball themes

Entities

DonpersonAmerican PinballcompanyBarrels of FuncompanyStern PinballcompanyLabyrinthgameJawsgame

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Expression lighting kit availability inconsistent across game versions; Foo Fighters kit promised but not delivered; manufacturing/release strategy unclear

    medium · they said Expression lighting was going to be out for Foo Fighters as well, and we still haven't seen a hair of that

  • ?

    community_signal: Don's custom machine restoration service gaining traction; multiple pre-orders received from community for Premium-to-LE conversion work

    high · I've had some people reach out since I've kind of got this little reputation here of taking premiums and just kind of overhauling the whole things

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Jaws designed with layered gameplay mechanics and simultaneous optional side-quests (bounty hunting system) to appeal to players with cognitive diversity preferences

    high · if you've got like a little ADHD brain, it's perfect. There's like flashing lights and a ton of stuff to do at the same time

  • $

    market_signal: Pinball industry shifted away from contemporary movie tie-ins toward legacy IP licensing; modern theatrical economics no longer support cross-promotion

    high · These games were released at the time of the movie as part of a promotion. They came out of the marketing budget for the film...I don't even know that the movies that are released now have any room in that budget to do something like a pinball license project anymore

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Hypothetical Taylor Swift pinball machine could broaden hobby audience through female representation and contemporary pop culture appeal

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.118

0:00
Everybody come in. Y'all, it's Friday. Let's do it. Oh, let's get ready. Grab that cup. Episode 99. Montel Jordan.
0:17
Montel, why don't you tell them what day it is? Come with it. Out the 90s. This is how we do it. It's Friday night. Oh!
0:30
Where's the party? Yo, Westside! Don's Football Podcast, episode number 99. What's going on? We'll skip the regular intro. We'll go straight to the Montel Jordan, because I'm on a roll today. I'm feeling hella good. It's Friday night. I just did a late night live. I dropped a huge Patreon-only episode. I've got giveaways coming up this month. It's February. You ain't got a job. You got no place else to be. It's the weekend. So let's party like we are American pinball players. And wouldn't that be the best place to start with our friends, yours and mine, the company that fixed, well, didn't build, but took over, American Pinball. So I gave away like a half hour of like all of my fair and balanced views on this pinball company that we have grown to love, and we are glad that they're part of the culture, the zeitgeist. They are within the diaspora of the pinball playing public. They got five games. Houdini has some fun stuff in it. The shots are kind of tight.
1:32
Hot Wheels just got streamed. It's got Cars on Sticks, Galactic Tank Force. There is one on public location in Wisconsin. I was mistaken. Lumberjack Johnny is out there in the Appleton region, has one. I'll have to get out there and go play it. But this game should be in more locations. I gave all of my views and takes on that Patreon episode. I want to rehash everything there. but you know Mr. Fix has come out and said you know unequivocally that the company is not actually looking for a buyer right now it's not for sale and the gist is even if it is for sale he would probably say the same thing notwithstanding we'll take what we know they have another game that's ready to come out I think we're going to see it at TPF we'll talk about that a little bit in the TPF prep section but I think we're going to see some more from American Pinball is it going to be Barry's Food Truck Is it going to be Yukon Yeti? Are they shuffling things behind the scenes, and are they going to do the right thing and bring that licensed theme from the Sonic Kid out? Hopefully. Nevertheless, we will see. We will have a game to play, and it will probably be just like their other six games. If you've got a location, not a bad idea to throw one there because you don't find them in great numbers in a whole lot of places. And other than Legends of Valhalla, I'm not looking at putting one in my game room. I talked about all this already. so American Pinball had the stream that came out they hired Lloyd from SS Amusements in Minnesota I think that's great, fantastic, love it, great idea more people, more flags, more fun in other news, let's talk about barrels of fun speaking of fun, I got invoiced for Labyrinth that deserves an air horn talking to Brian Savage this week the invoice is getting paid I'm able to do a bank transfer, which I love, because otherwise, if you throw it on a credit card, number one, you need a credit card with a high enough limit. Number two, there's a huge credit card fee of like 3%, which for a $10,600 game is quite a bit of money that you can avoid by doing a bank transfer. I love that. It's going to take about six days to process, and when it does, hopefully my game will hit the road, and I'll be able to pick it up here locally. They were able to work with me on shipping, which I'm so appreciative of. the cost coming from Houston to my front door was going to be $640 which that's fair I've shipped a game from a terminal here locally to somebody's front door in Arizona and it was about $600 so that's a fair price for shipping however what I've grown to find out is that if you can if you have the wherewithal to go ahead and pick a game up at a local terminal you not only get your game a couple of days sooner because they don't have to arrange for a lift truck to come to your front door but you can also save 30 to 40% on the shipping. So I think for around $400, I'll be able to head over to Appleton. Maybe I'll go play at Lumberjack Johnny's as I'm going out there, but I'll be able to pick up my game there. It's 90 minutes away, no big deal. I'll get the game a couple of days sooner, and I'm saving a couple hundred bucks. Plus, I get to go to Appleton, so that is good news. So thank you, Brian, for working with me on that. Very much appreciative. I can't wait. Mr. Jason Knapp on his Knapp Arcade website, which we all know and love, did post up. Well, he kind of echoed the post that hit the social media. What I'm trying to get at is that the toppers for Labyrinth are in boxes. Well, they're in crate-shaped boxes, which is amazing, and they're going out to customers as well soon. So I will get not only my machine here pretty soon, but also the accessories at quite the same time. Stern, are you watching? What the heck are you doing over there? I'm so excited about that. This is the topper of the year for sure. There's three Muppets up there with glowing eyes that move their heads side to side, and they talk to you. It's integrated with the game. I can't wait, man. So regarding Labyrinth, I do hear from some people that are like, game looks cool. Theme doesn't really grab me. I'm not into it. And I'm like, listen, listen, listen. Here's the reason. Not because everybody's a David Bowie fan, although you can appreciate the dude's body of work. This is a Jim Henson pinball machine. You could make any Jim Henson pinball machine, and I would be super down with it. I love me some Muppets. The subversive humor coming out of the 60s, 70s, and just becoming mainstream and as relevant today as they've ever been. Go to the Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World. You can still see Muppet Vision 3D unchanged since 1990-frickin'-4, whenever the heck it opened. And it's still a fun show. It's still a fun show. It's still a fun Muppet show. The Muppet show, the original series, is still amazing. I would love to see the Muppet show as a pinball machine. But we've got something. We've got a Jim Henson game. His name is on it. Spielberg was involved with this. It's amazing. So, you know, the game, as far as the shots go, I don't think it's anything groundbreaking, though it is fun and cleverly implemented, right? If you're just strictly going for a shooter's game, I don't know that Labyrinth is the first game you would probably go to. You'd probably have fun with the shots on Venom or something, or Godzilla. Those games are out there if you're looking for shooters. Go play Iron Maiden, shoot between the pops. But the theme integration and the songs, the music, the Bowie, the Muppets, all of the puppets that were created for that show are in the game. They're on the screen. There's two screens. One of them is even in the same spot as the Circuits Will Tear LED or dot matrix display, which is great because as you're looking there, it just gives you more depth of field. I've talked about this before in my Labyrinth Reviews. But, like, the whole package of this game plus the toppers talking to you, like, my God. If you appreciate that sort of artistry, puppetry, integration, that's what's really selling this game. And if it's not for you, that's totally fair. Like, I get it. It's fine. There's 1,100 of these games that are going to be made, well, a max of 1,100. We'll see how many actually end up getting made, but I think that's a proper edition size. This company spent years creating this game and then didn't unveil it and kept it under wraps until it was ready to release. Man, they did it right. So I can't wait to have this game in my game room with the updated code. It's just going to be like magic dance party balls for me, man. I cannot wait to get this game and get my hands on it. I didn't know when I was going to get it either. I mean, this is their first game that they're coming out with. You know, was this going to be another Pulp Fiction situation where they're taking time to kind of spool their factory up and get games out? But no, man. I mean, they're coming out now. Game was revealed in October, and here we are, not even six months later, like four months later, games are going out to people. Love it, love it. I can't wait for this. So thanks, Brian, for working with me on not only the shipping but being able to pay my invoice for the bank transfer, saving me some cash. because I sorely need it right now with all the games that are inbound. I did want to take a minute and cover another event that's coming up in the Toledo, Ohio region. This is a pinball tournament, and it's a fundraiser. It's a charity fundraiser pinball tournament for the Epilepsy Foundation of Michigan. So this is a yearly tournament. It's limited to only 48 spots. It's taking place in Toledo, Ohio. It's the Flip for the Cure Epilepsy Pinball Tournament. March 9th is when this thing is kicking off at noon at Wildside Downtown in Toledo it's at 20 North St. Clair Street it is a benefit for the Epilesi Foundation of Michigan with all the proceeds going straight towards that foundation it's only $26 to enter $1 going to the IFPA to cover registration costs the other balance is going towards the function even if you don't play in the tournament There's also going to be what sounds like a silent auction going on at the same time. And they've got tons of sponsors for this thing. Mad Pinball, my sponsor, is in on there. Stern, all the other major players are there. Johnny Crap even did a custom T-shirt design for this benefit. And if you can't make it there, you can go to the Ulex store, U-L-E-K store.com, and you can purchase that shirt with all the proceeds going to benefit that organization. I'm finally, they twisted my arm, man. No, I finally have something I think I can contribute. I think I going to contact them and send a Translight that they can auction off and add to that too because I just got a whole new stock of those in Very excited about that So hopefully I be able to jump on there as another sponsor too donating that to gain some information So just to recap, the Epstilepsy Pinball Pin Golf Tournament is happening March 9th at noon in Toledo, Ohio. If you can get there, $26 secures your spot. And there's going to be a ton of prizes because they've got a lot of people donating prizes to this. if you're just in the region you want to stop by and participate in the auction, pick up some cool stuff, you can do that, if you want to get my homeboy Johnny Craps t-shirt design ulickstore.com's got that so I just want to shout out that to the world and get that out there, good time to shout out my sponsor Mad Pinball, thanks so much for what you do to help integrate me into the pinball space, email jeff at madpinball.com if you want to get in on some of that, let's play a little jingle it's been a while since we heard the bad pinball jingle. And I love the robot sounds at the end of this. I'm just going to let it play out for a minute.
Brian Savage
person
Lloydperson
Lumberjack Johnny'slocation
Epilepsy Foundation of Michiganorganization
Flip for the Cureevent
Kyleperson
Geeks Manialocation
Mad Pinballcompany
Retro Ralphperson
Johnny Crapsperson
Cab Customcompany
Pinball Junk Drawermedia
Jason Knappperson
Taylor Swiftperson

medium · I would like to see them get back to that if possible...it will also help bring in more female representation into the hobby

  • $

    market_signal: Secondary market predictions for Jaws LE resale value at $12,500 with potential decline to $11,500 depending on next Stern license strength

    medium · if you wanted to resell your JAWS LE, I think we'll see them for probably around $12,500 here pretty soon

  • ?

    personnel_signal: American Pinball hired Lloyd from SS Amusements (Minnesota) for sales/distribution expansion

    high · American Pinball had the stream that came out they hired Lloyd from SS Amusements in Minnesota I think that's great, fantastic

  • ?

    announcement: American Pinball management publicly denies sale rumors; company remains independent and operating

    high · Mr. Fix has come out and said you know unequivocally that the company is not actually looking for a buyer right now it's not for sale

  • ?

    product_strategy: Labyrinth positions Jim Henson artistic integration and motorized puppet toppers as primary selling points over mechanical shot layout

    high · If you appreciate that sort of artistry, puppetry, integration, that's what's really selling this game

  • ?

    product_strategy: Jaws LE includes integrated Expression speaker grille lighting and complimentary shooter rod; Premium includes additional gameplay features vs Pro

    high · You're also getting the Expression speaker grill lighting...I'm glad they did change things up and that they did throw out at least a shooter rod for the LE buyers

  • ?

    product_concern: Don expresses approval for manufacturing quality of both Labyrinth and Jaws; no significant quality issues reported

    high · It's going to look great...You're going to have a fantastic machine

    • 11:07
    That's not a number. Please don't call. I'm sitting here grooving to that bass line at the end, man. Every time I play that, I just kind of zone out, and I'm like, it's ending. I've got to jump back in here. Let's talk about Stern Pinball. You've heard of this company? They're based in Chicago, a little mom-and-pop operation. Jaws is out if you haven't played Jaws Pro yet probably within the week you will because these pros are like everywhere every tournament location, every pin golf location your local laundromat is going to have these things are going to be absolutely everywhere and not hard to get they've already arrived in Europe people in Europe already have their Jaws pinballs Retro Jango on YouTube my boy Cengiz he's already got his machine and has already done a two part review on it that's amazing that Stern is just such a juggernaut of a machine they can reveal their game in January get it out of the factory still in January get it on location here locally and abroad at the same dang time that is amazing that speaks to the supply lines and everything they have, the infrastructure is there and hopefully the rest of us can take advantage of that, so thanks Stern Pinball for what you do, getting your games out to the industry, out to the people, and spreading the good word about pinball and pushing that sweet insider connect that you have. Now, the game. I've been able to play quite a bit of pros. I unboxed one earlier this week. Got to live stream it as well on YouTube. Check that out if you're super bored.
    12:57
    But I was down at Geeks Mania in Madison, Wisconsin. Madison, Wisconsin's largest and only free-to-play, pay-one-price pinball arcade. And they've got arcade games as well. They've got some skee-ball there in the back. Kyle, my buddy out there, he lets me come down and unbox his games and live stream them. Super fun. He does live streams himself. Just, you know, he works on games. Dude's an awesome pin mechanic. So go there and check him out if you're in the Madison, Wisconsin area. Because you can play the heck out of some Venom for free play. And that is worth it to get your levels up and everything. But I was able to play a bunch more Jaws. This time I was actually able to play Jaws with the tilt sensor at a more reasonable level for me because, man, you've got to be able to nudge to get the ball to save as it goes out that right out lane. The game's fun, man. The shots are makeable. The shots are fair.
    13:51
    And I love the gameplay they put in here. So, yeah, if you look at it, okay, the center of the play field looks fairly empty. It's not shadow, you know, with ramps early on, ramps later out. You know, it's not like Looney Tunes TCM where there's like ramps placed everywhere. The ramps are placed in good places for this game. It gives them some room to breathe. So I'm appreciating that with this. What I like is the game code as well, though, especially the bounty hunting aspect to it, where you can go ahead and pick the shark that you want to go after, and then it plays just like the battles against the kaiju in Godzilla, you know, where you got to go ahead and collect all the spins. You got to collect the pop bumper shots. You collect the chum buckets, collect the ramps, and then go play with the reel. Reel your fish in, and then you get your bonus, whatever it is. And the harder one that you pick, the more of a bonus that you get. We'll see some score balancing and things come along. But I love that there's that kind of game within a game, like a side quest that's going on. You trigger that, and then as you're playing and trying to hit the shots and doing the night swimming multi-ball and trying to figure out the sonar system, you're also playing this other little meta game at the same time. I love when I'm playing pinball and there's like five different things going on at the same time that I can participate in That's part of what made Godzilla so much fun, right? As you're hitting the shots to try to qualify your modes You're also collecting tanks, you know, and then you find later on Hey, I've got eight of these tanks already Let me go ahead and go for that and then get the tank multi-ball And then all of a sudden the bridge is falling apart I can do bridge attack multi-ball Oh, look, the building is collapsing I can have lock balls on top of it Like there's so many things going on, man You know, if you've got like a little ADHD brain, it's perfect There's like flashing lights and a ton of stuff to do at the same time, you know, whereas other games are more like, you know, kind of skill shoddy kind of play Mandalorian and keep hitting this shot a bunch of times and then chop wood over here for a while. And then that's how you progress through it. No, no, this is part of what made Godzilla great. And I love that they brought that same sort of aspect to a property like Jaws, which, you know, when you compare the license to Godzilla versus Jaws, it's like a C license versus a license, man. Jaws is a movie, much more cultural relevance, you know, to me personally, you know, Godzilla's fantastic, in part due to the fact that it's, you know, a monster theme. But they went kind of kitschy with that. This, it's just like you open up the VHS tape and you're in the world of Jaws, man. You're on that boat. You're singing the sea shanties and just having a great time. And so I'm loving it. So the pros, they must have made 6,000 pros already. And they're just like, they're going to be everywhere. Every supermarket is going to have them at the checkout line. Go check them out. The LEs are going to be coming soon. they're probably already cranking those out. Now, if you go ahead and buy this $13,000 LE, I don't think you can expect to sell it for $15,000 in three months. I think probably with the market given how it is, the strength of the license, I've kind of balanced all this through the algorithm in my head and processed it through my 1970s-style tape-to-tape reel-to-reel computer, and I've come out with the fact that if you wanted to resell your JAWS LE, I think we'll see them for probably around $12,500 here pretty soon. and if somebody's really aggressive about wanting to get rid of it because of the strength of the next license coming out from Stern, maybe 11.5 or something. I don't think it's going to drop down to the 9,500 level, but we'll see. We'll see what happens. They're still cranking out 1,000 LEs. They're all going to be sold through.
    17:17
    One thing I can tell you, though, if you are going in on this Jaws LE, you're going to have a fantastic machine. It's going to look great. I can't wait to see the foil accent art on the side of the cabinet. I'm a sucker for that. I love the polar white armor they're putting on it. And I like the fact that they kicked in and gave you a shooter rod. That's something. Thank you, Stern, for doing that for the LE owners. Would be nice if when you bought the LE, you got like a voucher to be able to get the topper as well when it's released. I think that would make you up for the price of $13,000. You know, with these games being overpriced, the market softening, that would be a nice thing to see. I'm glad they did change things up and that they did throw out at least a shooter rod for the LE buyers. You're also getting the Expression speaker grill lighting, which is cool. I can't wait to see how that works in person. It sounds like that's going to be available as a separate kit as well, so we'll look forward to that. Now, they said Expression lighting was going to be out for Foo Fighters as well, and we still haven't seen a hair of that. And given that it's exactly the same system as what's used in Led Zeppelin, that was used in Foo Fighters, which was used in Rush. I don't know what the big deal is, man. Each one of these expression-like kits are exactly the same, with the only change being the sticker that goes on the outside. So where are they? I wonder why they don't just sell just one standard expression-like kit, and then you go ahead and buy your art blades as well with it, and then do it as a combo purchase instead of doing branded ones. Maybe there's something different with the mechanisms or something, or something with the board that I'm not seeing, but they should have, I think, a standard product and just have it available. And if you've got a machine that's ready to take this kit, go ahead and just buy the kit and then purchase your printed art blades as well, and then there you go, right? You don't have to worry about making a run of Led Zeppelin ones or a run of Rush ones and then a run of Foo Fighters and then here's someone that wants a Rush, but we're not running those again for six months. It's all crazy, man. Come on. And then just start releasing games that have the expression lights. Put the expression lights on every game. Why the heck not? I would love to have purple expression lights that would come on and off in stranger things with like UV in it as well. Like, like I think that would work. So we'll see if they get to that.
    19:29
    Um, what else did I want to talk about? Stern? Uh, so the Ellie's are coming out soon. The premiums will be, uh, the last week of February. First week of March is what I'm expecting to see that. And so probably by mid March to the end of March, premiums will be on location I played the premium I do love it I do have one on order And here the breakdown between the pros and premiums for me The pro here is a great game I've played it at three different locations now. It's a solid game. It's great. You're not missing any gameplay per se with the pro, okay? The pro is a very good game. The premium is just an even better version of that game. Just because there's a couple more things to do. right? Jaws is a fun game to play. I've played it a ton, a bunch of different locations. Like I said, um, the premium just has even more jaws to play with. And for that reason, I, it was justified for me to go for the premium. Uh, your mood may vary. Now I've had some people reach out since I've kind of got this little reputation here of taking premiums and just kind of overhauling the whole things and getting them close to that Ellie level and then selling them on for the fair market price, not trying to gouge anybody. And so people have already been reaching out like, Hey Don, what's the next game that you're doing that you want to do this to? People love the extra armor that's on there. They love the powder coat job that includes the speaker panel, the shooter housing, the coin door, all of that business. They like that the shaker motor's already in there, the art blades are in there, the plastic's already installed. You don't have to mess with it, right? When I sold my Foo Fighters, it already had all the glow-in-the-dark rubbers, even the hard-to-reach one in the captive ball, the back left of the play field. The one that you have to really remove the upper play field to even access, I already took care of that. So if you're looking at getting the best version of the game, you don't have to have it right this second, but maybe you want it in about six months, you know, holler at me. Get on the waiting list, and I'll customize it for you, and we'll get it out to you. We'll palletize and box it and have it shipped right to your doorstep if that's what you want. But holler at me. I'd like to keep this going. It's fun for me to get a premium in and just do my whole Dawn thing to it. I love it. I want to keep doing that, you know. And I have to have a rotating collection because I love playing new machines. And, you know, I don't have the room or the budget for 40 to 50 machines in my downstairs. So this will all benefit the end consumer that wants, you know, kind of a refined edition and doesn't want to take the time to do all the work themselves, find the powder coater, all this business. I'll do it all for you. It's super fun. And then for just slightly more than the MSRP of the premium, you're getting a fully loaded decked out Dawn version of it. You know, that's awesome, right? That's awesome. I'm already planning on getting a set of the LE-inspired armor from Cab Custom. This is a guy that's in Europe. If you haven't seen him, he's on Facebook. He deals through Facebook directly. He does custom pinball side armor.
    22:17
    You know, Stern would charge $280 for, you know, their Elvira armor or, you know, even the Star Wars armor if you can find it. The Star Wars LE armor is not even sold. That only came on the LEs. But if you want that look, this guy's recreating it or doing something very similar to that. And his prices are reasonable, like 140 euros plus delivery fee. And you got it under 200 bucks, man, delivered to the U.S. Get it, you know, black crinkle coated or get it bare steel and go powder coat it yourself. If you don't know how to go do powder coating or go find a powder coater, holler at me. I'll help you out. I've done the whole process. I started big and have gotten down to, you know, negotiating good prices with local powder coaters. I'll help you out. I've helped other people out. They've been very appreciative. If you want badass-looking armor on your pinball machine or powder coats, but you're not sure how to go about it, just holler at me. I'll help you out. Or I'll even do it for you. We can work something out. While I'm on the topic of Stern, an interesting thing that did come across my brain the other day when I was listening to the pinball junk drawer today, they were talking about movie license themes. Then my brain started to wander as I was driving. now there's a you know this this kind of idea that i've mentioned where you know awful movies make great pinball machines right you know shadow johnny mnemonic uh last action hero i don't think anybody's saying last action hero is cinematic gold uh but the game is super fun right uh so these games came out at a time um when their property came out as well and we've kind of gotten away from that with the exception of stranger things mandalorian um you know these Like, take Jaws, for example. Jaws is a movie tie-in licensed game, but it's 30, 40 years after the actual movie came out. These games were released at the time of the movie as part of a promotion. They came out of the marketing budget for the film. Movies like Jurassic Park, right? Jurassic Park existed as a Michael Crichton novel, okay? It wasn't this huge cultural thing yet. You know, they were doing this dinosaur movie. CGI was in its infancy. And they said, you know, to help sell this movie, let's go ahead and make a pinball machine. That way when the movie's in the theaters this summer, whenever it came out, you know, the pinball machine would be at the arcade. And it would kind of like tie in, maybe get some more people interested in the license or something. Then that worked so well, they tried it again with Congo. Congo, the movie, didn't do anywhere near as good as Jurassic Park did. Still a Michael Crichton novel. but the game, I would say, is better than the Jurassic Park Data East game, for sure. So I'd like to see maybe could we get back to releasing games tied in with current movie properties again, mostly because I want to see interesting games based on brand-new movies that have come out that haven't proved themselves yet. So we can get that instance that maybe a movie underperforms or a TV show only goes for a season and gets canceled, but comes out with another legendary game, right? Almost like an original license. Nobody saw it coming, and it's just this cool game going forward. So I don't know if we'll ever see that again, and the reason is the whole market is different. I mean, back in the 90s when these great games based on poor movies came out, movies made their money by the box office, and then they made it by VHS and home video sales and through Blockbuster and things. That whole market is gone now. Movies get released in theaters. I don't even know if like 30% of the movie going public from before is even going to theaters anymore. I personally haven't been to a movie theater, I think in four years or something. Since COVID hit, I just quit going to the theater. And then, you know, I've been able to watch, you know, new run movies at home in the quietude and solace of my home theater with, you know, my 85-inch screen TV and have a much better experience than what I would get at the movie theater sitting next to some kid munching popcorn and some guy kicking my seat and all that business. and maybe the focus is off a little bit or the lights aren't dimming up. You know, you just get a subpar experience for what you pay at the movie theater, though I do miss that experience of going to the theater to see something. All of this is to say that I don't even know that the movies that are released now have any room in that budget to do something like a pinball license project anymore. And maybe that's why we're not really seeing it, but I would like to see them get back to that if possible. You know, we don't all have to go to these like grandpa themes, these 70s rockers, though. We love them. You know, let's get a little bit more contemporary. You know, where's our hip hop pinball machine? Where's our Taylor Swift pinball machine? Those sorts of things. I mentioned this on a live stream today, too. The idea of a Taylor Swift pinball machine has come up. She's huge, man. She's like the largest pop star in existence right now. Like she's like 10 Katy Perry's. And so I am not a huge like Taylor Swift music fan. Like I don't go and listen to her songs all the time. One of my kids' friends is really into her. So I'm tangentially aware of Taylor Swift. I'm aware of her cultural significance that's going on right now, her social championing that she does. She's tied to football somehow.
    27:25
    But just because I'm not a super fan of her and going to her shows and things doesn't mean that her game can't be completely amazing. So that's why I would like to see it come out. I also think a theme like that would do a couple of things. It would help to broaden the audience of pinball, which is a good thing for all of us. And it will also help bring in more female representation into the hobby, hopefully bring even more new people into pinball. The reason I say that is a good thing is because that will lead to more eyes on pinball, more eyes on pinball tournaments like what we just saw recently. let's get pinball to be the next big e-sport because that will attract even larger sponsors bring in more money into the industry as a whole which will not only strengthen it and give it multiple areas of revenue generation it'll stabilize it and keep it from crashing again. It'll pump more money, more capital in more people in, we'll see more games and more themes. So that's what I want to see. So even though I'm not a huge fan as far as listening to the music and going to the concerts and buying the t-shirts of Taylor Swift I would love to see her machine for that reason plus it would probably it would be fun what what would Brian Eddy do with the Taylor Swift theme that's what I want to see I want to see him take the same bottom from Stranger Things and Venom and do something interesting with Taylor Swift I just want to see like how his creativity adapts to that or some such or board or or whoever right I just think that would be interesting so will we see a time return where modern licenses coincide with their game releases, or are we still going to be reaching back into the well of, you know, doing gremlins and goonies and all that business? We'll see. We'll see what happens. Louis Cici wanted me to talk about Texas Pinball Festival. So, Louis, this is for you, my homie from down under. He's got to watch everything like 12 hours flip from where we're at on the account that he lives on the other side of the planet in Australia. I want to come out and visit this dude sometime. TPF is coming up next month. It's February. It's springtime. It's 45 degrees out in Wisconsin. and we're wearing cargo shorts and flip-flops. It's amazing. I can wait for TPF I for sure going to be there with Balls of Steel We co a booth I just about to announce some new graphics and merch drops that i going to have that i very excited about i stockpiling all the giveaway stuff that we going to be doing for tpf i got some great ideas i can't wait for it we're going to see some new games at tpf i just know it and now i'm just talking about the other half of ninja eclipse you know i think you just brought the top half of the cabinet for expo the bottom half reveal that's going to be coming later I think we're going to see new pinball from American Pinball Is it going to be Barry's Food Truck? Is it going to be Yukon Yeti? Is it going to be the Sonic Kids License Project? Or is it going to be something completely different? Is it going to be a red version of GTF? Where you play as Annoya against the GTF people? I think that would be super fun Hey, how about this as a free idea To American Pinball Whoever's doing the coding How about a mode that you can select when you start Where you can play as the villain How about that? Let's reuse some of those assets and pump some longevity into this game. What do you say? I think that would be fun. Let's do it.
    30:35
    But, yeah, what else are we going to see? Stern, are they going to have a new game there? Probably not. I'm expecting their next Cornerstone to come out sometime in June.
    30:43
    To hit three a year, they will have their one in January, one in June, and one in December. No, probably September or so, a fall release. And then they'll be back in line to be able to release another one in January. So what's that going to be? The rumors are all over the place. I've heard so many that I don't even know if people are just making them up now But you know I've heard Dungeons and Dragons I've heard Pokemon please let it be Pokemon Just recently Goonies has come up again As a possible one John Wick is supposed to be out there Wasn't it like a Halo or a Call of Duty Somewhere did that die Who knows I don't know Honestly I don't know what their next game is And I'm okay with that I want to be surprised and revealed Remember how surprised we were When Barrels of Fun came out And they were like here's a labyrinth can you believe it I want that again. I like to be surprised. This is why I don't pin Spooky down and make them tell me what their next 10 themes are because I live for the reveal, man. I think that's super fun. So I think we're going to see, for sure, new American Pinball. We're not going to see new Stern.
    31:45
    We're not going to see new Spooky yet, for sure. Maybe late fall we might see something else. I don't think, again I've said this before That they're not trying to Completely end their run and then start the run On the next game, they want to have a couple of license Kind of in the air at the same time They're able to pivot and do that So we won't necessarily need to see both of their New games sell out for them to then Go on to their next game, we might just see another one Drop and then you may concurrently have A couple of Scooby Doo stragglers You know Looney Tunes if it hasn't sold out TCM plus the new game maybe they'll reach back and do a couple more Alice Cooper's probably not going to happen um you know but but that's interesting I don't think we're going to see a new game from them there yet but that will be the first time that a lot of people get to put their hands on TCM and Looney Tunes and they'll be selling them from the show floor too I bet so if you want to get yourself one and you know you don't want to go ahead and wait maybe you want a little bit of a discount or maybe you want to play it first get to TPF when it opens go play them and if you like it go get one you can take it home with you at the end that would be awesome uh what else do we have Jersey Jack. Now that's a wild card. Elton John was just released in October, but I don't know what the sales going on for that are. I know I haven't seen a ton showing up on location. I know the one that's been touring around locally was a show game from Kingpin and they're kind of loaning it out. Now it's over in Rockford, Illinois making its rounds, but like, you know, Jaws was released in January and we're seeing it explode in arcades everywhere. Elton John, kind of still waiting. And I don't know if that's due to them spooling up the factory or because of sales? Because of price? We'll have to wait and see what happens there. Either way, Elton John, fantastic machine. Love it. It's fun to play. I want one at around $9,500. I'm going to do the wait and see if it has the JGP price drop before I jump on it. Also, I've got a burden of a bunch of other games that are finally coming due. Including Pulp Fiction, man. Those are leaving, the Black Door versions are leaving with the Coindor Bill Acceptor for locations so it'll be great to see that game out of more locations. More people can play it. And then I think that, I get the feeling that the SEs are going to follow. That's the one that I pre-ordered. I hate to say it, but probably there'll be a sizable run of those before we see the LEs. Now this is all conjecture and things, but there is going to be more done to the LE when it comes out. You get that topper, which looks sweet, you get the Bad Mother Flipper,
    34:13
    Pewter Sculpt or whatever, the Mirror Blades, anybody can get those, the Chrome Bezel for the speaker grill or whatever. Either way, Pulp Fiction, great game, $8,500. Come on, man. That's awesome, especially right now. So, yeah, looking forward to that.
    34:31
    What else? Who am I missing? I feel like I'm missing another company. There's like 2,700 of them. Oh, we will probably see Princess Bride as well. So how about that? Can't wait for that. Oh, one more thing I want to get to. I've been busy in my mod dungeon cranking things out. I've got three product lines going right now. Two of them are available on Pinside. The other one's kind of available for special order. I went through and I wanted some Flipper Toppers for the Bloodbred edition of Elvira. And I didn't see anything else on Pinside about this. I love Flipper Toppers now. It was a thing I was a little hesitant to jump into, and now it's one of those things that once you get one for one game, you want them for every game, and the game doesn't look complete unless it has them now. Thankfully, it is an inexpensive mod to put on. It's easy to install. Anybody can do it. So I busted out the CAD program, and I made my own flipper toppers. I didn't copy anybody else's design. I created these myself with my calipers measuring, and I came up with them. I'm very proud of them. So I came up with some Skull Blood Red Kiss Edition flipper toppers. are up on the Pinside Shop. Check those out if you want to see them. I'm making them in whatever color you want. These are black, red, and white skulls with red eyes, but I've done a purple version as well. So if you have the regular versions of the Elvira's, not the Blood Red Kiss, and you want the purple, you can get those. Or if you have any other horror-themed game that you want skull flipper toppers for, you can get them. I'm selling them for $20, free shipping. Free shipping even. Come on, $10 a flipper, and you got it. And if you want yellow ones for some reason, just let me know. I'll print you out some. Not a big deal. Happy to help. Just having fun and a good time.
    36:11
    My Elvira crypts have been selling amazingly well. I can't believe it. I've been in production of those for a while. What it is is I made a roof. I took the files online that are freely available on Thingiverse and printed my own take on those. I think this version works pretty good. It doesn't have the LEDs, but it does have a red filter that shines through the crypt light in the front. And it also made a wall for the side of the crypt, and I made a roof for it. and I'm just kind of learning as I go. But now you get, like, you know, almost a full 3D-sculpted crypt for under $200, and those are on Pinside. I got a purple one for every version of Elvira and a black one for the Blood Red Kiss version. I sent my first one to Europe. Genghis has one. He's doing a review video for me, so go check that out if you want to see it. If you want to get one, let me know, either through Pinside or by other means, and I'll get one out to you. But having a lot of fun making mods that I love, And so I just kind of want to make them available to other people, and Pinside was the easy way to do that. So thank you for them. Also, final thing, I have my gargoyle toppers that I'm making. I got the first one out to Danny. He's testing it out. He loves it. So I've got another one I'm making now for a customer. And then I don't have anybody else lined up then for that. So this was the topper that won Best Homebrew Topper at Expo. It's two giant gargoyles with glow-in-the-dark candlesticks that light and flash with the game. I built it for Elvira, but really, again, any horror-themed game that you want a couple of let-up gargoyles on top of, let me know. I'll get it out to you for sure less than the price of a Stern Topper. Less than half the price of a Stern Topper, man. And there's some customizable options available, too. Look for a video to show up on the YouTube channel soon. So if you haven't already, go over to the YouTube Don's Pinball Podcast and like and subscribe so you never miss anything. I'm going to start streaming a whole lot more on there pretty soon. I got a brand new wireless microphone that's going to make the interactivity of the live streams amazing. So look for that. Patreon giveaway on the 15th of this month. We're giving away a Translight. Which one will it be? I have a whole stack. I might just let the winner choose. But right now, I'm looking at a Magic Girl Translight, and I think that's going to be the prize. $5 will get you in the door. If you join at the $10 or $20 level, you get two entries, and it's on the 15th. And we'll do it live. I'll put everybody's name in a hat. We'll draw somebody out, and that is the winner. right now we are at 50 patreon members we're above 50 uh so i've gone ahead and i think i'll do this as a monthly giveaway now instead of bi-monthly if we get above 100 maybe i'll pick two people every month or something um but i'm gonna build up my stores of trans lights um i've got uh requests out to manufacturers hey if you got any extra stock you want to do some promotions or something send it to me so i can give it away i want to do that and if i build up the youtube subscribers enough i think i might get even more of that it's all fun we're having fun in pinball we're having fun and pinball together. What's better than that?
    39:00
    Oh yeah, it's Friday. Hopefully you have the weekend off. We've got a Super Bowl coming up in a week. We've got episode number 100 of Don's Pinball Podcast, which will be coming up pretty soon. I'm excited. We'll be recording that this weekend, so buckle up. It's going to be completely amazeballs. I hope you enjoy this episode. If you do, email me, donspinballpodcast at gmail.com and let me know, y'all, what you think. Share with your friends. Follow the Facebook page. Go get yourself some pie from some kind of restaurant or something. Later, everybody. Talk to you soon.