It's time to give that whip a crack. I'm gonna have to send you back to Big Skull. Big Skull. Okay, so let me get this straight. The Queen passes away, and the three pinball machines that are being revealed to the world right now are all British properties. Spinal Tap, James Bond, and Queen Pinball by the Pinball Brothers. What weird timing that all of this is happening at once, but today we saw another pinball reveal. There's been two new pinball machines revealed in one week, and we get to see Home Pin's version of Spinal Tap. I'm looking at it right now. Now, here's how I want to start. I want to start out by saying another weird reveal. They spent how many years making this game? Think about it, people. How did Mike reveal this game to the world? He now has like just someone in a room as they're setting up for this Australian show. And now the photos are just being passed around. And I want to start here for a minute. I just want to say this. As a marketer, it absolutely pains me how bad this industry reveals products. It is as if these people don't understand how to use the internet. They don't understand how to use cameras. They don't understand how to build hype. They absolutely don't know what they're doing. And Homepin is a company in which you need to build some hype and excitement for your product because I'll tell you why. the product itself needs it because i'm looking at it right now and i'm going to tell you right now my true feelings about this game look i don't think it's terrible it looks better than thunder birds but it's 2022 everybody and mike and everybody over at home pin i mean it when i say it you guys have to start taking some accountability on how you reveal your products to the world for the first time and here's the biggest bonehead move out of all of this they have one exclusive distributor in the United States. It's my friend Joe Newhart over at Pinball Star 1. And Home Pin released a flyer on this game to Joe Newhart and also to the community. And guess what? You can't even read the flyer itself. This is the sales flyer, people. And you zoom in on it and you can't even read the words. Everything is blurry. And it looks like there's absolutely zero toys and zero true mechs in this game. I mean, it looks like everything is just sculpts and little plastic guitars, and that's what the flyer is calling out. But here's the part that really just like irks me. Are you telling me after like years of making this game, Mike, moving your company from China to Taiwan, you are going to put out a blurry flyer as your sales material to get people excited for this game? I just don't get it, people. You know, look, I called it a Mickey Mouse operation the other day. It's more like a goofy operation. This is such amateur hour and I really think these companies should be embarrassed. They should totally be embarrassed that they're revealing their products to the world in such a pathetic way. Hey, newsflash everybody. It's not 1994. You can't just usher your game into a room or a trade show like IAPA and it's secret. Now Now there's something called cell phones and the internet and social media and all of this stuff is just going to get shared. And so why do you put in so much effort on building these products only to launch them in a way that is just piss poor, is cheap and doesn't do your product justice? So I'm looking at the game right now and I'm looking at Spinal Tap. And look, I will say this, like it looks like colorful. It's got the three band members. It's got like this big dial in the middle. And then I looked at the dial and I'm like, this dial makes no sense. The whole joke of the movie is that the dial goes all the way over to 11, like past 10. It doesn't have 11 in the middle of the dial. And it's almost like I don't even need to look past that to realize that they don't really understand the joke. Like, how can you ruin that? Like, that's so easy to get right. Anyway, I'm looking at this game right now. We've got three miniature instruments. I think there's like a drum set. It looks like there's a cocoon. It looks like there's a really flat stonehenge in the back. And there's two ramps on the left side, three pop bumpers, three drop targets. And then it looks like there might be like a buck on the right side. There's a few spinners. There's a scoop on the left side right here. But it looks like a pretty basic fan layout. Okay so the game probably shoots better than Thunderbirds But I looking at this game right now and I just saying to myself where are the toys in this game How do you make a spinal tap game and not have Stonehenge actually come down? How do you not have Stonehenge appear somehow? Look, this game is very pedestrian. There are no toys in this game. There's nothing mechanically interesting in this game. You know, this to me looks like it's got less in it than James Bond Pro. You know, I'm looking at the ramp on the left side. Go look at the ramp. Zoom in on that ramp on the left side, and you can see like all these little beady weld marks on it. Like, I don't know if this is still a prototype, but that does not look like it's fully polished. You know, the artwork is drag and drop. It's Spinal Tap. It is what it is. You know, I don't think any of us had high expectations for this game. And then you've got the 27-inch screen, and you've got the orange DMD. Don't get me started on using an orange DMD. The reason why they're doing that is they obviously don't have money to pay a coder to create animations for the big screen. So that is why they are using DMD technology that probably came out sometime in the 1980s. I don't think I've ever seen a game do this, have like a DMD and an LCD like that. So here's the deal with this game. There is only one way this game is going to sell. There's only one way this game is going to sell and there's only one target audience for this game. This game is only going to sell if you're a diehard Spinal Tap fan. First of all, my condolences to you. This is probably the last company you would want to make your dream theme. But if you're a diehard fan, you might consider it. But there is only one way this game can sell. Do you know what it is? I bet you do. The only way this game is going to find buyers is if the price is right. And here's the problem. I think this game needs to be priced around the Stern Pro. Now, if this game costs more than like $7,000 or $7,500, maybe max $7,500, there is no way they are going to sell this game. There is just no way. If this thing gets anywhere near a Stern premium cost, good night. It's over. No one's shopping. And that's it because pinball is so competitive now. And if you want to get $8,000, $9,000 from people, think about it right now. If Mike wants to get eight, 9,000 from people, he's got to steal buyers away from James Bond premium. And what about cactus Canyon? He's got to steal buyers away from Godzilla premium. He's got to steal buyers away from TNA 2.0. He's got a lot of competition buyers away from rush premium, right? There's a lot of competition. So let's talk about it because like rush was the other music pin that just came out. And I'm just going to say this. if Mike comes in around $8,000 or $9,000, you can go get a Guns N' Roses LE. I mean, put a Guns N' Roses LE next to this machine and let's just stop the conversation. You know, I mean, Guns N' Roses is fully featured, fully loaded, got so many more mechs in it and got upper play field and has much more going on in it than this pin clearly has. And so look, we knew it was coming. It's out in the world now. We have two pinball machines to chew on in one week. I think one is going to be a ginormous hit and I think one is going to be a huge flop. Just because I don't think Mike is making a product that can compete with where pinball is these days. I think he built this company to compete with pinball like six, seven years ago. But look at where pinball is gone. Look at all the options we have. We've become a lot more discerning with our money because there's so many options now. It's also bad timing. Just think about it from a marketing standpoint, and you're Mike, you're really going to launch your game the same week Stern Pinball is launching James Bond. Just think about that for a minute. If there is any time you want to avoid your game, I would avoid launching it when the biggest pinball company in the world is about to launch another UK property with a lot more toys in it, a lot more features, and a lot more talent making the game. Mike, you should have released this thing four months ago. You should have released this thing when Stern had nothing new on the line. You should have released this thing when Toy Story sales were flat, and here we are. We get this. Okay, so I'm done with Home Pin Spinal Tap. I'll talk more about it as we see the video and how they integrate it. Look, I do like the movie. I just don't get it. I just don't get why Mike would go through all the effort. I just don't get making a pinball company where you can't be competitive with what's in the marketplace. The only way this can compete is if the price is right, so we shall see. Believe me, if Mike can sell this thing for $7,000, he will find buyers. If it's over $8,000, dollars he's not going to find buyers for this game. I really do think people are going to draw the line there. All right what else is going on in pinball? So Spooky Pinball has opened up the TNA sales to everybody. That is good. They are going to sell all 250 eventually. Once they start making these and people start unboxing the new TNAs they're going to sell the remainder of them. So I'm not worried about Spooky. For those of you worried about them don't be worried about them. They have enough Corvettes in the driveway now where you don't have to worry about Spooky Pinball. So here's what I want to do. I want to give you a little bit of a treat on this episode because I know you not expecting it I going to give you a Canada confirmation on two things happening in the pinball world in the future that are going to be exciting Before I do that I want to say that I also still on the record that this James Bond number four game is going to be a Keith Elwin street level design I really hope that I hit on this one because if Kaneda is right with this Keith Elwin rumor, it is absolutely going to blow the minds off of everybody on Pinside. and everyone's going to finally realize, hopefully once and for all, why Canada's Pinball Podcast, number one, five years in a row. And here's why we're the number one show. It's not just because I'm entertaining. It's not just because I give you scoops nobody else will. It's because I'll give you shows as the news is happening, and that's what we're doing right now. I'm going to give you information that other shows know about, but they won't tell you. Like, that's the funny part. They all have to be worried about their relationships with the manufacturers. Guess who I'm not worried about? relationships with manufacturers. I'm doing just fine with my relationship with Brenda and my baby boy, Killian. Before I give you my Canada confirmation on two new things, I want to talk a little bit about the James Bond thread on Pinside. If you go into that thread, it is a prime example of how embarrassing Pinside has become these days. Robin makes like over $300,000 a year to run Pinside. And it is a great forum. And a lot of what goes on there is great. But where's the moderation? Why do they let people derail a thread about James Bond and start talking about wokeism? And then you get this idiotic battle and debate. Can you call them Bond girls? And I'm just an old white man and it's not me that's offended. It's Gen Z kids. Everybody look, do us a favor. Stop talking about politics. Stop talking about how rich you are. Stop talking about what offends you. Stop talking about social issues. This is a pinball forum. We go to pinball forums and we listen to Pinball Podcast because we want to escape from all of that garbage. Leave that garbage out of the forum. Leave it out, everybody. And here's the thing. If you want to say something, and if you want to say something stupid, and if you want to tell us how you really feel about social issues and politics and all this stuff, do us a favor. When you post that, please provide a picture of yourself so we can see who we're talking to because it's really easy to be these keyboard commandos and say the most ignorant stuff, and they don't even know who's on the other side of the keyboard. And I guarantee you, I've been to the pinball shows. A lot of these guys don't want to show you who they are. They love being these little keyboard commandos, and they would be terrified to do what Kaneda does. They could never do Facebook Lives and talk to you in real time. No, they've got to hide behind Pinside. And I just want to say this. Robin, hire some moderators, bro, and clean up your house, because it's getting pretty disgusting. All right, but you don't care about Pinside. What you want to know are the two things Kaneda has to tell you. So I'm going to confirm for you right now. And I haven't seen it. So this is weird. I'm starting to do Kaneda confirmations. And a Kaneda confirmation just means it's real to me. So if it's real to me, I will just confirm it for you. But I don't know 100% if this is going to happen. But I have very good sources that this stuff is going to occur. So I am hearing that Eric Meunier's next game is, in fact, The Godfather. and the artist for the game will be no other than Mr. Christopher Franchi on art. So this is going to be really, really sexy that Jersey Jack Pinball is going to have a Franchi art package game. It's going to be Godfather. Now, here's the other interesting news I'm hearing. I am hearing that Toy Story sales are not that great. They're not as good as they thought they were going to be. And because of that, they have already started ordering parts for Godfather. And if Toy Story sales don't pick up, they might reveal Godfather by the end of the year. So look, here's the thing. I think they've already started ordering parts for the next game. That just makes sense. Like you've got to order all these parts. But I do believe that Jersey Jack Pinball is in a pickle right now. And I do think that Toy Story sales are not going to pick up. And I do think they're going to need to think about getting the next game on the line. Okay, I also heard another thing. I heard that it is not Billy Joel. I heard that Steve Ritchie's game is Elton John and Elton John is going to be the game, the music game that Steve Ritchie is working on. I also heard that he wasn't super psyched to be working on Elton John, but I don't know about that. Like that just feels, that feels like someone just made that up. I'm sure Steve Ritchie is happy to be working on the game he's working on. I just don't think this pinball community wants Elton John. I feel like Elton John is like in his eighties. I don't know. Like Elton John has a great library of music. Like I love Elton John music. I just don't want an Elton John machine. That's just me personally. Guns N' Roses was cool. Like Guns N' Roses music is cool. I think the demographic for pinball would much rather have Guns N' Roses than Elton John. And that's just it. I think for this to work, I think they're going to have to go do more of like a 70s Elton John and make it look kind of throwback. Because that would be kind of cool. If Jersey Jack Pinball made a retro looking machine I just wouldn do current day Elton John Like I don want to see current Elton John concerts I mean at some point we got to stop We got to stop with these musicians that are just like well past their prime We got Franchi on art with Eric Godfather. We've got Steve Ritchie making Elton John. And here's the other crazy thing. We're also about to get two more Christopher Franchi pins out in the world. One of them is going to be Dennis Nordman's game with American Pinball. We are going to see some of that in a couple of weeks. They're going to tease it somehow at the tailgating party. I think it's going to be that like galactic tank game. Canada's on the record for saying they're going to make the cabinet of the pinball machine look like a tank. Yeah. And apparently when you fold the head down, the whole thing looks like a tank. I don't know what that means. Are there going to be tracks instead of legs? I don't know. But it's going to be Dennis Nordman, original IP, a tank game with Christopher Franchi on artwork. And then the other thing that's happening, probably this year, we're also going to see CGC release Pulp Fiction, a single level game with a lot of subways. There's no screen in the game. It's going to have the old school number reels like in games from the 70s and 60s. So think about that. Pulp Fiction, no screen, which means no clips from the movie whatsoever. Really weird. But on artwork on Pulp Fiction is going to be no other than Christopher Franchi. So Christopher Franchi, who I think is one of the greatest pinball artists in the world. And I really think Stern Pinball needs to get him back after looking at James Bond. Now, we'll see if this works because his art style is so distinctive. It's going to be kind of strange seeing him on three companies that are competing with each other. It is bonkers. We've never seen this before. We have never seen an artist have three games in a fiscal year on different companies' products. I mean, that is what is happening, and you're hearing it here at Canada's Pinball Podcast. I think all of this is going to come true. I think we're going to see the street-level game from Keith Elwin, James Bond, 60th anniversary. The last thing I'll leave you with is this, people. I am hearing Stern is going to have a price increase that is probably more than we would want it to be on James Bond. So don't be surprised if the James Bond LE is not a thousand dollars more than Rush LE. I'm hearing it might be that high, people. So get ready. Stern knows what they're doing. And I'm hearing the reason why Stern is raising their prices is they consider their product to be superior than Jersey Jack Pinball's product. So thank you once again, Jersey Jack Pinball, for raising pinball prices, showing everyone what the roof is, and then making all of us pay more for stuff. I mean, you can't blame them. You know, all of you guys out there have been throwing your money at these products for so long now. These companies were bound to catch on. It is a total mistake for these companies to try to sell their product at the flipper price. It is not going to last forever. and I think a lot of these companies, they're gonna price themselves out of pinball. The only reason Stern can get away with it is because they can get you the product right away. People are gonna get sick and tired of writing checks to guys like Gerry Stellenberg and then waiting forever to get the game. Like that's not gonna happen. They're gonna get tired of writing checks to people like Haggis and waiting forever to get the game. Stern is gonna win, even though they know they're ripping you off a little bit, you're not gonna care because you're gonna get the product in a timely manner. and that's so important. This entire hobby runs on FOMO and that is why it's going to be interesting because the James Bond FOMO gets weaker and weaker every day that goes on. You really want it to reveal the game and take orders in a 48-hour window. We've never seen Stern do this. We've never seen Stern have images of their new game and they're not taking orders. Like this is burning them. This is the worst thing you can have is have your product out there and you can't even take people's money. But I have faith in James Bond. I think the more we see of the game and the more we see the game in action, I think people are going to really want this game. Everybody, happy Friday. I hope you enjoy Canada's Pinball Podcast. And for those of you new members out there, you know, look, I went off a little bit on Home Pin, but I hope you enjoy this show. It's always going to be entertaining. I will get you shows on a timely manner. And think about how expensive pinball is. And this is the best bang for the buck in all of pinball. And do me a favor, invite a friend. I know I asked you guys last time. You all have a pinball friend that is not a member of the Canada Club. Do me a favor. Tell them I got you an early Christmas gift this year. I got you a subscription to Canada's Pinball Podcast. It's $60 for the year. I mean, that is nothing, everybody. Thank you so much. Be good. And I'll talk to you tomorrow on my Saturday Morning Spectacular. I am the hangout that's a bitch good Good girl