Spooky Pinball has just released Halloween and Ultraman with both themes selling out in one day and also Stern Pinball Mandalorian limited editions are on the line and showing up in homes across the country. All that right now on a pinball podcast. All righty. Welcome back, everybody, to an episode of a pinball podcast. And in case you guys haven't noticed, obviously things are a little bit different around here. I changed around the setup a little bit. And, you know, I guess change is good. But we're just going to go with it. Obviously, I don't have all the games behind me. And I'm still trying to figure out what is going on in the background right now. Now, of course, if you're listening on audio, you have no idea what I'm talking about. In which case, I say thank you for popping in and listening. I greatly do appreciate it. So let's get right to it right now. we're going to talk about Spooky Pinball releasing both Halloween and Ultraman. Now both of these themes it was very interesting when I saw everything being announced last week and just kind of seeing how this would play out and I know that there was a lot of people wondering whether or not that this would be something that would be a theme that would sell out or two themes that would sell out and rightfully so it's whenever you're dealing with something like Halloween that happens to be a horror themed pinball machine, it's kind of the unknown because we haven't really had a huge horror theme in a very, very long time, especially coming out from a pinball company that I feel is a major player in the game today. And I think Spooky Pinball has rightfully earned that title. But I did think though, after looking at how the metrics are all playing out with the YouTube videos with the online presence that Spooky has, and especially coming off of a tremendous success from Rick and Morty, I did feel like that this had high-end potential of selling out, and sure enough, it did within about two hours, I believe. Now, of course, that wasn't without its hiccups. There was people that were talking about how they had a game in the car, it timed out, had a gateway timeout and stuff like that. I feel like, of course, a bunch of people are talking about how that might be a little bit of a black eye on the release, but I really don't feel like it's that big of a deal. Obviously, it affected some people, and if you did get affected, it truly does suck. But knowing Spooky, they're probably going to try to do something to make those people whole, and I feel like it's highly likely if you did time out that most likely you probably still got a pin. I don't know. I could be wrong on that, but we'll see how that all plays out. But anyhow, so I think that this solidifies Spooky Pinball in terms of their placement in the pinball industry. Now, a lot of people are talking about how Spooky Pinball compared to American Pinball or even compared to Deep Root, but I believe that that comparison really doesn't make any sense in the way that the things are going in the pinball industry. I really do believe that Spooky Pinball is closer to Jersey Jack Pinball than they are to American Pinball or Deep Root or even Chicago Gaming. I think Spooky has done things the right way, and they've earned all the success that they are currently getting. so in terms of the two themes that came out now i do want to discuss what i thought about the trailer and what i thought about the overall look of halloween and everything but we'll probably get more into that on a youtube video whenever i do get to sit down and really analyze through the play field but what i will say it is an interesting design i do have my concerns a little bit with what I'm seeing out of it. But again, you truly don't know until you see actual gameplay involved. Now, obviously, the artwork on both pens are excellent. It appears that they do have the assets that are needed to create a great pen. And it does appear that there's been a lot of sweat, blood, and tears put into this particular theme or both themes as it is with both Ultraman and Halloween. But again, we'll get more into just the depth of what this play field actually is and what the shots are. And well, I think that something like that would be a little bit better served once we do see a little bit of gameplay video and once we do really dive into what we're seeing out of it. Now, in terms of Spooky Pinball with what their strategy was with releasing two themes on the same layout, essentially, I think something like this is a really smart play for somebody that is the size of Spooky. Now, I'm not so sure that this would work well for Stern Pinball. I know that there's a lot of people online, even I've seen on Pinside, I've seen on Facebook posts, that they're talking about that, well, Stern needs to take note of this. They need to see what's going on. And in which case, I would say back to those people, do you not think that Stern hasn't thought of this before? And obviously Stern has thought of this. It's just that they simply don't do it. And I don't think they need to do it either because Stern Pinball is still way far behind on just getting caught up with orders as it is. they are bursting at the seams right now. And there's a lot of people out there that still don't even realize this. And Stern Pinball is the big dog in the park or in the yard, whatever you want to call it. But I will say for Spooky, I think a company of their size, this is a very intelligent idea to do. And the reason for this is, I think you're going to get people that are really going to be on board overall with the idea of Spooky Pinball. I think you're going to have a lot of people that really enjoy the culture and really are passionate about the culture that they bring. So the brand of Spooky Pinball is very popular with pinball people. And pinball is a lot larger than what people realize. It truly is. And whenever you're dealing with a limited release, such as Halloween or such as Ultraman, you're only going to have to find about 1,250 people to actually purchase these pins. and in the case of Ultraman, just 500. And these numbers, to be honest with you, in pinball nowadays in 2021, aren't really that big. And somebody like Spooky, they will crush these numbers every single time. I will say it right now, Spooky Pinball is a lot bigger and a lot better than what a lot of people realize. This is not a mom and pop company anymore. This is not a small endeavor. This is something that I feel like they can really build off of and they can really grow. And this is the perfect deal to do in order to get that way. And what I mean by that, this is kind of like the roadmap that I feel like they can follow with whatever themes that they decide to go with. I think it's high-end smart. Is that a term? I'm going to use it as a term. I think it is high and smart to use two different themes on the same layout because you're going to appeal to somebody that might not enjoy your primary theme, and they might not even enjoy the secondary theme, but they do enjoy its spooky pinball, and there is a number of people out there that want to support. Now, let's face facts. Come on now. There is not 500 people in America that knew what Ultraman was. I have heard of Ultraman, but I've had no idea what Ultraman really was. I know I've seen it on a Marvel comic recently. I know that it came out in the 1960s, but I have not given any thought to Ultraman in legitimately 30 plus years. And to see that it sold out the way it did, I think that that a huge indicator that there are people in the Asian market that want to get more involved in pinball And I think that a huge indicator of people that are in the American market that are huge spooky pinball fans And so hats off to spooky pinball. They sold out, I believe, a 500 of Ultramans and of course Halloween 1250. And that goes without saying, Halloween, it's a popular theme. It is. And I think anymore when people are debating about theme and theme is everything, It really is, but culture of your business and of your company is huge also. And I think Stern Pinball has done well on that. I believe Jersey Jack Pinball has done well on that. Yes, they're having some issues right now, but the fact is, if we look back to just whenever Guns N' Roses came out, it was huge. Everybody was extremely happy with what they saw. Everybody was fired up with what they saw. And so they've all done well, and now Spooky Pinball has really stepped up in a big way. And those right there, those three companies, that's your big three right now. That is. Got like a gnat just flying around here. We had a big-ass storm around here in Oklahoma, and there's just been mosquitoes and bugs everywhere. It is horrible. Anyways, getting back on topic. Those three, those are your big three right now. And I don't think that there's no denying this. And what's curious about it, I believe Haggis Pinball, I would put them up there right next to AP and Haggis Pinball, oh, I nearly got it there. Haggis Pinball does have a chance to pass up American Pinball too, but that's a whole other discussion. So looking at the game itself, and again, not really analyzing the shots too much or anything like that. We're just talking about just pure aesthetics. Now we're going to talk about Halloween first. Now, whenever I saw this, I've got to admit, I did kind of chuckle to myself a little bit. And the reason being, whenever I saw the three hedges at the side with the three mics right there, and they're all three of them are legless, that was kind of jarring to see. But I get what Spooky is going for. They've definitely tried to stuff the kitchen sink into this pen. And they've said that they've listened to people. And I think that that is what a lot of people have asked for. Now, me personally, if I'm just going off of what I think about stuff like this, it's that I don't necessarily equate a bunch of assets within underneath the glass as being something that equates to fun. But that being said, it depends on how you use it. If it's used properly, it could end up being a lot of fun. And I'm just not sure what to think about those hedges just yet, but I have not seen it implemented yet. So it's kind of hard to make a choice or make a judgment call on it right now. That being said, the art looks awesome. I do like the three bank drop targets that are in front of the ramp. I like the idea of having to get past something in order to get to another part of the playfield, in which case, I believe this would lead to the upper playfield. Again, I'm not quite sure. I haven't dug in that much, but the upper playfield areas, they look excellent as well. I think that there is a lot of things to do up there that could be fun. My only worry for this game when I look at it at first is that it has high end potential of being a very wood choppy type pen. And I don't know how much fun I would personally have with that. Now, obviously, Spooky did say on one of their promos or maybe even on one of their sheets that this pen would have good flow to it. And I did listen to the Super Awesome Pinball Show in which I believe it was Charlie and Bug were both on there, so you guys go check that out to where they talked with Franchi and Christian about just the game in general and just the release of it. And I thought that there was something in there in which I think it might have been Charlie that said this game has more flow than the Mississippi River. I think that's what I heard, but I was also on the road during a seven-hour road trip. So maybe my ears just deceived me. But when I look at this pin, I'm not so sure of that. I just, I don't know. Now, obviously, it has the two ramps, and again, we're not going to get too far in the weeds, really analyzing this because nobody has seen this played yet. And I know it's kind of hard to describe this pin over a podcast because the layout is unique in a way. We haven't seen something like this in a long time. I was talking to one of my pinball buddies who will rename nameless right here, unless you text me and you want your name revealed. But they made mention that they thought the left side kind of reminded them of Popeye. And I looked at it, I'm like, huh, this actually makes sense that it does look like Popeye. Now, no other parts really look like anything in particular. Now, I'm sure we could pick stuff out. We can decide, oh, it looks like this, it looks like that. But I will say it will be interesting to see it be shot. Now, that leads me into spooky making the decision not to show gameplay before these go on sale. Now, I feel like that was the correct decision. I've been on record many times over the past year that I don't believe gameplay needs to be shown like a full-on gameplay before the order bank opens up. Us as the consumers, we can decide whether or not we really want to jump in. But the thing is too, and I can tell you guys this from my experience playing pinball, it is still very difficult to see how a pin will shoot depending on who is actually flipping the game, all right? There's a lot of people on there that they might not be as skillful as other players and you may not get a good idea of how it actually shoots. You'll get a decent idea, but unless you really understand geometry, unless you've played a lot of different games, it's kind of hard to really tell. And you really don't know until you get your hands on it and you start flipping it yourselves. Because obviously if somebody is really good at a game, they're going to make it look easy. If somebody is an average player, they're going to make it look like it plays, like it might play average. It might not look like it has flow because they're bricking shots. So that right there, that's uncontrollable. What is controllable is how you present the product in the way that you want to present it. And I feel like Spooky Pinball did a great job at that. And that's exactly why, a big reason why this all sold out. Now, looking at everything else a little bit, I do like the assets that I'm seeing overall on this play field. I'm not a big fan of the lights. now I don't believe those aren't LED light strips that are on the upper play field that kind of are shown I think those are like RGB something I know somebody out there knows what I'm talking about you guys can correct me in the comments down below on the YouTube video but I know I don't believe that those are LED strips from watching the video and everything and I'm going to be curious how that plays out I'm not a big fan of that look in general but I mean overall it's It's overall, I'd say it's going to be a great pen for the people that are interested in Halloween, that are interested in supporting Spooky, or even the people that are interested in Ultraman, as that pen is a little bit different. But again, we're not really going to break down all that too much. We're going to wait until a YouTube video to actually have the photos in front of us, so that way you guys can see what I'm talking about, and it'll make a little bit more sense also. But moving forward, what does this all say about the industry in general? Well, I've touched base on it a little bit. It says that the industry is very healthy right now. There is more people out there that want to buy pinball than what pinball is available, at least if you're stern and you're spooky, and for the most part, if you're Jersey Jack, seeing how all the CEs have sold out and they're done putting standards, I believe, on the line, and they're just doing LEs from here on out. I really do believe that this will stay a healthy market, regardless of what happens with the economy. We heard we due for a recession or a pullback or whatever you want to call it But I truly do believe after we went through all these lockdowns and after we went through 2020 I think people are putting a high end value on their time at home. And I think people are really looking at the things that they can bring into their house to enjoy on a Friday night or on a Saturday night, even more so than worrying about going out to the movie theater or going out to eat or just going out in general. So I believe that all these lockdowns and what happened with the 2020 pandemic, that this has created a lot of different homebodies. I know for me personally, I love to travel and I still will keep traveling, but I also was very happy that I had stuff at home during this time to keep me, to keep my wife, to keep my kids occupied. So I believe moving forward that a lot of people out there kind of have that mindset. And I know from the people I've talked to, it seems like that that is the prevalent mindset. I hope I use that terminology right, but I feel like that that is the mindset. So I feel like a lot of these pinball companies are in a good place. I really do. Now, I think if you get below Spooky, if you get below, well, I'll even say if you get below Haggis, I feel like if you're American Pinball, it's a little worrisome. Deep Root, a little worrisome. I don't know where they're at on things. Hopefully they'll come out with something here pretty soon. That way we could all see it. And I feel like if they can figure out a theme that will work, if Deep Root can somehow actually put out Goonies, might be popular. If American Pinball can actually put out a Pulp Fiction or whatever else it could be, a Gremlin something, anything, I feel like that that might be pretty popular. I don't know. I mean, hopefully. Now, obviously, American Pinball has talked about how they're not putting out a theme, a licensed theme, I believe. Again, somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I could have swore I've heard that they're putting out an unlicensed theme next, and that is kind of worrisome a little bit. But anyhow, so everybody online seems to love this pin pretty much. Of course, you have some people that don't necessarily like it. That's fine. It's whatever. It's pinball. But I feel like the vast majority of people love what they're seeing now in Spooky, and you know they're going to be buying and they're going to be playing it so i for one look forward to flipping it and we will have a youtube video out pretty soon just really breaking down everything to do with these pens so mandalorian le's are shipping currently now yours truly was able to get a hold of a mandalorian pro i have put some time in on it and i will have full review full breakdown and all that in due time probably even the next podcast i'll just dedicate it primarily just talking about all things Mandalorian and really giving you guys an idea of what my thoughts are on it. Now, my basic thoughts on it, just straight up, is I think the game is insanely easy to play at this point. I believe if you're an average to above average player, you're going to have a great time on this pin. It's not really the type of pin that fights back. In fact, the only time I honestly felt like that this pin was fighting back was pretty much during the wizard modes because the light show from Dwight or the Dwight show was just insane to the point that I was nearly blinded and I felt like I was about to go into a seizure during it. But again, the game is a lot of fun. I still do have some issues with some shots, but we'll talk about that eventually. I'm just excited to see that there are Mandalorian LEs going out to buyers. Now, the Mandalorian Limited Edition, it is a very interesting thing to see when it comes to pinball, mainly because that price point. The MSRP of it was in the low 9,000s and there was a lot of different distributors that went well above that and rightfully so because this pen was pretty popular at the very beginning. Now what we did see was some of these pens were going for 16 clear up to 17,000. That market has cooled off a little bit as we still see some of the pens available out there for 12 to 14,000. Now technically this means that it is sold out from Stern and that distributors have these on hand. But what I would say is if you're still on the fence about getting one, definitely call around, definitely check it out because I'm sure some of these distributors would be willing to will and deal. But I think if you can, if you get lucky and you can find something MSRP, you know, good on you. I just think it's going to be incredibly hard to find right now because what's going to happen, we're going to get the quarter four, we're going to get the Christmas time. And some of these LEDs that are still out there from distributors, I think Star Wars fans are going to figure it out more and more. They're going to want to get one, especially whenever you start seeing them out and about. Because Stern is really great at their public relations, at their PR, at everything that they release. And I feel like something like this is something that will have a little bit of longevity for Stern. Now, when it comes to Christmas time, now, of course, that's going to be the difference maker. what pins are even going to be available for Christmas at this point, because Stern is already well behind schedule, and for the most part, who knows, maybe they're getting caught up. But we just heard George Gomez drop a bomb just last week on Joel's podcast over on TPN, on just another pinball podcast, and he talked about something that was coming in September. Now, I've heard rumblings of this. I just didn't want to put anything out there publicly until Stern Pinball put something out there publicly, and they did. Now, I have my theories on what this could be coming in September that tends to affect all the games across the board. You know, it's something that could be online connectivity. It could be some type of online presence in terms of you having a profile to use on different games. That's my theory. But I'm very curious because also from everything that I've seen, I feel like that this is going to partially affect their line because I'm hearing for different distributors that there's not too many games going out in September, which indicates if that's the case, something is happening in August in terms of their manufacturing. Now, can this particular big thing that's unknown that's coming out in September, does it need to be manufactured at a wide scale? and it appears that that is probable. Now again, this is just speculation on me just trying to put all these pieces to the puzzle together. I don't know, but I'm sure we'll find out in due time. Maybe I'm over the target. Maybe I'm just way off in left field and it could be something totally opposite. This could even be a stern pinball puzzle situation again where I overanalyze a puzzle too much thinking it might be an indication of the next game when it turns out it's just a puzzle. But anyhow, so we're going to do some mail time right quick. I told you guys this was coming up like three weeks ago, and finally we've got it here. So I'm just going to answer. I think I'm just going to choose from two questions due to time constraints right now. So this one's from Craig in Florida. So Craig says, what can games do better to get the magic under glass? And that's just kind of paraphrasing everything, as Craig definitely had his opinions on what makes a great game. Craig, I appreciate the email. What do I think that games can do better to get magic under glass? Well, you know, I'm actually of the camp right now that I believe that the magic that we see, the quote-unquote magic under glass that we see, I think people sometimes look in the wrong places for it. Now, I wish that each game just had like five or six killer mechs, but just as I alluded to earlier in this podcast, I don't believe that a bunch of mechs stuffed in a pinball machine or even one mech that does something spectacular equals fun. And the reason why I say that, if you get to a certain point in pinball in which you an above average skill level you gonna make that one mech do its thing over and over and over and over again within the same game Now when we look at the Bally Williams era when you see the type of pins that were out on location, they did have that one thing in which you did it over and over and over again. But again, that one thing was designed to get somebody to pump quarters into the game. It wasn't really games that had a high-end, in-depth rule set, such as a medieval madness or attack from Mars or anything like that. The rules are still great, but they're very simple. It's just you do the thing, you hit some ramps, you hit some orbits, you'll eventually get some stuff working, you'll get some multiballs working. But at the end of the day, your primary goal for excitement, if you're just a casual, is just hitting everything up the middle to the easiest shot there is and making the castle do something, making the ship, the alien ship do something spectacular, making it dance around and make the light show go off. And then after that, after your five or ten minutes of doing that, you're done and you're going to the next thing. Now, what's funny about this is Stern Pinball with Brian Eddy and Stranger Things, they kind of replicated that with the Demogorgon right up the middle to where you hit the drop targets down and eventually it pops down. And then your goal is just to bash the crap out of the Demogorgon. That was, to me, was a callback to the early 90s. And what's hilarious about it, there was a lot of people out there that did not like it at all. But yet I can tell you, Stranger Things absolutely destroys on location. I've talked to many different people that own the pen and it just, it's very popular with the casuals. And I think it's because of that element alone. Now, when I look at World Under Glass nowadays in 2021, for me, that's a lot of things. That could be shot geometry. That could be a light show. That could be how the jackpots are working. I try to look at it from a different angle than just saying, oh, this does something cool. Besides that, if I want to see something cool done with the ball, I would rather just see something interact with the ball and be awesome. So for me, take Avengers, for instance. It's just right over my right shoulder here. That Avengers tower, the fact that it magnetizes the ball and that equals a jackpot, and I can get a double super jackpot by hitting a second ball up there, to me that's the pin doing something awesome and i really do appreciate something like that so i believe that magic or worlds under glass it's all happening in front of us it just depends on how you interpret it it just depends on what your skill level is also because obviously the better pinball player you are the more you're going to experience in a pin the more you're going to see the pin do. And I would encourage anybody that has a pin at home or has a collection at home or has something on location, think about something that you could do to get a little bit better at the game because that will open up a lot of possibilities for you with that world under glass. So, Greg, thank you so much for your question. All right, so let's see here. We got Xavier from Parts Unknown, apparently. All right, thank you so much for the Pinball Podcast. I greatly do appreciate your thoughts and everything on pinball. Well, Xavier, I appreciate it. I'm new to pinball and wanting to start playing tournaments. What can I do to learn the rules better? Okay. Xavier, great question. What can you do to learn the rules better? Well, what I tell everybody is this, when you're dealing with modern pinball machines, just think of it as the three M's. All right. You got your missions, you got your multi balls and you got your multipliers. So those three things, or I said missions, I'm thinking come thinking Star Wars, you got your modes basically. So modes, multiball, multipliers. Those three things right there, if you can figure those out, just try to figure out where those are in any game, especially a modern stern, and you'll be well off. And this also works for Hot Wheels on American Pinball. It kind of doesn't really work for Jersey Jack, for Guns and Roses too much, but I'm sure you could kind of apply that a little bit somewhat. But generally speaking, if you just figure out how to start your modes, you figure out where the multi balls are at, you'll be pretty well off. And then you just add the multipliers on top. That's an easy way to kind of get through a game in general. And you do that enough, you just kind of learn where everything is that it just kind of becomes second nature. And you don't have to do this, you know, 30 or 40 times. I think within five times of doing something, you'll pretty much figure out where things are at. Now, obviously, you can go way deeper into this and start learning sequences and start learning what you need to start before something else. And a lot of that comes with just practice. A lot of it comes with basically becoming better with your flipper skills and allowing you the time to breathe during the game so you can make these decisions. Because obviously, if you're just flipping away like a madman and you're playing on the fly a lot, it's going to be awfully hard to make these decisions. And the only time you can make these high-level decisions during the course of a game when you're playing on the fly is if you just have a ton of experience and you're also highly accurate with wherever you're hitting the ball to. Because, obviously, if you play on the fly, there's a big chance that you're going to play out of control. And there's only a handful of players in this world that can do something like that. So I would advise just, if you're wanting to learn rules better, just stick to the 3Ms. I would also say pick out a game. If you have a game on location, pick it out for that week and just tell yourself, I'm going to play this 20 or 25 times and I'm going to figure it out. And I'm going to figure out one thing. I'm going to figure out how to start the modes. Okay. From there, I'm going to figure out what mode I like the best. Okay. From there, I'm going to figure out how do I complete this mode in the most efficient manner. And that's kind of where this goes. Things just start to stack up for you. And I think a lot of people, they just kind of psych themselves out too much about rule sets that whenever they see something like a modern pinball machine with all the lights, with all the different inserts and everything, that they believe they have to know all of it. And you don't. You honestly simplify it as much as you can. And then from there, if you want to go a little bit further into it, you can. And a little bit further into it would just simply be learning how a mode works, would simply be learning how a multiball works. So for instance, if you're wanting to know how a multiball works a little bit better, just find where the shots are. Whenever you start the multiball, just look where the inserts are. What is the pinball machine telling you to hit? Now, take it a step further. How many shots do you need to hit before a super jackpot is lit? And where is that super jackpot at? So you can simplify this even on something like attack from Mars, because all major shots during basically every multiball pretty much, but during, what is that? I can't even think of the multiball off the top of my head, what it's called, but everybody knows what I'm talking about. Just the three locks that are right next to the left ramp, But you start that multiball, and then pretty much every major shot out there is lit for a jackpot. And eventually you'll start to figure out, you hit all those major shots, and then you'll have a roving super jackpot. So you can start to formulate your idea of how these rule sets are working. You can start to formulate a path, and it just kind of becomes imprinted on you that you get a general idea of how these pins work. And a lot of them, they are much more simpler than what people realize. and I truly do believe people kind of psych themselves out whenever they think about the rule sets and they think it's getting way too difficult for them to figure out. Trust me, it's really not that hard. If an idiot like me can figure it out, I believe a lot of you knuckleheads out there that play pinball just like I do can do the same thing, if not even better. But anyhow, that's all I got. I appreciate you guys listening. Leave a like, comment down below if you so desire. And other than that, I'll talk to you guys soon. Later, guys.