But you just met somebody new. Don't you tell her how I gave you something that you never even knew you meant. Sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up. Welcome everybody to Canada's Pinball Podcast, your weekly pinball podcaster that's not going to donate his money to charity. Now look everybody, we've reached an incredible milestone, 615 club members. Hopefully most of you club members are not going to leave and you're not just in it to win that $100 from Mr. Kim Mitchell and Kaneda. Hopefully more of you are going to be like Emily Anderson who just joined the show. Now look, if you did not watch my Facebook Live last night, you missed, I think, arguably the greatest moment in pinball content history. It was a two and a half hour Facebook Live. I'm not going to upload the audio and the reason why, it's a very visual thing, and the reason why I implore you to watch it is simply this. It really captured everything I've ever felt about this hobby for the longest time, for the last eight years. It starts out with me complaining about the Slam Tilt podcast and how Bruce over there think it's disgusting that people make money off of their pinball podcast. And he said I should donate everything I make every month to charity as if he donates money to charity before he buys new pinball machines. So I complained about that. But then the show gets really interesting because I start going live into people's game rooms and we went into like four or five game rooms around the world. I mean it. We went into like Iowa, into Michigan and into France and into North Carolina. And what we saw reminded me why I love this hobby, because there are people all over the world and all over America who love pinball, who have pinball collections in their home. I mean, think about it for a minute. You have to love pinball so much that you are willing to make it an item of furniture in your home. And it's not just you who has to love it. Usually someone else in your family has to agree to allow that item of furniture in your home. And that's why I loved seeing all the passion and all of the enthusiasm. And then we met Emily Anderson from Iowa. You just have to watch this video. You have to see as Emily takes over the Facebook Live and makes it impossible for yours truly to get a word in, but in a good way because she had so much energy, so much enthusiasm and so much passion to show us the game room, and it is an amazing game room. I mean, it was like 40, 50 games. We were going on and on and on, seeing so much stuff. But then where it got really special was Emily told us what these games mean to her, what she's going through in her personal life, and how much pinball means. And this is the thing about all the people that don't understand Canada's Pinball Podcast, is this podcast is meant to entertain people and bring people together. And I don't think anyone else out there does it as well as Canada's Pinball Podcast. I think my Facebook page brings people together every single week with engaging content. I don't see anybody else doing that. I think the Canada Club brings people together in such an amazing, positive way every single week. And so it was so amazing when Emily kind of like took over the Facebook live. I could barely get a word in. And she was walking us through the collection and saying how excited she was for each game that she had there. And it was absolutely incredible. And then we did the impossible. We said we're going to raise as many stars as we can so Emily can go out and have the most amazing meal, the most amazing time, and just celebrate life. And then we raised, with the community's help, 42,000 stars on Facebook Live, which means we're going to be giving Emily somewhere north of $300 so she can go out and have an amazing time. And here's the best part about it, is that money is not coming from Canada. It's not coming from Hector. It's not coming from the Canada Club or the Canada Facebook Live Army. It is going to come on behalf of Mr. Bruce Nightingale at Slam Tilt Pinball Podcast, who doesn't like Kaneda and thinks Kaneda should donate his money, his hardworking money, to charity. So Bruce, thank you, my friend, for opening up our eyes. And we are going to make a donation. It's just not going to be to some random charity. it's going to go to someone in this community who really deserves it. Emily, it's going to be amazing. All right, so let's go on to what's happening, Pinball. So here's the thing right now. I want to talk about a topic that needs to be discussed. And that is this. You cannot, no matter how many mods you buy, you will never be able to turn your pro machine into a premium. And no game is making people feel like they can do that more than Foo Fighters because we know that Foo Fighters, Ellie and Premium, has that dead post that pops up by the flippers that is not included in the pro version of the machine. and now someone is going to make a mod which will allow you to sort of implement that into the pro version of the game. We're also getting people that are going to modify and make a 3D sculpt of the Foo Fighter van. We're also going to get someone who's going to modify and make a 3D sculpt of the alien in a spaceship but what you're not going to be able to put into a pro machine is the upper play field. You not going to be able to put in the magnet that is underneath that alien which makes that shot so much better And here my thinking on all of this If you buy a Stern Pro why would you waste money throwing a ton of mods into the game? Like, what are you doing? The whole point of buying a Stern Pro is to get the best bang for the buck, is to get the best value going in pinball. And it is the best value in pinball because if you buy a Pro, we all know this, the dirty little secret. If you buy the Pro, you're going to get the game with the best gameplay. Everybody knows this. That is the truth. The Pro will always have the best gameplay because it won't have upper playfields to slow down the gameplay. It won't have mechanisms to slow down the gameplay. If you love pinball and you just love flipping a pinball machine and you just want to experience the pinball moments in the game, there is a very high probability that you do not have to spend more money than a Stern Pro. The code is basically exactly the same. James Bond on a wand isn't going to do anything for you. You're not going to have a much better Foo Fighters experience because of the upper playfield, the magnet, or the dead post that pops up. You're just not. It's not going to be enough to justify how much more money the premium NLE is. But knowing that, right? Knowing that, if you're a pro buyer, why would you then go buy a ton of 3D molded mods? Why would you then go and try to make your game as close as you can get it to the premium version of the game? It doesn't make any sense. It's tacky. It's like, I'm going to use a card argument. It's like putting an AMG sticker on the back of your Mercedes that's not an AMG just because you put the AMG wheels onto your non-AMG car, okay? If you know cars, you know what I'm talking about. And look, you can do what you want with your machine, but I always feel so embarrassed by people that are sticking all of these mods onto their Pro. for the love of pinball people. Why would you buy a pro machine and then spend all this money on mods? Look, it's crazy people. It's crazy where we're at in pinball because if you really think about it, the pro and premium is $3,000 apart. And now the premium and the LE is basically $3,000 apart. But I just think leave the pro machines alone. There is no point trying to turn your pro into a premium. All right. So look, if you have a Stern Pro and it's loaded with mods and you hate Kaneda for saying this, I apologize. Don't cancel your subscription. I'm just saying buck up and buy a premium. I mean, the other thing we saw yesterday on my Facebook live was simply this. Like we went into all of these game rooms and some of these people have like half a million like a quarter million dollars in pinball machines and they also were not members of the canada club they're not even willing to give five dollars a month to listen to canada's pinball podcast but they will have like a quarter million dollars in pinball machines and it just goes to show you you know i have 2800 followers on facebook 615 club members so there are 2200 people out there who enjoy my content who will not spend $5 a month. It is what it is. Like some people just don't like podcasts. Some people don't want to pay for podcasts. I get it. But here's the part that was scary when we were looking into people's game rooms. When we were seeing some of these game rooms and they're just random people you've never heard of. Like these aren't even like the loud mouths on like pin side. These are just random people in random places in America and they open up a door and inside that door is like $300,000 in pinball machines. And then I was like, I love seeing this, but I'm also nervous about showing people this. And here's why I'm nervous. If pinball companies actually saw how many home collectors out there have like $200,000 in machines, what do you think that's going to do to the future of pinball pricing? When you see all the money they've got, and if they've got this much money tied up in pinball, guess how much money they have in their garages with their cars? Guess how much money those houses are worth? Guess how much money in watches they have, right? So then all of a sudden, if you're stern, Why are we charging so little for the Mandalorian topper? Only $2,000. Did you just see this guy who loves Star Wars? He's got a half a million dollar pinball collection. And I think that's the thing, you know, it's like it's unfortunate, but it's the reality of this hobby we're in. The more we see of collections, the more we realize that the prices we've been complaining about aren't even scratching the surface of what a lot of these collectors could spend. And that leads me to believe that we have not even seen close the ceiling of where this hobby is going to go. And Pandora's box has been opened. We now know more than ever that even though people want to say no pinball machine is worth more than $10,000, the proof is this. when you see people's collections, they absolutely value pinball at more than $10,000 because we see multiple machines, sometimes dozens of machines in people's homes. And these people are collectors I mean trust me they collecting these machines These are their prize pinball items Then you start to see people Ghostbuster premiums and how much they love that machine And you realize if Stern made more Ghostbuster machines, they would probably sell 3,000 to 5,000 more of them. And I can't help but laugh that when you ask some of these people who love Kaneda, they hang out with Kaneda on Facebook and then you ask them, are you a member of the Kaneda Club? And they say, no, $5 a month. No, I will spend $500,000 on pinball machines, but I will not support you for $5 a month. It just kind of makes me laugh. So what else is going on in the pinball world? So Foo Fighter LEs are making their way to customers right now. That is amazing. We are seeing some people in the community talk about some early issues they're finding with the game, But they're not major issues and everyone is helping each other out. And also Stern is making some corrections at the factory. This is why Stern releases pros first. This is why they bring some premiums to like pinball shows before they make the LEs. They are able to catch some early issues before they make the LEs of the game. So if you are getting an LE of this game, there's a very good chance you're going to have a few tweaks that Stern will make at the factory. I think Foo Fighters LE is a gorgeous machine. I think you guys who got one are going to have an amazing time on this machine. And there's so much positive energy around Foo Fighters and I love seeing it. And I think this game right now with nothing else coming out is easily the game of the year. All right, so we got Foo Fighters. There's more James Bond code coming. Mike Vinikour, he went on to a podcast and said there's so much more coming into the James Bond game. I'm glad to hear that. I think everyone who has a James Bond is looking forward to that. I'm also seeing James Bond LEs now trade for below $13,000. And that, again, shows us like if you just wait and see, you'll be able to get all of these games for less money. Now, will you be able to get a Foo Fighters for less money, a Foo Fighters LE? I'm not sure yet, but I bet a year from now you will. Will you be able to get a James Bond 60th for below $20,000? You already can. You can go get that machine tomorrow for $16,500 or $17,000 on the table. A distributor will sell you one. The 60th anniversary of James Bonds are arriving. People are setting them up. They're not beautiful, but they play really well. And I think that's where this game is going to end. You know, it's a great shooter. It's pretty damn ugly and it's way overpriced. There's nothing else to say about the game. Jersey Jack Godfathers, we're probably going to see Godfathers CE on the line sometime in May. I think they need to get it on the line pretty quickly. We're already starting to see some people trade some used LEs. And we all know this. If we start to see a lot of people sell their LEs after just a month or two, it starts to create a lot of anxiety about A, how good is the game? And B, will it even hold value? I think Godfather LE is going to be a lot like Toy Story. If I were to be a betting man, I think Toy Story is such a better theme, but Toy Story 4 and the way they executed it was not done right. Godfather is not a good theme for pinball. It shoots much better than Toy Story 4, but I don't think Godfather is going to sell more than Toy Story. And I think it's going to be another slow burn for Jersey Jack. I don't think the flame on Godfather is going to go out as fast as the Toy Story flame went out. But I also don't think they're going to sell nearly as many Godfathers right away. I think they sold a lot more Toy Story LEs after the first month they announced the game than they will have Godfather. And that's going to be Godfather's problem. I think the CE owners are going to defend the game to no end. And I think the LE owners are going to be left holding the bag. And I think we're going to see LE prices go down very quickly. I also think we're going to see distributors sitting on a ton of LE inventory they can't move. And then that just begs the question, right? When is Jersey Jack going to show its next game? Because this game is not going to be a huge success for them. We all know it. All right, let's go on to Spooky Pinball. What's going on in Spooky Pinball with Scooby Scooby Doo? Well, here's the thing about Scooby Doo. Spooky Pinball, I think, has sold a lot of pre-orders on this game. we are now starting to see a lot more Scooby-Doo pre-order spots come up for sale. Not surprised by this, right? We just saw eight new games released after Scooby-Doo. I think people are also seeing the Scooby-Doo streams and realizing the game is pretty damn easy. And if you were to look at all of the new games right now, which one do you want to own? I think number one and two for people are Foo Fighters and Pulp Fiction. Scooby-Doo if you're a Scooby-Doo fan obviously you're going to want it but there's no way around the fact that this game is pretty easy and yes you could remove the outlane posts and yes there's other things you could do but I think for a lot of you out there and you love playing pinball and you're good at pinball I think you're nervous that this game might get a little boring especially if you have a collection with a lot of machines. And I think that's the vibe with so many people right now that's making so many people a little gun shy. Why would I buy a new game unless this new game does something better than games I already own? And you could ask that question about Foo Fighters. Like if you own a Godzilla, are you getting anything better in Foo Fighters? And that is a hard question to answer. I would argue there's obviously more in Godzilla. I might think it has more unique shots more unique mechs but it not a music pin and Godzilla might not be your thing They both really nice packages but needing to own both side by side That is the question people That's the other thing I was thinking about when we saw people's collections last night is, oh my gosh, it's not money that's the problem for most of these people. It is basically space. Like people run out of space in their homes. And so that's really going to be where a lot of the battlefield happens with people when it comes to these new games, do I have the space to put one of these new titles into my collection? All right, so we got Spooky, we got Jersey Jack, we got Stern Pinball. Let's talk for a minute about Galactic Tank Force and what's been happening in this thread. So this is what happens when you don't have a real marketing department. This is what happens when you don't have real communication experts on hand. This is what happens when you don't really have a strategy after just bringing the game to TPF and MGC. If you go into the Galactic Tank Force thread on Pinside, it's a dumpster fire. You've basically got this vibe happening around this game. I think most people are playing Galactic Tank Force. They are enjoying it. They don't have a problem with the game, but they also don't see enough that makes them want to buy it. I think that's where like 90% of people are on this game. I played it. It's colorful. It's beautiful. It's fun. But there's not enough here for me to buy it in the current pinball landscape. And then you've got some of these crazy buyers who already bought it before even playing it. And they are arguing with people every single day and picking fights with people. And it's not just buyers. Like we saw Christopher Franchi. The artist on the game was picking fights with people. And this is what it's turned into now. It's like you're either with this game or against it. And I don't think it's so black and white. Again, I think most people think this is American Pinball's best effort to date. But their best effort to date is still not better than Foo Fighters. Their best effort to date is not exciting people more than Pulp Fiction. their best effort to date is still not on the line the way Scooby-Doo is. And here is the problem when you're an original IP game like this. The only customers you have for an original game like this are the pinball enthusiasts. Like you need to win over people on Pinside and on the Facebook pages. But primarily, Pinside is a very important community that you need to rally around a new game like this. And they've allowed their thread to turn into a total joke. I mean, Ferret is trying to save it, but right now this thread has turned into a total joke. And if you're going to spend $8,000 to $11,000 to $17,500 on a game like this, you don't want to feel like you're joining a club group, right? The owner's club of the tank force. You want to feel good about what you just committed to. And I don't think anyone feels really that good about it. And that's on American Pinball. It really is. It shows their lack of marketing. it shows their lack of professionalism and I think it's biting them in the butt on this game I don't think this game landed the way they thought it would and as much as they'd like to say that I have an agenda or the pinball show has an agenda no we don't you've had two years to develop this game it's buggy the mechs aren't working right when they bring it to shows and there's just issues with this game and they need to win people over this is going to be the big challenge and it's not just me feeling this way if you go on to pin side right now why are there still a ton of galactic tank force le's still available for sale at eleven thousand dollars and stern sold every single foo fighter le for thirteen thousand dollars in basically a day or two. Jersey Jack sold, I think, almost all of their Godfather CEs at 15,000 in like a few weeks. So why is it almost a month later, Galactic Tank Force LEs are just sitting there? And that's on them. And the reason why they're sitting there is they never should have said they're making 500 regular tanks and 250 signature edition tanks. The whole thing is a marketing debacle. They don't know what they're doing and now they've got some of the biggest blowhards on pin side trying to strong arm people to get on board with this game and it's not going to work and the vibe is all wrong it's anything but the campy funness that i know dennis nordman wanted to bring into the pinball world everybody thank you so much for being a member of the canada club i'm going to be back with more shows i gotta go run and have some happy hour with clients right now but it's So much fun doing this show. Thank you so much for being a member of the Kaneda Club. Do not try to turn your pro machine into a premium. And thank you everyone who donated to Emily yesterday on Facebook Live. Emily, welcome to the show. Bring all of your friends into the Kaneda Club. We have such a good time week in and week out talking about pinball here. And that's thanks to each and every one of you and to all the Canada haters out there. With zero twippies, hardly any subscribers, you don't get to tell me what I do with the money I work hard for. I really can't stand the people that are like, do as I say, not as I do. I'll do what I want with my hardworking money. And you best believe every chance I get, I will take care of each and every one of you. The moment I see you, you know that. The tab is on Kaneda. Everybody have a great day. We'll talk to you soon.