Welcome to the Pimbalaws Wide Podcast. This is Episode 6. As always, I'm Jared, joined by Matt. Matt, how are you? G'day, buddy. How are you? Thank you. I'm all right. We'll get into it, but it was a relatively big weekend, so I think we're both recovering a little bit. So I've lost my voice again, as you can probably hear, and I sound hoarse and all that. So I might be able to be quiet on this episode. I reckon you just don't say anything and they'll just realise it's your normal voice for life. Yeah. I hope not, because I can't yell at kids properly anymore. Language warning, as always. Thank you to all the people who have been listening and subscribed to our podcast. And it's great. We've been getting a really good response. And the amount of people that have actually been listening, and we didn't realise they listened. So it's been quite interesting hearing some feedback. It has. It has. I want to start quickly by a little correction in the last podcast when we were talking about Harry Potter. I think I said there was nine movies. There's not. There's eight. So thanks for all those emails that corrected me on that, which really we didn't get, actually, so that's all right. We didn't get any emails. You don't tell me about these. No, we didn't get any. Nobody gives a fuck. So, yeah, so that was just a quick correction. Okay. Month in review. We like to start off with chatting about our month. We've done a fair bit together. Yep, a hell of a lot. Which we'll sort of swing around to. Do you want to start off and tell people what you've been up to? Honestly, this month, yes, we were school holidays. Oh, my voice. School holidays. So plenty of time with the kids and having a bad, trying to do as much as we could. Carl Weathers pending because we had a hell of a lot of rain here over those two weeks, obviously. Pinball, yeah, just being off, got all my machines set up on Insider Connect now. Which, yeah, just earning achievements on all the machines that I've been having on. So it's like Batman 66. So did you go out and buy all the Insider Connectors? All the Insider Connectors. Like QR codes. Nice, perfect. So I picked up some second-hand bargains. Lovely, good to hear. Yes, otherwise you'd have been playing a lot of pinball with the kids. Yep. What else? I'm still hoping he's my Eskimo to get just because of how wet the lawn is. Yep. But, you know, science doesn't want to destroy it. So no Matt Cave update yet? No, nothing yet. Yep. No, nothing yet. It will happen. No, that's okay. I've got to ask for the listeners. No, no, no. That's right. When I don't ask, we get emails saying, what happened? You asked him. Yeah, that's right. So what have you been up to, Jeremy? How's your month been? Yeah, it's been okay. I've, like you, as you said, we've done a couple of things, which we'll get to after I've rabbited it on. Look, I've done a couple of things. Nathan, our other admin, actually bought a 3D printer, and I just, you know, and he was so funny. He's like, oh, give me some stuff that you want printed, and I just fucking bombarded him, mate. I gave him all this shit I got, which are really cool. Terrible bonkers. I did. I just started searching Thingiverse and just sending shit to him, all these links. I got, what was it, little trophies printed, little first, second, third trophy, pinball trophies printed, which were pretty cool. I actually got a pin gold cup printed. So I was just short one on my strikes and spares. I just thought that needed, like I have one every second machine. Have you installed it? I've installed it. It's great, mate. Fantastic. Yeah, yeah. It's got different depths of it. So you can have it. Yeah, yeah. So it's really good like that. I mean, it is a lot bigger than the ones you buy, but it's perfect. It fits beautifully. It's strong. Obviously, easy to install. So that was a bit of fun. What else did he send me? I got some 3D slingshots printed of Game of Thrones. So I think they were on the page a while back. One of the members was selling them, and I just looked them up, and they were a 3D model readily available on Thingiverse. He got some key rings, flipper-back key rings. Yeah, got some flipper bat careens as well, which I forgot to hang out at our stream, which we'll get to. But yeah, so those Game of Thrones slings, I've just got to get painted. So I'm looking for someone who does miniature painting that can paint that up, because I don't want to give it a shot. It'll look fucking awful. Just paint it black. No, no, I want it to be... I just wanted to sort of... Because obviously the slings have that sort of that feel to it. I think they've got cogs or whatever and a bit of brown, and they feel like the atmosphere or the – what's the word for it? The visualisation of the world. I want the castles to look with the windows and the bricks to be right and all that sort of stuff. Yeah, take that to one of those – the gaffer shops. Yeah, I will. I want to Frankston as well. Yeah, I reached out to a couple of people. Three haven't responded. One did, and it was a bit expensive for me for what I wanted to do. But I just figured, look, if I can get it done cheaply enough, I'm going to spend $100, $150 on paintbrushes and paints and primer and tape. Like, you know, if I can get someone to paint them for me, then that's probably the best way to do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Makes up to the warmer stuff, you know. Yeah, correct. Yeah, that's right. And, I mean, some of them are phenomenal. They come out beautifully. Um, so yeah, so that was about that. I, I also, uh, got a cliffy from a Game of Thrones as well. Um, which was the wrong one. I don't know what cliff did. I'm not sure. I showed you a photo of it. Like, I haven't emailed him back yet. I've just been busy. Like that happened last week. So I think, so I've just been busy, um, the last few days, but yeah, I like, you know, I thought, oh, beauty, you know, as I installed my pink up, I was like, ah, let's throw a few things together. So I put on the cliffy nut. So it's the old-school stern that has the two holes for the screws to hold the cliffy down, as well as a backing adhesive section for it. But it just didn't fit. It just looked like it was too thin around the shooter. And, yeah, it just didn't sit in place. There was no way to stick it, basically. And even with the apron back on, you could see the two large holes and everything. I was like, oh, no, this is not good. So, yeah, thankfully I didn't do anything else. So I'll see what Cliff says. I'll shoot him an email with some photos and say, hey, mate, you know, I think this might be the wrong one. Have you got a right one? Otherwise I'll see if someone wants it because I don't think it'll fit. Well, it might fit on a different stern. I'm not sure. I'll suss it out and have a look. But apart from that, that's sort of what I've been doing with my month. our month, however, started off with a Harry Potter stream, wasn't it? It was. With George. George at Pinball Sales. No, no, George at Melbourne Expo, and we were invited to Paul's place at Pinball Sales Australia down where he's located, which was really nice. Well, I certainly didn't expect an invite, but they wanted to get a stream up and running and sort of promote the new machine and obviously the expo at the same time, which we did. And I don't know about you, I thought it was a very cool night. Like, I quite enjoyed it. It was fantastic. Yep, it was great. So I got to meet some nice people who I've never met. Yes. So everyone was welcome. Even the people who won, those three people who got to experience the machine for the first time, who were George and Anson. And, yeah, they're lovely people as well. So what did you think about the gaping? What did you think about the machine in general? I love it. It's great, isn't it? Compared to what I saw when it was released, which I didn't think much of, especially the artwork, but now I've seen the artwork, I can appreciate it. Yeah. I mean, we played the CE. We were lucky enough to play the CE there. And it was a prototype or something there. Oh, no, it's in display. Yeah. Yeah, but I didn't notice anyway. Like, it didn't have any glaring issues that I was like, oh, yeah, fuck this. You know, like sometimes when they release prototypes, you know, not necessarily JJP, but other manufacturers that have done in the past, the smaller ones, they're pieces of shit. Yeah. You know, but this was really, really good. Everyone bitching and moaning about the AI artwork, which myself included, you know, like I had my points in our last podcast from memory and we discussed that. to go back to that though the main thing ice well hopefully the main takeout people got was that i said that hopefully jjp get people in front of the machines and then they'll forget about all this ai generated and that's 100 true mate you step in front of that machine you want to play you want to play you just want to play i got a few games in look obviously because we had the stream i spent you know the majority of time talking to the guys on the stream and just interacting there and making sure that that was running okay. Obviously I got a few games beforehand. Yeah, brilliant. Brilliant game. Honestly, the sound effects were fantastic. As I've said before, I don't know anything about Harry Potter world, but all the integration was there, I think. So maybe if I did learn the movies I could appreciate it more, but it seemed like everything was filled. There wasn't just little snippets of rubbish. It was great and honestly just the gameplay was fantastic. So those flippers felt amazing. Everything. It wasn't a great monster ether. It was a fast, fast game. Like, this is the fastest Jeter Jack game I've ever played. Yeah, it was very quick. And I think I got caught out a few times on the speed, but that was more because, and it drained on me, but that was more not knowing where the ball was coming from. Yeah, that's right. And, yeah, I mean, lots of it can come from its grade. So even, honestly, that upper play field, that is pretty cool. I think the thinnest loops I went around, there was three or four. it felt so satisfying every time doing that wasn't it, it was just such a nice shot and I will make a correction because I think again last podcast I said it looked like crap, you couldn't see it and it was shit on the streams that I watched but you're right once you got up there it was fucking phenomenal but not only that as well what I learned through someone on the stream, I can't remember who it was so apologies if you listen one of the guys so that upper playfield adds towards a bonus. So end-of-game bonus, if you're the best player of that upper playfield, you get an extra bonus on top of the normal end-of-game bonus. So that's an end-of-ball bonus. You get an extra end-of-game bonus by being the best Quidditch player, I think it is up there. That's kind of neat. It makes you want to go up there, get better at that playfield and get that multiball going up there as well. And honestly, even up at the top playfield, there was six shots, wasn't there? I'm pretty sure it was six shots. I mean, you're probably pulling it hairsy. I mean, you're going to count those little Newton holes. Yeah, but there were six shots. I'm sorry, am I counting Newton balls as well? There were six or eight shots up there, if you include Newton balls. Yeah, right. And it's a lot of shots up in that small collection. Okay. I only hit two, so that's probably why I'm trying to struggle with what you're talking about. Yeah, honestly, the difference was how fast that spun around to me. It got there in time. Yep. Like, I was worried it wasn't going to keep the mode. Like, do you know what I mean? Like, the world was coming too quick. It wasn't going to get back to it. Yeah. It never, yeah, it just felt so smooth. Yep. Also, the great thing about this machine, multiball. You have to work for the multiball. Yeah. There was no such thing as, oh, you went down the left out lane and here's multiball for doing nothing. Oh, you hit one shot there, you get another multiball. Yeah. You actually had to work for the multiball. Yeah. I got multiball quite a few times. Yep. So I got a few different ones, actually. So I don't know what their actual names are. Yeah, I can't remember them now. I should put some notes down so I remember. But yeah, I got a few different ones. But what's a boy called the Death Eater? Yep. Yep. Look, he's a static. Just a toy, I guess, just sitting there. I think that's the only thing. I think they could have done. Maybe put him on a server and let him follow the ball. So if you're on the left-hand side, you don't let the home head. Like it moves left and right. I guess they've just created the shots that you recorded. So once you hit the target down and then shoot it into you, he kicks it back at the fastest kickback I've ever seen. But at least it goes to your flipper, though. It does, correct. And then you've then got to try and shoot one of the roaming shots or there's four or five shots that light up that you've got to try and hit. So I guess that's how they've incorporated it. Because, to be honest, mate, there's no room for him to float across the playfield with everything else going on. Just stand there with this hair on a wand. Just sort of went like that. Yeah. People can't see what you're doing. You know this is a podcast. Oh, I can see. I can see, but people can't. You'll have to explain what you did. I'm just playing now. I'm an imaginary one. I'm just going to get around the world. See? I'll follow some of my people. Too funny. Oh, fucking God. But, yes, I thought, and the artwork of the CE is gorgeous. Yeah, that was very nice. But, yeah, I was very impressed by it. A shout-out to Paul. Yes, big thanks. Yeah, huge thanks. Yeah, he allowed us to be there before he turned up, so I think one of his guys was there to let us in and let George in. So we got to set up and have a few practice games. I think we were there at around four-ish. I don't think we left until half past ten. It was a big session. Yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, I mean, it was just, you know, it was not, and Paul sort of just disappeared when he had to disappear. So he was very trusting and very welcoming. First time I'd met him, to be honest. So, yeah, it was good to put a face to a name. And also, obviously, thanks to George for the invite, honestly. Yeah, yeah. So can't wait to do some more with you, mate. That'd be good. It'd be good. And then I guess the other thing we did after that, which was only just this weekend gone, was TASPIN. And we're still recovering. Well, you're still recovering. I'm okay. My shoulders were hurting. My shoulders were hurting well before TASPIN. It was, so we left Friday. So we got to the airport by about two-ish, because I think the flight was at. No we got there by 30 Oh so the flight was at 2 then wasn it We were sitting there having a drink by 1 Yeah You got to have deep pockets if you want a drink at the Melbourne airport Yeah, not cheap, was it? 40 bucks for it. Yeah, but mind you, they were big fucking drinks. Yeah, but you couldn't believe it. I came back and said, that was 40 bucks. No, it wasn't. Yeah, I thought you had some lens. Definitely thought you were having a lens. But yeah, so we boarded and got on a flight by a quarter to three. I think we landed by about 3.30. just got a taxi into the villas that we were staying. Yeah, fantastic location. Yeah, yeah, had a bit of a look. So it was the Country Club of Tasmania that was hosting TASPIN. Yeah. It was in an upstairs ballroom. The first time that they were hosting it there, the previous four times was at an Italian club, I think I heard them say. And, look, the facilities there were very, very good. Yeah, awesome. But yeah, so we got there Friday night And we sort of helped the guys Which was pretty minimal to be honest I expected Juz to dump on us So Justin is one of the Runners there with the Mafia So the Tas... Tasmanian What is it? Tassie Pimble Mafia Are the guys that run Tasspin Well I couldn't remember the word So people always... Yeah, that's right So yeah, so they run Taspin, eight blokes of them. Eight blokes of them? Eight blokes? Yeah. Saying that, top blokes as well. Yeah, yeah. Some of them, yeah, nicest people you ever met. Some of them we'd only met for the first time too, to be honest, so that was pretty good. But yeah, when we got there, we actually went down to one of the bars and to have a drink and bumped into two lovely guys. Yeah, yeah. That's it. So, Michael from AMD and Brett Emligot, so from Bingfest, Newcastle Women's Football Association Yep. But, yeah, obviously, even with Michael, I've spoken for many years on the phone, and honestly, you would have thought we'd been best friends for 20 years. Yep. It was such a genuine, awesome block. Yep. Just, yeah, can't wait to do it again with you too. We talk him up more, but we know he doesn't listen. Yeah, that's it. However, we know Brett listens, so I actually do want to just give a quick shout-out to Brett because he's just a really, really nice guy. I mean, he sat us down and sort of gave us a little bit of a chat and a history behind TASPIN. And his passion and exuberance for the Expo, I think, was unmatched and so welcoming and so nice to us. And in general, I was just blown away by how, you know, welcoming everyone was to us. You know, I just figured go there, have a few games, chat to the guys we knew. But, you know, you walk away with friendships. Yeah, 100%. I mean, I bumped into Axel as well and, you know, we had a good chat with him and sort of reacquainted because I hadn't seen him in years as well and Michael as well that's down there. So, yeah, but Brett definitely welcomed us with open arms literally from that first minute, which was huge. So, yeah, so from there we sort of just ducked up, didn't we, and had a bit of a look at the place. We got drinks in hands and started walking around, chatting everyone. We did. We set up some lights, which I think we did amazingly in Christmas tree, didn't we? Yes, some string lights. A few little bits and pieces. What did you think of the event, mate? It was... Yeah, pretty good. It was pretty fucking good. Really well run. I mean, the Saturday sessions, so there were three sessions all up, so morning, afternoon, and then a VIP, which was for the contributors at night. I think they capped it at 170 per session for the first two, which was perfect. It was good numbers, didn't have long to wait for a machine. All the machines were running really, really well. And 78 machines all up as well, I think. 78 machines all up, yeah. And then the Sunday was sort of an open house because they had till three, so it was like a nine till three session. So they put in a few more, which was more noticeable. Like you could see, there was two, three deep waiting for machines. So I tended to keep off the machines more than anything. I was a bit conscious that having a contributor badge on, I didn't want people to think I was standing there hogging machines and off giving the general punters a go, which I thought was important for me. But overall, I mean, it was as smooth as butter run. It was fantastic. and also all these machines that were there, the 78, they were all from Cocktaboolers. So all people's pride and passion, they brought their machines in for everyone to enjoy. Yeah, I spoke to a couple that, sorry to interrupt. No, no, it's all right. I spoke to a couple that had two Zacharias, which is very unusual to see in an expo, and they were like, oh, yeah, they're ours, blah, blah, blah. We've got 18 of them. And I'm like, you must have the biggest Zacharias collection in Australia. And they were like, we do. And I'm like, fucking good on you. Like, so good to see. and they switched one out. They switched one out. They poured in Earth, Wind and Fire and took out one of the others on bloody Friday. I don't know when they did it. Yeah, they did. They switched one out. It was unbelievable. It was fantastic of them to do that. So, yes, they were all contributing machines. Yes. This whole event was actually for Chappity as well. It was all for the Launceston General Hospital, so for the 4K Children's Auxiliary Awards. So they did a fantastic job at raising money for this charity. And I think Brett wants us to announce what their rates are. At the moment, they're currently at $17,500. So he said there's still obviously some more money coming in. A few little checks and balances. Yeah, yeah, they're waiting for the final figures. So this is now the fourth year. And to put it in context about what they've already done, these books, you can't get much better than this. So in 2022, they raised $4,229. Yep. 2023, $8,000. So they've pretty much doubled. 2024, $12,500. And this year, $17,500. Yep. That's a huge effort. It's like $40,000 in 40 years. And the ladies at the auxiliary ward, they're so grateful, so thankful. What are they going to do with the money this year? It's going to be – they said something that they wanted to redo there. the outdoor area for the kids. So they wanted to renovate that, so it's usable. And myself as well, they had auctions, so I put myself out there and bid on some spooky trans lights. So I won myself a Looney Tunes trans light and a Scooby-Doo trans light. And that money went to a good cause, so I'm really happy. Yeah, because they had a few giveaways as well, and they did their usual best in show and that sort of stuff. So that was in that VIP Saturday night lockdown, basically, where they had some sponsored giveaways. So obviously AMD brought two machines, which was Metallica Premium and a Dungeons & Dragons Pro, which apparently both sold, so that's good. But they obviously put money towards the event as well, which I think was around $3,000. You had Retro City there as well, and Pinball House that were the other two major sponsors that did a lot of the flyers and key rings. And, you know, they had people that did T-shirts for them and stubby holders and, you know, a bit of a merch booth. So I think overall it was a very, very well, I think the community obviously just pulled together. Yeah, 100%. And did as much as they could for free, knowing that it was going to charity. Pretty bloody good. So they've done well. But overall, yeah, I thought it was a really good event, really good fun. I mean, we drank a shitload of wine on Saturday night. I'm actually following up with Jared, and we held hands once. Now we've got to tell the story about the deer. About the deer. It's only a minor story compared to what really happened. So anyway, here's his follow-up anyway. So we got there in the daytime. So we were like, yeah, we're the villains. get them back and sister so the villa so so people have so people know that we we stayed at a section that was just called the villa so it was a country club villas and they were about 800 meters away from the main country club so it was just you know obviously you know 30 40 villas that were separate you just walk down the road about 800 meters to the the country club so that's where we stayed so anyway we um so 3 30 in the morning we've um no so we've lifted about 245 i think it Yeah, we left at 2.45. So this is Friday night. After a gutful of beer, probably about 20 pints, even or more. Yeah. So it's dark. It's very dark, and it's cold. I think it was like one degree, wasn't it? It was pretty chilly. I'm walking. We're in a T-shirt, yeah, and you're all run. I know, yeah. It's still cold. So we're walking along. Jared's phone's died. I've got like 3% battery left on my phone. And we're walking along, walking, walking. We're just talking and talking. And then Jared goes, oh, is it down there? I said, no, no, it's further down there. No, keep going. Around the corner. Next corner. Next corner. So anyway, so we kept walking. I think we're lost. I was like, we've gone too far, I think. I'm like, shit, maybe I should check my Google Maps. So I opened my Google Maps up. It said 15 minutes back the other one. But let's just, you've missed one major part of this story. Yes, the deer that chapsed us and made us go 15 minutes away. No. The major part of the story was we walked an extra 30 minutes. now listen the main part of the story is as we were walking down the street there was a sign post with a blue street sign which generally shows B&B's or restaurant this way or what have you and as we've walked past I've looked to my left down a street which is pretty brightly lit I'm like oh Matty I wonder if it's down there, you're like oh no no no keep going, round this corner, round this corner anyway I'm like listen And if we come back to this street, you're a dead man, okay? I'm sitting here doing a podcast with you now. So what happened? We walked 15 minutes and then we turned around, walked back 15 minutes to the street sign that Jared pointed out that was down the way we were staying. From now on, don't follow me ever again. That's the truth. It was a blind leading the blind. It was the blind leading the blind. Holy truie. That was funny. So I think I got in the bed by about 4 o'clock. And then we're back awake and out at 9, 9.30, weren't we? God, I was up at 7. I think you were the same, 7, 7.30. Yeah, I woke up at 7.30. Just having kids, your body clock is just like, oh, let's go. So after that, so that first night, I actually walked, I think it was about 12,000 steps. Yeah. So it was, over the three days, guys, I literally, I walked, So I'm just opening up my step count, just so I can tell you. So on the Friday, I did 11,152 steps. On the Saturday, I did 13,300 tall steps. And on the Sunday, I did 12,038 steps. That's a hell of a lot of steps. You know why? I've worked out, actually. Just on the fly, I've realized why. That's you walking to the bar and back all of those times. That's where those steps have come in. Because I only did 7,000. so I was smart and got everyone to buy me drinks. So I did no walking to the bar. No, I didn't do anywhere near that. I think I was seven, six and seven, so I was well down on you. Yeah, but geez. But, yeah, that was pretty funny. But, yeah, the Saturday night was just as big. You know, we were down because there's a casino attached to it all and we were having a few drinks down there and I think that was till 4 a.m. That's when they closed and we got kicked out of school. No, no, no, through the screen they closed. Oh, no, no, shit, no, because we went downstairs. I forgot about that. Yes. Jeez. Okay, well, there you go. Yes. At 4 a.m., that's right. Yeah, so it was 4 a.m. So we didn't get back into the room until about 4.30 or so. At least we didn't get lost this time. No, because I led the way this time, you know. But that as well, I know, you know, I know that's sort of, it might be a bit cheeky speaking about it, but to me, that part of drinking with everyone was just a really nice bonding experience as well to get to know the guys a little bit more and share that. And as I said to a few people, like, that'll stay. The memory of that weekend, not just playing pinball, but what happened afterwards and drinking with mates and just shit-talking and being dills and whatever else was going on, that'll remain forever. So that was a lot of fun. I can't wait till next time, honestly. Yeah, I think we do it next year. It's the first weekend of August or first week of August every year. So that's Tazpin. So I think it's a definite. So anyone in Melbourne, Sydney, anywhere in Australia, get your ass to Tazpin. Seriously, get your ass to Tazpin. Yep, the boys are really good down there. So just everything. Again, shout-out to Brett. Shout-out to Justin and to Frank and Al and Ben and who are those couple other guys I know I'm missing. Thank you. Yep. I'm just trying to think. But they were all really welcoming and Simon and awesome with it all. So it was a great weekend. It was a great weekend. Really enjoyed it. So, yeah, once again, thank you. Yeah, really appreciate it. So great work, guys. So anyway, next event coming up is Pinnifest. Yeah, that'll be Newcastle. Yep. So tickets are going on, say, on the 5th of September. Okay. and the event is on the 20th to the 21st. Yep. So those that have missed TASPEN may be pulling on over to PINFEST because if it's anything like TASPEN, it would be an amazing show. It would be brilliantly done too because that's another charity event. Yes, it is. Yep. So everyone should get behind that. And, yes, hopefully I should be able to attend this. So it falls on the weekends of my daughter's birthday. Ah, miss them. Sounds like you're going to miss them. What the hell? So I'm thinking I'm going to take the family there. So I'm going to go stay with my mate Rob. And if Rob doesn't know that, now he does. Yeah, so he's going to stay there. I know my kids can't wait to see him, so they're always talking about Rob. So, yeah, hopefully I'll make it to Binfest this year. So I can't, unfortunately, because I'll be away on holidays. And yeah it be nice to do it though without a doubt Yeah hopefully people get on board anyway and support it which would be good Okay so I guess after speaking about Tazpin and Pinfest onto a little bit of info that's been going on in the hobby, which has been a bit distressing, I think. There's been a bit of argy-bargy between Melbourne Pinball Expo and Mr Pinball Australia just over what happened with the Expo and him then sort of launching Australian Pinball Expo and also another open day. So I just thought I just want to go through initially a timeline of what's been going on. And it's not necessarily, when I say timeline, just information that's come to light. It's not necessarily going to be specifically in order, hopefully close enough-ish to it. So, yes, the timeline sort of started early when Wayne was sort of advertising that the Melbourne Pinball Expo was... That it was his. He's doing it. He was running it, yeah. And he wasn't. That was the boys' Melbourne Pinball Expo, which is George and Shannon. They put a lot of time and effort and hard work into it. Then that sort of snowballed when he had on his Facebook page saying that Melbourne Pinball Expo, which was run or hosted by Mr Pinball Australia. so eventually all that sort of came and went the expo came and went um and george was looking to obviously organize it for next year get it up and running there's a bit of pushback um from you know from from from that other distro that initially turned up he complained that he shouldn't have to basically pay for admission that you know pay me my worth my machines you my effort to come to this expo, so far as I'm aware as well, so much so that he tried to get the other distros against the expo, Melbourne Pinball Expo. Don't turn up. It's not a worthy event. It's not going to charity. It's all run for profit and this and that and the other, which I think obviously turned a bit sour because it shouldn't matter. I mean, it should be more about getting people there and having the community. Well, that's right. I mean, even the expo organisers sort of tried to have discussions with Wayne behind closed doors about what they could do to bring him back next year, which he basically was not interested in. And then I think that's where just the timeline sort of grew exponentially in that all of a sudden there was just this tit-for-tat online of Wayne posting information, digging into the boys. Yeah, you know, he basically stated that, you know, he's not a stunt coordinator or a building site manager, you know, that he does what we do best and that's sell pinball machines. And that sort of just snowballed into a lot of tit-for-tat. Now, to the credit of Melbourne Pinball Expo, they've just kept their noses down and just tried to work behind the scenes in getting the next expo up and running. And I think that's the right way to go. And then further to that, all of a sudden, ads started coming out on his page trying to sell Alice in London. Yeah, from Dutch Pinball. From Dutch Pinball. Now, you and I both know Acme Pinball, which is Lucas. He's a sole distributor, Lucas. He's a sole distributor. So because of that, he was forced to put up a post warning people about grey imports, which is technically what it's called when someone skirts around the distributor of a certain manufacturer and tries to import them themselves. In this hobby, it's called a grey importer. and he had to put out a statement on his page saying that, listen, beware of grey importers. They won't cover manufacturer warranty or manufacturer support, which is true. You know, that didn't stop him advertising the machines and constantly putting them on his page and saying that they'd sold out of them. And with that, then obviously George then got the Predator pinball. Pinball Brothers. From Pimple Brothers as well as part of that. Now, I don't think that was an exclusive distribution from what we chatted about. I'm pretty sure Wayne still has distribution rights as well. Yeah. And now George has for him. Because since Wayne wasn't showing up, George wanted a print of the newest machine. Yeah, correct. At the expo. And Wayne wasn't going to provide one. So I think that was a good move, I guess, on his behalf, as on George's behalf. but yeah I mean again I mean he still advertises them and that's okay but but then you sort of fast forward a little bit and all of a sudden Wayne is looking to have an open day on the same day as the Melbourne Pinball Expo correct I just don't think that's warranted like that's just in my opinion it's a bit petty trying to divide the community yep I mean George you know the they announced the dates four months ago five months ago whenever it was so they're you know People know that that's their, you know, do something else. I mean, he's even talking about a bus from Expo to the location. Like, you don't need to do that sort of stuff. You don't need to take people away from one location and plonk them in another. I didn't actually see any of that. Yeah, that was, well, again, that's why I'm saying this is sort of the timeline. Or maybe they haven't spotted them. Yeah, yeah. And it's, you know, it's sort of, you know, what I've heard, and I've heard a few things that have been going on. Look, I've heard a lot of other things that I'm not willing to discuss just yet. Some of them are a bit nasty behind doors, some nasty PMs that have done the rounds as well against Melbourne Pinball Expo. Also, William Greedy, the Melbourne Expo guys, it was all for profit, not for charity. But look, George has got his deep pockets to put this money up front for this expo so people can come and enjoy to play pinball and rugby and be a big part of the community. Yep. So, you know, it's not free. If he was given the Mavis and Fillers Hotel, that room for free, and all these insurances for free, hey, profits couldn't go to charity. But this isn't the case. It's just not what's happening at the moment. And I think you said earlier, I don't want to take words out of your mouth, but you were saying, well, where does it stop? Do you expect operators to give back to charity who are operating machines? Yeah, exactly. Well, no, of course not, because everyone will argue they've got upkeep and maintenance of the machine and cleanliness and rubbers and everything else. And just purchase of the machine in general. Yeah, so George has that in a larger scale at this stage, you know, not with regards to machines but, you know, insurance and place to rent and, you know, machines moving. I mean, Shannon moved them all. Well, that's his time of money as well. He's a business. And he wouldn't have charged himself, I'm sure. Do you know what I mean? So, yeah, so and I think just, you know, and then, you know, There's the announcement of the Australian Pinball Expo, which, again, you know, like we have Tazpin in August. We've got Pinfest next month. So, you know, just spread things out a little bit. Not plonks it straight in July, you know, June, June, June 6th or 7th or whenever it is. Like, you know, you just, okay, maybe it is July then. You know, like just discuss with some of the other people what's going on and where it would best fit for the community. but there was none of that. It just, bang, this is what I'm doing. I just feel like it was, well, it's a brief discussion that we've had. I think it's just a discussion that needed to be had. Look, obviously, that's sort of one party's information. That's one side of it. Yeah, yeah, and not just one side, but other people that fed us information as well. Obviously, that side hasn't been from Wayne or Mr. Pinball. If he wants to reach out to us, reach out. Happy to have a chat and a discussion about where he stands in all of this. Or you can send us an email. Yeah, send us an email and touch base with us. Happy to chat next month about it and go forward with that. But I just feel like what's happened in that timeline of things, it's just got crazy and it's spiralled out of control. It'd be nice to bring them all back together. Over something, yeah. Something so silly, honestly. I mean, it was well placed at the end of the year. It wasn't amongst anything. You know, it wasn't near any other things. Sure, it's just for the Melbourne base, but, you know, as we've done, we went to TASD. Oh, great. A ton of people from all around, you know, people coming from Sydney, Queensland, they come down for the expo. Yep. So I just feel like, yeah, it's time just to sort of move forward. Let's not get vindictive in this space, you know, and then hopefully it can sort itself out. So, look, I'll be interested to see how the Australian Pinball Expo goes. All due respect, I won't go, and that's not because of what we've gone through, but just because it's too close to other events. Yeah, too much going on. School holidays as well. Yeah. I mean, I can't afford a trip to Adelaide, then to Tasmania, and then to Newcastle. And then to Nill. And then to Nill as well at the start of the year. Yeah. It's a lot of travel. As you've got, we've got kids. Yours are younger than mine, so you've probably got a little bit more stranglehold family-wise. But for me, I can get away a bit easier because my kids are, you know, seven and 14 now. But, yeah, I just think hopefully it sorts itself out. Hopefully the animosity dies down. I will say credit to the Melbourne Pinball Expo guys because they're just heads down, bums up, trying to get this expo up and running and get it going good. They've got good guests coming in. It's growing more and more. They've added another day now, so I think that's a good thing. And look, the Melbourne Expo doesn't just only have distributors. It's also got personal people taking machines. So it's also people should bring off their prides and joys. Yep, yep, agreed. Not quite matching what TASPEN are doing, obviously, because I think it's a different community there to Melbourne with players and stuff. But, yeah, I mean, they can certainly bring your machines along. I know Roland's bringing his. Yep. And I think that also allows you to become a special entry for the whole Expo as well. like last year I think. Yep. So anyway, so that's, like I said, not to touch on a bit of drama that's going on. That's kind of what's happening. It's that in a nutshell. We didn't want to dwell on it too long but thought it was important just to get it out there and have our thoughts on the matter as well and hopefully we hear from Mr Pinball and see what's going on that side of things and then move on from there. So that's that. So let's move on. We will now move on to our normal segment which is a Pinball Price Watch. I'm never going to financially recover. That's just like your opinion, man. I'm going to make a money off the camera for you. The market at the moment is definitely still coming down, I'd say. I don't know anything. It's a little bit... 100%. It's not dramatic, but I'm... For example, you've got a Foo Fighters LE, $15,000. those things were $20,500 brand new, or was it $22,000? No, $21,500. $21,500, $21,900 or something. There's a lot of them. Yeah, yeah. They were right up there. That is a huge loss. Yep. So, you know, and that's an early machine. I mean, there was one at $16,000, so it's gone cheaper again. Yeah, that's right. There still is one for $16,000. And that one at $15,000 is still for sale too. Well, that's it. I don't get that, man. Like, it's a good playing machine. And there's also a Mandalorian LE, $14,000. Yep. Geez, no. People were asking for them, 1920. Yeah. But... I don't think they were ever selling that, were they? Or during the whole of the era? Yeah, of course. Yeah. And also there's the Deadpool LE. That's all for 18-8, 18-4, if I think it was. And that machine has held its... Well, you and I had... No, no, no. It's not a 15-gram machine because it's so... It's not far off it, though, is it? It still is. It's another three and a half grand. No, I get it. But like I said to you back in COVID, it was a $28,000, $30,000 machine. So I think when you're talking as encompassing where pricing has gone, and I know we keep going back to COVID, which hopefully will soon enough because then we can just relate on what's been going on in the last couple of years. So it may be $25,000, $26,000. We'll talk about $24,000, $25,000. But they were fetching, like I said, $30,000 to $32,000. So to drop to $18,000, it's a huge downfall in the market, without a doubt. I was seeing a lot of solar state machines, 80s machines, between the $3,000 to $3,500. Which is stagnated at that now. Yeah, that's right. I think for me, though, the ones that I saw, there was two Godzilla premiums. One was at $12,850, and another one was at $12,500. I mean, again, that's very cheap coming down for a premium. and most of them would have been, not loaded, but they would have been modded or had Insider Connect or what have you installed probably more than likely. There was also a Foo Fighters premium at $11,750. So those premiums look like they're all premiums now. Remember how there was only a few here or there that were sitting at that $11 mark and then there were others at $13 or $14? Well, it feels like they're all pushing back down to that $11,12 grand mark. Yeah, you know, those are sitting at about $8.50, $9.00, aren't they? Yeah. So there's a Rush on that. Rush LE for $14.00. No, Rush, there was an LE too. There was an LE for $14.00. While you're finding that, though, there was also a Metallica premium at $14.05, and I think that's just sitting. Yes. You know, because I think people are expecting perhaps a larger discount than $1,000 off secondhand. So, yeah, the Rush Pro was $9.50. Yeah. make an offer you might be able to get even checked by so Guns and Roses again, still hovering around that 10, 10.5 mark as well I mean there was one at 10.8 and that's still there at the moment so I mean as we discussed there was a Judge Dredd at 5.8 Poor Judge Dredd in two days Yeah, and they were all over the place weren't they? One at 5.8, one at 7 one at 8, one at 8.5 I know which one sold the 5.8 one Of course it did. That had alternate decals. Did you notice that? Did you think about sort of alternate decals? Because I know there's another Judge Dredd with the black decals as well. What do you reckon? It's one that's gone for sale, I think. Yeah, I think that's up there. I'm still a fan of just the blue. The standards. Yeah. I mean, the ones on that 5.8 one, they were bluish. Yeah, that was something different. Yeah, they're different again. I think that was the custom one. Yeah. Not a fan? No not really Yeah Yeah likewise Likewise Well the best buy we got a screenshot of this I think again Rowan might have sent it It was a Street Fighter 2 for $2,000. He didn't send me that. Well, he doesn't love you anymore. Thank you, Rowan. I'm not answering your calls anymore, mate. I'll forever answer your calls, buddy. You're my new number two. Yeah. Maybe it wasn't Rowan. Maybe it was somebody else. I'm not sure. Oh, I'm not sure. But, yeah, so there was a Street Fighter 2 for $2,000. Yeah, nice. Fully working. It was in a project machine. Obviously, I only had a screenshot, so I only got to see, you know, the first photo of it, so there was no scrolling through it. So I don't know what the body or anything was like. But, you know, that was still what I would consider a fine at $2,000. But what about any what-the-fucks this month, mate? What-the-fucks? This month. There was one on Marketplace. I think it's still on marketplace. It was a Viper Knight driving machine for $17,000. And all out these people by a company called Tyres R Us. Now, I'm presuming they're an auto body shop that's imported machines and thought, well, throw in a penny and see how it goes. You know, dip the toe in the water maybe. But the funniest thing of this is that I sent them a private message. you know there's a Viper Night on our page yes and that's at six and a half that's at six and a half I took a screenshot of that I sent a private message through Derbys ties our ass and I was like hey guys will your price match yeah and the funniest thing of that is when I looked at the message at the top you can see their response rate in percentage zero their response rate was zero percent so they don't get back to people via messenger. They saw the message. They've never responded to me. If you listen to ISRS, reach out to me. Let me know if you're price patch. But that's my what the fuck of the month. What the fuck? Is a $17,000 Viper Knight driving. So that was a weird one. That was a weird one. So we'll skip ahead to emails. We actually got an extra email, but I just want to go back to Anthony's email. If you remember, he gave us a 1v1, and I just thought, look, we'll just read them out so that people knew what his choices were. He originally emailed us with a 1v1, and they were Demoman versus Johnny, which was Demo, Twilight Zone versus Indy, which was Indy, Pulp Fiction versus Jaws was Jaws, and he does rate that as his favourite game currently. Shadow versus MM was Shadow. He reckons that's Eddie's best game. Williams, Dracula versus John Wick, and he picked John Wick. He doesn't understand the hate at the moment. He reckons he loves the game. It's awesome. I've seen people do like John Wick. Yeah. Don't worry about your silly Dracula. Yeah, that's right. And the other email we got was actually from Paul, Paul Anderson. So, as you know, guys, we've given him shouts out over time with his awesome mod work that he does down at Lakes Entrists. but yeah he sent us an email and I just wanted to read a little bit so when last month we were talking about the dead world mod so basically let me just I just had to find it he did write a little bit of his novel ah here we go so the dead world mod so this is his taken an info on the dead world which i'd believe him over my bullshit ramblings awesome apologies this is just this i'm going to read this out because it's pretty um specific so he just said after listening to episode four i thought i should just mention what i remember about the jd dead world dead world mod or more to the point the original plan they had for it we mentioned in the podcast about that how they possibly never used it on the factory machines due to it being unreliable. But he recalls Mark Pierce Colbert, which is a dude from PSPA who's since passed, telling me that the mech had been reliable from the start but certain European distributors, which was mainly the Germans, had misgivings about it being a huge issue. Apparently that's what made Bally Williams execs nervous and so that part of the machine was shelved and they went to the slotted ring version. So you mentioned, as in Matt, you mentioned that the opto is being a reason also, and in part there is truth to that cause. The machine can be a right pain in the arse if the trough optos play up. So also the ball drop opto from where the crane drops the ball on the left-hand side. If any of those optos are dodgy, you get the dreaded, pun intended, double ball eject into the shooter lane, or the ball not ending because it still thinks it's in play. Basically, it loses track of time. So that was his take on the J.D. Dead World. Yeah, cool. Which, if that's come from Mark... Yeah, I'd say it's true. He was quite knowledgeable. Yep, 100%. Quite knowledgeable at all. And then he also had some 1v1s. Did you want to go through those? Yeah, of course. So, he's definitely interested in what we think about his 1v1s, and his choices are a little skewed due to a few things. Is that what he said? So Sting versus Fishtails. Fishtails. Fishtails? Yeah. Fishtails for me as well. Sting, I know people love it. I'm not a big fan. He chooses Fishtails every time just for the fun, joy factor. You know, great to jump on and play, not have to think about rules, whereas Sting is a bit deeper code-wise, and he hasn't missed it once he's sold it. And as you said, it's also a right prick of a machine to do work on, so I get that as well. Whodunit versus Jackpot. Oh, look, I haven't spent enough time on Whodunit to really make a decision, but for me, I'm just going to say Jackpot because I do own one. That is a fantastic shooting machine. Likewise. It is great. I love Jackpot. I think it's brilliant. So he was the same. He does love playing both. Similar in flow, although jackpot is a bit faster. Even though he reckons it's a bit of a jazzed-up pinbot, he does prefer the latter, and that's his choice, jackpot. Iron Maiden versus Foo Fighters. Iron Maiden. Iron Maiden. 100% Iron Maiden. Particularly, he's chosen it because it's based on a huge bias and the fact that he's only played Foos once on location, which I think sometimes we struggle with. He doesn't know the rules that well, so it is a little bit of an unbalanced choice. But, I mean, he just loves Maiden in the tunes. Foo's a decent, but not in the same league. So, Maiden for him. Monopoly versus Rollercoaster Tycoon. Well, every Monopoly I played was broken, so... Yeah. It's probably tough. Oh, I love Rollercoaster Tycoon. I always want to watch it. So I'm going to go relative to Tiger. Yeah. I'd probably only put one game on each. I think I played RCC at Axel's Place maybe many years ago and Monopoly at Pimble Hall of Fame in Vegas. So I'll choose Monopoly just because I just know it a little bit better. So he chose Monopoly as well. Similarly, there are machines. But, yeah, he just lost six pop bumpers in Monopoly, just gets the ball cracking and moving around. Getaway versus F14 Tomcat. Oh, Getaway. Getaway 2. I played F14 at Pinfest. Has pinned, funnily enough. I couldn't remember the rules, so I struggled with it, but it's so quick. It's pretty good. It is a nice game. Very, very good. Yeah, he went Getaway as well, just because he played it heaps in the 90s, probably chucked in enough coins to buy a part one eventually. So, yeah, the flow when you hit those out of freeway orbits is super fast. The supercharger is awesome, especially when you load sort of all three, which is the, that must be the part of the multiball, obviously, which is the, oh, no, it's not. I think that's leading up to the multiball to get the super jackpot. Well, you'd have to be in multiball to load three balls. Yeah, correct, but that's what I mean. So leading up to the jackpot in multiball, you've got to get them. It'd be a supercharged jackpot. I think there needs to be 15 loops of the supercharger to light the super jackpot. so yeah so definitely good so he misses that and they are his 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 so that's his 10 machines thank you Paul appreciate you reaching out we are going to try and hopefully catch up with him at Met but he's not 100% sure well hopefully he comes to the Bimble Expo then joins us to Metallica yeah it'd definitely be nice it'd definitely be nice so yeah thanks mate thanks for reaching out that's about it so I don't think we've got any rants or anything this year as I said I think my only thing is just that people are getting a little bit lazy with some ads that I've had to sort of decline just because you know plays well come see it at TazPick no mate that's not happening so that's the only thing really for me I think you want to just maybe touch on something scammers again yeah scammers again Again, look, not a rant, but in the past month we've had four different members post up asking, oh, is this page legit? And this is the one that sponsored out on Facebook and the scammers. They're supposedly located in Burnie in Tasmania somewhere. King Island, isn't it? King Island in Tasmania. No, guys, they're scammers. Do not send a dollar. Do not send a deposit. But just be vigilant. And yes, if you've got a post to get and ask, is it legit? Do it. Just make sure you do your due diligence and don't get scammed because we don't want to see anyone losing a dollar to these pieces of shit. As I said, the good thing is at least they're posting on the page asking the question, so we don't want to necessarily be negative towards that. So that's a good thing. No, no, you're not, but I'm just saying it's a good thing that they do. But I think you and I have the opinion you're on a pinball page. Just buy it from a pinball page. But you know, I said that four separate posts up about this same thing. It means your scammers are working hard to try and get your attention. so they could be doing it to anyone especially the people who weren't on this page either which leads me to my little chat about scammers as well you must have missed this because we haven't discussed this but I was very taken aback by this so this is back on the 25th of June so a couple of months ago now but a bloke named Stuart Craig he posted in a different group to ours and I'm just going to read it word for word as to what's happened because this is, to me, this is a bit, this is almost next level and was very shocking. So he just said, hi, folks, I'm trying to get hold of a Leslie Doyle. At least I think that is his last name. Not far off a year ago, I had a Harley Davidson pinball collected from my place to have some work done on it. I was asked for $1.2 thousand for repairs. Since then, it is impossible to contact him. All messages and attempts to contact him are ignored. He has made no attempt to inform me of its status. All attempts are unanswered. Effectively, he is stealing my machine. If anyone knows of whereabouts, please inform me. There is a $1,000 reward on offer for genuine confirmation of location for him. So as it stands, he seems to be a scammer with my dealings. $1,000, please help me get my machine back. I can supply a large list of communications up to shortly after paying him for the repairs that he requested. And again, he's just saying $1,000 for genuine information. He has a contact number for him, which I don't think I will read out. But if anyone wants that information, being that it's a public forum, feel free to email us, guys, and we can help out. But, yeah, all of his dealings appear to be getting scammed by this Leslie Doyle. I mean, that's unheard of. So I would just say to people these days, you know, when it comes to that, just be vigilant in sending machines off to people that you don't know who might look legit or not. You know, clearly you've got to ask around a little bit and find out some more info. Yeah, I don't know what to say. It's disgusting. That's a good idea. Not good, yeah. You've got to be careful with your trust. Yeah, I think maybe, again, which is probably why our page serves to help, is to just check that people are legitimate, who they are, that they're known in the industry through friends of friends of friends, perhaps, and go from there. So let's end on a happy note. We're going to get some lunch and play some pinball. We're going to get some lunch and play some pinball. Hopefully we can squeeze in and I can get your Insider Connect going. Yes, you can. And have a bit of a play, get some stuff happening. Thank you all, listeners, and we hope you enjoyed this podcast. We've worked very hard on this and lots of thoughts. Well, yeah, hopefully it's probably going to be a little bit longer than the previous ones I said at the start, but there's a bit of info to get through this month. Obviously the Melbourne Pinball Expo discussion took up more of that discussion. Watch this space. Hopefully we get a chance to have a write a reply as such and get some further information from other parties and get moving with all of that. But yes, thanks Matty. Appreciate the chat. Appreciate the weekend. It's good fun. Thanks boys at Tasmanian. Great. We will see you. See you. We'll be right back.