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Moving day live! 1_11_2026

Don's Pinball Podcast Live Streams (YouTube)·video·55m 38s·analyzed·Jan 12, 2026
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Analysis

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TL;DR

Don discusses Tank Girl, Beetlejuice build experience, and production timelines during moving day livestream.

Summary

Don livestreams from his old house during moving day (January 11, 2026), discussing Tank Girl as Jack Danger's professional homebrew project at American Pinball, his hands-on experience building a Beetlejuice machine at Stern, upcoming Pinball at the Beach expectations (Pokémon possibly arriving), production capacity concerns for Barrels of Fun's Winchester (100/month target seems unrealistic), and various licensing/theme wishlist discussions including rumored Barrels projects.

Key Claims

  • Barrels of Fun plans to build all Winchesters by June (500 games in ~5 months, ~100/month)

    medium confidence · Don relaying what distributor told him; expresses skepticism that this pace is achievable while maintaining QC alongside Dunes production

  • Pokémon for Stern was mentioned by George to release at Pinball at the Beach (Feb 6, 2026)

    medium confidence · Don recalling George's post-Spike 3 cabinet interviews; notes Pokémon not yet announced as of Jan 11, leaving ~3.5 weeks

  • Tank Girl is Jack Danger's professional homebrew project with full American Pinball resources

    high confidence · Don discussing Jack's CAD layout and design philosophy for Tank Girl as a commercially-produced homebrew game

  • Don personally participated in building a Beetlejuice sample machine at Stern, including playfield population and wiring

    high confidence · Don describing 2-3 day hands-on experience learning wiring, soldering, and assembly from Stern team members

  • Dutch Pinball did not complete all 500 Alice in Wonderland machines or ship all toppers by end of 2025

    high confidence · Don stating fact and noting some customers waiting for toppers despite new games shipping with them

  • Spooky produces ~65-80 machines/month, not 100+, making Barrels' Winchester target difficult

    medium confidence · Don comparing company production capacities and noting Spooky's struggle to maintain quality at current speeds

  • Stern executives told Don they seek themes that reliably sell 1,000+ units

    medium confidence · Don relaying feedback from Stern designers after pitching 'manly themes' like Rambo and Double Impact

  • Never-Ending Story is rumored as a Barrels of Fun project (The Pinball Circus)

    low confidence · Don speculating about future Barrels titles; refers to Never-Ending Story as 'the rumor' without concrete sourcing

Notable Quotes

  • “It's like he's doing a homebrew, but now he's got professional resources available to him, which I'm totally into. I dig that.”

    Don@ 6:46 — Describes Tank Girl's unique position as commercially-produced homebrew hybrid

  • “The fact that any pinball machine functions is a miracle of nature given all of the complexity that has to happen, all the soldering, all the wiring.”

    Don@ 12:36 — Reflects on learning manufacturing complexity during Beetlejuice build

  • “You cannot sacrifice quality for speed at all. So now, if they said that all the dunes would be caught up by June, that would make sense. But Winchester, I would think it would be a year-long build.”

    Don@ 25:15 — Skeptical of Barrels' 100/month Winchester production target

  • “I would only buy one if it was at a show and I can pick it up and take it with me when the show's over. I would even pay a premium over the MSRP just to be able to know that when this show is over, I can take this with me.”

    Don@ 35:02 — Expresses frustration with Dutch Pinball's delivery uncertainty and willingness to pay premium for guaranteed availability

  • “The only people think it's easy are people that have no idea what they're talking about, which is the podcasters, right?”

    Don@ 11:01 — Self-aware critique of industry commentary from non-manufacturers

  • “I want more Jim Henson products and properties for sure. I want more Disney properties. I want cartoons. I want The Muppet Show.”

    Don — Lists desired IP themes for future games

Entities

Tank GirlgameJack DangerpersonAmerican PinballcompanyBeetlejuicegameStern PinballcompanyPokémon PinballgameBarrels of FuncompanyWinchestergame

Signals

  • ?

    design_innovation: Tank Girl represents a new model: homebrew design/aesthetics with professional manufacturer resources (Jack Danger at American Pinball), blurring lines between boutique and commercial production

    high · Don describing Tank Girl layout as impressive and the project as 'commercially produced homebrew design game'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Barrels of Fun's claimed 100 Winchester units/month target appears unrealistic; Spooky (similar company) produces 65-80/month; simultaneous Dunes production adds burden

    medium · Don: 'Spooky...has trouble hitting that maintaining QC. You know, they'll get up to like 65 or something or maybe 80, but 100 a month. Plus, they're supposed to be doing the dunes as well.'

  • ?

    product_concern: Barrels Winchester June deadline (5 months for 500 units) combined with Dunes February deadline appears operationally impossible; no margin for QC issues

    high · Don comparing to Spooky's 65-80/mo rate and noting 'you cannot sacrifice quality for speed at all'

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Stern Pokémon Pinball rumored for Pinball at the Beach (Feb 6); 3.5 weeks remain as of Jan 11 for announcement; George mentioned it in post-Spike 3 interviews; no official confirmation yet

    medium · Don: 'My hope is that while the game hasn't been revealed or released, my hope is that they're ready to start building some pros and maybe a couple...and then get them down to the show.'

  • ?

    announcement: Jack Danger streaming full Tank Girl design/development process; transparent design methodology showing homebrew-to-production workflow

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

4:15
3 2 1 Hey, we're here. We're here, everybody. Hi. Hi. Sorry, I thought I could speed that video up, which I can, but I guess it just restarts the whole dang thing. It's moving day, Don. We're back at the old place. And behind me, I used to have a whole lineup from that corner over there all the way down of games gone. They're all gone. They're over at the new place. I'm excited. What's up, Brad? How you doing? I want to talk about Tank Girl. Hey, Monica. Uh, but first off, let's start with the moving update. I'm back here solo today, packing everything up. This room, this house is like 11 rooms in it, and it's nuts. And I thought we were pretty much prepacked, and I'm going around and trying to cram everything together. Sterling's here. What's up, guy? But I'm slowly making some progress. Everything at this point, everything's going in a box and it's getting out of here. We'll sort it out later. This house will be on the market soon. Do you want a house with a basketball court? got one available for Zillow Price. What's up, Panic Studio? First thing I want to talk about was going to be American Pinball, but I want to talk about Tank Girl for a bit. How you guys doing? Um, I'm excited for this. I was talking to a guy last night who's like kind of newer to pinball, looking to buy his first machine, and he's like, I don't know about Tank Girl. Why would I want that? And here's why I want it. This is a fun project that Jack's doing. audio, okay? Where um, you know, he he's gonna show the entire process of how to make a game. Doesn't mean that this is already something that will be commercially available, although I think it will be. I think it will be. Who knows how long it's going to take. His layout on that CAD drawing looks awesome. I like there's there's like a shot. It's like an orbit shot or something. And then as the ball comes down, it crosses the playfield and then goes up another ramp heading the wrong way back into a wire form, which seems completely amazing. I could be a designer at AP. I don't want to do that. I don't It's too far of a commute for me. It's a two and a half hour drive in. I don't want to do that every day. Um but yeah, they're hired. We're going to get there. We're going to get there. So tank girl throwaway license, right? Nothing that I would expect Stern to actually make a cornerstone based on, but for just uh just something fun to make a interesting game out of. It's like it's like he's doing a homebrew, but now he's got professional resources available to him, which I I'm totally into. I dig that. And I want to watch this process. His layout looks really good. I'm humbled. I wish I could come up with layouts like that. You know, we're starting with the same geometry, the same square footage, the same real estate. And yet, uh, where I should look at this camera and he's able to, you know, put in all those cool little ball pass, which that just seems fun to shoot there. Better than a line worker spooky. Stop it, guys. Come on. Line worker spooky is the best. We got a quick trip right up the street. We'll get into the spooky stuff. But I'm excited for this tank girl game. I hope it comes out. Hope they sell 300 of them and it'll be something like of a fun relic. But like a commercially produced homebrew design game is kind of how it feels and I'm here for it. I want to follow through this process. Seems super cool.
@ 26:41
Dunes
game
Spooky Pinballcompany
Dutch Pinballcompany
Alice in Wonderlandgame
Pinball at the Beachevent
Donperson
The Pinball Circusgame
Monicaperson
Georgeperson
Marshallperson
Labrowskigame
Evil Deadgame

high · Don: 'This is a fun project that Jack's doing...he's gonna show the entire process of how to make a game'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Don's enthusiasm dampened after Beetlejuice build experience; now understands QC complexity as major barrier to starting independent company; explicitly rules out 'Barrels of Dawn Pinball'

    high · Don: 'The hard part of all this...I'm not starting Barrels of Dawn pinball anytime soon. Let's get that out of the way.'

  • ?

    business_signal: Dutch Pinball failed to deliver promised 500 Alice in Wonderland units and complete topper shipments by end of 2025; signals manufacturing/supply bottlenecks

    high · Don: 'Through 2025 and Dutch Pinball did not make all 500 Alice and Wonderlands. They didn't even ship all the toppers'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Stern targeting themes with 1,000+ unit sales potential; smaller cult franchises (Rambo, manly themes) rejected as likely 300-unit sellers; explains conservative theme selection

    high · Don relaying Stern designers: 'they want games that'll sell a thousand games...themes that they've picked...I would expect them to sell 300. I don't know if they would sell a thousand'

  • ?

    venue_signal: Pinball at the Beach (Feb 6, 2026) expected to feature Beetlejuice (10 units), Winchester, Ramps Road Trip, Fall of the Empire, new Stern title, and possibly Pokémon; potential game-of-show contention

    medium · Don speculating lineup and noting 'It would just need Portal' to be complete

  • ?

    community_signal: Community frustration with Dutch Pinball's lack of factory updates; Don suggests regular livestreams ('Factory Thursday') to maintain trust and communicate delivery status

    medium · Don: 'I think it'd be nice if Dutch would pop on once a week and just be like, Here's where we're at.'

    • 7:43
    Let's start a business where people say pay and come build their own dream theme home brew. Oh jeez. That that's it seems like such a good idea, but it's fraught with so much pain in the butt and it would cost so much money. like Build-A-Bear, but it's build a machine where you can come in and like here's your whitewood. You pick it up from the door and then you put in, you know, you get you get two pop bumpers and a shooter rod and flipper mechs and slings. And then if you want three pop bumpers, you got to upgrade for that one. If you want to add an upper playfield, you got to upgrade for that. Lower playfield is a big upgrade. If you want to have switchable playfields, you have to pay the P3 fee. You can pick your theme. Build a bear. Let's build a pinball. I think it'd be better if um you could have a company that would build people's oneoffs because you got to have all the resources and you have to be able to wire and all that business. You know, if you could have just kind of a core machine that you could just drag and drop some code into, uh print out stickers of whatever theme that person wants and make it, but how much would you charge for that?
    8:52
    Were you live? Where are you live? where you live, Wisconsin. Yeah. $35,000. The the cost would be prohibitive is what you would run into. And like, you know, I'm I'm peeking behind the curtain in the industry to see how games are actually made from how they're designed, how the the the concept comes up with, why good ideas don't end up making it into machines. And then I'm looking at the production and like, sure, I could set up a a garage that I'm I'm I got playfields. I'm populating them. I'm wiring them. But then I look at the QC racks necessary. You know, you're wiring up like 50 or 60 switches in a game. At least that's what it feels like. And then you have no idea if these are actually going to work, if these lightboards are going to work, if these coils are wired correctly, if something's going to blow up until you put it on a test rig. And then you got to troubleshoot it, find out where the problems are, if there are any. And then you got to fix those. And that's the hard part of all this. So, you know, [snorts] going out to start your own company is a bad idea unless you've got this critical access critical mass of infrastructure, testers, coders, electrical engineers, people that going to help you out. Otherwise, you you get inevitably into the situation where you have a customer with a problem with his game and you're just ignoring it because you have no idea how to fix it and it's going to cost all your money.
    10:17
    I found out custom mechs are not easy. Yeah, none of this is easy. Um, so yeah, I'm not starting Barrels of Dawn pinball anytime soon. Let's get that out of the way. Forget it. I could come up with a concept. I could come up with a layout. I could find a way to manufacture them, but the problem is going to be at the QC level and I would spend all my time there and I would never make any progress
    10:44
    because it it'll sink all of your time and money into just making making sure like like Spooky has a whole department dedicated to that with 10 years of experience plus behind them and 13 plus games behind them in order to do that.
    11:00
    Yeah. Yeah. The the only people think it's easy are people that have no idea what they're talking about, which which is the podcasters, right? I definitely like playing pinball and I'm glad that if nothing else I can at least do that. So, um I decided to build a Beetlejuice and the guys went along with it. Um it was cool. It was like I I was hanging out there. It was the first day of the build and I was helping them out make the uh sample game that everybody could then refer to on how everything should be made and then I came back the next day which is when the first play fields were getting populated and then later wired up and I was like I just wanted to jump in there and start putting one together and thankfully these guys lacked the foresight to say no that's a terrible idea so they just said don grab a playfield and I did and I started putting it together. It was great. um pretty much had my handh held the entire way and then I'm like great I built the preliminary part of the top side um you know I bought them basically put the pop bumpers on the ball guides you know uh all the uh the flipper mechs the sling mechs all everything that would you'd put on a machine first right not the final ramps not the mechanisms but just kind of the basics um and then I spent the whole next day you know about eight or 10 hours just wiring just they paired me with one of their their playfield wirers and we were just going around and so I learned so much that day about everything goes. The fact that any pinball machine functions is a miracle of nature given like all of the complexity that has to happen, all the soldering, all the wiring. I would wire something up and solder it and I thought it was solid and you give a little bit of a tug on it and the wire just breaks, you know, because there wasn't like enough solder or not in the right place or I was putting tension on the wire in a spot that I didn't even realize was a bad spot. Oh my god. Um, so just getting like a a playfield magnet level with the playfield properly is a multi-step process. And I'm not talking about adjusting it on your machine when you get it. I'm talking about bolting that thing in because you can have it right where it needs to be. You bolt it down and then it's all cockeyed and then you've got to, you know, back up tension and retension and then you can finally adjust that set screw and get it where you want it. Just so much complexity that's in there. Tinning wires helps. I'm learning, but it's fun. Uh, so I I I mean I I soldered at least 50 soldering points and you could tell by the end of that they were looking a hell of a lot better than the ones that I started with. So like that's a lot of learning just right there. This isn't a customer's game. It's my game and I'm paying for. So you know it's not like I'm I'm practicing on but if I was a new hireer, this is what I'd be doing, right? So it's it's not any different. Luckily, I'm picking it up, which is a skill that I wanted to get. And this is kind of the only way to learn how to do it is just to do it. I'm going to take this that I'm learning now. I now I'll be able to take it to my own homebrew project and make some headway as soon as I get couple of days off of work. So, I want to make one homebrew machine that functions, which is such a high bar to hit, you know? So, like anybody like the dude that put together Big Trouble in Little China, um all the stuff that Ernie Silverberg has done, um Ghost in the Shell, just all these homebrew games that you go and you play them and they actually function. They don't immediately just destruct. Amazing. Amazing job, guys. Is there one big assembly man? No. No. like uh you know Beetlejuice the pinball machine adventure has never been made before ever in the history of anything. It's never been made. So like how would you even make a manual? You'd have to build a thousand of these to gain the knowhow on how to build them and then you could put together a manual that people could follow step by step. But by then you're on to the next game. So we start with a plan. You start with a, you know, a a reference machine, a machine that you play field that you build, you populate, and then you set it aside. And that's the golden sample. Everything going forward references back to that one, and that's the manual. Um, there's a wiring diagram of like where everything goes and that's what you reference to. That's why I built a team for homebrew. Yeah, dude. Doing it solo. I listen, I built a cabinet. I built a whitewood. um that I I'm I'm so happy with with that. Like I didn't I didn't have plans. Okay. I went to a spike stern to spike two stern cabinet. I think it was Black Knight Sword of Rage. I measured I looked at the materials and I went and recreated that just based on sketching things out and taking measurements and it worked. I bought the parts from Pinball Life. I was able to make a functional cabinet that's the right size, shape, has legs, lock down bar, glass channels, the glass fits. Incredible. It's incredible.
    16:19
    So, I got it. I I have all the switches wired. I've got the LED light boards in Beetlejuice. I need to go and do the high voltage circuit to the coils and uh then it'll be ready for uh testing. And then once that QC is done, then we can do the top side stuff, the ramps, the mechanisms, the wire forms. Uh, and then it's going to start coming together. So, I'm excited. No wooden pegs. I didn't wooden peg it. I used a rabbit joint. Uh, not like the rabbit miner, not the locking miter, but I just went with straight straight rabbit joints. Um, I clamped the whole thing together, glued, clamped, and then used brad nails because I have a pneumatic brad nailer and just went just over the whole thing. It's rock solid. So, no wooden pegs. I should have made a spike cabinet. It would have been cheaper. You're right. You're right. But I wanted that the the craftsmanship to be in there. This is my first cabinet. Next time I build a homebrew machine, I'm building two cabinets at the same time just because you're going to have all the jigs and everything set up. I might as well get two out of it. Um, I have plans for other games I would I would love to other themes I would love to make games out of. And so before I get too deep into it, I want to start with one. And I got as far as the wiring. And then I really needed to level up my experience before I started blowing up $100 boards. Uh, the fast pinball kit costs like 1,100 bucks or something for all the boards, the driver boards, the node boards, the power distribution boards, all that. Um, I've got the PC, so I didn't want to wire things up before my experience level was where it needed to be, so I didn't just fry stuff over and over, not realize why. So, now I can tackle that. Now, I'm ready for that, which means we'll get it flipping, and then I could finalize the layout, and then uh once everything is done, we'll cut a brand new whitewood, move all the mechanisms over, and it'll be it'll be great. It'll have some code in it. You'll be able to play it, and I think it'll work. I had to go through this process though to learn. Um, in the meantime, I'm hoping to I'd probably have Beetlejuice finished in a week or two, but I've got to work for the next two weeks straight. Then I get home and I've got a couple of days before pinball at the beach, which is where hell or high water, we're going to see 10 Beetlejuices. Are we going to see any Pokemons there? Back when George was doing all those interviews after the whole Spike 3 cabinet debacle. There's too much glare in these glasses. After the debacle debacle, um he had mentioned that either Pokemon or Transformers was the next theme, like we're all leaning towards Pokemon, but we're all pining for Transformers. Uh but he said that Pinball at the Beach was going to be where the game was at. I remember hearing that somewhere with a high degree of certainty. Um so, is that going to happen? Now, we're only a couple of weeks away, right? It's January 11th. We've got February 6th is uh been bought at the beach. So there's still 20 days left in this month and then another week. So we still have 25 days or so. 74 21. So about three and a half weeks. Three and a half weeks. Pokemon's still not announced yet. If it gets announced this next week and then released the week after that, then they could have at least one of their prototypes flown down, driven down there, so it's at least there. My hope is that while the game hasn't been revealed or released, my hope is that they're ready to start building some pros and maybe a couple, at least the prototype less, and then get them down to the show. I would hate it if I go down to pinball at the beach and we got Beetlejuice, we got Winchester, we got Ramps Road Trip and then it's Fall of the Empire everywhere. Last year, the first year of Pinball at the Beach, we had Dungeons and Dragons. It had just come out and we all got to play it. I'm sure Marshall will have the new Stern game there. He's not paying to fly out the Stern people for nothing. There it is. All right. So, which game is going to win? Pinball at the Beach. Evil Dead had it last year. Um, Harry Potter wasn't out yet. Avatar was the newest Jersey Jack. Uh, Dn D was out, but D and D couldn't compare to Evil Dead. So, absolutely. That was game of the show. Homebrew Adam the Woo. Oh my god. Play me, shall you? Gosh, that would be that would be amazing.
    21:00
    Are those Patuniius? I picked up a new empty cab from AP. It's the GTF cab. Not a fan of the backbox design. I hate their their speaker setup, especially like with the wavy side cabinets that they had, the soundbar at the top. I never like that.
    21:22
    Yeah, it was sad, man. Yeah. Lost a good one. pinball at the Tampa. It's going to be fun this year. I'm going to be there solo. Um, so I'll be there for a couple days. I'll hit up the parks afterwards. Then I got to go back to work and then I'm finally done and down to just hopefully one job. If I play my cards or I can get fired, I'll be down to no jobs and I'll have plenty of time for pinball nonsense. Rails Fun is cabinets for sale. 250 right now. I mean, at that price, it's kind of it's a lot of work to build a cabinet. You got to go to Home Depot. Got to cut the I used 3/4 inch plywood. Um I built a jig to route it so it all fit together. There's the actual fitting together of it. And you got to paint the thing too. Like I had to paint this whole thing. It was fine.
    22:17
    Monica says no to something. Oh, probably to me quitting all my jobs and doing pinball full-time. For some reason, this woman wants me to just keep working these terrible jobs.
    22:36
    So, I hope the new the new Stern game is there because if we can go back and forth between Beetlejuice, the new Stern game and then all the other games that Marshall brings and then have Harry Potter's there and hopefully get some more time on Winchester and maybe we'll see the new iteration of Ramp's road trip. I think it could be a good show. It would just need Portal. We just have to have Portal. Having a full-size CNC would be great. Well, yeah, of course. But come on, Sterling. I've got like three days and then I got to be in Tampa. So, I don't have time for a leisurely road trip because my wife has me working. You decided to go into medicine, not me. Listen, lady,
    23:19
    it's gonna be fine. It's gonna be fine. Like I should have had this week off and then it wouldn't have been a problem. But like, you know, I'm working all this week here in Wisconsin. It's my final week of Wisconsin work and then I've got two weeks straight that I elected to do in Maine. I'm going to come back with like a a Monopoly bag of money, but it's like h gosh. Anyway, once Pinball at the beach is over, I go back to Maine for another week and then I finally got some time off. TPF is going to be coming around March. This house will be cleaned out, ready to sell. Things are going to be a lot better. We're going to get into summer and things are going to be completely awesome. Beetlejuice will be going at a full clip. Uh I heard something about barrels of fun. I reached out to my distributor. He's got my Winchester. I'm number 29 on his list. So hopefully uh you know they start getting made. Um, but uh I was told that the plan from barrels is to have all the Winchesterers built by June,
    24:29
    which seems crazy to me. That's 500 games in six months. That's five more months. That's a 100 games a month. 100 games a month. Um, you know, Spooky, which is like a similar size company, has trouble hitting that maintaining QC. You know, they'll get up to like 65 or something or maybe 80, but 100 a month. Plus, they're supposed to be doing the dunes as well. And if you ordered a dune recently, they were telling you February it would be delivered. Of course, that topper will be August, but I don't know. I don't know if barrels can hit a 100 Winchesterers a month on top of dune production. If they do, that's amazing. That would be amazing. But you cannot sacrifice quality for speed at all. So now, if they said that all the dunes would be caught up by June, that would make sense. But Winchester, I would think it would be a year-long build because I don't think we're going to see a new game from Barrels in the summer. Who knows? The Pinball Circus has to come out sometime.
    25:33
    Do I want Never- Ending Story given that that's the rumor? I mean, of course, I like the film as a kid. It's got a luck dragon in it. It's got a rock biter. It's got, you know what's fun? The character that plays the dude that races on the snail is the same guy that played the Oompa Loompas in the most recent Willy Wonka movie, that Tim Burton one. His name's Deep Something.
    26:01
    which that's wild. That blew my mind. That was crazy. Um I I guess this would be a return to form of like a labyrinth. It's kind of how I feel about Never- Ending Story. It's that kind of, you know, child fantasy movie. Um I don't know that I would necessarily rush out to get this unless mechanistically it was just amazing. So, we'll see. We'll see. Uh this idea, what's this kung fu movie? I've never seen it. I've seen the trailers. It looks awesome. Uh Bruce Leroy, [laughter] Dark Crystal would make a lot more sense. I want more Jim Henson products and properties for sure. I want more Disney properties. I want cartoons.
    26:48
    I want The Muppet Show. I want Peewee's Big Adventure. I can't get that because they won't license it. I want Pee-Wee Herman pinball. I want a lot of stuff. Basically, anything inside a Universal Park that hasn't been made into a pinball machine yet. I want that. You got Minions. I would like Shrek to be done again. Like a modern Shrek. Come on. Get out of here. Modern Shrek. You know, Shrek was okay for its day. Kind of light on theme. I still kind of want one though. I really love the characters. I love the story. Just like the first movie was a satire of fairy tale nonsense. had Smashmouth music in it for some reason. Love it. Lord Farquad.
    27:35
    Yeah, I I want I want Shrek done again. Like done now. Monica wants Animaniacs. I want Animeaniacs. Animaniacs is Warner Brothers. Somebody make it happen.
    27:49
    You know, uh Jenga had mentioned that he wants more manly themes. He's like, "Donnie, tell Spooky to make some more man thing." He wants Blood Sport. He wants Double Impact, Double Team, Time Cop, these Vanam things. I want The Mummy with Brendon Frasier. 100% absolutely. Somebody make that. Um, and so I went to the guys and I'm like, "Hey, just telling you Jenz wants more manly themes." and they look at me and they're like, "Listen, we've looked at all those, looked at Rambo, all this business, and they want games that'll sell a thousand games." And so far, the themes that they've picked, the titles they have in the works, while it may not be like my personal favorite theme ever to do, right, Big Trouble would be awesome. Haunted Mansion would be awesome. I want Epcot Machine. I want uh Jimmy Buffett, you know, I want another Dolly Parton machine, but like those are kind of I would expect them to sell 300. I don't know if they would sell a thousand, right? Like Jaws, huge seller. Godzilla, huge seller. Evil Dead, Beetlejuice, huge sellers.
    29:02
    So, it's not that they don't want to do that. like Rambo, First Blood, a pinball machine. Uh, First Blood and Rambo 2 as like a double theme in the same game like Evil Dead. Ah, I would give me that game. Give me that game. But would that reliably sell out a thousand overnight or would it be more of a slow build? You know, Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a fantastic playing freaking pinball game and I've still never even seen the movie. But look, it's not like just sold out overnight. We need more official sports themes ones. Uh, do we do we do? I don't know. Sports is like gardening to me. Like I don't wake up every day and think about gardening. I don't think about what season we're in, what biome we're in, how acidic my soil is. I know all of those things exist and I know people care very much about them, but it's not ever something I think of unless somebody brings it up. And that's sports to me. I know it exists. I get it. You know, I love to walk through a nice garden. I love to go play sports, but like I I couldn't name anybody, anybody that was playing football last night. I know Packers and Bears were playing. I can't name you a single player on either team. I don't know who the coaches are. I don't know where they were playing, but like I've been to um Labowski Stadium, Landau Field, the hell is it called? Place in Green Bay, Luendowski. Someone help me out. Uh what's the trophy called in in football? The Pat Sjack trophy, whatever. Like I've been to the stadium. I've been to the stadium and it was fun. I went to this little bar restaurant in there. We had some food. A game was on. We watched it. Like that was all fun. But me personally, like I I I know sports exists, but it's nothing I ever think of. So if I saw a sports machine, I'd probably just walk right by it.
    31:13
    Sports ball. I don't know. It seems boring to me. But I know people like their whole personality is like their NFL team and they can name every player and everything. Like I watch sports casters sometimes when I'm at the laundromat picking up uh women and like they could just rattle off like all these stats and everything else and it's like Lambo Field. That's it. And I'm like the encyclopedic knowledge that's back there is just incredible. But I I have no idea what they're talking about. I go to Sport Clips to get my haircut when I have hair and like they have sports on and like I I watch it because it's fun to watch TV, but I have no idea what's going on.
    31:58
    Nightmare Elm Street, you got to have Freddy's Claw come up through the playfield and throw balls,
    32:05
    which I think they did that in the the original one. Die Hard would be fun. All right, what should we do? Should we keep talking about pinball companies or should I talk to you about transwokenism? [laughter] I'm always unsure about how these uh live streams are supposed to go.
    32:26
    Uh we're at we we totally went through 2025 and Dutch Pinball did not make all 500 Alice and Wonderlands. They didn't even ship all the toppers and and new games are coming out with toppers, but there's still people that had their game. They're waiting for him. Sucks to be in that position. You can get your money back now on it. So, I think it'd be a good idea. I don't know. It's like a project pinball. You know, here's this foam core thing. Can we turn this into a workable game? That would be fun to watch for like a TV show about people doing pinball projects, but as far as like buying a game, it's kind of expensive. The gameplay is not really there. It feels dated. Eh, I don't like the call outs. I can't get into that. If I had that game at home, I'd probably never play it. Not interested. Um, I remember when that game dropped, too, and people were just calling me like like the total hater. Don, this game's sold out. And it's like, it's not sold out. Australia still has them. I know places I can get them. It's sold out. It's so great. And I was like, I don't know. I don't really like it. I'm glad you guys like it. I don't really like it. And I played it and I'm like, "Yeah, I don't really like it." Raza I have like zero enthusiasm for. Um, and not just because of the Deeper thing, not just because it was a scheme to milk people out of money, but because it just looks not fun. I mean, it looks okay, but you know, I'd rather play Attack from Mars than retroatomic zombie whateverland, let alone paying 13,000 plus tariffs to get one of these things. It's like Big Bang Bar. I'm happy if it gets made that people that really want it can go get it. Totally fine. Um, but me personally, I'm waiting and seeing. I would definitely want a Back to the Future, but at this rate, if I go ahead and put a deposit on a Back to the Future, I I nobody no dealer can tell me when to reasonably expect it. I know if I buy a spooky pinball machine, the most I have to wait is one year. If I buy a Barrels of Fun Topper, the most I have to wait is eight months. I would love a Blowy pinball machine. Are you kidding me? Um, but when it comes to Dutch, like nobody can tell me when I would expect to get my game. So, like I would want a Back to the Future, but I think I would only buy one if it was at a show and I can pick it up and take it with me when the show's over. I would even I if it's really good, I would even pay a premium over the MSRP just to be able to know that when this show is over, I can take this with me. Yeah, I had Labowski. I loved it. I thought the build quality was great. I had fun with it. I added mods to it. It was a super fun, compelling game. Really captured the the theme. Um I wish it had a more modern LCD. I didn't like how pixelated everything looked, but for the time it was fantastic. Um, but I wouldn't have wanted to be somebody holding a bag on an early adopter edition just praying and hoping that they're going to make it. So, I I think it would be nice if Dutch would pop on once a week and just be like, "Here's where we're at. Here's the toppers. We're designing boxes for them. We're shipping them out." Or, if you want to swing by the shop, you can come pick up your topper that you're waiting on. I I' I'd trek out to Amsterdam, pick up my topper, get some food, and head back. For sure. For sure. I'd go get a a free candle, which is a uh little Dutch fried snack that they have over there. Super good. They had something similar at McDonald's, too, in uh in the land of the Dutch. So, yeah, I'd pop over to the Netherlands. I would go to Dutch Pinball, pick up my topper, I'd go to Eftling, go on some cool rides, grab some food, and then I'd fly back the next day. And that would be a fun day for me. I'd probably stop by the Dutch Pinball Museum. I might even cross over into Germany to go to their McDonald's, you know, but at least uh you know, just come on do a live stream. Hey everybody, it's factory Thursday. It's Dutch Wednesday, whatever. And just you know, talk about take 10 minutes, take a couple of questions and just talk about what's going on at the factory. Here's the toppers. Here's the Alyses. Look how cool they look. A couple people backed out. Golf coin taker right now. You can pick this one up. We're shipping it next week. You know, it's radio silence. Not good. Not good. Um, I kind of think the only reason you do that is if you have something to hide and you just want to like lay low. Eric Eftling is one of the best theme parks in Europe. You want to hear my top five? Eftling in the Netherlands, Fantasia Land in Germany, Europa Park also in Germany. Uh, I'll throw Disneyland Paris on there. And give me a fifth. Not Holiday Park. Forget that. Uh, let's let's throw Far Up Summerland, a Danish park. Let's throw that in there. Far up is awesome. It's all the way at the top of Denmark. Giant inflatable mushroom play areas, a great wooden coaster. This is fun. You go to parks in Europe and they'll be like a creek or something and they'll just have monkey bars across the creek and if you can make it across, you make it across. If you fall in the creek, you get wet up to your waist in creek water and that's on you. So fun. They'll just have uh you know they'll have rides, dark rides, food stands, and then they'll just have a bunch of trampolines. Like here here's an area unsupervised with six trampolines, like the the built into the ground ones. Like just just go play on trampolines if you want. If you get hurt, uh that's on you. I said Europa. Eftling, Fantasia Land, Europa, Disneyland Paris,
    38:28
    Super awesome. Yeah, Affling is one of the best. Adventure World in Perth. Absolutely. I can't believe I was in Perth and I nobody took me to Adventure World. That's some bull crap. I got to go back out to Australia now. I went to all the other Australian theme parks. Heidi Park's fun. Heidi Park's fun. I don't know if it's like best of Europe. It's good. I like Heidi Park. Also, shout out to Hansa Park.
    39:01
    We got to do another uh oh, let's let's throw Tivoli in Copenhagen, Denmark. Uh Tivoli was the park that inspired Walt Disney to build Disneyland. It's an amusement park from the 1600s. And Bakan right up the streets an amusement park from the 1500s. Oldest operating amusement park in the world. Classic rides. And they have pinball, too. I'm gonna go hang out with Jenz there. As long as, you know, Denmark lets me in. We invade him, then I can't go to Denmark. So, that sucks.
    39:40
    So, we covered Dutch, talked a lot about Spooky, talked a little bit about Stern. I saw a question earlier. What are the next Stern games? We got Pokemon, Transformers, Fallout to be the next Elwin. Really excited about that one. Uh, and then since a Kiss Remastered, let's talk about that. I think Kiss Remastered such a better idea than AC/DC. Um, you can find the Kiss Pros. It's an okay game. It's like uh a little more simple simpler than Rush, but it feels like Rush, you know. Uh, but it's a fine game. I enjoy it when I play it on location. It It doesn't have like deep replay value or anything. And you can find the pros, but the limited edition ones go for so much money just due to the collectibility of Kiss. So, the fact that they'll do premiums and less of Kiss and have those toppers, those $5,000 aftermarket toppers, you know, they're going to run them again. Maybe they'll make them a little bit bigger. They'll probably charge 17.99 for them. But, you know, expression light inside outline lit cabinets, they got to do foil decals. Please start and bring those back. I would be in on an LE just because I know I could sell that thing for $16,000 immediately to some KISS collector that missed out if especially if they only do 500. Now, I'm worried that Stern would then say we're gonna make 850 of these because of the 85 centimeter long tongue that that dude has. It's a long way to the shop if you want a sausage roll. Yep. Yep. AC/DC. Not a bad game, but it it's not going for like tons of cash. Probably because they vaulted it. They made a Lucy edition. There's a lot of AC/DC's out there. I think AC/DC deserves a Spike 3 remastered conversion. I think Walking Dead deserved it, too. Um, sales-wise, I know it's not like the most aggressively in demand game. Kiss solves that. So, yeah, if I was making decisions at Stern, given the choice, I I definitely would have done Kiss over uh AC/DC. And then I would still do AC/DC because I think I think that game deserved an LCD screen and more songs,
    42:03
    but still a Dad Rock game. So, what's next for Stern then after all that? That's what I want to know. What What's the game that's following up, you know, 2026? What game are they releasing a year from now? Uh, they probably just started working on it about three or four months ago, whatever it is. So, we'll we'll see. We'll see. I'm excited to see what Barrels does next. I'm excited to see what Stern has after Fallout. Um, I know what Spooky has next. Oh, wish I could talk about it. Um, I just want to play it again. Uh, who else? Who else does leave? Turner. Oh, I can't wait to see what Turner has next. And I'm very excited, very excited to see what Multimorphic comes out with the followup portal. Oh my god. I got like I got like a whole year's worth of content out of Portal. I still have a Portal t-shirt to give away. We need to do that public giveaway. I might have people register for it. I would love to personally present somebody with the portal t-shirt at TPF.
    43:09
    I will get locked out of the factory. They'll change the locks on the doors if I say anything about what their next games are.
    43:18
    I could say that there's not a bad one in the bunch. Um, just talk to your distributor and just get on a perennial list. I know people were upset that they only made so many Beetlejuices and they're like, "This sucks. This game's in demand and you guys won't just make another thousand." And it's like then they would be making Beetle Juices for two years.
    43:47
    You know, you gota you got to keep your product in demand. You don't want to saturate the market. You want there to continue to be a market every year.
    44:04
    Who's Mr. Shane? Mr. Shane 82. Are you in Western Australia, sir? I want to go back. I'm itching for a trip, man. I've spent a lot of time on planes, but it's all been for work. I'm trying to put together another globe trotting trip. I'm trying to get to 50 countries by age 50. I'm at 24. Um, I want to hit the Middle East. I was watching a guy who went to Cairo, to the pyramids, just to get scammed. And I'm thinking I want to go to Cairo. I want to land in Cairo in the evening, get a hotel. I want to bounce over to the pyramids for a day. and then I want to catch a flight out of there. Go get another country. I want Saudi Arabia is on the list. I think there's a window to go there right now. They just opened this brand new park. I want to go on the world's tallest, fastest roller coaster and report back. And then I found a flight from Riad, Saudi Arabia to Kazakhstan. And I thought that would be a cool place to stop over for a day. And then after that, like the next place I really need to go to is Shanghai. So maybe I could do Shanghai and then work my way back. That'd be a pretty jam-packed week. But I think it'd be fun. Well, he was doing a video on like let's see how bad the scams are. And actually at the pyramid site really wasn't that bad. You know, of course people come up and they want to sell you things, but you know that's Paris too, you know. Will Fallout out sell Pokemon? No, of course not. >> [laughter]
    45:40
    [laughter]
    45:40
    [laughter] >> Pokemon is going to be a box of lights
    45:42
    Pokemon is going to be a box of lights
    45:42
    Pokemon is going to be a box of lights and it's going to be a great seller. They know what they're doing. I haven't been to Africa at all.
    45:55
    At some point, I need to like I want to finish up all the countries in the Caribbean. I want to go out and do I want to do like a driving trip in Africa, but it's not really that feasible, you know. It was smallrained American that I watched, Brad. Yeah, he just put that out. I love these travel bloggers, man. I wish I could do that full-time. Uh, but smallrained American on YouTube. Uh, he basically just kind of like normal persons himself into locations. You know, a lot of other people like like do research, learn local languages and stuff. This guy just kind of goes out there and there's a charm to that. Dubai is on my list, sir. Um although Riad's getting a bigger tower. I don't know if it's Riad, but um I know Saudi's getting a they're building a bigger tower than the Burrs right now, but Dubai's on the list. I really want to go to Motion Gate. Motion Gate has a Hunger Games roller coaster. They also have a John Wick coaster. It's a clone of a ride I've ridden a ton of other places, but I want to go through a themed queue for John Wick. I still have love for John Wick. one of the first LE I bought. It's a very good-look LE. Um, I like the expression lights on a non-m music pin. Uh, I like the call outs. I like the video assets. I like the choreography. The layout is very bland. One pop bumper, one drop target, one physical ball lock, that's about as minimal as you can do, like even less than King Kong. A bash toy. The car really doesn't do anything. You hit it, it swings out, and then you just bash it, then it parks itself, and like that's it. I was hoping it would work as like a diverter, you know, where you could like lock balls behind it and then it could move for a multiball. [snorts] I was promised more contracts. That game has a leveling system that does not matter at all. At all. Like, so what? So you're leveling. So what? What does it mean? I leveled up. I'm level 45. makes no difference to anything. Nothing to do with the game impact. That was so aggravating to me that you would put that. And I asked Tim Sexton, I'm like, "Brother, what's going on with the leveling system? When are we going to see that pay off? When are we going to see, you know, uh, being able to get through modes quicker or something and like save your progress?" And he's like, "No, no. I just thought that'd be something fun to just throw in there for no reason. Oh, look, you played so much. You leveled up. Great. If I go to Subway and buy 10 sandwiches, I at least get a free sandwich. Aggravating, but I still still like the game. I I would I would need to get an LE again. Monica won't let me. The problem is, you know, I could go get an LE for nine grand or whatever, but I could also get something I get Beetlejuice for almost nine grand. So, like I'm not going to spend nine grand re-bying John Wick, which has frustrating code, when I could just go and get Beetlejuice, something brand new, and play the hell out of that. So, it's sad. I would like another Elvivara. I would like John Wick again. Um, I would like Jaws again, but I just don't think it's going to happen.
    49:21
    I want to know where Turner Pinball's uh pin access app is going to land next. I want one of these companies, one of these boutiques to pick that up.
    49:33
    I like I like the idea of being awarded credits you can use to then buy games on location, play games on location. That seems super fun. I think he's still I think he's still cooking it. What's he doing next, man? Imagine if uh Chris Turner brings a game. Imagine if he was doing the never- ending story. Yeah, he he would sell a thousand of them. No problem. Will you still get invited to certain release days? Nobody's getting invited to certain release days. Um they just had Walking Dead Remastered come out. No invites at all to anybody. Um they're on the verge of Pokemon. Normally they'll release a game and then they'll do a media day after that and they usually give us like a week's notice. So I don't know. They kind of have a rule that if you work for another company, you're not allowed in the factory um on the on the floor. I don't I don't work for another company. Like I'm not I don't have a contract. I'm not getting paid. I'm just kind of hanging out making stuff. What other company would that work for where you could imagine if I was just hanging out at Stern and then I just start building stuff?
    50:54
    So, I don't know. Um, I would say they could still bring me to do the media day and just say like, you know, Don, just don't go on the factory floor. But like I've been on a factory tour at Stern like 10 times. I could give the tour, dude. If Turner was doing first blood, I'd buy two of them. Son of a crap. Don, that's not very family friendly. It's probably what he would say to me. But there's cool people at Stern. I just talked to Kyle on the phone the other day about my C3PO topper. I'm still buying Stern pinball machines. I like Stern pinball machines. Um, I love the Star Wars topper. They got me They got me back. I didn't buy the Wick topper. of course didn't have the game anymore. Um, I gave him crap about the Jaws topper. The X-Men topper. Maybe if the game was better, I'd care. But that's C3PO topper. Yes. Yeah, I'm getting that. I got it. It was broken. It wasn't broken. It just wasn't completely assembled. I had to finish the assembly. So, I don't know. I'm kind of waiting to see. I hope I get an invite. I hope I get an invite. Uh, back to the media day at Stern. Chances are I'm probably working. I don't have much time off over the next month. They would probably do at the end of January. There's no way I could go, but it'd be nice to still be invited.
    52:22
    You know, if not, I hope everybody goes and has a great time and uh I'll I'll go to Interium and play it as soon as I can.
    52:33
    They are fun. Um, the last one I went to was with Kong and I think like I had got off work that morning, drove into Chicago. I was really tired. I didn't even make it the full day. Like 2 p.m. I was like, "Listen, I I got to go." Um, it was super fun being able to bring Patreon members. So, like I would still want to go to the the media days because of the the Patreon people I could bring with me. Oh, Star Wars. I went to that one. I was exhausted. You know, I've seen the Hannipin press a ton. I'll help out. I can give the tours. How am I working to start as a tour guide as a hot dog wrangler? I got to get some food, you guys. I got to get some food. Um, I got some podcast ideas to do show. I've been pulled in every damn direction. I got to finish this move. I have to disassemble my halfpipe today. Sad. Um, I'm probably going to go donate some clothes, pick up some food, come back here, eat, and take a nap. That sounds great. That sounds great. We did a Sunday live. We did a Sunday live. Even though I'm moving, I barely have a studio setup. This is still the remnants of my original one. I haven't moved it yet.
    53:54
    All right, guys. Can we get a Let's get a sexy fix in here. Hey guy, good to see you. Sexy fix. Glad you're here. Keep dancing. This is what he was doing when GTF released. He's probably thinking we still have 212 signature editions left, but they're probably gone by the end of the week. They're probably still sitting at the factory.
    54:22
    1:20 a.m. here. Oh my goodness. All right. I got to work tonight. I got to go get some food. I got to finish packing up what I can do. I got to put Fix away. He needs to get washed and rinsed out.
    54:34
    Thanks for joining everybody. This was fun. Does he have a tail? Wait, does Fix have a tail? No, I think that's like a rag hanging out of his pocket.
    54:52
    Those cargo shorts, buddy. Oh, I love it. I love a sexy fix. All right, I'm gonna get some food. I'll talk to you guys later. Be cool. Let me transition here. Let me transition to the outro. There you go. You guys get an air horn. All right. Later.