Don's Pinball Podcast #53 VIDEO!!!

Don's Pinball Podcast Live Streams (YouTube)·video·21m 57s·analyzed·Jul 7, 2023

Analysis

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TL;DR

Don's Pinball Podcast launches YouTube channel; discusses Haggis Centaur, Stern Bond updates, Dutch Pinball/Jack Black rumors, and Venom speculation.

Summary

Don Garrison launches a YouTube video companion to his pinball podcast (Episode 53) and discusses several major industry topics: Haggis Pinball's Centaur remake pricing ($10k–$16.7k) and production concerns, Stern's Bond game receiving new code and accessory releases, speculation about a Dutch Pinball/Jack Black collaboration potentially involving King Kong, and rumors of Stern's next cornerstone game (codename 'Venom') debuting at San Diego Comic-Con. Don also showcases his Iron Maiden Premium Edition customization and announces weekly livestreams.

Key Claims

Haggis Pinball has reliability/consumer confidence issues and slow production history; Fathom Mermaid Edition still has customers waiting on pre-orders
high confidence · Don directly states he lacks consumer confidence in Haggis Pinball and notes unfulfilled Fathom pre-orders; speculates the new Centaur launch may be financially motivated to fund earlier projects
Centaur is priced at $10,000 (standard) and $16,700 (top edition), significantly more expensive than original restored models (~$6k) and comparable games like Pulp Fiction SE ($8k)
high confidence · Don cites specific pricing and compares to Pulp Fiction; questions value proposition of $2k premium for remake vs. original
Stern released Bond 60th Anniversary accessories (armor, shooter rod, art blades, topper) as limited purchases (500 toppers) available to all Bond versions, not exclusive to 60th
high confidence · Don describes Stern's surprise accessory drop on Thursday and notes limited production of 500 toppers, positioned for secondary market appreciation
Bond game received significant new code update that adds more gameplay, making the game 'blossom' with more functionality on rocket and left-side features
high confidence · Don reports playing updated Bond on location recently and praises increased gameplay depth; notes some features (left eject scoop, undersea battle, wand function) still unclear
Jack Black was photographed at Dutch Pinball Museum in Rotterdam; Jason Knapp Arcade rumored Dutch Pinball's next announcement for September (next year)
medium confidence · Don notes Jack Black's visit was documented; connects to Jason Knapp rumor about September announcement; speculates potential King Kong license (Peter Jackson film) involving Jack Black
Stern's next cornerstone game (codename 'Venom') may be confirmed by booth arrangement at San Diego Comic-Con with Reigning Phoenix management company, which manages metal band Venom
medium confidence · Don cites Comic-Con floor map showing Stern booth shared with Reigning Phoenix; notes band Venom is managed by same company; credits Jason Knapp with connecting dots

Notable Quotes

“I don't know, man. So, at this point, you know, there's still people that are waiting on Fathom Mermaid Editions that pre-ordered. It's kind of had a sordid history... is this a company that's out of money and is just releasing this new game to try to get pre-order deposits in order to pay for the completion of the rest of their game?”
Don Garrison@ 5:03 — Directly questions Haggis Pinball's financial viability and business practices; signals loss of consumer confidence in manufacturer
“Centaur really worth two thousand dollars more for me it ain't no way no not not today not in this lifetime”
Don Garrison@ 4:00 — Critical assessment of Centaur pricing vs. Pulp Fiction; establishes skepticism of remake value proposition
“They pulled a Haggis Pinball. They said that, Jon Hey, we're going to make 500 of these toppers... This is a topper that I think you should go on and not because aesthetically it looks great... But because this thing cannot be made anymore, because it's limited, just like our friend R2-D2, this is guaranteed to go up in value.”
Don Garrison@ 11:19 — Signals Stern's deliberate scarcity strategy for Bond topper accessories; frames as investment-grade collectible, comparing to R2-D2 secondary market precedent
“So now we have that piece of it. So we have Jack Black on location in the Netherlands with Dutch Pinball... Maybe they would do another one. Maybe they would do, like, another kind of culty one. And who's in some cool culty movies? Mr. Jack Black.”
Don Garrison@ 13:21 — Introduces Jack Black / Dutch Pinball speculation; connects celebrity visit to potential IP licensing rumors
“Tropic Thunder pinball... Can you imagine Robert Downey Jr. playing a character in Blackface? There's a connection with characters of Blackface in the Netherlands.”

Entities

Don Garrisonperson Haggis PinballcompanyStern PinballcompanyDutch Pinballcompany Chicago Gaming CompanycompanyJason Knapp ArcadepersonJack Blackperson

Signals

?
business_signal: Manufacturer production capacity constraints evident in multiple games (Haggis Centaur delays, unfulfilled Fathom pre-orders, Dutch Pinball September announcement timing); suggests supply chain or capital constraints across industry
medium · Don repeatedly notes: 'When are you gonna get this game?' regarding Haggis; 'people that are waiting on Fathom Mermaid Editions that pre-ordered'; Dutch Pinball's September (next year) announcement suggesting delayed pipeline
?
business_signal: Haggis Pinball may be experiencing cash flow crisis, using Centaur pre-order deposits to fund completion of Fathom Mermaid Edition fulfillment
medium · Don speculates: 'is this a company that's out of money and is just releasing this new game to try to get pre-order deposits in order to pay for the completion of the rest of their game? That narrative makes sense to me.' Combined with unfulfilled pre-orders and changed code exclusivity policy.
?
community_signal: Don's Pinball Podcast transitioning to video-first content with YouTube channel launch; implementing weekly livestreams and interactive community content (unboxing reveals, photo guessing games)
high · Don announces Episode 53 as first video recording for new YouTube channel (YouTube.com/c/DonsPlayback/glass); describes unboxing strategy with community guessing game; commits to regular weekly livestreams and video content
~
sentiment_shift: Positive reception to Stern's Bond code updates and accessory strategy despite some critical notes on shooter rod design and art blade theming; code quality driving late-cycle game interest
high · Don reports: 'the code has been blowing up in Bond... there's a ton more stuff going on... More gameplay, more fun... even though I don't have a deep connection to this Bond, I would consider actually taking this game in on ownership at some point'

Topics

Haggis Pinball Centaur remake: pricing, production reliability, and market positioningprimaryStern Bond game: new code updates, limited accessories, investment/scarcity strategyprimaryDutch Pinball/Jack Black collaboration rumors and potential King Kong IP licenseprimaryStern Venom (codename) announcement speculation and San Diego Comic-Con evidenceprimaryDon's Pinball Podcast expansion to YouTube and video-first content strategyprimaryPinball machine customization trends (art blades, holographic graphics, toppers, shooter rods)secondaryConsumer confidence in manufacturer reliability and production capacitysecondaryPinball game pricing, value proposition, and collector market dynamicssecondary

Sentiment

mixed(0.55)— Don is enthusiastic about new games (Iron Maiden, Venom rumors, Bond code updates) and podcast growth, but highly critical of Haggis Pinball pricing/reliability and skeptical of some Stern accessory strategies. Optimistic about industry growth and community engagement; pessimistic about specific manufacturers' execution and consumer value.

Transcript

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What's going on everybody? We're going to try something a little bit different here for Don's Pinball Podcast, episode number 53. We are simulcastling, or simultaneously recording on video, for a brand new YouTube site that I just started, Don's Pinball Podcast, at the YouTube. So, without further delay, let's get into a recording, and then we'll talk more about it. Hey friends and everybody, saddle up those saddlebags and tighten up your sleeping bag. We're going to get into some more pinball fun, pinball activity with Don's Pinball Podcast coming at you. Episode number 53. Welcome. We're doing something different here, and that is recording with video to go on to a brand new YouTube channel that I'm so excited that I'm going to be releasing now. I guess now. It's live. Get to that. We're going to talk about Centaur. We're going to talk about Bond. We're going to talk about toppers because we never get tired of that. More after the jump. Ladies and gentlemen, what's going on? Hey, I did a great live stream the other day, Unboxing of Iron Maiden, and I had a ton of people in the chat. That was so super fun, and I've got more live streaming news to break to everybody. I want to do a regular weekly live stream. Hey, how about that? Let's get into some news, because in the last few days, our boys over there at Haggis Pinball, down under in Australia, where it is currently wintertime, have announced their next game for reasons. I don't want to get into any of that. Let's just look at what we've got, all right? There's two versions of Centaur, right, from the 80s. This black and white machine that I've got on the virtual pin right here sitting behind me. It's not a bad game, and truth be told, I do like it better than I like Fathom. Especially because, like, the inlanes aren't the outlanes. That just boggles with my mind. Love the Fathom art. I like the gameplay of Centaur better. So, all good, right? Let's all just throw out our money for these deposits and let's get it, right? Well, the only issue there with ordering from Haggis is just the consumer confidence that I just find lacking in our Australian brothers. Nothing against dudes personally. Haven't met them. Sure, they're top blokes, right? And Centaur looks like a very pretty game. Now, there's two versions here, right? They're going to be a $10,000 kind of regular version, which looks fine for all intents and purposes. and then then they went they went ludicrous with the 16 000 usd prices they're even higher the australian prices but the 16 700 for their top end edition both editions do come with toppers so as a topper pro respect homies right you know i'll buy you a burger at hungry jacks for that but um you know let's look at this okay so centaur right now there's one available that's been restored on pin side six thousand dollars and the appeal of these remakes of games is a chance to get a brand new built game you know cheaper and you know hopefully with more reliability than a restored original classic game you know especially if not that many were made or they're not available medieval man is great example that game from the 90s is fantastic it's got a castle that blows up Brian Eddy dude bring the magic back you know but this game was selling for you know absurd amounts of money so cgc was like hey we'll remake this and hey it won't even cost you as much as what you can fetch you know an original refurbished one for but that's not what we're dealing with here you know this is commanding a lot more money to make this game all right so notwithstanding you know do i think ten thousand dollars for a centaur is reasonable single level play field it's hard to say because we have pulp fiction coming also from our friends at cgc single level play field dynamite theme great gameplay but with modern sensibilities and it's like eight thousand dollars for the special edition you know i mean sure you'll be paying 15 if you want to you know pay a scalper for their le edition because those are sold the heck out but for the se a decent game eight grand is centaur really worth two thousand dollars more for me it ain't no way no not not today not in this lifetime number one number two when are you gonna get this game you We haven't really seen Haggis churning and burning as far as getting their games out. The one that I have played, Mermaid Edition of Fathom, fantastic. Haven't seen a Kelts in public. Would love to give it a flip. Not looking to buy one. The art, man, the art, I can't bring that thing into my house. Sorry. No offense to the artist or anything. It's just not in my personal vibe. I'd bring in two Oktoberfests before I'd bring in a Kells. I'm just saying. I'm just keeping it real. Keeping it 100 for everybody. So, I don't know, man. So, at this point, you know, there's still people that are waiting on Fathom Mermaid Editions that pre-ordered. It's kind of had a sordid history. You know, if you bought that, you pre-ordered that top version, you know, you were going to get some exclusive code. And then they decided, hey, let's make this code available for everybody. It makes you wonder, you know, is this a company that's out of money and is just releasing this new game to try to get pre-order deposits in order to pay for the completion of the rest of their game? That narrative makes sense to me. So must be true, right? Haggis, reach out to me, please. I sent you guys an email. I want to trade some T-shirts. Hell I will come to Australia and visit the factory dude Shake your hand and I bring some Hungry Jacks just for you But I haven heard anything back from these guys You flip it out as their United States distributor If you want to get in on one of these games, you kind of know what you're getting yourself into at this point. I feel bad for people that were maybe misled about Fathom, but if you go in on a Centaur knowing what history we have so far, and hopefully they prove us totally wrong and just do gangbusters on this game, it is what it is. that's kind of my piece on the centaur i am not going in on one and i love me some pinball and heck i got centaur right here if i want to go play it it's right behind me on my vp i got two versions of it one of which is even colorized um and look i got a little topper screen up there too for the folks on the youtube video watching this they could see it man ultra vp what a great machine lets me explore these games and and this one comes with big bang bar and it was less than ten thousand dollars so that's that's just what i'm gonna that's what i'm gonna say about that let's move on to james the bond the other night i was watching skyfall and i think i'm starting to get it i like these newer bond films skyfall quantum of solace the remake of casino royale um you know with the daniel craig edition so i get that people that grew up with the original bond the og bond like you know they're feeling like that nostalgia the db5 was in skyfall so that was fun and they even made a little joke about the ejection seat so that was topical so like i don't really feel this connection with stern's bond machine it plays okay to me it plays it feels like deadpool which deadpool's okay this one's okay i think given the two i'd probably go with deadpool but you know it is what it is but if you had the theme connection to og bond i i can get it you know i i can i can take it uh and the code you know it's getting there well they released just stern does this man it's just like hey today's a thursday let's just without saying anything just throw out all of our accessories side armor rails shooter rods toppers whatever you know they're limited who knows you know if you were you know on an island today and missed it well then you're not going to be able to get one so they dropped all of the bond accessories this morning i was getting text messages and people are like bond accessories i'm like what about it bro and i went online and just saw everything so it looks like they took the armor from bond 60th and that's available. They took the shooter rod from Bond 60th and now that's available. They took the art blades. I don't know, were these, no, Bond 60th, that $20,000 machine did not come with art blades. So there's some art blades there. I guess an aesthetic choice on behalf of the artist. It's like depicts scenes and things, but it's not really like, you know, integrated into like the gameplay or whatever. It would have been nice to see since there's three different versions of the Cornerstone Bond, you know, If they were kind of matching Art Blades to go with each one, right? You know, the Dr. No version for the Pro. You only die twice for the second one. And then what's the third one? I can't even remember. But, you know, that would have been interesting. They did this with Star Wars. Stern Star Wars. They gave you like six Art Blades and you can kind of mix and match and pick what you wanted. That would have been kind of cool. Not what they did. Also, the topper is also from the Bond 60. They released all the accessories from Bond 60th. and you can go buy them and put them in your regular bond if you want uh i would have liked to see the bond safetys kind of stand alone i would like to see it come with art blades too but whatever's whatever the shooter rod which i'm i'm you know i'm known as the topper dude obviously but uh you know i also like the shooter rods but i like the shooter rods that are interesting uh the black knight sword of rage shooter rod the elvira's 40th anniversary shooter rod like these are like fun cool looking things you know um groot i don't really care about uh But the one for Iron Maiden, great game. Shooter rod, pretty boring. Plastic with a little insignia on it. This is the same thing. It's the same shape, plastic, little insignia. Rush has an awesome light-up shooter rod. Stranger Things has an amazing D20 light-up shooter rod. Come on. But the rods for Bond are, I guess, just leftover from the 60th. Go get one if you want. I don't know. I think there's better options out there, personally. But that's what came out. Also, what came out is new code. Now, the code has been blowing up in Bond. I've played a couple of them on location recently with the new updated code, and there's a lot more stuff going on there. There's a ton more gameplay now, which is, you know, just fantastic. More gameplay, more fun. We're seeing this game blossom. You know, even though, like, I don't have a deep connection to, like, this Bond, I would have loved to see, like, a Daniel Craig-era Bond. But, you know, I'd consider actually taking this game in on ownership at some point, you know, once I've exhausted everything else that I want. I don't think it's a bad game. And if you have it in your game room, like, fantastic. Invite me over. I want to come play the dang thing. And, you know, for the right price at the right time, I might even go on one because the code is fun. The rocket is fun. The left side of the game has not much to do. That eject scoop on the left side doesn't really do anything. The little undersea battle, I don't – I can't even see it really most of the time. time and I'm still not sure what the bottom of the wand does. Maybe that code just came out. So if you've got one, email me, Don's pinball podcast, gmail.com. Let me know, uh, how the new code is. I haven't dug into the whole, you know, rundown of everything that's in there. Can we talk about the topper real quick though? Uh, they announced, they pulled a haggis. They said that, Hey, we're going to make 500 of these toppers, which we're going to be just for the bond. 60th edition. We going to make those available to everybody This is a topper that I think you should go on and not because aesthetically it looks great It okay Not because it a steal on price because it The 60th anniversary ones came with a little signature from Keith Owen. If you want, tote this thing to a convention and get him to sign it or whatever. But these are limited. There's only going to be 500 made for the Cornerstone versions. And then the rest of them are going to the 60th. So because this thing cannot be made anymore, because it's limited, just like our friend R2-D2, this is guaranteed to go up in value. If you went in on a James Bond topper today, they've got to be all sold out by now. At $1,000, your money's going to go up if on resale. So even if you didn't have one, hopefully you went out there and got one. I was late to the party. They're already sold out. But because of the limited factor, not because of how amazing it looks, I think it's going to go up. So there's your Don's Pinball Podcast bye-bye-bye stock tip investment news of the day. Let's move on to – let's do something fun. Y'all like rumors? I don't have a cool rumor corner song like Dennis Creasel, but I do have a rumor, and this one was cooked up actually by my wife, right? This is an exclusive rumor to Don's Pinball Podcast. Okay, now it's far-fetched. Take this with, like, all the salt in Ohio, man. Okay, but here we go. A few months back, noticed that Mr. Jack Black, everybody's favorite character actor guy, he was at the Dutch Pinball Museum in Rotterdam, Netherlands, right? Cool, right? There's other celebrities that are into pinball too, so maybe he's a pinbro as well. He seems like a chill dude, pick a destiny and all that. So I get that. That's cool. That was posted. And then there's this rumor, Mr. Jason Knapp Arcade dropped, that Dutch Pinball's next game is going to be announced in September. Not September this year, though. It was initially thought September next year. Okay, so now we have that piece of it. So we've got Jack Black on location in the Netherlands with Dutch Pinball, which the only machine they've made is like cult movie classic Big Lebowski, right? So is Jack Black, was he there? I know he was on tour with his band, but was he there at all to kind of hang out with the guys over at Dutch Pinball, maybe talk some stuff? Dutch Pinball did a movie license. Maybe they would do another one. Maybe they would do, like, another kind of culty one. And who's in some cool culty movies? Mr. Jack Black, that's for sure. Now, now, I don't know that we're getting Nacho Libre, as would be cool, right? I don't think we're getting Kung Fu Panda that doesn't really seem to jive with Dutch. So probably not Nacho Libre, although that license, obtainable. Okay, I'll just put it there. Kung Fu Panda, I think wrong kind of style for Dutch pinball. What about Tropic Thunder? I'm going to pause for effect here. Tropic Thunder pinball. I don't think that's what's coming out. But can you imagine Robert Downey Jr. playing a character in Blackface? There's a connection with characters of Blackface in the Netherlands. Ben Stiller you'd have to get that license that might be kind of expensive Jack Black's in there be in a jungle also which would be in a jungle would be Jumanji although you'd have to go and get Mr. The Rock Johnson so that's a little far fetched the one that I think has the biggest chance of coming from Dutch Pinball involving Jack Black is King Kong again pause for effect Peter Jackson's King Kong Jack Black was in that movie Naomi Watts was in that movie Bruce Willis was not in that movie High Dollar People were not in that movie Jack Black, Naomi Watts, Peter Jackson directed and then it just kind of filters down from there think Congo but updated think they got the King Kong license I know it's rumored to be Stern but again that's my rumor so my wife put all this together what if Jack Black was there and he did this movie and Dutch Pinball just announced that they're going to announce something so there's a rumor for you do with it what you will probably 98 untrue but i i could see a through line somewhere in here and it is fun to speculate on this let's see what happens i haven't heard anything officially on this this is like homegrown speculative rumor do with it what you will let's move on to my next topic let's talk about stern i made it this far and haven't really talked about stern except for that whole bond bit So let's talk about Stern's next cornerstone, hashtag codename Venom. We don't know if it's Venom. Is it He-Man? Is it going to be just a revolt of something? We don't know. But they have released the map layout online for San Diego Comic-Con, which kicks off on the 20th of the month. I think we're about two weeks out now from it. So that's exciting. We may, may, have a new Stern cornerstone in two weeks. Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness. let's all fangirl about it i'm like so giddy i can't wait so uh some mad lad went online to the interactive map of the convention floor where you can click on all the booths and see like who's going to be there and can we just say san diego comic-con looks like a freaking amazing pop culture convention to go to because i was clicking around looking all the cool things that are going to be there that notwithstanding the stern booth is shared by a music band production company reigning phoenix right and one of the other bands that this company manages is a metal band called Venom Boom let do the drop Did that just land like a thud of bricks, man? So is that more confirmation for Venom? Jason Dapp seems to think so, and he's like killing it on rumors now. So I hope that this rumored Venom game, if it comes out, I hope it comes out soon. How cool is this, right? In the same month that we get this black and white game centaur uh reported to be coming out we're gonna get another black white and silver themed game with venom if that's true oh my god i can't wait i'm gonna put that thing in my game room i'm gonna put it in here somewhere i don't know where it's gonna fit behind me but i'm gonna make room for the venom um into the spider verse maybe i don't know who knows the code name is venom but what if it was into the spider verse but with all different venoms uh there's so much speculation here. Venom's deep. This would tie in, though, the fact that Todd McFarlane, one of the creators of Venom, was at Comic-Con last year, but it got bumped because he had some contractual obligation to get Bond out. I don't know. Just totally speculative. But we're going to know in a couple weeks. And that, my friends, is exciting. I can't wait. New pinball. We love new pinball. Hopefully it's good. Hopefully Brian Eddy brings that, I was going to say Maniac Mansion. That medieval madness goodness of some kind of interactive mech that explodes. I don't know. I'm not a pinball designer. I can't wait to see what they make. I'm super excited. Let's talk about some other stuff. Episode 52, the last one I did with Jason Knapp. Man, that is blown up. That was one of my first times really hosting someone being on my podcast, which I was super stoked and excited about. Andrew McBain, thank you to you as well. But, you know, this was pretty huge. I had the audio levels kind of messed up on this one. I really wanted to try to hit them where they should have been. And I went into post-production. I got it all ironed out. So the first day, if you listened to it, I'm sorry. I know the audio levels were up and down and up and down. I went through and did it again, and that must have worked because I've had 450 people listen to that episode. So thank you. Give yourselves a round of applause. I can't believe 52 episodes in, I'm cracking 400 people. Holy crap. Now, maybe it was the fact that the audio sucked, and so I fixed it, and then everybody went back and re-listened to it. But if that worked, I think I'll start kind of messing up the audio and then fix it the next day so people can come back and listen to it. But thanks, everybody, for that. Thank you, Jason, for coming on. I need to have him back as just like a regular, like, give me the rumor updates guy. Just have him drop on in. What do you say? Jason, let's do it. I'll send you a T-shirt every time you come on, man, to make it happen. Let's talk about some recent production from Stern here with Mr. Iron Maiden. What a fantastic game. I got my premium delivered. I did a live unboxing video. I meant to do it on YouTube, and then when I went to get on there, YouTube needs like 24 hours notice for a new channel to be able to do it, and you need to have 50 followers and all this crap. So I put it up on Facebook, but I kept it permanently on there. So if you want to watch the unboxing video of Iron Maiden, I've got it ready. It did kind of a fun thing. I had ordered this game, didn't really tell anybody that I was getting it and then it showed up at the distribution center so I went and picked it up and then I blocked out the name and I posted a picture and I'm like, I picked up a game, what did I get? and everybody was speculating, it was all good fun and so I undressed her in front of everybody and then there was a big reveal, it was fun times thanks everybody for coming on there, I love the comments and everything and feedback and I want to do more of these videos for you guys I want to move into the YouTube frame universe universe where we can do you know videos and things i'm gesturing with my hands right now and you audio people you can't listen but the video people they can see it they can see it man uh what do we have next um uh so i got my iron maiden premium i'm doing the whole don's pinball podcast treatment to it it's got a shaker it's got a knocker i've got some ninja balls coming i just put in some art blades and i was gonna i was thinking of going with the original stern Art Blades here, but if you guys checked out Pin Graphics lately, they have this holographic line of graphics that they're doing. I had gotten some for my jersey, Jack, Guns and Roses. It was the concert posters, but on this iridescent paper, so it was all foily and shiny and bro. I just love that. So, I went and I got the pin graphic version of the Iron Maiden graphics, but with that iridescent holographic kind of foily paper, man it's fire i love this thing cute funny story here funny story cute story i had uh went ahead and um took out my play field to put my art blades in and got them in great uh we used the wet method put the play field back in fired up the game and like it couldn't locate the balls for some reason it took my 12 year old to come down and be like yo dad i know you took the play field out did you like reconnect it before you turned it on and that was a problem that was easily fixed thank you so much everybody hit up don's pinball podcast on pinball podcast at gmail.com for emails go to the facebook page give me a follow i'm trying to build that up and youtube.com backslash at don's pinball podcast i got a channel there now this video will be up there as soon as i figure out how to get this high quality audio merged with the video give me your feedback give me your comments everybody you're ordering t-shirts like crazy i'm at the post office every day i love it