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The Pinball Show Ep 194: Tales Of The Arabian Nights Remake Enchants The Hobby!

The Pinball Show·podcast_episode·1h 20m·analyzed·Jun 16, 2026
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.035

TL;DR

Transformers sales struggle post-controversy; Tales of Arabian Nights remake enchants with faithful modernization.

Summary

The The The Pinball Show discusses Stern's Transformers release with production delays and mixed sales due to the Optimus Prime toy not transforming as initially promised, then pivots to an extensive deep dive into Pedretti Gaming's Tales of the Arabian Nights remake, which the hosts praise for modernizing the classic without bastardizing it. Two editions are offered: Legacy (500 units at $10,999) and 30th Anniversary Limited (399 units at $11,999), with minimal feature differences between tiers.

Key Claims

  • Transformers Pro and Location Pro shipments delayed ~1-1.5 weeks from originally expected; LEs likely rolling into July

    high confidence · Host stating production update on Stern Transformers timeline

  • Transformers LEs sold very well initially but overall sales (Pro/Premium) are 'average at best' compared to expectations

    high confidence · Zach discussing sales performance based on distributor feedback

  • Stern's public acknowledgment that Optimus Prime wouldn't transform was more damaging to sales than the feature itself would have been if kept silent

    high confidence · Dennis arguing this was more detrimental than the actual omission

  • Elizabeth Gieske is the lead programmer on Transformers and code is further along than recent Stern releases

    high confidence · Host confirming Gieske's role and noting widespread praise for code progress

  • Pedretti Gaming's Tales of the Arabian Nights remake has two editions: Legacy (500 units, $10,999) and 30th Anniversary LE (399 units, $11,999)

    high confidence · Hosts detailing official specs from Pedretti Gaming reveal

  • Transformers features Megatron cannon that shoots balls across playfield to a wire form/third flipper, and Soundwave ejects balls with force

    high confidence · Gameplay observations from Stern media coverage and videos

  • Stern obtained Stan Bush's 'Touch' and custom voice acting from Peter Cullen (Optimus Prime) and Frank Welker (Megatron/Soundwave) for Transformers

    high confidence · Host revealing licensed content details, celebrating 40th anniversary of Transformers movie

  • Summer 2026 is competitively crowded with Transformers, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Tales of Arabian Nights all launching, impacting sales timing

    high confidence · Dennis discussing seasonal and competitive market dynamics

  • Pedretti Gaming revealed an Optimus Prime articulating bust topper prototype at Northwest show that will ship later

Notable Quotes

  • “modern pinball, the sales legs, is oftentimes contingent upon IP and theme, or IP and code”

    Dennis @ ~mid-episode — Identifies core driver of pinball game success in current market

  • “Stern with the amount of money that you are still charging... did this to us, that you didn't give us a transforming optimist, yet he's still there in our face partially transformed, pisses me off too much to buy the game”

    [name withheld pending review] @ ~mid-episode — Captures collector backlash over Optimus Prime limitation and pricing perception

  • “Modernize it rather than bastardize it”

    Zach @ ~mid-late episode — Frames philosophy of successful remakes like Chicago Gaming's approach vs. problematic reimaginings

  • “I think what was more devastating... was that at the launch of the game, it was formally told... it was not going to include what they wanted it initially. Had they not said anything, I don't think it would have been as detrimental to sales.”

    Zach @ ~mid-episode — Central argument: transparency about feature removal backfired more than silent omission would have

  • “Jaws came out and it sold a lot. But remember, the tail, pun intended, of Jaws is what helped it sell a lot. The initial, we had LEs for months... Because... when you have 200 people decide against... that's significant in the percentage of things.”

    Zach @ ~mid-episode — Illustrates how niche market dynamics amplify narrative effects on sales; Jaws recovered via code quality

  • “Elizabeth Elizabeth Gieske just killing it on code? Became one of their best sellers of all time.”

    Dennis @ ~mid-episode — References Jaws recovery arc, predicting similar trajectory for Transformers if code delivers

  • “why Shark no eat ball? Why Grogu no do hand wavy thing? Why John Wick no have gun? Why X-Men no plunge right?”

    Dennis @ ~mid-episode — Recurrent pattern of Stern feature compromises creating narrative backlash across multiple releases

Entities

Stern PinballcompanyElizabeth GieskepersonTransformers (Stern)gameTales of the Arabian Nights (Pedretti Gaming)gamePeter CullenpersonFrank WelkerpersonStan BushpersonPedretti GamingcompanyChicago Gaming Companycompany

Signals

  • ?

    product_launch: Transformers Pro/Location Pro delayed 1-1.5 weeks from expected timeline due to parts shortage; Premium likely into July

    high · We had anticipated the Transformer Location Pros to be out like starting to ship last week and we still have not seen them ship. The most recent update would be the end of this week... week of the 22nd... following week, likely the LEs... Transformers premiums likely to roll into July.

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Transformers community sentiment shifted negative due to Stern's public disclosure that Optimus Prime wouldn't transform; collectors using this as justification to skip purchases despite strong mechanics elsewhere

    high · Stern with the amount of money that you are still charging... did this to us, that you didn't give us a transforming optimist... pisses me off too much to buy the game... I really thought this would do stronger based off of the theme than what we're seeing.

  • $

    market_signal: Summer 2026 crowded with multiple high-profile launches (Transformers, Sonic, Tales of Arabian Nights) compressing demand and diluting sales attention across tier tiers

    high · The summer is not a time that people launch stuff typically in pinball. But for some reason in 2026, everybody wants to release things in the summer... You have what people know Sonic the Hedgehog coming out... Tales of Arabian Nights, shit, I've always wanted to add one of those...

  • ?

    design_innovation: Transformers features novel Megatron cannon that shoots balls across playfield to wire form/third flipper and Soundwave force ejection; Stern emphasizing mechanical differentiation from typical layouts

    high · Megatron cannon blasting away to launch those balls... Soundwave... He shoots the balls out. That's pretty damn cool... it's nice that it's not just the regular fan layout or something we're accustomed to. It plays unique and it's a lot of fun.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.242

0:00
Warning, the following episode contains adult language and screaming goats. Listener discretion is advised.
0:13
Saying that I'm 96% uploaded of what we've done. Are you 96% loaded for this episode? It's bouncing between 94 and 98.
0:25
I guess that was a joke that I didn't get. Yeah. You seem pretty pleased with yourself. Looking at these show notes, I don't know why you're pleased with anything that we think we're going to cover today. Big episode. Big episode. 194. The big 194 of the pinball show.
0:45
We're going to make it to 200. I don't know. Welcome to 2026, folks, with Missing Ball 2026. The opposite of Trough Jam. This year will go down in infamy as in no way as good as 2025. Conk, conk, conk, conk. Never before have people seen such great titles ruined by lack of transformation. Oh, is that an optimist dysfunction joke? Optimist Prime.
1:19
Optimist Subprime. He can only get it up. I haven't seen such a subprime optimist since the mortgage lending crisis of 2008 and Lehman Brothers. He's been up so long and he's a contact as doctor. Oh, poor optimist.
1:36
It's up to you, Elizabeth. And why did they carve Grimlock out of a potato? Oh, a great potato. I like Grimlock. Dino Fox.

high confidence · Host discussing topper teaser shown but not yet available for pre-order

  • Tales of Arabian Nights Legacy and LE editions have minimal feature differences, surprising the hosts with minimal technological differentiation

    medium confidence · Dennis noting he expected more feature/lighting/mechanical distinctions between tiers but found little

  • “Well, you've shown the product, but you're not selling the product... The hype is up now. Now is when we should be taking orders, but you're wanting to wait until the hype dies.”

    Zach @ ~late episode (Transformers topper discussion) — Critiques Stern's accessory marketing timing strategy

  • “They listen to feedback and I love the direction that they are going. I'm getting behind this one because it is damn good.”

    Zach @ ~late episode (Arabian Nights) — Positive endorsement of Pedretti Gaming's remake philosophy and execution

  • “I mean, globally, That makes it feel kind of limited... this is still a lot of units quite frankly. You think so? I do. It's not that big of a hobby.”

    [name withheld pending review] @ ~late episode — Discussion of LE scarcity perception and market size; disagreement on 399-unit threshold for 'limited' feel

    • Dennis
    person
    Zachperson
    Jaws (Stern)game
    Sonic the Hedgehog (Stern)game
    Knights of Unicronorganization
    [name withheld pending review]person
  • ?

    code_update: Transformers code is reported as further along in development than recent Stern releases; widely praised for progress; expected to drive long-term sales recovery similar to Jaws trajectory

    high · I have seen a lot of praise online for how far along Giski has the code... the code is further along than in recent years in the releases. That's amazing... this code on Transformers is going to be better than the majority of all of those games.

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Stern secured Stan Bush's 'The Touch' and custom voice acting from legendary voice actors (Peter Cullen, Frank Welker) for 40th anniversary Transformers celebration

    high · they did get the licensed Stan Bush, The Touch... they did get custom call-outs from legendary voice actors Peter Cullen playing Optimus Prime and Frank Welker, Megatron and Soundwave.

  • ?

    product_concern: Optimus Prime toy planned to transform but removed due to unspecified 'parts thing'; Stern publicly disclosed this compromise, amplifying negative narrative impact beyond the mechanical limitation itself

    high · one of the things that hurts sales is... Stern comes out and says, yeah, we were trying to do that, but we took that out... Had they not said anything, I don't think it would have been as detrimental to sales.

  • ?

    product_launch: Pedretti Gaming officially reveals Tales of the Arabian Nights remake in two tiers: Legacy (500 units, $10,999) and 30th Anniversary LE (399 units, $11,999); minimal feature differentiation between editions

    high · Pedretti Gaming reveals Tales of the Arabian Nights remake... Legacy Edition... 500 units... 10,999.399... 30th anniversary limited edition... 11,999... only 399 units.

  • ?

    product_strategy: Pedretti Gaming producing only 399 LE units globally, creating scarcity perception; debate over whether this quantity achieves 'special' status in hobby of ~8k-10k active collectors worldwide

    high · only 399 units... quite a low run... When they told me they were only making 399, I was like, oh, I, that makes it feel like... this is still a lot of units quite frankly... It's not that big of a hobby.

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Pedretti Gaming's philosophy: modernize remakes without bastardizing originals; stay true to source material while bringing 21st century enhancements; philosophy similar to Chicago Gaming's successful precedent

    high · Their goal was Pedretti Gaming. Stay true to the original game... But what CGC does is pretty simple. Keep the game that we love, bring it into the 21st century, make it beautiful... Modernize it rather than bastardize it.

  • ?

    product_concern: Stern revealed Optimus Prime articulating bust topper prototype at show but delaying pre-orders, creating disconnect between hype peak and sales window opportunity

    medium · they did a panel discussion, and they teased a little video... It's unbelievable... Makes it difficult from a sales perspective... you're wanting to wait until the hype dies.

    • 1:48
    Dennis, what have you been up to? Oh, busy with – now that World Cup is underway, my – so I was telling Zach before we started, Ben, I have the all next, I guess, five more Saturdays of work just related to the hosting happening in the area. So I'm super excited to not watch the games and instead just watch the screen. Could you name one team? Well, they're all national teams. So, yeah. I mean, we've got Argentina here in the Kansas City area. They were the big winners last World Cup. Venus. Yeah. Algeria is out here. England is actually out here. I don't know if they're going to play here, but they took our – England is actually the closest. So is that the name of the squad? They're national teams. Think like Olympics. They're national teams. It's not versus like Manchester United as a like big regular team. These are like Olympic style. So it's not like Argentina aardvarks or something. No, they're all they're all countries. The Netherlands is going to play here.
    3:02
    I think the Orange Crush or whatever they call themselves. Oh, they have like, you know, colors and there's themes to it and they have their traditions. Speaking of colors, check out my new digs here for those watching video. I feel like you are living in a pineapple under the sea or something.
    3:19
    Oh, Patrick. I actually have never seen Spongebob, so I don't know what any of those sound like. Patrick. I just see memes. But these peach curtains with this sort of Tiffany blue. They match the drapes, my friend. So I was uprooted from my little dungeon. Your hovel. My dusty dungeon. What did Ken Cromwell, I think I've said this before, but when he came over when we were filming Beetlejuice and he came over, it was the first time he'd been to my place. And all of our house is beautiful. This is Nicole's office. So beautiful, all redone. Except for my office, like a little, he called it Bob Cratchit's office. He's like, you and your damn Bob Cratchit's, dark, dank, dusty. And then there's me like hobbled over typing and editing and all that. He's like, man, dude, get out of this hole. You're going to die in here. So he always encouraged me to get sunlight and come up for some air, which I have. They've demoed my entire basement as we are prepping for remodeling and me a new office, more space, more sunlight for my vampirish skin tones. So that's going to be happening soon. Until then, I am in Nicole's office, I got to say. Dennis, she is not digging having her husband. Not only do we work from home together, that was enough of an adjustment probably for her. But now to be working in the same.
    5:01
    So that's her desk behind you. Yeah. And typically she would have that just in the middle of the room. She'd have this whole place to herself. But now she had to move that. And I'm working over here on a back desk and she's not probably not happy. She's too sweet to say so. But I can see it in the eye rolls. The size. She doesn't like me in the same room. You know what she says? She says, I talk too much as I work. Yes. I talk to like someone that's not there. I'm like, oh, so you want a refund on your non-refundable policy? It's called yourself. You talk to yourself.
    5:41
    Yeah. So she's like, hey, any way you can just be quiet while you're working? And she says I'm kind of negative when I work. And the touching, she doesn't like me touching.
    5:54
    There's no HR to report to. Not even if it is the hit song by Stan Bush. You got the touch. That's what I do whenever I – I'm demonetized. That's right. I can't wait for the YouTube email that will come five seconds after you upload this. I'm like this and I'm like – and then I go try to give her a massage. She's like, oh, come, dude, get off of it. Like, hey, baby. No. You think we've ever been intimate here?
    6:23
    That desk right there. Beep, beep. We just fling the pinball invoices. I just imagine a storm of wait lists of the I want to be on the whistle list. They're all hard copies. They're everywhere. And then all of a sudden I transform like Optimus.
    6:53
    So you do nothing. Oh, yes. So you do nothing. I'm like, bleep, bleep, bleep. So let's talk about pinball. It's been a little bit stern pinball. This episode, Dennis, huge. It is a giant episode. Yeah, you wouldn't think this is Missing Ball 2026 when you think about the topics. We're going to take a deep dive into the newly released game today, Tales of the Arabian Nights remake. We're going to do that. I almost feel bad talking about Stern first because there's other big non-Stern manufacturer news. But the king, until they're dethroned, Stern Pinball, the past couple of weeks they've been producing Transformers Pro now on the line. Now they had a little hiccup I'm hearing, a little bit of a hiccup in production. It was a parts thing, so they didn't give us details. However, we had anticipated the Transformer Location Pros to be out like starting to ship last week and we still have not seen them ship. The most recent update would be the end of this week. We should start seeing at least the overseas ones get on a boat, if not some of the domestic squeezing out. I think the more sure bet would be the following week for most domestic Location Pros. So the week of the 22nd, something like that. And then following that, the week after that, likely the LEs. So about a week, week and a half delay for not delay, but later than we would have thought. And then now the Transformers premiums likely to roll into July.
    8:34
    That's where we're at on all that. So speaking of Transformers, more than meets the eye. Last episode, we discussed Dennis to the viewer. We took the leaked photos and what information we were provided from Stern and made some first impressions on that game. But there was a lot of stuff we had simply just didn't know yet. So many mysteries. Yeah. Such as like, we knew what the toys and mechs looked like, but we didn't know if they did anything, what they did. There was, we discussed already about the Optimus Prime not optimizing. But we didn't know that the cannon of Megatron, I don't think we knew that he shot the pinball through the air across the playfield onto a wire form or optionally to a third flipper. We didn't know that. That's pretty damn cool. We didn't really know that, who's tape deck? Soundwave. We didn't know Soundwave. He didn't just prematurely pull his balls out. He's got force. He shoots the balls out.
    9:41
    That's pretty damn cool. Grimlock is Grimlocking over there. Yeah. Doing nothing. But what's your take on just the general toys? Now that you've seen, I'm guessing you've seen the gameplay video. Yeah, part of it. I've seen someone's gameplay. I don't know if it was the official gameplay. Okay. But yeah, no, again, kind of like we speculated once it started looking at the layout itself. You know, it's got creative choices going on. Cool shooter. I think, yeah, launching balls out, which I think, I can't remember if we said it on air, but we speculated given the plating that they had on the wire forms over by the, that looked like it was going to land there. So again, just like Jackie's Toy Box and Houdini, it's always cool when you see something kind of fire around. So, you know, that I think is the most interesting visual aspect is the Megatron cannon blasting away to launch those balls. But, yeah, I mean, it looks like a decent shooter. Obviously, I still haven't played. Well, I guess it's not obvious, but I still haven't played it probably because none of the pros have arrived. And that's generally what I'd expect us to get around here.
    10:54
    But the and, you know, I it felt like kind of what I thought from the photos, They seem to care just more about the Decepticons than the Autobots. All the Decepticon stuff is cooler than the Autobots.
    11:09
    It's fun to shoot. We talked about that. I don't know if I've been to Stern yet before or after that last episode. My memory is horrible. But it's damn fun to shoot. I'm pumped to get my LE.
    11:23
    I think the Pro is – I just think it's too much taken out compared to the premium on this model. The canon not moving around. Yeah, I just, I mean, you kind of have. I don't know. Ultimately, I don't know. I often have that initial reaction when I see a game, and then sometimes I change my mind and sometimes I don't. I currently lean with you on that. I feel like it's, I don't know if I'd say a bridge too far per se, but it definitely feels more than what I felt like I would be giving up with Pokemon. But, you know, it's all just sort of relative. Yeah, it's one of those games that it's nice that it's not just the regular fan layout or something we're accustomed to. And it does shoot well. It doesn't just look unique. It plays unique and it's a lot of fun. And again, I haven't played it, but I have seen a lot of praise online for how far along Giski has the code, which we didn't name who the programmer doing the rules was on the last one. I was talking to her at Stern and she was like, hey, nice job. And you know what? I'm going to take credit for it. She's like, nice job. Whenever you were teasing who the coder was, you didn't go he, she, because that would have given it away. And I said, Elizabeth, I mean, come on. I'm a professional here. I know how to talk to the people. But she was like, yeah, thanks for the no pressure situation that you put me under. Yeah, I'm sure she feels very calm about it. I appreciate that. Yes, the code is further along than in recent years in the releases. That's amazing. I haven't seen anyone dispute that. That's one of the highest marks that the game has had actually has been where the rules are at. Yeah, that's fantastic. I did, once we had like the, even the reveal, it didn't, the pictures, you didn't know whether the Ellie, what was special on it. It does have the foil cabinet art on the Ellie. I always have trouble telling the foil on the phones. So that has that. And then we were talking about, is there going to be any surprises? There was. I couldn't say anything. But to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Transformers, the movie, because it's kind of based on the series, but they do have like a special moment that covers the movie in there. And they did get the licensed Stan Bush, The Touch. So that's that's over the top. Great. I can't wait to experience that mode. I didn't experience that when I was there. They did get custom call-outs from legendary voice actors Peter Cullen playing Optimus Prime and Frank Welker, Megatron and Soundwave. So again, and then all original music from Knights of Unicron, who the hell they are, but wonderful, wonderful call-outs and that music. We did talk about Elizabeth Gieske now being the lead programmer. To me, and I talked about it before, I think that's where this game is going to be at. Elliot did a great job on the layout, the toys and such, but modern pinball, the sales legs, is oftentimes contingent upon IP and theme, or IP and code. So we talked about that last episode, and I think it's going to hold true. When we're talking about sales, how does sales go? We did have media day videos and stuff, so go check all that stuff out. I did put together a little promo video. It was fun.
    14:59
    Sales. How do you think sales have been? Well, I'm trying to remember. I think I predicted that the LEs would sell out within the first week but not the first 24 hours. So that's all I had predicted. So I guess you're kind of correct. I have no idea if I was correct. The LEs have sold very well. Those have sold very well. Those sold through immediately. Sold through. We still have some LEs.
    15:25
    Okay. So I'm not correct. We still have some. I'm not correct then. Sold out, yeah. I meant out at distributors. I thought the nostalgia factor would be a bigger pull. Here's the thing though, and I don't like to put a lot of stock necessarily on just what I see on the pinball reddits and Facebook groups. What you've seen on the pinball reddits. I'm telling you, Zach, it's like some things are, and we kind of saw this, but it ended up not making, well, maybe it had an impact, but it didn't, like Jaws, when the shark didn't eat the ball. Jaws still sold really, really well despite that, and a lot of people acknowledge that Jaws is a great game. Incidentally, also involving Elizabeth Gieske. Transformers, I don't know. There are a lot of people are just like, you know, things get people's dander up. And right now is one of those moments where it feels like there's a it's a line in the sand moment where everyone's like Stern with the amount of money that you are still charging. Even though you haven't raised prices in recent years, with the amount of money these games go for compared to your competition, that you did this to us, that you didn't give us a transforming optimist, yet he's still there in our face partially transformed, pisses me off too much to buy the game. Now, I know we've had these discussions, Zach, where it's like, yeah, well, is this a person who is really going to buy the game? Or is this a person that feels like they have to give an excuse for why they're not buying the game and they just latch on to something? And I'm sure it's a mix. It's just I really thought this would do stronger based off of the theme than what we're seeing. The other option could be Transformers really isn't that nostalgic that people might fondly kind of remember. Oh, yeah, I grew up with Transformers. But as an adult, they're not interested in revisiting that. I don't know. That feels weird to me. But maybe. I mean, He-Man movie I went and saw, by the way, and it's pretty good. There's tons of sexual innuendo in it. People are hating on it. It's funny. OK. It's not trying to be a kid's thing. It's like it's designed for everyone who grew up with it in the 80s. And I it's not don't get me wrong. I ain't going to win no awards. But but it kind of embraces the whole, you know, like the absurdity of the cartoon and stuff in a in a respectful way. And but you love Jared Leto and Morbius. So, I mean, oh, my God, Morbius. Did you ever see Morbius? I still haven't seen it. I did. I know you did. One time. I know I I really like bad movies that they're it becomes so bad. It's good sort of thing. I think Kung Pao is meant to be that, but you could argue that. I'll give you another example. Uwe Ball, who's done a lot of video game movies, Blood Rain. The first Blood Rain. It is so cringe as to be funny.
    18:21
    Morbius is boring. It is a boring movie. I almost turned it off in the last act because I did not care. It was truly terrible and not in a fun way. No, this – yeah, no. It's fun. You recommend it. It's fun. If you liked the show, I'd say give it a try. It feels more He-Man than the Dolph Lundgren one did, which was the movie I grew up with. But my point being, you would have thought, if there's a bunch of He-Man nostalgia, that that movie could do well just based off of that, and clearly it's not. So here we are. Is that the case for Transformers? Because Stern had a Transformers game a number of years ago. I don't know if it was a great seller either. Different market, different time. I don't want to necessarily cross compare. But you see what I'm getting at, Zach. What are your thoughts? How are the other sales on the premium and pros going? The LEs have the false scarcity to help. There's a lot of components here, and I think one of them, you're correct. Like one of them was the nostalgia did help sell this thing. And I think the nostalgia was strong enough, just like I think it's strong enough for He-Man as well if they end up doing that. Some, you know, some manufacturer does that. But this thing was, this thing, this growth was stunted a bit on because of a couple of things. And you talked about it. Some people cannot get past the fact that we know now that there was a major toy mechanism that no longer does what it was supposed to do.
    20:03
    My take is this whether it is one that the viewers want to hear or one the manufacturers want to hear It the one that I got because I think it the truth I think what was more devastating what was more detrimental to sales wasn necessarily the optimist didn transform It was that at the launch of the game, it was formally told, I don't know how formal it was, It was discussed from executives at Stern to media that it was not going to include what they wanted it initially or what they were trying to get it to include. So in past Stern times, we would get stuff like, man, I heard a rumor that that thing was supposed to do this. I heard that they did this, but they scrapped it. We've heard that stuff. And maybe that is detrimental to sales. It probably is to a certain degree. But I think the bigger degree is whenever Stern comes out and says, yeah, we were trying to do that, but we took that out. I think that tills sales. Again, how much? I don't know. But that one is what was felt. Had they not said anything, I don't think it would have been as detrimental to sales. But, as I've discussed, LE sold very, very well. I ain't mad at them LE sales. And I ain't mad that I still have some because that's going to be a game, I think, over time because of the code and everything in it because it shoots phenomenally. Toys in it are damn cool. It's going to be a great game, period. I'll die on that hill. I'm not worried about that. Pros and premium sales, Dennis, average at best. They haven't nothing crazy here. Could have been a lot better, I would argue. The other thing, and then I'll let you get to your point. I think the other thing that hurts sales is the timing.
    22:08
    Well, I don't know if we're doing pinball marketing, but the summer is not a time that people launch stuff typically in pinball. But for some reason in 2026, everybody wants to release things in the summer. So I think the timing is difficult not only seasonally but also competitively. You have what people know Sonic the Hedgehog coming out. That's always, again, even if somebody loves one thing, they're like, yeah, but I kind of want to see what else is coming out. Tales of Arabian Nights, shit, I've always wanted to add one of those in my collection. Now we're getting a brand new one. I'd kind of like to see what that looks like too. And then on top of that, then you sprinkle in the influence of Transformers doesn't have what we were promised, doesn't have what we were promised. Maybe these people are going to purchase Transformers in the future once the tide of influence rolls into, no, this is a badass game, similar to Jaws. You said it. Jaws came out and it sold a lot. But remember, the tail, pun intended, of Jaws is what helped it sell a lot. The initial, we had LEs for months, I think for at least a month. So it was because that whole damn shark eating issue for collectors and such a niche little hobby, that kind of stuff can affect the number of sales. You know, you're not selling 200,000 units of something. When you're only selling a couple thousand units, your little niche diehard buyers, when you have 200 people decide against, Almost 500 people decide against because of one narrative. That's significant in the percentage of things. So Jaws did the same thing. And then what do we see with Queen Elizabeth Gieske just killing it on code? Became one of their best sellers of all time. So I'm not as worried about Transformers, but I really wish it would have been handled in a different way. I wanted to ask just do you think that the – do you think that the problem would have been solved if simply Stern hadn't talked to media about the intention to put the transforming optimist in? Or is the fact that the toy that they've left in it so clearly meant to be one that would actually transform and they didn't switch that out would have telegraphed it anyway and we would have still been in the same boat? That they would have had to both keep their mouth shut and actually make the toy a sculpt like they did all the other ones. I don't think it would have. I see what you're saying. And sure, it does telegraph it to a certain extent. It really does. Especially when Harkin Video, Sizzle Reels, got it in one of the shots. Well, I mean, that's a whole other thing that, you know, we hadn't brought up. So maybe it wasn't just the – but needless to say, yeah, I don't think it would have been as significant. I really don't. I think you would have heard things like, oh, Stern cheapened out. Okay. Well, we still got Megatron that shoots the ball across the damn playfield onto a standing wire form up in the air. Soundwave, this game without Optimus still has more mechs and toys in it than a large number of Stern Pinball machines that have sold wonderfully. So, no, it's just narrative, man. Influence, that stuff really matters. But it's a narrative that we, to varying degrees and various ways of it, it's not always mech-based necessarily. But, you know, we see these – this comes up a lot with Stern, and they're the big dog, so I get it. But, you know, why Shark no eat ball? Why Grogu no do hand wavy thing? Why John Wick no have gun? Why X-Men no plunge right?
    25:57
    You know, there's always something. I'm going to do this. This is all for coming. What are you going to do? I'm going to go to the pin side. Because we got Pedretti. I know, but I just – We got another new release that we didn't get a leak from an official source on. That's right. All right. We'll listen to these games and see if Transformers as is has more mechs and toys or better ones. Pokemon. It beats Pokemon on. Yeah, I would agree. Okay.
    26:25
    Beetlejuice. No. No, it doesn't. It's cheaper. Oh, I'm thinking pro, though. Yeah. Walking Dead. Um, Crossbow, Whale Walker, Double Magnet System. Has better toys in mechs than Walking Dead. Debatable. The Barndorff thing is cool. It's not no Megatron cool. It's not Soundwave cool. Yeah, but you've got a Crossbow launch in the freaking ball. Who likes the Crossbow in that game? Well, that's why I asked why they remade the premium. I guess that's why you have 12,000 of them. Winchester Mystery House, I think tops it there. Star Wars, Fall of the Empire. Oh, no, it's better than that.
    27:11
    Harry Potter, I think Harry Potter's got it. King Kong. That King Kong toy is so damn cool. I think most people would argue Transformers. I'll go King Kong, but I think most people would still argue Transformers. I would probably still argue. Dune, Dune's got it. Dungeons and Dragons. See, the dragon shot the ball back. The dragon is, it's Megatron. I mean, yeah, Dragontron. I think dragon's kind of cool, though.
    27:45
    Evil Dead's got it. Metallica remastered. Sparky's cool. Yeah, but is he launched? Give me Transformers. Avatar has that Kung Fu grip guy.
    28:04
    We have to remember that. And all the modes that no one can pronounce because they're all named for Navi. John Wick, it's got more than John Wick in it. So my point being, I mean, even John... So everything you've noted that it's better than is just other Stern stuff.
    28:18
    That sold really well. So that's why I'm not ultimately worried. And again, no pressure, Elizabeth. This code on Transformers is going to be better than the majority of all of those games.
    28:29
    Code-wise. It's just going to be. And then once that happens, then we'll come back to this. I mean, we'll see long term. People are talking up John Wick nowadays. I don't know if they're actually out buying it, but they talk it up.
    28:43
    That last code up, they really helped out a ton. We sold a handful of John Wicks. I had to order more. I'm like, what am I doing ordering John Wick in 2026? This is crazy. We did see a sneak peek of the topper for Transformers more than meets the eye. Did you see this? I did not. Okay, so this is from the Stern seminar. Again, I don't know. I don't want to be negative. They did at the Northwest show, they did a panel discussion, and they teased a little video of its Optimus bust, kind of like the Black Knight sort of rage, him talking and articulating and his mouth moving. It's unbelievable. The really cool topper. So they teased that coming soon. That was like their prototype. Makes it difficult from a sales perspective because I'm like, well, you've shown the product, but you're not selling the product. We don't know enough about the product. Should I be taking orders for the product? The hype is up now. Now is when we should be taking orders, but you're wanting to wait until the hype dies. I digress. I thought they emphasized that they were going to get faster at these accessories. Got to go fast. Oh, that's a chilly girl. You've got to go fast. Tails. That's a sort of tails. I saw your little post on Facebook. Tails or tails? That was kin. It was clever. I liked it. Then you can pass the compliment on. Okay. Pedretti Gaming reveals Tales of the Arabian Nights remake. And we knew this was kind of coming. We know what they've done in the past. And we were on it. So what do they have this time around? I love that. And we're going to deep dive this. We're going to go through all of the little features and stuff. At the end of the day, what my synopsis is, they listen to feedback and I love the direction that they are going. I'm getting behind this one because it is damn good. Their goal was Pedretti Gaming. Stay true to the original game, which is so beloved. Whenever people deviate too much from remakes and what they become, like 2.0 Fun House, no, nobody wants that. But people want CGC remakes, notably how many they've sold is evidence alone.
    31:05
    But what CGC does is pretty simple. Keep the game that we love, bring it into the 21st century, make it beautiful, and that's what we want. So that was their goal. Stay true to the original game, but provide the type of remake that enthusiasts and collectors have kind of reacted positively in the past and they've asked for versus trying to change so much that it just no longer feels like the game that we all love. And the reason we're buying a remake in the first place, it's almost like you modernize it rather than bastardize it. That's a good phrase. I don't know if they're going to run with that, Dennis. Modernize, not bastardize. Two models of this game. Did you think they'd have a couple different models? Yes, I did. Okay, I'm surprised a bit about the discrepancies between these models as we discuss. So they have what they're calling a Legacy Edition, and this is just what looks most like 96 Toten, or 97, 96. 96 is my guess. I'm not going to reference that or check that, but I think it's 96. So it looks like the original Tales of the Arabian Nights with all the enhancements and stuff, sure. They're claiming that this is going to be a run initially of 500 units.
    32:19
    This is like their open-ended catalog kind of remake where they can make more if they want to. But they said that there's no current plans to do that. Their schedule is looking like 500 and then they have to move on, come to the next game. But it's 10,999. 399 or they have the 30th anniversary limited edition. This is a thousand dollars more, 11,999 and only 399 units. That's quite a low run, is it not? Yeah. Compared to what other manufacturers do for an LE. Yes. Yeah. That when they told me they were only making 399, I was like, oh, I, that makes it feel like, I mean, globally, That makes it feel kind of limited. All right. Yeah. There's something to be said about the specialness of – and that's part of the reason why when we've talked about LEs, I've mentioned like the fewer the better. If the real desire is to make people feel like they've truly got something special, it's just – this is still a lot of – honestly, this – in the world of limits, like this is still a lot of units quite frankly. You think so? I do. It's not that big of a hobby. Globally, I just don't think it's that much at all. I think if Stern sold $399 of their LEs, they would be gone. I know worlds where they do LEs of 10. So this is – Yeah, but it wouldn't be $11,999. No, but again, LEs are about – You're talking about just limited ability. Yeah, I mean, again, because you can always raise that price. Yeah, that's true. Because, I mean, as we talk about this, one of the things that surprised me in terms of the differences is that thousands profit because there isn't a notable difference. I mean, there was a commission that needed to be done, but we'll get into that. And that's what I was going to say, that what was surprising me at the head of this topic, and I said I'm surprised by the discrepancies because there's not really much. There really is not much. Not technologically, no. No. And I love that. I love that they didn't create a model that lacks anything because I thought they would do this LE package, Brian Allen artwork, but then they would have some features, lighting features. They would have mechanical features that you're not going to get in your classic edition. I thought for sure they would do that. I love that they didn't because for the person who likes the original artwork, they still get all the bells and whistles and the toys and stuff. The lighting, they get pretty much every enhancement will go through it. But both of these games are essentially the same game with different lighting and powder coat color and limited numbers. That's it. So of the things that both editions include of this remake, all new features and modern enhancements, they developed including an enhanced display, the 21.5-inch extended display, similar to CGT. So we don't have an LCD where they're animating everything like on Funhaus that just did not work. They have this essentially what looks like a DMD but it's an LCD. It is dot animation. They went in just like they've done for other manufacturers where they'll take the snake. They'll take one at the skill shot. You plunge. If you miss the shot, the snake or if you hit the shot, the snake is stunned. On the DMD, the orange DMD, he looks very 16-bit. On this, he looks like a 2026 dot version, reanimated, very articulate, colored. It's gorgeous. It's beautiful.
    36:01
    Joel Engelberth is just our buddy Joel. He is a sucker. He would rather, he'll even say, he'd rather have dots like this than LCDs a lot of times, animation a lot of times, because he loves the feeling and the nostalgia of that. But it has all of that and all new animations in the sense that they reanimated everything, reenhanced everything. Some of the same coders that have done the other remakes in the past, the Attack from Mars is the Monster Bashes of the World. They're now on this team doing it. All colored animations. So it has all of that. I think they even put in – because the ROM is only so big back in 96 for call-outs and for display stuff that they – unreleased stuff they're adding to this game too, some of the unreleased audio, whether it's call-outs, music, whether it's animations, they're doing that. All RGB lighting effects, and they didn't spare any expense. This damn lighting is everywhere. It's one of the most special things about this game in my opinion. They put RGB all over every insert, every GI if they want to use it controlled. They have these what they're calling game sync, almost like whatever manufacturers doing, whether it's Hot Rails for JJP, whether it's expression lighting for Stern. This they're calling game sync where it's almost like a frosted interactive, very controlled lighting throughout based on what you're doing in the game. They even added this kind of lighting to the back box that lights up the wall, like an ambient wall lighting. They put it in the genie. They put it in the lamp base so everything can interact, and they do it so well on this so that both games have that. They both have a special colored metal armor package, including the speaker panel.
    37:55
    Either way on that, whether I like speaker panels that are powder coated or not. But for the Legacy Edition, it's what they're calling Night Sky. It's like a metallic black, very sharp, beautiful. And then for the LE, it's purple glitter, which you're a huge fan of, Dennis.
    38:09
    Not on how this looks, I exactly. But overall, I was – anyway, I thought the art package for the Limited Edition actually looks better than I thought it would. Yeah, we'll talk about that. I'm surprised by that one. So the Game Sync integrated lighting, they do sidebars, illuminated. Oh, one of my favorite things. It's so small, but I was telling my buddies in Pinball, my favorite thing about, one of my favorite features of this new remake, the back panel. It's always neglected. Back in the back of the playfield, there's a panel that keeps it from, you know, stuff falling into the cabinet. But this back panel, it's always underutilized, except if you're barrels and they put an LCD screen, which is awesome. But what Pedretti did here, they kept the original or they kept the artwork on the legacy or the enhancer, same artwork, but it's transparent like a like a sling plastic or a playfield plastic. And they lit it with RGB in the back. It just pops. It pulls you in. That's wait until you guys see this in person. Phenomenal. I love that. And I wish more companies would do that. Super simple. Do that. It looks it's one of my favorite features. And it's little. What else? Speaker lighting. Of course, that's become the norm for a lot of companies. Apron lighting. It's become a norm. But again, all RGB integrated. The ambient wall lighting, another one of my favorite features because it projects very well. And it's slick. It's built into the cabinets. It doesn't look janky or anything. It's routed into the back of the head, these frosted LEDs, and then they kind of project onto the back of your wall. It's just really, really well done. Nice attention to detail. They have improved audio and visual presentation. They have what they're calling 1.5 enhanced code. So this is different than what we've seen on Funhouse 2.0 where they just drastically changed the rule set. This they didn't. They heard the feedback. People like remakes for remake's sake. So they calling it 1 Enhanced Game Code It preserves the original gameplay experience that players know that they love while adding modern enhancements such as the lighting like we talked about the display animations are different than you know 96 quality of life improvements known bug fixes The original gameplay experience remains intact. I'm not reading this. And faithful to the original machine. No gameplay rules have been altered beyond stability improvements and known bug fixes. They did tell me there are technically different rules because there's some known bugs and quirks in the regular Tales of Rabia Nights that all pinball players were like, you got to fix that, whether it's a balance or whether it's a bug thing, you got to fix that. So they fix those. Players can enjoy the same classic experience that made Toten one of the most beloved pinball machines ever created. You also get an upgraded genie and lamp toys. I'm going to be honest, I don't notice a difference in the genie besides. I didn't either, but the lamp you do. The lamp you do. But the Gini, the difference is RGB in the eyes. And then he's got like head, shoulders, something like lights up within. So you do have that. But the lamp, the lamp is damn cool because the molding on the original is cool. But this one's like this golden glitter. It really pops and shines. It's really well done. And then the base of it is awesome, too, because when it shines up with all those, it looks like it's sparkling and twinkling. They did add – it's subtle, but I don't even know if you would have had to add this, Pedretti. It's probably a BOM thing you didn't have to do. They're calling glowing stars ramp LEDs. I think on the original there was like these decals on the ramp that looked like little stars. So they backlit and did LEDs up into the ramp so that these stars like twinkle at times whenever you're shooting the ramps. That's cool.
    42:02
    Speaker panel cutouts, non-reflective play-filled glass. So they're doing a lot of the LE stuff that the industry is used to. Interior Mirror Blades. Anymore, I really like the Mirror Blades on real bright, twinkly games. Shaker Motor. Tails is using the fast pinball platform system. So that's welcomed by the majority, I think, of pinball people versus some of these companies have their own proprietary stuff that doesn't always end up being the best. And then with some of these companies, people worry like, are they going to be around? Are we going to be able to get boards? Haggis. Haggis was using some fast stuff, but they were using some proprietary stuff. But fast is pretty well known, and a lot of companies are now utilizing fast boards. I thought Planetary was mandating fast for a number of remakes. So that makes sense. They're using the fast board system of the electronics architecture used by several established pinball companies and professional developers worldwide. Scorebit integrated, so it has some online presence there. It does have an online system that can do updates if updates do come out. So what are the differences between the people like, so LE versus Legacy? All right. The $1,000 difference. The biggest difference is the exclusive artwork package created by Brian Allen. That's the biggest difference. Legacy is OG artwork. The LE is Brian Allen artwork. The other major difference is exclusivity. The anniversary limited edition is limited to $399, whereas the Legacy could be $500 plus.
    43:35
    But if they only do $500, it's still pretty close to the $399. And then the other difference is a longer warranty. Pretty good warranty on these. The LEs have 12 months parts and 24 months electronics warranty, which is more than most. And then the Legacy Edition has 12 months electronics and six months parts. That's interesting that they didn't do the same warranty.
    44:02
    Yeah. I would not have thought of that as a thing. I never thought about that. For whatever reason, I don't know if CGC still does that. They used to do that. I think it's on their remakes, too. They always up it for the L.A. people. Okay. Well, a nice little perk. And then they said planetary pinball supply is going to be here in the U.S. is going to be the parts supplier. So Bally Williams kind of parts as well as proprietary stuff. And then Pedretti over in Italy is going to also supply parts.
    44:30
    So this art package. You said you didn't mind it. I was ready to not like it. And so much so that Brian Allen probably doesn't like me much anymore because, you know, I've been a little harsh on his stuff in the past, Funhouse being one of them, and Whirlwind with Suey. Suey? I was terrified. Remember, we've talked about it at length on this podcast, Dennis, saying leave it alone.
    44:57
    Leave the artwork alone. Don't touch it. So when I heard it was going to be Brian Allen for the LE, I was like, well, as long as I get enough stuff on that legacy, I'm good because I love the original sometime. I'm going to own this game. I'm selling my original. I think I'm going with the LE. It just looks good. For some reason, it just feels right. I like the artwork on it. I like the monster that they replaced from the regular Tails artwork was nothing to write home about. Now, the cabinet art, I would say, is superior on the Legacy, in my opinion, versus the LE. I like that genie on the side there. That's iconic to me. They put the genie on the LE. I think the cabinet is better.
    45:51
    But that's kind of where the differences end with me. I kind of like the new back glass and play field art. And like the tigers in the playfield, just take a look closer to the artwork viewer. And yeah, I don't want to like the L.A. artwork.
    46:11
    Something in my bones tells me to stick with the legacy. But unlike you, I kind of like the purple. That's my least favorite. I would argue that the – I feel like the composition, like the drawing style is stronger on the anniversary. It's probably part of it. Like the lead female both on the playfield and in the back glass just feels – Superior. Yeah, just better drawn, just better drawn in general. And it's not overdone. No, no, it's not ridiculous. She's not been turned into a trailer park or anything. Cabbage barrel, what is this? The one thing about it where – and I get it from like a composition standpoint is it's the classic very much felt like Arabia and this feels like monsters. This feels more – yeah, I think this feels more like a modern story. We got like Cyclops. We got a genie. We got like a skeleton guy like was this Jason and the Argonauts like we got all these things and they're all well done. It's just it's the art packages. The the new version of the art is much more fantastical, whereas I think in the traditional artwork, there was a big emphasis on the genie. But then everything else was trying to emphasize like this caravan or however it was, you know, this idea of, you know, traversing in Arabia. You have a lot of people in in garb from the era and and region and it felt more time accurate. Yeah, well, the style or like more like I don't know what they were going for. Originally, I want to think maybe it was the idea of these people were telling these tales and it was supposed to be like around the camp kind of notion. I don't know if that was true or not. But the overall, the new composition is really good. So and I do think overall he's delivered a superior level of artistry. So I so between the two, if I were to pick, I would agree with you that I would I would probably take the LE art, though. The the purple just that's the one thing I just I don't like this. And again, that's not – that's a bunch of powder coating. I'm just – I get it because it pops.
    48:39
    I'm tired of always feeding into the pinball stereotype that everything has to pop all the time. And the purple, to me, it looks like it almost clashes with the – you have actually a fairly tame color palette when you get to the Translite on this new version. But all of a sudden you hit this stark purple just beneath it for the speaker panel, and I'm just like – I just feel like it doesn't really match. It looks a bit better in the video footage I've seen than it does in the photos. Oh, absolutely. The photos make it look very – Again, I'd say look at it. If you can, try and look at it in some other lighting and maybe decide because this might not be quite so shocking as it was when I first saw this, and I was like, purple? Really? Why not gold?
    49:22
    Oh, God, so hard to do gold. Yeah, well, Stern will let him have the leftovers from all these other runs. Yeah, I think that I'm in the minority on a lot of things. I think you'll be in the minority on the purple thing. It looks good, and I think people like that. Well, I'm often wrong, as people tell me. But, I mean, I get what you're saying there. Also, I do like that the black, though, they've done this glitter effect to it. Like it's not just a plain black powder coat. There's sparkle to this. It's nice. It's glossy. They could have just went legacy. You know, it's thousand dollars less. We're just going to do a wrinkle black. Yeah, just like a matte black or whatever. But no, it's it's nicely done. So overall, I'm pleasantly surprised. That's why I am kind of giddy and excited about this. I'm also selling the game. So, you know, you got to take that into consideration because I'll sell my children or my soul to sell a game. That's what it seems like to some people. Only your children and your soul, my friend.
    50:30
    But I was pleasantly surprised. It says a lot that I'm selling my old one for one of these new ones. That should tell you plenty because I have a restored, beautiful totem. But I just like the new stuff. And I like how, man, when you're watching somebody play this game, Dennis, like the lighting effects and the art and the animations, I'm a sucker for it. I love this stuff. And this is one of my favorite games. I love Tales of Arabian Nights. How do you feel about them not going 2.0 code? Let's talk about the big things. That's the smartest move of all. Okay, so you think that's smart. People want to hear these old call-outs. And again, from what I've seen, you have this. It's still the game was an experience. I enjoy playing Totan. It is my favorite J-pop game to experience. I like it better than theater. Other than World Cup. Ron Hallett is not happy with that. World Cup is a better player, but as an experience, I prefer Totan because in World Cup, I don't really care that much about soccer. And two, it's a sports game. Don't get me wrong, hearing goal and all that's great. But with Totan and going around, you'd start these stories. Even though the weird dagger ball catcher save thing that they never used again, that I was always like, I sure hope no one ever works on that while it's plugged in and impales their hand.
    51:56
    It's just like – it just had some fun stuff. And the ball, how it comes through the playfield when it pulls that ball down into a subway and comes back up without the ball. It had a lot of great – it's an experience. And but the yeah, I think this idea of we fixed bugs, we fixed exploits. Other than that, it's the rules that, you know, this was a this was a feature complete game. I think this is looking at CGC and hearing the feedback that they got on like the 2.0 stuff. It's like we're not wanting you to reimagine these games. These games are desired for a reason already. So, yeah, I think cleaning up and fixing certain things makes perfect sense. Other than that, give us the 90s experience. That's why people want to buy these games. This is not trying to sell a 21st century experience. It's to take a 90s experience but bring it into the 21st century. That sounds similar but there's a difference to it. It's like I don't want them to come in and make this Jaws code. No, if I want something like that, I'll buy Jaws. If I want Totan, I don't need you to add like 12 more modes and bring out the definitive whatever coder worked on this back in the day. Like we found the lost notes. We found the lost notes from a Williams desk and we're going to give you the Totan that was actually dreamed of. No.
    53:30
    Just give us the Totan that… That the original creators. Yeah. But built by today's specification. Perfectly said.
    53:40
    Do you think this is – I'm wondering about sales of this as they're going on as we speak. I'm wondering about sales. There's something that people just love these 90s games, and then there's something about the way that they did this one that I think really benefits them. And then this title in particular we talked about in the last episode of the pinball show. There's something about this being this was one of the free ones on Pimble Arcade thing that just so many people played this Tales of the Arabian Nights more than probably most of the other Bally Williams on that platform, that virtual platform on their phone, iOS, whether it's Android. They just played the hell. And that was when like the iPad was coming out. So everybody was playing virtual pinball and Toten was one of the one main one. So I think that's going to help them quite a bit. How do you think – do you think sales will be good, fair, poor?
    54:36
    It's hard. I don't know. I would say if this was CGC, I'd tell you they'd be great. That's a known – That is Pedretti is the one thing.
    54:48
    Again, yeah, it looks nice. Lots of stuff looked nice. The new Funhaus looked – well, I didn't like the new art. But like the idea behind it, I was like, all right, yeah, it's a thing. I think it'll do good, quite frankly. I do. I think people take a chance on it. Now, if word of mouth gets around like these things are falling apart and stuff, obviously, I think the rug will get pulled out from under it pretty quickly. Oh, I see what you did there. Yeah, but.
    55:16
    I think you're right. I think the one thing that's the question here for a lot of consumers, and as I've reached out to prepare some of our regular individuals, that was the one thing they were cautious about before putting in their preorder. They were like, the one, you know, everything else sounds good. Let's see what it looks like because this is prior to them seeing anything. They were like, let's see how these things hold up. Let's see what they're able to do. So that will be, they have to kind of prove themselves over time. This could be like that spooky thing where once spooky got over that hill, now nobody worries about their quality or what they put into games. Here's hoping, and I don't know because I can't tell the future. Unless I had a genie, maybe I could. I don't know. I can just report what I've seen and felt. I've felt many enhancements from what they did with Funhaus. I have unboxed one of each of these and they were showroom editions. So they're they're made to be one of the first just to get out there so that I can get my hands on them and stuff and for filming and stuff like that. I opened them and there has not been they worked both out of box. No issues with either either one of them, period. Now, I haven't played a ton of them. We probably put like 20 plays on each so far. But it plays and feels like Tales of Ravian Nights better actually because the orbit feed on my Toten, my old one, doesn't feed. It hits this one, feeds perfect. So it feels like a superior Toten. But long term, we just don't know. I like what I'm seeing. I lifted up the hood on it. I like the fast board system. Everything's clean under there.
    57:03
    Let's hope. But sales-wise, do you think they sell out of LEs? Only $399. That means probably $200 over here, $300 over here maybe? Yeah, I do think they'll be able to sell those out. I do too. Especially since it's only $1,000 more than the other model.
    57:20
    Do you think with the price? The price is kind of high. It's along the lines of everything else in the industry. But it's a known title, and now everyone knows that the rules aren't significantly changing. They like there will be the confidence that there won't be like a smash the suey in the mouth to unleash the genie.
    57:41
    What do you think if these things I'm thinking if these things do hold up well and people are happy with this being a true nice remake, their next remake.
    57:53
    It's probably going to be even stronger. So they have I mean, it's up to this release. It's kind of like the whole American pinball thing. If Circus Voltaire is a beast, as too will be the sales of everything else they release after that. So this is their new 2.0 audition, if you will, 1.5 audition. It will be interesting with the context of American pinball because I do see a future where people will probably do a comparison, Pedretti versus American pinball, which is the remake company we're going to give our future dollars to. I don't know that both get to be that.
    58:35
    Unless they're both just really good. Yes, I'm trying to inject some drama here. Yeah, okay. And then CGC stops doing remakes?
    58:47
    At the speed they go, they kind of already have. And if, of course, Dennis can roll his eyes, viewer, you may want to as well. I'll roll him with you once. If you're ready to purchase a Tales of the Arabian Nights, please do so by supporting Flippin' Out Pinball. By going to where? Flippinoutpinball.com. Totanpinball.com? No, no, that's Sonic the Hedgehog Pinball.com.
    59:16
    Do I have the Tales? I'll have to look. I don't know if I have the Tales domain or not. I'm a businessman. What do you want from me? I'm an eager beaver. I love pinball. I'm passionate. You got to take that away from me. So I told somebody recently that didn't like my domain. You know, I'm talking about Dennis. I went, man, you can't take the fire out of the oven, my friend.
    59:41
    Don't put me out. Don't snuff me. Yeah, but purchase it from flipping out. That would be greatly, greatly appreciated.
    59:51
    And speaking of what I love about Tales of the Arabian Nights, we've got some exclusive content for these people. And we're packing it this time. We want to give them the goods. So we're going to pack it with multiple discussion points, such as what I love, what I don't about the Tales of Arabian Night remake. Some of these may surprise you. What I don't like is I'm going to bring it up. I'm not scared. A little scared. I'm not scared. It's fine. What are you going to do? Jersey Jack Pinball, Sonic the Hedgehog. They have now formally announced it. There's it. We talk about the details of what we can say And you know what Maybe I even took a trip up to Jersey Jack Pinball a few weeks ago Maybe I got my hands on Sonic Maybe I have opinions
    60:36
    Tune in to patreon.com slash the pinball show. Maybe, maybe there's a, I'm getting teased by barrels of fun on something. Maybe go there and find out for yourself. And it helps support this show and us continually bringing you the goods and the best that we can in this industry and this hobby. So patreon.com slash the pinball show. It's only $10 a month. Come on, people. If you want to be a baller, go to the Nordman level, and then you can meet with us at the Happy Hour Hangout every month. We do a live video conference thing. That's like one of the highlights of one of my months. I'm going to be honest. Some months I'm working and I'm like 8 o'clock at night. I feel like I don't want to do it. I get in there with friends and different people in there and I have a freaking blast. And I have a bourbon, usually like a double bourbon. And I get a little chatty, so that's fun. And that's scheduled for this month? That's the 24th?
    61:47
    24th. Is that a day after the Sonic release? It's the future, so who knows what the future holds. 8 p.m. Or you can go to the Big Dick Club. That's what I call it. Some people call it Screaming Goat.
    62:07
    Sorry. Are you applauding? The Big Dick's of the world. Some people call it Screaming Goat. You named it. You named it. You could have named it anything. You named it Screaming Goat. Why do I have like one of those little fruit nets? Well, they get inside because they want to eat. Yeah, but I am no banana.
    62:30
    Banana. All right. You did. I believe you. Thanks for showing everyone in 320p or whatever it looks like is coming in. Okay. All right. Thanks for the support, everybody. And we got to support and thank the biggest supporters, the Big Day Club. No, we're not calling it that. Screamy Goat Club. Like Rodney. How big is Rodney Swain? We're not doing that. Do you think Rodney is going Toten Remake or Sonic the Hedgehog? Sonic. Just Sonic. I think he's going Sonic.
    63:10
    Bobcat relates mostly to a hedgehog. Oh, shoot that fucker! Thank you, Rob. Snarl, you panther. Is Rob going to go Sonic? He's going both.
    63:24
    Yeah. That would be a big 2026 for Rob. It would, but 60% of the time, it is a big 2026 every time. That's so true. Rob, we don't know what we could do without you. Yeah. Well, especially during that. I love when he comes to happy hour. Man, looking so good. I would thank for Rob. Frank, I got a thing for you too, Frank. Why are we so hard on Frank? I just, I love Frank. He's our Falcon. I'm going to go out and say I think Frank goes both. I think Frank's going to go both. I think so. I mean, these are the elite of the elite of this industry. Frank, congratulations on both games.
    64:07
    Charlie. Ding dong and sonny. Ring his bell, if you will. Do we think Charlie's going Sonic or Toten? I think he's Sonic, only Sonic. Got to go fast. I think so. Got to go fast. And he has the red sneakers, too.
    64:24
    Nice job, Charlie. William, the dude. Now. Okay, so you're a Lebowski, I'm a Lebowski. The dude abides, and he abides everything. We know this about him. Yeah, well, he buys a lot. He does make exceptions. Right now, he's on the fence on Toten. He hasn't seen it as of this recording. He tends to skew modern. I mean, he has older games also, yes. But lately it seems like he's more about trying to find new experiences than going back to old ones. And that's the only – I still think he ends up getting both. I do too. But he gets an LE so he gets the new art package. I think he already has Sonic on order. He has like a – Oh, he's definitely getting Sonic. He has a standing order. It's not even worth predicting. Yeah. But, yeah, I think once he sees it and once people get, you know, maybe I need to hold him one. I had to do that with Pokemon. Initially, he was, you know, but I held him one. I was like, William's going to want one. Adam, he's like, he's right there with William. He's coming strong. He's quieter about it. William, when we're on Happy Hour, like you'll see a lot of William's games. Adam, you are like Papa! I think he tries to act like he has room for half a game in reality. Fasha! He's probably 100. But I don't know if he's into remakes. I think he's going to be Sonic.
    66:00
    I'm sure he's going to get Sonic, but I'm going to get Sonic. A running theme here. You're hearing good things about Sonic. Well, Sonic has a lot of nostalgia, a lot of excitement for Steve Ritchie. Some people liked the idea of Richie at J.J.P. but didn't want to embrace the theme of Elton John. There's a lot going on here that might, even if they're not huge, Sonic fans might be enough to push them over. I love that somebody just texted me a picture, if you're listening.
    66:27
    They just texted me a picture of their Dune with the alternate rat glass and just lit up in there. And that was it. No context, no nothing. Oh, maybe because they just had Dune shipped. Okay. Somebody's just sending me like the equivalent of like pinball porn pics to me. Like, ooh, look at this in a dark room. You like that alternate bat glass? I do.
    66:54
    Looking good. Looking good, 313. That's where they're from. The 313. Where is that? Let's look it up. Looking good, Michigan. Detroit area suburbs, maybe Wayne County in the house. Who else are we? Oh, we're thinking Ted.
    67:17
    I rewatched The Hunt for Red October last year. Good for you. Ted would like to know what the viability is of going 105% on the reactor.
    67:28
    And Ted, it's possible, but not recommended. It's going to blow. Yeah, it can. Question is, really? Just one Pinball.
    67:38
    That's actually Tupelov's sub that was going to 105%. Technically. Sitting on the bottom of the ocean like an idle schoolboy. Why did the scientist on The Simpsons also sound like Jerry Lewis? Like, hell, hell. He had like the nutty professor type of. Maybe to help the show be popular in France. Hell, hell.
    68:05
    Davis, your majesty's answer. Always. I think on our private-ish Discord last week, he asked you to blink twice if something. I remember what it was. It was like if Beryl says G.I. Joe, blink twice. Oh, yeah. I assumed it was him, but I don't remember who posted it. That's funny. George, is this funny? Majestanza. It's funny. Davis seems like a gamer. I'm saying Sonic. You didn't say what Ted was getting.
    68:42
    You know what? Ted, I think Ted's getting Toten. I was going to say neither. But Ted finds treasures at the bottom of the ocean. And we know the jewels of the dagger of Toten. It's cool winning that game. You know when you collect a jewel that's kind of like you have to get so many of those. It's cool because it does this lighting rainbow effect when you collect a jewel to mimic the different jewel colors. It's cool. I like that. It's like a nice little moment. And like the lightning, when the lightning crashed, when you hit that spinner thing, like the blue reacts all on the back of the head and the cabinet. I don't know.
    69:27
    Dougie Doug, sweet, sweet. I feel like Doug's going both. What about you? What do you think he said? I was going to say just Sonic because there's not any hedgehoggy, gopher-shaped creatures that I know of in Totans.
    69:50
    I don't know. I think the gopher likes a new art package. He likes the Cyclops. And Wally. Let me just switch it to that. I'll talk to my boss.
    70:09
    Wally, the used car salesman with a true coat. Wally. I don't know. I really don't know. Sonic. Well, here's the thing. Wally is a diehard. He likes the remakes. He's a diehard CGC loyalist. Oh, does he come over? Could Pedretti encroaching be seen as abomination?
    70:31
    Or does he give in? I don't know. Oh, now I want to know. Wally, even if you don't buy from Flippin' Out. Wally, keep it secret. Yeah, you don't have to keep it safe. Just let me know. I want to know which way you went on that one. And if you buy it elsewhere, simply why? Why? You just send me a message. For a $500 coupon. That's right. You just send me a message as to why. Anybody that's buying elsewhere, just why? Because I'll make that a goal to do better than anybody. Just why? Discord, we are talking about all types of things. They're trying to get us to blink once or twice if we know of things. Sometimes maybe we do blink. Sometimes I'm clever. Maybe sometimes I'm so clever that I like throwing things out there to see if anybody catches with the goal of nobody catching it unless somebody is just really keen to it. It's not always, so don't try to hieroglyphic that shit and really try to reinterpret things. But if I said I ate a chili dog today, it doesn't mean I played Sonic. Or maybe it does. Somebody, what was it on our Discord the last week or something? They came in and was like, here's the release of this game. I was like, are you sure? Sure about that.
    71:59
    Maybe your friends are wrong. Okay, happy hour hangout. A couple of Wednesdays from now, 8 p.m. Be there or be square.
    72:11
    Where can people catch you? Well, they want to reach out. They can email EclecticGamersPodcast at gmail.com. That's the easiest way. Yeah, or you can email us at ThePinballShow at gmail.com. Follow, like, and subscribe to all of our socials. Still not really impressed with our numbers on Facebook nor YouTube, so if you want to help, that would be great. You're watching this video now. Shit, why not? Is Joel the 10,000 yet on YouTube? No. See, social consumption is down now. He's getting closer and it's helping him with some video stuff too. I think we have a Batman tutorial coming out with Joel and a Pokemon tutorial with Joel. Oh, and the Flippin' Out Pinball podcast. I don't know if you or the viewer listens to that, but Ken and Greg, they have some good reveal stuff, release stuff coming very soon. It might be out right now, but every time you get a new game, you're going to get some stuff from those guys. So go check that out. Oh, speaking of, I jumped right over that. Speaking of Flippin' Out Pinball, they are our sponsor of this show.
    73:40
    The product showcase this week is nothing other than Tales of the Arabian Nights remake. As you're hearing this, hopefully we have them in star or have spots for the LEs. There's only so many of them, but message us. We're one of their big dealers, so hopefully we can get you one. Buy, buy, buy! Or get a legacy, whichever one. Oh, we didn't talk about timelines for that. It's going to take them probably like a year, just like barrels or anybody else spooky. It takes about a year for him to make all of them. So they're going to start. I think they're online already, though. So we'll start seeing them this summer. You're going to see them at shows, too. I mean, I've got a couple in my showroom right now. Check out all the content related to that, too. I've got some fun stuff. Follow Flippin' Out on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and all of that.
    74:32
    You can also preorder Sonic the Hedgehog if you'd like. Zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom. Woohoo! Transformers, you want to buy one of those? As of right now we have LEs left. Pros, premiums, the whole first run thing, I think we have first run premiums. The first run pros we'll probably have, those will be probably July when non-locations will get them. Harry Potas, we do have CEs and a couple arcades in stock. Once those are gone it'll be the fall. Pokemon we have in stock, Walking Dead, all the new stuff. Go check it out. If you want to get on an interest list, Ken at FlippinOutPinball.com. He'll be happy to put you on one of those lists. Be on the lookout for a new website debuting probably late summer into the fall. We're really proud of that. And there's going to be some really cool tools for you to use on that to make buying, selling, and collecting pinball machines not only easy but excitable and fun. Trade in a game too. Greg at FlippinOutPinball.com. I've got to give Greg a lot of credit.
    75:36
    I thought, I didn't know if anybody would be able to grasp the market and to really put together trade evaluations like yours truly. I've been doing it forever. But that man, he's really good at it. He's taken over the majority of that for us. So I hate whenever people are discouraged. Like if I have talked to him in the past and then I do a handoff like reach out to Ken for that, reach out to Greg for this, you know, I just have to do that to run the business. And people like, oh, so you don't want to talk to me, want to get rid of me? I'm like, no, it's not that. It's not that at all. I'm sorry. It's not that. Oh, so you're just pushing me over on someone. No, please don't take it like that. I just can't respond to all of them. Can't do it. I've got to do things like invoices and billing and I got a boring job and stressful. What else? I think that's all people need to know. Oh, you need to teach them something. Oh, well, all right, guys and gals out there, I'd say just start thinking about like once you get your hands on this new, you know, Pedretti version of Totan. Like, why no genie actually throw fireball? Maybe you'll want to run with that if you're not wanting to buy one. I want to see maybe that will catch on. Maybe can we safely do pyrotechnics within a pinball machine? I think that question hasn't been asked aggressively enough. And just because it isn't Stern doesn't mean we can't ask. I just love that they should put a little genie arm that just goes like the little guy. And it's just whenever that ball goes around the magnet, it's supposed to visually represent the fireball being thrown, but just his little.
    77:25
    That would be fantastic. And then like some Roman candles that are just duct taped to the back of the head.
    77:33
    You have to reload them. And always practice safe pinball. I don't have anything prepped besides I'm still in love with this hobby, even if it is my job and it's stressful at times. I'm in love with doing this podcast. I'm in love with all of the new stuff coming out. I'm probably in love with a couple of you people out there, but I just can't wait to see what the rest of this year has and the next 20 years. You think I'll last 20 more years in this industry? 20 years. Your bet, Dennis. Am I still in this industry or am I out?
    78:10
    I think you'll have sold the business by then. Sell, sell, sell. Will I have made money? Yeah. Sweet.
    78:20
    So still maybe a hobbyist, but not any. You don't think I'll be a manufacturer at that point? I, gosh, I want to say no because my concern is you're talking about it more and more, which means you're actually considering this and it's so fucking stupid. It's so stupid. I mean, here's the thing. You got to remember who else was a big time distributor who went manufacturer. You will not be a distributor anymore the moment you decide to do this. That's a big loss of income to take a huge gamble in a crowded space. I'm so good at distribution too.
    79:00
    But I mean that would be the price to be paid. I know you have the wherewithal to try and do it. I just – from a financial perspective, I don't see why you would bother. It just doesn't seem like a – it doesn't seem like other than I know what motivates it and I don't think it's a desire to make more money. I think it's you're pissed at how bad some of these companies run themselves. And that's not a good reason. I don't think it's a good reason to do it. So maybe stick at what you're really good at and just make the best of a shitty situation and sell the products. Unless my hands are tied and everybody starts selling direct or something, then I have to do what I got to do. I mean, yeah, Wally can get you into the car game. Wally. Yeah, also watches. What if I dabbled into your precious time trees? I mean, it doesn't affect me. You'd be like, no.
    79:56
    I wouldn't. I don't care if you sell watches or not. You'd be like, he's a shill. Don't go to him. Go to TimeTaker.
    80:08
    If you think you're going to just walk in and be able to get all the big, real, like the brands everyone really wants, it don't work that way. Watch me. Get it? That's my tagline. Oh, I know. We're going to watch you. We're going to go. All right. In the next six months, I'm going to be a Rolex distributor. And he's going to be like, yeah, let's 60 years. You won't have it. I'm going to get ones that are big enough to go around the top of my. All right. See you guys. All right. Good. Ready to keep rolling. Okay.