Pinball Mod Talk: Episode 31 (Part 1, skip to part 2 for the MODS!)

In Before the Lock Live Streams·video·18m 31s·analyzed·Feb 17, 2026

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.027

TL;DR

Mod Couple discusses 2025 mods, DXP closure, Spooky's cautious growth, and Pokemon's operator-focused appeal.

Summary

Rob and Dave from In Before the Lock return for episode 31 after a hiatus, discussing 2025 pinball mods and industry news. Key topics include production updates on the Mod Couple's expanding team and facility move, the Harry Potter topper mod competition, DXP's dissolution and Melvin's future projects, Spooky's conservative production strategy for Beetlejuice, and Pokemon pinball's strong LE demand driven by operator interest and new audience acquisition rather than hardcore collectors.

Key Claims

The Mod Couple has approximately 7-8 people involved in production and is moving to a new facility due to space constraints
high confidence · Dave stating they have about 7-8 people involved in a serious way and are moving to a new facility
Dual Deck mod compatibility across nine Star Wars machines is challenging, with majority of orders covering 4-5 machines
high confidence · Rob stating they're making it work on nine machines with majority of orders across four or five
DXP's split was due to competing business requirements and investor involvement under new management direction
medium confidence · Dave explaining DXP separation: 'Barry's got some new investors involved...that just wasn't going to be reconciled with the direction that Melvin was going to take'
Pokemon LE demand exceeded Harry Potter at some distributors according to distributor feedback at Pinball at the Beach
medium confidence · Rob reporting: 'like this was a hot LE...some distributors have talked about it being even bigger for them than Harry Potter'
Spooky Pinball intentionally limited Beetlejuice production to 1,000 units due to facility scaling risks
high confidence · Rob discussing with Luke about production limits: 'they're just trying to grow carefully...doubling your facility...can't be like two years because then it's like the interest really dies off'
Multiple vendors are developing competing Harry Potter CE topper enhancements
high confidence · Rob: 'this is the first one that's been released...And then just in the last couple of days, somebody else has announced that they've done their own version as well'
Melvin has future projects in development following DXP separation
medium confidence · Dave: 'Melvin's already got some irons in the fire. It's not the last we're going to be seeing of him or any game that he's been working on'
Pokemon's design targets operators and younger audiences rather than hardcore pinball collectors

Notable Quotes

“We're probably about two-thirds of the way through that list. Danny's still busy with theater. We've got a new guy, Simon, on assembly. He's been doing painted DMDs and Jurassic Park fences for us.”
Dave@ 4:46 — Reveals Mod Couple's production pipeline and new staffing; specifically notes Jurassic Park fence production
“I would much prefer people to be bitching about not getting one than to have 500 in stock that you can't sell. That is way worse from a company PR point of view.”
Rob@ 12:41 — Frames production scarcity as business strategy rather than failure; reflects on market realities
“Everyone will get one eventually. You know what I mean? Like, you know, they're not just going to disappear into people's collections. And, you know, all games get sold eventually.”
Rob@ 12:56 — Counters FOMO arguments about limited production; suggests strong secondary market confidence
“The hobby's going to die if all we do is cater for the boom generation with, you know, tired bands that nobody's heard of anymore.”
Rob@ 18:09 — Articulates broader concern about market demographics and theme licensing strategy
“We on the Pinside and the people that watch videos like this like don't realize how many new pinball people come in on products like Pokemon. At the end of the day, you know, you might actually see more sales to brand new people on a Pokemon theme than the internal community.”
Rob@ 17:39 — Highlights disconnect between hardcore online community perception and actual market expansion
“For me personally, the LE, like I'll never buy another LE again. I just don't think that they are a good value proposition at all.”

Entities

Robperson DavepersonIn Before the LockorganizationMod CouplecompanyMelvinperson BarrypersonDXPcompanySimonpersonMichaelperson

Signals

?
personnel_signal: Mod Couple expanding team from core members to 7-8 people involved seriously, with new hires Simon, Michael, and another starting soon
high · Dave: 'we got one new person starting, Michael...we've got another guy starting soon...we have about seven or eight people that are involved in a serious way'
?
manufacturing_signal: Mod Couple moving to new facility due to space constraints as production scales up
high · Dave: 'we're going to be moving into a new facility because we just need more space'
?
product_launch: Multiple mod projects in progress: King Kong Skull Island mod announced, Jurassic Park fences in production, Mimic mod for D&D coming soon, dual Star Wars Deck shipping, Potter toppers, Circus topper shipping by end of March
high · Dave: 'new Skull Island mod that's just been sort of announced in the last week...more on the way...playfield and one topper enhancement' and 'Mimic mod for Dungeons and Dragons as well'
?
industry_signal: DXP manufacturer dissolved due to conflicting business directions between Melvin and Barry's new investors
high · Dave: 'Barry's got some new investors involved...decision-making as to what direction...just wasn't going to be reconciled with the direction that Melvin was going to take'
?
product_strategy: Spooky Pinball deliberately limiting Beetlejuice production to ~1,000 units as controlled growth strategy to avoid facility over-commitment and interest decay
high · Rob: 'you really have to have a plan to make all of them in a year. You can't be like two years because then it's like the interest really dies off. So I think it's a big risk and they're trying to do it smart'

Topics

Mod production and design (2025 pipeline)primaryMod Couple business expansion (facility move, hiring)primaryDXP dissolution and industry falloutprimaryHarry Potter CE topper mod competitionsecondarySpooky Pinball production strategy (Beetlejuice limited edition)primaryPokemon LE demand and operator market focusprimaryHardcore collector vs. new audience market segmentationsecondaryPinside community toxicity and disconnect from broader marketsecondary

Sentiment

neutral(0)

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

[music] Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Welcome everybody to in before the lock episode 31. Our first of 2026. I'm Rob and it's been so long. Is it David? It Yep. Yep. Still the same name. Are you there? We've been terribly slack, haven't we? Coming uh coming in and doing these podcasts, man. But uh but hey, we're here now. We showed up. That's the main thing. I was walking the floor pinball at the beach and you know maybe two but two is a lot. We're like where you at man? Where you guys been? So we are back. Two we got So that that's confirmed we actually do have two people that listen to the show. We have two people. No I mean it was cool to hear people saying they missed us. Um Alec was pushing me. He's like you know you guys you know like you bring a fresh perspective. You you guys are in the industry. You're not just talking media. Uh the talking media is great but we're we're a little bit of both. So, but not as good as us. [laughter] No, it's it's good to be back. I think uh yeah, we're going to we're going to wing it a little bit more, put a little less pressure on ourselves. Um and uh you guys will pay the price for that decision. Uh but we're we're glad to have you. Um also also we wanted to do some kind of like mods of 2025 thing. I think we talked about doing our own award show uh since uh a lot of the award show stuff has been paired down to just games. Uh but Davey's got a long list of mods, man. Uh we're going to go through a bunch of stuff today. Yeah, it's long long list. Um which just goes to show uh how long it's been [laughter] since we since we got to try and squeeze it all in, too. So, we might be going through the mods probably a little bit quicker than usual um just to get through everything. But um yeah, it's good to see such a long and illustrious list of mods uh for the last year. It's really good to see. So Dave, what have you been up to, man? You've been staying busy? Yeah. Yeah, always, man. Um we've been So just doing production on all of the old mods really. Um so theat's still going. We're probably about 2/ird of the way through that list. Um Danny's still uh busy with theater. Um we've got uh a new guy, Simon, on assembly. He's been doing pinted DMDs and Jurassic Park fences for us, uh, which is really amazing. Um, and we're very soon going to be moving on with the mimic, uh, mod for Dungeons and Dragons as well. And then alongside of all that, we've been doing a lot of design work um, predominantly on King Kong. So, we've got a uh, a new uh, Skull Skull Mountain mod that's just been sort of announced in the last uh, last week. Um, and then more on the way for that as well. Um, couple of mods for the playfield and one topper enhancement as well. So, you can Cool. Cool. Yeah. Tell me what Yeah. No, we've been we've been busy. I mean, you know, I last saw you at Expo. We took we we're we're kind of doing our back catalog, too. We took a bunch of orders at Expo. Thank you to everybody who jumped in. We're working through those. And uh I think we I think we're about 70% through. Uh we've got Labowski uh wall art. We're still getting out some pulps attack. Um, and then our and then we launched our dual deck in December. We were trying to, you know, get out there before before the big dogs. And thank you for everybody jumped in. I think we're kind of I don't know. I I I feel like we're behind on that. So, I appreciate everybody's patience, but we also wanted to kind of fine-tune some things. Also, like making it work on so many different machines, which was no surprise like not as easy as we would have liked. And we like to have you would you were getting compatibility with the older Star Wars games. Yeah. So, so we're we're making sure it works with uh all nine machines. I would say a majority of our orders are across like four or five, but um we're we're we're taking the time to bring those games in house and like really figure out, you know, how they fit on there. Um, and then, uh, we did end up, uh, showing off our circus, uh, topper prototype at Expo, and that's kind of behind in terms of like the timing of getting out there, but, you know, we're we're also in our third year now, so we're trying to be a little bit more diligent about just like doing things on the right timeline. Um, so yeah, so everyone's going to get, you know, the toppers you have in order by the end of March and Dual Deck as well. And those have been shipping now. So, thanks for all the feedback so far. your moving premises. Can we talk about that? I sent Davey this like [laughter] long message with like photos and video, but it wasn't even meant for him. [laughter] And I was like, "Oh, man." I was like, "Dude, it looks it looks awesome." No, we got uh we got we got we got uh one new person starting, Michael. Uh he got started recently and then we've got another guy uh starting soon and we're going to be moving into a new facility cuz we're just we need more space. It's like coming up coming up. How many employees? How many employees is that then, man? Oh, man. I mean, all in. Uh, wait, is the is the tax guy watching? [laughter] No, nobody watches it. One employee. One employee. Um, no, we have we have about seven or eight people that are involved in a serious way. So, yeah, definitely definitely getting there. Um, and and then, uh, I don't know, we got to get this one off our off our plate. We had uh the Potter the Potter topper mod come out. I I think I'll uh share a little video on that. We were D for everybody wondering, Dave Davey and I have been like threatening to do something on Potter and ultimately we were saved by I think two companies that are that are doing some work on this. Two, so this is the first one that got uh announced relatively recently. I think maybe the last week or two. Yeah. Um which is a pinsider called Mr. Tantrum. And I think this collaboration, isn't it? you said um uh you said you spoke to one of them sort of over PM on pinsside just uh in relation to you know just sort of announcing that sort of we'd sort of done a bit of work on this as well um but obviously they they'd sort of you know they've been working um uh quite significantly on on doing this and then have announced the other day um this uh so what the what it is is an enhancement for the CE topper of Harry Potter which is always a bit crap look like always looked like a bit of an afterthought. Um, it was kind of just like vac molded plastic uh with a couple of servo effects and stuff and um and and you know, nobody was really very happy with it. So, it was ripe for an upgrade. Um, and obviously a lot of people noticed that. Uh, and and this is the first one that's been released. They've done a really good uh ver uh version uh really good enhancement. Um, there's a lot of people on the list for it. Uh, and then we'll get to just in the last couple of days, somebody else has announced that they've uh done their own version as well. Um, which looks even more involved and a lot more work. Uh, we'll we'll talk about that one later. Um, but what other what other news is there? Um, since Man, well, we got we got to hit it. We got to hit the DPX news. Um, we're we're super bummed to see kind of how that's played out. I mean, I've I've got a lot of thoughts on it, but I definitely want to give a shout out to, you know, Melvin and Barry for, you know, I don't know where those guys are at, but like I I really enjoyed working with them on Alice and Dave, you've been involved, too. I don't know if you've got a chance to talk with Melvin, but I know he's he's super fun, for sure. Yeah. No, totally, man. I mean there and you know private stuff that's going on behind the scenes and stuff but you know ultimately it just came down to a business decision you know and um they they just couldn't marry up um sort of their competing requirements for the for that next game. Um you know Barry's got some new investors uh involved. Um I think that they you know sort of had some decision- making um as to what direction that company was going to take. obviously cuz they're investing their money. Um, and that just, you know, just it just wasn't going to be reconciled with, you know, the direction that Melvin was going to take. Um, so yeah, man, I agree. It's it's a real pity because, you know, I love, you know, Barry and the team and Rens and uh and Melvin as well, who I've known for even longer. Um, and I know that, you know, I've not I've not spoken to Barry directly about it, but I've spoken a fair bit to Melvin and yeah, man, he's he's really bummed. But, you know, the the great news is is that um you know, Melvin's already got some you know, irons in the fire. You know, it's not the last we're going to be seeing of him uh or any game that he's been working on in the interim. Um so, yeah, we'll be we'll be seeing lots of exciting things from him in the future. Do we uh do we have Crow to eat on the pinsside thread? Do you and I uh [laughter] do we have apologies to make or what's what's going there people blasting us over there? I haven't looked at it in a bit. No, that not not uh not that I'm aware of, man. I I kind of stepped away from that thread because um particularly the hype thread because it was just toxic as man. Man, it's I don't know. I mean, I I I I believe that everybody who wanted the games can certainly get it now. I mean, I know I'm happy with it. I hope that those have it. um about Beetlejuice. One of the comments he made and and you know in typical Neil I mean he said and he's certainly not a spooky fanboy but he loved Evil Dead. Um he was being very critical of them pre Evil Dead. Um people kind of complaining about like hey why why why did they only make a thousand? But I mean I kind of talked to Luke about that too and I think they're just they're just trying to grow carefully right. I mean, he talked about like all the risks involved. There's so many risks involved in like doubling your facility to make cuz you because you really have to have a plan to make all of them in a year. You can't be like two years cuz then it's like the interest like really dies off. So, I think it's it's just a big risk and and they're trying to do it smart, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I I 100% respect that move, you know? And I mean, I would much prefer people to be bitching about not getting one than to have 500 in stock that you can't sell. Do you know what I mean? Like that is way worse from a company PR point of view than than having immediate sellouts and having people upset they can't go. Everybody will get one eventually. You know what I mean? Like, you know, like they're not just going to disappear into people's collections. And, you know, like all games get sold eventually. If somebody wants a Beetlejuice later on down the track, they'll be able to get one. Yeah, we'll we'll see. I mean, tough tough situation for them because they're trying to honor their older clients and there was a big, you know, scalper or at least perceived scalper issue with it. So, it's like it's it's not a not a great situation. Um, what about what about Pokemon? I didn't I didn't get to go to the media day, but uh Okay, Pokemon, right? You were telling me we were having a bit of a chat about this pre-show, and you said you had an LE uh lined up before announcement. Yeah. So, uh, I was I had I got a little video going on this for you guys. Um, just so you can see it. Yeah. So, so I had an Ellie lined up with Jeff at Mad Pinball. I actually saw him at Pinball the Beach and he had a certain amount and I was like, "Am I on your list?" And he was like, "You know, you were early enough to be there, but I'm going to need to know, you know, as quickly as possible." And uh I I'm not the biggest Pokemon fan, but I was excited about the idea of like collecting Pokemon over multiple games because I've never owned one of these like D&D Venom like games that have that kind of carryover stuff. And even with that, I was kind of I was kind of turned off by like what I would perceive as to be this like junkyardesque thing right in the middle. And and and surely the the layout seems pretty simple. Yeah. Um so yeah, I kind of I don't know. I'm I'm busy and I was like just not blown away. So, I kind of decided like to pass it on. Um and uh I don't know. I'm just I'm seeing like Ralph saying he like is starting to just like come around on wanting it. I'm kind of feeling a little bit of a a FOMO on passing up on it, [laughter] but at the same time like I don't know. I I hope the LE holds its value better than we have in the past because it seems like it's super in demand. But it seems like if I want one, it shouldn't be too tough. If it if it does, then it'll be an outlier, won't it? You know, I mean, so and I for me personally, the Ellie like I'll I'll never buy another Ellie again. I just don't think that they um are a good value proposition at all. And you know, like I don't I don't get pinball to collect uh or to make money on them or anything like that. You know, I get them for the fun and I get them to play them. So, for me, it's premium all the way just because I like to have all the features and things. Um, but you know, like you, man, like when I first saw the um the initial videos and the the leaks that came out, you know, a couple of days beforehand that a lot of people got in uh some big trouble over. Um, I was, you know, seriously underwhelmed. I didn't think it I didn't think it looked good at all. I think the art's terrible. Obviously, that's, you know, they were constrained by that. Um, but you know, and that was a big thing for me is like I thought the art on the Ellie was really great. I love purple and and yellow for some reason. And like it was it was like I I was like I I really want this, but then it was like ah I don't know, you know, do I really want to spend that premium for that? You know, Ian, what's up? You know, talking about a fan layout over upper playfield. I mean, I'm sure it's gonna shoot super fun. It will. It will. And it'll be fun. like you know like the whole idea of this game is that it's that it's that it's aiming for the arcades. You know like operators have gone bonkers over this for you know rightly so. They've been waiting for a game that they can chuck in an arcade and just have kids flock to which they will. So you know and that isn't going to appeal to Pinheads. It's not going to appeal to Pinsside because they're not aiming for that. You know everyone on Pinside and all the pin heads we all want to see Beetlejuice type games. We're just like the games have got everything including the kitchen sink and this is not that. You know, it's a it's a simple layout. You know, everything has been done before. Uh there's nothing sort of innovative about it, but it kind of has to be that way because they're they're aiming for that operator market. And so, a couple Yeah, I mean a couple like tidbits, especially like being a pinball at the beach, like I know for sure after talking to a lot of distributors that like this was a hot Ellie. like all the LE spots were taken for most people. I know that some distributors have talked about it being even uh bigger for them than Harry Potter, which is a little hard to believe and maybe they're hyping, but the bottom line is it's like it it's pretty big if they're saying anything along those lines. And also like the more and more I'm talking to folks, it's like I think I think we on the pin side and the the people that watch videos like this like don't realize how many new pinball people come in on on products like like Pokemon. At the end of the day, you know, you might actually see more sales to brand new people on a Pokemon theme than the internal community. So, we've we've all been we've all been bitching about how nobody is opening up these these new markets to younger audiences and stuff. We've all Well, and it's it's a fear thing as well, right? Like, you know, hobbies going to die if all we do is cater for for Ed Boon for for the boomer generation with, you know, tired bands that nobody's heard of anymore, you know? And so, that this is what they're doing. They're pushing into these these new sort of areas. And um you know, Pokémon was not my generation. And it was my my nephew's generation, you know, they're all sort of 20, 25 now. that that is the generation of people who, you know, are seriously into Pokémon or were seriously