Now who's responsible, I say, who's responsible for this unwarranted attack on my person? I say, I say, I say, pay attention now, boy. This is, of course, Foghorn Leghorn presents the Pinball Junk Drawer. You all asked for it, I say, you all asked for it, now you're gonna get it. Boy, oh boy, are you gonna get it. Go, I say, go away, boy, you bother me. And in the blink of an eye, we are back. This is, of course, the only podcast for your ears and your butt. This is the Pinball Junk Drawer, Big Show 81. My name's Foghorn Leghorn. With me, as always, Craft Brew Sally. Some might say Jack Danger approved or endorsed, perhaps. Jack Danger endorsed the Pinball Junk Drawer. We do apologize. We're running a little bit late. We try to keep a regular cadence of every other Wednesday. but well we were in Chicago as we talked about the show before we went to the Stern Media Day for their cornerstone release of Fall of the Empire the Star Wars pinball machine before we kick it off we did get to meet Jack Danger and he did say he listened and I'm always suspect when someone says something like that but he led with oh it's for your ears and your butt and I was like he does listen and that made Craft through Sally's week really It sure did. And then we got our picture taken with him, and he got down on his knees so he would fit in the frame, and I think he was still taller than us. So sad. I'm so short. I'm not, but, well, you know. Right. They only hire giants at Stern, I'm assuming, because the guy that gave us the tour is also about 7'4". Kyle. Yes. He is. I think they're as tall as each other. Yes. Yes, they could form a – if pinball ever has a basketball or volleyball showdown, my money is on Stern. Just throwing that out there. Now, before we get to the business, I do have something else I need to address. You know, Gary Stern was there, and he came in with a boot, and he had a messed up head. And not like crazy. I mean, like he had like a big bandage on his head. And Jack Denger had his arm in a sling. Do you think they got into a brawl? I think there was a pinball brawl because we asked them and they each had a story. So, no. Well, I would say, although I think Jack Danger has the advantage because of the James Rees advantage and also the youth, I think Gary's a little more wily than people might give him. He is a lawyer, so he might. I don't know if I would put any money on that. But anyway. Yeah. So, no, you're saying that wasn't what happened? I didn't. No. Okay. I mean, PR, the PR is a hard no. Okay. So. Okay. Actually, sadly, Gary had a bit of an accident with his motorcycle. I did check. The motorcycle's fine. Yes. And he was very much saying that the motorcycle was fine. Yes. It was, yeah, that's tough. I know I've gone down on a motorcycle before, and I don't care for it. Yeah. No one does. Asphalt's hard. Yes. and Jack Danger wasn't a sling, but he just said it was pinball related. It was a pinball related injury. That was a joke for Comic Effect, everyone. I don't actually think Jack Danger and Gary Stern got into a throwdown, but you never know. Pinball is pretty wacky. What did I say to you? I was like, do you think maybe he hurt himself helping Gary pick up his 800-pound Harley? No. No. No. So now on to the event. We got invited. As always, we are very honored to be included in Pinball Media and be included in these kind of things. It's great. It's still very strange to me to be considered Pinball Media. You know, we do this because we enjoy pinball and we enjoy each other. Yeah, you know, that's a rarity. It's cool. And when you get to see the employees at Stern, they start recognizing you. They knew us to some degree. We got to meet a couple people. There was a couple people I wanted to meet and didn't. And I don't know if they weren't there or just whatever. I kind of thought the guy who does the pinball party would be there. But I don't know. See, I don't know what people look like. So whatever. We did meet the punk rock pinball. Punk rock pinball. Yeah, those are cool guys and gals. Yes. So, anyway, on to the event. We also met Bash. Oh, yeah. Bash Pinball. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So if anybody knows of anywhere you can get a pink inflatable couch, reach out and let us know because they're looking for one for Expo. Yes. Well, reach out to them, I guess. Yeah, or us, and we can pass it along. Yes. You know. Sure. Yeah. I don't care. Whatever. Whatever. so yeah now we we we went down a day early uh because the thought of getting to chicago at 9 a.m with a three-hour drive i would be panicked the whole way yes so i'm not doing that correct so we went down the day before and we stayed at a much nicer hotel this time yes we did the other one wasn't terrible but there might have been bodies hidden somewhere not in our room but in that in that general area i don't know maybe so this one was much nicer we got down there drive was easy um and when we woke up we went right over there and uh just you know foghorn was tapping his toes because i was curling my hair oh yes but you look lovely so i'll let it go it was i i go over way too early but that's okay because i'm going to and guess why because there's pinball in the lobby while you wait i can see it yeah and you can also play the silent pinball machines. Which is very weird. Yes. I have one set on silent now just for the hell of it. The Beatles. It is odd. It's still weird. It's very weird. And they bring in and we got our chance to meet with John Borg. And now last time I talked to him it was right after the Metallica release and he was tired. Yes. That was at Expo. Yes. And he was equally as tired this time around. Yes. Yes he was. I kind of have a feeling he lives there. Even though they say shoo and they say get out and I think he has a way to sneak back in under his desk like yeah like he just pulls a curtain and everyone's like where's John Moore he went home for the night but it's really him and then he just goes I don't know he works a lot and uh we were thankful because he cranks out some awesome machines yeah so first impressions what did you think about this first So what they did was they had us all come in there, and then they put us in a room, and they showed us the trailer that was going to be released on, was it Friday? Oh, like the PR, the promo that they did release, and they showed to the dealers and stuff like that. So you got kind of an idea of what this was about. Because they didn't have the trailer out to begin with. Yeah, this was still going through some approvals with the licensors. So they were, we signed NDAs, which, whatever. That's kind of normal. It's no big deal. You know, last time we did Kong, we did sign NDAs. You didn't remember that, but I know we did. I don't remember that. But it was released by the time we were there. Right. So there was no, they were just like, it's free, you know, it's open. So this one was still going through the process. So they sat us down and they showed us the trailer. And I didn't realize how much of a, how much Star Wars had impact, like impacted my life. because, you know. It's just a thing that's there. Yeah, but we were kids when that started. Yeah. And we watched it. Well, my brother watched it probably every day for like 100 years. How I am with Mystery Science Theater Yes Yeah same So it was like it kind of got emotional Yeah it was And then at the end the last thing they showed on that teaser was the ball save Oh, that's so awesome. The force ball save, which is really cool. See, and it's neat. It is. Because it's not just a ball save. Right. You build it. You have to build up your Jedi powers so it doesn't work the same and it doesn't work every time. Yeah. Because it will, I think, you have to, it's a skill. Yeah. It's not just a thing that saves it. It's you have to work on the skill to do it. Now it's, you know, and they did the spike three, which is something you don't care at all about. I mean, you know, it's just what it is. Yeah, it is. I could tell the difference. I mean, it fired up faster. The display is gorgeous. This this display is so beautiful. And it's nice that they kept the back glass the same size. They even talked about that, like saying it appears that the back glass is smaller because they use that framing of the Star Wars, that double. We'll have to talk about that. Yeah. But it is the same size. Yeah. You know, so the audio was very crisp and very loud. It was just overall like when when you start doing that and then they talked about why they picked a different name and they were like, well, we're talking about these battles. so it wasn't like a battle from the third one or the first one or whatever, it was that era and those battles that helped blow up the Death Star, helped blow up the second Death Star so it made sense when they talked about it, I know people are like, what is this thing oh, everyone goes into full panic mode when they hear something when they shouldn't, I have trust in this stuff, a little bit more than most I think, they're going through a process Star Wars isn't I'm going to, you know, Lucas and Disney and all this, they're not going to just let you do something. Right. You know, wacky. So I had a little bit more faith going, it'll be fine. Yeah. It's going to be fine, you know. But after the teaser, they talked about the, of course, Spike 3. And they talked about, you know, the pricing is going to be the same, which is important. They haven't increased the price in, what, three years now? Yeah. And that's, in this current environment, that is kind of something. Yeah. Now, pricing is always a tricky thing. These are very expensive. They are. Luxury items, basically. Yes. If you buy the pros and that's part of your business and you have stuff and you're routing stuff, that's a whole different world. Yep. And then that's a money-making machine and you have your own viewpoints. From the viewpoint of how we handle them where this is literally, we're not making any money on this. Trust us. But we're just playing pinball. then this is a very expensive machine. But it's also part of me is like, well, what do you expect? Right. Like these are like how this mimics like how video games in the olden days were a couple guys and they'd make a video game or Atari would hire one guy to program. Now that's a million years ago. But slowly it's gotten bigger and it's gotten bigger and it's gotten bigger. Like video games now is an entire whatever floor of people and it takes all this investment. and that's what pinball has done now. There's two to three artists. There's programmers. I don't know how many, but there's more than one. And there's a designer. So it is growing exponentially the same way where a pinball machine is not just a couple folks nailing some stuff together. No, it's not. It's this massive undertaking. The pricing thing, whatever it is, sadly that's the way it's going to be. Yeah, everything's price is increasing. They talked about what they say. Something that they had to get for one of the... The Kong release, I thought. They had to pay a tariff of 144%. That's insanity. That is. It's nuts. I was like, what? Can you imagine if you own a business in this time? No. Like, just day to day, who knows? Who knows? Right. Well, we don't, so whatever. Back to it. Back to the reality. And we started shooting it. Well, the first, the art, they showed the artwork. Oh, yeah, the art was insane. So it's all hand-drawn art, and they use that double silver that is on the... Empire Strikes Back, I think, was the one that sticks in my mind, but it might be all of them. It might be. I don't remember, but, man. Yeah, it's beautiful. The artwork is crazy. yeah yeah and the le has a mirrored glass back glass you know yeah you can get that for machines yeah and part of me is like should i get a mirrored godzilla and mirrored like oh it's so beautiful it's so cool like i can't say i never will but i know you know i know like you know and it's the art's beautiful it's fine yeah you know and even the playfields are it's a fan design but there's some challenging shots. There's some familiar shots and there's some challenging shots, which I think is kind of perfect because they want everyone to at least feel good from a noob who just drops a buck into somebody who is a seasoned player. Yeah. Yeah. So if you get something that you, it just strips your money and it makes you feel like a loser. No one's putting more money in that. Right. So, you know, like it's a, It's a fine line, but this one had it. This one had those shots you could hit over and over again. The center shot was fairly accessible, well, very accessible. And the two side shots were good, but then there's the Death Star shot, which is trickier. It is. And then there's those two side ones. There's tricky shots, and there's modes that are a little bit harder, and then there's stuff that is very kind of accessible. So it makes you feel good even when you walk away after a bad game, you know, I felt awesome because I grand championed the media room one, and I got the number one score on the floor, the one that was out on the floor. So I was feeling pretty cocky. Because I'm not a professional player. I mean, I'm not a great player, but I'm okay, I guess. I can have some pretty good games. So what did you think about the shots? I know the modes are going to change and enhance. This is .86 or whatever we were running. Yeah, and one of them was, it has the ad ad. And you get to, like, I can't remember, is it if you go all the way around twice, then it, like, falls over. I could never do it. And it's so, it was like, oh, my God, this is, I know this is going to sound weird, but this is adorable. I know. Well, the ad ad, that reminds me of that damn video game I could never play. I forget which one it was. I think it was the Super Nintendo. I had so much trouble, like, doing that, looping around with that cable. I was like, yes! So that was, I could never do that. I didn't blow up the Death Star, I don't think, either. Did you? No. I thought you had the Death Star multiball, though. I must have, I must have, yeah. Because one of the things I think about a lot, because games get picked on if they're too hard. They get picked on if they're too easy. We're in a modern age where things get picked apart. That's just the way it is. Think of some of your favorite games. It was like when you walk up to Attack from Mars, you walk away feeling like you just conquered the universe, even if you had a bad game. Because the scores are – now when you see somebody play it for real and they have a really good game. Then you're like, oh, man. Oh, yeah. I'm not good. But you still had fun. You still blew stuff up and you still made things shake. And it was fun. That happened to me when I played Nicky one day. I was like, oh, yeah, that's a great score. And then Nicky came and I was like hmm Wait billion my score not very good at all I guess that what I mean though You walk away laughing It still super fun and it was awesome to play with Nikki You know, it's just. Yeah, so I feel like that's what this game has. I honestly think it's a game that really good players are going to be able to blow up. They're going to be able to find those things that really multiply the scores and really do some awesome things. but anyone, not anyone, most people will be able to find fun in it and find enjoyment and it's Star Wars. And you walk away going, that's Star Wars. I think they looked at all the games before it and I think they figured out some stuff that they might have missed on, some stuff that they could have exploited better and they used that to their advantage when they were building this one. I honestly think that was part of the process because there's just a lot of really cool stuff going on. Yes, definitely. It's the same as Harry Potter, though. Like, well, where's the lightsabers? Where's this or where's that? There's too much. You can't do everything. You can't put all of the Harry Potter stuff on the Harry Potter machine. They tried. It's a stack machine. I mean, there's a lot of good stuff on there. But there's always going to be somebody going, well, what about this thing? What about that thing? And you can do that with Star Wars, too. What about, what about, you know. And some people are going to be like, well, why is that there and not here? Yeah. Well, everyone's a designer. Yeah. I do wish, and this is something I was hoping for, but this is why I could never run a business. I really hoped that they were going to do a complete Jar Jar Star Wars. Like, and we'd walk in and they'd go, here it is. And they'd pull a blanket off. And it was literally just Jar Jar's face. And it was like, me too gonna pinball. Me too gonna pinball. And then they would seriously try to tell us that that was the one. And we'd be like, oh, my God. And then as soon as everyone, like, astonished, we're off. They'd be like, ah, we're just messing with you. And then, like, spun around and the real one was there. I would have done that. And that's what they should have done. Because they had these really cool balloons in the lobby, like stormtroopers. They should have had Jar Jar balloons there. That would have been funny. Now, I did, after the meeting, I did pull Seth aside. Yes. And I said, listen, the 501st, Disney uses the 501st for parades and stuff like that. If you don't know what that is, that's a Star Wars, like, I don't know, reenactment kind of group. And they have, they're like perfect reenactments. Like they build their costumes. Yes. Like someone that you used to work with did the. The Wampa dude. Yeah. And we had stormtroopers. So, and I said, when you do events, get a hold of them. Yeah. It ain't going to cost you hardly nothing. and then you have actual stormtroopers wandering around and they'll stay in character and they they're really into it and you can use that i help he was like oh that's a good idea and i was like do it yeah i think because they used to do like during star wars days at like i think hollywood studios they used to they used to be in the parade marched in formation and then they were wandering around like so and this is something where it might cost you feed them and give them tickets to the event they don't care like it'll be it's they like doing it and it might enhance some of their events if they can get them if they can pair up that would be awesome yeah uh but again who knows i just threw it out there to them saying do it yeah you know if you can find it make it happen it'll be perfect you know because i'm sure they're everywhere they're probably not just in florida oh yeah no they're they're yeah they're everywhere you know yeah so did you see did you think of anything that like you didn't care for? Cause I didn't really come away going, I didn't like this or this should have been different. Um, I kind of liked it. I liked it a lot, you know, and even the pro has a good feel. We played the pro a lot. We played all three. Yeah. Yeah. Um, of course the Ellie is, you know, beautiful, cheap, chilly, fried. Yeah. You know, that's always the one that you're like, Oh my God has the lights, the integrated, um, lights as the, speaker kit and everything like that. That thing's a monster. What a beautiful game. They are. But the Pro is going to make people money. If you have a route, I mean, if you had a route and you had a Harry Potter and a Star Wars, you're going to be doing some decent money making. I think the Pro doesn't have the use the force ball save. Nope. And it doesn't have the that you would, they have to take stuff out. I mean, there's a reason you're paying money for an LE. It's not just powder coating. You expect certain things. And then I guess the LE came with the lighting. I think expression lighting. Oh yeah, that was neat. The premium has the cutout for it. So if you want to pay them money, they'll take your money later. So you can make yours if you have the if you get the LE or the premium, you can pimp it out. You know. I don't know. Overall, we were very thankful. It was a wonderful time. We played a lot of machines. I played a lot of, I think I had over 50 plays. Yeah. I had 36 on my IC, but then the Star Wars ones didn't count, which I'm always like, come on, turn it on. They did not have the IC on for any of the machines in the building. No. The Kong, yeah, the Star Wars ones. That's what happened with Kong, too, because I'm always wanting to get them. I always want to. Well, Kong's was on. But it didn't, no? Yeah, it was on, yeah. Okay. I must be misremembering. I think probably because then people would have seen things in the app. Yeah. So. Yeah. And since it wasn't released yet. All right. Well, you know what? For the first time ever, you know you made it. We have a sponsor we have to drop in. We do have a sponsor. All right, let's drop in the commercial and we'll be right back. We interrupt this program for a special news bullet. Oh, it's so hot outside. I'm so thirsty. Hey, Barkeep, pour me a Blandwich Lager. Come on, then, Ryder. A Blandwich Lager? Basically, it's a lager with zero flavor. It's a great alcoholic beverage for those that don't have the palate for beer. Tastes just like a lager should. You mean shouldn't? Exactly. Hey, Barkeep, make that two Blandwich Lagers. That's a good choice, mister. Blandwich Lager is enriched with crisp, zero-osmosis distilled charcoal filtered water, brewed with notes of white rice and boiled potatoes. This beer is the wettest beer on the market. Blandwich Lager tastes like nothing, just like it should. Blandwich Lager is brewed by Falkhorn Brewery in America's heartland. All right. Thanks for that. We always appreciate sponsors. Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled program. Do we miss anything? I know we were missing some stuff. Oh, I know. There was so much. Yeah. And then afterwards, the drive home was crazy because we were driving into Thursday night football traffic because the Packers were playing. I was like, it's like 3.30 in the afternoon. I'm like, why are we bumping a bumper on a Thursday? This is dumb. And I'm like, oh, now I understand. Everybody has to get to Lambeau to tailgate before the game. So we got off the highway as fast as we could. But overall, we always have a wonderful time. We always feel very honored. We met Zach again, Zach Sharp. We gave him a much too large T-shirt. Sorry, Zach. I was like, he's about a large, right? A large? And he's like, he's not a large at all. He's walking around and we both are like, he's not a large. Nope. Well, oh well. And just had a great time Mr Gomez was there to talk a little bit We didn have any one time with him which was unfortunate but these guys are busy Anything else before we go to everyone's favorite segment? I feel like we missed stuff, but if we think of it, we'll let you know. Correctamundo. Oh, yeah, we have started our Instagram account. All right, with the social media. So look us up on Instagram. all the kids will be there. Pinball junk joy. Craft Brew Sally Gonna have to put your journal down Craft Brew Sally child You've been to all the breweries around You've been rolling all over the town Tell me want to drink until I fall on the ground, yeah. That's right, people. And we're back. We do want to give a shout out, thanks very much to Glenn for all his content and all his hard work. Intern Glenn was something. There's many S's on this last one. We were given an assignment and we will get to it, I promise. It's been a bit of a slog when we got back. We had some things we had to take care of, but as always, Thank you very much, brother. And thank you always for the love that we get from the Poor Man's Pinball Tribe. Such an amazing group of buttholes. Yes. Anywho, what do you got for us this week, Craft Brewster? Oh, you know, this is like our favorite time of the year when football starts up again. Yeah. We love. All the hopes and dreams. Our team's going to do it this year. And then about four weeks in, you're like, our team sucks again. So we're two weeks in and the Packers are 2-0. Yes. So we're pretty excited about that. Yes, there's talk of playoffs and Super Bowls. There's always talk of playoffs and Super Bowls. But this year could be the year for the Packers. Thank you, Dallas. Yes. What was the stat this week that was Brett Favre. Bart Starr won when he was 27. Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers all won the Super Bowl when they were 27. Jordan Love's birthday is November 2nd and he will be 27 go back go so Bart Starr, Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers all 27 and now it could be the year you never know so this year I want to talk about a beer good that's why we're here I don't know if you heard the bumper but it's kind of talking about you and beer so action so this week I want to talk about a beer made by Young Blood Beer Company out of Madison, Wisconsin. Nice. And I purchased this beer because of the label. Yes. It is a Shut Up Joe Buck, which is pretty accurate. And then, like, I bought it and didn't know what kind of beer it was. And then it is. Yeah, you bought it literally for the label. I did. It talks about how, like, the label talks about how you're excited about football that you drew on. I can read the side. Oh, go ahead. Every year, we eagerly anticipate the beginning of football season. We get super excited to crush some beers while eating chicken wings and nachos. Then you turn on the TV, get the game going, and you hear irrelevant commentary of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman. We are going to have to listen to these two idiots for the next three hours. I never thought I would long to hear the sweet, angelic voice of Tony Romo. But here we are. Now, I will, for the record, I like Tony Romo a lot. He's hilarious. He is. Because he's nuts. You can tell he's, but I actually, I don't mind fucking Aikman. Aikman has this very dry, sarcastic sense of humor that I'm in tune with. So I don't hate him. But sometimes they are a bit much. all the commentators are a bit much there's always like an athlete and then like a professional journalist who's to wrangle them in keep them from going off the rails completely so you know we're used to it so the beer was good though? yeah so this was a hazy pale ale dry hopped with Simcoe anchovy and strata hops I enjoyed it very much for both the name and the beer. Yeah, so buy it for the label, stick around for the actual flavor. All right, cool. I've had a bunch from Youngblood before, and they're really good. Nice. We have not been there yet, so. Oh, I'm sure we will. Yeah. Good, good. Anything else? Oh, we do, our beer is bubbling. We just racked it to the secondary fermenter to get some of the scum off the bottom, which makes the flavor better and lets stuff floating around. The sediment, not the scum. Yes, well, either or. Sediment sounds way better. Little column A, little column B. So if you want, keep those names coming in. We've gotten some great suggestions. There's one I like quite a bit, but we might save that for a different one. Yeah, but this is a farmhouse ale, so. Yeah, keep the ideas coming. And if you want a sticker, make sure you just email us. It's not a scam. You're not going to be on any list. Just email us and send us your address, and we will ship you a shiny big sticker for free at pinballjd, at gmail.com. Yes. We are, oh, also, a little bit of stuff to wrap up. Yep. We did order, we are putting together a prize pack that we are donating to the pinball, or the Project Pinball. Project Pinball. So, if you're a fan of the show, for their auction, at every expo, they auction off stuff for their charity. So, we put together a really nice silver ball swag gift pack where we have a glass and a sticker set and one of our shirts. Shirts, mm-hmm. And we have a couple other things we got on hand too as like kind of giveaway prizes. We haven't decided what we're going to do with those yet. We're not sure. It might be something like, you know, be the first person that says ears and butt and you get to choose a shirt or a glass, something like that. We'll think of something better. But look for the, if you like the show, look for the prize pack at the Pinball Auction, Project Pinball Auction. At Expo. At Expo. and, you know, makes a little bit of money for them, gets some cool stuff for you. Why not? Right. And that's it. Anything else? Nope. Go check out Star Wars. They will be out and about. I know that. I think they said mid-September. Okay. The LEs are going to go out. Yeah. And then mid-October. Probably the pros will probably start hitting the streets because they want the stuff on the streets as fast as they can. Now, this isn't shipping to Europe at this time, but that could change. I know they did say they are trying to, they're trying. This is out of their hands. Stern is not going to, they'll ship anywhere that can give them revenue back. So this is out of their control, but they are working towards it. And awesome, awesome stuff. Check one out at a local establishment like Lumberjack Johnny's or Glow in the Park. Yes. Either of those if you're in our area or other. Thanks for listening. we're going to be back on a regular cadence. This is going to kind of go last week, so a week and a half from now, you'll get more of our shenanigans. Yes. Thanks for listening. This has been For Your Ears and Your Butts, and as we always say, Shazbot, nanu nanu. That's it, man. Game over, man. Game over.