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PINBALL OZ WIDE - EPISODE 15 : THE THREE AMIGOS

Pinball Oz Wide·podcast_episode·1h 14m·analyzed·Feb 25, 2026
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.036

TL;DR

Monthly pinball podcast with expo news and secondary market price analysis showing downward pressure on premium editions.

Summary

In episode 15 of Pinball Oz Wide, hosts Jared and Matt are joined by George from Melbourne Pinball Expo to discuss their month in review, including personal updates (home projects, Eden's 15th birthday, brother's visit), pinball activities, and the 2026 Melbourne Pinball Expo announcement (November 13-15 at Matthew Flinders, with a pre-tournament on Thursday). The episode covers pinball price watch market trends showing price decreases on higher-end machines, competitive pricing pressure on premium editions, and secondary market softening across multiple titles.

Key Claims

  • Harry Potter has six playable movies with movies seven and eight as wizard modes that unlock after completing the first six

    high confidence · Michael Keogh reached out to clarify this after previous episode discussion about Harry Potter wizard modes

  • Melbourne Pinball Expo 2026 will be held November 13-15 at Matthew Flinders Hotel with a pre-tournament on Thursday featuring approximately 50 machines

    high confidence · George officially announced expo dates, hotel confirmed, dates locked in, with Lucas and Ben organizing the Thursday tournament

  • Secondary market showing price decreases on higher-end machines, with Mando LE dropping from $21,000 to $15,900 and X-Men LE from $20,000-21,000 to $16,500

    high confidence · Jared detailed specific pricing observations from secondary market listings

  • Stern oversaturated the market by releasing multiple Limited Edition variants of games like Jaws and Godzilla, leading to market refusal to buy at premium prices

    medium confidence · Jared's opinion on why certain LEs are 'rare' - due to market saturation and subsequent collector backlash

  • Eric (JJP associate) expressed interest in returning to Melbourne Pinball Expo 2026 after positive experience in 2025

    high confidence · George stated 'I actually just messaged him last night' and reported Eric said 'I want to be there'

Notable Quotes

  • “Because he wants his wife to think he won it and he didn't.”

    Jared @ ~00:08:00 — Humorous dig at Matt for taking the Balls of Steel trophy home without having actually won it

  • “My bugbear is when you give someone something that they've never used and you don't tell them how to use it.”

    George @ ~00:12:00 — George's complaint about Matt not explaining how to operate the outdoor cinema projector

  • “The reason there's only 50 in the country is because they oversaturated the market and kept releasing different LEs, like they did with Jaws and the Godzillas.”

    Jared @ ~01:15:00 — Commentary on Stern's LE strategy backfiring through market saturation

  • “Friday the 13th of November... it's going to be huge.”

    George @ ~00:35:00 — Official announcement of Melbourne Pinball Expo 2026 date

  • “If someone else is running it for you, you can wash your hands of it.”

    Jared @ ~00:42:00 — Commentary on outsourcing tournament organization to Lucas and Ben at expo

Entities

GeorgepersonJaredpersonMattpersonMichael KeoghpersonEricpersonMelbourne Pinball ExpoeventLucaspersonBenperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Matthew Flinders Hotel implementing special restaurant booking management during expo weekend to ensure availability for expo attendees

    high · George: 'they're not going to take bookings for outside people for restaurants during that weekend... they can close the restaurant off at 1, so they can still get their lunch'

  • ?

    community_signal: Podcast Facebook page launch gaining immediate traction with 30-35 likes and positive audience response to transition from main group

    medium · Jared: 'we got an immediate response from the page with 30 or 35 likes... that's got some sort of traction'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Growing market pushback against Stern's Limited Edition saturation strategy on Jaws and Godzilla models

    medium · Jared: 'The reason there's only 50 in the country is because they oversaturated the market and kept releasing different LEs... everyone cracked their shits and refused to buy them'

  • ?

    community_signal: Eric from JJP confirmed interest in returning to Melbourne Pinball Expo 2026 after positive 2025 experience

    high · George: 'I actually just messaged him last night... He is a champion... He said, I want to be there'

  • ?

    event_signal: Pre-tournament structure change: 50-machine tournament on Thursday prior to expo weekend with external organizers (Lucas and Ben) rather than expo organizers

    high · George: 'We're going to try to run a big tournament on the Thursday... We're looking at having about 50 machines available'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.225

0:00
Welcome to the Pinball Ozwide podcast. This is episode 15, and in this episode, we are going to chat about our usual month in review with a much awaited and long-needed catch-up with a special someone. game of the month, pinball cross watch is alive which includes best buy and the world famous what the fuck, which this month has a clear winner just the tips, a couple of tips from us room industry news, a little bit of a discussion on reskinning machines, any emails maybe admin rant, not sure and possibly some outtakes because that is more than likely going to happen this month because we are joined as always by Matt, I'm Jared and special guest, George from Melbourne Pinball Expo. Welcome, guys. G'day, Jared. How are you, buddy? Good, mate. Happy Wednesday, actually. Happy Wednesday. So what are we, the 24th, isn't it? 25th. You've got no idea, Matt. One day off. Pleasure. Welcome, Georgie. Thanks for joining us, mate. I just thought it'd be nice to have a guest again every once in a while. Yeah, it's good to drive three hours to come and see you. Three hours. Do it any time of the week. Peninsula Inc., mate. Not going anywhere. Did you take it? No. You didn't take it, did you? No, it's shut anyway. They're shut. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's all shut. I think, did I tell you when I was going? Came to my house. It was going to your house. They were diverting people into the BP so that they could do the lane works in front of the BP. So you had to go through the petrol station and then back out onto Peninsula Link. It was that bad. But before we start these little stories, we better have a language warning anyway. Language warning, yes. So parental guidance. Yes. If any young listeners, just turn off because there's going to be more swearing than ever, I'm guessing. I'll be good just because of George you two will fire up don't you worry as always anyway thank you to our current listeners and any new listeners that are going to join us this month and go back and have another listen to our previous podcast yeah we picked up another couple followers actually which was good and I just want to follow up from last week we were chatting about Harry Potter and the wizard modes and the modes and the movies so Michael reached out to us Michael Keogh. Yeah, the comments I saw that. And yeah, basically there are six playable movies and then the movies seven and eight are in there, which are wizard modes apparently, so they must open up. Is that what I saw or not?
2:34
Sonia
person
Jasmineperson
Matthew Flinders Hotelorganization
Pinball Oz Wideorganization
Harry Potter (game)game
Metallica (game)game
Mando (game)game
X-Men (game)game
Godzilla (game)game
Jaws (game)game
Foo Fighters (game)game
Deadpool (game)game
Godfather (game)game
Guns N' Roses (game)game
Back to the Future (game)game
  • ?

    event_signal: Melbourne Pinball Expo 2026 officially announced for November 13-15 at Matthew Flinders Hotel with confirmed dates and venue partnership details

    high · George: 'we're actually going to do it on Friday the 13th of November... we've locked in the dates, we've locked in the hotel... Still at Matthew Flinders, yep?'

  • $

    market_signal: Jersey Jack Godfather game showing strong secondary market value retention with CEs selling in $17,000-$20,000+ range despite higher recent listings

    medium · Jared: 'I do know one that did sell in the $20,000s recently... one that sold... they're selling for about $17, $18, the CEs'

  • $

    market_signal: Rare machine pricing anomalies: seller asking $150,000 for six new-in-box LE machines (collectively) despite market evidence of much lower individual values

    high · Jared: 'that one bloke who for some reason thinks he can get $150,000 for six new-in-box LE machines... it's just so overpriced, it's not actually funny'

  • $

    market_signal: Secondary market showing downward price pressure on higher-end machines and premium editions, with significant drops on recent releases

    high · Jared detailed multiple specific drops: Mando LE $21k→$15.9k, X-Men LE $20-21k→$16.5k, Metallica Premium $12.95k→$11.75k

  • $

    market_signal: Community observation that premium edition pricing is artificially inflated and not competitive with standard editions, deterring purchases

    medium · Jared on Foo Fighters: 'There's a LE for sale for $13,500... So who the heck is going to pay $14,000 for a premium?'

    • You said there was eight. Yeah, but you were clearly wrong. No, because there's eight. There's six. There's six plus two, so there's eight.
    2:45
    So you have to do all six to get to the last two. Yes. I've only ever done one. Yeah, I think when we played, I... Did one. I think I did one as well. And you started, I think you started the second one. And you know the... And you died. Isn't that, yeah, you know the problem is, is my OCD would only allow me to go in order from one to six. I wouldn't be able to go like, oh, let's try number four, and let's do five. I do it all the time on Metallica, Ellie, when you go to crank it up. The first one is For Whom the Bell Tolls, I think, and I always start that. I never do Battery or any of the others. Because I'm an idiot. I just start from the left and work to the right. So with The Hobbit, you don't have a choice, yeah? You've got to follow that sequence. Yeah, okay. It doesn't let you choose options, yeah? There's no choice, no. And that's probably one of my pet hates. But with Harry Potter, you can pick whatever you want. Yeah, I know. Which is good. I like it. Same with me. You can pick one. I pick six. You can't pick nine. If you could pick both, it'd be great. Yeah. it would be so what have you been up to this month? stop banging the fucking table George how's your month been buddy? my month, honestly it's been relatively quiet, pinball wise have we had a big catch up? well, hence the top of the show with a special someone Matty, we finally caught up at the start of the month and had a bit of a play I will notice and put in the show notes as well as let everyone know I gave you the Balls of Steel trophy. Yep. Expect, because you asked for it, to put an engraving on it. Yep. And we're three weeks down the track and I don't see it. And you know why I don't see it, George? Because he wants his wife to think he won it and he didn't. I told her I won. Because when we turned up and I took the trophy there, he was like, oh, I don't want to play for it, which was fine. Like, that's okay. He was like, oh, I don't want to play for it this month. Let's just play and catch up, which was good because we hadn't done it in ages. But he goes, leave the trophy with me and I'll engrave it because it's a yearly trophy. And I'm going to. I'm going to get it engraved. It's all right. I thought we were doing this when we caught up. I knew I should have just left it here and just done it myself. Yeah, do it yourself. I thought he was doing a nice thing. I am. He's underhanded, little bastard. I am.
    4:57
    But, yeah, so we had a catch-up, which was nice. Had Eden's 15th birthday, which was a bit of fun. We only had a few people over here. My best friend, Ruby, came. So, hi, Ruby, if you listen out. not really my best friend, Eden's best friend, but she's a legend of a kid. Love her. So they came over with a couple other mates, and we borrowed your outdoor cinema, which is really cool. Apart from? Oh, apart from the projector. Yeah, it wouldn't play the files. I don't know what was going on. It wouldn't take AVIs, MKVs, MP4s. It wouldn't take any. Wouldn't take any. Were you using a portable hard drive, though? No, no, just a USB stick. That might be the problem. I've always used a portable hard drive. That's not the problem, though, because when I looked online, it just said as long as it's a maximum 32 gig, it should work. And that's the funny thing. Like you go online and you just try and search this information and it was like it didn't show you how to set it up. Like my bugbear, and this is a little dig at Matty, so apologies, guys, but my bugbear is when you give someone something that they've never used and you don't tell them how to use it. And I specifically said to you with the screen, you know how does it work what do i do oh i don't know just blow it up well of course there's this little cap that unscrews right and it shows a typical hole that you would have in any sort of you know so thank you for the um the vacuum thank you for the vacuum because that worked really well so put the vacuum over it and started blowing it up and it didn't move and the vacuum is fucking powerful, but it didn't move for, you know, what was 30 seconds or 45 seconds, which you'd expect to see it sort of moving. So I messaged him, what's going on? How come it's not working? Well, he didn't tell me, but as part of the little inner section, there was a little nut that you had to push and twist to open the valve so that the air would flow into it. So I'm sitting there like an idiot in my backyard for five minutes with this vacuum going, you know. But you learned and you worked it out. So what you're saying is, we'll go back to the conversation before the podcast. Before, yeah. And I hope your kids listen to this, Jared, because we were saying how these days people just will get something and then ask you to do it. Yep. And because they don't want to learn how to do it themselves and read it. He needed to learn how to do it himself. And just like the kids' remote controls, or you've told them, just get the info and do it yourself. He's having a little dip.
    7:30
    See? Think about that. So you've got to think about it. I suppose I can't argue with that. But as I said, when you ask someone... That's so true. Like, you know, I mean, if I was to give you my car, you know, or something like that, you know, someone was like... I'll never forget, actually. Someone was like, how do I take it out of brake, the park brake off? Because it's not the old school pull-up, handbrake, push and release. I'm like, oh, you've got to do the button. Oh, okay. Even my wife, the first time she got her new Subie, she went to push start and didn't realise you had to put your foot on the brake because she'd never done it before. What about the petrol cab? I've already done it. The petrol cab? Petrol cab's a beauty. You hire a car, mate, where's the fucking petrol cab? Yeah, got to look everywhere, don't you? All you do is press on the bloody petrol cab. Where's the button do? Oh, no, they don't even have one now. No, they don't have buttons anymore, so. Yep. So anyway, so that was a little bugbear that I was like, God, I just wish he had said, oh, listen, just do this. But anyway... I didn't even think about it. I just thought you were smart enough to... That's the problem. Well, I was smart enough because I worked at a house. Well, there you go after five minutes. But as I said, I'm sitting there stressing because it's like two days before and I'm like, great, now I've got to find another screen because I can't work this one.
    8:39
    But otherwise, anyway, we set it up, put out some lights and everything. It was really nice. The outdoor cinema was brilliant. I actually said to Nadine, this is worth a buy. I quite like this. Should we buy one? Yeah. They were only cheap. But yeah, I'd probably get a better quality. I really like the quality of my neighbour's projector, that was fantastic really good Epson, but I suppose I don't have anything to compare it to because all I saw was your sitting screen on it that was it unfortunately so apart from that I did a bit of a re-jig on my games room which I'll show you after, I showed George just before I showed you through the photos just put up some magazines and my Amiibus which is pretty cool what else did I do I did a podcast not a podcast yeah well yeah a podcast Facebook page so I set up a Facebook page for the podcast now finally I just thought rather than constantly posting in the Pinball Wars Wide just to have that as a separate entity but we're still going to post on Pinball Wars Wide no probably not no no I think I'll drag everything onto the page and get traction with the page now as opposed to I think you can have them both I think we still have them it's too much I might do one or two more, but I don't think I'm going to bombard people with it. I reckon if you're going to do that, I'd do a couple more. But I'd say on the next one that you do post up, just say moving forward. Yeah, this is where it's going to be. This is where it's going to be in the next couple of months. So if anyone's looking at following the podcast, just jump onto this. Yeah, yeah, I think I will. I mean, look, we got an immediate response from the page with 30 or 35 likes. So people have recognised that that's where the content's going to be. And I've already put up, like I took a photo of this set up already this morning to show people we're good to go type situation. And already that's got some sort of traction. So, you know, that's the sort of stuff that I'll use the page for moving forward as opposed to doing that on the main BuySwapSell page, basically.
    10:45
    Otherwise, more printing. I showed you, Matty, my little Game of Thrones sling. so I just was speaking to Rob about it and he just said, you know, why don't you print it? He goes, you know, like it costs nothing to do like it's a few buck, you know, in filament just do different colours, print it and away you go so yes, I did a little bit of that which I think has come out okay and lastly, I've gone ahead which I haven't showed you Matty because you sort of came and we sat down and started chatting but I'm looking to print a new trophy for our trip to Nile Oh, cool. Nice. It's going to be fucking massive. Yes.
    11:25
    Because the bed is only, which I think I was explaining, I was saying to George, the bed's 25 centimetres in depth. So you can only print something 25 centimetres wide. So I was going to touch it together. So, yeah. And how many times are you going to touch it together? Just the twice. Okay. Just the twice.
    11:41
    So it could be pretty good, which would be fun. But I'll show you afterwards. But, yeah, that was my month in the review. For my game of month, I know we've touched on a still Metallica LA because I'm still getting my ass kicked with that, so I'm still trying to beat that.
    11:54
    Otherwise, that's been it. Matty, yours? I've had a very busy month. So obviously we had our catch-arm. I've got my brother coming to Stonewind at the moment for a visit. So he's down for a couple of weeks helping around the yard and we're currently ripping up my deck at the backyard, which is quite an expensive space, as you know. And all these screws are busted to get out. There's so many. So currently doing that. Going to keep doing more of that later this afternoon. I got my lawnmower back, thank God, because that was at action for almost two months. I'm pretty sure I bitched on about last month that it was going to cost me X amount, but thankfully it wasn't exactly what I thought the issue was and only cost me $812 in the end. Okay. But I was expending about $2,000. Yeah. Been doing lots of tip runs, been with a chainsaw smashing shit up. We had another three tip runs ago, I reckon. There's like huge piles. Yeah, okay. So I've made room in the... Was it just weeds and trees? No, no, just trees, branches, overhang. Just make mowing easy, you know. So I've now also made it so I can take my excavator down the back. Yep. Because you know how the excavator sits. Yep. There was a lot of low-lying trees, so I had to cut those branches off just so I can get down there now. Yep. So done that, I've also just trimmed out a lot of the smaller... the bush is at a you know just grown themselves just from seed so got rid of all them and lots of hedge trimming what else have I been doing playing pinball with my brother so we've just been having a few games every day yep so doing that yep nice what else have I done I think that's about it just yeah had a sick kid last week and yeah just being a dad in general the running around yeah that's it so school pickups and drop offs again yeah nice Georgie Oh, sorry. No, just all that type of stuff. Yeah, which can take up a bit of time.
    13:46
    Georgie, what about you, mate? Come on, tell us about your month. Oh, it's just been busy, obviously, with the shipping containers. Yep.
    13:54
    You know, work's been flat out. The boys picked up a couple more clients, which is good to see. Yep. Sonia went to Vegas for the girls, and so I got to relax for a couple of weeks. You did. No, so it was pretty good. my daughter went with her and she's only 21 everyone obviously has been in the expo knows Jasmine she's at the front door yeah you'll get I'll get your messages I got one message from her one night she says champ and it's like two o'clock in the morning I'll go what's wrong sweetie she goes how is it I'm looking after your wife and your sister and I rang her up and I can hear her yelling get off the road you're going to get hit by a car Adam and yeah so the girls were just had a great time. They didn't get back to their rooms until 4.35 every morning. Which is the thing to do in Vegas, really. Yeah, so they spent a couple of weeks there and come back, which was great for me because I got to relax a bit and spend time with Jay. But other than that, yeah,
    14:51
    we've already started organising some things for the Melbourne Pinball Expo 2026. So this year. That is this year, Jared. I think we've got dates as well, and you've also got coming up another Harry Potter draw as well. Yeah, next week. I think we advertise it as the 5th. Is it the 5th of March? And it'll be drawn at 7.30.
    15:19
    Sonia will be there. I'll be there. I believe Shannon should be there. Paul will be there. And you guys will be there, which is fantastic. Have I got the date? I'm almost there.
    15:33
    Thursday, 5th of March, 7.30. It was a 5th of March. And that'll be a live stream through your Melbourne Pinball Expo page. Yes, we're looking forward to it. And then, yeah, we'll move on with that after that. And we've got some more good news going. If you want to know, are you interested in knowing when we're going to launch the next expo? No. No? All right, beautiful. Let's move on. No, go on. Of course. All right, so we're actually going to do it on Friday the 13th of November. So, you know, we don't know. We're still thinking about whether we do a theme night or... Yep. But, yeah, it's going to be huge. I think you could. I mean, I don't do that sort of stuff, but I reckon the general public would be good. Yeah. They'd come out and do it for sure. They'd dress up. That'd be great. Yeah. So that's, anyway, that's just moving forward, but we've locked in the dates, we've locked in the hotel. Yep. So, yeah... So still at Matthew Flinders, yep? Yeah, still at Matthew Flinders. They've been really good. And they loved it last year. Yeah, rightly so too. Yeah, we dealt with new people from the year before. And they just couldn't believe how great it was. Yep. Even their restaurant's been booked out the whole time.
    16:48
    And this time what they're going to do to help us all out is they're not going to take bookings for outside people for restaurants during that weekend. Yeah, that's a good idea. Which means we can walk in and... Go table. Or just take the bookings outside of the hours that obviously we eat. So when you shut at 2 p.m. to 4 or whatever, just leave that open for us. I agree with that. And then that way they're not just relying on our patronage to pay the bills in inverted commas, but people can come in and they can close the restaurant off at 1, so they can still get their lunch. Because most people will only sit for an hour, an hour and a half. I mean, you make booking these days, and you do. you're told an hour, an hour and a half sitting, and then you're out of there, basically. They just couldn't believe the influx of people. Yeah. And look, I did warn them. Yeah. But now, you know. Got to see it for themselves, I guess. Well, they do. Yeah, so all going good, guys. So it'll be a great year this year. Yeah, obviously. So Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, yeah? Yeah, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
    17:48
    We're going to try to run a big tournament on the Thursday. If I can get all the machines set up, we don't know how it will go. This will be run through Lucas and Ben. Okay. We're looking at having about 50 machines available to play in a tournament on that Thursday night. The only problem with having that many machines is you just won't have that many players. That's fine. It depends on how many people come, right? How many did you get last time? Well, last time we only used Ben's machines. We had about 30 people there. Yeah, which is pretty standard for the scene. Because it was their standard. So this year we're thinking, because for us it's great, and for the people who are going to these tournaments, because they'll be able to play some of the newer machines that they don't normally get to play. We're going to open them up. And for us it good because the machines get tested that night as well So if there any faults we can rectify So we sitting on we believe we can get 50 machines If they can get 60 70 100 people in that would be absolutely fantastic If not, it doesn't bother us either way. Because then after the guys finish their tournament, they can still hang around, play and test some of the machines for us, and then we start up the next morning. I suppose it's a bit of a win-win because, and I'll be honest, I mean, we've spoken about the tournaments and not having them there. I think we did it probably pre-Christmas when we had you on last and just that it was taking up space and, you know, it was too hard. But if someone else is running it for you, you can wash your hands of it. And Lucas and Ben can obviously do everything. So, yes, but you're right about the tournament's taking up space. But it's on a Thursday, so you don't have to worry about it now. And that was my second point is it's not during the expo, so therefore you open up those machines to everybody that wants to play them as opposed to during the Expo having that dedicated space and no one being able to get into there. So that's why I mean it's a bit of a win-win. You don't have to take control of the tourneys, but the general public, you get the opportunity to open them up for the rest of the Expo. And they'll get to play the newer games. Look, flopped around the first tournament for us, did a great job. Then Pinstity did last year's, another great job. It just, the only, we're obviously trying to, as you know, we're trying to get as many new people in the pinball community. It's everyone's benefit. Yeah, and you're trying to cater for everyone. Okay, for everyone. And once again, this year, the only issues that we were given were basically that, you know, we wanted to play those machines and we couldn't play them. Yeah. So we won't do tournaments this year during the Expo. We're going to open up that whole stage area for the whole general public. Yep. Yeah, I think that's smart. So if you want to go into a tournament, If we can get it done for that Thursday night, I say go for that. And then the whole area is open for everyone, all times. Yeah. Yep, yep. Sounds good. I think that's a good way. Because then it doesn't block the entrance either. Yep. And have you got any news on maybe who's coming, new distributors, new people? I'll keep that all for later. We'll start looking into that. I mean, I'm hoping you've reached back out to Eric because that was great. Yeah, I was speaking to Eric a fair bit. Yeah. I actually just messaged him last night. We were having a bit of a chat. Yep. He is a champion. He is, isn't he? He loved it. Yeah, good, good. So he's definitely, he said, I want to be there. Want to be there. I'm going to pass it on to the palace above, and I'll get back to you. So Eric's great. He had a great time. Yeah, yeah. He was pretty chill. He actually loves the Australians, man.
    21:26
    Yeah, I feel like he almost could be one of ours. Yeah, he could be. Like he's just got that kind of chilled, you know, laid back, easygoing kind of guy about him. And that really, you could really pick that up from the chats you were having with him. Yeah. So we're going to do a call out to Jack Rarney and say, on what message you made it today? Yeah. Let's get Eric back here, big fella. Yeah, for sure. So that'd be great. All right. Well, we look forward to the expo as always, mate. Yep. We'll be there. Sitting there proud in our merch. We will be. Yes, yes. Well, we'll be media again, so that'll be nice. Yeah, we'll be doing some media. Yeah, 100%, which is great. Appreciate it. That was good fun. Quite enjoyed that.
    22:04
    All right, well, let's keep ticking along. Usual segment, pinball price watches next. Now we're going to financially recover. That's just like your opinion.
    22:21
    I'm going to make them an awfully camera few. So where do you think the market's going this month, Jared? I think it's stayed pretty stable, honestly, in general. Like, with all the machines, like, between $6,000 to $10,000, they've stayed pretty stable. But some of the higher-end machines, we've seen some price coming down. I've still seen, I mean, some of them that I've seen, you're right, they are staying stable. Like a Fishtails at $55,000. I've seen an X-Men LE at $16,500. What were they? They were $20,000, $21,000 new? Yeah. You know, so that's, what is it, a year old? A year and a half, if that. Yeah. That's a big drop. Judge Drenson there at 5'7", I think it was, 5'7", 50? Yeah, I mean, Guns N' Roses are still low as hell. There's been three of them this month. Yeah, there's one down the road here at 10, and I actually said to, was it you? Maybe it was Rowan or someone. I was like, if I had space, and if it was a little bit deeper of a machine, I'd be all over that 10 grand, like all over it.
    23:20
    But yeah, we had a, I mean, the Mando Premium was at 12'5", and then I noticed he sold the topper and reduced the price down to $10,900 for a premium. So that's, I mean, that's still pretty good. There was a Bobby also, an old SS machine, $34,000. Batman Forever at $52,500, which I thought was of note to say because they were usually $7,000 to $8,000. Yeah, they were. You know, Avengers LE, $13,900. And a Met Premium I saw at $11,750 as well. So that was, I think that started at about $12,950 and is now down to $11,000. That's not the purple one, is it? Yeah. Jeez, that keeps... Correct. That's Andy's all one. Correct. It keeps dropping. Which is really, really interesting. So that's sort of what I've seen. But there's that Mando LE that was at $21,000. Yep. It's now at $15,900 with the topper. Yep. So that's a huge drop in there, isn't it? But at least he's hitting the market. That's exactly right. I mean, he just changed it, did he? Because $21,000 is a lot for Mando LE. Yeah, it was. It was way too much. Yeah. When the premiums are at $12,000... Isn't that what was brand new anyway? No, the Mando LE? No. They would have been $16,000 or $15,000. Oh, yeah, no. And then, you know, even the Ghostbusters. Look, it's showing that the hiring machines aren't selling because he's dropped his machine from $29,000 to $27,500. Yeah. And then... It's still way too much. Yeah, I still don't... I still think it's way too much. But just saying that the market's not moving at that high price. Yeah. And there's also the Iron Maiden for $17,950. Yep. You remember when you were offered $28,000 for yours? I was. And you're like, no, not taking it. Yep. played it last night too ship sold it but you know I think the market's completely shifted down which is interesting because I'm interested to hear both of your thoughts on this because I almost feel like there's starting to be a little bit of a push back maybe against the market as well I mean excluding that one bloke who for some reason thinks he can get $150,000 for six new-in-box LE machines, which is, I mean, it's just so overpriced, it's not actually funny. No. And I don't care what the machines are. I mean, one of them was a Mando. So when you can't sell out-of-box for under $15,000, you're not getting a minimum $25,000 for it. Not all. If you just break down each six machine. And you've got two Elviras in there. Who's going to want two Elviras? Oh, what is it? Two Elviras? He's got a Blood Red and something. Oh, there's only 50 in the country. The reason there's only 50 in the country is because they oversaturated the market and kept releasing different LEs, like they did with Jaws and the Godzillas. It's like everyone cracked their shits and refused to buy them. So it doesn't matter because they're, oh, they're so rare. They're rare because Stern screwed us all. Yeah, 100%. So excluding that one individual who... You know what the problem is? He doesn't listen to the podcast and doesn't follow the trend of the market. This will get back to him for sure. But otherwise, like, the pushback that I saw was, I mean, there was, interestingly enough, a Circus Voltaire that sold at $18,000, so $79.50, which was very interesting. I think that was Mulder Scullies, possibly. Didn't come up, I don't think. So I thought that was very interesting because that was one that I thought had really dropped down quite low. And he listed that at $79.50 and sold. but now there's Deadpool Premium at $14,500. There's a Foo Fighters Premium at $14,500, a Godzilla Premium at $14,000, a Back to the Future at $10,000, which was a full restore. And look, I've put Black Rose in there at $7,450, but he constantly searches for high pricing and that is as faded as you'll ever see in about a five-gram machine. And there was a 10K Tales of the Crypt in there as well. So I just feel like at the moment people are maybe where these machines should be at 12 to 13. Correct. They're now 14 and a half and they haven't sold yet. So I'm interested to watch these and see. Well, that's the thing. The market's going to say you can put it for whatever you want. Well, of course. I'll put my hubbub for $40,000. Yeah, that's right. I might actually post that next week and we'll just see what feedback I get. You know? You just don't know. I mean, someone might want it. With that Foo Fighters... The problem you've got is there's a Hobbit at $16 or so that's still sitting there. So for you to overprice that shows that you're... See, with that Foo Fighters, premium $14,000, you said. Yeah. There's an LE there. $14,500. There was a LE for sale for $13,500. Yeah. So who the heck is going to pay $14,000 for a premium? Yeah. And they're trying to push it up. Look, I'll give you... I know, what was that Jersey Jack Godfather? Yep. I do know one that sold, and they're selling for about $17, $18, the CEs. Well, someone listed the other day at $23,500. But they just cropped at the $21,000. Well, I do know one that did sell in the $20,000s recently. Yep. So it really just depends on who you get. Yep. You could have luck at a draw, yeah?
    28:35
    But then, or you could be waiting for a long time. Are you in a rush to sell it? That's exactly right. I think the only difference with the specific model you've spoken about is God, what did you say it was? The Godfather. The Godfather, yeah. You know, they may only come up once every while, but we're seeing an influx of those ones that I mentioned, so dead pools and the like. So there is a history, and people know they will come up, and they'll just wait it out for the price to come down, you know. So that might be the difference. well why wouldn't you wait oh yeah 100% I still think there's a little bit more to go in certain models and titles possibly but yeah definitely you're worth waiting that's for sure I know a lot of deals were made at the expo last year so people got some good buys the thing actually that I'm interested to hear your thoughts on guys and as well I should say if anyone wants to make any comments on this pimbleozwhite at hotmail.com. Shoot me any emails or information on this specific topic as well because I do want to find out. You said that very smooth. Thank you, sir. I do want to find out from our listeners their thoughts on what I'm about to chat about, but you guys as well, in regards to commenting on people's for sale posts. Now, not necessarily pricing. So we've discussed price and where the market is and where we feel that is. Did you have a best buy, though? I did, but I just want to get to this first initially because it's part of the sales side of things.
    30:16
    Yeah, commenting on people's posts. I'll tell you what. You want to tell you what I really believe? If you've got nothing nice to say, don't comment. Well, no, no. I agree with that, and we moderate those comments pretty hard. What I'm referring more to is that, and I will use an example, and this is not a deliberate attack at this seller. So George Thorogood, I think his name is. He's just listed his Simpsons pinball party. So he did the right thing, mate. He put it up there, asked people's opinions, got opinions, put it up for whatever the price is. Nine, eight, I think it was. Yeah, perfect. That's fine. So he's listened to those people's opinions and priced it accordingly. However, the description doesn't match the photos. And I know a lot of people will be like, but the photos are part of the description. You're talking about the plastics. Yeah. So not just the plastics, though. So the plastics he's got there, they're missing the sling plastics. They're missing the in-out lane plastics. And there's a plastic under the pop bumper as well that's missing. Generally, you can't buy them separately. You might be lucky with the slings. But, you know, generally it'll be a package, which is fine. But, you know, those... And to his defence, he may not know this, but I know it because I own it, is that there's extra screw holes in the slings and extra screws in the in-out lane. So the in-out lane generally has two screws that hold the plastic down. He has three on both sides and on the slings, and also the mouse, scratchy. His axe looks broken or something's happened to it. Itchy. Itchy, and something's wrong. Now, they're only minor, and I know that, but I'm just wondering, like, I went to post, you know, oh, guys, listen, just for other people that know, you know, these things aren't... Yeah, well, look, that's fine. What do you think? Because he hasn't mentioned anything. He might not. Look, what I would do is, this would be me, I wouldn't, at first, I don't know if this guy is new to pinball. No, he's an importer. Oh, he's an importer. Well, he knows. Yeah, 100%. So then if you know, I'll give you an example. If it was you doing it, right, you know about pinball and you've got bits and pieces missing and you haven't told people. Yep. I wouldn't want someone who's got no idea about pinball thinking, oh, this is great and they get it at home and it's a fucking disaster. There's nothing worse because they've got no idea, mate. But you don't know if those screws go down into the playfield and damage the playfield and spread the water or anything like that underneath it. You've got 100%. And so what I would do is I'd message the guy direct. So, mate, you want to put this up and just let people know. if he doesn't do it, just put a comment on it. And it's great because people need to know.
    33:02
    You don't want to buy a machine, or your wife buys a machine for you as a present. She thinks it's all great. Bring it home, and half of the machine's missing. She's not going to know. So you reckon PM is the better way than politely saying, just so everyone knows, these things aren't standard on the machine. If it's someone who knows about pinballs, I wouldn't do a direct message. I'd put it straight up because to me, and I could be wrong, if it's somebody who knows about pinballs, they're hiding that part to get the sale. They're hoping people don't pick it up. And as I said, I know it's clear in the photos because they're these big blue plastics, but he still didn't note it in the description. But noted everything else, yeah? Well, not necessarily noted everything else. Didn't say the cabinet's completely worn around the start button and around the flip button. Sure you can see it. I know, I know. And people don't know, mate. And those bodies, I mean, that's massive wear. So that's obviously, I mean, all of these machines were sighted. And that would have had a, look, and he did note that he rebuilt all five flippers. Yes. I mean, if that was me, I would have lifted the playfield and shown that as well, shown the nice shiny. So lesson be learned, right? Before you buy a machine, you need to go and look at it. Or send someone who can look at it. Who's knowledgeable. Yeah. Yeah, I just thought it might have been, as part of that sort of chat about the pinball price, whether or not that was an interesting topic. So on that too, we had a, someone sent us a message. He wanted to buy a machine from Perth and he can't see it. And they asked me, do you know this guy who's selling the machine? And we made a few calls on that. And yeah, he's an honest seller, so you won't have a problem. So if you can't get anyone there, there's usually someone who you could speak to. You can always call you guys because you've got 20,000 followers, MPE. We're happy to help. I've done it before. I've reached out on the page. 100%. People have looked at machines. Because people just don't want to send money, and then they get scammed, right? Yeah. And the sale went through, and they were wrapped. Okay. You talked about people getting scammed. Did you see the one on Gumtree? Metallica machine stolen. Did you see that? No, I didn't. So they put up a post trying to get the money back. Is that what we chatted about last month? No, no, it was only just yesterday or the day before. So they sent the money to the King Island, whatever it is. Is that what King Island's called? Yeah, Tasmania. And he showed a photo of the Metallica pinball machine.
    35:36
    Then here it is on a crate, blah, blah, blah. And there's another one of a photo ID, John Williams or something, I'm not too sure. and then he had a photo of himself with his ID in front of a Metallica machine. It was a different machine. And guess what? Now on your phone you can just hold a photo of yourself and it selects yourself in front of another machine. It was clear as day. I'm looking and going, you can just tell that's just been dropped from there to there. This is going to be the problem with AI and all of that. Oh, so anyway, so there's a nine, I think it was a $900 reward for us. That's what it said. $900. Yeah. I wouldn't waste my time with $900. Oh, no, he lost $500, so it's just he wants to track him down. Oh, no. But it was just a post that wasn't going to track him down. No, well, you can't. That's right. They don't exist. Just take the hit of $500 and move on, unfortunately. Or come through our page and buy a legit machine. Yep. I mean, this is going to be even cornier, but I refused to go, well, not refused, but I didn't want to send a guy $20 last night on a Blink-182 poster because I just didn't want to get scammed out of 20 bucks. Fair enough. If you can't trust me, you don't know. It's really hard. Like, I know he's in Bendigo, so it's two and a half hours, three hours away, and I'm like, well, I just automatically sent it through PayPal, which he didn't have. I don't know you from a bar or so, so I'm just very careful these days. Yep, that's fair enough. But yeah, that's interesting. So as I said, guys, if anyone wants to give me their thoughts on that little topic, please do.
    37:08
    Best Buy? You asked me about Best Buy? Yep. I honestly didn't have one this month. I just didn't see anything that You must have missed that strange science that came up and went within minutes at $2,200. Oh, really? Yeah. I didn't see that. Yeah, he put it up, and I think it was Queensland. Okay And I was not quite quick enough but it had topper and everything and looked okay So I was like ooh and then just went as quickly So it was either snapped up really quickly or someone, which I'm guessing hasn't happened, someone went, no, mate, that's worth five, take it down and put it higher sort of thing. You never know. Maybe he just wants to get rid of it too, right? Correct. Well, they just don't know the pricing. Might have held it for years. So that was my best buy. But what about that Joker poker? Wasn't that a good price? Yeah, that was $1,000, wasn't it, the Joker poker? Yeah. Apparently, but that's not in there, I guess. Well, it probably could be, I suppose. It was a project machine, that was all. Oh, okay, yeah. It lit up and everything showed lights and it looked like it was going to be a relatively simple fix, but I was just like, oh, God. As I said to you, $1,000, I probably should have jumped on it, but I don't have buyers' regrets, so I'm obviously not that too fussed about it. Now our world famous What the fuck I've decided to only Have one, there were Multiple people this month However this one deserves A stand alone What the fuck Which was that Rocky machine On the page for $25,000 What Rocky? Rocky Bullwinkle? No no, just Rocky the old Solid state machine $25,000 I think they've dropped that down to $19 Has he sold it? No, he has not sold it Oh no, never going to sell it Needless to say, he got absolutely skewered There was one person who tried to use the old American argument Showing that there was pricing over in America That shows they're at whatever price they are But mate, seriously, you get the what the fuck this month At $25,000 Rocky Because that's just, that's not great That's not great at all otherwise that was it just the tip this is you haven't i'd like to hear what you've got to say about this we've got a little segment called just the tip he should he should he should know about it because he listens to the podcast every month doesn't he i do listen to it just doesn't take it in but that's okay so just the tip is a tip for people out in the industry or hobbyists A bit of advice. Something we want to tell them about. Yep. So my just the tip is I've got a little bit of a bugbear when you sell things. You like the word bugbear. I do like the word bugbear. When you sell things and the buyer doesn't get back to you that he's either received it or got it or installed it. Yep. You know, be that in this hobby or in any hobby. You know, like I buy out of many other hobbies from cassettes to gaming, yes, pinball and other things. And just I always reach back out to the seller and go, thanks, mate. Got it well packaged. Appreciate it. Thank you. It still looks great. Thanks. It takes no time just to be kind and just say thanks.
    40:31
    So that's my tip. Well, my tip, I keep seeing it come up all the time. People asking, oh, what do you use to clean your glass on a pinball machine? Well, for me, I personally, I wipe it down with a duster first, just to piss off any of the excess dust. Then I use a mixed solution of IPA, so rubbing alcohol, and either filtered water or distilled water. Yep. So you don't have any of the extra chemicals from the tap water. Spray that on, microfiber cloth off. Tap water is fine, though. I still don't use it because just chlorine chemicals and stuff, they're still in. I use it as water.
    41:05
    Water's okay. But to make it shine, especially on Invisiglass, Vampire Glass, Stern HD Glass. That's what you need to use to make it shine. Just with water. It looks better. And it dries instantly too.
    41:18
    It does. Water and a five-inch. That's what it does, mate. It dries instantly. So what's your tip then, George? You got a tip, Georgie? Just use water. My tip is just to use water, dude.
    41:31
    Anything. Think of something. We can give you some thinking music. Yeah, honestly, I've got no idea. No, nothing. If something comes up, I'll definitely let you know. Okay, we'll come back to you. I'll put you on the spot. Look, you panicked a bit. That's okay. We had a few minutes before to think about it. Yeah. Just a tip, eh? Just a tip. Yeah. All right. Just use water. I like it. All right, so rumour in industry news now, Matty. And by the way, if you've got this far, I should say thanks for listening. Click follow, click like, whatever you've got to do. we're still doing good with the listens and subscribers, we'd like more because we just like more so if you've got this far, thank you make sure you're following us as well please guys Rumour industry news what do we want to chat about first? We've got Dutch Pinball and Pokemon as I think the two main news items for us this month, what do you want to launch off with? Yeah, just start with Dutch mate Dutch DPX, Dutch Pinball have split so DPX has moved on which was basically just one of the guys which was Melvin I think that had DPX Pinball and he was the one that did Alice and Big Lebowski is there any other titles? That's it.
    42:55
    He's one of the original owners basically so I think obviously I don't know how they will set up the company but it sounds like there were owners from Dutch and Melbourne who owned DPX. Only he had the rights for the machines. Rights for the machines? Yeah. Okay. And so basically Dutch have said, we don't necessarily need your rights or you anymore. Well, it sounds like it. I don't know how it went down, but it sounds like, yeah, they have separated, but it's not. Well, supposedly Melbourne's going to. Well, not supposedly. Oh, he's going, sorry, he's going to American Pimble, yeah? Yep. to work on the reimagined games. Yeah, so some big changes in American pinball. Yeah. Yeah, that's a beauty. And that means Raza's not going to happen anymore either, supposedly.
    43:44
    Yes. Yeah, so, I mean, I actually reached out to Lucas, because obviously Lucas, who is Acme Pinball here in Australia, has the exclusive distribution rights to Dutch, and basically just asked if he had a statement as such. And look, he said no. He goes, you know, we haven't had official communication from Dutch, so he's still got some Alice's for sale and Dutch are still providing after-sales support. So by the sounds of it, even with Melbourne splitting, the Dutch are still going to help out with the machines by the sounds of it. So they just didn't see the point. And he goes on by saying just, you know, the Dutch have new investors, didn't see the point in having two brands. it doesn't affect his distribution from what Lucas has stated as well because he's still got the rights to what he's signed on to. And to be honest, they probably want to keep it with Lucas. I wouldn't be going to anybody else. Anyone else. No. Lucas does a great job. Yep. And they do have good communication with him. I did have an issue with my Alice. Yep. And honestly, they were fantastic. I got the parts sent straight away. And then it wasn't even a part fault. As I said, we had the flipper set the relay to zero. So obviously it's not going to work, right? So a small adjustment fix there. But they were just fantastic in support. They sent it straight away. And Lucas was on it too. Yeah, straight away. So it just, you know, you wouldn't move from that. Yep. Well, when you said he's still got the rights to what he's signed on to, I did ask him if it included sort of any future releases or that now, you know, Melvin's gone if that's changed. And he said he's only got them to the titles that Melvin announced. He still will have future Dutch pinball titles, but doubts Raza will happen now that Melvin's moved on. Because as you said, he had obviously... Raza is in Melvin, I believe. He had got a license for it. Yeah, that's right. That's right. So, yeah, so he'd officially announced it, But now that he's moved on, doubts that that's going to happen and doubts that Deep Root, excuse me, Deep Root, that Dutch will continue with that. Lucas, so Acme will still have parts as required, so he can get parts, no problems. He's not holding stock because there's probably not enough machines in here in Australia for him. They just ship direct from Netherlands and they're available, so there's no issues there yet. I did ask him just to expand on the rights that he signed on to because I just wanted to make sure that our listeners had confidence that he's working behind the scenes with Dutch to make sure that obviously everyone in Australia is going to be looked after. And he said he's an exclusive distributor in Australia and New Zealand for all Dutch pinball products. Well, we've got all our machines. Yep. With the toppers as well. Yep. So that was all, he was able to get them in nice and early, which was fantastic. Because usually Australia's last off the ranks, yeah? Yeah. Yeah, yep. So he's done a great job of that. And like I said, they've actually got a great relationship with Dutch Pinball. Yeah. And, yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, I asked him about the distribution. He said, look, it's open-ended. So there's no issues, which basically means only if one or other party wants to stop the distribution agreement. So it doesn't sound like that's happening anyway. No. So by mutual agreement. They just need to get Back to the Future out. Yeah. So, I mean, it'll be fine. But yeah, otherwise, you know, everything that has to do with Dutch and Australia should still continue throughout, which would be fine. So no issues there for those that are listening. But it was interesting that obviously Melvin's sort of been pushed. I don't think he's jumped. He's probably been pushed out. I just wonder if because of his production issues with Big Lebowski and Alice, you know, the pricing maybe he's gone over, overcompensated and losing too much money on them or whatever. I don't want to speculate or guess. I've got no idea. I don't either, but I love speculating and guessing. Yeah, you love speculating. Well, on this sort of stuff, yeah, why not? That's kind of what this is for, I suppose. Give our thoughts on it all. But yeah, so that was Dutch. I don't know if you guys have anything further to say about it. No, no.
    48:08
    From what I see, it's going full steam ahead. Yep. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see what they release next and what's in the wings. It would be very interesting. And then Pokemon was released by Stern, guys. It was. Yeah, you talk about Pokemon. I love talking about Pokemon. You love Pokemon, don't you?
    48:29
    I grew up as a kid watching it. I was born at that time, mate. How old are you? 40. So I watched it during that time. Not my time. Obviously, we've got the Pro, Premium and LE models. Yep.
    48:41
    I like Pokemon. Have I ever collected cards? No, I'm probably sure I've got some cards lying around just because... It could be worth big bucks, mate. 60? You never know. 15 million? 15 million, actually. Could be the illustrator. That's exactly right. You never know. There could be one there. But, yeah, look, I grew up through the 90s, you know. So I'm only 40 years old. So it was part of my wake-up morning TV show at 10 o'clock. Channel 10, Cheese TV, like 7 a.m., I think it was. Agro was better than Cheese TV, mate. Did you go around looking for pokemons with your mobile phone? I tried once, and I gave up. Well, you nearly got hit by a car. Yeah, pretty much, right? You went into it. He had a crash. He was in his car. I've got no idea. Pokemon is the biggest bloody IP in the world, isn't it? It's like 280 billion or something like that. Yep. It is huge. So at least, Stern is, I even said ages ago that they're trying to reach out to the other market, trying to hit the Japanese market, and also just people who don't know about pinball, or don't realise that they're still being made in a sense, if you know what I mean. It's just people are like, fuck, there's a Pokemon pinball machine now. I want it. I've got all these collection of Pokemon cards. Favourite show, favourite everything. Well, you see it with Kiss collectors as well. You know, they have everything Kiss, and then just that one machine that probably never gets turned on, but it sits in a corner because it's a Kiss machine. And they sold out. The LEs are sold out, right? Pokemon, yeah. So that's great. That's great for pinball, man.
    50:03
    I think they've all sold out on everything, pros and premiums, until the next run. Until the next run. Yeah, but that's not sold out, technically. So anyway, so my personal favourite looking one would probably be the LE, but I just don't know about the trim, purple trim. I reckon it should have been yellow for Pikachu. Isn't it a yellow body, though? Yeah, but it doesn't matter. It could still flow with it, or they could have done something. I think the purple and yellow look okay together as colours. I just don't know why. As a colour match. But they've got purple there, and I'm pretty sure, isn't it red up the,
    50:35
    what do you call it, the head box? The T-mold. I'm pretty sure it's red. Yeah, okay. Wouldn't you match that to the same colour? Or just keep silver like they have in the previous. Or just silver, something. But I reckon the art package on that is probably the best. And if I was going to buy one, obviously I'd go premium. So you're going to buy one? No. If I was going to buy one.
    50:57
    We'll get it down at the expo this year. Yeah, nice. Which we've got plenty of time anyway, so. Yeah, heaps, heaps. No doubt that Zach's probably bringing that, will he? Well, you'd assume so, yeah. Look, that's if he has... If they're not sold out, Matt, we should be able to get a new premium model. You're going to fucking hate me after this, mate. I'll just let you talk now.
    51:21
    Well, I'm very much... I mean, I didn't hear your thoughts on it, though. I understand you're saying it's a big IP. Do you want to go back to that? What are your thoughts on it, though? Give us your thoughts on the actual machine. Actual game, gameplay, and haven't seen much gameplay because I think there's only a couple of videos out there. Yeah. And what have they got? They've got like 180 Pokemon already there in the game. So a part of the Insider Connect. It looks like it's going to be very Insider Connect heavy. Okay. You know, for the achievements and stuff, yeah.
    51:57
    There's one thing I don't understand is because the main character in Pokemon was Ash. He was the Pokemon trainer. Okay. And he was the main character, but he's nowhere on that machine. The Pokemon trainer? Yeah. Yeah, okay. But there was no... He's not a part of that machine at all. Yeah, okay. Is that maybe because you're the Pokemon trainer playing the game? But I still thought you'd still see him on there, because he was the main character. Yeah. Apart from Pikachu. Yeah. The limited edition trim is yellow, by the way. No, it's purple. Mate, it's... Oh, at the top. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Oh, I thought it was red. Or is it the premiums that are red?
    52:31
    I'll have to go back. Anyway. But I still think it should be purple following that, or silver as you said. Yeah. But look, the play field was good. I'm a bit disappointed that the poker, pokeball doesn't open up. I thought that would have opened up. I would have been great. You know, and honestly, you know what would have been awesome? Catch the ball. Like Jackie in Buddy Aerosmith, you know, put the ball there, shoots the ball over, lands in there, shuts down for the multi-ball. Yep. You know, that would be fantastic because you've caught that Pokemon is going there, closes up, shakes around. Yep. but instead it's an undershot ramp. Yep. So, you know, that's the physical ball lock for that machine. But the pros don't actually have a physical ball lock whatsoever, which is a bit crap. I like ball locks. Just not, yeah, not virtual. Yeah. So anyway, artwork though in general on the play field, look, it's all just, I don't think it's hand-drawn for, you know, it's just cut and paste, if you know what I mean, like images. Sorry, who did you say the trainer dude was? What was his name? Ash. Sorry, I'm just looking at images while we chat about it, and there was Team Rocket. Yeah, there's Team Rocket, but Team Rocket's in it, though. Yeah, that's what I said. Yes, I just didn't know if that was who you mentioned earlier. So anyway, the shots look fun. It looks like it's a pretty basic game as such. I don't think there's much to it. They've just made it for anyone to play, really. That's what it looks like, which, that's fine. There's no issues with that. But it kind of looks like a reskin of Junkyard, in a sense. very similar layout.
    54:09
    You've got the Junkyard ball up the top there. It just seems very similar. Even with the Junkyard. Junkyard had some very unique shots to it. And in Junkyard, though, you need to collect junk, don't you? In this game, you're collecting Pokemon. You don't have to do inverted commas with that because that's actually what you're doing.
    54:27
    Air quotes meant something different. And you know others just can't see that again. It just seems silly. No, no, they can see us, mate. They've got the camera watching us. We're live feed. There's no live feed. Yes, there is. So, yeah, look, I don't mind. It looks good. I think it still looks better than Star Wars. That was previously released. Okay.
    54:50
    I'm opposite to you. I'm not enthralled in it at all. It's not your era, don't you? It's not my era, agreed. But there's machines out there that aren't my era that I do enjoy. I think that they are very very smart with their timing, there's no doubt about it we touched on it earlier, like Jake Paul has just sold his illustrator Pokemon for 16 odd million dollars and even though there's a lot of controversy that is surrounding that was very recent to happen, Lego are releasing large scale Pokemon, Lego figures as well which is huge again so Lego and Switch is also releasing a Pokemon game as well so it's all happening it's like the worlds have collided and somehow Stern have maybe keyed into this at the exact right time and released a machine to coincide with all of this because I can guarantee you there won't be a Pokemon person on Earth that will not be buying that Lego and if I was Pokemon because I love Lego, I'd be doing the same. They've just released a Formula One car, and I love my Formula One, and I just bought that for Ava for her birthday coming up It a 1 scale so it be a pretty decent size And that was So this stuff isn cheap
    56:21
    So Stern have timed it perfectly. Do I like the machine? Not at all. As a player, it's very basic. There's nothing to it. I can see how it's going to perform well, however, because that's probably the demographic, as you said, Matty. that they're going for. They want people to go up and shoot easy shots. I've played Pokemon. It's exactly what it is. It doesn't look like there's much innovation, which we always scream for. And I think that's being lost a little bit in the conversation because it's Pokemon. Everyone's like, oh my God, this is huge. But the innovation is just not there. That ramp underneath the Pokeball that lifts, well, that's Walking Dead. Yep. Same as what I said. How cool would it have been like the Jackie? Yep, and that middle bash toy, similar to Junkyard. You know, like they've just not done anything major with it. And you've got Homer's head that spins.
    57:20
    Yeah, correct, yeah, with whoever hit Pikachu. And those things look like they have gone back to buying your Kmart sculpts and cutting their heads off, you know, plush toys or whatever, or plastic toys that stick in on the machines. Like there's just, there's no major innovation there. The artwork on the LE is probably the best, but in general, I'm just not a fan of the artwork either. There's not much to it, is there? No, but again, I didn't grow up in that world, so I don't know if it's true to the world in very sort of... I mean, you know... There could be more Pokemon on there instead of just the four. Yeah. There's just not much. Yeah, it could have had some sort of... I just don't feel like it screams Japanese to me. Does that make... Like, isn't Pokemon Japanese? So apart from the characters themselves on the play field, the artwork doesn't scream that over-accentuated Japanese-style artwork that you see in those type of anime movies and series, that's all. And maybe that's me, but yeah, I don't think much of the machine. But as I said, it'll sell well because it's basic. People will see it on site, hopefully. and go out and play it and pump coins into it non-stop, no doubt. What are your thoughts, George?
    58:44
    To be honest, I haven't really looked at it. I just heard DLE sold out, which I thought is fantastic. Yep. Better than, you know... At least there was only 750 this time. Well, I reckon you say only. Do you think they're getting sort of cheeky again? Like, ooh, 500, mate. I agree with that. So I think all these LBs going in... Going to 1,000 is what did a lot of damage. Yeah. Dropping it to 750, you know what? Obviously, I agree, it should be 500. Yeah. But being Pokemon, yeah, you'd go the extra 250. So you'd do 500 and make it dearer.
    59:25
    That's right. You can do that. And they would have sold it. 100% they would have sold it. 100%. You know, it's just good that some machines are selling out because as much as people hate companies and hate this and that, If they all go under, there'll be no machines coming out. So I don't really care what it is, what manufacturer it is. And if it's a great machine and it sells out, it's good for everyone. I don't hate any machines. I just have a preference to what I like the look of and play. Do you love Melbourne Pinball Expo, mate? I love Melbourne Pinball Expo. There's one. That's top of my list. Top of my list. But, yeah, as I said, in truth, though, there's – well, I take that back. There are a couple of machines that I hate, and Matty knows them all too well, which is South Park and Street Fighter 2 because they're shit heaps and always will be. I'll never sell them just because of that. But otherwise... Street Fighter 2 is a great game. It's a shit game. I love that. That's a great game. It's just terrible. Yeah, so as I said, I don't necessarily hate machines. There's just some that really appeal to me and others that don't. And as I said, this one just doesn't, which is not unfortunate, I guess. I haven't really looked at it. I just heard the news about it. And yeah, because it's not a theme that I'm into either. Yeah, that's it. Agreed Then rumour news is a supposedly never ending story Possible So stupid Who's doing that? Don't know but you'd assume it'd be what's it called Shannon told me Barrels of fun Again that's another terrible theme I mean seriously Who the fuck wants a never ending story Pinball machine Probably the same people who wanted a labyrinth No, Labyrinth I can understand. Never Ending Story, I just can't. For what? It's in the same sort of era, same sort of time. Terrible, mate. Yeah, so who's your big name actor in Never Ending? Oh, I've got freaking no idea. Exactly. Who was the big actor in Labyrinth? Jennifer Connelly. And? Oh, David Bowie, yeah. So that's why I can understand why they would do Labyrinth. Yeah. You know, it was an iconic sort of musical style, but Never Ending Story, mate. I'd buy one just to throw it off a cliff.
    61:38
    Just wait for Gremlins. Gremlins is a better choice. I can't wait for Gremlins. That's a better choice, surely. Gremlins will be insane. Who's doing Gremlins? Spooky Pinball. Spooky. Oh, of course. Yeah, of course. Oh, yeah, Barrels. Barrels is doing Neverending? Yeah, apparently. Yeah, that's terrible. That's terrible. I can keep picking those machines. Yeah, yep. Well, I guess they want to get a Foothill, maybe, or a Footprint, whatever you call it. But Gremlins could be very good, actually. Gremlins comes after this... Which one are they releasing now? Fuck, I'm losing my mind. Spooky after Beetlejuice. Yeah, Beetlejuice. Yeah. Mate, that's just fantastic. Yeah, it's a good double hit, isn't it? Beetlejuice and Gremlins. As long as you've got a bloody actual moving, interactive... Gremlin? What's his name, though? Gizmo? Gizmo, yeah.
    62:25
    They did a great job on Evil Dead, dude. Yeah, and Beetlejuice. Yeah. They always... You said if they sell out. They always tend to sell out because their runs are generally so low. So that's not an issue for them because they're smart. And they're getting good licenses. Yeah. Yep. Yeah, licenses from people, you know, where we grew up, not Matt. Yep. Do you like gremlins? Yeah. Yeah, good. I grew up with them as well. Oh, did you? Of course I did. He would have started at two or three, maybe. Yeah, I was going to say. No, I would have said it. I would have said it, yeah. We were number one, yeah. Yeah, that would be a good license. But yeah, never-ending story, pass. Thanks very much. And you wanted to chat a little bit further about this sort of reskinning as well that's going on. Just thinking just like how they used, like I've compared Pokemon in Junkyard to an extent. It's not a complete reskin, but it has the feel, it just got the vibe out of it. But obviously that machine, Pokemon, would be a hell of a lot more faster than Junkyard was. Just how Stern would feel playing in Junkyard. A completely different game. Yeah, great. You'd have a lot of... What's that word called? Chaos. Yeah. As opposed to more control like in Junkyard.
    63:42
    Then we had Austin Powers, yeah. I love the theme. Game was slow. It was very slow. Such an easy game to complete. You get into Wizard Mode too easy. It was just simple. Then they released Iron Man. direct copy I think it was only the Iron Munger which was a little bit closer down they moved that slightly yeah more than likely compared to Doctor Evil but that is a straight out copy reskin and that is a brutal violent game and how much better is it though because you know I sold my Austin Powers because I was like just getting bored of it was just too easy too slow which is unusual because it's a good theme Austin Powers they did really well it was that era though of Stern that they felt like that and anyway so So, yeah, they did Iron Man, which improved it, made the machine so much better. Then we've got Metallica. Yep. Guardians of the Galaxy. Yep. Direct copy, isn't it? Yeah.
    64:37
    And did Guardians become faster than Metallica? No, not really. Not really? Probably very similar in speed and style. Because they weren't far apart in time. I think it was true the opposite way, because Metallica has the metal ramps, so people felt like metal flying down onto wire forms It's a lot quicker than the plastic wraps coming back to your flipper feed. Yeah, so we had that type of risk. I think they moved the scoop slightly down as well. It was a bit harder to hit in Guardians. But, you know, obviously that was their first Spike 1 system they released because they had the LCD screen. Was it the first one or was it Aerosmith? It was either that or Aerosmith in the first one. But, you know, did they improve? I don't think so. I'd still prefer Metallica. Yeah, I think both are pretty good, to be honest. I think the main thing that held Guardians, well, not held it back, because I'm sure it sold well, but people didn't like the speech in it. So a lot went that opposite speech that people do these days. With the code. The alternate code, yeah. Yeah, so they could have other stuff in it, which works well. Is there anything you can think of, George? Any pre-skins? It's interesting, though. I mean, out of the history of pinball, you've used three examples there. Oh, look at this. That's all I could think of when I was writing that. But that's what I mean. None have really screamed out to you. So it's not too bad, I guess. Oh, no, no, nothing wrong with it, but I'm just saying how it's improved the machine. Yeah. You know, it's becoming a faster machine. I'm just wondering what more machines are going to... We'll start re-skinning. Yeah. You know, not having to redesign something so much. Just keep iterating another machine, you know, theme. Yep. Mixing stuff into it. Yep. Yeah. I don't know if there's... I think these days people, not people, the designers probably, and JJP would be a pure example of this, try to stay very unique in regards to design style, don't they? And this is where I also said Jack and Elwynn, you know, for keeping it fresh. As in Jack Danger and Keith Elwynn. Yeah, sorry, Jack Danger and Keith Elwynn. Because his name's not Jack Elwynn, just for the listeners in case. I said Jack and Elwynn. Okay. Jack and Jill? Yep. But yes, you're right.
    66:41
    Jack and both Keith are keeping it pretty fresh, as is Eric as well. Yeah, 100%. Yeah. But as you can see, George Gomez took over the design of this in the end because they were probably afraid it was going to be too hard for the beginning players. It wouldn't be as approachable, I guess, if that makes sense. So he went back to his, let's just pull things back a bit. Yeah, I wonder if that's happened. Quite possibly if you look at Jack Danger's usual machines from Foo Fighters to X-Men, I suppose. The shots are just ridiculously out there.
    67:19
    I still want to see him designing games and just keeping new ideas. Have you been watching all of his little designs he does? There's some pretty cool shots there. Did you see the flipper this morning? No. So that came up on my feed that he had because of Stern's bats. Was it Stern? I think he said Stern bats, but you know those old bats that are translucent and that you can see the little splints in the plastic. So he put leads underneath it and then just slid cardboard underneath it to block the leads out and the leads went down the flipper. And his discussion was, I wonder if we can do this, that as the flipper moves up, they go out and as it comes down, the leads go on. So your bats are lit from underneath. But as you make a shot, they go off. and depending on obviously what modes you can integrate that into, they might do certain things under it. So he was just having a bit of a play with that, which I think would be very distracting as a player, my initial thoughts. But at least he's out there trying to do something different. And I'm sure you could do it with an Audrino. How do you pronounce that? Audrino boards where you can program it yourself. You could probably do something like that with the LEDs, I'm sure. So-so. But yes, I have been watching a little bit of his page because it has been interesting.
    68:44
    Anything else you want to chat about? Otherwise, it was just emails which we didn't get this month. Nobody loves us. Nice and quiet. I'll send you one next month. That'd be appreciated. Make it polite. It's always polite.
    68:59
    What about any admin rants? No admin rants. No, no. The page has been okay, so it's been all right. Pretty easy. Pretty good. Otherwise, Georgie, I think you had something for the MPE that you were doing this weekend you wanted to say. We are going to hit. MPE is going down to Club Retro this weekend.
    69:20
    So if you want to come down and say hi, we've got a booth there. So for those that are listening that don't know, what is Club Retro? It's a nightclub because we're getting too young to not go.
    69:32
    So it's going to be a big one. Are there pinball machines there though, mate? There'll be no pinball machines there. Mate, we're just going to go, we're going to drink and have a good time. We need to just get our thoughts together and work out what we're doing, obviously, for this year, and we'll definitely hit it. Shannon might come down if he doesn't have to do deliveries, and obviously me and Sonia will be there. So that's Lonsdale Street in Melbourne. Lonsdale Street, yeah, 100%. Nice. So, yeah, just come and you'll see us sitting there in a little booth in a corner. How cute. Should we put a photo of you up so we all know what you look like? Probably should, shouldn't we? Oh, people, well, you can see, well, if you want to see what Sonny looks like, she's on my Facebook page, and if you want to see what I look like, I don't think I'm on my Facebook page.
    70:17
    We're going to organise something. The little fat guy. You're losing weight, mate, not anymore. I am losing weight. Slimming down nicely. So, yeah, so we should say thank you again. Yes. We hope everyone enjoyed this podcast. Yes, make sure you like and subscribe and do all that sort of stuff, because that would be nice. Georgie, thanks for joining us, mate. Yeah, thanks for having us. and, yeah, next, well, obviously,
    70:38
    make sure everyone tunes in on Thursday. 5th of March. We're going to give away this pinball machine. Yes, they're nice. And, you know, the soccer club's really excited about it too. Yep. And we've had a lot of people ask us if we can do more. So we'll look at doing another one. Okay. And what will we do? We don't know yet, but we'll do something different. So it sounds like you might be shifting away from Harry's then if you're not going to say that, which is nice. Well, that would be the second Harry. You might be giving away a Maserati. Well, you know what? A graphic from Maserati is not a bad idea. There's some... But it looks like we're looking at, we should be doing a I... W. Nice. So I think that would be a nice one, a little bit different. That'd be very nice. That's a nice, nice machine. A lot of people like the machine. they just you know the costs are not there so like a machine and same thing will happen with that too yep so it's all going good it's fantastic and you'll be there yes you'll be there and when I say that I'm talking about Jared and Matt everyone yes because again no one can see what you're doing and it's going to be good it'll be great it will be it's always a nice night you'll be there well I will be there he did air quotes I don't know what that means he still did air quotes he loves his air quotes Take the piss out of him.
    72:03
    I'll have a couple of drinks, yeah, and we'll take it from there. Look forward to it. Yep. Fantastic. Very nice. Thank you, Jared, mate. Thanks, buddy. I'm not sure if there'll be any outtakes. People have to have a bit of a listen and see what goes on. I don't think there will be. All right, guys. Thanks for listening. Like I said, like, follow. Appreciate everyone's comments. We've got a new Facebook page, so make sure you're joining up to that because it'll no longer be on the BuySwapSell page. Sorry, can I just say one thing that I have forgot? Sure. Sorry, Jared. No, go for it. Our Predator pinball machines, the next batch that we have ordered, are arriving in Melbourne on the 3rd of March. Wow. So everyone who's expecting one, which is next week, will be paying all the fees and taxes associated with it today. Yep, nice. Shannon will definitely pick it up and then start doing the delivery, so you'll probably link them up with Harry Potter. So the rumour's going around that Melbourne People Expo are not selling Predator pinball machines because they can't be bothered. It's too hard for them. It's all bullshit. You just give us a call. If you want a machine, we'll always look after you. I was going to say, I'm pretty sure you can get other machines too. You've said it on this podcast in the past for those that want it. If someone is after a machine that they can't get, just give us a call and we're happy to facilitate in getting it down here for you.
    73:17
    Make MPE your preferred choice. 100%. That sort of stuff, without a doubt. All right, guys. Thank you for that. Pleasure. Thanks, George. Thanks, Matt. Enjoy the week. Cheers, buddy. We'll be right back. But we're hoping Matt doesn't cut everyone's heads off when he's up, which is why Jarrod's going to come. He's going to bring a chain and chain Matt. Why Jarrod what? That's why I'm coming. That's why he's coming, mate. So that way the... But that's all right, Matt. We're still love. Their heads don't get cut out. I don't know. I think they've all sold out on everything, pros and premiums, until the next round. I don't think they will. Until the next round. So they're done. Yeah, but that's not sold out, technically. No, no, no. but just at the moment, there's none sitting there. It's like saying they've run out of Kit Kats, mate, until they make an expatch, dude. But they've sold the first run of it. No, not really. Not really. Run out of Kit Kats. No, not really. If you had to say Tim Tams, I'd be worried.
    74:43
    They've sold out the first run, so. All right, guys, thank you for that. Pleasure. Thanks, George. Thanks, Matt. Enjoy the week. Cheers, buddy. Cheers. Cheers, cheers. Big E's. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. cut to the end here we go