Warning, the following episode contains adult language and screaming goats. Listener discretion is advised. The Pinball Network is online. Launching, The Pinball Show. Episode 84 is coming down the chimney hot as special guest co-host Craig Bobby and I talk about Loser Kids, free trans lights and banners the stern hybrid model trademark pending a stern vault in 2022 question mark cactus canyon remake mirrored back glasses things i like things i don't with spooky pinballs halloween homebrew schmombrew thank you very much miss lippy pinball market trends getting snubbed by a celeb how the creasel stole christmas and much much more happy holidays listener this week we getting craigie with it talking bike pinball is a game of skill for some it's a passion and a lifestyle yes i will go back to school and achieve victory no man will take what my father has built unless that man is me It's time for the Pinball Show. It's pinball with personality. No one can stop you if you try. Don't I have a nice rack? Hey, everybody. It's me, Zach Minney, the host of the Pinball Show. We're in episode 84, and I've got one of my pinball besties with me today. No, not Greg Bone. And Dennis Creasel's not back until next week. It's the man who they say was cut from the same cloth as your host here. It's none other than the bird flying away from my nest. Don't leave me, Craig. Bobby! Yeah, there he goes. And that spatsy turned into a pterodactyl. What's happening, Zach? So great to be here. I'm so glad you're here, Shake and Bake. It's good to hear from you. Yeah, it's been a while. When was the last time we did this? maybe, is it a year ago? Has it been a year already? Has it been that long? It's been too long. We continue to get sexier as we age, right? I think so. I think so. We're like a fine wine band. Oh, are we? I'm not much of a wine guy myself. Are you a connoisseur of the wine? You know, it's best, I've found, with all this stuff, just to go easy as I age. I'm not 20 anymore, right? So just go easy on the bottle. You know, just a glass or two is plenty. Plenty. okay all right you're drinking fucking merlot like what are you drinking that's right white i like a good cab i like a good cab but you know i don't need i don't need four glasses with dinner i need you know one maybe two if it's a good bottle two glasses with dinner and then two afterwards yeah you know the party started does mrs bobby drink the wine you know interestingly yes she she likes the odd glass she likes the odd glass particularly when i've been playing pinball a little bit too much. The eyes start to roll. When I start to mention that we should have a little family pinball tournament again, there's more eye rolling. A lot of groaning. Nothing goes over worse in the mini household than me saying, hey babe, why don't we all go down and shoot some pinball? She's like, we do that every day for a living. How about this? How about you just go to hell? That's right. How about you go fuck yourself and we'll go have some fun. That's exactly right. We're even past the go to hell stage. We're like right into the go fuck yourself stage. That's right. You know, Zach? That's why we're building a facility on our property for you to leave and go in that building. And that's where all of your stupid little machines will be. And your toppers, Zach. How about your toppers? Oh, man. We'll take your financial contribution, but you can leave your wacky ideas at the door, please. That's right. I've got a pinball market trend for you. turning up this week, you getting out of this fucking house. How about that? Here's your microphone. So, Craig, a lot has been going on in the Stern world, and you've been reporting on it wonderfully, I might add. Have you sunk your teeth in? Have you found some sources that it feels like it? I'm deep. I'm deep down the rabbit hole of the Stern world. I'm so deep. They don't know if I'm an employee, I'm a contractor. or they don't know who I am, where I've come from. Do you wear a fake mustache? I don't even know who I am anymore. I've lost my identity. I'm so deep in this. You are very undercover. Watch out. Of all the Stern employees, who do you think would figure you out first? Which one can see through it? I think Dwight. He's got my number. Dwight, he's a no-nonsense dude, I can tell. so he's he's he's sussing me out pretty good he knows the bobby ways damn that bobby he's saying yeah i got your number dude don't don't come with me with any questions you've been uncovering stuff greg that even i didn't know i'm like wait huh i know i i mean i am deep i am deep down this rabbit hole of stern these days zach it's uh it's crazy the things i'm learning it's amazing I always wonder if Stern thinks I'm feeding you stuff, and I'm always waiting for that phone call like, Zach, come on now. But no, I don't get it. And then I hear stuff from you, and I'm like, guys, I don't even know. You don't know shit. Every time I come to you, you don't know anything. I know. Sadly. Sadly, that's true. I may not know much, but what I do know is that I was recently, Craig, I was recently on the Loser Kid Pinball podcast. oh yeah everybody's gonna have to go take a listen i think the episode is titled 100k before christmas wow i was on there and it was a great discussion great conversation but the best part of it listener involves you on there we started a little giveaway and you yourself can win a mandalorian trans light and a banner oh my god that's like hundreds of dollars worth of stuff for free. All you've got to do, first go listen to the genius that is that episode with me, and then you share the link to that said podcast episode on your socials. So whether it be on Facebook or on the Twitters or the Instagrams or the TikToks or the Ding Dongs, whatever it is, social media that you utilize, share it on there, take a pic and just show proof, send it over to LoserKidPinballPodcast at gmail.com. You'll be entered to win. It's free. If you don't do it, you're lazy. How about that? That is a sweet contest. That is a sweet banner. That Mandalorian banner is a sweet, sweet banner. The art on that game is unbelievable. It's beautiful. It is beautiful. And the translates are nice, too. Light those babies up. Code? Sorry, Dwight. Sorry. Oh, wow. Coming out hot already. So the encounters are a little grindy. All right. Proved your point 1.00 code We'll talk about that soon But yeah We're going to go to the correspondents here Craig And they're going to hear your voluptuous voice again As well as others But before we kick it over I did want to be serious for a second And send our deepest of sympathies and thoughts out To all of those that have been affected this past weekend In the Midwest and the South With the violent and very deadly tornadoes That everyone experienced I am somewhat locally to the Midwest and South Fortunately it missed us In our home and everything And the winds were nasty here And it threw around a bunch of shit But we were blessed and we were not affected But I will say that we're in the area So if anybody has been negatively affected To a degree in which I could help And Nicole and I could help Please just let us know It's time for TPN Industry News Hello and welcome to the pinball show's Stern News Update. I'm Craig Bobby. Well, a bit of a slow news week here in Stern's pinball world as Rush fans eagerly await this highly rumored next rock title from Stern Pinball. And while no specific reveal dates are being rumored, my sources are telling me it's still slated to be released before Christmas, so I'm betting the week of December 20th should be it as Stern tries to take advantage of last-minute shopping from pinball fans across the world. And speaking of shopping, Insider Connected kits are now starting to show up more and more in the wild as operators continue to receive their orders for this must-have online accessory. Homeowners fear not, though. George Gomez had said himself that your kits are up next and should be shipping out in early 2022 as well. This is not the code you're looking for. With all the code updates going around for all of Stern's Spike 2 titles these days, poor Munsters owners are still wondering when their turn will come, as diehard fans of that title are still waiting for Stern to fix various bugs and also hopefully add additional code to the Munster's frustratingly simple and straightforward rule set. And speaking of new code, Stern Pinball has posted new Mandalorian code V1.00 this past week for the Pro Premium and Limited Edition models. Well, that's all for this week for the Pinball Show. I'm Craig Bobby. Catch you on the flip side. Hey, this is Kaz with a quick update on American Pinball. A recent Facebook post shared by Kingpin Games and Dave Jeff Brenner was entitled, Where Can You Play All Four American Pinball Games? You can go to Titletown Brewing Company in Green Bay, Wisconsin. So if you're in the area, definitely check them out. And also look at Project Pinball Charities' Facebook page. They're currently running a raffle for an Oktoberfest. That's limited to 200 entries at $75 per entry. So check out their Facebook page to help support a great pinball charity. Hope everybody has a great week and has fun playing pinball. For the Pinball Show, this is Brian Kosner. all right bobby man let's talk some stern pinball getting closer to rush rush is pending oh is rush coming well that's what everyone's saying that's what everyone's saying so you know i don't think i can remember a a rumor that was so positive in terms of in terms of everybody nodding their head you know even even the janitor in stern is saying yep it's rush it's rush so what about you Shadbarns. Okay. All right. So we're thinking about a Rush. We're thinking about a John Borg is what we're thinking. Any guesses to the coder then? We were trying to guess it here and there. That's a good question. I don't know. I don't know. It ain't Dwight. It's not going to be Dwight. That's for sure. It's not going to be Dwight. Okay. Ain't Dwight. We know Rick Nagel works with Elwin. We do know that Tim Saxton lost his designer to JJP and Steve Ritchie. Maybe we see a... But he just worked on Zeppelin. Is he going to work on another band pin? You know what, Zach? You just reminded me of something. That's what people are saying. The code is going to be pretty sexy, sexy. Oh. I couldn't figure out what they were talking about. Okay. You guys heard it here. Somebody bring a sexy back, and it's going into a maple-leaf-based band up north. Does Tom Graff have the number one LE on this title, Zach? You can tell us. Does he have the number one? TG is on the list. Confirmed for a rumored rush if it happens. That's right. He even beat out Geddy Lee for the first LE. Yeah, he'd arm wrestle him. Geddy Lee. I need to get Geddy Lee a Led Zeppelin. Yeah, exactly. He'd love that. Oh, man. So you guys all listen to Rush up there. It's like a requisite, right? It is a religion in Canada. But yeah, that's actually part of the citizen test is you have to name off three Rush songs. Wow. There would be 12 people in that country. Exactly. Well, that's why no one lives here. It's cold and we've got Rush. I like Rush music. We'll see if that's the case and we'll see if Borg's on it. I tend to like Borg games, so I might be a sucker for something that he makes next. I was thinking they should do, like, take the JJP thing and, like, take one up. So they should have, you know, bring back the spinning disc idea just to, like, just to thumb their nose and go, here you go. And they do the three spinning pentagram spinning discs or something. Or each of their faces, like each of the, you know, Geddy, the Neil Peart and... Oh, beautiful men, yeah, absolutely. Just have their faces spinning on the discs. I'll take the pentagrams. What if they spin in the wrong direction? You summon something. Yes, exactly. the demon comes out from the playfield or something. I was thinking about the sacrificial goat. Oh, yes. See, I always find a way to weave in that little bastard. We could get Tim Sexton on code. We could get, I don't know, Lonnie Rops do. Oh, yes, I forgot about him too. We got Taneo Kleiss that hinted on just another pinball podcast months back that he's going to be on a cornerstone. I don't know. we'll have to wait and see but it's exciting i think it's going to be much better than you know sorry Steve Ritchie than led zeppelin i think the design is gonna come up a notch so i'm excited i think it's gonna be i think it's gonna be great you know most people sort of think oh is rush gonna be good they've got a lot of great songs that i think would be perfect for um for this uh for this hobby and um i think it's gonna be fantastic we'll see if they make a return to their patented light show that they brought out. I hope the expression lighting system will come back. I thought that was a hit. I really enjoyed that. I did, too. And it works so well with music-based, rhythm-based games. Let's see if it makes its return. Now, I've got something that I've been brewing on a little bit, Craig. Listener, you know, trademark still pending on this, But I've got a theory here as to what Stern Pinball we may be seeing, what we've been seeing, but we may be seeing more of. And it's what I'm calling Stern's hybrid model. Stern's hybrid model, trademark pending. So Stern's hybrid model, to me, is what we've been seeing in some of their releases as of the last couple of years. many people Craig argue I like the original themes of Bally Williams how many times have you heard that gotta have those original themes so you've got that you've got those people arguing that you also have people arguing the theme matters I don't care about toilet bowls and junkyards and castles give me Iron Man I want Robert Downey Jr. give me Mandalorian and that cute little green bastard everybody wants to call baby yoda give me the themes that i watch and i listen to that i can resonate with in my game room now that we've shifted out of the arcades if you get that original theming arcade it's fun to defeat a castle these games are home now people we want to recognize the stuff that we're putting in our home and we want it to resonate with us so we like these iconic licensed properties. Here's the issue. Those licensed iconic properties are licensed expenses, and they're really, really pricey. Try getting Robert Downey Jr. on your video display. It's not going to happen unless you bootleg that bitch. Or Michael J. Fox. Mike, oh, Craig. What the hell? That dude don't come cheap. I know he doesn't. Right. But you've got all of these licensed properties. Harry Potter. I'm okay. I'm still a little bit edgy about people that say that they want the novel form. Are you one of those imbeciles? Mm-mm. Mm-mm. Mm-mm. I'd be okay with the novel form of Harry Potter. You know, interestingly, I'm not the biggest Harry Potter fan. I liked it better, I think, the later on it got in their trilogy. My criticism of that series to start out with is that I don't like when characters move forward by happenstance and i felt like a lot of you know a lot of um the first couple of movies with harry potter was a lot of happenstance you know like oh you know he's the greatest sorcerer of all time but we're not going to rely on that we're going to rely on you know someone tripping up the stairs and all of a sudden what they're carrying ends up in harry potter's hands and voila the bad guy's dead i don't know something like that you know the snake dies well you heard it here craig bobby does not does not believe in fate yes no wizardry over there nothing happens for a reason use those powers damn it work they got to work their way to the top that's right folklore my ass pick up a mop exactly work your way up that corporate ladder harry don't give a shit about the scar on your head get contacts this is 2022 that's right yeah who are you you think dumbledore just handed the keys to the castle no you know who worked their way up i guarantee you professor snape yeah guarantee he did that's why he's so crusty he's this young kid coming in he wanted to bang his mom he couldn't he's got this kid bastard child sorry we've gone off the rails great so my point being We have these iconic licensed properties that Stern's not going to pay for. They might throw in a song to tickle your giblets, but that's about all you're going to get. You may get a Carl Carl Weathers doing a call-out. You may get that. That's what they're going to pay for. But it's going to be hard to have all of those visuals in games going forward. So the hybrid model that Stern's doing is very much like your Avengers Infinity Quest or Jurassic Park, where we get those iconic licensed properties. We get the John Williams score. We get all the visuals that are the Avengers, but they've been reimagined to some original theming, like those classic Bally Williams. I think we're going to see more of it, Craig. The Stern hybrid model, where you pull in what they probably think best of both worlds. We don't have to spend money on all of the assets, But we can still retain our own universe and our own branding, if you will. They're creating something that is expanding that licensed property, which, if done correctly, I think these property holders probably like. Think about Godzilla and what Zombie Yeti did for that branding. I'm sure Toho's good with that. That looks great. Have you been hiding under the stern boardroom table lately, Zach? I'm saying. I'm just saying. you're the weirdo in the corner with the glasses on that i can't kind of put my finger on like who is this dude that's right get contacts it's 2022 yeah i'm feeling something tickling my my knees under the under the boardroom table that's right jesus christ is that harry potter what is that down there i'll be like oh turning up this way greg bobby easy it's albert's goats so yeah i'm calling that the stern hybrid model i don't know what i'm going to do with it but But it's there. I think we're going to be seeing more and more of that. Do I like that? No. I put the whole damn movie in when I'm playing the game. That's what I want. If I want to watch a movie, I can just watch a movie on my 4K player. That's fine. You do that, bro. I want to play a pinball machine, and I want to see Harry Potter up there waving his little wand around. That's what I want. And I think the exciting thing about that is that you're not locked into, you know, it's its own model, right? So you're not locked into reproducing a game that's already been done. You're not locked into a license and all that it was in its movie form or TV form. So it gives you a lot of freedom in that model. And it keeps your animators busy, too, because they're going to have to create assets to create a world. In a world. You have to do all of that. Speaking of being locked in, Craig, the only way to get out of a locked vault is to find the key. Are you the key master? I'll never tell. Or the gatekeeper. Which one are you? Here's another thing that came up. I'm the ghost floating in the wind. I thought you said farting in the wind. I do. Do ghosts fart? I wonder if they do. Do you believe in ghosts? That's another. You know, I... Oh, now we're getting deep. Yeah, yeah. I think there's a lot of things that can't be explained, you know, so I'm going to come out and say I do. Oh! You know, I'm going to come out and say I do believe them. Breaking news here. But it may not be the way we think of them. I don't know what that means, but... It's a very ghostish thing to say there, but okay. That's right. I don't want to sound like a weirdo. What does he mean? trending down this week. You don't think they talk like this? I want ghosts to be that. If there is ghosts, I want one to come in a white sheet and say, Yeah, like Ebenezer Scrooge. That's my favorite kind of ghost. The chains and stuff. Do I believe in ghosts? Man. I'm going to say no. No, I do not believe in ghosts. You want to know why, Craig? Why? I've never fucking seen one. You know the people that believe in ghosts? People have seen them. Yeah. Or they think they've seen them. That's right. That's right. How convenient is that? Guess what, ghosts? If you're out there and you want to prove yourself, ghost up. I'm right here. That's all I'm saying. Come get some. Doesn't mean I'm not scared of everything. Somebody slams a door and I piss down my pants. I'm jumping. That's right. I'm not hanging around long enough to see anything, right? The first door creak or something like that, I'm like, I don't think we should be here anymore. I think there could be ghosts. There could be aliens. I think, you know, like you said, there's so much unexplained in the world in hashtag science, but I'm not a believer until I'm a seer and a feeler. That's all I'm saying. Hashtag education. That's right. Public education, thank you. That's right. Yeah, so I don't know if ghosts fart. But if I do, I want to see the little sheet rumble. That's great. Do ghost farts stink? I don't know. I'm carrying my Febreze. That's all I know. Just in case. The reason I was saying, I don't know where I was going. We really got off track there. We're talking about vaults. So do you think there'll be a vault? Do you think there'll be a vault in 2022? We haven't seen one in a while, have we? I know. We haven't seen one. The last one, I'm trying to think of the last one that was rumored. It was, I believe it was Lord of the Rings that we were rumoring maybe a year and a half ago or so. I mean, it's always kind of, again, speaking of things in the wind, that rumor is always kind of lingering. Perfect. That's a double point multiplier here on hosting. I like it. All right. Yeah, we've heard of the ones that everybody want is Lord of the Rings, is Tron Legacy. Those are the two capstones that everybody wants. two different operating systems. We've got a SAM system. We've got a White Star system. Maybe I think that they would redo a Spike 1 game Those games are getting high up in price man Some of the Kisses of the World some of the Ghostbusters of the World even Game of Thrones has been selling for high amount So I wouldn't put it past any of it. But do you want to re-up a license for that? Hmm. Here's my thought. I was talking to those loser kids last week. Such an unfortunate name. Such an unfortunate name. They're really riding that one. They've really ridden that sucker right into the... I hate that for them. I just feel bad. You're winner kids in my heart, Stan. Talk about happenstance. That's right. Pick up a broom. All right. I was talking to the loser kids, Craig, and... Love those guys. Love those guys. Something I don't want to... I'm going to have an operation, by the way. Sorry to cut you off. I'm going to have an operation. I want Scott to be there holding my hand to put me under. I think that's all anesthesiologists do, actually, don't they? Just hold hands? Yeah. Here's a half million this year. Hold my hand. Wow. No, he was saving lives. He had the day that we recorded a couple of hearts that a couple of people had to save their lives. One was an emergency. And I was like, oh, because the other two hearts aren't emergencies? Seems like a pretty emergency prone organ there, Scotty. Was that the latest customer to Elvira's 40th anniversary? Hearts not working right on the spot. He'll be here every week, ladies and gentlemen. So everybody wants these vaults. I was talking to the Loser Kids and something very genius and brilliant came up that you guys probably don't want to hear if you haven't heard it already. But it came from your host here, myself. I won't speak for myself in the third person because it's fucking stupid. Now, Stern Vault in 2022. Here's what I would prognosticate. I know nothing about this. Give it to us. It just seems like a good business move to me. And before you throw tomatoes, wait until the end of the segment. I see a Stern Vault coming in 2022. I do. But, Zach, how are you going to have a Stern Vault when we are backed up and backlog of all these games? And I agree. I don't know how many vaults they do run when they do run them. Two to 500 maybe. I don't know. But, yes, running a Game of Thrones or a Lord of the Rings right now, two to 300 at an MSRP that we've been accustomed to. A DMD is usually a couple hundred less than an LCD. That makes zero sense. But, listener, recently I did something special with Elvira's House of Horrors, a game that everybody wants but nobody can have. They're still making premiums. They just won't be making them for a long time. But they did make the 40th anniversary. I think it's on the line this week or next. And those sold pretty well. Sold through to distributors in a second. With us dealers clamoring for more. the margins were high on them those things were selling for what 25 to 30 000 plus so i can see a stern vault coming out very much so in 2022 and i can see them making two to three hundred of them but i think we might see a special edition of said games so that you can have your lord of the rings or your tron legacy there's plenty out there we don't have to make too many maybe we make about 199 of them we re-up the license and we charge you well we don't charge you your dealers charge you 25 to 40 thousand dollars uh oh uh oh I feel like you're like Tom Antonio Cruz's character in Tropic Thunder right now you're like the evil director in the background dancing around you want a G6 baby come on I'm like the guy in the background going, come on, baby, come on. Daddy needs a new school bus. That's right. Got a lot of kids, Craig. So I brought this up, and I could almost hear their gears turning. Like, uh-oh, I think he's on to something. Listener, do you think I am on to something? I think that's how we see a Stern Vault in 2022. And it's going to be a game you all want because Stern is not stupid. See what people want. Do you re-up a license for that, though? I know the person who's in charge of the wiring at Stern really loves that idea. Because have you seen that area? It's like a fucking knotted nightmare over there. You might only have to do 250 of these. Bring it on. But I think you'd run into more work there in the wiring department. Because remember how many wires and stuff before node boards, Greg? Well, they're going to be gold, first of all. They're gold wires, and they're hard to weave that gold. It's a gold edition. So be on the lookout in 2022. We'll see what we get. But if you're going to get a vault, I think you may see something different. That's all I'm saying. I think you're bearing on the money. I'm not going to tell you how I think you're bearing on the money but I think yeah and financially it only makes sense that they cater to this end of the market and clearly there's a market for it and do you think by going that path Zach it also brings up you know if they're going to cater to the high end side of the market do you think it brings up the brand for the rest of the units that they're making as well a little bit sure I think so It brings the whole thing up, right? It brings everything up. Yeah, because that's why Elvira's 40th anniversary selling for $30,000. Maybe it's just a correlation, but boy, oh boy, those premium editions that have been played for the last year or two, they're selling for $10,000, $11,000 used. So yeah, it could pull up all of the other counterparts as well. I sort of feel like Stern 2 has been hanging back a little bit. They've had their one model where they're, you know, obviously their strength is being able to produce these things in rapid succession. And they've kind of left the high-end side of the market to people like J.J.P. and maybe a few others to kind of try and capitalize on that side. And I don't feel like these companies have necessarily done that. And they're like, shit, if no one else is going to do it, we're going to fucking take it to you. You know, so it's kind of like, where else are they going to go? what are they going to do produce like 10 10 titles in a year versus seven or six i mean why would they do that so there's only one place for them to go and that is oh i see that is spacex style to the moon those coin baby sorry i just whacked over my mic there i was so excited it's like i'm fucking elon musk the collectability of a stern le i don't care what any of you naysayers say the collectability of a stern le is probably it's still at the highest point It beats any collectability of an American pinball game. It beats any collectability of these off-brand games. It beats any collectability of a Chicago Gaming. That's a tough thing to say, but I think it's still true. The Chicago Gaming LE model is very sought after. But when a Stern game hits, that LE is more collectible than the CGC LE. It just is. And when it comes to Jersey Jack pinball, Craig, their LEs are 5,000, numbered 5,000 plus. That's not limited. But when you get to the collector's edition, the last handful of titles, last couple titles, to be fair, maybe that has been kind of the pinnacle of Stern LEs, you know, over the Stern LE in collectability. But I would say from a business standpoint, Stern Pinball would giggle and say, well, that's fine, but we're making 1,000 LEs and we're getting them out and we're doing that three to four times a year. If they want to take 18 months making their 500, 250 collector's editions, God bless them. I don't see that changing until somebody else steps up and out-LEs them. And if anything, with the market that we've got right now and the bill of materials and the shortages, I think you're going to see other companies take a step back from what they put in their games and especially their highest end editions. They're going to try to mimic Stern. They're going to try to ride the coattails of Stern rather than taking, you know, taking that pace and trying to lap them and pass Stern Pinball. That's what I think. Yeah. I mean, really, Stern, they're so far ahead of everyone on the production side that it's. Here's an interesting idea, Zach. You know, I never used to think of, again, not to put down anybody and any one company. This is not about. But it's sort of the reality is. Here comes American Pinball. This is aimed at you. I'm joking. Go ahead. You know, people don't generally think of Stern as being, they think of them, I think, as being the most prolific, but not necessarily the best. The best in terms of the best in quality, the best licenses. I'm going to say they're all of that. And what, you know, certainly from my experience, when I, because I'd heard, you know, when you're in the hobby, you hear such a wide, and you know better than anyone, Zach, You hear such a wide array of opinions about quality, the way things used to be, the past, the future, everyone's strengths, weaknesses. But I'm going to tell you my experience with my game, and I have kicked the shit out of my game. So I'm not one of those buyers that puts the velvet ropes around it. Yeah, exactly, where it's like, you know, you have to pay $10 to get into the VIP section to then play one game and then you're told to leave or something like that. To drink your warm cab. I'm begging people to play. I'm begging people to spill things on it, to rock it, to roll it, to have fun with it, right? Because this is what these things are made for. I've had so little problems with my machine. You know, there's been little tweaks that I've had to make, but that's like, you know, any machine is going to, any pinball machine with a ball, you know, slamming around it, it's going to have the odd issue. But I've been extremely impressed with the quality of Stern. Shell! You know, when have you heard a chipping incident of a game this year? Don't jinx us. Pooling. Nothing. And not to speak too soon, but I do see your Avengers in the back there, and you've got a node board that's smoking. Oh, shit. No, look. You're going to get hailed with emails now saying, oh, Stern's had nothing but problems. But I would say there's a shift going on here, Zach. And I think sometimes I think Stern is proving, you know, this year more than ever that they're the leader in so many categories now. It's not just that they're the most prolific. It's like they got the best licenses. Their quality is amazing. They feel the best. They can give you the LEs that everybody wants. The codes are the cleanest. The codes are the best. There's the most variety. The list just goes on and on. We could keep going. It's almost like there's really no argument anymore. And I think the reality is here that they are the market leaders by far and away. And the world is their oyster right now. I hate to say it. And I know people are looking at their wallets going, shit, how long can I stay in here? But it's just the reality of where the market is. It's supply and demand, baby, supply and demand. And, as I've said, it's a broken record. But don't forget this, people. Do not forget this at all. I think the loosest and floppiest, flaccid argument. You thought about a wiener, didn't you, listener? I know I did. Yeah, that's right. The most flaccid argument right now is These prices have become way too high This is ridiculous I think it's the loosest argument ever Craig Because it's the same argument that I've told you guys You're wrong about when it comes to toppers Look When it comes to toppers I don't care if the damn thing is $100,000 This is business This is the market This is ups and downs Buying low, selling high That kind of stuff If a product comes out that is 10 times the price of what it should be, I don't care as long as the market for said product remains high or above what I paid for it. Who cares if you're spending $1,000 on a topper if it's only worth $100? If that topper in six months is going to be $1,500, maybe I'm just too privileged and blessed to know any difference. But for me, when I buy a new pinball machine and it's $15,000, I don't care at all. That's not the issue. The issue is if I buy it for $15,000 and I roll it off the lot and it's worth $10,000. That's an issue, and that's when pricing is too much. But if our sales prices are yielding on the secondary market over what they're being sold for, then who cares what the price is? Now, watch the market, of course, just like you would any stocks or anything like that. And if it starts taking a dip, you have to make a decision. But that dip that it does take, if you do decide to sell, you can sell before you lose any money. So what are we arguing? Every time I hear that argument, I just don't get it. Don't understand. This is like, it's not 1970 in New York for New York real estate. It just is what it is. you know like i i'm kind of sick of it as well it's like this is this is the hobby this is what happens when a couple of generations of peoples and i blame there's no blame it's it's the boomers and the gen x yeah exactly and the gen xers who have decided you know fuck xbox fuck playstation i want a whole arcade in my house now and and i'm willing to pay the the price to get that arcade thank you it's us but that's us and and so these games are in they are amazing i i look at my machine every day and i am amazed at what it can do and what it is you know i i'm i'm with you if it costs that much and i can and i can stroke the check then fuck it you know like and if and if and if i can sell it the main thing is like you said and the good news is is these things are there's a collectible element to them so they are holding their value on this on the secondary market. And it's not like a car where you drive that thing off the lot and you can kiss goodbye 20 or 30 or 40% of its retail value. It's not like that. And until it gets to that point, and if it does get to that point, because it had in the past, right? If you bought a new in-box game, you knew unboxing it, you're going to lose 500 off the top. That's what comes with new in-box purchases. But if it's not like that right now, then ride that wave, baby. Let's be honest. Pinball is in the upper echelons of, call it, luxury entertainment. So, if you're going to buy, again, all these different analogies of different things out there that are expensive, but let's take a Dennis Creasel analogy, like a Rolex. If you're going to go in and try and buy a Rolex, are you complaining that the things, $10,000 to $15,000 to $20,000, you're buying a fucking Rolex. That's right. So you're buying a fucking Rolex in terms of entertainment right now, right? So get ready to open up your thing, and the entry level is going to be high. But here's the thing. Go to 100 houses, and who's got one? So there you go right there. And for a dollar, you can play at the corner store, the corner barcade. So the entry level, if you want to play, you can play. And as you were saying before about Stern, five years ago when I entered the Hobby 5-6, people said Sterns are cheap. They don't have the materials in them. They break. The codes are never done. But the Bally Williams field, that's CGC. That's Jersey Jack. There's nothing like the feel of a JJP. and I've added to this narrative and proudly because now as new people enter the marketplace, they hear the narrative that I've been spreading for quite some time and that is there's nothing better than the feeling of a stern pinball machine, period. I said it and I was ostracized for a while about that. You're full of crap. You're a shill. No, it was the truth because, you know why, listener? Because I play a lot of pinball And I know the difference in feeling a good shot and not. They always were superior. They were a little bit too snappy back in the white star days. I'll give you that. They toned it down a little bit in the same, whether it's the materials or the flipper mechanisms they were using. I don't really care. They felt better in Sam. And now they continue to feel wonderfully. Maybe the design elements have become better. You've got Keith Elwins of the world entering. Maybe that. Maybe programming on Cat. I don't know what it is, but they do feel the best. they do feel the most consistent. And when it comes to breakdowns and stuff like that, we're going to talk about that later on here. But for what it's worth, if I've got one that I need to unbox for a show, the Stearns are usually the ones that I have the least problems with. I will continue to ride that bandwagon of Stearns because I like the codes the best, I like the themes the best, I like the feels the best. And at the end of the day, I hate to throw a cargument in here, but these manufacturers and these products are very similar to different car manufacturers. Some people will respect what BMW is doing. They like BMW, but they would just rather drive a Cadillac. It feels better to them. It may not be better, but it feels better. And that goes without saying to Chicago Gaming Games, to Spooky, to Jersey Jack. A lot of people do prefer that feel. And I know why, because they do feel different. They all feel good to me. But my style of play lends itself more towards the snappiness and the fluidity of Stern Pinball. All right. I think we've shilled enough for Stern. We've given him enough promos now for the next 10 years. Gear Bear, you good with that, bud? Vroom, vroom on that, Harley? Can we come out from underneath the boardroom table now, please? Thanks, Gary. I need some chapstick. Can I borrow some? Yes, Gary. I'll pick up a mop. It's fine. I've heard you say that a couple of times. Chicago Gaming Company is making Cactus Canyon Remake. Did you hear about that, Greg? Yeah, yeah, I heard, I heard. Are we past Epsilon? Are we in the Delta version now? That's right. It feels like it. I don't know if they're shipping out yet. I don't think so. As a reminder, everybody. I thought Josh Sharpe was brought on to bring some, you know, message to the madness here. Jazz hands? What the hell's happening over there? I don't know. As a reminder, we have not been given specific timelines for production. listener, but we have been given the following. SEs will run first, then LEs, then SE pluses. That's how it's going to roll. When? Eh, I don't know. I think you'll see some SEs roll off the line and into homes before the end of the year. I think you're going to start seeing LEs roll off the line and into the homes beginning of February. Even if they say January, it's going to be February. We will be lucky to see SE Pluses in March. Lucky. But I wanted to update all of you on the mirrored backglasses. So it is true, PPS is coming out with mirrored backglass product for Cactus Canyon. And not only the LE buyers but the SE Plus and the SE buyers of Cactus Canyon Remake do qualify for this mirrored backglass. Prices? Of course, we don't know specifically. I think they said they're going to be about $250 plus. $250 plus if you want one of these. So whatever distributor you're going through for your Cactus Canyon remake, you can contact them. I know that Flip N Out Pinball customers will be receiving an email likely today, if they haven't already, asking if they would like to opt for a mirrored back glass for their Cactus Canyon. Jeez, why wouldn't you? The thing's practically free at $250. Yeah, $250. Yeah, that's pretty good. And the production timeline of those, they're guessing an estimation of January, February of 2022. So, they're coming. That is a sexy, sexy machine, that Cactus Canyon, I got to say. It really is. It really is. And speaking of coming home, someone came home this last week. Ho! That's right. His name is Mike. Ooh! That was... I don't even have to explain to you what that was. Mike Myers is in the house, Craig Bobby. Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! Don't touch me. mike myers has graced me with his presence as i unboxed my buttery buttery halloween oh bloodsuckers collector's edition whatever they call it now everybody's everybody's crapping on this game craig you see the discord our tp and discord it's ugly it's getting ugly out there it's a bloodbath just like halloween it's a bloodbath geez dead pre-orders lying everywhere I'm going to give you guys something I'm going to call things I like, things I don't. So I've put about 30 games on Halloween. Not nearly enough to make a judgment, but I'm a trained professional. And I'm going to give you three things I like and three things I don't. These are all tentative, of course. They can always change. Things that I like might be things I hate later. Things that I don't like may be cleaned up and fixed, and I love them. but as of right now as an early early owner of halloween things i like include the look of the game i just like the way it looks all lit up buttery cab i really really love and appreciate the cabinet and translate artwork and translate it's a screen printed back glass i really like the looks of this game the artwork on the play field itself if you isolate the images sure they're no zombie yeti or Christopher Franchi but as a whole bigger picture the composition's good it's just a good fun looking game i really like the way it looks in my collection things i don't the middle ramp blues boy oh boy the design of this middle ramp 80 percent of the time it works 100 of the time it has a diverter up top it is a center ramp shot so it's going to be on a weirder spot, odder spot on that flipper we know of all. But it does work when it goes left most of the time. When you're trying to get to the upper play field, mine in particular, maybe I need to adjust it. It's a monster. You think you can backhand it because you can hit the entrance of the ramp with a backhand. But unless you have a full stern flipper juice, it's not getting up there. And the problem is when it comes back down, it's going three-time twippy winner straight down the middle. I mean, it doesn't even give you a chance. So I'm not digging the middle ramp blues. But what I do like about Halloween is the theming. Oh, Craig, the theme plus the lighting plus the sound effects plus the call outs plus the music. You put those all together. It's a great experience. The theming of Halloween is phenomenal. Do you like the licensed property of Halloween? or are you not much of a whore? Well, it's why Travis Murry keeps playing that game. He loves the theming. He wants this thing to be a fantastic shooting beast. But sadly, it's not quite there yet. I don't love the theme of Halloween, just to get back to your question. I don't love it, but I don't hate it. I think it's kind of in the spooky wheelhouse, so it makes sense for them as a company. Do I think they could have done more with it considering the license, yes. It's too bad they couldn't have better access and get more clips in there. Maybe they will come, hopefully, in new versions of code. I think you're right. I mean the thing is it looks like it should be a shitload of fun with you know kind of three levels of play field and all those ramps and lights and stuff I love the look of it And we still get clips and a lot of people have told me like when they hear me say I like the call people are like, oh, God, Zach. Like, no, what are you talking about? But here's the thing, listener. The call-outs for me, I just love them. They're a level of campy and mimicking that doctor. It just, I love them. I don't think they're ever going to get old because if I'm playing a game, Craig, and I start mimicking during the game my own vocals in that character's voice or afterwards, I know it's a good call-out. I like those call-outs. But things I don't like include the call-outs because it's coding details right now. Now, the structure overall, I see where they're going, and I'm good with that. I'm not chasing points. So if you guys have these big holes that people are just hitting the power line or the bridge exploit like on Godzilla. That's fine. You can do that all day long. I care about the modes and the moments. I'm trying to get through that storyline. So the structure of itself, it's given me plenty to do. I'm not worried about that. But the details is what right now I don't like. The overlapping call-outs. If I have the main character or the main narrator giving a call-out, please do not have him overlapping his own voice because that doesn't make sense. squashing little bugs here and there that's making this a little glitchy. That seems to happen still as it does on spooky games early. I want to be able to restart a game. I don't even know if that's an option right now, holding down the start button and restarting a game. I'm talking to you too, American Pinball. Those kind of things I want because I'm a home collector-based, mode-based player. If I get to, after a ball one, if it pissed me off, I'm restarting a game. After ball two, if I've not got any modes going, I'm not wasting my time. So I want to restart games and just balance issues between the use of the upper playfields. There are some modes, Craig, that I'm up there and I'm supposed to be up there and I'm supposed to identify the shots up there. And it's a lot of fun getting up there. When you come down, you have to go back up. It just sometimes relies too heavily on it. But then sometimes it doesn't rely enough because I'll be on the middle playfield and I'll be like in an upper playfield mode. But the middle mode, it's not doing anything. why am I even that flipper should be dead if I can't accrue points on a stand up or a drop target or a hole up there on the second play field don't let my flipper work because I don't want to be up there just wailing away wasting my time if I'm not progressing through something give me something to do there because if I have to fall there on any of my modes there should always be something to do regardless if it's a big progress or maybe one tenth of the progress I could be if I was on the upper level I hope that makes sense I feel like, to be a little more critical of Spooky, I feel like for the age of the company now, that some of this stuff should have been worked out a little bit. Sure. I always feel like when these games come out that they kind of get there, but early on it's a bit of a cluster, you know what I mean? And that they tend to work these things out over time through code and through other little tweaks that you can make to your machine. So the bones are good in their ideas and stuff, but I just think the execution can still be improved upon, if that's being the most diplomatic about it. I think they got a winner there underneath all of that, but if they're going to reach that pinnacle in terms of an A-plus title, they've got to do a little more homework, I would say. Yeah, they cannot play the boutique card anymore. The tagline is we put the boo in boutique. Guys, you have to change that tagline. No longer are you putting the boo in boutique. You're putting the money in your pockets. You're making a lot of money now. You're making a lot of games now. I'm with a lot of other people, Craig. We're not a boutique company anymore, so we're going to hold you to a standard that is higher than that of making 50 games a year. Sorry. And congratulations at the same time. All right, last thing I like on Halloween is the feel. Believe it or not, I like the feel of this game. Sometimes before you can have those inconsistent flipper powers. Rick and Morty, can I get enough oomph to make that left ramp? You've got Alice Cooper that because there's so many posts, it feels like snappy flippers. You're going to break posts. But this game, the feel is good. That means the layout is good. I don't mind that layout. Even with three subway entrances over to the left of the game, which is, in my opinion, just a design head scratcher. I don't mind it because they're not gimme shots. This isn't a gimme shooter. It's not a hard shooter either. This is a middle of the road kind of shooter. So that lends itself well to a complex rule set that you're not going to be brutally damaged for missing shots, but you're also not going to be able to keep it going like Lord of the Rings. So I like the feel of it. On the other hand, my last don't. I don't like that there is a lack of a frosted molding for those LED strips. Now, those LED strips are prominent. They're individually programmed around the upper playfields, and they're responsible for a lot of the visual effects of the entirety of this game. They are, in my opinion, a central feature of this title, which is great because we all love light shows. Scott Danesi is not programming them, so we've got to be careful. But we've got these light shows. but they are simply exposed LED strip lighting. I need a frosted molding on those. It's a requirement. I have to have those, so much so that I will be commissioning someone out to fix that on my game. Now, they did try to put a plastic protector that extends and diffuses this. This is the response when people have said, where are the frosted lenses on these things? And guys, I love you. I do. And the deer urine you put on yourself, Luke. But I love your little dog, too, up there. I love the dogs of poppies. But no, no, no, no, nope, nope. LED strips in all of our minds now in the 21st century are cheap. They look cheap. They look amateur. We don't need to see LED lighting. I promise you, anytime I see an LED bulb on a strip, it's always, always, always, coming in harsh, going to look cheap. Put a diffuser on it. That's it. Wrap that baby around in a plastic molding. LEDs are really good at shining, Craig, and they will fill. They will very much fill a vessel. What do you call it? If you put a molding around that, it'll fill it. It'll be nice looking. but you got to do something there guys who are you having out to help you with your frosted frosted le is there like an led frosted specialist out there i appreciate it mind your own damn business greg bobby i will uh who's coming out to help you with that zach keep those sources to myself if you don't mind will they help you with your hair too give you some frosted tips on with your hair a little in sync action on there maybe they can help grow my hair so that's things i like things i don't about spooky pinballs halloween he's coming home y'all i need a smoke all right craig let's i'll give you some frosted tips oh god you filthy filthy man let's talk about homebrew uh i like it i like it do you really i like machines that are half baked and don't work most of the time they're my favorite well yeah well here's the thing and i'm I'm really surprised someone hasn't done this earlier. I mean, I know all the reasons, but I think it's an interesting twist that American Pinball is putting on this to kind of put it out to the community to say, hey, if you've got a viable, interesting homebrew idea, we're going to fucking help you getting it licensed and getting the thing made. I can't believe no one has kind of put that out there earlier. I know all the problems and the realities of that, but I think even from a PR standpoint, I think it's a very good move for them. And I agree. From a business standpoint, I'm totally fine with somebody doing a lot of work and then bringing it to me. I invest in it and make money. Fine with me. Why wouldn't you? Yeah. And then you put the whole army out there. Hey, everybody, keep working really hard so that you can bring it to me and I can handpick what will work and make me money. We'll just package it in a charity kind of thing. yeah exactly now am I am I down with their first selection in Legends of Valhalla you know of all the ones out there was that maybe the best of the best tea kettles but what the hell you know I know why from a licensing perspective I'm sure it was low hanging fruit for them and away they went and get on them. If they can do that once every other year or something like that, why not? I personally don't get into the home brews. I've got to be careful here. This is another very protected species here in the home brewers because if you talk negative about them, they really put the boo in boutique. Look out. But I will say this. I'm not as interested in home brews because I can't own them. I can't play them really. I like home brews when they're ready for production. That's when I want to see home brews. I otherwise like if I'm that interested in homebrew, I'll just do it myself. Like I want to do my own thing kind of thing. Right. So not really interested in homebrews that much personally until it's something that's like, oh, TNA. Oh, we got something or Sonic Spinball. Oh, something looks really good here. Then I become interested because I want to I want to get it into production kind of thing. But I fell in love in Cincinnati. Sorry, Nicole. I fell in love with the homebrew. And this homebrew, I don't know if it was done particularly like, this wasn't no heifer store, but this little engine that could melted my heart, Craig Bobby. So much so that I would take it probably over any other homebrew that people are developing right now. And it was a re-theme. They didn't even think of their own design. Jeez. It was a re-theme. And that re-theme was made by a group called Stupid Pinball. They think highly of themselves. Yeah, exactly. Stupid Pinball, meet the Loser Kids. Loser Kids, meet Poor Man. Self-deprecation at its finest. Stupid Pinball created Billy Madison, the Pinball Experience. It's too damn hot for a penguin to be just walking around here. Rethemed from a party animal? A ballet game that nobody cares about, but one that I've fallen in love with now because Billy Madison is one of the greatest comedies of all time. That is correct. And for those of you rolling your eyes, you're just wrong. For those of you questioning if I'm right, watch it again. It's the breakout Adam Sandler film that has at least 200 one-liners in it. Today, Junior! Roll on the floor laugh-a-thon. I love this film. And they took, stupid pinball, took this theme and said, nobody's going to make a Billy Madison, so we're going to. They rethemed this party animal, and I will find a way to own one of these games. It will be mine. Oh, yes. It will be mine. You have not dove down deep into the Billy Madison lore. I'm a little more familiar with Happy Gilmore afterwards because I think, like you were saying, The Billy Madison was sort of Adam Sandler's breakout movie, and they kept building on that with Happy Gilmore. So I think the world, the pinball world, is ready for a high-comedy-themed machine. And I'm really surprised the other manufacturers haven't jumped on that bandwagon. And we don't need, people call these dad bands or rock dad bands, right? We don't need dad comedies. No, I don't want blazing saddles. No, no, I don't want airplane. No. You know, take your vitamins, old man. Your day has passed. I want the Will Ferrells, the Chris Farleys, the Adam Sandlers of the world. That's what I want in my comedies. And Billy Madison is everything. Judas Priest Barber is one of those flaming bags again. Don't put it out with your boots, Tad. Don't tell me my business, devil woman. Call the fire department. This room's out of control. You know what guys do? We're so stupid. Stupid guy things right here, ladies and gentlemen. We can sit, two friends, can sit in the same room for at least 45 minutes to an hour and simply recite one-liners back and forth to one another and cackle like a bunch of schoolgirls. That's what stupid guys can do. There's nothing more fun than that. He called it shit, poop. Like, just stuff like that. I don't know why. That always comes to my mind. Yes. Oh, my gosh. If peeing your pants is cool, consider me Miles Davis. I could do it all day long. But the one that I will say before we move on, one of my favorite quotes from Billy Madison is this. After learning about the puppy, or is it the lucky puppy, or the puppy called Luck, or something like that, Miss Lippy in kindergarten reads Billy Madison and the rest of the kids this book talking about finding a lost puppy. and he says, whoa, whoa, whoa, Miss Lippy. The part of the story I don't like is that the little boy gave up looking for happy after an hour. He didn't put up posters or anything. He just sat on the porch like a goon, and he waited. A little boy's got to think. You've got a pet. You've got a responsibility. If your dog is lost, you don't look for an hour, then call it quits. You get your ass out there, and you find that fucking dog. You've got to grind it out. You've got to want a dog. That's right. Pick up a mop. Happenstance. billy's with me and i hope you are too ladies and gentlemen go check out stupid pinballs billy madison you're going to be seeing a straight down the middle video on it in 2022 coming soon can't wait hey craig bobby i know that sometimes you have trouble sleeping at night and the only way you can get to bed and rest easy is with a warm full full dose of pinball market trends am i right Let it wash over me. It's washing over me right now. How do you feel that pinball market trends... Do you think pinball market trends is meta trending up, trending down, staying the same? Well, I know Dennis will not appreciate this comment, but it's now kind of like crypto. It's got a curve that's so vertical now. It's exponential. It's like Mike Myers when he comes home. Yeah. It keeps stabbing you again and again. Oh, gross. It's really, it's become a monster of its own. I'm behind the wheel sometimes, and I feel out of control. That's the wild beast that we're trying to tame here on the pinball show. But if anybody's going to be behind the wheel in the reins of this stallion, it's me, Craig. I'm glad you're at the wheel and not me, because God knows what would happen. Ladies and gentlemen, don't worry. I will lead us on this beast to the promised land. in pinball market trends. That's for you, Craig Bobby. That one's ringing in my ears. Yeah, I kept her tamed for the last couple weeks in preparation for this. I've been building it up. That lucky victim, and that's you. Training up this week is the market. You've heard it. It's on fire, ladies and gentlemen. Buy, buy, buy. Buy, buy, buy. Everything has got to go. Have we seen this fiery of a market since you've entered pinball? Never. It hadn't happened. Hey, old man Clemens over there. When I bought Circus Voltaire, it was $800. Nobody cares, old man. How much is Circus Voltaire worth now? It's on fire. Are you all selling? Selling high? Has it peaked? The biscuits are burning, as they say. That's right. Butter my biscuit, baby. What's your Ghostbusters worth now? Especially right now, guys. The market is on fire. Regarding these higher-end examples. These LEs. That's where the market is burning the turn, baby. Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, Ghostbusters, Batman 66. Those titles are flaming. They're flaming. Are they going to get overcooked? Only time will tell. Pay close attention to pinball market trends, because once it starts dipping, you'll know before and you can get out. Is it a coincidence that Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, Ghostbusters, and Batman 66 are amongst the most iconic themes in intellectual properties and entertainment? it hmm take note people when you think original themes work ask everybody how that dialed in is working out right now for them when they're trying to sell it so is it a hold you think zach on these things would you hold on these if you own one of these titles or is it is it a get out now i think each title is different if you're looking to sell one of your titles listener you really need to look at the comps, see what that particular title is doing and where it is in the zeitgeist and where it is in our community right now, in the collector community especially. See how many of those titles are for sale right now. Ghostbusters may be selling for 10 to 12 to 15, at least going for 20, but how many are on the market? How quick do you need to sell these things? If you need to sell one, Craig, then you put it in at the comp minus $100. That way they're going to click on that one first and they're going to get it done. If you're fine just playing the market and seeing where it goes and you're willing to give it up at this exponentially high price right now, put it a little bit higher. Put a selling point that you have that the other machines do not have and let it sit. Let it bake a little bit. Put it out there. See what happens. See if that smell from that sweet, sweet apple pie on the seal will bring in gentlemen call us from across the land to touch your apple pie. Sorry, I don't know these analogies. But that's what I would say. I don't think you necessarily have to sell. But if money is a priority and you want to put it back into the marketplace on some maybe low flyers, then yeah. I think you put one of your big boys out there that you're tired of playing with. because I don't see it going. It's not going to keep going, people. That's the first time you've heard me say that, but it will not keep going. We're going to plateau. We'll find a nice plateau, and we'll come down the most boring roller coaster all the way to the line because it'll be nice and slowly coming down. It's not going to fall out like that ghost fart. Not going to fall out. Or like my first marriage. Oh! Hey! I'm still working on my food. So, I can't tell you. I mean, Pinball Market Trends, this is everything to me. This is the pinnacle of what I've been waiting for in the creation of this whole segment, is the market being on fire like this. However, it makes it kind of difficult, people, because everything is on fire and nothing is not. Nothing is not. But I can tell you what is too hot to try. Trending up this week is Dennis Creasel. Ooh. My sweet, sweet, succulent little Den Den. Hey Denny, thank you. You know why. I'm about to explain to these people why you are trending up. You're always trending up in my heart, but even more so now. This last week, Nicole and I received a package on our front door. No, it wasn't Happy the little puppy in the Billy Madison. No, it wasn't that. No, it wasn't him returning his Xbox to me because I had a red ring in death. No, he was issuing us a Christmas present. One listener that will showcase the true heart and the Scrooge that Dennis Creasle is not. Like Tiny Tim, I held my turkey of a present as tears came streaming down my face. Knowing that, sir, you have a heart. He truly, truly has a heart. He came to redeem us all in the mini household where he issued us the greatest present. You can't purchase these gifts from him. And attached, there was a letter on aged paper. And I can tell that it was typed using an old typewriter. I'm not going to read this to you because it's an essay in true Dennis Creasel fashion. but he did describe in excruciating detail each gift that he had provided to us and is presenting to us along with the historical data associated with these gifts. Scrooge McCreasel also included links to YouTube videos on where we can check out the references to which he was showcasing to us. He gave us instructions on how to work the devices that he gave us as well as common troubleshooting problems. and what all he went through time-wise and expertise-wise, his craft of what his gift was bringing. So for Christmas, Nicole and I both received beautiful, beautiful timepieces. Yes. I thought you were going to say matching monogram pajamas or something like that. Matching jammies! No. This came true. Jesus! Yeah, this was truly the deepest artery of his Creasley heart. Wow. Yeah. This is the Grinch at the very end when he finally realizes, I fucked up. These who's are okay. Pass me that weird ass turkey. Here's your presents back. Cindy Lou Who, I'm sorry. I was wrong. Christmas isn't about the gifts that we receive. It's about the gifts that we give and being with one another. And I think Dennis Creasel realized that this last week. He gave my wife a vintage R.A. Kenyon wristwatch. A 2.5 hertz manual wind only Swiss made movement by the Berman Watch Company. Wow. This was so important to her. We went through detail. He has been painstakingly training himself on how to repair ladies wristwatches for months. and I knew about this and I thought what a boring content for YouTube but damn it listener I'm going to tear up just talking about it truly he was doing this for my wife he was doing this for Nicole and that kind of stuff see I am getting emotional he even says in his description there are imperfections to this watch it is a pre-owned watch much like Dennis is hard that's right it is And he said, you can't buy these. And it does have vintage pieces on it because it's truly one of a kind. And she read this and she looked at it. Like, he nailed this gift. And you can't put a price on it. She said this was the nicest and most thoughtful gift she ever received Jeez In her 28 years of life You welcome Nicole 28 golden years That nice I mean it made me feel like a dick because I was like oh sorry You've just been one-upped. Yeah. I guess that kitchen mixer I gave you last year should have went with a cheaper model. No, I have to go with the KitchenAid. Maybe you'll have to do a podcast every fourth week now. Yeah, that's right. and then if that wasn't enough listener uh he said as as a vintage piece does it does have wear in places just truly truly profound human being this dennis grace list and for me he gifted me a hamilton khaki pilot pioneer auto chrono watch he said model h7 645 6955 if you'd like to be specific and i shit you not that's typed here um it was professionally serviced last year service records just talking about the strap and the details of this along with an informational link where i can find out more it's exquisite i've never never been in the receiving situation like this i so yes training up is dennis creasel to a degree that i'll never be able to repay Man, Dennis. Jeez, it makes my gift to Nicole to Applebee's look really sort of insincere now, doesn't it? That Oreo shake? Yeah. I was banking on lively and witty conversation, though. Well, hey, she's not too good for Applebee's. She'll jump in the Yukon and go have Applebee's. She is down. I can barely get a compliment out of Dennis these days. I don't receive compliments for him, but I'll take this once a year. Wow. Makes my Xbox look like I'm a cheap dick. Oh, it's fantastic. Man, wait until he gets what I'm giving. Dennis Creasel is always trending up, but not everything can trend up. Something has got to trend down. Trending down this week, not much on the secondary market, not much on the market in general. Have you not seen new and box machines going for way more than MSRP? Not that I was going to tell you that three weeks ago that that was going to happen. It's already happening. We're seeing it, ladies and gentlemen. Trending down this week is greed. Barely got that one out. greed greed money hold it too long hold it in your hand see what happens ladies and gentlemen because if you're trying to sell a game and you've already getting four thousand dollars more than the market would bear a year ago don't get too greedy let's not go there no somebody's going to offer you 200 less and it's already 4 000 over take that deal don't be the schmuck don't do it you'll regret it later don't be greedy and in the time of the holiday season and christmas Listen, Jesus, can we all not be a little less greedy? I'll be getting emails now. Let's go over to our deals of the week. Buy, buy, buy! Deal of the week this week is going to be a Godzilla LE. Follow me, everybody, to Pennside where you can find an LE of Godzilla. Mmm, so juicy and silvery. Still would have went with silver there. I would have went with dark blue. Illusion blue. That's probably what I would have went with. That's okay. Make your Godzilla thing up just like Mandalorian. But if you look out of Minnesota, hey, look, he's become a regular here on Pinball Market Trends because he's got damn deals, baby. Vinny, selling this thing for a little bit over three, Vinny. He's selling his Godzilla. Ellie, we know he keeps the nicest games. One owner, 163 lifetime plays. It's new. Plus, he's already went above and beyond to powder coat that coin door to match the trim as well as the speaker panel. Speaker panel, take it or leave it. I really don't like that. We'll keep it black. But the coin door is where it's at. I love powder-coated matched coin doors. No blemishes. He's even willing to work with shippers. And right now he's wanting this for $14,000 or best offer. Now, people are going to say, wait a minute. For an LE, they were a little over $10,000 on MSRP. How is this deal the week? Well, this is still the week when the going price is $15,000. That's the difference of $1,000. Plus, you powder-coat that coin door and take the time to do all that. That's another $500. And we know that Vitty keeps his games the nicest. Buy this thing without hesitation. He's got Oboe. You know what? Tis the season, bitches. I'd give him $14,000 straight up for it and buy him a little present. Your other deal of the week this week is a Star Trek Next Generation. I'd love that game still. Love that game. Found on Pennside by Arthur Rag outside of New Jersey. Selling a Star Trek Next Generation. Looks like a clean machine. Excellent condition. PinStadium Lights. It's a Penevator headset, Vuck decals, LED playfield, new coils. He's gone through it. Extra bird of prey. I own one of these games, and I can say that looking at his, his is clean. And looking at others, they're not. It's hard to find a nice, clean Star Trek next gen, Craig. Make it so, number one. No, that wasn't a good one. No, it's good. Make it so. $62.50. Look, last year it would have been on the higher end for this title. But in the current marketplace, we're seeing the exponential market prices going for the nicer game. The nicer game you have, it starts rocket shipping a lot higher. At $62.50, I think this is a pull. Go ahead. Pull the trigger. And buy, buy, buy! Buy, buy, buy! It's a good one. I may like something, but I'll piss on another in this week's deal of the WTF this week. There's a beautiful Jurassic Park LA that's still in the box. Wait a minute. Let's jump over to Pennside here. Jimmy James 8976. So original. You think there's really 8,000 plus other Jimmy James here on Pennside? I think not. They're unknown location. It shows them in a satellite. Looks like they're in Buffalo. They're up there close to the Canadians. Maybe that's why this price is smoking hot. They're wacky. No shit. All right. So Jurassic Park Ellie is still new in the box. Why do you still have it in the box? climate controlled still strapped to the pallet are you getting this from a dealer i also have a premium godzilla new in the box just because i hate pinball and i just want to leave them in the box i'm looking to sell these together but i'd be willing to part it for the right price i hope this is a combined price because at thirty two thousand dollars i don't know what this is but it's not a good price it's not a good price it's a deal of the what the Absolutely. But if these are both new, this could be a deal of the week. If $32,000 gets you the combo that is Jurassic Park new in the box and the premium Ghostbusters, eh, not a bad price. But a $32,000 for just this Jurassic Park? Piss off. No, no, no. I don't know whether this is a deal of the who. The other deal of the WTF this week I love because on Penn side, I sometimes find people talking about pinball market trends or about yours truly, Craig, and they'll say things like, man, I can picture this on pinball market trends this next week. Guess what, guys? If you're going to say that kind of stuff and put me out there, I'm going to help you out. I agree. This is a deal of the what the fuck. What is going on here on pin side? Diener, Diener, with three R's the second time around. Maybe he has a stuttering problem. I'm sorry. Outside of Charlotte, North Carolina. Got good biscuits down there, but the prices are insane. Diener, what are you doing? Ghostbusters Pro. Light mods with a color display. Slime, light. I don't care. For $12,000, you better get Ernie Hudson to come play with me. Sell, sell, sell. It plays perfectly like new condition. Even new in the box. Is it new in the box? No, not 12. Nope. And what a sweetheart. He's in the giving season. It's Christmas and Jesus and such. Delivery's even available, Craig. at an extra fee. Your Slimer's flaccid, bud. This ain't gonna work. Not for $12,000. I'm not even sure I'm meet and greet with Bill Murray if they threw that in there. I don't even know if that'd be worth it. Now you're pressing the button. Maybe. Maybe that would be worth it. I don't ever want to meet celebrities. Do you? It's a real, you know, I do and I don't. I've had, I've met a few and some of them are fantastic. You're like, oh, that was, you know, they're way nicer than you think. And then other times I've had some actually bad experiences with them and I'm like, oh damn it now it's forever tainted forever and clean so for careful what you wish for everybody you know see i don't want to meet celebrities because yeah my ego doesn't allow for it hear me out here listener if i were to meet a oh my god a leonardo dicaprio my knees would shake my loins would heat up because there's nothing like a leo but i don't think i want to meet him because you know what? I'm pretty self-aware, Craig. And if I was him, I wouldn't want to meet me. No. Any interaction with a me, no, just with a me in general, is going to be one that is going to be work. So he's going to have to be forced into meeting a fan such as me. Thus, I'm self-aware to know if I was him, I wouldn't want to meet me. Thus, I don't want to meet him. Is that weird? Yeah, you're psyching yourself out a little bit, maybe. maybe like if I was in the same room with him and like a conversation casually was brought up about how wonderful he was in Titanic and some of the different films that they're so underrated like hashtag overrated I would you son of a bitch I would probably tell him hey guess what like you don't have to talk to me because I know who you are you don't know who I am and if I were you I wouldn't want to talk to me so I'm at least aware enough to know that this has worked for you So, honestly, I think either we cut the bullshit right now and we either fucking go have a drink or smoke some weed or whatever we want to do, or we just cut it here and you don't have to feel like you have to do anything to save your fate. I don't care. You're just another human being with me. But one that could have held on a little longer. I'm not going to lie, Leo. Like, I know you're frozen, but it's Kate Winslet there. Come on, eh? Who wouldn't be frozen? What's that about? Huh? It's a glacier, eh? You're cold, I know. No, I'm the same way. I'm always, you kind of, you kind of, whenever I've met celebrities before, you're always thinking, fuck, they've heard this before. And it just sounds insincere, like you're blowing smoke up their ass, like, oh, you were so great. Oh, God. Yeah. Whatever. You know, like, fuck, they haven't heard that about a thousand fucking times. But the, you know, but the gracious, the gracious celebrities can help you with that a little bit. And they, and they kind of push past that stuff a little bit, I think. I wouldn't. If I was a celebrity, I'd be like, dude, you're going to have to bring some A-game. All right, I'm going to tell you my celebrity encounter. I'm going to tell you my bad celebrity encounter. Was it Sly Stallone? Who was it? Hey, yo. Well, and it's timely, too, because of Rush. Years ago, this goes way back, I was at a comic convention. Surprise, surprise. Fucking nerd. Every Jabba the Hutt figurine with you in your pocket. and who do i see walking around with with i think was there was the i can't remember if they were with their kid at the time or not anyway was Geddy Lee from rush oh so they're walking around going from table to table and they had a like a very small you know people would come up to come up to him occasionally because i i sort of rumor had it that he was at the show and and then you know It wasn't a huge show. He's everywhere in Canada, by the way. He's everywhere. Sorry, God. Anyway, so there he is wandering around, and I'm like, ooh, I don't know. Should I go up to him? Should I not go up? You know, you have that, like, should I, shouldn't I, should I? And, you know, I'm watching people come and go from him, and, you know, the interactions seem to be okay. And then I'm like, fuck it. I screwed up my courage, and I'm like, I can't just go over with nothing. So what do I go over with? Like, I rip off a piece of paper from something, a brochure or something I had in my hand. Oh, no preparation. Yeah. go over with a pen, right? And I'm like, so he's doing something else. And so I said, oh, excuse me, Mr. Lee. You know, I'm really sorry to bother you, but I'm a huge fan, and I was just wondering if you might sign this thing. He just looked at me, like, with this look of disgust on his face. Like, I interrupted him at the most, you know, inappropriate time. The guy's at a fucking comic convention, let's remember, right? So what do you think is going to happen? People are going to approach him from all over the place, right? So he looked at me with this look of disgust, and he grabbed the pen and the piece of paper out of my hand, and he said, you're not sorry. And he scribbled the worst initial on the paper, and he shoves it back in my face and just turned away from me. Oh, did you drop the pen when he shoved it? And I was like, oh, thank you. And I'm a kid at the time, right? I'm like maybe 16, 17 at the time when this happened. And I was like, fuck. and ever since then, it's like it's tainted the way I feel about fucking Rush. I'm like, well, fuck you, Geddy. Sorry. Sorry I've only spent, like, my allowance for the last fucking 20 years on your fucking stream music. Oh, whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Man. Oh, I'm still bitter. Well, I can sense that. I feel it. Help me, Dr. Many. Help me. Wow. As long as you don't have a plot to assassinate Geddy Lee, I think we're fine. So care for everybody with your idols. careful because they're humans too. No, I love Getty. Have fun with your Rush Pinball machine, assholes. You don't deserve it. Do you think it was just because you presented him with a gnarled off piece of paper? Probably because I wasn't a young, beautiful woman who was trying to fawn over him or something. I don't know. No, it probably just caught him. Again, like you said with celebrities, I'm sure they go out into public and they're sort of, sometimes, maybe he's just in a bad mood that day. Who knows? I have to ask this, Greg. Where's that autograph right now? I don't know. Exactly. See, I don't want to give up my pride for a piece of paper of something that I could give two shits about. I know. You think I care about Leonardo DiCaprio's signature? Hell no. I don't care about a picture. You think I want a picture with Leo? Hell no, I don't. You know why? I want pictures of people I know want to be in a picture. You're not going to buy this love, homie. No. So that's how I am. I'm weird with celebrities. Yeah, I'm the same way. Just leave them be. Yeah, leave them be. You know, they're just people, like you said, they couldn't give two shits about how much you liked their last movie or this movie or what they've done. They've got friends. They don't need more. They don't want more. Now, you know, if I was boxed in an elevator and it was just this almost rom-com-like scripted thing. And I was, you know, maybe I might throw a couple sly one-liners and witty banter back and forth just to see if they pick up on my nibble, on my bait. Other than that, I'm not going to be left high and dry. No, no, no, no, no, no. You're not going to ruin my fragile psyche with your scorn and disdain? Precisely. You don't know me and you won't know me, sir. You will not know me. And as always, ladies and gentlemen, I'm just here to report the facts because numbers don't lie. Pinball Market Trends. Exclusively on the Pinball Show. It was worth every minute. Worth every minute. Let's close it down here, Craig. Turn the lights off. It's been something. Get your Getty Voodoo doll. Yeah, I feel like I've opened up. I've learned. We've loved We've really come together here on this episode We've taken people through a journey And isn't that what pinball is all about The story here is When it's Christmas and Jesus y'all Get to know those people that you think you know But you don't Rather than the people you don't and think you do Wow Hashtag profound yo Life lessons If people want to get a hold of you And give you the secrets to stir Don't Don't The pinball network at gmail.com You can reach Craig there You can reach myself there Dennis Creasy He prefers Eclectic Gamers podcast To this point I don't know why Numbers don't lie Dennis But if you want to reach him Reach out over there Or at the pinball network at gmail.com His heart is really in TPS His heart is in TPS really Yeah I think Eh Tony's got what I can't give him whatever i know and it'll always be that way no matter how you know no matter how many gift cards to applebee's you throw at them look this devo doesn't need a crease let's just i need a stage and i need a mic and i need a warm hug every now and then and i also need a fucking hamilton kaki pilot pioneer auto chrono watch baby daddy cashed in this year big time you can also reach me straight down the middle of youtube video series and i gotta tell you guess what's coming out hot this week godzilla review by greg bone and zach many oh i can't wait the boys are back in town we're coming in and i gotta say our last recording session between that maybe you're gonna get another top 10 list that hasn't been done before may even get a guns and roses review and that recording sesh was like the old times again. Like 2017 all over again. Just Greg, just Zach, just the facts and just the mom jokes. You've got to tune in, subscribe and follow there. Also, remember to share that Loser Kid Pinball Podcast episode with myself so that you can win a Mandalorian Translight and or banner. At the very least, re-gift it, people! Zach, did you see what I was wearing today? Can you see this on the thing? Let me just unzip. Oh, I see the Kraken. I see his tentacles. Do you see that? Do you see what I'm sporting today? A little straight down Does it feel good? Oh, God. Nice fit? Speaking of buttercabs, I mean, this thing, when you put it on, you're like, oh, Triblend. Why? That's right. Why do I do anything else? Why are we torturing everybody, people? Exactly. It's Triblend or nothing. Come on. Triblend or die. Some people try to advertise and put their logo all over your chest and chafe your nipples because they're cheap bastards, and they're going to buy 100% cotton from the nastiest manufacturer out there. No, no, no. Not with TP and flipping out merchandise. Nope. Stop torturing yourself and do yourself a favor and go get one of these things. Thank you. Because I'm telling you, the print quality, the colors, I mean. They pop. Colors pop. It's fantastic. Now get out of the park, Franchi. Where is Franchi? What the hell happened to that guy? He's so hard at work. He doesn't have time for this shit. I don't know. Maybe he's practicing his Sean Connery illustrations. I don't know. Maybe. You can also check me out at Flip N Out Pinball. How about buying a brand-new machine or a used machine or some accessories or an arcade machine or an Escalera or whatever you want to buy. If you're going to buy that deal of the week in the Star Trek Next Gen, you better have an Escalera or you're going to have an Escahernia. That's what's going to happen. Wasn't that good of a joke, but Craig laughed. I appreciate it, Craig. Product showcase this week is let's go with the Pinball Brothers Alien Standard. should be having them in soon. And order your LV with us as well because those should be coming in. I have no clue. So coming around the bend in 2022. Also, Cactus Canyon SE and SE Pluses. Get those back glasses for you LE, SE, or SE Plus buyers. Pre-order. We sell spots for the SE and the SE Pluses. Elvira 40th anniversary. Look, I'm hard-headed. I will not take my own advice. I'll sit. I'll sit. I know what I got. I know what I got. You check eBay yet? See them eBay prices? I know what I got. Star Wars, the pen, comic, and original in stock in time for the holidays. I think I can get it to you all. Yeah. If you failed as a parent or as a brother or as a son or as anything, you know in your hearts of hearts, listener, if you are failing, if you are an utter disgrace to the relationship that is your family and friends, you know who you are out there. And right now, you feel like shit. But I could fix that. I can fix that today. All you've got to do is go to flippingoutpinball.com and order yourself a pinball machine, specifically the pin version of Star Wars, and we'll get it to you. Give me a call, 812-457-9711. Buy an Elite Pinball IJ Topper, Banners, we've got them, Shooter Rods, Toppers, etc. And buy some merch to help support the show. Last week at TPN Craig, we had the Free Play Pinball Podcast. You been listening to any of those yet? Bill Webb, Man of Hamilton? Gold. It's podcasting gold. I have not listened to this week's episode though But I'm saving it up I like saving my podcasts up For when I know I'm in the car Or I'm doing stuff You gotta save yourself I like listening to when I'm vacuuming Do you ever listen to when you're vacuuming, Zach? Hashtag get a fucking maid I was gonna say No, this is I don't particularly vacuum You know when I take You're too busy weaving gold You're weaving gold, baby No, I'm driving, I'm listening to podcasts I'm taking a shit, I'll listen to podcasts in the shower. If your audio qualities are high enough, I'll listen to you in the shower. While you're sudsing up? Yeah. Sudsy sudsy. Or when I'm doing paperwork. I like to have that background fodder. Coming this week, we have another final round pinball podcast. Bringing back an old member of the clan. So we're going to hear that and it's going to be a really good one. The pinball industry awards coming up. I didn't announce this, but I did on Loser Kid. I've stepped away from that, Craig. And listener. So, yep. I will not be a part of the crystals this year. Not for better, not for worse, just, you know, hashtag reasons. And I will be sitting in the stands eating my popcorn, and I can't wait to cheer on some of you winners and losers out there. Maybe I'll vote. I wonder if I can still vote as part of the committee. I don't know if I can. I'll have to look at the rules. I'll be there watching as well as the Twippies in March. I'll be at TPF, so I'll be there. Not hosting, but I'll be there. and then uh just collecting all the trophies no i'm not bitter no no no not bitter hashtag still my baby hashtag not bitter i think that's it for this week do you need to step away for a few weeks and then come back as if nothing's happened do you need to do that sometimes look sometimes you weave gold and sometimes you let people wear that fleecy gold blanket and then they fucking think it's theirs it's look it happens it happens the best rumple still skins in the world understand where I'm coming from. Yeah. For Craig Bobby, I'm very fortunate to be your Zach Minney. When it comes to Geddy Lee, you'll have to wait and go fuck yourself. That's it. And always practice safe pinball and chlorophyll more like borophyll. Have a great week. When there is no news, we create it. TPN. Exactly. Those are Elwynn games. I have to warm up to them because they're the ones that I come back to and turn on the most. They truly are. It scratches something. It does something to you that makes you, like you said, you're pissed off about it. And you step away, and after five minutes, you're like, I'm going to play that fucker again. Yeah, it's that tickle spot of Rover, right? You find his little tickle spot? Mm-hmm. Yeah. His little leg goes crazy. Can you hear my leg going right now? Oh, there. See, there it is. That's not my leg. Sorry. That's a good Bobby. Oh. Well, he's an artist. He's a conflicted artist. There's a lot of emotion, Zach. This bullshit artist stuff. I never got into that. He's eccentric. He's an artist. No, he's an asshat, is what he is. Be a decent human being, people. Do you have any more gum? Stop looking at me, Swan.