Journalist Tool

Kineticist

  • HDashboard
  • IItems
  • ↓Ingest
  • SSources
  • KBeats
  • BBriefs
  • RIntel
  • QSearch
  • NName Review
  • +Health

v0.1.0

← Back to items

The Pinball Show Ep 135: Where Is Pinball Heading?

The Pinball Show·podcast_episode·1h 33m·analyzed·Aug 15, 2023
View original
Export .md

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.030

TL;DR

Stern delays James Bond to Q3 2024; Zombie Yeti hired full-time; industry shifts to production grind.

Summary

The Pinball Show discusses Stern's production schedule delays, with James Bond potentially pushed to Q3 2024, while noting the industry transition from announcement hype to actual build-and-ship mode. Stern officially hires Zombie Yeti as full-time art director; Spooky teases a possible Princess Bride game via Easter egg; Dutch Pinball partners with Art of Pinball for sculpts. Hosts debate market trends, manufacturer capacity constraints, and FOMO erosion from production delays.

Key Claims

  • Stern Pinball is officially hiring Zombie Yeti (Jeremy Packer) as a full-time employee.

    high confidence · Craig Bobby segment citing Jeremy's Loser Kid podcast interview

  • James Bond 007 Pro/Premium could be bumped from December 2023 to Q3 2024 (9+ month delay).

    high confidence · Direct production schedule update from Stern

  • Stern's facility move is now scheduled for end of August 2023.

    high confidence · Zach states 'the move has moved' from earlier estimate to end of August

  • Keith Elwin may have more than two games coming out in the next 12 months (2024).

    medium confidence · Jeremy Packer hinted in Loser Kid podcast interview; Craig Bobby reports rumor

  • Spooky employee Bug wore a Princess Bride t-shirt during Scooby-Doo livestream, possibly hinting at future Spooky title.

    medium confidence · Craig Bobby notes as 'hiding-in-plain-sight easter egg' but acknowledges could be trolling

  • Dutch Pinball has partnered with Art of Pinball (Lior Rajwan) for sculpts, toys, and mods for Big Lebowski and future projects.

    high confidence · Craig Bobby cites Nap Arcade announcement

  • Production delays erode FOMO (fear of missing out) that drives pinball purchasing decisions.

    high confidence · Craig Bobby opening commentary on production cycle dynamics

  • Godzilla Premium backordered status indicates strong demand; Q3 2024 Godzilla Pro run planned.

    high confidence · Production schedule discussion between Zach and Dennis

Notable Quotes

  • “It's a time of going from looking good on paper and pulling in all those orders to actually building units and getting them to eager customers in a reasonable amount of time.”

    Craig Bobby @ ~13:30 — Frames industry-wide transition from hype/sales to manufacturing execution and tests patience/FOMO

  • “Zombie Yeti becoming a full-time employee with Stern is like hearing about your good friends finally getting married after dating for 8 years. What the heck took you so long?”

    Craig Bobby @ ~14:20 — Notes long history of freelance collaboration before official hire; normalizes the move

  • “The move has moved. The inception of move. The move is the end of August now.”

    Zach @ ~28:00 — Confirms facility relocation delay; impacts production schedule

  • “James Bond, either they're going to run it in December or they're going to bump it until Q3 of 2024, which further reinforces my fantasy that something else is coming November or December.”

    Zach @ ~30:00 — Speculates on hidden game announcements based on Bond delay gap

  • “My magic rush ball is telling me as I shake it that 2024 might be the end of James Bond then.”

    Zach @ ~29:30 — Humorous but reflects concern about Bond viability/demand declining

  • “Even the most popular titles that sell really well, we're going to see them as probably a bulk run once a year. It's what we've seen for Deadpool.”

    Zach @ ~36:00 — Identifies market pattern: top-selling games now constrained to annual production runs due to capacity

  • “The whole James Bond Pro and Premium could be bumped entirely until not only 2024, but Q3 of 2024. Oh. Nearly a year.”

    Zach and Dennis @ ~29:00 — Emphasizes severity of delay; 9+ month push unprecedented in recent announcements

Entities

Zombie Yeti (Jeremy Packer)personStern PinballcompanySpooky PinballcompanyDutch PinballcompanyArt of Pinball (Lior Rajwan)companyKeith ElwinpersonThe Pinball ShoworganizationLoser Kid Pinball Podcastorganization

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Zach speculates gap between Bond delay (pushed to Q3 2024) may indicate hidden game announcements for November/December.

    medium · Zach: 'further reinforces my fantasy that something else is coming November or December'

  • ?

    product_concern: Production delays are eroding FOMO (fear of missing out) that historically drives pinball purchasing decisions.

    high · Craig Bobby opening: 'precious pinball FOMO that fuels so many decisions begins to slowly slip away with every passing month'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Stern Pinball facility move rescheduled from earlier estimate to end of August 2023; impacts Q3 shipping.

    high · Zach confirms 'the move has moved...the move is the end of August now'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Even top-selling titles (Deadpool, Godzilla) now limited to single bulk run per year due to production constraints.

    high · Zach: 'even the most popular titles...we're going to see them as probably a bulk run once a year'

  • $

    market_signal: Godzilla Premium remains backordered; strong demand supports continued production; Q3 2024 Godzilla Pro planned.

    high · Zach: 'Godzilla premiums like the one game that there's people still backordered on'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Zombie Yeti (Jeremy Packer) transitioned from freelance contractor to full-time Stern Pinball employee.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.280

0:00
Warning, the following episode contains adult language and screaming goats. Listener discretion is advised.
0:13
The Pinball Network is online. Launching the Pinball Show. Zoinks! This week on the Pinball Show, Dennis and I make fun of teenagers. Dennis gets in a situation that leaves him with a case of blue nobes. We update everyone on the Stern Pinball production schedule as well as look into the future. We also dive deeper into the ever-evolving pinball industry marketplace and changes in how games are sold. For those exclusive TPS members, we discuss Dutch pinball and their future. And we round out episode 135, of course, with pinball market trends. Let's crow!
0:59
In the quiet of the night, you know that I caught it. Pinball is a game of skill. Back door, shiny toy with a price, you know that I bought it. For some, it's a passion and a lifestyle.
1:12
It's time for the Pinball Show. Rebels roll the dice, angels roll their eyes. It's pinball with personality. And it's blue, the shape of your body. It's blue, the feeling I've got in it. Hey everybody, what's happening? It's the Pinball Show. Welcome back. It's episode 135, Dennis. You hear all these people? They're raving. Woo! Caw-caw! Oh, raven, not ravens. Oops. Yeah, that's right. They're screaming. I get confused. They're throwing beads at us. Beads? Mardi Gras?
1:51
When's Fat Tuesday? Not the beads! Not the beads! Oh, everything's blending together in my head. How are you, my friend? I'm fine. You know, last week, people loved that Children's Demolition Derby talk. Did they? They did. We got good feedback from that. And you know what? The exclusive pinball show Patreon members on our Discord recently got to see a visual just to show it wasn't fabricated by myself. You've seen the picture, Dennis. I sent a picture to our TPS members. and the visual is almost even better than the story that I put out there. Oh, you see the storm coming in? You see that one poor little boy with his two small power wheels? Good stuff. People loved it. It just goes to show you, Dennis and listener, that a podcast about pinball, you know what? It can be entertaining, too. It's okay. On occasion. Buckle up into your power wheel. Let's go.
Nap Arcade
organization
Zach Minneyperson
Dennisperson
Craig Bobbyperson
Bugperson
Flippin' Out Pinballcompany

high · Craig Bobby confirms official hire; notes 8-year freelance relationship prior

  • ?

    announcement: Dutch Pinball officially partners with Art of Pinball (Lior Rajwan) for sculpts, toys, mods on Big Lebowski and future projects.

    high · Craig Bobby cites Nap Arcade announcement; blurred images released

  • ?

    product_strategy: James Bond 007 Pro/Premium potentially pushed 9+ months from December 2023 to Q3 2024.

    high · Zach states 'large likelihood' Bond bumped to Q3 2024; notes 'nearly a year' delay

  • ?

    product_strategy: 2024 Stern roadmap includes Star Wars, Mandalorian, plus unannounced titles. Q2: Foo Fighter Pro; Q3: Godzilla Pro; Q4: Jurassic Park Pro.

    high · Zach provides detailed 2024 production schedule via Stern production updates

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Keith Elwin rumored to have more than two pinball games in development for next 12 months.

    medium · Jeremy Packer hinted in Loser Kid interview; fanned 'rumor flames' per Craig Bobby

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Spooky Pinball may be developing Princess Bride pinball game; hinted via Bug's t-shirt Easter egg during Scooby-Doo stream.

    low · Craig Bobby notes 'hiding-in-plain-sight easter egg' but acknowledges could be trolling; no official confirmation

    • 2:50
    What have you been up to this last week? Oh, well, as you knew from the last episode, I wasn't allowed at that time to make it public. Yeah, I'm changing jobs. So I am trying to wind everything. I'm working through the end of this month and then next month, about halfway through, I'll start my new job. Congrats. So I'm trying to wind everything down. It's tough being a small organization. so book and job interviews for my replacement and trying to square away like write a guide and let people know like what the path is in terms of how i've been leading the organization they can decide if they want to follow that or not but anyway so yeah it's seating into a lot of time but uh i'll soon be free of it i just the path to dindin didn't we title a previous episode So 310 to Dennis.
    3:41
    The use of the word we there is interesting. I don't really get input on the titles. So you probably did. My last week has been surrounded with work. And you guys probably, if you follow Flippin' Out Pinball, we've been moving a lot of games in and out lately, taking a lot of trade-ins. And that's because I get to announce this, Dennis. We have a full-time employee now. Other than Greg? Yes, other than Greg. Greg's working part-time. Oh, that's smart, so you don't have to give him benefits. Very clever.
    4:11
    Full-time employee of Tim. Tim is my father. He is working full-time for us now, helping with shipping and freight, and we're going to be able at Flippin' Out Pinball to increase our shipping and freight of used pinball machines now that we have his assistance. Before, I didn't have the time to properly wrap them and pallet and all this jargon. So we'll be able to get probably cheaper shipping rates now for used games. So he's joining us. He retired from the local university here, and he was happy to come aboard and work full time. And I was like, it's your dad. You want to make things cushy for him, right? Yeah, he's probably like, all right, we've got to discuss the pay, son. That's right. Who I raised. So are you hiring your mom? Did you like board repair or what? She's still a business owner herself. So I don't know. I don't think she'll ever quit that, but I would be happy to tell the more the merrier. Why not? It's, it is weird though. Having your dad come to you for, for like direction and what he's supposed to be doing next. It is an odd dynamic. I will say that, but I think it's going to work well. So we're really excited to have him. And besides that, it's just been children.
    5:26
    I have too many kids, Dennis. They're not, they, it's as if they multiply because they got these friends and then the friends come over and, And typically, I love my kids. And I like kids in general. Yeah, typically you do. Yeah. I'm not much of a – I don't like other kids as much as I like my kids. And my kids annoy the hell out of me. So other kids really annoy the hell out of me. But they have friends over. It's been the summer before school starts and everything. And I've noticed some trends lately that I find pretty damn problematic. And I'm going to tell the listeners here. Uh-oh. Are they going to have to get off your lawn? What's going on? Oh, man. It's getting to that point. Oh, I'm getting worried. My oldest daughter, she's such a sweetheart. She's 13, and 13-year-old girls, they're a treat, let me tell you. Teenagers in general, middle school-aged children, they're trying to figure out their identity. They're wanting to be perceived by their peers in a certain way. You remember middle school? For me, it was like JNCOs. It was billabong shirts. I had some of those – do you remember like the really colorful pants, like the splatter pants style? I think I went through that phase in middle school a little bit. I was the JNCO. Kind of those MC pants. No, I never had JNCOs, but they were super popular. But wearing baggy clothes was really big for us in the 90s. I think I had oversized T-shirts and stuff and starter jackets. Starter jackets for the win. I had a starter jacket. Absolutely. So we looked like ass as kids. I get that. Yeah. You know. But now that I'm older, I can watch these middle school kids and make fun of them for looking like ass, too. Judgment, I see. Wow, absolutely. I'm old. The problem is for me that middle school-aged children, 11 to 14, the problem is that their perception is still in its infancy. We're left with this exaggerated presentation that really are nothing like the image that they're just so desperately trying to emulate. Okay, so this is your psychological interpretation of the age range, broadly speaking. Almost a sociological interpretation. I guess so. I guess you could say. I thought it was just mere observation. But, yeah, I find, though, that I'm sitting here observing this. I'm like, oh, buddy, you're way off base. I know what you're trying to do, but, wow, not even swinging a miss there. But they don't have resources and stuff, so I get it. Then again, it doesn't really matter at all because the teenage girls, they're rapidly developing during middle school, out of control hormones. So they're seeing the very skewed male counterparts as precisely, I think, what those boys are trying to go for, which everybody, everything is skewed. And then the teenage boys don't care because their maturity level is that of like a 1960s gag toy, like a whoopee cushion or like a chattering walking teeth. They're just idiots, and they're too engrossed in Fortnite to even know the difference. What I'm getting at is this. Why is the current style of young adolescent boys in particular? Because girls just as sociologically, girls are just girls. Our society doesn't do the best job of maybe better than in the past, but in some situations worse, that body image kind of stuff. We've been through that. We understand the trends of girls. but boys are just odd and weird. They go through fads that make no sense to me. Why is it that the current style of young adolescent boys is akin to that of a grandmaw? Have you noticed this? Have you been out to where the kids hang out at the malls? I don't think I see enough of the, like, I haven't been getting the, you know, the walker vibe. They're little grandmas, man, and in particular, their hairstyle they're going for now is perms. Okay, now I knew about this. Did you know about the purrs? The boys are getting purrs. It's been on trend for, I think, a few years now. But we, like, had the bowl cuts and stuff. Yeah, but these are horrendous. Every child that you see coming in and out of this school, every boy has, like, a bouffant of curly hair. Yeah, a little Patrick Mahomes running around. Yes, like a little tight curl. I'm like, what? At least comb it out a little bit, brother. oh gosh i didn't know that your direction here was going to be judging the hairstyle okay i'm waiting for some of the boys to just leave their rollers in like what are you guys doing and they have this gaudy jewelry too and even rings like gold rings what are you what are you musky perfume when you walk into these areas they're grandmas they're little bitty grandmas walking around their shorts are shorter than that of their the girls they got these short shorts on I'm waiting for some of them may be carrying clutches. What is going on?
    10:14
    I'm waiting for him to start wearing pearls. And those remember those chains that hold the eyeglasses? Yes, yes, yes. Care for a butterscotch, Mr. Minnie? That's the boys that my daughter is hanging out with. What the fuck is going on with adolescent males? I guess it's just the trend now. Show them a Rambo movie or something. What? So, yeah, that's where my headspace has been lately is making fun of preview bets and boys.
    10:45
    Well, I mean, if you have to bully someone, I guess impressionable young people is maybe not the pick I'd have gone with. I swear to God, if one of them comes out with a walker. I think it would be funny if one of them offers you a butterscotch. But now I'm kind of envisioning, like, I wonder when I go into retirement if I could get, like, one of them bathrobes, but it's a starter bathrobe.
    11:09
    Will JNCO make special shuffleboard pants for us? I don't know. We were out to eat. My son and I were making fun of these boys, and he's 18 now. We were making fun of him, and he's an old soul. So when I mentioned the butterscotch, I'm like, I'm waiting for one of these damn kids to offer me a butterscotch. He goes, whoa, whoa. He's like, I actually like butterscotch, so let's leave that out of our parody here. I don't know. It's been 84 days. That's right. Because they're so young.
    11:37
    Because they're so young. I love the follow-up there. Yes. Just in case you didn't get why I changed it. Well, your observations have been far more in-depth than mine have been lately. This weekend, just yesterday, yesterday from the day of recording, Zach. So I decided to get lunch. So I do, I like to do a- Well, thank you. I know. It's a big accomplishment. I feel like an adult now. I shall get lunch. I was like, I shall get lunch. So I typically in the mornings on Saturday, I actually live stream for my wristwatch YouTube. Oh, nice. So to be consistent, you want to be predictable. So that's just one of the few times I have availables in the morning on Saturdays because I do all this other crap. Yeah, I get it. So anyway, so I'm like, okay, I'm going to walk down and get my chicken nugs. I'm going to get my nugs. Not from McDonald's, a local business. Local nugs? Yeah. Well, they weren't really nugs. they were chicken strips but anyway doesn't matter so i placed the order online because you can and i say i'm gonna pick it up in 25 minutes because i'm gonna walk it's a little over a mile so i'm like okay i'm gonna walk i'm gonna go yeah i'm gonna go it's hot out though it's already 90 and i'm like there once you get there do you bring no i'm gonna walk it back my plan that day was i'm gonna walk it back okay i could eat there but that wasn't the plan so i'm going down there i got my order placed i go and i get there and i see the open sign isn't on even though i was able to place it but their car's there and then i see there's a sign on the door and it says interior closed for renovations drive-through open i'm like okay well but i'm a human being not a car you're in a sticky situation i'm in a i'm in a situation i'm like okay and there's a queue of cars there i'm like i'm really not comfortable like standing and walking through no no way i think i would have too embarrassed plus i'm worried like if one person just doesn't pay any attention i'm gonna get hit they're gonna pin you in between yeah it's not a good way to go zach it's not a good way so i thought our ankle bend you know what i'm like i'm overthinking this i just need to call and have them bring the food out right so they're making the food in there anyway. So I actually walk to the reserved parking spot to pick up the food and I stand in a little parking spot and I get out my phone and I call.
    14:00
    And no one answers. They let it go to voicemail. Didn't you already pre-order this thing? I did. So I called two more times. Voicemail, voicemail. Did you honk your horn? They couldn't hear my little beep beep. I have a horn for ants. I love your Italian horn.
    14:16
    So I finally, I was just like, all right, I can't get them to answer the phone to cancel the order. There's like five cars. I'm going to be standing in line in the sun waiting if I even want to do that. On the asphalt, there's no shade. It's just all out exposed. So I just was like, I don't know what else to do. I jogged home, got my car, came back, got my food and told them, you know, you guys don't have anything saying that the that the buildings closed until you get here. Like it's not said. I checked my email with my confirmation. I checked their website. You didn't say anything. You bent. And then you pulled a Karen thinking that they gave a fuck. I said it really nice to the worker because it's not the worker's fault. I got home and then I pulled a Karen and I emailed the owner. There it is. Yes. And I said, look, you don't have anything informing anyone that they, and maybe it's not a big deal because most of the people probably aren't going to walk a mile in 90 plus heat. It's like humans don't walk anymore. What are you talking about? But just FYI, you don't have anything unless you show up saying that your dining room's closed and that wouldn't be a problem if people would answer your phone, but they're not. Why didn't you go bang on the window? I could have just walked in, quite frankly. I can't believe you walked back a whole mile. No, no, because I'm like, well, because then there's a whole, they've got signs up. And literally, there's just like construction workers and everything's torn up. So I'm like, I don't know if there's a liability issue if I walk in here. There's just debris everywhere. It's just like, it's true, like construction debris. It wasn't like they just moved some tables. This stuff was all torn up. See, I would have walked right, I would have cut in front of the drive-thru. Yeah, I'm sure you would have. And I was like, you know what? No, no, I'm not. I'm not going to. I'm going to follow. I'm going to obey their sign, and then I'm going to complain. And so I got an email back, and the owner was like, I'm really sorry that – I'm sorry, Karen, that we didn't – I don't know. It was polite. He was like, if you give me your address, I'll mail you a check to refund your meal. And I just wrote back, and I said, I don't want a refund. I just want you to notify people when you have your dining room closed. I'm not mad. I'm not getting my address. I'm ashamed. I'm not. I got my food. I don't want – I ain't doing this for – I think he's probably thinking, oh, yeah, it's another person wanting a free meal. Nope. I don't want no free meal. I don't. I ain't asking for no handouts. That's right. I don't want your handouts. Just do more than some stupid sign put up in painter's tape. Some of us walk for a living. Some of us walk and then run back in 90-degree heat. I made good time back, too, because I hadn't been jogging in a while. I was afraid my hip wouldn't be up for it. Most Americans would have dropped around taking a shit right at that parking lot. You know how Americans are getting their horrible people.
    17:03
    It can be rough. I don't. It's not the worker's fault. I don't even know if they could hear their phone. So it's like, figure it out. Figure it out. You're the owner. Figure it out. Well, I'm glad that your chicken nuggets were warmer since you drove by. You see, that's the other thing. I was like, well, they're going to be plenty warm. But the fries, of course, were soggy. That's what I said. On a scale from 1 to 10, 1 being cool as a cucumber, 10 being a spicy little pepper, what vegetable were you in anger? well it depends at the it depends at different points in the in the journey oh did you stub your toe or anything you were i i was like i was probably at about jalapeno when i arrived so not too spite not too bad that's still but i was getting close but when i was in line because i had to sit in line with all these people ordering food to tell the window through the speaker that I'm there for a pickup order because I couldn't call in. I was almost up to ghost pepper at that point. Yeah, that's a broken system. Because I turned off the air in my car because the windows are down. I'm waiting and waiting. And then the person in front of me is when they have a sign with the menu before another sign with the menu with the speaker. And all these people pull up and they see the first sign and they just sit there talking about what they want without placing. I'm like, it's a chicken place. Order your chicken or the chicken. Get out of the way. Is your chicken free range? And they're all like, oh, I don't know what I want. I'm like, yes, you do. You want what you always get. All you people are the same. Get your chicken strips and your regular fries. The place used to post stats online. They're like, we offer like 12 different sides. 85% of our side sales are regular French fries. That's right. No, duh. The slaw has been sitting there for a month. My God. If it was any hotter and I'd sweat anymore, I think my hair would have permed. Oh, see? I would love to see you with a perm my friend I got me some butterscotch I can't do it I can't remember his name The family guy Creepy little old guy He's got that wisher voice Do you think Craig Bobby's ever had a perm back in the day? I don't know It's so cold up there in Canada And he has to describe himself I wonder when he was a teenager like when he's trying to be like a mahogany table did he just like come across as like i don't know some sort of card table or ikea thing that was misassembled you know he's like i bet i really look like i'm in disguise and it's like um no no one has an ottoman craig yeah you're not the flutes and guten let's hear what the old flutes and guten's got today
    19:54
    Hello and welcome back to the Pinball Show's Top Stories. I'm Craig Bobby. Well, a bit of a slower news cycle this episode, as the pinball hobby goes from a time of what felt like endless rumors and new game announcements to a time of hunkering down and going into build mode, which is unfortunately the less glamorous but oh-so-critical part of the production process. Yes, it's a time of going from looking good on paper and pulling in all those orders to actually building units and getting them to eager customers in a reasonable amount of time. It's also a time that generally tests potential buyers' patience, as that precious pinball FOMO that fuels so many decisions begins to slowly slip away with every passing month a manufacturer takes to fill demand. Speaking of slipping away, fear not Stern and Jeremy Packer, aka Zombie Yeti art fans It's looking like Stern Pinball is officially locking Packer down As he starts working for the man officially over at Stern Pinball Effectively now locking him up from the competition as they make him an official Stern employee Now let's be honest, since his first foray into the world of pinball with his art packages on Ghostbusters back in 2016 Yeti has become an instant fan favorite and mainstay art contractor for Stern So really, Zombie Yeti becoming a full-time employee with Stern is like Hearing about your good friends finally getting married after dating for 8 years What the heck took you so long? As most of our loyal listeners know Jeremy has gone on to create such iconic and award-winning art designs for great Stern titles Such as Primus, Deadpool, Iron Maiden, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Avengers Infinity Quest, Godzilla and his newest art package with the comic book version of Marvel's Venom. And according to Jeremy's most recent interview on the Loser Kid podcast, there's lots more to come in 2024 with what we assume are Keith Elwin-based projects. Jeremy fanned the rumor flames further by hinting that Elwin may have more than two games coming out in the next 12 months. Say what? Well, whatever it is, we just can't wait to see what's up next from Zombie Yeti. Now let's flip over next to Spooky Pinball as we got our first ever live stream of the company's newest game, Scooby-Doo, which was hosted by spooky employee Bug on the Twitch streaming platform. The game was streamed with the updated newest code, including the brand new Daphne mode, but what was interesting was seeing Bug wearing an Indigo Montoya Princess Bride t-shirt on the stream, providing a hiding-in-plain-sight easter egg for what could be Spooky's next title, or was Bug simply trolling would-be fans of the movie who would love to see this movie licensed in pinball form. What are you just saying? And lastly, we have word courtesy of Nap Arcade that Netherlands-based boutique pinball manufacturer Dutch Pinball has started a new partnership with Lior Rajwan from the Art of Pinball. They announced this week that Lior and his company the Art of Pinball have become the official supplier for all sculpts and toys for Dutch The Big Lebowski Pinball Machine and other future projects maybe for the upcoming Matrix Pinball Machine that Dutch is rumored to be possibly making in 2024. Besides the sculpts and toys for Lebowski, The Art of Pinball will also design a variety of new mods for the game, including what looks to be a new official topper. Of course, only blurred images were released so far, so you guessed it, we shall have to wait and see. Ooh, so much going on in the world of pinball these days. Even when it's slow, there's always exciting things to report on. For the Pinball Show, I'm Craig Bobby. Catch you on the flip side. Well, thank you, Craig, for all those Kawasaki updates. Yeah, he did what he could with what we have. Went around the corner and talked about Yeti, some Scoobies, some Freaky Deaky Dutch. But he didn't talk about the Stern Pinball production updates. I wonder why. Maybe he was leaving that, deferring it, as you will, to you. I mean, I've heard that production updates, trends, is more palatable to people than market trends. I wouldn't say that anything can touch pinball market trends, but this is close. Well, I know you wouldn't because it's like the time you're like a miner and you felt like you struck gold. I certainly was weaving it. What the hell was I weaving if it wasn't gold? No, I was kind of tying this back into kind of a there will be blood.
    24:48
    You're like, there will be market trends. I'll drink your butterscotch milkshake. Oh, I bet butterscotch milkshake would be pretty good. No, it's not. Butterscotch is like the shit version of good caramel. Do you realize that? It is. I go caramel. I don't even know why I say caramel. Because you've got money now, so you probably refer to your vases as vases.
    25:13
    That's the difference between a vase and a vase is how much you care if it breaks. Damn, I can't top it. Let's talk about the Stern Production Updates. fucking nailed that, Dennis. Jurassic Park Pro and Foo Fighter Premiums were shipping the last couple of weeks, and I don't know if anything's going to ship over the next couple of weeks because they still have the move. So is the move now underway? Because we're basically in the middle of August. Believe it or not, the move, here's your update, the move has moved. What? Yes, the inception of move. The move is the end of August now. oh yeah so they said a couple weeks and that was last week in the 20s to 25th or something i don't know when they're okay they still have a week or so before they move so i think they're packing up you know uh now what does that mean for venom pro that's scheduled to come out the end of august does it stay that way or does it uh get bumped into beginning of september i don't No, they're still saying end of August. Mid-September, Venom LE, followed by Venom Premium in late September. They haven't changed any of that. Still sticking to October runs of Deadpool Pro and Premium, as well as a small run of Foo Fighters Pro and Premium. We heard on the last pinball show that November and December now have a Godzilla Premium run, and December we are going to get James Bond 007 Pro and Premium. But they have expressed a large likelihood, Dennis, that this could get bumped. The whole James Bond Pro and Premium could be bumped entirely until not only 2024, but Q3 of 2024. Oh. Nearly a year. You know what? I'm kind of, my magic rush ball is telling me as I shake it that 2024 might be the end of James Bond then. That's what the rush ball says. consult, Ray Day's down. Ray, come back to us. It's like, why is Canada not buying enough of my stuff? He's convulsing. So yeah, James Bond, either they're going to run it in December or they're going to bump it until Q3 of 2024, which further reinforces my fantasy that something else is coming November or December. I'm feeling my plums, man. Why not just make more Godzilla premiums in December if there's not enough bond demand because there's still the... I mean, Godzilla premiums like the one game that there's people still backordered on. But I would say that some of the other dealers around the country probably are caught up on Godzilla premium. Yeah, but they're caught up on their brush expression lighting too. Oh, let's not even. What?
    28:04
    What did I say? This is why Dennis is one of my best friends. Because he knows how to poke. Not only a twist. A poke and a twist. I'm the second nicest person in this hobby. 2024 Star Wars Mandalorian. I wonder if we're going to get a Sokka pinball. I wonder if there will be. We'll see how good the show is. I'm looking forward to it. They had to put their bets down on Mandalorian before they knew it was good. In a lot of ways they did. Wasn't there some... Remember when they were doing the art packages, they were leaving spaces and Lucasfilm is saying, like, you may want to leave a space there. She's about to get canceled. That's true. Well, I mean, here's the thing, and I feel bad about this now because I do it for all the Disney properties, even if they're not Star Wars related, but I'm at the point where I get done with something, and even though I don't like it, I just go, well, it's better than Book of Boba Fett. Poor Boba Fett. I'm like, did you see it? Beep, boop, beep, boop. I don't think it was horrible. It was bad. It was bad in a lot of ways, Zach. The only good thing about it were the two episodes without Bubba Fett, because they were Mandalorian episodes. Those were really good episodes. They were, but it's no Bubba Fett in it, so you're like, can we count them? And I don't think you can count them, Zach. I did kind of forget that I've seen it. He recruited a Vespa biker gang. A different colored Vespa. A Vespa. The Vespa. Fair enough. Hopefully I have that. Anyone who rides a Vespa immediately wants to go out for gelato. They don't go around wrangling street crime.
    29:42
    So refreshing, the gelato. That's why they do it on their fun Vespas. A lemon gelato. There's nothing like it. A palate cleanser. What do you think of butterscotch gelato? It's bullshit. It just wants to be caramel.
    29:59
    Okay. I don't typically do this, but I'm going to give these listeners, these wonderful, beautiful, gorgeous listeners of the Pinball Show. A little sneak peek into 2024. Don't make them stand in 90-degree heat after walking a mile. Give them a nuggies. Give them a nugg. So we know that 2024, they get Star Wars and Mandalorian at some point. Well, did you know that in Q2 of 2024, they're planning on the next run of Foo Fighter Pros? I did not know that. Ooh, that's a long way from now until then for Foo Fighter Pros. It is, but I've noticed the numbers seem to be available right now, so that might not be that bad of a problem. Very true. Come Q3 of 2024, Godzilla Pro is going to make their next run. About a year. We're not going to see Godzilla Pro for another year. Yeah. Okay. And what about this one? Q4 of 2024. That is more than a year away, or virtually about a year away. Jurassic Park Pro. Because they just finished making some of those, right? They did. Just started.
    30:57
    We talked about that on the last episode. They were in production. So that's where, and we've talked about it before, Dennis, for these listeners, we get to this point where even the most popular titles that sell really well, we're going to see them as probably a bulk run once a year. It's what we've seen for Deadpool. Sure.
    31:14
    But, of course, we've got other new game announcements that are going to happen from Stern in 2024. What do you think about Stern's production? Because I know this is a little weird, but when we're in the production updates, what do you think about them and their games next year? Like, I think they're going to be back to the three cornerstones in 2024. I completely agree. For me, because parts are more readily available, because they're able to produce at a higher rate than they were in the past, even more so probably when they get the new factory up and running, I think that we're not going to see as much of a catalog presence as we have before. I think they're going to hold out probably four to five catalog titles, and they're going to run them once a year, like they did Deadpool, like they did last year for Elvira. We're going to see more of that. Even on titles like Godzilla or Foo Fighters, we might only see them run once a year, even if they are popular, to balance out the inventory of their dealers around the world. I also agree with you. I think that what they're going to focus on more of is the new games coming out. I think 2024, we're going to see more new games and new products from Stern Pinball than we have since before the pandemic. That's what I think. I think they're going to focus on, okay, now that everybody's got their taste of the catalog games, we can start drowning their torches and kicking them off the island, such as Iron Maiden. Now, Last Call, they're done making it. No more run. It ain't even really a Last Call. They're done with Iron Maiden. Oh, okay. I thought Last Call was going to mean that there'd be one more batch. Nope. Last Call, it's saying whatever the dealers have is what there's going to be. We are not making Iron Maiden anymore, and we are not going to make Avengers Infinity Quest anymore. Two Keith Elwin games. Okay, that's really interesting. Separate from this show, I actually did have someone email me asking about Jurassic Park, and I had interpreted that last call would probably mean there would be one more run people could get in on, but I guess just be aware that if there's a last call, it could just be I get what the inventory is out there, so don't think that there's one more chance to get a brand new build. That's exactly right. Yeah, and that's why they were giving us a heads up because they know that dealers do have Iron Maidens and Avengers in stock right now. So they're saying, hey, guys, just letting everybody know that we're not making these anymore. So what you've got, you've got. Sell, sell, sell. Now, does that mean that they – I don't ever know what that means. They could still re-up it in the future. Sure, sure, of course. They could vault it five years. Who knows? I remember they vaulted Star Trek like a month after they discontinued it. It was weird. They can always do this, but keep in mind that they have distinctly told us dealers, we have no intention on making Iron Maiden or Avengers anymore in the future. We're done with it. Sure. Well, you've got new stuff you've got to move on at some point. So, yeah, I think they're going to focus on three cornerstones next year and an additional either studio run or like Kapow or Vault or something. I think we're going to get at least, at minimum, four new products, New meaning even a vault being a new, but four new products from Stern in 2024. They're going to pump a lot of them out, and then they're going to move on to the next thing. Much more efficient, I see Stern next year. And they're going to keep trying to pump out accessories, I think, question mark. This last week, James Bond Armor has finally been shipping. It was separated from the other accessories for some reason. So James Bond Armor is shipping this past week as well as will continue to ship. and Iron Maiden Aces High Topper, that finally, that damn topper, is now shipping. Now, does that mean that they shipped enough to fulfill all the dealer's orders? No, of course not. When are they going to make them again? If I can find them. I'm not bitter.
    35:02
    We also got a surprise batch. Speaking of butterscotch bitterness, we got a surprise batch of Rush Expression lighting kits that we've been shipping. Hey. Were those supposed to come until November, Dennis? Wow. This is really exciting. Wow. All caught up. Well, exciting for some. All caught up if you're a small distributor. Oh, man. Just twist and chip. What?
    35:27
    Put some butterscotch in there. Just like it is. Just like my grandma and her butterscotch always told me before she'd insult me. I wonder if you can cauterize a wound with butterscotch, melted butterscotch. With enough heat, I'm sure you can cauterize just about anything. So for those of you who didn't get your Rush Expression Lighting Kits yet, my apologies on behalf of Stern Pinball. They are still having trouble keeping up maybe with the demand or the parts. I don't know. They haven't expressed or communicated what the holdup has been and continues to be. So I just simply don't know as to when they're going to build more Rush Expression Lighting Kits. I've asked, and I'm waiting a response. I don't know. I hope in November when they still plan on doing the topper. I'm hoping this was just an additional nice little squeeze run instead of a replacement from upcoming November. But I don't know. This month we also should still be seeing Elvira toppers coming out. So for those of you interested in the Elvira topper, call your dealer. Or hell, better yet, call me. Flippin' Out Pinball. Text me. 812-457-9711. or email me at ZachZACH at FlippinOutPinball.com and get on the list so you can secure one today. Bye, bye, bye! October, Avengers assemble to make some toppers. But they're probably done with those now, too. Why continue making toppers if you've discontinued the game? I'll get 50 of them now. No. Just wait. No. Give them to Zach. He'll take them. November, second round of Rush toppers and expression lighting is a question mark, as I've said. In Q1 of 2024, we get that second run of Godzilla Toppers. Golden Plume Edition. Oh, your favorite part of the show, Dennis. There's a code update from Stern Pinball this last week. James Bond version 0.95.0. It's getting close. Which is going to arrive first, the discontinuation of this game or 1.0 code? Ouch, man. Maybe. I'm just telling it like it is. You know what? It's contention for joke of the episode, Dennis. I don't know. It was okay. It was also really obvious. so I'm not particularly proud of this one. I don't know. It's pretty clever there. What else is clever, I've found, is a bunch of what they're putting in this code. People are still raving about this game. Caw-caw. I had to do it. Yeah, that's fine. 0.95, it's getting closer, and a lot more game enhancements have come to this game. People are saying it's sneaking into a top game contender. I still don't have enough time on it, I guess. You've owned one forever. I remember you having one of the pros out when we did the pinball awards. Yeah, but I don't have any in the showroom right now. I don't have any used. I don't have anything right now. But they've added a wizard mode, gold fingers jackpot. Other enhancements include topper effects, additional polish, game adjustments, bug fixes. Additional polish. They just sent everyone a bottle of Novus.
    38:28
    There you go. Sign it up. That's right. zombie yeti he was interviewed on the loser kid pinball podcast you hear that one yet i did i was surprised to hear that uh old jeremy packer joined the stern pinball team as an official full-time employee now yeah you know it makes a lot of sense given the number of projects he's been doing so i i hadn't really thought whether or not he would i guess i thought perhaps stern other than their you know in the art art you know managing the artists i didn't know whether or not They were happy with a 1099 model instead.
    39:02
    Yeah, they like corny dad jokes over there, so they pulled him on full time. Sure, well, I mean. I guess he's known for that.
    39:08
    I mean, when even his, whatever your opinion is in the rankings, whatever you might think of as his worst art package is still seen as drastically superior to so many other art packages. It's like kind of a no-brainer. Yeah, so he's going to be there full time, which makes me as an enthusiast very happy because his art stands out above the rest in the best way possible. He did talk about other topics of discussion, so go listen to the Loser Kid Pinball podcast on that. I did find it interesting they brought up Back to the Future because, you know, it's still the most sought-after title to be made into pinball machines still. I think that is objectively number one, even more so than Jaws. But, you know, I only report the facts here. When asked about Back to the Future or future projects, projects he brought up back to the future he said quote i would not do back to the future end quote which i gotta tell you um made my stomach drop because when i hear an artist as good as jeremy say that he would not do it if given the chance wouldn't do it wouldn't be prudent he's not gonna do it ain't got that uh he's he's a huge fan of the franchise but he said quote i'm not the right guy for it i know someone that would be better at it which made me then think dennis well he's kind of implying here that this thing is about to get done like almost the assumption that it's well i know who's going to be doing it so it shocked me but then i think jeremy is smart enough this is my you know reading into behavioral cues way too too much i think he realized then oh shit i probably let the cat out of the bag a bit so now i need to cover it up in some way that It seems very casual. And then said, but then again, quote, Stern does not have Back to the Future. Trust me on that one.
    40:58
    So we shouldn't trust him. That's what I'm saying. Should we trust him? So your thought is that he gave out too much information, and so his decision was then to lie?
    41:10
    Lie is a strong word. But saying they don't have it, and if they do have it, it would be, by definition, a lie. If it is indeed held by them. Well, maybe Capel has it. Oh, so you're thinking he loopholed it. Maybe they're in the process of obtaining it.
    41:29
    Maybe, you know, maybe Joey Dankberg. But we've been hearing this rumor for like 50 years now. I think I could see a picture. I could see a situation where Joey Dankberg said, went to the different crews that are at the meeting and said, Hey, let's talk about Back to the Future. This is something that everybody wants. We probably can't attain it. Here's a limitation to how much it costs, blah, blah, blah. anybody interested art-wise if we did do this? Anybody interested designer-wise? All that stuff. Jeremy probably said, no, I think this guy would be better for it. I could see that.
    42:02
    Just saying. I don't know. I think it's warming up. I think we're going to get it back to the future. I think there's a 70% chance that they're going to royally fuck it up entirely, but I still think we're going to get one. Even if it's a slot machine version. slot machine version why would we what would you mean just watered down assets oh okay i see what you mean i thought you meant literally like i'm going to count back to the future being made if someone makes a slot machine no no i was like uh why would we care no what did somebody count pachinko while we're at it somebody told me recently that the the big license for slot machines recently was the nfl and i'm like i don't see pinball doing nfl again maybe i don't We'll see. Dwight Sullivan, one of my favorite people in all of pinball. Dwight Sullivan was interviewed on the Freeplay Pinball Podcast here exclusively on the Pinball Network. Go check that episode out. Dwight's always an entertainer. I love hearing. He got me all hyped again for that damn code. I want Venom now. I don't want to wait for it anymore. Well, I guess you don't have to wait. Surprise. Oh, that's true. Dwight's pulling in right now. I know. Maybe it's there. What do you think Dwight drives? I think there's a good chance he drives a Prius.
    43:18
    No. No? I mean, he could. I never really thought about what he drives. It's either a Toyota or a Honda. I just feel like he's in a cord drive. It's something like that. I think he drives one of those classic VW buses.
    43:33
    That would be silly, man. And he's got a pair of fuzzy 20-sided dice hanging from the rear view mirror.
    43:41
    That would be nerdy. he also talked about cookie sorrows yeah that was that was a this cookie is like traumatized him i he's carrying a heavy a heavy burden a heavy burden of oatmeal and raisin that's an example not of only what i appreciate about that man um that he still holds on to things that he has guilt about but that he remembers it still damn he's a good dude go listen to that episode jersey jack pinball in the news this week let's see oh i was titillated dennis with uh with seeing some social media from jersey jack pinball this last week some really fascinating behind the scenes they did like a real a video behind the scenes of the godfather promotional product launch video you know that really high polish jjp video they did they were showing how they used camera work and crane work and processing and Photoshop and after all of the cinematic glory and juiciness. They were showing kind of a behind the scenes on how they did that with actors and different. Oh, my gosh. Did you see this? No. Oh, you've got to go. You've got to go watch. I've probably watched it 10 times now. It's like just a one minute quick reel, but it's so good. And we also, Ken Cromwell over there, the marketing director, was kind enough to take some candid photos of Greg and I when we were doing the featurette filming. And he shared those with us, and that was really nice. And we put those on. I saw those. Yeah, we put those on Facebook. It was really sweet of him to think about, hey, these guys will probably appreciate this in the future. So he did that for us, and, oh, that was really kind. And speaking of the Godfather, we can't talk about the Godfather without making me laugh. I can't refuse. But apparently it was.
    45:27
    Never mind. I was going to say, apparently that's not possible with Godfather Games, but people are refusing these offers left and right. So this came up this last week. Who would have thought such a great theme would be not the greatest in pinball? I'm sorry. I still don't understand the decision making. Feels like a machete, not even a knife anymore. Okay. I found this interesting this last week. I'm a friend of JJ over at JJ Babbage I've met JJ he's a dealer and he surprised me with a Facebook post he made which was I'm going to paraphrase it was to the effect of hey if anyone wants a Toy Story 4 LE or CE make me an offer I have them new in the box now I'm wondering as a dealer if that raises alarm to me much more than the public because when I seen that I thought to myself oh my first thought this is the dealer mind my first thought was oh I guess Game Exchange is no longer a JJP dealer You might need to explain why you would think that because to the average individual, I don't think it makes sense. Exactly. That's why sometimes I see things differently because I'm in the lens of a dealer because that sparked interest for me because by just simply asking for offers for a game, that very much implies that you're breaking any pricing agreement that you have with Jersey Jack Pinball, thus breaking the distribution agreement that you have, thus saying, hey, I'm getting rid of my inventory because I'm no longer a JJP dealer. Because every manufacturer has a floor in which you can only sell it for a certain price. And for JJP, it is MSRP. You know, it's LE for a Toy Story is $12,000. And for a CE is $15,000. And you can't get free shipping. So even a dollar below that is breaking the agreement. And typically, these manufacturers, when that happens, they will contact the dealer and say, hey, cut it out. Or if they've done that too many times before, they could drop them. But this seemed pretty overt. So I thought it was just him walking away from J.J.P. distribution. So that was interesting to me. Okay. Interesting to the public, I would guess, right, that you could make an offer, and it sounds like you could get the deal on a Toy Story 4 LE or CE at least. It's interesting because there are a couple possibilities. besides getting out of the distribution game for JJP. One would be that Game Exchange has a different distribution agreement than you do. I think that'd be pretty atypical, but conceptually possible. Sure. And the other thing is it could be a, I don't really think JJP, like I'm calling their bluff. I don't think they're actually going to take away my distribution rights to their brand. and these games are sitting and it's absolutely ridiculous. I've lost way too much capital. So maybe it's kind of a, you know, I win either way. They pull my, they pull it. I was like, I have to sell them so they can do whatever they want. I don't care. I don't even think that they're going to, like, I'm not going to go to the, I'm not going to officially end the contract. I'm just going to do what I want and see if I get a slap on the wrist or they actually do something more substantive or if they keep their mouth shut and understand that they made me buy a whole lot of a turd and I need to get rid of it. I see. Well, and I think this March we've been discussing, Dennis and listener, we've been discussing a change in some tides when it comes to the pinball industry marketplace. Right. We talked about that last time, how games are now being fulfilled. Games are now being inventoried. We're catching up from the global pandemic. That was a two couple of years ago. So you're seeing prices start to stabilize. You're seeing games on the secondary market start selling for lower, right? That's no surprise to anybody.
    49:44
    But what this also marks is a buyer's marketplace right now. And remember that dealers are essentially buyers as well. But we are buyers of the manufacturer. What I find interesting is that a manufacturer holds pretty much all the cards. They have a lot of leverage, listener. for us dealers. They, in many respects, not in all, but in many respects, whether we like it or not, they set the rules. And what they say goes, or else we're not able to sell their products. And if we don't sell their products as a dealer, then we no longer have a business unless we're manufacturing our own. Then we're a manufacturer, not a dealer. So when push comes to shove, they had a lot of power. They have the majority of leverage. Now, what interests me in this story is that this leverage could potentially change here. Look at what's happening. We have a dealer now that's saying, I don't want to sit on these products. So this dealer's sitting on Toy Story products. They don't want to sit on them. Thus, the only way they can move them, I'm assuming here, the only way they can move them is by saying, make me an offer. Even if that goes against my agreement, I need to move some of these products. And whether the manufacturer agrees or not, now I've got the leverage in whether or not I want to follow the rules bestowed upon me. Because maybe they're losing money in these situations. And I've got to tell you, once you start losing money, that perspective changes quite a bit as well. So I think there's more to it than just trying to get rid of some inventory here too. Do you see what I mean? Yeah, I do. And this is something, and we've discussed this. I think we've discussed this on air several times. And I'm not an interview person in the sense that I don't normally interview people for podcasts in the hobby. I don't interview. I very rarely. But I'm almost at the point where I would like to interview someone in charge of these contractual arrangement deals with a manufacturer to understand why are they written the way they are. Because I think it's really weird and not aligned with other industries I'm familiar with. And I don't know if this is just habit slash legacy slash it's tradition, so this is what we do. But I can't think of another hobby business, I should say, industry, where they actually tell their distribution channels that they can't sell below a certain price. Well, especially after a certain turn of time. Yeah, all within – I could see time limited, time – all those conditions aside. I when it comes time for clearance this has been a standard thing and also it's like look at the car industry you know last year's model kind of thing and you get markdowns reductions I've I've heard of yeah well I'm cars for years but I mean I even know other and again I don't want to bore everyone but like in for many of the manufacturers in the in the luxury watch space for example when they have a limit it's on how much you can sell them for like they have rules the big ones Most of the big ones have rules where if you're a dealer and you're caught selling a limited edition above MSRP, you'll lose your contract. Oh, I see. Not your place to gouge.
    53:03
    And that's probably because they don't want that manipulating the secondhand market because having these things become more valuable is very advantageous to them. That doesn't work if the distribution is actually doing that, manipulating it. But they're allowed to sell. If you have product and you can't get rid of it, you can sell it for whatever price you want below MSRP. I respect and appreciate floor. I think it manages and balances things wonderfully. So I am pro floor and I am pro no ceiling. So I actually like that. But the modification that I think could be made or maybe should be made is that after a certain period of time, rules should loosen up a bit in efforts to continue sales through your distribution chain. Because if your dealers aren't buying anything, then what the hell are you going to do? You can't produce anything. Now, the one caveat here is that, remember, listener, Jersey Jack Pinball sells direct. So, you know, do they necessarily care if a game exchanger flipping out pinball or whoever, you know, enter in another dealer name? Do they care if they don't buy products from them? I would argue yes. But it makes it a little bit more tricky whenever they're selling direct in their competition to their distribution network altogether, which I always have an issue with. But like Toy Story 4, not that I think you should be able to sell it for as much as you want, but I think a couple things could happen. And because that is not their newest unit, because they are no longer producing them, I think then terms should change to, hey, you can now reduce it to another 500, another 1,000 if you want. And I also believe that for those dealers that are in good terms, a good business relationship would look something like, hey, you're one of our top dealers. Hey, you buy a lot of products for us. we know you're sitting on inventory and we see that you have evidence that because of that, we would like to allow you to drop the price of this particular title. And then also we want to reimburse you half of what you're dropping it. And we'll reimburse you that pricing rolling into our next product or our current product that we can offer you for sale right now, some type of reimbursement in efforts to have it because all right So manufacturers, their biggest goal is for dealers to inventory games. Whether this is boring the hell out of listeners or not, I'm sorry, but this is the expertise that I am within. So manufacturers do not want onesie-twosies is what they call us, us being the royal us, dealers that don't inventory games. When dealers just buy one or two every time Joe calls me and says, hey, I want GameX. And I say, okay. And I call the manufacturer, hey, I need GameX sent to Joe.
    56:08
    Manufacturers do not want that because then why aren't they just selling it direct? What manufacturers want is they want one-fiftieth of the amount of customers that they would get if they sold everything direct. And they just want dealers. because they know dealers are going to buy 10, 50, 100 of a unit, and they're going to inventory it. They're not going to expect to be able to sell it on launch day, but as they build them, they will inventory them so that people walk into their building and they play games in the showroom. Hey, I want one of these. Okay, we got them in the back. We'll load you up. That is what manufacturers want. So that's our goal. So if dealers are doing that well and inventorying things, There should come a certain point where I turn around and my back is scratched a little bit in this business relationship. And then just to say, hey, we've got your back when you had ours. Oftentimes in this industry, it is very much a one-way street for a lot of these manufacturers. And I'll still say it until I turn blue in the face. For whatever people want to say, Stern Pinball does the best job. And it's not close at taking care of their dealers. So it goes beyond just what JJ is doing here. I find it very, very interesting. Again, I could see a lot of different – all right. I'm going to do it in two pieces. So I could see – I see your argument on why you wouldn't want an agreement that said you couldn't go over MSRP, for example. We saw that with the car industry during the pandemic. They went over – a lot of the dealers went over MSRP because there was the demand. Yeah, some of them will probably be punished by consumers at this point because they'll remember who gouged. Exactly. I think it's self-balancing there. And so it's self-balanced. So I understand that. So, again, while I know in watches that's very rare, it is common in other things. Why are you okay with the floor, the minimum sale price on the floor? I don't understand that. The market would control that. So why do you need market protection on a floor? As a consumer, maybe I don't see the bigger picture and I'd be okay with that. But as a dealer myself, because it undervalues a product. But it's not a luxury good at all. I mean, it's not even a luxury good, so who cares? Nothing else is shielded like this. Even cars, even high-end cars get to be sold for a lower price eventually. What that oftentimes reinforces, in my opinion, is somebody that has no value in a product and they're just pushing quantity. So I've seen that sometimes in arcades. Arcade is sometimes – I don't like diving into arcade stuff because there are a couple dealers out there. First off, arcade is a whole other episode we could talk about, about the archaic distribution system. and the, not that I won't use the good old boys term, but like there's one person that sells everything to other dealers and those dealers sell to others. It is archaic and it's ridiculous. But what arcade also fails to do is they don't value their products. So they might have a floor, but they don't reinforce it. So a dealer might come out and sell an arcade game to their consumer for $5 more than their cost. So at that point, when you're doing that, it's not reinforcing the best dealer. It's reinforcing the person who doesn't give a shit about value and just wants to push product and won't necessarily follow up, won't be a good support system in the future for the product. So that is a bad deal to me.
    59:34
    I don't see why we need contractual protection on that. The market should be able to suss that out then. If you're getting bad support, but you chose that because you only wanted to pay $5 over true cost, and someone decided they can stay in business doing that, I don't understand the problem. I don't understand why that is more important than just saying, let's not have a floor. Have the market sorted out, and then when people need to clearance and get rid of Toy Story 4s, it's no big deal. They clearance it. I think that Pinball would sell direct for manufacturers before it would do that, and rightfully so. It would be a mess. I'm not sure why. The reason that Apple doesn't, you can't sell Apple products for whatever the hell you want. But you see, but currently the floor thing doesn't change what the manufacturers want. They want, in fact, you would, maybe I'm wrong, but my assumption is distribution in pinball would be more likely to stock more games if they knew they had full control on dropping the price to whatever they wanted after. You want to put in a time limit, put in a time limit of like six months or a year, but that they can clear them out without being stuck at, you know what, you can't ever go below $12,000 on this game. That doesn't make any sense.
    60:47
    I would say the margins and distribution of pinball are not high enough. JJP is saying there's no depreciation, which is ridiculous. It's ridiculous. Accounting would mandate there be depreciation. Sure. So this is an artificial prop. It is a crutch. Plus, I think that you can't go floor either. because of the time it takes to manufacture product.
    61:12
    I still don't get it. If JJP wants to – they get the money when they sell, and they sell – the value in the distribution network to them is like you buying 30 games rather than them trying to sell one-offs to 30 different standalone people. And again, we see this in other industries. You can go to a manufacturer's website in all sorts of industries and pay full MSRP, and all of their distribution networks offer discounts. so it always makes more sense to go through the distribution if money is what you care about. But, and it doesn't break them, I don't think that's the case. I think this is a legacy thing. They're still charging, a lot of these manufacturers are still charging dealers non-refundable deposits when they put in an order regardless if the damn game takes two years to make. That is a lot of working capital just sitting an interest-free loan that these manufacturers are taking. And if they're doing that, there shouldn't be a floor. You should be able to say, you know what? I got my game two years later. It's not worth what it was anymore. Let me at least make a little bit of money. Let me take a loss and let me have my cash back. Because I think this is going to – here's my theory. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. Here's my theory. I think after what we saw with Toy Story 4 and now what we're seeing with Godfather and assuming Elton John is next, how many distributors are going to buy orders like they did when they bought Toy Story 4 based off of what they saw with Guns N' Roses at this point, knowing that there are all these archaic rules that say, hey, if you're stuck with 20 games in inventory, you're never, ever, not ever, never, never, never, Wii U, never, allowed to go below this ridiculous overpriced $12,000 threshold. Yeah, I was going to say I can only speak for myself, but I think I speak for a lot of dealers out there that would say that whether it's JGP or whatever manufacturer, every new release, because of the market of what it is now versus six months ago or two years ago, we're going to be a little bit more cautious on making orders for products or how many we are ordering or how many we're capable of inventorying because that's the main goal. How many we're capable of inventorying. I'm going to be very hard-pressed if I'm selling for a manufacturer and I've got three of their most recent releases chronologically still in stock. Yeah, I'm very hesitant on how many I order for this next released title, honestly. For me, the long and the short of it is I think if they would change this model, they would sell more games to distributors. And then distributors won't feel like they're over a barrel. I think it's win-win to change this. This is not the proper way to contract. I think there's some easy modifications to make in there without going all the way one way or the other. Some nice modifications that is a nice in-between.
    64:03
    I think it's okay to do steps. Yes, exactly. Again, I can totally understand saying that there's a floor for a set period of time, for example. They want a middle ground, but acting like Led Zeppelin, going over to Stern, is the same value as with all the price increases that keep hitting all their other games at this point. It's not the real world. They're living in a fantasy world. Yeah, but they're charging dealers the same amount. I know, but if they want to do that, that's fine. But you as a dealer at some point should be allowed to not risk your contract and have the flexibility to get rid of that crap. I see. That's where I'm at. Without doing stupid... I've heard about the stupid nonsense. I'm not saying you've done this, but I've heard about the stupid nonsense where people are just like, oh, I'll just tear open the top of the box. Oh, now it's used. Here we go. It's just stupid crap. People shouldn't have to play games to get rid of unwanted product. Let them fire sale it. There should be the ability to fire sale, and it shouldn't affect your contracts. I'm sorry, Pinball. I know this is expensive stuff. You're not even a luxury good. This is operating... This is operator-based. We are necessity. No. Yes, we are. Let me – I'm on my roll. I'm on my roll, Zach. All right. Because here's the thing. If this is truly a luxury product – we've seen this with pinball. They've struggled mightily, Zach. They've struggled mightily with people whining about clear coat and ghosting and chipping and everything else because they're like, well, it's meant to be operated. They still hide behind that. We still see this promotional video with Venom and the LE model with visible, very visible spot welds. A luxury product would never do that. This is not. Look under your Chevy. It's not. I'm just saying that they never up their quality. It's just they do it like it's going to be operated. So they clearly don't want to build to the level that a high-level luxury sophisticated good would be, so be it, that it's expensive as moot. A pin for every home. A home for every pin. You're not special. You're making common goods here. Wasn't that deep roots thing? Making common goods. Wasn't that pin for every home? Cars don't do this. Ridiculous. Terrible model. Now you ever got into this, it absolutely blows my mind. Flipping out pinball, we want to offer what we can. So matching, if we're going to match another offer out there, okay. There's like zero price flexibility in this hobby. So everyone's just coming down to who treats you nicer. And then what ends up happening is, well, they're all kind of nice. So everyone tries to dance around the seams and be like, that's where it used to be like, I might be able to throw you a little shaker motor there. Now you can't even do that.
    66:50
    It's silly. It's absolutely silly. Oh, you heard it here. Flipping out pinball. Make me an offer on your JJP Toy Story for Ellie, C-E, Hellthrones, Godfather, Ellie. Buy, buy, buy. I don't have any C-E. I got one C-E, but whatever. And then GNR, I got some GNR LEs. Make us an offer. Still? GNR? I do. That's like a baby's toy. I do have a couple. So make us an offer. Unless, of course, JJP says I can't do that, and then I'll retract that. But for now, make an offer while you can until my wrist gets slapped. Oh, ouch. Bye, bye, bye. Can we talk about a manufacturer that I don't deal for maybe? Multimarvic. Oh, wow. We haven't talked about them in a while. Not since Final, what was it, Final Destination? Final. Oh, Final Resistance. Oh, my God. I mess that up every time. I wish Devin Sawa was in Final Resistance.
    67:47
    If Casper could pop up on the screen. We need a Casper. We need a feature-linked film Devin Sawa and Christina Ricci and Bill Pullman, Casper, licensed out for Multimorphic. I hear they're getting another licensed game. Maybe Nick Balger is going to work on that. Did you know that Nick is officially joining the Multimorphic team as a customer support representative? Yes. He's in. I did see that. Yep. I think it's already in effect. So congratulations, Nick. And last episode, Dennis, we did an exclusive TPS subscription content bonus episode thing. And we covered a couple of different things. I encourage everyone to sign up to patreon.com slash the pinball show so that you can go back and hear all of those episodes, including the one that we did last week where you and I talked about competitive pinball. We made it interesting, though. We talked about what's wrong with competitive pinball. Dennis and I laid it out for you. Either you follow it and grow as an industry and a hobby or you don't. Whatever you want to do. And it may or may not have involved those patented, trademarked competition series pinball machines that Roger Sharp and I are working on. What would you do, Dennis? What do you mean, what would I do? If he and I went in business together. You'd fail, so I don't care. No, he would not. You'd fail. Home for every pin, a pin for every home. What? A competition series pin for every location. Location for every competition series pin is what I'm saying. We also talked about what's wrong with competitive pinball.
    69:30
    That's gold in and of itself there. Josh Sharp, I know you're listening. Go ahead. Get out your steno pad. Hope it's yellow. Easier on the eyes. Take notes. But we also discussed the rumor that I had heard that Texas Pinball Festival may be a no-go in 2024. talk amongst yourselves. That was just... That was the bleeding rumor coming from multiple people when they were hanging out at the Southern Fried Gaming Expo a couple weekends ago Now I don know if that true or not It's just a rumor. And last I checked, you can throw out whatever info you want. And this is one legit that I did here. But I have no clue if it's true or not. I've had people message us since, Dennis, and say, no, that's not true. but uh but other than that but then again i hate when it's like oh this is a rumor do you have any evidence that's not true to substantiate oh fuck off so who knows you know someone had a birthday last week and they were part of our most sacred wonderful screaming go club so we're going to say thank you to all of those members right now and remember you yourself listener if you're not part of this club what in the butterscotch are you waiting on you could be the future demolition derby car you you could there's there's so much there my ear daddy my ear yeah there's so many an interesting audio to do there's there's so much there and you could be it all you've got to do is sign up to the screaming goat club membership you get your own nickname you get a private correspondence with dennis and i hear all the juice and it's loose uh behind the scenes about the rumors, the real rumors, and what's really going on that they don't want you to hear. They don't want you hearing it. I think that's what sells Patreon things. You got to say it like that. So sign up today, and we'll thank you every episode. You get to come join us on an episode, live Zoom meetings, or you can do the Nordman Club membership, or hell, just the official club membership starting at $10 a month. Do it now. We've got that coming up, I think, maybe on the 30th. We're still planning that. Yeah, yeah. That's the day we're going to try. I'm going to go ahead and schedule it. Use something different than Zoom, though. Okay, cool. So a hangout spot for us live, usually 8 p.m. Central, August 30th, likely. Yeah, that's fine. But we've got to say thank you to those members, including our birthday boy himself, Bob Kidd.
    71:54
    Happy birthday, fucker. Oh, shoot that fucker. Nicely done. Thanks again, Rodney. And for all of you other people, I don't keep up with birthdays. I just so happen to see it was his birthday. So don't shoot me if I miss your birthday or anything. Jablonski, love you, buddy. and I love Shia LaBeouf too.
    72:12
    Where's he at? We need him in another movie. Just do it. Robbie, that sexy little pinball kitten. Colin, you're not going to be watered down as a pinball machine, I assure you.
    72:27
    Give it time. See if JJP does it right. Thank you, Frank. I hope you cancel your Screaming Goat Club membership nevermore. Is that how that works?
    72:39
    What are you talking about? A raven and a falcon. Oh, that link was horrid. It was a stretch, but I tried.
    72:49
    David. Rumble, rumble. Maybe he's the CGC shaker motor. I still think he's a stern spike. What's the difference between the two shaker motors? Like, do you know? I have no clue. Okay. They're all the same. I don't. That's right. A blue steel OEM red trimmer. No, Red Trimmer is not the same. Someday I'm going to get David upgraded to Red Trimmer and we'll have a great victory. I noticed that the JJP is a bit more of a subtle shake.
    73:21
    It's nice on the fingertips. Is that because maybe their games are heavier and so it's harder for it to wiggle, wiggle, wiggle? Yeah, it's a nice little, nice tempo on that. Spooky will shake all of the nuts and bolts out of that game. He'll shake all that hot glue out. Damn, maybe they went all in on the red trimmer. Shit, you got to felt that glass. Not that you don't hear rattles, it won't break. Shit! Thanks, Dave. Joe Fox, thank you for being a friend and for dealing with me as a friend. Do you think a fox really sounds like that?
    73:56
    Have you never actually watched videos with foxes? I have, but I just, it's almost like bad lip syncing. I don't believe it. They're very whiny animals.
    74:06
    Sorry, Joe. Charlie, ring-a-ding. Can we replace him with the bell sound from Venom? All right, let's do it. Thanks, Charlie.
    74:18
    Oh, and I almost forgot, Dennis. Speaking of the pinball show club membership, we've got an exclusive little discussion this week for those club members all about Dutch pinball and their future. Mm-hmm. We saw a little, I felt a little bit of a tease coming in from Craig Bobby talking about the new partnership with the Art of Pinball. But I thought, you know what, we haven't really talked about the company Dutch Pinball in quite a while. And that's kind of a bit of a rabbit hole. It's not really about, you know, current production stuff per se. So I thought, you know, it makes sense to go ahead and do that maybe as the add-on for the supporters. Let's dive in. This is that time of the week again when I go over all of the rising and falling trends in the pinball industry. Thus, conveniently, we call it Pinball Market Trends! Butterscotch Edition!
    75:10
    Are butterscotch always hard or are they soft? I don't think I've ever had a soft one. I didn't know if they like caramel. You can have it a chewy caramel or you can have like a toffee, a harder, you know, got to suck on it more. Do you like to sucker bite, Dennis, is what I'm asking.
    75:36
    You like to poke and twist. Turning up this week. It's turn pinball James Bond 007. Insert Craig Bobby's happy wife tongue thingy. And that's because, listener, new code. People are loving this new code, .95. We still have .05 more room, Dennis. More room for wonderful additions and enhancements and polish. Plus the topper. They got the Cornerstone topper out now. Sure, it's the same thing as the 60th anniversary topper minus the L1 signature. But still, it's awesome. So you get new code. You get new topper. Accessories. You get new accessories to put on this thing. So why wouldn't it be trending up? Also trending up this week, this is more of a future trend. Be on the lookout for Iron Maiden and Avengers Infinity Quest trending. Because now that they're doing Last Call, especially I think Iron Maiden. That's preferred over the Avengers game, wouldn't you say, Dennis? Yeah, I agree. Even though they made a bootload of all of these, I still think that you're going to start seeing supplies dry up a little bit. Probably towards, I would guess, the beginning of next year. You're going to start seeing Iron Maiden go up probably price-wise. And Avengers, for that matter. You know, I was surprised to see that the Avengers LE, holding value very well on the secondary market. That was surprising because I listed mine. I was like, oh, this thing is holding up. All is trending up this way. I've got to give it. Now, this is just trending up by about a dog's hair. And that's Scooby-Doo from Spooky Pinball. Hear me out, Dennis, before you start woo-wooing on this thing. Yeah, this sounds like a trending not any direction, but okay. No, it isn't. Lie if you need to. Like, compared to the early summer, numbers don't lie. I only report the facts here. Don't shoot the messenger. Shoot the crow.
    77:24
    Likely. I think this is due to... Why would you make the crow sound like that? I don't know what Brandon Lee sounds like. Oh, you're trying to do the Brandon Lee crow. Oh, shit.
    77:35
    I'll just make a Brandon Lee death reference. How did he die again? Wasn't it on set? He fell or something? No, it was a gunshot. Oh. I think it was a mis... I thought it was a misfire of a prop gun, but I... Alec Baldwin's first movie. Wow.
    77:55
    Oh, wow. That's too soon. I'm really getting deep here. Film shoot. Gun that was used as a prop was loaded with improperly made dummy rounds. See, I didn't think he had live rounds in it. Yeah, it was improperly made dummy rounds improvised from live cartridges that had the powder charges removed by the special effects crew. So in close-ups, the revolver would show normal-looking ammunition, but they forgot to remove the primers from the cartridges. So one of the rounds got fired. That sounds shady as hell, though. And so even though there weren't powder charges, the energy from the primer was enough to fire the bullet out of the casing, push it partway into the gun barrel where it got stuck.
    78:35
    So a squib load. so anyway uh he uh he had his the dummy cartridges had blank rounds in them and the as near as i can tell what happened was they didn't check and clear the barrel before the blank was fired so the dummy bullet that's stuck in the barrel was propelled forward by the blanks propellant and then it came out of the muzzle just like it was a live round and hit him hit him in the chest how did we get here. You did it! And we learned it from watching you, Dad. We learned it from watching you. Scooby-Doo's training up because... No, it's not. Yes, it is. People are actually talking about it more and more and more. Talking about it's irrelevant. Look at the numbers. Numbers do not lie. The cost on the secondary market today buying one is higher than that of early summer. Early summer, they were going in the mid-eighths. Now, no. They're back up to top eights, low nines right now. I think likely that's due to code being continually enhanced, as well as just getting more out there to play. People are actually able to play them more at shows, or at their buddy's house, location, etc.
    79:41
    And, oh, hell, even just climbing up the Pennside Top 100, it's at 35 right now. That's pretty high. Yeah, it's higher than a lot of the games that we all love. Yeah. So, Scooby, Scooby-Doo, look at you! And some other really exciting stuff for Scooby-Doo in the future. they have plans to continue working on this code for i think the next year or so will it get to 1.0 before or after james bond people still want to poo poo halloween but look at that that's gone up as well ultraman it hasn't that game and they made so few of them too i've got one new box right now make me an offer let's do that shit okay all right enough of the positivity trending down this week is Brandon Lee.
    80:27
    Cuckoo. Trinning down is so shitty. The pinball market in general. I thought you were going to say six feet down. At least you held off.
    80:40
    The pinball market in general is down. It continues to be down. You just talked about how all these games are going up. Well, you know, there are outliers there. There, you know. But the pinball market is not an outlier in general. Generally speaking, we are down. great deals can be made right now. It just depends on what dealer you're asking, I guess.
    81:03
    Also trending down this week is Jersey Jack Pinball's Pirates of the Caribbean. Uh-oh. What? Maybe don't rerun that one right now, JJP.
    81:13
    Yeah, it is. Because everything is coming down, you see the biggest hits, generally speaking, to those the highest price kind of things. They come down exponentially more, And I've seen that in a JJP Pirates of the Caribbean, a couple in the market now, that probably would have been mid to upper 20,000s, lower 20,000s, and sitting. So if you want to pull the trigger on a Pirates of the Caribbean, I'd hold off a little bit longer. You'd probably get it right under $20,000.
    81:43
    Maybe not. Maybe right at $20,000, now that I think about it. I don't know. I mean, they did make 1,000 of them. Why not go lower? Yeah, but how many have the triple spinning disc? Five, I think. Did they release those, though, the prototypes? Did those go public? Open your eyes, people. Right under your nose. You know what I do find interesting, though? We were talking about the JJP whole thing. This is out of sorts and out of order here, but when we were discussing that, I'm interested to see what do they do? Do you think they come out with a game here soon, the new title? Because once Godfather CEs are built, what are they going to build? Yeah, I mean, I guess I don't know how soon you mean by soon. I do think that they release the next game in the fall. Maybe they have it ready to reveal at Expo. Okay. Do you think they're going to reveal something without having games ready? No, I think they might be building them. Right now? Sure. Why not? I don't. They're not moving enough Godfathers to not. They might as well keep the line busy. I may agree with that sentiment, but no. If I were to guess, I don't think that next game is quite ready yet. They have three designers on staff. Come on. You still have to get parts. You still have to. Yeah, but we're not in the bottlenecks like we were. They were just building. Yeah, but that's just got that. I haven't got all my Cs. That's just got a lot of coils. This next game. I don't think they go from. I mean, how hard is it to buy a couple thousand tiny dancers? I'm still wondering what happens between now and when they release their game, because I don't think that next game, I don't think it's ready yet. And no company can afford just sitting and not making anything. I guess you can if you're a billionaire willing to become a millionaire.
    83:26
    Good point. But that's the one thing where all these weird decisions to me, weird decisions like bad license choices and all that, I just don't understand half of what JJP does, probably more than half to be fair. But, I mean, if you are being underwritten by someone who has way more money than they know what to do with, I guess you can mess up forever. Look at Twitter. Hey, now. X. Like it's a body spray for them. Perms. X body spray. It is. It smells of rich mahogany burning.
    84:04
    No, that's just Craig Bobby. Someone set him on fire. Put him out. Stop, drop, and roll, Craig. This perm is up in flames. Pinball Bounty. You guys failed yet again. I picked me up a Star Trek Ellie. I found one. Actually, a friend of the show, a listener, said, hey, I heard your bounty, and I've got one if you're wanting one. I'm letting go of a couple games. So I went and picked it up. So if they heard it on the show, how is that a failure on the bounty? Well, it's a failure to the people who did not find me that Star Trek element. But only one person could find it, and they did. Yeah, we cut out the middleman. I didn't have to offer a bounty. I'm cutting out the middleman! Which I don't approve of. No floors. You are the middleman. I love the floors. Granite floors I love the Marble floors Let's keep the floors around Pinball floors for life Yeah so I got my LE It's off the table Dolly Parton Radical Congo Find me a Minty one Why don't people want my Minty Whirlwind Damn You're probably asking too much for it I've got 12 in it and I'm asking 9999999 All the Germans keep telling me when I show them 9 They don't want it Maybe you need to put the 2.0 kid in it. The poop monster. You've got to get the poop monster in it. Suey! Shit and turd monster.
    85:27
    Speaking of grandmas, I wonder if Granny and Suey are together now. Tonguing each other. As always, people, I'm just here to report the packs.
    85:38
    I'm here to report the packs. As always, people, I'm just here to report the facts because numbers don't lie, and neither do I, nor does Dennis, on Pinball Market Trends. Where are you at, Raven?
    85:53
    Maybe the Raven's going to be the official bird of this show. We're always talking about birds. Dennis? That's true. Your crow toe ever since then has been a mess. Sucking on a crow toe. We need to bring that back. That was like episode nine. That's right. We still had Ken Cromwell on this show. Where can people catch you? Well, it's easiest if they don't want to reach out to me about something to email me at eclecticgamerspodcast at gmail.com. Now without rumor corner. Oh, my gosh. I've had so many complaints. Oh, my gosh. Let it go. That's what makes me so happy is seeing that you're holding on to it.
    86:29
    It's just like maybe we whine enough. You know what? I'll tell you what. Maybe if EGP's Patreon gets up to 60, I can bring it back. I was going to say, you know what? Make it part of your EGP Patreon. It's like it's a whole – I thought about that. I thought about just putting it behind the $1 paywall, but I'll probably get messages saying, you know, you should really only do a 50-cent paywall. That's right. If you had it at 50 cents, I would have, but I would even have told my grandma to join. And our next EGP episode is our 200th, actually. Congratulations. Yes. Been at it too long. Too long. Too old. Anything special? I don't think you guys said – No. You said nothing. Just – No, I mean, not that we're like, we're not like doing something, asking the listeners to do stuff or anything. People love that. I hate that stuff. I know. People can email us at thepinballshow at gmail.com. They can go and follow us on Facebook, on TikTok. They can join us on the Discord by being a Patreon member. Remember, that's patreon.com slash thepinballshow, where you get behind-the-scenes info and we chat on Discord. We just have fun. It's a way to support Dennis and I's efforts. and the show in general and to grow. Also, follow, like, and subscribe to Straight Down the Middle. Hopefully we're recording here soon. No River Band episode.
    87:47
    What? Not yet. They keep us for the Patreon people. I don't even have a Patreon over there. Sponsor of this show is Flippin' Out Pinball. When I buy my pinball shit, I buy from Flippin' Out. From toppers, toppers, to me, I've got it figured out. Flippin' Out, figured out. When I pick up pinball, I pick flipping out. Flipping out. When I buy, buy, buy, I buy from flipping out. Buy, buy, buy. Get a math. Yeah, product showcase this week. Apparently, it's JJP Games. Hey, you got an offer. Let's see if we can refuse it. For all your JJP Games, come to flipping out pinball. Shoot us over an offer. We'll tell you if it's enough. Avengers LE, we have pre-owned in stock. Whirlwind, my restored one. I'm selling that. Spider-Man Vault pre-owned at Joel Engelberst right now. Pick it up in Indianapolis. Cactus Canyon, SE plus spot right now. Fathom revisited Mermaid Edition. On the last episode, I was looking for a spot that I had that was already in a plane. That got sold, so nicely done. But we do have a spot or two for our last batch of them coming toward the end of the year. So if you guys are up for the wait and you're still looking for a Mermaid Edition, you know what's odd? I still have a couple of those. I didn't advertise them much, but I still have a couple of those. But we ran out of Centaur spots, so we are sold out. So if you're wanting a Centaur revisited from Haggis Pinball, go directly to them. They'll take care of you. Hot Wheels Classic by American Pinball, we have that. We just got in Queen. Oh. Yeah, some Rhapsody editions. Just got those in. James Bond Pro and Premium, come get it. James Bond 007 60th anniversary. We have new and pre-owned. I think we're down to one new one. We recently sold a new one. We have two new ones left. We have one more. Avengers Premium and Pro. Last call, baby. So get your Avengers Premium and Pro as well as Iron Maiden Pro and Premium. Last call. Foo Fighters Pro and Premium. We have the Premiums in stock now. As well as Jurassic Park Pro and Premiums. Turtles Premium. That was the last call. Not making that anymore. Godfather LE. Make a deal. Alien LV in stock. Jurassic Park Home Editions and Star Wars Home Editions. Remember, that was the last call. They're discontinuing those as well. We added things to the Flippin' Out Vault. So go to the FlippinOutPinball.com go to the vault page and see some goodies that you're not going to see probably anywhere else such as the Stranger Things replacement projector Guardians of the Galaxy Pro still new in the box holy moly the Ghostbusters Firehouse mod by Wolfcub don't wait in line get it now the Black Knight Sword of Rage limited edition vinyl we've got Toy Story's Ultraman's Halloween pre-owned Mandalorians Star Wars Pro Led Zeppelins all of the accessories that you could want toppers, art blades, shakers, banners whatever it is player mats Escaleras flipping out with friends Hell will sell you Joel Inglebirth Poor Joel He was streaming Godfather this past week And this upcoming week on Wednesday I think he's going to do a talk A talk pinball show I want you to join that again Dennis It's always entertaining when you're there I'm usually a selection of absolute last resort I remember he said that the other week I was talking to him And Dennis thinks he's the last resort now Because I am And I understand it I probably oversaturated, quite frankly, as it is. He said he's so busy and every time I felt bad asking him, but now he thinks he's a backup. I am the backup.
    91:10
    You're the Nord man. What happened last week on TPN? Well, we only had two podcasts that came out since our Rumor Fatigue episode of the Pinball Show. So Pinball Innovators and Makers podcast that had episode 10. That was the Pinball Reborn was the title of that. Yep. Because it was about Pinball Reborn. And then free play, as you mentioned, the interview with Dwight Sullivan just came out a few days ago.
    91:33
    Love you, Dwight. This week on TPN, I think we're going to get a pinball party and probably do for a final round and a triple dream. This would seem to be, yeah, about time for, I think this next two-week period is probably going to be pretty sizable would be my guess. Yes, sizable but no news. But hey, that's where you can have these fun discussions like our paywall protected Dutch pinball discussion. I agree. And I think coming up on our next episode of the pinball show, we'll likely be hearing from one of the Screaming Goat Club members as we have them aboard for a segment, as well as one of our TPS members choosing a segment for us to discuss. Some more on that. I'm curious what topics they'll want us to talk about. Don't blow it, guys. but until then dennis you got any words of wisdom for these people well more of a a plea really so if you bought dwight sullivan a cookie please reach out to him release him from this living hell i guarantee it's a peanut butter cookie and always practice safe pinball and apparently getting more youth into pinball i guess is what we want but then again if these little idiots are going to be sporting ugly ass perms and gold lace clutches. What's next? White gloves when they're playing in their competitive tournaments? What is this? Get out of my arcade.