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Kaneda' Pinball Podcast Saturday Morning Spectacular Oct 4

Kaneda Pinball Podcasts YouTube Lives·video·22m 4s·analyzed·Oct 5, 2025
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Analysis

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TL;DR

Kaneda declares Stern Pinball in crisis over Star Wars failure, pricing model collapse, and customer trust erosion.

Summary

Kaneda hosts a Saturday Morning Spectacular livestream discussing the state of Stern Pinball's market position, particularly criticizing the poor reception of Star Wars Pinball and its impact on collector confidence. He argues Stern is in financial trouble due to unsustainable three-tier pricing, poor secondary market value retention, and quality control issues, while previewing upcoming homebrew Big Trouble in Little China and discussing competition from boutique manufacturers.

Key Claims

  • Star Wars Pinball LE could not sell 777 units, indicating it's an embarrassing sales disaster for Stern

    medium confidence · Kaneda directly states the LE sales number and characterizes it as embarrassing, but does not cite a source for this figure

  • Carrie Hardy lost $3,500 on a brand new Keith Elwin King Kong LE within less than six months

    medium confidence · Kaneda cites this as a specific example of value collapse, framing it as unprecedented in Stern's history

  • Star Wars Pinball was a rushed project and John Borg did not have adequate time to complete it

    medium confidence · Kaneda asserts this directly and mentions shelving Indiana Jones to prioritize Star Wars

  • Death Star shot on Star Wars is experiencing quality control rejections and mechanical failures

    medium confidence · Kaneda references owner complaints including misaligned mounting screws causing wavy expression lighting

  • Stern Pinball needs to sell four games per year to keep the factory operational, unlike boutique competitors who only need one per year

    low confidence · Kaneda makes this claim as general business analysis without citing specific financial data

  • Jaws 50th Anniversary includes a nicer playfield than the original Jaws LE, burning existing collectors

    high confidence · Kaneda explicitly compares playfield quality between editions and frames it as a customer burn strategy

  • There is firsthand knowledge of Stern employees not wanting to work there anymore, related to four-day work week rumors

    low confidence · Kaneda claims to have 'firsthand knowledge' but provides no verifiable details or names

  • No Stern LE machine from 2000+ history has ever lost $3,500 in value before the recent collapse

    low confidence · Kaneda makes broad historical claim without specific examples or data backing

Notable Quotes

  • “They continue to hand their customers significant financial losses wrapped up in mediocrity—mediocre pinball machines with B-level themes for the most part.”

    Kaneda — Core criticism of Stern's product strategy and value proposition to collectors

  • “It's embarrassing that the LEs didn't—they couldn't even sell 777 LEs of Star Wars. That is embarrassing.”

    Kaneda — Quantifies the Star Wars LE sales failure, framing it as a major market signal of Stern's decline

  • “Carrie Hardy losing $3,500 on a brand new Keith Elwin King Kong LE is a disaster. Think about that for a minute.”

    Kaneda — Specific example of unprecedented secondary market collapse for a flagship designer's machine

  • “The writing is on the wall. Stern Pinball cannot survive at these prices with this kind of product.”

    Kaneda — Direct assertion of Stern's financial unsustainability based on market dynamics

  • “Playing a game on location is like sleeping with a prostitute. You don't have to take it home.”

    Kaneda — Analogy dismissing location play enthusiasm as irrelevant to home collector purchasing decisions

  • “Stern is now stuck in a position where they have to have an abundance of supply to keep that factory going, but the demand keeps shrinking.”

    Kaneda — Core economic analysis of Stern's supply-demand crisis

  • “Releasing a nicer playfield on Jaws 50th is a burn to the Jaws LE owners. I don't care who you are.”

    Kaneda — Identifies competitive product tier cannibalization as damaging collector trust

  • “I think it's safe to say pinball is more exciting than a Taylor Swift album.”

    Kaneda — Meta-commentary on pinball's cultural relevance; lighter tone contrast to critical analysis

Entities

Stern PinballcompanyStar Wars PinballgameKanedapersonCarrie HardypersonJohn BorgpersonKing Kong PinballgameJaws 50th Anniversary PinballgameJaws Pinball LEgameMetallica Pinballgame

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern Pinball may be in financial crisis with unsustainable production model requiring four games per year while demand shrinks

    medium · Kaneda argues Stern must sell four games yearly to keep factory operational but demand keeps shrinking; compares unfavorably to boutique competitors needing only one per year

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern considering price increases for Walking Dead despite poor Star Wars reception signals strategic confusion

    low · Kaneda predicts Walking Dead price increase would be 'real catastrophe' but does not cite confirmation of this planned increase

  • ?

    event_signal: Saturday Morning Spectacular livestream providing real-time market analysis and collector sentiment about Stern crisis

    high · Live discussion format with call-ins and chat engagement; Kaneda directly addressing community concerns about value loss

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Boutique manufacturers (Spooky, Barrels, Pinball Brothers, Chicago Gaming) have more sustainable business models requiring one game yearly vs. Stern's four

    medium · Kaneda compares production requirements and argues this gives boutiques competitive advantage during market contraction

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Stern producing 'B-level themes' with mediocre designs contributing to poor market reception

    low · Kaneda's subjective characterization of Stern themes as 'B-level' and 'mediocre'; not substantiated with specific game examples

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

0:05
My mom [Music] run. [Music] All right, kids. How are the kids doing this morning? A little early start here. Saturday morning spectacular. Canada in Saturday morning spectacular. Canada in the house. How's everybody doing? Let's get the mic on. What's up, What's up, Red? Red? Red choices. Not a red choice. There's a blue. Let's get this going here. Ah, good morning. How's everybody doing? Let's get the Charger playing. Canadas Pinball Podcast. Got like a week and a half to expo. We're excited. I'm excited. Going to try to read without my glasses. How's everybody doing? Good. It's a beautiful day here in Connecticut. Killian's about to go do soccer. I got a wedding to go to. First time we're having like a all day babysitter come over here. One of the teachers watch the kids so Brennan and I can go to a wedding. Sad Boy, you and you need to stop. You know, you don't need to stop. More of you need to be like Sad Boy with the $49.99 every week. Comes in hot. I love it. Thank you so much, brother. What's the overunder on you playing big trouble in Little China for 10 hours? Oh, love it. Yeah, we're going to talk about that game on today's episode of uh Saturday Morning Spectacular. Um I have thoughts on it. I have thoughts on it. I actually, you know, I can't wait to play it. I can't wait to see it. Uh I have some thoughts. I have some thoughts. Uh but I think it's fun. I think it's always fun when we get these homebrew games and people are building these games. uh you know with with nothing but passion. With nothing but passion. Um let's let's welcome everybody who you say hi. I say hi back. We got Chance. It's not mass-produced. What's the relevance?
2:42
Well, well, Chance like I mean I don't I don't well, Chance like I mean I don't I don't I don't look at homerew like that, you know, like if I can't own it, why do I care? I don't think it's like that at all. I think it's about celebrating pinball. I think it's about creativity. I think it's about seeing the potential in some of these themes that might not even be feasible from a licensing standpoint.
The Walking Dead Pinball
game
Elton John Pinball CEgame
Avatar Pinballgame
Labyrinth Pinballgame
John Wick Pinball LEgame
James Bond Pinballgame
Big Trouble in Little China Pinballgame
Spooky Pinballcompany
Barrels of Funcompany
Pinball Brotherscompany
Chicago Gaming Companycompany
Keith Elwinperson
Evil Dead Pinballgame
Harry Potter Pinballgame
Beetlejuice Pinballgame
$

market_signal: Star Wars Pinball LE failed to sell even 777 units, representing unprecedented market rejection of major IP

medium · Kaneda states specific figure of 777 LEs unable to sell; calls it 'embarrassing'; suggests this is sales disaster for Stern

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Firsthand knowledge of Stern employees losing motivation to work there

    low · Kaneda claims 'firsthand knowledge of people not wanting to work there anymore' but provides no specifics; references four-day work week rumors

  • $

    market_signal: Three-tier LE/Premium/Pro pricing model causing collector financial losses and eroding buyer confidence

    high · Multiple examples of $3,500+ losses on recent LEs (King Kong, Elton John); Kaneda states this is unprecedented in Stern's history and happening in under six months

  • ?

    product_strategy: Star Wars Pinball was rushed project; John Borg given inadequate time due to shelving of Indiana Jones game

    medium · Kaneda directly asserts Star Wars was rushed and Borg 'did not have a lot of time'; attributes this to resource reallocation from Indiana Jones

  • ?

    product_concern: Star Wars Pinball Death Star shot experiencing systematic quality control failures with misaligned mounting

    medium · Owner reports of Death Star rejections; pictures showing wavy expression lighting from mounting issues

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Collector trust in Stern severely damaged by Jaws 50th Anniversary playfield superiority over original LE

    high · Kaneda frames Jaws 50th as 'burn to the Jaws LE owners'; argues owners will feel they bought inferior version at premium price

    • 3:09
    Uh, and I think that's why it's exciting because, you know, look, we're never going to get a top gun pinball machine ever with Tom Cruz and Val Kilmer and the original movie, right? Never. It's going to happen. So, the closest we'll ever get to a Top Gun would be if someone just made a homebrew, right, and reskinned an old game maybe or built a new one. But that's about it. What's up, Louis Fizzy Mike Jones, everybody? How we doing? We got nine on Facebook. Am I in the right Facebook?
    3:42
    You're funny, Killian. You are funny. Um, You are funny. Um, we'll never get a good Star Wars spin. I I absolutely want to talk about Star Wars and the uh the owners club is pretty damn sad. And now now it's all about the the Death Star shot is just rejecting left and right. It's not working well. Some dude showed a picture of his his expression lighting is all wavy like the way they screwed it into the cabinet. the quality is not great on it. We're going to talk about Star Wars. We're going to talk about Spooky. We're going to talk about JJP. We're going to talk about Homebrew. We're going to share thoughts on everything going on in the pinball world. I think it's safe to say um Pinball is more exciting than a Taylor Swift album. That album is pretty damn bad. After listening to the entire album, I can honestly say I will never listen to it again. Not as good as Chapel Ron. Not as good as Sabrina Carpenter, not as good as Machine Gun Kelly's new album, Lost Americana. Trust me. Look, there's been a lot of great music recently. And Taylor Swift, no one cares. No one cares now. Saying nothing. You know, we're at a point now in all of like what we like we we collect pinball. We buy pinball. We talk about pinball. We do content about pinball. Thank you, Fizzy, for the for the two bucks, brother. Um, we're at a point now where it's basically we have so much entertainment at our disposal,
    5:23
    so much to excite us, entertain us, keep us occupied, free us from boredom that it's like, I don't know, the that it's like, I don't know, the world's different now. Like, you either do something that that like breaks through or it kind of gets instantly ignored. And that's the quagmire that this new Stern Star Wars is in is it's immediately and I mean this immediately by the masses is going to be dismissed. Thank you Wayne for the hundred stars. And I think the um the response to Star Wars has to be sending shock waves through Stern Pinball. There's no way they expected this Star Wars pin to sell so poorly there. It's embarrassing that the Ellies didn't they couldn't even sell 770 Ellies of Star Wars. That is embarrassing. What's caught up to Stern now is a perfect storm that's against them. They they continue to hand their customers significant financial losses wrapped up in mediocrity, you know, mediocre pinball machines with B-level themes for the most part. and they continue to burn their existing collectors and customers time and time again. Releasing a nicer playfield on Jaws 50th is a burn to the Jaws Ellie owners. I don't care who you are. If you love Jaws, there's no like I would want to be swapping in uh a Jaws 50th playfield into my into my Jaws LE cabinet cuz I would be I would know like I love this game. I want to keep this game. I want the nicest version of this game. And now the nicest playfield version of the game is in the 50th anniversary, not in the Ellie that I spent $13,000 on. And you just can't keep doing this. You can't keep doing this. You can't keep burning your customers. You can't keep making nicer versions of games. We all know Star Wars 50th will come out. I don't even think they'll do Star Wars 50th now because Star Wars is a sales uh disaster. It's got to be a sales disaster for them. There's no way it's selling that well. And why would they go back now and make another like I think Stern is in real big trouble. I think they underestimated what the competition would deliver. And I think they've spent too many years just burning their customer base. And the majority of their customer base are not dudes like Neil McCrae who just have so much money to burn. No. like they needed to be more uh aware of what their core new inbox buyer, what that person was uh was was wanting from them as a company. And as I said out on my podcast this week, Carrie Hardy losing $3,500 on a brand new Keith Ellwin King Kong Ellie is a disaster. Think about that for a minute. And I said it on my show since 2000. Like basically in Stern's like 30, 40 year history, you never would have lost $3,500 on a pinball machine ever. No matter what the game was, Mustangle, WWE, no matter what the game was, there was never a single example where a Stern Lie that someone paid top dollar for would ever lose $3,500 in value ever during the entire duration of owning the game. Never. Now you're losing $3,500 in less than six months. And they don't see that as like the biggest problem facing their company. Why would anybody? Because here's the thing. If you want a King Kong LE, the code's not done. And now I can go get one for $3,500 cheaper than Carrie Hardy. So every sucker that bought it new and box for 13 is a sucker cuz all those guys could have bought them now for $3,500 off, you know? And nobody wants to feel like a sucker. Nobody feels like a sucker if they bought Evil Dead. Nobody feels like a sucker if they bought Harry Potter. Nobody feels like a sucker if they bought, you know, Beetlejuice, which we're gonna talk about. Uh, but look, everything, man, everything's just like these prices, they don't hold. They don't hold. They don't hold.
    9:39
    And here's the thing, too. Here's the thing, too. You know, I I was just on I was curious because I like, let me just check out Elton John. Elton John C is now 115. That's a $3,500 loss, you know. Yeah. Yeah. $3,500 loss. I mean, given that game is um two years old, it held held strong because Avatar was so weak. I was a sucker. I bought Labyrinth, traded it for John Wickelli. Couldn't be happier.
    10:19
    Uh was it was it a straightup trade? Sean, I mean, Sean, and you got your John Wick Lee for like 3,000 off what it was.
    10:37
    Yeah, I you know, I agree that Jaws and James Bond are the best. I I would say obviously I think Jaws is a better shooter than James Bond. Um, I think that to me the one thing, and gang, correct me if I'm wrong, but I I'm a I grew up watching all the old Shan Connory James Bond movies. Correct me if I'm wrong because I haven't played the latest Code. To me, the one thing missing in James Bond is all of the funny sort of inappropriate overtly, not sexist, but like the whole like the not sexist, but like the whole like the womanizing aspect of James Bond, which made those old movies so fun to watch now because of how like ridiculous they are. Is any of that in the game? Like, is any of James Bond being like a heartthrob and, you know, all these beautiful women are lusting after him? Is that in the game? Because like I I always I never felt like that came through in the game at all.
    11:42
    All it is is in the game. Okay. Not really. I love this. Yes. Not really. Which one is it? I don't know who who to believe. Who to believe? Thank you guys for the stars on on on Facebook.
    11:58
    I you know it's a very um it's kind of like a yes or no question and we're getting answers in the middle. I um you know I look I like the fact that I see these people with Star Wars having quality control issues, having Death Star rejects. Like how can Stern I I the game was rushed by the way. You guys do know this that Star Wars was another rushed project at Stern. You do know this that John Borg did not have a lot of time to make this game. You do know this, right? Like like shelving is Indiana Jones, putting him into Star Wars. It's not really This game wasn't really It's not really This game wasn't really uh they didn't go at it with all their resources and all their talent.
    12:54
    Kelly Daniel, the pitball palace. Of course, people are going to love it on location. You know why? Playing a game on location is like sleeping with a prostitute. You don't have to you don't have to take it home. You know, look, whenever I play games on location, I'm usually really happy to play it. I But Kelly, here's the thing. No one's playing it and being like, I want to go buy the game.
    13:30
    Well, look, it's um it's going to be a I I think it's going to be brutal when Stern releases The Walking Dead and and it doesn't take off. And that's that to me Stern launching The Walking Dead, increasing the prices could be a real catastrophe for them. And I I again, you have to remember like this company like Spooky needs to make one game a year, Dutch one game a year, you know, Barrels one game a year, Pinball Brothers one game a year, Padretti one game a year, CGC one game a year. Stern Pinball needs to sell four games a year to keep that line going. Four at these prices as all the old games get clobbered in value. It It's the writing is on the wall. Stern pinball cannot survive at these prices with this kind of product. This is not me making this up. This is the market is speaking to them directly and they are about to raise prices. Does anyone else are there any economist in the house here? I mean I did not study uh you know economics significantly. I did take a few classes. I do know business though. I do know the very principles of supply and demand. And Stern is now stuck in a position where they have to have a an abundance of supply to keep that factory going, but the demand keeps shrinking.
    15:16
    All right. So, Charles Thomas just said, "My friend was offered a Star Wars Ali from a dro for 112." Yeah. Do you think it's comic art with Hillbe Do you think it's comic art with Hillbe College for TV assets? Um, for Walking Dead, I I don't know. I really don't know. I think it's going to be I think it's going to be new artwork. Um, I mean, they did new artwork on Metallica. I don't think they're going to get the TV assets. I don't I just looking at the way I mean, they didn't get the King Kong assets. They're going to go get the Walking Dead assets. So, I don't think that's going to happen. Um,
    15:56
    you know, Anthony said like The Walking Dead is another burn to Ellie owners. The problem is this. It's like, you know, when you remake The Walking Dead, much like Metallica, what happens is is you now have thousands of the original Walking Dead games that now become undesirable. You then now have all these owners knowing that. So, they'll probably just keep it because, you know, they're not going to lose their shirt on it. Nobody really wants the old one. And then if they do decide to like free up room for a new game, you're now you're adding even more to the oversaturated nature of the market. You see how this is like a house of cards that's just going to come down on Stern and it's going to it's it's already hitting like they they could they must be seeing it. I mean, the rumors of employees not being happy, the rumors of a 4-day work week, I I mean, I don't think these are rumors, people. I I don't think these are rumors. In fact, I have like, you know, firsthand knowledge of people like not like like not wanting to work there anymore. Like, it's these are not rumors.
    17:05
    Star Wars Ellie 18K by Christmas. No. Does anyone know where to get All right. Should we watch um on YouTube? Let's watch the trailer for um let me pull it up for uh this Big Trouble and Little China game. Hold on a second. Let me just pull it up. Let me close all these other windows so you guys can see what I'm working on.
    17:32
    We'll say the Facebook with the Apple has a better camera than an MacBook Pro, which is kind of crazy when you think about that. A cell phone has a better camera than a laptop. How's that possible? All right, let's do this. This go to close. I'm working on some highly confidential Super Bowl stuff right now. All right, let's do this. Go to YouTube.
    18:12
    For you guys on Facebook, I'm going to I'm doing this on YouTube because it's I can share a screen. I can't do this on uh
    19:12
    [Music] Oh yeah. [Music] Oh, [Music] you really shook the pillars of heaven, didn't we? Way. [Applause] [Music] See things no one else can see. Do things no one else can do.
    20:09
    Ride the lightning [Music] magic. The darkest magic. My soul swims in it. Welcome to Big Trouble and Little China Welcome to Big Trouble and Little China Pinball. It's all on the reflexes.
    20:34
    Okay. Um uh yeah, I it's a teaser, so there's like there's much more of the movie footage than there is of actual uh what the game is. I saw more pictures on Naps Arcade. like let's go there real quick. Um yeah, you know, look, I I I will say this. I I want to see it because I love this theme so much. I mean, you know me. I mean, I this probably in my top four themes I want to see in pinball is Big Trouble on Old China, Fifth Element. Those two I just like would be like must owns. Um, you know, as I'm looking at, let's see. Here we go. All right. Let me see if I can make this a little smaller for you.