Run fast for your mother, run fast for your father, run for your children, run for your sisters and for others. Leave all your love and your longing behind, you can't carry it with you if you want to survive. Sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up, sit up. Ah, welcome everybody, it's Friday, welcome to Panzer Freak's favorite pinball podcast, we're a Canadian pinball podcast. Now, I know it looks like we're closing in on 700 club members, which has been a goal of this show for a really long time. But unfortunately, Patreon did something weird. Now, anyone who follows the page is also considered a member now, which is really strange. We're more right around 650 paid members. So you might see some other shows, their numbers start to spike a little bit. But the real test of it is who's actually paying to hear the best pinball podcast on the planet. On this episode, we're going to talk about what's going on in pinball. We're going to talk about how distributors have some Elton Johns left. They have some. We're going to make this word some. The new meme in pinball in 2023. We're going to talk about spooky pinball a little bit. I got a nice note from Luke. He outlined how much they put in their games for less than $10,000. We're going to read that. And then on this episode, we are going to have the most ridiculous, the most insane fundraiser effort that came to the doorstep of Canada's pinball podcast. It is explosive. It is on fire. It is going to be something that if this happens, I think it's going to be the greatest piece of pinball content we might ever see in the entire history of pinball content. And that's going to happen at the end of this show. I'll explain what that's all about. So let's talk about Elton John a little bit. I just saw Jack Guarnari went on the Loser Kid Pinball podcast. I just listened to most of it. I was interested in one simple thing, the thing I wanted to hear, and Jack told the truth. I wanted to hear if Steve Ritchie wanted to make Elton John. Because I firmly believe when you give a designer a theme they want to make, you are going to get a much more passionate and a much more interesting game than if you simply hand a designer a theme he has to make. Something you want versus something you have to do. We're all still little kids inside. You know, ask a little kid to do something he doesn't want to do and see what happens and then tell him he can have what he wants and see how excited he gets. And Jack did confirm that Steve wanted to make something more explosive with like race cars and spaceships and high octane kind of game. And he had to settle for Elton John. Now he didn't use the word settle. I'm going to use the word settle, but that just goes to show you that he was handed an assignment and he had to make Elton John. And so look, the game is not bad, right? I'm not saying this game is bad. It's like Godfather. We're going to talk a little bit about Godfather and how that game became the number two ranked game on Pinside. And then people got upset by that and they voted it down and now it's around number 30. You know, it makes no sense to me why people even care what the game is ranked. If you own it and you enjoy it, why would you care what some bozos on Pinside ranked the game? It's not like people who are buying pinball machines are like, wait a minute, let me check its Pinside ranking before I give you an offer on the game. You know, two days ago, I was going to offer you $14,000 for your Godfather CE when it was the number two greatest game of all time. And now I'm going to offer you $12,000 because it's the number 30th game of all time. The truth is this people, anyone who voted Godfather CE to be the second greatest pinball machine of all time, all of you who voted it that you're the problem, not the people voting it down. Do you really think that Godfather is the second greatest pinball machine ever made? You really think that's the case. It's unbelievable to me. So yes, somewhere around 30 or 40 is where this game will net out. Gang, come on. Like, seriously, like, wake up. Like, we can't just do this. Like, that game is not better than Medieval Madness. It's not better than Tron. It's not better than freaking Lord of the Rings. It's not better. I could go on and on and on. It's not better than Guns and Roses. Sure, it shoots better than Guns and Roses, but the experience, no way. I mean, this game, I mean, it's just funny to me. Like, all these godfathers are going to go up for sale. And as I said, look, the greatest thing that happened to Godfather is Elton John. But anyway, let's talk about Elton John again. Elton John is going to be an interesting game. The thing about Elton John is it's not on the line just yet. So when the games start to be made, I think they're going to find more buyers once games are available. The pinball buying community, you know, we always want to unbox something. But I think it's not about whether the game's good or not. And this is the part that people don't get. We're not ragging on Elton John from a gameplay standpoint. Of course, it's going to be the best shooting Jersey Jack game of all time. The thing is, it's just going to lose $2,000 to $3,000 the moment you unbox it. And that's the only issue with the game. Now, Loser Kid did ask Jack Guarnari about the pricing of his games. And Jack goes on a like 10-minute story about pinball pricing. And it's ridiculous. Jack, just answer the question. why are you continuing to price these games at this much money when you're seeing the tremendous loss your customers are absorbing if they buy your games new in box? And that's it. I don't need to hear a 10-minute explanation about pinball sales.com. And back in my day, when we started selling games for $3,500, people thought I was crazy when we asked $6,500 for Wizard of Oz. I don't care. Let's talk about the here and the now. All right. So speaking about the here and than now So I got a nice note from Luke You know we been talking about you know is boutique pinball in a good position moving forward And I think the answer is yes Now look it still up to these boutique companies to make great games right Just because you're boutique doesn't mean you'll be successful. In fact, it's the opposite. The majority of boutique pinball companies have come and gone. They haven't survived. They haven't found profitability. But over at Spooky Pinball, they've been doing just fine over the last few years. So he told me that their next collector's edition is going to be under $10,000. Stern's premium price, but with $1,500 of options, a Stern premium does not have any list for me. What you will get in this spooky machine, you will get a powder-coated coin door, custom launch start buttons, lighted speaker grills, a topper, illusion candy powder-coated armor, lighted flipper buttons, which must be a thousand dollars, colored plastic protectors, interior graphics. Oh, and I almost forgot a knocker and a shaker. All of that included for under $10,000. Look, Luke, thank you for sending this. We are under no delusion that we are not getting ripped off by Jersey Jack and Stern Pinball. I mean, people, you know this. Do you really think Stern has like significantly increased its bomb. No, they just significantly increased the price of all of their games. And so, you know, we're not getting all of these things. And it's going to be really interesting when Jaws comes out. Are people going to flock to it? Will they sell the LEs on day one? I think Jaws is going to be a week one sellout. I do. I do. It's just Keith Elwin. It's like all of us. Think about it. For the last two years, nothing has really come out that lit the majority of the pinball buying community on fire. Think about it. Like what game did everybody universally love since Godzilla? I would say the only game that had the most universal love was Pulp Fiction and not a single game has been made in almost a year. And so now that Keith Elwin is coming out with a game, if you order it, you're going to be able to get it within a month or two of ordering your game. And so that is why I think this game will be a sales juggernaut, regardless if it's ugly, regardless if there are not that many Jaws assets in the game. It's just going to scratch an itch that so many of us have been waiting to be scratched. And so I look forward to that game. I think everybody looks forward to the game, right? If you ask people, like, what game can't you wait to see? It's probably Keith Elwin's Jaws. So that is exciting. Now, the other thing I was thinking about, I didn't talk about these guys on the last episode. Let's talk about American Pinball for a minute because I keep seeing on Facebook like American Pinball continues to share photographs from Pinball Expo, which was what, like three weeks ago. And they've got really nothing left to tell us about Galactic Tank Force. They've paraded the game around different shows. They've brought the talent from the game to the show. Now what, right? It's like now what can they do to get people to buy this game? So the thing I keep hearing is that Mukesh will not allow David Fix and his team over at American Pinball. He will not release their next game until they sell all of the GTFs that they ordered parts for. I'm hearing it was only 500 parts, people. And so that becomes an interesting question. Do you think they sold 500 versions of Galactic Tank Force? Have you seen many unboxings? And here's the thing about Galactic Tank Force. I think David Fix needs to read the room. He needs to understand something real simple. You didn't sell them at the price you wanted to. If you want to move those 500 units, David Fix, here's what I would do. I would take like $1,500 to $2,000 off the price of those tank versions of the game. You just got to do it. And here's the other part. To do that, right? To do that and not sink their ship or have their tank be blown up. To do that, I think you might have to sell the games directly. Because think about it. Like that's the profit margin for a distributor to sell Galactic Tank Force. You got to make these games, David. You got to show Mukesh that you can move these units and nobody's buying where the game is priced at. No one's buying it for like $11 or $11.5. Nobody's buying that $17,500 version of the game. And so what are you going to do? I still have friends who ordered that version of the game and they are still waiting for their product. You know, it's a shame. I wish I could just order the lunchbox. I mean, that's the only part of that game I'd really want. And I think the ultimate thing is this. It's not about being negative. It's that Dennis Nordman was given a shot. He got the shot, right? He got on top of the stage and he had a chance to sing a song, to win the judges over, to win over the pinball buying community. Dennis is a really nice guy, but he never should have made this game. He should have known better. He made this game for Dennis Nordman. He's been wanting to make this tank game for so long. He got his shot. They kind of made some Frankenstein version of his original concept. And look what happened. It's a sales disaster. And I really wish in pinball, you know, when I go into my job every day, I'm accountable for all of my ideas. If my ideas fail, I'm in big trouble. If I have failure after failure, I would lose my job. And it's really sad that some of these pinball companies, they really seem like there's no accountability. how many American pinball games have to come out where they can't even sell a thousand units failure after failure and it's because it's not his money he's getting money from somebody else the same is true over at Jersey Jack Stern pinball is different they've got investors and they need to make sure their games sell because they need to keep that line going and Now, look, I really think Stern Pinball is going to run into an interesting dilemma if people stop buying everything new in box. And I think Stern Pinball is going to start to stockpile a ton of games if people just wait and see And I think that the way to go By the way people some Elton John CEs are left Do you really think they sold even close to a thousand Elton John CEs? Like, no way, no way. The rumor I heard is that Mukesh wants all of these games sold by January 1st. Again, it's just a rumor. I'm not sure if that's the case. But look, if Ryan McQuaid's next game is Cuphead, freaking Cuphead. You know, if I'm American Pinball and that's the next game. If it wasn't the next game, they should basically come out and say, hey, look, we're not going to tell you what our next title is, but it's not Cuphead. And the crazy part is I hear these guys have He-Man. They are sitting on the He-Man license and they made freaking Galactic Tank Force and Cuphead instead. Are you kidding me? Like, what is wrong with people at these companies? I really hope the rumor that Barrels of Fun has Fifth Element is accurate. I could see the next two titles be something like Fifth Element. I could see Princess Bride being a game that they might have. I could see it being something like Goonies or Gremlins. I'm really excited. They now have a partnership with Jim Henson. If it was the Muppets, I would be excited. I mean, the Muppets. Imagine the Muppets with Animal on a drum set. That's the pop bumpers. I mean, it's right there, everybody. That would be super awesome. You know, super awesome. I mean, there's so much potential for pinball. And that's the thing, everybody, is I just see the potential in this hobby. And I just feel like over the last couple of years, we just haven't had like the best themes. We haven't had anyone really pushing the envelope in pinball. We haven't. Like, name me the best mechanism over the last two years in all of pinball. Name me the mechanical engineering thing you saw happen in 2022, 2023, that absolutely blew you away. And that's what's a little bit sad to me is like, shouldn't every new year, shouldn't every new year be an improvement on what this hobby is capable of? Like where's new interesting ways to use magnets? Where's new interesting ways to save the ball? I get Jack's got the dead post that pops up. That is awesome. But man, no one's made something like the Shooting Stars and Totem. Like we can't think about another interesting way to save the ball from the outlanes. I do like how Spooky had the balls on the apron. Like that was new. That was original. I like the upper flipper and Scooby-Doo. But in terms of overall toys and mechs, you know, yeah, locking balls is one thing, but I want to see real interactive toys, real dynamic movement on that mechanism. And we're just not seeing it. At the same time, we're not seeing it, we're seeing the highest prices ever in pinball. And it's just that simple. And then the themes aren't take my money now themes. So you add this all up. And I know that some people think I'm negative. I'm just being realistic. I don't love pinball any less. And here's the part about pinball I'll never understand. If I want all those things I just described, right? A great theme with magical mechanisms, great code that gives you replay value. Guess what? There's about like 30 machines that have all of that. They have all of that. And you know what those games are. And for many of you, you own those games. So then the question becomes, why do you constantly need new games? Like, why would we chase every single new game, especially when they are somewhat inferior to the games you already own? I mean, do you go out in public and stare at women that are less attractive than your wife? Like, why would you do that? Do I get out of my Dodge Demon and I'm like, oh man, I wish I had a Honda Civic. Well, maybe the Civic Type R, but why would we do that? And that's the thing. It's like so strange for all these years and with all these content creators, it's so weird that the message has always been like, bye, bye, bye. Like we're supposed to wake up and want to keep these pinball companies profitable while we're losing more money than ever before right now. And I just wanna say this for the record because people have been talking about this in other places on pin side. Yes, there's a lot of content creators who get $1,000 off, they get $1,000 off every game they buy because they promote a distributor. And there's also content creators that more than that, they also get a monetary kickback every time they refer a person to said distributor. So think about that for a minute. If I could get $500 every time I referred someone to my friends at Cointaker or Pinball Star or automated, $500 every time I send someone to them to buy a Venom, then what would I say about Venom? If I got $500 every time I sent them a customer for Elton John, then what would my opinions about Elton John be? And that is why in life and in any sort of objective analysis of any industry people, there has to be a separation between church and state. There has to be. And you are not seeing those things disclosed. And those content creators know who they are. And they're terrified that I'm going to name their names, but I'm not because it's dramatic. And I don't want to get into the drama, but I'm just telling you that's what's happening all these years. And now that people are starting to wait and see, now that people are starting to pause, guess who's got all the momentum? Guess who's got the most followers? Guess who's got the most subscribers? Canadian Spinball Podcast. It's not negative talking about this stuff. It's just exposing the truth. There's nothing about my show that I'm hiding from anybody. I am not taking any money from anybody. I get no kickbacks. I get no deals. I get no special treatment. And you're like, oh, Canada, what are you talking about? You get no special treatment. You said you've already got a back to the future. And I do already have a back to the future. It's not called special treatment. It's just called I knew who was making it and I got myself on the list. Now, don't go call it everybody. But look, I get a little bit of special treatment. But guess what? When I buy that game I going to buy it for full price And guess what I not going to get any kickbacks if I send people to go buy said game You know Back to the Future is so damn popular It doesn even need distributors but it going to be distributed It's going to be distributed. And I feel so happy for Chris and Melissa because they're going to be the distributors on the game. And look, they stuck with Dutch all these years. And I'm really happy that Barry is going to make those two people the ones who distribute the game in the U.S. I think Nitro will be in Canada. and I know that other shows are saying they're going to carry the game. Well, maybe they should fact check that because it ain't happening. All right, everybody, are you ready? All right, we're going out a little bit of a dramatic slippery slope when we start talking about content creators. All right, so here's the deal. This is crazy. This is crazy. So I got asked to do a fundraiser for a pinball moment. Now, you're thinking like every time we do fundraisers, it's usually for a great cause. I want to give a shout out to the Slam Tilt Pinball Podcast because I shouted these guys out when they did this, but I heard on their show that I didn't give them credit for this. They did an amazing fundraiser for suicide awareness in the honor of Lyman Sheets, and I think they gave the money to Penny for the donation. And I just wanna say to Ron and Bruce, I thought that was amazing, and I'm sorry that you missed my accolades for you for doing it, but I've always respected the fact that you guys did such a class act there. And we saw Jason Knapp did a great fundraiser for St. Jude's. We did that huge fundraiser. Everyone was involved when Ken Cromwell did the fundraiser for Project Pinball. Over $50,000 were raised for Project Pinball. And I'm here to tell you right now, this won't be one of those fundraisers. This isn't for one of those feel-good causes. In fact, this fundraiser is designed to create some pain. And you're like, what? What do you mean pain, Kaneda? I'm like, this fundraiser came to my door. And if enough money is raised, some pain will be put onto a pinball machine itself. What? What are you talking about? Here it is, people. The craziest pinball fundraiser of all time. An individual came to me who bought a punny factory. And he's been having many issues with his game. And he has unsuccessfully been able to come to a resolution with Pinball Adventures. And the man is fed up. And he wants to get rid of this machine. But instead of getting rid of the machine at a loss, here's what he is willing to do. And this is the offer. This is the idea. He paid $7,000 for his punny factory. Now, look, you know me. I would not spend $7,000 on a punny factory. I wouldn't spend 700 bucks on one. It's just not a game. I don't know how you ever come to that conclusion with all the great pinball in the world. But here's the idea. He is going to create a GoFundMe page that if he reaches $6,000 on the GoFundMe page, here is what will happen to that punny factory. The punny factory will go to TNT Amusements and Todd Tuckey and this gentleman, and I've been invited to be at this event, Todd Tuckey will hoist this game up to the roof of TNT. there's a rumor that they might even set it on fire and use the book that Todd was involved with to light the fire of the machine and then the machine will be pushed off the roof of TNT amusements. So let me repeat that. If $6,000 is raised, you will get to see a punny factory lit on fire and thrown off the roof of TNT amusements. Now look, I don't know people, I don't know, that's only 100 people donating 60 bucks to see what could be the most explosive pinball content we've ever seen. And you're hearing this here first exclusively on Canada's Pinball Podcast. I think my listeners alone would probably contribute enough to make this thing happen. And then the other special thing they've asked me to do, and I don't know if I'm going to do this, but this would be funny, that Canada, before the machine is thrown off the roof, that I would throw a drink in the face of the game. that I would throw a drink, I'll get a vodka soda, and I'll throw it into the Translate as part of the entire event. Now, think about that now. We've got Kaneda throwing a drink into the face of Puny Factory. We've got this game being lit on fire and thrown off a roof. Now, look, I know some of you are like, no, we can't lose a pinball machine in the world. Any pinball machine lost is a bad day. But I don't know. I will share the GoFundMe link on my Facebook page. I'll share it on Patreon. And that's it, people. like you can decide is it worth it will this be the most amazing moment in pinball history or is this the worst idea ever in the history of pinball i don't know everybody i don't know man with where pinball prices are at if we can just get enough people to raise that much money i mean i think that's better than a venom pro i don't know i mean i'd rather see that happen than buy a venom pro everybody look i love you guys thank you for being a club member we're always having fun here it's funny to me that people are like oh he's so negative you know the people that are negative are the people that can't stand back and appreciate what really matters in life. Every day I wake up early, I go to the gym. I take care of my beautiful son. I give my wife a kiss. I go to work. I work hard for eight hours a day to put food on the table. Pinball is my hobby. This is where we come to have fun. I don't waste time on Pinside. I can't even post on Pinside. I make a pinball podcast that people seem to enjoy, and we're having a good time, and we're not going to stop. Hashtag some, baby. There are some Elton John CEs still in the box. Yeah, right. Later. you