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PNP 672- Transformers 5 Rad 1 Bad

Poor Man's Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·45m 21s·analyzed·May 15, 2026
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Transformers praised for art, code, layout, and mechs; host worries leaked hype may set unrealistic expectations.

Summary

Orbital Lelbert (host of Poor Man's A A A Pinball Podcast) delivers a solo episode ranking five positive aspects and one negative aspect of Stern's upcoming Transformers pinball machine. He praises the Generation 1 artwork, Elizabeth Gieske code work, the Megatron mech design, the playfield layout attributed to designer Elliot Eismin, and argues that Stern has regained momentum with original designs. The single negative concern is uncertainty about whether unrevealed features (like Optimus Prime's mechanic and the Megatron cannon's functionality) will live up to expectations set by the leaked images.

Key Claims

  • Elizabeth Gieske code work on Transformers is exceptional and comparable to or better than Ray Day's ability to explain rules

    high confidence · Orbital Lelbert discussing Elizabeth Gieske as #2 on his rad list, praising her coding and explaining abilities

  • Transformers playfield layout features either five shots or nine total shots from the upper right flipper, possibly a record for upper right shot count

    medium confidence · Orbital Lelbert attempting to count upper right flipper shots while acknowledging he hasn't seen video confirmation

  • The Megatron mech appears to have a cannon that may shoot balls and rotate/move during play

    medium confidence · Orbital Lelbert speculating on the Megatron cannon's functionality based on leaked images, referencing discussion from Electric Bat podcast

  • Stern may have deliberately leaked the Transformers images to Insider Connected ahead of an official trailer

    low confidence · Orbital Lelbert speculating that Stern might have purposefully leaked the game similar to how other companies have leaked products for marketing purposes

  • Transformers playfield uses Generation 1 artwork style from a Hasbro artist rather than modern movie-style aesthetics

    high confidence · Orbital Lelbert praising the G1 art direction and dismissing suggestion that Megan Fox should be featured

Notable Quotes

  • “I love the retro style art in Transformers. Everybody's on there that needs to be on there. The play field, geez, I'd give the play field like probably, I don't even know, like a 9.5.”

    Orbital Lelbert @ ~08:00 — Establishes his high regard for the playfield design and artwork quality

  • “Elizabeth Gieske in I trust. Jaws has swam to the front of the Elwin list for me. It could be ahead of Jurassic Park for me.”

    Orbital Lelbert @ ~12:00 — Demonstrates that Elizabeth Gieske's code work is influential enough to affect his game purchase priorities

  • “I think Stern did it. I won't say for sure. I definitely don't have any proof. I suspect there's a chance because Stern is just a whole bunch of pinball nerds, I'll be honest.”

    Orbital Lelbert @ ~28:00 — Expresses speculation about deliberate leak as marketing strategy

  • “If Optimus Prime doesn't do something hella cool, like nearly, like at least nearly as cool as Megatron, then like, come on, Stern, are you listening? You got to make Optimus Prime as cool as freaking Megatron.”

    Orbital Lelbert @ ~45:00 — Expresses concern that Optimus Prime's mechanics may disappoint relative to Megatron hype

  • “Number one for me is Stern Got Its Groove Back... I truly believe seeing this many good original unique pins in a row do this well. We were a little bit worried for a year or two that there was some... We did see a lot of remakes.”

    Orbital Lelbert @ ~70:00 — Key market sentiment: relief that Stern is returning to original designs after remake-heavy period

Entities

Orbital LelbertpersonElizabeth GieskepersonElliot EisminpersonStern Pinballcompany[name withheld pending review]gameRay DaypersonKeith Elwinperson

Signals

  • ?

    product_launch: Transformers playfield and component details leaked through Insider Connected ahead of official reveal; multiple content creators (Genghis, Retro Ralph, Electric Bat) have already produced coverage

    high · Orbital Lelbert references leak multiple times, discusses that five different people have already covered it, mentions Insider Connected as source

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Transformers playfield design features unusual concentration of upper-right flipper shots (possibly 5-9 shots from upper right alone); multiple ramp types including jump ramp and orbital shots; synthesizes influences from multiple designer philosophies

    high · Orbital Lelbert spends significant time analyzing shot layout, estimates 25% Gomez, 25% Danger, 25% Lawler/Ritchie influence

  • ?

    product_concern: Leaked images create risk of over-hyped expectations for unrevealed mechanical features (Optimus Prime's function, Megatron cannon functionality, ball movement); host expresses concern that reality may not match speculation

    high · Orbital Lelbert: 'If Optimus Prime doesn't do something hella cool... then like, come on, Stern'; acknowledges 'we're all just guessing' without video confirmation

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Elizabeth Gieske emerging as notable code designer; her rule design and explanation abilities are influencing collector preferences and game acquisition priorities

    high · Orbital Lelbert ranks her as #2 positive aspect, states he will pursue 'every geesky game' in future collecting, compares her favorably to Ray Day

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Positive sentiment shift regarding Stern's return to original designs after period of remakes; host expresses relief that company is prioritizing innovation over licensed remakes

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.136

0:00
The Pinball is on the rebound. Hear the sound of our buddy Elodie, it's Orbeez. Pinball nuns for joys. He's tugging pinball, craft beer and coffee, miffed the syrup and honey. He wants to laugh with his family and a random tangent. Stories of his boys. He's on the 4-Man's Pod Network. We're going to get more listeners for the Pinball. Pinball Nerds Podcast, coming to you from beautiful River Hibbert, Nova Scotia.
0:43
Welcome back Pinball Nerds to episode 672 of your fifth favorite pinball podcast. My name is Orbital Lelbert and on today's episode we're going to be talking about the top five rad and one very, I mean very bad. About Stern's newest offering, Transformers More Than Meets Orbeez Eye.
1:08
Alright, no more singing. Let's just get right into it. First of all, I want to say I miss you. Hopefully you missed me. I haven't done a lot of solo episodes lately, let's be honest. The solo episodes you could take or leave, but it's the interviews that usually I do, you know, decent on or they're at least done well. You want to hear me chat with the likes of world champion Emily R. like I did two episodes ago. You want to hear me talk with Jamie Burchill about Texas Pinball Fest like I did on the last episode. But what you don't want to hear is a long, boring, meandering Orby chat. Or maybe you work in the car and you do like my long chats. I don't know, but I'll tell you what. When I catch you up on everything, I haven't done a solo episode in almost two episodes, guys. That's crazy. I miss you guys. I'm going to talk about that all at the very end, but I will give what I call the Christopher Franchi warning where I say, hey guys, I'm going to be talking about some non-pinball stuff. And that's Franchi's time to just exit. He's told me before, if you're talking about anything about the homestead or your personal life, just don't. Just talk about pinball and that's it. So here we go. Let's talk about pinball. Okay, so I have ranked these in how rad they are. They are ranked in radness, if you will, okay, by how rad I think they are. And the least rad of the five, still really, really, really rad, but the least rad of the five, is that artwork? Oh my God, Elwin, come here. Come here, girl. Oh, she almost, Luna Tuna, Elwin Agar almost cuddled up with me for the pod. I thought I was going to have a co-host and then I realized I'm going solo. Wait, I said no more singing. Okay, here we go. Go back to it. There's nothing else to do it but to it. All right.
George Gomez
person
Jack Dangerperson
Christopher Franchiperson
Retro Ralphperson
[name withheld pending review]person
Donperson
Zach Sharpeperson
John Borgperson
Steve Ritchieperson
Pat Lawlorperson
Brian Eddyperson
Electric Bat Podcastorganization
Insider Connectedproduct
Jurassic Parkgame
Godzillagame
King Konggame

high · Orbital Lelbert's #1 positive: 'Stern Got Its Groove Back'; acknowledges period of concern about remake focus before recent original releases

  • ?

    design_innovation: Megatron mech features apparent motorized rotation, ball cannon, and multi-ball management capability; may shoot balls toward habit trails and interact with other in-play balls simultaneously

    medium · Orbital Lelbert speculates on cannon mechanics, references Electric Bat podcast discussion with Stern producer confirming some features

  • $

    market_signal: Host discourages speculation-based purchasing and flipping of Transformers for profit; predicts slower secondary market movement than Pokemon pinball due to strong foundational game quality

    medium · Orbital Lelbert: 'If you're listening to this podcast right now and you think there's a chance in hell that you're going to buy Transformers and flip it for more money, just don't even try'

  • ?

    content_signal: Multiple content creators rapidly producing Transformers coverage following leak; Electric Bat podcast notably featuring Stern producer providing confirmation of specific mechanical features

    high · Orbital Lelbert references coverage from Genghis, Retro Ralph, Electric Bat, Don; notes Electric Bat had Stern producer validate/refute speculation

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Community speculating extensively about unrevealed Optimus Prime mechanics and whether they will match or exceed Megatron's apparent capabilities; concern that Optimus Prime may be underwhelming by comparison

    medium · Orbital Lelbert repeatedly emphasizes need for Optimus Prime to be 'as cool' as Megatron; acknowledges all conclusions are speculation without video

  • ?

    industry_signal: Playfield designer not officially confirmed; Orbital Lelbert attributes to Elliot Eismin based on style analysis, but acknowledges uncertainty and notes similar design elements to multiple past designers

    medium · Orbital Lelbert discusses designer identity speculatively, estimates influence percentages from multiple designers without confirmation

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Transformers uses Generation 1 artwork aesthetic rather than modern movie characterizations; represents deliberate choice to go 'retro' and nostalgic rather than contemporary IP adaptation

    high · Orbital Lelbert praises G1 choice, explicitly notes they rejected Megan Fox movie aesthetic, compares positively to licensing decisions like Harry Potter/MinaLima

    • 3:03
    They did use a Hasbro artist, so I don't know their name. I'm sorry. Sorry. But they did go with the G1 or as you would call it, Generation or the Frenchies in Quebec call it Generation. Pour le Hune. Generation 1. So they did use like the OG, which I'm so, so, so happy about. And I don't want to throw any shade. I don't want to throw any shade here too early. I love you, Retro Django. OK, we all know Djengis, of course, from WAP over there with Don of Don's Pinball Podcast. But he also has Retro Django, his YouTube channel. And thank you, Django, for doing this. He went through all like the shots and the layout and it actually helped me figure out a couple of things. I also watched Carrie Hardy's, which was pretty good. Retro Ralph talked about it, but he didn't show any of the shots or layout. So, you know, it was a little hard trying to imagine what he was seeing, but I get why Retro Ralph didn't do it. The point is, Django said he would have rathered like a big Megan Fox like pitcher on the playfield or something. And I was like, what? I don't want to start any smoke or anything. You know, I don't want to get I don't want you know, there's no beefs here to be beefed up. OK, but. Man, I'm glad they didn't put Megan Fox on there. I'm glad they didn't put any of the movie stars on there. I'm glad it's generation one. The artwork is so nostalgic. It's so OG. Let me just have a little sip of my beer here. And in true Poor Man's Pinball podcast fashion, ask a question to my own self. Well, that's more like Orbeez fashion, but what you drinking?
    4:46
    Okay, so the thing I'm drinking is called the Niner. The Niner is from North Brewing. It is an extra strong double IPA measuring in at 473 milliliters. Can you guess what percent alcohol the Niner is? It's a 9.0. The Americans are like, what? That's like five times a light beer. I know. This is what I would call a night ender. This is what I would call the night cap. This is what I would call chef's kiss. Delicioso. No, it's pretty good. It's actually a little bit hoppy and I'm like, I'm a crazy hop head. And even for me, I'm like, yo, maybe they put like just a smidge too much hops in the Niner. You know, it could have been an Ader. You know what I'm saying? It could have been an Ader. No, actually the higher ABV is from the barley malt and has nothing to do with the hops, but it's also a double IPA, which it would need to be to help hide the Alcohol flavor. So they are somewhat related. But that is to say, if you're in Halifax and or Nova Scotia and even Ontario now, which can order Halifax beer and back and forth, avoid the Niner until the end of the night or else you're going to be. Yeah, it could you know, you don't want to start with this. This is no mimosa beer. Put it that way. All right. Let's get back into it, though. I love this retro style art in Transformers. Everybody's on there that needs to be on there. The play field, geez, I'd give the play field like probably, I don't even know, like a 9.5. Do I think the likes of, we already mentioned them today, Christopher Franchi could do a better job, yes. Now to all you people out there saying, oh, I don't like rainbow puke. First of all, nobody likes puke. Of course you don't like puke. But who doesn't like rainbows? Rainbows means like the storm is effed off for the day. The rain is like, see you later. I'm out. And now you're left with a freaking rainbow. Who wouldn't love a rainbow? I love rainbows. I mean, if you actually get to the end of the rainbow, there's a pot of gold. And who wouldn't love a pot of gold? Because if you got to the end of enough ends of the rainbows, you could get enough pots of gold to pour them into a pool. And then you could be swimming in a pool of gold. And who wouldn't love a pool of gold? Am I right?
    7:10
    Damn, Stern. You knocked it out of the park with that artwork, brah. All right. Okay, let's move on to number two.
    7:18
    Oh, God. I just have two words to say for number two. Okay, you ready? Gee. Ski. Yeah, you heard right. I didn't stutter. Okay? Elizabeth Gieske. That's right. The one, the only – I don't want to presume that I could call you Betsy because I don't know you that well. But my Oma, one of my best friends on the whole planet, her name was Betsy. Betsy Hovenars. She was Dutch or Hovenars here in Canada. I tried to roll my tongue a little bit less. But my Oma, her like OG name is Elizabeth. So I'm not – I don't even think Elizabeth. I think Elizabeth just goes by Elizabeth. But like wouldn't that be cool if someday I got on a first name basis with her and I could call her Betsy. That would just be so cool.
    8:18
    Yeah. Anyways, that reminded me of a negative memory. But that's good. Let's move forward here. So Elizabeth Gieske in UITrust. Not only have I heard this girl do like a 14 hour stream with Jack Danger and where she for the first few hours didn't really go off the pinball like strategy topic and talking about the player that was on the screen. But in the last few hours, a lot of people in chat were asking her code type questions. And even Jack Danger was kind of picking her mind a little bit. And I was like, whoa, this like it's like when you're listening to Ray Day talk about the rules. You're like, damn, this dude like knows just way more about rules than I ever will. But the thing is, maybe even a bet better than Elizabeth is she's possibly perhaps even slightly better at explaining it in a way that me personally myself can understand even more so than Ray Day. And he already does a terrific job doing it. So I think that from I know it seems silly for one of my top five rad to just be like a person and put their coding knowledge and they're like, you know, they're prowless, if you will, on a pedestal. But I'm going to do it. And I'm just going to say in Elizabeth Gieske, I trust because Jaws like, oh, I don't want to get I'm a dad. So I like get one pun a day and I don't want to use it here, but I'm just going to have to because I'm probably drunk enough that I may not come up with a better one. But I'm just going to say it right now. Jaws has swam to the front of the Elwin list for me. It could be ahead of Jurassic Park for me. That's right. I said it right here. I think Jaws could maybe perhaps be partially, not all just due to Elizabeth, but partially due to Gieske. Gieske be getting it good. You know what I mean? She's putting in the hard work and I really love, I just, I love the way that she codes a pin. So in the future, when my wife and I sell the farm, most likely one year from right now, guys, by the way, depending on if my wife gets into teacher's college, my wife does get into teacher's college. Most likely we're going to be staying here in Nova Scotia like an extra year. So it could be two years from now, but one to two years from now, we're going to sell the farm literally downsized to a much smaller house, way less than seven acres for me to take care of, way less than 2000 square feet. You know, much smaller, more modest house that costs a lot less, probably on the outside of some small village or something.
    10:46
    But that's not the point. The point is when we do that, I'm going to be able to get a lot of pinball machines. And I already knew that I was going to be like Elwin, Elwin, pew, pew, pew, pew, pew. I was going to be like Oprah with cars, like you get an Elwin, you get an Elwin. Oh, over there, Orbeez bathroom, boom, you get a Jurassic Park. Wait is there a cool scene in a bathroom in Jurassic Park Maybe I don know Okay the bathroom is like the one room I literally would never put up in Yeah the bathroom and like obviously not like a wet basement but all the other rooms I kind of think they fair game But of course I rather an arcade The point is now not only am I going to have to try to work my butt off to get every Elwin game ever every Ray Day game hello Led Zeppelin that going to be tricky to find Am I right or am I right or am I right? OK, Groundhog Day, a little bit too late. Sorry. But I think now I'm going to have to get every geesky game. Like getting a geesky game row is going to be like a thing to do in the future, I think, because I think Elizabeth is going to have a very, very long tail. I think people are going to want games that she works on because I just like the way her mind works. And it's not unsimilar to a lot of people who love Dwight games. Me personally, Dwight's rule sets aren't like my favorite. Okay. They're very like, I don't know, kind of hit or miss, whether it be like Game of Thrones or I'm thinking of.
    12:18
    What I would say is I don't mind them, but they're not my favorite. Usually Elwin rules have typically tended to be my favorite, anything that he works on or anyone he works with. But I also love all what everything that Rayday does. So it's kind of tricky. Right. And then who knows? Who knows past that? But anyways, number four that I'm most stoked about is definitely Elizabeth working on this game. It seems like the code already seems like, even though we don't know how far along the code is, and that's the one thing about getting a leak. The old boat is a leaking. I know I only get one pun a day. Okay. Okay, so it seems to me like there's a very good chance that, look, this is just, this is, you know, don't, hey, this is a Minecraft Stern, don't come at me, Josh Sharpe, all right? Sorry, no, Zach Sharpe? No, Josh Sharpe, I always forget. No, it's Zach Sharpe. I just got the email from Zach Sharpe, I should know. And thank you, by the way, for still inviting me, even though I've never came. I would like to come someday. Today is the 15th, so that day of me going to Stern will definitely not be on the 20th, but I do appreciate the invite and I appreciate still getting it, Zach, thank you.
    13:27
    I can't come right now because I have just recently started a new job, but I'm going to talk about that and some other stuff at the very end. Let's just get back into it. Let's get back to this list. Number three on the top five most rad of Transformers is I am Megatron. Okay, I don't know if he sounds like that. I can't do different Transformers voices. They pretty much all sound like Optimus Prime to me. Who is the dude on the side with the cassette? That dude, man. I can't wait to hear Enzo describe that guy because I know for sure he's going to say, Oh, oh, it might. Soundwave slaps. Okay, sorry. That was the worst Australian ever. I just lost five friends. I'm sorry. But shout out to Ryan C. Shout out to Marty Robbins out there. Hopefully you're doing well. I heard you on the final round a couple times last year. Who else? Ryan Barry. Shout out to Ryan Barry and Kimba as well. And Enzo, of course. Who else do I know over there? Escher. Escher, I don't know. Isn't he down in like, I don't know. Escher's not a real, he's not a real down No, he's like kind of like an escapee. What do you call that? I think his mom is Australian. Or is he in New Zealand? I don't know. And then there's, well, Danny Peck. And then, of course, in my theme song, Dr. John. So I know lots of, I know, I know, I don't really know them that well, but shout out to all my Aussies listening down there. Tribe member as well. Oh, I got to interview him. The name will come. I'm in so much. Rorden, thank you. Okay, the name came to me. So shout out to tribe members down under as well. But Megatron, okay, Megatron is cooler than Optimus Prime. That might be a minor mistake, Stern. You should have made Optimus Prime the coolest. We don't know because we haven't seen the video. And that's what I don't love about the leak is that like, I would assume if the actual trailer was out with the pictures, we would either see that Optimus Prime can or Optimus Prime can't like move around or do something really cool. So maybe Optimus Prime deserves to be in this top five rad list, but I wouldn't know Stern because, again, in Minecraft, my belief is that you purposely leaked this. And if you did purposely leak this, I understand it was in the Insider Connected. Listen, you can look it up on Wikipedia. You can ask Meta AI or chat or anyone you like. There is numerous occasions where companies in the past have deliberately released a, you name it, Cat Bar, Ford Escort, it doesn't matter. They have released stuff about a product accidentally or on purpose to TMZ or they have released it to a blogger in that space or a movie critic. They have accidentally released the movie, right? And so it has happened. But in this particular case, I actually think there's a chance Stern did it. I won't say for sure. I definitely don't have any proof. I suspect there's a chance because Stern is just a whole bunch of pinball nerds, I'll be honest. I'm not even a real pinball nerd. They're the real pinball nerds. Those guys eat, sleep, and breathe Pinball. They're going to bed thinking about Pinball. They're eating lunch thinking about Pinball. Heck, if you're Ray Day, you're even playing tournaments on your weekends, right? So these are the real Pinball nerds. They know looking at this layout for Transformers, they are getting as stoked as I am going, oh my God. Elliot Eisman, this is so unique. It's so different. And it's, geez, I don't want to say it's like, it's almost like Elliot Eisman took a, I would say if I had to guess percentages, I'm a man who loves numbers, okay? So I would guess it's like 25% George Gomez, 25% Jack Danger. I definitely see some Jack Danger in there. And then I guess like the fan part and then the part with the, well, I was just talking about Megatron. And the part with the three drop targets, that reminds me of Brian Eddy, of course, in Attack from Mars.
    17:50
    So, yeah, like what would the last 25%? I don't even see any Borg in there. I guess with so many like side shots and stuff like that, the guy who really originally seemed to perfect that would have been like, if anything, it seems like more like Pat Lawler than even Steve Ritchie. So, and it could be argued, I don't know, like I had, I did have Roller Coaster Tycoon, which is a Pat Lawler pin, and that did have that upper right shot kind of in the same spot as this one, that you could actually make the right orbit be a repeatable shot similar to that. So yeah, I guess I would say that it would be maybe 25% lull or two, but who knows? The point is, is whenever a pinball designer gets so good that you can't even tell who they're replicating or, or geez, are they just doing their own thing? That means they're doing something right. Right. So let's go back to the Megatron, though. The Megatron has like a weird, strange jump ramp at the back. We think, of course, we haven't seen the video. It also looks like it has a cannon that shoots the balls at you. Like, I don't know that cannon isn't big enough to shoot balls. It looks like it. And if it can shoot balls, something that I really did like that Jenga said was that it looks like it could maybe shoot it towards those metal ramps and it could land on the ramp and like those metal habit trails to the left hand side of the playfield. Wow. Elliot Eisman is first and foremost an engineer. If this man figured out a way to engineer this thing so it could shoot not just over to the habit trail, but imagine this, it could also, when it's being aggressive or angry or mad or like trying to fight you because he is the big bad guy, Megatron. I am the head of the Decepticons. Okay, sorry. No more voices, no more singing. Checkbox, checkbox. So if he gets angry, you could see it like rotating and he'd shoot the first one that would like basically be going down the habit trail. And right as that ball is getting to your flipper from the habit trail, you would assume at the speed at which the whatever the mech is turning, he could now shoot the ball right towards between your flippers. Now, I think Stern would program it to not go directly straight down, like, you know what I mean? But they would probably, if they were smart, time it so that that ball is coming down right as the other ball is coming to your flipper. And then maybe the other one shoots right for an outlane or maybe the other, you know what I mean? So there's so many options with that mech with the cannon. And if it doesn't move, I feel like this is part of the negative of if they did leak it on purpose.
    20:31
    If that mech actually doesn't turn now, we might all be a little disappointed. If the cannon just sits there and the cannon just looks cool and it doesn't shoot balls, that was, and again, Stern, if you're listening, which I highly doubt you are, but if you are, I am not suggesting that you leak to this on purpose. I'm suggesting that other companies have leaked things on purpose, and it might not even be a bad marketing, advertising, or PR move because look at this. You've already had Kaneda talk about it multiple times. You've already had Retro Ralph do a show. Genghis did a show.
    21:11
    I'm assuming you'll get one from Don very, very, very shortly. Guys, I am so sorry. I have like a frog in my throat. I'm going to have a quick sip of my drink.
    21:24
    I cannot believe I literally haven't had a frog in my throat for months. That's how much I missed you guys when I got nervous through the show. Maybe a little, but also just maybe a little bit. I have allergies from cutting the lawn yesterday, which when you own seven acres can take a very long time. But it's probably the allergies, but who knows. Let's move on from Megatron. But Megatron has a really cool ramp, a really cool cannon. He has the spinner shot to the left of him. Oh, and the other thing I like about the right orbit. Come on, a guy named Orbital Albert. Of course, I love orbits. Let's go. So that right orbit, we're making orbits important again. It looks like however hard you hit that, that could actually track into the spinner. And I don't remember very many shots. I know Godzilla has that right, or not Godzilla, King Kong has that right orbit shot that like the kicker, it hits the ball backy really fast, which is cool.
    22:15
    But wow, let me tell you, if they actually measure the amount of spins backwards coming from there and like hitting that right orbit really matters. I don know if it does that because I haven seen the video and we all just guessing and I wish we all weren just guessing I hate leaks but at the same time look if Stern knew that there was a JJP release in the next couple weeks to a month boom they just got out in front of it and got everyone talking weeks in front of it because of that So you know on one hand it maybe bad for Stern because we building up expectations of all the cool stuff the ball could do before we even seen video of the ball moving around on the playfield But at the same time, I'm hearing overwhelmingly positive stuff about, well, everything I'm talking about. But that Megatron mech, if it really does move back and forth and shoot you, and okay, I'm going to try to say this in the most PG manner, but does it not look like that ramp? If you actually hit that ramp squarely, the ball would be hitting him in the nuts. Wait, I didn't say that PG at all. I'm sorry, it looks like it could be hitting him down under. How about that for the Aussies there? It looks like it might hit him where the sun don't shine. But anyways, it is kind of funny that you have to shoot the ball up between his legs like peekaboo. Anyways, yeah. And and all the balls sound wave, I think it is. He's like the music dude with the big cassette player. He's so cool. It looks like either the balls fall out of him or they shoot out of him. Oh, I also got to listen to some of the huge shout out here to Kale and Serge over the Electric Bat podcast because they did like a whole deep dive. And honestly, listening to Serge talk about it, I was like, whoa. And then they had like someone who's actually like a producer or something. I don't really understand what that is. But over from Stern and they were like in there explaining like, oh, yes, that's true. The ball does do that or no, it doesn't do that. So make sure you go watch that. That was really cool. So it's very rare that I would be the last one to put content out on something, but I thought now that like five different people have talked about it, I better talk about it also. And I'll tell you this, if Optimus Prime doesn't do something hella cool, like nearly, like at least nearly as cool as Megatron, then like, come on, Stern, are you listening? You got to make Optimus Prime as cool as freaking Megatron. All right. The next on the list here. That would bring us down to number two and number two. I think you're going to hear people talk about this and shout this from the rooftops. We weren't sure you listening right now. You weren't sure. I wasn't sure. We were not sure about Elliot Eisman also, but Cale is calling the Eisman now. I don't know if that will take off, but I would go with that. I love Eisman, but I'd also take Eisman. Elliot Eisman, can I call you that? Can I do that? Okay, let me know. Reach out to me if you're angry. I stole your nickname, but I'll tell you this. I don't care if his name is Eisman or Eisman because this man is hot, hot, hot. Oh my God. This, like when you come up with a layout, this freaking unique. Now again, we haven't seen it shoot. We don't know if the shots are butter smooth or if they're like your Super Mario and it's a me, Luigi, and you're bouncing up and down and you're just bricking left, right, and center. You know what I mean? Like you're hitting bricks in World 1-2, okay? But like we don't know at this point. We just don't know if it has any flow. It looks like the shots flow really well. It does.
    25:55
    I would say like, look, is this King Kong level? Nah. King Kong, I think, might be the best layout of all time. I think Jurassic Park's up there as well. I definitely think Godzilla's up there for one of the best layouts of all time. But this, this is, I'm sorry, Elliot, the chance of you listening to my little tiny blog is so low, but I'm sorry, but this is way better than your freshman effort. Now, it makes sense. Your Sockman effort's better. But to me personally, I have played not a lot of James Bond. Wait, not James Bond. Oh, no, Gomez is never going to talk to me again. No, what am I talking about? I haven't played it at all. What is that? Oh, my God. Everyone's mad there is no guns in it. Pew, pew, pew. Whatever that one is with the guy from Bill and Ted. Oh, no, I forgot his name, too. Okay, maybe I had one more beer than I needed. The 9% beer was uncalled for before I recorded. I'm willing to admit that. I am willing to admit that.
    26:55
    Can I have a sip, though, for the Edmonton Oilers? Can I do that? A little tear runs down my cheek for the old Edmonton Oilers. Leon Dreisaitl was out for like two months. You can't expect this guy to come back from being off since the Olympics and just like come back and be an all-star. He needed a little bit of time to warm up. McDavid was trying his best, but he's not McJesus. People think he is. He's not.
    27:22
    All right. So Elliot Eisman's real claim to fame here is going to be the layout, I think. I was trying to count the upper right shots. I believe there's either five shots you can only hit from the upper right flipper and overall there's nine shots you can hit. That's got to be a record for the most number of shots that you can hit from the upper right flipper. I would guess it's either a record or it's close to a record. And how quickly it looks like they're going to get back to your flippers sometimes looks great. The amount of metal habit trails looks great.
    28:04
    The artwork, like I've gone, I've gushed about how much I love the artwork. It's literally like there's some properties you want to see hand drawn and you want to see different. Like, for instance, Harry Potter, the MinaLima, the CE or whatever, incredible. That artwork I still think is like the best artwork I've maybe ever seen in my life or at least the most unique or different to the brand than we've seen on other products, right? Whereas this is exactly what I expected. I think I like the premium back glass a little bit better, but I like all the lights and the side rails and everything on the LE a lot better, of course, for Transformers. But I think that the play field is incredible, obviously, on all of them.
    28:51
    We need to see high-resolution pictures of the cabs and everything else. But the back glass looks probably, I thought the premium was, I don't know, maybe the LE is slightly better. It's got maybe slightly a little bit more of a hand-drawn look to it or something. But I thought the premium just popped. I guess I know I'm never going to be able to afford an LE, or even if I could, I'd probably only get the premium. So I'm not really an Ellie buyer. So I will say this. If you're listening to this podcast right now and you think there's a chance in hell that you're going to buy Transformers and flip it for more money, just don't even try that. Look, is it possible for the first couple weeks, very similar to Pokemon that they sell for slightly over? Maybe. Am I as convinced they're going to sell it as quickly as Pokemon? Absolutely not. With the artwork being this good, with the Elizabeth Gieske on rules and the rule set just looking really good from all the inserts as well, from what we know about the rules so far. And then on top of that, it having not one, not two, but three cool mechs. Like literally most pins, if you think about most Sterns, if they had anything as cool as just Soundwave, which obviously is like a ball lock slash can shoot the balls or at least drop the balls. You can at least insert them where you have the cassettes. If Soundwave, if you had anything as cool as Soundwave on most Stern pins, it'd be the coolest mech they have on it. But on this mech, it's either the second or the third coolest mech because obviously Optimus Prime and Megatron are even better. The only thing I thought maybe they're missing is Bumblebee!
    30:32
    All right, sorry, I just wanted to say that. But I did think maybe from watching the movie, I think the movies made like Bumblebee like be more important than he actually really was. So like, but they seem to not really concentrate on Bumblebee much in the artwork I noticed or like any of the, again, this is not official that we've seen, but all right. What's that number one? What is it?
    30:54
    I'll tell you. But number one isn't even specifically something about Transformers. I'm thinking of the larger picture. I'm thinking of the forest through the trees, guys. Here we go.
    31:12
    Number one for me is Stern Got Its Groove Back. Not Stella, but Stern. I truly believe seeing this many good original unique pins in a row do this well. We were a little bit worried for a year or two that there was some, you know, we did see multiple. We just saw the Metallica remake, the Walking Dead remake. We saw a lot of remakes. They were doing a lot of remakes. We saw a lot of remakes. We didn't necessarily see a lot of originality. I guess the Jack Danger ones had a lot of originality. I don't, don't get mad at me, John Borg and Ray Day, but I don't think a lot of people were saying, wow, the layout on Star Wars, it's so different and unique. We've never seen anything like this before. I don't think people were even saying that. I was saying that about King Kong, but I feel like I'm the only person that's like super impressed by King Kong. I think that now seeing how popular and how well Pokemon is done, star, caveat, whatever included, that code needs to be updated, obviously, because all of a sudden Stern Pokemon went from like the darling of the pinball world to now everyone's complaining about code to the point that Don might even sell his. And by the way, can I just thank Don? If it wasn't for Don messaging me yesterday, and if you'll allow me to have a third pun in one show, Don nudged me towards doing this show by saying, hey, where the heck is the five rad and one bad? We need it, man. Now, I think he's at like some really cool pinball show. So he's probably like the opposite of me. Who's I've just been chilling on the homestead mostly recently. He's out there living his best life. I think Don travels more in a month than I do in a decade. And I guess I am jealous of that. However, I'm not jealous of necessarily the this man also probably works more in a month than I do in a year. So there you go. Like, you know, there's as much as do as as much as respected. So it's OK to admit you're jealous of other people's stuff that they have that you don't have. But it's also OK to say, I just I just there's no shot in how I could do his job for five minutes. I've tried being a manager of a Burger King. It is very challenging. All right. So number one on my list of the most rad is by far, by far and away. Anyway, the fact that I think this is Stern, this is Stern really, you know, the first man walking on the moon, putting the flag back in there. I guess it's not the first guy walking on the moon. It's kind of like them coming back 20 years later, like the Artemis mission. You know what I mean It like them seeing the dark side of the moon for the first time because it like hey not only did we knock it out of the park like everybody I would say almost everybody loved the artwork on Pokemon Unlike The Walking Dead that almost everyone hated. I think Enzo and myself were the only people who actually thought it was theme appropriate and thought that we liked it, but almost everybody else could not stand that artwork, unfortunately. So, and again, I've gone back and looked at it and I'm like, it's not that bad, guys. Guys, look at Game of Thrones. When I first got into Pinball, Game of Thrones artwork was the type of Photoshopped crap we were getting. And I'm sorry to whoever photocopied, photoshopped Game of Thrones, but it's crap. It's not oatmeal, it's crap. All right. So number one is by far that Stern got its groove back. Stella got her groove back and now Stern got her groove back. I think with Elliot Eisman coming in as a designer, being an engineer first and a designer second means that he can see this is a very, very mech heavy. Like I said, we've got three massive mechs that interact with the ball. Arguably, all of them, at least two of the three of them, I think they all interact with the ball, to be honest. So here we have, like, that's more than it was all in, Avatar didn't even have one that directly, like, you know, made contact with the ball. It's just like an arm flopping above it, you know what I mean? So I really, really think that Stern has done a great job. Elliot Eisman, or Iceman, if I should call you that, take a bow, bro, because you just did it. Like, you got a W. You're not only working for Stern, who's like, yes, they are the biggest pinball company in the world, But unlike 99% of the time, the biggest company is never the best. In my opinion, I still think Stern machines have the best flow, the best code, the best rules. Do they have the best artwork? Hells no.
    36:02
    Do they necessarily have the best value after you buy them new in box? No. And do they even have, I would say at this point, the best animations or the best sound? No. That would probably go to Barrels of Fun and JJP for animation, right? So, and shout out to Jeff from Dirty Pearl, I think, for sound. So, I think Stern has a lot of things going for them. And now with them having two pins in a row where everybody liked the artwork, everybody digs the sound, everybody likes the animations. For the most part, I would say looking at this, this is maybe, this layout, I'm not going to lie, like the Houdini layout, really good for like hardcore pinball nerds, not great for newbies. Pokemon, really, really good for newbies, not that great for hardcore pinball nerds. Same thing with Elvira, I've heard my buddy Jeff Teal is there. Shout out, by the way, to Yegpin, which is happening right now. If you go over to Geek Gamer TV, not Nerd Gamer TV, Geek Gamer TV, you can watch Egg Pin all weekend like I have been. And Jeff's over there. I think he's helping TD. I know he's not the main one.
    37:20
    Damn, I can't believe my voice. I haven't recorded for so long. My voice has worked perfectly until I went to record tonight. What are the chances? But congratulations to Elliot Eisman. I think we're going to see a lot more from him in the future. I think we're going to hear a lot more from him in the future. John Wick was the name of the pin I couldn't remember earlier. There you go. I'm sorry, Elliot. I mean, if I had to be really harsh, I would give John Wick like a 6 out of 10. I think Transformers is a 9. I think it's a 9. I don't know anything about the flow. I haven't seen the shots yet. I'm going to put my stake in the ground and say, congratulations, Elliot Eisman. You didn't just get a home run.
    38:03
    You knocked it so freaking far out of the park that you got a grand slam, my guy. I do think that these LEs will sell out probably faster than any LEs other than Pokemon. I also believe the LEs could not only hold their value for years to come, but I actually think they'll hold their value maybe as good as Pokemon because maybe as good as Pokemon, Which I think should stay very close to holding its value, which I'll be honest for Stern to have five, six, seven LEs in a row that don't hold their value and then have two in a row that are holding their value. That's a W. That's a win, right? So anyways, guys, my voice is so rough. I don't even want to talk and tell you about any of my personal stuff, but I'll tell you what. I'll have a glass of my, I'll have a little sip of my beer and we'll try.
    38:59
    All right. So there you go. There's oh, you need the one bad. You do need the one bad. And I'm just going to be open and honest here and I'm going to say that the one bad thing is.
    39:16
    That it leaked, guys. What the hell? I missed my Christmas morning. I was so excited for the 20th. I'd like to be the first person out there with a podcast. I'm prepared. I make sure on the day of a pinball podcast released that I don't have much planned, that I'm not busy working on the homestead, that I'm not busy doing parenting stuff, that my house husbanding duties are done. I even make sure that the dogs are, you know, I play with them lots in the morning so they'll rest for me while I'm recording. I do all this stuff and I couldn't be, I couldn't be out there with five rad and one bad as the first commentator on it because I just had other stuff going on and I was busy. But I want it to be. Does that count? That should count for something. All right. I really need to go take a cold pill because I cannot breathe. My sinuses are totally bothering me and I have not one, not two, but three very, very, very busy events this weekend that I have to attend that I can't miss. So I'm just going to say that I really miss chatting with you guys.
    40:19
    I did say last year if I couldn't get to at least $25 paid, like up to $200 per month on my Patreon that I was going to have to go get a better paying job. And with collectibles not really being, I'm not able to really be a collectibles dealer anymore, or certainly I haven't been able to be one since November. I needed extra income sources, so I luckily took a job managing. I'm actually being a manager, and I'm doing that right here locally to myself in Nova Scotia, and I'm enjoying the job. The job was advertised as 20 hours a week, and I'm quite often doing 30 hours a week or more, and I'm trying to really be efficient with the job, and I have a new summer intern that's helping me. I sometimes am managing between like 50 to 75 people. I'm exaggerating a little bit. It's probably closer to like 40 to 60 or something like that, depending on the event. But I'm enjoying it, but it's also very hard. It's the most challenging job I've definitely had, I'd probably say in about a decade. So, you know, it's not as hard as being a beer rep or a driving instructor, but it does come with some challenges. And I am public facing a little bit, so I have to be cognizant of that as well. But I did have a nice time recording with you guys tonight. I hope you're doing well.
    41:41
    You know, and I know I had a couple of people reach out to me and they're like, but you're never recording. I looked back, I've recorded eight. This is my eighth podcast this year. We're January, February, March, April. We're two weeks into May. So we're four and a half months in and you've got eight. So that's what I'm just trying to think. That's about every two and a half weeks. So I wish I was recording more as well. And certainly the last month and a half, it's only been those couple interviews. So there hasn't been much. But my promise to you is that I'm going to try to start recording a little bit more often. Certainly once we actually get to see the gameplay of Transformers, I will be back. It's going to be kind of awkward because I'm going to have to do like a first impressions after seeing gameplay. But no, I have been I've been very, very, very busy with my son kind of figuring out what he's going to do in Alberta and whether or not he might move back home after he stayed there a year or not. He's not really sure he's kind of enjoying himself up there, but he's also not really sure he wants to spend a whole nother winter minus 40. So I get it. If you're living in minus 40 degree weather, you also might not want to spend a second winter there. So Hayden's not 100 percent sure if he's going to come home. My youngest son, Owen, excuse me, got into university and we're just there's so much stuff going on with him graduating and going to university and being in like five different sports right now. So we're just really, really, really busy. And thankfully, on the homestead, the busiest time for me is the spring because I'm doing maple syrup. I planted a good chunk of the garden yesterday. I'm also keeping multiple gardens de-weeded. I'm keeping strawberries de-weeded, raspberries, blackberries, hascaps, tons of raspberries. Oh my gosh, so many raspberries need de-weeded right now. Blackberries. And then fertilizing everything. So it's just a really, really busy time of the year for me. But the good news is, thankfully tomorrow due to my intern, I get to leave a little bit early and I'm going to be driving like a madman to get up to Moncton and hopefully tomorrow I can play in Hub City Flipout 6 at 1 p.m. I finish work at 1245. According to Google, it's a 45-minute drive. That gives me five minutes to find a parking spot and maybe, maybe, maybe if I'm lucky, order a beer right before the first round. Not that I can drink much because I have to drive home, of course, but I might have a beer or two since I'm there for four or five hours. It should be a good time. If you're listening right now, come and play. It'd be great to see you. And then Sunday, for the first time in almost, what, six months, I'm going to be at the Collectibles Show in Halifax at the Moncton Coliseum. I had a cancellation that came through. My buddy reached out and said, if there's any way you'd like a table, I will hook you up. And you know what? It's been just long enough. It's been six months since I've done a Pokemon trade. I'm ready to go out there, 150 tables, if you live in the Maritimes and you love anything from Pokemon to Magic the Gathering to sports cards to sports memorabilia to collectible toys to comic books to, you know, whatever. Whatever it is that you like that are collectibles, you should go to that. Anyways, my voice is absolutely cooked. I apologize for even recording. It's a little embarrassing, but most of my shows are a little embarrassing. So there you go. You pinball nerds know nothing's changed. Until next time, remember to eat, sleep, and breathe.
    45:17
    Transformers more than meets the eye.