Everybody was kung fu fighting. Those cats were fast as lightning. That was a little bit frightening. But they fought with expert timing. Welcome everybody to Kaneda's Pinball Podcast. Happy Friday everybody. We are getting closer and closer to Pinball Expo. I want to thank each and every one of you for being a Kaneda Club member. We are at 618 club members. All those efforts to cancel Kaneda has once again worked in Kaneda's favor. I also want to say thank you to everyone who has been increasing your subscription amount. Had a lot of people go from $5 to $10. I'm going to give everybody a shout out. I just need to figure out how to do this because there's so many of you. I think I'm going to do a special show on Facebook Live. I'm also going to do this starting to thank everybody who's a member and who has upped their increase for Canada's Pinball Podcast. Someone said to me, they're like, Chris, it's just 50 cents a day to give you $15 a month. And I like it when you break it down like that. So let's talk about Pinball Expo coming up. Everybody's going to be kung fu fighting. Everybody's going to be fighting for the attention of the pinball buying community. We saw this at Texas Pinball Festival. Stern won that battle before the show even began with the Foo Fighter game. We got Jersey Jack's Godfather, which flopped. We got American Pinball's Galactic Tank Force that flopped. What else did we get at that show? We got Pulp Fiction, which seemingly won over the pinball community. But here we are, people. Chicago Gaming Company, once again, is radio silent. It is crickets. You know, Pulp Fiction's supposed to be on the line this month. Reach out to Chicago Gaming Company. See if they respond to you. Where is Ryan White with any sort of communication? Where is Chicago Gaming Company as an organization on social media reaching out to the thousands of people who ordered these games, giving them an update on when they can expect their games? Once again, Chicago Gaming Company is seemingly operating in the dark, and it is very frustrating for everybody. It's frustrating for me. I have a Pulp Fiction LE on order. When am I getting it? I don't know. Should I be saving money now because I might have to pay for it in a month or two? Or is it going to be six months or eight months or a year from now? I'm really disappointed in this company. I don't even want to give them much more airtime. They're doing it to us again. They did it with the Cactus Canyon builds. Ryan White and the team over at Chicago Gaming Company, I think Doug is the guy running the show over there, they should be ashamed of themselves. And now it seems to make total sense why Rick over at Planetary has moved his remakes to other places. And that is why I think we're going to see Pinball Brothers at Chicago Expo make a remake game that would have gone to Chicago Gaming Company. But Chicago Gaming Company needs to wake up. These shenanigans, they've become old. They've really taken their customers down a road they don't deserve. And I think they should be ashamed of themselves. It's bad business practice. They're in the service industry. They are making a game to service a community of people. And we are spending a lot of money on their products. The quality is there, but the experience is terrible. And I'm going to say this, and they need to learn this lesson. Ryan White and everybody over there. People won't remember what you say. They won't remember what you do, but they will remember how you make them feel. And Chicago Gaming Company has made people feel terrible about ordering games from them over the last few years. Grow up, become more professional, and stop this. Stop releasing games, revealing games, taking people's money, and then having absolutely zero communication with your customers as if the Internet does not exist, as if Facebook does not exist, as if you can't get in touch with people. There's no excuse for it. All right. All right. Shame on them. All right. Let's talk about Pinball Expo. It is coming up in like two weeks. Now, look, I know a lot of people are like, Kaneda, go to the media mixer. We'll see what happens. We'll see what happens if Kaneda makes a presence at Chicago Pinball Expo. But you're not going there to see me. You're going there to see the games, right? You're not going there for the personalities. It is going to be another free-for-all with all of these pinball companies trying to figure out how to dominate in the month of October. Let's do a roll call of everyone who's trying to win this month. Well, Stern Pinball, they've got two games, both by Brian Eddy. They've got Venom, which is a sales dud. I'm glad to see people unboxing the LEs of Venom. I don't look at that game with any envy. There's nothing about those LEs. They're like, oh man, I wish I got one of these. You are going to be able to get a Venom LE whenever you want for whatever you want almost. No, you're going to be able to get it for like $11,000 in just a month or two. Everybody knows that. And I'm talking new in box for $11,000. And once you unbox this thing, it is just going to sink by 30% instantly. And we haven't seen that in pinball very often, but we saw it a lot over the last year or so. So Venom, if you're a fan, congratulations. I think everyone else has moved on past this game. Then we got Stranger Things Remake or rerun of Stranger Things, some quasi-Vault edition of the game. Stern's gonna sell a decent amount of those. They've fixed some of the issues with the game. People have let me know that the fixes for this game, you know, the telekinesis lock and you've got like the Demogorgon ramp and all that stuff or the position of the Demogorgon, all that stuff has been fixed already in service bulletins for people. I think they're just making those fixes now at the factory. So it's not a new thing. I think people thinking like, oh my gosh, the old games are gonna be worthless. Those people are not gonna be accurate. The games are gonna play pretty much exactly the same. We're still waiting to see what the new projector is in the game. I'm assuming it's gonna be similar. It's not like we're going from like standard definition to 4K with this new projector. I think it's just gonna amount differently. And I don't think the experience is gonna be radically different. The good news for Stranger Things is if you wanted one, you no longer have to pay a crazy price. It has been a lot of fun seeing a lot of people miss the window in which they should have sold their Stranger Things machines And the reason why I making fun of some of these people and I tell you why because there a guy that bought a Stranger Things Pro like two weeks ago and he's all bummed out because he spent like $8,900 on a freaking Pro, which you can now get for like $6,500. And I was sort of jabbing him a little bit. And the reason why is this, is I've been saying this game's going to come back for weeks. Everybody else has been saying it. And why wouldn't you just wait? Everybody was saying this. If you just wait by the end of the year, you are most likely going to see Stranger Things being rerun and fill that empty slot in November that Stern had on the production calendar. And look, anyone who's going to go buy a Stranger Things Pro for like $8,500 or $9,000, these are people in the community. They're reading Pinside. They're listening to podcasts. And they rolled the dice and they lost. and now it's going to be funny seeing all of these people with their used Stranger Things premiums. It's going to be funny to see what they do with the pricing. You know, they're going to have to bring those prices well down. I mean, think about it like this. If you price a Stranger Things premium at $14,000, this week you just lost like $6,000 in value on what you thought you were going to get for your game because a used premium now is basically worth like $8,500, $9,000 because you can go get a brand new one for like 9,500. So that's gonna be Stern's big play at Expo. They're gonna be pushing these two titles. Let's go on to the Mystery Pinball Company. Now look, I'm really happy these guys took my advice. And even though they didn't directly take my advice, I've been saying this all along. If you have a theme that you know is gonna be somewhat disruptive, somewhat divisive, it is smart to let people know what it's gonna be before you show up at the show, before you reveal the game, every single clue about this machine is Labyrinth. If it is not going to be Labyrinth, then they have taken us all on the most deceptive marketing teaser campaign of all time. And I like what they're doing because basically now when they reveal this game, no one's going to be mad about the fact that it's Labyrinth because we already know that. People who are mad about this theme, they've now had a few weeks to be angry about the theme. And guess what happens with anger? It starts to dissipate over time. Unless you're angry at Canada's Pinball Podcast because my haters just hold on to their anger forever as my subscription numbers keep going up and up and up and theirs stay flat. All right, so everyone who's holding on to anger, they've had time to voice it. And so when the game finally gets revealed, it's not going to be a mystery what the theme is. The real mystery is this. Who designed it? Who's coding it? What's the artwork like? What are the mechs going to be? What are the shots going to be? I still have a lot of excitement for this game. And I think this is the game with the most curiosity at Pinball Expo. We know they're going to be there. We know they're going to have games new in box. And then the other questions we really want answered, how many can you make a week, a month? How much is this game? How many models of this game will there be? You know, this company is run by a lot of smart people. I also heard some crazy rumors it's going to be John Papadiuk. I can't imagine in a million years this company would partner up with John Papadiuk if they wanted to be successful. I don't think J-Pop is going to be anywhere near this game. I think you're going to hear David Van Es's name attributed with this company and with this game. I think you're going to see Fast Pinball, which we know it's Fast Pinball Boards. I think we might see a few more people in the mix associated with this company that are familiar names. Now, look, this is very interesting, and there's a lot of skepticism around any new to pinball boutique company. History has shown us that even if you can march in with the game, even if you can have some games made, are you going to be able to absorb a lot of orders? It's one thing to make 10 games and put them in a box. It's another thing to get 500 orders and then communicate to your buyers when they can expect their games and then make those games in a timely fashion. So lots of questions around this company, all of which will be answered at Pinball Expo. And I look forward to seeing their product. I look forward to covering this company. And it is fun to finally have a new pinball company that is made up of smart men in the industry. So I fully expect big things from this company. The one big thing that I'm still like, Labyrinth, really? You know, I'm telling you, as a marketer, Labyrinth isn't where I would start with a theme to launch my pinball company. So we shall see if they can turn my skepticism around. All right, so that's the mystery pinball company. Now we're hearing from Naps Arcade and from other sources that Jersey Jack Pinball, you know, the company that's released two flops in a row, is 10 years into the company's history and is seemingly making the most barren games they've ever made, Jersey Jack Pinball is going to march into Pinball Expo with Elton John. Now look, JJP, this is the crossroads. This is the moment. This is the moment where they either deliver, where Steve Ritchie brings this company back to its halcyon days of old, loaded games with so much in it that you cannot miss the value from a Jersey Jack machine. We did not see the value in Toy Story. Terrible theme. We did not see the value in the Godfather. Terrible theme for pinball. Will we see the value in Elton John? And that's the thing. It's like whenever I say Elton John, I just die a little bit inside because this is not the theme people want. And unlike the Mystery Pinball Company, I am still shocked that Jersey Jack, when we know it's going to be Elton John, I'm still shocked that they are not doing anything to sort of rip the band-aid off early and allow us to be angry about the theme because they've started to confirm what the theme is. We knew it was Toy Story. We just didn't know it was Toy Story 4. And look how mad we got. We knew it was The Godfather And when The Godfather came out it wasn like we were angry We were just like it is what we thought it was going to be and most people stayed away from it And now will all the rumors about Elton John be correct Now, I would love it. I mean it. I would love it if I'm so wrong on this. I want to be wrong on this. I don't want it to be Elton John. I know most of you don't want it to be Elton John. Can you imagine if Steve Ritchie rocked in there with freaking The Matrix or rocked in there with Harry Potter? And I think the moment we hear like Crocodile Rock, I don't know. I just have this weird feeling that the reception to this game is not going to be what they think it is. But it is exciting if the rumor is true that Jersey Jack Pinball is going to have another game in a single calendar year. Jersey Jack has never done this. They've never revealed and released two games in one year, two brand new games. It speaks to the failure of Godfather, but it's also somewhat of a light at the end of their tunnel that they're going to be able to release two games in a calendar year. My real worry about Jersey Jack, it's not just the themes they select, but they're another company that never really completes the code. And if they release two games in one year, are we now going to get two incomplete games? And are they going to get better at constant code updates? So Jersey Jack wants your money with maybe Elton John. The Pinball Brothers are coming to Chicago Expo. They have already said they're bringing a new game. We know it's going to be a remake of something. It is going to be a Bally Williams title. My guess is still with Dracula. I think it's going to be Dracula, Bally Williams. I think it's going to be Brian Allen on the art package. That is my guess. The other guesses are Twilight Zone and Big Bang Bar. But if Brian Allen is on artwork, I can't see him redoing the art packages on either of those games. But I could see him doing a Dracula new edition with new artwork. And Dracula is a game where if you modernized it a little bit, it still has one of the coolest moments in all of pinball when Dracula grabs the ball and the magnets carry it across the playfield. So we will see. I'm not sure. I don't have any line of sight into what the theme actually is, but I do know it's a remake and I do know they are in a partnership with Planetary Pinball. So that's another title showing up to Pinball Expo. Now, what else is going to happen at Pinball Expo? We're going to get people like Turner Pinball. Nobody cares about Turner Pinball. There might be a home pin, spinal tap. Nobody cares about that. It's still too early for Spooky's next game. So we're not going to see that. Spooky's always in a good position. See what's happening right here? Everybody's battling it out and they're all going to cancel each other out. And Spooky Pinball doesn't have to worry. They're making money each week, making their Scooby-Doos, while everybody else shows their hand way too early. And Spooky Pinball's, once again, they're going to slide right into that window when there's nothing new, nothing's happening. They always find the right timing to announce their games. They get in front of it at the right time and they're gonna be successful again because of that. All these other companies, they're doing it wrong. They're always trying to fight the battle around the shows. They're always getting scooped by Stern and Stern's gonna clobber them with manufacturing and efficiencies and everybody else just has their hands in their pockets. So spooky pinball, nothing really going to happen at Expo. Who else is out there in the pinball world? Dutch pinball, back to the future. People, are you ready? Did you see the Dutch pinball pizza party? Canada paid Barry for that entire pizza party. Canada has paid in euros. I was so happy to see everybody eating the pizza. Barry sent me a photo of the entire Dutch pinball crew enjoying the pizza party. And I'm just going to say this right now. There's a decent looking crew over there at Dutch Pinball. You know, we never see photos like this coming from Haggis Pinball. And Haggis buddies, you're up. It's time for Damien to go on Facebook Live and walk around Haggis factory. And the pizza party is yours in Australia. Heck, I should even send some pizza pies over to the media mixer. That's going to be my new thing. The most negative man in pinball is making the most positive things happen. So look, Dutch Pinball back to the future. Everybody is super excited by that rumor. Now, look, Barry did not reach out to me and say, nope, it's not happening. You know, I don't know. He's never going to confirm or deny it. But man, not fully out denying it leaves the door open. And I think everybody, everybody feels this way. If Dutch Pinball can do Back to the Future and do it justice with Roger Sharp helping them get the assets, there is no other company I would rather have make this game than Dutch Pinball. I know some people are like, well, Stern Pinball should make Back to the Future. Why? If Stern Pinball made Back to the Future, there would be like no mechs in the game. Now, look, Stern would do it justice on the code front and they would do it justice on the artwork front, but Stern Pinball still has not shown me consistently that they will put mechanical engineering magic into these pinball machines. Why would you want Stern to make the game? Now, look, four years ago, I would have said Jersey Jack Pinball is the company to make Back to the Future. And now look at Jersey Jack. Nobody really knows what they're going to get from Jersey Jack. So I'm happy that Dutch Pinball might have this license. The big issue is this. If Dutch Pinball is making Back to the Future, they're going to get 5,000 orders. Like how are they going to make this game if they're only making like five to 10 games a week? Like that's not going to work. There's only one way that works. And I've been telling Barry this. What's the one way that if Dutch Pinball has the Back to the Future license and they can only make a limited number of games a week and a year. What's the one thing they could do to solve that problem? And it's super simple. Just charge a boatload for the game and say you're only gonna make a certain amount. Imagine this, if they said we are only making a thousand Back to the Future machines they could charge for each one Let me repeat that 30 grand for each one if there were only 1 That million million in revenue right If they said we're only making 1,000. Think about it for a minute, people. There's only 1,000 Pirates of the Caribbean Jersey Jack games in the world. Only a thousand. The CEs sell for like 30K and the LEs sell for like $24,000. Okay. And that is a theme nobody really wanted. Imagine Back to the Future with 10 times more demand than Pirates of the Caribbean. Imagine Back to the Future with theme song from the movie, with some of the assets from the movie, with the most iconic scenes from the 80s. You could almost ask whatever you want because right now in the pinball world, I mean it when I say this, the collectors and the high-end collectors, and there is a good thousand of them out in the world. It's a global marketplace. These guys are starving for something. Stern has ruined it for a lot of them. What Stern does with its LEs, knowing there's going to be unlimited premiums and pros, it's no longer special. Like none of the Stern LEs do anything for me anymore. I'm waiting for Stern to do another SLE. I think we're going to see it on Jaws. But for right now, like when these Venoms get unveiled or Foo Fighter LEs or James Bond LEs. I mean, James Bond LE looks just like James Bond Premium. They're just not special anymore. If I were a collector, I wouldn't even be looking at these things. I mean that. Godzilla LE does not look that special. The only thing I would be looking at from a collector standpoint is a Ghostbusters LE, a Tron LE, a Batman LE or SLE. Those are the games where there's not that many of them out there. Everything else, they're everywhere and they look exactly like every other game. I mean, look how lazy Stern has got. They don't even change the Translight artwork between the premium and the LE now. That is lazy. All right. So we shall see what happens with Dutch Pinball and Back to the Future. Expo is going to be bonkers. And my advice to each and every one of you stays the same. Just wait and see, because no matter what happens at Expo, trust me when I say this, Keith Elwin's Jaws is going to create a seismic shift in pinball. When that game comes out, so many other games are going to go up for sale. This is the big issue in pinball. There's too much volume. There's too many new games that need homes. We're not going to see anything from American Pinball at Pinball Expo. Do you actually think American Pinball is going to go to Expo, which is kind of sad when you think about it, because it's David Fix's show. Like this is his show. He's the show organizer. They're going to do everything they can to try to sell more Galactic Tank Forces and it's not going to work. He's bringing the cast members from the game to the show. That's not going to net you many more sales. This game is another sales flop. Where is their follow-up game to Galactic Tank Force? And that's my thing. There's so many companies. There's so many games. And yet when the dust settles, Stern Pinball is the only company really consistently selling stuff. Everybody else, you know, neither here nor there. And now whenever a new game comes out, a lot of you out there have to make room for it. You have to free up money. And it's harder and harder and harder to sell a used game now because there's so many new games sitting at distributors in inventory. And there's just so many people out there trying to get rid of so many games because they're all trying to get some money together to buy Jaws, to buy Back to the Future in a year, to buy these exciting new games that are coming out. I really like this mystery pinball company. I want to go back to them for a second. I really like the fact that we might get a boutique company that can design a game at a higher level than Spooky. I mean it. I really think this company has me excited. I just want somebody new to do something new, but actually bring some good design and engineering into the pinball space. That's Spooky's next job to be done. They got to get better at the design and they got to get better at the mechanical magic. And when I look at this mystery game with two magnets and all of this stuff going on, it's going to be a game that I think is pretty packed. And I only have to wait two weeks for it. You know what else is coming out in like two weeks that has me so excited? Well, maybe it's three weeks. There's going to be a new Guns N' Roses single in the world. It's going to be called The General. And for those of you that follow GNR, The General was a song that everybody was like, oh, it's going to be one of the big guns on Chinese democracy. He's releasing it as a B-side track to the single for Perhaps. So I'm super excited. New Guns N' Roses song. All of these freaking pinball machines coming out. Canada's pinball podcast pizza parties are happening. Canada's subscription numbers are going up. People are upping their amounts. Everybody, it's a super fun time to be in pinball. I'm glad you're enjoying the ride. Let me give a quick shout out to our latest members, everybody. EmmyDroid64, Benjamin, McGee, Jethro, Joey, Andre, Andy, Chase. Guys, welcome to Canadas Pinball Podcast. This is the place to be. No more Saturday Morning Spectacular until October 21st, the Saturday of Expo. It's going to come real soon, everybody. Have a great Friday. Take care of yourselves. Go to the gym. For just 20 minutes a day, you will see a transformation of your life in the time it takes you to wax a pinball play field. If you simply hit the ground and do push-ups and sit-ups, you will feel so much better. Everybody, have a great day. We'll talk to you soon. I saw the motion made you skip. Now we're here to a brand new trick. Oh, everybody was kung fu fighting. Oh, well, that's never like. Oh, it was a little bit frightening. Oh, but it was.