Episode 727: "Show Us The Numbers Gerry!"

Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)·podcast_episode·28m 13s·analyzed·Sep 29, 2022

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

Kaneda reviews all pinball manufacturers' current status, production woes, and market positioning amid industry growth.

Summary

Kaneda provides a comprehensive manufacturer-by-manufacturer analysis of the pinball industry, critiquing production delays, transparency issues, and pricing strategies across all major companies. He discusses Multimorphic's hiring challenges and lack of sales transparency, Spooky's Beetlejuice availability, American Pinball's upcoming Nordman game, Chicago Gaming's Cactus Canyon sound issues and communication problems, Jersey Jack's underperforming Toy Story and speculation about a Pirates remake, Stern's price increases as demand management, and Pinball Brothers' underwhelming Queen machine. Key themes include manufacturing bottlenecks, collector market frustration, and the widening gap between premium and standard offerings.

Key Claims

Multimorphic announced Weird Al Pinball eight months ago with very few units shipped; Jerry (Multimorphic) admits hiring is the bottleneck due to low wages and skilled labor requirements
high confidence · Kaneda directly references Multimorphic's public forum response confirming hiring difficulty
Stern is raising prices not just to follow Jersey Jack, but to intentionally slow demand because manufacturing capacity is constrained
medium confidence · Kaneda's stated theory: 'The only knob they can turn to slow demand on new games and still make all the games people are ordering every year is price'
Beetlejuice is still available on Spooky's website after two weeks of public sale, indicating lower-than-expected initial demand
high confidence · Kaneda checked Spooky's website directly and observed inventory still available
Chicago Gaming Company lowered maximum volume on Cactus Canyon from 21-22 to 8 due to sound distortion/washout issues, rather than fixing the underlying problem
medium confidence · Kaneda cites owner reports and forum speculation; notes CGC has not confirmed the root cause
Jersey Jack's Toy Story sales 'are not where they thought they'd be'
high confidence · Kaneda states 'Everybody knows that' and it drives speculation about a Pirates of the Caribbean remake
Ultraman Collector Edition machines are losing $4,000+ in secondary market value, dropping from $10K+ to ~$5,500 range within six months
medium confidence · Kaneda references Pinside marketplace listings showing low demand and expected price collapse
American Pinball's Dennis Nordman game is a 1950s sci-fi space theme with crazy ramps and mechs, targeting December 2025 production
medium confidence · Kaneda cites secondhand information: 'I'm hearing it as crazy ramps, cool mechs'
Christopher Franchi's hands are 'tied' on the Pulp Fiction artwork due to license holder control
low confidence · Kaneda explicitly labels this as rumor: 'this is just a rumor but that is what I hearing'

Notable Quotes

“Jerry, why can't you do just one thing Jerry? Just do us one thing. You've been in business now for like eight years. Why is it still a mystery? How many P3 Multimorphic or Multimorphic P3s you've sold.”
Kaneda @ ~8:00 — Central frustration with Multimorphic's lack of transparency about sales and production numbers
“27 is a special number to Al so we made sure he got it. Otherwise our serial numbers are random with very few exceptions... Despite how some will want to spin that, we're many factors higher on P3 machines and also higher on Weird Al Playfields.”
Jerry (Multimorphic, cited by Kaneda) @ ~6:30 — Multimorphic's defensive response to scrutiny about low production numbers
“The biggest issue with Chicago Gaming Company is still a communication issue. Where are you, Ryan White? Why is there no communication from this company?”
Kaneda @ ~22:00 — Criticism of CGC's lack of transparency regarding Cactus Canyon delays and technical issues
“Why would I spend 10 grand and lose almost $4,000 on this machine? Four grand! I will happily walk away from my $2,000 deposit and never fall victim to this again.”
Kaneda @ ~14:00 — Personal experience with Ultraman secondary market depreciation and collector regret
“These pinball companies don't care about you as much as you think they do.”
Kaneda @ ~44:00 — Broad critique of manufacturer priorities favoring distributors over customers
“Drink a few whiskeys and play GNR at full volume and tell me you're not having fun. If you're not, you don't belong in pinball.”
Kaneda @ ~37:00 — Passionate defense of Guns N' Roses aesthetics and fun factor against gameplay critics
“I think they're going to bring out Jack Danger's game next and then I think they're going to bring out Venom in the later part of 2023 to coincide with Comic Con.”
Kaneda @ ~47:00 — Speculation on Stern's upcoming release pipeline, though Kaneda admits uncertainty

Entities

Kanedaperson Jerryperson Gary Sternperson Keith Elwinperson Eric Meunierperson Pat Lawlorperson Dennis Nordmanperson

Signals

?
manufacturing_signal: Multimorphic explicitly cites difficulty hiring skilled labor for pinball manufacturing at current wage levels; wages too low relative to job complexity and difficulty
high · Jerry's public forum response: 'it's really hard to find employees to make these games' and discussion of wages relative to job skill requirements
?
product_launch: Weird Al Pinball announced February 2025, still producing minimal units at ~8 months in; Cactus Canyon unveiled 11 months ago with LE/Elite still not shipping while Standard Certification (SC) shipped 4-5 months prior
high · Kaneda's timeline tracking: 'eight months. We're almost at nine months' for Weird Al; 'You've been waiting an entire year' for Cactus Canyon
$
market_signal: Ultraman Collector Edition experiencing severe secondary market collapse; units losing $4,000+ in value within 6 months (from $10K+ to ~$5,500 expected range); Legends of Valhalla $1,600+ depreciation observed
high · Pinside marketplace pricing observed by Kaneda; Ultraman CE listings show no offers near asking prices; Legends of Valhalla LE down-priced to $7,150-$7,300
?
collector_signal: Beetlejuice still available on Spooky website after 2 weeks of public sales despite $9,999 MSRP; indicates demand lower than anticipated for a hyped boutique release
high · Kaneda checked Spooky shop directly and found inventory remaining; speculates demand will increase post-unboxing but current public phase shows weakness
?
product_concern: Cactus Canyon machines exhibit volume/sound distortion issues; max volume capped at 8 instead of typical 21-22; appears manufacturer response was firmware limiting rather than fixing root cause

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.085

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I don't care, I love it, I don't care I said I said I said I said I said I said I said I said I Welcome everybody to the world's most frustrating pinball podcaster. No R when I say that word everybody. So look, we're going to keep going. I know everybody loves being a member of the Kaneda Club and this is why you love it because we don't stop talking about the hobby we all love. Here's what I'm going to do on this episode. I'm going to go around the horn and we're going to shuffle the deck and we're going to talk about what is going on with each manufacturer. What do I think is going to happen for these companies in the next few months? Okay. Now there's a lot. There always seems like there's nothing going on in pinball because not many games are shipping, but there is a lot in the works at every single pinball manufacturer. And I also think tomorrow is when the British Film Institute kicks off. And I think we might see the Keith and pinballmachine and all the other bonds lined up during that film institute. So look out for that. That was one of my predictions. Okay, so here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to shuffle the deck and we're going to go through each manufacturer. I'm going to talk about what's going on over there. I'm going to start with an unlikely company because I usually leave these guys to the end. Let's start with Multimorphic. Let's count how many months ago this company announced weird Al pinball. Come and get your weird Al's and we're going to make them and the sometime in the Future. It was February, March,April,May,June,July,August,September, right, eight months. We're almost at nine months. Now look, some weird owls are making it out there. Not many but some. Now, all I would love to know is how many they've made and how many they're making a month. I'm not sure why it is a trade secret. Now, someone asked on the Multimorphic thread, you know, How's hiring going? Is that the delay? And Jerry came clean and said, look, it's really hard to find employees to make these games. And you got to remember like making a pinball machine, most of the line workers aren't making a lot of money. And there are probably a lot easier jobs than building a pinball machine if you're not going to pay these people the money. And I think that making a pinball machine is somewhat skilled labor. Like this is not an unskilled job. You're not just putting the French fries into TheFryer, and PressingAButton, you gotta use a soldering iron, you've gotta line stuff up, you gotta make sure everything is perfect before it moves on to the next line because as you all know, if you make one mistake on manufacturing a pinball machine, that could lead to a big headache for the company. But here's the thing, Jerry, and I reached out to Jerry this morning and I still have yet to hear back because here's what Jerry said when someone asked the question because Weird Al number 27 was delivered and someone asked like, is that how many you've The number 27 is very special to Weird Al and I think that game was delivered to the Weird Al family and they don't make their games in order. But this is what Jerry said. I'm going to read what he wrote. 27th machine question mark. Ha! 27 is a special number to Al so we made sure he got it. Otherwise our serial numbers are random with very few exceptions. I love this last part because it's probably directed a little bit at Kaneda. Despite how some will want to spin that, we're many factors higher on P3 machines and also higher on Weird Al Playfields which are split across existing Machineowners and New MachineShipments. Jerry. Well here's the thing Jerry, when you say people are going to want to spin it, why can't you do just one thing Jerry? Just do us one thing. You've been in business now for like eight years. Why is it still a mystery? How many P3 Multimorphic or Multimorphic P3s you've sold. Why is your user base number one big fat question mark? We knew how many spooky games they've made during each run of each game. Spooky tells us how many games they can make a month. They tell us how many games they can make a year. Why is it Jerry that you are saying we are spinning this? He's saying like people are gonna say we haven't sold that many We haven't sold more than 250 or 500 then Jerry Miniетеú Isn't that representative for the ули también Caché John disabledN It'słóckńŭ kötěnyje, and I think some of these companies would be somewhat embarrassed if they revealed it like we've been in business for eight years and we've managed to sell half as many games as TNA like nobody really wants to admit that do you think they've sold more multi more fixed than TNAs I don't and Jerry if I'm wrong guess what you could prove me wrong it's really easy you could just say something and be transparent alright let's move on to spooky pinball so I went over to spooky pinball's website and I went to the shop and I went to see if and I was surprised to see a little bit that it's still available. So that just goes to show that they are offering $250 at around $9,000 a pop and clearly the demand was a little bit lower than that because this has now been open to the public to buy for the last two weeks and will it sell out eventually? I still think they will sell all of these eventually. The game is real. I think once that first unboxing is done, I think we're going to see another single level game in the Keith Elwin, like James Bond machine. And if people start throwing like 20, $30,000 at that thing, I don't think they're going to people we'll talk about a little bit later, but this is a single level game that the community loves and you can get a brand new version of it for nine grand. I think they're going to sell all of them once people start unboxing them and they realize like I can get it pretty soon. And the game is real. I think once that first unboxing happens, you're going to see more people on the fence maybe jump in and get them. I also heard from a friend of mine that he just paid for his Ultraman number 476 and he said, Chris, are you going to stay in on your Ultraman number 500? And the answer is absolutely not. And I think you know that I went in on it. I got excited. I had stars in my eyes about this Neo Tokyo themed game. I'm not an Ultraman fan. I never really saw episodes of Ultraman. I thought the game looked beautiful. and the rest has been history I tell you why Here the problem is I am committed to sending spooky pinball with a butter cabinet for my Ultraman So I went on to the Pinside marketplace and I looked up Ultraman Collector Edition and guess how cheap you can get it for or best offer and still no offers There also one available for You know what funny is there one for firm and then there one for or best offer You know what that means I know I not going to sell this at homepage becauserawin deve We will be having more than 500 more than other games on the marketplace and they are firm on their price. How can you be firm at 6,900 when people aren't even offering 6,400? But just right there, right? Why would I spend 10 grand and lose almost $4,000 on this machine? Four grand! I will happily walk away from my $2,000 deposit and never fall victim to this again. Now, I do want to report that it model of The

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Za rage pres confident Secthire?! What a good and interesting video, they're both coming to on Netflix soon and alongside that returning out-ed денег courtyard star boobs and sinkapee tablespoons on they Fasten, said the demand for the standard is twice as much as the LE. And then I'm like, all right, really twice as much. So here's how much you can go get an $8,700 Legends of Valhalla for right now. There is one for sale for $7,150 and then one for 7,300 or best offer. So 7,100 people. So that means if you bought this game and this was just a few months ago, you now took a $1,600 hit. The game itself but it's even more because you probably paid taxes and you probably paid for shipping I think American pinball the past is the past this Dennis Nordman game is everything it's gonna have a new cabinet it's gonna have a new logo this is the American pinball that David Fix has been building and I'm excited about it I really am I really want David Fix and Dennis Norman and Franchi to drop something into the pinball world that is completely different from everything else we're getting and I think they're going to do that. All right. So Chicago Gaminging Company, where are the Ellie's of Cactus Canyon? Now, look, I've seen people say the games are in production. That's great. They should have been in production like nine months ago. This game was unveiled to the world 11 months ago. You've been waiting an entire year. You've seen the SC people get their games like four or five months ago. So if you paid the most amount of money, you are now waiting the longest. I'm still confused. I don't know about you. I don't know about you, Which means E- 어머ny, and some people have been playing this game and enjoying this game but there is an issue with cactus canyons that people are talking about and some of the owners are noticing that the games volume is lower than other CGC games and so the volume on a cactus canyon where most games go up to like 21 or 22 volume this only goes up to 8 and what people are saying is the sound in this game might be a little washed out and gets distorted as it gets louder and no one's really sure what the issue is like I've been reading the thread and does it affect every game does it only affect some games it's really weird right how could a sound issue only impact a certain number of games and so the speculation is this that the sound in the game is washed out a little bit and it gets distorted as you make the game louder so instead of fixing that problem they maybe arbitrarily lowered your ability to make the game louder And so that is what's happening right now. People have been trying to get an answer from CGC. Owners are trying to figure this out. But if you're in on a cactus canyon, I just want you to know that you're probably going to wonder what the solve is here. Is it a code issue or is it a hardware issue? But regardless, the biggest issue with Chicago Gaming Company is still a communication issue. Where are you, Ryan White? Why is there no communication from this company? All right, so the other thing happening at CGC is Pulp Fiction is coming. It is supposedly coming out this year. It is going to be a raw thrills game. It is a single level game. Another single level game, right? All these single level games this year. Who knew single level pinball was so damn popular? But 2022 Pulp Fiction, we got Bond 60th anniversary and TNA. But here's the other thing I heard. I heard from someone who knows more than I do. And they said Franchi is on the The Artwork of this game They also said that the license holder had a lot of control how this game would look and that it not gonna blow people away artistically now I don even know what to make of this rumor this is just a rumor but that is what I hearing is that you not gonna see like Franchi unleashed I think you might see Franchi with his hands tied on this game I have to be completely honest I so tired of this rumor of this Mark Ritchie single level you know no LCD screen like Franchi on artwork Pulp Fiction game just get this game CBC's inability to make progress on new titles is the reason why Ben Heck's title with them is now in his basement. I don't even think it's still on the schedule to happen. And CBC just seems like a company where they just can't get games out. Alright, let's move on to Jersey Jack Pinball. So, look, what's happening at Jersey Jack? They must be having meetings about where do we go now. Toy Story sales are not where they thought they'd be. Everybody knows that. Everybody knows that except for my friend Joe Newhart who sent out a fun email. Ko Ken I

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track day and the reason why this rumor never goes away is it makes total business sense that they would remake Pirates of the Caribbean. It is one of the Jersey Jack games where people would not argue on $15,000 for the game. You know, we're seeing Pirates used sell for much more than this. So from a business standpoint, it makes total sense right now, right? You've got Paladin, Pat Lawler who yanked out the triple spinning disc from Eric's Pirates of the Caribbean. And now that Pat Lawler's gone and his games have underwhelmed and never sold to their potential, wouldn't it make total sense to say, hey Pat, we're going to stop making your game and we're going to make more of Eric's game because there's actually more demand for it. Here would be the dream scenario. They'll never do this, but this would be the dream scenario. Because Pat Lawler yanked out the triple spinning disc from Pirates, How amazing would it be if Jersey Jack Pinball reran Pirates made some special version and actually put back into it the triple spinning disc. It works. Eric's engineering worked. The reason they took that disc out, it's all in episode 500. I should just let you guys hear that section of it one day. I mean it because it's a really interesting story. It was all about how when they sent the games to be played when they were prototypes, they used the wrong screws and the motor fell out. I ONLY JUSTSOKE Animalồ�먛 independently ambitions with service SWEX 20ff 75 12x I got the email from them. It's great. They're living up to what they said they would do if you want to buy a replacement I believe it's $4.99 for the lower playfield. I think the upper one is $1.99 and they will ship it to you. Now look, do I want to spend this on it? No. Should I have to spend this on it after I spend $12.50 and there's a known defect? I don't think so. But am I going to buy it? Yes. Am I thankful they're doing this for me at cost? Yes. I'm not going to begrudge them. And the reason The reason why I'm not going to begrudge them is my machine is still worth way more than $12,500. And I know none of us ever wanted playfield issues. It's on Mirko. I don't blame JerseyJack. I still do blame Mirko. It was all Mirko who did it, man. And finally, I guess he figured it out with the new Toy Story playfields because we're not seeing any issues. Now, speaking of like Guns N' Roses CEs and where the value is at, there is a Guns N' Roses CE in mint condition with a powder-coated coin door on pinstripe. and I'm just telling you right now, instead of buying a Toy Story CE, I would buy the GNR. A, it's a better game, B, it's twice as rare, C, it's the most beautiful pinballmachine ever made. It really is. When you stand over Guns N' Roses Collector's Edition, I challenge you to put another machine in modern times, even old times, that is more beautiful than GNRCE. I can already hear the GNR haters. It's not about how it looks, Kaneda. It's how it shootss. The game shootss fine. You guys have no fun. Drink a few whiskeys and play GNR at full volume and tell me you're not having fun. If you're not, you don't belong in pinball. Alright, Stern Pinball, what is going on over at Stern Pinball? So I have an interesting theory to throw out there. I'm curious what you guys think about my theory. What's been Stern's biggest problem the last year? They can't make games fast enough, right? They have such a backlog on games. and they had to actually hit pause on new game releases to make up all the old orders. Pinball is growing. Pinball is growing exponentially. More people are getting into this great hobby every month and because of that there's more demand. And so think about if you're Stern, how do you start to chip away at the demand so your manufacturing doesn't suffocate? Only one knob you can really turn because you still got to get new games out every year because you've got contracts to get those games out. The only knob they can turn to slow demand on new games and still make all the games people are ordering every year is price and that's what I think. They're doing they're raising the price of these games. Not to just follow suit with Jersey Jack. Not to be greedy. I think they're also doing it to slow the demand down just a little bit. And it will slow demand down just a little bit because I think they've run the numbers and they'll actually probably make more money selling like 3000 of a game than if they made 4000 of it for prices that are 40% less. And I think that's probably a little bit behind the price increase over at Stern. As I said, I think we're going to see the Keith Elwin machine tomorrow. It's going to be fun everybody get the popcorn out. I just I just want everyone to get the Soviet Pinst zeigen in slippers Caribbeanias in northeastern Asia LGBTQ The Ha ha ha what should we price it at gentlemen? Then you got like trends like I don't know maybe we could charge 18 then another distributors like yeah now 18 Why don't we charge 20 and they're like gentlemen you're all being short-sighted I say we go for it all these men have multi-million dollar homes They were a hundred thousand dollar watches Bill Brandis has how many Ferraris Neil McRae will buy 18 of these things just because I mean 825, PTMPSS4 What this game is gonna do, I mean it, what this game is gonna do, it's gonna create a little bit of a civil War between the have and have nots in the pinball community. We don't typically see a game like this where I think a lot of people would be open to owning it, but no one really wants to own it for like $15,000 to $20,000 to $30,000. So we will see what the price is. I wish Stern would stop this nonsense of like, you set the price distributors. Stop with that. Just set the price Stern. Be the bad guy. In Octoberidaćнейやったんやったайま I axie faş profoundly I mean that they would sell it directly the way Batman 66 SLE was sold. And here's why they're not selling it directly because they care more about their distributors than they do about the customers. And that's just that because their distributors are their lifeline. The distributors are their livelihood. The distributors are their salesforce. So I get why they would look out for their distributors. But each and every one of you out there, I just want you to remember this. These pinball companies don't care about you as much as you think they care about Off handalystOYah92