Pinball Expo 2025 - Which Pinball Manufacturer Was King!?

Cooltoy·video·17m 30s·analyzed·Oct 18, 2025

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Pinball Expo 2025 recap: Barrels of Fun dominates with Winchester Mystery House sellout, Harry Potter shines for JJP, American Pinball fades.

Summary

Cooltoy provides a comprehensive vendor breakdown of Pinball Expo 2025, the 41st annual event. Key highlights include Stern's display of Star Wars: Fall of the Empire with Death Star improvements, Jersey Jack Pinball's Harry Potter as a best-seller despite AI art concerns, and Barrels of Fun's Winchester Mystery House selling out 525 units in 1.5 days. The speaker also covers Pinball Brothers' Predator, Spooky Pinball represented lineup with rumors of an imminent Beetlejuice announcement, a thriving homebrew section, and American Pinball apparent operational closure with only legacy products on display.

Key Claims

Winchester Mystery House sold out 525 units in approximately 1.5 days
high confidence · Cooltoy, discussing Barrels of Fun's Pinball Expo 2025 announcement
Stern installed an improvement on Star Wars: Fall of the Empire show games to reduce Death Star rejection issues
high confidence · Cooltoy reporting on Stern Pinball's booth observations at Pinball Expo 2025
Jersey Jack Pinball has corrected AI art mistakes on Harry Potter cabinet/playfield and is changing their manufacturing approach moving forward
medium confidence · Cooltoy discussing Harry Potter, noting JJP 'supposedly' worked to change this and 'corrected the issues'
Spooky Pinball's rumored Beetlejuice game should be officially announced any day
medium confidence · Cooltoy speculation: 'the rumored Beetlejuice game from Spooky Pinball. So, we should be hearing that be officially announced any day now'
American Pinball has essentially laid off everybody on the pinball side of the business and shuttered operations
high confidence · Cooltoy reporting: 'They have all but shuttered their doors. They laid off pretty much everybody that was on the pinball side of the business'
Harry Potter is Jersey Jack Pinball's best-shooting pinball machine
high confidence · Cooltoy's personal assessment: 'It's easily Jersey Jack Pinball's best shooting pinball, hands down'
Wonderland Amusements' Alice in Wonderland mini-scale game played better than anticipated and exceeded expectations
high confidence · Cooltoy's direct experience: 'it actually it played much better than I anticipated' and 'people that actually played it...were pleasantly surprised'
Predator is Pinball Brothers' best-playing machine released to date
high confidence · Cooltoy's assessment: 'This by far and away, in my opinion, is the best playing Pinball Brothers machine they have released'

Notable Quotes

“This is their latest game that they just announced literally days before Pinball Expo started. Sold out in a day and a half, 525 units. So, congrats to the team.”
Cooltoy@ 3:56 — Highlights Barrels of Fun Winchester Mystery House's immediate commercial success and market impact
“It's easily Jersey Jack Pinball's best shooting pinball, hands down. I think Papa Duke much almost everybody can agree upon that.”
Cooltoy@ 2:34 — Strong endorsement of Harry Potter as JJP's definitive achievement and community consensus
“They have all but shuttered their doors. They laid off pretty much everybody that was on the pinball side of the business.”
Cooltoy@ 13:45 — Confirms American Pinball's operational collapse and market exit
“This by far and away, in my opinion, is the best playing Pinball Brothers machine they have released.”
Cooltoy@ 6:36 — Establishes Predator as Pinball Brothers' technical peak despite pricing concerns
“Everything about this game is impressive. the sound design, the the game layout, the flow, the path, the designer, Karl DeAngelo, very high level pinball player, as well as a just general good human being.”
Cooltoy@ 4:15 — Comprehensive praise for Winchester Mystery House's design execution and designer credentials
“The homebrew section this year, my goodness, it makes my heart just swell with pride. This year they had the largest footprint of any year that I've ever attended.”
Cooltoy@ 9:06 — Documents significant growth and legitimization of homebrew pinball community at Expo

Entities

CooltoypersonStern PinballcompanyJersey Jack Pinballcompany Barrels of Funcompany Pinball BrotherscompanySpooky PinballcompanyAmerican PinballcompanyWonderland Amusements

Signals

?
announcement: Barrels of Fun announced Winchester Mystery House days before Pinball Expo 2025; sold out 525 units in 1.5 days
high · Cooltoy: 'This is their latest game that they just announced literally days before Pinball Expo started. Sold out in a day and a half, 525 units.'
?
product_launch: Winchester Mystery House represents successful boutique manufacturer scaling with innovative features (Pepper's Ghost LCD, rotating turntable mech, four flippers)
high · Detailed mechanical description; praised layout, sound design, shot design, and integration by Cooltoy and industry observers
?
business_signal: American Pinball has shuttered pinball operations, laid off staff, and shifted to Polycade arcade distribution; Cuphead game abandoned
high · Cooltoy: 'They have all but shuttered their doors. They laid off pretty much everybody that was on the pinball side of the business'
?
product_concern: Jersey Jack Pinball implemented corrections to AI art mistakes on Harry Potter cabinet/playfield post-launch
medium · Cooltoy: 'They've corrected the issues. They went back there and got rid of some of the AI mistakes that they used'
?
rumor_hype: Spooky Pinball's Beetlejuice game expected official announcement imminently following Expo 2025
medium · Cooltoy: 'the rumored Beetlejuice game from Spooky Pinball. So, we should be hearing that be officially announced any day now'

Transcript

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0:02

If you're not at Pinball Expo this year, you're really missing out.

0:38

Pinball Expo 2025 is in full swing currently right now. This is the 41st anniversary of the event and I always look forward to it each and every year. It's one of the highlights of my con schedule. This year I'm having a blast. So much so that you can already tell that I'm losing my voice. So apologies that it sounds like I've been a chain smoker for 30 years. I promise I'm not. But having an absolutely amazing time. So, it's time for another recap video. Going to show you and talk about all the things you may have seen or missed if you didn't get to go this year. We'll do a vendor by vendor and I'll put timestamps down the video description box below in case you want to skip ahead. So, right at the top, we always got to start with Stern because they are the largest manufacturer and pinball wouldn't be what it is today if it wasn't for Stern Pinball. They're out there in full force, of course, always have a giant display. Looks great. They're out there in full force showing, you know, their lineup of games and of course highlighting their latest Star Wars Fall of the Empire game. Uh the talk of the show floor was that they have an improvement installed on these show games that has something to do with the Death Star mech not rejecting as many balls cuz that has been a common complaint with early adopters of this game. They also had a couple new products on display. They had their Deadpool um topper for their illuminated topper line as well as their new Godzilla. Um I didn't get to see any of the King Kong accessories that were recently just announced. I didn't see that they had those anywhere out there on site. Um kind of disappointed. I want to see those up close and personal. I do think their King Kong topper is nice, especially if you're a pro owner because the pro owners didn't have the animatronic King Kong. So, if you get that topper as a pro owner and you now have, you know, the best of both worlds. You've got a dancing uh gorilla on top of your machine that, you know, has those animated movements. But if you don't want to do that, you can always go to the Electric Playground. They have an absolutely awesome King Kong copper. It's a fraction of the price. So, I mean, if you want to go that route, you can also do that as well. Jersey Jack Pinball, of course, was highlighting their brand new Harry Potter release. I played this game numerous times on location and at the convention, various different places throughout the year since it's been released. Uh, I love the game. It's easily Jersey Jack Pinball's best shooting pinball, hands down. I I think pretty much almost everybody can agree upon that. Um, the only issue I have with this is, you know, a personal issue, and it's just that their use of AI art on uh the cabinet and the playfield and things like that. But they've been supposedly, you know, working to change that moving forward with manufacturing. They've corrected the issues. They went back there and got rid of some of the AR mistakes that they used. So, um, now that that is, you know, in play, that, um, gives me, you know, nice warm and fuzzy feelings about maybe, you know, owning that game later in the future because prior to that, you know, hard line in the sand. I absolutely refused to, you know, pay money for anything that used AI art. That's just a personal choice. If you disagree with me, a okay with me. That's that's fine. You do you. But it's a wonderful game. It shoots amazing. Got awesome mechs and it's, you know, it's a good value for the the arcade edition. Um, I still think that the was it the wizard edition, it's pretty except for their topper. I think it's really cheap and hokey looking, but other than that, you know, the top end collector edition and, you know, the low-end arcade edition are both fantastic games. So, um, if you enjoy Harry Potter, obviously you're going to love this game. Hands down the talk of the show, the one game that everybody wanted to see, wanted to play and experience first and foremost was the Barrels of Fun new release, Winchester House of Mystery. This is their latest game that they just announced literally days before XO started. Sold out in a day and a half, 525 units. So, congrats to the team. That's a very impressive, you know, release, especially for a first game and a secretive release, if you will. Um, everything about this game is impressive. the sound design, the the game layout, the flow, the path, the designer, Carl D'Angelo, very high level pinball player, as well as a just general good human being, which is always a nice uh nice add-on there. But props to the team that they put together for this game. If you're not familiar with it, it is a licensed title, but it kind of comes across as an unlicensed theme because it is very niche. But the way they've integrated everything, it it's so well done. the sound package, the lighting, um all the new upgrades that Barrels of Fun have started, you know, implementing since they released Dune. All of those are present here on this game. Um you've got kind of theater of magicesque uh narration call outs, which I think are very nice touch, and it goes with the spooky eeriness of the theme. In reality though, the most impressive thing to me just was the the layout and the shot um design, everything. There's multiple ball paths. There's a a big mech in the back that kind of rotates like a a a lazy Susan on a playfield that um gives multiple diversions and ball paths and you know redirects of things. Um you got all sorts of neat little features. You got Pepper's ghost LCD um kind of spooky eerie um ghost effect going on there in the back uh little lefthand corner if you will. Um, the apron lights up and has, you know, interactive features with it, which is cool because a lot of times, you know, that's just dead space. Artwork here is done by Brad Albbright. He did a great job on this one. I I love the color spectrum. Um, the powder coating armor and everything. It looks good, especially in person. It's kind of hard to understand those type of things in pictures and stuff, but when you see the light hit it, it's got nice, you know, metallic reflective sparkles in it. It's, you know, a very nice teal. You got that high gloss um you know radcalesque uh artwork there all over the cabinet. So it's nice and shiny. It looks like it's been you know clear coated a thousand times and it's scratch resist and stuff like that. I mean it looks like a phenomenally um wellmade machine and I can attest to it playing extremely well. So all you home buyers, you're going to you're going to be playing this for a while and you're going to have lots to explore figuratively and literally. Pinball Brothers was there with Predator. This is their latest release. Um, they even had a, you know, a nice little meet and greet set up for one of the original actors. It was in Predator for Friday and Saturday, which I thought was a nice touch. You know, they had jungle uh theme canopy going around the three machines they had set up. This by far and away, in my opinion, is the best playing Pinball Brothers machine they have released. I like Alien, but technically that's not really a Pinball Brothers game that was designed by other people and then they took it over and manufactured it and tweaked it a little bit. But, um, I absolutely hated ABBA. I'm sorry. Uh, not only on the theme, but just the gameplay. Queen, I absolutely love the band. I hated their Queen game. I just thought it was Clunkfest. And I played multiple copies, multiple different years, and it just it was never a good experience. So, I was very, very pleasantly surprised how well Predator played. It kind of has a whirlwindesque kind layout, but it does things differently. It's got really cool theme integration with like the Predator apron that they've got integrated with the digits and the alpha numeric things going on. uh neat toys and mechanics and its biggest issues I think unfortunately are price. I mean this thing's coming in around 13 $14,000 when it's all said and done with shipping and tariffs and all that stuff and you know some of that is beyond their control. But Predator super fans, I mean you're going to have to pay up big time to get this. But it is a beautiful looking machine. Uh it did play very well. uh the call outs and everything. They've got an Arnold impersonator for certain things and it's I mean it's noticeable that it's not Arnold, but it's not so bad that you feel like you got the Dollar General version of Arnold. So, um they did a good job with this. So, I'm happy happy this release looks like it's going to be better than previous ones in the past. I heard about that little job you pulled I heard about that little job you pulled up in. Spooky Pinball wasn't officially here on Spooky Pinball wasn't officially here on site at Pinball Expo 2025, but they were represented well by one of their larger distributors. Um, they had six custom Evil Dead machines out there with custom blood dripping powder coating that you could get there on site. They also had, you know, Scooby-Doo, uh, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and my personal favorite, Looney Tunes out there to play. Obviously, everyone's enjoying them. Evil Dead is such an amazing game. All the people that have, you know, bought it up because it did sell out. U, there's about half of them, I think, still waiting for their game. So, there's a lot of anticipation for that one. But the latest uh release is just right around the corner with the rumored Beetlejuice game from Spooky. So, we should be hearing that be officially announced any day now. So, I'm anxious to check that out because I'm a huge Beetlejuice fan. So, can't wait to see what they do with that. The homebrew section this year, my goodness, it makes my heart just swell with pride. I first of all, I've always been a adamant supporter of the homebrew community. I love them to death. I think the the most amazing stuff that goes on at Pinball Expo is in the homebrew section. This year they had the largest footprint of any year that I've ever attended. It's come such a long way from being tucked away in the dark corner where it was, you know, neglected and it was the redheaded stepchild of the show. This time they had a prominent massive display. Um, lots of lighting, lots of decor, so many more homebrew games than I've seen than years past. It's a great setup this year. Definitely check it out. Another

11:24

last year's new Upstart Wonderland Amusements. They showed up and basically gave everybody their business plan and their idea and they said, "Hey, we're going to make a sub $1,000 miniature homecale pinball machine for people and uh we're going to do it in a year." And I thought that was an incredibly lofty goal and very ambitious. And I was like, "Wow." I mean, if you think you can go from zero to 100 in a year, I mean, more power to you. I was a little bit of a disbeliever because I thought that time frame and the turnaround and everything was uh beyond ambitious, but lo and behold, they're back again this year with their Alice in Wonderland from Wonderland Amusements game. Uh they met all their goals. I think it's shipping in the next couple of weeks. Uh the price did creep up a little bit. I think it's maybe $1,100, but still, I mean, with the world we live in with tariffs and all these other uncontrolled expenses happening overnight, um I can understand that. I played it. I I I wanted to reserve any judgment I had until I played it because, you know, that's what logical people do. Um, and it actually it played much better than I anticipated. It's not a Zizzle. It's better than a Zizzle. Should you compare it to a full-size commercial game? Absolutely not. Is it trying to be that? Not really. I think they know their place. It's going to be for, you know, your nontraditional pinball people. it it's interesting to see them come to pinball expo because I remember talking to Jerry the the founder of the you know design and the company and he said you know hardcore pinball people are not our target audience and I was like well hardcore pinball people are the target audience of pinball expo so I think maybe they would have been better suited to go to uh New York Comic-Con which was a week or so ago uh that demographic and that target audience would I think been way more receptive to them but overall um the people that actually played it I think the general consensus that I got from people I talked to were very similar to my own where they were pleasantly surprised. It exceeded their expectations. Um I don't know a whole lot of people that are buying it. So if you're a backer, please let me know what you why you bought it and what you think of it. But overall, I was kind of impressed with um you know how well they able to pull off making a 3/4 scale mechanical pinball machine for a first try and hover around that $1,000 mark. American Pinball was here once again and unfortunately as most people kind of already um understand things are not looking great for American Pinball. They have all but shuttered their doors. They laid off pretty much everybody that was on the pinball side of the business. U last year I took the American Pinball tour. Uh got to see the factory, got to see what they were working on and everything. Um, they announced then that they were the new US distributor of the Polycade Multiade Arcade, which, you know, for most people is not really what they're caring about cuz they wanted to learn more about the pinball side of things. But they've long had a rumored Cuphead game in the works/ ready to go. And unfortunately, it's just not an expo and potentially it's never going to see the light of day. Unfortunately, like I said, they've essentially laid off everybody over there, which is sad because there was a lot of great people working over there. But they had their lineup of games on site and they had a new product. It was Whirlall, which is kind of a a different take on ski ball. Um, that was the new product that they were pushing. No new pinball, just here's our ski ball take for Dave and Bustersesque arcades. So, um, yeah. sad. Sadly, it looks like uh we'll see a you know a headstone for American Pinball very soon. I hate to see it, but that's what happens when you have poor leadership decisions that you know ultimately tank a company and it's it's sad to see. Exploring the show floor, got to see, you know, some interesting things that piqued my interest. Uh there was one manufacturer from overseas that brought some uh HD anti-reflective glass. It was very affordable, $150 a sheet, I think, is what they were selling it for. And they also had their own Black Knight 3000 kind of upgrade kit that they were showing off which uh to that was essentially it was a Black Knight 2000 game but it had been upgraded that had an LCD display with animations and things integrated with the game. So it's kind of a 2.0 kit if you will similar to what Padrei has done but this is from a different manufacturer. Um, also there was a couple of vendors doing different takes on integrated displays inside like the apron area of your pinball machine. Um, very very neat. Is it something your pinball machine needs? No. Is it cool? Yes. So, um, I thought that was a nice a nice thing to see out there. There's also a different company out there integrating Wi-Fi scoring and leaderboards for older games, which is always impressive when you can integrate new technology with older machines. And of course, there's lots of vendors out there selling, you know, ramps, parts, pieces, plastics, boards, you name it, out there. So, you you can go dig through the bins and maybe find some treasures, helping you restore and fix up an old game out there, which is always a nice touch. One thing I did think was interesting that I came across was a vendor that was selling officially licensed Roger Sharp memorabilia t-shirts. Um, it was weird cuz they set up a booth, but there was never anybody at this booth manning it that you actually couldn't buy anything from. And when I say it was officially licensed, I think it was interesting cuz they misspelled the license. It was it's it was such a head scratcher that they were there and not there in general. Um, so that was kind of an odd highlight for me just because it put a smile on my face. But overall, tons and tons of amazing pinball games out there to play. Tons and tons of arcade games to play. Retro video games, collectibles, nostalgia, you name it, it is all covered. So, if you've got time and you're watching this video and you're still around, click out of the video and come to Pinball Expo. You're going to enjoy it. [Music]