Episode 1203: "Pokemon LEs Have Left The Building!"

Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)·podcast_episode·21m 55s·held·Mar 27, 2026

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 (batch) · $0.013

TL;DR

Pokemon LEs ship; Turner Yeti faces 2+ year waits; Stern's output dwarfs boutique makers.

Summary

Kaneda discusses Pokemon LE machines shipping (750 units), praising the game's aesthetic while critiquing Stern's packaging decisions relative to pricing. He explores production capacity issues at Turner Pinball (Yukon Yeti), where customers face 24-28 month wait times, and speculates on upcoming releases including Circus Voltaire remake, Transformers, and Sonic the Hedgehog, warning against purchasing lower-quality new titles when superior used games are available.

Key Claims

All 750 Pokemon LE units have shipped and left Stern's facility
high confidence · Kaneda observing photos and distribution tracking; stated as direct observation
Turner Pinball's production schedule for 500 Yukon Yeti units is 24-28 months or approximately 26 months total
high confidence · Chris Turner directly communicated this to Kaneda on a live chat; Kaneda was present in Facebook communications
Stern can produce all 750 LEs in one week, then 700-800 Premiums and 800 Pros the following week
medium confidence · Kaneda's estimation based on general industry knowledge, not specific confirmation
Pokemon LE orders from New Zealand were canceled due to contractual shipping restrictions preventing Stern from selling games outside the US
high confidence · Kaneda obtained this information directly from Vanessa at Operation Pinball after investigating the incident
Stern caught a major railing/post/orbit issue early in Pokemon production and fixed it before running all LEs
high confidence · Kaneda states this as confirmed: 'Stern caught the major issue with this game...All those have been fixed on all games moving forward'
Pokemon LE shooter rod uses custom handles that affect ball eject power and may require spring adjustment
medium confidence · Kaneda reports hearing this: 'I'm hearing a few things that the shooter rod is a little weak'
Circus Voltaire remake will have approximately 750 unit target with two editions
medium confidence · Kaneda's speculation based on typical Stern/American Pinball strategy; not officially confirmed
Three Musketeers by Hexa Pinball appears AI-created and will not sell well
low confidence · Kaneda's opinion; no factual basis provided

Notable Quotes

“It is Pokemon LE week. I think all 750 have left the building.”
Kaneda @ ~0:00-0:30 — Opens episode with major shipping milestone for Pokemon LE
“One month Stern Pinball's manufacturing power is insane...Stern Pinball could make every single other pinball company's annual allotment in like one month.”
Kaneda @ ~3:30 — Highlights massive manufacturing disparity between Stern and boutique makers
“If you are even at 250, you are not seeing your game until maybe the end of 2027. And I don't think people knew that. And that's an issue. That is a real, real issue.”
Kaneda @ ~12:00 — Core criticism of Turner Pinball's lack of transparency about delivery timelines
“If your game is between one and 50, you can expect your game in 2026. If you're game 50 to 100, you can expect your game Q1 2027.”
Kaneda @ ~14:30 — Proposes specific delivery framework Turner should communicate to customers
“The fact that no pinball companies, especially the small boutiques, have ever done this [contract manufacturing] is beyond me.”
Kaneda @ ~15:30 — Advocates for contract manufacturing solutions to production bottlenecks
“How can you go from Jaws or a Batman 66 or a Harry Potter or a Beetlejuice or an Evil Dead and be like, you know what? I'm gonna put Three Musketeers in my lineup. I just don't know who does that.”
Kaneda @ ~23:00 — Criticizes quality of newer boutique releases versus established titles
“Will Stern make this game the incredible game every owner wants it to be? I do think they need to add in stuff into the Pokédex...evolving the characters. That is so much what Pokémon is about.”
Kaneda @ ~26:00 — Identifies key feature requirements for Pokemon game success: character evolution mechanics
“The plans that they have for this game are going to blow us all away. And we haven't seen anything yet.”

Entities

PokemongameStern PinballcompanyYukon YetigameChris Turnerperson Circus Voltairegame American Pinballcompany Jersey Jack Pinballcompany George Gomezperson

Signals

?
product_launch: All 750 Pokemon LE units have shipped from Stern facility; Premium and Pro tiers following in subsequent weeks
high · Kaneda: 'I think all 750 have left the building. I've seen these games lined up.'
?
manufacturing_signal: Stern's weekly output (750 LE + 700-800 Premium + 800 Pro in sequential weeks) dwarfs any single boutique maker's annual capacity
medium · Kaneda: 'One month Stern Pinball's manufacturing power is insane...could make every single other pinball company's annual allotment in like one month'
$
market_signal: Turner Pinball faces severe production constraints: 24-28 month production schedule for 500 units creates multi-year wait times for customers
high · Kaneda citing Chris Turner's direct communication: 'production schedule...will take them...26 months...over two years to get to number 500'
?
business_signal: Turner Pinball failing to adequately communicate extended delivery timelines to customers during initial sales pitch; customers unaware of 24-28 month waits
high · Kaneda: 'Chris is a nice guy and he says like I've been upfront about this, but not really...if you know your production schedule is that slow, what you need to do...'
?
regulatory_signal: Stern contractually prohibited from shipping Pokemon games outside United States; enforcement resulted in order cancellation for New Zealand customer
high · Kaneda citing Operation Pinball: 'They do not and cannot ship a game from America to New Zealand. It is a contractual thing with Stern.'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.066

0:00

Tonight I'm gonna bury that horse in the ground. I like to keep my issues down. But it's always darkest before the dawn. Shake it up, shake it up! Shake it up, shake it up! Oh, oh! Shake it up, shake it up! Set us, set us, set us, set us up! Welcome everybody! Happy Friday! Welcome to Kaneda's Pinball Podcast. I'm your host Kaneda. We're gonna talk about what's happening in the pinball world. I am looking at photos of Pokemon L.E. It looks so good! It looks so colorful and beautiful. That Pikachu is huge. The ball is big. Everything about this game still to this day, and I mean this, puts a smile on my face. I think Stern Era switchin' down con worship, Max Cberhan, collateralisation for make the TNT go by Clck's Re fence. elver'zzurs. 3 f Unternehmenénergie.com 4 3 2 1 0 2 1 0 1 0 1 partnered with ж impacts rubric Welder All of these are part of the Pinball Podcast. You can tell I'm in a good mood. It's a beautiful day. Thank the Lord we are all here and alive on planet Earth. Every day above ground is a good day. And this hobby has brought so many great people together. As the world is on fire out there and everybody's paying attention to all the negativity, we get to geek out over pinball and that is amazing. And I want to thank our new club members this month. We've got some great new people joining the Kaneda Club. We've got Blueden. We've got Jason at Reno Pinball Underground. Jason, thank you so much for the very, very generous contribution to Kaneda's Pinball Podcast. We got Adam Bortolussi. We got Craig Young back in the house. JB Vincent, which I think is the man who owns American Pinball. Jeff Gordon, Tony Morimoto, Russ Flaman. We've got Pin Jedi. These are all in just the month of March. We've got Birdman, Pinball Conspiracy, Rob Sorin. Thank you guys for joining the Kaneda Club. And look, if you want a shout out, just email me. I'll give anybody a shout out. But here we go. It is Pokemon LE week. I think all 750 have left the building. I've seen these games lined up. I'm not sure if Stern is sending like stickers to put on the numbered games. I've seen some distros have like the Pokemon sticker and then the corresponding character on the box. I don't think people are gonna save these boxes. I want to talk a minute about these Spike 3 white boxes for a minute. I want to talk about something right now. Why is it that the cheapest games that Stern makes, the damn Costco Star Wars games, Get these beautiful boxes that have artwork on the box and we spend $13,000 on a 750 limited edition Pokemon machine and we just get a standard box. You know, and I talked to George about this once and he said, like, Chris, if we do this on the LEs, people are gonna save the boxes and he's not wrong. And it is a weird thing to hold on to, but people would, they would find it special that they had like the Ellie box to the game. I think Stern could do a little bit more. The white is nice though, I won't lie, I like the white, it looks really good. So, Pokemon Ellie is making their way out into the world, 750, and here's the thing, I just want to see more people unbox this game and play it. I want to see more unboxings. There's only like one or two so far, but I think we're gonna see a lot of these things unboxed this weekend. And it's gonna be a really, really fun weekend for a lot of you because it's not just the LEs. The premiums are out the door. It is absolutely incredible. It's like when you think about Stern Pinball, they can make all the LEs in one week. And then the next week they can make like seven to eight hundred premiums and eight hundred pros. It's like this company could make every single other pinball company's annual allotment in like one month. One month Stern Pinball's manufacturing power is insane. And it's fun, right? Because what I love about this is that you get to play the game during the window of hype. And the wait is not that long. And I think that's important, right? It's like you don't want to see a movie trailer and then you can't see the movie for two years. And we're going to talk about this with Turner Pinball because on our chat the other night we had a live. Chris Turner came in and we learned about the actual production schedule of Yukon Yeti, which most people don't know about. And we're going to talk about it. And it's an issue. It's an absolute issue. The amount of time between if you place an order today and when you're going to get your game. So thank the pinball gods that we do have Stern pinball cranking out machines this quickly It is really really exciting And I just want to encourage each and every one of you don please don Don tack on Tacky mods to Pokemon I seen people adding stuff There's a new pokedex thing for 50 bucks here $50 there It just blocks the beauty of the game this game again another game where I don't think it needs Mods if there's any mod maybe the pokeball could light up like it does on the show I wouldn't start tacking stuff onto this game. I wouldn't tack stuff onto Beetlejuice. I wouldn't tack stuff onto Pokemon. It's got enough. It's got enough in it. Just enjoy it and get the game going. Now I'm hearing a few things that the shooter rod is a little weak, that you might need to change the spring. Something about when Stern makes these custom LE shooter rod handles that I think it changes The ball eject power in the game as well might need an adjustment. But look, Stern caught the major issue with this game, which was that railing by the post and the orbit. All those have been fixed on all games moving forward. We should all be thankful that they didn't run all the L.E.'s first with that issue. That would have been really, really annoying. I think it is smart to do what they're doing, get the pros out first, get them on location, get people playing, and then get the LE guys their game immediately after catching any issues you might catch early on on those operated games. Smart move. All right, so, Pokemon LE, can't wait to get it. Let's talk about Turner. On the other front, it's like if you placed an order today, let's just say hypothetically you placed an order for Yukon Yeti today and he sold 250, sold through, they haven't sold All the customers, yet all those 250. But here's the issue. When he announced this game, all dealers and distros were communicating, place your order today. And they said in their communications, and I was there, I saw it all on Facebook, I saw all of the promotional materials, if you will, for you, Konietti. Everybody would just put, it's arriving this summer. Okay, so production starts this summer. Okay. But what they didn't tell you was this, is that the production schedule for Turner Pinball To make all 500 games, Chris has told us that that will take them, I think it's something like 24 to 28 months or 26 months. It is over two years to get to number 500. So if you are even at 250, you are not seeing your game until maybe the end of 2027. And I don't think people knew that. And that's an issue. That is a real, real issue. Chris is a nice guy and he says like I've been upfront about this but not really not really because if you know your production schedule is that slow what you need to do I would do if I were him is I would only take the orders for that year that I could make okay so if we can only make 250 games in one year I don't want to take deposits which are non-refundable Listen to and add your name for free at play-cos Rec. 220-158-ync.com . Thank you for watching, see you guys next time.

9:15

And so when the first 250 get made, I guarantee you, you will be able to buy one of those games for less than $10,000 and you won't have to wait a year. The code's not done. It's not going to be done for like a year like every single game out there in the world, especially the boutique code. And so why? It just doesn't make any sense. And it does beg the question, if you can't make at least 500 games a year, you need to figure out a soft. And look, they are figuring out a bigger manufacturing facility, but even then he said the new facility is going to be somewhere in the vicinity of 16 months to 22 months to build 500 games. So none of it is fast. And again, all I'm saying to each and every one of you is you got to be willing to go on that ride. And I was talking to people on my chat who were going to order the game or did order the game and had no idea that the wait was that long. And so what I think Chris needs to do is this. It's simply this is like if your game between one and 50, you can expect your game in 2026. If you're a game 50 to 100, you can expect your game Q1 2027. I think he needs something like that. And that's it. That's it. Like, again, he's being transparent. He's not hoodwinking anyone. Everyone's going to get a game. I would have confidence. I don't think they're going out of business. I think everyone will get a game, but that's a really long wait. And I do think that Chris Turner needs to figure out something. If I were him, man, it's like I would explore contract manufacturing a little bit, maybe. Like American Pinball has got six lines Like they can make a lot of games Look Rick is taking his games to Brian over at American Pinball and they going to run them So I don know Maybe if Chris Turner went to American Pinball and said, hey, can you run 500 Yukon Yetis, I bet they would say yes. Why wouldn't they? It's just sending the parts there. I've always said it. The fact that no pinball companies, especially the small boutiques, have ever So, what else is going on in the pinball world? Did you see this drama with this dude who ordered this game? Did you see this drama of this dude who had his Pokemon LE order canceled? Now, before I found out all the facts, I was sort of on the side of the consumer on this one, but I reached out to Operation Pinball, to Vanessa, and I just asked them, like, what happened here? So apparently, here's what happened. This guy orders a Pokemon LE from New Zealand. They do not and cannot ship a game from America to New Zealand. It is a contractual thing with Stern. They need to sell their games in the United States. Okay, so then this guy says, okay, well my mom will buy the game in the state of Washington and puts her on the order for the game and then this guy posts an ad on Pinside where he wants to trade his Pokemon LE spot for a k And now, it's time for the next big move in pinball. Let's talk about it. What do we think the next really big move in pinball is going to be? We've got Pokemon, and now what? We're not going to get the next Stern Transformers until June, July. I think that's when we're going to get Sonic the Hedgehog. Those might be the next big moves. We're also going to get Circus Voltaire. I think that's going to come out before we see the next big moves from Stern and Jersey Jack. So do we think Circus Voltaire? Let's talk about this game. So this game is going to have two additions. I don't know the price. I think it's going to probably be around like $12,000. Everything is like $10,000 to $12,000. We're going to have, I think, probably two art packages, maybe the original and then maybe the Brian Allen version of the game. I'm not sure if the screen is going to be below the glass like the original. I need to ask Brian. Brian, you're listening right now. Just text me today if the screen on Circus Voltaire is going to be below the glass or if it's going to be moved above. I would love to know how it's going to be. I'm guessing if they're doing like a remastered code and adding more code that it might be above the glass. But that would really ruin the fun of that screen below the glass, which is such an iconic place to put it in Circus Voltaire. I will report what Brian says on tomorrow's Saturday Morning Spectacular. I think Brian has intentions of selling 750 of these. Now, this is going to be interesting because Funhaus didn't sell, but Circus Voltaire, I would argue, much better game than Funhaus. A better shooter. It's more beautiful. And there's a lot of newbies in this hobby. There are a lot of newbies in this hobby and trust me, you can't go find like a mint condition Circus Voltaire for cheap. So if they do this game justice and it looks gorgeous and it's stunning and it's got code that makes the game have better replay value, I think people are gonna warm up to this game. I really do. It's Circus Voltaire. And I think people have more faith in the quality over at All of these are going to be made by American Pinball. Then they do over at Pedretti Gaming, who's going to be making Toten and Theater of Magic. If I'm Brian, I'm like, Rick, really Rick? Come on, Rick, read the room, man. Those guys made Funhaus and it flopped. And one of the big reasons it flopped is the quality wasn't there. And so let's do it and do it right. Because I would love to have Toten being made by either CGC or American and not Pedretti. And I think those games are going to sell. I do. I think the Papa Duke Bally Williams classics will always be able to sell at least 500, maybe a little bit more if they're done right. So we shall see. And also the price matters. The price does matter. Like these games are not cheap. And I think a lot of people are probably looking at their pinball checking account and being like, oh man, what happened here? I used to buy three Stern OEs and it was like 18 grand Now I buy three CEs and it Think about that for a minute We used to get three Stern OEs many Mazd I'm waiting for that. I think that could be the next big move in pinball. It's funny to say the next big move could be the Pokemon topper. So Circus Voltaire, that might be the next big release. Who else has got something coming out? The Three Musketeers by Hexa Pinball. I don't think anyone's buying that. I'm just going to be honest, like the whole thing looks AI created and you're just not going to sell. I do think you got to kind of have your head examined. If you're going to buy some of these new games are just not good. Like they're just not better than what else is out there for the same money. And now there are like thousands of great used games for sale that are amazing. Like Jaws is always going to be amazing. Godzilla is always going to be amazing. And if you're new to pinball, who's going to buy three Musketeers? And how can you go from like a Jaws or a Batman 66 or a Harry Potter or a Beetlejuice or an Evil Dead? How can you go from those games and be like, you know what? But I'm gonna put Three Musketeers in my lineup. I just don't know who does that. Like I can see content creators doing that maybe just to get content. I can see operators buying one to have a different game and people might wanna jump on it out of curiosity, but to buy it is just a head scratcher to me. And speaking of like head scratching, where's this Resident Evil game? These guys were hitting me up. They're like, it's coming out. It's gonna be out Q1. Well, Q1 is over. Where is it? We're now into spring. I haven't seen anything. I don't know guys. And I know they're members of the Kaneda Club. Like they're listening to this. I would love to see this game. It's coming from the pinball company in Sweden. I think it's called like the pinball company, something very basic like that. But where is it? I mean, now's a good time. Now is a great time to release a new game. If you've got something to release, now is the time to release it. You've got a little bit of a window. You don't want to release it when Stern or JJP's got a new game. It's time to like announce these games or get off the pod, right? We know it's coming. We know it's coming. So where is it? So everybody look, I think we're at this little bit of a calm before the next storm hits in pinball. It's going to be fun. Pokemon, man, it's all going to be about Pokemon and where Stern takes the code. That is going to be, I think, one of the most looked at and observed things in pinball this year is will Stern make this game the incredible game every owner wants it to be? I do think they need to add in stuff into the Pokédex. The Pokédex needs to be awesome with Insider Connected. And I do think they need to add evolving the characters. That is so much what Pokémon is about is like you battle your character and they evolve. If you don't have that in there, that's a huge, huge miss in terms of what people love about Pokémon. So we shall see. I know they have a lot of plans. I know the Pokemon Company isn't easy to work with. But I also know the Pokemon Company, from what I've heard from Jack and George, is they are really, really excited about making this game incredible. And the plans that they have for this game are going to blow us all away. And we haven't seen anything yet. That is awesome. I am excited. Happy Friday, everybody. Thank you for the support. I really do love that each and every one of you give me a creative outlet every single week. It's a fun week to have fun with and celebrate this geek hobby of ours. It makes us so much cooler than all the finance bros. I can't tell you how many times I'm at a bar and the finance bros, they have nothing to talk about. Nothing. It's incredible. It's either like their sports betting or they're talking about the markets. I want to talk about Circus Voltaire baby, and whether or not the screen is under the glass. That's what the cool kids talk about. Kaneda out.