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Kaneda's Sunday Morning Service! May 11

Kaneda Pinball Podcasts YouTube Lives·video·43m 15s·analyzed·May 12, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.039

TL;DR

Kaneda criticizes Stern's King Kong failure and collector-hostile practices while previewing Pokemon Pinball Q1 2026.

Summary

Kaneda discusses Stern Pinball's declining market position relative to boutique competitors like Spooky and Barrels of Fun, citing King Kong's poor sales (932 LEs unsold), quality issues, and excessive pricing/topper costs as damaging collector confidence. He reveals Pokemon Pinball is coming Q1 2026 designed by Jack Danger, discusses Evil Dead's superior execution compared to King Kong, and speculates on upcoming Stern titles including potential Star Wars Episodes 1-3. He also critiques the pinball community's interpersonal drama while offering personal reflections on family priorities over collecting.

Key Claims

  • Pokemon Pinball is coming Q1 2026 (February 2026) designed by Jack Danger

    high confidence · Kaneda states explicitly: 'Pokémon is coming first quarter 2026. So it's like their February 2026 game. Jack Danger is doing that.'

  • King Kong LE sales are failing with 932 LEs still unsold

    high confidence · Kaneda: 'they still can't sell 932 LEs. That's embarrassing.'

  • Evil Dead has only 888 units total production, making it more collectible than King Kong

    high confidence · Kaneda: 'You buy an Evil Dead, there's only 888 that will ever be out there. Forever.'

  • Stern's King Kong LE production massively exceeds Premium/Pro tiers, diluting exclusivity

    high confidence · Kaneda: 'You buy a King Kong, there are more LEs of King Kong than there are thousands of Premiums.'

  • King Kong's subway car mechanic doesn't function properly - balls exit the back instead of front

    high confidence · Kaneda: 'King Kong's got a subway car that doesn't even work, right? Like, Kong's supposed to hit the subway car up and the balls are supposed to go out the front, right? No, the balls are popping out the back.'

  • Collectors are the most important audience for Stern Pinball's survival, not operators or tournament players

    medium confidence · Kaneda opinion: 'collectors are the most important audience in all of pinball. The home buyer, collector is the most important audience to keep Stern Pinball going.'

  • Stern has suffered significant brand damage from $2,000+ toppers, LE price drops of $3-4k, and $20k James Bond pricing

    medium confidence · Kaneda: 'Stuff like $2,000 toppers has done to people. Stuff like LEs all losing three to four grand.'

  • Dune will be a slow burn game that ultimately proves more interesting to own than King Kong

    medium confidence · Kaneda: 'I think Dune slow burn—going to be a slow burn... I think it's going to be more interesting to own a Dune than a King Kong.'

Notable Quotes

  • “collectors are the most important audience in all of pinball. The home buyer, collector is the most important audience to keep Stern Pinball going.”

    Kaneda @ ~10:30 — Core thesis about market dynamics: Stern's future depends on collector confidence, not operator/tournament markets

  • “The jig is up on Stern's lazy corner-cutting approach to King Kong. It's just over. It's over.”

    Kaneda @ ~9:45 — Direct assessment of King Kong's failure; signals broader loss of faith in Stern's design/QA approach

  • “Evil Dead is much more of an occasion than King Kong is. Evil Dead is so beautiful, looks better, it's got way more mechs in it.”

    Kaneda @ ~9:20 — Head-to-head comparison positioning Spooky as superior to Stern on current releases

  • “You don't just win back people. Damage to a brand lasts a long time. And what Stern doesn't realize is the humongous damage to their brand.”

    Kaneda @ ~11:15 — Assessment of Stern's brand equity deterioration from collector-hostile practices

  • “If you really want to get LE FOMO back... King Kong LE, we're only making 250 of them... the Premium. Get it back instantly.”

    Kaneda @ ~25:45 — Marketing advice: limiting LE production to restore FOMO; signals Stern's mistakes in production strategy

  • “Pokémon is coming first quarter 2026. So it's like their February 2026 game. Jack Danger is doing that.”

    Kaneda @ ~53:00 — Official confirmation of Pokemon Pinball timeline and designer from inside knowledge

  • “I think Evil Dead is the beginning of a new period in Spooky Pinball. I think a lot of collectors... are going to buy games from [Spooky] rather than Stern.”

    Kaneda @ ~17:30 — Prediction of major market shift from Stern to Spooky for collector base

  • “they're going to make thousands of Pros, and they all look the same. Congrats, you're part of a club that nobody feels is special.”

Entities

Stern PinballcompanyKing KonggameEvil DeadgameSpooky PinballcompanyPokemon PinballgameJack DangerpersonDunegame

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: King Kong LE sales failing significantly (932 units unsold) despite heavy influencer promotion, signaling market saturation and collector confidence collapse

    high · Kaneda: '932 LEs unsold' and 'they still can't sell 932 LEs. That's embarrassing' despite multi-creator content push

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Evil Dead (888 units) positioned as more collectible and desirable than King Kong due to production scarcity and superior execution

    high · Kaneda: 'Evil Dead is the game I would buy to collect... Evil Dead is the beginning of a new period in Spooky Pinball'

  • $

    market_signal: Barrels of Fun has unannounced dream-theme games positioned to sell out immediately; Kaneda plans to buy both for personal collection

    medium · Kaneda: 'I know what themes Barrels of Fun has in the hopper. Those games are gonna sell out day one... I'm literally going to buy both and not buy them to scalp or flip'

  • $

    market_signal: Influencer marketing ineffectiveness: heavy post-launch promotion (10k+ views) fails to move 932 King Kong LEs, indicating marketing timing/strategy problems

    high · Kaneda: 'watch these guys hawk King Kong LEs—ten thousand views—and they still can't sell 932 LEs'

  • ?

    community_signal: Christopher Franchi established at Spooky Pinball; speculation on his design role with dream themes (Goonies, Beetlejuice, Gremlins)

    medium · Kaneda: 'What happens when you give Christopher Franchi Goonies or Beetlejuice or Gremlins?'

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

0:05
All right, we are live. We are live. The sun is coming in. We're a little late. We're a little late to our own party, but you know, I had to get um get some stuff together. It's uh it's Cassian's birthday. Let me I need to go get my glasses. The glare. Hold on. All right. Guns and Roses is still in the house. We got one dude here. Happy Mother's Day. Which way? Two
1:09
Anthony. All right. Oh, man. Hold on. Having problems today. We're going to go forward with it. There we go. All right. There we go. That's better.
1:26
Barcelona. Let's share this with everybody. We're gonna be an hour show today because uh a little bit over an hour, but not hour and a half because I um I've got to get ready for uh Cassian's party today. We're doing a nice little get together, small group. Um but it's always a good time to celebrate one year on this planet with little Cassian. He's going to be one years old on Tuesday. Oh, let's do this. We're
2:17
live. Is that it? I think so. All right, let's see who joins this party today. It is Mother's Day, so I hope all of you have called your mothers. I want to wish a happy Mother's Day to all the mamas out there. Retro Jango's in the house. T-ball was a T-ball is just an exercise impatience like they're they're just going every which way the kids like nobody knows what's going on. H gosh, my mom is coming over today. Got together yesterday with uh all all three siblings. Had an amazing um reconciliation recently with my older brother, which has been absolutely more valuable to me than any anything else going on in my world right now other than my little baby. Um, but man, when stuff gets put in perspective in life, you just sort of like I don't know, man. It's easy to just kind of relegate these things to what they are. Damn toys, people. They're toys. They're not changing lives. Um, all right. Here's here's the

  • Star Wars Episodes 1-3 by John Borg is likely coming in August

    medium confidence · Kaneda: 'most likely Star Wars Episode One through Three coming from John Borg sometime in August.'

  • Back to the Future pinball is coming sometime in 2027

    medium confidence · Kaneda: 'So we've got Back to the Future coming out sometime in 2027.'

    • Kaneda @ ~12:00 — Critique of lack of differentiation in Stern's three-tier strategy; exclusivity dilution

  • “Stern doesn't have them [dream themes]. Stern made John Wick. Stern made Venom... Barrels of Fun has themes in the hopper... they're gonna sell out day one.”

    Kaneda @ ~21:00 — Bullish prediction on Barrels of Fun based on unannounced theme IP

  • “I'm so excited to see it [Harry Potter]. I heard that it has nothing significantly more than what we've seen from the last four titles from Jersey Jack. But I also heard it's amazing and loaded.”

    Kaneda @ ~54:30 — Mixed rumors about Harry Potter feature set; notes difficulty assessing early-play enthusiasm bias

    • Barrels of Fun
    company
    Star Wars Episodes 1-3game
    Back to the Futuregame
    Alice's Adventures in Wonderlandgame
    Predatorgame
    Harry Pottergame
    Retro Ralphperson
    Carrie Hardyperson
    Christopher Franchiperson
    John Borgperson
    Iceman44person
    Neil McCraeperson
    George Gomezperson
    Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
    Dutch Pinballcompany
    Pinball Brotherscompany
    Cassianperson
    Brendaperson
    $

    market_signal: Excessive LE/Premium pricing and add-on costs ($2,000+ toppers, $13k total with accessories) perceived as unsustainable and collector-hostile

    high · Kaneda: 'Stern Premium and buy the topper and buy the accessories... a Stern Premium is like twelve to thirteen grand'

  • ?

    announcement: Pokemon Pinball officially coming Q1 2026 (February) designed by Jack Danger; exclusive insider information

    high · Kaneda: 'Pokémon is coming first quarter 2026. So it's like their February 2026 game. Jack Danger is doing that.'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Back to the Future (Dutch Pinball) significantly delayed; Kaneda skeptical about 2027 timeline given production pace and European vacation schedules

    medium · Kaneda criticizes Dutch Pinball's production speed: 'ten a week, fifty-two weeks in a year, not starting until May, eighty-nine bank holidays, take entire month of August off'

  • ?

    product_concern: King Kong playfield mechanical failures documented (non-functional subway car mechanic) indicating inadequate play-testing

    high · Kaneda: 'It's like they didn't even test this thing' regarding subway car balls exiting back instead of front

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Conflicting early reports on Harry Potter feature depth; Kaneda notes difficulty distinguishing genuine content from new-game enthusiasm bias

    medium · Kaneda: 'I heard that it has nothing significantly more... I also heard it's amazing and loaded... it's really easy to start rumors either way'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Major shift in collector preference from Stern to boutique manufacturers (Spooky, Barrels) due to perceived design/value degradation

    high · Kaneda: 'I think this is the new beginning of a shift of which companies collectors will look to buy games from. And I don't think it will be Stern anymore.'

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern's over-production of LE tiers destroying FOMO and exclusivity; King Kong LE production exceeds Premium/Pro volumes

    high · Kaneda: 'You buy a King Kong, there are more LEs of King Kong than there are thousands of Premiums'

    • 3:29
    thing. I um first I want to let everybody know that I have some information on Pokemon from Stern Pinball. It is coming. It is Pokemon. Um, it is not next. It is most likely Jack Dangerous title, but I have some information on what Stern is planning around that game. Uh, you will get that. You will get that on Patreon on a podcast probably tomorrow. So, you're going to get it exclusively. I'm not doing an exclusive unboxing like Carrie Hardy. I mean, I love Carrie, but he's spamming us lately like with these like exclusive King Kong Li videos, but dude, like nothing's really exclusive. Like the game's out there. Everyone's got it. Like, here's what it looks like without the side armor. Exclusive. Here's what it looks like if I lift the playfield. Exclusive. Here's what it looks like if I do a handstand next to my game.
    4:23
    Exclusive. Um, I don't know, man. I feel like Pokemon is isn't it's not it's in my like realm of obviously of Japanese stuff as I wear Morakami's LA Dodger. What's up, babe? Oh, okay. Hold on. Go. Oh, Brenda. Brenda, you caught a sexy Brenda walking by. Um, yeah. So, I you know, I talked to Retro Ralph last night and he's got Kong Elli and Evil Dead. And guess which game? He was just like, "This is the one Gan Canada." I don't know if he's going to be comfortable with me saying this, but he's like, "Evil Dead, man." He's like, "This game." It's just true. It's just such It's so much more right now out of the box, Evil Dead is much more of an occasion than King Kong is. And I think everyone's realizing that. It's just it's just a much better overall game. And the jig is up on Stern's lazy corner cutting approach to King Kong. I'm sorry, but like it's just it is what it is. Like there's you you you have three games that all look the same. All the art's the same. The Ellie Ellie Trim stuff is uninspired. The code is not there. The game is like a jumbled mess right now. And then you walk over to Evil Dead and it's so beautiful. Looks better. It's got way more mechs in it. Way more toys. It's every The details are all better in it. I mean, King Kong's got a subway car that doesn't even work, right? Like it Kong's supposed to like hit the subway car up and the balls are supposed to go out the front, right? No, the balls are popping out the back. It's like they did they even test this thing? And you know, you buy an Evil Dead, there's only 888 that will ever be out there. Only forever. You buy a King Kong, there's there are more Ellies of King Kong and then there's thousands of premiums they're going to make and thousands of pros and they all look the same and congrats, you're part of a club that nobody feels is special. So, it's just it's just over. It's over. It's over. The sales are the sales are bad. the game is not there and I think the Elwin army tried its hardest to convince us otherwise and I think they've been silenced because in the end I think everyone's realizing the truth about this entire hobby is that collectors are the most important audience in all of pinball. The home buyer collector is the most important audience to keep stern pinball going. It's not operators. It's not tournament players who want to win $23 in a translate after 3 hours of their lives. It's home buyers. And what we're witnessing now is home buyers all waking up and flexing their power that they don't feel like they want to support anymore the approach of a mass market product that has turned its back on collectors. And when once you lose that enthusiasm, you it's hard to get it back. You don't just win back people. You know, damage to a brand lasts a long time. And what Stern doesn't realize is the humongous damage to their brand. Stuff like $2,000 toppers has done to people. Stuff like Ellie's all losing 3 to4,000. Stuff like James Bond 60th being greedily priced at 20 grand. Stuff like walking away from Back to the Future. All all these things collectively add up to a company that has seemingly hit its peak and is significantly on the decline in terms of making the right moves as an organization to keep those home buyers happy. And it's not to say that the games aren't still fun. It's not to say that, you know, you're going to enjoy flipping them, but they just don't feel like $10,000 or more products. And and gang, like you got to remember when you get a Stern Premium and buy the topper and buy the accessories and buy everything that would come from a boutique on day one, if you buy everything, a Stern premium is like 12 to $13,000. So like, you got to remember that. Like we're not idiots. We're not I don't want that. Who wants that? So with the limited run of Alice, this will be collectible instantly. Alice is more collectible um than any Stern because of the small amount of of games being made. Look, I talked to someone who went to Coin Taker, played Alice, Dune, King Kong. They walked they they called me up, objective person, they're not in on any of these games. They said, "Chris, hands down, Alice is one of the most beautiful games ever." He and people that were there were just blown away by like just the stunning nature of the game. And so really positive. I mean Alice is successful in what Alice has set out to do. You got to remember Alice wanted to make a working version of a foam core game and make it beautiful and they they succeeded in that. It's a it's a stunning game to stand over. Is it as good as the other games? No. Is it have the code? No. Is but is it is that what it's meant to be? No. I think everyone who buys an Alice knows um exactly what they're getting into. Now, the reason why I don't think Alice's are going to go like up in value, but I also don't think they're going to like lose three to four, I I think is it's just the game is not great enough. It it but it's it's So, you know what I'm saying? So, I think people who own it will lose like a grand to,500, but they're not going to lose 4,000 on them. Um maybe though. Maybe. Right. I don't know. Right. There's so much stuff out there. I I just don't think Alice is like uh ever going to be hard to get. I think so. When something's not hard to get, then you know, you really chip away at its collectibility, especially in pinball, right? Remember, you can call something a collector's edition or limited edition. That does not make it collectible. Like, right now, I think Evil Dead is the game I would buy to collect. I don't think Evil Deads are going to go up for sale very often. I think Evil Dead is the beginning of a new period in spooky pinball. And I think a lot of collectors, if you think about it, people like to collect certain brands. Like people have been collecting Sterns for the longest time. I think the Stern collectors are the ones that are scratching their heads right now. Because if you're a Stern collector and you bought all these Stern LE over the last three to four years, three to four years, if you bought them all, you you got destroyed. You got destroyed. Now, if you bought Stern LE's from circa 2014 to 2020, you love life. Every Ellie you bought went up in value. Some doubled in value. You know what I'm saying? So Stern had this entire collector community where every buy they made between 2014 and 2020, six years, a six, sevenyear run of absolutely every LE like hit. And the last four years if you stayed a stern collector, you got decimated. Who did that? Did they did it to themselves? And and now the opposite, right? If you collected spooky pinball machines at the beginning, you lost money on everyone there. No, they're not desirable. Things have changed. I think this is the new beginning of a shift of which companies collectors will look to to buy games from. And I don't think it will be stern anymore. I know what themes barrels of fun has in the hopper. Those games are gonna sell out day one. Day one. I I can't wait for you guys to to hear what they have. Like, they're gonna I'm literally going to buy both and not buy them the scalp or flip. Buy them to keep for life. Dream themes for Canada. Dream themes. Stern doesn't have them. Stern made John Wick. Stern made Venom. Stern made D and D. Stern made, you know, go down a list of all these games. Stern made Venom. Did I say Venom already? I, you know, King Kong with no
    13:20
    assets, you know, and and we're about to see gang. I mean, you you look at Evil Dead and you start to think, what what happens when these guys do Beetlejuice? What happens when you give Christopher Franchie Goonies or Beetlejuice or Gremlins? You give Mr. Ranchie, you give Bug, you give Luke, you give that team, you give Ben Hec, you give Hilton, you give Miguel Jones, it's the same person. You give that team of people over there now that is so passionate about pinball and you give them dream themes and they sell out in an hour. Like, they're already sold out. Beetlejuice is already sold out. If you're not on a list for a Beetlejuice, you're not getting one. Canada doesn't have to be on anybody's lists. I cut every list. I love it when people get mad. How why do you get one? Because I made
    14:11
    1,89. I'm adding too many there. I made 1,090 podcast about pinball over the last 12 years. What did you do, Chico? Nothing. You just went on Pinside and you displayed to the world your alcoholic tendencies. The best part about Pinside right now is watching Neil McCrae and Iceman Mr. Doug Mo Jr. fight it out. I've never seen a better battle in the history of Pinside. Watching Iceman versus Neil McCrae. You guys got to go check that out. Now Neil's got way more money than Iceman. Like way more. Like I don't pretend to have Iceman money, but Iceman, man, he's like, you know, that money matters. He's it's it's his flex. But man, Neil Neil runs circles around him. I'm on I'm of course I'm on team Neil because for some reason every time uh every time Iceman mentions my name he's got to say such disparaging things. I have no ill will towards Doug Mo Jr. or Neil McCrae. It's just funny watching two grown men with money just fight over pinball. Like literally I'm too busy owning one machine um having uh having intimate relations with a beautiful Irish beauty queen Brenda. Yeah, I'd rather have that than fight with these guys on pin side. I think I think everyone needs to get some more action, you know, if you know what I mean. Chill chills them out. I'm not doxing Iceman. It's his name. What do you mean doxing Iceman? Everyone knows his name is Doug. It's not a secret. That's not a Is that doxing someone? Is that doxing someone just saying who their name is? No. Doxing someone is here's his home address. Here's where he works. Here's his boss's email. Come on, that's not doxing someone. Get the hell out of here with that. I know what the line is. Believe me, no one's I've been the victim of being doxed multiple times, people. So, don't don't tell me what doxing is. Find out his last name. Everybody knows who he is. Geez. It's not It's not illegal to tell someone's full name. That's not doxing. Now, would you guys agree? Yes or no? If you say someone's full name, that's doxing.
    16:29
    Ridiculous. Ridiculous. I know most of your full names. If if I if I if I say them out loud, that's that that means what? All right. So, here's the deal with Dune. Here's the deal with Dune. Um I also heard from my guy that went over there. I heard that um Dune is um is showing really well. You said the flippers were strong. I I think people are looking at Dune now. You know, every week you get more and more uh curious about it because the reality that it is Dune is now a reality. And that sort of Yeah, I will say like theme disappointment wears off. It just wears off and then you start to be like, "All right, well, it's not so bad. Looks like a lot of theme integration going on. Looks like they got the actors from the movie to have their voices synced up with the clips. That's pretty cool. Oh, the music is amazing. This is a This is a soundtrack for a, you know, a billion-dollar franchise. That's the game sounds incredible. The mech looks incredible. The overall game when you stand over it looks really nice. I mean, they have their own version of Radcow's really looks good. Um, so it's it's um it's I I think Dune slow burn going to be a slow burn. I I don't know if they're going to sell all thousand. I think when they get all the clips in and people actually start playing it. I Here's here's here's my take on Dune. I think it's going to be more interesting to own a Dune than a King Kong. I I mean that for you pinball people out there. I just think you'll have more fun on something unique and new versus more of the same from Stern. And I think again I just feel that's the vibe is I just you know I think I I feel the same way about Evil Dead. It's like if everybody's just been hyping and shilling this company's games and it you have you noticed the amount of like arcade oneup guys now making pinball content? That was their strategy. And I'm not talking about Retro Ralph. There's another guy like Cool Toys or something. Cool Toy guy. And it's like they get the views, but like they don't nearly get the views they had when they were doing like Arcade OneUps. I mean, Arcade OneUp audience was like 70,000 people. You do something pinball related, you get like 5 to 10 grand in terms of views. But the but that's what's crazy to me is I watch these guys like Hawk and King Kongs 10,000 views and they still can't sell
    19:21
    932LE's. That's that's embarrassing. Like right it's like it just goes to show you like the real marketing you need to do is not post launch. The real marketing you need to do is before launch. Because if you get all the marketing decisions right before launch, then you don't have to worry about marketing the game after you launch it because you've done all the hard work and you made all the right decisions and the game would sell out. You know, Kong was easy. Kong was an easy decision. It should have only been 500 units for the LE and they would have sold them all and and everybody would be looking at them just a little bit differently. I still think Stern is just like they they they can't walk it back. They they made bad marketing decisions and they just can't walk them back and they just keep doing the same thing every launch and it's old. It's stale and it's boring and I hope the new CMO shakes stuff up. I if I were s you know what I would do? Can I can I tell you what I would do? Canada here only been doing marketing for 24 years. Here's what I would do. It's the easiest thing to do if you really want to get Ellie Fomo back. You know what I would have done? King Kong Ellie, we're only making 250 of them. We just we just decided this is a really, you know, really uh unique game and we only want to make 250 LE's. We know that we've been over supplying and we just want to, you know, we want to cut it. If you're not happy with that, here's the premium. Get it back
    21:09
    instantly. Guys, uh do me a favor. Let let's not just talk about Doug or Neil, okay? Like, everyone's going through something in life, man. Everyone has their own outlets. Everyone finds their own quantum of solace. I am not one to uh throw stones at people who have a few drinks and post and rant and rave. Uh, alcohol will make people do that. You know, I I am I am of a as someone who does like make mistakes in my own life. I think everyone is far too critical of people's behavior, especially when they um look, no one's getting hurt. And that's my point. Like, if you want to get wasted and argue with other out of shape white men around the world about pinball, that's your prerogative. As long as you don't get in a car, right? As long as you don't hurt yourself, someone else, your family, get abusive with your wife, you know, you got drunk, you're a dude, and you it's your outlet. Like, he might be dealing with stuff. And nobody knows what people are dealing with. And I do encourage people out there to, you know, have a little bit less um fatalistic views on people. Everyone's got their vices. Everyone has to find an outlet. And you know, as someone who's been um indicted and cancelled by some people for throwing a drink in someone's face once, like whatever, like I I I don't wi I wish I didn't do that, but I was in a moment and I it wasn't, you know, I wasn't like a victim, but it was also wasn't unprovoked either. Like, so, but again, like there are people that won't forgive me for that. That was seven years ago. seven years ago. Since then, I've been married, I have kids, I have this, I bought a house, I like bought other cars, like I've made another 700 shows about pinball. Nope. I'm still booed by these people. So, it is what it is. But I'm not going to, again, I'm not going to pretend I know any of these people. And neither should you. That's my my request of everybody here. You don't know these people. You don't. And money doesn't make the man. You know, a lot of these people have so much money and and I think they just don't know what to do with it. They're bored. These things don't fill the void, these pinball machines. Alcohol is fun, you know? Like, here's the thing about alcohol. Real simple. In your 20s, it's it's really fun. In your 30s and 40s, it's like fun, but it's a problem. It's not, you know, and then when you're like in your 50s and older, like, and you keep drinking a lot, like then it's just a problem. It's not fun anymore. And it's hard to find the balance because when you once you have money, that's the problem with all of it. You just you just no one can tell you no. Like you have time, you have money, and you're bored because there is not much else to do. Especially if your kids are grown. I don't have that. My kids are just beginning. So, I have another 15 16 years of of of being a dad. So, I'm I'm not looking to get crazy drunk more than one night a week. Um, all right. So, the thing is this. Here's here's the thing. Let's talk about Star Wars episodes 1 through three. Let's talk about whether or not we think Star Wars episode 1 through three could be a hit if John Borg does it. And is it that is it a Darth Vader pin? Is it skeleton crew? Out of all those, I want to just say that I 100% think a Star Wars episode 1 through three will be a a smash hit for Stern. If if done right with that Duel of Fates music and the theme song, it it will they did not do they all they did was the first movie, right? Didn't they just do Phantom Menace was the Pinball 2000 game? I think we're going to see um I think we're going to see something special. I think Pod Racing. I think you got the you know the Darth Maul. You're going to have Yoda jumping around. You're going to have Millennium um is Millennium Falcon in it? No. No. Falcon appears in New Hope. Um Wad. Yeah. I don't know. I think um I think it all you need is
    25:59
    a you know and then you've got like 8,000 games sold. Um so I I don't know. I think um you know if Stern's got Star Wars and Pokemon, man, I mean those are those are the pretty much like two of the biggest IPs in the world. Star Wars is um you know I I will say episode one through three is kind of being looked at now a lot differently because of the annoyance of all these Star Wars TV shows. I think we look back on the movies very fondly now and we kind of are forgiving of a lot of uh the mistakes of those films because I I will say this. I remember seeing Attack of the Clones at the Ziggfield Theater for a special invite from Lucas and Disney. Um, and I remember when Yoda pulled out his lightsaber, the entire theater went crazy standing up, clapping, screaming. I haven't seen a theater erupt like that. And even when the theme song hit, like people they it was an occasion. There were no reserved seats back then. Like you waited online with all the fans. That's like going to translate really well if they do it right. So I'm uh Yeah, it's going to be Gary Sturr doing the Jar Jar voice like Misa making 10,000 Eliza. So we you know that's like Gary at like the meeting with Seth. Misa, you know, I don't know. And then and then like like Seth is like w I I don't know. I don't know.
    27:50
    Gary, we need more galactic credits than that. Somehow you knew. Somehow you knew 932 King Kong lees would not sell out. Somehow you knew and bigger doo doo ja.
    28:08
    I love that guy like the leader of the the [Music] Gungan. Um, yeah, I'd buy it. I'd buy that for five bucks. Um, I don't know, man. Like, Predator, I think the consensus is Star Wars done right will sell. They're not going to do a Darth Vader machine. Like, just think about that. How do you do a Darth Vader machine? Well, it doesn't make any sense. They're not going to give you an all original. Say hi, Brenda. An all original. We saw you Brenda. We saw you walking right by your man. Show your men no respect. You see this? You see what I put up with? It's Mother's Day. It's the mama mama of the year. Yesterday, in the middle of the day, it was 11:45. I said, Brenda was busy planning this whole day, doing all this stuff. Uhoh. Uhoh. Uh oh. Killing, come over here. What do you got? Hold it up. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Come here. Don't hit the mic. Over here. What do you got? This guy. Who's that guy? I can't see you. Who is he? Um, he's Stormy. Stormb. Yeah. Stormy. Stormy.
    29:36
    I think I think that's BB-8. Can you say BB-8? BB8. Come on, Darth Vader. You got to Are you going to put on your Darth Vader costume? Go get Go get your costume on. Well, we're having a Star Wars themed party here. Uh because Cassian is named after Cassie Andor. Um the leader of the rebellion. I love that name. Um, it's BB-8, not BB-88. It's BB-8. BB-8 or I like Stormy is a better name for him. I know you you notice me positioning the microphone, Dave, because I'm like he always messes up the mic wire because it's loose and I'm like I'm like ah BB8 BB BB88 BB-88 miles an hour, baby. Where the heck is Back to the Future? Here's my thing about Back to the Future. I feel like Barry like spends all week and like places one post. She's
    30:45
    [Music] like, you know, like a week later he's like, "Here, 12 years later, you'll get your game, you know? I mean, I seriously I feel like the Dutch design process, guys. Do we get off all August?" Yeah. It's like Europe. You know, the Europeans don't work that hard. You know how many bank holidays there are when Dutch Pinball is like, "We're going to finish these alyses by the end of the year and we only make 10 a week and there's 52 weeks in a year and they're not starting until May and there's like 89 bank holidays and they take the entire month of like August off. You're not getting your games this year, people. Like just I don't know what math Barry's doing in Melvin, but like I tell Melvin every day I'm like, "Wait, you're not making these
    31:39
    games." So my point was yesterday, Brennan was busy. She was planning everything. It's all about surprises, people. At 11:45, I already got the car started. I plugged into the nav system an address and she's like, "We got to do this. We got to back You know, you know how wives get attacked. We got to we got to clean up. We got to go to the store. We got to do this. We got to do that. We got to And in our heads, you know, men are likeow meow meow meow meow. You know, guys is like, when do I have any time to play pen or Xbox today? Um, so it's like 11:45 and I'm like, "Babe, I need you in five minutes." She's like, "All right. All right." She's like, "Five?" You know, you know how W good wives are they pop out like five minutes? Like, "What do we do? What do you need?" You know, they're like they're like army drill sergeants. They mean they're keeping these kids alive every day like and and they have three children. She has Cassie and Killian and me. So they got to keep all of us going. Um and I'm like I need you to get in the car and I need you to just drive to where it tells you to drive and I'll see you in two hours. And it was a 90minute massage uh just 15 minutes away and she came back so happy. That's it. Those are gifts. Those are gifts. I'll tell you, should I You know how many times I could do that or buy a $2,000 flat plastic topper? Let me ask you guys a question. For all you out there who buy $13,000 less and flat plastic toppers, when's the last time you surprised your wife? When's the last time? What? When was the last time instead of spending the money on yourselves for these toys, your wife opened up a blue Tiffany box and there was a $13,000 like diamond bracelet in there? Just because I love you. Think about it. I hope you do both. I hope you do both.
    33:46
    $2,000 flat plastic dapper. It is the marriage advice. Am I wrong, gay? Am I wrong? Am I wrong? I don't think so. I think most of you do. Well, I bought my girlfriend a $100,000 Mercedes and we aren't we ain't married. Well, first of all, Gino, talk about depreciation and also, what are you doing? What are you doing buying your girlfriend a car and you're like, what are you doing, bro? Like, that like I bought it like Dave um Dave Ramsey you right now. Like, I hope you paid in full for that car. You bought a $100,000 used Mercedes. What? All right. I love this. Gino, what what did you pay for the car? Was it originally $100,000 and now it's used? I'm confused. I only paid cash. I feel like we're all curious now, Gino. How much? Did it Did it Did it cost 100,000 used or was it a $100,000 car that you got used? Now we need to know. Now we're going to pry. And because you put the number out there, now we want to know.
    35:01
    I don't know. I'm curious. Gina, the ball the the floor the ball's in your court. Well, he's he's he's uh he's getting out the calculator. Wow. 100,000. What What model? 100,000 use has to be like um for Mercedes used for 100k has to be like a an AMG S-Class or AMG truck. Did you get like a G Wagon or something? Okay. What'd you get the seven passenger SUV? Jeez, I don't I the the depreciation on on damn Mercedes trucks is insane. I don't know how people do it. They lose like a 100 grand on these things. Like my dad my dad um my dad just got a new an S-Class like this year. Check this out. Gets this S-Class champagne color. Like it's beautiful inside. And my dad same way. He pays for all his cars. He doesn't finance, he just pays for them. And I I I my dad must have lost like a few million dollars on cars from depreciation. Um he goes, "They gave me 60,000 off the sticker price at the dealership for the car brand new. They just had it on the lot brand new. 60,000 off the sticker price." I'm like, and I was like, "How does that even like h how do they even make money? Like how is that even a thing? My entire Toyota was like 35 grand, 40 grand. I feel so good. I I I The Toyota's all paid for. I got the title in hand. The Dodge Demons paid for. I got the title in hand. The only mistake I made was leasing this Kia Carnival. I didn't have to. I should just bought it cuz like it's the depreciation is actually not bad on these minivans. Who knew that, right? Minivans hold value better than anything. And it is minivan pinball podcast. Um, all right. So, we've got Back to the Future coming out sometime in 2027. We've got Raza coming out next after uh Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Uh, we've got Predator coming from Pinball Brothers. We've got most likely Star Wars Episode 1 through three coming from John Borg sometime in August. We've got Pokemon. I'll give you guys something. Pokemon is coming first quarter 2026. So, it's like their February 2026 game. Uh Jack Danger is doing that. Uh don't think you guys are going to get X-Men code any better than it really is. I don't care what Gomez says. I think there's too much overhaul required and I think we're going to all be talking about one game and one game only for the next month. You know what game that is, right? Harry Potter. It's going to be the talk of the entire pinball world. Uh, I'm so excited to see it. On my last show, I heard that it has nothing significantly more than what we've seen from the last four titles from Jersey Jack. Now, look, that is a rumor. I also heard from someone who said they have a friend who played it and it's amazing and it's loaded. So I, you know, I think it's really easy to start rumors either way, right? Is load like I heard Toy Story 4 was loaded and I I don't people people who played it told me that. I think what happens with all new games is you really hop on a brand new machine and are just excited. I this what happened with me with Wonka. You're just so excited to play a game before the rest of the world that you look at it with rosecolored glasses and you you you kind of are caught up in the giddiness. Is the is my mic scratchy again?
    39:12
    Really? Did I move it? I might have moved it. I I'm Am I sounding
    39:23
    scratchy? I mean, I I I think more people would tell me it's scratchy if it was cuz last time it was scratchy like people told me. Uh, it comes and goes. Is that just Foo Fighter? Everyone else is saying it sounds okay. So, Foo Fighter, I think it might be you, brother. I'm I'm leaning in and I don't know. Let me let me try and not brush this cable. All right. So, every I think it sounds
    39:53
    okay. It's Oh, okay. Let me see here. Let me see here. Let me try and do this. Let me see if this does anything. Is that better? I don't know. I can see here. I don't know. It's scratchy from time to time. Do you guys All right, I'm going to end this show a little early, but let me Does this sound okay now? Let me see if I can find I'm not sure where it is. All right, hold on.
    41:14
    See, Hold on. I'm just looking for something. Is it okay? My mic. I I I I'll restart the show if it sounds bad because I want to I want to do something fun to end the show. I want to walk you guys through the deck I present at the Stern. It's good enough.
    41:36
    Oh my god. Brenda. Alexa, stop. Brenda. Brenda is She think she's in the car and she thinks she's connected. She's connected to the soundbar
    41:56
    here. Hold on. I got to go turn the soundbar down.
    42:07
    Here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna restart on. You know what? Let's do this next Saturday because I I I want to really like I want to I want to make this a moment like me walking through what I present at the Stern and see what you guys think. Um I actually do have to go get ready for this party. Everyone's coming in 40 minutes. Um I I will make sure the sound is better next time. It's this damn I need I'm going to order a new mic and cable just this will be my backup one, but I need a new one. It's just So everybody, happy Mother's Day. This was fun and Brenda is has left me with Shakira screaming uh in the back of my
    43:07
    ear. Thank you and sign up for Canadian Pinball Podcast and you will get Pokemon news this week later.