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PNP 566- Ryan & Kimba Of Phantom Tilt Rate Every Pin Company + MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT

Poor Man's Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·analyzed·Apr 22, 2024
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.031

TL;DR

Phantom Tilt co-hosts rate pinball manufacturers and discuss their rapid rise in the Australian pinball content scene.

Summary

Ryan Barry and Kimba from Phantom Tilt Pinball Podcast (a new Australian content creator duo) appear on Poor Man's Pinball to discuss their origin story in pinball, their day jobs in Western Australia's mining industry, and rate pinball manufacturers from 0-10 on likelihood to purchase. The episode features tangential conversations about hockey fandom, Harry Potter, and a major announcement teased in the title but not detailed in the provided excerpt.

Key Claims

  • Ryan and Kimba have released 10 episodes of Phantom Tilt Pinball Podcast and are now live streaming on Twitch

    high confidence · Orville Albert confirms they just released their 10th episode and recently started Twitch streaming with live streams and goal to reach 50 followers

  • Ryan and Kimba are gold-level sponsors of Poor Man's Pinball and sponsored Orville's trip to Nationals

    high confidence · Orville Albert directly thanks them for gold-level sponsorship and states they sponsored him to attend Nationals

  • Ryan has 1.5 WPPR rating; Kimba has not yet competed in tournaments

    high confidence · Ryan directly states his WPPR rating and explains tournament availability challenges due to living 12 hours from Perth, Western Australia

  • Ryan and Kimba live 12 hours from Perth in Western Australia (the Outback)

    high confidence · Ryan explains they are 12 hours away from capital city and located in the Outback

  • Both Ryan and Kimba work in the mining industry for the same multinational company in different sectors

    high confidence · Ryan explains they both work in mining; he is part of leadership team in his department; Kimba worked with rail department

  • Ryan and Kimba plan to visit Canada in fall 2025

    high confidence · Orville Albert states 'you guys are coming here...fall of this year' but then corrects to 'fall of 2025'

  • Stern Pro Edition machines have been losing value 3-6 months after purchase, and prices keep rising despite similar feature set

    medium confidence · Orville Albert's rating assessment of Stern states Pro Editions losing value over time, prompting him to lower his rating from 9-10 to 8 out of 10

  • Ryan would rate Stern 10/10 likely to purchase if a dream theme appeared (mentions Judge Dredd as ideal)

    high confidence · Ryan states he loves darker comic stuff and Judge Dredd would be a dream theme; expresses confidence in Stern's quality control

Notable Quotes

  • “We work in the mining industry, which is a really big thing in Western Australia especially. People come from all over Australia to work in this industry and for these massive multinational companies.”

    Ryan Barry @ early in episode — Establishes the speakers' day jobs and career context outside of pinball

  • “Pinball has been the one thing that I sort of came across...that has just stuck and never gone away for at least what, two years now? And that's by far a record for me.”

    Ryan Barry @ origin story discussion — Shows Ryan's typical hobby pattern (intense short-term enthusiasm) broken by pinball's staying power

  • “I would say I always would have been a 9, if not a 10 out of 10, likely to buy a Stern machine...but just in the last year or two we've seen even the Pro Edition are starting to lose a decent amount of value three to six months later.”

    Orville Albert @ Stern rating discussion — Signals potential market concern about Stern Pro Edition depreciation despite rising prices

  • “I think it's probably a 10 out of 10 because you know that even before you really get to see a lot of gameplay, you know that they're on it...making sure that the gamers have a good feel, have a good vibe about it.”

    Ryan Barry @ Stern rating discussion — Reflects confidence in Stern's design quality and playtester involvement

  • “Judge Dredd is actually a really fun pin. It's kind of wonky. It's definitely not a fun layout.”

    Orville Albert @ dream themes discussion — Provides commentary on an older classic pinball machine's playfield design

  • “You guys might be able to afford front row. You'll see Danielle and I up in the nosebleeds. You can wave to us now.”

    Orville Albert @ hockey game planning discussion — Humorous acknowledgment of potential economic differences between hosts

  • “Basically, you'll find 90s Aussie kids are Chicago Bulls fans and Oilers or Kings fans...because it's very rare that we get U.S. sports, especially back in the early mid-90s.”

Entities

Ryan BarrypersonKimbapersonOrville AlbertpersonPhantom Tilt Pinball PodcastorganizationPoor Man's Pinball PodcastorganizationStern PinballcompanyTeenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesgameJudge Dreddgame

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Phantom Tilt Pinball Podcast rapidly building audience presence with 10 episodes and new Twitch streaming platform launch in Australian market

    high · Orville Albert confirms 10 episodes released, describes them as gold-level sponsors, notes their presence 'everywhere,' and encourages audience to follow their content

  • ?

    community_signal: Western Australia identified as remote but active pinball market with tournament infrastructure supporting competitive players

    medium · Ryan competes despite 12-hour distance from Perth tournaments; Australian players mentioned as strong but statistically disadvantaged due to geographic WPPR scarcity vs US-based competition

  • ?

    community_signal: Phantom Tilt supporting broader pinball ecosystem through sponsorship of Poor Man's Pinball and community content investment

    high · Ryan and Kimba as 'gold level sponsors' who funded Orville's Nationals travel; rapid podcast/Twitch expansion showing commitment to audience building

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Geographic tournament availability significantly limiting WPPR accumulation for Australian and remote players

    high · Ryan explains tournaments in Perth run 'once every three weeks' and he lives 12 hours from capital city; Orville confirms Canadian players similarly limited compared to US-based competitors

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Community preference for thematic diversity with gap in 'darker comic' and 'comedy' pinball machines identified

    medium · Ryan expresses preference for 'darker comic stuff' and states 'we need more comedy pinball machines'; Stern relies heavily on mainstream licensing

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.173

0:00
All get around, he's on the rebound Hear the sound of our buddy, oh lordy, it's Orby Pinball now to rejoice He's tugging pinball, craft beer and coffee Miffed with syrup and honey Almost a laugh with his family in a random tangent Stories of his boys He's on the poor man's pod network We're gonna get more listeners for the Pinball Nerds Podcast.
0:32
Coming to you from beautiful River Hibbert, Nova Scotia. Welcome back, Pinball Nerds, to episode 366 of your fifth favorite pinball podcast. My name is Orbital Albert, and here on today's show, that's right, all the way from the Outback, no, I'm just kidding, all the way from Western Australia, I believe, We have Ryan Barry and his partner in crime and on the podcast, Kimba. Welcome to the show, guys. Phantom tilting all the way in. What do you have to say for yourself, you pinball nerds?
1:09
Thank you very much for having us on the podcast. And we might have gone back in time a little bit because I think you just took about 200 episodes off yourself. Oh, my God. Did I say... By calling it episode 366. Oh, God. See, I think I was thinking about 365 days a year for some reason. And I'm not going to lie, I'm pre-coffeed, okay? I've had one. It's pretty early here, but let's try that again. Welcome back, Pinball Nerds, episode 566 of your fourth favorite pinball podcast.
1:41
There we go. Well, welcome to the show, guys. And I always start with kind of a silly question, and I don't really care who doesn't want to listen or who does, because I enjoy it. I want to know what both you guys do as your day jobs because I have no clue.

  • Kimba has Harry Potter tattoos including the Deathly Hallows symbol with Harry's scar and 'Piertotum Locomotor' text

    high confidence · Kimba directly confirms tattoo details when asked by Orville Albert

  • They recently purchased a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinball machine

    high confidence · Orville Albert asks if TMNT is still 'kicking your guys' butt' and both confirm ownership

    • Ryan Barry @ sports fandom discussion — Explains international sports fandom patterns driven by media availability and dominant athletes (Jordan, Gretzky)

  • “At home, I've gotten bored and walked away before...Sometimes I would be at a 45-minute game on my second ball with two extra balls to go, and I go, I just don't want to play anymore.”

    Orville Albert @ game difficulty discussion — Explains the importance of difficulty balance for home pinball machine enjoyment

  • “I love the sort of darker comic stuff, so I'm all about anything to do with that. We need more comedy pinball machines.”

    Ryan Barry @ dream themes discussion — Identifies a gap in pinball machine theme diversity and personal preference for darker aesthetics

  • “Phantom Tilt Pinball Podcast, found everywhere you find podcasts. You're also on Twitch now.”

    Orville Albert @ promotion discussion — Highlights the rapid expansion of Phantom Tilt's media presence

    • Head to Head Pinball Podcast
    organization
    Marty Robbinsperson
    Ryan Cperson
    Kanedaperson
    Fast Pinballcompany
    American Pinballcompany
    John Borgperson
    Hankperson
    Danielleperson
    Harry Pottergame
    Guardians of the Galaxygame
    Perth, Western Australialocation
    Wayne Gretzkyperson
    Edmonton Oilersorganization
    Lunaperson
  • $

    market_signal: Stern Pro Edition machines showing depreciation despite rising list prices, prompting reconsideration of purchasing likelihood

    medium · Orville Albert states 'Pro Edition are starting to lose a decent amount of value three to six months later. The prices keep going up' and lowers Stern rating from 9-10 to 8 out of 10

  • ?

    technology_signal: New Australian pinball content creators adopting multi-platform strategy with Twitch live streaming integration

    medium · Phantom Tilt recently launched Twitch channel with goal to reach 50-follower threshold for platform feature unlock; addressing timing challenges for global audience

    • 2:00
    Sure. Yeah, that's an interesting one. Yeah, we don't really talk about that stuff on the podcast. You know, we work for the same company. Yeah. It's a multinational, huge, huge company.
    2:16
    And we basically are in the mining industry. No way. I didn't know that. yeah yeah so different sectors of of the mind so we don't ever see each other or anything like that so and it's not like a you know you go underground and you're wearing the hat with the big lamp on it or anything like that it's a little bit more uh sophisticated than that these days no come on ryan kimba's down in there 12 hours a day you've got her with the axe pick getting the gold let's be honest yeah we put up with dynamite actually we don't we don't i'm not in there picking it out with an axe. No, it's not an underground mine. But, yeah, so we work in the mining industry, which is a really big thing in Western Australia especially. People come from all over Australia to work in this industry and for these massive multinational companies.
    3:12
    And I'm part of the leadership team within our sort of department, and I'm not talking about an executive leadership team, but one of the leadership teams within the company, and Kim was working with the rail department as well. So I move the rocks from one mind to the other mind. Go figure.
    3:35
    Don't lie. You're pressing buttons back there, I bet. You're not actually lifting the rocks. Come on. That's so cool. I'm pressing people's buttons.
    3:44
    Yeah. Well, you know my show. I go off on a lot of tangents, So I just got to say, my favorite thing to do when I visited my best buddy, Melvis, up in the Yukon, was I actually got to go do a little bit of gold panning. There's enough rivers up there that have, you know, it's very fine particulate gold. I spent about eight hours doing it, and then I got home, and I measured it all up, and I was so excited, and I checked. I got $1.36 worth of gold, so I made $0.12 an hour, which is Canadian, so that's like one penny an hour American, right?
    4:19
    so okay it's better than poking the other sharp stick well that's true that's true um now i'm just curious what i want to know like i'm curious to hear you guys origin stories were you both into pinball when you met did one of the two of you like drag the other one into the arcade and go ah put some money in here or like um how did that all work what's kind of your like the quick version i guess of your pinball origin stories okay uh yeah neither of us were into pinball when we met we've been married for almost 7 years now and I guess it was just I'm one of those people that will get 1000% into a hobby and then I'll spend thousands on buying all the top of the range gear and then I'll lose interest in it and I'm sure that around our house we've probably got tens of thousands of dollars worth of all sorts of gear, sports bloody hobbies and all that yeah and uh so people has been the the one thing that i sort of came across you know with a love of electronics and mechanics and uh obviously gaming um that has just stuck and never gone away um for for at least uh what two years now yeah yeah and um And that's by far a record for me. So I don't think it's going anywhere soon.
    5:52
    That's great. And Pimba has just been alongside me for the journey and now getting more and more into it herself and starting to be me at games now.
    6:04
    Oh, isn't that great when you can get your partner in it? I would say, like, you know, I always joke that I'm about as much into going with my wife. I like going to antique stores and checking out antiques. I really do. Like, I'm not even being sarcastic. Because, you know, sometimes I'll find, like, some old hockey gear, or I'll find some comic books, or some old sports cards, or if I'm really lucky, some old Pokemon, or, like, Garbage Pail Kids, Wacky Packages, all that nerdy. Or maybe if I'm really lucky, some sealed Ninja Turts packages, right? So I'm always on the hunt for anything cool like that. And I do like old, like, I also, one of my other big hobbies is craft beer. So I really like finding old like craft beer bottles or old growlers or that kind of thing. Brewina, I think they call the whole like adding old signs, that kind of thing. But I like it like a six out of 10. And that's kind of like my wife. Like if there's nothing going on, she'll go, okay, I'll go play some pinball. But like if there's, if we're going to a new town or a new city that has like a really cool antique shop or like, you know, something that she loves bakeries as well, like cupcakes, muffins, all that croissants. She's also a baker herself. So if there's something cooler in this town we're going to, she's probably not playing pinball with me. But it seems like you guys, like, you're both, like, almost equally into it. My wife certainly wouldn't do a pinball podcast with me every episode, to be fair. But, no, I love that. And when is it that you guys decided, like, that's it? Because I'll just give you guys an award right now. I'm going to give you the 2023 Go-Getter of the Year Award, right? We are in 2023, correct?
    7:38
    Oh, no, we're not. 2024 no here's this is where i was going with that dawn dawn won 2023 for the go-getter award so it's like the new content creator who is always doing live streams has a twitch channel does podcasts is commenting on lots of social media right and that's kind of been like dawn was like the new hotness of next last year somehow the guy did a hundred freaking podcasts in a year that's crazy like even i didn't do that my birthday year but i mean um you guys are kind of like you guys are everywhere. I didn't even know about you guys until a couple months ago and you're at 10 episodes now or is it 11? Yeah, that's right. We just released our 10th episode.
    8:17
    Phantom Tilt Pinball Podcast, Found Everywhere You Find Podcast. You're also on Twitch now. You just got a brand new... Yeah, tell us a little bit about that. Just getting our feet under us.
    8:30
    We've had a couple of live streams. Just getting the equipment all in the right spot without reflection and do all the right things that it's supposed to be doing. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And just trying to get some engagement, you know. Things really open up once you get past the sort of 50 follower mark and you can start to add in some more things for the viewers to interact with you. But that's our goal, really, to get past that and start giving people more ways to interact and engage, yeah. I think part of the issue, and I know Marty Robbins ran into this as well when he was doing live streaming, I believe under his head-to-head Twitch channel. I'm not sure, though, for sure. But I know that Martin would run into this, and a couple of awesome other Aussie streamers run into the issue that, because I would say 80% of the pinball population lives in either North America or Europe, you do run into a timing issue. So if you can possibly figure out a way to live stream closer to either time for the west coast of North America or for me on the east coast, then it's easier for me to pop in, right? I'm awake before all those nerds over in California so you have a better chance of catching me if you're doing a late stream but please everybody who's listening right now, Ryan and Kimba were so nice with donating they were our gold level them and Fast Pinball were our only gold level sponsor which you know I kind of just made that up after I got back but sponsored me to go do the Nationals so I just have to thank you guys so freaking much and anyone listening to the show right now go listen to yourself some Phantom Tilt make sure you like subscribe follow do all the things because uh i think we're going to be hearing about phantom tilt for a long long time to come uh i think you guys like you have such positive vibes you're fun you're outgoing um you're not a negative nance you're a debbie downer like some of us maybe come sometimes when we're jaded uh like you said quite often you know when you're new into a hobby it's easy to be i mean you're three years in so i wouldn't say you're noobs per se but you're new to the content creation uh part and i to be to be fair you guys don't have like tons of hot takes but i love hearing you talk about your trips um i love hearing you talk about just like your tournaments because you're you're kind of newer to tournaments you're just starting to get like better at them right so very good uh what are your rankings at i'm just curious like oh one and a half whoppers and i haven't done kipper hasn't hasn't been in a tournament yet okay but uh but i've been in a few um obviously it's very hard you know when it has to line up first of all when we're in our capital city perth right and those tournaments are only run once every three weeks wow ish so all those stars have to align for me to actually be able to enter a tournament? Because we are a 12 hour drive from our capital city. So when you said the Outback at the start, we are in the Outback. You look at WA on the map, we're in the middle.
    11:36
    Absolutely. Most of everything I've learned about Australia has been from, you know, unfortunately growing up, I'm sorry, but the main show that we all learned was Crocodile Hunter, right? You know what I mean? Because he was on all the time. Steve Irwin, I think his name was, right? Yeah. And then, of course, even before that, Crocodile Dundee, which I know that's not a good representation, but I saw Crocodile 1, 2, and yes, I even put myself through number 3. Don't watch the third one. The first one was okay.
    12:09
    And then, of course, everything else that I know is honestly basically from Ryan C. and Marty Robbins from Head to Head Pinball for years listening to them, and now the Aussie Pinball Podcast, obviously. so you guys kind of come from a long line like to me personally it kind of goes you know uh it kind of goes united states is putting out the most pinball content and you know obviously has the most pinball companies that sort of thing but then it's kind of like canada australia and um you know europe we're all kind of tied in that second tier of like you know a lot of content creators a lot of pinball machines end up there a lot of big tournaments are there uh like i was even looking at IFPA today, like four of the top 10 or the top 12 are all from Europe, like Vigo, and there's quite a few up and coming, especially younger players. And then Australia has a very strong, like I think like, well, the same thing with Australian players as Canadian players and even European players. If we lived in the round or near Chicago or California or New York City, there'd be so many more tournaments with so many more whoppers. Like a lot of the Canadian and Australian players are ranked much lower than they would be if they live near a big town in the US. of course. But that being said, 12 hours round trip for you, or 12 hours there, 12 hours back? That's crazy. Yeah. Like, I can drive to go see Eric Stone in Florida in 24 hours from here. Like, I thought I was far away from everybody. Holy shats.
    13:33
    And for Ryan to go and pick up the new pinball, he drove down through the night, and then picked it up in the morning, and then he had to, like, run around and get a bunch of stuff, and then he slept for like four hours and then drove back on the Thursday and then got here at the end of Thursday pretty much. Well, Ryan, I don't want to tell everybody your secret drug of choice, but I know what you used to get home that next day. It was a little bit of that peachy keen, wasn't it? The old caffeine drinkers.
    14:05
    Oh, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I did send you a photo of the monster peachy keen. I'm addicted to that stuff at the moment. It's so good. Zero sugar. So it's like you don't get the sugar crash. If you were to have the regular ones with all the sugar in them, you get amped up and then an hour later you ready for snooze fest when the sugar wears away These things are zero sugar and they taste pretty frickin good I like to throw them on ice because they a bit sweet for me but yes This is a hashtag not sponsored by Monster Energy. Slash, Monster, if you're listening, hit up Orby. Yeah.
    14:39
    Phantom Tilt and Orby will split. Or maybe, maybe, even another podcast we're going to talk about in a momento. So, I've got to ask you this. you're both wearing Edmonton Oilers jerseys or shirts. And it's so funny that both you and I are big, giant Edmonton Oilers fans. I get how I became an Edmonton Oilers fan, because I used to be a big Wayne Gretzky fan back in the early 90s when he played on the Oilers. Once he went to the Kings, I tried to switch to the LA Kings for a year. I said, F that. I came back to the Oilers. And I've been, for the most part, mostly Oilers ever since. But how the heck did two pinball nerds in the middle of the Australian outback end up getting into the Edmonton Oilers? I got to know.
    15:23
    Okay, so it's pretty simple, really. Basically, you'll find 90s Aussie kids are Chicago Bulls fans and Oilers or Kings fans. What? Because it's very rare that we get U.S. sports, especially back in the early mid-90s. It was very rare to get U.S. sports. So it was always the biggest stars. And that was Gretzky and Jordan. So we're Chicago Bulls fans and Oilers or Kings fans or even Rangers fans as well. You know, really? Yes, because the great one went to the Rangers, what, his last two years or something? Yeah. Wow. I played with Messier there as well. So, yeah, he's another one of my little heroes is Mark Messier. He's my man. Yes. But what Ryan also is missing out is the fact that he played ice hockey for the Perth team that we have here for many years as well. Wow. So, like, I didn't even know that. It's not very exciting. I think that that would probably be beaten by your peewee team. But, yeah, he tried hard. Well, it's kind of funny because I have a lot of American friends, obviously even tribe members, the Poor Men's Pinball Tribe, and a lot of their kids play as well. And I didn't even know in the deep south that hockey was even that big. But of course, the NHL has teams all the way through the U.S. I know it's much smaller than, well, American football, and it's much smaller than baseball and obviously basketball. But it's just cool that even in the 90s, you were a hockey fan and you still are. So I'll tell you this, you guys are coming here. I thought it was in the fall of this year, but before we started the pod, I found out it's in the fall of 2025. So no, that's okay. But listen, I will fly out to either Toronto, Montreal, or if we had to, Calgary or even Edmonton, or possibly Vancouver. That's really expensive to fly from here, but that's like coast to coast for me. But I will fly and meet you guys wherever, and hopefully I can drag Danielle to come. She actually doesn't mind watching hockey, and she likes it better live. One time she won tickets to go see the Toronto Maple Leafs, and we were in the $500, not front row, but one of the front rows. And it was so funny because it was one of the first games with the Maple Leafs after Ovechkin had turned down playing for the Maple Leafs. So every time Ovechkin touched the puck, everybody booed. But my point is, when you guys come up here, no matter where it is, we're going to go see an Edmonton Oilers game, if at all possible.
    18:02
    100%. We will be. You guys might be able to afford Front Row. You'll see Danielle and I up in the nosebleeds. You can wave to us now. We'll come nosebleeding, yeah. No, okay, okay. We'll be together. Well, if it's in Toronto, we might have to all do nosebleeds because the bad seats in Toronto right now for the playoffs are like $600.
    18:20
    Oh, wow. Yeah, like, okay, for Americans, that's only like 420, but, you know. I just think it's so cool that you're into hockey, and I'm just curious, age-wise, you don't have to give me a specific age, but, you know, I was born in around 1980. I'm assuming because we like a lot of the same things, you're probably similar age to me.
    18:41
    Maybe a little younger. 99. 99! That's what I thought you were. 89. Oh, you were born in 89. So you're that much younger than me, really. See, I thought for some reason that for sure, but I guess still Ninja Turtles cartoons would have still been coming out all the way to the mid-90s, right? And you would have been really young, I guess, when Gretzky was playing there.
    19:04
    Things take a little while to get down here. Yeah, it takes a bit longer. Well, that is the same way with, believe it or not, even treats and foods and stuff like that. like we don't get the uh uh dawn of dawn's pinball podcast we recently had you on he always talks about like buckies he's like oh yeah i'm going to buckies nine times tomorrow i'm like nobody knows what buckies is dude just tell us i don't know and he's like you never had the buckies uh moose knuckle nuts and i'm like what the hell are you talking about dude like i don't know what those are he's always munching on these weird snacks and i'm like he thinks the rest of the world knows what they are or something i'm like we don't have and then he sent you guys some moon pies i'm like moon pies, that sounds like a treat you would not want to eat. You know what I mean? Because we think mooning here in Canada is like when you show someone your butt. I'm like, is that really? There you go, there's a moon pie. Yeah, right, yeah. It's basically like a little cake, right? Is it a cake?
    20:04
    It's pretty much like a little cake, yeah. Yeah, but it's got like a marshmallow in it. Oh, ew, gross. No, I'm just kidding. I see what you're saying. Here in Canada, we call it... We haven't turned it in from the banana flavor yet, but we still have a crack at that one. Oh, that one. I can taste that one right now. It's definitely all natural.
    20:23
    Here in Canada, we call it un petit cadeau, which just means small cake, I think. But, you know, I know about three French words, and other than that, I only know tabernac, because if you're playing pinball somewhere in Moncton and the ball goes down and the person's really mad and they're not English, basically they yell tabernac. I don't know. I think that means something bad in French. I don't know what it is. but uh all right i wanted to do something a little bit different i know with dawn you guys talked about a lot of the uh you know the newer pins that have came out this year what i wanted to do is like you guys are kind again newer to buying with uh you've bought and sold how many pins now oh uh three three yeah three okay so newer to buying and you just recently got a ninja turtles before we skip over that is Ninja Turtles still kicking your guys butt because that's a tough machine oh hell yeah I don't think it's ever going to stop it might just ease up a little you build up a bit of a callous to that ass kicking a lot of people jokingly said how the heck did this hippie dude from Nova Scotia win the New Brunswick Pinball Championship and I jokingly say it's because the day of I got to hear Ian and Drew return to the Pinball Nerds sorry to the poor man's pinball network, thank God. But the actual truth of it is probably partially because I had John Borg's other ass-kicker, Guardians of the Galaxy, some of the tightest, hardest ramps to hit in all pinball there. And honestly, the raccoon shot, oh my, I hated that shot. I left that mode to the very end every time I was trying to go to wizard mode. Even playing 10 ball on the last ball before I got rid of it, I still could not get to the wizard mode on 10 ball. So if you get an ass-kicking game like American Pinball's Houdini or, of course, Ninja Turtles, or if you're only going to have one or two pins, you need an ass-kicker because at home, I've gotten bored and walked away before. I had, well, considered a very easy game, Roller Coaster Tycoon. Sometimes I would be at a 45-minute game on my second ball with two extra balls to go, and I go, I just don't want to play anymore. My hands are sore. I'm tired. I've got to go take a deuce. Like, life is happening. You've got to go, right? so anyways I wanted to go through each of the pinball companies and I wanted your both separate if they're different especially I wanted both your opinions on like 0 to 10 we want to rate them how likely you would be to buy from this particular pinball company is that okay sure yeah that sounds good alright and if I'm pushing too hard you just say no don't touch me there and I'll say okay I'm sorry no that's too much you know what I mean hands back Hands back. I don't want to push too hard. I'll just suppress it like all my other bad memories. It's okay.
    23:13
    Okay. Tell everyone about the beautiful dog in the background walking around. We've got to give at least a shout-out quickly.
    23:19
    Yeah, this is Hank. He's my buddy. He comes on all the long drives with me. No way. He sits in the back there very, very good. He just chills out and likes to hang out and have a wander around at the little stops that we make. Yeah. Hank is a German shorthaired pointer. Okay. I was going to ask, it kind of looks like a Dalmatian, but not quite.
    23:41
    Pretty close, yeah. That's a big dog. No one in Western Australia, go try to steal their pinball machines, because that dog is going to get you.
    23:51
    Mike, if you can get that thing out of this house, you deserve it. They are some of the hardest, heaviest things. And then if you manage to steal it from someone, it's like, well, unless you just love pinball, which honestly, everyone I've met in pinball so rad. I don't even think they would consider doing that. But now you've got to sell the freaking thing, and it's like they're so rare that everyone's going to, you know. So thankfully, they're much harder to steal than, like, my gold coins or something, you know.
    24:19
    Okay, so we're going to start with the easy. I'm going to throw you a little softball here. Sorry, Franchi, I know you don't love the baseball rhetoric, but I'm going to throw you a softball. We're going to start with Stern. I'll go first. I would say I always would have been a 9 if not a 10 out of 10 likely to buy a stern especially at that pro level if it were a theme I had to had to had to have but just in the last year or two we've seen even the pros are starting to lose a decent chunk of money three to six months later the prices keep going up and yet we're still being offered about the same level of you know I love sterns don't get me wrong but I would say right now I'm only like an 8 out of 10 to buy a new new in box stern just because of the fact that it seems if you wait three six nine months even a year you probably can save a good chunk of change even on a pro at this point so it would have to be either like back to the future goonies or possibly maybe the edmonton oilers for me to like boom i'm buying it buy now buy buy buy right um but i'm just curious for you guys zero to ten if a theme came out that you loved, how likely would you be to buy a Stern?
    25:28
    So new in box. New in box, yeah, new in box. Yeah, I think pretty likely, yeah. It's probably a 10 out of 10 because you know that even before you really get to see a lot of gameplay, you know that they're pretty onto it as far as getting their shots down, making sure that the gamers have a good feel, have a good vibe about it, has good energy and they're going to be reliable. And pizza parts available to buy if anything don't break.
    25:57
    I think that you're pretty safe. They've always got the coolest ones. I feel like they've got the coolest ones.
    26:06
    No, like Stern... Yeah, Stern does get 80-90% of the really good themes. So I named a couple themes for me that I would have to buy. Obviously Ninja Turts is up there for you guys, but you already have it. What type of... Oh, I forgot about Harry Potter. That would be on my buy now list. Maybe for each of you, could you each give me one or two dream themes?
    26:31
    Harry Potter is definitely a dream theme for me. I've got Harry Potter tattoos. For life. For me, my dream theme has kind of already been made, which is Judge Dredd. Oh, really? Okay. I would love to see another one. If they could make another Judge Dredd or something like that. I love the sort of darker comic stuff, so I'm all about anything to do with that. We need more comedy pinball machines. I've definitely said that before. I agree with you. Judge Dredd is actually a really fun pin.
    27:06
    It's kind of wonky. It's definitely not a fan layout. Have you played it, I'm assuming? I haven't played it. I've only seen it. I've only watched the videos, but I haven't got to play it yet, so I'm going to have to try to keep an eye out, especially when we move back. I'm definitely going to be asking around for who's going I want to play that thing It is so fun, I assume there's probably not too many in Australia, but of course if you haven't played it by the time you come over for Pinball Expo and everything else in the fall of 2025, at the very least you'll get to play it then, but I can't glaze over this Kimba, you said that you did have a Harry Potter tattoo Yeah Okay, I don't want to know where I don't want to know how big I'm curious, could you maybe tell us what character if you're comfortable it's it's not it's the deathly hallows but it's got um harry's scar through it and then it has pia totem locomotor tattooed underneath it oh my god it's quite big it broke my stomach wait i should know this what does that mean again it's the one where mcgonigal she was like pia totem locomotor i've always wanted to use that spell makes the statues come to life to protect the school. Oh my god, okay, I, okay, I, you know, it's possible I might have had a vape before I read that book, but wow, it was so incredible. Now, to those of you who, if, in case you guys don't know, the audio listeners, well, I'm not recording the video, so they won't know, but right here, right here, I actually had this sliced open, I got my head, I was at a Stevo from Jackass, I was at a Stevo concert or whatever. And my buddy got in a fight with this guy in the crowd and I went over to try to pull my buddy back and his friend grabbed me and smashed my head into the corner of a brick wall and a big chunk of fat came out here and like I had to get it I had to get like seven or eight stitches that wasn't the bad part the bad part was like the third degree burn victim beside me that they were peeling his skin off of and I was trying to pay money to the nurse I was like please move me to a different room dear god I just need stitches let me go home they wouldn't let me leave they're like sir you're stuck here I'm like what the hell it was horrible I was like just you guys finish dealing dealing with him I'm just bleeding slightly anyways that's not the point I always go off track but I was actually born on July 30th 1980 and if you do the math the first Harry Potter book I believe came out in like 1992 he would have turned whatever years old and basically if you do the math backwards he would have also been born at the very last day of July in 1980. Yeah. So his birthday is the 31st of July, 1980.
    29:41
    No, I'm just kidding. Of course it is. It is. And I was born a day before him. So obviously, if my mom could have held out a couple more hours, I would have been magical. But instead, I'm just, you know, I don't. I have some spells, but I just use that just because I'm charming. It's not really quite the same as real magic, right? but you know I try so anyways that's my my little Harry Potter rant but that's so cool if I don't have any tattoos but if I did it would have to be probably either a Leon Dreisaitl tattoo or maybe possibly I don't know either Hermione or Luna they're kind of my two favorite obviously my other dogs called Luna Tuna Elo and Agar right so that makes sense and then Draco um and the funny thing is both of my I wasn't the last night now dog anything from Harry Potter I wasn't the last the labs. Well, just in case, you know, the dog gets sick or something, you don't want to, you know, you have it, you know, you could have called them Voldemort, but then, you know, they would have scared all the neighbors and such, right? I hope Harry Potter does come. If Harry Potter does come, I think that that would be, like, I like Harry Potter a 9 out of 10, but my wife likes it like a 10 out of 10. So that would be the one that she would be like, okay, all right, let's just, We're going to have to do payment plans like $5 a day for the next 20 years, but we'll figure out a way to – I can go give blood and plasma. They pay you for plasma here in Canada. I can go do that, you know.
    31:08
    Okay, so we did Stern. Let's move on to Jersey Jack, maybe a little bit tougher because I know, especially in Australia but also Canada, we pay way more for shipping than the Americanos do. So I'll just say this. I have heard that I personally think Elton John is maybe perhaps and I have to see it in person but I do think it is maybe perhaps one of the most beautiful pins I've ever seen the music is I was more like you guys late 80s up to early 2000s was kind of my sweet spot for music so Elton John was more like what my mom would have listened to but I still like me some Crocodile Rock and a couple of the other tunes by him don't get me wrong but the point is that now that the flipper feel is better The pricing hasn't increased for a while, I think, or at least on one or two pins. You know, if the price stabilizes and they do Harry Potter, let's say, for instance, I would say if they did Harry Potter, just because I think they would throw in so much, even on their lower level, I do think I would probably be, again, I could probably put two Stern Pros in Orbeez Arcade before, you know, one JJP, but I still think I would be a solid 8 out of 10. They figured out the flippers. The pricing is obviously the thing that's preventing it from being a 9 or a 10. But, I mean, Steve Ritchie made a machine with crazy good flow. I can't wait to see their next titles. I would say I'm almost as likely now to buy a Jersey Jack as a Stern now that the pricing is more similar and the fact that it sounds like they've got some, you know, crazy good, you know. Like, I'm just wondering for you guys, how much more is the price there than it would be, say, like a Stern Pro or something? Probably significantly more. It's a good amount. Yeah. Yeah, it is a lot. So for a pro, our pricing in Australian dollars is $12,500 or something like that.
    33:01
    For a Jersey Jack Limited, I think it's around the $20,000 mark. Or just under. Yeah, it's almost the same as us. You could almost get two new unboxed Stern Pros. Almost. So that makes it very tricky. and that's why for me I would say it's only probably like an 8 or even maybe a 7.5. But again, I'm thinking, geez, who do I want to get Harry Potter? I mean, if they're going to make, if Jersey Jack's going to make Harry Potter look anything like the Wizard of Oz, oh my God, I need Jersey Jack to do it. If it's going to kind of, if Stern's going to make it kind of like a little bit empty like Led Zeppelin, and I'm sorry I haven't played Led Zeppelin yet, it just looks a little bit empty, I'm sorry. You know, if it's going to be all empty like that, then eh, I kind of want Jersey Jack to make it, even with the price increase, only because I love Harry Potter so much. But I'm curious. I'm going to press you guys for a number. You've got to tell me. Zero to ten. How likely would you be to buy a Jersey Jack?
    33:59
    Well, it's funny you mention that situation because I've already emailed our Jersey Jack distributor and said, look, just put us down on the list for Harry Potter. If it gets announced, we want to be on the list for the CE. So we're going all in on the... How much is that one? 30?
    34:20
    It's probably like around the 26 26,000 I think but that's the only one that we would do it for and that's the same as you said like we're talking get out alone and go and get it sort of thing because it's one of those things that you're not sure is this going to be a situation like Pirates of the Caribbean. Are they not going to be in there? We're never going to be able to find them.
    34:50
    But then you also run the risk because Jersey Jack, everybody knows you get that out of the box and it's like a car. It depreciates straight away, like 20% of its value. Sure, I would never be getting rid of it. Yeah, so that one's probably going to be bought into the form.
    35:05
    Yeah, and that's, you know what, you guys bring up an interesting topic that if you absolutely love the theme, do you really care if it loses 10 or 15 percent in the first year if you love a theme so much like i know for sure that i love jack danger so much and i love the foo fighters so much if i ever got my hands on i again it would probably be a used pro is what i would be in the market for but even if i got my hands on it and i paid like eight eight and a half grand or something canadian right or nine and a half of whatever somewhere in that range even if a year or two later it dropped by 500 bucks i wouldn't care because i got to have for a couple years like my favorite, well, for years and years and years, I watched Dead Flip, you know, so it was my favorite pinball personality. And then on top of that, one of my favorite pinball designers, plus it's kind of his rookie card, I would consider his home pin that he did his pre-rookie card kind of. And it's like, if it was something that I enjoyed that much, who cares if it loses a little bit of money? If you think about any other thing, like around here, a lot of people have like four by fours or quad runners. I don't know what you call them there. You know what I mean, a boat, if you go buy a boat for $20,000, it's only worth, even if you sold it before you put it in water, it's lost 15%, 20%. So every other hobby on planet Earth is the same way, right?
    36:23
    Yeah, I think that one of the biggest mistakes people make in this hobby, and just saying this as someone who's very new to it,
    36:32
    is looking at pinball machines like an investment rather than what they are, which is something to have fun with. It's something to entertain you, and you're not looking to, like, if you're looking after these machines, like, you know, making sure that nothing gets scratched on it, nothing gets, like, bumped inside the cabinet, inside the playfield, you're not enjoying the machine. You're too worried about that, and you're not doing what these designers are putting their heart and soul into for you, which is just to play this machine, bash it like it's meant to be bashed around, yeah? yeah I totally agree with you it's it's it I can't think of any other hobby other than yes I guess in maybe sports cards or like comic books but those are a lot of people specifically buy those like you you can enjoy a sports card I guess looking at it for a couple seconds but like the goal of buying many sports cards for many investors is to eventually you know maybe make some money on it whereas you can't actually play the sports card I guess you can read the comic book so that's arguable. But like, there's no other sport like if you go out and you bought the most expensive hockey skates on planet Earth or the most expensive stick, even if you used it one time, you're lucky if you got half what you paid for it, right? So it really is silly to me. I think a lot of investor type, you know, shoe flipper type side hustle people came into pinball during COVID. And I think a good chunk of them will just leave when they see that they don't make money on every pin. sure you can make money on some pins especially if you buy them you know used and you add some value by putting some cool mods or maybe you clean it up make it look nice put a rubber kit on it put some new plastics on it but yeah play your freaking pins they're not meant to be investments there go buy a freaking boring gic at the bank or a savings bond or go buy some mutual funds or buy put some money into tesla if you need to make money right but if you're if you're more stressed over whether your pinball machines are making you money rather than being more excited about enjoying playing them, maybe you're in the wrong hobby for the wrong reasons.
    38:35
    Right? Yeah, absolutely. All right, let's move on. These ones are going to be a little trickier. How likely would you guys be to buy a spooky pinball machine? I will say this. They've got better over the last few years. The design has got better. If I were to answer this after Halloween came out, I would probably be at a 5 out of 10 because of the animations, because I didn't love some of the shots, and a couple other questionable things. I know their quality was slowly getting better and better then, but it seems like with, you know, ever since, well, probably with Scooby-Doo, I did hear some better things about the quality overall, even though there was a little bit of, you know, a little bit of hit or miss. I certainly loved the artwork. The shots were better, but now they've done Looney Tunes, and what is turning out to be maybe even better than Looney Tunes, which I've heard from people, Texas Chainsaw Massacre. So if these guys come in with a theme I love, I think I would be at a 7 out of 10, because I do think that they hold their value a little bit better than Jersey Jacks on average, just because the starting price is lower. And I also think that you're going to get the most incredible customer service. It seems like if Spooky does one thing better than everybody else, it seems to me like their customer service is through the roof. No matter what, they'll make sure that if something's wrong with the pin, it gets damn well fixed, and they're covering all the costs associated with that. And that is something that I do love with Spooky. Obviously, in Canada and Australia, it's probably a little trickier, but at the same time, how likely would you guys be to buy a Spooky?
    40:06
    It's tough over here because we don't have a dedicated Spooky distributor, but they do find their ways over here. There's a few around. I've played an Alice Cooper. this year. I know that there's a couple of Rick and Mortys in the country. I really want to play that game because that's another big favourite theme of mine. Me too, me too.
    40:28
    But I think if the right theme came along, yeah, it'd probably be around the same, that 7 out of 10 mark where you're going to at least try to find out if there's a possibility, depending on the price, depending on the theme. That's all that really comes down to. I mean, any manufacturer with the right layout and the right theme could be a 10 out of 10 but it's all down to where you're at at that moment and if you've got the access to them okay well let me get I don't want to be too controversial here of course you guys are our biggest sponsor I don't want you to hang up the phone on me but to be fair me personally I don't care how good the theme is I would never buy from Pinball Adventures sorry Pinball Adventures I just would probably would never buy from it would be very tough I probably would never buy from Home Pin no matter what they do sorry Home Pin especially with the Blues Brothers they're asking everybody else to code the machine for them, that gives me a lot of confidence can you imagine Stern doing that oh by the way, we're coming out with X-Men 1997 next week and you know all the hardworking people who code and do rules and everything else, they're going to be on holidays for the next couple weeks. Do you think you guys could code X-Men 97 for us? You know what I mean?
    41:53
    This one's probably a little more controversial. What about Haggis? What do you guys think about Haggis? You're over there. You're closer than us. Would you or would you not buy from Haggis if they came out with a theme you liked?
    42:03
    That one, yeah, I probably wouldn't. As much as I love those guys, and the games that I've played with, I'm sorry, I should say the games, I've played multiple Fathoms that they've brought out.
    42:18
    The build quality is fantastic. The game is great fun. The sounds are amazing. You've got the lighting under the cabinet. I love what they do, but the risk is just too much. I would much rather just wait for something to come on the secondary market for those guys. As you said, with companies, and I didn't even really think about the guys like Home Pin, Pinball Adventures. It's a hard one. And for the people that are out there trying to get these companies off the ground that are legitimately trying to advance pinball and build things that they're passionate about, then I have more, I guess I would give them more leeway. You see guys like Chris Turner, Turner Pinball, that are immediately very passionate about the hobby that are trying to do cool things and different things and are listening to people and taking on that feedback and making adjustments where they need to be made to try to better support the people who are coming to them and their customers.
    43:25
    But yeah, like you say, there's a few that you just wouldn't go near because you can see that it's all about the money for them. It's just a catch-grab. Look at Dutch Pinball Exclusive now. we're manufacturing rarity now yeah you know you're fabricating that that uh FOMO or trying to at least you know I think that's really out of touch and it hurts me too like I'm a half Dutch boy right like I'm a half Texan half Dutch so for me to not be able to support like my Canadian pinball brethrens at pinball adventures or my my wooden shoe uh wooden shoe wouldn't listen wouldn't be Dutch or whatever guys over there in Holland putting their finger in it. Oh, let's hold it. Yeah, yeah. You know, those guys, I want to help them. And I love big Lebowskis. Would I buy a used big Lebowski? Possibly. Would I buy a brand new one if they came out with a new run? No. Will I buy their next one? No. Until I can, like you said, like you even said with Haggis, great build quality. The lighting under Fathom looks cool. It sounds great. Awesome sound system Marty made sure they got in there. so they've done all these things right but we don't 100% know you don't want to put up that kind of money and not know for sure not only if you're going to get your or sorry when you're going to get it but you don't even know if for sure so I think I'm in the same boat as you if it's going to be one of those I mean spooky I would be fine putting money into JJP Stern there's I mean CGC like yeah yeah yeah it is those the the smaller ones that are tricky I mean, CGC, they make, you know, apparently the build quality is just incredible. I've got to play several of their remakes between Monster Bash and Cactus Canyon. They feel great. However, you know, it takes sometimes years for you to get your pin. And I think with them, I'd be comfortable giving them my money. But I would rather just pay the money and get the pin. I'm not a very patient person, as you might have gathered. So I guess we've got down to it. we're getting pretty close to the time when I should go get ready. I'm flying back to Ontario today to go to the Ontario pinball open there. So I'm very excited for that.
    45:34
    Something I did want to do before, I'm going to give you some time to do some little shout outs and such, but something I wanted to do, which was really cool. It probably has been killing Don to not mention anything to you, but this is an idea that Don and I kind of came up with, I think while watching your live stream and he approached me and he said that I could ask you and uh this would include this would be included for akimba as well so it's not just you but i thought it would be so cool if we could kind of try to replicate um you know uh not necessarily like what final round is doing with an australian a canadian but maybe we'd make it even bigger and kind of replicate what they do on triple drain and we could have an american a canadian and an australian all on the same show and maybe like once a month or bi-monthly if There's no news. We would go over there on Don's channel. He's willing to do all the editing and adding the music. And, you know, we'll send him our separate files. But we thought it'd be great to have, like, a newer person of Pinball, a person who's been in for, you know, to content creating for a couple years now, and then someone, an elder statesman like myself, who's been making content for eight years, right? I haven't called myself elderly before. But, you know, I'm not an ageist here. anyways do you think there's any chance you'd want to come join our show I think there's every chance yeah that's something we'd love to be a part of yeah how about the exclusive scoop on the pinball nerds podcast I love it there you go um yeah so it would end up being like uh we haven't came up with a name I said maybe triple shats would be cool um we could have we could have done triple out lane but that sounds too close to triple drain yeah we don't want to offend those awesome nerds over there because triple drain has quickly became one of my favorite pinball podcasts like of all of them out there yeah like every show i just i you know more and more and more like almost like uh uh you know they're all they're in my top five for sure but uh i just thought it'd be so cool because you're kind of like newer to tournaments don don's never played a tournament he wouldn't know what to do he'd be like what player am i oh my god no i'm just kidding i'm just getting done like razzing him a little and then like and you know and he's he's out there all the time he's the guy who gets to go to all the big events so if there was like some show that you or i couldn't make it to you and i can shoot the shots about tournament pinball a little bit we can let him go on and tell us about a new event but we'd probably mostly only record like um you know if there's a new pinball machine or a big event or like some cool news to talk about and uh it'll be a little tricky with the timing because you guys are off by like 11 hours, right?
    48:17
    We'll make it work. Yeah. All right, so you're in. We're in, yeah. I just, I always wanted to try to have like a podcast with like kind of three different people from three different areas and kind of three different, you know, views.
    48:35
    Yeah, that's a great idea. Now, are you like Don that you also work on your pins a little bit? Oh, yeah. I mean, like, I've just had a Twilight Zone that is being picked up in the next week, and that's heading over to the east coast of Australia for a guy there. And I've essentially totally stripped and refurbed that. I gave it the mirrored back glass, the chrome rails and lockdown bar, all the goodies and the precision flippers and all this crazy stuff in there that I really learned a lot by pulling all that apart and making a lot of mistakes at the same time.
    49:16
    But Tim also helped me with that to do the details on that machine as well. So even she learned some little DIY pin stuff in there. It was great fun, really, really cool experience, but scary at the same time. The refurb of that really brought me into the pinball world much more because I wasn't particularly interested. Ryan would want to go to the arcade that we go to down in Perth and I was like yeah okay and then I get pretty bored but now I'm fully entrenched after the reverb so that's awesome and Kimber or Kimbas sorry I always say it wrong you have a you also have a podcast so as we're wrapping up here if you want to give a shout out for your other pinball podcast besides Phantom Tilt you can and then And Ryan, if you want to add any shout-outs too, I'll probably do that and start to wrap her up so I can go get ready. I don't want to be late for my big airplane.
    50:18
    Absolutely. So for me, if you want to follow our adventures and vlogs and things like that, you can actually find me on TikTok more than anything at Kimba, and then Kimba backwards. So it's just Kimba at Nick.
    50:31
    And you'll be able to find my podcast on there as well. Awesome. Well, I don't have any TikTok, but I know that a lot of younger people do listen to this pod, especially from, you know, before when I was on my own channel, the demos skews much younger than, say, the average pinball podcast. So I guarantee you we got some TikTokers right there, some pinball nerds that are going to follow you.
    50:55
    Awesome. Love it. Cool. And do you have any shout outs there for me, Ryan? Yeah, for sure. I mean, yeah, just go and check out Fandom Till Pinball on Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, and a quick one for our Western Australian pinball community who have been just massive in supporting us, supporting me, giving me lots of knowledge and helping me out when I get stuck on things. We've got, you know, Jason from Pimp My Pin. we've got LJ Amusements who's the operator for Planet Royale who is the arcade where we go and spend all our time down in Perth and they do all the tournaments and they're just basically bringing the whole pinball community of Western Australia together at that one spot and just doing some amazing things and trying to grow the hobby and get more people involved yeah those guys are the backbone of our community over here so it's greatly appreciated and to yourself Albert for being so accessible to me and helping me out when I was getting started it's just so much appreciation yeah welcomed with open arms we appreciate it that's awesome some other pinball podcasts don't do a lot of shout outs to some of the newer people but you know what a lot of the other pinball podcasts, they don't break the fifth wall often. Like they just, they don't even talk about like, like you, you guys didn't really hadn't talked about your jobs tons or they don't go off topic as much as me. You don't find out about their family or their dogs and stuff. And mine's always been kind of part pinball podcast, part vlog about my life. And people who don't like it, they just don't listen and everybody else can, uh, enjoy or not. Right. So I'll tell you what, like, don't tell this to all the other pinball nerds listening, but I'm probably as excited to meet you guys as, honestly, like, Keith Elwin, Pat Lawler, Steve Ritchie. I'm not even kidding. Like, I'm serious. Like, I'm really excited to meet you guys. Thank you so much for reaching out. If you ever need help with stuff, I'll always try. Like, again, your podcast already, like, sounds more professional than mine. Your live streaming setup already looked, like, better than mine ever looked when I watched for a little on Twitch there. So you guys are killing it. one thing I will say, the one little piece of advice I would give you, only because of what, especially Kimba mentioned at the start, that a lot of times you get really into a hobby, and then maybe you get burnt out. So somewhere around, I'll try to find the link and send it to you, but I think it was called Burnout Pete. Somewhere around episode 100 or 110, I did an episode for a fellow tribe member called Brad Hopkins. Well, Brad Hopkins came in hot. He bought like 30 pinball machines in his first two years. His whole house was full. His basement was full. His lobby was full. His foyer was full. I think he even had one in the bathroom where the back two legs were in the tub.
    54:00
    No, I'm just kidding. I just made that up. I wanted to see what your reaction was. But no, he had pinball machines everywhere and then his wife was like, and then he was storing them at his dad's house and then he started live streaming and then he was doing, you know, coming on, going to every pinball tournament everywhere and then when we would go to a pinball tournament he would have like a novel of notes on every machine and I was like dude you're going to burn out just like just enjoy it and if you start to get burnt out from content give yourself a week or two off if you start to get burnt out from live streaming give yourself a week or two off if you get frustrated maybe because you're not getting you know as many followers or likes or subs just give yourself some time off because Brad now is on to the next one his new love of life Now, he still plays some pinball. He did come out and see me on my last trip there and played some Jaws with us out at Forth River Brewing Company in London, Ontario. Shout out. I'll be there this week. But he's now a comedian. So what he does now is he follows like 100 different comedy clubs on Facebook and all his social media. He goes out every Friday and Saturday to different comedy clubs. And, like, he doesn't go to pinball tournaments anymore. And he's sold most of his pins, from what I understand. And it's like, dude, I told you you're going to burn out if you went that hard. now mind you COVID might add something to do with it but my only advice is as a new content creator and you guys even see for me sometimes I go two weeks and I don't record right so if I wake up and I just don't feel like recording short of having booked an interview I try to do those but like if I just don't feel like recording I just don't record for a while and I know I've heard like Jeff Teolas and a couple other people who have been in the game way longer than me say like you know you've got to be weekly or you've got to be monthly or you've got to set that and it's like no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Maybe it was Jeff telling me just record whenever I want. I don't know. But the point is that I'm really excited to have you guys in the game. Please don't burn yourselves out. Enjoy every time you do and don't be afraid to take chances. If you want to do like Don does like this story time, which he kind of does once in a while now, I enjoy those. If you want to do a little story time, do a story time episode. If you want to go off topic a little, go off topic a little. I mean, I'm sure there's people listening going no god please Ryan don't um but you know that's just me personally if you want to say go Oilers go at the end of a thing because I think they're going to win the Stanley Cup I don't know go ahead and do it if you want to give a shout out go ahead and do it right if you had a great time at a tournament shout out that bar shout out those people who ran the tournament because we need more people going to more tournaments because then more bars get more pinball machines, yada, yada, yada. It all helps everything. So thank you so much again. Honestly, I've said this before, but if you guys didn't reach out and give me that generous PayPal, honestly, I wouldn't have said anything on the show. And because of that, I ended up getting like another grand in donations from, because you guys are so kind. I thought, well, I might as well open the floodgates. And I honestly ended up having like a third of my entire trip, like one the most expensive trips I've ever gone on in my life was paid for because you guys were so generous there in Australia. So again, I owe you my life. Whenever you guys come over here, I'm going to be the best tour guide you've ever had on the east coast of Canada and we're going to go see an Oilers games. Thanks for being here, guys. I really appreciate it. And say it with me if you know it. Until next time, Pitbull nerds, remember to eat, sleep, and breathe. Eat, sleep, and breathe. Phantom Till Pitbull! Oh!