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DPP #159 "So I've been thinkin'."

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·37m 19s·held·Nov 20, 2024
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

Metallica accessories pricing debate + Jersey Jersey Jack Pinball system analysis + American Pinball/Spooky updates from IAAPA floor.

Summary

Don discusses Stern's surprise Metallica Remastered accessory drop (topper, side armor, shooter rod, expression lights) at IAAPA 2024, analyzing pricing and value proposition for LE buyers. He covers Jersey Jack's new Pinball XP redemption arcade system as inventory clearing strategy, updates on American Pinball booth presence and Cuphead status, Spooky's expected December announcement window, and his DIY X-Men color gel insert project gaining unexpected commercial traction.

Key Claims

  • Metallica Remastered (Premium/LE) units just unboxed and accessories dropped with no advance distributor notice

    high confidence · Don reporting from IAAPA show floor; observed LE units with accessories available same day

  • Metallica topper priced at $1,000, side armor at $399, shooter rod at ~$225, expression lights at $600 for cabinet set

    high confidence · Don reviewing official accessory lineup; compares to prior pricing (Led Zeppelin expression lights started at ~$350, rose to $450)

  • Expression lights for Metallica represent $150 jump from prior Stern games; Stern keeping base game prices flat for over a year post-Godzilla

    high confidence · Don analyzing pricing strategy; notes Stern using accessories to capture margin rather than raising game MSRP

  • Jersey Jack has significant inventory sitting in warehouses (Guns N' Roses, Godfather, Toy Story 4, Elton John)

    medium confidence · Don citing hearsay: 'I have heard, and I totally believe this, that there's a ton of inventory just sitting'

  • Pinball XP is $100,000 package bundling 5 JJP games with TVs, cameras, truss, progressive jackpot system, and redemption integration

    high confidence · Don observing IAAPA reveal; estimates games at ~$20K each within bundle

  • American Pinball has 8 games in booth at IAAPA, notably missing Cuphead; status of Cuphead unclear (coin flip between release/cancellation)

    high confidence · Don reporting from show floor observations; reached out to American Pinball, received no official Cuphead announcement

  • Spooky Pinball new game announcement expected first/second week of December if not this week

    medium confidence · Don speculating: 'If it don't come this week then it's not coming next week'; places $5 bet on early December

  • Don sold 10 color gel insert carriers for X-Men in one day at $30 each after YouTube Short, with IAAPA meetup requests

    high confidence · Don reporting live project traction; 30 people emailed, 10 sold, repeat orders being placed

Notable Quotes

  • “Distributors are still trying to figure out like, okay, they didn't even know this was coming, man. There's no heads up.”

    Don @ early show — Illustrates surprise nature of Stern's accessory drop; reveals lack of B2B coordination

  • “I would have kept my prices where they were... but try to bake in more value to the consumer... if you put some more value in there and give us some more stuff, then it doesn't sting as bad.”

    Don @ pricing strategy section — Core business analysis: Stern's strategy of holding game prices flat while raising accessory costs as alternative to MSRP increases

  • “How cool would it have been if you were unboxing a Metallica (LE) and they just went Jersey Jack style and they're like, you know what? You get the topper. You get the shooter rod. You get everything in there.”

    Don @ LE value section — Contrasts Stern's and Jersey Jack's approaches to LE bundle strategy; suggests superior consumer experience model

  • “This is a way, and this is why it's great for them, that you could go and sell this $100,000 package and just move these games at essentially $20,000 apiece... so we can then go on to the new future of JJP.”

    Don @ Pinball XP section — Articulates strategic rationale for Pinball XP: clearing aging inventory to fund next-gen releases (Avatar, Elton John, rumored Harry Potter)

  • “I have no idea what the heck is going on. But they are there. [At IAAPA]”

    Don @ American Pinball section — Captures uncertainty re: American Pinball's direction post-acquisition rumors and mudslinging

  • “Cuphead is not there. Cuphead is not announced. Cuphead may be a game that comes out, may be a game that never comes out. I'm kind of coin flip on it.”

    Don @ American Pinball section — Reflects community ambiguity about Cuphead's existence and release probability

  • “If you told me in three years Cuphead never came out, I don't think I would be shocked. And if you told me in three years Cuphead was out and is now available used on Pinside, I also would not be shocked.”

Entities

Stern PinballcompanyJersey Jack PinballcompanyAmerican PinballcompanySpooky PinballcompanyPinball BrotherscompanyMetallica RemasteredgamePinball XPproductCupheadgame

Signals

  • ?

    product_strategy: Stern maintaining flat base game MSRP while aggressively pricing accessories ($600 expression lights, $1K topper, $399 armor) to capture margin; contrasts with Jersey Jack's bundled LE approach

    high · Don analyzes: 'Stern Pinball has kept the price of their games the same... But I think they're making the money on these accessories.' Expression lights jumped $150 from prior games.

  • $

    market_signal: Jersey Jack clearing warehouse inventory of aging titles (Guns N' Roses, Godfather, Toy Story 4) through Pinball XP bundle sales to location operators; strategic pivot to newer IPs

    medium · Don: 'There's a ton of inventory just sitting... This is a way... you could go and sell this $100,000 package and just move these games at essentially $20,000 apiece... so we can then go on to the new future of JJP'

  • ?

    business_signal: Pinball XP targets redemption arcade chains (Dave & Buster's, big-box venues) with integrated progressive jackpot and ticket earning; first pinball system with tangible prize mechanics in location settings

    high · Don describing system: 'progressive jackpot... as you're playing... you could earn credits... play pinball and you're counting towards credit to go get some overpriced plastic piece of junk'

  • ?

    product_launch: Stern dropped Metallica Remastered accessories with zero advance B2B notice to distributors; created supply chain coordination issues and FOMO pressure

    high · Don: 'Distributors are still trying to figure out like, okay, they didn't even know this was coming... We're learning about this at the same time y'all are'

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.112

0:00
How about another episode of some Hot Don? By my count, let's do 159. What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to the show and back to the lap of luxury that I provide for your ear holes when you're seeking some fresh, hot pinball content, twisted and spun like a sausage to your imaginations. Just got finished playing some Black Knight Sword of Rage. What a freaking game, man. That pro, that pro version, it's a battle with him, and he's yelling at you, and gives me warm fuzzies. It's just the right game for the right time. And I thought, you know what? Let's record and talk about some stuff. I know I did an episode yesterday or some such. I did a WAP episode today. There's all kinds of content dropping. But I'm not done. And neither, apparently, was the pinball world. This first day of the IAPA show floor being open, I don't think it's open to the public yet, but, you know, the exhibitors and everything wandering the floor. We're starting to see the first things arrive, and Daddy Stern had a big surprise for us this morning. The Metallica remastered is barely out of the gate. I've seen a few people, Jason Roofer, I see you out there with your Ellie, looking like fire, man. So the limited edition Metallicas have just gone out, like, were just unboxed, like, today. and then boom, we got all the Metallica accessories out. Fantastic. Game release, game accessories. I like that. Each one of these accessories I've looked at intensely, as intensely as you can in a day. Distributors are still trying to figure out like, okay, they didn't even know this was coming, man. There's no heads up. No like, hey, guess what? Monday, Tuesday, whatever today is, everything's going to drop. Here's the details. So when people are calling you and emailing you to try to get these things, here's what you tell them. Well, what they told me today was like, we're learning about this at the same time y'all are. So let's start at the top with the topper. Okay. And each one of these accessories, they're great. They look fine. I like how they look. Okay. No argument there. But there will be the argument on price. Although I will say with the prices here outside of one of them, I wasn't surprised. So the topper, right? Of course, you know, this has got to be approved by the band and everything. So they went with the Metallica logo. Classic. Love it. It's right there on the back glass as well. But hey, who am I to get upset at more Metallica? So these Metallica letters, right? Ray Day did a little bit of explanation over on the Discord for the pinball show. So I appreciate that. So these letters will tie into the letters in the back of the play field. As you're hitting ramps and things and collecting the Metallica letters, They'll also be resplendently displayed on the top box there with a metallic logo with RGB lights that light up in like five different colors or some such like that. So it's probably going to look just fine. It's probably going to look kind of small. I mean, for the top real estate that you have up there on the back box cabinet, this takes up about 50% of the space. Man, they could have went giant with this thing, especially for $1,000. Or at least put a little backdrop there with some flame lighting effects or something. You know, maybe it would be like lightnings during some times and like dark other times and red lighting effects and things. I will say it looks like an opportune opportunity for a mod maker to do an aftermarket top or upgrade for it. But, you know, get to work on that, you guys. So you got the Metallica letters. Again, they look fine. There's four flasher domes beneath there. As you're doing the modes or collecting the dragon heads or whatever the heck you do in this game, as you increase or do better in those modes they'll change to different colors so it's fine it's fine, it looks good if you got yourself the LE you already know you're going to get the topper anyway so why are we even having this conversation I'm glad it wasn't $2,000 I think it's $699 I wouldn't even be angry I don't think I'd even be angry at $1,000?

Don @ American Pinball section — Expresses deep uncertainty about Cuphead trajectory; normalizes cancellation possibility

  • “I've sold 10 of these in the last day. Like, Boom! This is super popular. Like, crap, I spent a couple hours today just making some more.”

    Don @ color gel insert section — Unexpected commercial success of DIY mod; indicates underserved market for Uncanny X-Men aesthetic upgrades

    • Donperson
    David Fixperson
    Ray Dayperson
    [name withheld pending review]person
    Jeffperson
    Ken Woodsperson
    Uncanny X-Mengame
    IAAPA 2024event
    Elton Johngame
    Avatargame
    Harry Pottergame
    Bugs Scream and Streamevent

    rumor_hype: Harry Potter rumored as upcoming Jersey Jack title; Don speculates multi-million licensing cost and strategic importance for clearing inventory before announcement

    low · Don: 'If Harry Potter's coming out it would have had to have been a multi-million dollar licensing fee... pay for that they need to by moving some inventory'

  • ?

    community_signal: American Pinball's direction and Cuphead status remain deeply unclear post-acquisition rumors; community split on whether game will ever release

    medium · Don: 'American pinball has been drug through every bit of mud... I've given up on trying to forecast... Cuphead may be a game that comes out, may be a game that never comes out. I'm kind of coin flip on it'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: David Fix remains visible at American Pinball despite recent mudslinging; Don expresses confidence in his vision and personality

    medium · Don: 'I love the personality of David Fix, and I want to see how I can fit into the world that he has created' and 'A fix was on location'

  • ?

    announcement: Cuphead not featured in American Pinball's IAAPA booth despite prior rumors of new showable content; status remains unconfirmed

    high · Don at show floor: 'notably absent is Cuphead... it looks like I'm not disappointed... Cuphead is not there'

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Spooky Pinball expected to announce new game in early December 2024 window if not revealed this week; Don quantifies as 'first or second week of December'

    medium · Don speculating: 'If it don't come this week then it's not coming next week and it's going to be December... I think maybe the first or second week of December if I had to put $5 down on it'

  • ?

    technology_signal: DIY color gel insert carriers for classic pinball inserts gaining rapid market adoption; Don's 3D-printed design selling 10 units in one day at $30 with sustained demand

    high · Don: 'I've sold 10 of these in the last day... I spent a couple hours today just making some more... I got people now messaging me they're going to show up at IAPA, and they want to just pick one up'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Don's color gel carrier design enables 3-minute installation vs. traditional multi-step process (disconnecting wires, removing boards); democratizes aesthetic modding

    high · Don: 'other people think it is super cool... I made myself a card and what that allowed me to do is just undo the screws slide the card in screw everything back down and you're done it's like a three minute install'

  • ?

    venue_signal: Big-box arcade chains (Dave & Buster's reference) represent target market for Pinball XP; Don predicts multi-location deployments at $65K-$100K price points

    medium · Don speculating on operator conversations: 'We have 40 locations... Let's say we start with 15 of them at $65,000 and see how it goes... that pragmatically is probably how this is going to work'

    • 4:00
    if I'm a premium buyer and I'm looking at this when I buy a topper I want something that I can't create myself Black Knight Sword of Rage topper two degrees of freedom of movement two axes of rotation it's going to take me a while to be able to come up with something like that plus injection mold the whole thing to match the knight in there so like that I get Foo Fighters topper I'm not going to put in all that work to the acrylics and everything to get the LEDs so I get it although that was a bit pricey Mandalorian topper, cool more of that, can we get back to that at these prices but you know the Metallica logo I could put a box of lights up there I'm sure somebody else would do that, whatever I think if I was getting a premium which I will I could probably do I don't know, can you even say that you're not just going to go and buy the official topper once it's available anyway, all I'm saying is it's a thousand bucks, it looks great I dig it, I love the interactivity and everything yes I wish it was some more yes it was a little bit cheaper that's kind of how I feel about it and they're probably already sold out So who cares? Let's talk about this, though. Side armor, right? So this is the typical slant-cut premium side armor that we've been seeing. We saw it with Jaws. We saw it with other games where it sweeps down to give you a little bit of a button guard, which I like because it keeps my greasy fingers off of the art that's on the cabinet. So I dig it. It's printed with a sword and some kind of hand or something on it. Again, it looks fine. It matches the premium artwork. If you got the LE, you already got cool armor, so don't even worry about it. Okay, again, it looks fine, but it's $400 for this armor. I would think seven times before I would make that purchase. I mean, it looks cool, right? It looks fine. At $199, it would be reasonable. $225 is probably what I would have expected.
    6:02
    $399, I think, is a bit of that. What do they say over on Slam Tilt? I think it's a bit of the cash grabby. As cool as it is for painted side armor, I don't think it seems worth it at that price point for me. But then, you know, look, I got friends that make this type of armor. I got powder coders that are friends of mine. So, like, I'm going to create and craft something, you know, fantastic and magnificent. But, I mean, you know, if you didn't want to take that step and just order it all at once and be done with it, again, it looks fine. It looks fine. $3.99, bit of a push. shooter rods have gone up to around like 225 now how much was the Foo Fighter shooter rod trying to think I think that was like 249 I will say this it looks like they copied the design of the Rush shooter rod which I like that one because it kind of brought the LED lights that we saw with Stranger Things where it lit up that D20 for my money I think the official shooter rod from Stranger Things probably my favorite I love that D20 and the fact that it lights up so it's cool that Metallica is all about a box of lights, right? Expression lights, the back box cabinet lights. And so they brought it to the shooter rod as well. I can dig it. Simple Metallica logo, and it's in the same shape as the Rush shooter rod, but it has the LED lights in there. Is it RGB or just red? I'm not too sure about. The whole thing comes assembled. You put it in there, 250 bucks or 225 or whatever. Again, it's fine. Don, are you going to come up with something on your own? Yeah. But that's kind of like I'm a hobbyist like that. I like to create my own stuff. But, again, like it's okay, but, you know, nothing earth shattering or something. I think for my own design, I'm going to go with something a little bit different there. So what do we have left? We talked about the armor. We talked about the topper, which, again, fine. A little expensive. Wish it had a little backdrop to it. Shooter rod. There was one more thing. Oh, that's right. Expression lights. Now, the back box cabinet lights, those are $225, $250 or whatever. They're available for every Spike 2 game. And with the interactivity that's coming with these code updates, it's kind of like, what are we even doing? Go ahead and get that. Get yourself some Ken Woods. Get the LE edition of it. Throw them in there. Boom, there you go. Find a friend to do some acrylic inserts for you, and you got the look, the aesthetic from the LE. Okay, right? Now, if you're an LE buyer, you've already got the cabinet lights. You've got the back box lights. Building in a ton of value for you. because just alone, the price now for the Expression lights for the cabinet is $600.
    8:31
    Now, when I first saw them doing these Expression back box cabinet lights, I put $700 as probably the price for like the complete set and everything. And now they've surpassed that into $850. I was a little bit, as I say in the UK, chuffed that they came in at only like $200, $200 and a quarter, you know, for the interactivity lights that you could get. Super cool.
    8:55
    But then now they're kind of backslid and went up on the actual lights for the cabinet. So, yikes. When these things came out, remember, they were, I believe, around $350 for Led Zeppelin. And then we saw them go to $4, $4.50. And then this is a huge jump. This is a $150 jump up to $600. So here's what's happening. Stern Pinball has kept the price of their games the same They haven gone up since when did they have that big jump I know it was after Godzilla but then Godzilla went to the new pricing So it been over a year now that they haven raised prices by the grace of Allah right Praise be to him.
    9:32
    But I think they're making the money on these accessories. All right, so if you bought the LE, right, you got the Invisiglass, you got the Shaker Motors, you don't have to buy those things. Those are kind of, I mean, the Invisiglass is not a must-have, but super nice. Shaker motor, absolutely a must-have. So you're already getting that. You're getting the expression lights at now a $600 value, right? They have back-box cabin lights, $200. So you need to buy yourself a topper. If you want to complete the look and get a shooter rod, that's basically all you have to do. I think there's a lot more value baked into the LE. And this was something that I called back, I don't know, about nine months ago or so. People were talking about we really need to see a reduction in pinball pricing. I agree. I mean, of course. Of course we need to do that. Well, we see it. No, we won't. What I thought was going to happen, and if I was running a company, this is the approach I would have taken. I would have kept my prices where they were because we've already gone through the work to get there, and we want money because we're a company. I'm speaking as if I am actually one of them, which I'm not. But what you would do is keep the prices where they are, but try to bake in more value to the consumer. So as time goes on and inflation is kind of catching up, that price due to inflation, if you keep it the same, will be down relative to where it was earlier. And if you put some more value in there and give us some more stuff, then it doesn't sting as bad, right? And we saw that. We saw them include the more extravagant premium armor, starting with Jaws. We saw them actually include a shooter rod with Jaws' LE, and I thought that was a fantastic way to go. You know, have all the lighting in there and give us at least a shooter rod. Man, if you're buying the LE at $13,000, super overpriced, at least give us that. At least give us that. but they started with wick you know we saw them kind of backslide again you know but wick came with the expression lights so you know they're keeping one price per skew right for that trim level and i kind of think dynamic pricing would have been the way to go with it but i guess that's going to be fraught with its own issues dynamic pricing would be like you know john wick le would come out at 11 000 metallica le would come out at 14 000 you know just kind of like read the room and adjust prices as you go. But here's what we're seeing. So they're keeping the prices the same. They're not baking... Well, they're baking in some value still, but then they're still selling us the $200 shooter rod and the $1,000 topper and all this business and whatever. How cool would it have been if you were unboxing a Metallica LE and they just went Jersey Jack style and they're like, you know what? You get the topper. You get the shooter rod. You get everything in there. There's nothing else left to do. Like, if you're getting on an LE, you are now an elite buyer. You got everything in there. I don't think we'll ever see that, at least not from Stern Pinball. But that's what we see. So to recap, Metallica accessories are out. They all look fine. I dig them. It's cool. Prices, whoa, really shocked at the jump for the expression lights. But I am happy at least that their accessories are available. Cough, cough. Venom and John Wick, where you at? We'll see what happens. Dungeons and Dragons, is that going to launch with all the accessories? Is that really the game that's coming out? Is that just a rumored placeholder name? Probably not. All right, what else happened today? We saw the reveal of whatever this new endeavor from Jersey Jack is, and I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. Pinball XP, they're calling it. I dig it. So this seems to be some sort of system. I don't know if it's going to be on individual games or not. I'll ask them when I go down to IAPA tomorrow. But it looks like what they've done is they've added like a progressive jackpot to a bank of pinball machines. to cut to the chase I think this is a great idea for Jersey Jack pinball I don't know that it's a great idea for consumers great idea for Jersey Jack pinball love it so you walk into I'll just pick Dave and Buster's they never have any pinball but let's say they go in on this $100,000 extravaganza which gets you five games do you get to pick which ones are they preset I don't know that yet I'm going to ask them but you get a bank of five games with five screens and cameras and everything so it's like filming the play fields It looks very impressive based on the photos that I've seen. I posted one up on the Facebook page. Go check that out. Or it's all over NAP Arcade. It's everywhere. You've probably seen it by now. But imagine walking in as a pinball naive person or just a member of the general public, the GP, as we call them, and you see this bank of games. You're like, oh, wow, look at that. There's an Avatar game over there. Wow, a Godfather? Oh, hey, there's Toy Story. I remember that. And so I think it will be something that we call in the theme park world a weenie, right? something to draw you in over there and have you spend your tokens. Speaking of which the functionality of this seems to be such that as you're playing, you know, this would be, you, you swipe your electrical card, you know, from a modern arcade, which has, you know, your codes on it and loads all your credits onto your account. And then as you're playing, you could earn credits to your account to go buy yourself some candy or a, you know, I don't know, gummy bear, some kind of plushy toy where the kids get the, uh, squash mellows right at the redemption area at the end. So I like that. You're not choosing between playing the coin pushers where you're moving towards getting to win a prize or just playing for the experience of pinball. At least you play pinball and you're counting towards credit to go get some overpriced plastic piece of junk, which we love, man, as well. We go to arcades. So I dig that. The progressive part of this is, assumingly, as people are playing these games, there'll be a jackpot that'll build, and then, whether randomly or through skill, you could win that cash-out jackpot. And then I'm sure the whole thing, like, goes nuts, and then you get that interactivity and that dopamine release that you get from slot machines. And I think that's where they're going with it. And for a pinball experience on location, I dig it. Here's the reality, though. I have heard, and I totally believe this, that there's a ton of inventory just sitting for certain titles related to Jersey Jack's releases. Namely, Guns N' Roses Godfather Toy Story 4. I have heard that they're just sitting in warehouses somewhere. Elton John, their greatest release probably ever, is even still satiated the market and is still out there. So this is a way, and this is why it's great for them, that you could go and sell this $100,000 package and just move these games at essentially $20,000 apiece, throw in some TVs and some cameras, a truss and some electrical equipment, and get that inventory cleared out, man, so we can then go on to the new future of JJP, which I think is going more in the direction of Elton John and Avatar, which I love, and less in the direction of Guns N' Roses and Godfather, even though Guns N' Roses probably the until Metallica came out one of the best music integrated pins as far as experience and light show gameplay wise wasn't there we all know why but I'd like to see them continue to go in this new direction especially if they got those bangers coming especially if they got that Harry Potter listen if Harry Potter's coming out it would have had to have been a multi-million dollar licensing fee that they probably had to pay for that and pay for that they need to by moving some inventory man nobody wants to go looking out at putting down seven figures into licensing plus ordering parts when you're looking at warehouses full of unsold inventory that's just sitting there. And if Harry Potter comes out and it's fire, nobody's going to be going to buy Godfathers, let alone for location. If you were buying a location Godfather, the place that you would go to is Pinside. Pick one up for $7,000 and go put it out there and start making some money. I think that's what would happen. So if you could see this big wall panel of five games, all the TVs and everything, all ready to go, plug and play. Your distro will come in and set it up. I see that as a win for the right location. Not a mom-and-pop place, man. River City's Arcade. I don't see them going ahead and getting one of these. But for Jersey Jack, it looks like it's a way that they can combine titles that maybe are less desirable with ones that are more desirable, push them all out onto somebody's balance sheet, and then they can go ahead and move some of this inventory. Also, side effect, we'll grow pinball into these Redemption Arcades more so than they are already. So I love that part of it. So I'm a fan of this, even though I'm not a customer of this. Now, realistically and pragmatically, when I look at this, I'm seeing, let's just go with Dave and Buster's again, but, you know, fill in your big box arcade chain. Let's say they come in at IAAPA to booth 709, I think is where they're at, and they say, oh, look at this $100,000 extravaganza you guys have. You know, I kind of like this. I think we can go in this direction. How about this? We have 40 locations around the United States and Canada. It's $100,000. Let's say we start with 15 of them at $65,000 and see how it goes. Okay? And I think that pragmatically is probably how this is going to work. It's probably closer to the negotiations and conversations that are happening at IAFA, or at least in the back rooms, or maybe after hours with cocktails. But either way inventory gets moved from warehouses where it doing nobody any good It gets at a location where it only going to expand the footprint and reach of pinball in a new way And this is the first time, I think, that you can play pinball and actually get tangible prizes out of it. The technology already exists. I love that this is there. When you go to the arcade and you play the pinball, you're just getting the experience of playing the game. You're not getting any of the tickets, man. And even though you can put ticket redemption things in Stern Machines, there is a slot for it in the Q24 option menu or whatever. But I love this. I love this, and I want to see more of this and where it goes. And hopefully this is the first part of a platform jump into more online connectivity. And, you know, you can have your own personal Pinball XP account and then get your unlocks and stuff. And that's got to be the direction that they're going. And that's what I want to see. And if it helps them move inventory in the meantime, clear out some space and bring out some bangers. I think that's a win for us, man. I think that's a win for us. So, again, this is the second time I've been chuffed. And so I'm going to go down and see if I can data mine the details. And I'm going to go snoop all over this thing. Hopefully I can creep up there without being seen. I want to see the inner workings. I want to see how things are plugged in. I want to see if there are HDMI ports. I want to see if there's Bluetooth not locked down so I can get in there and play some of my own stuff. Whatever. We'll see what happens. But I'll go check it out. I'm so excited, man. I'm boarding the flight in like 12 hours. are going to be down in IHOP. Oh, yeah, 2024, brother, yeah. All right, so what else do we have?
    20:04
    American pinball has been drug through every bit of mud between here and plain Illinois, it seems like, in the last week or so. What's the truth? Who the heck knows? I've given up on trying to forecast the direction. I'm just holding on to the reins and going on for the ride, man. You know, I love the personality of David Fix, and I want to see how I can fit into the world that he has created. I want to see one of these white label barbecues make the light of day. What theme? I can't even hazard a guess at this point as to which theme would be rethemed into barbecue for their white label society, or even if they can be retconned from all the unsold barbecues that are sitting around, just like right now down at Lowe's and Home Depot that we were getting into the fall and winter, and the barbecues are on clearance. I guess they were on clearance back in October. I guess that was a little bit on the nose, wasn't it? Wasn't it? All right, well, regardless, they do have an actual booth this year. Last year at IAAPA, there were, I think, three American Pinball machines all the way up against a wall, and there was one Galactic Tank Force in somebody else's booth that sold, you know, I think card redemption systems or something to show it off. I played both Galactic Tank Forces because it was still like a new game back at the time. so they have an actual booth this time with like 8 games or so including both versions of BBQ but notably absent is Cuphead it was worse than a coin flip on if it was going to be there or not I absolutely did not expect to see it there and it looks like I'm not disappointed I don't know, I am disappointed I want to play it I've got to work on that analogy regardless, Cuphead is not there Cuphead is not announced Cuphead may be a game that comes out, may be a game that never comes out. Again, I'm kind of coin flip on it. I don't think I would be, if you told me in three years Cuphead never came out, I don't think I would be shocked. And if you told me in three years Cuphead was out and is now available used on Pinside, I think I also would not be shocked. So, ergo, I have no idea what the heck is going on. But they are there. Now, weren't they rumored to have something new to show off? I kind of think I remember hearing that from somewhere. I've reached out, and the only thing I got concrete is they didn't have an announcement on Cuphead being there, but the sense was it wasn't going to be there. So, again, I'm going to the show floor tomorrow. I'm going to pop down there and be like, yo, what is happening, guys? Let me know what's going on. I'll broadcast it to everybody else. We're all like pins and needles to see, like, you know, after the scathing reports and stuff, like, where's the retort here? If you'll think back to that dark Saturday that the rumor first broke, it must have been about a year ago, that, you know, America Pinball was looking for a buyer. They were done. And then, you know, they quickly, well, quickly, several days later kind of caught on to it and then gave like a public information release that, no, in fact, they're doing well and they have a game ready to release. I haven't seen an official response yet. And the boys look like they're busy. They're down there to app us. A fix was on location. So I'll go down there and look for the Indiana Jones hat And the beard and mustache And we'll try to see what's going on With our boys there Who else goes to IAAPA from the world of pinball? It's really a JJP Stern And in this case American Pinball Show That's what was going on last time This isn't a show that Pinball Brothers goes to This isn't a show that Spooky drives down to They're probably working on getting their new game announcement Like sometime soon If it don't come this week then it's not coming next week and it's going to be December. But now I'm starting to think maybe the first or second week of December if I had to put $5 down on it. Nothing of this is official. I've reached out for comment, haven't heard anything back. Happens. Boys are busy. Game's about to come out. Holidays are coming up. Whatever. It's nothing but sunshines and rainbows and elbows down there in Benton right now. So I think they've heard in themselves a little levity, as it were. we'll see what happens on Thursday for Bugs Scream and Stream go check that out it's lovely if you want to go ahead and get yourself some metallic accoutrement I've already reached out to Jeff at Bad Pinball and he's putting in his order tomorrow so as of this recording the order is going in so if you want to get something get in on it these accessories while they are available now that doesn't mean they'll be available immediately now so if you think you want something I'd order it sooner rather than later so then you can get something. They tend to make accessories in batches, and they don't really give us any idea. I mean, they don't even tell us when they're releasing these things. They just drop it on us. And so, you know, they may make 300 toppers and then not make another 200 for six months. You know, that could happen. So if you want to get in on something, get in on it. If you know somebody that's crafty and you want to try to homebrew DIY something, go ahead and reach out. You know, I'm always kicking stuff around. Speaking of which, I just put up a YouTube short yesterday. Gosh, these days are running together. But I went ahead and jumped on this recent trend of putting color gel inserts underneath the play field of pinball machines so that the normal just white insert lights can have some color and some flavor to them. And so I started that with X-Men here. This is my first time I've done that. And, oh, boy, is it paying off in some dividends, man. So you've got that matrix of the lights in the middle. I think I talked about this on the last show. So I got some color gel inserts. I 3D printed a carrier card for them so it all goes in in one piece just to make it easier for myself, plus give myself a little something to do. So it turned out it's amazing. It's amazing transforming just these white inserts into multi-different colors, dude. It just works, man. For Juggernaut, it's red. it's red also for the storm and firestorm uh battle i think firestorm pyro whatever that guy's name is you know some are purple some are yellow some i left one of them white it's cool man i saw other people doing this by you know cutting the little gels and taping them with masking tape underneath and removing the led board and disconnecting all the wires to get to it so i made myself a card and what that allowed me to do is just undo the screws slide the card in screw everything back down and you're done it's like a three minute install and so i did a youtube short 60 seconds long. It's on Don's Pinball Podcast YouTube channel. Just click on shorts. And I walked through the installation process of it. It was super cool, man. And since posting that, I found out that other people think it is super cool as well. Because I said, you know, hey, I got some extra ones of these that I made. If anyone's interested, just email me, donspinballpodcastgmail.com, and we'll work it out. And we'll work it out. Like 30 bucks, I'll send it to you, free shipping, whatever. You know, I'll throw some stickers in there, I'll make it a whole thing, right? And so, like, I've sold 10 of these in the last day. Like, Boom! This is super popular. Like, crap, I spent a couple hours today just making some more of them just to try to keep up. I got people now messaging me they're going to show up at IAPA, and they want to just pick one up there. So, like, I don't know how long I'm going to keep these in production, but if you're interested and you got yourself an Uncanny X-Men and you want one, like, email me now, get on the list, and I'll start, you know, cranking out the rest of these. I'm going to have to order more parts soon to keep making these. I didn't know they'd be this popular. But it's super cool, though, man. Check it out. I posted pictures and things. So just want to put it out there to give everybody a fair shot. If you want one, let's get one. I'm not a guy that does, you know, mods. I do a mod, and then I move on to something else, and I move on to something else. So when things are available, they're available. And then when they're not, like I've moved on to something else. So just putting it out there. If you want one, like get at me. If you've got a game ordered and you think you might want one, also get at me. I'll get you, fam. I got you, man. We're going to do all this together. having a lot of fun with the printer and creating stuff I'm getting better at it this is another part of the hobby that I totally enjoy alright so what else do we got I doing custom machines now that something that just started I got an X Premium right now sold I got an X LE that will be done with its build pretty soon. Fully powder-coated all the mods in it, plus a topper that's interactive with the game. Come on, it's a Sentinel up on top of there. If you're wanting to get yourself, here's the deal. Here's the deal. I don't have any margins on this. I'm just doing it for fun. So, I got one available, an LE. Rather than pay
    28:23
    MSRP for like a vanilla one with no shaker motor, no nothing in it. You can buy this one. It comes with a topper. It's fully powder coated. And shoot, I'll even beat the price of a new in-box LE if you're interested. Again, get at me. So far, people have been kicking the tires. No one's confirmed yet. So I'm just giving everybody fair warning if you're interested. If not, totally cool, man. I'm just trying to spread the word, you know, and give everybody a fair shot. This is something that, like, I would totally jump on, right, if I was in the market for an LE, which I seem to be every couple of weeks. And then coming up, I've got a Metallica premium project. Oh, I just got some parts in order today. It's going to make this thing look as close to LE as you can get. Yeah, LEs are sold out, man. Forget getting one of those for less than $14,500, like ever, man, especially if someone puts a topper on it. I'm going to take a premium, and I'm going to get pretty close to that LE with what I've done. I'm talking about armor, powder coat, topper, all of it, all of it. So I've got a premium coming in, hopefully in this next build, if not the one right after that, and it's already sold. but due to efficiencies of buying in bulk, if you'd be interested in a Metallica premium build that looks pretty close to the LE,
    29:33
    maybe let me know. We can maybe work something out. I haven't turned this into like a business. It's still a hobby for me, but it's been super fun making this stuff and like people have been enjoying it, man. So just trying to put out some mirth into the universe wherever I can. All right, so my topic I want to get to, kind of part of the reason I want to sit down and talk today, was I was driving myself around, and I was inside my own head, and I started to have like a realization that I was trying to put out there. So making pinball is hard. Making a pinball machine may be easy. Making several is hard. We know that, okay? You have to have two things is what I've determined. You need to have a design studio, right? This is either contract or hired, artists, layout designers, fabricators, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, like a whole design team. you have to have, like a design studio, right? When Gomez talks about he's head of the design studio, he is head of the studio. There's all kinds of creative talent you have to have. You have to have them on payroll or at least beck and call by contract so you can make things work, right? It takes a lot of parts to make these, a lot of money, a lot of talent. The other thing it seems like you have to have is manufacturing, which is like its own beast, man. It's not like, okay, we'll do the design thing, and then we'll worry about the manufacturing later. Like that's equal, if not more, of a dang hassle and specialty. Now, Stern's got this down. Most companies do, but the place where people run into trouble is conflagrating these two. I think that's a word, right? So if you're running a warehouse, you've got to heat this thing. You've got to keep the air conditioning on. You've got to have staff that's there. You have to have parking. You have to have a wall of microwaves. Like there's all this overhead that you have to have. And you can go about it two ways. You can hire on a full-time staff and then just like sweat your pants trying to keep that line moving nonstop so everybody's eating that week. Or you hire on a contract basis and then you have to worry about like retraining everybody when it's time to do another run or something. And what I'm wondering is, is this like the model that should go forward in the future? if you're going to be a pinball company or involved in the production of machines, should you necessarily have a design studio that you're running and a manufacturing business that you're running and shipping and all that business logistics, right? You have to have Sally at the office, you know, coordinating dock times and all this stuff. At the same time, you're trying to track down an artist to do some self shading in a different color. Like it's madness. Is that necessary? Or, and we've seen this happen, can you just be a design studio, right? You're clustered together in a couple of office suites and you've got your artists there you're working with, or maybe your artist is remote. They don't have to necessarily be there. You're a mechanical engineer, electrical engineer. You're doing meetings three times a week or something to keep everybody on the same page and the project manager's got it going. And then finally you come out with it, you built your prototype and you're like, this is our Whitewood, this is our game, This is our design. This is what will work. Let's take this recipe to a manufacturer, and let's contract build this thing. Then you don't have to worry about, you know, oh, we really want to go with these five new projects, but we've got to worry about keeping things on the line. We can only put forward a project that's going to sell 5,000 units. We can't put forward a project that's only going to sell 350 and move on to the next thing because you've got to order these parts in and all this other business. so just why can't there be design studios and there can also be manufacturing hubs like like i could own a manufacturing pinball business where all we do is cabinets and bolts and miles of wiring and quality control testing we put things in boxes and we send them out but we don't have to worry about the design process we just we keep our line going we list our availability you can book that availability with us and get your game made. And this would give power to smaller studios or studios that could be a little more nimble, right? It's got to be nerve wracking to think like, all right, here's five ideas of a title we can do. Which one are we going to commit on? Which one is going to be a Elvira Blood Red Kiss? Which one's going to be the next Godzilla? Which one's going to be the Metallica LE? And which one's going to be a Venom? Which one's going to be a Godfather? Like which one's going to be like, you know, it's going to cost all the same amount of money and resources and time and animations and everything. But then if it turns out to not be a sales success, like we could be, we could be done. Right. So should somebody just get together with the know-how and just be an expert in manufacturing and somebody else can just like leave that manufacturing for somebody else and just focus on making quality content. And like, would that be better than some people spreading themselves too thin? Stern is a machine. Spooky is very much in their niche, and they're fine. I look at American Pinball, and I'm seeing a manufacturing enterprise that's got everything you could want, right? They've got the rolly carts, got the QC area. They have all these parts and everything. They have beautiful marble floors in the office area. They've got the hot dog warmer in the break room. They've got all the parts to build machines, but what we haven't seen is a compelling design that's come out. Case in point, my favorite American Pinball machine, my favorite, Legends of Valhalla. It shoots great. It's got some cool animations. It's got a neat theme. And it's got that Kraken shot up there. It's got magnets under the playfield. You can lock balls into the Viking ship there. It's got a Thor hammer. It's got it. It's cool. It's a cool game. It's probably my favorite that they've made. I know Hot Wheels is probably their biggest seller. People really love Houdini. I like Houdini okay, but it's not something I'd be compelled. But I considered purchasing a Legends of Valhalla before just because like I liked how it shot. I kind of dig the theme, even for being an original theme. I think it's kind of fun. But who designed that, right? That was Riot Pinball, wasn't it? The Wrath of Olympus guys? So that was a design studio that then contracted to have their game made by American Pinball. And what happened? It turned out to be my favorite game that they've made. My favorite game that they've made. So what I'm saying is they don't have to give up their design studio or anything. but maybe to keep their line moving and generate some extra income I know everybody these days in this economy could use some extra income maybe why not look into that maybe I'll ask them and hopefully they don't cold clock me on the side of the head for suggesting it but is that something that would be reasonable if there was an entity say in Chicago that could just churn out 500 games in a matter of a couple of weeks would other people be spurred on to say you know what, we've got this design. I took a Whirlwind and I turned it into the greatest showman. Maybe I can go get that license, have all that talk done, and then take it down the street and have these guys build it for me. And maybe we only want to make 150, right? We want to make 150 of them. It's not worth it to build out manufacturing, excuse me, manufacturing just to make 150 games. But if you've got a place that will contract build it for you, would that not make sense? Tell me what you think. Email me, DonSpinballPodcast at gmo.com. Want to get some mods? Want to get a t-shirt? Want to get some stickers? Want to get a handshake? Want to get a selfie? Want to get a soda? Whatever. I got you, dude. Let's keep this on rolling. And I am about to roll out of here down to IAAPA.
    36:55
    DonSpinballPodcast, gmo.com. I already mentioned that, man. Give yourselves a round of applause for being just like some of the coolest people. I have nothing but awesome conversations all day long with y'all.
    37:05
    We're going to meet over there at IAAPA. later this week. I'm going to go hang out at Universal. Free play Florida is coming up. And I'm going to be there too, man. I'll be there Friday or Saturday. Definitely Saturday. Alright, later everybody.