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The Pinball Show Ep 126: Paywall Polos, Punny Business, & THIS Is Spinal Tap?

The Pinball Show·podcast_episode·1h 44m·analyzed·Apr 25, 2023
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

Stern production timeline, code updates, and exclusive Patreon content about future pinball IPs.

Summary

The Pinball Show episode 126 covers Stern's production schedule updates (Foo Fighters shipping, Rush accessories rolling out, James Bond and other titles scheduled through August), code updates released on 4/20, discussion of a custom Goldfinger LE machine, James Bond 60th Anniversary gameplay streaming, and Patreon membership tiers with exclusive content teases about Back to the Future, Goonies, and Super Mario Bros pinball machines. The hosts also discuss Jason Sudeikis reportedly listening to the podcast and touch on various tangential topics.

Key Claims

  • Foo Fighters Limited Edition pinball machines are now shipping; Stern halted LE production briefly to transition to Premium production due to parts delays

    high confidence · Direct discussion of ongoing Stern production; host is a distributor with insider access

  • Stern is 2 weeks behind initial 2024 production schedule due to parts delays, but considers this acceptable

    high confidence · Explicit production timeline statement from Stern representatives

  • James Bond Pro and Premium shipping scheduled for mid-to-late May; Iron Maiden Pro/Premium early-to-mid June; Godzilla Pro/Premium mid-to-late June; Avengers early July

    high confidence · Official Stern production schedule communicated to distributor

  • Stern released code updates for their entire game catalog on 4/20 (stoner day)

    high confidence · Confirmed by both hosts; James Bond updates included new sound element selection feature

  • Jason Sudeikis (actor, Ted Lasso) listens to The Pinball Show podcast

    medium confidence · Relayed via friend's report; Sudeikis allegedly confirmed 'Yeah, I've heard it. I listen to those guys'

  • Rush expression lighting kits outsold Rush toppers in pre-order sales

    high confidence · Direct statement from distributor (Flippin' Out) on sales data

  • Foo Fighters Pro model cannot support expression lighting; this was a deliberate designer choice by Jack (Danger) to allocate more bill-of-materials value to Pro tier

    medium confidence · Second-hand attribution ('it was said that Jack said somewhere'); host notes uncertainty about this claim

Notable Quotes

  • “Jason fucking Sudeikis, man. Hopefully we can get Steve Jablonski in doing a film, doing music. I'm going to ask them.”

    Host (Kaneda/Zach) @ ~mid-episode — Celebration of celebrity validation of the podcast; sets up excitement about potential crossover media opportunities

  • “Speaking of stoned, did you see on 420 Stoner Day, Stern dropped code updates for every damn game in their catalog? Yep. Like a dealer giving everyone their fix.”

    Host @ ~code updates segment — Humorous framing of Stern's synchronized code release; signals timing was likely intentional

  • “From a business standpoint, I think it's a good idea. From a consumer standpoint, it fucking blows.”

    Host @ ~expression lighting discussion — Captures the tension between manufacturer business optimization (limiting Pro features) and consumer value expectations

  • “At least their Photoshop work was better than Stern's.”

    Dennis @ ~custom Goldfinger discussion — Acknowledges custom art quality while implicitly criticizing Stern's original James Bond artwork

  • “So good on you, Joel Engelberth, for standing your ground and saying how great for 90% of people, how great Cactus Canyon remake really is.”

    Host @ ~Joel gameplay discussion — Validates player who defends accessibility/casual appeal of a game against competitive community criticism

Entities

Stern PinballcompanyJason SudeikispersonJack DangerpersonJoel EngelberthpersonDennis NordmanpersonThe Pinball ShowmediaFlippin' OutcompanyChicago Gaming Companycompany

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: The Pinball Show Patreon launch with tiered membership structure; Screaming Goat Club ($100/month) with custom polo shirt generating significant early adoption and community buzz

    high · Patreon people...There are a lot of not only official club members in this, but there are Nordman club level participants as well as the Screaming Goat level participants. People are loving it.

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern deliberately excluding expression lighting from Pro model tier to differentiate Premium and LE products and reduce non-core manufacturing load

    medium · Jack Danger opted for Bill of Materials to put more into the Pro by not having expression lighting cutouts... if they're doing better on premiums and they want to push the premium product more than the pro, maybe it is kind of a good idea.

  • ?

    community_signal: Flippin' Out stream engagement format (best current-production game per manufacturer vs best ever game per manufacturer) driving active community voting and discussion

    high · we kind of did it in two chunks...Which one would we pick from each of the major manufacturers? And then based off of how it was going with the live chat and stuff, Joel went ahead and also cloned the categories.

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Joel (Flippin' Out streamer) defending Cactus Canyon remake's accessibility/casual appeal against community pressure; represents generational divide in what constitutes good design

    high · Joel is standing his ground quite firmly...to his love for Cactus Canyon by Chicago Gaming Company, that remake. So many people...have tried to knock him down...you're standing strong.

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.312

0:00
Warning, the following episode contains adult language and screaming goats. Listener discretion is advised.
0:12
The Pinball Network is online. Launching The Pinball Show. This week on The Pinball Show, we go meta again. So like reciprocal exponential meta or like back to the meta. I don't know. Dennis and I also chat about Stern production schedule modifications. Foo's rushing in. Getting stoned with Stern game updates. A custom gold finger. Flipping out with Din Din. A message from Day Fix and American Pinball. A spooky tease. Punny business. This is Spinal Tap? The Pinball Show starting lineup and pinball market trends. Oh, and this week, the Pinball Show club members get exclusive content covering insider information regarding the potential for Back to the Future, the Goonies, and Super Mario Bros. pinball games. You're not going to want to miss that. Iron that favorite polo shirt, baby, because episode 126 starts now.
1:13
Pinball is a game of skill. For some, it's a passion and a lifestyle. It's time for the Pinball Show. It's pinball with personality. This one is from my one and only true love, Princess Peach.
1:33
Dennis, you're so cool. On the show, we're gonna rule. Pinball, pinball, pinball, pinball, pinball, pinball, pinball, pinball, pinball, pinball, pinball. Oh, yeah.
1:53
Hey, Dennis. Hey, we're back. Episode 126. It's a big one for us. It is. It's like a number no one would ever really talk about. Right? Number 125. It's huge. It's the best. Yeah, kiss my ass, 125. I got your Koopa right here. Honk, honk. I was hoping we could have taken another month off. I know. Did you ever... Why did I call Bowser Koopa growing up? I thought he was Koopa. Well, he's king of the Koopas. He's king of Koopas. So Koopa is more a nationality thing, I guess? Or is it a type? He's still one of them turtle types. Okay. He's just a terrible turtle rage. He's just a mutated one? He's got a spiky shell and stuff. Yeah, well, because he's the king. He's upgraded. He's like Elephant Titus or something. What is wrong with him?
Foo Fighters
game
James Bond 60th Anniversarygame
Iron Maidengame
Godzillagame
Avengersgame
Rushgame
Deadpoolgame
Jurassic Parkgame
Cactus Canyongame
Penwooferproduct
Eon Productionscompany
The Patreon Showmedia

design_philosophy: James Bond 60th Anniversary IP licensor (Eon Productions) constraining custom machine design; speculation that movie poster requirement reflects licensor preference for 'pointy people' authenticity

low · Maybe this is what was required so the licensor wouldn't complain...they should know pinball if they're like some old timey person.

  • $

    market_signal: Rush expression lighting kits have outsold toppers in pre-order volume, indicating strong demand for expression lighting feature

    high · we sold more expression lighting kits pre-ordered for Rush than we did Rush toppers. So, yes.

  • ?

    community_signal: Jason Sudeikis (Ted Lasso, SNL) reportedly listens to The Pinball Show; represents celebrity validation of niche podcast; story relayed second-hand via mutual acquaintance

    medium · our friend said, You ever heard of the pinball show? He said, yeah, I've heard it. I listen to those guys.

  • $

    market_signal: Expression lighting exclusion from Pro tier creates consumer friction despite solid Pro features; seen as business optimization over customer value

    medium · From a business standpoint, I think it's a good idea. From a consumer standpoint, it fucking blows.

  • ?

    product_strategy: Stern 2 weeks behind initial 2024 production schedule due to parts delays; Foo Fighters LE production halted briefly to transition to Premium run

    high · Overall, the production timeline has been delayed from initial estimations at the beginning of the year. We're back behind about two weeks due to parts delays.

  • ?

    product_strategy: Stern detailed production schedule through August: Foo Fighters through late April, James Bond mid-late May, Iron Maiden early-mid June, Godzilla mid-late June, Avengers early July, Deadpool/Jurassic Park August

    high · Mid to late May will have James Bond Pro and Premium...mid to late June we're going to see Godzilla Pro and Premiums...Early July, we're going to get Avengers, pro and premium.

  • ?

    technology_signal: Stern 4/20 synchronized code update across entire game catalog; suggests coordinated software release infrastructure and testing maturity

    high · Speaking of stoned, did you see on 420 Stoner Day, Stern dropped code updates for every damn game in their catalog?

    • 2:42
    Okay, so Koopa, is it the land of Koopa? I think that's the land they rule. The genus species is. The whole place is, I thought, the mushroom. Well, you know, I don't know if the whole world is the Mushroom Kingdom or that's just like Peach's domain. I like Peach's backstory. Sorry, listener, we're talking about the new Super Mario movie that Dennis has seen, I have seen, and so much so that you did on Eclectic Gamers Podcast a review of that film for your Patreon followers. That's pretty awesome. Yeah, the news was light enough. And, you know, I'm always torn on whether to stick in a ton of filler onto an episode or if it's better to just let people get out of there. People love the opening filler, man. I can tell you that much. Well, yes, of course. But I mean, like, you know, sticking in like a – historically, what I'd normally do is we'd stick in like a more theoretical pinball topic, for example, to fill out time. But we've done most of them, and I hate redoing stuff. So anyway, bottom line is we ended the episode really, really early, which I know not everyone loved. but we didn't actually stop recording. We went and then did over 20 minutes of movie reviews because Tony and I had both gone and seen separately Dungeons & Dragons movie and the Super Mario movie. So we were like, you know what? Let's go ahead and do that. Let's do movie reviews. But we'll put it up on the Patreon. That way people don't feel like that they're being forced to listen to movie reviews on a pinball and video game podcast. Just give me the fucking pinball content! Fuck!
    4:13
    Mm-hmm. Sounds like pin sideway. No, but we would never conduct such shenanigans as putting something so awesome like a Mario review behind the paywall.
    4:26
    Ridiculous. Yeah. That's gross. Just slimy. But I tell you, listener, what we will do, and we'll talk about Mario later on in this episode, and maybe if you're following us on Patreon, you'll get the goods regarding pinball. But with that said, we do have to thank all of our followers and listeners, all of our Patreon people, Dennis.
    4:53
    I'm surprised at how many people have chosen to do it. You guys surprised Creasel. I do say thank you. I always appreciate people who are willing to support shows, our shows, other shows. It's appreciated because it's with podcasting. It's not like AdSense just gets turned on. maybe some sites can do that maybe some sites we looked into the advertising for you know how the big podcast you know my thing is I'm like are we gonna so we're gonna have audible and manscape that's right take out all the ads like it's not really thematic so yeah thank you to all of our patreon followers all the club members for the pinball show I was pleasantly surprised as well to see so much feedback and boy oh boy there are a lot of not only official club members in this, but there are Nordman club level participants as well as the Screaming Goat level participants. I couldn't believe anyone would actually pick that category. It's the fucking polo, man. It's the polo. Well, you did say it was going to be nice and embroidered. I hope you know a good supplier. We have been discussed so much throughout the different pinball mediums. Is it all positive? Oh, I tell ya. People are loving it. loving the idea of Patreon, loving the pinball show, loving the polo. Polo is trending right now. I didn't know all of you guys cared as much as you do. So for mentioning us on Pinside, on other forums, in text messages, the angry messages and emails as well as podcast videos, all mentioning the pinball show and the popularity, thank you so much. Thank you even more to all of you Screaming Goat, nor man club members and official club members. We get, we have a nice exclusive discussion on Patreon this week. Dennis, how do they sign up to Patreon? They go to patreon.com slash the pinball show. And as a reminder, all you have to do to sign up and support the pinball show and become an official club members, go to patreon.com slash the pinball show, like Dennis said, and sign up to be an official club member for $10 a month, which is going to give you that exclusive content portion. each and every TPS release, as well as access to our private TPS Discord, which has been a freaking blast. I think we're surprising some of our club members on how fun that little group is, right? Yeah, it's actually had some fun discussions. I've seen some of these before where the Discord, it's not active, but this one's been active, which is good. I'm glad people are enjoying it. A lot of good ideas coming out of there as well, and a lot of juicy information. not to take away from the second tier, which is the Nordman Club. It's $25 a month where you get all of the official club membership stuff. Plus, you're going to get a TPS decal. You get to pick a topic. And a couple of those topics are coming in now that we're going to be discussing in the future on future episodes. And these guys are good. They're really good picking some of these topics, as well as a monthly Zoom hangout, which we're going to discuss later in this episode. That's coming up this week. So I'm excited about that. And if you're a big baller shot caller and you just want to do everything you can to support the pinball show, it is unbelievably appreciated. You get a little bit of this.
    8:08
    At $100 a month. Sure, you think it's heavy, but you guys have hundreds of thousands over at Pinball Machines. Shit, it's okay. It's all right. Welcome to the Screaming Goat Club. You get all of the stuff that was mentioned. Plus, you get that exclusive members-only polo shirt that everyone is raving about. They're all talking about it. So many people are upset, angry. Did I say upset and angry? I mean amazed at this TPS polo shirt that I almost want to get an embroidered logo on it. You know, like the polo, the little polo player on a horse. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know the brand. I'm thinking one of two things. Either Din Din riding a screaming goat or how about we get fucking meta on these people that are hating. And remember why I made the shill shirts? Just embrace it. Why don't we get an insignia of an actual polo shirt on a polo shirt? Dennis, come on. So that's a little too Christopher Nolan, if you ask me. It's like some Inception thing going on here. What a fucking top. What was that thing? So you get on the Screaming Goat Club, you get the official members-only polo. You also get a personal shout-out every episode. We're going to be doing that later on and a little bit of surprise with that, as well as private personalized chat channel with Dennis and I. And that includes all of the insider info, rumors, behind-the-scenes knowledge, dirty little industry, and gas-worthy tidbits. The juice is on full squeeze there. And you've got to keep that confidential because we dropped some nugs. We've already started that. People are loving that. As well as what we call Be Our Guest, where you join a TBS episode with us. And we're going to start in a couple of months doing that, all of that and more. But right now, we've got to talk about some pinball, or these people are going to drive off a cliff in the California hills. You think we've got any Cali... Oh, Dennis. What? I forgot to fucking tell you this. Uh-oh. I forgot to tell you, because it's occurred during TPF, and I was in the middle of... I was in a funky little mood traveling and stuff like that, and then I get this email. and this email spoke about it was one of my friends within the movie industry and stuff like that and really nice people that I met through pinball and they were hanging out with the one and only Jason Sudeikis.
    10:28
    Remember we talked about Sudeikis? Oh yes. Yeah. A while ago, yeah. So the Sudeikis is a big pinball person as we've talked about before. you know, the multiple award-winning show Ted Lasso, as well as Saturday Night Live and everything else wonderful. The guy's done so many awesome films, but he's a pinball aficionado. And our friend of the show asked his friend Jason Sudeikis when he was hanging out and said, Hey, you ever watch any pinball videos or listen to podcasts or something? And the son of a bitch said, Yes, Dennis. And not only did he say yes, our friend said, You ever heard of the pinball show? He said, yeah, I've heard it. I listen to those guys.
    11:10
    Dennis! Do you think maybe they just said that to comfort you? Not Jason Sudeikis, no. Well, no, I mean, you're a friend. And then they sent me a picture with him of Sudeikis and them. They were rapping Ted Lasso season three. Took a picture. Bam. Oh, my gosh.
    11:27
    Yeah, pinball boner over here. Did you know that? I'll give you an interesting little side tidbit that Jason Sudeikis is from Kansas.
    11:34
    Yes. Yeah, I did know that. Not originally, not originally, but he lived in Overland Park, which is a city that is adjacent to... Oh, that's a college town. Well, there's a community college there. Johnson County Community College, I believe, is technically within the boundaries of Overland Park. Which is just a little bit north of Olathe, where I live. But we're both Kansas City suburb areas. I still don't know why Olathe always sounds so dirty to me. I'd call it Olathe.
    12:02
    Olathe. Well, it was a tribe. I don't know why I want a Lake Olathe. Jason fucking Sudeikis, man. Hopefully we can get Steve Jablonski in doing a film, doing music. I'm going to ask them. They're actually... Jason Sudeikis. I want them both to stop listening. No! I'm going to ask them. What are you doing? Free us of this, because Zach's going to... He's going to go full Gearbox, which is the whole video game company, but the head of it is all enamored with Hollywood and wants to do movies. That's right. You want the pinball show to become the pinball show movie. It's going to be like – I could care less about celebrities. It's just these people I get. SNL skit transformed into – I love film scores and bands. The work of somebody I appreciate likes our stuff. Inspirational buddy podcast comedy. That would be fantastic. We're traveling around in the flipping out van. and shenanigans happen. Sudeikis is a sneaker fan, too. I don't know if you knew that. Sure, he might have stumbled across a lace, but he's a sneaker fan. So that's how I, you know, I much appreciate it. That's how you bonded. That's how you became a fan of his based off of your mutual love of footwear. So, yeah, if he does listen to this show, I wouldn't anymore either.
    13:26
    Not after this. Fucking stroke fest. Fuck this. Oh, God. I'd say let's transition over to Craig Bobby. That fucking guy is not even giving us an update this week. Now, that's a hero worth listening to. I need a hero. No, he's not. He's – I don't – what is – I forgot what he's doing. I think he's down – I think he's out of town in Texas or something on business. Craig is? I think so. Do they let him out of Canada? They do. He's a business guy. Oh, I've never met him at any pinball events, and I'm at all the big ones, which is TPL. I think he might be in Houston. Oh. You know, I've never been to Houston. I need to go down to their show, the Houston. Oh, that's right. They do have one. Yeah, that's the party show. And I hear Austin is weird, and I hear that from Austin natives. They say that it's weird, and they're very proud of that. I've not been to Austin either. It used to be trendy. It's not anymore, I don't think. Oh, is it not? No. Now it's just mainstream. It's too mainstream now. Is it Olathe? It is not the Olathe of Texas, no. Okay. I still want to give a little, I don't know, to Olathe. I remember there was a book, What's the Matter with Kansas? It was written years ago. What the fuck? The author, the author, who is a Kansan. was describing various places in Johnson County. And Johnson County is the most populated county.
    14:37
    Anyway, you've talked about Olathe. I think in his book he described it as, it's the sort of town where you go to and you expect to see five broken down vehicles in every front yard.
    14:50
    That's not nice. Wow, that's touching. Speaking of touching, I always feel like when I hear the word Olathe, it sounds like a very sensitive hanging part of skin. I just want to tickle it.
    15:04
    Thanks for nothing, Craig. You folded like a cheap lawn chair. Let's move on to Stern News. Do you think Stern Pinball has any lawn chairs within their facility? No. Really? Not even out back where they all smoke? That's valuable microwave space. Stern Pinball is in the news. Did you know that Foo Fighters LEs are now shipping? I did know that, yes. They're coming. They're coming quick. We have seen a lot shipping out this last week. I was able to unbox one myself and take a look at it. Ooh, shiny decals. Those are rushing out. Oh, rushing, huh? They're rushing, rushing.
    15:42
    Does anybody have the Foo Fighters locally? Yes, but I've not played it locally yet, so I've still only had my TPF experiences. The 506, East West. 403. You know, I haven't been to the 403 Club this year. What? No, I haven't played anything. I haven't played a single tournament this year. Part of that was with my work schedule. I was just like, I don't both. Mostly, I don't feel like it. I was also a little worried about if I've got hearings the next week, they won't reschedule a hearing just because I'm sick. So I try to minimize my human contact because if I get the flu and I can't show up, I don't get a redo. So we had a few rough bills this year. We just a bunch of it. It's almost done. I'm getting I'm getting to my happier time of year. Wait a minute. What is the happy time of the year for you? When they're not in session. Is it spring? No. January through March are my worst three months of the year because of work. And then April is usually relatively calm, so that's why I'm in such a good mood. You like April showers, don't you? Then May, yeah. And then after June, the second half of the year is usually my better half of the year. Why can't we go on vacation together?
    16:52
    Why would we? I don't understand why we can't. We're like Penn and Teller. They don't do anything outside of work together, and that's how they get along. You don't travel south for vacation. I don't understand that. We still haven't talked about the cruise. I'm not a duck. We'll make it another episode. I'm not a duck. And speaking of ducks, did you see that migration trailer? Holy crap, was that stupid. What? Before your Super Mario movie. Did you see that duck movie? You know, we came in a little bit late. I was rushing. Oh, you're one of those people. I was rushing. But you paid for Fast Pass. You bought Greg some FastPasses, and then you bought yourself some FastPasses and went right in and got the good robe with the bar that you can put your feet up on. Okay. So many people think so incorrectly about me. I'm not a hot weather person, Zach. We had to look. We came in late because I was at the local gas station telling my kids, buy some cheap candy and stick it in your shorts. We're going in. We're not paying for that expensive shit. Okay. Now, I do that as well. Oh. It's like, no, I'm going to bring the Twizzlers from Hy-Vee. I'm not going to buy Twizzlers at the theater. Foo Fighter LEs are shipping as well as premiums. Well, congratulations. I didn't know about premium shipping. Yeah, you heard it here first. Premiums are now shipping. And I can say that because, so what happened over at Stern Pinball, for whatever reason, I think it was a parts delay, they had to halt production for just a short period of the Foo Fighter LEs to transition over to some premiums. What's the part difference on the LE that's different? Backglass, powder coat trim. I would say shakers, but we recently got a large order of shaker motors, so I don't see that.
    18:28
    Maybe expression lighting. That's what I've been wondering, if it's the expression light. Maybe that's it. Damn it. Now, Foo Fighters is the one where they don't have the setup to let you put the expression lighting on the pro models. Is that correct? Nope. Do you think that's a good move?
    18:45
    You think that business-wise that that's smart? It was said that, I think Jack said somewhere that as the designer, he opted for Bill of Materials to put more into the Pro by not having that, the cutouts. So that's why it happened. I don't know what to believe. Do I think it's a good idea?
    19:08
    I do if you don't want to make expression lighting systems. Right, right, right. If there's not that much money to be made on them and you're still – And that's what I've just been wondering. I don't know if you – you're a distributor. Do you sell a lot of expression lighting systems? Oh, Jesus. Are you comfortable talking about that? I am. Yeah, I don't mind. If you want, we can put it behind the paywall. I think the parts department and old flipping out are in a good place right now. Right, gang?
    19:35
    Yeah, I think that we sold more expression lighting kits pre-ordered for Rush than we did Rush toppers. So, yes. We – and we sold a lot of Rush toppers. Now, do you know the breakdown, though, of pro versus premium? That I don't know because it's one kit, so I'm not sure. Oh, so the kit was – they didn't have to make a special pro kit. Correct. It was a universal kit for the Rush. Oh, okay. I wasn't – I've never owned a game that uses this, so. Yes, I don't – Interesting. I think it is nice for them if they're doing better on premiums and they want to push the premium product more than the pro. Maybe it is kind of a good idea. I mean, I can see it as like a, again, when we're talking about, you know, Patreons and paywalls, it's kind of, I could see the point like paywalling it and saying, okay, well, we're going to make another differentiating factor and say, if you go below premium, you can't ever have this anymore. Yeah. Plus, it solves the issue of they don't like making them a whole lot. Pay the dime to get the shine. Yeah. And that pro is so damn loaded that if any title, they're going to do it to any title to test the waters, probably a good idea because people want that dead post and they want the ability to do expression lighting.
    20:47
    So from a business standpoint, I think it's a good idea. From a consumer standpoint, it fucking blows. It blows.
    20:54
    So they did halt production of those LEs for just a little bit. They said hopefully within a week they'll get back to the remainder of the LEs and then they'll make the remainder of those premiums as well. So that's kind of what's on the line over at Stern Pinball right now, Not to mention, shipping now are some of the Rush accessories. The shooter rod and the armor are now shipping. That was faster than I was anticipating. So those are on their way out from your dealer or from Stern Direct. I know that we started shipping those out on, I think we're shipping those out today. Woo-hoo! And no word on the Rush topper. They still say, hopefully, production towards the end of the month here. And expression lighting kits the same. But we'll see. I mean, if they start, they've got a kind of, they announced, you know, into April they want to do production of the Rush accessories, which includes the Expression Lighting. So we're getting clogged up with the Expression Lighting maybe. I don't know what that is all about. And then if we're talking about production updates, Dennis, Stern Pinball mid to late May will have James Bond Pro and Premium, as well as Jurassic Park Premiums on the lines. Mid to late May. So that tells me they're going to be running Foo Fighters LE and Premiums all the way for the probably next two to three weeks. Also, we've heard that in early to mid-June, we're going to see those Iron Maidens that people have been waiting for, the Pro and Premiums, early to mid-June. And mid to late June, we're going to see Godzilla Pro and Premiums. We knew that we were going to get that. And overall, the production timeline has been delayed from initial estimations at the beginning of the year. We're back behind about two weeks due to parts delays. But still, Stern emphasized, and I agree with him, still in the grand scheme of things, not bad. They're happy with that. Sure that they would like to be right on schedule, but two weeks this far into the year, they're quite happy with that, that there hasn't been anything catastrophic to prevent or to really change up these production timelines. Early July, we're going to get Avengers, pro and premium. And then mid to late July, we're going to get some more Foo Fighters, pro and premium. Mid to late July. August comes along and that's where we, Remember, we got that Deadpool Pro and Premium bumped up, and then Jurassic Park Pro is going to be August as well. And then probably the next Cornerstone. Yep. Then the next Cornerstone. Speaking of stoned, did you see on 420 Stoner Day, Stern dropped code updates for every damn game in their catalog? Yep. Like a dealer giving everyone their fix. I know. They're like, hey, guys, even if you're stoned, you can figure out this Wi-Fi update. I did my updates of those code sets yesterday Nice to your Deadpool premium and your Godzilla premium Yep, and I don't know what the differences were I got a new achievement in Deadpool, but it was one that was already in there I gotcha A lot of them were probably just operating system stuff I know the James Bond Cornerstone and the 60th They had some girth to them, especially the Cornerstone People are really starting to warm up till Sean Connery. The 60th anniversary update, you get to pick additional sound elements. So that's pretty cool. And speaking of James Bond, did you see, Dennis and listener, the custom James Bond Goldfinger LE that was on, I think, Facebook? Somebody did a custom Goldfinger edition? Yes, I did see that. What did you think about it? I thought it was pretty good overall, but it was an interesting decision. And we were kind of discussing this earlier before we started recording, But interesting decision to go with doing the posters on the sides. On the right side. Right, right, on the right side. It felt to me like they were wanting to do a custom Goldfinger as if Stern had done it in the design of what they had done for all the other games, which probably wouldn't have been the direction I would have gone. But the Goldfinger poster and the Goldfinger art, it looks, in my opinion, better than any of the ones they did choose. So I still thought it was the best package I've seen. I did like the trim and color scheme that they did utilize on that with the whites and the golds and the movie poster, film poster from Goldfinger. But then I'm with you. The right side of the cabinet, I'm like, I know you're trying to make it as authentic Stern looking as possible, but damn it, that's what everybody hated. Why are you putting movie posters on the right side again? At least their Photoshop work was better than Stern's. Maybe this is what was required so the licensor wouldn't complain. Eon?
    25:24
    Is that what it is? Eon? I think so. Eon Productions. I just pictured some old man named Eon. Eon, someone's printing off your stuff again. Why are you doing it? It's so weird because they should know pinball if they're like some old timey person. What's going on out there with the pinball machines? That's why they wanted the reels though. But I'm just surprised they got away with the movie posters. I expect them to go, why aren't you using pointy people? They need to be pointy people. and hell why don't we keep talking about James Bond and flipping out with friends Joel was streaming James Bond 60th anniversary on the Flippin Out YouTube live channel Did you catch any of that I did catch maybe 20 minutes He was loving it. I think he was surprised. Yeah, Joel is what I describe as a newer pinball person, and they tend to gravitate towards very modern games. No, I wouldn't like that and say he doesn't get to have an opinion. just that a lot of people get brand new into the hobby especially like in the collector angle they often they only play a lot of new I know he's owned some older games too but if you've started with games that are full featured with ramps and all of that you might look at something that's single level even if it's modern and initially think you're not going to have fun with it ok I see where you're going I think that's just true for a lot of people that was loaded down right right and even if you go back and say something like taxi or something, it's still, you know, we're in that modern era where we're going to have ramps and clean feats and all of that. And so when you look at a game that looks like it's more inspired from something from the early 80s, for example, you might have some recalcitrance to think that you're going to enjoy it. Recalcitrance. Wow. Okay. Wow. You guys check that off your fucking Creasel bingo card there.
    27:14
    They're so judgmental with that bingo card. He did seem to enjoy the hell out of it. Very competitive between him and his brother. So go check that out on the VOD as well as streaming Foo Fighter, Foo Pro. And that was a lot of fun as well. He seems like he prefers Foo Fighters over Bond 60th. And I've got to give Joel a little bit of credit here because you talk about the brights and shinies. He's a positive person. He can fall into the trap of being very positive unless it's spooky pinball or Halloween or anything. But he is standing his ground quite firmly, I may add, to his love for Cactus Canyon by Chicago Gaming Company, that remake. So many people, including his friends, have tried to knock him down a little bit off the peg and say, you know, it's too easy. He's standing strong. And I can respect and appreciate that because I know how it feels looking up for games like Popeye or Stranger Things or some of the games that people – poo-poo, Halloween. I've looked up for that one. So good on you, Joel Engelberth, for standing your ground and saying how great for 90% of people, how great Cactus Canyon remake really is. Weren't you on that stream last week, you and Hottie and Mike? You guys were on the – Yeah, we were on it in a chatty chat one, yeah. Yeah, you talked about Penwoofer. Yes, there was a Penwoofer segment, I recall. Well, 20 minutes maybe. Well, it's 2023's Precision Flippers, my friend. Yeah, I wondered if he was going to put Precisions on the Bond 60th, but I didn't want to ask. I was waiting for my Penwoofer set because he was streaming it all, flipping out with friends. I was like, oh, I guess I'm endorsing this thing now too. Where's my set of Penwoofers? But you also, you guys talked about Pony Factory, which we will discuss. And you played a game. shall we play? What was that? Yes, Mike had suggested a game that we played. If you were pinball machine, which would you be and why? No, no, no, it wasn't quite. It wasn't anything so philosophical. It was more that we kind of did it in two chunks. So one was of the current, basically current production, essentially it was of games that are new games that we could still get from a distributor, essentially. Which one would we pick from each of the major manufacturers? And then based off of how it was going with the live chat and stuff, Joel went ahead and also cloned the categories, but then changed the question also to, if we could buy any game that they've ever made, which one would we pick? So one question was, what is the best game each manufacturer has done? And one was, what is the best game that you can get from each manufacturer, new in box? That was a lot of fun watching that. None of yours surprised me. I think they were all pretty solid. I'm pretty predictable. They were pretty solid too. I don't even know why we're talking about – people need to go back and watch if they want to see the Creasel takes on that. Watch the video on demand. I even love the part where he's talking about Penwoofer and somebody being smarter than everybody else, and you're like, wait a minute. What qualifications do you have to be smarter than me just because – Well, maybe they are. I don't know. Could be. I still remember – I don't know if I ever counted this. I went to an attorney I worked with once, and I don't remember. She was talking up someone's – I don't know. They had done something. She was like, oh, they were so smart. This is so clever. And I was young and maybe more arrogant than I am today. And whatever it was, I thought wasn't that impressive, or I didn't think it was that challenging. I said something like, I could have figured that out, too. They went to a safe school. And she just looked at me, like looked at me over her glasses. She was like an older woman. And she just goes, Dennis, you're no Oppenheimer. Oh.
    31:01
    It's one of the sickest burns I think I've ever taken. It's like, ouch. We weren't talking about nuclear fusion with bombs or anything. And you're immediately just like, well, you might think you're clever, but let me tell you. Did she at least wink at the words or something with a smirk? Like, no, no. It was like, get out of my office now, Dennis. Sounds like a sensual comment. It wasn't delivered particularly sensual. She was like looking down. That's a good one. Nice burn. It was. It was impressive. And different people approached it in different ways. That was sort of interesting. So some of my answers were repeats, like Godzilla, for example. And it's like, well, Stern, especially if we go all the way back to their data, East Days have a lot of really interesting games that when you broaden up the catalog, I'm trying to tell, like if someone was to tell me, like, what's the best one? And are we thinking like in a vacuum or what? And that's where – like Joel, I know he emphasizes this a lot on his things because he's got that whole – I call it the MCI philosophy. It's the whole friends and family thing. For those that are too young to know, MCI was a telephone company, and they came up with the friends and family plan.
    32:11
    That's where that expression comes from. Joel may not know that or think that that's where it comes from, but that's where it comes from. Pepperidge Farm remembers. Yeah, right. Pepperidge Farm and me remember the 90s when there was AT&T, MCI, and Sprint, and this was the landline wars. And that's how it all played out. So MCI had friends and family plans. And so anyway, so Joel approaches pinball with an MCI philosophy. And so some of his decision making in terms of what he was picking was influenced heavily by what he thought others who are his friends or family members would want to play, which isn't a wrong perspective to go from. But it's like, OK, so you're putting those are conditions, of course, that you're putting on them, whereas like what game I want to play isn't the same every single time. But if I'm in a vacuum having to, if someone says, say, what is the best game in the entire manufacturing history of Stern going back to Data East? I'd still say Godzilla. So I need to pick Godzilla. I was surprised to hear he was riding GTF all the way through the catalog of American Pinball.
    33:14
    Yeah, the, I'm trying to, well, did. I think he did. No, no, no. Joel was torn between Houdini and, did he ride? Was it? Was GTF the other one? Maybe. Because he dogged on it so much otherwise. Yeah. He's a Houdini hater, like the rest of y'all listeners out there. No, no, no. He was torn about that the shots were tight were his big negative, but he likes all the toys and stuff in Houdini. So Houdini is one that's really high up on his list otherwise.
    33:48
    So yeah, maybe it was that in GTF, because Mike went with Legends of Valhalla, didn't he? Was he Love or was that Hottie? I went Hot Wheels. I can't believe somebody go love. Someone did. I can't believe somebody go Hot Wheels.
    34:02
    Someone named me did that, did Hot Wheels. Speaking of, where is GTF? Exclamation point. Oh, sorry. Where is GTF? Thank you. Question? They're fixing some minor issues, I heard. Yeah. So I'm going to read part of an email we received as a dealer over at Flippin' Out Pinball from Dave Fix. Oh. Mr. David Fix emailed everybody and said, greetings, everyone.
    34:30
    Such and such, blah, blah, blah, et cetera, et cetera, yada, yada. Thrilled to see the excitement surrounding the game. Galactic Tank Force, appreciate that. Thanks for the feedback, blah, blah, blah. Let's see here. We've noticed some issues with the lock mechanism and our vertical up kicker in GTRF. And after extensive testing, we've identified the issue of magnetized balls causing difficulties with these mechanisms. If you experience any issues with these magnetized balls, let them know, and they'll get some replacement stuff.
    35:03
    Also understand the importance of smooth gameplay, teams developing a new bracket to prevent air balls, further enhancing the overall experience. I'd like to address concerns about the code of GTF our passionate team of developers is constantly working and proving it we recognize that there is room for growth we're going to be releasing an update soon to address any issues enhance the gameplay experience we love pinball AP driving force behind our work small but dedicated team of just three programmers two animators and one mechanical engineer we are committed to delivering high quality games taking pride from titan rubber it's silicone dave i thought he was in this longer than five years um let's see in light of concerns about pricing of our games want to emphasize that our margins have always been extremely tight profit i love this profit isn't what drives us we're driven purely for the love of the game we invest in our games to ensure the best possible experience for our customers, Dennis. It's not about the bottom line. No, no, no. This is no salesman approach. This is about sharing our passion with the pinball community. Fucking tickle that passion, baby. And then they express their appreciation for the ongoing support, growing and learning with AP, feedback is valuable, stand by our games, continue to evolve, passion forefront, unwavering support, staying tuned, yada. Okay. Not a sales speech here, huh? Hmm. It's inspirational. Damn it, Dennis. Profit is not what drives us. Hmm. They're driven purely for the love of the game. Fucking Kevin Costner. Come on. So they're a nonprofit. I never looked up their tax status, but it's good to know. Look, they invest in their games. It's the best possible experience for their customers. It's not about the bottom line. It's about the top line. how can we get you into this gtf today through charity okay so all right so the vertical up kicker and lock mechanism magnetized balls to change your balls all right for what the eight people that have it where is this game at i we have no production updates on when this thing's going to be on the line when they're going to be have you have you you've not gotten any no i still I need to email them. I still don't have confirmation of the freaking orders that I thought they took. I don't know. I don't know where anything's at. Where's Cactus Canyon remake SE Pluses, Epsilons? Where the hell are those at? Oh, yeah, the three tiers because of all the demand. There's more than three tiers flowing from our customers, Dennis. These people want their damn LEs and SE Pluses. The LEs, I'd estimate the LEs being over halfway done, if I had to guess.
    38:00
    All right. But there's still LEs that need to go out. What about SE pluses? I think those are coming after.
    38:07
    We have no production updates on those either. I've been telling customers SE plus, end of the year-ish? I don't know. But isn't that when Pulp Fiction is supposed to come? Well, Q3 was, so yeah, I mean. Do you think they build pulp before? Technically Q3 is well before the end of the year, unless they could mean the very end of Q3, I suppose. Do you think they build pulp fictions before SE pluses? I know they said they're going to have two lines, but, you know.
    38:35
    I'm going to say no if you're asking me do I think that a pulp fiction comes out before an SE plus comes out. But I think they will not be done with their SE plus production when they are building pulp fictions. How about that? Yeah, that makes sense. And we do know that there have been a handful of SE pluses for whatever reason that did get out into the wild months back. Just a very small handful, just a couple. A wild SE plus appears. Yeah, and I don't understand that. I don't know where GTFs are. I don't know where Cactus Canyons are. I know where Scoobies are. They're flowing rapidly and readily out of the factory. So much so, I see some people trying to sell their spots now. Isn't that just the spooky way? Yeah, I mean, it does. And I know that they have a long arc on their production. You know, normally they often get it done before the 18-month periods that they set for themselves. But they have a relatively long arc in terms of announced production for a limited run of games. But so why are they selling them? I mean, it has been a crowded march. I could see where people would have changed their mind after seeing a different game that they liked more. They're just sitting and they're waiting and they see other things come out. and that's all. I think that's all it is. They did get some more Scooby code over on the spooky pinball front.
    39:54
    Yes, that's right. There's still probably some ways to go, but they also talked about, they had a post on social media, Dennis, where Scott Ines, I think it's Ines Ines, renowned voiceover person for Scooby-Doo is recording with them. They said there's some upcoming call outs. The post read with a picture of Scott Ines in the recording studio. It says, Scott Ines can do just about any voice under the sun. I wonder which one he's in the studio doing for us right now. A emoticon with a scratchy chin, more Scooby-Doo material, question mark, or maybe even something for a future game? And I said that with inquiry and with excitement because they designate it with alternating exclamation points and question marks.
    40:39
    So what is that? So we do know, the good thing is we do know that we're going to be getting even more call-outs, which is fantastic. We're going to get more Scooby Code. That game is a pure fun game, just like a Cactus Canyon is. So a lot of people enjoying that. And there are, I think they're up to, we just had, I think they're up to 300 or past on their production of those games. Because we just had series in the 250s shipping. So you're a pretty big fan of the Scooby-Doo pinball. I like it. I think it's a solid game. I like Cactus Canyon. Solid game. Do you think that it's the right theme for that layout?
    41:19
    I don't see any problem with the match between that layout style and that theme because my argument would be sometimes it is confusing when I go up to Turtles and it kicks me in the nuts, and then I walk up to Willy Wonka and it spits in my face. So, OK, so you mean given the the cartoon theme that you think kind of I don't disagree with that. I just think that colorful family. Yeah, yeah. I just think given the the generous ball times of the layout that it would have been better if they had themed it the never ending story.
    41:59
    I want to see the toy with a horse in the swamp. Our tax. You had to work for that joke, but it did land. Thank you. I think at least 20% of the listeners got it. They understood it. I wonder if they got my laugh that was also singing. I want to know how many got my wild SE Plus appears. That's a deep cut. That's not a movie either. I don't know that one. Well, we'll find out. I'll have to think about it. No, you're not going to get it. Don't even waste your brain on it. I don't think you know the source I'm pulling it from. I know. So, in the words of Frozen, let it go. You know what? I'm going to go on a limb and say it has to do with a video game with the quote, a new challenger appears. Is it close? You were right on the first part. I wasn't pulling it from a fighting game. Oh, okay. I don't know why it felt very like a new challenger appears or a new ranger appears.
    42:59
    Actually, that's a good one. Good guess, but not. Yeah, well, it wasn't what I was thinking of because the wild is not an element of that. I got you. Anyway, it doesn't matter. There's a lot of guesses in pinball. There are. One of which we are going to not only guess, but we're going to provide maybe some exclusive information, maybe some behind-the-scenes info, some licensing chatter. And what we're going to be discussing is, I'm going to put a question mark on this, back to the future pinball? The Goonies pinball? Oh, no. Super Mario pinball? Oh, my gosh. No, no, no, no, no. Yes. Is any of this true? Is it going to happen? And what do we know about the potential for these godlike themes to become pinball machines? S-tier licenses. What's above A-tier? S-tier. No reference. That's a video game thing, too. Yes. Fighting game video thing. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. so if that interests any of you guys all you've got to do is be a patreon follower and come come listen to it right now because dennis and i are going to deep dive into back to the future pinball the goonies pinball and super mario pinball are they happening what information do we have regarding the future of these licenses and their integration into pinball it's what everybody wants are we going to get it you're going to have to tune in and find out otherwise we're just going move on come on people somebody got mad at me dennis because i was like don't be a tight ass it's 10 bucks sign up to our patreon somebody got mad and was like you know what i'm not listening anymore because they infer that i'm a tight ass if i won't spend ten dollars and my response just wanted to be like it's a fucking joke is it i'm not i don't know if you're really a tight ass i don't know is it this is an entertaining podcast and informative but to the person that i made angry referring to them as a tight ass because they didn't want to spend $10. No, that would never do that. If anything, I don't think you can take a joke.
    45:06
    Didn't you interpret that as me? I didn't really mean that people. Yeah. I mean, I don't spend $10 on any podcasts. So, Oh, look at you. I am the podcast.
    45:18
    Do it. Moving right along to pinball adventures, or a quirky little company up in Vancouver or British Columbia or somewhere up in Canada. Yeah, it's been a while since we really heard a lot about Out of Them. Early on we did for a while, and then it got really quiet.
    45:38
    Too quiet. This last week, we're hit over the head with a rubber mallet. Funk. In the most funny way possible.
    45:48
    This game is releasing. Yes. There have been messages sent out to dealers. Not that I may know something about that. Messages sent out to a fan base, hobbyists that are interested in purchasing the upcoming Pony Factory. I think it goes on sale today, maybe. I think it might launch today. But I know that there was a stream yesterday of it. We were recording where we were unable to watch that stream of Pony Factory, initial game and new product from Pinball Adventures. They had a making of video of Pony Factory, and they had a trailer, a sizzle reel of the Pony Factory, as well as a teaser for their follow-up game called Elements. Did you consume any of this media relating to this company and products? Yes, I believe I have seen everything you've referenced, other than, of course, the stream, since we had to record before that happened. Quick question before we dive in here.
    46:45
    Which did you find more entertaining? the pinball adventures trailer of punny factory or the home pin trailer of this is spinal tap okay uh the like are you asking so entertaining entertaining actually i entertaining and useful probably punny factory for both okay wow so like they both didn't do everything i think that they should have done to maximize interest in the game but spinal tap oh my god maybe we hold on i don't know i know you whenever you want to talk about home pin we can talk a little bit about that trailer i don't definitely don't want to spend much time on it because uh they clearly didn't but hell yeah but yeah so punning factory it was sort of interesting because there that there was a lot of focus in it on things that i'm not sure consumers are really going to care very much about canadian wood that one might actually get more you know i was trying to remember and i came up on the flipping out with friends stream i was trying to remember what the typical like major manufacturer uh plywood is made out of because that might actually get controversial birch uh so what you see i thought it was birch and this is maple which is very canadian and i've heard very good things about about you know the durability of maple wood but i also remember someone and i'm this is a this could be totally wrong people can correct me if i misremember which it was, but I wanted to think someone had told someone else. Like it was Scott Denise he heard from, I don't remember, it was like Gomez or Steve Ritchie or someone, or if it was a different person back when they were like home brewing and they didn't use the right type of wood. And like the veterans were like, you have to use this type of plywood. You have to. And I'm kind of wondering, you know, to me who doesn't really know anything about the nuances of lumber, if that's really true, like I could see why you couldn't use a wood that's too soft because once you put all the mechs on it, you're going to bow the play field. But does it really matter if we're using birch or maple or mahogany or teak? Like, does it really matter? Like, as long as it's hard enough, does it really matter? I don't know. Because I've wondered, like, because when, you know, pinball machines going up in price, I got to admit, I've thought about, I get where people are going to be really leery of things like plexi and plastic and stuff. But, like, is there not another wood that's more affordable that maybe can do everything we need it to do?
    49:15
    Now, this Punny Factory video was not asking these deep questions. These are my questions that I have that this has reminded me of. So for that reason alone, though, I found it entertaining because it brought back up this whole thing for me about, you know what? Maybe we should be talking about the wood use more than we really are. But I don't know about like – they had like a thing on like the special type of paint that they dip the toys in. I thought I don't – that that's unique for each game. I don't think people – yeah, I don't think people really care though that it's unique. I don't think that's a selling point. But I get it in the sense that it's a new company. This is their freshman effort of a pinball game. So what are you going to focus on? No one knows anything about you, and you picked a non-licensed theme. So you're already behind the eight ball. When they were talking about the acrylic reverse screen printing for a back glass, almost as if it was a new thing. It's like, no, there's nothing new about that.
    50:10
    But some of that reminds me of the old, and maybe not even just the old ones, the flyers, the pinball machine flyers. And they always emphasized the most minute things that maybe weren't that new or weren't really that special. But it's like you've got to fluff it up a bit. 13 propulsion stand-up targets. Now, I was going to say, you must not have liked – no, you may have already known it from other stuff on the play field, but they're very stand-up heavy, which to me, again, first game, the reliability of stand-ups is pretty solid. And if it ends up being a high-impact area and they break, they're easy enough to replace. So from a durability standpoint, I thought this makes a lot of sense to go ahead and use a lot of stand-ups. But I also thought the moment I saw that, I go, ooh, Zach may not like this. The pinball filler. The stand-up target. Yeah. Because isn't there like one drop on the whole thing? And I know you vastly prefer drops over stand-ups. Yeah, because they actually interact and they do something.
    51:11
    Yeah, and the one drop target they have in the trailer itself, the decal was already falling off. Yeah, Joel, I remember pointing that out on the stream. That bugged him. Yeah, that's tough. And then the very target, okay. That's the one redeeming cool thing about this game. in my opinion, so I'll start with that. It's got a little tube shot that the toy that the drop protects. Try tube shot. The tube shot? Yeah, I don't care about that. The very target seems cool. Six values? Only six because seven, eight, nine. Come the fuck on, y'all. Follow me here.
    51:48
    I hope that's a call out. I love that on the flyer itself, it's showing all these features and arrows, in which case it strange because they using different types of arrows and stuff graphically But they talking about how many puns you can get You got to get 50 puns They talk about the punny press the toy in the game all of that stuff But then one of the features is Leprechaun Game Clover. Whoever hired that leprechaun was pressing their luck. Now he's gone crazy. If we don't catch him, it will be Game Clover. I don't know what the fuck he has to do with anything in his game but that's kind of why I love it because none of this shit makes sense Casey needs your help I don't know fucking what is going on isn't Casey the name of the voice that was the twip monthly video is that Casey I wonder if that is the same Casey oh man I'd see the smokestacks on top of the game I wonder if you fold down the head it turns into a fucking punny tank I don't know I feel like anymore I'm tripping my ass on fucking shrooms Every time a new game comes out Because I don't know what's going on anymore How is any of this a reality I don't know Russian Baltic Birch Cabinet Black Wood Stained with engraving of games Logon Gears On both sides of cabinets and back books That's on the engraved edition I still don't know what the fuck it is It looks like a black box But I guess it is engraved from that blank wood birch.
    53:22
    How is this a thing? How in the fuck is this a thing? And why in the fuck are we even talking about it? What is this? Well, it's a new pinball machine, so of course we're talking about it. Here's the nearest analogy I can do.
    53:36
    So how different is it really than Kelts, the first game out of Haggis? I mean, obviously the layout is very different. But, I mean, like conceptually, it's a weird theme.
    53:49
    More goofy definitely than Kelts, which was more Highland Games based. But, you know, Kelts, and I finally got to play Kelts at TPF. And, you know, it was okay, but the layout wasn't anything to write home about. And so, you know, as a – The difference, Dennis, this is what I want to say. The difference being that Kelts wasn't trying to be something. That's why we're getting stumbled up on GTF, because we know the people behind it. That's why I'm struggling to see here what this is, because I'm thinking that this is truly the essence of what someone thought was a good idea. So that's where I'm struggling. I think that Keltz was a bad idea, but it didn't make me laugh to the degree that, who is this aimed for? So it's the theme, right, is the aspect that is boggling. It's the theme. It's the layout. It's the artwork. It's the sound. It's the animation and visuals. It's the hydro dipping of the toys. It's the wiring in the head.
    54:55
    It's the unique, quote, unique platform. It's a lot of things to me. It's the interior art blades that go all the way down to the bottom of the cabinet. it's it's uh it's some of those things yeah i i don't have i don't have answers for you i mean to me it's and we've talked about this i feel ad nauseum with so many other companies it's when you when you do a game and you do an original theme you're already poorly positioned for high sales because there's no initial anything to make you want to buy the game so you really have to sell it on on what it is like and maybe that's what the stream that that will happen uh by the time this episode is out will show like if the gameplay is there there will be people that will will look past everything else like they they won't care about how the toys were painted they won't care about the decals they won't care about the weird uh stuff on the display and it'll be like if the gameplay is interesting enough then people will buy it to me that i mean that's the only thing that can do it because i don't think i don't think given the price of pinball machines Anyone will buy it just because they like the goofy idea of puns in pinball form. Yes, that theme sells to no one. There is not one dedicated party that wants that theme. That sells a phone game as a joke. When you're paying $10, people will do something for a brief chuckle just because they think it's kind of weird.
    56:22
    So to me, that's what is really going to come down. And again, Haggis, as I understand it, did not move that many Celts games. Now, they did move a number more than I thought they would. And some of that may have been a lot of this sort of passion, what I'll call Australian passion, this desire to see an Australian upstart be successful.
    56:39
    And in a lot of ways, that was probably what moved a lot of Thunderbirds for Home Pin. And Home Pin is in an interesting place because they don't actually manufacture in the country. So maybe we'll see a little bit of – And the artwork is beautiful on – the artwork is really nice on kelp. Yeah, it is. The sculpts were nice. I mean it's no fathom. No, God. But we might see a little bit of a kind of what we would call in the U.S. rally around the flag sort of thing. Maybe some of the Canadian pinball owners might want to give it a shot here. Some of this might just be, you know what, we're not losing – they're not losing any money on a license because there is no license. So it's maybe more of a proof of concept to make sure, like, let's start with something we know or we feel strongly we can build, and then the next games will be better. But the thing that – the element that concerns me the most in terms of like is there a growth plan because everything we've seen so far is all original theme, which we know the struggles with that because we've watched American Pinball constantly struggle with that. And American Pinball has mastered a lot of other things. Like a lot of people would point to them and say like really good build quality and things of that nature. But I – so that's the part that I'm not – because you mentioned like the elements teaser. So we know the next game is also original theme. So now if the plan is we just want to turn out, you know, one or 200 games per license and this is going to work and we're not trying to grow or anything that that could be viable. They've figured out the, you know, the cost, the cost ratio and what their net is going to be. And they think they can make money on this. My question, though, is normally when I would hear and see all of these things that we've talked about, like the stand ups and what this type of layout is and what this type of art is. and the fact that's not a license. To me, the strategy would need to be what we saw with Thunderbirds, which was Thunderbirds, when it came out, was cheaper than a Stern Pro to get. That was like its one saving grace with all of the, because obviously once the videos came out, people were very, and there were a lot of things to be concerned about with Thunderbirds.
    58:45
    But you knew it was a cheaper option. But I'm not sure that this is, the way it sounded, again, I didn't check the pricing. When we were on the flipping out stream with Joel was that the pricing was like at the Stern Pro price.
    58:58
    This against a license with what you already know you're getting out of Stern, I just don't see how it's competitive. Let me add to that because I agree. Maybe if this is priced really low, then maybe it makes sense. I received an email on Friday about the potential distribution of this product. This comes from the company itself. The launch date for Punty Factory is Monday, April 24th, which is today if you're listening on Monday. They're manufacturing 120 units. Okay. So they're going for that low run kind of thing. Okay. So, yeah, kind of like that's less than Keltz. I think Keltz was 150. Yes. It says Pinball Adventures' first priority will be you, the distributor.
    59:42
    However, many pinball collectors and fanatics have already reached out to us over the past year to secure a spot. So they are selling direct and through distributors. which a lot of manufacturers do. Please note that our website shopping cart is not going to be available until launch day. In the event that you wish to place an order, contact us, email, specify the pinball type, the quantity. There are two models, a standard Punny factory pinball machine and an engraved edition that we talked about with Russian birthwood. The standard, $6,500, and the engraved is $7,000. So, yes, the price of a Stern Pro. Pinball Adventure is going to be covering the cost of shipping within the United States and Canada. Please refer to the website for international orders. And they're taking a, they'll have a follow-up link, because they're taking $250 refundable deposits to reserve these machines. And then I received an email around the same time that said, hey, pinball fanatics, our first priority is you. They just said that, hey, you were interested, you know, three years ago. you voiced some interest in this game as a pinball fan we're manufacturing 120 so it's copy and paste the same email to dealers and i thought well the price is going to be different because the dealers they gave us the dealer pricing you know with the margin stuff now the the price of our standard punny factory pinball machine will be 6,500 and the engraved edition will be 7,000 so the difference between a dealer is uh because then they is behind the scenes stuff So Pinball Adventures, I don't know if they accidentally, but they tagged all the dealers, I guess, voice interest. So I seen what dealers, you know, they were reaching out to. Then Pinball Adventures responded again and said, hey, just to clarify, it's going to be you on the dealer to set fair prices to your clients. We would prefer that distributors order a few units in order for more machines to go around. However, it will be a first come first serve basis. So they're not wanting dealers to buy 120, I guess. But they're saying that the dealer sets the price, but they're going to be selling them to the public for the same price, I guess. So did they confirm – like my initial thought would be that they cut and pasted the information in both emails, like the pricing information, because I don't know what distributor would do it. Yeah, well, I'm thinking that they are thinking, well, there's only 120 units.
    62:04
    If you can grab 20 of them and then they all sell out, you can set a higher price. Okay. All right. So that's not going to work either. Yeah. Again, if it was a license and the FOMO. See, that's the thing with the – and again, we've talked about this with so many companies.
    62:23
    You don't have the FOMO, and I don't remember what part they helped with. If I remember right with Pinball Adventures, they were working with the Team Mafia or the Team Pinball. Team Pinball who made Mafia. That did that Mafia EMS style game a few years ago. And I think Greg Saunders, who helped design Alien when Nordman left, he helped with his design. But the reason I bring up Mafia is that was an unlicensed game that they didn't make a whole lot of. They didn't even sell 10, I don't think. They couldn't sell them all. And that thing is better than this one. And the pricing was more extreme on it because they weren't working with the distributors. But the idea I felt at the time, I got the logic that Team Pinball had. It was, hey, we see what's happening with the FOMO stuff. Let's just put a really big limit on the run so that essentially it's a collector's item, and that's what moves the game. But because of the layout and everything else about it, there wasn't enough there that people thought that it was worth buying as an investment. So very few people did. so again when we get back to this as you noted with the pricing that's been announced you're already up there with the the cheap operate the cheapest operator grade model that's that's available and we like you're you're going to be compared to foo fighters pro yeah yeah that's right so you there are two strategies you have one is the gameplay reveal that that has now come out that we didn't get a chance to see is going to blow people away and the gameplay and or rules or however that's combined, the layout and the rules together, are such that a lot of people are going to be like, this looks like a lot of fun, so I'm going to go ahead and buy it. The other strategy would have had to have been, especially if the gameplay and rules depth and everything isn't the same as a Stern Pro, to have a significantly lower price point where people will go, this is a fair price for what I'm getting. And since it's so much cheaper, I'd rather save $1,000 and buy this game with a theme that I don't care about with less depth. Again, I'm making some assumptions because we don't know yet. Because it's cheaper. But at the same price, your competition is a licensed game from an established manufacturer. It's just very tough. So I think they would – my initial thought would be they will struggle to sell 120 units at this price point. I would say that for those of you who are falling asleep right now, my apologies. I think that we've been doing this long enough that we can say that we're covering a new product here, and we have spent too much time on that product because it is not proven yet from this company what this is even going to be. So there is some caution that should be taken by you, the listener, if two or three of you have any interest in this new product. My recommendation would be watch the stream, which, hell, it may be the greatest game ever. I doubt it. and buy from a dealer, a really good, reputable dealer here in the States, if you're in the States. That way, if for some reason I'm not saying this company, you know, we've just seen too many things from new companies, and I don't want anybody losing money. So go to a dealer. That way, if shit hits the fan and falls apart, you can still, you know, get any money back that you have provided. But I think I don't see this new product, given what I'm seeing, selling more than 20 units in total. And for that reason, I don't know why we're still talking about it. Same with the HomePin thing. Look, this is Spinal Tap is a license. It's a license that people like. I saw the trailer reaction and just like the Punny Factory, even like the Punny Factory with, they're like, oh, this is how you slide out the play field now. And look, check out this wheel. And then they show the wheel falling into the cabinet, probably similar to the fucking play field that's going to fall into the cabinet. Just HomePin is a fucking mess. This Spinal Tap is a fucking mess of a game. It's not a theme that I give two shits about. So thankfully, it's not something that's a grail for me. But that game looks pretty atrocious. And the trailer, my reaction to the trailer was a big smile because that was a damn mess too. I really don't have much else to say. No, I don't. I spent a lot of time on it. The trailer is probably the worst trailer I can really think of ever seen in pinball from an established manufacturer in particular. I think the Pinball Adventures trailer was a lot better than this one. At least I got some shots of the play field. It's tough to call there.
    66:49
    With Spinal Tap, it felt like they decided to try and do something kind of inspired by the 90s, like over-sexualized trailers. But at least those still showed the game. Somebody told me that one of my friends went to the Pinball Hall of Fame in Vegas a couple weeks ago. And they said both were on display there. This is Spinal Tap and their previous game, Thunderbirds. They said they played both, and believe it or not, Thunderbirds, as shitty as it is, still played better than This is Spinal Tap. On the pin side thread for Spinal Tap, I saw it may have been two people say that they agree that Thunderbirds is a better game. And here's the problem. Here's the thing where the problem Home Pin has versus something like Pinball Adventures. So this is HomePen's sophomore game. Setting aside the weird – they did some custom one for a car company or something. So this is their second major effort. The first effort, broadly speaking, was so disliked that they already had a bad reputation for build quality and game quality. The only redeeming factor has been that it was yet again another license. HomePen actually did start with licensing. It just wasn't a license that was big in the U.S. Um, but they've, they have, I think by almost any interpretation have a better light worldwide license this time with spinal tap. I still don't think it's a great license, but it's a much better license, but given their, their reputation from the last game, coupled with on Thunderbirds, they priced under Stern pro spinal tap was not competitively priced. It was priced pretty high. And so given that they want so much more money for the game and they have a really bad reputation for what they made out of Thunderbirds. I mean, there are some people who like Thunderbirds, but it's not very many. And then you see these review reactions, like when they brought it to that show where it was in Perth, where it was first shown off. There were so many problems. All that coupled with the fact that Mike, the owner of Home Pin, is – and I don't know him personally, so let me just say that the reputation I have been told of is that he is unlikable.
    69:00
    Sweet. Well, I'm not – I don't know him. I'm not passing a judgment on him personally. But if you don't like the people behind the company, you don't like the quality of the product, the product isn't the cheapest on the market, even though it might be one of the worst built on the market, and it's seen as an inferior effort versus the prior game, which last I looked was the lowest rated on Pinside for solid state games, I think this is their last game.
    69:31
    The last one should have been their last. No. They still had a lot of pre-orders and stuff. They still sold more Thunderbirds than I think you might realize that they did.
    69:42
    They were planning on... I think this is it. The Chinese Zombies. What was that? Yes, there was a... But that game's not happening anymore. And then, so, between them and Chinese Zombies... Because they moved from China to Taiwan for the production. And I know Taiwan is ethnic Chinese, but... Yeah, between that and between Pinball Adventures Sushi, eh? I don't know which one. Well, and don't forget about Turner Pinball's Ninja Eclipse. No, no, I always want to call it Ninja Apocalypse, but that's like the mode in Deadpool. Ninja Eclipse.
    70:21
    You know, I don't. It's interesting. I mean, there was a time when pirates and ninjas were really, really big. So, I mean, maybe that's where some. Again, I get it. In the second grade. I get in the unlicensed space. You're like, what's cool? And you're thinking still like this arcade mode. Like, what's going to be cool in our arcade? Well, ninja games are big, like Ninja Gaiden and more Ninja Gaiden. I don't know what else. What about, no, there was a, was it Shin Mu? Or what was the game, the stealthy game that's like hit me and walked around and you were the ninja? Wasn't that, that was a thing. It wasn't Shin Mu. That was a Sega gaming. Yeah, there are other ones. I'm just not, I'm not remembering the names. But yeah, it's these sort of things. It's just, again, we've talked a lot about unlicensed. I think if you're really committed and you know for sure you're ready to try and make a lot of sales and stuff, a license makes sense. I do kind of get the idea of starting with an unlicensed to sort of prove your production. And then you do like what Haggis did and be like, okay, now we're going to pivot. And in their case, they're still arguably playing it quite safe because they pivoted to doing remakes. but those are being very well received. Very much like at TPF, I was explaining to people when I saw that center tank feature on GTF and mostly that the pop goes to the Nordman 3000, that 3D printed robot that pops out of the tank. I said to people, you know, look, in engineering nowadays and technology, innovation, there's 3D printing. There's 3D printing. I glanced over at GTF and I said, and then there's 3D printing. And akin to that, I will say about Pony Factory, there's original themes.
    72:10
    And then there's original themes. We've got to stop talking about original themes as a group all in and of itself. Because to me, there are levels of that. I will give Ninja Eclipse, that theming is different to me than Punny Factory, is different to me than Whirlwind. So there are levels, just like there are licenses like, this is Spinal Tap, there are licenses like Johnny New Monk. Well, sure, and we also need to specify there's also a big difference between when we're just talking about licensed and unlicensed, and so unlicensed and unlicensed original. Okay, yes. So because American Pinball, for example, Houdini, unlicensed but not original. That's an unlicensed, non-original theme, which made a lot of sense. That's what – like I remember when I heard about Wrath of Olympus, and I thought at the time when that was first coming out, they were trying to see if there were 100 potential buyers, if I recall, and they didn't get to that level, so they didn't build it. It was – oh, I thought it was a really smart play in the sense of, oh, okay, I see these upstarts. They don't have the funding or knowledge on how to secure a license, but you do something everyone knows, Greek gods.
    73:32
    And at least then there's a touchstone to it. Legends of Valhalla, yeah. Sure. Same with Legends of Valhalla. There's a touchstone to it. So Houdini, touchstone to it. Oktoberfest, I thought it was a horrible pick, but there was a touchstone to it.
    73:44
    And when you do something like Punny Factory, okay, people know what puns are, but do you have a touchstone to it? I don't know. I guess we'll see if people, like, they're like masters of the dad joke who are like, I need a game that personifies how I live my life one dad joke at a time. Yeah, but the matter of that is those that like puns like puns because they're fucking stupid. That's the thing. This isn't a true thing. You brought it with like GTF. Remember, right, we were so confused about so much that they were doing, and so they turned the camp up to 11. Was that too far? Does the knob too far on that? Because maybe it is. To me, it's not just that the acting and the stuff and the concept is campy, because it is. That is the whole cacophony of GTF with the 50s retro style art, but it's got dubstep when you play the game. And these double entendres in the humor lines, those things don't all align in terms of there's an anachronistic element to it. Like the timelines don't align up. It's like Christopher Nolan has whammed his way in and twisted this into some weird thing. And I think for some people that's going to be really cool, but I don't think that necessarily will be for most people. And so I wonder if they went too far. You know what? If someone is willing to buy the Punny Factory and retheme it totally up and down to a Matthew McConaughey-themed pinball machine, I will purchase it. Guaranteed. All right, all right, all right. It'll cost a lot of money, which will make the Screaming Goat Club from the pinball show supporting Patreon members seem like they have gotten a deal. We want to give some personal shout outs to those who have graced us with what we are calling the starting lineup of the Screaming Goat Club. Dennis, we got to give these people some love. Yes, that is what is one of the conditions. And I, you know, I didn't think anyone would pick this category. I was like, you know, I'd say a lot of people have these sort of aspirational categories. And I thought no one's going to. Yeah, I know. I know there's a polo shirt, but you didn't say it was going to be silk.
    75:52
    The polo shirt is, that's just kind of, you know. Do people still wear silk shirts? Or is that until 1982? It'll be back. I think I just wore a silk Hawaiian shirt on vacation a couple, about a year ago, with a mustache. Remember? See, that was the irony again. That was the screaming goat club. I want to give shout-outs to these people because I knew that there were going to be supporters at the Screaming Goat level. Not only that, there will be additional supporters because it's not for the damn polo shirt. It's the information. It's the guest appearance. You said they're going to get nicknames. Oh, yes. We just said we were going to give them a shout-out. But here at the Pinball Show, that's what we do. We don't just say, hey, thanks, Rob A. for the support. Hey, thanks, Colin A., for the support. Come on. That's freaking lame. We're going to do what the pinball show does, and that is we're going to nicknameify these sons of bitches. We're going to have fun with it. So our first shout-out in the starting – it should be like a starting lineup.
    77:10
    Your starting lineup for the Pinball Show. Featuring Rob A. Rob A, thank you for the support. We are going to deem Rob A from this period forward as the Panther.
    77:28
    Wow. Scary. Meow. So welcome to the club, Rob A, or should I say the Panther. what was the name of the cologne in uh in sex panther sex panther right yeah yeah it's called sex panther by odion it's illegal in nine countries yep it's made with bits of real panther so you know it good it quite pungent oh yeah it a formidable scent Stings the nostrils In a good way Yeah Brian, I'm going to be honest with you. That smells like pure gasoline. They've done studies, you know. 60% of the time, it works every time. Smell like Bigfoot's dick! Rob A. 60% of the time, he works every time. Oh, my gosh. It smells like a diaper filled with Indian food. You know, desire smells like that to some people. What is that? It smells like a turd covered in burnt hair. Oh, sorry about that, Rob, but you're the panther, baby. There's nothing sexier than a panther. Also, thank you for joining the Screaming Goat Club, Colin A., or should we refer to him just as the kineticist?
    78:47
    Now, this has some meaning to it, because Colin runs the online blog-ish pinball thing, the Kineticist. Yeah, and it's really cool. You guys have to go check out the Kineticist. Follow it. They had something recently. It was like, take this quiz and see which pinball manufacturer you are. I see those on Facebook sometimes, those sort of quizzes, where they're like, find out your spirit animal. That's right. So they have a lot of even in-depth articles. I haven't done that one because I'm afraid it's going to tell me that I am home, Penn. Oh, no. I am the podcast. But over at Kineticist, they have pinball news. They have what is exclusive to their site called the Pinball Hype Index, where they track the theme hypes. And they put a percentage or a grade on a ranking system on which pinball themes have the most hype or disgust, where to play pinball. There are recent articles tracking the evolution of SternPinball.com from 2000 to today. they've got ranked the 20 best pinball machines of the 2000s they've got the top 10 horror themed pinball machines fans are dying to see uh an article on the rare pinball files a deep dive on hankin's empire strikes back a lot of cool stuff over there trending themes right now is back to the future venom harry potter big trouble little china fifth element jaws evil dead top gun beastie boys warrior awesome stuff as well as featured pinball state guides a lot of cool stuff over at the kineticist but i was like what freaking we'll call him the kineticist that's awesome enough what the hell sound does it because i looked up kineticist and you probably know i had no clue it's kind of like a alchemy thing of like magic the gathering of elements and shit like that you're a wizard kinetic i cast magic missile so yeah that's that's the kineticist welcome to the club oh we can't forget uh frankie f frank f thanks for joining the screaming goat club or should i frank frank f sounds like a falcon so we're going with the very fast uh and deadly falcon and who doesn't love hearing falcons i'm kind of annoying there So, Frankie, sorry for the annoying animal that you got picked with. You're probably not annoying in real life. Should have called you the ghost. I have a hard time looking up information on Frank F. But the falcon, welcome to the club, the falcon. We can't forget the one and only. People know this guy. It's Joe F. And maybe I give it away by his nickname because around these parts, We just call him the Fox.
    81:34
    What does the Fox say? Yes, you're right. And right now, Joe Fox is rolling his eyes and is questioning being a part of the Screaming Goat Club. I'm sorry, Fox. Love you. But we're definitely going to pull that up every time we talk about you now. Another introduction and thank you to the Screaming Goat Club is David V. I had no clue what to designate David V, so this one might change over time. But I really like the idea of something that maybe is not animal-like. Something more pinball related. So David V for now is going to be known as the Shaker.
    82:23
    Like the Shaker motive. essential essential red tremor no no god no that would be this one no god it's gonna break the seams in your cabinet no he's not the red tremor he's the oem stern shaker motor congratulations I can't ring to it.
    82:50
    That's rolled off the top. Oh, man. We love you, David. Thanks for being a part of the VIP Screaming Goat Club. Just wait. It gets better. Your polo shirt's going to be coming in a couple months. And we can't forget our last member for now. Until this week when you guys sign up to the Screaming Goat Club or upgrade. You can upgrade. We had somebody upgrade from an official member to become a Nordman level. And the person that did that, ironically, was the they gave us the idea for nicknames and such here. So thank you so much, Jeff, out there that did that. But you can upgrade from Nordman or from the official club member to be a Screaming Goat Club. But our last member is one one that I love this guy because we hang out at TPF every year. To you, he's going to be known as Charlie B. and Charlie B is known as he's not an animal he's more of an item than he is a living beast another pinball part we go back in time I guess he is he's known as simply the bell people are like why would you do that to this man well because his last name is bell people it's Charles Bell sorry Charlie the bell how can we not go with the bell All kinds of bells out in the world though Dennis My favorite bell Let's see if you can name this film No I didn't recognize it Listeners out there know that Ominous bell From one of the greatest comedy films of all time National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation Welcome to the club Charlie B And your most ominous bell So that's your starting lineup For the pinball show Screaming Goat Club. Genuinely and sincerely, thank you for that support. It's unbelievable that you would be so kind and gracious to support us in that manner and to continue doing so in the future. So thank you, thank you, thank you. And I'm interested in speaking with some of these people on an actual show in the future and how they feel about their designated animals or items. How they feel about being an OEM Oh, he's going to kill me. Also, a reminder that this Wednesday we're going to be having our very own Pinball Show live Zoom hangout at 8 p.m. Central, I think. Isn't it 8 p.m. Central, Dennis? Yep. For those that are part of the Pinball Show, Screaming Goat Club, and the Nordman levels on Patreon. Again, as a reminder, if you want to sign up, you can sign up like right now and still jump in on that Wednesday live Zoom by signing up at least to the second or third tier on Patreon. on this at patreon.com slash the pinball show and before we close down the show we got to give you what you've been waiting for the thing that may or may not end up behind a paywall someday and that is called pinball market trends oem stern shaker edition where's my falcon at see
    86:07
    Training up this week is because, objectively, numbers don't lie. We only report the facts, and it's the pinball show.
    86:14
    It's us, Dennis. Everybody's been talking about us. Mostly in a really derogatory and poor manner, but you know what? If it bleeds, it leads. Bye, bye, bye! So, yeah, we're training up right now, and it's for that. And polo shirts are training up, too. It's the cool thing. People talk about cargo shorts. No, they're fixated upon anything we create. You know, that's interesting though, Zach. I can't believe that we haven't had a single pinball podcast not come out with cargo short swag. That's right. Where they've got their logo emblazoned all over like the 30 pockets. Oh, and for so many listeners right now, like an inside joke to the listeners here that just goes over Dennis's head in the greatest way possible is him even suggesting that. I fucking love you, Dennis Creasel. Yeah, it's the polo shirt. I wear polo shirts. I actually do, for work a lot. As we're getting older, we need a little collar around our neck.
    87:13
    All streaming up this week, objectively, is Star Trek by Stern Pinball. Are you out of your fucking mind? Where in the world did this thing come from? This game is what I would consider hashtag old news, but it is shooting up the Pinside Top 100 list, and it's up to number six all of a sudden. flowiest flow game that ever flowed I'm going to attribute it you guys know what I say things happen for a reason because the market extends past pinball it goes into pop culture and what is tickling us right now it is nothing more than Picard they just wrapped it up season 3 was so much so much better I've heard great things and I had some I won't name them but they are a TPN member who messaged me hated season three hated it wow that's not i think i finally just had to say you were just wrong because he was like why is it got like a 96 rotten tomatoes right now because you are just wrong it is it was a very very good season i've heard such great things and that's what i was when i was looking at this rising ranking i thought where in the hell is that ah the car does it star trek pro from stern pinball still holding very well price wise on the secondary market around $5,500 to $6,000. So I think that's pretty high for the 2013 time in which it was released. Yeah. I mean, it used to trade quite a bit less. Same as the Star Trek LEs. Star Trek LEs, it's still holding that 10 to 11,500 value on a Star Trek LE. That is rather impressive considering some of the LEs from the LCD era have dropped below that valuation. It's because of the lasers. The lasers do help. The mirrored back glass is beautiful. The potatoes.
    89:07
    Don't forget the potatoes. Tater asteroids. Tateroids. And it has arguably one of the top three shots in all of pinball history, and that is the side repeatable warp ramp. Warp 9.1. 9.2. Warp 9.3. It's good stuff, and that's why it's trending. Balls trending up this week is the Tokyo Neon sign by Stumblore. It won a Twippy this year for the best mod, and rightfully so. Not only is this thing beautiful that he has sold a bajillion of them, but he recently announced, oh Stumblore over there, recently announced a discontinuation of this mod. You guys know what happens when they stop making a mod as highly sought after as this. Prices go up, baby. I'm only reporting the facts here, and you're going to see in the next 6 months, 12 months, I would say two years from now that mod alone will double in value if not higher. Oh, baby. Hopefully you guys stockpiled some. The Tokyo Neon Sign mod. And the follow-up, the Noodle mod. The Noodle building mod is going to be killer. I get the UFO mod. Oh, Stumbler can do no wrong. Right now he's training up as one of the hottest modders in the entire pinball industry. What's the Noodle mod? It's the Noodle 3D building mod. Oh, okay. When you said it, I just thought of those pool noodles, and I thought, that doesn't fit. Slappy chili. Godzilla, bunch of pool noodles, wacky waving pool noodle guy. No, it's a – and you know what Stumbler is really cool and known for? He's creating and able to tap into – he's the one that's helping another creator tap into making that dead post mod for Foo Fighters. Okay. Tapping into the spike system.
    90:49
    So, yeah, a lot of his mods interact with one another as well. Okay. I don't have any of his mods, so interesting. But yeah, Stumbler stuff you buy, and you can integrate into that board system, so the lighting integrates with one another. So the building mod is going to integrate with the UFO, which will integrate with the back glass mod, which integrates with the Tokyo Neon Sign mod. And to the post mods? Oh, my God. So it can send lighting signals to choreograph throughout all the different mods. That's genius. Sounds a bit like Skynet. All's turning up this week because it has to. It's the Super Mario Brothers movie. Let's-a go! I'm the best! And look, Chris Pratt did not do a bad job like all you all thought he was going to. That's my boy, Chris Pratt. Love him. He's the Everman's Harrison Ford. He's the new age Harrison Ford. He's lovely. What a lovely, wonderful actor. I loved Star-Lord saving the day. You know what? It was fantastic. Oh, because Seth Rogen and Donkey Kong Chuckles are really appropriate Okay I wanted just to see Donkey Kong Smoke a blood Disney may not like that It's so good Of course not going to be film of the year But boy The nostalgia and the charm of that And just the animation It was up there with Croods 2 You heard it here It was up there with Crudes, too. Damn, it was so good. Unfortunately, not all can be Rainbow Roads here. You see what I'm doing, Dennis? Trending down this week. It's a general trending down. Right now, we are seeing a general trending down in the marketplace, in the secondary market, especially on pinball machines, the value of pinball machines. I am attributing this to a seasonal dip that oftentimes we see coming into summer, out of the spring. Now, we're still in the spring of things. I get that. But you're going to see that seasonal dip probably still continue to trend over the next month or two. So don't be alarmed by the evaluation of your pin prices going down a little bit. I think this is a seasonal dip. We have seen a similar dip in the last fall, last summer fall. We've seen that. Well, do you not in this case think that perhaps a portion of it may be that a large quantity of people, given all the new pinball machines that are coming up are just putting their games on the market to make space for the new games. Because there are a half dozen to choose from, it's just more people than normal. So you're saying that. If you didn't like Foo, maybe you liked Godfather. If you didn't like Godfather, maybe you liked Scooby. As we were saying in the past, it's hard not to like something out of all the new releases. Yeah, I mean, maybe you shouldn't be in pinball if you couldn't like any of it. That's right. And for those that are interested in the community aspect of this industry and in this hobby, we tend to group think sometimes, whether it's conscious or subconscious. And even if it's a slight, a quasi-group think, a lot of people think, you know what? Damn it, I need a new pinball machine now, too. My friends are getting them. So, yeah, you'll see more on the secondary market. There's so much to choose from right now. So, yeah, we're seeing, in general, a seasonal dip and, I guess, a contextual dip at the same time. So prices are going down, which is good for you guys. Some of you want to take to the cruise lines on the summer. Some of you want to play baseball and get out and garden. I know Dennis is a big gardener. So maybe you want to buy their pinball machines when they go to sell them. Aren't you about to sell Buck Rogers or something? I'm thinking I'll end up listing that one once I get another project coming in here soon. It's the one I play the least, and I absolutely hate working in the yard.
    94:40
    But I did have to yesterday. I cut down a bunch of plants. Do you need thistles? I try and spray thistles. They are a noxious weed. It must be destroyed. My name is Buck, and I like to pinball. Oh, my God. Yeah, I'm just waiting for CGC to go ahead and team up and do all the Quentin movies. What was it? The five-finger death punch? Or what was it? One-finger death punch? It was a five-finger death punch because there's a band named for that move. She's such a badass. Deal of the week this week. Oh, we got a deal of the week. How about that? Go to Pinside right now and check it out. It's for a Ghostbusters premium. And it is $15,000. it's not a deal of the what the F no this is a deal of the week because the individual I can vouch for the individual that is selling that he goes by CSCMTP rolls really right off the tongue there Chris but the selling a Ghostbusters premium and all the proceeds the entirety is going to charity 100% all the proceeds going to charity he gives a background as to why he's decided to do that and I believe it's going overseas I think it looks like he's going to Uganda, uh, drilling wells, building houses and handing out food and clothes for those in need. So, uh, you can check out the details on Penn side under the thread for sale. Ghostbusters premium. I thought it was great because it's $15,000. All of that's going to this good fun. And then our friend of the show, Matt Morrison, um, who didn't even list their name because he's humble and fricking awesome on Penn side. He went in to, uh, this and said, you know what? I'm going to give the following items as part of whoever's going to buy this Ghostbusters. He's giving away a Willy Wonka play field, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Translite, an Avengers Infinity Quest Translite, a Chris Franchi Jaws Translite with the white lit frames, the illuminated lit frames, and a Dokebi pinball shirt and hoodie. so that's like another thousand dollars worth of stuff that is included with the purchase of this ghostbusters premium i thought about buying the damn thing i was like oh man so that's awesome so that is the deal of the week go purchase that and enjoy ghostbusters 2 i still don't have my spider-man vault somebody bring me one of those i just don't want to ship anything if you're going to spider-man ball i wants it i needs it come on i don't know why i wants it actually but as always i'm just here to report facts because there's nothing more popular than numbers and them Bitches don't lie. On Pinball Market Trends.
    97:16
    Dennis, thanks for doing a show with me today. I had a swell time. The swellification was awful. Would you ever go on a cruise with me? No. Disney cruise? No. I don't ever want to go on a cruise, period. What if it was an Alaskan cruise? No, I would just go into Alaska, out into the bush.
    97:33
    Like I have multiple times. Have you ever grown a beard? Not like a big, huge one. Oh, I want to see a Dennis Creasel with burly beard in the snow. Nope. On a little bit of chicken finger sauce dribble onto your chin and you not know it's there.
    97:52
    So mean. No, I'm not mean. This is more sensual than anything. Do you not do a chicken finger sauce when you go to like Zaxby's and stuff? No, I usually eat them naked. What? You're supposed to enjoy the chicken. If I wanted to eat sauce, I would be a weirdo. Fucking seven? What is that? No ketchup? You're saying seven, and then you bring up ketchup. That's right. Like the child you are putting it on a hot dog. Touché, my continent friend. Where can people catch you? Well, they can always email me, eclecticgamerspodcast at gmail.com, because I regularly check those emails. You can reach us at thepinballshow at gmail.com. Email us there. Join our Patreon at patreon.com slash thepinballshow. Truthfully, it's just a shitload of fun, and the support is very well received and appreciated. and you can come on Discord and hang out with us and hang out meetings on Zoom and all kinds of cool stuff. Don't be a Bowser. See, somebody's getting pissed about that. Or if I want to be a fucking thorned Bowser, don't be a Bowser, be a Mario. It's a me.
    98:53
    Patreon club members. That's terrible. That was my prat impression of Mario. Oh, the pinball show, Facebook, TikTok, Discord. Go to the Facebook page. We're going to start boosting that up as well. We've got a YouTube channel straight down the middle, video series. Greg just texted me today and said he's ready to record some more. And we've got a really cool top ten or two coming up as well as a review.
    99:21
    Or go to Flippin' Out Pinball and buy a pinball machine. New, used, buy some mods. Help support me and Nicole over there with our distribution company. Product showcase this week is Pony Factory pre-order. No.
    99:34
    Well, honestly, I don't think I'm selling. I probably won't after this episode. But I don't think we're selling those. I need to see what that game is all about. The product showcase this week. Led Zeppelin. I think I've got one premium left new in the box, a couple pros left in the box. Or if you guys are local-ish, drive down. I've got a like new premium. I've got it underpriced right now. It's got the topper. It's got the armor. It's got the shooter rod. It's got the expression lighting. I'm going to tell you what. I may have underappreciated that game a little bit. I may have underappreciated it. There was a new release right now that a lot of people are loving that me and my buddy were playing the other night, and I was like, honestly, I might take this Led Zeppelin over that.
    100:19
    Underappreciated airport modes. You heard that, Ray Day? You fucking heard that. You know what? Push comes to shove. Give me Led Zeppelin over Rush. Oh, shit. I said it. Fine. I said it. Is that crazy? It is crazy. You can buy all kinds of games over at Flippin' Out Pinball, whether it's James Bond Pro Premium, the 60th Anniversary Edition, Alien, LV. I've got them. We've got Jurassic Park Home Edition, Star Wars Home Editions, Oktoberfest Deluxes. You want to order a GTF, we can do that for you. We've got Ultraman New in Box. We've got Halloween New in Box, Toy Story 4 New in Box, baby. We've got a bunch of pre-owned games, Mandalorian Premiums. I think we're out of Turtles now. we do have Rush in stock pro, we've got banners we've got accessories, we've got shooter rods we've got golden tees I'm getting low on golden tees, if you want to order a queen you can order it, Godfather we've got it in stock, Foo Fighters we can get to order in for you Flippin' Out With Friends, go check that out, it's on YouTube Joel either streams or he flips out with friends and does a kind of video podcast the last one was with Dennis Creasel Hoddy and Mike, so go check that out check out the pinball network we're hosted by them we got a lot of cool podcasts a lot of cool streams go check them out follow like and subscribe is that i think it's it tired so sleepy and if you haven't yet right now go check out the exclusive content where we cover everything that is back to the future pinball super mario pinball and the goonies pinball Ooh, good stuff. And for Dennis Crease, Lomzak Mini. And folks, I say remember to always think about how you are impacting the hobby. Be an OEM stern shaker motor. You should be adding enjoyment and texture to the overall hobby experience, not ripping it apart. And always practice safe pinball. And personal shout out and thank you to Derek for the kind birthday gift this last week. It was my birthday, Dennis. 39.
    102:19
    Still not 40. Okay. Peach, understand. I'm gonna love your tail to the very end. Peaches, peaches, peaches, peaches, peaches. Kamek is the name. Old yet powerful Magna Koopa. And who did that? Kevin Michael Richardson. I don't... I know him. Okay. He played Jabba the Hutt in something. You do do-da-do-da. Hey, I sold my Freddy. Oh, I saw that listed online. I kind of had a softball. I liked that game.
    102:59
    I got through it after the second game I played, but it was... Just like Toy Story 4. Oh! It was good, though. It's pretty immersive. I don't think I've ever played it. You're not really missing anything. Just the theming and the sounds. Yeah.
    103:20
    I liked it. Wow. Well, thanks, Craig, for all those updates. He didn't give one this week. Oh, shit. I forgot already.
    103:29
    Patreon. Damn it, Craig. He's like, Zach's all right. Why don't you sit here explaining to you what he was in Houston for, you dipshit? Like, well, I'm sorry. I'm still recovering from the fanboy. Jesus Christ. All right. Let me rewind that. Okay. Thanks for nothing.
    103:50
    A lot of... Oh, no, can't make that joke. Love really makes a guy come out of his shell.