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Kaneda's Never Forget: Deeproot Pinball's PinPod Introduction

Kaneda Pinball Podcast YouTube (main)·video·15m 23s·analyzed·Jan 30, 2023
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.023

TL;DR

Deep Root Pinball unveils PinPod reusable shipping container for $999

Summary

Robert Mueller of Deep Root Pinball introduces the PinPod, a reusable, durable shipping container designed to replace traditional cardboard boxes for pinball machine delivery. The PinPod features vibration-dampening feet, adjustable brackets, air cushioning, weather resistance, and collapsible design, retailing at $999. Mueller positions it as part of Deep Root's broader 'Total Pinball Ownership Experience' philosophy aimed at serving both enthusiasts and casual buyers.

Key Claims

  • PinPod retails for $999

    high confidence · Robert Mueller stated directly during product demonstration

  • PinPod is rated for hundreds of uses during normal shipping

    high confidence · Mueller explicitly stated container durability specifications

  • PinPod is backwards compatible with most standard-body pinball machines from Williams, Bally, and Ford

    high confidence · Mueller confirmed compatibility with older machines; not compatible with wide-body machines

  • PinPod dimensions are 34.5 inches on shortest side (Y-axis/hand truck side)

    high confidence · Mueller provided specific measurement during demonstration

  • PinPod has 10-pound weight capacity on top

    high confidence · Mueller stated during feature overview

  • Deep Root's philosophy is redefining ownership experience for average consumers, not just enthusiasts

    high confidence · Mueller explained TPOE (Total Pinball Ownership Experience) vision

  • PinPod will be included with Deep Root machines or available as separate purchase

    high confidence · Mueller confirmed customers can buy machines with or without PinPod option

Notable Quotes

  • “What Deeper has been about for the last few years is trying to redefine the entire ownership experience for a pinball owner, not just for a pinball enthusiast who knows everything about pinball, but for even the average Joe who just wants a great pinball machine in their basement.”

    Robert Mueller@ 0:53 — Articulates Deep Root's strategic positioning beyond enthusiast market

  • “So why do we as pinball enthusiasts want to ship our beautiful, expensive, valued, cherished pinball machines in the equivalent of tissue paper, right?”

    Robert Mueller@ 2:39 — Core value proposition justification for PinPod vs. traditional cardboard

  • “The pin pod is yours to keep and to have and to protect your machine from here on out. These are rated for hundreds of uses during normal shipping back and forth in freight. So for an average pinball enthusiast this could be a shipping device that could last for a lifetime.”

    Robert Mueller@ 7:26 — Emphasizes ownership and longevity vs. returnable containers

  • “In my personal opinion, you can buy a topper or you can get a great protection and shipping container for your pinball machine to keep your value and protect it as best as possible.”

    Robert Mueller@ 13:11 — Positions $999 PinPod as alternative luxury accessory spending

  • “Most standard body machines, yes. As you can see, the plates down below are adjustable. So most standard body machines will fit in there. Wide body will not.”

    Robert Mueller@ 13:42 — Clarifies product compatibility boundaries and engineering trade-offs

Entities

Robert MuellerpersonDeep Root PinballcompanyPinPodproductKellypersonCarriepersonJeffpersonDeep Root StudiosorganizationWilliamscompanyBallycompanyFordcompany

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Deep Root's strategic pivot toward 'Total Pinball Ownership Experience' indicates company focus on consumer-facing services beyond game design/manufacturing

    high · Mueller emphasized TPOE philosophy and serving 'average Joe' buyers, not just enthusiasts; PinPod framed as first element of this strategy

  • ?

    community_signal: Deep Root hosting invite-only product introduction event with pinball personalities and media to seed awareness and generate grassroots enthusiasm

    high · Mueller welcomed 'six great pinball personalities' to Deep Root Studios for hands-on PinPod demonstration and Q&A

  • $

    market_signal: PinPod $999 price point represents new accessory tier and potential revenue stream for Deep Root; positions luxury shipping protection as premium market segment

    high · Mueller explicitly positioned PinPod as alternative to toppers/other premium accessories; retailing for $999

  • ?

    announcement: Deep Root Pinball officially reveals PinPod reusable shipping container as major product innovation

    high · Full product demonstration with technical specifications, pricing, and compatibility details provided by Robert Mueller

  • ?

    product_strategy: Deep Root differentiating through reusable, weather-resistant, durable shipping solutions vs. traditional cardboard/styrofoam industry standard

    high · Mueller directly contrasted PinPod with traditional 'tissue paper' shipping and emphasized durability, reusability, and protection advantages

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.046

0:00
Hi, my name is Robert Mueller. This is the first time we're actually being together. And I want to welcome you, six great pinball personalities, to the Deep Root Studios and headquarters today to learn a little bit about pinball and our vision of pinball and the way that we want to take pinball over the next few decades. Now all of you have already introduced yourself and Kelly has done a great job of being a host and making you very welcome here. And one of the first things we want to talk about, and this might be familiar to a lot of you, we call it new in box in the pinball world. But really what that is, is it's the way that a pinball is shipped from the manufacturer directly to you, okay, the consumers. And so in doing this, and we're going to talk about today value, we're going to talk about something very important called TPOE. the total pinball ownership experience. See, what Deeper has been about for the last few years is trying to redefine the entire ownership experience for a pinball owner, not just for a pinball enthusiast who knows everything about pinball, knows how to set them up and to maintain them and to move them, but for even the average Joe who just wants a great pinball machine in their basement and to have some great entertainment for their family. So today we're going to be talking a lot about total pinball ownership experience. Okay, and this is the first thing now. What do we call this in pinball when something is shipped brand new machine in pinball?
1:28
New inbox right nib we see that all the time. Well, that's gonna change with deeper. Okay, this is this is a great box Right, it's gonna have some great markings. There's not a pinball machine in here right now
1:40
But one of the great things we want to do is make the experience of getting a box on a you know pallet or skid that's strapped down a lissier. So we just added tabs like this that come in and out. You don't have to use, you know, a blade or anything. Health protected the pinball machine inside. So you take these out, it opens up and then if you want to reuse it, you just put them back in here like this and you click it back. Easy way to open up and close a box. Okay? Now, new in box is sacred to a lot of pinball enthusiasts, but I want to use an example. So my sister-in-law loves to play the piano right and the great thing about a piano is is that it's a beautiful thing to have right it's expensive it weighs a lot you want to take very good care of it it's much about the same cost and weight as a pinball machine roughly you know five to ten thousand dollars now would you want to ship your brand new beautiful baby piano in tissue paper of course you don't right so why do we as pinball enthusiasts want to ship our beautiful, expensive, valued, cherished pinball machines in the equivalent of tissue paper, right? So while we will offer this to our customers, we'd like to introduce a better option. And that better option that we're going to avail at this point, remove this off and get it out of the way, is the Deep Root Pin Pod. Whoa. Wow.
  • ?

    technology_signal: Introduction of vibration-dampening technology (vibration feet) and air-cushioning system represents engineering innovation in pinball shipping

    high · Mueller highlighted vibration feet as addressing road vibration concerns and air cushioning as protective mechanism

    • 3:14
    What you're seeing now is not just a normal box, okay? Might look like it, but follow me here. What we want is to get a total value solution, okay? Something that is reusable, weather resistant, tough as nails. You're not going to stick a forklift fork or a pallet jack through any of this. We want it to be easy to disassemble and easy to assemble again. and we want the pinball machine to be beautifully cushioned with air inside protected from spills drops and things being put on top of it It has a 10 pound weight capacity for stuff on top And as we're going to see in a few minutes, it's completely collapsible. And so if you take it to an event, wheel in with your pin pod, everyone's going to ooze off. Take your pinball machine out with the event. Everyone loves and enjoys it. while you collapse this down, you do it, you can do it. Store it horizontally or vertically. So this is a great reusable option, and we want to ship everyone a pinball machine in a brand new pin pod so you can have the greatest protection that's available for your pinball machine out there today. So would you all like to see how it works? Of course, yeah. All right, beautiful.
    4:35
    All right, well, a couple more things before we get to actually trying out putting together a pin pod. At the bottom are what we call vibration feet. Now, there's a more engineering term for it, but one of the big problems in moving a complex machine like a pinball machine is the vibrations that happen not only from, you know, jolting it around and moving it from dock to truck, et cetera, and vice versa, but also basically the minimal vibrations that are from, like, road surfaces. Everything else is really bad for boards and other things. So that's the first thing we put on there. It's an extra feature. You won't find that anywhere else. Also, what I want to point out real quickly as we start putting this together is to remember pinch points. So just for safety purposes, tool's very simple. All you're going to do because this prong is under pressure, is you want your hand here and you just pop it off like this. To put it back, you just put it in one of the recesses. recesses you're going to use your flat palm or a fist to keep it out of the pinch point and it just goes right in you hear it snap and it's under pressure so there's quite a few of them around and what that does is protect the entire pin pod right surface area internally and as you can see right here we're going to put that beautiful pinball machine we want to protect and care for right in the middle cushioned by air all the way around so if there is a tip or a drop that air and basically the friction against the pallet is going to keep that pinball machine nice and safe. So that box is wider than a typical standard box for pinball machines. Will it fit through a regular standard doorway? So standard doorway, it might or might not. Some doorways, depending upon the age of the building and the codes in the local areas, might or might not be that. It's 34 1⁄2 inches on its shortest side, which is Y, and it's the hand truck side right here, which we have a special block to allow a dolly to go under there and easily fit where the other two sides or forklift or pallet jack. So as the least widest side here, it should be able to fit through most standard doorways. There are supposedly sometimes, you know, probably you might have to take off a door depending on the hinge or if you're in a building that has less than 36-inch door frames. But in any way, most of the time, this is going to go into a garage. you'll probably break it down there, and then take the pinball machine itself into the house. It's really up to you, but what we've tried to do is keep it as small as possible, while still, as you can see here, keeping enough air around it to protect it if there is some vibration of the machine during transit. Is this something we have to ship back to Deep Root after we get our game, or does this belong to us? No, absolutely not. So whether you purchase it or it comes with your game, and we'll talk about that later, the pin pod is yours to keep and to have and to protect your machine from here on out. These are rated for hundreds of uses during normal shipping back and forth in freight So for an average pinball enthusiast this could be a shipping device that could last for a lifetime So it very durable And as we start putting it together we notice you know, some of the features like the reinforced plastic recesses. And it's like, bring this around here. You also have very nice lips here that have been routed out to make sure that it seals very well. So there's no other kind of support inside the machine, but just these adjustable brackets that are around here. So they're adjustable brackets for the bottom and then there's ties on either side so we want to keep we want to keep horizontal vertical together. Believe me we spent a lot of time once we found the right device and the right shipping container to figure out what's the best way to keep that pinball machine nice and safe and still during shipment no matter what happens with shipment. Okay all right well who would like to volunteer to put together a pin pod. All right, Carrie and Jeff, let's do it. As you can see from the hooks, I mean, you're welcome to go wild with your retention. Usually only two like this should be really good to keep it nice and firm in there. So it's really up to you all. If you are moving it on your own, just realize that while we do have vibration pads, depending where you are in the country, roads can be pretty crazy and you will want to check from time to time if you're on a road tip with it to make sure that the straps haven't just jiggled loose or stuff like that. But it usually, with a nice ratchet belt like this, it should hold really well. And you can see, as I lift up on either side, doesn't come out. Nice and cushioned at the bottom. Gives you a nice firm support. It's at the top too. So it is now solidly on this pallet. So just like you would have with the new in box, but unlike a new in box, we now have some amazing side protection and some clamps are gonna put on. So Jeff and Carrie if you want to come up and I'll get out of the way here.
    10:00
    Yeah, they're right here. Right, so just make sure the recess is pretty close to each other. Looks good. And bracket that middle one. Middle one. Yeah, and when we get all the... There's four. All right, beautiful. And then just basically go around? Yep, just start going around and then y'all can get the top.
    11:00
    Oh, wrong way. All right let get that top on All right, yay! Very strong, very sturdy. Once you get all these clamps on, it creates a nice protection around your pinball machine. So is it slide? Yeah, okay. I mean, it's heavy, right? Because there's a pinball machine in there. but the vibration pads do slide. So it gives it a nice base instead of just having a regular pallet at the bottom on the floor. So since this is rated for a lot of uses, and it's, I mean this is normally a shipping container you would have with long distances, with a lot of moving around and stuff being put into other containers, hitting other things, forklifts around, et cetera, it is pretty sturdy. So obviously this is a more robust package than a cardboard box with styrofoam by far. What's your estimate in terms of how much more it adds to the overall cost or price point to the customer to have this greater level of security? Yes, so the pin pod will retail for $999.
    13:11
    And in my personal opinion, you can buy a topper or you can get a great protection and shipping container for your pinball machine to keep your value and protect it as best as possible. Well, you've mentioned licensing the technologies. Is this something you're going to sell even outside of deep root customers? Like if I have an older pin that I maybe take to shows or something, is this something I can buy separately? So that's a great question. Is it backwards compatible with non-deep root machines? And for most standard body machines, yes. As you can see, the plates down below are adjustable. So most standard body machines, we padded this one a lot more. That's why it took a little bit more effort to get it between and get them in. But most standard body machines will fit in there. Wide body will not. I don't know if we're going to do wide body because in order to do wide body, we have to start changing dimensions, which might affect the ability to get it through a lot of doors, et cetera.
    14:10
    There really isn't any other special needs that you have because of the cushion that we have and the strap feature. Some of our older retention ideas that we had would have forced like a plate or something to be drilled into pinball machines to retain it. We think we found a much more suitable, flexible, and universal option in what we've done here. So, yes, if you buy a pinpod and it doesn't fit your standard pinball machine from, you know, modern Williams, Bally, and Ford, we'll give you a refund if you want a refund because we want to take care of you. But it's not like we've tested it on all the other machines possible. It will fit a Williams-Bally because our package is very similar to a Williams-Bally. And it probably will fit most other manufacturers that have standard-sized pinball machines. And you'll also ship in boxes as like an additional option, add-on option. Is that right? Yeah, absolutely. So you can have your pinball machine from Deep Root shipped the old-fashioned way, wherever the cardboard box is, somewhere around here. Oh, there it is. We got it out of the way, right? Or you can have it shipped in pin pods. you