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Stern Pinball Mandalorian Reveal, JJP GnR Playfield Thoughts, and Pinclash (Ep.56)

A Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·35m 15s·analyzed·Jun 7, 2021
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

Stern marketing critique, Mandalorian playfield analysis, and JJP GnR playfield issues recap.

Summary

Host discusses Stern's "Making of Avengers Infinity Quest" video production quality and argues for better pre-release marketing strategy; provides detailed critique of Mandalorian pinball's playfield design with concerns about ball control issues; defends prior reporting on Jersey Jack Guns N' Roses playfield warping issues from months earlier, showing receipts and personal experience.

Key Claims

  • Stern's 'Making of' videos are among the best-produced content they create, yet are released months after game launch instead of alongside initial trailers

    high confidence · Host discusses Avengers Infinity Quest 'Making of' video released 9 months after trailer, with Led Zeppelin and Mandalorian already shipped in interim

  • Stern is experiencing severe manufacturing capacity shortage relative to market demand

    high confidence · Host states 'Stern's manufacturing capability, as great as it is, it cannot meet demand currently, which is insane'

  • Over a dozen prospective buyers did not purchase Mandalorian because the initial Premium reveal lacked voice callouts shown in later Pro reveal

    medium confidence · Host claims 'I know of legitimately over a dozen people that did not buy because of that' regarding audio differences between reveals

  • Host reported Jersey Jack Guns N' Roses playfield warping issues in episodes from October 23, November 3, and November 10, 2020

    high confidence · Host provides episode dates and titles: #27, #28 (titled 'Let's talk playfield issues'), and #29 (titled 'Travel Jersey Jack GNR Playfield Issues')

  • Mandalorian's scoop ramp exhibits ball ejection issues visible in reveal streams, occurring at least 2-3 times despite limited play shown

    high confidence · Host states 'I saw that happen at least two times, I can remember, maybe even three times' and expresses concern it could be recurring issue

  • Mandalorian's horseshoe shot is one of the most inconsistent on modern pinball machines with unpredictable returns

    medium confidence · Host describes: 'You can crush that shot, and you don't know how it's going to return... do a variety of things'

  • Host received borderline insulting support response from Jersey Jack regarding playfield issues and gave up pursuing remedy

    medium confidence · Host states 'The reply I got back was honestly, it was kind of borderline insulting' and decided 'this is not going to get fixed at all'

Notable Quotes

  • “these videos are such well produced videos that I often wonder why can't something like this be along with the trailer to where it's a little bit more well produced with transitions, with B-roll, with highlighting different parts of the game”

    Host @ ~3:30-4:00 — Core critique of Stern's marketing strategy regarding timing of high-quality content release

  • “the trailer for Avengers Infinity Quest was nine months ago. Nine. That's a while back. There's already been two game releases since then with Led Zeppelin and now with Mandalorian.”

    Host @ ~2:30-3:00 — Demonstrates the scale of delay between game announcement and behind-the-scenes documentary

  • “I guarantee you, I guarantee you, because I was one of them, that I decided to hold off on my order simply because of that. Because I'm like, it's not what I thought it was going to be.”

    Host @ ~15:00-16:00 — Personal anecdote about Mandalorian Premium reveal lacking callouts causing purchasing decision reversal

  • “I just don't feel like the magnet really matters all that much. It doesn't add anything to the game for me personally. If it does for you, excellent. By the way, magnetize that baby.”

    Host @ ~19:00 — Dismissive but measured critique of Mandalorian Premium differentiator

  • “I did not like seeing the ball fly off the habit trail on the premium. And I saw that happen at least two times, I can remember, maybe even three times.”

    Host @ ~20:00-21:00 — Key concern about Mandalorian scoop ramp mechanical reliability

  • “That was probably one of the most inconsistent shots I've ever seen on a modern pinball machine. You can crush that shot, and you don't know how it's going to return.”

    Host @ ~22:30-23:30 — Strong criticism of Mandalorian horseshoe shot design consistency

  • “I've talked about it already, guys. And I agree. It's horrible. It sucks. As a consumer, it's not fun. It's happened to me. I'm part of that group.”

    Host — Personal confirmation of being affected by JJP playfield issues and prior reporting

Entities

Stern PinballcompanyJersey Jack PinballcompanyDwight SullivanpersonAvengers Infinity QuestgameMandaloriangameGuns N' RosesgameStar Warsgame

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Jersey Jack Pinball unable or unwilling to address systemic playfield warping on Guns N' Roses due to financial and logistical constraints; company prioritizing cash flow over warranty remediation

    high · Host received 'borderline insulting' support response and concludes issue won't be fixed; notes company in 'money-making business' unwilling to absorb cost of mid-production playfield replacement

  • ?

    community_signal: Host plans hands-on testing with family and casual players to evaluate game balance (multiball/multiplier accessibility) despite lack of designer input, indicating community-driven quality verification process

    medium · Host intends to bring 'kids to go play' and have them 'just chimp flip' to test whether casual play accidentally triggers multipliers via center ramp spam

  • ?

    community_signal: Host explicitly counters narrative that community hasn't discussed JJP playfield issues, providing episode citations from October-November 2020 where topics were covered in detail

    high · Host cites specific prior episodes (#27, #28, #29) with dates and titles proving early reporting on GNR playfield issues; disputes characterization by unidentified community figure (possibly Kaneda) that issue is new

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Host expresses preference for Pro version of Mandalorian over Premium despite apparent lower cosmetic quality, valuing functionality and consistency over aesthetics—reflects broader designer priority conflicts in boutique vs. mass-market pinball

    medium · Host prefers plastic ball returns on Pro despite poor appearance because they're 'reliable' vs. Premium's problematic scoop rail and magnet save they view as non-functional addition

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.106

0:00
Stern Pinball's Mandalorian has been fully revealed, playfield issues continue to plague Jersey Jack pinball owners, and we'll also talk about upcoming pinball tournaments. All that right now on A Pinball Podcast.
0:20
Alright guys, welcome back to another episode of A Pinball Podcast. Thank you guys so much for being here. I greatly do appreciate it, whether you're listening in your car, taking a run, about to play pinball or you're just wasting time, thank you guys so much for stopping in and hanging out. So let's just get right into it. And I want to talk about first before anything else, I want to talk about this video that came out on Stern Pinball's YouTube page. And that video is the making of Avengers Infinity Quest. Now, if you guys haven't been paying attention, usually after every game, several months down the line, Stern Pinball typically will release a video that's the making of that particular game. And I love the way that these videos are constructed. I love the fact that we get to hear from the designer. We get to sometimes hear from the coder. We get to hear from the artist. And we get a little bit of the behind-the-scenes thinking of this game. And some of these videos are legitimately, and I won't say some of these, pretty much all of them, are the most well-produced videos that Stern Pinball is able to put out. Now, I didn't get the name. It's on there somewhere. But I know they've obviously outsourced this to another videographer. I just have to make that assumption. I think it's on the credits right after the making of. And these videos, again, are great. But what I truly believe and what I don't understand is why is this type of video not front and center before games ship? Because keep this in mind, the trailer for Avengers Infinity Quest was nine months ago. Nine. That's a while back. There's already been two game releases since then with Led Zeppelin and now with Mandalorian.
2:00
And yet this video is so solid that I wonder why it is not along with the week of whatever release that they're doing. Meaning as soon as they release a trailer, I would like to see within 24 to 72 hours something very similar to this. and I feel like these are such well produced videos that I often wonder why can't something like this be along with the trailer to where it's a little bit more well produced with transitions, with B-roll, with highlighting different parts of the game a little bit better and I really wonder why that isn't. Now, obviously Stern fully excels at the PR game. They fully excel at it and they get it out to many different news outlets It's better than the rest of the pinball industry combined. And we're also noticing that there is a severe shortage of games right now due to demand. And that could be due to a couple of things. One, it's obvious that Stern's manufacturing capability, as great as it is, it cannot meet demand currently, which is insane. And two, it's obvious that there's way too many distributors right now, which pretty much dilutes the product across the line. where a lot of these companies cannot, and when I say companies, I'm talking about distributors, they cannot get enough games to fulfill the demand that they have just because there's so many different games that are promised to all kinds of different distributors around the world. So that's another reason why this is potentially happening, that there's a lot of people that just cannot fulfill orders, and not every consumer knows about every single distributor available in America or in the world. So that's typical product 101 across the board with dealing with any manufacturing issues or any distributor. Because I've had to go through the same thing in my real life job in the past. I've had to deal with that for several years. It happens. It happens and this is just one of the first times that I've really noticed this happening with pinball. So it's a unique situation in that form. But coming back to the video, I really would like to see them put in this type of effort the week of a video. And again, I don't know whether or not they necessarily need to because of the reasons I just stated in terms of product availability and how much the consumers are demanding it anyways. But I just feel like having a well-produced video in front of a full gameplay reveal, nearly as if they would do this type of video of the gameplay reveal, where it's very controlled to where you have some of the best pinball players in the entire world under your banner. They work there. You could get some excellent shots. You could get some excellent footage. You could produce a video that lasts no more than 8 to 12 minutes that shows a game that highlights all the great parts of the game. And there's no filler space. There's no empty space. Your content is great. It's excellent. And I think that alone would increase sales even more across the board on all games. It's right there. And this is legitimately a few hundred thousand to a couple of million dollar decision in terms of the amount a product because there's a lot of people that search out these videos and you can even see on any of the trailers that Stern releases how big the views are. And a lot of that is because they have the advertising blitz of all that PR. They get a lot of eyeballs on it. So why not take advantage of that and release these types of videos that week? Why not do that? Because I feel like that would just make these products just pop even more. Now, that being said, If you're not Stern, you're somebody else. This is a wide open advantage or an opportunity that you can take advantage of. It's Stern everybody right there. Stern has shown the formula and they've shown what works on their end, but they've shown the formula of what would absolutely work for every other manufacturer. If I owned a pinball company, I'd be going to my team right now and I would be saying, this is exactly how we're going to do it. We're going to cover it on the PR standpoint. We're going to come out with a killer release video. we're going to come out with all the information right then and there that week all the questions will be answered simply because you're at the height of your popularity at that point the height of awareness at that point of that game because nobody has seen anything bad yet all we have to go off of is a trailer and when you can start your gameplay you can explain your rules in a way that makes sense to the viewer that will just help even more and I feel like Mandalorian could have done excellent with that Now, obviously, there's a bunch of games that are going to go out anyways. But when you take somebody like Dwight that is very excited, and rightfully so, of the product that they've helped put out and they've helped create, why not give him the opportunity to sit in front of a camera and explain everything out to where you can edit that bad boy down to highlight all the great parts? And it makes Dwight's work stand out. It makes his words stand out. And it makes the game stand out even more because you can still do the dead flip reveal. You could still do that a couple of weeks down the line. There's nothing wrong with that. If you want to hand off that content over, that's perfectly fine. But we're talking about a whole different type of content that I really do think would help. I think it would help us as a consumer understand what is going on a little bit better. It would answer a lot of questions that we might have. And it would still allow for some intrigue to happen because you're controlling the content that goes out. You're controlling the messaging. And you're able to show it in ways that you can highlight the great stuff. And I just feel like that would just be an excellent way to go. All right, so let's just segue directly into the Mandalorian pinball reveal on Deadflip's channel. Now, you can find these videos, both the premium and the pro, on his YouTube page. And I'll have the links down below in the comments on the YouTube video. But these videos, they did give us a lot of information in terms of how this game is going to play in particular. And I released a video last week discussing that a little bit. and I went back and forth on how I felt about this game for so long because I love the theme greatly. The theme touches all the right, it checks all the boxes for me in terms of what it means to me as a theme. But I can also take a step back and kind of look at it from a whole 360-degree position or whatever you want to call it. I can just see the whole thing for what it is. And for me, I think that the code looks really good. up front. I really do. I like the light show as well. Obviously, everybody's going to say they're going to compare it to GNR. But look, the fact is GNR's light show is the best light show ever in the history of pinball, right? So everything is going to naturally just go to comparing it to that. But you know what? If something is the second best light show ever in pinball or the third best in pinball when we have hundreds of different options that not so bad either So let just get it straight right now It still an excellent light show And so I really do like the Mandalorian light show I think Dwight has done a great job on that. Just seeing how different shots are hit and seeing how the game responds to that. I think that those things are really going well together. It was noticeable on the pro that the assets were so much better compared to the premium. And again, this goes, this harnes back, you know, to putting out your best foot forward and putting out the best content you possibly can. Because we all came away from that premium stream, the very first dead flip stream, wondering where was the call outs, thinking Carl Weathers kind of seemed robotic, wondering if there was anything else. And this was a genuine concern from multiple people. And I guarantee you, I guarantee you, because I was one of them, that I decided to hold off on my order simply because of that. Because I'm like, it's not what I thought it was going to be. It wasn't like Star Wars where they had a bunch of call outs already in it, already baked into it. And so I held back because of that. And I know of legitimately over a dozen people that did not buy because of that. And now the game hasn't even shipped yet. now it probably has shipped now, but the game hadn't shipped yet during the Pro Reveal as far as I know and now all of a sudden there's a bunch of voices in it that were added into it and now all of a sudden that's an excellent thing that's great that is great, except now there's a bunch of us that didn't order a pin that because of that and now all of a sudden if somebody hasn't watched that yet they still don't even know what's in there they don't know They don't know unless they watch that game specifically, or they listen to this podcast, or they listen to somebody else's podcast, or they go on Pinside and they might read something on a message board. Other than that, they do not know. And that's bad because that is a lot of cells. That's a dozen people right there that might not know.

Jersey Jack received Guns N' Roses game out-of-box with visible playfield warping before any plays

high confidence · Host shows photo of condition: 'Guns N' Roses standard, out of box. Zero plays. Hadn't even turned it on yet'

@ ~36:00-37:00

  • “What is Jersey Jack really going to do about this? That's the question. And I don't think replacing play fields, while that is the sexy answer to give... the reality is, is they are in the money-making business.”

    Host @ ~40:00-42:00 — Pragmatic business analysis of why full playfield replacement unlikely despite customer impact

  • “This picture that I'm showing you guys right now, that's exactly how my game showed up. Guns N' Roses standard, out of box. Zero plays. Hadn't even turned it on yet.”

    Host @ ~45:00-46:00 — Direct evidence of host's personal experience with JJP manufacturing defect

    • Deadflip
    person/entity
    Brian Eddyperson
    Kanedaperson
    Led Zeppelingame
    Cactus Jacksvenue
    Solid State Pinball Supplyvenue
    District 82venue
    Owenperson

    manufacturing_signal: Stern experiencing severe manufacturing capacity shortage relative to market demand, exacerbated by oversupply of distributors diluting product availability

    high · Host states 'Stern's manufacturing capability, as great as it is, it cannot meet demand currently' and explains distributor network fragmentation preventing efficient order fulfillment

  • $

    market_signal: Stern produces high-quality 'Making of' documentaries months after game release instead of alongside announcement trailers, despite these being among their best content and clearly impacting consumer purchasing decisions

    high · Host provides specific example: Avengers Infinity Quest trailer 9 months before 'Making of' video release, with two other games shipped in interim. Host claims this timing decision costs millions in lost sales.

  • ?

    community_signal: Brian Eddy's Mandalorian layout design includes elements host believes were unintentional (chaotic horseshoe shot) or missed opportunities (rotating Razorcrest mechanic not implemented), suggesting possible iteration constraints or design compromises

    medium · Host speculates designer 'thought about' rotating Razorcrest feature but 'it just didn't work out for some reason' and questions intentionality of horseshoe chaos

  • ?

    product_strategy: Stern's three-tier Mandalorian strategy (Pro/Premium/LE with varying features) creates quality variance that may alienate buyers—Premium features (magnet, scoop rail) perceived as non-essential or problematic by knowledgeable players

    medium · Host explicitly states magnet 'doesn't add anything to the game' and scoop rail causes ball control issues, questioning value proposition of Premium tier

  • ?

    product_concern: Mandalorian exhibit mechanical issues visible in official reveal streams: scoop ramp ball ejection occurring 2-3 times in limited play, inconsistent horseshoe shot returns, and potential recurring rattle issues

    high · Host witnessed ball fly-offs and inconsistent returns during Deadflip reveal streams and expresses concern these will be recurring problems across production units

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Host initially excited about Mandalorian theme but cooled on purchase after Premium reveal lacked audio callouts, only to become interested again after Pro reveal added voices—illustrating impact of reveal quality on consumer decisions

    high · Host claims 'I decided to hold off on my order simply because of that' and acknowledges dozen+ other buyers made same decision; sentiment improved after Pro reveal showed superior audio assets

    • 10:47
    So that kind of just goes back to putting your best foot forward, which I am glad to hear that there is assets in there that have the voices. It just makes the game feel so much more full. It feels like it's an excellent produced. The sound is great. The light show, the video is great. The animations, they seem pretty good from what I've seen.
    11:09
    And so all that together, it seems like it's creating a great package. I do wish that this would have been their first foot forward. I really do. because there was, and I'm one of them, that I'm a huge Star Wars fan, and I'm just like, okay, it doesn't have what I thought it would have. And then combining it with the shots, which I'm going to talk about here in just a few, those things combined together made it to where I decided I was going to pass on this. And I'm still kind of up in the air. I may go ahead and just last second just try to get a pro in here just for a month so I could try it out, so I could give you guys a hands-on review. I know we're getting one locally at the local pinball arcade at Cactus Jacks here in Oklahoma City, and we're going to be able to try that out too. But I'd really like to get my hands on it in a home setting as well just to see how it is. And so after watching all the shots that were hit on both the premium and the pro, I honestly, for me personally, I thought I was going to like the premium better, but I came out of that liking the pro better for a variety of reasons. And there's two main reasons for that. And I guess technically three if we want to count the magnet. And just simply put, I just don't feel like the magnet really matters all that much. It doesn't add anything to the game for me personally. If it does for you, excellent. By the way, magnetize that baby. Have baby Grogu or baby Yoda just use the force and stop your ball. The other two things, though, that I really decided I don't necessarily need, and I feel like this is actually better on the pro, is I did not like seeing the ball fly off the habit trail on the premium. And I saw that happen at least two times, I can remember, maybe even three times. And there wasn't even that many games played on it during the reveal stream.
    12:51
    And when I see that happening at such a major shot, that is concerning to me. And it's not something that I would necessarily really enjoy. Now, obviously with Avengers Infinity Quest, that happens sometimes, but it doesn't happen all the time. And it feels like watching Mandalorian, unless they make some engineering decisions that might change the wire form up a little bit, I feel like that this could actually be an issue nearly game to game, especially for people that are able to play this game for a long time. I feel like that this will be just a regular occurrence at this point. And so that's one reason why I'm thinking, well, maybe the plastics on the pro, the plastic ball returns might actually be better. They don't look as good. they'll get dirty very quickly it won't look near as good as the premium or the LE but at least I can rely on that ball to return back easily but that being said though that's just on the scoop ramp I did not see that happen on the left ramp I did not see that happen on the helix ramp so that's the takeaway I don't believe that it will happen on either one of those ramps that it's just going to happen on that scoop ramp and again, that scoop ramp is not on the pro, so therefore you don't have to worry about that return at all. So it's kind of like it's baked into the cake that you're just going to not have that shot in the pro at all. But what you are going to have on the pro is that horseshoe shot that I just don't like it at all. That was probably one of the most inconsistent shots I've ever seen on a modern pinball machine. You can crush that shot, and you don't know how it's going to return. You don't know if it's going to go to your flippers, sling, the top of a post. You don't know if it's just going to rattle in there and just dribble back to a flipper. It's going to do a variety of things. And while that might be fun for some people, for me personally, I don't really get much fun out of that. I don't mind the chaos of multiball, but if I'm in single ball play, I don't want to be punished for hitting a shot the way that I was supposed to hit that shot. Like I get it. If there's a bash toy with a magnet in front, maybe it's going to be a little bit of a crazy return, like a Sparky or Metallica or something like that, or even a Walking Dead. But sometimes, you know, with that bash toy that's pretty close to the flipper. But I'm not so sure that this shot was intended this way. And somebody can correct me if I'm wrong, because I haven't listened to all of Brian Eddy's thoughts on his whole layout and his design decisions. So maybe that was intended. It just kind of seems like that would be a weird place to intend to create a chaotic moment in the pinball game. I don't know. It's just my thoughts. And the other thing is, is the mini play field. I feel like the upper playfield doesn't really do much for me. I'm not a particular upper playfield fan. Admittedly, I've said this before.
    15:36
    And it's not so much that it won't be coded well. I'm sure Dwight will code it excellent. It seems like it's pretty cool with the accuracy and all that. I'm just not so sure that I really need something that, one, could potentially break down. Two, is just going to move around and flip around. And three, I don't know if I want to see those flippers just flipping around the whole time, especially when the playfield's vertical.
    15:58
    But again, I'm not sure though if the flippers do flip while that playfield's vertical and we're not currently playing on it. I need to look back at video but I'm pretty sure I thought I seen them flipping. And I don't know if I wanna see that all the time if that's the case. But I do really enjoy the way the mini playfield is. I like the fact that there's just one flipper there. I like the fact that you can enter that with, it looks like a skill shot nearly. I like that sometimes a ball can sneak in there during multi-ball, and I like that it's just a different mechanic overall or different decision making overall when you're just dealing with one flipper and you're having to skillfully nudge. I feel like there's actually more skill that could potentially be needed for that as opposed to just trapping up and maybe waiting to see if the play field goes down, and if it doesn't, you just kind of hit a backhand shot to make sure you stay controlled because of the pitch of the upper play field. On the mini play field, you don't get that opportunity. It's going to stay static, And so because of that, you have to actually take some chances. And that's just the way that I feel watching this. Now, I'll find out whenever I actually get my hands on it, but I just liked how it worked a little bit better. And I really do feel like that pro is jam-packed. I really do. Now, the Razorcrest shot, I'm not so sure about either. We saw a lot of rattles there. It looks like it has the potential to be a fun shot, but I also feel like there was an extreme opportunity missed. When I look at that Razorcrest ship, which is the Mandalorian ship that is right there, with that little target just hanging down. I really feel like that could have been a unique opportunity to have a ship there that could rotate or do something to where it lets the ramp down on the back end to let all the cargo in And that happens on the show a lot That almost like you see it nearly every single episode And I really feel like that could have been something similar to like a Williams fire or something like that, to where that, that back end to the cargo bay goes down and that acts as a ramp. And that lets you get up into that center ramp and that could lock your ball or get a ball lock, whatever you want to call it, or just make a shot. I really feel like that that would have been awesome to see. And I wish that they could have done that. I have to believe that they thought about that and that it just didn't work out for the bomb. But just seeing that, seeing a ramp that would retract, being able to open up another orbit shot right there, and something that most likely would not rattle either. It probably wouldn't rattle if you actually had a ramp and you didn't have to worry about getting past that target and then traveling a little bit to the ramp. I feel like that might have helped things along a little bit as well, and it would have looked cool at the same time. So I was a little bit disappointed not to see that. Not the end of the world, but it is a little bit of a concerning shot, and I think we will have some rattle continue from game to game with that shot in particular. The left ramp, I do like the left ramp. I think that that looks like that shoots smooth. I'm excited to shoot that shot. I was a little bit worried about the scoop in terms of where it's at. It'd be a little bit tricky, but, you know, it seems like forehands are there. Backhands are definitely there all day long. I got no issues with that shot. I think that shot will be great. I love the idea of what happens when you hit that shot with the foundry, the RPG elements when you're buying certain things with your best card and certain power-ups. I think that is awesome. It will lead to a lot of interesting decision-making that I really look forward to, especially from a tournament perspective when I have to figure out how to get so many points out of this game and figure out how to be very efficient with what I'm doing. I'm excited about that, and I think that will lead to a lot of excitement for homeowners as well. A lot of you could explore it a lot, is what I'm trying to say. And I feel like that would be very cool as well. And the orbits overall, they seem like they hit pretty smooth. So I don't really have anything wrong with the orbits. The only thing that I am extremely worried about with this game, but I'm sure it can be coded in different ways, but I'm not so sure that it will be regardless. I don't know if it'll be fixed or not. And I don't, who knows, maybe it doesn't even need fixing. So again, I won't know until I actually get to play it. But I'm kind of concerned about one, obviously multi-balls are going to be easy to come by, just spamming the center ramp the whole time. But I'm also concerned that multipliers will be easy to come by as well because they're basically baked in to where you can get your first multiplier pretty quick just on the Boba Fett targets. And then, of course, you have other things along the way with, I think, it's encounters and the other part is slipping my mind, maybe ambushes or something like that. But I just wonder if that's going to lead to people just getting multipliers galore just by accident and not really by skill, just because when you have a multi-ball going, there's a little bit of chaos happening. And that shot is right there on your right-hand side. And to me, that's going to be something easy that's going to be started unintentional a lot of times. And I think we're going to see people's scores jump up a lot without them realizing how it happened. I think the potential is there for something like that to occur. So I'm interested to see how that plays out from just a casual standpoint. and I'm curious to see. That's why I want to make sure to take my kids with me to go play this and hopefully if we can get one here to do the same thing. Just to do some testing. Just to say, okay, just go crazy on the pin. Just flip away. Just chimp flip your way and let's see if you can get a multiplier and a high score out of it. I'm curious to see how that goes. But overall, I think the game looks excellent. Don't get it twisted just because I think that the rules in the light show seem to be the stars of this over the actual layout doesn't mean that the layout's bad. We've got to get that straight. Oftentimes people think if you have some critique of a layout that that automatically means it's bad. No. I think the layout is still pretty good, and I'm still excited to flip it. There's just a couple areas of concern, and it's like that on most pens. I mean, even Avengers, I love Avengers.
    21:43
    Owen, you've done a great job, but even the Captain Marvel shot sometimes rejects, and that gets frustrating for me. And then other times it just shoots smooth. I've had to move it around a little bit, and it's still a fun shot. But that just goes to show you, not everything is perfect. And it doesn't mean necessarily that it's a bad design. We just got to keep in mind that these pins are all crafted by hand, and sometimes you have some things that you got to fix it, and you have adjustments that you got to make. And sometimes the shots just don't work the same way as they would work on the same make and same model somewhere else. Just how it is. So I'm curious to see how this goes with Mandalorian. I'm curious to get my hands on it. I'm curious to flip it. And I think it will be a fun pin overall. And I'm glad to see that Mandalorian is at least out in the public. All right, so moving forward to Jersey Jack play-filled issues. Now, if you've been living under a rock, which you probably haven't been, you're probably well aware of this now. I know that obviously the narrative going around right now, and I know Kaneda's talked about this a little bit, but the narrative going around right now is that nobody else is talking about this. And I just got to tell you guys, it's simply not true. Now, I have the receipts to back this up. This is the same things, guys, that I talked about seven months ago. Seven months ago, back on October 23rd, I talked about it on November 3rd. I talked about it on November 10th. I've talked about all this already. We're on, I think, number 56 or 57 episode for a pinball podcast.
    23:15
    Right here, a pinball podcast, number 27, the GNR follow-up. In this episode of a pinball podcast, I talk about the fallout of the 26th episode, having different experiences in pinball, and how that corresponds to how we perceive different pinball machines. We also discuss playfield issues briefly and manufacturing rollout from Jersey Jack pinball.
    23:37
    A pinball podcast number 28. Let's talk playfield issues. In this episode of a pinball podcast, I talk about the reality that pinball consumers are facing when dealing with the playfield pulling issues from companies like Jersey Jack Pinball and Stern Pinball.
    23:53
    And lastly, on November 10th, 2020, a pinball podcast number 29, Travel Jersey Jack GNR Playfield Issues and What Makes Pinball Fun. That was the title of that episode. In this episode of a pinball podcast, I discuss my recent travels to solid state pinball supply in District 82. And I also discuss my thoughts on the ongoing saga of Jersey Jack Pinball's Guns N' Roses play-filled issues that continue to crop up.
    24:20
    And that was back November 10th, 2020. Several months ago already. So, I just want to dispel this myth that nobody else is talking about this issue because I've talked about it already, guys. And I know I've gotten a few emails about it asking what my thoughts are on it, asking why I haven't really talked about it too much now. And it's simply because I've talked about it already. And I agree. It's horrible. It sucks. As a consumer, it's not fun. It's happened to me. I'm part of that. I'm part of that group. It's happened to me. But legitimately, everything that I talked about several months ago is playing out nearly identical to that right now. To where I predict it and I said, hey, these are the issues that are happening. These are the issues that are going to keep happening that the consumer has to realize it's not going to change. It's not. Pinball is so big, guys. If we just talk, we can all try to vote with our wallets as much as we want to. We could try. But that train's already left the station. What is Jersey Jack really going to do about this? That's the question. And I don't think replacing play fields, while that is the sexy answer to give, and while I wish I could say, hey, this is what they should do, I got to live in reality. And the reality is, is they are in the money-making business. And the reality is, there's so much money put into the Guns N' Roses product already. with everything they've done, because it's an excellent pinball machine. When you look at it, the light show, just everything, the asset, everything that we've talked about that makes it an awesome-looking pinball machine, that costs money. And for a company to go back in the middle of production and start sending playfields, new playfields, and swapping them out with everything and working on the shipping, and it's got to be a logistical nightmare, and it's got to be a money nightmare as well. and I'm not so sure that a lot of these companies want to take that type of wash because that is a terrible place to be at. So I feel like what we're getting right now is exactly what I predicted, that they're going to give you the type of fixes that they want to give that won hurt them financially And I both understand that and don understand it I understand it from a business standpoint It sucks I hate to see customers treat it like that But I also understand that you're running an extreme risk of there not being Jersey Jack pinball in the way that we know it. If all of a sudden they're out millions of dollars overnight because they're having to replace a bunch of play fields because they're having to stop production because they're not fulfilling orders. It's a domino effect that goes down that doesn't just affect just a couple of people. It affects everything on down the line, especially when you decide to address such a big situation as that. But I am curious to see how they do address this. Because again, just like I told you guys, I had to go through this. And I'll show you guys right now. I honestly, I worked with Jersey Jack for a little while on this. I sent in a support ticket. And the reply I got back was honestly, it was kind of borderline insulting. I'm not going to lie. And it's not that I threw a or anything, it just made me realize this is not going to get fixed at all. And I just decided, hey, I've got to live with it. It is what it is. And I'll show you guys right now. I'll put it up exactly. And this is how it came out. If you're listening on a podcatcher, just look over on the YouTube channel. And we're about 27, 28 minutes into the video right now. And this picture that I'm showing you guys right now, that's exactly how my game showed up. Guns N' Roses standard, out of box. Zero plays. Hadn't even turned it on yet. This is exactly what it looked like out of box. And I'm not even talking about the light issue that I had. We all had a good laugh about that. This was directly out of box. The chip play filled at the scoop. The clear is obviously coming up a little bit. And it's even all around the scoop you could tell that there's damage there. And so I sent in a support ticket to Jersey Jack and I let them know, hey, new unboxed And upon unboxing, we noticed damage at the scoop with a piece of wood missing. The play field's also chipped. I can provide photos on request. Thank you for your time. And so, you know, we had a little bit of back and forth for a couple weeks, and I ended up accidentally not seeing the email. But as soon as I saw it, I said, hey, apologies for late response. Here's the pictures direct out of box. This is one of the pictures I sent them. And the reply I got back, the very first reply I got back three weeks later, three weeks later after sending these pictures was, Hello Travis, what happened to the side protectors that were originally there? Cliffy has made a more robust scoop protector for GNR. If you like, I could get one out to you. Let me know.
    28:53
    That was the email. The first sentence to me, what happened to the side protectors that were originally there?
    29:01
    There's no apology. No, hey, that sucks. I'm customer service. That should not be happening. Apologies from Jersey Jack. Nothing. It was what happened to the side protectors that were originally there. Like, what am I supposed to say back to that? Honestly. I just sat there dumbfounded. Like, this is the customer service. And I didn't even know what to say back to that. Because I clearly stated in the emails that, hey, this was not there as soon as I unboxed it.
    29:34
    I mean, what do I say? I don't know what else I can say. And so when it wasn't followed up with anything about any apology, about any concern for that or without any, hey, that should not be happening. It was just what happened to them originally there. It made it seem like that. They're saying that I took them out myself.
    29:57
    It just didn't make any sense. It made me so annoyed by that response that I just I threw my hands up and I just said, F it. I'm not going to get any help on this and when the issue that they gave me or the correction on this that they gave me by saying hey somebody else outside of us has a more robust scoop protector for it they could get one out to me I had already ordered one as soon as I saw that I was just like crap this is going to make the game unplayable I don't want this to get any worse and I ordered one already I already had it taken care of I mean, I guess at least they offered that man. I, I'm not going to lie. It chapped my ass. That response, I didn't even bother responding back. And I don't think, I don't even know if I said anything really publicly too much about this. I might have on Jeff's, uh, podcast over at pinball profile, but I forget, but yeah, this correspondence is back on April 16th. And I just, obviously it's been a couple of months ago and I just said, screw it. It is what it is at this point. So there you go. I'm part of the team in terms of having play field issues. And this was direct out of box. This was several thousand dollars buying this game, getting into my game room, unboxing it and seeing this. Now my kids are still having fun. I mean, it's pinball, still fun, but still a little bit disappointing. And how that whole saga went out, it was very disappointing. I was not happy about that, but that's all I got to say on that. I don't know what else I can really say about the plate field issues. Obviously, people are having it. If you go on Facebook, if you go on Pennside, you'll see it all. I mean, we can keep sounding the alarm all we want. I did so seven plus months ago now, and all the things I said was going to happen, it's happening. So, we can just drop the narrative that nobody else is talking about it. Anybody that's wanting email, talked about it already. It's just beating a dead horse at this point. It really is. It's beating a dead horse and they're either going to fix it or they're not. And us as consumers, we're either going to keep buying or we're not. I know me personally, I was looking seriously at a Toy Story. I'm not doing that anymore. I'm not. Based on what happened here, I just, like my kids love the game. It's probably going to stay here because my kids love the game. But I can't buy any more Jersey Jack products based on that interaction, based on what happened out of box and based on what's happening with everybody on the internet right now. That's showing what their play fields are going through. I can't justify in my mind paying $7,000, $10,000, $12,500. I can't justify doing that and having a defective product. I know I'm taking a chance of a defective product showing up in terms of how the play field looks, and I don't want to do that. There might be other people that feel fine doing that, and I took a chance with that, knowing damn well what could possibly happen. I took that chance and I got burned. As soon as I opened it, I saw it, I got burned. And the response that I got was, what happened? I don't know. You guys tell me. I don't know what happened. I wasn't on the line that day. I guess maybe Slash was on the line and he forgot to put the scoop protector on that day. I don't know. So anyhow, moving on to another subject and we're gonna wrap this up here pretty soon because we are 30 minutes in. So I'll keep this one nice and short. there's upcoming pinball tournaments here. You guys can catch me on Pinclash, which is this Saturday on, I think that's the 12th, I believe. Yeah, the 12th. And my game should be somewhere around 2 to 2.30 p.m. Sometime right around there. That's my first round. And you can find me either over on Marv, M-A-R-V on Twitch, or IE Pinball on Twitch, who's gonna, Carl D'Angelo is gonna be hosting the whole thing with Pinclash too. It's gonna be excellent. I thoroughly look forward to it. I'll have another podcast out later this week kind of explaining it all. But if this is the one you listen to, that's where I'll be at this Saturday. And I might even be streaming some evenings this week over on Twitch or maybe somewhat on YouTube even, just kind of going over the challenges and studying up a little bit and practicing a little bit because I'm kind of deciding how I want to go about this challenge because I have an enormous uphill battle. My first round opponent is incredibly tough. I feel like it's just a coin flip whether or not I could even get through that because he's an incredible player my second round opponent former world champion probably one of the best players in the world obviously probably one of the best players period that's ever lived and then of course third round it would be either I think Byers or Raymond Davidson and there's somebody else on that side that I can't think of off the top of my head there's just incredible players up and down all 24 players are exceptionally good players Some of them world-class, others names that we might not even heard of, but they are still excellent players. So it's not, there's no easy games at all, at all. And we'll talk about that a little bit more later on. But other than that, I appreciate you guys listening and I appreciate you guys' time. If you guys have a comment, comment down below on the YouTube, or you guys can send me an email at apenballpodcast at gmail.com. Until then, thank you guys so much. I'll see you guys soon. Later, guys.