Journalist Tool

Kineticist

  • HDashboard
  • IItems
  • ↓Ingest
  • SSources
  • KBeats
  • BBriefs
  • RIntel
  • QSearch
  • NName Review
  • +Health

v0.1.0

← Back to items

Episode 1202: "Kaneda's Fan Topic Show Spectacular #1"

Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)·podcast_episode·1h 14m·held·Mar 25, 2026
View original

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 (batch) · $0.017

TL;DR

Kaneda answers fan questions on art, collecting, Yukon Yeti, and market dynamics while sick.

Summary

Kaneda hosts a fan-submitted question show while recovering from illness, covering topics including Zombie Yeti art direction on Transformers G1, the psychology of pinball collecting, Chris Turner approach to Yukon Yeti feedback, market saturation concerns, and predictions about Stern's product strategy and pricing limits. He emphasizes that licensed IP games drive the market, boutique games offer better collectability than mass-produced Sterns, and that buyer intelligence is increasing in the hobby.

Key Claims

  • More than half of Yukon Yeti games have not been sold; fewer than 250 units have actually reached customers, with the rest being dealer/distributor pre-orders.

    high confidence · Kaneda directly, responding to question about whether sound redesign is too late

  • Zombie Yeti's art on Godzilla doesn't match classic Godzilla movie poster aesthetics, though Godzilla is Stern's best-selling game of all time.

    high confidence · Kaneda analyzing Zombie Yeti's portfolio in response to question about Transformers G1 LE art

  • X-Men LEs are losing $5,000 in value, destroying the notion that Stern machines hold value.

    high confidence · Kaneda discussing secondary market depreciation trends

  • Pricing has peaked; Stern cannot go above $13K, Jersey Jack cannot go above $15K for a long time.

    medium confidence · Kaneda's prediction on market pricing ceiling

  • Jersey Jack 'blew up collectability' with unlimited CEs, and only boutique companies with major IPs (Beetlejuice, Goonies) will maintain collectability going forward.

    medium confidence · Kaneda's opinion on collectability trends

  • Turner Pinball cannot manufacture 500 games per year, creating delivery delays that may cannibalize Yukon Yeti sales with other releases like Sonic, Circus Voltaire remake, and Twilight Zone.

    medium confidence · Kaneda's analysis of production capacity constraints

  • Peter Cullen (voice of Optimus Prime) will likely be in the Transformers game because he is alive, whereas Frank Welker (Megatron voice actor) is deceased.

    medium confidence · Kaneda's speculation on voice talent for Transformers G1 pinball

  • Stern will likely split Transformers LEs 500 Autobot / 500 Decepticon due to equal fandom for both factions.

    medium confidence · Kaneda's prediction based on market positioning strategy

  • Chris Turner is being selectively dismissive of negative feedback on Yukon Yeti artwork and using religious/kindness appeals to deflect criticism rather than listening to substantive design concerns.

Notable Quotes

  • “The chase to find the thing that you want to collect is so much more exciting and rewarding than actually acquiring the item... The moments of flexing and excitement of waiting for it to arrive, those moments are very, very short lived.”

    Kaneda @ Early episode, collecting segment — Core philosophy on collecting psychology and FOMO dynamics in the hobby

  • “You're gonna get amazing, amazing illustrations, but it's a certain style. And certain IPs, that's not the style that you connect with and relate to with that IP.”

    Kaneda @ Zombie Yeti art discussion — Analysis of stylistic mismatch between artist and IP themes

  • “We're all going to die. And if you're buying stuff to not really use it and just let it sit there... you're going to wish that you wore your nice clothes and that Daytona Rolex every day.”

    Kaneda @ Collecting philosophy segment — Philosophical stance on experiences vs. possessions in collecting culture

  • “It's a 10 to $12,000 unnecessary toy. And pinball art is very subjective, but also people have strong opinions about the art. And I don't think you can charge 10 to $12,000 and then ask people to be nice. Just get it right.”

    Kaneda @ Yukon Yeti feedback discussion — Direct criticism of Chris Turner's approach to design feedback vs. premium pricing

  • “Don't say you're gonna take in people's feedback, but then be very selective about which feedback you actually take... If people say like, I don't like this art, I hate this art, you can't deny that feedback because it's not what you want to hear.”

    Kaneda @ Yukon Yeti feedback analysis — Critique of selective feedback incorporation in premium product development

  • “People that buy Yukon Yeti at 12, new in box, there will be Yukon Yetis for sale in six months for eight. This game's not going to go up in value.”

    Kaneda @ Yukon Yeti pricing discussion — Prediction of secondary market depreciation and implications for buying decisions

  • “There is definitely a saturation of amazing pinball machines out in the world... It's a buyer's market. Now, I don't think there's buyer fatigue. What I think there is, is I think there's more buyer intelligence in this hobby than ever before.”

Entities

KanedapersonZombie YetipersonChris TurnerpersonTransformers G1gameYukon YetigamePokemongame

Signals

  • ?

    product_strategy: Kaneda predicts Stern will split Transformers G1 LEs 500 Autobot / 500 Decepticon due to equal franchise fandom, potentially increasing total LE count from typical 750 range

    medium · If all the rumors are true and this game is as amazing as we hope it is, I think they might bump that number up... I think they might bump that number up

  • ?

    product_strategy: Kaneda asserts pricing has peaked: Stern capped at $13K, Jersey Jack at $15K maximum for foreseeable future due to buyer resistance and secondary market depreciation

    high · Stern, notice how Stern has not raised its prices. I don't think they can go above 13... I don't think Jersey Jack ever goes above 15 for a long time... I think pricing has peaked

  • $

    market_signal: X-Men LEs experiencing $5,000 value loss, destroying notion that Stern LEs hold value; broader pattern of recent Stern depreciation over past 4 years

    high · We're now at a point where X-Men LEs are losing $5,000... And so the last four years have really, really destroyed that notion that you can just buy a Stern and you're going to be all right

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Kaneda observes shift from speculative buying to informed decision-making; 'wait and see' strategy causing buyers to hit brakes on Stern LEs, missing Pokemon opportunity

    high · I think there's more buyer intelligence in this hobby than ever before... people are starting to think twice before they run at all this stuff... they hit the brakes at the wrong time, because they missed out on Pokemon

  • ?

    product_concern: Chris Turner receiving significant negative feedback on Yukon Yeti artwork; Turner allegedly dismissing criticism through selective feedback interpretation and appeals to kindness rather than design revision

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.223

0:00
Welcome everybody to Kaneda's Pinball Podcast. I am a very sick, very under the weather Kaneda. For those of you who have young children, you know what it's like when a little one gets a stomach bug or something. Cassian had like I think a strep throat or something. I woke up, I was feeling great when I went to bed. I woke up at 2 in the morning, very, very sore throat, took a hot bath, felt a little bit better, put on some true crime podcast. I'm exhausted, but you know me, nothing stops Kaneda from doing an episode of Kaneda's Pinball All of these things are going to be on the Pinball Podcast. We are live on Patreon right now because this will help me without having to edit the show because again, I'm just not feeling well, but I want to go through all of your questions and give you my unedited, unfiltered response to your pinball inquiries. I think we're going to do this more often. I love giving each and every one of you a shout out. So we are going to say who asked the question and I'm going to give you my feedback. I might take a few pauses for coffee. Not doing any editing on this show, but I think it'll be very, very entertaining as it always is. So question number one, I'm going from order of when people submitted questions. So next time I do this, you get your question in early, you'll be first. So B, he asks, Transformers G1 LE, is it gonna be unique or is Zombie Yeti going to screw up another big IP? Wow, we're starting with some strident fires shot at Mr. Zombietti, arrows flying towards him. All right, and then someone else asked, what big IP has he messed up? Dave Frazier said that. So let me answer this question right now.
2:12
I think Zombietti hopefully has learned from Pokemon. Remember, he arranged the Pokemon art package with his daughter. So I think he's seen that he did successfully make Pokemon LE look much nicer than the premium and the pro of the game and that is why the LE fanfare is so high. Trust me, if Pokemon LE looked exactly like the premium and the pro, you know, with just the big reds happening everywhere and, you know, I know they had an idea. Did you see that image from, I think it was TPF, where they were going to make four LEs of each of the four main characters? It was hideous. So I think they did a good job where they netted out. Now, the question about whether or not Zombietti is going to do Transformers, I don't know. Transformers has a lot, a lot of really, really, really great artists in the Transformer comic book space. Do you make it look like the original G1 sort of illustrated Transformers or more of the modern comic book interpretation of the Transformers? But I don't think Zombietti's gonna mess up Transformers. Now, in terms of the question of what IP has Zombietti messed up, and I think this is so much has to do with what he was handed, but I think out of all the Zombietti's art packages, If you didn't hear from me, follow me onokespa0. I'll see you in a moment.

high confidence · Kaneda's direct critique of Turner Pinball's feedback handling

  • Yukon Yeti will depreciate to $8K from $12K retail within 6 months, making it unwise to pre-order at full price.

    medium confidence · Kaneda's market prediction based on precedent

    • Kaneda @ Market saturation discussion — Optimistic reframing of market conditions as informed decision-making rather than fatigue

  • “Licensed stuff is where the money and the excitement is at because people have emotional connection to those things... More original IP stuff will put pinball companies out of business. It's not effective.”

    Kaneda @ Ozzy question on IP strategy — Direct assertion that licensed IP is commercially essential, original themes are non-viable

  • “I've done 1,202 episodes of Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, all for very little money and very little fanfare... I'm just saying, I'm having a good time though. That's why I do it.”

    Kaneda @ Meta-commentary on show format — Host motivation and value proposition for fan-driven content model

  • “Stern's target audience is the cargo short wearing audience. And they're not going to survive by going more urbane... people with cargo shorts at pinball shows have more money than people wearing Gucci, 100%.”

    Kaneda @ Cargo shorts market analysis — Demographic targeting and socioeconomic inversion commentary on pinball consumer base

    • Godzilla
    game
    Harry Pottergame
    Beetlejuicegame
    Star Warsgame
    Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Turner Pinballcompany
    Deep Root Pinballcompany
    X-Mengame
    Iron Maidengame
    Sonic the Hedgehoggame
    Circus Voltairegame
    Twilight Zonegame
    Black Knightgame
    Winchestergame
    Kelly Danielperson
    Robert Muellerperson
    Peter Cullenperson
    Frank Welkerperson

    high · overwhelming, people don't like the art... he's not really listening to the feedback... You can't charge 10 to $12,000 and then ask people to be nice. Just get it right

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Kaneda estimates Turner Pinball cannot manufacture 500+ games annually, creating delivery delays that may cannibalize Yukon Yeti sales with concurrent releases (Sonic, Circus Voltaire, Twilight Zone remakes)

    medium · If he does sell 500, this company can't make, I don't even think they can make 500 games a year... by the time your Yukon Yeti might be on the line, you know, we're going to have Sonic the Hedgehog all within the same time period

  • ?

    product_launch: Yukon Yeti pre-orders lack clarity on delivery timeline; customers locking in $12K price without delivery date guarantees, creating buyer hesitation and secondary market arbitrage opportunities

    high · Why would you order a game March 25th if you don't even know when it's going to go on the line?... You will be able to get your Yukon Yeti for less money than someone who paid in full and has to wait to the end of the line

  • ?

    collector_signal: Jersey Jack's unlimited CE strategy (Harry Potter) has undermined collectability expectations; only boutique games with major IPs and limited production (Beetlejuice, Goonies) will maintain FOMO-driven value

    high · I think Jersey Jack sort of blew up a lot of collectability with unlimited CEs... the only stuff really that's gonna be collectible right now are the boutique companies with major IPs where they make a limited number of games like Beetlejuice, Goonies

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Boutique games (Beetlejuice) demonstrating significantly more mechanical and toy complexity than recent Stern releases, creating perception gap despite higher Stern pricing; cost reduction strategy backfiring against competition

    high · You put a Beetlejuice next to Pokemon... You put a Beetlejuice next to even Harry Potter, man. It makes Potter look a little empty... as Stern has sort of increased its volume, they've decreased the amount of complexity and the value of what we're getting for the money

  • $

    market_signal: Shift to buyer's market with saturation of quality machines; many collectors offloading games to make room for new releases; increased secondary market inventory depressing prices

    high · It's a buyer's market. There is definitely a saturation of amazing pinball machines out in the world... People are out of room. People need to move games out to bring new games in

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Zombie Yeti's distinctive illustration style creates mismatches with certain IP aesthetics (Godzilla not matching classic movie poster look); tension between artist brand consistency and IP thematic authenticity

    high · You're gonna get amazing, amazing illustrations, but it's a certain style... certain IPs, that's not the style that you connect with and relate to... doesn't look like any of those Godzilla movie posters

  • ?

    industry_signal: Kaneda asserts licensed IP is commercially essential; original-IP games (Black Knight example) do not generate sales; pinball manufacturers cannot survive on unlicensed themes

    high · Licensed stuff is where the money and the excitement is at... More original IP stuff will put pinball companies out of business. It's not effective. Stern tried it with Black Knight. It doesn't work

    • 4:07
    Aaron Maiden Playfields kinda dull, the cabinets are nice, but Godzilla, look, let's be honest man, Godzilla is the number one Stern selling game of all time. So you can't really argue with the art, but I don't think the art is amazing on Godzilla either. I don't. I do think he does look like a watermelon a little bit, and it doesn't look like the throwback to Godzilla. All of this doesn't look like any of those Godzilla movie posters and so that's the thing with Yeti. You're gonna get amazing, amazing illustrations, but it's a certain style. And certain IPs, that's not the style that you connect with and relate to with that IP. And I think he's learned a lesson and now that he's the art director, hopefully he brings in the artists or goes in the right art direction to make sure the IPs look the way the fan All of these are the pinball games that fans want it to look. All right, I'm not going to answer questions on the chat on Patreon live right now because I've got enough questions here to go through. All right, I got a next question is from Joe Whitelidge. Joe said, and Joe's a great, great fan of the show and is always very active in the chat. He said, collect or not to collect pinball? Okay, that is the question is what Ozzy said. Do not All of that space in your house with stuff you love like pinball machines. And some of you, it is of no financial burden to buy $200,000 or more or less in pinball machines. So I think collecting, in my honest opinion, is a very, very personal thing. I will say this, from my years of collecting many things, everything from Transformer toys, I collected Batman the movie memorabilia when I was a kid. I collected Beast Wars Transformers, G1 Transformers. I collected arcade machines. I've collected a few pinball machines. I will say this. The chase to find the thing that you want to collect is so much more exciting and rewarding than actually acquiring the item. There is a boring, almost lonely feeling at the end of collecting where you open up the room, you walk in there and you realize you barely play these things. The moments of flexing and excitement of waiting for it to arrive, those moments are very, very short lived. And the moments of these things collecting dust and not getting used and just sitting there far outweigh the moments that are exciting when it comes to collecting. So I think for those of you out there who have a collection and play your machines frequently, I think you're having a lot of fun. For example, it's like a guy just listed a Batman SLE for sale for $50,000 and it has 300 plays on it. It's a 10 year old machine. So when I see stuff like that, and I know he's just asking that price because he wants to flex and he doesn't really want to sell it. But also I'm like, what's wrong with people, man? It's like, I do believe this. We're all going to die. And if you're buying stuff to not really use it and just let it sit there, again, that's your prerogative. It's what a lot of collectors do. They don't wear their expensive watches. They don't drive their expensive cars. I think it's pointless because the moment they're going to put you in the ground or incinerate you or turn you into ashes, you're going to wish that you wore your nice clothes and that Daytona Rolex every day. Why not? Why would you put stuff that brings you enjoyment? Why would you turn it off and not wear it? So I would say though now that the overall pinball collecting space is not what it used to be. I don't think people care as much anymore. I don't think the LE flex matters as much anymore. I think Jersey Jack sort of blew up a lot of collectability with unlimited CEs and I think the only stuff really that's gonna be collectible right now are the boutique companies with major IPs where they make a limited number of games like Beetlejuice, Goonies, Stuff like that. Dune, not so much. Winchester, maybe. But definitely not games like Yukon Yeti. I mean, I feel like people want this game to have that level of collectability and FOMO, but it's just not gonna get there. All right, next question from B. B, I guess you can ask multiple questions, but try to keep it to one in the future. So B asks, speaking of Yetis, the decision to get big name audio specialists to redo Will the soundtrack package be too late to impact sales? I think he's talking about Yukon Yeti. Chris Turner has since announced that he is going to redo the sound package on Yukon Yeti and make it better. Will that impact sales or is it too late? Have too many people heard that ragtime piano and now they're not going to go in on the game? Well, first and foremost, no. I don't think it's too late. More than half the games have not been sold. I don't think 250 games have actually been bought by customers. I think dealers and distros have probably placed orders. We call that sell through, not sell out. And so here's the thing. Yeah, he's going to make it better. But who knows? Here's my thing. Who knows what tastes Chris Turner has? Who knows what better is when it comes to Turner Pinball? That is my fear about Chris Turner. He's so nice. And when you read the feedback on the artwork, overwhelming, people don't like the art. Now look at what he's doing, right? He's not really listening to the feedback. He's saying, I like the art. I like the artist. And he also is asking people in a very, you know, very sort of like Christian way or religious way, be nice. You know, be careful what you say about the artist. And here's the thing, man. It's like, I don't know, Chris. It's a 10 to $12,000 unnecessary toy. And pinball art is very subjective, but also people have strong opinions about the art. And I don't think you can charge 10 to $12,000 and then ask people to be nice. Just get it right. And you know, look, it's like campy, it's kind of childlike and I get it, but people don't like it. So don't say you're gonna take in people's feedback, but then be very selective about which feedback you actually take. You know, Chris, that's the thing, man. If people say like, I don't like this art, I hate this art, you can't, it's not about you anymore, right? You can't deny that feedback because it's not what you want to hear. Okay? And I mean, that's the hard part about feedback. And that's the hard part about feedback in life is sometimes the things you don't want to hear The Winning Pinball Show, Knapp Arcade, Bally Williams, Straight Down the Middle, Bally Williams,
    12:04
    I'm not going to be able to get to where I need to get to unless you're brutally honest. And that's just my people, Sicilians and Greeks. I have a Sicilian mother. She's an artist. She will be brutally honest on an art package and she would not hold back and she would help you be more successful through that brutal honesty. Okay. And also, we don't owe anybody any constructive criticism. You're trying to take $12,000 from people. Take it as they serve it up, Chris. Alright, we got a next thing here from Jeff Gordon says, alcoholism and its effects on art taste. I don't know what that means, man, Jeff. Alcoholism and its effect on art taste. And then Bond wrote, too funny, Jeff. How about alcoholism and its effects on making pin side the most hated place in all of pinball to hang out? Alright, so not really sure what the question is here. I don't really think people drank and made the artwork for you, Kanyedi, but I will say this. If you look at Pinside, there is a handful of people out there that drink a lot and then go on the internet at odd hours of the day. And I think a lot of the Pinside posts, not just alcohol, I think they happen on the toilet bowl. And I think a lot of people log on to Pinside when they're taking a you-know-what. And I think that's why they're spewing you know what. Now look, I'm glad Pinside exists. It isn't what it used to be. They never really did the purge to make it a better site. And it's, you know, it's a way to just spend your time. I don't know about you guys, but as I get older, it's weird. I'll go on the Internet because we're all sort of addicted to computers and phones. We just are like there's nobody here that's not addicted to like devices. And you only sort of go to the same five websites every day. I mean, that's how everybody is now. Even though there's like millions and millions of things to go check out, you're probably going to Pinside, you're going to maybe your news outlet that will serve back the news with the political slant you want. You might go to something else like bring a trailer, a couple other hobby sites, and maybe eBay or something like that. And that's like it, you know what I'm saying? Like people don't really go all over the internet anymore. And Pinside is a daily destination for a lot of people. So yeah, I will say as you get older, you just need to keep your alcohol in check. And I hope everybody that needs help gets it because it is very addictive and it is very hard to say no to alcohol, especially I've noticed this in these wealthy towns. When you have money and you have time, you have boredom. And alcohol, a lot of people turn to it to an elixir to boredom. Now, I love to drink just as much as the next person, but I have realized since living in the burbs, the dangerous effects it has on leaning on it to sort of get you through a day or to like reward yourself for making it through to the end of another day with your kids or socializing out with people. We're not in college anymore. So one can't turn into five every single time you want to start having a drink. And that is hard. That is a hard thing for adults to do. I will say this, especially when money is not a factor. All right, the next question is this. How are you going to allocate your five Beetlejuice games from Brett S.? All right, Brett, thank you for the question. I have not 100% figured it out, but it's gonna be fair and it's gonna be simple. I mean, ultimately, what I will do is I will have a moment in which everybody that wants to be eligible to win it will have to basically just raise their hand. And I will most likely do something like print everybody's name out, and I will most likely find five fun ways to select those five winners. Okay, that's how I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna give everybody ample time. This isn't going to be like one thing where you wake up and Kaneda's doing his Saturday morning spectacular and he gave away the five Beetlejuices. I didn't know about it. I missed it. You know me. I want to make sure I give everybody a fair shot and I want to make sure that the five people that win really want the machine and I want to make it fun. All right, we're going to do five maybe different things. Maybe Killian picks one. Cassian picks one. We do something over here. I asked my neighbor to pick one. We'll see. I'll let you know though, and it's coming up soon because I want to make sure that people have ample time to save money because we are games number 501 through 506, something like that, or 505. All right, the next question from Mr. Brett S. I feel like a lot of these guys are the same guys. Okay, that was the last question. So Kelly Daniel, Kelly, good friend of the show, I believe he runs Pinball Palace. He writes, me making $3,500 on Beetlejuice spot and not feeling bad because I have Ultraman for sale for $4,000. So eat me haters. Okay, all right, I mean, that's not a question. Kelly's just saying I lost money on Ultraman and I'm going to make money on Beetlejuice so I don't feel bad. So Kelly, thank you for not following the directions. I'm not even sure that's a show topic. All of these are just some of the things that you personally did and you don't care about the haters. I appreciate the note, Keldy. All right, Brett S again. How Deep Root Robert might actually be going to jail soon. All right, well, look, I hope Robert Mueller does go to jail. He's a criminal and he's a crook, and society has created a place where we send those kinds of criminals. And he's a soft man, like he's a soft coward. Robert Mueller will not last one week in a normal jail. I think he's going to go to probably some white collar jail though. Do they really send people like that in with criminals who are violent offenders? I don't think so, but who knows? Look, I think he deserves to be punished. He robbed a lot of people of their life savings in such an insidious way Speed Racer asked the following question will there be a Decepticon and Autobot versions of Transformers Any confirmation if Peter Cullen is involved Well, Speed Racer, you know as much as I do on this that I don't have the answers. Nobody does right now. I would if I were guessing. I think Peter Cullen, since he is alive, will be in the game. The voice of Optimus Prime, Frank Welling, or Wheeler, is dead. It's easy to get sound-alikes for these characters, except for Optimus. I feel like Megatron is easier to create the sound, but Optimus is so iconic. I also do think Stern, if I were a betting man, will do 500 Autobot, 500 Decepticon, because there's equal love. There really is equal love for both Autobots and Decepticons and so I think we're gonna see a split and I think Stern, you know, they've been trying to find the right number of LEs to keep people happy and they've been going back and forth, you know, between like a thousand, 750 and yeah, they left some money on the table with Pokemon but I think for Transformers, if all the rumors are true and this game is as amazing as we hope it is, I think they might bump that number up. All right, next question. All right, we got Night Surf Ride said, why having your cargo shorts wearing customers do your job for you in coming up with show topics is a marketing genius business plan. Okay, all right. So yeah, as I'm reading this, I'm like, all right, the grammar here, he's basically saying Association of Penball Players
    20:51
    Okay. So what did I say about diseases? At times. Here we go. I think I've done 1,202 episodes of Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, all for very little money and very little fanfare. No more twippies, but I'm just saying, I'm having a good time though. That's why I do it and I love all of your feedback and your commentary. So next question is from DM3. Why haven't any of the modders released cargo shorts with RGB LED lighting yet? It's a very good question. I was having a good sort of laugh with Brian over at American Pinball congratulating them on their show and they were wearing a uniform basically all their blue shorts enough shorts shirts but we were laughing at how the pinball community does when it comes to their sartorial choice. The way people look. It's a sloppy looking crew. I mean, come on. These are grown men. I know they're like, just want to be comfortable, but you can be comfortable with a little bit of style. All right. Next question from Benjamin DeLong. Do you think Stern will eventually have to pivot and pack in more in their pins or they continue on the same path? Time frame if so? Well, Benjamin, it's a good question, right? We've been sort of speculating about this as the competition, especially in the boutique space, has continued to improve and put more in their games. I mean, you put a Beetlejuice next to Star Wars, right? You put a Beetlejuice next to John Wick. You put a Beetlejuice next to even like the, I mean, maybe the Walking Dead remastered. You put, no, but that's not like a new Stern. The newer Sterns, I mean, put a Beetlejuice next to Pokemon. Right there, right there. You put a Beetlejuice next to even Harry Potter, man. It makes Potter look a little empty. I will say that we've been complaining for many, many years about Stern taking stuff out of games, not just mechanics. They've made the cabinets cheaper, everything just like cheaper, cheaper, cheaper. It's got a Raspberry Pi in it. So as Stern has sort of increased its volume, they've decreased the amount of complexity and the value of what we're getting for the money. See this company has to make hundreds of games a week and complex stuff and complex engineering and stuff that can break is probably the stuff they want to avoid the most. So the thing is this, and Benjamin you ask a very, very good question, as long as consumers continue to buy and validate what Stern is selling at these prices, they will not put I'm your host, David Van Es, and I'll see you in the next episode of Pinball N Out Pinball.
    24:42
    You'll be surprised how Nem Peems takes just a single bit of money into their We're now at a point where X-Men LEs are losing $5,000. $5,000 on a single machine that's supposed to hold the value the most. And so the last four years have really, really destroyed that notion that you can just buy a Stern and you're going to be all right. It's anything but that. And I think we're going to see in Transformers, Benjamin, I think we're going to see a game And that shows us more of what Stern is capable of because if you're going to move on to this Spike 3 platform, we need to see it power more than just a bigger screen and speakers. All right. The next question from Bill Dogg NC. I want to hear you riff on Cargo Shorts Guy and how focusing on him by pinball manufacturers is sustainable for the hobby for the next 50 years. Well, look, Bill Dogg, Bill Dogg, here's the thing. And you know, I work on brands like Bud Light and Michelob Ultra, beer brands, Bush Light is a client of ours. Stern's target audience is the cargo short wearing audience. And they're not going to survive by going more urbane, right? If they're like, well, Kaneda's wearing Gucci, maybe we should make a... No, no, no, no, no, no, no. They know the target audience. People with cargo shorts for the most part, and I mean this, and again, I have a little bit like, sometimes I'm gonna slur my words because I'm not feeling the best. I would say on average, and I mean this when I say this, that people with cargo shorts at pinball shows have more money than people wearing Gucci, 100%. People in cargo shorts oftentimes are happier than people in tight, skinny jeans. So I know I joke about it and I do joke about it because I have two things. Like a grown adult just doesn't look good in cargo shorts. I get they're comfortable. And a grown adult should not wear a backpack. The backpack is my big thing in the city. So you don't see anybody wearing cargo shorts in New York City. But I always think that a grown adult should never walk around with a backpack. You don't have books in it. You're not going to class. You are now in finance. Get a briefcase. If you open up someone's backpack, what's in it? A computer. Guess what a computer fits into perfectly? A briefcase. Look like an adult. Also when you're on public transportation, having a backpack is so annoying because you swing around and you hit everybody. Alright. So they know that the cargo short wearing community is the way to go. And also this, cargo short wearing parents are going to give birth to cargo short wearing kids. And it's like the cruise industry. There's just another generation of those cargo short wearing people ready to go and buy those pinball machines. All right. Next question from Mike Esposito. Mike said, if Yeti was at Merlin pricing, this would have been a 48 hour sellout, even with the horrible audio that will hopefully get better. It is now competing at the heavy hitter prices and too many options at this price point. All right. So, you know, Mike, if we go back and look at Merlin, though, you got to remember the original Merlin price, I think there was like a base price around like $7,999, something like that. But then there was like the other edition that was closer to $10,000. So I think what they've done here is they've started out you, Kanyedi, at the higher, the http://www.christsturners.com files retained.aja.gov Just saying. Look. I don't think anything Turner makes is ever a 48-hour sellout right now. And it's just there's too much available. As you say. I don't think Chris Turner cares if this sells out in 48 hours. The one thing everybody's missing with This Yukon Yeti is when you're gonna get it. Why would you order a game March 25th if you don't even know when it's going to go on the line? And if he does sell 500, this company can't make, I don't even think they can make 500 games a year. So by the time your Yukon Yeti might be on the line, Goonies, Back to the Future, Transformers, Fallout, you know, we're going to have Sonic the Hedgehog all within the same time period, Circus Voltaire remake, Twilight Zone coming back. You know what I'm saying? And you're going to lock yourself in at 12? Because we all know this. People that buy Yukon Yeti at 12, new in box, there will be Yukon Yetis for sale in six months for eight. I mean it, for eight. This game's not going to go up in value. And so you wait six months and also that you're going to be able to get, did I knock the Did I knock the audio out? Did I knock the audio out here?
    30:15
    Is it working on pin? Is, or no? It's fine, okay. Walter, what do you say no audio, man? Turn your speakers up. I'm like, some guy just wrote no audio. Okay, but my point is this. You will be able to get your Yukon Yeti for less money than someone who paid in full and has to wait to the end of the line. All right, so that's,
    30:40
    That's that. All right. So here we go. We got a question. I don't know. This is not even some people don't even write questions. Are these bots bad dealers versus cost service or customer service? I'm not even sure that's a question. So look, I think there's a lot of pinball dealers out there. So buy from people who give you good customer service. It's a no brainer. I don't I don't really know what the question is. Thank you-
    31:40
    Hank Podakowski W ruble preservationandapprenticepodcast.com I know for a fact that every single dealer had its allocation. There is no way that you like got it wrong. So you either bump this guy out and sold it to one of your maybe more loyal customers or you scalped it for more. But that is BS and we're going to stay on this one because I see him on pin side being like, what can I do? He like emailed the Pokemon company. They're not going to do anything. I need a quiz and a table on both pins ball hobby subscribe center on I'm sure pinball is a life of magic but if instead pinball playing aback Anch哪看 Maori Hooray ret Question here, Ozzy said, number one, is pinball peaking in 2026 or losing its edge? No, it's not peaking, man. This is going to be like the best year we've had in a really, really long time. And I don't think this is the peak. I think pricing has peaked. I do. I don't think we're going to see the ability to raise prices anymore. I don't think Jersey Jack ever goes above 15 for a long time. Stern, notice how Stern has not raised its prices. I don't think they can go above 13. I think Spooky might go a little bit higher, but I think pricing has peaked. I think the hobby is really strong though. I think there's a lot of people in it, and with what's coming out in 2026, it's just gonna bring more people into the hobby. All right, next question from Ozzy. Are we heading toward market saturation and buyer fatigue? Okay, well, that's a, you know, these are like big questions, Ozzy. Here's the way I look at it. It's a buyer's market. There is definitely a saturation of amazing pinball machines out in the world. And we have a tendency on this show and with the content creation space to focus on the new stuff and then move on to the next and just forget about what we talked about. You know what I'm saying? It's like Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice and then we're like on the Pokemon and like, well, are we still looking at Beetlejuice? How is the code maturing? Is the game turning out to be great? You know, it's almost like we forget that these games need a year to mature before they should be fully reviewed, before we should even like make an assessment of whether or not it's a great game or not. So I just think there's so many great games out there though. And yeah, there's a lot of stuff for sale. People are out of room. People need to move games out to bring new games in. So it's a buyer's market. Now, I don't think there's buyer fatigue. What I think there is, is I think there's more buyer intelligence in this hobby than ever before. And that's what's exciting to me, is that all of my wait and see has been effective. Like people are starting to think twice before they run at all this stuff. And it's healthy, you know. I definitely think there's a lot of people that would just buy every single Stern LE. They've definitely hit the brakes. And they hit the brakes at the wrong time, because they missed out on Pokemon. It's funny, there's a lot of dudes who just should have grabbed a Pokemon, and it was like the one Stern LE to grab that they could have made a buck on, and they hit the brakes on it because they lost so much money on the other games. All right, third question from Ozzy. Ozzy, next time, be fair, man. Give more questions to more people. We got a lot of questions. I gotta get through these. There might be like, okay, so I don't, Okay, let me see. Is pinball becoming just licensed nostalgia machines? I want to see more games like Winchester and UConn Yeti. Ozzy, come on, man. More original IP stuff will put pinball companies out of business. It's not effective. Stern tried it with Black Knight. It doesn't work. Licensed stuff is where the money and the excitement is at because people have emotional connection to those things. This is going to be a long show, but I'm not doing any editing, so it's going to be good. All right, Speed Racer wrote, is it true that there will be a dress code at Expo 2026? No. We all must wear an oversized t-shirt with wolves and drag. Okay. You know, some like guys, guys, let me just implore upon you. I get it. I'll read your jokes. It gives you a platform for your jokes. A lot of cargo short jokes. Let's go on. Hadley Day Ritter. Hadley Day-Ritter wrote, run through the items that the community wanted to raise with Jersey Jack and how they can be addressed in Sonic. Okay, first of all, Hadley, I'll do a Jersey Jack feedback episode where I read everybody's feedback. Not gonna do it now. That's a false show idea. Alternatively, alternatively, have you heard, like I don't know, like honestly, sometimes I enunciate. I don't even know what I'm saying. A discussion about pinball evolution What has changed in the past decade and what might change in the next decade? Internet connectivity is poor and shaker motors haven't changed since Earthshaker. Hopefully we are not shaking our entire room and chasing achievements as the best pinball has to offer in 2036. Well, you know, I'm going to answer that easily Hadley. Pinball is a game that is the game you see. It doesn't need a lot of innovation. It doesn't need this leap forward. It will always be an old analog game that we love. And I think the very things you mentioned are probably the only things we really do need a little bit better connectivity. Connecting people's games with other people's games will be a lot of fun. ad lib s gijaxx5 You have a favorite toy until the end My favorite toy is a racquet cat struggling toőplay The rights to this affect our work Another toy is a suitsetter named dog and that's me. Would you men question me if I was a really cool everyone'sfan? Yesterday, at the library exchange, a helpful presentation was given by an LHVу Gallen So, we have a very, very satisfied pinball homeowner and buyer and operator, if you will. And I do think if there's one thing we need to get better at, it's just the cabinet artwork. Come on, man, why does everything have to be flat? Can't we get more of the embossment like in Batman SLE? All right, Alexandros wrote, Alexandros, interconnectivity and why we haven't seen cloud-based ELO ranking battling systems developed yet. This is basic multiplayer SHIT. Everything you know about JJP's jack in the box internet connected competitor and how Sonic will implement it. Okay. I don't know anything other than I think JJP is going to sync up the games. I think they're going to use the camera so you can see who you're playing against. And I think we might get some head to head play with Jersey Jack connectivity. I don't know anything more than that. All right. Now in terms of interconnectivity, I will say this. If you want great connected gaming, and you want to have a lot of fun, connected with people all over the world playing a game, go get an Xbox, go get a PlayStation 5, and go get a Nintendo Switch 2, all right? For 60 bucks, I play more FIFA than I do Guns N' Roses. I play, well, it's FC 26. I play my Xbox. It's amazing and it's like perfected online gaming. Pinball will never fully be that. It's also when you think about it, it's weird, right? It's like, you know, some dude could have the outlaying post open. Some dude could have them at the highest level. Some guy could have the glass off that you're playing against. You know, you're just not going to know. When you're playing Halo or Mario Kart, everyone's playing on the exact same game. So I don't know, I think we just want better mechanical magic and worlds under glass. Look at Winchester. How much internet connectivity does it have? Zero. Sold out in like less than like two days. Okay? Pokemon, you know, same thing. All right. John Backen, John, John, John, I'm going to, I don't want to say your name wrong. Backend. John Backend, I would say. How do we still not have a Murder, She Wrote Pinball machine? I mean, come on, John, seriously. I was thinking like instead of Yukon Yeti, Yukon Betty, like a Betty White game would be amazing. And Golden Girls also comes up. Look, I do think that there is a market for a lot of these campy 80s TV shows. Murder, She Wrote is one, Magnum P.I., A-Team, Knight Rider, Airwolf, like the list goes on and on. There's a lot of opportunity there. And I think companies like Spooky and Barrels and American Pinball are going to be looking at stuff like that. Look, if you made 500 Murder, She Wrote's, I'd buy one. Me and Brenda love Murder, She Wrote. Murder, She Wrote would sell out faster than Winchester's Mystery House, 100%, without a doubt. All right, Dave Sanders wrote, Windows and their recommended feng shui arrangements not to put pins in front of windows. All right, you know, come on, Dave, I mean, you know how I feel. And I know I've got a catty cornered window with a pin. I don't love it. It's the only place I can put it. You just don't cover up windows with pinball machines or arcade machines. It looks terrible. It looks absolutely... You're not supposed to put any furniture that's in front of the window pane. It's just the way thousands of years of Feng Shui have dictated. All right, Alexandros again. Why hasn't Stern solved the LE value retention collectability proposition? Well, you know, they did with Pokemon Alexandros and the thing is this. If you want to make something collectible, a few things. It's got to be like a theme people want, the game has to be great, and you have to make the right amount. Stern's been making too many of them. But there will always be, this is crazy, there will always be more John Wick LEs in the world than Pokemon. I mean, think about it. And I will say this, Stern's marketing is garbage. They don't have a strategy. They don't have a plan. They've been winging it for the last four years. When I went over there, I gave Seth and George a strategy. I gave them a focus. We need to recalibrate and restore what an LE Stern means to people. They didn't do it. They are focused on the bottom line. We are focused on getting customers like Costco on board and I get it. The survival of their company is at the bottom line but the health of the brand takes place at the top of the line product. If Porsche were making GT3 RSs that were losing $200,000 in value every single year, trust me, Porsche is in trouble and they're in trouble now even with those cars going way up in value. But you know what I'm saying? It's just the thing with them is they just, I don't know, I don't think they have anybody over there. They're not used to this because remember, they had the best of so many years, like where everything they made was successful. Now they've got to work hard at the marketing and they don't have a marketing team that quite gets it. All right, next question. Patrick Oles, let's talk about where these backdoor deal distros you always mention and And I'm going to show you how I can find some deals on sitting new in box games. All right, Patrick, here's the deal. You call around and you ask what's the best price you can do? What's the best price cash on the table? And you'll see those deals. Now those dealers and distros are only giving backdoor deals to people they know and their friends and their longtime customers. And it's not going to ever be publicized. And they're never going to say, hey, man, I did this. Do you think like a major distro is going to say, hey, I held back a few Pokemon LEs I'm going to put it in our vault and now I'm selling it for $19,000. I'm going to cook up a story that I got this in a trade and now I'm selling it for the market value. Like we saw that, man. We saw that. The other thing is this. You get dealers opening up games and giving it to their buddies to stream and then all of a sudden, you know, they're selling below map pricing because the game is now technically used. That's another strategy. I also feel like let's drive a few forklifts into a few games and then that's how we'll get rid of it. We'll make the insurance claim on the game and then we'll sell it. I'm telling you, man, it's all happening right there. You just got to open your eyes. All right, another question from DM3. Do you think an issue ... Wait, do you think an insane clown posse machine would sell? Absolutely not. Come on, guys. We need ... No, no, no. You sell like a hundred of those. Robert Caccini, Robert, you're a long time fan of the show. Oh, he's very active. And I'm sorry. These, these, I think Robert Italian. These are European names. Chichini, you know, Robert Chichini expectation that most games should hold new inbox pricing are not realistic. White whale games are rare. Vast majority of games will depreciate on a used market. All that wait, all that has boosted us. Wait, sorry, gang. I'm just like, I'm trying to make another sip of coffee. Hold on. No editing. You're going to have some awkward Kenaida pauses on this podcast.
    46:03
    All right. All that has boosted used sales in the last 15 years has been perpetual new in box price increases that inherently raises prices of all used games. All right. This is a statement, Robert, not a question. And yes, I do agree that when COVID bumped up everything, then everybody thought their used games were worth more. David Van Es, Bit of a But you know, you're not selling games quickly anymore. If you're at those COVID prices, your games are sitting for a long time. All right.
    46:34
    Let's see. Blake Wagner said, your choice for a six pin collection. Well, that's a tough one, Blake. I mean, right now, if I were to put six pins in my collection, I'm going to tell you them right now. And this just goes to like a little bit of theme, a little bit of, I'm going to go Lord of the Rings. Love Lord of the Rings. Number four. I want to say Sonic, but I haven't played it yet. Number four, and I'm, I, I, you know, wouldn't it be Harry Potter? Um, right now there wouldn't be a Jersey Jack that would really go into my collection. Again, because it just hasn't been a JJP game. I've had Guns N' Roses, so I wouldn't want it back in my collection. Um, I, nothing JJP yet. I'm, I'm expecting it to be Sonic. Number four would be probably Batman 66 Catwoman edition, because they fixed a lot of the geometry on the Catwoman edition. And I still miss that code in that game. I don't care about the SLE hoopla and having that. No, no, no. I just want it to shoot the best and have fun on the game and bang on it. Then I'm at no solid state games for Kaneda. I'm sorry. It's just not for me. I need something more in the game. Then I would say right now, if I wanted to have six pins in my collection, I think right now I would want a Winchester as number five. I just want to see what all the hoopla is about. Again, you just asked me right now, because again, like, this isn't like six games you have to keep forever. It's just the six games you'd want to have in your collection right now. And number six, I would say is Jaws. Okay. Because again, I want to like, I want to see why everybody loves Jaws so much. And I'm in a beachy town. So I think Jaws would be the perfect pin to have. So that's that would be my six pin collection right now. Beetlejuice, Pokemon, Batman 66, Jaws. Lord of the Rings, Winchester. And I think that's like a good, good mix up of games. I wouldn't want to have like all Sterns or this or that. Come on, Jersey Jack. I want to put a JJP in there. I want Sonic, which I think it's going to be in there very easily. All right. Please cover who is making Dungeon Crawler Karl. It is most likely Barrels of Fun and Karl DeAngelo. Pete, and that's from Tony Morimoto. Pete Maino said, Topic, fixing Yeti sound. Looks like Chris Turner reached out to Cleland about audio. Yup, Pete, we already covered that. He's gonna make the sound new. I don't know if it's gonna be better. I think almost anything could be better. John B, John Backland said, Backend said again, how would the pinball, guys, first of all, don't be greedy. If you ask one question, don't be greedy. I don't need the show to be two hours long. Ask one question and ask it, you know, and like there's statements here. OK, John said, how would the pinball gods punish Spooky for not making sixteen hundred and thirty two Goonies general curse or something more effed up? Well, they're not going to do it. I mean, Goonies is going to be again a nine nine nine game. And because they're excited to get to the game after Goonies and I love Spooky's strategy and it works And they're not going to do any more show games shenanigans and I think that's the way to do it. All right, pinball rumors. How Pokemon will be 20k again by Christmas, said Robert Campbell. Well, you know, that's what I was saying. Like, look, I'm telling you this right now.
    50:22
    I'm telling you this right now. If Stern really nails the insider connected and Pokemon becomes like, like really like this unique, amazing pinball experience. And I'm hearing nothing but good things about the layout and the shooting of the game. I don't know, it's tough man, it's tough. I don't think any pinball machine is worth $20,000. And I say that having owned everything that has ever been worth a lot of money except for maybe Pirates of the Caribbean, but even that's not worth $20,000. We all had a chance to buy Pirates when it was 12 and we didn't want it. And the only reason we wanted it is because we couldn't have it. So I think this is like this thing is like when you stand over a really fun game What makes it fun is not that it's rare What makes it fun is not that it has that topper what makes it fun is not that it has like those Foil decals what makes it fun is not that it has like your name In the software. Well, that is a little bit fun. It is but you know what I'm saying is like The notion that any pinball machine should be that much money, and I'm all for certain games reaching that point, but normally a game should become a grail for reasons that the community and the market dictate. And I don't know, a lot of them, you know, it's like when the story's positive and they're rare, like Batman SLE, I think it makes it more fun to buy. Jon performed๑‍JIN ANDков Where we are...... Anyway, I don't think Pokemon, I don't think any modern Stern is worth anywhere near $20,000. All right. So, JC said, why you decided against being a dealer like you kept saying at the end of 25? Well, first of all, JC, I have not decided against it. I've got some plans that I want to explore, but I need to figure out the right way to The Winning Pinball Show, Knapp Arcade, Bally Williams, Straight Down the Middle, Bally Williams,
    53:04
    All this stuff is coming to you from Canada this year. I promise. I've just had too much going on. But it's coming. Get ready. Eric Jackson wrote Back to the Future Baby, The Neverending Story, Goonies and Sonic. Okay, those are just four games that Eric Jackson really, really wants. Okay, me too, except for The Neverending Story, which I think won't hit like David thinks. Chad Dubovsky says, how and when are you going to do the Goonies contest? Well, we're already talking about the Goonies contest. I think Chad means the Beetlejuice contest and we answered that question more, you know, not Goonies yet. Maybe he's telling a joke. Or Derek Helgenberg said, in addition to price hike on the next spooky title, will there be an additional production amount?
    54:13
    Sip of coffee time because you can't see me do it. I don't think so. I've spoken to Luke. I've spoken to Bug. They really like where they are at. I don't think we're going to see more games. I really don't. They are in this nice place where they can make this many a year, make this much money a year. It doesn't overly tax their line. It doesn't overly tax the software team. They're in the best place. A thousand spookies a year, 999 a year is perfect. Why would they change it? Why? All right. Circus Voltaire priced at $10,000 for remake and $12,500 for remastered version. Alright, I guess that's just a statement. I would assume it's going to be around that price. We'll see how they sell. I don't know about you guys, man, but I'm feeling like if I have $10,000 just lying around, I want to knock it against my mortgage more than I need another pinball machine in my life. And I don't even have a pinball machine other than GNR in my life. I your host Jeff Altman and I see you next time on Pinball N Out Pinball We gonna be shipping kids off to colleges and spending like half a million dollars for them to do what When the whole world is gonna be either trade skills or through a computer I mean, think about it. They go into classrooms with books still. It's not happening. The modern world is gonna be scary. I don't look forward to it. Baby con look That's what it came out of the black ages. I think we're heading into a technological black ages in which we went too far. We let all these insidious tech losers steer culture off an edge, which has made people unhappy, lonely, isolated. It's made young people not want to couple up, not want to have kids. Renaissance or revolution? What is beautiful to think about? That we would reestablish what makes life amazing and let go of all the other stuff that's harmful. I fear that it's going to be a little bit more revolution where we're going to start yanking these tech billionaires off their yachts and we're going to become increasingly socialistic and rely on the state to provide because there's no opportunities for the people. I mean, that's what will happen. So I hope it's the Renaissance, not the revolution, but that is what keeps me up at night when I think about my children and the world we've created for them. I think we went too far. I think we went way too far. And I think the media is terrible. I think social media is horrendous. And I think we should regulate it the way we regulate other harmful things, and we don't because there's money to be made. And if that's the way you want to live, like if there's money to be made, who cares how I know that you guys are like how harmful it is. The moment we gave up looking out for the children is going to be looked at as a moment where we like really went off the rails. You can see it now with like these trials with- This is the longest podcast ever. No, I love it too. Like Facebook knows it was like manipulating children and using algorithms for addiction with children like they just get away with it because there's billions to be made. Let's get back to pinball. How about the Pokemon card dispenser said Ed Mara. I think it's cool. Let's see. Wah Monkey said, maybe you can speak to how American gave away two machines from a marketing perspective of rebuilding the brand. Also talk about those freaking crazy price mods for Beetlejuice. Just plain dumb. Yeah, they got time in, but geez, for a game that barely needs a single mod. So Wild Monkey, I've covered off on both of these topics. I've said before, this is turning out to be more like a Saturday morning, it's like a Wednesday morning spectacular. I've covered this before, I think the mod pricing is inane, it doesn't need any mods. I don't care if a guy wants to make mods and charge 450 bucks for a piece of plastic. Like that's their prerogative. If you buy one, do I think you're being silly? Yes. Would I buy one? No. Do I care? Not really. Matt Frane, Hampton Oaks ED and Amint Likey if we do uh a rife bit of dubbing we'll probably
    59:18
    get around lindsey to give off a smile powder ey I went on and I searched for like TPF, American Pinball Seminar, and all these videos on YouTube come up with David Fix. First thing they need to do is remove all the David Fix videos that are attached to the American Pinball handle on YouTube. New company, done, gone. Scrub it, erase it, delete it. You do not want that mustache man appearing when people are looking to see what American pinball is all about. The new chapter begins, he's erased. I mean he's like Moses in like Ramsay's era. Like erase him from the history books. Wah Monkey said, also how about the miscellaneous companies to unify behind a standard like score bit or insider connect. No, no, no. There's not going to be some standard connectivity between games. It's just not going to happen. We're not going to have... I don't really care about online leaderboards or score. I don't. You know me. I don't even have time to play pinball, let alone like, oh man, I really wish... Who cares? Just give me a game with no internet that's amazing. Give me a game with no internet that's amazing and I don't care. Pinball is the game in front of you for the most part. I couldn't stress this enough. It's an analog game in front of you. I really don't care. I feel like Scorebit's been trying to find a way to establish, but the problem with Scorebit is every single manufacturer wants to own that channel. They want to own their own connectivity. I don't know how they survive as a middleman in that space. All right, so Joel says, Joel P. Palmerloo, do you think spike two will hold value to spike three? Unless Stern does something big with spike three, I almost prefer spike two. Okay, good question, Joel. I mean, this is a great, okay, this is a good question. This is a good question.
    61:49
    Then I got a ghost and got jumped right into meetings. Like this was not the way I wanted my morning to go, but I'm gonna do a few more of these. I got, okay, we're coming towards the end. Here's the thing. It is clear that Spike 3 is a cost-cutting measure. The screen is bigger, but it's a little bit of lipstick on a pig if you ask me. The computing looks a little cheaper, a raspberry pie with an HDMI out. My thing is this. The sound is better, the image is better, the cabinet is easier to make, it's cheaper to make, apparently it's sturdy, whatever. I think Stern's gonna move over their spike two hits to spike three. I think we're gonna see that Godzilla on the spike three. I think we might see a Jaws on spike three coming down the road, right? I just think they're gonna do this. I think that's gonna be what they do to sort of remake games that sold well and not say they're burning people because they're upgrading them to the new platform. But I will say this. I think we all feel the same way. Spike 3 has been a colossal letdown. It's been a colossal letdown. They did not roll it out right. They didn't display its effectiveness properly. There hasn't been a game in which like, yeah man, I see how you've climbed and ascended with Spike 3. No. I do think Pokemon's the best use of Spike 3 to date. The animations on that big screen look much better than Star Wars and Walking Dead. See you on the seashore, I think that's the name of it. An LE of Lord of the Rings is gonna hold way more value than even now like a Jaws LE on a Spike 2. It's gonna be the greatness of the game and the rarity really to hold that value for the game. All right, Hector wrote, Hector Castrehong. Hector, I love you, brother. The difference between buying, collecting pins because you are a geek and you can't resist seeing an IP you love in pinball format Versus the new in box buyer that buys it because he is a pinhead, grew up playing pinball with his father, who cares much more about flow and gameplay than theme. Okay, so we're seeing this right now with Pokemon. This will be, Hector, I don't look at this as like there's an answer. I look at this as like you bring what personally moves you to the pinball market. You know what I'm saying? Like this is not a cancer drug. This is not something anybody needs. These companies, especially Stern, they're putting out a plethora of products. And so, yeah, like some of their products, like the theme is going to like win people over, even if the gameplay isn't insane. Some games are going to have insane gameplay, but the theme is not even like your cup of tea. I look at games like Foo Fighters is like that for a lot of people. Iron Maiden is like that for a lot of people. Might not be your favorite band, but the gameplay won you over and the code and like the overall experience. And that's the beautiful dance that happens in all the pinball. I'm looking at Beetlejuice right now. I'm seeing the same sort of like debate. Everyone loves, a lot of people love the theme and the theme integration. The gameplay has become now what people are sort of nitpicking. Are there too many scoops? Is it fun? Does it have like a good upper playfield area? Not upper playfield but like the upper flipper on the upper left area of the game. Is it fun? I think it is an upper playfield. But you know what I'm saying? Like this is why this hobby is fun. This is a great way to get all of those things right. And once in a blue moon, you do get a game like Godzilla. Theme integration, mechs, and you get gameplay. It's almost impossible to hop on a Godzilla and have any complaints. Maybe the artwork, but those things don't matter as much. When you're playing a game, this is the other thing, we overemphasize art a little too much. When you're playing a game, you're not even paying attention to the art. We're tracking the ball. Art is what curmudgeon-y collectors look at all day long who don't play their pins. It's like when I remember playing Rush for the first time, when I saw the artwork online, I complained about it forever. And then I got up to the machine and I just enjoyed the layout and wasn't even noticing the art really. So it just goes to show you, sometimes you gotta just like jump on it and understand like this thing was meant to be used, not just looked at. All right, we've got a few more here. Spencer, I miss the Pinside Babies episodes. Yep, I love that stuff. Was around the time you still had Pinside membership. You asked all what microphone was good for podcasts. I've listened to everything you put out from the get-go. Well, Spencer, thank you. Pinside Babies is fun.
    66:59
    They were like expletive rants. I don't know if they were best for my, maybe I'll do some more in the future. We'll do maybe we'll do like a behind the paywall, a Kaneda rant episode where I'll just drink a bunch of old fashions and let loose. The thing about this is this is like I'll do it if I'm just making fun of like games and this. It's when it gets personal. And, you know, I don't want to put too much negative energy out in the world because you don't wake up feeling good. And, you know, I want to wake up feeling as good as I can every single day. All right, Christian Harris writes, what's the latest news on Back to the Future? I have none. Franchi is on the artwork.
    67:42
    That's all I know. You will know more about Back to the Future as soon as I know. Another sip of coffee coming.
    67:50
    You are getting your money's worth, for those of you listening to this show. I mean, you know, you're at five dollars, you know, you you know, you can be at ten. I mean, this is literally the dude selling a I'm going to be doing a flat plastic Beetlejuice mod for $450. You know what that is? That's like 80 months. I think it's 90 months of Kaneda's Pinball Podcast. I do this show for years to make what that guy's going to make selling one flat plastic. I know you want to go to 10. I'm not going to force you. I'm not going to raise the bottom line. All right. Bond. Let's do Goonies, Trans Rumors. I don't really have any more rumors. Where will they settle? Pokemon prices, where will they settle after Sonic? I'll answer that. I think when we talk about Pokemon prices, we're really only wondering about the LE. Here's my opinion. In six months, Pokemon LE will be around 15 grand. That's where I think it will net out. I don't think it's going to be below 13. I think it'll stay at 15. I don't think Sonic's gonna knock it down. Sonic would knock it down if Sonic had a limited number of CEs. Nothing Jersey Jack does will knock down Stern LEs because again, there will only ever be 750 Pokemon LEs in the world forever if Stern holds true to its word. There will be thousands of Sonic CEs in the world if Jersey Jack does the way they do it. All right, let's see. Bomb. How Zombie Yeti is attempting to save money for Stern by making all three packages similar in artwork to go along with Spike 3 huge savings plus how Stern keeps it insanely high for guaranteed losses for us customers. All right, fine. Okay, so we've covered off on Yeti. Like I don't think Zombie Yeti is trying to save money for Stern. I think what happens to him is he is overworked. I think they have him on a scheduling timeline that is unrealistic at times and I think he has an inability to do three art packages at times. I don't think he's doing this as a cost-cutting measure. I know Jeremy, I know he's not a fan of mine anymore but I know he is not an individual that will ever be driven by bottom line thinking. I know he puts everything, his heart and his soul into every single thing he does and so So no, I don't think that Zombietti is trying to save money for Stern. In fact, I think they look at like even The Walking Dead and are like confused. They're probably a little bit befuddled as to why the response is so negative when they probably put the new Walking Dead next to the old one and they're like, I don't get it. We've made it better in every way. Yeah, it's more colorful, but it's just it. It looks so much better next to the old one. If only people would put them next to each other, they would see what we've been seeing All of these are great things that I've been working on for months and I think they're just sort of struggling a little bit. And I think Yeti, I think if I were Stern, I think what they need to do is they need to really have a departure from like having everything look the same. And I think that's what's refreshing about Pokemon is it forced Zombie Yeti to like make a departure because they wouldn't let him touch and illustrate their property. And I actually think that helped him a little bit. Like, all right, so my art director skills are in arranging their illustrations in the most exciting way possible. It's good sometimes. You don't always have to draw your way out of the assignment. Like sometimes you can hire someone who's better for the assignment than you.
    71:44
    Last question, we got to the end on this crazy journey. Stefan, the Rocky film series celebrates its 50th anniversary in November. Which company will release a pinball machine?
    72:22
    Bill länger than with anyone done before. This is the end of the episode of the KSB podcast One Hour and Twelve Minutes. Alright, no editing, I'm going to put this up. This was a lot of fun. We'll do this every once in a while. I definitely like to have more snackable 20 minute shows for you three times a week. This was a certain way to break up the monotony. You never know what you're going to get. But thank you everybody for subscribing and I do mean it. If you feel like you can, I don't really ask for the raising the roof. I'll give shout outs to anyone that wants to raise their subscription a little bit. I do appreciate every single donation we get. It means a lot. Everybody have a great Wednesday. We'll talk to you soon.
    73:52
    Everything you like today is the best, you're gonna go to the place that's the best.