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Five Alive Beyond 2025

Fresh Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 33m·analyzed·Jan 12, 2026
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.031

TL;DR

Fresh Pinball critiques mod installation standards and recounts Cincinnati Pinball Show experience.

Summary

Fresh Pinball Podcast hosts discuss proper pinball mod installation practices, highlighting quality concerns with poorly executed modifications using alligator clips and electrical tape. They cover their experience at Cincinnati Pinball Show (Pinsonati) in late 2025, featuring games like Rotation 8, Harry Potter, and a custom Medieval Madness Anniversary Edition. The hosts also discuss the simplified Twippies awards structure and various movies watched in 2025.

Key Claims

  • Poor mod installations using alligator clips and electrical tape are common and dangerous, risking shorts and loose connections.

    high confidence · Zach and Corbin discuss seeing improperly installed mods on games they service, with gator clips on damaged wires and electrical tape solutions.

  • Rotation 8 never leaves the Cincinnati owner's house anymore because it doesn't fit through normal doors.

    high confidence · Host describes Rotation 8 owner's dedicated room setup with whiskey, music, comfortable chairs, and coasters; called a 'panty ass move' regarding door size.

  • Cincinnati Pinball Show (Pinsonati) had heavy crowds, especially on Harry Potter and Merlin's Arcade machines.

    high confidence · Hosts describe lines and foot traffic, noting Harry Potter 'probably had the most' visitors and Merlin's had significant action.

  • The Twippies awards were significantly simplified from previous years, reducing categories from ~5-6 pages to approximately 7 game-focused categories.

    high confidence · Corbin notes surprise at lack of advance notice; Jeff lists new categories: Game of the Year, Best Theme Integration, Best Rules/Code, Best Art Package, Best Playfield Layout, Best Audio, Best Animations.

  • Medieval Madness Anniversary Edition features custom playfield, plastics, and backglass art by Brian Allen with personal Easter eggs including owner's wife as princess.

    high confidence · Hosts describe custom machine encountered at Cincinnati show with detailed personal touches and three weeks of playfield tuning for proper play.

Notable Quotes

  • “Like, really, guys? This is really how we're installing these mods? Like, as a car guy who, like, you know, like, heat shrinks and solders everything together. No, no, no.”

    Zach @ ~5:00 — Core frustration about quality standards in mod installation; sets up theme of proper vs improper modification practices.

  • “If it's going to be there any type of long-term, just do it right. Do it right. It's going to work its way off. You're running the risk of it coming loose and shorting out.”

    Corbin @ ~7:00 — Safety and durability argument for proper mod installation vs temporary workarounds.

  • “I spent three weeks dialing this in because I knew this has to play. If it looks this good, it has to play that good. And it fucking 100% did.”

    Brian Allen (Medieval Madness Anniversary builder, paraphrased) @ ~55:00 — Demonstrates dedication to playability matching aesthetics in custom builds.

  • “it's in a room and it's like, yeah, because it's a panty ass move it doesn't fit through normal doors it's the room with just he's got whiskey, he's got his whiskey glasses he's got his music in there, comfortable chairs, coasters little zen room with his rotation 8”

    Host @ ~45:00 — Describes Rotation 8's dedicated space setup, highlighting its size and collector treatment.

  • “I had this game, and I knew if it looked good... he was like, no. He's like, I spent three weeks dialing this in because I knew this has to play.”

    Jeff (paraphrasing builder) @ ~55:00 — Builder's philosophy on balancing aesthetics with playability.

Entities

Fresh Pinball PodcastorganizationZach AngelipersonCorbin AngelipersonKylepersonJeffpersonCincinnati Pinball ShoweventMad PinballcompanyRotation 8gameHarry Potter Arcadegame

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Rotation 8 generating sustained collector interest and positive social interactions; Rotation 8 owner connection led to extended conversation and relationship building.

    high · Hosts describe meeting Rotation 8 owner, learning about permanent home setup, and noting interesting community responses to rare machine.

  • ?

    event_signal: Cincinnati Pinball Show (Pinsonati) in late 2025 was well-attended with strong energy; diverse game lineup from multiple eras; collaborative booth experience with Tilt Amusements.

    high · Hosts describe heavy crowds, positive energy, no terrible lines, diverse titles, and successful collaborations with other operators.

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Quality mod installation philosophy: proper soldering, heat shrink, T-taps, and crimp connectors vs. temporary alligator clips and electrical tape workarounds; emphasis on reliability and safety.

    high · Extended discussion about proper mod installation standards; Zach's automotive expertise applied to pinball; warning about fire hazard risks and loose connections.

  • ?

    event_signal: Cincinnati Pinball Show featured rare and eclectic game selections (Berrios, Merlin, Punny Factory, Hexa Space Hunt, Medieval Madness Anniversary) with positive crowd reception.

    high · Multiple mentions of game variety, visitor reactions, and enthusiasm; hosts note success in showing machines people had only heard of but never seen.

  • $

    market_signal: Custom/restoration pinball market showing strong collector engagement; Medieval Madness Anniversary Edition represents high-investment personal customization with bespoke artwork and extended development time.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.281

0:00
Welcome everyone to Season 5, Episode 5 of the Fresh Pinball Podcast. This is the first episode of a new year. 2020. Fresh Pinball for a fresh year. I thought 2025 was the future. 2026 might really, really be the future. I'm going to have to look up how old George Edgeham is now. We really need to know. We need an update. Yeah, we do. I had Norn at the dentist today and the dentist is like, in 2028, he's going to need his wisdom teeth out. I'm like, 2020? My God. I can't even wrap my mind around 2026. This is out of control. Welcome everyone to the show. The four of us sit around this rectangular table and spew some pinball action at you. I think it's a square, man. This one's technically my favorite. So a square is a rectangle, but a rectangle is not a square? A rectangle has two longer sides than the other, right? I think I remember something about a rectangle being a... This is technically a rectangle, I suppose. A square being a rectangle, but a rectangle not being a square. Before we get too deep into geometry, I will introduce everyone. I'm going to start to my left. 34 by... To my left, I have the traveling man himself. It's a square. Corbin Angeli. Mr. Corbin. What's up, guys? How we doing, buddy? Doing good. Weather's kind of gross outside. It's like this weird... I like this wet, hazy shit. It's a thaw situation. It's a little hazy. A little hazy. Like, once the snow is snow, I want it to be, like, snow and frozen until winter's over. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I want there to be, like, feet. I want my... I want to sink down to my knee. Well, then you go out last night and it's, like, all fucking ice. Yeah, everything is froze. Because everything that, like, melted just... It's not great. Nah. I don't love it. It's not ideal. Me neither. Across from me, Mr. Zach Angeli. How we doing, buddy? I'm flipping fantastic. How are you, Jeff? I can always count on that. I can always count on you being flipping fantastic. I try my best. And I love it. It's consistency. It's underrated. And to my right, on the board, equalizing the sounds, pressing the squarish, rectangular sound buttons, Mr. Kyle. How we doing, buddy? I'm doing excellent. How are you tonight, Jeff? I'm doing fantastic as well. Very excited to be here. It was sad that we couldn't record last week due to me being away and Corbin having some obligations. But I'm very, very, very happy to be here tonight. Long past due. Yeah, we are well past it. We just called you anyways. Called him in. Where you at, buddy? Not Japan this time. That Japanese bus was a real mistake. A real mistake. I'm lucky I didn't get stabbed or something. They're on some list somewhere. I'm definitely on some list. We have a lot to talk about today. I guess before I kick off some topics, do you guys have anything that you wanted to throw out there since the last time we spoke? Pinball mods installation. He's coming out hot with it. Here we go. All right. Zach, what do you got? So I see it a lot, but I was working on Turtle. Turtles is in right now, fixing a few things on it. And I see these gator clips onto wires that looked like a beaver chewed on them. Oh, my God. Electrical taped around, and that was their power source.
Medieval Madness Anniversary Edition
game
Brian Allenperson
Merlin's Arcadegame
Halloween CEgame
Twippies Awardsevent
Colinperson
Tilt Amusementscompany
Troyperson
Steve Bowdenperson
Robinperson
Alecperson
Grizzperson

medium · Brian Allen's custom Medieval Madness took 3 weeks to dial in playability; featured personal Easter eggs; attracted significant positive attention at show.

  • ?

    product_concern: Halloween CE experienced trough stacking issues during Cincinnati show; balls backing up without clear cause.

    high · Corbin notes: 'the balls just kept stacking in the trough it just wasn't making any sense anyway'; described as 'pain in the ass of the show.'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Twippies Awards underwent significant simplification with reduced categories (from 5-6 pages to 7 categories) and apparent lack of advance sponsor communication.

    high · Corbin expresses surprise at lack of advance notice despite being back-to-back sponsor; Colin made changes without prior communication to sponsors.

  • ?

    technology_signal: Rotation 8's physical size constraints (cannot fit through normal doors) create permanence issues for collectors; requires dedicated space setup.

    high · Cincinnati owner keeps Rotation 8 permanently in dedicated room; hosts note it 'doesn't fit through normal doors'; described as 'panty ass move.'

    • 3:38
    So it's like, really, guys? This is really how we're installing these mods? Like, as a car guy who, like, you know, like, heat shrinks and solders everything together. No, no, no. It makes it real nice. Like, no, let's make it look like a fucking two-year-old put this together.
    3:53
    So Corbin may have a little bit of recent experience on some of these things as well. No, you've got to use T-taps very wrongly. I agree with you. The alligator clips for me are such a temporary. It's a temporary. It's not a long-term thing. Something like that. I've used them before on my games at home. At home. For a little temporary lighting or maybe a spotlight or something. If it's going to be there any type of long-term, just do it right. Do it right. It's going to work its way off. You're running the risk of it coming loose and shorting out. You buy plugs cheap. Crimp on some ends. Put them in the plugs. It's not rocket science. It's a good excuse to learn something new. Definitely. Or buy those lighting mod kits. I think Pinball Life sells them and stuff. And it's like a bendy bulb. And then it has a little lead and just plugs into it. Yeah. Which is very convenient. So we had acquired an Elvira House of Cores 40th anniversary edition for a customer. where they very specifically wanted that edition, that game. So we found one from a gentleman on the East Coast, and it had all of these crazy mods and lighting and just, like, dressed to the nines sort of situation. So we get it in, we go through it, everything is, you know, basically as it should be, it seems, and then we get it to the customer, and some small adjustments needed to be made. So whenever I had the play field up in the service position and I'm looking down, it's, like, wires crisscrossing everywhere, extension boards with extra power outlets and then it even has a power strip in the bottom it does and it's one of these situations to where it has like the led lighting that goes around the leg protectors and the coin door and the shooter rod housing so literally that what quarter of an inch extra lighting throws everything off well you weren't there for the second time the first time you had the plunger because of that well then the coin door wasn't hitting the interlock switch correctly because of that, so then I had to do some adjustments on that. It just seems like... Some of these games, when they do them up like that, they make them look like this, but all the show is there, but there's no go. They've never actually tried it. Well, it's like when we were over at Scott's and we were putting the mod on Scott Dyes. I'm just joking. Oh, yeah, and we were putting the mod on Scott's, and he asked you something, something, something, and I said, yeah, it's all great until the balls start to get stuck there, because that's just sometimes the reality. Sometimes a cradle for things. the whole thing or the like sometimes we get these trade-ins that we put out right away the stuff comes loose it comes off you know it's just like double-sided taped on or whatever and it comes off and then jams everything up and it breaks or whatever they look cool i mean you can do stuff very cool but it's just the matter of how much is too much to make it route worthy or for and for us at least yeah so i mean like it's at your house too like how much are you playing are you just are you playing it every now and then you just want to turn on look cool or you're actually going to be like hammering some games on it and that's something you need to consider yep without a doubt because i mean and that guy's actually playing it it seems like the 40th oh yeah all of the games yes all of them yeah yeah so he picked up an elvira 40th and this was like crazy banger like three first games out of the gate was an elvira 40th a metallica remastered le and then a walking dead le jesus lineup and now he's looking for a gnr ce and possibly another game, so he's definitely gotten the bug pretty bad. Do these people know that there's games that have a DMD that you can buy? No, they do not. Do you have no idea? I mean, you see these lineups, it's a screen, screen, screen. There's lots of people who don't even know. I feel like to some modern era people, EMs are like... DMD are like their EMs. There's old ones with the little window or whatever. I miss the DMD. I do. I love it. I just think you need a variety of titles and eventually I think a lot of people do get to that point right but they start with four stern pros or something and I think if you're just getting into it and especially if you're not working on your own games the reliability is true if you don't know how to fix it yeah you just start to get some of these um the the you know 20 30 year old games like they need work they have constant tweaks oh look at that cookie delivery for the win We're going to pause for a moment. You're going to hear some crummage action going here. But no, to Zach's point, on the back of that Turtles, it has the Pizza Hut building, and I think that one is an example of a good mod to where there are no ball hang-ups for it. It's out of the way. It enhances the game. It installs in the factory location. Yeah, I mean, all of that stuff is pretty cool. But I think the way that things tie into the lighting, I've seen everything from the alligator clips. It's a rat's nest underneath there. The Penn Stadiums. As soon as Zach said it, I was like, oh, what is this? Iron Man again? My basement catching up on it? Scott also said he really likes those, how low profile those pen lights are. The pen lights. Yeah, he was really a fan of them. To me, it's a superior. Sometimes less is more. And in that situation, I think you don't notice that they're there. They put off the perfect amount of light. He said he didn't even think they were there. Do you still have to pull them off to lift the play field? You do, but I mean, there's like nothing to them. I mean, the install, like, I don't know anything about anything, and I had them in, what, like 10, 15 minutes, I mean. If you wanted to speed it up, you could pre-put that board together. Yeah, exactly. I'm kind of surprised. That's really what it took most of the time. It literally was. I'm surprised that that doesn't come already done. That's part of the way, like, how they keep it so cheap. They literally just take the parts, throw them in the bag, throw it in the box, ship it out. They don't, like, because that takes, you know, it's an extra 15 minutes. For just a couple of transistors or something you've got to solder in. Not even solder. No, there's a little control board, and they just want to put you in. in a protective stack sandwich, like a plastic on each side. Just like a little audio amp or something you would buy. Yeah. It just has like little standoffs that go between it. Like that Raspberry Pi case from there? Yeah, exactly like that.
    9:47
    But no, mods are a slippery slope. There are some where I think it really does enhance the games, but in general for people, like if you're not working on your own stuff and you're not comfortable working on your own stuff, just stick with the factory stuff. Or call somebody. have a friend that knows how to solder I do think for some people that is really part we see all these different people in the same hobby but enjoying different parts of it without a doubt and I think one niche or one little channel that you can get deep in is the mod market where you get into these you see all these people there's guys making exclusive mods we're ending production of this we're only doing limited. There's a lot of action in there, I think. But just do it right. That's all I'm saying. Install it properly. Don't burn down your fucking house. You can always very safely use the 110 that goes to the dollar bill acceptor. In modern Stearns, or in WPCs, there's always 110 at those plugs. So you can always just use that. It's a very clean, safe way to guys do. Mod makers, listen up. Yeah, no, I think, Corbin, you probably heard me describe pinball before as a pie with three big pieces, and you have the modding community you have the playing community and then you have the collecting community and all three of those can blend in in different ways to where people are more into you know one or the other but i think those three really kind of encapsulate you know people who are in it for the collecting the thrill of the chase the people are in it for the customization and the modding and the accessorizing and the people are just like the hardcore players and then sometimes those will bleed into each other but that generally is kind of people enjoying the exact same thing in different ways. He's just wheezing a little bit. We watered him this year. I have a little spray bottle. It's fine.
    11:34
    It's only been six days. Corbin, you have anything you wanted to kick it off with? Man, I know you've had some adventures since the last time that we got behind these microphones. Sure, sure, sure. One of my questions that I wanted to ask you guys about, because I know nothing about this this year and I've not heard anything, and I looked it up this morning, and I'll just say this. I don't know if this is a toxic topic or whatever. What's up with the Twippies? so i saw that i just have no i didn't hear anything about it this year as a two times back-to-back sponsor of the twitby i was a little surprised yeah now you say i really yeah it's i just and i don't i don't care at all i i know colin's doing whatever he thinks is best i just didn't even i've not heard anything leading up to it like what the um what's going on with it and so i looked it up today have you have you looked it up at all it's a much simplified it's like five questions yeah five to seven categories best game best layout yeah all game related all game related um you know i kind of was hearing at the end of the last award ceremony some rumors of things you know possible award shows here and there and whatever else and then it all quieted down kind of as the year went along and a lot of freaking work oh yeah we got to the end of the year and i was kind of expecting to see the email from colin or wherever saying hey do you guys want a sponsor again or whatever and then all of a sudden out of nowhere, here's the ballot and I was like, oh crap. Yeah, and it's not in a place this year. It's not like a physical... It didn't seem to be that way. I couldn't find the location where they were hosting it. It did not seem to be. I just thought it was interesting.
    13:10
    We'll see how it goes. I guess it needs a rebirthing. Let me pull up the categories here because I do... So yeah, it's been simplified down to Game of the Year, Best Theme Integration, Lyman F. Sheets, Best Rules and Code, Best Art Package, Best Playfield Layout, Best Audio Package, Best Animations, which is way simplified over the five or six pages of categories. I was saying pages last year. It was last year. Locations, podcasts. It was social media stuff. Social media. It was definitely locations. It was the pinball stuff, but way more detailed, like three times just about the games themselves. Oh, easily. Oh, Harry Potter. It was almost too much. For sure. Hands down, they're going to win. Toy Story. Oh, you can't vote for that stuff? But no, I did catch that and was surprised in a lot of different ways. I would have thought that we would have gotten some sort of something ahead of time. What are you going to do?
    14:08
    Even with the reduction of what they're doing, I would imagine that they would still be looking for some sort of sponsorships or whatever else. Guess not. keeps it simpler. Keeps it very simple. But yeah, I did catch that and was surprised in many different ways. Same. All right. That was next on my list.
    14:28
    Hold on. Let's check in with Kyle here. Yeah, for sure. Mr. Kyle. Oh, George Jetson's birthday is July 31st, 2022. So there's George. We're in the future is what you're saying. Well, he's that he's that old now. right today. Who's born in 2022? 2022, so he's what, three? Yeah, he'll be four in July. Okay. But we're in the future. George Jetson's alive. We're in the future. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He should be at Jetson's level of the world. Flying cars. It was set in 2062 when he was 40.
    15:04
    Here's George Jetson. Okay. So it might have been like this when he was three or four. It's possible. The simpler days. Before the aliens came. Yeah.
    15:14
    So I'm a little older than everyone here, but I know Zach and Corbin aren't big TV people. They had to chop games out when they stayed home, remember? There was a made-for-TV movie that was a crossover of Jetsons meet the Flintstones. Oh, no, definitely not. I vaguely remember that. Oh, my gosh. It is so epic. The Jetsons go back in time. Is it better than Blast from the Past? Nothing's better than Blast from the Past. I watched another one, too. You said you watched Bedazzled, right? yeah did I watch Blast from the is that the one you borrowed yeah that was pretty funny so Blast from the Past is Brendan Fraser yeah yeah Christopher Walken and they think that a nuclear event goes down if you haven't seen the spoiler alert 30 years ago so this actually leads into one of my next questions oh perfect so I was going to ask you guys what your top movie you saw in 2025 was and for me one of my like I had different categories of that but like oh I've got one my top one of my top ones that was like A classic that I'd never seen that was good was that Blast from the Past. It was a good movie. I was surprised I never saw it. He goes up shopping for the next 20 years. They come out in the bar. The elevator people. They worship him. Yeah. He has Mickey Mantle rookie baseball cards and original AT&T stocks and just all kinds of crazy stuff. Such a good movie. I watched one recently.
    16:41
    Last year? yeah in 2025 okay i don't think it came out in 2025 but i watched it last year in 2025 it was called begonia i don't know the premise of the movie is this a guy and his autistic brother kidnap a ceo that they think is an andromedan alien disguised on earth that is trying to take over the world essentially they kidnap her you know uh try to do the whole you know like not torture necessarily but interrogation and all of that and the whole movie you're like these people are crazy these people are crazy these people are crazy very end of the movie spoiler alert turns out they're right she is a fucking alien and it's like your whole mind is blown of like oh my god they were right all along blah blah blah but it looks like it was made for like maybe like seven dollars and fifty cents and shot on like an iphone but it was it was phenomenally entertaining. Interesting. I think I watched it on Hulu. So if you've got Hulu out there, check out Begonia. Isn't that going away? Isn't Hulu... Is it becoming Disney Plus now? I think so. So get on it while you can. You're changing the name to Dulu, I heard. Dulu. Doo-doo.
    17:54
    We got Doo-doo Plus over here. We got Doo-doo Plus. Alright, so what do you got? You got a top movie you saw this year?
    18:01
    I think you can say this too if you have one. I didn't watch too many movies this year. It could be old, new. Or a TV show, I guess. Something that you saw. The Conjuring Last Rites was good. Okay.
    18:15
    Fair enough. Okay. I don't watch much. I saw earlier in the year that Tetris movie. Oh, that was a good movie. That was a real good movie. That movie was so good. Yeah. I watched it a couple times in a row then after that. I forgot about that. It was so good. I was like, oh, it's going to be good. You see it like, oh, my gosh. The moment where he gets in the room and they show him the Game Boy It was just like literally This is going to sound so nerdy like gave me chills Because it's just like It was amazing Oh yeah I did watch it actually And you didn't think when they were being chased here Oh my gosh The full action Yeah The full full action No I thought those were good I enjoyed that one whenever I think it was in theaters for a minute but then it was on Apple TV Yeah I had really quick Do a fake subscription for Apple TV for a minute to watch it. For sure. Well, let's talk some more 2025.
    19:11
    Excuse me. Some more 2025 goodness. At the end of 2025, Mad Pinball participated at Cincinnati. Oh, yeah, we did. We did that since we last been on here. Yeah, and that was a pretty wild time down there. I had attended a few times as just a patron of someone coming down and checking out the games, and then Corbin and I went two years ago with the electric playground with just two games. And we didn't really hang out much. We kind of went around and saw the sights. We went to Dayton one day. Literally. Yeah, went to Dayton. We went to Florence. We went all around. Everywhere basically but Cincinnati. But this time, like, we did the whole, like, sit at the table thing and talk to people and whatever else. It was a good time. Let's talk about the lineup a little bit because I think this one is, like, pretty wild. We're really getting into our era of just bringing some weird shit, which is good. Family vacation's about ready I'm hoping soon Excuse me So yeah what did we take We took Berrios First time we've taken that to a show in a while Which is always so cool when Steve Bowden Is playing in the tournament Because then he gets like excited that his game Is there Which I thought was pretty fantastic Merlin's Arcade was there Did you guys see the lines The lines for Punny Factory There was lines for everything there It was so fucking busy. The vibe there was unbelievable. The energy was so good. Punny was there. Merlin. Football was there. Slipper football. Challenger. Rotation 8, of course. Star of the show. Which we'll talk about our Rotation 8 experience. In-depth.
    20:49
    Next Gen. What else did we take? The Next Gen, which went home to a new home. It did. Yeah. It's living in a sea bus now.
    20:56
    Harry Potter Arcade. Yeah. That Alien Ripley, which we still have, so if anybody wants it, come get it. info at madpinball.com and there's one oh Hexa Space Hunt was with us of course we can't forget Space Hunt quite the eclectic lineup and to Kyle's point I think that was it was there anything else we forgot to say we took a spooky we brought Halloween CE it was the pain in the ass of the show I don't know what was going on with that thing the balls just kept stacking in the trough it just wasn't making any sense anyway AJ what's it doing what it do text your boy I try not to overwhelm them with but I would say I mean as we were sitting there and talking to people and whatever else, like pretty much from open to close all of the days, it was two or three people deep. Oh, yeah. Harry Potter, I think, definitely probably had the most, I would say. Having that on the end the way that we did with a little bit of room was definitely. Maroon's had a lot of action, too. It did. And Hexa, honestly. I talked to a lot of people about Hexa. Hexa was right next to the table, so it was interesting to hear people's reactions as they walked up to it and played it and everything. And honestly, it felt all very positive. Oh, I heard so many people say, oh, I've seen, I've heard of this game, but I've never seen it before, which that's the whole purpose of bringing things like that to a show, is to have things out there that people have never experienced before. I don't know, what's his name? Just say Hexa, space hunt. I was just texting with you guys the night before or something, and I was like, yeah, I'll ride down with you and do whatever, blah, blah, blah. You called me. I did call you. I ended up driving down the next day.
    22:30
    That was a cool little show. That was a very, very nice show. Lots of cool games. Everything seemed to be working all weekend. There were not any type of terrible lines. I just love going up and down the rows and getting, you're not seeing a bunch of duplicates of titles, and it wasn't a bunch of brand new games. It was from all eras and some rare stuff. Yeah, even Troy had some, like, he had a smaller selection than he usually does of his bigger things, but got to play Walking Dead Remastered what about that Medieval Madness talk about that we met that guy at Cleapin he was building it up more pictures talking about how much he spent on this custom playfield I gotta remember his name we'll get it on the next fact check he shows us all these sneak peeks we get there and it there he has his wife is in the plastics so Brian Allen commissioned Brian Yeah yeah Yes I guess I should back up and say that The whole play field in the plastic set the back glass it all custom There's not any original art on it. No, it has. And so, like, his dogs are worked into the animals that are being thrown up the catapult up the left side. His wife is the princess. Their wedding day is etched into the bricks. I mean, there's a whole list of details of things that they worked into. And it's all different. It's all different. and it's all super cool. And not only did this game look absolutely beautiful. It played great. It played amazing. And we talked to him about it, and he was like, no. He's like, I had this game, and I knew if it looked good. He's like, I spent three weeks dialing this in because I knew this has to play. If it looks this good, it has to play that good. And it fucking 100% did. So it was Medieval Madness Anniversary Edition, first and only one in existence. This is an original Medieval Madness machine from 1997, updated with a custom play field. Plastics decal set Featuring artwork by Brian Allen The playfield below is the original artwork Showing differences from the art and the new design So it had like a whole banner next to it Yeah, that broke it all down Explained everything But yeah, there were, like Corbin said, personal Easter eggs in it Including his wife in there as the princess Anniversary date on the playfield That's what I originally got on here to look for I do not see his name Either way, dude is super cool Oh yeah, and he was, like, when he was talking it up At Cleep and we were both just like Oh, yeah, okay, man. Sounds awesome. And then we got there, and it's like, dude, this is blowing away my expectations. That's that guy who was showing us the picture. Right. So that was super cool. We played, I finally played the, we played Saul, but what was the one right next to Saul? Oh, my God. Greatest Showman. Greatest Showman, which was, that was cool. Dude, you lit that thing up, too. I did. Send home the score. Wurland? Yeah, they were both Wurlands. Yeah.
    25:13
    I always see that at Expo, but there's always a line. We found a time at Cincinnati when there was no line, so that one was cool. I thought you were about to talk about Waterworld. Waterworld was a really good time. I enjoyed that one. I know you were vibing on that. Weren't you saying you were loving that Silver Ball Mania? Oh, Tom Chakadis? Yeah. I always love his Silver Ball Mania. It won some award there. It did. It always does. Best something era. It always does. Because it's beautiful.
    25:40
    There was something else. There was that weird... The GTF. That time tunnel. That was some weird variation. Wasn't that like the SL whatever with all the custom skulls? Yeah, but he didn't even bring the tank treads. No, but it had like the Sure, I don't care You should bring the tank shirts But then the best part of the show Santa Okay, so Rotation 8 That looks like fucking AI I know, it's like the real deal It happened We take Rotation 8 And so to go back in time and talk about the first time I'm sure we talked about it We probably talked about it after we were there The one time on this podcast But we played Rotation 8, Jeff and I did in the break room or whatever, hospitality room. With Robin and Alec. The first time, we're like, what's that? We play it, and we're like, oh, that's the moment. We were like, we got to find one of these. Well, we went back there to play Bond 60. Yeah, we were waiting in line. That was the goal. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, like, I think one of you sat a drink or something, and we're like, oh, it's a cocktail pinball machine or whatever. It gives a shit. And then we sat down, and it was like, oh, or maybe somebody else sat down and played it, and we're just like, I'm sorry, what? Yeah. And that was all she wrote. And so that was the first time we'd ever witnessed it.
    26:50
    and this lady's playing it and she's like you gotta meet, what was, I don't remember his name, damn it you gotta meet so and so, my husband he has one oh no shit, yeah he has one which is cool to hear that somebody has one but then to hear the level is crazy and so he comes over, we end up talking turns out it was his that we played in that back room that time he's local to Cincinnati area he has it in his house he's like oh it never leaves his house anymore it's in a room and it's like yeah because it's a panty ass move it doesn't fit through normal doors it's the room with just he's got whiskey, he's got his whiskey glasses he's got his music in there, comfortable chairs, coasters little zen room with his rotation 8 Corbin was making the joke that he thought that when you go into that room there's just a rack of 1970s clothing so you have to put on bell bottoms and platform shoes smoking jacket a nice crocheted hat. It depends on the time of day, the setting. Is it laid back? What album do we have on right now?
    27:57
    It was super cool, though. As we continue to take Rotation 8 places, the interactions with people are just very... I mean, with all the games, but Rotation 8 especially has been very interesting. Very enjoyable. And it behaved better than it did even at PGX. Oh, yeah. We left it on the whole time. I don't know what the because we went out it's just getting worked loose man you working the bugs out I guess I think I put a different I think I put something I don't know what I did we got to put those in your garage we literally pulled it out of my garage yeah it was in your garage the whole time I didn't do anything to it wild times yeah wild times but yeah I thought Pinsonati was a huge success it was fun got to hang out with Grizz for a little while that was interesting that was a time love you brother he's willing to take care of some business in indiana i will tell you that i'm fine with that not messing around felt like we uh forged an even greater bond with our friends at tilt amusements got to hang out with troy a little bit and the crew so our booths were basically connected which made it fun we spent a little time in his he spent a little time in ours definitely had some conversations and everything else so that was a good time got to hang out with the showrunners a little bit, and then in the green room this year they had Dune, which we got to put a few games on, and it was the first time. It was the first time that I'd gotten to play on the newer code of Dune, and I'll tell you what, man, it really sold me on. Man, you guys must have done that right before I got there. Ugh.
    29:28
    They had the cocktail table at Caribbean Cruise, which I was pretty fun to do. I liked that game. Me too. I'd grab one of those. I hear there's a bunch of them in Florida. What's his name that's on us? Oh, Mudflaps. Maybe we should try to find while we're down there. That makes sense. Let's bring back a game. We've got room. We could get in real trouble. If we start breaking games now, we've got all kinds of room. Yeah. No, for sure. Anyway. Well, then the other game that they had broken down in that game room that I thought there was a good 80% chance we were coming home with was a Gottlieb Caveman. Dude, I kind of wanted it, but honestly, I don't want to question you. I feel like we've got a real Gottlieb kick in it. Yeah. Oh, geez. It's like that baby Pac-Man era. It looked questionable as far as everything about it. Were they 900? He was at 800. 800? I don't know. I feel like at $500, I would have felt better. I'm down for a lot of things for $500. I'm pretty open to throwing $500. That would have been an interesting, another red-headed stepchild to bring into the mix. Hyper Ball is actually going back together soon, so it can start coming into the mix. I feel like that's one people, not a lot of people, have seen. Classic. Yeah, right. I made those parts. Did you ever put them in? Yeah. Okay. Coming back together. But no, I thought Cincinnati was a good time. Good food, good drinks. Yeah, I'm going to shout it out right now.
    30:43
    Mount Carmel. Best wings that I've ever had. So this leads me to another one of my pop-up 2025 questions. Because I thought of this specifically when I thought of the questions. What was one of the best meals you had in 2025? Like, whether it was planned, surprise, whatever. Because I thought, I was like, I know Jeff had that life-changing experience with the wings. Oh, my God. So what was your, of 2025, what meals, is that one of your top meals, would you say? Oh, easily in my top five. Especially surprise. ones if you will like sometimes you go places like the food's supposed to be super good and it is or you're like you go places with medium expectations and it's but jeff had one of the best meals he had of 2025 and it was 13 dollars oh that's the crazy part that's my favorite meals yeah well corbin i've got to say not to speak for you but i know as someone who'd spent quite a bit of time with you this year when you and anna had went out to dinner to the place where you said oh you know that's on my list for sure cordelia oh thank you yeah Cordelia in Cleveland yeah that's absolutely it's up there by the casino in that little alley play out square east 4th and we went there before a show you were raving about it the next day we could have just went to dinner I heard it was better than the show was really good but we were so full when we were saying the show everything we had there was amazing I don't want to get too on a kick of it afterwards I talked about it for quite a while so everyone heard about it But Cordelia was very, very, very good. So, yeah. Our sister got a job there. Well, they're opening a new location, and when they open it, that's where she's going to be. Nice. But either way, that's where we're like, oh, we'll go try it. And they're like, oh, my God. It was.
    32:25
    Zach, you've got a top meal for 2025? I'm sitting here thinking. I think it's probably something like tacos that Mary Beth and I made at a long point in time. Okay. Well made stuff. Nice. Nothing wrong with that. I know I was a little jelly whenever you guys were going down to West Virginia and you stopped on the border like Marietta area or whatever and picked up some badass sandwiches. I got some Warios this year too. Those subs were real good. Warios was really good. What was that? The Terminator. Oh my God. That was good. I thought I killed Corbin that day. That was so good. That was this year, wasn't it? Or last year? We were in Columbus. Was that 2025? And you tried to take us. Yeah, that was this year. And we tried to go to Warios, but they're closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Which was good because literally we were getting out of the truck and getting a text. I look at my phone and she's like, I swear to God, if you go to Wario's today without me, I'm going to kill you. As Jeff and I are like walking up to Wario's. Oh, literally. But they were close. And so we're like, well, guess we can't. So Corbin's like, what else is close by? Oh, there's this place called Thurman's. And they're known for this like enormous burger called the Thurmanator. The previous owner of Mad Pinball. I almost killed him taking him there. So I think maybe you should try it. Took him over there. And dude, like Corbin put it. It was good, man. Put it. You had one too? Put it down. It was a lot. Oh, my God. It wasn't one of these situations to where it's, like, all dried out, nastiness, whatever. No, the meat was still very good. And it was, like, half a pound. I don't know what it was. It was a lot of meat. Not safe for digestion, like, my gosh. Yeah, it was so good. That was definitely on the list, though, from last year, too. Yeah, Warriors was banging. Kyle, you got a top meal of 2025?
    33:59
    I love food. Man, I don't know. I'll tell you one that I had with you guys was when we were at Pinball at the Beach, and we went to that beachside little bar there, and we sat at the bar, and they brought... Oh. Corbin had like a steak. Yeah. Did you have like a pasta with something? Wasn't it super busy? Oh, it was slam. Yes, that was so good. Yeah. Because you killed that steak, and I thought you had like a seafood bar. You had seafood for sure. Oh, yeah. You had seafood for sure. Because we were at like the crab cakes. Because you guys were like, we've got to go somewhere to get seafood. I don't know. Me and Corbin have been drinking all day. Okay, I'm going to say it. That was a good meal. That was a good meal I had with you guys. That was a very good meal. It was like mussels and clams. We're coming up on that again. We'll have to eat somewhere good. We always say this. We haven't gone like on the past couple, like, I feel like we got to go on our big, like, all-together meal. No, not like anything fancy. We've got to do something with pinball. No, I took Noren for a celebratory Costco pizza after. Yeah, you and Noren. I'm saying everyone together. I thought it was maybe too fancy for you guys. I got a Costco membership, bro. The proper attire. I got that executive membership. They don't make you dress up? Executive.
    35:05
    Yeah. Anyway, okay, back to the normal topics. And back to that. So every year I try to have goals of things that I want to try to accomplish in Mad Pinball, and we accomplished several of them this year. One of them was getting the space hunt. Check that box. One of them was... Those guys are cool. Very cool. If you guys, if anyone out there is thinking about buying a space hunt, reach out. Or if you're thinking about just... Or if you just want to go play one. Or you want something different. Like you have a row of sterns, or you've had this, or you've had that, or you've had whatever, and you want something that's different. I just want to try and support these Space Hunt guys. They're really itching to sell a game. They are very excited. I'm saying that in a very positive way. Well, didn't they do a Louis Vuitton or something? Yeah, I did want to talk about that. So they've done some... Is that retailing for over $100,000? Is that what I saw? So some re-themes of Space Hunt. So Space Hunt is the original game. Yeah, that's exactly what this is. So if you want that $100,000 game, we can get it to you for a deal. It's going to look a little different. But they did a Louis Vuitton version of it, and then there was also a Renault. They just spray-painted that pattern over top the whole play field. The European car manufacturer, they did a version of it for Renault. So, I mean, there's all kinds of just craziness going on. Do you think they would get us one of those ones? Oh, I bet we could get one of those. Not the Louis Vuitton ones, probably not. No, that's fine. I'm going to get a Renault Space Hut. but that was one of the goals and we not only accomplished getting one but made some great friends yeah and we actually sold a few and I think we're going to go to France one of these days they really want us to go and I really I mean I'm not opposed it would be really cool to go for the European Championships and be able to do it all maybe that's a 2026 thing could be okay so we did that I know Cactus Jack was on your list That was so November of 2024. An arcade friend of mine was like, hey, we picked up a bunch of arcade games. Did he ever set this up or anything? I don't even remember. Never. Like, literally, like, how we got it is how he got it. Yeah. So he had picked up all these arcade games and like, oh, I got this pinball machine. And he sent me a picture. I'm like, zoom, pinch, zoom, pinch. It's Yeller. Is that Cactus Jacks? He's like, oh, yeah, it is. I'm like, dude, what do you want for that? Yeah. He's like, well, let me talk to my buddy. we split this haul and uh give you a number so he comes back he's like twelve hundred dollars i'm like done like i'll take it right now like whatever we'll send a label whatever yeah we'll send you shipping we'll do whatever just like throw it on a pallet i can get it picked up if you need to he's like oh no no i'll take it to the depot and and get it shipped out to you like fantastic so i'm one of these people who i put reminders in my calendar so december hey tim what's going on man oh you know kind of busy with the holidays couldn't get to it january february March, April, May, June, July, August, December of 2025. And he's like, all right, dude, got some time, got it on the pallet, and I'm ready to go. I'm like, what? Send some money. Oh, shit, I forgot about it. I'm like, Corbin, what's happening? Send the PayPal.
    38:10
    Get the label. Yeah. And then the game gets here. Corbin picks it up, brings it over to Zach's. We played it. We played it in our holiday. Throw some legs on it. We threw it on a plunger. Put a plunger in it, dropped two balls in it, fired it up, and we played some games on it. Yeah. For our We used to do like A bi-monthly I want to get back to that We should Yeah we should get back to that Let's do it again We used to do like a bi-monthly Like knockout It just like If you got four or five games We'll come play a game to your house Bring a buffet Right Everybody brings food Everybody brings a potluck or whatever Yeah So we played our holiday one We did And Tank won Got the big silver ball Give us a how And The creepy did it sound very victorian where are we gonna play next that's the question i think the cooks were volunteering yeah so uh massive shout out we gotta give them a big thank you massive so massive yeah yeah we had so the pizza we had pizza and uh some beers the beer the beer we're drinking right now the water oh jeff there is a water in the fridge there still for you yeah the sound of that i was putting shit away and then the core like dude i'm gonna put this in the beer fridge and Jeff can feel it. I knew it would be safe. I knew if I left a water here, it would be safe. Either way, big shout out. They hooked us up. We appreciate the cooks. You guys are awesome. Love you. A couple bucks for some pizza. Beer selection was great. It was. I think they need to host the next one. I know Jared just picked up a Williams Sorcerer. Send me a picture of that.
    39:40
    His whole lineup is I'm always just like, ooh, Congo. Okay, TNA, original, awesome. he just sold something too he sold his checkpoint a while ago he's done a lot of games he does, he'd gotten an Alien Ripley from us at one point, Evil Dead CE I'm glad he didn't end up selling that he was talking about selling that at one point I have a hard time blaming people who would at this point just to come out ahead for $18,000 even if it's $15,000 you're killing it I know I sell games from time to time professionally do you? professionally. I have from time to time. Not games that you own. No, boxed up. Fuck no. Nothing we own. Fuck no. So we've probably talked bits and pieces of Cactus Jacks before on the podcast. I have a connection with it because, A, it's Gottlieb, it's John Norris involvement. I'd sought one out forever, finally found one at Pinball Hall of Fame and got to play it and it was one of my favorite games that I played there. And I come back from Las Vegas and I'm giddy and I'm telling Corbin about it and then Corbin's like, well, I also have a story. I do. game i do have a love for it as well um i'll jump into that story and so we first time i went snowboarding we were down to snowshoe in west virginia and um first day we went out and like the first day by like noon one o'clock i was literally so beat right you fall so much and you have to get back up and you run into shit and your body is just destroyed every time we go for like lunch yourself back up and um i was laying on the floor go get you a couple bravery beers Dude, I was like, I'm just going to lay here, guys. They went back out. And so they went back out, and I went down to the basement of the place because I had saw on Pinball Map that there was a, this was probably, this was pre-COVID, this was a long time ago. But anyway, it was, I go down to the basement, and there's a Cactus Jack down there. And, man, I just played that thing all weekend when we were there. Like, we all went down there then, you know, once we, they all got back. Was it on 50 cents? Oh, yeah, it was 50 cents. For sure. And the replay was super low, so we were lighting it up. It was three quarters working I mean it's a West Virginia Snowshoe Basement of a ski lodge Right But it was I remember playing it And thinking This is a fucking cool game And I'm sure I have a confession That I kind of I'm getting into Gottliebs a little bit Okay Dude they're cool That's where I wanted to get with this I've been communicating With Dave Sousa about it A little bit I know he would support My problem but So I mean between this one We brought in Don's Wipeout a while ago I'm going to keep that I know Nate and Mikey Wanted to buy it but I'm going to keep I'll loan it to him but I'm putting their stickers on the back glass and then we got to put some time on Stargate when we were at Cincinnati so I feel like it's been a real Gottlieb time it's always random at ski resorts too what about Micah's Spirit how cool is that thing man it is dude it's so cool and the cool part about being the test I was down there the other night I set my beer right on it is that you that had the test packet of like hey this operator fill out these forms and let us know how it performs it had i saw the key chain very very cool very cool oh i played it have you seen the packet just the pictures oh yeah i want to get we're down there detailed pictures of it because people online would think that that's super fascinating i just wish john trudeau wasn't a freaking pedophile because man like his designs are insane stories for not on the podcast yes uh but yeah so at finney's arcade and parlor in downtown canton one of the owners had picked up a gotley that's a dimension 80 right i mean that's correct big saucy babies it's same as black hole in uh haunted mansion yeah and it's the same house and it's the same James Bond that we'd had in for the Bond collection. How would I get one of those if we came across it? Yeah, so... It's kind of cool. I will tell you that Spirit, though... Oh, I would pay $1,200 for that. ...buttery smooth, played like it was brand new. Oh, that's such a cool layout, too. Oh, God. So fun. The sound in that one's turned up, and you can hear a lot of the sound boards in those go out. It just worked perfectly. It makes it feel like the heartbeat makes it feel like the game is alive, and you're getting pulled into it. Well, man, as the stars in the back glass are spinning.
    44:09
    Yeah, so that one's been cool. Wipeout has been pretty cool. It has some cool shots on it. It has the music. I don't know. They're interesting games. They are. They're the Cadillac of the pinball, man. Wipeout is about to be used in the Ohio State IFBA Championships. So let's talk about that a little bit. They are borrowing four of our games. So they needed some What was it mid games They called them mid so they were saying system 11 Through like DMD era Oh right quick though on the Oh look at your butt Ski Resort's having random ass games A buddy of mine he's probably in his Late 60s early 70s now He worked at Alta Lodge Okay In Utah When he was in his 20s 30s Yeah and uh you know what one game they had so what time would this have been this would have been like early 80s probably okay no solid state solid state like uh flash gordon no it was the fucking hank and star wars what the hell yeah because like when i started getting into pinball and stuff he's like well what about this game what about that game he's like he's like this game exists and i'm like i don't know what you're talking about yeah and like it took me like touch up and be like, holy shit, no, you saw a weird fucking oddball game that shouldn't have been at a random ski resort.
    45:34
    Just have to wonder sometimes the stories that these games could tell. Somebody got a deal on it and was like, I'm just taking that piece of shit over to the ski resort.
    45:43
    It's probably still there. Probably, dude. I wondered. Before we got this cactus jack, I was thinking, I'm like, I wonder if that one's still over there. I should go see if I can get it. Right. So the Ohio State IFPA Pinball Championships are Friday, January 16th, 17th, and I believe maybe also the 18th. And then we were asked to bring, what, Corbin Taxi? I'm going to drop those off next week. Yeah, dude, we're not far off. Taxi, does it need coin shoots? Yeah. All right, it has no coin shoots. Oh, yeah. Taxi. Taxi, Scared Stiff, Wipeout, and Creature. That's pretty baller right there. That's cool. It's a nice little quartet of games. Oh, no, I heard that Scared Stiff's a piece of shit. Yeah, Kyle. Do you think they have a problem with the whole trap door thing? I didn't even think about that until Zach said something. I was just underneath the villain flippers and I saw it all as it tied up and unplugged. I'd never change it from the way you had it. I don't think they will. It's a little too late for that. I'm not messing with it. Play's the same for everybody. Play's the same for everyone.
    46:45
    I'd even thought about it until he said something. It would work I think in theory if we hooked it all back up What was the main problem You had it unhooked for a reason didn you I thought I remember it smoothing something Is there a rotten dog in it No. I think the original's back in it.
    47:04
    I'm not messing with it right now. I wouldn't. It plays pretty good right now. It plays. You can finish rebuilding the flippers, fix a couple other little things, and send it the way it is. You get that multi-ball a little bit easier. I think that's the only one. It just goes in the crate Instead of bouncing off of it Correct But it doesn't count It will shoot it right back out Because it just thinks you go It still does it the same amount of times Yeah Right Yeah It's fine It's custom So that'll be a good time We're going to have those games there That will be It's super cool that Mike It's at Mike's place Which is amazing Because he'd only started up Seriously with the lodge Basically about two years ago So to get recognized I feel like I haven't seen him In a long time I definitely have not seen him In a long time Between doing the Finney's thing in the fall and then other stuff he hasn't been doing his regular league over there because they've been so busy with other stuff at the lodge good times so that's funny because I invited Corbin like a bazillion times and he's like maybe we'll see but that's definitely a cool venue I think they've definitely by doing the sweeper city the last couple years demonstrated to the powers that be. Put them on the map. That they could take on this. They can hang. They can. Because in my time that I'm aware of, they've had it at what's Pinball Planet now, but used to be, what was the bowling alley? Southland. They had it down at Arcade Legacy, and then this year it's going to be at the Lodge. So, pretty cool stuff there.
    48:42
    What else do we got here? so moving pinball machines and arcade games um i've done it a lot with corbin corbin and zach have moved stuff together obviously a whole lot kyle and i have moved things together a whole lot and then a friend of a mutual friend of ours needed a hand moving two pinball machines and a couple arcade games so kyle's like hey you know jeff can you bring out the truck and the trailer I'm like, yeah, no problem. Let's bang this out. So we get out there. Because if I use my van, it's one thing at a time. It would be all day. Yeah, all day long. Truck in the trailer. It's one load. Bing, bang, boom. In and out. The stair climber action going on. Right. So it's two pinball machines. It's a solar fire and something else. Firepower? Might have been a fire. Yes, a firepower. Lots of fire. Yeah. Not difficult games to move. No. So I'm like, okay, let's divide and conquer. you two break down the pinball machines i'll start getting these arcade games out of here i've got the escalera like let's get this done i get the first arcade game out they get the pinball machine broken down and i'm back down with the escalera and it's like okay let's pull this pinball machine out so attach it to the escalera get it up to the top of the stairs and it's about an inch too wide to fit through the door did you see you asked him he was like oh yeah we did have to take it So I look at the guy and I'm like, hey, how did you get these down? He's like, well, we took them apart. I'm like, okay, back down the stairs we go. Great information. They take the head off of the game. I fucking hate taking it.
    50:17
    I move out. Just cut the wires. Oh, yeah. Just full. The next arcade game out, come back, and now one of them carries the head out. I throw the body of the game onto the escalera, take it out. By the time I get back down there again, the next pinball machine is ready to go. Like, we're killing it at this point. I mean, luckily, they're like whatever those early Williams. So it's like they have plugs, and then there's like one cable that goes all the way up somewhere. I just reached my fucking arm in there. Undid it to the ground. Yeah. Get the last pinball machine out of there. Get it loaded up, and now the last arcade game is a centipede. Tall MFers, heavy MFers. It has the CRT monitor in it. all of that. Does it work? I think it played blind. I think it needed monitor work. So Kyle's out smoking a cigarette and so it's me and the other gentleman. And with an Escalera, if you've not used one before, it's easier but it's balanced and it can be a little awkward. But the dolly itself does most of the work. It's a powered dolly that lifts it up at each step motorized. So all you need is, if you want, you can have someone underneath of it just as an extra set of hands just to kind of steady it and make sure that it's not going anywhere but as all of us around this table know when you're working with somebody who's not used to moving things you're using this equipment they don't always know what to do and what not to do so the entire time he's pushing up and down on the game which is right which is then making me have to try to then lift the dolly up to keep the balance and it's like i'm not the strongest guy in the world and this game is heavy af and it's like killing me and i'm lifting as hard as i can we get to the top of the stairs and there's a wall right there and kyle walks in from smoking a cigarette and i'm like pinned against the refrigerator and the wall and he's just shaking his head and he comes over saves the day gets it off the top of the stairs we get out we get it outside we're having to go through a little bit of grass finally get it onto the tail of the trailer and the person who was helping then gave it a nice other hefty push and pushed the game directly on top of me. And I'm laying there, and I'm looking up underneath a centipede going like, they're going to pick this up off of me. They're going to pick this up off of me. And I'm looking at the other guy, and he's just looking at me. I'm like, can I get a hand? And they come over and lift it off of me, and it's like, oh, well. They don't even know. That's why I don't move arcade games. I knew that centipede was going to be the worst I should have done it first get it out of the way real quick before I forget I want to give Phil a big shout out for Pinsonati he was great to have with us he'll knock it out I just wanted to mention it great to hang great to the assist I love Pinsonati I came in when I wanted to oh my god they're still fucking under I'm glad you survived Dude, that dance party.
    53:25
    Yeah. But, yeah, so if you're out there and you're helping somebody move things and you've not, you know, done it before, ask questions because sometimes you can be doing more harm than good with some of that stuff.
    53:42
    But then Corbin and I were delivering those three games out to Jason's. It was about, I don't know, six inches of snow, through the yard, truck and trail took the classic into this guy's yard and it's dirt straw and then snow on top he told me the ground was frozen and I felt better about being in the classic than the other one so Corbin does a nice loop de loop to kind of get us close to the patio it wasn't too bad the first one we pulled in so we hand carried two that were already on legs. We did one that I shoveled. I think after the first, I cleared it a little bit with a shovel, which definitely helped. So I think it was the one that was on the dolly. These were the three games we were talking about, the Elvira and the Walking Dead and Metallica. So the Walking Dead in the box, that was the one you went down on because it was super awkward because you're walking across the straw snow where you're really stepping in, and then I think Corbin thought he was stepping onto the patio It was one step short and just like same as me with the centipede, but I didn't leave him there to die. Like I actually lifted the game off of him. Yeah, it was fine. It went down in slow motion. Yeah. That wasn't too bad. That wasn't, honestly, that was a win for that day because I was like, we didn't get stuck. Dude, I thought we were getting stuck. We just slipped him in. I mean, it was cool. I got a really cool piano too. That was not too bad of a delivery. Talk about that piano a little bit because I know, I'm not necessarily sure people listening are going to care that much, but I found it fascinating. Okay. There's two things about it that were very cool. One, it had family history to him. It was his grandfather's house. They were auctioning off everything. He ended up buying it at the auction, which I don't know the details. So you moved it there for him? No, I didn't. We didn't move it. It was already there. We had to move it. Where it was was where he wanted to put the pinballs in the house, and so we then took the cardboard and helped slide it across the floor to a different section of it. So he'd gotten it at auction. It was his grandfather's. It was from, I think, was it from New Orleans, or did we just say it was like a New Orleans vibe? I think we had that vibe. Okay. And so he got it. It was originally a player's piano. And then he got this kit that somebody came and installed it, if I understand correctly. And it made it all these neon blacklight colors. So the whole top above, so you had the keys. Then you had the back. And it was a tall back. And it was open. A player's piano. It was a player's piano, yeah. So you could see it. But all of that then was painted all these crazy colors. And the woodwork on it was all done up in this blacklight reflective stuff. And it all had blacklights that were integrated into it so it all glowed. So one side was very cool because of that. The second side was trippy as fuck. It was probably very 60s of something that they would have retrofitted then. It was some kind of kit that they had found for it. It was a very cool piano, though. But we moved that to put it where the games were going. So then he also had the seasonal depression room. He did. It was under construction still, but, man, it was wild. Unbelievable. It was, I don't know, 10 by 10? 12 by 12? Is that where the fucking game room is? It was in the basement. a seasonal depression yeah yeah that's what i thought it was this one was an immersion type room bedroom yeah like so i would say i don't know if anybody can see this but i would say it's about half the size of this room so um we're in like a 10 by 14 right yeah well i would say it was like a 10 by 10 okay 10 by 10 it's bigger yeah so it wasn't this big but a little bit smaller so and it was he's he's been paying a local artist for over a year around a year over year and Micah said he had seen it too and he's been in there.
    57:14
    The paper mache trees were coming out of the walls. I mean the walls, the ceilings, everything was this huge mural and it was rivers and trees and the birds. Yeah, it was like a rainforest cafe but like way in your basement. It sounds like he just needs a cactus jacks. And I think the idea was as you go in and you play some music or some nature sounds and the light and the whatever else. You have Kyle make noises Kyle hides in there He's dressed up like a bird It was wild Take the dogs in the corner Take a piss Not again Every single time Can't even have your damn dog Can't take him nowhere But you literally never know what you're going to see Whenever you go on a pinball delivery So speaking of pinball deliveries Let's have a little bit of trailer talk With Corbin and Zach Angeli Zach wasn't with me the first time I saw it as Zach though That has been since We haven't talked about when that hub blew apart Nope Oh my god So normally let me paint a little bit of a picture here So leading up to this normally Corbin and I were going on a lot of Deliveries here there and everywhere And then a lot of times when I wasn't available Zach would step in or Paul Or whoever was available Well now I've been doing less and less and less and Zach and Paul have been doing some family time. Right, have been doing. Leaving me for the fun stuff. A lot more of the heavy lifting with all that. So Corbin was like, hey, it was you and your dad the first time you went down and you were delivering. It was pretty straightforward. We were down, what is that wheeling? Not wheeling. Charleston, right? Charleston? Yeah. It's like three, three and a half south. Oh, yeah, Charleston, yes. We were just down in Charleston, then you go west for like 20 minutes. So we were delivering a Star Wars Fall of the Empire LE And a Jurassic Park Premium Yep So we get the games delivered We get down there, we get it knocked out We were down there by like 11, 11.30 We get a good early start, get it knocked out The LE, the Star Wars Had some stuff So either way We got everything going And going to the point we could We're like cool, we're getting out of here We get sheets, get some gas We're not even, we're on mile marker 116 on 77 north that's when you know things that went wrong you know the mile marker i know exactly where the hell i was um so we're like it's not even 10 miles north of uh char of whatever town charleston yep charleston and um the we hear a noise look in the mirror and it's like one of those things the classic corbin checks the side mirror and sees what you see the trailer tire just flying through the air and it's just one of those things where you're like i i don't even know how to describe sometimes like you just got my eye sometimes i just it's just jesus take the wheel just another day in life that's my like i just sometimes just go with that because i don't know what else to say so i see the we see that tire flying through the air whatever and it's like shit we should probably pull over and because in the trailer like just in case you don't know there's a single actual trailer um it actually bounces for a pretty long time on one wheel until you make sudden movements. So it dropped down. Then as we pulled off to the side of the road, obviously, and you're like, shit, all right, we better figure out what's going on. We get out, blew the hub apart. Just stay in the throttle the whole way back to Ohio. Yeah. We should have torched it at that moment. But anyway. So this is the same trailer that Corbin and I had taken to Western Ohio. Other side, though, other side. To where we had bent a rim and flattened a tire, changed the tire, put the spare tire on that one was dry rotted blue and blew off the fender that was back in xmanelli days correct yeah and then we lost the trailer that's how i dredged time down but what game i was delivering we we lost the trailer for a short period of time while we were going to tractor supply to get another spare tire back into some farm so so same one so this is the rat rod that's running open wheel yeah well on one side um oddly enough though that side wheel well when the tire blew off. I had actually previously when I re-skinned the floor and reattached that fender that time, I carriage bolted it to the frame. It stayed on. It didn't blow off. The tire in the hub blew off. Wheel well stayed on. Anyway, so tire hub's gone.
    61:40
    Which, if you don't know about what that means, it means you're fucked. You can't just put a new tire on. You have to literally get bearings, the whole shebangabank. The thing the tire bolts to is now also missing. It attached to the tire somewhere in a creek. and I have a picture of the creek because I was wandering around looking for it. Anyway, so we're like, well. Just get the drop back of the episode. We're like, we've got to figure out what we're going to do here because we're still three hours south of Canton. We have this trailer. So during this time, I'm not with Corbin. No, you're not. You'd be down there. I'm just down there with my dad, and we're just. And we're three-way text messaging with another customer. I was thinking, I'm like, I don't think Jeff would be finding this very amusing right now. I was thinking about how you would feel at that time. Because I had some time to reflect. You did. And I'm texting with this other customer that Corbin's in the thread. He's in his underwear lounge. I was, in the nice, warm. Was it a Sunday? Were you in your laundry? No, it was a weekday.
    62:36
    And it was a day before that big snow day. I was getting calls at NAB like, we blew the wheel off. I'm like, three hours away. And the next day it was supposed to be like crazy snow was coming in. So everyone, like all these salt trucks coming around. Yeah, and the customer's like, hey, are you in town? Can I meet you to paint? I'm like, dude, I'll work down the side of the road in West Virginia. And you're like, I don't know when I'm going to be back. And I felt like such a piece of shit because I'm just like hanging out at home.
    62:59
    In the flannels. Oh, my God. He had nothing on. He sent me a picture. So, we try to figure out how we're going to get this trailer off the side of the road. So, I find a local trailer shop. And I'm like, hey, if I can get the trailer to you, will you look at it? You know, figuring out, just leave it there. I got to come back down to this customer in a week. Like, you fix it in that time. Whatever. Cool. And so, we have AAA. So, I'm like, I'll call AAA. We have the plus package. It's bullshit. because you call them and they're like, do you have the RV package? I'm like, no, no. Well, we can't help you unless you get the RV package. We can upgrade you right now. I'm like, okay, but it won't take effect for a week.
    63:31
    So I just want to say right now, fuck you, AAA. We've been fucking members for a long time. 100-mile tow package and bullshit. I just need you to tow two and a half miles to a trailer shop. But anyway, so we scrapped that idea. Some local stops and was like, you need a tire? I got a tire. And we're like, we don't need the tire. I've had to use my aunt's AAA card before. member since 1960. Jesus.
    63:55
    She's got the old shit. She fucking flexes, dude. They put a fucking engine in your car on the side of the road, dude. They would for her at that point.
    64:04
    So, the local suggested some tow company, local whatever record, and I'm like, alright, cool, so we call them. She's kind of whatever about it, and she's like, yeah, he's finishing right now, but who gets you next? It'll be like an hour, hour and a half. And it's like, well, what the fuck ever. I mean, what are we going to do? you know and so we wait and it's an hour and she calls a little after the hour mark she calls back what was your name like all right and tell her and she's like what's in the trailer like it's literally like two empty cardboard boxes a pallet or two like i can take that out if it's an issue like whatever we need to make this happen all right all right i'll see what we can do it's probably gonna be me some time so another half an hour goes by and so i'm like it's getting close This all started at like 1231 is when the blowout, when the whole thing started. And the trailer place is only open until 5. And they were like, we locked the gates at 5. There's nowhere you can drop it after hours. And so it's going on like 3.30, 4 o'clock. And I'm like, if she doesn't get here soon. We're missing this window. Right. And so I call her and she's like, well, I don't know when we're going to be. I was like, fucking cancel it. So we just leave it. Because I'm like, I'm tired of this shit right now. So we lock it up. We drag it a little further off the road. And if I know Corbin, he's found a scrap of a carbon copy piece of paper in the truck. I cut a piece of the box off. And a red crayon. It was a marker. And has written some madman note on it. I left my number and said, I'm figuring this out. Be back later. And just shoved it in between the box. And so we rolled. Because I'm like, I'm not. You won't believe the phone calls that he got after that of all of the truck drivers rolling by. Pictures, dude. Pictures. Mostly pictures. So the next day I end up. At least you got the deliveries done first. We did. And that's the positive, right? It wasn't raining. I wandered around, found the tire. We found the tire. It was a nature walk. Had a little walkabout.
    65:51
    I'm not sure of any other positives, but, you know, it was cool. So the trailer's left behind. We leave it. I just, we had to. Because there's no, and so the next morning I get, and so I even call Ben, Ben Sigler, and I'm like, dude, do you have a trailer big enough to put this on? And the trick was. Because it's too wide. It is. So what I learned was you have to get a deck over, and it would be sketchy as fuck. So you have to get a deck over. Most deck over is the height of the deck over to get it onto the deck over with no tire on it. It was like, it was whatever. And so I figured out trying to rent one, and I had a trailer that would be wide enough. I thought we could figure out a way to get it on, but it would be real sketchy. So I ended up finding a local tow company that also had a trailer repair. They had an auto repair shop. North, oh, was it Charleston Auto Repair? Huge shout out to these guys. It was the same exit you broke down at. It was literally the exit we got on from them was the exit that we got on from. That's where we broke down. We were broke down right on the side of. But called them. They went and picked it up. I was like, can you take it to this trailer shop? I'm like, we could look at it. I'm like, oh, fuck yeah, do that. Sweet. So they look at it, and they were like, it's going to be $2,200 to replace the axle. And I was like, yeah. So we all decided we were going to let that trailer die. Like a $4,500 new trailer. Yeah, with dual axles and seven foot interior. Well, it's going to be a little more than that with the nice stuff. But, yeah. So we just decided to – we went down. Zach and I went down. We let it die. We stripped our E-Tracks out. We stripped everything out of it. Just got the plate.
    67:17
    I don't know. Whatever else we're taking. Ratchets and shit. Our cone. Kyle, do you have taps on one of the hot keys? Yeah. Can we have a moment for it, though? Amazing grace. I mean, it's better. I do want to say cheers to that trailer because... It went to Colorado and back. Oh, man. We originally got that trailer in a $1,500 route buyout deal. So I just want to say it had a good run. It did. Poor one out for the rat rod. It died in West Virginia. Wild one. I'd like to think they weren't very clear what they were doing with it when I signed the title over. I kind of think they got plans for it. I think somebody moved their mother-in-law into it. Probably. He probably threw an axle they had laying there. I did wonder why there were little yard lights out around it.
    68:08
    I'm happy for it. It's funny. They're one of those little yard guys holding the lantern. I bought a few cars out of West Virginia and you don't even have to sign a title. You just hand it to them. At least it used to be like that. I didn't sign anything. I just handed it to them and signed over the receipt. Basically, I traded them the tow bill for the title. I called it a day. legally I guess and they ripped out the old axle yeah because they had already done work to it and stuff so I was like I appreciated it should have called them to begin with because they would have gotten us taken care of right away yeah you would have been on the road by two easily so there's the trailer talk for you guys that was the trailer adventure so what's the lesson maintenance is the lesson that's your department yeah but I never get a chance to maintenance until you never leave it out there.
    68:59
    I think the lesson here is that everything has a lifespan, and once something has eclipsed that lifespan... I learned that I'm going to just run until the wheels fall off, do a little more, and then let it die, maybe. But I'm excited about the new trailer. You should be. I mean... I've been talking to Stefan. Stefan and I have been thinking a little bit.
    69:21
    Oh, I'm just excited. One of the things I'm most excited for is to get a trailer that i just don't have to fuck with yep like we're just i'm gonna set it up working lights yeah all the lights the light situation i hate having to drive these trailers around to wonder like what are the brake lights working right now so corbin's been using my little stealth um not even it's barely six feet smack your head on when you're walking right interior height because the door itself is a little bit shorter than the rest of it so every time you walk in and out you have to say to yourself i yell every time anybody else duck duck down unless it's kyle he doesn't have to ducky's fine but single axle it works i mean it works it's getting the job done but it's not exactly ideal no i miss our e-track oh e-track yeah like that thing is not set up as nicely as what you're going to do next so so yeah stefan had one stefan had one that has like the whole bang i mean uh seven foot uh door and everything the uh they they did double e which are kind of like I don know know like no that smart i i think yeah you can high and low exactly kind of pinch stuff in or whatever especially for all the different stuff you're moving from ski ball to pool tables to arcade the lower the lower side would be good motorcycles then he also had in the front which i liked uh he had like two a row up up high on each side with like baskets then to hold stuff oh and then also the spare tire was mounted in the on the inside like um the milwaukee lights milwaukee battery and he said pete wired that in that um you just basically you you ran and it was like fancy you had like a little re-estate to dim it and stuff like i guess for mood lights i don't know what they do when you were describing this trailer it was reminding me of the one that we saw out at um pember the one year yeah we talked to that guy and he said it wasn't that much so i think they said this one was only like not only but it was like 9 000 which was like it's a lot but not insane which i know pete did the lighting so i wonder what i because i thought the guy that we talked to at pinbrew said seven yeah and that thing was laid out yeah it was sick yeah and it had it was real at the height and it even had like the overhang yeah so did pete's pizza has that little overhang on the back and it had like the the built-in um like transition piece for the up the door and the end of the inside. So you don't have to forget to do it until you have a game.
    71:42
    Yeah, I don't know. We're living that. We might be living that good life here soon with these trailers for a little while. So that's Trailer Talk 2025.
    71:51
    It comes to a wrap. It's a full circle for that trailer. It really is. I think, honestly, a wild and wonderful death is the death it would have wanted. I think that's the way it would have wanted to go. I think you literally put it out the pasture. I feel very good about it. It's only got a couple hundred thousand miles on it. Dude, who knows? Like Zach said, we rolled up, like we moved Nate and Mikey out to Colorado one time, and we've multiple sets of tires on it. Like it brings a tear to my eye. It's like that dog that one day just wanders out into the woods and you never see him again. They just know when their time has come. And that trailer was like, you know what? This is the spot. This is it. Mile marker 116, baby. I'm done. As soon as you knew the mile marker I'm like this is not good Because I mean that means you've been sitting there for hours Staring at it I'm going to take the other tire back With the hub And I'm going to hang it there The guy got a Harry Potter wizard You need to take the bent rim With the shredded tire That's the real shrine to it It's sitting every time I see it I have the fender too We could build a pretty interesting shrine So the final little thing That I had for this episode Not saying that you guys don't have more But I wanted to talk a little bit about this End of the year Stern accessory bonanza And then Which has been Wild Close of the year Jaws 50th topper All the Star Wars accessories King Kong accessories Walking Dead remastered accessories And on top of all that the electric playgrounds dual deck topper for the star wars life things expire in 2025 so you know you gotta get them out man that was the explanation of the jaws one but it's like man it was just i don't know so what's the takeaway from all these like we release a lot which i thought was crazy i hope it puts them on i guess one one thought i had is i hope it puts them on a trajectory as far as like they release these games and with within a like four to six weeks yeah two months like they They release the accessories. I think that'd be cool. I think by the time the games are out, they start getting the hands, then they release the accessories. That doesn't seem like a bad time frame. I thought the Jaws 50th was an interesting one just because of the format when she did it, which felt almost to me like they were – I might be reading too much into it, but it felt almost very like more of the boutique style as far as like we're announcing it, you have like two weeks to order it, they were cutting off the orders, and we're making that many, and that's it. which I just thought was very much different from their normal model. It is. Which is probably good.
    74:32
    Good for what? Good for who? It's good for Stern in the sense of – There's no extra cost. They're going to make as many as they need and that's it. Right. They're all sold. And it's going to put the onus on you to say, well, I only have five orders in, but I know more people are going to want them, so I'm going to order 10 because I want to have them as people ask for them. Yeah. I guess I just don't do you think how do I want to say this do you think like they're seeing some of these like the Winchester House or the Bealdry's or these different things that are selling out immediately and they're trying to think like how can we limited number type deal or was it a licensing I think this was more I think this Jaws 50th situation was more of a licensing situation than anything else I don't think it was some premeditated this is how we can sell more units I think it was we have to get it has to be out and announced and all of that by this date in order to make the 50th and we're not making any more after that because then we're past the same as Godzilla 70th and everything else but I think it does set up a strange precedence of hey we're taking the money now and you're going to have it in three months and it was very similar to how Barrels of Fun did the Dune Topper where it's, hey, money now or a huge half, what, it's $1,600 deposit, $800 up front. I'm not clear on it. I'm honestly still not clear on it. And it's coming in this summer? And they've never even actually shown it. Right, the picture that they had out there was concept art. Yeah, it was a breakdown of what they would like it to look like. And we sold a bunch! We did. I ordered some extras. So it's one of those things. I wasn't sure. Were they cutting that off too or was it just Dune that they were cutting off. So it was just Dune for now, but it's one of those things where it's all based on demand. Yeah.
    76:27
    So they did the topper, they did the alternate back glass, the shooter rod accessory kit, and then the games. I know you said you ordered a couple extras. We've already had at least one person inquiring, so it's one of those things where I think, you know, they're ready to move on to building the mystery houses and then announcing the next thing. I think people are ready for them to build. I'm ready. I want that mystery house. Right, that was a lot of fun. One game I got to play. I could have swore when they announced it. They said they were going to ship right after. Maybe I dreamed that. I know the new thing with Mystery House now is they want to have them all built and shipped, I thought they said by the end of May? I thought they said that was the plan. Yeah, and Dutch is going to have Alice in Wonderland out by the end of the year, right? Oh, last year, shit. Money back guarantee. Oh, they meant 2026. People are requesting them. Refunds? Yeah, because you could. Starting January 1st, you could. Except. I'm not going to start on this, but yeah, you could. The topper situation with that, I know. Oh, that too is also frustrating. Which we've discussed before, so I don't think we've talked about this before. And the tariff thing too. There's a lot of aspects to this. So when the games came in from overseas, the first batch or the first batches of Alice in Wonderland from Dutch, they didn't have the toppers done yet. No big deal, whatever. We'll ship the toppers later. It might have even been like one batch did and then one didn't. Okay. But either way. But there were some games. There was a window where the game shipped without the toppers. So the game comes across. You pay the tariff on the game for full retail price. Which included the topper originally. The price. Now you have the game but no topper. Well, six months later, now the topper's ready and it gets shipped across. You don't have to pay money for the topper, but you still have to pay tariffs on the topper. And shipping. And the shipping based on the value of the topper. Yeah. How does that make any sense? It does not. I paid for tariffs on the game that should have included the top, or why am I double paying tariffs? So that's one of them. The second thing is they're talking about reversing these tariffs now. So then it raises the question for all these people, like I paid for my house. I paid for it beginning of last month, like last month, end of November, something like that. If they reverse the tariffs before the game even gets over here, am I supposed to then, like, I'm not saying. It's very fun, right? Well, that's the question. People are raising the question of Then if they're not paying the tariff If the game's getting imported after it's reversed Cointaker As the master distributor Is not paying the tariff But I've already been charged a tariff Then do I get my tariff back?
    79:01
    Or what happens then to all these other people And then other people are all fired up Why did I have to pay a tariff I'm not mad about that I'm fine with at the time I could have said bump me to the end Maybe the tariff will end Right. And we had that with a customer in Canada when they were ordering their evil debt. Well, there could be a window here in 30 days whenever there's an opening to where I don't have to pay tariffs. So let's just wait. And we accommodated that. So I don't see how that would. I don't think he ended up waiting. I think he just ended up being like, I want the game. Yeah. But at least there was the option. Absolutely. Yes. And that's so I just don't know. It's just a very that's that's one of the like we were saying earlier with pinball brothers and these different companies. He's like, it's just, that's the challenge for some of these overseas ones right now is just, like, getting them over here. Right. The tariff situation is very unstable. Shouldn't Jeff be, like, in the Netherlands by now, like, when he left Japan? Yeah. Dude, I watched the funniest, we, Ann and I watched the other day, or we were watching, we were just looking for something to watch, and it was this show called, like, Going Dutch or something, and it was about this police, it was on Fox, it's on Hulu, They're removing it very soon. And it was about this army guy who gets put to the base in the Netherlands. It's really stupid. Anyway.
    80:16
    Interesting, interesting, interesting. Anyway, back to the whole. But the whole tariff thing is just wild because we have a few Canadian friends, pinball people, and there's one guy in Vancouver. He comes down to Washington State pretty regularly to buy used games. And he said it's about 50-50 when he crosses the border of sometimes they'll stop him for paperwork and he has to pay some VAT or some something on it. What kind of situation, I wonder, does he, like, what's it in? Like, is it in the back of his car? Correct. So it's in just an SUV? Yeah. Yeah, and he said it's literally about 50-50, and he said he's kind of learned at this point that if he goes through what he perceives as the shift change, that person doesn't want to have to deal with the paperwork, so they just wave them through. Yeah, I can see that. Which is a significant couple hundred dollar savings. No, absolutely. And, I mean, I know, like, whenever we used to do a lot of festivals and different things, it's like, if you were looking to get through certain lines faster with whatever, like you could tell which lines were the people who didn't care versus the people who were being a little more, more strict, pickier or whatever about it. So yeah, just like we pick the easy pass lanes. Exactly. Yeah. For life. It's all very interesting. Yeah. Interesting.
    81:22
    But those have definitely been some of the challenges, you know, as customers, as distributors with all the, with all of the international stuff. I do want, I don't know. I do wish, I do hope this house comes soon. I was ready for it Whenever she invoiced me for it I got really excited about it When we talked to her about it Oh my god that was like months before I feel like if we could have gotten her a BJ Then we probably would have I'll be honest though I didn't really feel the need to share one with her She doesn't really hook us up So she still owes me a topper A topper Give me the topper Alright so I have a 2025 question I'm going to throw in here what was the favorite game you guys played in 2025 doesn't have to be new doesn't have to be you know it can be whatever didn't have to be released it could just be the first time you played a game this year and you were like this game is fucking awesome I'll start I have three wow okay and I don't know that necessarily I played them for the first time in 2025 but you had an experience with them Challenger yeah okay I can get on that yeah Challenger sweet Rotation 8 and Cactus Jacks for me like those three Haggis Fathom ooh did we get that this year we did that game yeah that's a good one I can agree with that because that was very fucking cool I was trying to think I know I had a couple games in here that I just played the shit out of just the details on that game I'm just trying Battle Mermaids man that's all I want to do I'm going to agree with you Rotation 8 for me this year has been I mean I know we have had a very, like, we've always enjoyed it, but, like, this has been the year of us, like, getting to interact with it with the people. Yeah. And I've really enjoyed it. Sharing it at PGX, sharing it at Pinsonati. I mean, I thought that was special. Yeah, it was. And I enjoy that we're going to continue. I mean, it's going to be at the beach, it seems like. So, yeah, I'm excited about that. I'm excited that they're as excited as we are about some of the weird stuff. Yeah. I should email them right now. Yeah. Thank you. Hexa. Let's get it done. I think I heard you on Rotation 8 Kyle Evil Dead baby That's so good I almost drove to one the other night to play it I loved watching you blow it up at pinball at the beach I know That was a great moment And you broke not broke the game in terms of but essentially broke the early code and I remember one of them saying to you oh yeah you did the exact same thing keith elwynn did yes and kyle started smiling yeah i did i did the exact same thing keith elwynn did to make this game shut down yeah uh challenger though it's still challenger i almost got that mylar down for sure that orbiter um at pinball at the beach last year orbiter one yeah i really thought that was a cool i want to find one of those and then once then once you did the uh deep dive on it it made me even more like you were so stoked about it because i got up relatively early that next morning and you were like hours deep into like orbert i was like waiting for someone else to wake up because we went to bed at like 2 a.m i saw like three windows over my phone from that moment i walk out at 7 30 in the morning i'm like wiping the sleep out of my eyes and corbin is like someone on like amphetamines. He's like, picture, picture, picture. I'm like, huh? What? Okay. Cool. This sounds great. I found a lot of information about that game. Pinball at the Beach, though, last year. I don't know. That was a time for me. I had a really good time. I thought it had that first time we went to Expo vibe to me. We were in and out. We were doing this and that. It was a really good time. Now we're going to take a bunch of games and make it a whole thing.
    85:16
    We escalate things. Somehow we escalate things. I think it's going to be cool to be involved this time It's going to be a different aspect of it For sure, to get away and do all that So I think it's going to be good times No doubt You guys have any other 2025 things Or other items to add Or I can go around here and grab some final thoughts I do have one more thing This is totally off the wall So Stern doesn't share numbers Because they're not publicly traded So Bally Williams was publicly traded And that's why they shared numbers Or they just shared numbers because after the fact It's long enough out now that someone Was like here's the information I was thinking about this today Bally Williams was a part of Midway And Midway was publicly traded WMS still exists Yeah like the bingo machines Like a lot of that kind of stuff Yeah okay I don't know why I thought of this today What's that rumor that Godzilla Is going to That's right. I think that was one of the things I was talking to somebody about. George Gomez was on with Cary Hardy a few weeks ago, and they were talking about the new cabinets and this, that, and the other. And for the last 30 minutes, they did a little Q&A. And almost unprompted, George Gomez mentioned that Godzilla was approaching. Because George is a fucking cool guy, and he's excited this is happening. He's like, somebody asked me. No one's going to ask me. I'm just going to say it. Right. That it was approaching the 20,000 mark. And I think it was asked, like, will they celebrate it in some way or whatever? 30 years later. I mean that is amazing though to think that I hope they do it car manufacturer style only Spooky's can do that this is pro premium LE 70th like total between all different versions of it that's a lot of pens man that's a crap ton of Godzillas so it would be interesting to see if like with Adams they did a gold edition if they do a Godzilla or something you know something to celebrate this is the best selling game of all time how can they do nothing I think the big thing that people were speculating was that next year is an anniversary for Star Wars just green just the green Godzilla everybody mentioned that you're the biggest Star Wars guy the original was 76 I believe so it would be the 50th anniversary of New Hope next year so will Fall of the Empire get a New Hope art package edition Or maybe they'll bring the Data East one back. I don't know. The 10th anniversary, though.
    87:48
    Somebody removed Data East Star Wars from Sweets and Geeks the other day, and I'm like, god damn. Yeah, that needs to be somewhere better. I don't think they didn't find it. It's in the room. It's hidden. They removed it off of Pen Map. Yeah. Because they never find it. It's in the other room. The last two times I went there with Corbin to collect it had like $1.25. Yeah, there's no... Because they play tabletop and card games in that room, so they turn it off. The other spot's the Prime Spot. Transporter!
    88:17
    Shoot the Transporter! I'm going to bring that in. We've got to get all the Star Wars in. We've got to do, I'm thinking May the 4th party. I'm down. Do it. I will participate. All of them. I have two here. But I will only play the Sega one because I need to choke out Jabba. Try to choke a bitch. That's all I've got to do. Me and Ollie choking out Jabba. You're a freak. All right. Final thoughts. Kyle, what do you got for me here? Play more pinball. Yeah, that's... Play with friends. Play with enemies. Play with family. Play with anyone. Grab someone off the street. Play some pinball. Zach? Be kind and play pinball. Can we just not all get along? Yeah. We don't need any dumb shit. Not war. Corbin? Make pinball.
    89:02
    Final thoughts? Yeah. Play pinball. this just in, Dune Topper, three days until the final deadline. I saw that email. I was wrong when I spoke about it like 20 minutes ago. For the topper? Yeah, just said three days until the deadline. Fact check right now. Fact check, fact and check. No, I'm excited for 2026. I think it's going to be another great year. 2025 was awesome. I had a great time with you guys and all you other pinball people out there.
    89:32
    Yeah, pinball at the beach. I think that's the next big thing, right? That's what we got coming up. Well, I guess we have states and we have the church opening. Do we talk about that at all? No, you do not. I think that's what I was going to hit on here in my final thoughts. Oh, I stole your thunder. No, not at all. We got that coming up, though. With states, we should talk about taxi going out first time in like 20-some years. That is the first time in a very long time it's been out. It's been in for a very long time. So IFPA Ohio State Championships, we have that coming up here. We talked about the dates on that. And then for the Church Arcade out in Pittsburgh Check out thechurcharcade.com For tickets but on January 31st They don't know what that is They have the website Church Arcade They bought a church And it's an arcade And we met someone at PGX Who was like baptized there Got married there I felt like he was kind of being a little bit like He wasn't super happy about it I don't think he was very happy about it But yeah hop on the website Pick up your tickets January 31st February 1st. Jeff will be there kissing babies. Corbin and I both plan to be there. We're going to bring a game or some games to participate and support.
    90:40
    We can bring some stuff. Keep it fun. And then one week after that, we'll see you in Florida. We're going to Florida. We're driving and we're going to stop in the Carolinas somewhere. One of the Carolinas. I believe it falls on Wednesday. Hank actually told me he's quitting his job and he's riding with us. Let's go. The Triangle Pinball Collection. in North Carolina. Stay tuned for details on that. But that's the Bowmans down there. Kevin Bowman and Sam Bowman. They both are part of that? Ovid, Dillard, a bunch of our customers are a part of that. How much games are you going to want us to get off the trailer? It seemed like he was excited about some of the random stuff. They always are. Yeah, you're going to need to hop on Pinball Map and see what they already have. That way we can kind of... I hope there's the big Lebowski from The Sleep Under with a rug. The bigger the better. It really pulls the room together. It really does pull the room together. So, I mean, that's just the first literally like five weeks of 2026. Are those four big things? Fowler's doing something, too. So that same weekend, yeah, there's a thing going on. Let's give him a shout out for that. For sure. I don't know all the details, but. It's at that beer place. Beer Run, I think it's called. Yeah, somewhere near Cleveland. 216, look him up. He's got a following. It's like really far east.
    91:58
    Like a mentor. like a mentor sort of thing like boston or something that's a little far boston yeah but yeah um i definitely want to just reiterate what corbin said 2025 was a hell of a year with a lot of fun stuff that went on and i think 2026 is just going to kind of continue that um yeah always fun i think the podcast is always a highlight for me so happy to be able to continue to do this with you guys and have done all of these crazy episodes, five seasons of pure, fresh pinball. Do you guys think we should check in with George Gomas again soon? Absolutely.
    92:37
    We need to take the mobile recorder to pinball at the beach. He's going to be there. He is going to be there. What do you think? All of our friends will be down there. Scott Denise is going to be there, too. Shout out Scott Denise for that new TNA code. I was super tempted. Did you update your TNA yet? Can we take your guys' TNA to the beach? Of course. We should take one that works.
    92:56
    Mine is actually working really well. It's been at my house for a while. I just put it out in the wild today. It was getting questionable at Finney's there for a minute. That shooter. It just needed some love. They all need love from time to time. It did. It missed you. I don't feel like it. A lot of fixing.
    93:16
    But thanks for everyone that listens. Thanks for everyone that comes out to events. Thanks for everyone that plays pinball. But until next time. Just keep dropping them the quarters. Just keep playing Bye everybody Happy 2026 Cheers Play better