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The Pinball Show Ep 155: Drowning Ferrets, Throwing Babies, & Sensual Plastic Sculpting

The Pinball Network·video·1h 27m·analyzed·Jun 17, 2024
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TL;DR

Stern production roadmap, Jaws accessories launch, ABBA updates, and pinball media monetization debate.

Summary

Zach Minney and Dennis Kriesel discuss Stern Pinball production updates (Jaws, John Wick, Jurassic Park, Iron Maiden, Godzilla), the launch of official Jaws accessories, new content from Straight Down the Middle, and updates from manufacturers including Pinball Brothers (new ABBA songs and modes), Jersey Jack, Spooky, Dutch Pinball, and others. They cover accessory sales trends, personnel moves (Alex Eddy's promotion at Stern), and the ongoing debate about pinball media professionalization and monetization.

Key Claims

  • Stern is pulling Jurassic Park Premiums from the July run to produce them now, splitting the July run into two pieces

    high confidence · Zach Minney discussing Stern Pinball production schedule updates

  • Iron Maiden Pro and Premium will be Stern's last build for 2024 and they don't anticipate running it more than once a year

    high confidence · Zach Minney on Stern production schedule

  • Godzilla Premium has been updated from 'TBA' to 'Q3 TBA' in the Stern database, likely August or September release

    high confidence · Zach Minney citing Stern database access

  • Jaws Pinball accessories (topper, shooter rod, armor, interior art blades, expression speaker lighting) are now shipping

    high confidence · Zach Minney confirming official launch and shipment

  • Jaws topper costs $1,000 and has a poorly designed shark face that looks like 'a really bad art restoration'

    high confidence · Dennis Kriesel's critique of the official Jaws topper design

  • Stern's expression speaker lighting ($199.99) is being pre-sold very well but dealers have received no official information about it

    high confidence · Zach Minney on speaker lighting sales and dealer communication gaps

  • At Flippin' Out Pinball, toppers are selling best, followed by art blades, while armor sells worst

    medium confidence · Zach Minney discussing their accessory sales trends

  • Alex Eddy, son of Brian Eddy, has been promoted to Consumer Sales Manager at Stern Pinball

    high confidence · Zach Minney announcement of personnel move

  • Pinball Brothers has added Fernando and 'The Name of the Game' by ABBA and new multiballs (Disco Frenzy, Waterloo, Super Trooper) to Abbott

    high confidence · Zach Minney reporting Pinball Brothers production updates

Notable Quotes

  • “So they're not making bingos. The past couple of weeks, they've been making John Wick Pros.”

    Zach Minney@ 10:30 — Confirms Stern's current production line focus on John Wick Pros

  • “I just remember when toppers were an add-on to attract people to the game and the arcade. They were expected to come with the game, and Spooky was still doing that.”

    Dennis Kriesel@ 22:21 — Highlights historical shift in accessory pricing and bundling strategy

  • “That one, oh, no, no, no, no, no. It's bad. I just can't at a thousand dollars.”

    Dennis Kriesel@ 17:53 — Strong criticism of Jaws topper design and pricing

  • “If this needs to be any different, create it. Or pay the individuals who do it so that you can get a more professional [media outlet].”

    Dennis Kriesel@ 5:46 — Addresses the fundamental challenge of monetizing pinball media professionally

  • “These are for like hobbyists. They objectively look better. You see a game room full of toppers.”

    Zach Minney@ 22:05 — Discusses collector behavior and FOMO driving accessory sales

  • “The hobby's expensive. So is this hobby. I mean, the hobby's expensive.”

    Zach Minney@ 20:58 — Contextualizes accessory pricing within broader hobby economics

  • “But they didn't stop to think if they should. It's like, just because it looked that shitty in the movie, you don't want to replicate it.”

Entities

Zach MinneypersonDennis KrieselpersonStern PinballcompanyAlex EddypersonJaws PinballgamePinball BrotherscompanyFlippin' Out PinballcompanyIron Maiden PinballgameGodzilla Premium PinballgameJohn Wick Pinball

Signals

  • ?

    product_launch: Official Stern Jaws Pinball accessories (topper, shooter rod, armor, art blades, speaker lighting) now shipping and selling well

    high · Zach confirming official launch and noting sales velocity at Flippin' Out Pinball distributor

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Stern pulling Jurassic Park Premiums forward from July run to produce now, splitting the scheduled run into two phases

    high · Zach detailing Stern's schedule change: 'they were going to pull some of them to make right now. They're still going to run some in July, but they're breaking up that July run into two pieces'

  • ?

    product_concern: Jaws topper ($1,000) aesthetically criticized as looking like 'a really bad art restoration' of the shark graffiti from the film

    high · Dennis: 'That one, oh, no, no, no, no, no. It's bad.' and later 'It's so bad it's so bad' despite acknowledging film accuracy

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Alex Eddy promoted to Consumer Sales Manager at Stern; already rolling out new dealer dashboard and inventory management tools

    high · Zach detailing new dashboard features for dealers: stock levels, orders, year-to-date info, quarterly/monthly data, inventory reporting

  • $

    market_signal: Accessory sales at Flippin' Out Pinball: toppers best-selling, followed by art blades, armor worst-selling; Jaws toppers sold-out quickly

    high · Zach: 'for us the toppers are selling very very well... armor just is always the least. Who cares about armor?'

Transcript

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0:00
Warning, the following episode contains adult language and screaming goats. Listener discretion is advised.
0:11
The Pinball Network is online. Launching, The Pinball Show. This week on The Pinball Show, Dennis and I tackle updates to the Stern Pinball production schedule. We discuss the recent launch of Jaws pinball accessories, new pinball content from pinball media. I mean, journalists. I mean, personalities.
0:33
Influencers? However you want to define those people. We also cover news and updates from Dutch pinball, barrels of fun pinball, Jersey Jack pinball, spooky pinball, Pedretti gaming, as well as when their next games may be released. We've got pinball market trends, a couple new visuals that you won't be able to stop thinking and talking about, and, oh yeah, competitive pinball. The Pinball Show club members will get exclusive content this week where you're going to hear Dennis' take on this or that. All of this and more on episode 155 of The Pinball Show.
1:09
Pinball is a game of skill. For some, it's a passion and a lifestyle. It's time for The Pinball Show. It's pinball with personality.
1:33

  • Pinball Brothers Alien Toppers are shipping and should arrive at Flippin' Out Pinball around June 26th

    high confidence · Zach Minney on topper shipment timeline

    • Dennis Kriesel@ 17:30 — Commentary on theme fidelity vs. aesthetic appeal in accessory design

  • “I look back. We hadn't done one of those in like a year and a half... because the analytics, they're not like you get better views on the non-this or that.”

    Dennis Kriesel@ 29:51 — Reveals tension between viewer demand and analytics for content formats

    • game
    Jurassic Park Premium Pinballgame
    Joel Engelberthperson
    Elizabeth Gieskeperson
    Straight Down the Middleorganization
    Black Knight Sword of Rage Pinballgame
    ?

    product_strategy: Stern accessories may not be produced again soon; 'who knows when they're going to make them again,' creating scarcity-driven demand

    medium · Zach: 'And who knows when they're going to make them again. But I want to bring up this expression, speaker lighting.'

  • ?

    code_update: Pinball Brothers adding ABBA songs (Fernando, The Name of the Game) and new multiballs (Disco Frenzy, Waterloo, Super Trooper) plus challenge modes to Abbott

    high · Zach: 'the company has added two new songs to the game, Fernando and the name of the game... adding something called Waterloo Multiball, Super Trooper Multiball, three new challenge modes'

  • ?

    product_launch: Pinball Brothers Alien Toppers shipping; expected delivery to Flippin' Out Pinball around June 26th

    high · Zach: 'Hours for flipping out pinball should be landing around the 26th of June. So for the couple people who are threatening to get a refund, they're coming.'

  • ?

    community_signal: Collectors report OCD-driven mandatory topper purchasing despite some expressing skepticism about new accessories; 'they have to have toppers on all of the games'

    medium · Zach: 'But their OCD mandates since they started buying toppers that they have to have toppers on all of the games'

  • ?

    content_signal: Straight Down the Middle 'This or That' format has high viewer demand (1,000 views/day) but lower analytics priority than other content types

    medium · Dennis: 'because the analytics, they're not like you get better views on the non-this or that... the people want this or that... numbers have been pretty, it's been like a thousand views a day'

  • ?

    industry_signal: Pinball media fundamentally cannot be professionally monetized like traditional journalism; no advertising model exists; community too small to support full-time staff

    high · Dennis: 'there's no way uh i'm going to say that you might be able to come up with a way but i'm going to say there's no way to monetize a true journalistic enterprise in pinball' and 'imagine if pinball news was more than just martin and a few people'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Stern providing minimal information to dealers about new expression speaker lighting system despite it being pre-sold well and listed on Stern website

    high · Zach: 'Stern still hasn't given dealers any information at all on the speaker lighting. But they're selling it on their site... The only way we knew how much they were is because we looked on Stern's website'

    • Once again, it's the Pinball Show. Welcome, everybody. I'm Zach Minney alongside Dennis Creasel with episode 155. Dennis, how's your week going? And did you cater to your father as Father's Day was yesterday? I did not. I sent him a text message, as a true modern person would, saying, Happy Father's Day. I'm still getting over a cold, so I'm not coming over. I'm going to sneeze in your face. That's all I need. Your gift is a virus. My dad just went on vacation, so I did the text to him as well. Your dad works for you. I know. Yes, he does. That seems awkward. You know, people, listeners and fans of what we do, They're starting to know who we call Timbo, starting to know him better, whether they're picking up games from Flippin' Out Pinball or some of the – I've been doing some recent shop videos, listener. I don't know if you've seen those on Flippin' Out Pinball's social medias, mostly Facebook, where I just go around the shop, Dennis, and I show what games are leaving the facility, whether FedEx is there picking them up, where they're going throughout the country, shout out North Carolina and different things like that, what games have come in on trade, games that we've set up, et cetera. yada and uh my poor father tim has to deal with some of the shenanigans uh during my recordings so whether he's making noise and i'm teasing him whether he is he's like a beast that's why we call him timbo uh rather it's like a uh it's a short for like rambo but timbo uh he's okay he is a form of rambo he's like the old school he's an old school dad so he does shit that without even thinking about it that weak puny ass men in their 20s and such will never have the balls to do for example i caught him on my last video shot video i pointed the uh the camera out there i said look look at this beast dennis he was weed eating the grounds with his shirt off like who does that that is that is asking for skin cancer man well it's asking for like Shit shrapnel flying. Shrapnel? What is he, weed-eating glass? Most people put, like, helmets and glasses on and long pants and gloves. With weed-eaters? I've seen it. He's out there, topless, saying, bring on your pain. Just a couple of pasties on, with tassels on the end. Oh, my God. Happy Father's Day. So, yeah, that's what I've been up to. I've been doing a lot of media stuff this last week. What have you been up to? No, I mean, because I've been under the weather. I didn't do a lot. I did a couple of my wristwatch. I did a live stream. I did a video there, of course. A week ago, I recorded Eclectic Gamers, where there wasn't any news. But you guys got a lot of discussion going. We get a lot of emails now. It's really stepped up quite a bit. Penfluencer kind of stuff. You call this media? That email. Oh, yeah. No, that email. That one's gotten a lot of feedback. podcasters playing her loser kids even answered like half the questions from that email yeah it spurred some spurred some emotion i don't know what i would say to i would just say that uh yeah we're people do podcasts and and blogs and stuff for pinball media because they're creating content and media for an industry like i don't i don't know what the question is really whether they like it or not one thing or what how professional it is is another but like it's still creating yeah it's still covering an industry so yeah i think it's really more some people when they hear media they they really want to use it as a synonym for just journalism and i think that's probably where the email was coming from is that sure and and to be fair to the on the query while on it as i noted on a technical level all pinball media is pinball media there is a lot of kind of hobbyists playing at journalism going on yeah and i can see where people get frustrated with the amateur nature of it sure well but if if it needs to be any different create it uh and or pay the individuals who do it so that you can get a more i don't know like if you're watching well that's the that's the fundamental rub though there's no there's no way uh i'm going to say that you you might be able to come up with a way but i'm going to say there's no way to monetize a true journalistic enterprise in pinball there's a reason why that's all making money off of ads and all the podcasts are doing patreon and stuff and you look at the blowback even like the patreon stuff which is voluntary i mean look at the blowback we've had on people and it's not mandatory no one has to do it and people like to whine about it but it's like you guys i mean if this is a struggle imagine if you actually wanted to spin up a real like journal like imagine if pinball news was more than just martin and a few people who donate articles and actually had to have staff like where would they generate that money from not this community Yeah, I mean, you're right. So it's just too small for that. Too small.
    6:54
    Wristwatches is a relatively small hobby, but it's not pinball small. There is professional journalism, but the way they generate the funding is controversial. Oh, I'm sure. It's got to come from somewhere. Well, a number of them actually sell product. Follow the money, yeah. And then it gets into the same thing you run into, that you're a distributor, and you, of course, promote that and denote that on this show. and then people will question, well, you have product to sell and you're also commentating on product. Happens in all sorts of hobbies like this though, where they make their money in some way off of the products they're covering and the question is a bias and how objective it's really going to be. That's always going to be there because there's this cross-contamination between where the money can be made to actually engage at that level versus what people are coming to the media to try and learn. People always have a choice. There's an off button you just turn it off if you want to yeah it's not a not a big deal uh the reason that we do is because we have fun doing it uh and i do it because you're going to hear me talk about stuff that involves my company so that there's always that as well uh if i didn't think we didn't do a fucking great job at it just my personality i wouldn't do it so if i think i'm one of the best at doing something i'm going to keep doing it because i feel like i'm also providing the industry with something uh as well so that's it yeah we're pretty fucking good at it well it's craig bobby good at it craig bobby is so good and that he doesn't even have to do it every time like oh craig so maybe maybe craig will show up on 156 he's celebrating uh father's day probably yeah there's a little flipper the father of pinball arguably gary stern um no not arguably okay that's uh harry williams yeah i suppose you could argue that humpty dumpty well that would be uh mabs pinball you're pulling out a mabs reference okay well i mean i i i've played uh have you played humpty dumpty i don't define play i don't think you can play it well yeah you can it's got flippers we've got six of them yeah they had it at texas pinball festival this year you know the show that you were like i don't know if i'm gonna go maybe i will maybe i won't get a plane ticket cancel the plane ticket i didn't cancel nothing they canceled me i'm just getting like traumatic flashbacks of whatever the hell that last silver ball chronicles episode was the bingo Oh, my God. What the hell is that? The longest number I've ever heard. You heard it here first.
    9:39
    You know what's crazy, though? That dumb bingo episode still got more listens than the majority of pinball podcasts in this industry.
    9:50
    I listened to it. They're fascinating machines, but that's the dark underbelly of pinball. Man. I don't think that's my hot take. That's the dark underbelly. That was the, we're going to figure out a way to let you gamble with these things, and we're just going to try and circumvent the law wherever we can. And that's where that seedy, I blame bingos for why pinball got banned in so many places. And ladies and gentlemen, that should be the extent of what you'll ever hear on this show about bingo pinball machines. That's Zach dropping a hint for me to not mention any more bingos this episode. Oh, so bad. Stern Pinball is in the news with some production updates. Are they making bingos? Thank God, no. They're not making bingos. The past couple of weeks, they've been making John Wick Pros. They've been doing actually some Jurassic Park premiums right now. They're pulling some from the July run. They're running some in July, but they were going to pull some of them to make right now. They're still going to run some in July, but they're breaking up that July run into two pieces, one of them being right now. And then Jaws Premium have been shipping. This week, you'll see probably some more Jaws Premiums shipping, likely some pros. They're due for this June run to be coming out as well. So everything is Jaws, Jaws, Jaws. We also have the rest of the month of June. We still have John Wick Pros that I believe should run here in about a week or so. We'll have Black Knight Pros running. And then in late June, they've actually bumped up the Iron Maiden Pro and Premium run that they were going to do late June, early July. So they said they're going to confirm probably the last week of June we're going to see Iron Maiden Pro and Premiums. As a reminder, that's the last build for this year. And I don't ever anticipate them running Iron Maiden at all more than once a year. Same with like come July, we're going to see Jurassic Park Premiums. Granted, it's getting split up a little bit and run now and then, but you're still going to see probably one run a year of that. Deadpool Pro in late July, last build for the year. All of that makes sense to me. August, we still have John Wick Pro and Premium. We did get an update, not verbally from Stern Pinball, but through the database that we're given access to and scheduling. Instead of just TBA by Godzilla Premium, it now says Q3 TBA. So, okay, we're getting a little more information. That would be July, August, September. But July, we don't have any notation for it, so I would guess August, September. Do you think September is when the next Cornerstone drops? Usually, yeah. Yeah. August would be my guess then, because currently all you've mentioned is the John Wicks. Yeah, man. So maybe then. But it's still odd. There's something odd about that. Yeah. It's a little fishy. You know, I did watch Godzilla Minus One. Have you seen that yet? Yep. I saw it in theater. What'd you think? Very good. Very good, huh? Very dramatic. if you want lots and lots of godzilla you're going to want to watch the new american godzillas but if you want to watch a drama uh what i thought was interesting about it is and i it's been a long time since i've seen any of the historic ones and i've never seen the original godzilla uh was the idea of an entire nation's psychological trauma over losing a war and that's really what's explored a lot in that you as a psychologist probably found that quite interesting but i thought it was interesting as a lay person i i've been really struggling to enjoy television shows and films lately. It's a low batting average for me liking stuff. I don't know if it's my current mood set. I don't know what it is, but I've not been liking much. So I was mixed on Godzilla Minus One. Some of the things that they did in that film, not to make this a film review, some of the things they did in that movie were amongst some of the greatest things I've ever seen on the screen. That is a lot of the visual effects. Just their theming and their representation of the Godzilla character made me a fan immediately. They did such a wonderful job. That was one of the coolest characters, monsters that I've ever seen on the screen. Down to the details, the look of them, the visual effects were fantastic. What threw me a bit was, and I liked some of the drama portion of it, and this isn't their fault. it was culturally difficult for me because I don't live in that culture. I'm not familiar with that culture's film, that country's films. So it threw me off because I'm like, that's not how people act at all. It almost seemed like I was watching a 1950s American over-exaggerated dramatic piece. Like, hey, Dame, why don't you come over here? Like it was just culturally it was very different. And some things sort of like – I don't know if you ever watched any like telenovelas. It was that. Yeah. And yeah, like certain – yeah, certain – in certain cultures like the heavier melodrama is more popular. Yeah. It was very thick with that. And I'm like, wow, it feels like we're going backwards in time here. But is that really what the Japanese culture – they don't act like that on the streets day to day. live this is more almost like that amplified 1950s i think part of it was they were trying to go for the spirit of the original how it was filmed yes that's like the main character i've seen modern japanese well if you watch the you know like infernal and what infernal affairs and stuff it doesn't have that same feel okay all right uh yeah because i'm like man i i hate this main character i don't actually even care if he dies like at the end i'm like i want him to kamikaze Oh, he ejected it? Oh, sorry. Spoiler alert. I'm like, eh, I could have done with him actually dying.
    15:47
    Speaking of monsters, some accessories production updates, one of which we've been waiting for, and it's here. It's the official launch of Jaws Pinball accessories from Stern Pinball. Last week they announced them. They showed them off, and they're already shipping. Wow. Uh-huh, yeah. So we got the topper, we got the shooter rod, we got the armor, the interior art blades, and they also snuck in what they're calling expression speaker lighting. That's more of a universal mod. We'll talk about that in a minute. But did you get a chance to see the pictures or the video of the Jaws basic accessories, topper and such? Yes. Okay. We know that the people are waiting here with bated breath. They're wanting to know what Din Din thinks about the new topper.
    16:38
    No. $1,000. I'm sending you what I think. Eke Mono. Oh, no. Eke Mono. Not Chewbacca Jesus. And I know that's how the sign is painted when they draw the fin on the sign and the mayor's getting all upset. but the way it transitions and looks it just looks like a really bad art restoration but i'm like the moment i saw it i thought why did they what did they do to my boy i just i just it's so bad it's so bad but that's what it was in the film i know i know so i should i should forgive it but i can't not at a thousand dollars i can't You're like, you just don't. Just because they're so busy to see if they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
    17:36
    It's like, just because it looked that shitty in the movie, you don't want to replicate it. It's part because of the lines through it for the effect, the transition it, that it looks extra garbage.
    17:49
    No, I see. It's bad. I saw that. All the other accessories look good. Whenever they came out. That one, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. I think a lot of people were missing the fact that the vandalism in the film looked like that. It does. Because I heard a lot of media people. I actually went back and loaded the scene to check. Oh, yeah. I think they did. I couldn't remember. They drew on her mouth. I knew about the bubble. It is identical. And they did. They did. So I'm like, I totally get where it's coming from. But the problem is that it's ugly. for me i couldn't think of something that makes more sense up there what else you're gonna do for jules like that that makes the most sense up there sure it would have been cool if it was an lcd screen it showed you know clips of the movie and stuff like but there's plenty of other things you could have done a buoy really yeah a buoy just a single buoy well but it would actually go ding and ring when things happen in the game like fire yeah i mean i wasn't gonna have it like belch fire at you but no like the pinball machine fire with the bell the champagne edition yeah that the buoy that the girl holds on to at the beginning yeah and but in like in multi-ball and stuff if it could start ringing and rocking and you're yes and moving yeah but look what they did with james bond and that missile i don't i don't know if we should give him another chance to put something phallic on top of a pinball machine no okay well we get old chewbac instead okay Oh, I can't wait for this thing. They're shipping, and I'm going to be adding one to mine very, very soon. I do like the interactivity, the lighting, and the different stuff. I'm freaking thrilled. I'm kind of glad that it's not $2,000 like Foo Fighters was. It's $1,000, though. It's still a lot of money. It's a lot, and light integration doesn't, I mean, because they're already doing the integration elsewhere in the game. So them getting that plugged in and integrating with it doesn't impress me anymore. Really? You'd rather, that's still not cool to you?
    19:50
    It's not, let's not act like it's a lot of extra work, is what I'm saying. Yeah, okay. I'm fine with that. I had a lot of people message me and say, a lot of people message in order, but others were just like, no. Like, it's too much money. It's not worth $1,000. Well, not to me, it's not, but. Yeah, but who is going to look at that, or any other product on the market for the most part, and say, you know what? that's definitely worth $1,000. I don't... They used to say it about the original run of the Black Knight Hopper. It was worth the $425 or whatever it was. Okay. Do you remember? Pepperidge Farm remembers, Zach. Do you know anything else in stores or anything that you look at and you're like, oh, that's definitely worth it? Most things people are like, yeah, that's not worth that. Legos? Are Legos worth that? Are Legos really worth that much money? No, they're really expensive. I know, and when you're like, that is $400? Like, that's crazy. Do I have to put it together myself as this fucking Ikea? Yeah. So, yeah, you can say that with anything. But yes, it's expensive. So are pinball machines. So is this hobby. I mean, the hobby's expensive. How do you think sales are on these items? Meh. I think they're meh. I can confirm they're not meh at all. My sources... They're selling fantastic. my sources say that industry worldwide it's meh really yeah i guess dealers are having trouble selling stuff i yeah to me i've uh i got a nice healthy allotment of them and i've got what five left sure we've sold a crap load of these toppers but you have a lot of the like hardcore collectors as part of your sort of sales demographic. Other distributors have... I like to call them chosen ones. Maybe more casual And you know I know multiple collectors who have flat out said that These aren for casuals These are for like hobbyists That they don want like they don like all the toppers that are coming out But they don't describe it this way. Well, most of them don't. But their OCD mandates since they started buying toppers that they have to have toppers on all of the games. They objectively look better. Come on. You see a game room full of toppers. Toppers used to be free with games. It's just hard for old school people like me. Back in Valley Williams days. You know, I go back almost, not as far back as like David Fix, but I go back a ways. I just remember when toppers were an add-on to attract people to the game and the arcade. Yeah. And they were expected to come with the game, and Spooky was still doing that. Hey, Spooky still does it. They still, but you can do three toppers. But Stern don't still do it. I would say they're much different toppers, to be fair. Yeah. You've raised that point before. them uh so of all of the accessories for us the toppers are selling very very well they're selling better than all the other uh all the other accessories what do you like the barrel shooter rod you know what for us that is selling the worst generally what i don't think you know how to read your spreadsheet right oh shit it's upside down just there we go that sounds a lot We've sold out. Yay! No, typically for us, armor just is always the least. Who cares about armor? Yeah, that's how people are generally.
    23:16
    But this release, we've actually sold more armor than shooter rods, which is, I know why. Well, the shooter rod didn't look uncomfortable. That's my biggest problem with so many shooter rods is the interesting ones don't look like they're any fun to handle. That's true. This one also is a direct replacement from the LE. So a lot of our LE people that are buying toppers, they don't have a need to buy the shooter rod because that's one time that Stern actually gave us a shooter rod on an LE. And you basically have 90% of the LE buyers. That would be nice. Artblades are selling second best. Those are selling really, really well. I'm not surprised. The Artblades do look pretty good. Yeah, they pull that world in. A world of fear. Yes. So they are shipping now, which is great. Ours are, I think, ours are in route. So if you guys want any, we still have a couple toppers. We've got all the accessories right now, right? And who knows when they're going to make them again. But I want to bring up this expression, speaker lighting. Weird release here because it was included as part of the accessories promo that they put out there. But as of now, as of this recording, Dennis, Stern still hasn't given dealers any information at all on the speaker lighting. But they're selling it on their site, but it says coming soon. So they're not taking orders, but it shows a price of $199.99.
    24:42
    And it's more of a universal thing because we know that they can be put on John Wick as well. We don't know if it retroactively goes through the catalog of Stern Games. We know that George Gomez said it will be a thing. so i think they but until they start adding code to these speaker lights i don't i don't think you can really adapt them quite yet uh interesting way that they came out they've been pre-selling very very well that's what one would assume right uh but yeah but uh i just found it odd that they don't have any info so i asked her and like well i see you guys listening for 199.99 i i hope that dealers can sell them. I would have thought they would have told us if we couldn't.
    25:30
    So we're taking orders on them. But the only way we knew how much they were is because we looked on Stern's website. But they sent us official pictures for us to advertise. But as to when they're coming, I don't know. They didn't say. I don't know anything about these. But people want them. Well, let me know if they do end up doing backwards compatibility because i never bought like the flaming building speaker mod for godzilla and if there's the you know the official stern one then i might just do that you guys hear that this creasel is talking about buying an accessory holy i have mods in some of them i don't have any mods in my deadpool i have mods in a lot of my games just not very many i just like them little tasteful mods i don't want to turn into you where i buy all the mods and then never get them installed because they take forever i know that's true you know how many people had to hear red trimmer recent sdtm videos why don't you get a replacement fan for that job i saw that one i saw that oh geez replacement will be announced from stern pinball accessories department we still need venom accessories and john wick accessories speaking of accessories we just got the following back in stock at flipping out pinball deadpool armor people have been out of that for a while Black Knight Sword of Rage Shooter Rod, which is making a second coming for some reason. Everybody's jumping on that thing. We've sold tons of those. Rush Expression Lighting System. For those of you who have a Rush and you're keeping the Rush and you don't have the Expression Lighting, come on. That's a must. That's like the UV kit for Stranger Things. Iron Maiden Shooter Rod, James Bond Shooter Rod, and Stranger Things Shooter Rod. Come get it. Congratulations goes out to Alex Eddy for new position over at Stern Pinball, Consumer Sales Manager. Alex Eddy. Is he the brother of Brian Eddy? Actually, he's the son of Brian Eddy.
    27:27
    Is it? Yes. Oh. Yeah. The joke was not far off. Alex was working with Stern prior to this position. He was working with export and overseas sales stuff with Doug Score. So he's accepted this new position that's going to keep him over here doing consumer sales as the manager. So, yeah, nicely done. I was able to meet with Alex over this last week. A very nice meeting. Wonderful, wonderful person. And bringing some new ideas to the company. One of which, already rolling out for us dealers, this is a lot of inside baseball stuff, but some of you listeners like this. Alex has already developed a new system for dealers. It's almost like a dashboard database type of thing that's online. So, if I want to, like, I'm going to go to it right now. Boom. There it is. Like I can see what orders I have currently. It shows what games are in stock at Stern, and they will update those as they leave. So how many units are in stock, new orders, when they will ship. It shows year-to-date info. It shows each quarterly number. It shows each monthly stuff. And then I can go to my game assignments to see, based on my allotments, what percentage I'm accepting that I've taken, what's coming. I can go to inventory reporting where I have to report every month to Stern what we have in stock. Inventory history. I've got marketing assets, price, all of it right here in the dashboard updated in real time. Pretty cool, huh? It is. They're going to keep on adding to the tools that we have as dealers. So I like the forward thinking there. Typically, if it's not broke, don't fix it kind of fella. But also new content we talked about at the beginning of the show. So we've been creating, creating, creating. Straight down the middle, we did a Jaws review for those listeners. I saw it. You don't ever watch reviews. I know. I even gave it an upvote. I'm trying to help you out a little bit. You must have been really bored. Well, no comment.
    29:31
    Okay, yeah, not too bad of a review. I think it went over very well, as well as we'll talk later about this or that, that you've been asking for. A lot of people have been asking for it. I watched that. Oh, that one I went out and watched. I saw it like within the first 30 minutes it dropped. The return of Straight Down the Middle, man. People were loving that thing. Geez. I look back. We hadn't done one of those in like a year and a half. Well, because the analytics, they're not like you get better views on the non-this or that. You tell me, but I'm like the world, the people want this or that. I'm telling you. As far as they've spoken, because numbers have been pretty, it's been like a thousand views a day. So we're pretty good there. Let's see what else. Oh, Joel was kind enough to help Straight Down the Middle out. did an overview on Jaws for our review video, and thus also expanded that and did an entire tutorial on how to play Jaws Premium Pinball. So we're uploading that now on Flippin' Out Pinball's YouTube. So if you want a Jaws pinball tutorial, Joel Engelberth from Triple Drain and Flippin' Out Pinball did that. I'll probably wait for Ray Day's Baby's First tutorial. I did learn some stuff in that tutorial, though. because Jaws is a bit confusing for me. Flipping out pinball, Jaws Premium Stream. Joel did that this last week with Elizabeth Gieske, the lead coder for Jaws pinball. So a lot of Jaws stuff. We've got accessories. We've got content going out. It's kind of the hotness right now. Even if John Wick is the newest game, Jaws is still in the spotlight, I've got to say. Also in the spotlight this week is Pinball Brothers. A lot of updates from Abbott that's now on the production line. And the company has added two new songs to the game, Fernando and the name of the game. The name of the game is ABBA. Well, who's on first? So I like to see them adding new songs to a music-based pinball machine. That's great. They also had a new ABBA short video on their social media showing a new game mode they're calling Disco Frenzy Multiball, where that disco ball is going crazy and lights are going nuts and everything. In addition to that, they're adding something called Waterloo Multiball, Super Trooper Multiball, three new challenge modes, and much more. Sticking with Pinball Brothers, Alien Toppers are finally shipping. Thank God. Finally shipping. Hours for flipping out pinball should be landing around the 26th of June. So for the couple people who are threatening to get a refund, they're coming. And then the last point I wanted to make on Pinball Brothers, Dennis, was I finally got some good time on their Pinball Machine Queen. Finally got some time on that. We got one in on trade, so I took it to my studio, and I was like, I might do some recording on this thing. So I wanted to get a queen into it. Cracked a billion the other night, so I get it now. I get Queen. I know what Queen has to offer as a game. That's true. Once you have a billion, you basically know everything. Well, you know, I played it, I played it, I was in the couple hundred million, couple hundred million, and then finally just opened it up. C, null, there was a C for the most part. I understand. I remember when I got a billion on Attack from Mars, I'm like, I fully understand this game. Baby's first billy.
    32:45
    I still haven't cracked a billion on Jaws. All right, so Queen. Really quick on Queen. The pros. Pros or cons first, Dennis, which ones do you want? Pros. All right, pros. It's deceptively fun. the rule structure i see what they're doing and i like it there are a couple interesting things that they're doing with the layout that work really really well uh particularly like the kickback it's got the whole hobbit thing where a post comes up it holds the ball it kicks it up all the way around the orbit which is a lot of fun they've got some ball movements under that upper play field that I like because it like diverts balls when you're not expecting it a lot of diverters on this game up kick is very cool and the music even if it's live recordings it's freaking queen so it's great there's a lot of light shows it's very flashy a lot of the light shows are synced with the music it's very pulsey boom boom boom boom we're doing the we will rock you of course so a lot of that a lot of that going on that's the pros the cons you know what we we've given ferret a lot of credit haven't we sound effects aside yes so we've given the ferret why does he sound like a gremlin i don't know He sounds like the Caddyshack gopher. Yes.
    34:19
    All weasel types sound that way. That's just my squirrel. That's my... So we give him a lot of credit. We've given a lot of credit for Alien. We've given him a lot of credit for some American pinball games. We're like, well, the game sucks, but the code's great. Right? We've done that. I'm going to push back a little bit here. ferret has uh slipping a little bit on this coat i'm sorry ferret ferret's like it's a bit sloppy it's a little glitchy it needs cleaned up thoroughly i'm sorry it's i'm just speaking what i feel like it uh it it needs some work a little messy clean up isle queen is what i'm saying if you're out there we like your stuff showber but uh and we need some more time on this thing because it's just like we've got sound effects that are musical little segments but they're overlaid on top of another music piece that's running already oh that does not work at all we've got so is this all quality of life stuff or is it affecting scoring i didn't notice as much the scoring i just the more choreography and like getting things to work and and react when they're supposed to that that kind of stuff and like well there are some balancing issues too uh that i think are more code based and not layout based so and maybe he's just doing the coding and not really the rules program or not the rules can say now i'm still putting it on him because like it's not balanced there's like multi balls you get into way too much and then the other downside to queen is it could work very well even if it doesn't seem like it has a lot because the upper playfield we've been critical on that like what's up there it's actually kind of fun up there because you've got because it's the rules are in a way where you have to hit the stand-up targets that opens up and enables the lock then you get the lock and then you can risk reward how many you want to load up very aerosmith like so some of that stuff is cool captive ball that was surprisingly cool the upper play field. However, the shots aren't the cleanest. You know, the optos, I had to do a lot of adjusting, a lot of material adjustments on this game that I'm not crazy about. I don't like having to do that much stuff. So when you're hitting it up a hidden ramp, it's hidden, so you need it to work. If not, then you're wondering why the ball is coming back down with a solid hit, that kind of stuff. I don't think it's going to be a huge seller long term. but don't stop me now don't stop me now it works you just did yeah i did like it works because i'm a big queen fan so i like playing it that's why i kept playing it and i corrected but like it felt good i like the whole you got to get the signature but then the rules aren't that deep either like i damn near beat the whole game that's that's my quick review of queen i'm sorry i'm just barrels of fun they had a company update on their socials and i think they did a press release too the update i'm just going to read it uh their update they say over 270 labyrinths have been manufactured and shipped and barrels of fun is committed to manufacturing 500 more units by the end of the year i put them around like 770 all new orders over the 750 mark will be scheduled in the next year. No rush, but if you do love the new-in-box pinball experience, it's time to start thinking about talking to a distributor. We appreciate the warm response and support we've received from the community these past eight months and look forward to many years of producing high-quality, collector-grade pinball machines for each and every one of you. If you have not played Jim Henson's Labyrinth, watch for a, quote, Barrel's Bash at a nearby location where they will be rolling out this fantastic game. It will be a barrel of fun. So they announced basically that they have over 750 orders of Labyrinth, and they're committed to finishing all of those first 750 by the end of the year.
    38:32
    So they've shipped 270, so they're a third of the way there. They're cranking them out right now, too. So that's good. And then what's interesting to me, though, they said anything basically new orders, maybe not new orders with dealers because we still have openings for end-of-year stuff, but anything over $750, they're looking into the new year. So do you think that delays their next announcement, or do you think they'll overlap it? I would lean towards an overlap. So slowing down, maybe having two lines, slowing down the run of one line and boosting up the other. I am. I'm thinking a two-line scenario. Yeah, that makes sense. With a mini line basically finishing off Labyrinth. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay. So when do you think that that will give us another announcement from Beryl? Do you think by October? Do you think that would be rushing an announcement? I think that's too soon. I think it will be TPF 2025. Ooh. Do you think they wait that long? Like, that makes the most sense.
    39:32
    Yeah, I do think they wait that long. Because then they'll be able to do some of the end-of-the-year stuff. So they might not want to do a ton of overlap. That will help possibly ensure that because they'll give them three months. Plus, if they want to do kind of what they did where they'll have a few ready to show off when they reveal it, they'll have those built, hopefully get the bugs worked out, bring 10 to TPF, blow everyone away with their sophomore effort, and then profit. Okay. My guess would be similar to that. I'm going to guess that they really like the online reveal that they did last time. So I think they'll do like a February announcement and reveal, and then the first time you'll be able to play it will be in March. That way it gives them a little time to work bugs out, and it'll give them time to say, hey, here we come to TPF, and we have 25 ready to go. And I think they might ship some when they announce if they do so in like February. I can see them starting to shift their dealings. I should clarify that. I think TPF will be the first show with the game added. I don't think they actually do the reveal. I think reveals at shows are dead. Yeah, I do too.
    40:47
    Well, there's some companies that still bless their hearts. There's still some that will say, and maybe if you're small enough, it's your only hope. But I mean, the value is, there's obviously going to be a first show that has the game. And there's value there, of course, because people only get hands-on with the game. But being able to control the narrative, throwing a blanket off of a game at a show is pointless. Yep. So, yeah, we're in agreement. Maybe the first of the year, February-ish, maybe we'll see this next game. Who knows? Maybe they try to rush it out. I don't know. I do know that they had another code update for Labyrinth. They keep adding stuff to this. They said in the following code update announcement, announcing the newest Labyrinth code update. Jareth is a bit worried about how well you're progressing through the labyrinth, Dennis, so he's delivered a poison peach to hinder your progress.
    41:40
    That was me squeezing the peach. They have the little peach emoticon. I love it. This new gameplay mode features the last remaining David Bowie song from the soundtrack, and it occurs once you've completed a full row of labyrinth sections. you'll end up at a masquerade ball and we'll have to bash your way out and get back on track to reach the goblin city of course there are a lot of other fixes and enhancements to the game included as well oh another bowie song another mode another love it did you know that this game i can't believe this game is still selling i think we have two new orders in the last week of this game and these The individuals know that it won't be until the end of the year that they get their game.
    42:26
    Well, it is very popular. But when we look at a number, that's the thing that we have to remember, listener. But if we look at this number of they sold 750, if you said that a company sold 750 units, this feels like the way that they are selling, that they sold more than 750. I have no idea what that means. So what I mean by this is, is 750 units considered a lot in this industry? Or is it considered eh in this industry?
    43:01
    It depends on the company, of course. Yeah, that's an interesting question. But it feels like a thousand units of a game is a big success now in this industry is what I'm getting at. Yeah, I think that's true. Okay. I mean, remember, a lot of people were absolutely amazed at how well TNA did with 550 units for an unlicensed theme that was seen as exceedingly successful.
    43:28
    I mean, Spooky was blown away by the success of it. What Spooky do? Let see Spooky with Scooby 1969 That almost 2 units but I don think they sold all of those So we don know how many they sold That's how many they were limiting to. What other games do we know of? Well, they sold out of Halloweens. How many were they? Oh, jeez. Yes. The deepest, dankest of hoes. But I don't know if they made all the Ultramans. so I'm just interested to know if a thousand units is like a huge huge number because then you think about Stern games and it's like a thousand LE units usually sell out so I can't even say usually anymore often sold out in the past so those are probably three thousand to four thousand unit runs it's just interesting I want to know how many Elton Johns they made well let's talk about that now then this last week Jersey Jack pinball announced on social media that the collector's edition production run, 1,000 games of Elton John pinball is nearing the end. If you're considering the CE, contact an authorized Jersey Jack pinball distributor and reserve yours today. Okay.
    44:44
    You think they sold 1,000 units of Elton John CE? Nope. I don't either. Nope. But the way this is worded, the collector's edition production run of 1,000 games of Elton John is nearing the end. But why would they put 1,000 games in there? Does that mean they made 1,000?
    45:08
    Nope. Then why put it in there? Just noting that there was a limit. It's wordplay, and it's very interesting. Yep.
    45:18
    Yep. I would be surprised if they sold 1,000 Elton John CEs. I would be surprised if they sold a thousand Platinum Edition Elton Johns. Really? I would be. Hmm. Yeah. I hadn't thought about that. Yeah, because I'm using the other games as like a basis. Like, the Labyrinth feels like more people were ordering it than Elton John. Pulp Fiction, I want to know how many they made of those. SEs, I bet Pulp Fiction sold, hmm. i i you know we talked about this a few weeks ago zach i'm still hearing a lot of people saying pulp fiction doesn't have enough depth to stay in a lot of collections okay that's good for larger collections but small collections it's too shallow that's kind of stuff just doesn't like when i hear that stuff i'm like it's kind of like when uh on what my spies are telling me later straight down the middle when greg was like yeah uh the toy story lacks depth and i'm like that's like saying a marathon whatever anybody could run a marathon okay we'll have you no you took toy story to joel plugged it in and got to the wizard mode i got to the mini wizard mode i get to the first wizard mode but the second wizard mode is the same thing it's like it's like when people yeah people didn't get to the true people didn't get to the true end of monsters but it was just a recycle of the first half so no one cares argument no one cares what i'm saying is no cares i don't know anybody's beat pulp fiction i just got to the final wizard mode pulp fiction so i like i've only got to the shot like twice and that's a that's just the mini wizard mode when you get through all the modes much less all the tasks so when i hear that it's shot i'm like it's more understandable but i don't until i get there like nah it's not too shallow for me i guess maybe that's what i'm saying it's certainly not shallow uh too shallow for me but how many games they sell i don't know i guess a thousand se's and a thousand ellies how many games of elton john jersey jack pinball sell jersey jack pinball email us the pinball show at gmail.com and tell us how many you sold here's what i'm gonna here's what i'm gonna give me give me the numbers give me them numbers i'm guessing they sold do it 1250 units total between ce and p and it feels like now i can i can tell you that i did request an update on availability for platinum edition elton johns and i was told they have none in stock and we may be able to get some more in three to four weeks so that tells me that they should be running some more right yes i would agree so i think they're probably going to transition over to pe's until their next until their next game but them being done with ce saying they're nearing the end i just i don't know what that what that they're hoping to gen up some last minute ce sales by making you be scared this is your last chance because it probably is your last chance to know if this is word play or not probably a little bit play on the word okay so when is their next game coming out since they're ramping up ces and expo it'll be at expo it'll be at expo yes they'll reveal before but it'll be at expo okay that's coming up it is i'm feeling uh do we feel august or september i would normally say september but do they really want to release against the stern cornerstone if they can get out in front of it That would mean August. They can still get out of it in front of it in September if they get in front of it. I still feel like September. If it's Hogwarts Legacy, then they don't care because they know they're going to win. It's not Hogwarts Legacy.
    49:08
    You're a wizard, not Harry. I can't wait until that game comes out and I'll be like, oh, yes. I remember everybody speculating for years and I was just sitting here telling people, hey, it's not that. It's everything. Okay, we'll just wait. We'll just keep calling it rumors. It's fine. I can't wait to see the back of Harry's head on the side of the artwork. That's right. You're not thinning yet, Harry.
    49:31
    It's just like, that's him, we promise. Why is his face not on any of this? We don't know. Why does it look like potato Chewbacca? Jesus. What is this?
    49:41
    All right. So I'm guessing early September, late August. They got the guy who played Dobby to do the call-outs. It's great. I don't know any of that. I was going to do a Dobby impersonation, but I don't know any of them. Didn't he have a fetish for socks or something? What was that? Yeah, there was like some weird sock thing going on. Dobby wants to see Harry's weenie in a sock.
    50:03
    That's why Dobby's hiding in the corner. That's right. Harry's got a big wand. I see why he's the chosen one. I'm mixing up all my... Okay, all right. So we're guessing that. Spooky pinball. Sorry, brought to you by Trojan.
    50:26
    That's how to get bucks into the industry. Let's talk about Dutch pinball. They made an announcement on social media formally. It is with great pleasure and excitement that we officially announce our next title from DPX. PX, PX, PX.
    50:45
    Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Okay, so a little bit of a name change there. Yeah. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. They go on to say, for some time now, rumors have been circulating, but we can now confirm that this highly anticipated game is indeed Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It doesn't roll off the tongue as well as Alice in Wonderland, and people will still call it that. Okay, some may be familiar with the original concept designed by John Papaduke. Why are you even mentioning that? Initially named Alice in Wonderland. Yes. This game has evolved from a paper concept, from a foam concept, into an extraordinary pinball machine. It features hand-sculpted playfield plastics.
    51:24
    Wait a minute. Hold on. Paul's right there. It features hand-sculpted playfield plastics. True luxury. Hand-made playfield plastic. What does that mean? Each one is unique, sculpted by an artisan. How do you sculpt plastic by hand?
    51:46
    With a scalpel. Listen, Zach. Oh, no. You need to understand. There is so much that can be done with plastic. If you just believe in yourself and have sharp enough tools and just a lump, a big old lump of plastic, then I can craft you the statue of David with his weird giant hand that's not proportional to the rest of his body. because it's the renaissance and we didn't know such things i want a picture let's see if albright can do this or johnny crap i want oh you know who would be good doing this i think yeti might be interested in this i want to see an artistic illustration a rendition of dennis nordman wrapped around john papaduke molding the clay from ghosts But molding foam from the foam core.
    52:42
    You know, you could probably ask AI to do that. Yeah, because they're both so good with that foam core. Oh, man.
    52:51
    I want that so bad. That's our next t-shirt. Dennis Nordman showing Papa Duke the ropes of foam core. And down below, you just have it say, ditto.
    53:04
    You're so wrong. oh man this is so good see call no all right i just didn't know what hand sculpted i mean i mean i'm going to assume it actually means that someone like carved out the mold by hand not actually is individually gonna truly take a lump of plastic and sculpt it but you could i mean you could chisel a chunk of plastic like you could stone But when I hear of hand-sculpted, I always think like resin or some type of figure. But then it's like play-filled plastics, I think flat. Like 2D slingshot plastics. Okay, so you're saying that. Okay, but a lot of those things are probably a form of plastic as well. Booty rates? I don't. Yeah, but stern plastic. They got one person that just polishes the bevels on those. The new booty rates. All right. It just stuck out. I don't know. Richly colored play fields. Oh, thanks. laser-finished oversaturated and stunning interactive sculpted topper is that plastic and much more amazing styling and features we offer not just a pinball machine but a piece of art for your home i like that every home needs a pinball every pinball needs a home the game is designed and engineered by melvin brower williams uh not browley williams That actually sounds so similar to Valerie Williams. That's right. It's a subliminal advertisement there. More information will be revealed in the coming months. Join Alice on her Wonderland adventures and see how deep the rabbit hole goes. Stay tuned. While we are not accepting orders or deposits at this time, you can contact your preferred distributor to be added to the waiting list. Oh, so just any distributor. So I can call flipping out pinball. A lot of people have called their preferred distributor, And I unfortunately tell them, as of right now, we're not good enough to be added to their dealer list, I guess. They did just add Great American Pinball. So they did open it up past the coin taker thing. So they got Great American Pinball, a dealership in Chicago area, and Pinball Traders. They announced Pinball Traders as American dealers. Pinball Traders, also a new dealer for the Funhouse stuff.
    55:31
    Planetary Pinball and Pinball Traders have a, let's just say, a great relationship. So that makes sense to me, the Pinball Traders, if, in fact, Planetary Pinball is going to be supplying some of those parts. I get that. Great American Pinball, if they're opening up to a lot of dealers, that makes sense. So I don't know what their plans are. All I know is I've got a big, long list for people that want Alice, big, long list for people that want Back to the Future, and I may not be able to fulfill anybody on that list. I don't know how they – how do they choose dealers, Dennis? Maybe they just choose the nice ones. How would you – no, no, that's not the case. How would you choose a dealer? How would you – like, for me, I would think – As small as they are, I'm surprised they're – I'm honestly surprised they're using distributors.
    56:24
    As small as they are. For the DPX portion? Yeah. Okay. I get that argument, too. I'd have probably just used, and if I needed to because I'm international, I'd have used one and probably just stuck with CoinTaker.
    56:39
    Keep going. Overall, a lot of people are still excited about the product. I'm not poo-pooing the product. I still have some morsel of excitement for new products such as this. So I'm looking forward to seeing it. It did have a little bit of controversy because they showed on social media when they made this announcement, they showed a picture of some of the artwork, and it looked a little different than Jeremy Packer's artwork. Well, they don't have the ability to use Jeremy's artwork, do they? I think they just what very little he did, they do. But that wasn't going to cover the game. I mean, that's going to give you a backlash.
    57:24
    I still think this game is a mistake. I know you do. And it may be. We'll see. They think they're going to make 500 of these at 15,000 a pop? It better be great. But go back to a couple episodes ago. Dennis and I thoroughly explained to individuals our concerns. or that might have been paywall sign up today because we explained what i think is hard to argue against uh the concerns with this the the controversy was jeremy packard jumped in commenting on that picture saying i i would have never used browns like there's a lot of browns in this picture alone but browns uh the laser printers cannot print browns very well so they come out really dark, distorted as blacks, and he's just like, I stay away from browns altogether. That's why you know... Well, maybe they're screen printing it. That's why you know this isn't my artwork. He's just so against this whole damn thing. In Before the Lock podcast, interviewed Melvin Williams. Melvin Williams. So go listen to that. I didn't get a chance to listen to that yet. I'm not familiar with this podcast, actually. It's a couple of individuals who make mods.
    58:35
    Stumbler, I think, is one of them. And the TEP that was making the Twilight Zone topper. They were making the Godzilla topper. Individual from there, they're doing the podcast together about pinball mods, but they're interviewing Melvin Williams for this episode. So go check it out. Let's keep going in pinball news here. Spooky Pinball is shipping right now. I just wanted to make note as an update. They're shipping Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Looney Tunes like in the late 70s, early 80s. We just got a couple shipped out and ours were like 75, 76, something like that. So they're in the 80s. That's what they're shipping right now. When do you think they'll come out with another game? I'm guessing maybe sooner than their usual December, actually. I don't think so. I think it's going to be TPF also-ish. I think it's going to be a couple of months later. Oh, really? Yes. What are they going to build? What are they going to be building? They're going to try and get more people to buy these. Okay. All right. Because I just don't think the other games baked well enough yet.
    59:42
    You might be right. It ain't any good to throw a cake out when it's not baked. Or a baby out of the bath with the bathwater. That's right. What a weird phrasing. Can you imagine how bad you'd feel if you actually threw your baby out when you dumped the bathwater? And you'd be like, I just was that stereotype, the statement. That's me. Yeah. And then you were probably like, why did I not invest in indoor plumbing? How strong would a person have to be? You'd have to be super strong to not only lift the baby in the bath, but a whole bath full of water? That's heavy. That's a lot. Well, but if it's like a newborn, though, I mean, it could just be like one of the little tubs that you wash your feet in. Why are you drinking while you're bathing your baby? You have to be drunk to throw the baby out. There's no statement of alcoholism being involved with this. One would have to be drunk. They could just be exhausted. Okay. Have you ever been so tired, and the next thing you know, you realize what you're going to throw in the trash you put in the refrigerator, and you threw the ketchup in the trash? It's like that, but with babies. A ketchup bottle is different than a bad baby. I don't know.
    60:53
    Sorry, Spooky. That's where they're shipping in the 70s. I still feel like there could be another log jam around the fall of this year with new pinball products. But we'll see. This is not the year for a log jam. Well, everybody's trying to jump in front of everything because they're trying to get some sales. Speaking of log jams, we've got a new Pedretti Gaming Game, Funhouse Remake. They're shipping some showroom games already. Media games are going out now. I think their first 20 to 40, 50, something like that. We've got an Ellie and a Classic coming to our showroom very soon. Hopefully, get some streams out. I'm still looking forward to Travis Meary. He's supposed to be getting out some videos, I believe, on this game. So that's coming. Stay tuned. Cool. Did you know this last week the IFPA World Pinball Championship 19 happened? I saw some photos of the winner. Did you watch it? I did not. I've been a bad content consumer. I didn't watch this either. What's wrong with this? Okay, Nudge Magazine has a good write-up on it. They did. Good point. Nudge Magazine did have a nice little write-up about it. But congratulations to, spoiler alert, people, Jason Zoller winning his first major championship. Nice job, young buck. He's a young guy. All of them are young. They all are now.
    62:15
    Johannes Ostermeyer. He's young, too. Yeah. And then the other guy, so young, I forgot his name. He's good, too. There's that baby that was in the bath.
    62:28
    That's a pinball competitor you threw out there. One of the best. Arvid. That's who it was. Flag Air. Arvid. Nice job, Arvi. Fourth place went to Escher Lefkoff. Escher. Huh? It sounds like Escher's getting a little long in the tooth. We're going to start calling Escher the senior there. You got gray hair on your balls yet, Escher?
    62:49
    Oldie. Man, time to retire, Escher. Sorry, I just watched the boys. Did you ever watch The Boys? Yes, I watched it yesterday. Okay, I'm on episode two. They're getting pretty silly. Episode two had a lot of wiener. It had a lot of wiener in it, didn't it? Yeah, the gray pubic hairs. Yeah, yeah. Sorry, back to competitive pinball. Diabolical.
    63:16
    Look, people are really going to be thrilled about this week's exclusive content as club members of the pinball. show because you my friend are going to be taking on this or that what yes the people have asked for it you yourself have even praised the segment just not too big a fan of the host so we're going to allow dennis creasel to sit in the hot chair and to determine very much sdtm's very latest this or that all you've got to do to hear this exclusive content is sign up to be one of our club members at patreon.com slash the pinball show it's a bunch of fun and you'll get uh also with that membership at the ten dollar minimum level you also get some i would say private correspondence discord but not private at all it's whatever we post in there probably get shared but uh nonetheless if it's worthy of being shared publicly when it's not supposed to be then it's good stuff over there So come hang out with us. You can jump up to the $25 a month club, the Nordman level, and then you get our hangout, our happy hour hangout every month. And speaking of the happy hour hangout, we have it this coming Wednesday. I think we do it at 8 p.m. Central typically. That is correct. Okay. So we've got it this Wednesday. And for those of you who are doing the $10 a month, bump yourself up to $25 a month and come hang out with us. Something tells me this month is going to be very, very interesting. Or for those $100 a month members, we call them the Screaming Goat Club. They are our VIPs. They're the ones that we hold near and dear to our chesticles. And we'll thank them here in a minute. But if you jump up to that, then you get a whole other level of private correspondence with Dennis and I to get all the juice, all the info. You get the paywall polo. You get to come on the show. at some point and much, much more. So go listen, after this episode, go listen to the exclusive content of Dennis taking on this or that And give us feedback for that exclusive content if you like what you hearing whether it the Twipties of this week in distribution or Dennis taking on this or that what you guys want to hear more of and we accommodate I think this last week we had – did we have two pieces again of exclusive content, or did I forget to upload the second one again? I don't recall. I don't know. If not, I'll do it today. We do have to say thank you to a couple of very special people to the Pinball Show. They keep it alive here. They're everything. They're loud, though.
    65:57
    You got a screamer. That's right. I'll say today, thank you to Rodney, to Bobcat. We're talking about how many units and when the next units come. We've been talking about a lot of that. Okay, let's talk about Bobcats. How many Bobcats coming around before you think they can overtake you? maybe three three that's a that's a pretty high number that's a pretty high number i like i think that they're going to get distracted like most cats with like lasers and stuff the ball of yarn yes it's just a random ball of yarn i have in the backyard if i can get past that one or two of them will be we'll be taking that on instead of me well if you have random wives just throw those into the mix because they attack my wife they like wives so they may be that's true you know I'm going to say three as well. I'm not going to be cocky and go for here because I think two would give me a really hard time. Three. Three would be interesting to see. So thank you again, Rodney. What about the bumblebee?
    66:59
    Oh, thank you, Steve, for all the continued support. How many bumblebees could you take on them? Little bastards are mean. They chase you and they follow you. Oh, they can barely fly, though, and they're slow. They're not wasps. No, but they're cute, too. Yeah, they're clumsy. I'm going to say 20. well is that too many i don't because if you got three that sting you you're gonna give up you're gonna probably me now what are you allergic to them or no you're not allergic you probably take at least 50 stings wow wow are those the kind of if they sting you they die or is that real honeybees that's like all normal bees wasps i think they all lose their stinger no wasps or oh my gosh i hate wasps they're the dickheads that keep stinging you so bumblebee we're saying 50 or something thank you rob and your continued support you are known here at the pinball show simply as the panther panthers zero panthers i couldn't take a panther i could i could it just depends on their first lunge if they if they don't get my throat then they're fucked i will tear a panther up if i need to i couldn't take on two would kill me. One, if they don't get my throat first, I think I could take them. Frank and the falcon. What is a group of falcon called? Falcons? A murder of crows? Yeah, I don't know. If I'm thinking about how many I could take on, Frank, let us know how many falcons you could probably take on. You're like the Ace Ventura. Come to me, my jungle friends. I'll just swarm around you.
    68:36
    Swooping falcons? I think I could dodge a lot of them. They got sharp talons. I'll say maybe five. Five. I'd say ten. Because once they get your eyes, you're in a lot of trouble.
    68:51
    Oh, sweet, David. Thank you so much for the support. As weeks go by, Dennis, including him as the shaker motor into these examples just gets more and more difficult.
    69:06
    Shaker motors. You know what? I'm going to say how many I could take on without sweating from the bill of it.
    69:15
    Generally, I'll order 50 or so at a time. 1,000. I think 1,000 shaker motors. How much would that cost? Let me see. Let's just call a shaker motor cost $100 times 1,000. That's a $100,000 bill for shaker motors. That would make me sweat. Yep. I'm going to say 1,000. I'm going to say maybe $25,000 because I think there's a fire risk at this point. And I don't know if I could afford the electric bill because if they're running all the time, you know. How many note boards would you need to run 25 shaker motors? Okay, what about Joe? Thank you, Joe, for the continued support. The Fox. I don't know how many Foxes. I can probably take just like the Bobcat. Charlie, thank you for the continued support. When it comes to Bell, I mean, it all depends on size, I would imagine. The Liberty Bell, that's one. It would take me out. It would just drop on me. But like the little jingle bells on a cat's collar, it would take a lot of those. And William, thank you so much for the continued support of the Pinball Show. As a Screaming Go Club member, you're known here as the dude. Yeah, man, it really tied the room together. This was a value, dog. It tied the room together, dude. My rug. Were you listening to the dude's story, Donnie? And you know what? the irony of last week, William purchasing a big Lebowski pinball machine. Ladies and gentlemen, it has all come full circle here. Yeah. He messaged and said, well, I mean, it's fitting, right? Zach, I need to own this game. And I said, you damn right you do. William, you damn right. And he ordered one. So the dude, how many dudes could you take? Uh, infinite. Cause they abide. Yeah. Honestly, a multiverse of dudes. because I think we're fine. We might be super high, but I think we'll be fine. You know, Father's Day is a wonderful holiday that's often overlooked. You know, not that I'm bitter or salty about it, but, yeah, it's a fact. And the same can be said about this next pinball segment because so many people— Why did you play up as the best segment all the time, and now it's overlooked? Oh, no, it's just underappreciated. It's underappreciated.
    71:27
    and and you know what a terrible opening when it comes to this segment uh a lot of people call it the big daddy of pinball podcasting segment what has ever called it that ladies and gentlemen uh all i'm gonna ask is who's your daddy in this week oh my god I like your style, dude.
    71:57
    Turning up this week is... Oh, my gosh. How long will this show last? I think we make 200 episodes. Oh, you know, I don't know. If we keep doing .5s, we might not get there.
    72:16
    Turning up this week. The numbers don't lie. I only report the facts. And some facts are not conducive to me as a business owner. It's just I have to report what's out there. And the reports this week are that the market trend of the week is the Big Lebowski. That is what's trending right now. You don't see a lot of them up for sale. They're still kind of holding their value very well. We got a couple in to sell in a situation. and damned if those things didn't sell. They sold so fast that there's still a desire for this game. They're wrapping up production of it, but I think this game's going to be okay. And it pains me to say, because our customers are speaking to us and saying, I want some big Lebowskis, and my hands are tied here.
    73:05
    They're pissing on my rug, people. I don't know what to tell you. Maybe tell them they should have gotten in, I don't know, the last 10 years. some of them want to deal with flipping out pinball they don't feel comfortable dealing with other people that's all but it is training up they they went fast and uh it's like throwing the ferret out with the bathtub water but yeah training up this week is most certainly the big lebowski also training up this week is dads we are the big daddies of the pinball media none of the pinfluencers yeah that's what we are Dennis. Do you take that moniker? Pinball media? I don't really like that. I don't really like the term. Pinball personality? Pinball famous. Pinball famous?
    73:51
    Content creator? What do you like to be referred to as? I'm just Dennis. Just Dennis? Well, we know you don't like Din Din. I'm just a simple podcaster making my way. Are we providing information for people? Are we journalists? No. No, okay, we're not journalists. You've got to go to school for that, I think. Well, I mean, you could be apprenticed, I suppose. Oh. But we don't tackle it from a journalistic lens. I see. But we are providing relevant information. Sure.
    74:25
    Reporter? No. No? You don't have the little press note in your fedora. Yeah, I don't have the ticket stub. And reporters normally get invited to damage control tours. Man. Ouch.
    74:41
    I'm just saying. Maybe that means we've made it. You know what I like to be referred to as? A creator. An entertainment creator. A producer. I'll go with producer. A host. I'll go with host. Entertainment host. Where we're not charging for autographs at expos or anything.
    74:58
    Who's that guy that emailed? I want to email him. See what he thinks about me. All the training up this week is, yeah, it's fathers. It's Dad's. It's Papa's. If they have a bad one, then we can trim them down. That's fine, too. But I got to trim mine up. Mine's good. I get to work with them now. And he weed eats with his shirt off. That's just, that's a man right there. Jeez. All's turning up this week is Jaws Topper. Nope. I had to. Nope. They're selling. Hit with the ugly stick one too many times. Nope. Oh, my God. What about the stern expression speaker lighting? Yeah, you can turn that up when it comes out. Fair enough. you just didn't like Chewbacca Jesus in particular could you imagine I want someone to replace the roar that the Jaws does at the end of Jaws the Revenge with the Chewbacca roar they have the shark roar in that movie Zach it roars like a lion and that's awesome too it's not it's horrible what's it supposed to sound like it's supposed to sound like flipper shark roaring oh it sounds like a dolphin do you know him do you cause you do you have a docile fan sorry name that movie see you don't know my movies your movies are lame heinz gets velvet turning down this week let's get through this we we gotta turn some shit down oh god venom le's oh man taking a bath throwing out the venom Ellie with the bath water. Oh, jeez. I saw a Venom Ellie on the secondary market. A couple of them in the 8000s. Oh, man. They're like new. Fuck. What happened to that game? Why take a C-tier character? There's one person. Hottie is the one person in all of Pinball who actually had that as a dream theme. Jeez. Poor Venom Ellie. They just started seriously rethinking their Squirrel Girl themed game. That's an actual Marvel character. Squirrel Girl! Squirrel Girl, yep. What's this?
    77:01
    So you don't just make up sounds from them. I'm telling you. I'll spread that to more superheroes if I need to. You can't ferret-ify Squirrel Girl.
    77:11
    It's disrespectful. Squirrel Girl. Okay. I tried to say it in a higher timbre. Yeah, I know. You tried. That's right. Also trending down this week. Look, you've got to take the good with the bad here, Dutchie. And trending down this week is hand sculpted with bear hands. Hands molded from a pottery wheel.
    77:36
    Plastics. Hand sculpted booty rate. And that's trending down. I don't know. I just don't want to see Nordman. just cradling John Papaduke with a pottery wheel. Oh, and they've got little bits and pieces on them. They touch each other's nose like, got your nose with the little hot molten plastic.
    78:07
    And foam. It's got like foam feathers everywhere. Like, what is going on? Okay. I wonder if AI did that in post. Post. So training down this week is hand sculpted by plastic. I don't know.
    78:28
    Deal of the week this week. Let's save these people some money. You know what I'm throwing? I'm, I still have this God forsaken highway pinball. I just, I can't get rid of when you last deal that, that you were going to have to drop it down more. I told you that at this point, I'm in the negative on this trade. I've lost money on this trade. Damn it! It's not how you run a business. Hey, but they included the... Oh, wait, that's right.
    78:56
    Jesus. There's so much that I just got. So much. I've not helped your editing at all. I have been diabolical this episode. It's okay. It's all right. This episode, I get to leave picturing the Nordman Papa Duke. That's all I needed in this whole thing. And seeing babies fly out of baths and become pinball champions. All right. So what's the new deal price? I've lowered it to $89.99. I shit you not. I want this fucking thing out so bad. I'll take another $1,000 off of it. Like $79.99. Buy, buy, buy. Come on. It's got to go. That's cheaper than a Venom LE. I don't think one has ever sold that cheap. $79.99. But you got to mention the show. I'm taking a bath on that one. I need to take a bath after this episode. So there you have it. The ups, the downs, the deals of the week. It's the Big Daddy of pinball podcasts. It's pinball market trees.
    80:03
    Dennis, if people want to get a hold of you, I always tell them fuck off. But if they need to. What if they got a sponsorship opportunity for you? You can email me. EclecticGamersPodcast.gmail.com Dennis is open to signing NDAs if you let him into your factory.
    80:21
    Dennis is open to NDAs if he's getting paid. There you go. That makes sense, doesn't it? That's what I'm open to NDAs, too. No, there's plenty of times where an NDA makes sense. I don't understand the value to me of doing an NDA to then not be able to share anything with the podcasts that I'm doing, which ostensibly is why they're contacting me in the first place. Well, you're Pinball Media. That's why. Whatever. follow like subscribe to the pinball show remember go to patreon right now patreon.com slash the pinball show help help a couple fellas out to continue to grow uh what is the most consumed and favorited pinball podcast in the entire industry straight down the middle that's where i do video series on youtube we've got a lot of new content out so go follow like and subscribe there too and the sponsor of this show is flipping out pinball When you buy your pinball machines, do you buy from Flippin' Out? The last one I bought, I did, in fact. Because I bought Godzilla through you. That's right. I just was listening to the song. Yeah, I figured, but I thought I'd answer since I am here. Shout out to Jason who did that jingle. Appreciate you, buddy. Pinball Party Podcast. Yay. But, yeah, that's right. We haven't heard that in a while. Yeah, I didn't hear it on the last episode. Put it back in, Jason. Yeah, we want to hear that. He's like, screw you guys and the editing. I don't want to do it. I'm a musician. Let me have my artistic creative. No. It's like a greatest hits now. We demand. Yes. We want Sandstorm. Play Sandstorm. We want Freebird, man. Come on. So Flippin' Out Pinball is the sponsor. Do me a favor. Go follow, like, and subscribe to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube for Flippin' Out Pinball. Go do it now. Please, now. Product showcase, Flippin' Out Pinball. This week is the Pulp Fiction Special Edition. We've got them in stock now. They're ready to go. No waiting anymore. Pulp Fiction, SE, ready to go. And it's probably the best deal in pinball right now. $79.99 plus shipping. That's a solid deal. You know what? I got a couple of Cactus Canyon LEs in, and we have one more left. And that's a good deal, too. $92.50 for an LE. Get out of here. John Wick Pros Premiums LEs. I had to order more LEs because we sold all ours. How about that? I didn't think that happened, did you, Dennis? No, I didn't. Man, let's turn him back around. It's a big, wide turn, but it's hopefully turning back around. Come on, Timmy Sexton. We need some more code, buddy. Need some more code. Their next cornerstone, if you have an interest in that, let us know. We can put you on the list. Jaws Pro, Premium, Godzilla Pro, Foo Fighters Pro and Premium, Stranger Things Pro and Premium, Venom Pro, Premium, L.A. Jurassic Park Pro, Premium, Star Wars Pro, Premium, Deadpool Pro, Premium, Ventures Pro, Premium, Iron Maiden Pro and Premium. You know the Iron Maiden Pros? We have some of those that are getting ready to run. So if you want one of those turtles premium, I think I got one more left. Led Zeppelin premium Mandalorian pro and premium labyrinth pre-order that sucker fun house remake pre-order that sucker too. I think we're down to two LEs spots. Elton John. I think I've, I think I've got one P in stock. See, I'd have to check. I think we got one toy stories, guns and rose Looney tunes, pre-orders Texas chainsaw massacre pre-orders, uh, and so on and so forth. Oh, alien toppers. We're going to have those too. Get those. I've got a really good smoking deal on an ice cold beer remake arcade that I'm about to post. Escalator stair climbing hand trucks and the new Tilton truck tables. I think the turnaround time on those is only a couple weeks now for that. So, bye, bye, bye. Toppers. You guys remember, if you've got a naked jaws, get one today. Get you a topper. Get you some armor. Get you art blades. The shooter rod. Get it all. Insider connected kits. If you're not insider connected yet, what are you waiting for? Get it. flipping out with friends last week joel had on elizabeth gieske this week i don't know what i don't know what he's doing this week maybe another joel's premium stream he loves that game or maybe a talking stream i kind of want to get him an iron maiden i think that would be fun also check out flipping out pinball shop videos where i'd let you come behind the scenes take a look seeing what's going in what's coming out it's fun times over flipping out pinball and see me squash spiders with my bare hands. See what you're missing, Dennis? Can you teach these people something? I might be able to.
    85:07
    All right, listeners, you may not know this, but Ghost, 1990 hit film. The scene, the pottery scene, it was inspired by my foam core work. And the pot, it wasn't supposed to fall apart. But Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore just kept going. It wasn't supposed to fall apart because foam core would not have fallen apart. J-Pop and I could have taught them that, but they didn't listen, and they turned it into pottery because they thought it was sexier. Does that mean that J-Pop is the Robin to Nordman? It's the dynamic duo. You've never known that you want it. Oh, my God, Nordman, it's perfect. Because there for years, John Papa Duke was definitely Robin a lot of people.
    85:53
    He's Robin because he's a crook. Hopefully it's not a heavy edit this time. You did it really fast last time. You blew everyone away. I think we got two new subscribers just because of how fast you were. I think Nicole was doing something with the kids, so I was like, okay. Well, it's Father's Day today, so. Oh, I want to get catered to today. You should ask the kids to edit. Oh, geez. it'll sound like most other pinball podcasts hey oh and that's fair with someone who's i can't i can't put in this you can't what what was what was what was her name and more like there's your opening i can't believe that oh my god Oh my god That's so good though So fucking good Oh my gosh Alright how am I going to open this one up Fuck I hate finding gold and not being able to mine it Look for silver instead That worked didn't it Robin It was clever Thank you