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Pinball Junk Drawer Episode 52 - Haggis roundup, silverball swag and how to choose a convention

Poor Man's Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·analyzed·Aug 1, 2024
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.026

TL;DR

Junk Drawer 52: Haggis Pinball collapse postmortem, Silverball Swag merch launch, convention strategy

Summary

Pinball Junk Drawer Episode 52 features Foghorn Leghorn and Craft Brew Sally announcing a merchandise partnership with Silverball Swag, discussing the collapse of Haggis Pinball (an Australian startup manufacturer), reflecting on what caused the failure, and offering practical advice on choosing pinball conventions to attend. The hosts also highlight Arcane Brewery's Tim Beer fundraiser and promote Project Pinball's charitable work placing machines in children's hospitals.

Key Claims

  • Haggis Pinball has gone under; the building was foreclosed on and sites went dark

    high confidence · Foghorn Leghorn, discussing Haggis collapse

  • Haggis released at least two machines: Kelts and a Fathom/Centaur variant, but did not fulfill all pre-orders from their final crowdfunding round

    medium confidence · Foghorn Leghorn, recalling Haggis products

  • Damien, the Haggis founder, was previously very active on social media with frequent video updates, but has gone completely silent with no statements about the company's situation

    high confidence · Foghorn Leghorn and Craft Brew Sally discussing Haggis management

  • Foghorn believes Damien was likely not acting with malicious intent, but rather got in over his head trying to run a pinball manufacturer and lost money

    medium confidence · Foghorn Leghorn's interpretation of events

  • Stern Pinball learned from historical manufacturing mistakes and doesn't take feedback from Pinside forum discussions seriously

    medium confidence · Foghorn Leghorn speculating on Stern's decision-making process

  • Spooky Pinball is no longer truly 'boutique' but rather a solid, growing manufacturer despite labor pool constraints in Benton

    medium confidence · Foghorn Leghorn's assessment of Spooky's status

  • Pinball Junk Drawer is planning to attend Pinball Expo and considering future conventions including Freeplay Florida, Texas TPF, and Allentown/Pinberg

    high confidence · Foghorn Leghorn and Craft Brew Sally discussing convention attendance

  • Arcane Brewery (Florida) is releasing a Tim Beer IPA on Friday, with all proceeds going to Tim, their head brewer who was rear-ended in a car accident in June and is unable to work

    high confidence · Craft Brew Sally's Beer Journal Review segment

Notable Quotes

  • “Officially, Haggis is gone. Now, I'm sure there's going to be months and months of massive fallout and litigious things that I have no interest for.”

    Foghorn Leghorn @ mid-episode — Opening statement on Haggis collapse; sets tone for discussion of business failure in pinball

  • “I honestly think the dude was trying to be a pinball manufacturer in Australia, lost money, was trying to roll money to keep going, and just got in over his head and dropped.”

    Foghorn Leghorn @ during Haggis discussion — Offers charitable interpretation of Haggis founder's motives; frames failure as business hardship rather than fraud

  • “This speaks to how incredibly hard it is to be a pinball manufacturer. All these startups are... some are nefarious. For the most part, I think people go in with honest intentions.”

    Craft Brew Sally @ during Haggis analysis — Acknowledges difficulty of startup manufacturing; defends assumption of good faith

  • “And that's what all these, I think what a lot of people when they're starting up don't realize is if you make a serious enough mistake, you can't recover and you're done.”

    Foghorn Leghorn @ during manufacturer discussion — Core insight on startup fragility and the stakes of manufacturing mistakes

  • “Non-refundable means that ain't your money anymore. I know. It's not yours.”

    Foghorn Leghorn / Craft Brew Sally @ during refund policy discussion — Emphasizes the harsh reality of non-refundable deposits in high-stakes purchases

  • “If you're going to go full on video and I'm talking all the time, it raises more concern when you stop.”

    Foghorn Leghorn @ regarding Haggis transparency — Commentary on how communication silence fuels speculation and mistrust during crisis

  • “Radio silence. Huh. So who announced that they're going under? They just went away and the building was foreclosed on.”

    Craft Brew Sally / Foghorn Leghorn @ describing Haggis collapse timeline — Documents the abrupt, ungraceful collapse with no public announcement

Entities

Foghorn LeghornpersonCraft Brew SallypersonHaggis PinballcompanyDamienpersonSilverball SwagcompanyStern PinballcompanySpooky PinballcompanyJersey Jack Pinball (JJP)companyYarn Ghoulscompany

Signals

  • ?

    business_concern: Haggis Pinball (Australian startup) collapsed completely with building foreclosure and website going dark; founder Damien went silent with no public statements or updates

    high · Foghorn: 'Officially, Haggis is gone... the building was foreclosed on. The sites went dark. it just stopped being a thing'; 'Nothing. Radio silence.'

  • ?

    community_sentiment: Hosts sympathetic but realistic about startup manufacturer failures; attribute Haggis collapse to over-extension rather than malicious intent, framing it as cautionary tale on manufacturing difficulty

    high · Foghorn: 'I honestly think the dude was trying to be a pinball manufacturer in Australia, lost money, was trying to roll money to keep going, and just got in over his head'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Community discussion of transparency and communication strategy during crisis; silence and media blackout fuels speculation and mistrust more than honest bad news updates would

    medium · Foghorn: 'If you're going to go full on video and I'm talking all the time, it raises more concern when you stop'; 'even bad news is better' than silence

  • ?

    business_signal: Spooky Pinball transitioning from boutique to solid mid-tier manufacturer; growth trajectory positive despite labor pool constraints in Benton location

    medium · Foghorn: 'they're not even really boutique anymore to me... they're cranking. They're going... they've made mistakes and gotten through them and learned from them and grown'

  • ?

    community_engagement: Pinball Junk Drawer launching merchandise line through Silverball Swag; motivated by sister's podcast merchandise success; plans for stickers, t-shirts, and custom items

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.068

0:00
Now who's responsible, I say, who's responsible for this unwarranted attack on my person? I say, I say, I say, pay attention now, boy. This is, of course, Foghorn Leghorn presents the Pinball Junk Drawer. You all asked for it, I say, I say, you all asked for it now, you're gonna get it. Boy, oh boy, are you gonna get it. Go, I say, go away, boy, you bother me. Welcome one and all to the Pinball Junk Drawer Big Show 52, the only pinball podcast that is recorded in new black and white monochrome. My name's Foghorn Leghorn, and with me as always... Craft Brew Sally. Monochrome Brew Sally. And Foghorn Monohorn.
0:48
Monochrome. Monochrome Horn. those are things that aren't real anyway yes this is of course show 52 i think i already said that but i'm not going to edit it because i am the edwood of pinball podcast and i guess i would make you the glen glenda i'm glen and you're glenda that's an edwood reference that no one in the world's going to get it's okay so uh yeah i guess we're going to kick off the show with a kind of a cool announcement we are working with silver ball swag and we will be having some merch shop on their store, I believe, which means I've actually gone ahead and made better artwork and a better logo. And, you know, so we started out, I made one logo that's kind of like that 70s funkadelic, funky looking, right? 60s, late 60s, early 70s. Ah, yeah. The big stripe thing. Yep. Yeah. And then I made one that was kind of just for me, but it's going up on the site. It's the pizza, the chef, okay guy. And he's just a speech bubble that says, the pinball junk drawer. Is that the one that was on all the pizza boxes? Yes. Okay. All the pizza boxes.
2:02
It's the most generic public domain art there is. And then everyone's seen it a billion times. I was like, do it. Just do it. And then I have to make a beer bottle version. Yes. Yes, we do. And I'll rope it all in. So look for more for that. I'm working with the king of swag, I guess he signs the email, at the Silver Ball Swag. And we hope to be giving you some news. I did click on the link. He sent a link and saying, you know, pick a couple items. And I was looking a little bit, and I was like, oh, I don't know. You know, part of me says just go straight up, T-shirt, don't get any fancy, like the baseball jersey or that wacky stuff. They look cool, but no one gets them. Right. Because they're more expensive. They're not comfortable. They're dumb. I'm like, you know, I just, not dumb. I think they look cool. Like they're stylish, but it's not, I don't think it's conducive to sales. No, it's their, the material on them isn't very. Yeah. So we'll see. I think there's a lot of pages. We haven't looked through any of them together. So we're just so you know, I will, we'll of course give a official shout out when we do have stuff up on silver ball swag. And if you don't know what that is, that's a place that sells a lot of pinball related stuff. So if you go there, prepare to lose a lot of money. And hey, maybe you can spend one on a pinball junk drawer shirt. That'd be awesome. Why not? Got to get some stickers going too. Right. I don't know how that's going to work out. We'll figure it out. I need the stickers. Yeah. So we've got to give a shout out. The reason this is spurred on is because my sister has her own podcast on YouTube. It's called Yarn Ghouls. And they talk about yarn and knitting. And then they also talk about morbid things and cryptids and haunted mansions. And she has swag. And I was like, let's see. She's been doing it for 20 minutes and has swag. I've been doing it since 2006. 20 years. Nothing. No, I've never sold a thing. I don't think I've made a single penny ever.

  • “If you haven't hit that one up, check it out. It's a cool one. Freeplay Florida... it doesn't get mentioned in the same, like, as Expo and as MGC and Southern Fright Gaming.”

    Foghorn Leghorn @ during conventions discussion — Notes Freeplay Florida's underrated status in pinball convention awareness

    • Pinball Expo
    event
    Freeplay Floridaevent
    Texas TPFevent
    Southern Fright Gamingevent
    Pinbergevent
    Arcane Brewerycompany
    Timperson
    Project Pinballorganization
    Garyperson

    high · Foghorn: 'we are working with silver ball swag... I've actually gone ahead and made better artwork and a better logo'; plans multiple designs including pizza chef and beer bottle variants

  • $

    market_signal: Pinball convention ecosystem fragmented across multiple events (Expo, Freeplay Florida, Texas TPF, Pinberg, MGC, Southern Fright Gaming); hosts strategizing attendance based on travel cost and value

    high · Foghorn/Sally discussing challenge of choosing which convention to attend per year due to travel costs and time commitments; noting Freeplay Florida underrated compared to major events

  • ?

    pricing_concern: Non-refundable deposit policies create significant financial risk for collectors; $1,000-$13,000 at-stake with no recourse if manufacturer fails; hosts laboring over deposit decisions

    high · Discussion of Haggis deposits being non-refundable; Foghorn: 'Non-refundable means that ain't your money anymore... If there was some way of recouping it, well, this company is going into liquidation... you're going to spend more money to get an attorney'

    • 4:01
    If I found a penny on the way down to record, I dropped it into a grate and lost that penny. I lost every. It's amazing. I was like, huh. It's now in our sump pump. It costs us money. Everything costs us money. Great. So luckily, the Yarn Ghouls has spurred us on and kicked me in the ass and said, you know, loser, why don't you just do that one little thing that you do kind of for a living and upload a logo and get some. You know what, loser? Your sister has a sticker. My sister has a Yarn Ghouls sticker. She has a shirt. I'm like, man, I suck.
    4:35
    So if you like that kind of stuff, go to Yarn Ghouls on YouTube and laugh along with it. They have a very good show going. And also tell friends and family about this show because we need listens. We don't really need listens, but I like them. I like if you listen. We like listens. Yeah, I guess so. I don't know.
    4:56
    Officially, Haggis is gone. Now, I'm sure there's going to be months and months of massive fallout and litigious things that I have no interest for. I will start by saying, you know, if you put money in and you lost some money, that sucks. It does. Nobody thinks that's great. Nobody. And, you know, I know we talked a little bit about it on one of our shows, kind of saying, you know, nonrefundable is nonrefundable. No, that wasn't to diminish the loss, you know. Right. And I don't ever – no one gave us any hate mail or anything like that. But I do want to be clear.
    5:31
    No one wants to lose anything. I don even want to lose that penny I dropped into a subcomp You know it kind of like you look at it like I was trying to think of like this whole debacle Yeah Because I do a lot of people have kind of gone on the thing where the guy is kind of purposely a shyster stealing money. I don't necessarily think that. Has there been any machines put out by Haggis? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Just this last round, they kind of tapered off and didn't fulfill all. I don't think they fulfilled all of their. What the hell is the name of it? The one before it, they still had some open ones. And then they started taking deposits for Centaur. Okay. They did a new Centaur. They were going to launch a new Centaur. So he has put out a couple of machines. Kelts was one of their machines, which we played. And real nice. Was it Fathoms? I think it was Fathom Revisited maybe. God, I can't believe I'm drawing a blank. So whatever. I honestly think the dude was trying to be a pinball manufacturer in Australia, lost money, was trying to roll money to keep going, and just got in over his head and dropped. You know what I mean? I don't really think he was evil intent or trying to steal from me. I could be wrong, and that's me being naive, I guess. But why would you? If you're trying to be the best, I think that speaks to how incredibly hard it is to be a pinball manufacturer. All these startups are, now some are nefarious. For the most part, I think people go in with honest intentions of being the next big thing or hoping to be the next big thing or hoping to bring the world more pinball. And it just, they crumble or they make mistakes that like the other, the bigger manufacturers made long time, like all the years of mistakes that they've learned from. Yeah. You know, they're the reason that Stern doesn't do this and Stern doesn't do that. Why doesn't Stern? Well, because 20 years ago, they almost closed because they tried something and it failed. So they learned that lesson, and they don't listen to Pinside. They don't listen to Pinside. They'll read it and chuckle probably, but they're going to be like, no, no. They probably sit around the big boardroom and like, let's see what Pinside has to say today. I hope they never have wasted a moment.
    7:44
    I like going on Pinside. That's probably what they do for team building events at Stern. How many mistakes can you find in this thread? Go. In 60 seconds, they find 780 mistakes that aren't even realistic. They're Friday night shots.
    8:00
    Exactly. Whoever drinks and finds the most in one thread, this one thread has the most. And that's the benefit of surviving and making the cut year after year like Stern did and JJP. One of those things that Gary said to us one time when we were talking to him was he knew that there was going to be a shortage on something. So he ordered a ton of them. No idea. That he would have them going forward. Right, and knowing that even if he was shorted, he could still go. And all that kind of stuff comes with this experience. Right. And also having capital to do that.
    8:38
    And Spooky, to some degree, they've had some growing pains, but they're growing and growing and getting stronger and stronger. So they're not even really boutique anymore to me. I know they are, but they're solid performers. They have their own distinct issues. They're in a tiny little place. So, Labor Pool is definitely, I wouldn't say a concern, but Benton's a small place. And I don't know what's around them. It doesn't look like there's anything around them in Benton. Not to say they can't find people to work there. I know I mean that. They're going to have to have people relocate to Benton. And they have their own, but they're cranking. They're going. So they've made mistakes and gotten through them and learned from them and grown from them. And that's what all these, I think what a lot of people when they're starting up don't realize is if you make a serious enough mistake, you can't recover and you're done. And that's just the reality of it. So it sucks. You'd like to, I was kind of like thought it would be neat like if Europe, like I know Spain has a lot of pinball machines in the olden days. and, you know, like if Europe had some makers and if Australia had some makers and these guys actually got up and running so there was these, you know, they weren't having to pay extra for shipping because anything Australia gets automatically is like five grand more just because it went on a boat for about a month. You know, like all the taxes and all the duties and blah, blah, blah. So like they should have their own makers. I can't imagine what it costs to ship a pinball machine. I don't want to know. We send Christmas presents to Japan every year and the shipping is ridiculous sometimes the shipping is more than the presents we send and we're like well it's a thought that counts Merry Christmas and that's like us cramming stuff into the smallest box possible and this is a pinball machine that weighs what? 400 pounds? 300 pounds? they're heavy so it depends on who it is so you were like that'd be cool if that would have worked but the reality is it seems like all the parts and all the specialists and all the things are in Chicago area. Right. You can't get away from that. You know, now it's a lot of the parts, let's not fool ourselves, a lot of these parts are coming in drums from China anyway. So it's not like these are, you know, there's not people hand wiring things and stuff like that. I have a problem with, like, non-refundable things. I know. I labor over things that say non-refundable. Yeah, because you're in for it. Yeah. You're screwed. Like no matter what you paying that money and it not yours anymore I know Now it like I do see it on one hand like even if it a gamble like you saying okay a centaur Let's pretend centaur was my favorite thing in the world. Yeah. And all I do is restore old centaurs because I'm just fixing up junk and trying to make it cool again. Now somebody comes out with a new one and they have it. If I love that game, I'm going to like a thousand bucks is nothing to cough at. Right. But if the reality is it's $13,000, it might be worth a gamble. Yeah. That's everyone's own judgment on that. Some people would say, no way. Some people would say, eh, I'm really rich. I could care less about $1,000. Yeah. And some people would labor over it, put it down, then be angry for three years that they lost at Greg. That's me. That's what I would do. If I would do that, I would be so pissed off.
    12:05
    And the reality sinks in that you're like, look, I hoped it was a gamble. Maybe I can get something back or maybe I can recoup. But that's the thing. Non-refundable means that ain't your money anymore. I know. It's not yours.
    12:21
    And if there was some way of recouping it, well, this company is going into liquidation or it's foreclosed on. Right. You're going to spend more money to get an attorney to try to get that $1,000 back. Well, I mean, I think a lot of people did pay in. Yeah. All. That's a different story. It is. $13,000 is... Why would you pay it all at once? Were they giving you like a discount if you paid it all up front? I don't know. I'm not sure. I just have heard that some have. I have trouble doing that. I would have trouble putting the $1,000 down. It's hard even knowing that it's not... Like those times when we ordered stuff and you pay it and you have to wait till it shows up. Right. Now I had faith that Stern was going to ship me Godzilla. Right. But that's tough. Yeah. You don't know what's coming on that truck. Maybe that guy had a bad day and was drunk and just left with the thing open and your Godzilla is smashed on 41 somewhere. Until it's in your hands and you actually own it, that money is just in limbo and you kind of hope. And that's where if you're dealing with a company that's established, you'd hope that you have a recourse like maybe Stern will help you or something I don't know but enough about that our hopes are with everyone involved and I hope it just has a decent resolution I hope that guy starts talking I think okay I said that's enough of that now I'm going to go on another tear the guy Damien who was running the thing owned Haggis was always on social media like really super transparent talking doing these videos doing these videos which is awesome but when things go bad that's you still have to do those right all this misinformation and i'm sure some of the stuff i've spotted is misinformation all that goes away if you just keep going and keep talking to people saying okay this is what we're experiencing and it sucks now you don't like i understand that it's hard to do that that's the hardest thing to do right it's easy to stand up and tell everyone it's great. Stand up and tell everyone that we're getting outsourced to India. I've done it. Not so fun. But you do it. You stand in front of a room and you say these words and you go sure hope somebody didn't bring a hit me with a bat or something on the way out of here. So I think if he would have just kept giving some updates, giving some even bad news is better.
    14:51
    I know that's not realistic and businesses would never do that but if you're going to go full on video and I'm talking all the time, it raises more concern when you stop. Yeah. Like if you're putting a video out every week for... It was nuts. Yeah. And then... That makes you think he is floating away on a big balloon with sacks of money twirling his mustache. Has he made any sort of statements at all? Nothing. Radio silence. Huh. So who announced that they're going under? They just went away and the building was foreclosed on. The sites went dark. it just stopped being a thing huh yeah that's pretty much whatever it all said alright so I did want to give a shout out to Freeplay Florida now we're changing subject I don't want you know that negativity I don't like it the Freeplay Florida I keep getting emails from their updates and I know we always say we're going to get back to Freeplay Florida but then I was also like well there's also like Texas TPF Texas and there's Allentown oh I want to go to that one I want to go to Pinburg Pinberg, yeah. There's so many. And it's like, how do you, I don't know. It's hard to say, let's go back to Freeplay Florida. I love Freeplay Florida. Yeah. It was really fun. And that one doesn't get mentioned by a lot of people. No. You hear of Southern Fight Gaming. You rarely, I don't know why, though. Florida, it's a great convention. He seems to do a lot of social media, but maybe he's only doing it in, like, he doesn't pop up on my Facebook a lot. Yeah, maybe. I don't know. I mean, most people know about Free Play Florida, but it doesn't get mentioned in the same, like, as Expo and as MGC and Southern Fright Gaming. I don't know. It's a fun one. If you haven't hit that one up, check it out. It's a cool one. I don't know which one we're going to do next. I mean, I know we're doing Expo this year. Yeah. But is that something we would do one a year? That's tough. That's money, you know? I want to. I like to I would really like to go back to Florida Yeah I know Maybe it hard to say Because I heard Texas is massive Yeah I heard that a big boy
    17:01
    Who knows? Right now we're all just focused on Expo. I know. I can't wait. I know. That's our next big one. I'm so excited. Got to get stickers. Got to hand out some stickers and whatnot.
    17:13
    If people bring us beers at Expo, we will give you a sticker. No one's trading a beer for a sticker. people just put piles of stickers out to take like you wouldn't trade crapper sally a beer for a sticker maybe if you autograph it maybe i will maybe it ought a crapper sally autographed sticker for a beer that would be i'll start working on my crapper sally signature you're gonna have to so i don't know so it's just one of those things where i started thinking i was like how do you choose which one you go to each year we're gonna have to start strategizing after we after we shake off the hangover from Expo. We'll have to start talking about where we're going to go next. The first couple days I think I'm not going to drink much or at all because I want to focus on the tours and on meeting people and hanging out. Yeah, we have to go to Scoot's place. Yeah, heck yeah. Oh, I can't wait. Yeah, so we have a lot of plans. We'll see how it goes. Anything else for the pinball world? I don't think so. I think it's time for everyone's favorite song. That's what I think.
    18:18
    The fans have spoken and we have listened. It's Beer Journal Review with me, Craft Brew Sally. hi everyone craft brew sally here wow holy shit you want to do a take two are you gonna stick we're gonna stick okay here you go go ahead i don't like when you make me start obviously really it sounds so natural it just rolls off your tongue i'm not a natural at this at all. Me either, apparently. But today I would like to talk to you guys about one of my favorite breweries from Florida was Arcane. They had their brewer, their main brewer was in a car accident back in June. So they have made a beer called the Tim Beer.
    19:32
    And this Friday they're going to give all of the proceeds from the beer to Tim because he's not able to work. Oh, no. Yeah. Like forever? Yeah. He was rear-ended pretty severely.
    19:50
    Whoa. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Oh, man, that sucks. I know you've talked about Arcane on here before. I love Arcane. Yeah, I know. I would like to relocate them to Greenville if possible. I think that might be a trap for Sally. Sally wants to go to Freeplay Florida. Possibly. You stay and play with your pinball machines. And she's gone, takes a rental car, comes back with a trunk full of Arcane beer.
    20:14
    That might happen. We'll have to strong arm Romy into bringing a trunk full of Arcane over. And then, you know. Yeah. Because he lives like down the street from there. Yes, he does. But no, if you are in the Largo, Florida area and if you are available Friday, go to Arcane and buy some Tim beer. Yeah. That sucks. Yeah. Wow. I guess he actually, while he was initially recovering, he made the recipe for this. And it's going to be an IPA. Yeah. So that will be this Friday at Arcane in Largo, Florida. So there you go. Kind of a somber crap through Sally's segment. But, yeah. I saw that today, and I was like, I want to get the Tim Beer, but they won't chip it here. That's sad. You know, maybe write to Promi and see if they'll stop and grab some. Yeah. Just Venmo them. Yeah. You will. They might. Go ahead. Because then you can just throw in the cash and a couple bucks extra, you know, and say, grab some for me. Just sit on it. We'll get it eventually. Yeah. We'll get it sometime. Yeah. Well, there you have it, folks. Anything else? also always projectpinball.org okay you know why? no tell us why they put pinball machines in children's hospitals and they don't shake them down for quarters so they're set on free they are that would be the most evil thing ever it's a 5-1-6 we put all these machines in but we charge 2 bucks a pop little kids don't have 2 bucks I'm hoping to see them at X-Ball I need one of their t-shirts or a sweatshirt or something Dan's always around he always says hey guys I hope he hears this and he says that to us hey guys yeah oh well so yeah Project Miladog I was going to say we have other stuff but who cares thanks for listening everyone this has been the Pinball Junk Drawer Big Show 52 and we'll see you next time. See ya.
    22:26
    That's it, man. Game over, man. Game over.