1, 2, 3, 4, 5, everybody in the car, so come on, let's ride to the liquor store, all around the corner. The boys say they want some gin and juice, but I really don't wanna. Feel buzzed like I had last week, I must stay deep, cause parking's chill. I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said. Alright, I am humbled, and I am hungover, and I am back in New York City. But everybody, thank you so much for all of your votes and all of your sort of support over the years. I feel like we've all been on this journey together. And I couldn't have picked, I mean this, I couldn't have picked greater people to go through life with than the Canada Club members and all of the fans of the show. It's been such an amazing ride. And the reason why I always want to win the Twippy is for all of you. I do believe that winning the Twippy is validation for everything this show stands for. And you saw it. And I hope you caught my speech because I mean it when I say it, that this is an essential toy because of everybody it brings together from all over the world. It is amazing when you go to a show like TPF and you see people from Australia, from France, from Germany, from Texas, from New York, from all over the world. And we're all there because of pinball. Without pinball, we wouldn't be there. There wouldn't even be this show. There wouldn't be a pin side. There wouldn't be Haggis Pinball, Stern Pinball, Spooky Pinball, all the manufacturers that are out there making games, trying to make games. There wouldn't be news. There wouldn't be rumors. There wouldn't be speculation. What would we talk about? We would be boring people. We would probably think the Oscar slap last night was really important. It's not. What's important is that we have each other. And I mean that. And life is really short. Okay, so let's talk about TPF. Let's talk about what happened at the show. We'll talk a little bit about the Twippies. But I also want to give each and every one of you an exclusive bit of news that came from the show. Because you know what happens at the show? People get drunk and people talk. And loose lips, as they say, sink ships. Now, oh my gosh. I mean, there's going to be an irony in that phrase when I tell you from what I heard down in Texas. All right, so let's get right to it. I'm just going to come out of the gate. Because this is what I do. I'm going to come right out of the gate and tell you what I heard. So I heard from my greatest source, who's never wrong, so take that for what it's worth. I got confirmation from this person who talked to someone who's actually seen it, that Jaws pinball is coming from Stern Pinball, and it is coming this year. Jaws, not a nickname for James Bond, but Jaws, yes, the shark. So loose lips that sink ships. You know what else sinks ships? A great white shark named Jaws. I am hearing that is coming from Stern Pinball. So you should go buy the Christopher Franchi Translite of Jaws. But he won't be working on the game. But Jaws is coming out. So who is making Jaws? My guess is this. I think Jaws is going to be the next pinball machine from Mr. Keith Elwin. And I'm not sure if Zombie Yeti is doing the artwork. I think Randy Martinez might be doing the artwork on Jaws. Randy Martinez also had some Jaws artwork at his booth, I heard, at TPF. So you start to put all the pieces together. You start to realize that Stern Pinball will make all of these dream themes. Now, I know you guys want Back to the Future. And guess what? I really think you're going to get Back to the Future, but it's going to be in the future, okay? So Jaws Pinball is coming. Take it to Pinside. Say, Canada is confirming it. You can put my show's reputation on the line. I'm sticking with my source. Jaws from Stern 2022. All right, what else happened at TPF? Let's talk about the other big thing that happened at TPF, which was the Mirko seminar. There wasn't a lot of news at the show. After TPF was over, I think the general consensus was there really wasn't much to talk about. There wasn't a big reveal. There wasn't a big surprise. But the Mirko seminar, if you caught it, was probably one of the most contentious and strange 30 minutes of my pinball life. Because this guy had the audacity to say that he had no comment to anything regarding playfields. And he wanted to get up there and sell us a Totem Kit. And by the way, his presentation was so bad. He didn't even show any video of what they did for this 2.0 kit. It was a horrible presentation. And one of my friends from France, he said it best. I'm not going to butcher his name. It starts with a G. He got up there and he said it, man. I asked the question of what would he say to Jersey Jack owners who had defective playfields. And if he fixed the problems, then he had no comment. But what our friend from France said was the best. He said, basically, I'm going to paraphrase. How dare you? How dare you come here and talk to us about this software kit for Toten and not answer any of the questions about playfields? playfields. How dare you do that? That was it, man. That's how everybody feels. And Mirko, I mean it when I say this, the guy's a weasel. He weaseled his way out of there. He put on his backpack. He doesn't care about any of us. Now, the real problem is this. We can't stick it to him because if we want to stick it to him, it means we can't buy Toy Story and we can't buy Jersey Jack games. And I think it totally sucks that if we want to give Mirko a piece of our mind, We can't. We are beholden to his product because his product makes its way into every single Jersey Jack game. And I talked to Jack for an hour afterwards. I talked to Jack outside of Mirko's booth. And I'm not going to go into all the details of our private conversation, but I will tell you this. I feel bad for Jack. I do. They're at the mercy of Mirko. He is just so fed up with this guy. Now, I also asked Jack, is Mirko an investor in Jersey Jack Pinball? And Jack said no. Now, I don't know if I believe that because then the question is, why can't you find a new vendor to do this? You've had years. You have so much money and you realize that it's just wood and ink and clear coat. Why can't they find someone else to do it? Why can't Leonard and Brett and all their money? Why can they go to like Ron Kruseman and hey look Ron we would like to upscale what you do and create a pinball playfield company and we want you to run it And how many people do you need What equipment do you need And we want to create Cruiseman Playfields This is how businesses start There is a need for something and so you supply it It can't be that hard. And if they're going to stick Miracle Playfields into Toy Story and there are more issues, I mean, it's just going to suck. It sucks. The whole Guns and Roses game became a conversation about playfields. Nobody talks about gameplay. Nobody talks about how amazing that game is, how incredible the assets are. The entire conversation became, my game has chips. My game has pooling around the post. That's what the majority of the Guns and Roses conversation was, the quality issues. And that sucks. I really hope that they figure this out. Now, at the JJP seminar, which by the way, was amazing. It was great having Jack and Steve Ritchie up there. I think they did the best seminar at TPF. It was a fun time. It was a really fun time. And I did ask Jack about the playfields and he said, look, we don't expect to have issues moving forward. And look, we're not going to know if he's right or wrong until the next game ships. I also asked Jack, when will we see the next game? And he said something. He said, you are going to see the next game by July or August of this year. So I don't think we're going to see it at MGC. I don't think we're going to see it this spring. I think they're going to time the launch of Toy Story. It is Toy Story, by the way. They are going to time the launch of Toy Story with the new Buzz Lightyear movie. So when does that movie come out? Let me look right now. All right, so this makes perfect sense. Buzz Lightyear, the movie, is coming out June 17th. So if you're Disney and you're Jersey Jack and you have a new Toy Story pinball machine coming out, wouldn't you hold it and release it right around the movie of Lightyear, Buzz Lightyear? I think that's what's going to happen. I expect to see the reveal of this game to coincide with this new movie. That is what I expect. So get ready, people. I think it's going to be this June. I don't think we're going to get any information before then. And Jersey Jack's going to do it right. They're not going to just like roll up to MGC with a PowerPoint slide, people. They are going to get that video production company that made the GNR video, and they know how to launch a game. I mean, this company launches games better than any other pinball company in the world. And then the playfields fall apart. So hopefully that doesn't happen. All right, what else happened at TPF? So Spooky Pinball, I got to hang out with the entire Spooky Clan throughout the weekend, and they are great guys. And I wore my Hedge Multi Boss shirt. And let me tell you, some people on Pinside were like, Kanae is such a douche. Look what he wore. The Spooky Crew thought it was funny. The Spooky Crew asked for a t-shirt. The spooky crew wore my hedge multi-bath t-shirt onto the stage at the Twippies, people. They have a sense of humor. They're really good people. They know what they need to do to make these games better, and I think they're going to do it. And they said to me, Chris, you actually were the smart one. You bought Ultraman at the end of the line, and that's the way to do it because we need time to make these games great. So I look forward to seeing how Ultraman progresses. They also told me that they have a part shortage and that everyone is experiencing this and that some of the boards that they need to make the games are delayed. And they were so close, they said, to getting all of the parts in before COVID shortage happened. But it happened and it's impacting them, but they are still confident that they are going to get all of the games made within 18 months. So we shall see. But it's a real issue. This is impacting everybody, Spooky, Stern, JJP, Haggis, everybody, everybody is having an issue with parts and with supply. Now, the game at the show, I will say the game at the show that had the longest lines consistently was Weird Al. I mean, I was very impressed by the amount of people that were online to play Weird Al from P3 Multimorphic. I think I got it wrong again. I think it's Multimorphic P3, but there was a consistent line all throughout the show to get on this game. Now, Kaneda did go up to Jerry, and I handed him his $100 because he shipped a Weird Al before Fathom, so he got his $100, and I got to play Weird Al. I want to say this about the game. I think the game is going to be a very fun game if you love Weird Al. I mean, the whole Weird Al theme comes at you in such a unique way in this game, I think you're going to love it. I think you're going to love the modes. I think you're going to love the music. I think you're going to love the shots. I think everything about this game is going to be a Weird Al fans dream come true. Now, does that mean you're going to go buy the heist and all the other games? I don't know. I still think financially that this thing is a really expensive proposition because if you buy a Weird Al LE for 13 grand and then a heist and then a Cosmic Kart Racing, you're like pretty much $20,000 in on a P3 Multimorphic. I got the name wrong again. You're all in, right? And then if you go to sell it, you're never going to find anyone to come anywhere close to 20 grand. And I think that's one of the big issues is we're so used to buying a game, being able to sell it and not lose much money. And for the most part, if you buy any decent Stern, you've made money on it. And I think that's the problem with this platform is you got to buy it and keep it for life. Now, I know that's what Jerry wants to do, but for people to buy it and keep it for life, he's going to have to consistently now come out with licensed themes. I mean, this is what's worked. All the other games have not been sales successes. Now, What did I think about the game itself? I only got to play it twice, but I will say this about Jerry's game. The part that's distracting when you play this game for the first time is the flippers. The upper flippers and the lower flippers are controlled by different buttons, and it's really, really hard to get used to that because I don't think there's another game I've played all throughout the show where this is the case. And so when you jump on a machine, you're like, wait a minute, I don't understand why nothing is happening with those upper flippers. Mentally having to tell your fingers to search for the other button is really weird. It's really strange. Now, in the software, you can change that setting so they work on the same button. So both the upper and lower will activate just with one press of one button. but here's the issue I heard from people that the reason why they separated them is that the upper flippers will actually block shots that you need to hit and I think this has been this story of the platform a little bit it like he always has to like reverse engineer everything because the platform is so different from pinball Now I heard from owners that you get used to it It just a different way to play. And so I'm not going to crucify this thing because of that issue. But it is something that everyone who buys this game will have to learn how to play pinball a little bit differently. Did I like that? No. Could I get used to it? Maybe. I think that's the fairest way for me to look at this game. The game overall looks fine. The topper is really cheap. It's not that impressive. I don't think you need the LE. I actually don't think the LE is worth it at all. If I'm telling you honestly right now, I think you could save yourself a couple thousand dollars and just get the standard because when you play the game, it's all there like on the screen in front of you and there's nothing that's really like, oh my God, amazing about the LE package. I really think the standard edition of Weird Al is the way to go because again, the topper and the artwork, it's just not worth the extra money. So I would go standard if I were you. So what else happened at TPF? There was no news from Stern. Nothing happened with Jersey Jack, but I did get information and I got some Jersey Jack news for you. And I asked Jack straight up, what's the order of games coming out? Like, you don't have to tell me the themes, but what's the order of designers and what's next from you? Because in the seminar, Jack once again said that they wanna get two games out in a year. Jack says this every year. They never hit it. But here is the order of games coming out from Jersey Jack Pinball based on designer. The next game is Pat Lawler. That's Toy Story. Then the next game is going to be Eric Minier's next game, which is done, which I think is Godfather. Then after Eric Minier, we're going to get a game from Steve Ritchie. And then after Steve Ritchie's game, we're going to get a game from Mark, their new designer who did the Metroid game. So that is the lineup that is coming from Jersey Jack Pinball. Now, for these designers to be happy, they have to make two games a year. It's just that simple. There's no way a designer is going to be happy if he puts a game out and then has to wait like three years for his next game. So Jersey Jack Pinball has got four talented designers. They've got a company that puts more into games. And if you went to the seminar or listened to the seminar, I hope you did, you heard a lot. A lot of Steve Ritchie throwing a lot of shade on Stern Pinball. I mean, he kept saying with his past employer, he wasn't allowed to do what he wanted to do. Now, I think Steve has felt the arrows from people like me and other people in the hobby who have been really disappointed in games like Led Zeppelin, really disappointed in games like Star Wars, really disappointed in games like Game of Thrones. The reason I really like Steve Ritchie being mad at Stern and throwing down the gauntlet like this is that now shots have been fired. Now he has to make a game that backs up all of his vitriol. Like he's angry and he wants to show us what he can do. And he's at the right company to do that. So I fully expect Steve Ritchie's game to be like a feature packed like bonanza with great flow. Now here's the other thing about Steve Ritchie. I think he's gonna make Avatar. I think that's gonna be the theme. I think he's either gonna make Avatar or The Matrix. I think those are the two themes that have been floating around. Now, we shall see. But it is interesting that Eric Meunier's game is next. So I think we're going to see that sometime in October, November. I do think it's Godfather. And I think they're going to try to hit the fact that this year is the 50th anniversary of the Godfather. So we shall see. All right. What else happened at the Texas Pinball Festival? Well, first, I want to thank Ed and Kim for putting on the show. It was a great show. I go on Pinside and people complain about, oh, the show needs to be in a bigger venue. Oh, I had to wait forever to play the games. And yes, if you go to these pinball shows to play pinball, you're going to wait online. There's a lot of people. It's not even a good experience to get the game. You can't absorb a game at TPF. I think Jersey Jack Pinball has the best setup. They have the Guns N' Roses machines set up perfectly. And there were a lot of them. And then you could turn the volume up as you were playing the game. And I had no problem rocking out to GNR. And all the games were playing great. I think Jersey Jack's setup was the best. I think Marco's setup was great too. They had a lot of games. A lot of rushes. A lot of Mandalorians, right? A lot of games were there. And you didn't have to wait that long. The problem is, after those two setups, and then you had two Weird Al's, and you had some aliens at Cointicker, which were nicely set up. You know, after that, the selection did thin out. Like a lot of older games. I didn't see another Jersey Jack game there. other than Guns N' Roses. There was no Wizard of Oz. I did not see any Dialed In. There was no Hobbit. There was nothing. So you were just playing only one JJP game. I didn't see a ton of Sterns. I don't think I saw one Batman 66. There weren't that many Stern machines there. The variety of machines, when it comes to what's new in pinball, just wasn't represented as nicely as it usually is. And here's why. I think a lot of you out there used to bring your machines to shows because these machines were cheap. here's the real issue with inflation now that your machines are worth so much more money you don't want to bring them to a show you don't want to let people beat on your machine like all of a sudden your stern machine is now up 30 40 percent maybe two or three hundred percent in value so there's no reason for you to bring it to a show you are not going to be comfortable with someone playing your batman le anymore or your iron man like vault edition like that's just the way it is now. Like everyone is holding on to their private collections. But look, and I said it in my acceptance speech, and everybody knows this. You go to a pinball show to hang out with people. You go for your friends and your family from around the world that love pinball. You don't go to a pinball show really to play a lot of pinball because in the room itself too, it's just sensory overload. It will beat you down after a couple hours. You just can't take it after a few hours, you got to leave. You got to go hit a barbecue joint. You got to go do something else. You got to go hang out in JJ's suite on the 14th floor and have some beer and pizza. Like you just can't take it. But it's all about the people. This hobby has always been about the people. And I mean that. And it's the people that make the shows a lot of fun. All right. So speaking of people, we had the 2021 Twippy Awards. Now, look, I'm not going to say a ton about the show itself. And here's why because the show itself was rocky at best they didn't rehearse When you don't rehearse issues happen and when you have a live show you can't really have a lot of issues because it just Derails the train I won't lie I was sitting in my seat and it was disappointing seeing how rocky the show was and I think it crystal clear That they need to work with a production company It not like just Greg and Zach can save the day And I think that Greg and Zach being up there was awesome to see. I really, really love that. But they need to hire a production company. Like this is a live event and you've got people watching from all over the world. And the reason why you want to hire a production company is you want it done right. You want the sound to be right. You want more than one camera. You want to make sure all the video is right and in the right order. And everyone doing the show is doing their best because it's their side hustle. You know, Emoto's got to do the Marco booth and do this. It's just too much. And it was apparent that it was just too much on their shoulders. Now, that being said, with all of the difficulties and all of the issues, I still think, you know, they've managed to get through it. And I want to congratulate them on getting through the show. And I think we all knew going into the show that Godzilla was going to win everything. And yes, Godzilla won everything and even won best theme like over Mandalorian. Like it won everything. And I think all of the Stern people who got up there to accept the awards did a great job. I want to give a shout out to Robert Mooney and his game Ferris Bueller's Day Off. It was so exciting to see him win for that. I don't think there were any surprises. There weren't. You know, I was nervous. I'm always nervous going into these award shows because I never know which way the votes are going to go. And also the month in which people voted is the same month in which I went behind the paywall. So I thought that might steal it from me this year, my own behavior. But as you showed the world, everybody, that the Canadian fan base, and we are now at 430 club members, that this fan base is the most amazing fan base in all the pinball. I mean it. And Jeff Patterson came up to me afterwards. He said, Chris, your fans are crazy. He's like, you did something to them. They won't stop talking about how much they love you and love the show. And he's like, you've just created like this army of people that are so loyal to you year in and year out. And I think that's why the Twippies mean so much to me. A victory for Canada's Pinball Podcast is a victory for all of us. And it feels so good. And I hope you feel good that your vote was validated. And I heard a lot of people cheering in the room. And it was great. And it was so much fun hanging out with so many of you at TPF. And my favorite part about TPF was the day before. My favorite part of TPF was Perry's Steakhouse. I did the Canada happy hour. We were there for two hours and I bought everybody their drinks. And I also had a surprise member of the Canada club who wasn't even there, added money to the tab. His name was Donald. I'm not going to tell you how much he added, but Donald, thank you so much. That is what it's all about. You walk into Perry's Steakhouse and then they say, hey, someone called in and raised your deposit to this. And I'm like, that's it. In that moment, it's like, this is how amazing the people are in pinball. They're nice people. They're generous people. They're interesting people. This is a very diverse hobby. I know it doesn't look like it, but we come from all walks of life. You know, I walked into Wild Pitch and I'm having an amazing conversation with military members and police officers and they're all pinball fanatics, you know, and it's great. And we get together. You're hanging out with people from New York City, from France, from Australia. It's great. That is why it is essential that this thing is part of the world because it brings all of us together. And I mean that. All right, we're coming to the end. I have a pounding headache and I'm doing this show for everybody. I mean, I am severely hung over. I learned on the flight back, the 840 flight back to New York. I learned that you can have many glasses of champagne within a two-hour period of time. Not the smartest move to go from champagne to having sake to having more sake all throughout the day. Not a good idea. My head is pounding. And I didn't really party at TPF because I really do walk around the show a little bit nervous until I get that twippy. It's hard for me to let loose. I also never drink before an award show because you know me, when I drink and it's award night. Bad things happen and I say stupid stuff. So I wanted to be very clear-minded when I went up and gave my little speech. The last thing that happened was the Deep Root auction ended and I don't even want to talk about it that much. I think if you bought anything from Deep Root, like any of these games, I think it was a stupid move. I don't think they're ever going to get working again. And here's the best part. I don't think anyone cares. I don't think anyone cares. I think it went for like $16,000, that Raza prototype. Nobody cares. Get it working and guess what? Nobody's going to care. I don't think it's an interesting story. I don't think it's an interesting game. I don't think the game was worth all the time and effort that went into it. And as Iceman has been reporting on Pinside, he went to Deep Root last week. He's like, this thing is the biggest joke operation ever. Here's my only thing. I wish Ice would have went like two years ago, but it is what it is. You know, he finally got through the door and he saw what a joke it was. Look, when it comes to Robert Mueller, the guy's a crook. And I think now it's over. Like, I don't even want to talk about this guy anymore. Pinball has so many amazing people in it trying to make games, and we don't need to talk about the crooks and the thieves. All right. All right. This is my severely hungover Canadian Pinball podcast, doing it for all of you on my day off. I'm going to go hit the Natural History Museum and then go get some food with Brenda. I am super, super hungover. But everybody, thank you so much for all of your votes and all of your support. It means the world. And we have an entire year now to just celebrate that this is still the world's number one pinball podcast. Oh, and by the way, I forgot. We also were in the top three of favorite pinball streamers. To me, that's the biggest victory. I don't even stream playing pinball. All I do is talk about it every Saturday morning. And that just goes to show that I have the greatest fans. There are a lot of pinball streamers out there. And for us to make the top three without even streaming pinball, that's incredible. So thank you for those votes as well. Look, I think we can win that one next year. I'm going to keep doing my Facebook Lives. I love doing it. And that would be the greatest victory ever. Man wins best pinball streamer in the world without even streaming pinball. I mean, do I know what I'm doing or what? Everybody, have a great day. I'll talk to you soon. I was just about to upload the show and I realized I forgot to say congratulations to Todd Tuckey, who finally got the award for best YouTube channel, TNT Amusements. And also congrats to Mr. Joe Abadi for his criminal act of making the Grogu mod for Mandalorian. Joe, it's criminal what you did. I'm going to let Disney lawyers know. And also, the game is still not good. Later, everybody. Mumbo No. 5