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The Pinball Show Ep 131: I Live My Life A Quarter Ramp At A Time

The Pinball Show·podcast_episode·1h 19m·analyzed·Jul 3, 2023
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Stern production updates, F&F license news, accessory timeline, and Q2 2024 fiscal wrap-up.

Summary

The Pinball Show Episode 131 covers Stern Pinball production updates through Q3 2024, reports of Fast and Furious pinball license acquisition, accessory manufacturing timelines, and community engagement. Hosts discuss production schedules, topper discontinuations, and speculate on the F&F license holder, with banter about July 4th and pinball culture throughout.

Key Claims

  • Jurassic Park Premium machines have shipped and all major dealers are now fulfilled

    high confidence · Direct reporting from Stern Pinball shipment data; hosts cite end of June fulfillment

  • Stern is moving facilities, requiring 1-2 weeks shutdown in September 2024

    high confidence · Stern production schedule explicitly states facility move with September closure

  • James Bond 007 Pro and Premium machines scheduled for October 2024 production

    high confidence · Official Stern production roadmap provided to hosts

  • Star Wars and Mandalorian were bumped from December 2023 to 2024

    high confidence · Official production schedule change noted by hosts

  • Rush toppers will undergo another production run in September with all orders fulfilled

    high confidence · Stern Pinball accessory update provided to Patreon members first, then disclosed

  • Deadpool topper has been discontinued; Deadpool game still in production through October

    medium confidence · Host speculates discontinuation may signal end-of-life for Deadpool game

  • SAM Shaker Motor has been officially discontinued

    high confidence · Listed in Stern accessory discontinuation updates; hosts speculate this may indicate no future SAM vault games

  • Fast and Furious license has been obtained by a major pinball company

    medium confidence · NAP Arcade report; hosts speculate it's either Stern, Raw Thrills/Play Mechanics, or Chicago Gaming Company

Notable Quotes

  • “Put it in reverse, Terry. Put it in reverse.”

    Zach Minney @ ~13:00 — Cultural reference to viral meme; used to induct 'Terry' as honorary Captain America on July 4th episode

  • “I'm the second nicest person in this hobby.”

    Dennis Creasel @ ~27:00 — Self-deprecating humor about Dennis's personality within pinball community; implies someone else is #1

  • “Final encore? You haven't made in two, three years. What's so final about this?”

    Zach Minney @ ~52:00 — Criticism of Stern's marketing language around Iron Maiden topper production timeline

  • “Led Zeppelin as a game has already been discontinued, right?”

    Dennis Creasel @ ~55:00 — Confirms Stern's Led Zeppelin game discontinuation, prompting accessory discontinuation logic

  • “I live my life a quarter ramp at a time. Family.”

    Zach Minney @ ~1:12:00 — Fast and Furious franchise reference when reacting to license acquisition news

  • “That was the only thing that he really did that gave him joy when he was at home outside of just being a family man and a father.”

    Dale Earnhardt Jr. (TikTok video) @ ~1:05:00 — Emotional testimony about Dale Earnhardt Sr.'s Comet pinball machine impact; demonstrates cultural significance of pinball to non-hobbyists

  • “If Raw Thrills has the license to the Fast and Furious arcade, they've got the license. They could use it on pinball.”

    Zach Minney @ ~1:15:00 — Logical deduction about how arcade/pinball licensing typically operates in Eugene Jarvis's companies

Entities

Stern PinballcompanyZach MinneypersonDennis CreaselpersonFast and FuriousgameJurassic ParkgameJames Bond 007gameDeadpoolgameFoo FightersgameAvengers

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: SAM Shaker Motor discontinued; hosts speculate this indicates Stern will not produce future SAM-based vault games, suggesting end of SAM era production

    medium · Hosts note historical pattern of vault games using SAM systems, and discontinuation may signal shift away from that platform

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern facility relocation in September with 1-2 week shutdown; potential contradiction between rumored end-of-July Comic-Con cornerstone announcement and 6-week gap before production

    high · Production schedule explicitly shows September closure; hosts note logical inconsistency with July reveal timing

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Rush Pinball review on Straight Down The Middle generated passionate YouTube comments from Rush fan community; indicates strong band loyalty among pinball enthusiasts

    medium · Host notes comment section 'blown up' within one day of Saturday release; characterizes Rush fans as 'just passionate people'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Fast and Furious pinball license obtained by major manufacturer; industry sources (Raw Thrills/Play Mechanics/Chicago Gaming Company) likely hold or can leverage arcade license for pinball IP

    medium · NAP Arcade report; hosts provide logical deduction that Raw Thrills (who holds arcade F&F license) likely candidate due to Eugene Jarvis company structure

  • $

    market_signal: Deadpool topper discontinued while game still in production through October; possible end-of-life indicator for game itself

    medium · Host speculation: 'Might that be a little hint as to is this the last run in October of Deadpool ever'

Topics

Stern Pinball production schedule and facility moveprimaryAccessory manufacturing timeline (toppers, lighting kits, shooter knobs)primaryFast and Furious pinball license acquisitionprimaryGame discontinuations and end-of-life signalssecondaryPinball's cultural impact and celebrity endorsementsecondarySpeculation on license holder identitysecondaryJuly 4th Independence Day celebration humormentionedPinball media coverage and YouTube reviewsmentioned

Sentiment

mixed(0.6)— Hosts are upbeat about production progress and new license news, but express frustration about accessory delays (Expression Lighting Kits), discontinuations (toppers, motors), and ambiguous production gaps (July announcement vs. August start). Positive about James Bond gaining popularity and Dale Earnhardt Jr. video; somewhat skeptical about Fast and Furious fit for pinball.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.240

Warning, the following episode contains adult language and screaming goats. Listener discretion is advised. The Pinball Network is online. Launching the Pinball Show. This week on the Pinball Show, we celebrate America by poking fun at Canada. We travel back through the pin-a-verse to induct a new Captain America, as well as discuss Sturm Pinball production updates for games and accessories. We talk NAB Arcade's report of the Fast and the Furious license being obtained for pinball. Hell, we even go further into all of the rumors and cleaning up all of the noise in this week's TPS exclusive club member bonus episode. And we end episode 131 with not only pinball market trends, but the return of deals of the WTF. We're glad you made it back to the Pinball Show. When I was in school, you know, we used to sing something like this. Oh, beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain. For purple my In Majesty's Above The fruited plain Look here I'm talking about A very cold Sweet America Hey, what's going on everybody? It's the Pinball Show, episode 131, as we celebrate our independence. Just here in the United States. Yes, only single value, Zach. With the hosts, myself, Zach Minney, and Dennis Creasel. Dennis, do you have your red, white, and blue Speedos on today? I'm very patriotic right now. What was that? You're bald, like a bald eagle? Did you just shave your sack? And I was about, I was going to be nice, and now I feel I need to say there's only one person of us two who's bald. Amy. You have that thick head of hair, too, just like a gray bone. Damn it. No, no, I've got the matured hairline, though. It's not all down on my forehead like it was when I was a whippersnapper back in the day. One day I'm just going to try to munson it and just grow it out and flap it over. Munson. Or Big Ernie McCracken. Big Ernie McCracken. Oh, man. We have a bull. We got a bull. Why didn't that ever get a pinball machine? I was also thinking this morning, Zach, of all the dad rock we've had in pinball, why has Pink Floyd never had a machine? Oh, it's coming. It's coming. It's going to happen. Same with like Grateful Dead people. What about Grateful Dead? I think it's all coming. It is all very much coming. I can just picture you as we're releasing this likely on July 4th. Picture you in a lawn chair with grass that's a bit too tall out in the front yard, sweating. White socks. Not all the way up to the knee, but kind of those calf-high socks. Hell, yeah. The sandals on just slamming the bush light. Yeah, the leather sandals. I can see why you'd get that sense. And you've got like one old-ass Weber charcoal grill with like two wingers on it. That's it. And they're black already, but I don't care. Yeah. Yeah. When's the last time you've chugged a beer? Have you ever chugged a beer in your whole life? Chugged? Yes, chugged. No. No, I don't think so, actually. You guys are not listening. The last time I had a beer was a few days ago because I was out at a conference. Oh, careful. I did. I had one plus two cider. I prefer cider to beer. Oh, okay. So you stick your pinky up when you drink a beer. No. That's not fair. Like in the U.K., the cider drinking is very, very common, but it never. We're not in the U.K., Dennis. We're in America. We broke away, and when we broke away, here's my story. You're messing up the story. And so we broke away, and we abandoned our cidery ways, just like we embraced coffee over their tea. It's all connected. You see? It's all connected. We've got California forest fires. Canada gets jealous. and now they've got their shit smoking down on us during Independence Day? Smoking at our Independence Day. Those sons of bitches. Who do they think we are? It's like we broke away over taxation without representation. And it wasn't Canada more of a they got too expensive, and so the U.K. was like, could you please leave? Didn't they just have Canada Day? I think they did. It's always going to come before. Every year it's going to come before. And then I love that Canadians always message us like, happy Canada Day. I'm like, dude, I didn't even know you were a country. What? How do you have your own day? It's July 4th or bust, isn't it? America. You know, there's – I'm trying to think. Is it the Philippines that also took July 4th as their Independence Day? Really? I'm okay with them because they're so small. Whatever. Well, they were – Canada knows better. They were kind of – I don't want to use the word colony, but they were under U.S. protection for a long time. And so I think they did it as like an honor. Well, how do they celebrate their independence in Canada? Hopefully they don't steal the barbecues and fireworks from us. Oh, it's probably something with Tim Hortons and coffee and shit. Yeah. Oh, Canada and your fucking smoke. It's horrible. Oh, and I am wrong. Independence Day in the Philippines is June 12th. Oh, that's right. We are. But the Philippines became independent, but they became independent on the 4th of July in 1946. Oh, so they legit just. So why do they celebrate it? That's mad respect, I guess. I'm not sure. To the Philippines. I never focused on that. Actually, back in my political science days, Zach, I studied Southeast Asian politics, but my focus was Malaysia. It was my country of specialty. The Malaysian prime minister. This was before Zoolander, too, so it was very fitting when that finally came out. It's like, I know where Malaysia is. I was thinking about our last episode, Dennis, 130, the pinball show. We talked about being into the penny-verse and the multiverse of Marvel and all of that. And I thought, you know what? July 4th here. Because the Marvel Universe has Captain America. But didn't Cap die? I think Cap died. With the Thanos snap and all that. I think he's just like, I'm tired now. Or he's in the future or something. No, he just let himself get old. There's no Captain America is what I'm saying. So I've got to fill in. We are going to induct into Marvel Universe's Captain America with the superhero that was and always will be here on the pinball show. It's none other than Terry. Hold your hands, T-Bone. Hey, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Two cars coming. You got two cars coming two different ways. Here you go, Terry. Bag up, bag up. Bag up, Terry. Put it in reverse, Terry. Put it in reverse. Oh, Lord. Lord, please. Oh, Lord. Oh, please. What you doing, Terry? Terry, what you doing? What you doing? What you doing? What you doing? Oh, my gosh. Who better to back it up, Cap? Back it up, Cap. That never gets old, Dennis. I'm sorry. My family gets plagued with this every single year. They hate me all day long because of this. Yeah, I can imagine it. I got the shirts. I still didn't get that old wheelchair, though. Smithsonian, I think, has that. But you'll be happy to know I've followed up with Terry. Terry has a new wheelchair, still has trouble getting around his home and stuff. A van is going down. So if you guys look online, there's like a donation stuff that you can still provide to Terry. So, yeah. Now, does he sell the shirts and stuff? No, I don't think he trademarked it, unfortunately. Terry, it sounds like you need a manager. Terry's manager. We need to trademark that phrase. Back it up, Terry. Put it in reverse, Terry. Have you thought about inviting Terry to be the Pinball Show news correspondent since Craig Bobby doesn't seem to want to do it anymore? Oh, man. And speaking of Craig Bobby, remember last week we asked our listeners to indicate which Marvel superheroes in the Pennyverse we would be, yourself, Dennis, and I, which superheroes we would be. We had some good responses. I want to give a shout-out to Chris Grosmaner. He commented, he said, Dennis would be Jackson Wheel, also known as Big Wheel. I don't know that character. That's a deep cut there. I'm going to have to look it up here right now. Yeah, and Zack would be Modok, that big egg thing that was goofy on Ant-Man 3. I know Modok from the comic. I've never heard of Big Wheel through the Marvel comics, but I'm not a Marvel comic guy. I just know the movies. I don't read the books. Yeah. But big wheel sounds like a big deal. The big wheel thing from what I'm seeing from Marvel.Fandom.com, for those that want to follow along, looks kind of like some of the stuff from the Star Wars prequels that they drove around. It's like a unicycle, but you're in the wheel. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And then the guy wears a lot of green. Which you do like the color green. I own one green shirt. You don't like the color green? No, I do like green. I just don't have a green outfit. And he's got a very menacing smile, which my smile is adorable, so that's not accurate. Yeah, basically, I guess my hair kind of looks like the guy's hair. That's about it. Is that really what people – that's our tie-in? I guess. I don't know. I don't know why you would look like MODOK either, though. I think he was making a comment about me being big-headed. Oh, and me driving that giant F-350 I've got. That's right. Because I'm big-wheeling. Black smoke rolling out the stacks. I'm rolling coal. Coal country, baby. Michael Collins commented that Zach would be Iron Man with all of the newest cool gadgets. Oh, thanks, Mike. And Dennis, I see more as a villain. His words, not mine. What? Maybe he'd be Doc Ock or Green Goblin. What? He said, no offense, Dan Dan, two of my favorite villains. I love you, Dennis. You know I'm something of a podcaster. Yes. Wow. Iron Man. If you were Iron Man, Zach, all of your stuff would be, you wouldn't have like that big Zac Stark Tower. All of your stuff would be in ground. Like, yes, I've got my base right next to the in ground swing set and the in ground trampoline in the in-ground pool. I can't be Nordman, so I can't be in a cave. No. That's not Marvel. That's right. It's not Marvel. We'll get to that. Ian Jacoby commented that Dennis is Doctor Strange. See, that's what I thought as well. Very cerebral and funny. Very good match. Zach is Mr. Fantastic. Back problems instantly solved. Yeah, I think that was more wishful thinking for you. That if you were stretchy, your back would be okay. I like the name Mr. Fantastic. Sure, sure. Well, he's a scientist too. Fantastic Four is kind of a Yeah, he's a scientist type. All those movies always sucked. Yeah, but that's not Mr. Fantastic's fault. I don't really like the Bendy people. I think it's too fantasy based. Yeah, Gumby, you've always ranted about Gumby and how he shouldn't have a pinball machine. Stretch Armstrong's a bitch, what can I say? I never had a Stretch Armstrong. Ari Jones commented that Dennis would be in The Watchmen, obviously. Fail. That's DC. Yeah, that ain't Marvel. And that's also not picking a specific Watchmen. Nor did he pick me. Come on, Ari. I think he's one of the poor men pinball people. Of course he couldn't complete the assignment. David Dennis. Oh, our very own David Dennis from Silver Ball Chronicles here on the pinball network. He said, Zach is clearly Loki. Is he good? Evil? As good looking as Tom Hiddleston? He's always scheming for his own good, manipulating people. But they don't know until some random person on the internet points it out. That's clever. Okay. Okay. I don't not see it, but okay. Thanks, I guess. Dennis is Professor X, but without the wheelchair, because he makes me feel dumb all of the time by comparison. I don't know why you would have that impression. Oh, see, just that was intimidating. No, it wasn't. It's harmless. I'm the second nicest person in this hobby. I don't understand where all this is coming from. I guess you'd be Professor. Doc Ock and Professor X. I know. What is all this? I'll take the Loki, I guess. Joel Engelberth, our very own Joel Engelberth from Triple Dream Pinball Podcast, from Flip N Out Pinball Streaming, et cetera, et cetera. Joel Engelberth said, David's, what? He said, David Dennis is Jar Jar Binks. Well, that doesn't have anything to do with the show. But it's clever, and I love it. It is. Well, do you count it? Because Jar Jar's not Marvel, but Disney does own Marvel and Jar Jar. I definitely count it because I can just picture David Dennis reading it. and then luckily enough we have great friends Jason over at the pinball party also commented on the format right after that and said David is Jar Jar can confirm hmm oh poor David to wrap it up here into the penny verse who Dennis and I would be our buddy Jeff S commented come on Zach is like Deadpool he's comical calculating and no matter what ensues he always lands on his feet very Ryan Reynolds-ish. Fucking nailed it. I love you, Jeff S. And he said, Dennis is Professor X. Now, that's two for Professor X. And he said, Craig Bobby is dot, dot, dot, the Invisible Man. Yeah, the Invisible Man is, I believe, universal, though, not Marvel. Now, what was Sue Storms from Fantastic Four? The Invisible, was it woman? She's invisible, and she's Marvel. I fixed it for you, Jeff. Look at that one. The joke still lands because, again, this week no top stories with Craig. Craig. He said something about Canada Day or something. Oh, he was blaming the holiday. And then wasn't it two weeks ago with the smoke? The smoke. It was too hard on his lungs. Well, we're going to have to do it ourselves yet again. Stern Pinball in the news as always. Stern Pinball production updates. Dennis, you want to hear some of these? Sure. Do you know June 30th was the end of the first fiscal half of 2023 for Stern Pinball? I did not. So they actually operate on a calendar year for the fiscal year. Yeah, so now they are. Yeah, that's why I think inventory is always first couple weeks of January. This last week, Jurassic Park premiums have been shipping. Okay. They're also going to be shipping this week as well. They're making a lot of Jurassic Park premiums. So much so that I think everybody's fulfilled now. All dealers, even the largest ones, are fulfilled with Jurassic Park premiums now in stock. But you can't have a Jurassic Park Premium without your Jurassic Park topper. Those have shipped as well. Now, we talked last week exclusively on the bonus episode of the Pinball Show for the Patreon members, all of those accessories updates. We're going to get to those. And one of those was, hey, Jurassic Parks are going to be shipping here at the end of June. And they have. They did. They're in stock. So we got that. This week, this coming week, late this week, we're going to get Avengers Pro and Premium. They're going to be on the line. More Elwynn. It's kind of a pattern there, isn't it? Yeah. Well, time to catch up. Avengers Pro and Premiums late this week. Then on to an additional round of Foo Fighters Pro and Premiums. That'll be later this month. August, we're still going to see that Jurassic Park Pro make its way onto the line. And then the big move, shutting down for one to two weeks. September still being open. October, Deadpool Pro and Premium, as well as that really small run of Foo Fighters Pro and Premium. So we kind of got some of October open. November is all the way open. December we've got the James Bond 007 Pro and Premium I don't know how small of a run it is because it is gaining in popularity every week that title that everybody already dismissed it's already coming back and 2024 Star Wars and Mandalorian were bumped into next year from December so potentially something at the end of maybe at the end of December into January that cornerstone that we're used to for the last I don't know how many years probably going to happen again The tricky thing here is we talked about something coming in September, but all these rumors, Dennis, saying that we're going to see the next cornerstone at the end of July at Comic-Con. Right, yeah. Which kind of contradicts stuff, but if it's at the end of July, usually they go into production within a couple weeks. So maybe that can still be true. Maybe beginning of August they go into production. But during a move, it just seems weird. All of it seems weird. I would think that they would go into production after the move and then hit the ground running, thus having September open for the bulk of pro LEs and maybe starting the premiums. I agree. That's the most logical course of action. I don't see why they would start new production before the move. But why show it at the end of July then? That's going to be one hell of a gap in time. Yeah. That's like six weeks. I mean, they may feel that ultimately it's not going to be that big of a deal, especially if they feel they've got a lot of parts on hand. Maybe they think, you know what, we're not going to have a supply chain issue, so it's okay. People can wait two weeks. I mean, it's still better than practically every other company. Yeah, that is true. So I don't know. Or maybe they make enough of a first round of pros and proto-premiums that if they need to take them to shows or throw a couple in locations, maybe before the move. I don't know. Yeah, I mean, it's conceivable that they might have a small run that they've got. No, it's conceivable. I believe in it. As you wish. It's very, very interesting. I don't know what they're going to do with that. I still think there could be something in November, though. I really do. But we'll have to wait and see. Accessories update. So this was mentioned. If you guys were a Patreon member of the Pinball Show, you could have got this information a couple weeks ago. But we're going to give it to you now because we love you. So everybody wanted to know what's happening with some of these accessories, toppers and such. Well, we were updated from Stern Pinball that the Rush toppers should begin another run in September. So September, your Rush topper is going to be made. And I say yours, even though I don't know where you fall, because they're indicating that all orders should then be fulfilled during that run. I don't know if they're going to make any after that. They didn't say they're not going to. True, but if they're planning to stop production of Rush, why would they keep making toppers for it? Precisely. So I think we going to get a big old run of toppers for Rush in September Rush Expression Lighting Kit though no timeline So I don know I guess those kits are really You know I make fun of how easy and cheap LEDs color-changing LEDs are now, and how people... I don't understand people going gaga over them, but I guess these Expression Lighting Kits are just too hard to make. Too hard. It's just too much work. It's like a viral house of horrors. It's too much work. It's got to be or something. Figure out how the house spins. Well, so much so that they said for Foo Fighters, eh, for the pros, no. We're not even putting the cabinets for them. Don't even put the spots in to glue those lights on. We don't deal with it. That still tells me a lot, though. Something about those expression lighting. Maybe they're a pain. I'm more disappointed that they've not reused the projection mapping system thing for Stranger Things. You go to all that trouble for one game? So good. I just don't get it. Maybe they're stockpiling them for another run of them. Oh, no. Here come the emails. Zach, can I get on that list? It's got one more season So we have no clue about the timeline for Rush Expression Lighting Kids God, people are getting so angry There's no timeline either for the Godzilla toppers I don't know when they're running those again But they did not indicate that there's only going to be a second run I think that thing's been so popular That they'll have subsequent runs of it Elvira toppers, though, believe it or not Elvira toppers are being made again And they are being made late August That's the current scheduled production for them I can believe it That one just requires one coil And we finally are getting this Iron Maiden topper that was announced last summer to be made. Finally, we get that. They're calling it the final encore run of this. Like, final encore? You haven't made in two, three years. What's so final about this? But it's coming in October, people. Your Iron Maiden Aces High topper. I don't think it's the Egypt topper. I think it's the Aces High topper coming in October, and that's it. Prices are going to go up on that thing. I think those things are going to run at $1,000 apiece, I believe, the Iron Maiden toppers. Avengers Infinity Quest topper, because they're going to make the game. Why not get yourself a topper? They're reassembling. Oh, I see what you did there, Ster. That's cute. In October as well. So October is going to be topper month for Avengers and Iron Maiden. Led Zeppelin topper has been officially discontinued. Now, here's the deal with these. I'm going to list off a number of things, Dennis and listener, that they have no plans to make in the future. Now, this differs, though, because they could technically make. I hear you. This differs, though, because on some products, they would have just TBA. They don't know when they're going to make them again. But for some products, they put no plans on future runs. So I'm calling them officially discontinued because I believe that to be the case. Okay, that makes sense. That's good that you've defined it for folks. So Led Zeppelin Topper being one of them and the armor, Led Zeppelin armor being another, officially discontinued per my terms. And I think that should be the case because Led Zeppelin as a game has already been discontinued, right? Yeah. Same goes for Turtles. The Turtles topper officially discontinued as well as the shooter knob officially discontinued. So what is in inventory with these dealers around the world, that's all that there's going to be. No future runs of those. Makes sense. Turtles has been officially discontinued. Okay. Now, no one will have to worry about taking off the TMNT plaque off of the topper anymore. Black Knight Sword of Rage art blades are officially discontinued. I couldn't even believe this was still in the list. And as I joked around last time, it's probably because they still have inventory of them. Yeah. I still bought some. Guardians of the Galaxy shooter knob is officially discontinued. Sorry, Groot. And the Guardians of the Galaxy art blades officially discontinued. You know, we still sell quite a bit of Guardians art blades, believe it or not. But like the game itself, discontinued. That all makes sense. Here's the one that makes me scratch my head, listener. Another topper that has been officially discontinued is now Deadpool. But they're still running Deadpool For a little while So might that be The writing on the wall there It's getting a little long in the tooth The saber tooth I hate that call out Brush your saber teeth But Deadpool Might that be a little hint As to is this the last run In October of Deadpool ever we don't know what will happen to our non-caped crusader stay tuned also being officially discontinued is the sam shaker motor what now that one's actually the most interesting to me because i wonder if that might be conveying that we will no longer see sam vaults as vault games that is interesting why would you discontinue the sam shaker motor maybe yeah maybe you're right if you don't if you don't think you're going to need to make them anymore to stick in with any new runs on ACDC or Metallica or Star Trek or Iron Man if you're done done with the DMD era. Well, aside maybe from Spike 1, obviously. Well, because you think historically, whenever they do these quote-unquote vaults that they have in the past, people, they have not done a vault in a long time, years. But when they have done those in the past, they didn't convert those to Spike 1 or Spike 2 systems. They left them as SAM systems, so they would still need that SAM shaker motor. So, yeah, them discontinuing that, not making – or maybe they just know that there's so many suppliers that make readily available products that are just like it, like Pinball Life. I don't know. It would be, of all the things, the one I'm least worried about. But, yeah, still, because there are a lot of people who would just rather have OEM. I would think so. I would think so. We'll get to more upcoming possible Stern pinball machines in the future here. But first, did you see, I saw this, somebody messaged me with Dale Earnhardt, the NASCAR driver, the late Dale Earnhardt, and then his son, Dale Earnhardt Jr. On TikTok, there's a video of Dale Jr. talking about his dad and his dad's love for pinball. Did you watch that at all? No, I didn't. I didn't see this. It's fantastic. Listener, you got to go out there. I just, I love it. I'm going to insert it here. It's not very long, but it shows how important pinball can become to someone, even someone as busy and focused as a world-renowned race car driver, a sports figure. He talks about his dad working his ass off, coming home, eating and going to bed. But then the only thing that changed his schedule was this Comet pinball machine that he had in the basement. It is really cool to listen to. I'm going to give you guys a listen here right now. I move in with my dad at the lake house in 1981, and we had a basement, and there's that brown wood paneling all on the walls, and in the corner is the Comet pinball machine. When dad came home, he got home late, and he went to bed. He fell either that or he climbed into the recliner and was asleep in 20 minutes, and then he was gone the next morning. That was his use of the house. but he gets this pinball machine probably around 1983 or 84 and i'm gonna tell you man he played on that thing religiously every night continuing to outscore the high score over and over and he would yell and holler at it it was the only thing that he really did that gave him joy when he was at home outside of just being a family man and a father right i mean that he played on that thing all the time. Wasn't that cool? That was neat. You know what else is nice? Another video that I'd recommend straight down the middle. They reviewed Rush Pimble. You know what? I'm going to give you a spoiler alert. Neither one of us came up with the cumulative score of a B+. See? How about that? So it's going to be higher because you sell the games. I'm here to be the voice of the listener. Well, you'll have to take a watch and see. I feel very confident with my prediction. But, yes, I will plan to watch this. Poor Ray Day's got bloody lips right now. He's biting his lip. What? Oh, God, yes, sir. I think he emails in any time Rush is mentioned. He might be contractually obligated to do that. Stern might make him do that. I don't ask. Do they make you write in? I don't want to give away what the reviews were, but I can say that, oh, boy. Man, some of them Rush fans of that band, they are just passionate people. The comments section on YouTube is. Oh, is it already blown up? What day did this drop? This dropped on Saturday night. Okay. So, yeah, and we're recording Sunday. Because I hadn't seen it in my recommended list yet, but it went Saturday night that I haven't looked yet is why. Not only that, listener, but I really think all of you out there are going to enjoy the next SDTM episode coming out. It is a top ten, and it's one that's, it'll be very controversial. the top 10 list. So follow, like, and subscribe. When is the rubber band review coming? Oh, it's coming. We got candles covered. It's going to be like the Cosmic Carnival stream you never did. I've got to find it. More big news this week as Nap Arcade reports that the Fast and the Furious license has been obtained by a major pinball company. I live my life a quarter ramp at a time. Family. That's all I know. There should be. If it's true, there don't need to be like inlanes and stuff. It's spelled family up. Who picked up this license? Any guess? I mean, if it's a major pinball company, I would think Stern. This feels like a Stern license. Yeah, it does. I don't know. I honestly have no clue. The one thing I would say, though, is let's look at the facts that are in front of us. So appreciation to NAP Arcade for reporting and finding out that the Fast and Furious license has been obtained. Nicely done. Let's dig a little deeper, though. What do we know in gaming when it comes to Fast and Furious? We know that there are arcades that have been not only made in the past by Raw Thrills, but their newest released arcade game is the Fast and the Furious, Raw Thrills. What do we know about Raw Thrills? Well, the sister company or the adjoining company is Play Mechanics, who this year dabbled and started into pinball themselves with a collaboration of Chicago Gaming Company with Pulp Fiction Pinball. I'd also maybe look at Raw Thrills as potentially being one. Yeah, that's actually a really good angle to go at with it. Yeah, because Eugene Jarvis, who owns Raw Thrills, I believe, I could be speaking incorrectly, I thought owns Play Mechanics, too, or operates. But needless to say, if Raw Thrills has the license to the Fast and Furious arcade, they've got the license. They could use it on pinball. They might have to pay a little bit, but they already have that history. Okay. Yeah, no. And CGC, I mean, they're doing the production again, like with Pulp Fiction. That would be seen as a major pinball company. Yeah. Now, I still could see Stern because oftentimes there's a lot of crossover and good business relationships between the leader of arcades and Raw Thrills Play Mechanics and the leader of pinball, which is Stern Pinball. So oftentimes you'll see things like Big Buck Hunter be made as a pinball machine by Stern, but also be made as an arcade game by Raw Thrills. So I would say it's either Raw Thrills combination, you know, Play Mechanics, CGC, or Stern Pinball. Now, is it a good license for pinball? Yeah, I think it's probably. I don't. Okay. I don't know the movie. I don't know the movies well enough, Zach. I haven't seen them all. Nobody has, Dennis. I've seen like the first three or four of them and probably bits of some of them. But I haven't seen the recent ones. And, you know, I don't know. I mean, they keep turning them out, so they must be making money. I know. If you just take elements of it or maybe you stray a little bit from the story and make it more back to the roots and make it more like a Mustang, just a car sort of theme. Okay. Racing sort of theme, but we've seen plenty of pinball machines that rely on racing concepts as a theme. So street racing could be that, and they're just using clips and call-outs and stuff. Well, maybe not quite so global-oriented, but Stern did Mustangs, Grand Prix, and Slash NASCAR. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they've done car stuff. They've done a couple of car stuff. Gomez, Corvette, back in the day. And he likes his Porsches. I did not know that. Okay. Well, I don't know if Porsche features heavily in Fast and Furious. Last time I saw it was mostly American muscle and Japanese cars. What about Home Pin? Sorry. We're not getting on to that, Dennis. Don't even try it. All right. No, you brought it up. So, okay. If Home Pin does it. Well, first of all, you said Knapp reported from a major pinball company. So that's already ruled out. But if that wasn't true, and we just mean any pinball company that's made a game before as a major pinball company, this is what I would say. If Home Pin did it, because, hey, they did do a few car themes, right? He did, like, a few prototypes for Porsche. Oh, was it Porsche? Yeah. Okay. I couldn't remember. Well, it wouldn't be designed for fans of the movie or fans of cars, because Mike doesn't believe in making games that are fun for people that want the stuff. It would be for bicyclists, right? It would be, yes, for cyclists who hate pinball. Tour de France people. I may be misrepresenting his total strategy, but I think I've encapsulated it well enough for the purposes of this podcast. I listened to EGP this last week. It was so good, too. So, yeah, I'm not sold that Fast and Furious is a good license. I'm not. I'm really not. I think it makes sense for an arcade because it's a driver. Sure. Okay. There's a theme associated instead of like cruising. You know, you got something. It's easier in the video game space because you can actually experience the simulation of driving a vehicle. I think this is a dying brand. Whether it's dying or not, I don't know as a franchise. It does seem like if you were going to do Fast and Furious, it would have behooved them to have done it at least five years ago. But they're still cranking them out. It is a theme that is so globally huge. It really is a huge, huge franchise. That's true. But, I mean, even if you take something like, say, for example, if Fast and the Furious is huge in China, you're not going to sell any pinball machines there, though, because they don't care about pinball. And I just think that maybe a little bit more time could have occurred to get the nostalgia up a little bit for the original film, the original films, maybe the first trilogy of them. I just – they're coming off their final film of all time for this franchise. They think about when they're going to make a pinball machine. It probably will be a year or two. Not so long. Now, here's the thing, and maybe this is wrong. I have not actually read this Knapp news piece, so apologies on this one specifically. So Universal Studios is who controls Fast and the Furious. and we're sure that pinball company means physical pinball right and not pinball fx which has done a number of universal movies already like they have the whole universal classics package true that makes sense so i'm just i'm just wondering if maybe and they do like neon and zen would be seen as a major player in the pinball space on the virtual side yeah but isn't a universal is Back to the Future. So again, why not Stern in that case? Back to the Future again. That and, because like the classic package is, I couldn't remember, I had to look it up, is E.T., Jaws, and Back to the Future. I think the only way that this makes sense as a theme, or even as a pinball machine, in my opinion, is if it's like Tron, where Tron Legacy wasn't the biggest movie ever, but it looked really cool, and it had cool music. If they can do that with Fast and Furious, then people like myself who don't like that theme can look over that being the theme, and they're like, yeah, but it looks cool as shit, and it's really fast, and it's cool. I'm nostalgic for the first film, so they can bring some Paul Walker stuff in. Then I can get behind it. But, man, the theme is not what alone is going to sell this game, in my opinion. Yeah, I can see it. Jurassic Park and Jurassic World, those are universal pictures. I'm starting to convince myself again that it's Stern. You're connecting dots here. And that's wheeled in it. It feels like a Stern license. It really does. And speaking of NAP Arcade, wait a minute. This just in as we're recording, just a post on naparcade.org that says, stay tuned for some awesome new content because in the process of turning a spare bedroom into a podcast studio, Jason Knapp himself looks to be doing a podcast coming soon. So stay tuned for some really cool stuff. I've already got something in the works for tonight. But then again, he shows a picture of a two-turntable DJ mixer. Well, he may be branching out into multiple fields. He might be Scott Danesi-ing that shit. Maybe. Oh, now I'm really interested to hear the Nap Arcade Pinball Podcast with your hosts, Zach Manning and Dennis Creasel. If only it was April 1st. fucking deja vu all over again well welcome to the podcasting club welcome to the club potentially yeah nap arcade it's not as uh it's not as hard as streaming so there is that well that's right are we still doing that all day i don't remember anymore i bring it up from time to time oh my god listener speaking of nap arcade look this is where dennis is gonna go take his piss break I am embarrassed to bring up Chris Kalouris from Canadian Pinball Podcast again on this show. I'm sorry. But recently, he's been on a tear on social media against me for some reason. I've left this guy alone. But now publicly accusing myself of providing all of the rumor information to NAP Arcade. He made several posts accusing me of this behavior as well as a couple public Facebook live streams accusing me, Zach, many of the same. In one post saying, quote, his rumor mills, his nap arcades, are nothing more than Zach feeding him stuff he can't say due to NDA, end quote. Now, listen to that statement. That statement alone is public. That statement alone is libelous. I think it's the very definition of libel. It's slander if it's spoken. If it's spoken, yeah. So in written form, as it was, it's libel. In verbal form, on the live, it's slander. What he's saying is simply just not true. And it very much aims to harm myself, my family, my business. He is saying publicly that I am knowingly breaking business agreements that my company holds with different industry manufacturers. He's saying that publicly. So then he goes live on Facebook after posting these in written form publicly. He goes live on Facebook to continue the slanderous behavior. So when he did that, I'm like, what the hell is going on? Like, this is ridiculous. So I just simply post in that chat during his live thing that I don't know why he's doing this, that his statements very much are false. I wanted to get ahead publicly and say these are false, which then makes it libelous. But the statements are false and that what he is saying is harmful to my occupation to my company And I just sincerely requested yet again as I done in the past I requested that he just stop Stop with the frequent attempts at harming me I not doing anything to the guy And that was it. Just post, hey, please stop. This is liable. I don't understand why you're doing this. It was just me having an assertive plea for him to sincerely stop. Now, of course, during that live stream, he read that and lost his mind. My simple request for him to stop that behavior was met with posturing, a loss of temper on his behalf. He was saying that his lawyer drives a McLaren, that he himself is buying a $2 million house, blah, blah, blah, whatever. I honestly don't care. I don't fucking care. And sadly, I hate bringing it up here, but I'm bringing it up again because I know he's listening. So, Chris, please stop the libel. Stop the slander. Just please stop the harassment. I don't know what else to do. I'm not doing anything to you, and you're potentially making my life really, really hard for reasons I don't understand, and all without provocation. I don't know how in the hell I get brought up with, if you're having issues with NAP having rumors or NAP, I'm not in it with either one of you guys. I'm doing my own thing, and for all of you Canada paid subscribers out there, all 600-something of you, thanks. Thanks a lot for reinforcing this type of behavior. I'm sorry. I can't be quiet about that either. Fucking just please stop, Chris. All right. Okay. Sorry, Dennis. Sorry, listener. I don't know what else to do. This is not true. I sympathize with – I mean, yeah, that's a – Yeah, everybody's like, ooh, brush it off on me. I do sometimes, but then what do I do? You know what? Off air, I'm more than happy to give you some suggestions on some lawyers to talk to. God, I don't get it. Because, yeah, when it's – given that you have an occupation in the field, false statements like that can be very detrimental. I could have one of these companies. There's no reason not to consult that. Honestly, there's no reason not to consult with an attorney at this stage. Shit. Like he's saying publicly I'm breaking NDA. Like that is illegal. What? It's an interest – I mean just saying this, I guess, again, sausage making behind the scenes. There are instances like when I know that you're doing a film, like a promotional thing with other companies, and you'll be like, I can't talk to you about what we're filming. Yeah. And I'm like, okay, I get it. So it would be interesting to me that you wouldn't share something with me, but you would share it with Nap. Right. And Jason Nap's a friend, but I don't talk to him, talk to him. I don't know what my motivation would be, which is I'm glad he's doing a podcast now because now he can prove that I don't know. Okay. Well, very weird. Sorry to hear about this. Yeah, it sucks. It's another reason I get prickly in between these weeks. I'm like, what the fuck do I got to do with any of this stuff? It would be different if it was vague, but it's like Zach Minney is doing it. What? I was just waiting for a pinball company to contact me and be like, hey, okay, well, if this is true, then we're now removing your company as distributing our products. Right, right. No, I see where you're concerned about financial repercussions. Even if they didn't, now they could think that I am? Sorry. I know this is way too much sausage make because it's so frustrating. I get it. No, I would be upset too. I try to be an adult and just be like, hey, please knock it off. Please. And then he snaps back at me like I'm threatening it. I'm like, no, I just fucking want you to stop me and please. Let's keep talking about NAB Arcade. he's been on fire lately. He's got all kinds of rumors. So I thought, you know what? We're going to be accused of it and everything. I'm going to lean into Nap Arcade's rumor roundup because we'll be able to talk about it a little bit more because there's so many cool titles that Nap Arcade has been rumoring being made, such as The Matrix or Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, John Wick, Twilight Zone, to name a few. What we're going to do is we're going to discuss all of the rumors from Nap Arcade as well as Don's Pinball Podcast recently had a rumor out, Pinball Party. There's been a lot of people who have been speculating and adding to some rumors, and I thought it would be fun, Dennis, if you and I went through each of those rumor titles and talked about what we know or don't know. We're going to do that exclusively for the Pinball Show Patreon members. So a subscription as low as $10 a month or the $25 a month club, $100 a month, We have those wonderful people as well. Sign up today at patreon.com slash the pinball show, and you can hear the exclusive bonus episode of 131 that will dive into what we're calling Nap Arcade's Rumor Roundup. Oh, the whip sound of that. Rumor Roundup. Rowdy Rumor Rounds. Sorry, Reddit guy. Jersey Jack pinball, what's a rumor? Oh, Godfather Sea, this isn't a rumor. They're starting to ship this month. We got notification later this month into August. We're going to see some Godfather CEs start to ship. Oh, the CEs. Okay, because I thought they were some of the Ls already. Those are the CEs. We knew that they were going overseas, but now they're going to start shipping probably, I would say, any week now. Ours are coming towards the end of the month, but, yeah, they're coming out. The Chicago Gaming Company, speaking of reporting, NAP Arcade recently reporting this week that Pulp Fiction is going to have some production updates per his reports. He's saying that beginning in October, you're going to see the Pulp Fiction, the ones with the Suzo hat black door kind of for locations so that they can have a bill acceptor, not that sexy silver door, but the black door. Those are going to go out first because Chicago Gaming Company and Play Mechanics are making a push to get those to locations first, a little bit of a priority there. and to distribution showrooms and stuff. So that makes sense if true. I did talk to Chicago Gaming Company. They didn't formally tell me whether that was true or not, but all indications are from past discussions with them. Yes, they would like to get Pulp Fiction's out on location with some priority initially. So, yeah, that report from NAP does make sense. They did say initially Q3. That's what CGC told us as dealers. So that kind of lines up with October. That makes sense to me as well. It doesn't, but October is the start of Q4. Okay. It's the start of the last three months of the year, Q4. So Q3 would be... We just entered Q3, July through the end of September. Yeah. So they have failed. They were public about Q3, that that was their target. Yes. They still have to the end of September. But if this report is true, they would be acknowledging that they have to push what they had hoped. And I hate to say so, but... I don't think we'll shock a single person. If anything, I think there will still be people who will be like, Q4 still sounds pretty early for CGC. I tend to think so. No offense, but they kind of have a rep. Yes, and it's so true. Plus, they're still making Cactus Cane's. They don't have all the LEs made. And that's been part of the people speculating that they would have to push off Q3. It's like, well, they've still got Cactus, and people are getting upset. I'd be happy if it was October, to be honest. Nap Arcade goes on to say that another batch of machines is going to be scheduled for December, then January. But the bulk of the machines are not going to be until two, three months after that. The Bad Mother Flipper limited edition machines with the topper and stuff, they're not going to be built until after February 2024 at the earliest. I don't know if that's true because I don't even know if Chicago Gaming Company specifically knows when those are going to be made, to be honest. So to specifically know after February 2024, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. So I think, sure, like if they would like them to be ready by February 2024. If you talk to CGC, they'd probably say they'd like the LEs to be ready in November or next July. Like, who knows? Who, honestly, I don't think nobody knows. Spooky Pinball knows. They know streaming. Did you know that they launched their very own Twitch channel? Twitch.tv slash Spooky Pinball. I know now. Yes. Yeah, Bug was on there. I think he streamed America's Most Haunted. Okay. I think it makes sense for these pinball manufacturers to have a place to do reveals and stuff, be it Twitch or Facebook or YouTube. Yeah. Honestly, I think Twitch is dying. I don't know why, but over the last year, I think they're dying. I don't know why. That's because you listen to Eclectic Gamers podcast, and Tony covers all of the big blunders that Twitch makes, and they make a lot of them. Yeah, and YouTube is just so sexy and accessible. Yeah, the problem with Twitch, we won't belabor it, but they're struggling to make money with their model, and so the problem is streamers are starting to get upset. They don't do anything special now. Well, the one strength that, in my opinion, that Twitch has over the other streaming platforms for live content, it's still the easiest way to find channels that are live. Like YouTube is still really clunky about it. Because historically. Because YouTube historically was a venue for prerecorded video. But they are getting better and better. And the revenue splits are better on YouTube. So I understand why more and more people are shifting to it. And yes, if you were to ask me to please speculate on the fate of Twitch versus YouTube, I would say I would start investing more time into YouTube at this point because I do think that Twitch isn't really worth it. But if you only are doing live stream stuff and – okay. I mean I guess maybe. But like there's already a reason why everyone who cares about their streams being available archives to YouTube because then it's findable. It's hard to find archive stuff on Twitch comparatively. Yeah, and it's cool. clunky there. I mean, I know it, but anyway, the world that we're getting into is short form media to reels and stuff. YouTube is doing that. Twitch is incapable of doing any type of video service. It's just, yeah, they seem like what TikTok has succeeded at and Instagram. And I've done shorts on my YouTube channel to try that out. And some of that stuff gets a lot of clicks. Ad revenue is crap, but it gets a lot of clicks. It's a lot of clicks. So yeah, Twitch, spooky. Here's my advice. get you a YouTube channel and use that for your streaming. Get used to it. I actually generate for my wristwatch channel. I actually generate more subscribers through my shorts than I do my live streams. I've heard, yeah, the shorts. I just – I don't need more subs. Like that's not how you – that's not the YouTube model. Once you have 1,000 subs and you're a partner, it doesn't really matter because so many people will discover your content who don't follow you. Like they're – like you're straight down the middle. Anyone interested in Rush is going to search for Rush Pinball and watch your video. They don't have to subscribe to Straight Down the Middle. On Twitch, unless they're already into pinball, either they follow you or they don't, but they would not find your live stream of Rush if they're not one of those two people. That's very true. And there's tools and stuff to use on reading algorithms and knowing what's going to be. There's a reason that I launched Rush when I did in preparation for our top ten to get more hits. Yes, there's a method to all the madness. Yeah, I need to research more on SEO exploitation and knowing how to really do that stuff now. It's crazy. Oh, yeah. No, it's like it's formula. And it's always evolving because they keep changing their algorithms. So it's an interesting area, but not one I've dove into. So welcome to the streaming club there, Spooky Pinball. Yeah. It's harder than podcasting, so I wish you luck. TPN's director of streaming, George Fisher, might reach out to him. Hey, you guys want to be part of TPN? Oh, my gosh. I agree, though. I think it's good for all manufacturers to have their own channels and all the stuff, like Twitch, YouTube, TikTok, all that. A lot of them do have channels like on YouTube, but they don't use them very much. You can park them as long as you get them. We've got a lot of fans. They subscribe maybe to our TikTok. I don't know. They subscribe to our Facebook. And while I'm thinking of it, go follow, like, and subscribe to the Pinball Show and all the different places. But there's a lot of supporters that we do have. Dennis, I want to thank those people right now in general. But more specifically, we've got to thank our Screaming Goat Club members. These are the individuals who are getting that paywall polo in the future. These are the individuals who get a one-on-one private conversation with us about some of the juiciest information in this industry. And they've all stuck with us so far. They're all stuck with us because they're troopers. I appreciate their support. Yeah, they like the juice too. They get their own nickname. They get to jump on the pinball show in the future here to be part of the show, the podcast. That's right. So we get all kinds of stuff. Plus they get to pick a topic, part of the $25 club. They get stickers. They get everything. They get everything. So we want to thank them specifically. But I thought this week we'll spice it up and do so with the help of a friend. Hold your hand, Tico. Hey, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Two cars coming. You got two cars coming two different ways. Here you go, man. Bag up, bag up. Bag up, Terry. Put it in reverse, Terry. Oh, Lord! Lord, please! Oh, Lord! Oh, please! What the, what you doing, Terry? Terry, what you doing? What, what, what? What, what, what? Oh, shoot that fucker! You heard it. Thanks again, Rodney Jablonski. Sweet Rob A, thank you. Colin, thank you. Frank, David, Jojo Fox, and Charlie Bell, thank you for being a friend. Now with David, with the discontinuation of the Sam Shaker motor, do we have to change it? Is he a Sam right now? Do we have to change him to an OEM Spike Shaker? We haven't specified, did we? Well, I wonder if maybe the audience could tell the difference with how it sounds. I'm hoping that he doesn't discontinue his membership, So we'll keep him as a spike two. Okay. Spike two. I just don't want him discontinued. No, no. Cabinet node board intact. He's good. All right, Dennis. No messages about the rumbly of the Pooh Bear. Did you ask for any? Yeah, I turned into Eeyore. Nobody cares about me. Oh. I used to work with someone, and she called me Eeyore all the time. I was like, I don't know why you say that. I'm the happiest person here. Don't worry. But I can't be down during this segment because the drums signify it's America. It's July 4th. Drums in the deep. And nothing epitomizes American podcasting more so than pinball market trends. Turning up this week is America's choice in pinball, stern pinball. It's the world's choice of pinball. Stern Pinball, and that's just because, look, their production is complete domination right now. I remember back in my day, two years ago, I couldn't get a damn pinball machine. Now they're just flowing like a place where the beer flows like wine, where beautiful women instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano. It's a little place called Stern Pinball. Actually, I have inventory now, Dennis. At Flip N Out Pinball, I have inventory of some of the greatest games ever built In all of pinball history, Jurassic Park Premiums, I've got them Godzilla Pros, I've got them It's amazing to me, Iron Maiden Pro and Premiums, I've got them Stern Pinball, I have not seen them crank out this many machines At this rapid of a pace since I've been in distribution That's going on close to four years Somehow, someway, I don't know if they're getting the parts that they need But there's no way even the strongest air conditioners could cool down those workers and those factory lines right now. Some say that Robert De Niro Al Pacino movie heat was based on what was going on in Stern's factory right now, but in the past. Because the movie's old. Because the movie's old. Michael Mann. Oh, I think it was a Michael Mann film. The heat from all the microwaves would overwhelm your body and you'd collapse. But what I'm trying to get at, listener, is that if this is what they're doing here, Lord knows what they're capable of doing at that big mega complex that they're about to move into. Do you think it's the point of threshold where us dealers are like gluttons and big old fat ass and we're just like, no, no more. We can't take any more. I can't take any more games in. I mean, it's conceivable eventually. And conceivable. No, but as long as they're, wow, you're milking that Princess Bride line. It's a rumor right now. It's a rumored game. Yeah, well, you know, murmurs are meant to be tamed. I think it's an okay rumor. Like, yeah, I think it'd be, it'd do okay. I mean, once they're all caught up, it'll be interesting to see. I mean, they'll be able to throttle the production levels. I can't imagine they're going to run at full speed of the new facility once they're caught up. You know, there's still economic indicators that I think we're going to see a slowing of purchasing. But we'll see. I might be wrong. We typically always see that in the summer. Nicole told me the other day, she's like, I thought this is when we get a slowdown. Like, we're selling more machines now than we ever have. What is going on? I'm like, it's because Stern is able to crank out the gold masterpieces right now, the Elwins right now. People are finally like, oh, shit, I can buy one of those. I don't have to go on a wait list and wait indefinitely. I'm going to buy those now. Buy, buy, buy! That's turning up. Speaking of Stern, we got to. It's Batman 66. They stopped making this title. and damned if this thing hasn't continued to creep up, up, up, up. Now, a Batman 66 Premium, you're spending like $12,000, $13,000. What? For a Batman 66 Premium? Not my preferred game at all from the starting catalog, but to each their own. Batman 66 is on a high, and I don't think it's going to slow down anytime soon. It's a gomi. My homie gomi is hitting it hard with Bond, and people are paying attention, and that's why I'm also training up this week. Deadpool. Deadpool. So when you look at the big catalog, it used to be, I can't get a Godzilla premium. I just can't get it. I'm here to tell you, with this big recent run, I am now getting down to a breathable level of a backorder for a Godzilla premium. Some dealers have them in stock. I'm not the one that says that those dealers just don't know how to sell pinball, but some dealers have them in stock. I believe that there will be a day that I'm going to have Godzilla premiums in stock. It's getting close. Foo Fighter premiums, there's dealers with those now in stock. And our backorder list is shrinking as well. They've been able to crank out more and more and more and more. But the reason I trained up Deadpool is because, as you will see right now, Deadpool is kind of the hard one to get. That's the one that is in stock nowhere. Even the dealers that don know how to sell pinball machines they at least know how to sell Deadpool They gone They nowhere They only run like once a year I have back orders for Deadpool This is crazy Dennis I have back orders as far back as February 2022 for Deadpool. Wow. That is a year and a half. So you can see... People are going to wonder how I ended up with one. Chill. It's a fun game. It is a fun game. But even the Pro and the Premiums, they're just They're backordered, and you're going to see them run them again. Remember, we got bumped back to October. And writing's on the wall. They're already discontinued. Toppers, toppers in the discontinue bin. And I think all the other accessories. Deadpool's going to turn into like a Batman 66, where it's always just going to be like Metallica. Everybody's always wanting Metallica. Deadpool's about to welcome to that club. And I've got to save him some money, because I spent too much money on fireworks this year. So I'll save you a buck. I'll save you two, maybe even $1,000 in this week's deal of the week. Buy, buy, buy! Deal of the week is from Flip N Out Pinball. Of course it is. I'm a fucking shill. And I need to sell, sell, sell. Sell, sell, sell. Rush Pro. I just got it in. I haven't even advertised it yet. You just did a big old review on it. I want to get... Oh, shit. Then why am I giving it a deal of the week then? I could sell this thing for... Oh, none of this makes sense to the conspiracies out there. Well, Rush Pro just came in. I'm giving it the first right of refusal to the Pinball Show listeners. I would typically sell like new Rush Pro. They discontinued them or supposedly started making them. $69.99 is new. I'd sell a used one probably for $66 just because it maintains value because people want Rushes right now and you can't just get them. For the listeners right here, $6,100. Boom, that is a deal of the week. Buy, buy, buy. And back by popular demand, where in the hell is this sub-segment gone? It's called Pinball Market Trends Deals of the What, Huh, Wow, Fuck Me. Deals of WTF. And this week, I've got to pull one up because it's one that interested me. Did you guys see this custom Kill Bill? They made like eight of them. Same people, I believe, that made the Johnny Mnemonics. Don't quote me on that. Don't know. I think, mate, I'm not sure. This Kill Bill has been a machine that I've always wanted. Ever since seeing this company. Okay, six of them. Ever since seeing this company take this property and re-theme World Cup soccer, but also adding different physical elements, and the theme's just killer. It's gorgeous. It's a gorgeous machine. They added LCD. I've always wanted this thing. So when it popped up, one of six only ever made and probably ever to be made, popped up for sale, I was ready to buy, buy, buy it now. Until I saw the props. Now, this is the O-Ren edition. I think six of them, they all have one of the, I guess, the villains. Yeah, they all have a character. They're all a character, yeah. Plus, what's the main character? What's her name? Well, the bride is what they call her, mostly. The bride. Because it's like Beatrice. That's right. I guess they didn't make a Buck version. Poor Buck. He only liked to do one thing. It's our truck. It's our... Uh, so, the O-Ren edition. I'll take the O-Ren edition. It's better than that weird trailer park guy version. I don't know what his name is. Oh, Michael Madsen's character? Yeah, I hate that guy in general. No, I don't hate him in general, but I just don't like him as an actor. Like, God, he's an hateful actor. My favorite was Daryl Hannah. Oh, yeah, yeah. See, I can get behind even the, uh, give me Bill. I like Bill. David Carradine. David Carradine, yeah. I don't know if he has his own, but the O-Ren, I'll take it. They listed this. They're up in Washington, I believe, for $88,000. What the? Come on. $88,000. I know it's rare. It's only six made, but $88,000? Yeah. I will note, this was funny to me, incidentally, that you put this in. Okay. I actually had an email from my father with a link to this going. And that's us already. We work on some Pitbull stuff together. I'll just read you the subject. It just says $88,000 pinball machine for sale on Pinsop. That's the subject. See? I'm like, okay. It worked. Now, if it makes any difference to the listeners, though, it's now down to $83,000. Well, and partially. That's 6% off, Zach. That may be my fault because I, look, listener. Oh, gosh. You didn't actually reach out, did you? I might have. Zach. I know. You're trying to pinball party? No, I reached out and I said, no, I didn't reach out to scold. I reached out to inquire. Now, they did. It's tongue-in-cheek. I knew why they did $88,000 because it's like the crazy $88,000 is the film. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got that. So I thought it was probably like an or best offer. So I was going to actually, look, listener. And they did at the bottom, or at least now. It does say prices go up. Well, probably because of me. But I did reach out. Why don't you just take credit for everything? You know they designed it because of me, too. They did not. Now I'm upset that you put this in. This poor guy had to explain his joke because of my ignorance, is what I'm saying. So I reached out to him and I said, you know what? I am interested. Because I am. I've always loved this, man. Zach, if you're... No, but not that... You've got to get crazy. $88,000. If you're actually reaching out over a World Cup soccer re-theme for $88,000, You need to buy some more in-ground stuff. So I'm not. The reason I was reaching out is because I said, look, I know it's the hole. If you have to ask how much it is, you can't afford it. And that is the case here because I can't afford this. I'm wondering, I get the 88 reference. Is that just to throw out, hey, I'm selling it, give me your best offer? Or are you really considering that being somewhat close to what you think you're going to get for this? because before I give you an offer, I don't want to offend you by coming in substantially lower than $88,000 for this pinball machine. I thought that was fair to message them because otherwise, like if I come in, honestly, I would be interested in purchasing this game at $30,000. So I didn't want to come in and say, hey, I think it's worth $30,000. It's worth $30,000 to me because he's going to be like, hey, dickwad, it's $88,000. Motherfucker, like talk about lowball. But then again, I thought, maybe the 88's just being cute, and he's open to whatever. So he came back and said, no, the 88 was just kind of a joke thing. It's not where I necessarily think, but it's kind of a priceless thing. So it's hard to know. So that's why I'm open to offers at this point in time. So I didn't offer 30 because I really don't know what that meant. So I'm like, eh. And then he put on Pennside that he's going to reduce it $5,000 every week until it sells. So I'm like, well, he kind of did think it was going to be worth that much. So I'm out. I'm not a baller enough for that. I think it's worth $30,000 to me. And one I'd probably have to think about before I pulled the trigger, but I might pull $30,000 for that. Wow. And then it breaks, and I wouldn't be able to fix it. Well, it's a World Cup soccer. You could fix it. No, I'm talking about the Cody. Penovators. No, is it Penovating? Penovating, I think, is a company that does these things. It's gorgeous. I want it bad, but not that. Do you think it's worth $30? Not to me, but it's a great theme. It is. I mean, given that there are six, if it was commercially made, would someone have possibly priced around that? Sure. I can see that. I have to be careful. I don't think about pinball machines. They're not, to me, collecting items at that tier. It's just not something my head goes to. But I can see the logic to it. Absolutely. Pinball bounty. I've got enough machines. I probably don't need to be buying anything right now. Still looking for that Minty Dolly Parton Radical in Congo. And as always... Maybe you should quit looking for that so you could afford your Oren Ishii. Oren Ishii. Gosh, she was a badass, too. So that's why I was like, I kind of like that model. I'm good with that. I like the part where she apologizes to the bride for disrespecting her after she gets cut. You know what? Hey. God, that film was just so freaking good. I like a lot of Lucy Liu's performances and a lot of stuff. That might be my favorite Tarantino. You're that of Pulp. One of the two. I know yours is Jackie Brown. Well, I'm a big Jackie Brown fan. I don't know. Volume 2 of Kill Bill doesn't work nearly as well for me as Volume 1 other than the music. I love the music. Tarantino's music choices really align a lot with my tastes. It's one film. It's like saying Lord of the Rings is three films. No. One. It is. No, it's one story. I swear it is. I went back and watched... It should have been one film. I went back and watched Hateful Eight a week or so ago. See, that was really good. I've not re-watched it. I've only seen it once. But I thought, I don't know, because once you have the mystery to it, I didn't know if I want to go back. It's kind of one of those things. Just because you didn't grow up on westerns like I did. I guess. I just think there's so much pretentiousness in his work that that's one that falls into... He is the king of dialogue and he knows it. I would argue he's not. What about Inglourious Bastards? I've seen that a few times. I hated it. Is it because it's an alternative take on history and so it just feels fake? No, it's the pretentious nature of the way he films and the way he does dialogue. He's smiling because he thinks he's cute the whole fucking time and I don't appreciate that. His stuff is good, I'll give him that, but then it's stuff like that. But you love Pulp Fiction. He sticks in a whole thing about a dialogue around $5 milkshakes. That's before he knew he was good. That's when he was legit saying, you know what? I'm going to make a film that I want to make. That's why he was the king of dialogue. But then he got cutesy. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I have not seen that. Oh, man. When it comes to Tarantino, I'm not a huge fan, but he has some of the best moments in cinema history, in my opinion. Like there's some sequences in that being one of them. There's like two or three sequences, especially the ending of that film. It's some of the best ever. But the whole story leading up to it's like you pretentious bastard, like hateful eight. Guess what, buddy? There's nothing special in this storyline. There's nothing special in this dialogue. This movie is actually not really that good. But because you know how to do some of the film work, some of the dialogue, it's cute. But no, no, sorry. I don't know what he's got coming next, but I'm still talking about him, so it's working. And as always, I'm just here to shit on Quentin Tarantino, because numbers don't lie, and neither do I, on pinball market trends. Let's close it down, Dennis. Where can people catch you? If they want to reach out to me, they can always contact me via email at eclecticgamerspodcast at gmail.com. I do a fairly decent job of checking those messages. You do a damn good job at everything you do, Dennis. I was traveling this last week, so I was kind of sloppy with responding to people. You deserve a trophy. Yes, thank you for that. You can email us at thepinballshow at gmail.com, too. Actually, I'm the one that kind of – that's my job of reading those ones. This is usually for you because you are the star that carries the show. Oh, man, it's getting deep now. That sounds like Tarantino dialogue right there. I mean, I am the $5 milkshake. I'm pretty good but you're not entirely sure that I'm worth $5 but in our case I'm a $10 milkshake because we don't have a $5 here. Exactly and speaking of you can go sign up exclusively to the Pinball Show Club right now you get to join our Discord for $10 and hear the exclusive podcast bonus episodes that we do so do it right now it's cheap, it's easy, it's fun it's the Pinball Show at patreon.com slash the pinball show also Facebook, follow us there, TikTok, Discord Discord's only for those members to sign up today SDTM, straight down the middle A video series I do on YouTube We did the Rush Review here this last week Also coming this week, another top ten list This is going to be one to remember And to argue, and to fuss, and to talk about Hashtag, I'm never wrong The sponsor of the Pinball Show Is Flip N Out Pinball, my distribution company When I buy my pinball Shit I buy from Flip N Out Pinball From Toppers or Brainserios I've got it figured out Flip N Out Pinball, figured out When I think of pinball, I think flipping out. Flipping out. Flipping out. Flipping out. When I buy, buy, buy, I buy from flipping out. Buy, buy, buy. Thank you, Jason. Product showcase this week is a Godzilla Pro. You heard it right. Keith Elwin's beauty. Oh, yeah. His masterpiece is agreed upon by basically everyone except those who want to be contrarian. Oh. Now, whether or not the Pro or the Premium holds better status, I don't know. True for every game. That's always a debated item. But if you want to save some money, go with the Godzilla Pro because it's in stock and we're still doing free shipping. We're like one of the only dealers still doing free shipping. This ain't free shipping to your terminal. Now, I saw another one. I saw another distro that is still doing free shipping. They had an ad that was very similar to yours, but it seemed cropped. But I saw that it said free shipping. So I guess they still do free shipping too? Can I name who they are and where they're at? No, no. Even now they're like, damn it. Now I do free shipping. serving me right. I was like, I took this ad and now I'm a free shipper and I didn't mean to. Did you notice on my last ad I put it in a corner so that the people that do easy crops that don't know how to do Photoshop crops, they can't really easily get left or right to up to, like, fuck. I can't grab a corner. I did wonder if you had repositioned for editing purposes. It was kind of a deep editor cut to all the people out there that knew that somebody stole my, so, yeah. I'm a nerd. But that's the product showcase this week. Also in stock, Iron Maiden Pro in premium. Another Elwynn great, as well as Jurassic Park premium. Gosh, I'm inventoried up in some Elwynn. Thank you, Keith. I do have a pre-owned Rush premium that is right now in inventory, as well as that Rush Pro that I talked to you guys about, deal of the week. Godfather Ellie, I've got new and used, the same as Toy Story Ellie and CEs. James Bond Pro in premium, both new and used in stock. James Bond 60th Anniversary, new and used in stock. Alien LV, Jurassic Park Home Edition, Star Wars Home Edition. Even in the vault, we have those Stranger Things replacement projectors. Go check those out. I think I have an Iron Man vault in the vault still. I like Iron Man. It's a fun game. It's a good game. Ultraman and Halloween, still got those around. Star Wars Pro, I've got one left. Led's left on Pro and Premium. Got those. I got a lot of everything, including Art Blades, toppers, banners. Oh, my. If you want to pre-order Queen, do it. Shaker Motors by CGC or Stern, got those in stock. escalera taking orders on those i've got some 66 inches in stock ready to ship believe it or not stern playfields i now have some stern playfields that's how i know they're catching up on everything because i placed an order for playfields like three years ago just now starting to roll in i've got an iron maiden jurassic park or an elvira playfield you guys want that for your own game room to hang up or something got those in stock headphone kits shaker motors dust covers player mats and flipping out with friends don't miss flipping out with friends with joel engelberth every Wednesday. Dennis, what happened last week at TPN? Oh, gosh, so many podcasts. So, you know, kind of going from oldest to newest. Pinball Innovators and Makers had episode seven come out, which was, yes, titled about who needing more than three hours of sleep. At that, Silver Bar Chronicles, they put out their 31st episode. That was going into the Mylstar. It was the old stuff. Yes, but solid state old stuff. I listened. I liked it. This is the first that they really spent a lot of time on Ed Krinsky because he left during the Mylstar time, and they redid a number of his games. Definitely worth checking out if you're into pinball history. Then there was Tool Time on Pinball Party Podcast. So talked about a variety of, like, relevant pinball tools. So Jason was joined by two guest hosts at that time, Cale and Rachel. Talk about that for what you might use to work on your pinball machines. I have not heard Triple J and Pinball Podcast episode 39 yet. I just downloaded it yesterday. I haven't played it yet. Called Five Minutes of Endless Ball Save. I do know they dive quite a bit into some of the tournament experiences that a couple of the hosts have gone through. And then I believe it's not out yet, but it's going to be before this episode drops is a new episode of Final Round. You'll want to hear that one. Episode 78 titled Modern. And this week we'll have all kinds of stuff as well. Make sure to check us out on Twitch. We have all those affiliates streaming for the Pinball Network. More to probably come as well. I think we should just shift and transfer all of TPN over to YouTube. You want to hear a mutiny? well george would throw up his hands i am officially done i'm out hung on longer than i should i'm done so go check that out as well as some podcasts there's going to be continued big news over the summer so follow like and subscribe to the pinball network and always practice safe pinball and put it in forward terry you don't have to revert just put it forward you were on the side of the firework so putting it in for you ended up honestly you did put it in for you You didn't put it in reverse. Maybe that's why you got confused. You were flailing around on the joystick there because they were telling you to put it in reverse. I'm here to tell you. You made the right decision. You put it in forward. You're fine. Put it in forward, Terry. Is somebody really vacuuming right now? Not me. Wow. I'm recording. Somebody vacuuming out there? Look, they need... When you live in your in-ground base, dust piles up. I am underground right now. I'm in the basement. Dust piles up. It's probably a fancy vacuum. It's probably a Dyson. Oh, it's definitely a Dyson. But just a minute. You're like, Dennis, come on. I ain't got to slum it with some Hoover. Come on. I have a Dyson, too. I shouldn't make fun of it. Exactly. See? The rechargeable station that's on the wall. No, I ain't got mine. We use this old cord. It's an old model. Oh, no. I ain't buying no new Dyson. and I ain't got no in-ground lair. Like Skeletor. I'm going to go tell him to stop. No, let them clean. This is why it takes five hours to do this show. Vacuums. Zach should put this vacuum behind the Patreon paywall. only Nicole would be vacuuming in a bathing suit. It's just, it's how it is in these, in these parts. It's the fourth. We're getting ready to entertain. So she's streaming out the basement. Yeah, you got to, you got party. She was outside opening up the pool. So maybe that's why. I mean, it was sexy. It was awesome. I walked in there and she was in a red bathing suit with her Dyson, but I told her to cut it out. You went into the piano to key necktie. That's right. Damn it. Taking crazy pills. what is this a news leak for ants oh shit it's a fucking pinball show No!
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    community_signal: Craig Bobby (news correspondent) absent from episode; hosts attribute to Canada Day holiday and prior smoke quality complaints, jokingly replacing his role

    low · Hosts note Craig mentioned Canada Day excuse and prior smoke complaints; joke about having to do news themselves 'yet again'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Express Lighting Kits have no timeline for production; hosts suggest manufacturing complexity or supply chain issues; notably absent from Foo Fighters Pro cabinet specifications despite previous games featuring them

    high · Stern indicated no timeline for Rush or Stranger Things kits; Foo Fighters Pro will not include cabinet spots for lighting installation

  • ?

    product_concern: James Bond 007 initially dismissed by community but gaining popularity weekly; suggests initial market skepticism overcome by gameplay depth or theme execution

    medium · Host notes: 'it is gaining in popularity every week that title that everybody already dismissed it's already coming back'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Stern production schedule maps through Q4 2024 with specific monthly allocations: late July (Avengers, Foo Fighters Pro/Premium), August (Jurassic Park Pro), September (facility move/shutdown), October (Deadpool Pro/Premium, James Bond Pro/Premium, toppers), November (open), December (potential cornerstone announcement or James Bond continuation)

    high · Hosts provide detailed month-by-month production schedule from Stern Pinball official sources

  • ?

    technology_signal: Projection mapping system from Stranger Things not reused on subsequent games despite positive reception; hosts express disappointment at one-time implementation

    low · Host lament: 'I'm more disappointed that they've not reused the projection mapping system thing for Stranger Things. You go to all that trouble for one game?'