transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:00] Warning, the following episode contains adult language and screaming goats. Listener discretion is advised.

Speaker 2:
[00:13] Ladies and gentlemen, the time is now.

Speaker 1:
[00:15] The Pinball Show is back. I'm feeling all frisky. What about you, Dennis?

Speaker 3:
[00:18] I'm ready to go. It's been 84 years?

Speaker 1:
[00:22] Has it been 84 years?

Speaker 3:
[00:24] It's been, it's maybe 84 days. It's been a while.

Speaker 2:
[00:27] Is that Lady Dead?

Speaker 3:
[00:30] Sure.

Speaker 1:
[00:30] She's gotta be, right?

Speaker 3:
[00:32] Yeah, sure.

Speaker 1:
[00:33] Do you think people visit her grave site?

Speaker 3:
[00:35] No.

Speaker 2:
[00:35] And say, it's been 84 years.

Speaker 3:
[00:38] All right, maybe.

Speaker 1:
[00:39] And they take the little, the heart diamond or the hope diamond.

Speaker 3:
[00:43] Hope diamond, we all just have hope. Well, now that we can lab grow them, maybe we could all have hope diamonds.

Speaker 1:
[00:49] Are you gonna have a big diamond? Would you buy the fake diamond, well, grown diamonds?

Speaker 3:
[00:55] I don't, I'm not really into diamonds, so probably not.

Speaker 1:
[00:59] Are you okay with the fake ones or are you more of a, I have to have the real thing kind of fella?

Speaker 3:
[01:05] Given that they're chemically identical, they look good as a very interesting choice.

Speaker 1:
[01:11] You know, diamonds have a good bounce to them, right? Well, is there really?

Speaker 3:
[01:17] I don't know.

Speaker 1:
[01:19] They're shiny, they look good.

Speaker 3:
[01:22] I had TPF, so we missed that weekend.

Speaker 1:
[01:25] You went to TPF?

Speaker 3:
[01:25] You had Easter, we couldn't record on Easter.

Speaker 1:
[01:29] Yes, you don't want to know something funny. This is such a dad thing to do. My kids are old enough, Dennis and viewer, that it's getting to the point where they're like, oh, it's kind of lame to be hunting eggs, but secretly, they still love it. As a parent, secretly, we still love hiding eggs and stuff. This is gross, but this is me, I don't give a shit. Nicole overdoes it. She's like me, if we're going to do something, we overdo it and make sure it's the greatest. She hides 200 eggs for three kids.

Speaker 3:
[01:59] Holy cow.

Speaker 1:
[02:00] But I've got to go out there, wet socks because of the dew from the shoes. I hate wet socks. That's a side note, turning down. But I'm hiding all these damn eggs and I'm half asleep. I was listening to an audiobook while I was hiding eggs. So the kids are out there. They're finding it. There are some eggs, Dennis, that are going to be lost like Clark Griswold's Mother's Day present up in the attic since 1989. They're going to be lost for years. They're not going to find them because it's almost like a time portal kind of thing. What do they call it? A time capsule?

Speaker 3:
[02:35] Yes.

Speaker 1:
[02:36] I'm hiding eggs around our property. I don't know what's in them, but it'll be interesting to see what happens once we pull them out five years. But they were looking for them and everything. My 15-year-old, she's too cool for school, man. She don't want to hunt eggs, but she secretly loves it. We were running back. They're all looking for eggs. I was like, hey sweetie, I found one right here. It was a dog turd. She went down, she went down, paused and looked up and was like, like I don't like you, dad. I don't know why you're here. I don't know why mom still is dealing with you. We all have come to a vote and we're going to snuff your torch. You're off this island. But how funny is that? To make the brain reach for dog turd, realize it is not plastic egg. It is, in fact, feces. I thought it was funny.

Speaker 2:
[03:32] Then again, it's dark.

Speaker 1:
[03:34] Well, it was brown. It wasn't like that dark, but it was. You want to talk about pinball?

Speaker 3:
[03:41] And we could keep talking about dog shit if you want.

Speaker 1:
[03:43] But dog shit and diamonds metaphor for boobs. OK, we've covered it here. I'm happy to be back. You know what happens? I'm going to try to I'm going to try to be a good boy. Usually, whenever we take a break and stuff, we come back a little feisty. So it'll be good for views and for memberships. But I'm going to do my best to drive them away. Want to keep them?

Speaker 3:
[04:09] Get out of here. This is a happy place now.

Speaker 1:
[04:12] Happy place. Find your happy place. Stern Pinball is generally where I find my happy place.

Speaker 3:
[04:18] Where is the next game? I'm ready for the next game.

Speaker 1:
[04:21] I think it's coming. OK, I think it's coming. We'll talk about it. The last couple of weeks, they've been building Pokemon LEs. Wait a minute. I know we've been gone long, but why are they still making Pokemon LEs?

Speaker 3:
[04:35] Don't you mean Pokemon like anniversary edition? It's been a long time.

Speaker 2:
[04:40] Yeah, Pokemon LEs.

Speaker 1:
[04:43] So they had parts issues.

Speaker 3:
[04:45] Of course, there's always parts issues.

Speaker 1:
[04:47] For the last month, they've been.

Speaker 3:
[04:48] What parts? Is it the Pikachu that turns?

Speaker 1:
[04:51] I have no clue. I have no clue.

Speaker 3:
[04:53] Parts are hard.

Speaker 1:
[04:56] Do you see the little mod with the tail?

Speaker 2:
[04:58] I love that. I just love that.

Speaker 1:
[05:00] I got that one ordered. But yeah, parts issues, delays for the Pokemon LEs. But I think they're close. I think they're pretty close to getting the rest of them. Fortunately, we have all of ours out, so we're good there. But yeah, they rolled out the specified, specific numbered ones, and then they kind of continue to roll those out. But almost done. They've been also building Godzilla Pro and Premiums as well as Jaws Pro. Next couple of weeks over at Stern Pinball, they will be producing King Kong Pro and Premium, as well as Jaws Premium and Jurassic Park Pro. Then at the end of April into May is Pokemon Pro. They're calling the rest of that first run, a bullshit. That's a second run out. Don't church it up. 1.5, run 1.5 on those pros. But then they're rolling right into run two pros in May and then run two Pokemon Premiums in May as well. So I think the first half of May, we're going to see a lot of Pokemon. What else in May?

Speaker 3:
[06:06] And apparently a lot of Elwynn. Well, end of April. We call those Elwynn cycles.

Speaker 1:
[06:13] Elwynn had a big April cycle there. Pretty much all of his games. And they're still, damn, they're still selling well. June, May, June. When are we going to see the next Cornerstone? I think they'll be shipping in June.

Speaker 3:
[06:27] I think so too, but I want to ask you, do you think they reveal in May?

Speaker 1:
[06:32] It's gonna be May.

Speaker 2:
[06:34] It's gonna be May.

Speaker 1:
[06:35] Did you know Homeboy got pulled over for DUI during his world tour? Bloodshot eyes, poor Justin Timberlake.

Speaker 3:
[06:42] Oh wait, no, I guess I did hear about that. Sorry, I didn't know he sang the song you were trying to understand.

Speaker 1:
[06:46] That poor fella. He's trying to be all coy. I'm just gonna mess up my tour. Cobb was like, what tour are you talking about? He's like, a world tour, a world tour? I'm a singer.

Speaker 3:
[07:00] It's gonna be White Claw. I don't know what he drank.

Speaker 1:
[07:06] It's gonna be a field sobriety failure. He's like, I'm a singer. I'm Justin Timberlake.

Speaker 3:
[07:13] Why are you trying to make him sound like Michael Jackson?

Speaker 2:
[07:15] That's how he sounds. Poor Memphis boy does. He's got a little, he's got a little skip in the step, man. He's like, hi.

Speaker 1:
[07:23] You see, I don't know what he sounds like.

Speaker 2:
[07:26] He's like, I'm Justin Timberlake.

Speaker 1:
[07:27] The cop was like, what? He's like, yeah, I'm Justin Timberlake.

Speaker 2:
[07:33] Why are these guys driving? Don't, Tiger, stop. Why is Tiger Woods again? Tiger Woods is so, he is so blown out, man.

Speaker 1:
[07:44] I don't get it though. What is it? There's plenty of handlers. Is he just so tired of people? He's like, fuck it. I run this shit.

Speaker 3:
[07:53] It's the, it's the Brittany thing. You get up to the top and then the pressure, there's the pressure and then the crash and the burn. Handlers can't be with them 24 seven.

Speaker 1:
[08:04] I would get tired of handlers too, get it? Man, if you're going to get blown out, just.

Speaker 3:
[08:09] Sometimes even, it's even those that you would think would no longer be at that point in their lives. What's this? What? The Haley Joe Osmit a couple of years ago, didn't he got it? He was drunk on a ski mountain. Shia LaBeouf, what's the last movie you saw Shia in? He's too busy like getting in street fights in the French Quarter.

Speaker 1:
[08:27] That guy's nuts. But he seems like he would be fun to kind of like.

Speaker 3:
[08:35] Until he punches you.

Speaker 1:
[08:36] I was going to say, like I've had some high testosterone lately. It seems like he'd be fun to fight if he's drunk.

Speaker 3:
[08:43] But I just imagine him spilling all over her out in the streets of New Orleans going, Bumblebee, where are you going?

Speaker 1:
[08:56] Yelling at that girl at the cafe in France like she's Megan Fox or something.

Speaker 2:
[09:01] What are you yelling at, bro?

Speaker 1:
[09:06] Put a bag over your head. What is going on with Hollywood right now?

Speaker 2:
[09:09] I used to have all the spark.

Speaker 1:
[09:11] Sorry, I was in holes, damn it. Hold on, roll back. How do we get here? Okay, we are on. It's going to be May.

Speaker 3:
[09:20] We were talking about the cornerstone.

Speaker 1:
[09:21] That's where that went to.

Speaker 3:
[09:23] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[09:23] It's been a while. Sorry, guys. I'm not sorry.

Speaker 3:
[09:25] Speaking of transport.

Speaker 1:
[09:28] So yeah, I think we see it at the end of May. Now June feels better.

Speaker 3:
[09:39] I still want to say, I think we get the teaser in May. I'm going to say the teaser.

Speaker 1:
[09:43] Nothing's on the schedule for May, though. So maybe May. Maybe May, actually. You know what's going to be really interesting? Man, I'm so off the cuff here, but I haven't been recording and I don't care much about the structure here. Here's what I've been thinking. We've got a JJP game coming up. Maybe we keep this for the patreon.com/thepinballshow. Yeah, remind me. That's what we're going to do. JJP, it's going to be an interesting spring. January, February, March, April, May, June. It's going to be an interesting spring here. But yes, I'm-

Speaker 3:
[10:28] You think so?

Speaker 1:
[10:30] I hope you're right because- Oh, my god, yes.

Speaker 3:
[10:33] Zach, so here's what. Let me paint you a portrait with my impressionist skills. Last year, this time, we were starting, I feel, to talk about Trough Jam 2.0. Right now, it's more like Credit Dot 2026.

Speaker 2:
[10:50] Oh, there's nothing?

Speaker 3:
[10:51] It feels like Credit Dot 2026, balls are missing from Trough. Because it sure doesn't feel like we're anywhere near-

Speaker 1:
[10:59] The ball is missing.

Speaker 3:
[11:00] Yes, Pokemon, legendary license.

Speaker 1:
[11:03] The Trough.

Speaker 3:
[11:03] Doing great for Stern, people like it. Other than that-

Speaker 1:
[11:07] Yeah, what have we seen?

Speaker 3:
[11:08] Eh, you got a little Yukon excitement, but not a lot. And that's about everything else was from last year. Beetlejuice, everyone saw last year.

Speaker 1:
[11:18] So there was a delay in Pokemon too.

Speaker 3:
[11:20] So, yeah, yeah, so I'm just, I'm just saying, Zach, like I, I'm gonna, the way you say that and the listeners are listening, but I'm saying, could this actually be a weaker year than last year? And I think we're currently set up for it to be quite a bit weaker.

Speaker 1:
[11:39] What did we have last year was big.

Speaker 3:
[11:41] Last year was huge. You had Harry Potter.

Speaker 1:
[11:43] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[11:44] King Kong.

Speaker 1:
[11:45] Beetlejuice.

Speaker 3:
[11:46] So you had Nelwen. Obviously Beetlejuice is a weird one cause it got revealed, but no one had it. Winchester though. Dune and the recovery of Dune in particular, because that game started slow, but it ended up doing pretty well. Portal.

Speaker 2:
[11:58] For P3. Medieval.

Speaker 1:
[11:59] Another medieval. Yeah. It was big, but we had some, we had some stern, not full misses, but we had some stern.

Speaker 3:
[12:10] Walking Dead remaster was the only thing that really tripped and fell though you could. Now I would argue, especially after playing it, that Star Wars is not.

Speaker 1:
[12:20] Just we'll talk about that one too, but it didn't fly off the shelves initially. And then neither, I mean, King Kong did well, but it didn't do.

Speaker 3:
[12:30] It did well because it's an L win, but it didn't do like L win games generally do, though.

Speaker 1:
[12:34] No, D and D was D and D.

Speaker 3:
[12:38] Yeah, it was right in January of the January game.

Speaker 1:
[12:42] I think so.

Speaker 3:
[12:43] Yeah, I guess you're right.

Speaker 1:
[12:44] And that did OK.

Speaker 3:
[12:47] Now, it was a weaker year for Stern. I think Stern will have a better 26 and 25, but I don't know if pinball will.

Speaker 1:
[12:56] Yeah, it's hard to match. It's hard to match last year. But Spooky is going to have a bigger year.

Speaker 3:
[13:05] Well, we'll get to that. What?

Speaker 1:
[13:07] So it's going to be hard to pass Harry Potter.

Speaker 3:
[13:09] What's going to happen? What's Stern making in Q3 and Q4?

Speaker 1:
[13:13] All right. Q3 is Godzilla premium Star Wars, Fall of the Empire premium as of now.

Speaker 3:
[13:18] I guess there's still some demand.

Speaker 1:
[13:20] Yeah, Godzilla pros and Q4. So those are, who knows? No future plans to build Uncanny X-Men, James Bond or Stranger Things.

Speaker 3:
[13:27] Well, Uncanny really fell. That's a newer one versus all these others. But I just remember when it came out, everyone was super excited. It just seems like I've heard that it's gotten a lot better with the code. But there's just still a malaise to that game.

Speaker 1:
[13:42] Yeah, there is. It's one of those that it's hard to get back that first impression.

Speaker 3:
[13:48] It's like Walking Dead's repute. I don't mean remaster. I mean like original Walking Dead. It got great, but for a lot of people, it never recovered from their first experience.

Speaker 1:
[13:58] That's a great example.

Speaker 3:
[13:58] The code wasn't anywhere on that game.

Speaker 1:
[14:00] Yeah, it's a great example. And we're still not at 1.0 for Uncanny X-Men.

Speaker 3:
[14:04] Well, they did have to basically restart it.

Speaker 1:
[14:07] And who was the coder on that? I don't remember. I think it was, no, it wasn't Lonnie.

Speaker 3:
[14:11] Because it was Timmy originally, right?

Speaker 1:
[14:15] Wason. And then, I think somebody came in. Did Tano come in? I don't know. All right. So Pokemon Rollout and the LE Delays we talked about, that the rollout went well. Things are freaking everywhere.

Speaker 3:
[14:30] People had a lot of TPF. Reception was very good.

Speaker 1:
[14:33] It's a fun game. What was your take on the whole?

Speaker 3:
[14:35] I need more time on it. Ultimately, they had them set up so that the ball times weren't very long though. And fan layouts can play hard. So it was challenging, but it was really easy to understand what you wanted to try and achieve with that crane toy, the Meowth balloon in the middle.

Speaker 1:
[14:52] Very understandable layout.

Speaker 3:
[14:53] Yeah. No, I think everything we had already talked about, super approachable, colorful. I think it's going to do great on location. I think I've heard, obviously, I didn't play enough to experience this, but I've heard a lot of people have been having fun using the Insider Connected and gathering up the Pokemon. This is a different way to play that they're not used to for pinball. So I think this is all a pretty big win for Stern.

Speaker 1:
[15:14] Man, it plays good. I really like the way it shoots. It's. It's refreshing just because it's it's not an easy shooter, because I was I was expecting it to be long ball time. She's supposed to be the game and all that shit. I had not had that experience. I opened up an LE. I've played that and it kind of kicks my ass at times because it's super fast, is really fast.

Speaker 3:
[15:38] The way it was faster than I thought it would be.

Speaker 1:
[15:41] But it is really smooth. It's not brutal, but it by no means is easy.

Speaker 3:
[15:47] A brick, a brick can punish you on that game because of how fast it is.

Speaker 1:
[15:50] It's very fast. So it was a it was a joy. It's a joy to shoot. I like that. We'll see where the code comes, because a lot of people are like, it just it needs more code. It needs more code. So we will see. But the rollout was pretty cool. We had a lot of fun with rolling out the LEs and some of the premiums, but I got shit just because the haters everywhere. But for the majority, people really liked the, I put some stickers of the associated number with the monster that they got for some of our specified LEs. So we had a lineup of all these LEs and differently, you know, Pikachu and Charizard and all. But it was cool. People liked whenever they got their game that they seen their monster on the box. And we just tried to have a lot of fun with that. Some people got confused and was like, wait, that's great. Is that what Stern's doing? I was like, no, that's not what Stern's doing. And then we did those little LE badges. Did you see those?

Speaker 3:
[16:46] Yes, yeah, that you cut, laser cut.

Speaker 1:
[16:48] Yep. And then we didn't do those for all of our LEs. People were like, I didn't get one. I'm like, no, we just, we just did that for like a handful just to show people like, this is something cool you can do to make your game unique. So that went over really well. People seem to love that too. So we, I had more fun with this release than probably any other release in my company's history. Just because there was something different about this IP that we don't get on a lot. And we've, we've talked about that. Go to previous episodes if you want to hear about the, you know, the collector collectability of this game. But, but I'm with you. There are some, if you want to watch some game play, the Stern's done some game play video. Flip N Out Pinball, we've done some, Joel's done a stream. I've done an unboxing video of the Mewtwo edition, number 150. And then there's an upcoming tutorial that Joel is filming right now. But, so that's selling well. It's going to continue to sell well. It's going to, it's going to be a seller for a long, long time. They've sold, how many do you think that they've sold already?

Speaker 3:
[17:56] Oh, gosh.

Speaker 1:
[17:56] I know. I have no clue. But we know that they made.

Speaker 3:
[17:58] I'll say 5,000.

Speaker 1:
[18:00] Oh, wow. That, whoa.

Speaker 3:
[18:01] No, no, they haven't all been received. But I bet you they've got 5,000 sold.

Speaker 1:
[18:06] They will easily sell 5,000, yes.

Speaker 3:
[18:09] No, I'm saying it. They've already done it.

Speaker 1:
[18:10] That's.

Speaker 3:
[18:12] What else are people going to buy? Beetlejuice? They can't. It sold out instantly.

Speaker 1:
[18:16] That would mean that they sold just as many Pokemons as they did Harry Potter for an entire year.

Speaker 3:
[18:24] But Pokemons are an even bigger franchise than Harry Potter.

Speaker 1:
[18:28] I don't know. I'd probably guess, let's see, 750 sold immediately.

Speaker 3:
[18:33] I'm putting a lot of eggs in the, I think a bunch of the operator targeting distributors have sold a lot of pros, but.

Speaker 1:
[18:40] We sold just for locations. We sold about three times as many locations, maybe four times. I'd have to look at the numbers. Four times as many to locations than we normally do.

Speaker 3:
[18:52] If I had a location, I would want this game.

Speaker 1:
[18:55] Absolutely.

Speaker 3:
[18:56] I guess, let me qualify that it would depend on the location, but like if it was even like it's a little like 7-11 or something.

Speaker 1:
[19:01] It wouldn't matter. Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[19:02] Yeah. Come on. Anywhere, anywhere that can have kids. But, but I mean, even adults, a lot of them know Gen 1. So, because that came out in the nineties.

Speaker 1:
[19:10] And the focus is a lot on that Gen 1 stuff.

Speaker 3:
[19:15] Yes.

Speaker 1:
[19:16] So, that's all good. That thing is going to sell forever. I still think it's going to be a special game whenever the code continues to develop. There's something about collecting and having a Pokedex and stuff like that. So, achievements that need to come and everything like that. But from my understanding, pretty much everything is going to be held up all the time by the licenser. The approvals are going to take forever and that sucks. But you kind of knew what you're going to get into whenever you sign this IP. Do you want this IP and the majority of assets that are going to take a while or do you not want this IP at all and you want something that you can get all the assets? That's a fine balance that these manufacturers always have to decide. And I think for something like this, because of the grand scale of how big this IP is, you have to do it, no questions asked. But for something not as high, then you question whether you want to do that license or not, but you got to do it. Okay, so I'm hearing that Elliot Iseman, mechanical engineer, mechanical or electric? I think he's a mechanical engineer and recent designer of John Wick. I heard he is on one hell of a, he's planning one hell of a redemption tour this year. That's what I'm hearing.

Speaker 3:
[20:39] Okay.

Speaker 1:
[20:41] Yeah, that's what I'm hearing. Yep, are we going to get another upcoming cornerstone LE market explosion from Stern, that repeat that we got from Pokemon LE?

Speaker 3:
[20:57] It would be very tough for it to match, be matching Pokemon, but I could see them getting another LE that sells out really quickly. But I don't know about the second-hand pricing being what this was. Again, nobody's going to be able to, in my view, and you can prove me wrong, I'm sure, spoon feed people being like, oh yeah, no, LE number 37, that's the Bumblebee edition. You can't be trying to make jank this into a way and make people decide that there's a scarcity that wasn't ever implied because they're not numbered in that way. So I don't, for that reason alone, I don't think so.

Speaker 1:
[21:37] But it's not as big as IP.

Speaker 3:
[21:39] But I'm assuming, and I'm assuming like a Transformers right now or a GI Joe, or it's just like, there's just not a lot of stuff where like Pokemon was very special to have that.

Speaker 1:
[21:51] So we'll talk more about that for all of your club members, official club members of The Pinball Show. All you've got to do is go to patreon.com/thepinballshow. And Dennis and I, we feel like this week, maybe we just kind of go through the industry and talk about some of the rumors that are going on. What we make of the rumors.

Speaker 3:
[22:11] A rumor corner, if you will.

Speaker 1:
[22:13] Likelihood of them being correct, if they are what that means. And some timing stuff that I'm finding very interesting. As I'm connecting the dots with all of releases and planning production. Yeah, some interesting, some interesting correlates that are all going to be kind of presented on that. So go sign up today. And thank you for all of you that have signed up. And I think we're working our way up to 200 people. Yeah, not the freebies. I appreciate the freebies signing on. But what the hell is the point? They can see our post, maybe.

Speaker 3:
[22:52] I mean, if you ever make any that are publicly available. Like on EGP, I don't, even if I'm just sharing the episode that's publicly available, I only share it to the paid members. I don't push anything. And I get freebies over there, too, so.

Speaker 1:
[23:08] I don't get it. But I think we're getting closer to 200 official members. That's awesome. So thank you, guys. Let's get up to 200. And Dennis will show you his diamonds.

Speaker 3:
[23:25] You're still running with this, it's painful for me.

Speaker 1:
[23:28] It doesn't work. patreon.com/thepinballshow. Quick accessory stuff. Stern was able to finally restock the Spike 3 interior cabinet expression lighting kits. So as a refresher for everybody, Spike 3 is different. They've got inside cabinet lights and they've got outside cabinet lights. We focus name-wise. They're going to throw in things like interior cabinet expression, exterior armor expression. All you need to remember and what I'm trying to standardize with this accessory is there's interior expression lights and exterior expression lights. Interior would make sense because they're over the art blades and they shine on the play field and interact. Exterior is outside the cabinet where they would shine where? On the armor because that's where they're at. So they did stock up, they made more of these interior cabinet expression lighting kits, which I think are going to be very popular for those who may not realize. Right now, if you have a Pokemon.

Speaker 3:
[24:30] Right now, you can get my lever and I dropped all the way. I just went like, what?

Speaker 1:
[24:35] So is that the interior expression lights? You can put on your Pokemon right now. They're coded. Go ahead and add them to cart and put them in your Pokemon. Joel, we're doing a video showing installation on those and flipping out. Joel said that they're surprisingly very simple to install. So I think that's why they changed the style and design a bit on Spike 3 expression lighting compared to Spike 2. Remember, Spike 2 were more integrated into the side art blade of specified game. Whereas these are universal standalone black bar top of the bright under the rail kind of things. So restock those. People have been waiting forever for Jaws toppers. Not the 50th of those sold out, but just the regular Jaws toppers. People waiting, waiting. They finally made more of those. On to other news. I know last episode in 190, we titled it, What is a Dungeon Crawler Carl? What the hell is that? Dennis, viewer, I very much know what a Dungeon Crawler Carl is. Absolutely. Want to know how, Dennis?

Speaker 3:
[25:44] Through the power of books?

Speaker 1:
[25:47] Because, yes, the audiobooks, I received a new achievement.

Speaker 2:
[25:53] Yeah. Reward?

Speaker 1:
[25:57] Bitches don't get rewards. I know. I'm into the Dungeon Crawler. I listen to the first book. I'm actually halfway through the second audiobook. I understand it. I get it. I'm one of those people now. Yeah. I know that you and Tony were potentially listening last TPF. Did you listen to anything this TPF Dungeon Crawler?

Speaker 3:
[26:26] Yeah. On the way down and back, we did book two.

Speaker 1:
[26:29] Okay. So you got through it?

Speaker 3:
[26:31] Yes. So I'm through book two. He's, I think, all the way caught up.

Speaker 1:
[26:34] Okay. I'm halfway through the book two.

Speaker 3:
[26:37] Yeah. And then there was a Comic Con here in Kansas City right after TPF that he and one of his daughters went to. And he got me a Glurp Glurp sticker that I can put on my water bottle. Glurp Glurp.

Speaker 1:
[26:51] So good. So for any of you guys, that's such a niche little IP. There has to be a little boost just with pinball people of this IP because this is spreading in pinball because of the rumored upcoming Dungeon Crawler Coral Game.

Speaker 3:
[27:08] Yeah. People are, people are there.

Speaker 1:
[27:10] I mean, it's my buddy, Greg Bone is already, he's listening to them. I'm listening to them. My wife's always like, what is the shit that you continue to listen to? Like you're such a nerd because every time she walks in, it's the biggest RPG moment. And I'm like, damn it. But yeah, I'm into it. I love that. And then the audio call outs, the, the, the voiceover guy.

Speaker 3:
[27:33] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[27:34] He is fantastic. He reminds me of like a, like a mixture. Who does he remind you of?

Speaker 3:
[27:42] I hadn't really associated with anyone else.

Speaker 1:
[27:46] The first thing that when I started listening, I started listening and he sounds like a Patrick Warburton. He has that.

Speaker 3:
[27:55] I could see that.

Speaker 1:
[27:56] I could see that. And then he has like a little bit of John Wayne. He's got the like Patrick Warburton, John Wayne. There ain't enough room in this town for both of us. So he has that. And then like, he has like a little sprinkle of something. I couldn't get it. And it's like this, it's like a little, it makes him a little like that, donut, like that kind of thing. And it's, I think it's like a little Jimmy Stewart.

Speaker 3:
[28:26] You were going Jimmy Stewart or Don Knotts with that.

Speaker 2:
[28:28] Hey, that a boy, Andy. No, it's like, no, it's Jimmy Stewart. You're over here weaving webs and you're a young little spire.

Speaker 1:
[28:42] It's like that Patrick Warburton with a little Jimmy Stewart.

Speaker 3:
[28:47] I don't want to wear it, Carl. It's ugly.

Speaker 1:
[28:52] It's a damn it. Donut. It's that nature. I was, man, it's a good it's a good audio book. Glurp, glurp, glurp, glurp. Do you think I don't know if I get through all like how many books does it?

Speaker 3:
[29:07] I think they're ready for number eight to come out. Well, it's got to end eventually. He's not going to keep it going forever.

Speaker 1:
[29:14] Does he get to the 18th dungeon level?

Speaker 3:
[29:18] I don't know. Does the author actually have it road mapped out exactly how he wants to do it, or is he figuring out what he has?

Speaker 1:
[29:26] George Martin, the Game of Thrones guy.

Speaker 3:
[29:31] He still can't finish Game of Thrones.

Speaker 2:
[29:33] I know.

Speaker 1:
[29:34] What the? Jimmy Stewart.

Speaker 2:
[29:36] Hey, Bertie. I'm like, I'm just thinking of Jimmy Stewart.

Speaker 1:
[29:41] I love Jimmy Stewart.

Speaker 2:
[29:42] Hey, all right.

Speaker 3:
[29:44] All he could do is make two different faces. That's his whole life.

Speaker 1:
[29:47] He's just a wonderful, wonderful actor. Patrick Warburton, as you will not break me. Okay. Turner Pinball. Since we've had our last episode, Yukon Yeti was launched by Turner Pinball. Were you able to play this at TV?

Speaker 3:
[30:05] I was. I was.

Speaker 1:
[30:06] Okay.

Speaker 3:
[30:06] And? Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[30:08] What were your thoughts?

Speaker 3:
[30:09] It was fun. It's their best game. I fully expect all 500 to sell. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if they're already sold out. I heard at the start of the TPF, they'd already sold half.

Speaker 1:
[30:21] Yeah, they're over half. So in a nutshell.

Speaker 3:
[30:25] The problem is a lot of people don't like the art and a lot of people don't like the sound. However, the gameplay, the gameplay is there. I've heard.

Speaker 1:
[30:32] Looked fun.

Speaker 3:
[30:32] I don't have enough time on it to say this. I have heard others though that have said, better than Whitewater.

Speaker 1:
[30:39] Wow. Come on now.

Speaker 3:
[30:41] In terms of gameplay. The ball, the ball lock feature that they have is really cool. I will push back on it a little bit in that it reminds me of the steamboat wheel in Maverick or the or the snagger in Jurassic Park Lost World in that it's very slow.

Speaker 1:
[31:03] OK.

Speaker 3:
[31:03] And so things like that, I mean, I even get frustrated with the Godzilla building drop because of how long it takes. So, you know, things that are slow, involving a very easy to make shot can become frustrating after a while. But the gimmick is really cool the first time you see it. But yeah, no, I thought it shot well. It was fun, you know, playful, all of that. I couldn't hear it super great, but I could hear it enough where I understand why people were kind of frustrated with the sound package on it. Yeah, it's got a good 90s feel.

Speaker 1:
[31:35] I like that it was it's going to be a limited release, you said 500 units, price seems good, it's under 10 grand, it's like 99.99. But then you have to buy the mods and the upgrades if you want them. And there's like an all in package you can save some money on. I think overall it looked pretty damn cool. I like some of the features that Turner Pinball put in their games. So there was a, it sold really well. It sold for a Turner game, they're still growing as a company. And it really did sell well. And I had heard some of the feedback as well. We got a lot of orders after people played it at TPF, which is always a good, it's a really good sign. So people really, really enjoy it. Some of the downsides, people didn't like the art as much in the audio call outs. But they just announced that they retained, or they attained Chris Greener.

Speaker 3:
[32:27] Oh.

Speaker 1:
[32:28] Yeah, just added to the team to overall that sound package. We haven't heard from that guy in forever.

Speaker 3:
[32:35] No, but he's very respected.

Speaker 1:
[32:36] He's got his audio more than anybody's. Like he was Bally Williams' audio package. They got him. So they're listening. They said, all right, you got an issue with the audio package here. Here's Chris Greener. So that, we got a couple more sales after that announcement too.

Speaker 3:
[32:51] Oh, sure.

Speaker 1:
[32:51] So they're going to get a boost in sales again. So they may be closer to closing out that 500. The problem is that it's going to take them forever to build these things. They're-

Speaker 3:
[33:01] I don't know what their build speed is, so.

Speaker 1:
[33:03] Slow.

Speaker 3:
[33:04] That's what we're- Fair, fair.

Speaker 1:
[33:07] I mean, they still haven't built all the- not to bust their balls too much, they still haven't built all the Merlins. They're still building those. I know that their plans are to do another building and add higher staff, scale up. But that takes some time. Sure. And if they're making 500 units, let's say they can make two to 300 a year. Hey, we're looking at two years. Turn into Jimmy Stewart.

Speaker 2:
[33:37] Two years. All right.

Speaker 1:
[33:39] That's a long time. That is a long time.

Speaker 3:
[33:43] Long time. That's like CGC time.

Speaker 1:
[33:47] Snail pace here. But it is what it is. I mean, it looks like a cool game. People get them and it's all good. So that's Turner Pinball's Yukon Yeti. I want to get my hands on one.

Speaker 3:
[33:58] I think you'll enjoy shooting it. That's my take.

Speaker 1:
[34:02] Yeah. I like what I'm seeing design wise. That was like the highlight for me. I like the design. It's like an homage to the original.

Speaker 3:
[34:11] Oh yeah, definitely.

Speaker 1:
[34:12] But still, and they got Dennis Nordman to do that. It's not like they're mimicking a Nordman style. They got the man to do it. So this was-

Speaker 3:
[34:21] It has plenty of plastic ramps. It's everything that you should want. There's so much. The only problem is calling it Yukon Yeti. It should have had water in the name because there's so much flow.

Speaker 1:
[34:35] Plastic flow.

Speaker 3:
[34:37] We could have called it tap water.

Speaker 1:
[34:39] Tap water. Well water. Man, did you ever grow up with well water? I did.

Speaker 3:
[34:45] I didn't grow up on well water, but my grandparents on the farm had well water. And so and it would I'd have GI issues if I even if I had the ice that they would make.

Speaker 1:
[34:57] So drinking drink of margaritas in Mexico.

Speaker 3:
[35:01] I mean, I was like I was like eight, so I'm not quite that. But yeah, but yes. So there was, I mean, well water because there's not like a filtration system or anything. It's whatever is going into the well, but that's what I've had well water.

Speaker 1:
[35:15] Weird shit growing on me because of it. Who knows? So congratulations, Turner Pinball for successfully launching a game, for selling a lot of units and for getting Chris Graner and Dennis Norman, everybody. Speaking of the canary in the coal mine, American Pinball.

Speaker 3:
[35:34] A silver ball night. I have foreseen what cannot be seen.

Speaker 1:
[35:42] Everything is seen transparency with the plastic.

Speaker 3:
[35:45] You're not supposed to analyze my dialogue. It's just here for color.

Speaker 1:
[35:52] Okay. American Pinball, revealing Houdini 100th anniversary edition. Did you see this at TPF?

Speaker 3:
[36:03] From a distance. I did not go up and play it.

Speaker 1:
[36:04] From a distance. Sorry.

Speaker 3:
[36:06] Is that another timber like song?

Speaker 1:
[36:08] Nope. Is that a Strysian song? From a distance.

Speaker 3:
[36:14] From a grummin coke in my...

Speaker 1:
[36:16] That's my favorite dentist office song. I think we talked about that. I always hear subconsciously drilling during that song. From a dentist. Limited to 100 units. How clever. So they're like, look, we need something to build in between this and the next game.

Speaker 3:
[36:42] J-pop.

Speaker 1:
[36:43] Let's go Houdini. Let's build 100 more. We've got some parts. Let's get Christopher Franci to do the artwork to Wow People.

Speaker 3:
[36:51] So is he not exclusive to the movie?

Speaker 1:
[36:53] He was. I thought he was. Maybe this was, and then I thought, well, maybe he had this in the can at AP when, remember, he was doing GTF and stuff.

Speaker 3:
[37:01] Right.

Speaker 1:
[37:01] Maybe he had it in the can. But then I don't think he did. So I don't.

Speaker 3:
[37:06] So we don't know.

Speaker 1:
[37:07] We don't know. Then he's rumored to be on Back to the Future with Dutch too. I'm like, exclusivity is a loose word. Maybe. I don't know what it means. The price is right on this thing. $79.95 and it includes new cabinet artwork. I wish I could have done the playfield artwork, but whatever. A new topper, mirror blades, non-reflective glass, shaker motor, knocker. So we get LE worthy stuff here for $79.95, only 100 units. I think they sold out pretty much immediately. Did you see this? Was it pretty? Yeah. Looked pretty. When they launched it, a little bit new company-ish. So they had some stumbles and bumbles whenever they launched it with AI artwork thing, flyer. It was a bit of a mess, bit of a mess.

Speaker 3:
[38:03] We do love our Robo Tech coming in to do our art.

Speaker 1:
[38:06] But hopefully, they got it out of their system. I hope we get it all out of your system.

Speaker 3:
[38:12] I don't know.

Speaker 1:
[38:13] We're the next thing. Growing pains is what they say. I don't know. Look, that's all I got to say about that.

Speaker 3:
[38:22] Yeah. What about their next plans? From a remake.

Speaker 1:
[38:25] That's right. They announced J-Pop is back with Cirqus Voltaire. Well, he's not back.

Speaker 3:
[38:31] The moment I saw they brought in the DPX guy, I was like, oh my God, it's going to be J-Pop because that's the only thing he seems to bring to the table. Is anything J-Pop is a good idea? I'm just saying this is a good idea. There's a pattern here, a correlation and maybe causation. We might have both going on.

Speaker 1:
[38:50] Could be. It very much could be. They announced Cirqus Voltaire reimagined.

Speaker 3:
[38:56] The right one to do first, I would say, if you're going to do a J-Pop, I would do Cirqus first.

Speaker 1:
[39:00] All right, we've talked about that. We have. The first to seven remakes.

Speaker 3:
[39:04] Good art and good game play.

Speaker 1:
[39:06] So they got seven remakes coming.

Speaker 2:
[39:08] Yeah, it's.

Speaker 3:
[39:10] So they're gonna do Cirqus, Theater, Totan, probably third, episode one, maybe the fourth.

Speaker 1:
[39:20] I hope, I so hope.

Speaker 3:
[39:22] The fifth, I guess World Cup Soccer. And then I don't know what the other two J-Pops are gonna find to do for these remakes.

Speaker 1:
[39:29] The sizzle, the pirate sizzle.

Speaker 2:
[39:31] Oh, I forgot about that.

Speaker 3:
[39:32] I've never actually played it.

Speaker 1:
[39:35] Nobody has. It doesn't, yeah. It doesn't work.

Speaker 3:
[39:41] It's like, dry the hand and the sizzle are not a myth.

Speaker 1:
[39:46] I've seen it. Cirqus Voltaire re-imagined. So the, oh, and I have to remind people that the most recent update from American Pinball, that Houdini 100th Anniversary, they are shipping it in May. So that's coming. That is coming. And quickly too. So, but yeah, they're sold through to dealers. Cirqus Voltaire, we have some info that American has given us to provide people. All right. They're going to have more details of pricing and allocation numbers for us dealers, but they're going to have two models, what they're calling a classic edition, right? Original art package, maybe some updated code. You'll get that. Remastered sound, video, LCD screen instead of a DMD. You get an LCD screen. So, but very much classic. Classic look, feel and everything. And then there's going to be a ringmaster edition. This is the reimagined version. We're going to have new Brian Allen artwork, full art package, cabinet, plastics, back glass, play field, all of this stuff. Custom sculps, new scrolls that light up with interactive topper. I like the sound of that. I like my scrolls lighting up. Updated code with remastered sound and video, LCD screen, custom powder coating, custom shooter knob, magic glass, shaker motor and a knocker. Oh, baby, so that's going to be cool.

Speaker 3:
[41:18] So it's feeling a little like the take that was done on Fun House.

Speaker 1:
[41:22] It feels like it, yes.

Speaker 3:
[41:25] On this, like most of the reimagined, I think makes a lot of sense. What's your take, and it's not meant as a knock on Brian Allen's artwork, which he's great at, but it's kind of a legendary art package. Do you really want to reimagine the art package on, I mean, like this totem and theater are kind of like beloved, more for their art than anything else. Why touch it? We've discussed this.

Speaker 1:
[41:54] I'm always hesitant with some of Brian Allen's artwork, because if he can, I like it when he stylizes things, but I don't like when he goes too far into his own style of things.

Speaker 3:
[42:10] I mean, he has a style, he's not just a chameleon.

Speaker 1:
[42:16] I'd rather him update and modernize the current art package than I would him reimagine himself that IP. I think the IP sells itself. We don't care about a circus theme per se. We don't care about the Cirqus Voltaire. We don't care about that. The reason we want that is because it holds nostalgia, and nostalgia, in a sense, is very much that artwork. That is the theme for us. It's a built-in theme to pinball collectors, which is why this, for the most part, probably wouldn't sell that great in general to outside of pinball, general public, because they don't know what it is. But for pinball people, we like it for certain reasons. And you don't want to change those reasons too much. I think it will be fine, based on what I... We gotta be careful. Based on what I've seen, yeah, the majority of people are really gonna like it. And I'm guessing that the majority of people that love Cirqus Voltaire will still opt to go this edition over the classic.

Speaker 3:
[43:23] Okay.

Speaker 1:
[43:24] Which is wild for me to say, because I have a hard time thinking I will. Because I just, man, I really like remakes for remake's sake. I like what CGC does. I like...

Speaker 3:
[43:38] You see, CGC, they've, and they've been at it such a long time. I feel they've really learned how it's like, all right, what do we know people want? Bigger screen, you know, let's have, like, let's add a topper, let's add new lighting effects.

Speaker 1:
[43:52] Coding.

Speaker 3:
[43:53] The art, but the art stays.

Speaker 1:
[43:55] The art, the layout, that all stays.

Speaker 3:
[43:58] And Attack From Mars wasn't exactly winning awards for its art. The art stays.

Speaker 1:
[44:03] It stays.

Speaker 3:
[44:04] And they sell great.

Speaker 1:
[44:04] And they serve them very well. The Ringmaster, any guesses how many they're going to make? Or did I say that already?

Speaker 3:
[44:10] No, you didn't say it.

Speaker 1:
[44:12] How many should they make? And then I'll tell you.

Speaker 3:
[44:16] All right, so are they limiting both or just one of them?

Speaker 1:
[44:20] I think they can probably... Classic, they're saying, is not limited per se, but they're going to have like a window to order them. I think this is going to be something where they'll... It'll be like CGC, if they want to go back to the Classic Edition well every couple of years.

Speaker 3:
[44:34] 750.

Speaker 1:
[44:35] Total?

Speaker 3:
[44:36] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[44:37] That would be a success.

Speaker 3:
[44:39] Oh, yes.

Speaker 1:
[44:39] I think. I think that would be a success. So they are... Classic Edition, we'll see. Ringmaster, they're planning on limiting it to 772 units.

Speaker 3:
[44:52] I think that's more than they... I think they should limit it more, but...

Speaker 1:
[44:56] It's going to be tough to know. Do they sell out immediately? Do they sell half of that? Do they...

Speaker 3:
[45:05] They will not sell out immediately. I'm going to say that. Company... The company... It doesn't matter that it's a new owner. The company's reputation precedes itself. He not renaming American Pinball has not done him a favor.

Speaker 1:
[45:15] So, you think the reason it's not selling immediately is because people don't know yet what they're getting with this company?

Speaker 3:
[45:22] Correct. I think that's most of it. It's a... It's a haggisphere. Say, okay, there's new money, but this is a company that has struggled forever in a day trying to accomplish things. So, there's that. And then, Cirqus Voltaire. It's weird. Do you... Is it an A-list Williams game or a B-list? Where would you put it?

Speaker 1:
[45:45] Oh, I would have to have the definitions of each category, but I would say it's A minus B plus kind of territory.

Speaker 3:
[45:54] Given its pricing, I think people would say it's probably A-list. The problem is for Cirqus is, unlike things like Medieval Madness, Attack From Mars, Monster Bash, you're starting to get in the space where it's like, it ain't the whole package. It ain't the best shooter that there is. It gets carried a lot on its art, kind of like, and Totan's in the same boat and such. So of all the J-pop games, the ones that generally were seen as shooting the best were Theater of Magic and World Cup Soccer. So, I've just, again, I don't know how many people want this game because they loved playing it versus they like looking at it and how many are going to be willing to buy it just because they like looking at it.

Speaker 1:
[46:39] Yeah. I'm looking at our interest list right now for Flip N Out Pinball. We have a lot of people on the list and this list grew after realizing that American was making it. I think they're going to move a lot of units here. I know that we're one of their bigger dealers and we're going to get a lot of units.

Speaker 3:
[47:00] I mentioned that it was the right game to start with because I do think a lot of people, and when I say that, I mean competitive people, respect Cirqus overall in terms of even its default rule set and geometry. It's actually seen as a pretty decent game. So this was a good one to start with. Whereas when you start going into others, like I prefer Totan, but as a game, Totan probably plays worse than Cirqus does.

Speaker 1:
[47:26] Oh yeah, I get that argument. When I talk to the owner, Brian Vincent, I have good communication with him. And the one thing I've told him, and I'd be happy to tell everybody here, is I'm very transparent in these meetings whenever I'm talking to these individuals. And he knows, he agrees with me that this, Houdini to a certain extent, but this Cirqus Voltaire is his company's resume to future sales. If I've told him, if you were able to release Cirqus Voltaire remake in a way that makes people enjoy the product, enjoy the upgrades, enjoy your vision of what a remake is, and it is built really well, and you're able to produce it in a timely manner, you will automatically sell all of the next remakes, automatically, and it will be at much larger production rates than Cirqus. But there may be some hesitancy, I had to told him that, maybe some hesitancy until people know that what they're getting with this remake. We've seen remakes, like you said, Dennis, come from different companies, some better than others. For the ones that are great, they'll never have a problem in business. Everything they release will sell and sell very well. I told Brian, if he can find a way to make that first impression great, his company will do very well with release after release after release. It will also build into his non-remake releases too. You're building a brand at that point, you're building a company. But it's very important. It's very important for these Houdinis that go out, more so on built quality. If these things go out and they are built very well and they feel good, that's going to help your circus sales twofold, easy. But if these Houdinis come out, there's a lot of issues with them. Circus may stumble a little bit more than it should. Everything on these new early companies, viewer, is contingent upon the next thing. Ask Spooky Pinball about that. Ask them that pattern of what they got, they were in and then they got out of, and where they're at now. Every time they sell a game, it sells the next one. They're in the best type of place. But if you're on the other end of that arc, it's hard to get out of. So, he's got some great ideas and I like where they're going. I think this will do very well. And I think people are really, it's a fucking sexy machine. I can't say it, but it's a sexy machine. And I'm trying to figure out, do I want to sell, do I want to get rid of my original? It's going to be tough. It's going to be really tough. But if the code is cool, I'm probably going to have to. I wonder if they'll let Flip N Out Pinball sell. Probably shouldn't be talking on air about this. But I wonder if we couldn't sell a classic with a couple of the upgrades from the reimagined. Maybe we buy our own 50 units, limit them. Brian's like, shut up, no, you're not doing that. I don't know, Brian, it might be a good idea. Do you think people would like that, Dennis?

Speaker 3:
[51:09] Possibly, yes, I do.

Speaker 1:
[51:10] Yeah, if I was going to Frankenstein this, give me, I'm shooting business deals right here, live on the air, only on The Pinball Show. Give me, I'll commit to, it's like in Shark Tank Pinball Edition. I'll commit to, do I go 100 or go, I'll commit to 100 units, original artwork. Give me upgraded topper and scrolls, shooter knob, all the other stuff. But give me a dedicated power to coat color of my choosing and I'll commit to 100 at the rate that you're selling the LAs for. I was gonna say higher, but no, not needed. That'd be a good deal with it. It's 100 guaranteed sales right there. Do you think I could sell them all?

Speaker 3:
[52:16] Uh, no.

Speaker 2:
[52:17] Oh, Dennis, you have no faith.

Speaker 3:
[52:21] I have to guess, you're making me guess what this weird ass powder coat choice you're gonna do. And I have a feeling you have leftover WWE powder coat.

Speaker 1:
[52:32] I would probably go with a metallic, of course.

Speaker 3:
[52:37] Of course.

Speaker 1:
[52:38] It would be green or purple, probably. It'd probably be whichever color he doesn't use for the reimagining.

Speaker 3:
[52:45] What if he's using green and purple on the LA remake?

Speaker 1:
[52:48] How does that even happen?

Speaker 3:
[52:50] One side and another side.

Speaker 1:
[52:51] Then I would probably go to a chrome and mark it up. How much do you think this LA's gonna be?

Speaker 3:
[53:00] Oh gosh, 12.

Speaker 1:
[53:02] You think so? No, I'm talking about just this general LA reimagine that he's making here. Yeah, 12. I'm thinking about that too. Because that seems like what everybody's doing, about 12. And then the reimagine, or the classic edition?

Speaker 3:
[53:18] 9999.

Speaker 1:
[53:21] That'd be pretty good value. I think so. I think you've nailed it there with the pricing. I think that's what we'd say. And then this flipping out edition.

Speaker 3:
[53:35] 12.5.

Speaker 1:
[53:36] Oh God, no. It'd have to be more than that if you're doing Chrome. Do full Chrome.

Speaker 3:
[53:39] Oh, I thought you were going with the WWE powder.

Speaker 1:
[53:42] I'm going full Chrome. Change of mind. We're doing full Chrome. And 14. We're going 15. 14 9999. Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[53:49] Ask for a discount.

Speaker 1:
[53:50] Going 15 9999. Manufacturers don't see it that way. That's weird. Weird how pinball manufacturers do business. But yeah. Let's talk. JJP in the news. Steve Ritchie. He's up on deck. Got a game coming.

Speaker 3:
[54:09] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[54:10] He describes his next game, rumored to be Sonic the Hedgehog, as quote, maybe the fastest game I've ever made.

Speaker 3:
[54:21] Yikes, maybe?

Speaker 1:
[54:23] You're a Steve Ritchie fan.

Speaker 3:
[54:27] I like a lot of stuff. What do you think his fastest game that exists is? Like in your experience?

Speaker 1:
[54:34] Oh, fast or flow? We have this discussion. Fast.

Speaker 3:
[54:40] Just speed.

Speaker 1:
[54:44] Stern Star Wars. I would say- You weren't expecting that, were you?

Speaker 3:
[54:48] I was not. I would say F14 Tomcat.

Speaker 1:
[54:52] I think that's, I was thinking that one too.

Speaker 3:
[54:54] That one, whenever I've played it, especially certain shots, it actually moves too fast for my eye to properly play. I actually don't like that game. I don't like- No Fear is probably number two. Are games that I feel are too fast for their own good. So if it's going to be that fast, I'm not going to like it.

Speaker 1:
[55:14] Terminator should be faster, but- It should be. But it's not- It's super, super fast, but it's fast. What else? Star Trek is fast, but it's still, that's more flowy.

Speaker 3:
[55:26] It's more flow than fast.

Speaker 1:
[55:28] But I say Stern Star Wars because if we're not talking about flow, I think it has a ton of that too. But if we're just talking about speed of ball, there's a lot of speed in that.

Speaker 3:
[55:38] It is pretty quick. I don't think it's too quick, but it is quick.

Speaker 1:
[55:42] It's very fast. But the fastest, is that a good thing? Is that a good promotional thing?

Speaker 3:
[55:47] No.

Speaker 1:
[55:48] So that's bad. Steve, be quiet. It's one of those things?

Speaker 3:
[55:52] No, I think most people will be like inherently, but again, people are going to be like, does he mean flowy? Or does he mean, like people like, I mean, fast is fun, but so fast, that's like the Yagov shot and all that or whatever the guy's name was. You know, it's just like, all of a sudden I'm just like, I wasn't even drinking and I lost track of the ball. Like that sort of stuff.

Speaker 1:
[56:14] Oh, speaking of drinking and inebriated, are you celebrating today for the people watching and listening on Mondays?

Speaker 3:
[56:20] I only ever, I played back when I was playing competitively. One time I played and I had like two beers and I normally didn't drink when I would play competitive pinball. And I was just like, I just went like, oh, and two, it was eliminated. And afterwards I go, when did these games get so fast? What's going on here? What is it with all of these games? Did you put two by fours under all of them?

Speaker 1:
[56:47] Or even spider webs?

Speaker 3:
[56:48] And it wasn't like I was coming fresh out of your pin bar and trying to adjust it from a five degree slope up to normal, six and a halves and sevens, but.

Speaker 1:
[57:00] I'm just in Timberlake, I'm on a world tour.

Speaker 3:
[57:05] It's gonna be flat.

Speaker 1:
[57:06] It's gonna be floaty.

Speaker 3:
[57:11] Everything plays like Genie at Zach's place.

Speaker 1:
[57:14] No, it's.

Speaker 3:
[57:18] Oh, Genie, one of the worst got leaves I've ever played.

Speaker 1:
[57:21] One of the most beautiful, though.

Speaker 3:
[57:23] And it has that weird little sound start.

Speaker 1:
[57:26] Yeah. And most of the time it doesn't work. But so they say it's going to be a standard body with satisfying spinners. All right. So I'm like, you like.

Speaker 3:
[57:37] So I'm hearing spinners. Does that mean Optos sounds like it means I would think so.

Speaker 1:
[57:41] That's what everybody's doing for the most part. I think Elton John had Opto spinners. There's been said to be six thousand plus speech calls recorded for this next game.

Speaker 3:
[57:54] Is this Sonic?

Speaker 1:
[57:55] What all he says is chili dog does this teeth, this round teeth.

Speaker 3:
[58:03] What do they have lines from the movie? Meow.

Speaker 1:
[58:07] I hope it's just the first CGI movie before they changed. That creepy ass Sonic.

Speaker 3:
[58:15] Whoa. Everyone was ready for it. The movie turned out okay. It is mostly just Jim Carrey chewing scenery, but.

Speaker 1:
[58:23] Yes, Jim Carrey is so good. I don't know why he needs 6000 speech calls. I don't remember Sonic talking much.

Speaker 3:
[58:31] And later games he does, but.

Speaker 1:
[58:33] But does he really have an iconic?

Speaker 3:
[58:37] Nobody cares. Yes, nobody cares. We just want to hear the ring sound when we drain.

Speaker 2:
[58:41] They explode out of the.

Speaker 1:
[58:43] Din, din, din, din, din, din, din, din, din, din, din, din. Do you think they get the music?

Speaker 3:
[58:50] Yeah, sure.

Speaker 1:
[58:51] Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. Do you play that game? Bum, bum, bum.

Speaker 3:
[58:57] Is that the first one?

Speaker 1:
[58:59] Yes, I was always a big fan of the second.

Speaker 3:
[59:02] I've played a few of the like I haven't played like most of the recent stuff, but I have played remakes of most of the of the classic platformer ones.

Speaker 1:
[59:11] Bum, bum, bum, bum. Such a great game.

Speaker 3:
[59:13] It's got fun music. It's not like Megaman music, but it's got fun music. Oh, yes.

Speaker 1:
[59:18] When are we going to see this next game?

Speaker 3:
[59:22] Gosh, well, they've got so many Harry Potter's they need to make. I wouldn't have even necessarily said any time before the fall.

Speaker 1:
[59:29] That's the here's the thing.

Speaker 3:
[59:30] I'm going to say October and they're going to reveal it at Expo, but.

Speaker 1:
[59:35] I think we may see it sooner.

Speaker 3:
[59:36] Really?

Speaker 1:
[59:37] Because let's look at the production schedule.

Speaker 3:
[59:39] Yeah, let's look.

Speaker 1:
[59:41] They were going to be making Harry Potter's into, I would think the summer and then summer release sound like it made sense to me. But we had some back orders of flipping out pinball of Harry Potter's. We were informed by JJP that they're not being cut. Because I was like, they're being cut? No, they're going to stop production until the fall on Harry Potter Arcade and Wizard Editions. So we had some back order and we were told those are not going to happen in April, May, as you had thought. They're now going to be September.

Speaker 2:
[60:25] I was like, what?

Speaker 1:
[60:27] That sucks. So I can only assume that there's a reason for that, is what I'm saying.

Speaker 3:
[60:36] Okay.

Speaker 1:
[60:36] Maybe we discuss more on the Pinball Show, patreon.com/pinballshow. It's gonna be May, June, May. September. No, I don't.

Speaker 3:
[60:51] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[60:51] Do you remember? Okay. Here's a bet for you. Do I have a Sonic the Hedgehog?

Speaker 3:
[60:59] In September?

Speaker 1:
[61:00] Assuming that's the rumored game. Do I have a Sonic the Hedgehog pinball machine in my showroom and or my house by July?

Speaker 3:
[61:11] No.

Speaker 1:
[61:14] Spooky pinball in the news. Right now, Beetlejuice production update. They're shipping in the like the 120, 130s. I'm doing my math, Dennis.

Speaker 2:
[61:24] And my buddy's over spooking into, I mean.

Speaker 3:
[61:27] They normally start to ramp up for, that's always been their way that it starts to, I won't say necessarily exponentially, but that it does significantly start to ramp up towards the latter half of the year.

Speaker 1:
[61:39] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[61:39] And we're not there yet. We're still learning. They're still trying to figure out how to install the day-os properly.

Speaker 1:
[61:46] The one thing that they've been making a lot of machines, but a lot of them have, they've been going to shows. I mean, TPF, how many, how many people do you sort of?

Speaker 3:
[61:54] I don't, I didn't count. I didn't count. It was Matt. There may have been more of those there than Pokemon. It was a lot.

Speaker 1:
[62:00] And those are outside of the numbered games. So they may have built 175 to 200 by now, but they've built a lot for Pintastic. They went to Pinball at the Beach. They've went to TPF. They've went to, there's another show there that they, that they took a lot to. So that's, I think they're building a lot, but it doesn't seem as many with, with that. So 120s, 130s, they're building some show games in there too. I know that flipping out Pinball, Joel's streamed Beetlejuice. He even had Bug on. This was about a month back, right? Right after our last show. But had Bug on and Bug talked about new modes, assets, and we've seen them now and licensed the Jumpin Lines song, which is beyond fantastic. So we talked about this in our Happy Hour Hangout last month, I believe. But can you believe Spooky Pinball, doing all the right things here? They got the recipe, baby. They get the license people want. They get the art people want. They got the toys that people want and they sell out immediately. Game is selling for $18,000 on the secondary market, not even shipped yet. And they still spend money to go out and get jump in the line to just to round out this entire release. Why do you do that?

Speaker 3:
[63:22] I don't know. I wouldn't.

Speaker 1:
[63:28] Other manufacturers wouldn't either. I'm confident in saying that. Why do that?

Speaker 3:
[63:39] I don't know.

Speaker 1:
[63:41] I don't know why I do because they care because they really really care. And this isn't like tie a bow on it. Everybody's great and special. We just care so damn much. I think it's a mixture of genuine care and wanting to bring people what they want. We talked about that. Remember? I was like, they get the secret recipe. Other people need to take note because they are succeeding. They're very... Just think if another manufacturer with more production capabilities was taking these same types of notes. Getting jump in line was no easy task. I can... I know behind the scenes, believe me. When we knew that they were getting day, they weren't getting jump in line. There was a very good reason why they weren't getting a jump in line, because financially, it would be the dumbest thing ever to jump in the line on that song. But they continued to pursue it because they knew it was the right thing to do, and they knew they wanted to do it, and they paid dearly for it. They didn't have to. They're not selling these games for $18,000.

Speaker 3:
[64:45] Right. That's why you say it's the right thing to do. But is it really?

Speaker 1:
[64:51] Right thing to do. It's what we all wanted as collectors.

Speaker 3:
[64:55] I didn't hear a bunch of people saying, I can't get into the needle juice and didn't have to jump in the line. Yeah. Again, the game like sold out before it even was revealed. And then when people saw it, they're like, holy crap, this really represents the theme. There's a, you know, there's a line between that you can jump in or not. That's does it accurately reflect the theme or is it supposed to be everything to everyone who loves the movie and. What I like is that that that this pleases consumers. I totally understand that it is so beyond necessary. Again, this is a commercial product. At some point, I think it's like, why would you do this? That could have been money that could have been saved for the next game. That's the devil's advocate I'm going to try. That money could have been put towards the next game.

Speaker 1:
[65:48] Absolutely. And I think there's more enough to know, you know, the budgeting on that stuff. But the reason I like this is because of the same reason I dislike a lot of what happens in this industry. And doesn't do me a lick of good to talk like this, but it's the effing truth. I turn my nose up to a lot of this industry because people are only looking for that quick, short term thing. They're premature on announcements. They're creating products, not for the revenue and growth of a company, but for their own attentional needs. This sounds crazy, but it's so true. I love Spooky Pinball for so many reasons, and I will sound like that spooky shill. But it's just the truth. The reason they're doing this is because they are one company that can see past the fucking game that's in front of them, the product that they're presenting. It's not about Beetlejuice. They're building a company. They're building a brand. And they see long term because they're young people, a young team, they're in this for the long haul. They're in this for the bigger picture. So I respect so much that they're like, no, we don't need it for this product. But this adds dividends to our long term growth and the culture that we are presenting and the brand that we are evolving into. If I'm a pinball manufacturer, this is the kind of shit that I do all day long. It's kind of stuff that I try to do with my company. It's not about delivering one pinball machine to a person. It's about that one person having an experience that translates into the next 10 purchases and their friends purchasing from me. I love that my competitors don't look at it that way. Just like Spooky probably loves that their competitors aren't in many respects as well. And I think they will. And I think they already have started, other manufacturers already start seeing what's working, they're gonna run with it. But I would argue that this is a move that says, we're all in and we're going to do everything we can, even if it doesn't make financial sense, we're in it for the long haul. This is a long play here. And it helps round out our game and we're proud of what we're creating. And we're trying to create a legacy here. And when people look back, this will enhance even more so their experience of one of the products, which is kind of our calling card. Like we have to put our name on this. Who was I just telling that to? It was Nicole, but I'm trying to think in reference to what it was. Oh, it was something we were printing for our customers or something like that. And it wasn't perfect. And she was like, Zach, you're spending time on this stuff. It creates no revenue. It's actually costing us money. And it looks great. And I'm like, I know it looks great. But all I have to do is these two things, and it will be near perfect. And I can sign my name on it. I think that's what they're doing here. That's a good argument.

Speaker 3:
[68:57] For the sake of time, I will explain to you the holes in what you just presented.

Speaker 1:
[69:03] My soliloquy. Spooky pinball. Keep jumping that line, baby. All right. That next fucking game. I still feel bad for people because they're like, hey, me, Ken and Greg talk about this in our meetings. We feel bad because people are like, hey, just wanted to jump in there, send you guys an email to get in line for the next spooky game. I missed out on Beelzebub. I sure don't want to miss out on this next one. We're like, February called. What a weird predicament we're in, Dennis. That their next game is not only already sold out, it is already, right now, I can almost guarantee you that if somebody had a spot for next spooky game, they could sell it for $22,000. Sight unseen, right now. I guarantee you, if I try to sell one, I sell one for $22,000, if not more, right now. Sight unseen.

Speaker 3:
[70:04] That- This is why the jump in the line doesn't make sense. If they're not going to jack their prices and they're not going to increase production, there's no dividends to collect. If they're going to be a 1,000-unit run company, then it is what it is. And you just need to be good enough to instantly sell all that out. That already means you have everything you would ever want. All that cache, all that trust, all that love is there. It's already there. You can't have more love.

Speaker 1:
[70:41] You can always have more love.

Speaker 3:
[70:42] No. No. It's not something people score on a metric like that. So you can already, when you look at a game like Beatles, you already see the love in it that they really cared. You already saw it.

Speaker 1:
[70:54] What was your take? You got to play that finally, right?

Speaker 3:
[70:56] Yeah. I like Evil Dead more, but it was fun. You like the movie more, too. Bear in mind. So I have a thematic bias towards Evil Dead because I grew up with that. Beetlejuice, I haven't seen in 20 years.

Speaker 1:
[71:09] OK.

Speaker 3:
[71:10] Yeah, it was really cool. I didn't get day mode activated. It's cool when you hear about from the other games.

Speaker 1:
[71:16] That's a special game. Evil Dead is a special game. They're creating some special games. The next game is a very special game. Yeah, they're doing good. They're doing good. Hey, Spooky, just continue getting those themes. Just continue and you'll continue to be what you are. We got to thank some people. A bunch of goats. At some point, I will own a goat. I will.

Speaker 3:
[71:41] I don't farm.

Speaker 1:
[71:42] I still want to farm. I do.

Speaker 3:
[71:44] Farms are work.

Speaker 1:
[71:46] It's when I give up on life, I'm going to Tom Green it. No, I'm telling you, man. With their another birthday at some point, I say, fuck it. Just I'm going to have a farm. I don't have a goat.

Speaker 3:
[71:59] Was Tom Green, was he the one in the Charlie's Angels movie remake where he calls Drew Barrymore starfish?

Speaker 1:
[72:07] Yeah, but they were married. Yes.

Speaker 3:
[72:10] I just imagine you on this boat going like, I'm the Zach.

Speaker 1:
[72:14] That's what he's got some sausages. I remember Freddie got fingered.

Speaker 3:
[72:18] I think I saw that once.

Speaker 1:
[72:21] I love Tom Green. That was like my MTV Teenage. Love that shit.

Speaker 3:
[72:27] But he's not one of our goats.

Speaker 1:
[72:29] He's not Rodney. We got to thank you for being one of our lovely, lovely goats. He's our bobcat, though. Smell. Bobcat. I like the, didn't we have, do you like that artwork I had for the last episode's thumbnail? The bobcat and that puggle thing.

Speaker 3:
[72:49] It was creepy.

Speaker 2:
[72:51] Oh, shoot that.

Speaker 1:
[72:53] Rob, thank you for the continued support of The Pinball Show. You're our panther. I think these individuals are going to be getting the next spooky game.

Speaker 3:
[73:05] Yes.

Speaker 1:
[73:07] Yeah, they're almost a shoe in. They are a shoe in.

Speaker 2:
[73:12] Frank, kakao, my friend.

Speaker 1:
[73:15] Congratulations on your upcoming spooky pinball machine. You're our falcon. Sink your talons into that. Charlie, ring my bell.

Speaker 2:
[73:24] Ding dong and thank you.

Speaker 1:
[73:26] Thank you for the continued support.

Speaker 3:
[73:28] I appreciate you.

Speaker 1:
[73:29] What do I have? Charlie's got something coming.

Speaker 3:
[73:32] Is it a dune?

Speaker 1:
[73:35] Dune or Beetlejuice? He has something shipping here soon. One of the two. William, the dude. My boy. You're my boy. Dude. Love that man.

Speaker 2:
[73:46] Yeah, man. It really popped the room together.

Speaker 1:
[73:50] William's got the next five spooky games coming out. Adam, I love you too. You're my papa. He got a Pokemon.

Speaker 3:
[74:07] Did his Winchester arrive?

Speaker 1:
[74:09] He was getting Winchester. Yeah. He was like one of the first people in the world that had Winchester and Fasha. Pokemon and Beetlejuice? I think so. Yeah. I think Adam got Pokemon. He got a cool one, little plaque and everything. Good on you, Adam and William and a lot of them. Ted. Oh, God, Ted. What do we do with Red October? I still don't think so.

Speaker 3:
[74:37] Zach, well, it's a bitch.

Speaker 1:
[74:39] I don't get it. Just one ping only. That poor, that poor nickname.

Speaker 3:
[74:46] We cannot continue without a political officer.

Speaker 1:
[74:50] Red October. Can we just start going into like Sean Connery movies? Still want a Nick Cage movie? Let's do it.

Speaker 3:
[75:02] Not the bees.

Speaker 1:
[75:03] Not the bees. Oh, I'm still a face off connery kind of guy.

Speaker 3:
[75:09] Oh, no, definitely. Yeah. I want to take his face.

Speaker 1:
[75:12] I still think you could do a National Treasure. Just you could go a lot of places. Davis. Thank you, Davis, for the continued support. These pretzels are making me thirsty. The poor, the Costanza. You're the Costanza of this show, my friend. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but.

Speaker 3:
[75:32] I mean, would it kill you not to be so funny all the time?

Speaker 1:
[75:35] We love you. I wonder if Davis has got. Davis, what you got coming? Messages. Let us know. Dougy Fresh. That's what Spooky Pinball's next game is. You heard it here. Caddyshack 2, ladies and gentlemen.

Speaker 2:
[75:58] Last time I saw a mouth like that, I had a hook.

Speaker 1:
[76:00] What would he do without you? I don't know if Doug was, I don't think Doug, did Doug get a Beetlejuice? I'm Justin Timberlake. I'm on my world tour. Sure, I'm drunk, but at this point, why don't they just drive the Elon Musk mobiles? Just have something. Can you get a DUI if a robot's driving you?

Speaker 3:
[76:26] Well, I bet you can. I mean, they're not allowed to have fully autonomous cars driving you around. You have to be able to take control.

Speaker 1:
[76:39] I got this.

Speaker 3:
[76:42] Or else, Robotech fails. In fact, in most places, I think you can get a DUI just for starting the car. As long as you're in the driver's seat and the vehicle's running, it counts.

Speaker 1:
[76:51] Can you get a DUI for, I think you can for riding a bicycle? Drunk?

Speaker 3:
[76:58] I'm not sure about that. I guess it depends if it's on the road or not. Because people with DUIs are allowed to bike still, but there's also being publicly intoxicated as a general catch-all. But yeah, probably if you're on the road, I'm sure something would apply. Extra so if it's one of those electric bikes, I bet.

Speaker 1:
[77:18] I want to see somebody get a DUI on Heelys. Those little shoes with little rollers. Little shoes. I did a little tilt. Can you get a DUI with rolling, with rollerblades? Do people still rollerblade? No. My ankles hurt thinking about it. Wally, thank you. I just need to know Wally, what's it going to take to get you into that Yukon Yeti, baby? Come on. Do you want a Cirqus Voltaire remastered?

Speaker 3:
[77:46] He might. He's real big in the CGC remakes. So is he going to be into the American Pinball remakes too?

Speaker 1:
[77:52] Yeah. I think he's going to get the next spooky. He's in.

Speaker 2:
[77:55] You're talking in circles.

Speaker 1:
[77:56] You're talking like we didn't go over this already. Yeah. Everybody in Discord is talking about, still like Pokemon and what's next and all that.

Speaker 3:
[78:03] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[78:04] Come hang out with us in Discord. You can do so by going to patreon.com/thepinballshow, becoming an official club member. We got a happy hour hangout coming this Wednesday. Was it 8 p.m. Central?

Speaker 3:
[78:16] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[78:17] Yeah. 8 p.m. Central. For those at the Nordman or the Screaming Go Club levels, come hang out and I'm sure we will be talking about all kinds of stuff. I guess I'm a new bourbon, so it will be a good show. Good show. Oh, I'm so rusty, I forgot about Pinball Market Trends.

Speaker 3:
[78:48] I like your style, dude. I'm already bothered looking at the notes about one of these.

Speaker 1:
[78:52] What? What don't you like?

Speaker 3:
[78:55] I don't know. Let's see, how could we make this worse? I have an idea. Let's put something in up and down.

Speaker 2:
[79:02] Oh, trickery.

Speaker 1:
[79:03] We've never done that before.

Speaker 3:
[79:07] Bunch of nonsense.

Speaker 2:
[79:08] That makes two.

Speaker 3:
[79:09] I mean, you make it all up. I've learned to sort of accept it. It still kind of hurts me fundamentally.

Speaker 1:
[79:16] Follow the rules, don't lie.

Speaker 3:
[79:17] But this now, it's just like, oh my God, why even have this segment? Nobody asks for the segment anymore either.

Speaker 1:
[79:22] So turning up this week is Pokemon On Location. This is going to be the next game that you cannot throw a dead cat at without hitting a Pokemon On Location. You're going to a bounce house place, Pokemon Pro. You're going to an Italian restaurant, Pokemon Pro. You want the bread stick or the Pokemon. They're going to be there. You're going to an escape room.

Speaker 3:
[79:48] I think we have three on location in the area already.

Speaker 2:
[79:51] They're everywhere, Dennis.

Speaker 1:
[79:53] People even put an LE on location.

Speaker 2:
[79:55] Holy shit.

Speaker 1:
[79:57] These things are everywhere. But you're going to see them. They're going to be like the Star Wars. Remember 2017 Star Wars pros were everywhere. Same thing for Pokemon. So they're invested in it so much so that I think you're probably going to see them in Costco this fall if I had to guess. Wink. As a home addition. I think you're going to see Pokemon everywhere. And good. I've been having a blast with this IP. I think it's fantastic. But man, everywhere. Pokemon, especially like now that more people, Pokemon people are finding out. You're seeing them in a lot of card stores. We've sold a handful of card stores that sell sporting and non-sporting cards.

Speaker 3:
[80:43] Yeah. No, that. Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[80:44] Gosh. Magic, the gathering places, D&D places. They're all buying Pokemons.

Speaker 3:
[80:50] I've heard some of those style places have have accepted pinball machines in the past because people tend to be in those stores a while.

Speaker 1:
[80:57] So we've seen a lot of them in comic book stores. A lot of comic book stores also have like a pinball line up usually.

Speaker 3:
[81:06] I could see that. It makes sense.

Speaker 1:
[81:08] So I even like the little card ejector dispenser mod that if you get certain achievements, it'll shoot out a little random Pokemon card. Really clever. Nicely done out there. Also trending up this week is Medieval Madness Merlin Edition. I don't know why, but ever since TPF, we had an influx in sales. Numbers don't lie. I'm just reporting the facts here. So MMR Merlins, for whatever reason, we have sold, it was like for two weeks after TPF, we had sold more MMR Merlin spots than we had in the other game. So this is just wild how it just came out of nowhere. They are, as the recent update, they are starting to ship those slowly. We got our first little bitty batch of that newest run of MMR Merlin. So you're going to see those roll out over the next six months or so. Unfortunately, trending down this week is Medieval Madness Remake. Dennis loves the juxtaposition between this fully objective type data driven segment we have here. Numbers don't lie, Dennis. People love this segment. They buy the t-shirts. We sold a couple t-shirts. I got an update on that. A couple of Pinball Market Trends t-shirts over the last month.

Speaker 2:
[82:27] I think people are like, come back. We'll buy your merch.

Speaker 1:
[82:31] Come back.

Speaker 3:
[82:34] I'm asking for that stupid 4-inch Kriesel clone shirt.

Speaker 1:
[82:39] I do. I still sprinkle those out.

Speaker 3:
[82:42] I'm still never fully forgiven the PinQuest dude for buying all those shirts off.

Speaker 1:
[82:46] That's horrible. That's so horrible.

Speaker 3:
[82:50] Forcing me to do the world's greatest Pinball Market Trends ever.

Speaker 1:
[82:53] Oh, it was so good.

Speaker 3:
[82:54] It took a lot of time.

Speaker 1:
[82:55] I was talking to Ken Cromwell yesterday. We were talking about this content creation stuff. I went back and I'm like, how long have Dennis and I been recording podcasts together? Did you know? Dude, it's been like seven years that we have been between This Week in Pinball Podcast and The Pinball Show, seven years.

Speaker 3:
[83:14] I always forget that we started longer ago than it because EGP, Tony and I just hit our 10 year anniversary in February. So it always to me felt like it was a lot later before we started, but I guess it really wasn't.

Speaker 1:
[83:29] I know. It feels like a lot later than when I started straight down the middle, but it wasn't a couple of years, maybe. It wasn't crazy because you started This Week in Pinball as a co-host.

Speaker 3:
[83:40] I was one of the many rotating guests.

Speaker 1:
[83:43] But then you were pretty constant for the last half of that show, I think.

Speaker 3:
[83:47] At some point, it got shifted and it wasn't the guests anymore. I don't remember. Maybe it was around the 50th episode in the 40s.

Speaker 1:
[83:56] I don't know. But for whatever reason, the game itself, MMR, we have sold more than other games over about a month ago, two-week period there. But we're seeing a lot of them, the reason is turning down, we're seeing a lot of them come up for sale too. I think we're meeting that saturation point where people are satiated with MMRs. Those who want it can get it now. And I think we're not going to see another run of MMR, probably for another four or five years. It's not needed. So we're fulfilling that. So it is turning down a little bit because people, you can get them now. Turning up though is again, this is again, I don't know why it is what it is, just the numbers are the numbers. King Kong Pro, we saw a lot of King Kong Pros.

Speaker 3:
[84:44] We were playing it at TPF.

Speaker 1:
[84:46] Yeah, but usually those kind of things, I would have thought premiums, but it was the pros. The King Kong Pro has been selling.

Speaker 3:
[84:53] It was a pro I encountered at TPF.

Speaker 1:
[84:56] Okay, yeah. Not sure why, but we've been selling more of those than the premiums and more King Kong Pros than a lot of other Stearns minus like Pokemon stuff. Interesting. Same with training up this week. Star Wars, Follow The Empire, Say What You Want. That's a game that's making the nice little comeback here. Ask the people that really like it, and they will swear by it. The code is getting really, really good. There's nice moments in that game. It's still fan layout. It's fast. The Death Star shot that's fixed, it's nice now, you don't have to worry about that. But it's still Star Wars, and still jam-packed with assets, with terrific light shows, with moments aplenty, with really deep code. This game has picked up its pace for sales, and finally, it's getting its due, and I think it will for the remainder of this year. Just wait. At some point, people are going to be pretty upset they didn't get an LA kind of thing. Star Wars.

Speaker 3:
[85:59] No, they won't. I'm just saying, I finally got to I got to play in LE at TPF compared. It played well.

Speaker 1:
[86:11] OK.

Speaker 3:
[86:11] But oh, my God, does it look stripped like Pokemon premium looks premium compared to star? And this is the LE. Star Wars LE. And I was like, Ashgrab. Holy crap. Does this does this look like they really were just like Star Wars? People will lap up anything. Reminds me when Gary said that back when the Ritchie one came out and then walked back his comments, they could sell a box of lights labeled Star Wars and it would sell out.

Speaker 1:
[86:39] Just like the repeatable shots fun.

Speaker 3:
[86:41] So I'm glad that the rules are getting there. I actually think the geometry could be argued as being more enjoyable than the Ritchie version. I would argue that it was more enjoyable to shoot. The assets are in there, sure. But when you look at the game, you're just like, at least this was my reaction. I was like, holy cow. You could have tried at least, guys.

Speaker 1:
[87:00] Do you like the bottom pops? I think they're kind of cool.

Speaker 3:
[87:04] They're all right.

Speaker 1:
[87:04] They're chaotic.

Speaker 3:
[87:06] There's just nothing I would write home about other than it does feel like Star Wars. There's nothing I would like. And I haven't played it enough to be able to tell you like the rules or whatever. But I was just like compared to everything else, I was just like, wow, there's just nothing in this. If the same BOMs in it, it's all under the play field because you can't see it. Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[87:28] It's too bad.

Speaker 3:
[87:30] Again, it was in LE and I was just like, I'm comparing it to others. I'm comparing it to Yukon. I'm like, this is not fair. That's not right.

Speaker 1:
[87:37] Really? Okay.

Speaker 3:
[87:39] That's right. I don't see no fancy ball lift in the story. Ain't got no hyperloop.

Speaker 1:
[87:45] The Richie, the Rich, the Rich.

Speaker 3:
[87:47] No, I don't think I'm stretching too much. Richie one had that that hyperloop, which caught your eye and distracted you away. This thing, a Death Star, that's one fourth the size of Richie's Death Star. Don't even they don't even bauble because after the start, the TIE fighter on a spring stern knew better than ever and let anything be on a spring in Star Wars again. So instead, you just get the static boring stuff. Pikachu is busy looking at you, like giving you the evil eye going pika pika and that translates to why are you playing Star Wars? Pokemon Pro is more loaded.

Speaker 1:
[88:21] I'm giving Stern some credit for their magnet use lately. Thank you, design.

Speaker 3:
[88:24] Nobody likes that magnet.

Speaker 2:
[88:25] Yeah, I do.

Speaker 1:
[88:27] I like that.

Speaker 3:
[88:27] Nobody can save the ball with it, so it pisses them off.

Speaker 1:
[88:29] I like it. It's awesome. Also turning up this week is Winchester Mystery House. Talk about a loaded game.

Speaker 3:
[88:36] That game was super popular at TDF also. Yukon had the two longest lines. Granted, both of them only had two games. That helped. It was awesome. I was like, wow, this is a lot of fun.

Speaker 1:
[88:48] I told you, when you're getting to this, it feels, looks special. It's a cool game.

Speaker 3:
[88:53] Yeah, I was really impressed by it.

Speaker 1:
[88:56] Winchester Mystery House is turning up. It got another big boost from TPF. A lot of people walked away saying, damn, that game is fantastic. And it does continue to garner large amounts of money on the secondary market. They haven't built many yet, but I didn't, I mean, this thing was at, I don't know, 16,000 there for a while. And I was like, that's nuts. 18,000, I shit you not, but you were 20 grand. This is kind of, this is, remember like that Pokemon, Beetlejuice, Evil Dead, they were all like, this is this resurgence of over MSRP games, like the car, Ferrari collector base or something, Porsche collector base. Winchester has kind of risen above all of them, believe it or not, at $20,000 right now. The more games will come out, maybe that settles down, as we're seeing with Beetlejuice, the more Beetlejuices are going down. Now Beetlejuice is falling into that 16 to 18, but 20 grand. If you want a Winchester, gonna cost you about 20K right now. So it's got to be trending up. On the other side, trending down with MMR, trending down Cirqus Voltaire, the original. It's just, this is what happens. You can sniff at a game, talk about it's trending down. Kiss, Kiss was selling, especially the Topper, the LE. I've been, I've had one for sale, continue to reduce a kiss because just a sniff of a remake and it will kill, it will kill the value in the short term, at least of the original. So even if we haven't seen Cirqus Voltaire, even though we don't know what it's going to be in full, just the sniff of it has really dampened the value of the originals. I'm seeing fully restored ones for under 10. Oh my goodness. So Cirqus Voltaire is taking a bit of a hit. Still a great game to get. So you're not going to, if you get one cheap enough, take it. All trending down this week are people who call, this is a pet peeve of mine, not even pinball related, but I mean, this is pinball market trends. People who call three or more times in a row. Ever had this? This is a phenomenon that only happens to me. Why the fuck are people calling? Like when somebody calls and I don't answer the phone, why do they think calling again 10 seconds later is going to change that? And then if you call the third time, at this point, I'm probably just going to put you on my do not contact. Why are you calling three times in a row?

Speaker 3:
[91:30] Yeah, I don't have an answer for you on it. I could see two. I could see them calling, and then deciding I should have left a voice message.

Speaker 1:
[91:38] Okay.

Speaker 3:
[91:38] And then calling back to leave a voice message. So I could see two.

Speaker 1:
[91:41] Okay. I'll give you that.

Speaker 2:
[91:43] I'll give you that.

Speaker 1:
[91:44] Three? Four? At this point, I hate you. If you're calling me four times a row, I hate you. That's a little strong for entertainment purposes, but I'm not a happy camper. All's trending down. People who leave a voicemail that don't tell you why they're calling you. What is it?

Speaker 2:
[92:01] What are we doing here?

Speaker 1:
[92:03] Why do we have the voicemails? What's the voicemail good for? Hey, Bill, give me a call. No shit, Bill. It's called caller ID. We've had it since the early 2000s. What? The late 90s. I don't need you to give me a voicemail. I got to listen to this as, hey, this is Bill. Give me a call when you get a chance. Tell me why. The reason I didn't answer in the first place is probably because I didn't know what you want. Tell me what you want. Is this fair? Am I crazy?

Speaker 3:
[92:30] No, it's reasonable.

Speaker 1:
[92:32] Do you ever leave a voicemail that says, hey, this is Dennis. Give me a call back.

Speaker 3:
[92:37] No, I do not.

Speaker 1:
[92:38] What's the purpose?

Speaker 3:
[92:39] No. Even with family, I tell them why.

Speaker 1:
[92:45] Just pet peeve. As always, I'm just here to report the facts. Numbers don't lie, neither do I. I'm Pinball Market Trends. The number one trending segment of all the pinball media. Where can people catch you?

Speaker 3:
[92:58] They can always email me at collectedgamerspodcast.gmail.com.

Speaker 1:
[93:03] You can email us at the pinballshowatgmail.com as well. Make sure to sign up to our club membership so you can get some exclusive content, private-ish discord, all kinds of fun stuff at patreon.com/thepinballshow. Please follow, like, and subscribe. You're watching on YouTube right now. Please just follow right there. Man, it is egregious how lower numbers are on YouTube. So follow us there. Facebook.

Speaker 3:
[93:27] If they stay low, can we go back to audio only?

Speaker 1:
[93:30] No, Dennis.

Speaker 3:
[93:32] These lights are hurting my eyes.

Speaker 1:
[93:35] Weave your webs. None of us aspire. Patrick Warbur, putty. Straight down the middle, go check that out on YouTube. Sponsor, this show is Flippin Out Pinball. Where you can buy a Harry Potter CE. Harry Potter CE. Just got our last little batch before, who knows when. So get them now. What a great game still. Did you play some Harry Potter at TPF?

Speaker 3:
[94:22] Yep, it was fun. Really liked it.

Speaker 1:
[94:24] Good game, really good game. Pokemon, if you wanna purchase a Pokemon, I think we have pro and premium spots here in this early May run. So get on that right now. The Walking Dead, Remastered, Medieval Madness, Spots, King Kong, Jaws, Star Wars, Follow The Empire, pre-owned games. We're getting ready to redoing the website. Those are gonna be on the website soon. Until then, they're gonna be on the Facebook page. All the other games, let's get them. And go listen to that exclusive Patreon content. Talk about some rumored games and getting on the list. You're gonna wanna get on the list. Trade in your game. We'll send you out a great. You put it in there, boom. Send it right back. We make it easy. Flipping Out Pinball Media, like the YouTube channel. Joel just did a Beetlejuice tutorial. He did an Aerosmith tutorial. Pokemon Gameplay, soon to be a tutorial. That last stream, they did Turtles Game with Magic The Gathering Packs Opening. They're ripping some packs because TMNT has a thing with Magic The Gathering. So they have their own series. So they opened a whole box of like a booster box and collector box, all these cards. So that was fun ripping some packs. I myself have done a Pokemon unboxing video and how to drill out a Coindor lock. Well, Mr. DYI here, Dennis, you ever had to drill out a lock?

Speaker 3:
[95:55] Yes.

Speaker 1:
[95:55] Yeah, not too bad, is it?

Speaker 3:
[95:57] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[95:59] People gave me, they said, well, you could have just picked a lock. It would have been a lot quicker.

Speaker 3:
[96:04] What am I, a thief in an RPG? Unless it's a D&D, it's better to drill it out. With D&D, it would be thematic to pick it.

Speaker 1:
[96:12] Oh. I said, look, that would be another video. We'll do that. I did buy a lock pick set.

Speaker 3:
[96:19] Locks are so cheap. Just drill it.

Speaker 1:
[96:21] Yeah. I mean, but it goes back to like, if you're trading in a game, people, why are these people always forgetting keys? They forget the keys. They forget the power cords, the pinball. I have two people recently. If you're this guy, just know I am busting your pinballs. Absolutely. I'm going to give you a hard time here. I've had two people now, instead of just owning up to like, shit, I took out the pinballs whenever I was wrapping it up and I forgot to put them back in. They doubled down and they're like, oh, yeah, I didn't know you, yeah, I just didn't know you would want them.

Speaker 2:
[96:58] What the you did?

Speaker 1:
[96:59] Why wouldn't I want the pinballs? That's how you play the game. I didn't know you'd want the pinballs.

Speaker 3:
[97:05] There are people that think that they have to change their pinballs out every year.

Speaker 2:
[97:11] Why wouldn't I want the pinballs?

Speaker 3:
[97:13] Because I thought you wanted to put new fresh ones in.

Speaker 1:
[97:19] Flipping Out Pinball Podcast with Kenny Gray, go check that out and follow, like and subscribe. Dennis, teach these people a little something, something.

Speaker 3:
[97:25] Pinball manufacturers, Dennis here. If you're going to do remakes, I just want to emphasize this. I urge great caution with redoing the artwork, especially when the games are iconic artwork games. So just really take a real close look, get out that mirror, that little pocket mirror that you've got, and gaze into it and ask yourself, am I doing the right thing here, or am I trying to remake Citizen Kane, and everyone's going to hate me for it? So don't do that. Rosebud.

Speaker 1:
[98:02] And always practice safe pinball, and hey birdie, it's me. It's going to be May. It's going to be, you know who I am? Justin Timberlake, my world tour.

Speaker 2:
[98:17] Oh, god damn it, donut.

Speaker 1:
[98:21] All right, good.