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Pinball Expo 2025 Pre Show
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Scott and Josh are going over all what they are excited for and what to expect from the manufacturers there.
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Transcript
Introduction & Pre-Expo Highlights
00:00:07
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in to the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast. I am Josh Rupp. With me, my co-captain. Scott Larson. And we are on episode 178 today. We're doing some pre-expo shenanigans, talking about notes and stuff like that.
00:00:19
Speaker
The big drop right now is Star Wars Fall of the Empire. If you want to get one, Scott, where are you picking it up from? Because I can call many flipping out pinball. They always hook me up really quickly.
00:00:30
Speaker
And, uh, again, they have great options for toppers, accessories.
Flipping Out Pinball - Recommended Vendor
00:00:35
Speaker
If you're looking for a classic game, uh, they can probably do some hunting and they may be able to work on something. And so reach out Zach and Nicole many flipping out pinball. They, they respond quite quickly.
00:00:45
Speaker
ah Facebook messenger is actually the quickest way, but you can also go to their, uh, you know, their website. Yeah. Um, I, Rachel Risto had asked if there was any female owned pinball distributors out there and we're like, Nicole, many,
00:00:58
Speaker
I'd say, yeah, Zach and Nicole, they're team. They definitely are. And every time we see them, and and they're they're working together, and Nicole definitely works very heavily behind the scenes. She does a great job, so...
Reflecting on Rob Burke Interview & Expo Improvements
00:01:11
Speaker
Well, um yeah okay and there there are others that their people are prominently involved in, too. So it's yeah it's not just it not just a stereotypical dude environment.
00:01:21
Speaker
Yeah. No, I totally agree. So we got a bunch of stuff on our notes. um it's It's Expo Week. It's Sunday night. So this will probably release tomorrow, Monday morning, is my guess.
00:01:32
Speaker
Mm-hmm. we're just, we wanted to talk some pre expo stuff, can what we're excited for going into this. I know we just had Rob Burke on. Um, I did find it funny. Someone had said that we need to ask more hardball questions with Rob.
00:01:44
Speaker
I don't know what those would have been. So, um, I don't know. the The only thing I can possibly think of is you can, you can ask him more things on like, Hey, you know,
00:01:56
Speaker
hey basically maybe be controversial things, things that people haven't liked about the expo, but it didn't really feel like that was the point of the interview.
Competition Driving Pinball Expo Enhancements
00:02:04
Speaker
The point of the interview was, Hey, if you want to come to expo, what are you going to see? And what are the the positive things? Um, you're always going to find areas that people wish were better, yeah but yeah I will, I will point out since my first expo and the last expo i went to, it has increased exponentially.
00:02:24
Speaker
and it's loaded And the bottom line is competition is good. and We, we noticed this in pinball. It's the same thing with really anything. um Pinball would probably not be what it is if Wizard of Oz wasn't released.
00:02:40
Speaker
Because that was an inflection point that changed the direction of pinball. And so that actually made Stern recalibrate what they're doing. I would argue that what Texas is doing has forced Pinball Expo to recalibrate what they're doing too.
Star Wars Game Release Discussion
00:02:55
Speaker
And has really successfully brought it into ah more of a fan experience, which is so good. um And I hope they continue just on that trajectory. So I'm looking forward to it.
00:03:07
Speaker
Yeah. And speaking of Stern, they just released Star Wars Fall of the Empire. I'm excited to play this game at Expo. um I'm hearing the same complaint from everyone, though. I don't know if you're this, Scott, but the Death Star shot is rejecting a lot.
00:03:23
Speaker
um And people are frustrated with that. yeah And the so shots are a little tight. Tight, but findable. Sure. But, okay. How many... and This is that balance that we've always walked through in pinball, right?
00:03:37
Speaker
We want it to be challenging, but not too challenging. We also don't want to be challenging, but too easy, right?
Balancing Difficulty in Pinball Design
00:03:43
Speaker
And we went through this with Munsters. With Munsters, it's a pretty accessible layout, right?
00:03:50
Speaker
And nobody gave Munsters like a positive review. Which is like, what do you want? Do you want it to be challenging? And this is where the designers have to walk that balance of you have to find a, have a certain amount of shots that are easy to, to find.
00:04:07
Speaker
And also the ones that are a little more challenging and then maybe an elite shot here or there. ah but I would argue that Jurassic Park is probably one of the best examples of that.
00:04:19
Speaker
Because the left lamp left ramp, anybody can hit, right? it It is dialed into the correct location. Then you get the more challenging shot. The more challenging shot would be the right ramp.
00:04:31
Speaker
Because for me, that's a little more challenging to hit. And I would say the elite shot is the tower shot. You know, where you're where you're hitting it from the upper flipper and going across. Now, finding that balance on any game is going to be challenging.
00:04:45
Speaker
So on ah on Fall of the Empire, I'm really hoping to get my hands on it to say, okay, so is this, how would I, and I am a very average player.
Stern's Quality Control Concerns
00:04:55
Speaker
like I don't have time to to do tournaments and all that kind of stuff. And so it'll be really interesting for me to play that game, especially with the with the triple drain guys, because you know those guys are, you know at least ah at least two of them are tournament players.
00:05:09
Speaker
And it'll be interesting to pick their brain on it. But it's ah it seems like a good game. It's a good theme. So I'm interested in playing it.
00:05:19
Speaker
ah It is. And I get where you're coming from. But I think specifically people are frustrated with like, you shoot the Death Star and it rejects. It's not like you hit the shot clean and it bounces back. It doesn't register.
00:05:30
Speaker
when when it's not When it's rejecting 80% of the time, like we we heard this from Travis and Tom who play tournaments a lot. People are avoiding the Death Star because it's just too hazardous. It's not The multi-ball is not worth the risk reward.
00:05:44
Speaker
People that have this at home are getting frustrated and the Stern techs are reaching out saying, Hey, um, this is what you do. And some people say they've done it and it fixed it for like a day and it goes right back.
00:05:55
Speaker
It's just, um, do you think this is ah quality issue? Cause I don't know. Someone pointed this out to me. I forgot about this entirely. A couple years back, supposedly they went through a shuffle of the people on the floor and they've gotten new, uh,
00:06:11
Speaker
bigger percentage of people on the floor are now new that are putting these games together. And it kind of makes sense because I feel like some of the quality control issues have been a little, um a little up versus that what they've been in the ah the previous years. It seemed like they were up for a bit up until about ah slightly after Avengers.
00:06:29
Speaker
And it seemed like after Avengers, everything was kind of under control there for a little bit. And now it feels like they're up again. It seems like with King Kong, you know, got the vertical up kicker. it It shoots and it launches the ball out and hits the glass and stuff. You do a little bit of adjustment there. It's not a big deal.
00:06:47
Speaker
um Same with Star Wars. I mean, I know that with John Wick, people were having issues with the the trunk and stuff like that. It just seems like we're having more issues from the last year and a half. um Yeah, I just, it's hard. You know, you buy, you you spend $7,000 to $13,000 on this game brand new in box and and you want them to work.
00:07:08
Speaker
And I get there's tweaking out of the box. Like you should always expect that with any game you get out of the box, but it becomes this like when it's an actual issue like in the case of X-Men, when um they were having issues with, ah my mind my mind just went blank. here Well, so the auto launcher. Oh, the auto
Media's Influence on Pinball Sales
00:07:27
Speaker
launcher, correct. That's one thing. Yeah, the auto launcher and just some of the ramp issues they were having there as well.
00:07:33
Speaker
And people with the central hands. you know and Granted, that's why a lot of people want the pros and whatnot as well. But it seemed like full kits were going out for X-Men and stuff too. um I really don't remember much with Dungeons and Dragons. Do you?
00:07:46
Speaker
not Not much with Dungeons & Dragons that I know about. i i will say there's definitely some recency bias, though. People definitely remember the last game and, oh, the current game. was like, oh, well, this happened. Okay.
00:08:00
Speaker
i'm I'm looking through my collection here, and there are things that have always had challenges. and Do you remember on Rush, you have...
00:08:12
Speaker
you, a lot of people have to install the, the loop fix because it wasn't registering. So it's basically a ah little thing that you buy and you put in there to, to make sure the ball hits the optical sensor.
00:08:26
Speaker
Yeah. So you have that. You also have like on Iron Maiden, there were people who were having a hard time hitting the Faro shot. And um you know, Led Zeppelin, i the the little spinny, you know, the the rising spinner was having issues. And so really it seems like almost every game is going to have something. And even with Rush, you know, we even talked to Bork about this where they the people were like, oh, that scoop is going to get banged. So we're going to have to put like these things on it. So they so Stern was responding and saying, okay, well, if people feel like we need that, then maybe we'll go ahead and do it.
00:09:04
Speaker
So every game has these little teeny tweaks. I think we just forget about them because eventually they get, and they get set up and worked out. And especially with a company like Stern, they do have a track record of actually fixing the issues.
00:09:21
Speaker
Well, and I guess, I guess thinking back to the only games I really bought new are all Elwyn's. mean, you can tell right behind me, Godzilla, Jaws, King Kong. I did get Foo Fighters. I didn't feel like there was much issues with Foo Fighters.
00:09:32
Speaker
But I got the Pro. I don't know if there was issues outside the Pro. But do remember Jaws, um the the fin target kind of you know laid over. Godzilla, at least with me, it seemed like the Opto on top of the skyscraper went bad really quick.
00:09:46
Speaker
But since I did the replacement on that, it's been fine. um Yeah, I guess there are little tweaks. I just, don't know. I think people are, I guess X-Men is just a really great example because it feels like maybe that was just half-baked when it came out.
00:10:01
Speaker
And it well it should have had more time to cook. Yeah. In fairness, it was pushed. And so we we do know that. And so i I'm going to give it a little bit of a pass um on that one. When it is dialed in, it's actually great.
00:10:14
Speaker
Like the shot paths are fun. They they work around and they it's it's a fun shooter. Unfortunately, it's not as consistent as the other games that they come come out with.
00:10:26
Speaker
As in know open it up and set it up and it should be pretty good. I'm not too worried as long as they're actively addressing issues. So I, I'm going to put this as a talk to me in six months and see how it is. This is going to be a long seller because it's, you know, yeah now you have basically three recent, uh, star Wars themed games. You have the Mandalorian, you have Richie star Wars and you have fall of the empire.
00:10:57
Speaker
So people can use them, but you can figure out which one you prefer. i would argue in six months, let's revisit this and see if people are still having issues. Because if they still are having issues, they're going to sell it.
00:11:11
Speaker
Right. And the Richie Star Wars had the, that fork ramp that people always had problems with. Well, just even the plunge, dude, like everyone hated the plunge.
00:11:22
Speaker
yeah So it's, ah I don't know, it's interesting because otherwise, if you're going to, if you're not going to allow your designers to take risks or take challenges, then great, make Medieval Madness and slap a new sticker on it every time.
00:11:39
Speaker
Because it's a tried and true layout and you're not going to have much issues, but that's not what people are going to want. So I guess my next question is, this time last year,
00:11:52
Speaker
I can't remember if Metallica was revealed the week before, if it was just pretty much dropped. it um It was either the week before or the week of. I really think it was the week of.
00:12:04
Speaker
I think it was the week of. Because if I remember correctly, I couldn't fly in right then. So you actually went to the Stern factory. to play Metallica for the, you know, the, uh, the influencers, whatever they want to call it.
00:12:21
Speaker
And I flew in and I directly drove from the airport to Stern and I met you there. Yes. So do you think, cause I mean, if we reveal, even if we reveal tomorrow or I guess it's today or Tuesday, um I mean, we haven't received, we usually receive an email about two weeks out saying, Hey,
00:12:41
Speaker
This is we're revealing. Something's coming. Right. Something's coming. Set aside your schedule for this day. This is what we have for media day. But the thing is, is with Star Wars, Star Wars had a bunch of people not there like Carrie Hardy. they Us.
00:12:56
Speaker
Most of Triple Drain wasn't there. I mean, your heart, your your heavy hitters, you know, when you don't have Joel there. And and there he's pushing great numbers through streaming and stuff like that. And I'm not saying that I'm not trying to like throw any shade on the the media people are there. What I'm saying is, is there was a lot of people that give you a lot of good media coverage just weren't there.
00:13:17
Speaker
And um they all said the same thing, right? We're going to be at Expo. We're just going to come check it out when we're there at Expo. Okay. In fairness, the reason why I didn't go and probably the reason why you didn't go the The most challenging thing that I have is my work is not super flexible for me to take a day off on short notice.
00:13:39
Speaker
I can get time off if I wanted, but it's usually I have to engineer it. And so for me, it was middle of the week, it was a Wednesday. I would have had to either get a short day on Tuesday and take Wednesday off, which right now we are short staffed.
00:13:57
Speaker
I don't have that opportunity. And buying a ticket last minute to Chicago, it's like 900 bucks from Utah. So it's not cheap. So you're you're paying that and then you're paying for whatever time off you have at work.
00:14:11
Speaker
And even like the expo ticket I bought for me and my son was 650. So is great. But last minute times, it can be a little more challenging for people who don't live close. If people live close, they can probably drop in and do like a Wednesday thing.
00:14:28
Speaker
I would, I would hope that they would consider in the future doing either a Monday thing or a Friday thing. And by the way, I i like that they're even doing this because even two years ago, they weren't doing this. Right.
00:14:40
Speaker
So at least there's, at least they are making an effort to, to reach out to the people who are pushing pushing news on their product or discussion on their product. So I'm at least grateful that they have started doing this.
00:14:54
Speaker
um Some tweaks that would help me personally would be, I could probably sneak a Friday or a Monday would be a little easier middle of the week. It can be super challenging.
00:15:05
Speaker
Well, but you could pull a retro Ralph retro. Ralph did a, he did Friday. He's like, I can't be there Thursday. I'm in a business meeting up in New York, but I'll just do a long delayed layover. on friday in chicago and i'll just zip on over and we'll get some stuff done and they were totally fine with it i think they're flexible so long as the game has been shown right sure yeah yeah you can show up after like i i showed up after x-men was was shown and i was able to see x-men but okay That also depends on who's available. Like Wason was able to come down and and show me X-Men at the time.
00:15:40
Speaker
And even George Gomez stopped by Gary Stern stopped by. So I was able to see people, but it is totally dependent on what their availability is for the day. So that they just happen to have like, be able to work me in that day.
00:15:54
Speaker
But it is more convenient for them to say, okay, all the people who are going to be streaming or podcasting, on it like all the 20 people who routinely do this, it's nicer if we can all get there at the same time.
00:16:06
Speaker
So my question to you is, is he even beneficial having the media there? We were talking to someone behind the scenes that said, because Stern is a business to business company, yeah that it doesn't actually help that. It's more of the business to the consumer that it helps. So if you're sponsored, like we are with flipping out pinball, it helps out flipping flipping out pinball. But the general sales of pinball, it doesn't make much of blip.
00:16:31
Speaker
Do you think that's true or do you think that's hyperbole? Well, if you're looking at it through a microscope, you're right. It doesn't make a difference because they're buying, you know, the businesses are buying ah from another business.
00:16:47
Speaker
However, where are those businesses selling? The business that are buying these things, they are selling. and I know a few small distributors and I've talked behind the scenes with them.
00:16:58
Speaker
And there are people who are like, well, I still have some games and I can't sell. And so therefore it affects my ability to buy new
Expanding Pinball Awareness Through Retail
00:17:07
Speaker
ones. And so the in the grand scheme of things, it does make sense to do these because how many times, i Josh, I guarantee you got these calls when when they put the Star Wars Home Edition in Costco.
00:17:23
Speaker
How many people took a picture when they were at Costco and sent it to you? I at least got, I got five to 10 and these are a lot of them were people who weren't even in, in pinball.
00:17:36
Speaker
Yeah. But Costco is a whole nother monster. And we know that like, just go look at the content creation for Costco. It's, it's insane to see the numbers there. Okay. But these are people who didn't even know that pinball was still being made.
00:17:48
Speaker
And so being able to say, yeah, that this has been, and so it is interesting because I was able to talk to them and say, okay, yeah, this is a nice game. It still is a very entry level new game.
00:18:00
Speaker
It still is a great game, but they, they sell higher level stuff through, you know, their distributors and people start looking. So I know personally, there's a nurse at work who randomly bought a, a, um, Jurassic park home edition at Costco.
00:18:18
Speaker
Well, now she also has a Godzilla premium that she got through Flippin' Out. So that definitely helped her, but she's not going to jump right to the Godzilla premium if she didn't buy the the Jurassic Park Home Edition.
00:18:31
Speaker
So I think you're still able to move people saying, hey, yes, I'm interested in pinball. and And there has to be a way of keeping things relevant and keep keeping people talk about your your product because otherwise it's going to die. Otherwise, you're going to be RC Cola, right?
00:18:50
Speaker
Right. So I guess maybe may I missed it. But so my question to you was, is do you think it's smart for Stern to still have media days? Yes.
Jersey Jack's Harry Potter Game Success
00:18:58
Speaker
because do you think it helps drive the needle on sales? Cause you brought up Costco and stuff like that. I think that was a brilliant loss. That was, that was a brilliant advertising short way to do that because then people are, like you said, they're in Costco, they're seeing that.
00:19:11
Speaker
Yeah. They're, they're cheap or whatnot, but it it starts the silver ball itch, the silver ball bug. Right. So you, because here's one thing is someone has said, They brought Jack Danger as the head of community because they would need to build out their social media presence.
00:19:25
Speaker
So that way they're controlling narrative. And then that way it's feeling more authentic to Stern, which I don't know how being inside the building. I don't know. It is what it is. but and then But that's the thing, though. is like So I've done some i've done some research. okay Granted, I don't have...
00:19:44
Speaker
the full numbers in front of me. Sure. Just YouTube numbers alone. We're on par with what Stern's releasing right now for views. And if you start figuring in our podcast numbers, we're we're we're double at least.
00:19:56
Speaker
Sure. And same with Carrie, same with Retro Ralph, same with flipping out streaming. so So do you build upon those numbers? Do you take some of the people you know that are going to be driving content? Because here's the thing, too, is someone that's getting into this, I don't know about you, when I first got in, I researched the heck out of it.
00:20:16
Speaker
I researched for almost two years before I even landed on anything that I actually wanted to buy. And even then, I feel like I made the wrong choice. But i just I'm having a hard time trying to figure out, like...
00:20:27
Speaker
is media thing media days going by the wayside or is it just because expo's up now that they're like, we don't really need to tell the media people tell like the day of that we release this because they're going be in town anyway. Cause they already told us to not come to star Wars. Cause they're all coming to expo.
00:20:42
Speaker
You know what I'm saying? Sure. Okay. There were a few aspects and I'll try to un unwrap and, and subdivide these things. Okay. So the, Is it possible that they the media day last month wasn't as big a deal because it was so close to expo?
00:21:02
Speaker
Is it possible? Sure. and However, yes, these these things are still valuable because the people who are putting down the money are ultimately going to be listening to these kind these content creation things.
00:21:16
Speaker
And it makes more sense for us to be able to talk better informed about the product than it is for us to speculate, which is what we've done for the most part, right?
00:21:28
Speaker
We've had to speculate a lot. yeah and And by us talking saying, okay, these are the pros, these are the cons, this is what we see, and this is where we we would for project it.
00:21:39
Speaker
Now, occasionally, it's not as accurate because we don't have the long-term viability of the product. Like we can see how it is set up at Stern, but Stern also has professional techs who are there to dial in a machine.
00:21:55
Speaker
So how, how is that going to be when they buy it at home? um But it definitely makes sense. Now, whether or not you did bring up Stern putting out official stuff, well, that can be a mixed bag because anytime you have something coming from the company, it's going to be viewed a APR move.
00:22:18
Speaker
They're not going to bring up the negatives. They'll probably just emphasize the positives. And that's understandable. If Ford is going to to give me a 30-minute infomercial on the Mustang, I'm guaranteeing that they're going to push all the things that they think are great on the Mustang.
00:22:34
Speaker
they They may not be able to talk about the other stuff. So yes, a I talked way too long on that, but the bottom line is yes, I think it does matter to be able to have media have more information on it.
00:22:47
Speaker
And ultimately you and i have like, I've purchased probably over 25, 30 games and we're the ones who are consuming this content. And so if you're going to be getting the people who are buying the high volume games by having the media involved in pushing the product.
00:23:06
Speaker
Yeah. Yep. I agree. So, um, I think that Scott and I will now talk about some stuff that we're only going to have on Patreon that deals with Stern. Um, so if you want to listen, uh, go to our, go to our Patreon.
00:23:20
Speaker
All right. Now back to our regularly program schedule. Uh, Scott, let's move on to Jersey Jack pinball. yeah They released Harry Potter in May and the game is sound like hotcakes. At least that's what we might understand.
00:23:33
Speaker
Every distributor you ask cannot get ahold of one these till spring is what I'm being told. So that's five, six months out. I mean, we're, I think it's it's a combination, right? Like they, they, they're selling really well, but my understanding is they have the manufacturing and capability to keep up um because I'm not seeing a ton these out in the wild. mean, they're all going into homes, um but I really, I truly think they're going homes.
00:23:57
Speaker
Oh yeah. And there's, and it's a brand new, like this is, brand new people. Like I'm getting calls from people. Like I know, you know, Zach at flipping out. I've got a friend that's never owned a pinball machine. Their first one they want Harry Potter.
00:24:08
Speaker
Can you hook me up? But I messaged Zach. i'm like, when can I get one? And he's like, good luck. Yeah. Well, you know, but, but because Zach's not okay here, here is one huge positive thing about Zach. He's not going to lie to you.
00:24:24
Speaker
There are a lot of people who will lie to you. And I saw this in the construction industry. where people will overbook their jobs and they'll be like, Oh yeah, we can do that when they know they can't.
00:24:36
Speaker
And so they'll come and they'll, they'll be working your job and three other jobs. So they're there one third of the time, just trying to float to pretend like they're doing something when the bottom line is they overbooked.
00:24:50
Speaker
Yeah. um Zach's not going to do that. Zach's going to tell you, Hey, this is what's going on. And even the, even, um, JJP is not giving us accurate updates on what are but what what we can expect.
00:25:05
Speaker
Now, what's what's the pros and cons of this? So the pros, well, this is a little bit like the CGC model, where CGC is a little more along the model of we would prefer to have a steady production schedule and people will get the games when they get them and they're willing to wait for quality than ah totally expand their manufacturing and blow out a whole bunch of games in three months and then collapse their workforce and, and having to lay people off because, you know, there's only so many games you're going to sell.
00:25:44
Speaker
Right. Right. So I, I would say the plus of this is Harry Potter seems to be a bonafide hit. It seems to be a fun game. it seems to be well designed. Eric did a great job.
00:25:57
Speaker
Oh, always. Yeah. And it's brilliant. It looks beautiful. And really, regardless of whether or not you're getting the collector's edition or the arcade or the wizard edition, you will be happy with all three of those.
00:26:09
Speaker
So I appreciate that they have a quality product. And the bottom line is people are going to wait for a quality product. Like that it's, it will be available when it's available. So I would rather them do this than scale up so aggressively and not be able to sustain that because the question is always going to be what is after Harry Potter?
00:26:33
Speaker
Because Harry Potter is, it it was like that unobtainable license that they were able to get.
00:26:41
Speaker
I think it's a rock and a hard spot. i'm goingnna I'm going to tell you why. So with Jersey Jack pinball, they've got a bonafide hip. We all know that. they are The line is cooking for the the next foreseeable future, at least in the spring. Next year. I would say next year. Easily next year.
00:26:54
Speaker
um Typically, ah JJP does about every nine months. And granted, with Harry Potter, that was pushed back two months because of licensing restrictions is what we were told.
00:27:06
Speaker
So looking at we have right now, when, when a pinball company, any pinball company makes a deal with these people to make a product based off of their license, they have a certain time window that they can, uh, that they need to rebuild by.
00:27:21
Speaker
um Or renew the license. Or renew the license. But there is there is a contractual obligation to hit a certain window. And there is grace, right? like We all know there's problems. COVID happens. you know Parts happen. like it There's grace there, right? like It's not like hard and fast with most of these licensors because they know that this is a very labor-intensive product that is not just a toy they're putting on a shelf.
00:27:46
Speaker
But here's the thing. So if you're cooking on Harry Potter's and you're good to go till spring, at least, what do you do? Do you keep making Harry Potter's and you convince licensor for the next license just to push back another three to six months?
00:28:01
Speaker
Do you, do you reveal and cut short maybe Harry Potter sells? Because here's the thing too, is like Harry Potter's still selling, but you would literally have to stop the line when you're cooking and be like, okay, well now we're switching everything over to the new game.
00:28:17
Speaker
And then you're producing the new game, not knowing how it's going to perform. So it's it becomes this catch-22 of like, do you keep making what you know is working, or do you move on and hope that that works, and then you just come back to Harry Potter when you have an opportunity?
00:28:34
Speaker
How many games is Stern producing simultaneously? Yeah, but Stern has three massive lines. Okay, okay, but... Four actually, there's a fourth one.
00:28:45
Speaker
Okay. But that's, that's a different story. Anyway, but yeah, there's three for sure. Okay. Always go. They, they're already changing the line a little bit because they have the collector's edition and then they have to change it for the wizard and then they have to change it for the other, uh, for the arcade edition.
00:29:02
Speaker
So now it depends. I would suspect I have no inside knowledge on this, but I would suspect that that they scheduled this for a double release window. Okay. To say that we are not, this is not a nine month window.
00:29:20
Speaker
This is at least an 18 month window. I would suspect we're not going to hear the next Harry Potter, the next JJP release until maybe expo of next year.
00:29:33
Speaker
I truly feel that. um If not, they can certainly make something. And have it out. But having a line simultaneous. Okay, this week we're going to run whatever their next game is.
00:29:46
Speaker
And then we'll go back, we'll do Harry Potter for two weeks. And so you can still develop a catalog, which would be smart too, to say, hey, we have we don't just have one game. We have two or three games that you can get.
00:30:00
Speaker
So that would be smart if they were able to do that. But to, to not negotiate an extended window for something like Harry Potter, I think would be criminal.
00:30:11
Speaker
And the fact that we know they paid, this is by far the most expensive license. So there, if you're going to pay that much for a license, there's going to be a lot of contingencies on anticipating that this is going to be a long-term license.
00:30:32
Speaker
So I, I'm not too worried about Harry, about JJP because this is a little bit like, um, it's like guns and roses, but I think they learned a lesson in guns and roses because guns and roses, they kept writing guns and roses until it was done.
00:30:50
Speaker
Right. Yeah. But Harry Potter, I think we'll have longer legs than guns and roses. It'll be a little bit like wizard of Oz. Like how long were they producing wizard of Oz? Yeah.
00:31:01
Speaker
They were posting it for a long time, long time. And then they kept going back to the well then they kept going back. So I would think that this is that that whenever they decide to release the next game, they will still be making Harry Potter two to one on the next game.
00:31:17
Speaker
And they'll probably be making it like that for, know, for the foreseeable future.
Spooky Pinball's Niche Market Strategy
00:31:23
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. All right. So, so we're expecting Harry Potter at expo.
00:31:27
Speaker
Yeah. We're not expecting anything new revealed there. Spooky. ah I don't think they're revealing anything at expo. They're going to spooky does what spooky does. They do it the best, the way that they do it.
00:31:38
Speaker
I guarantee will not guarantee. you i guess I'm going to highly educated. Yes. We're going to see their next heavily rumored game. Beetlejuice in December with them wrapping up evil deads by the end of December.
00:31:50
Speaker
and getting on the line in January Beetlejuice. What do you think, Scott? Sound about accurate? that That makes sense. Spooky doesn't do simultaneous. ah They don't. If there's one company that that they're going to make the same game until they're done, it's typically spooky.
00:32:06
Speaker
Unless they're doing two games at once, like Looney Tunes and Chainsaw. Yeah, but that's the same layout. You know what I mean. yeah They're not known for swapping out yeah at the speed at which i Stern can turn over ah turn over the you know line in a day or a few hours. they'll They'll wheel a few things in and they'll be like, okay, this is what we're doing.
00:32:28
Speaker
Spooky's not that. It's a smaller company. Again, they know who they are and they know what their market is. And so they're really good at tailoring to the market. So they focus on this is the next game.
00:32:40
Speaker
And when they come out, yeah, they can kind of work work a a few magic things. But i there's no chance they're going to be releasing anything right now. Spooky just has found the sweet spot where they are not competing with anybody else for their launch windows.
00:32:56
Speaker
They're not. They're just releasing the games when they're done. And from what I hear, Evil Dead is, it's a hot seller. So good for them. What a, what a great game. Well, it's sold out in March.
00:33:06
Speaker
I mean, they revealed in December. So, um, taking orders in what halfway through December, maybe beginning of January. And then they were sold out by the TPF of March. so so good, it's good, good for them. What a, what a great way of doing it.
00:33:21
Speaker
Yep. I agree. ah more power to them. Love those guys over there. Very down to earth people. I've always enjoyed it. If you haven't seen but Things That Go Bump the bump in the Night, their documentary. um But it's it's it's just a really good one.
00:33:32
Speaker
And I'm excited to see them there. I'm excited to get my hands on an Evil Dead, ah play this. um I'm hearing in the top three games for 2025 is King Kong, Harry Potter, and Evil Dead.
Orbit Games' World O Ball Release
00:33:43
Speaker
I think that's amazing because, i mean... arguably, but I mean, Spooky's mom and pop. They they very present themselves as that way. yeah And you're running with the, when you're competing on a level of the, ah the size of Stern and people feel that your product is on par or better than what is being produced at that level, you're doing something right.
00:34:06
Speaker
Yeah. right. Let's talk about, there is going to be a new reveal at Expo though. Um, from American pimp. Nope. Sorry. Not American pinball orbit orbit games. Uh, we did talk about some of this in the Patreon exclusive content of stuff that we can't talk about here.
00:34:20
Speaker
So we're going to focus mostly mostly on whirl a ball. You've now seen this. They posted it on their socials. Um, Okay. What is this thing? It looks like a skee ball.
00:34:32
Speaker
I put it here on the screen with us. It looks like a skee ball bowler. I don't know. Like you rolled the ball up it and then rolls back at you. Like, I don't, I don't fully understand what this is, Scott.
00:34:45
Speaker
I don't at all. um Okay. ah Josh, if you are an arcade and you are trying to decide what to put in your location,
00:34:57
Speaker
What is the biggest concern that you're going to have with the game? ah Maybe maintenance and getting parts. Okay. How about space? ah Space too. Yeah. Real estate. they that There's definitely a term behind the scenes of like yeah profitability per square footage, right? Yeah.
00:35:13
Speaker
And so, yeah, you, by the way, you're a hundred percent right on, on also being able to like maintain it. and So I look at this game and I'm thinking, okay, so if I'm running an arcade, do I want to buy something like this or do I want to buy like a Rothrails game that has no maintenance and people put a dollar in and they're shooting giant space aliens or playing giant Pac-Man or something.
00:35:40
Speaker
Right. Yeah. And, and so is it possible that they're going to sell any of these? Maybe, but to to make it in today's arcade, you either need to have a ticket redemption option.
00:35:54
Speaker
That's one thing. Or you need to have like an over the top raw thrills type thing where you're playing space invaders, but your screen is, is a 12 feet tall, right? Yeah.
00:36:07
Speaker
and you're shooting it with it with a laser beam or you're playing a giant Teenage Mutant and Ninja Turtles game or so or something like that. Something that's over the top. I'm sorry, Josh, this thing looks like it came out of an 80s arcade that was- It really does.
00:36:22
Speaker
You're being generous at 80s. I want to feel pre-80s, man. This thing is looking like 70s, 60s. This does not scream excitability to to me. um i need So I've looked at the thing and says you have up to six players. I don't fully understand that.
00:36:35
Speaker
um I just, I assume it gives out tickets because I know ski ball gives out tickets. Yeah. But do you know how big a ski ball is? Ski balls are huge. I actually looked at getting one for my downstairs and like when I look, it would have taken up ah basically the width of one half pinball machines. And it's like eight to 12 feet long.
00:36:58
Speaker
that That's a huge amount. Like, am I going to, am I going to put that in my arcade when like, okay, at Lagoon, which is our, ah you know, which is our seven, ah whatever, ah the six flags or whatever.
00:37:11
Speaker
And they have an arcade there and I, I've walked through it a few times. It used to have, it used to have like, you know, Pac-Man, all that kind of stuff and, and pinball machines.
00:37:22
Speaker
All it has now is raw thrills games. That is a hundred percent what it has. It is either ticket redemption or raw thrills or something like that. Yep. I can't imagine how this thing fits into it. No, I agree. Yeah.
00:37:35
Speaker
So yeah, look in this flyer. It says it has nine balls. You can play up to six players, score multipliers, mini games, bonus rounds under three. What the crap does that say?
00:37:46
Speaker
I'm sorry. Three lanes under three. Oh, wider three foot lanes. I apologize. This tells me nothing of what this is. And it does look like it has a little bit of a ticket redemption thing here in the bottom.
00:37:58
Speaker
I just.
00:38:00
Speaker
I'm not excited for this thing at all. Like, it and I guess it's at expo. So play it and we'll give our thoughts on it.
Pinball Brothers' Predator Game Analysis
00:38:06
Speaker
But yeah, I'll be interested to see because i can't figure out how this is even remotely related to pinball.
00:38:13
Speaker
It's tangentially related to arcade, but a hundred percent related to ticket redemption. So, you know, I guess the next thing we can, we can, we can check out is like,
00:38:26
Speaker
The punching bag, ah you know, the the punching bag. So how hard do you hit ah a bag for a ticket or that little time, the time, the bleeping light. So you can get, you can get tickets. they thats it's It's so far away from pinball that I don't even understand it.
00:38:43
Speaker
I agree too. um It's just, it's kind of kooky. um I did have someone, cause this has been being like rumored for a little bit now. And so to see them actually say, Hey, this is, ah this is revealed.
00:38:56
Speaker
So the person asked, cause it was a quick Google and they found that Franklin sports, you know, the people that make like little yard games and stuff like that released a game called world ball.
00:39:07
Speaker
So not world O ball, but world ball. few years back do you think they're gonna run into licensing issues where it's that similar and it's like a skee-ball looking game it's it's it's like a tabletop skee-ball for world ball where this is like world o ball but it's three foot wide apparently and huge it's just i don't know we'll see how this is yeah i figured out american pinball okay American pinball, it seems like a an AI-driven imagination on how I'm going to make an arcade ah company.
00:39:48
Speaker
And so they've come up with these Like they, they look like illusions of games, like the pinball, the pinball always felt pinball adjacent. It was good, but not great.
00:39:59
Speaker
Right. And this feels like, okay, now we're going into ticket redemption. This seems like, okay, but not great. There's nothing that makes me look at this and say, I'm going to buy this for my location.
00:40:11
Speaker
And it it just it just feels like a company is that has really no connection to the audience is making products and hoping that people will dump $8,000 on this thing. I don't get it.
00:40:25
Speaker
Yeah, I don't either. And and is it $8,000? I don't know. if Someone said $5,000. There's not been a price that's been floated out there, but still $5,000. $5,000 is a lot of money for someone just to randomly say, hey, I have no idea what this thing is. I'm going to buy it.
00:40:40
Speaker
yeah yeah all righty let's move on to pinball brothers they're coming over from across the pond they're bringing predator with them you have till december to decide if you want this game ah this is another game that zach does carry at flipping out so if you like what you see you can talk to him i think this just looks like a wide body wide body version of whirlwind that's been tweaked and a giant jungle theme on it like i don't It may be fine. I will play it.
00:41:06
Speaker
Yeah. might be You and I are definitely going to seek this out because we saw that and the, yeah unfortunately the, the approved licensing versus what was actually put out was, was confusing because apparently there's a, there's a lot of challenges about even using Arnold image at all. I believe you can't use his face at all.
00:41:28
Speaker
yeah You can't use his face. You can use his chest apparently. Yeah. Yeah. Well, okay, fine. But it's, ah but the one, the one streaming thing had like a non-approved a code that had like Arnold's face in it, which was interesting. So I'll be, I'll be curious to see how the, the live version of the game is going to be and see what, what we're actually going to play.
00:41:50
Speaker
I know people liked alien. I, I thought it was okay, but it was, it wasn't something that I was super interested in. So we'll see how it holds up. And um it certainly may hit that nostalgia mud for someone who's interested in in having it down.
Pedretti's Big Bang Bar Remake Rumors
00:42:07
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah.
00:42:09
Speaker
Yeah. Pretty much wraps it up for me for yeah that. okay But I would say this is, this is like one of those incomplete grades because you and I haven't played this game and we want to go and see it before we can tell you what we think about it.
00:42:22
Speaker
And by the way, if you see us at expo, mean, for the most part, I try to wear a loser kid hat so people can, can recognize me and come up and, and, and tell me things that I should check out. And so I will be there with a loser kid hat.
00:42:37
Speaker
Uh, we, we usually have some swag in our backpack that we can, ah we can hook you up with. And so ah if, yeah if there's something that we are missing, please go and, and seek us out. And also again, reminder, we have our little seminar, the, the content creator seminar that it's ah Friday. Correct. Josh.
00:42:56
Speaker
Correct. At 11 at 11 o'clock.
00:43:00
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was going to say you should also check out the gentleman that I can't find his name on TikTok. I do apologize. I'm going to get a message from him prior to my, but the gentleman that did the voice acting for Arnold, he did like a pink pony club version, but it's all Arnold Schwarzenegger singing because he does his voice for Arnold.
00:43:17
Speaker
It was pretty awesome. I'm not going to lie. It was pretty funny. um But yeah, if I find his name, I'll post it. ah All right, let's move on to on our notes. We've got big thing.
00:43:30
Speaker
Yeah, no Big Bang. So the rumor is, this rumor hit strong, what, about three weeks ago, two weeks ago? Yeah. Big Bang Bar is the next remake from Pedretti. ah Maybe, again, rumor, allegedly. yeah Yeah, when when I'm talking about this, all the context is rumor.
00:43:46
Speaker
ah I've been told now, regardless, there's no remake coming from Pedretti at Expo. So there's another, I don't know, maybe... Maybe not, but I'm being told it's not going to be there.
00:43:59
Speaker
so have Have you played a Big Bang Bar live? No. Not the video version. Have you played it a live one? No. And that's the crazy part. Do you know how many people I've talked to that is like, I've never even seen this in and and like the flesh. I've never i've been in this hobby for 14 years now, 12 at owning a pinball machine, and I've never seen one of these in the flesh. And I've talked to high-level competitive players that are like, yeah, I've never seen one either.
00:44:25
Speaker
Because they only made, what, 192 of them? It was a small amount. Is that under and eighteen so is that including the Gene Cunningham version too? So yeah, the original run 10 from Capcom. sure And then they I wanted to say they had made enough boards and parts to do like 118 or I know it's a big swing on the number there. but um And then Gene had bought them up and decided to make them.
00:44:51
Speaker
And even back then it was I mean, mid two thousands. And he was only asking like 4,500. And it's ended up. yeah He actually lost a bit of an acre. Oh yeah. He made them and lost money. It's yeah yeah ah interesting guy. I'll put it that way. ah Again, when pigs fly, go check out the writeup. It was, it's really interesting how even it got made.
00:45:12
Speaker
So I, yeah, I don't know if people just never bring these out. and I think I have ah a better chance of playing crawl than I have a playing big bang bar. Yeah, it's weird.
00:45:23
Speaker
And they're worth so much money. I think that's another thing, too. People don't want to bring them out and get them scuffed up when they're worth three. Here's the thing, though. People that own these, and granted, if you owe own one and it was like a grail that's sitting in your corner, I don't think money really matters much to you on the value of it because it's like, well, I have my grail pin.
00:45:38
Speaker
But those that are sitting on this to make money, you might want to start selling it now. Yeah, you should. Because it's going to drop. it It definitely is going to take a hit. the ah Well, Medieval Madness did too, but I would argue that Medieval Madness, i back what, ah eight years ago, they were going for $15,000. Yeah. and so and And by the way, that is- They still are.
00:45:59
Speaker
They still are. there It depends on the edition and stuff like that. Okay, but $15,000 for a standard Williams edition that was made in 1998 or 1999. Okay. Yeah.
00:46:11
Speaker
So now and you're getting the bells and whistles with the Merlin edition. You're getting all the bells and whistles. Okay. So it's a, it's a different game, but yeah, this is, again, i don't know if there's an appetite for this.
00:46:25
Speaker
i I don't know. It's not like Cactus Canyon, which by the way, I think Cactus Canyon is a fun game. And with the new kit that I, by the way, we're working on, I got the kit.
00:46:36
Speaker
I'm, I still haven't gotten gotten a chance to install it. So we definitely want to review it. um I've been so busy. I apologize. But even bringing the kit to it, it makes it a better game, or at least it gives it more stuff to do.
00:46:51
Speaker
So what is, I don't know. Big, big, big, big, big the the kits are surprisingly cheap compared to everything else it's sound ah hundred percent you take for a topper already you have the topper and then yeah yeah just and this godzilla topper right here a thousand bucks okay There's nothing to the game. It's cool. I like it. I'm a topper guy, but it's, it's eye candy. Okay.
00:47:15
Speaker
This is functional candy that makes the game a lot better, a lot different. Oh yeah. 100%. yeah, I, I, if you have a cactus Canyon, find the two 50, like it's, I don't see a reason why not. well I'm surprised. And they go higher on Josh. Huh?
00:47:33
Speaker
For the, well, for the kit. Yeah. It wasn't 250 bucks. Are you sure? Okay. I'll find it. Okay. Although 1250. Okay. okay Well, I, I way overpaid if it was 250. No, it's not. It's it's not. this So I, I, I'm, I'm, I'm a hundred percent sure on this, but I'm, I'm going to fact check myself.
00:47:54
Speaker
All right, here you go. I've got it pulled up right here, dude. So you got a slipping out pinball.com. Okay. You click shop. You press Chicago gaming company games so and the very top, right? cactus canyon pinball lineman sheets upgrade kit 250 do you think that's wrong yeah i do hey zach maybe you need fix oh this is a pre-order deposit the deposit is non-refund okay thank you the two part of the total price of the game oh my gosh yeah like seriously yours like uh under it too 1250 right there okay
00:48:27
Speaker
okay Wow. Okay. You were making me questions like, no way. it's not two 50, two 50 deposit. Yes. Yes. Okay. All right. You're going have we had a lot of dead time in that yeah because Josh was making me a question, my ah my, grasp on on reality.
00:48:44
Speaker
But yeah, I apologize. It was, it was 1250. Okay.
Pinball Legends Statues Release
00:48:47
Speaker
but Okay. Josh again, This topper right here is thousand bucks. The topper is a thousand bucks and it doesn't change the game.
00:48:57
Speaker
This makes it a completely new game because when I look at this, okay, let's just run down what is part of this kit. So this is Let's see. ah so you know, this is the Josh Sharp Lyman Sheets.
00:49:13
Speaker
Ten new modes, two enhanced modes. it has So it has a lot of saloon fights. It does the beer cup thing on the side, and drunken multiball, saloon party, martial high noon. There's a lot of stuff there that you're going to change the game and to be okay.
00:49:35
Speaker
Full disclosure, go and, and listen to, um you know, Joel, because Joel had this for a while and he played it. And the bottom line is he thought with the kit, um,
00:49:46
Speaker
This made it more fun than medieval madness. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So that's a big deal. By the way, my kid's favorite game is medieval madness. And there's a lot of reasons for that. It's accessible.
00:49:58
Speaker
It's straightforward. They can understand what they're doing and the castle freaking blows up. Okay. So. and so shark laws freaking laer lasers blows other freaking laser sharks but uh okay making a game that is more complete and era specific is is important and the nice thing about this kit is it does feel like it's an upgraded version of a 90s game because i that's the challenge you're um this was where i think monsters
00:50:29
Speaker
ah kind of ran into an issue is that it was kind of a modern version of a game that was trying to feel like a nineties game, but people didn't make that connection, but it really should have been, it should have been in that same era.
00:50:42
Speaker
And that this is an upgrade kit for cactus Canyon. That makes it, you know, that makes it a better version of the, of classic game.
00:50:54
Speaker
I agree. and all right, let's move on to, so I have the last note I have on here. oh my gosh is pinball legends. These statues that planetary pinball along with DPX Dutch pinball is bringing to you these statues brought from Bally Williams classics. Oh, and also it's the art from L'Amour, the or mods based out of Israel.
00:51:24
Speaker
Okay. Sure. Sure. less Or do you want to start with these? um im I'm okay. I want to pull up the pictures again. Okay. You pulled the pictures.
00:51:36
Speaker
I'm going to, so um I was really like confused because they started releasing these on a Saturday. So I was like, so we're releasing these like probably arguably the worst day to release any content. Right? Like, so the first one revealed the funny part is like the, the way that the picture was done,
00:51:56
Speaker
um It just looked, it looked weird. And then when it finally revealed and it's a statue of the circus Voltaire ring master with like the lady ring master in his hand.
00:52:08
Speaker
i don't know. I can't remember what her name is. I was like, okay, like this isn't bad. This isn't terrible. We're not getting pricing from this. And then number two released and was the genie from Toten.
00:52:19
Speaker
And I'm like, eh, like if this is what floats your boat, cool. Like this, it's not a terrible idea. And then we started getting weird, right? Like day three. So they're these are releasing day after day after day.
00:52:32
Speaker
And ah number three is the troll from Medieval Madness. But the interesting part is you only really see the head of the troll. I know there's like they're they're in the back glass, right?
00:52:43
Speaker
But they took some liberties of like giving them high top Converse sneakers and like metal knee pads. And just it was kind of... I guess there's a little goofiness to there. But it just...
00:52:55
Speaker
It looks and looks... It's not my favorite. And then the fourth one revealed, and it was the attack for Mars Martian. And it looks awkward to me because it's like... It's got like this angry pose and it's holding a several ball. But for some odd reason, it looks like this really mad ticked off coming at you Martian. And then his fourth hand is giving himself bunny ears. His bunny ears. Yeah. And you're like, okay what? where are you finding the pictures? Because I'm actually...
00:53:24
Speaker
literally looking. And when I, when I try to type this stuff in, do you know, it's all, up it's all via Carrie Hardy. They did this all via Carrie Hardy. Check out our friend Carrie Hardy's Facebook page.
00:53:35
Speaker
And then the fifth one hit and I'm like, we're still doing this. Like this is still a thing. And, um, it was, Oh, what is his name? It's, it's the gentleman from party zone, the main guy, you know, the guy with the chin and the, this, the propeller hat and everything like that. And I was just like, I finally text here. I'm like, dude,
00:53:53
Speaker
how many more of these are there? Cause these are just, they're getting worse. Like they're just, in my opinion, they're not my favorite. Like I get art is upset objective. I would not buy any of these to put on my shelf. I just don't feel like any of these stand out. Right.
00:54:05
Speaker
and then the whole last one, Dr. Dude and Dr. Dude holds ah ah a special place in my heart. There's a funny story behind that. We'll talk about some other time.
00:54:17
Speaker
Uh, but the interesting part about Dr. Dude, his pi pants are a little taunt. on the statue. And I'm like, who wants a, who wants a happy to see a doctor dude sitting on their shelf?
00:54:28
Speaker
I don't, it's just really weird. And when I texted Carrie, Carrie's like, well, today's the last one for series one. I'm like, you're telling me there's more of these. Oh, and then he reveals there's six more on top of the six. He revealed going to be at, is it just in his Patreon?
00:54:43
Speaker
I don't think so. i could have swore he put them on his Facebook page. Okay. Well, I'm on this. They look, I don't know. They're just, There's something else, dude. They are, they're not what I, I send them in your, our chat. You can look at them through our chat, but we do talk a lot. So they're probably buried in there.
00:55:01
Speaker
Yeah. Just look under attachments under like shared links and stuff like that. Yeah. These are weird. They're totally weird. They're different. they're So for the big one, so it doesn't even really give a size from what I could tell. It said a sixth scale is worth three hundred and wealth the scale is scale is 90 bucks.
00:55:23
Speaker
So I just, I don't know.
00:55:27
Speaker
I know that Colin from kinetic and this week in pinball, it talked about, he gave his little ideas and thoughts on them. Um, he had attributed some of this to his Roger sharp figuring that he did, was that last year shortly after X, but last year, I just, I don't know is, are we at that point of the hobby? I just feel like this is to niche upon niche, right?
00:55:53
Speaker
Okay. Now, now there's always a danger. When you have these things, i can't even find these pictures. I remember seeing them. but Was this you personally or was this...
00:56:04
Speaker
It was in triple drain. Yeah. There's our big, so there's our big secret. We've been talking about triple. Yeah. Yeah. We've talked about, but here's the other thing too. So, okay. I think these could be successful on a point.
00:56:15
Speaker
And here's the reason is if you focus mostly mainly on the virtual arcade people and you start pushing these through Zen studios and stuff like that, and and it might be successful on a pinball enthusiast level, but But like video game people, they love statues. They're full...
00:56:35
Speaker
Like secondary market, people that make a living off of building limited edition statues based out of your favorite games and they're licensed, like Luigi's Mansion or Beyblade or whatever it may be.
00:56:47
Speaker
Maybe we're at that point, but I think if you're going to reach a bigger audience, it's definitely going to be through Zen Studios than it is through the pinball enthusiast. know. You can also look at like 300 bucks isn't a lot of money for a statue to a pinball enthusiast. I mean, may now nowadays, the economic situation we're in,
00:57:04
Speaker
But overall, they're just, I don't know, like you were saying behind you, like the toppers are a thousand bucks. So maybe 300 bucks for a statue isn't a big deal on collecting all these would be cool to someone.
00:57:15
Speaker
I don't They're just not for me. If they're for you, cool. Like that's all ah that's cool. But, uh, what do you think, Scott? So I, I do have, um I do have some pinball related stuff, right?
00:57:30
Speaker
but That's kind of fun. i I was able to get an awesome ah Sparky, original Sparky that I have in my you know in my area. I have like some Rush bobblehead dolls. I have a Godzilla, Mechagodzilla, and I'm looking over here, just like all my pinball stuff. I have the GTF um lunchbox, you know?
00:57:53
Speaker
And the the Sentinel head and in little, little just random stuff, which I think are kind of fun, but they're also game related. Right. Yeah. Yeah.
00:58:04
Speaker
So it's just kind of fun to have them because I can see them, but it's not, you know, it's not crazy. Now I, I fully admit the biggest mistake that you can make in evaluating things is to say, this isn't for me. Therefore it's not going to be a ah sale.
00:58:22
Speaker
Oh, 100%. Yeah. Yeah. So now this is probably not for me, so but I can see some people who want to buy this stuff. And there are people who have full on, uh, like the star Wars collectors who have every single toy and they get like three versions of it. So they can have one in a sealed package, one that they open up and put in a display case and one that they can open up and play with.
00:58:49
Speaker
Right. So are those people like the ones who are going to be doing doing these things? And so great. um To be blunt, I just wish they looked cooler.
00:59:00
Speaker
they They look kind of like silly. and They kind of do. and so like, I wish that like, okay, if you look at, so looking at, I'm looking across from me.
00:59:12
Speaker
So my CGC toppers. So I have the attack from Mars topper, which the guy looks awesome. Right. Yeah. It's one of the best toppers in pinball. You look at the, uh, at the medieval madness topper where they just look great.
00:59:28
Speaker
And even like the monster bash topper, which is probably the less great one, but they still look pretty good. Cause you have Dracula, which looks like he's wearing black lipstick, but it just feels like when you comparing them to those toppers, it feels like they've missed something. They they're going for campy and not cool.
00:59:48
Speaker
Yeah. Kind of trying to draw it. They try to get that line and it, it definitely crossed over. So maybe, uh, I I'm curious, but I am curious because just because I'm saying I'm not going to buy him, Josh is saying he's not going to buy him. It doesn't mean they're not going to sell. So I'm really curious. Now.
01:00:05
Speaker
I also thought the same thing about the Roger Sharp figuring. i thought the Roger of Sharp figuring was cool, but like, For my budget, everybody has to figure out what they're going to sell I thought it was like $30 cool or $20 cool.
01:00:20
Speaker
I didn't think, I can't remember what they sold for, but they sold for a lot more than that. I thought, well, there was two different prices. One was if it was signed by Roger and then the other one was if it was just him by himself. Yeah. Okay.
01:00:31
Speaker
But either way, mean, it's, it was cool. It was like a total, like 1970s star Wars figure. That's exactly what it looked like. So yeah. Um, I'm, I'm curious though, if you are in the market to buy these things, please tell me what I'm missing.
01:00:47
Speaker
Hey, let's let's take a moment. So this is a good, good pivot moment. So, um, I I'm sitting down, but if I like raise my shirt up, you can see pinball studio pinball studio shirt.
01:00:58
Speaker
Okay. So let's give the pinball studio shout out. Let's, let's talk a little bit about them, Josh. Yeah. Uh, we want to thank Sterling Martin. He sent us a swag stuff a couple of weeks ago.
01:01:08
Speaker
It's a tournament only location in Georgia, but he started up his own podcast. He's doing really, really good stuff. I'm enjoying what I'm hearing out of him. Yeah, man. what What else did you want to say about, well, and I did see on Facebook that they were looking at, uh, you know, I, it sounds like the pinball studio, the location is a membership thing. I mean, he had an open membership and so,
01:01:30
Speaker
i It's nice to know that there are people who are still doing these boutique places because a lot of people have, they they either are private collectors and have a small amount or they are like me and they are collectors, but they've run out of space and be be people being able to have a collective area and being able to, to join like a bigger community so they can share their games.
01:01:55
Speaker
um I'm not sure if that's exactly what, what he's doing, but either way, being part of a little pinball club is a great way of developing the community of pinball because pinball is a social game.
01:02:07
Speaker
Really?
Expo Attendance Plans & Conclusion
01:02:08
Speaker
Like I love playing pinball down here alone, but it's way more fun to be playing with other people. And so ah definitely check him out, give a, give his podcast a little ah shout out. And we definitely are looking forward to, do you know if he's coming to expo? I can't remember.
01:02:25
Speaker
I can't remember. yeah, it's good question. If you see someone wearing the, the pinball, uh, you know, that this, this rainbow shirt, the pinball studio, uh, go ahead and shout them out and give, give them give them a give my chat.
01:02:38
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. I think that does it for episode Scott. Um, I'm flying in Tuesday, but I'm going to spend down, I'm going to downtown on Wednesday So I'll be around pretty much Thursday for the rest of expo.
01:02:52
Speaker
Um, you're coming up Thursday, right? Scott, I'll be flying in Thursday. So I'm taking a morning flight and I should be there. Okay. So I am flying in Thursday and I should be landing about 1230.
01:03:05
Speaker
twelve thirty So I'll pick up my car. I'm staying at the embassy suite. So if you're over the embassy suites across and let me know, I'll be staying there with Mark silk and,
01:03:16
Speaker
We'll be and you know driving across and and checking things out. Now, what, where are some things that we are likely to be? We know that we are going to be at the, at our seminar on Friday. 11 a.m.
01:03:29
Speaker
Yep. out And there's also like, Isn't there some events at night? So ah Media Mixer. We're going to be at this week in Pinball Media Mixer. The Kinez, this one Colin puts on every year.
01:03:41
Speaker
okay This is his third year. um Yeah, we'll be there. That's Thursday night, right? Thursday night. I want to say like 6 9 in the ball. um Other than that, I don't really have much more plans outside of whatever pops up.
01:03:56
Speaker
We'll be around, but we're we're going to be popping in and out of seminars. um I highly recommend the Dwight Let's Make a Deal. It's the last seminar on for on Saturday night. And he certainly, if there's someone who's wired to be a ah combination dungeon master game show host, it is Dwight.
01:04:15
Speaker
ah So definitely meet meet that, but we will be walking around. I'll be with my son. ah So ah keep it clean when you come up and talk to me. And, ah you know, hopefully Josh and I will probably be together most of the time, but either way, ah reach out and talk to either of us. We'd love to see you.
01:04:33
Speaker
Yep. And if you're looking for good food, ah I recommend, personally, me, everyone's going to tell you lose. I like Giordano's better. The all meat pie, deep dish, delicious. um I'm actually a bigger fan of Portillo's than in Johnny Beef. I know a lot of people are going to be upset about that as well.
01:04:46
Speaker
But they do an it Italian sausage and they put it in the it Italian sandwich as well. Okay. i think that's Wait, wait, wait, wait. Didn't we go with Dennis and Tony and you were the only one without a sausage in your sandwich?
01:04:58
Speaker
That was 2021. I've been back like four times since, dude. So yes. um But Johnny's beef is really good. I think they're a really good Italian beef sandwich. I think Tiller's has a really delicious it Italian beef with sausage sandwich. So there's that. um Yeah. But yeah say hi to us come say i know there's plenty of you are excited you've said in the comments excited to meet us and everything don't be afraid to come up and talk to us i'm hoping that i i didn't get to order a new stack of stickers but i think i have enough that i'll just have my bag and if you're if that's your thing come up and hit me up and i'll be able to hook you same here so uh other than that um if you want to get hold of us we're loserk pinball podcast at gmail.com
01:05:39
Speaker
Honestly, if you want the most interaction with us, Facebook is probably the best place, but we are in all of the socials. So Instagram, X, Threads, all the jazz, right? you're watching via YouTube, we appreciate you doing that. um And hit like, subscribe, leave comment, all that jazz.
01:05:54
Speaker
ah Scott, give us our final words. You know, I'll see you at Come up and say hi.
01:06:02
Speaker
you