The LBX Show #72 - Feaster Bunny Haunt, Harry Potter pinball, & more! Artwork

LBX Collective

The LBX Collective aims to inform and educate, create opportunities to connect with industry peers, and to spur collaboration, discourse, and cross-pollination of ideas in the location-based entertainment and experience industry.

Join our online community at LBXGalaxy.com!

Proudly sponsored by Intercard!

All Episodes

LBX Collective

The LBX Show #72 - Feaster Bunny Haunt, Harry Potter pinball, & more!

April 12, 2026 • Brandon Willey • Season 4 • Episode 72

0:00 | 52:29

Welcome And Show Roadmap

SPEAKER_05 0:01

Tuning you in now to the LBX Show. With your host, Brandon Wilder. Brought to you by the LBX Collective. Your community to connect, engage, and inspire.

The 192 Foot Trampoline Record

Feaster Bunny Hits Las Vegas

Universal’s Patent For Seamless Immersion

Season Five Needs Your Ideas

Open And Shut Begins

SPEAKER_02 0:21

All right. Well, welcome everybody to the LBX Show. This is episode number 72 for April 12th, 2026. And we have a good show for you lined up today. First, we're going to dive into some news you should know. There's some really kind of fun stuff we're going to talk about. And then we're going to roll into open and shut with Kevin Williams, obviously, to review the latest openings and closing trends from this last week. And then finally, we're going to round out the show with Adam Pratt on Arcade Corner. He's going to open with a brief discourse on Billy Mitchell, which he'll cover then. And then he's also going to talk about pickleball rivals, Disney Speedstorm, Harry Potter Pinball, and more. So we've got a great arcade corner lined up. And with that, let's start off with some news you should know. All right. So an indoor pickleball, not a pickleball court, an indoor adventure park, uh just opened on April 9th in Winnipeg, and it is trying to break a world record. Apex Active Entertainment Group, which runs and operates Apex Adventureplex Parks in Canada, uh, is open its Winnipeg location with a custom-built 192-foot trampoline made by a tissue company, Crazy Ape Extreme Equipment, in Regina. And they are attempting to break an official Guinness World Records title. So on Saturday, they uh had opened their doors for a little preview of the site prior to the official adjudication by Guinness. And uh managing partner of the group, Luke Shaheen, said it was not an easy journey. And this is in his quote, uh, it was stressful trying to fit the world's largest and longest trampoline in the, you know, in the building with no small feet without dividing our building in half. Operationally, it was a challenge, but the team pulled it off, he said. And uh, so you know, we've got just like a little bit of a preview here of their type of park. So this is just in general, like a really great video of their park and experience and everything else. Um, it showcases a little bit here where you can see the long trampoline just in some like brief pictures. But basically, you know, he said that the menu, you know, while the manufacturer team is like not stranger to making trampolines, obviously, said there was a lot of trial and error. So they actually took several tries to get it. We found issues with the materials, stretching, and all kinds of stuff that we'd never encountered before. But when you're making a trampoline 192 foot long, it's just the tolerance for air is very, very tight. He said for the world record adjudication, they needed to prove that it's actually for public use. So they couldn't just like set this thing up and like never have anybody actually on it. And he said, Guinness specified that hundreds of people on uh had to be on this trampoline to prove that it's for public use and it bounces actually like a trampoline as well. The current record holder is 170 feet long, it's called Fast Track in Russia, and it stretches through one of the country's forests. So it's a I guess it's an outdoor uh trampoline, but obviously they built a 192-foot trampoline indoors at their Apex Adventureplex. And here's where I am a little bit confused. So while that is amazing and awesome, um, I am just wondering why. I mean, I understand you want to you want to break a world record, um, but what is the actual functional use case in your park to have 192-foot trampoline? And especially on their website where they don't actually talk about that at all. Like it's a very generic, I mean great video on their website, but they don't they have a little bit of a picture of the trampoline there um on their site, but they don't talk about that it's 192 feet. They don't talk about that as a Guinness that they're attempting to break the Guinness World Record. I don't know if they actually uh officially did that yet. Um, but I just do not understand why you would go through all of that type of work to uh, you know, from a business standpoint. Now, because you just love building trampolines and you want to do it, awesome, love it. Um, but from a business standpoint, it seems like it was a bit of a uh stretch to try to fit this and cram this thing into the space. But pretty cool nonetheless that he uh that they did it. And I sure hope for their sake that they were able to get the Guinness World Record uh officially approved. It'd be pretty cool. And I think that would be a pretty difficult one to unseat, especially given the fact that they really have a lot of that in-house expertise around building trampolines and getting them to work. So, anyway, that is that. And uh come uh so next on News You Should Know, there is uh you know a universal horror on leash. We've talked about this. They have year-round offerings, they're based in Area 15 in Las Vegas, and they basically have four year-round uh haunt experiences that you can go and experience anytime. And they have just launched a new one, uh, a new experience called Feaster Bunny. Uh so they've got their new Feaster uh in this experience, basically you'll step onto the production set of a long-lost horror film and into the chaos of its final unfinished scene. Uh so here, Feaster Bunny, as you can see on the screen, and a cast of grizzly characters invite you to join a rotten egg hunt. Uh so you can search carefully because there's actually like exclusive merchandise you can win if you find the egg. Uh, but behind the scenes, there's really a darker story. And this is kind of what I dig that they, you know, look, it's not, they could just like create this kind of stuff, but they actually built a story around it. Uh the film Feaster Grievings was never completed after the actor portraying Feaster Bunny reportedly went insane mid-production. Uh now the missing film reels have resurfaced and Feaster Bunny is back, determined to finish what he started with you in the scene. Uh so throughout the venue, you can get photos with Feaster Bunny himself, if you dare, uh, and indulge in themed food and beverage items. Uh, but ultimately, uh, when you step onto Universal Horror Unleashed, you'll receive a call sheet, very much like if you were an actor auditioning for the thing. Um, and then you can participate in a scavenger hunt around the grounds for 20 rotten eggs. Uh near Jack's Alley, which is a section in there, you'll discover the entrance to Hedge Maze Madness, which is the final scene of the unfinished feast or grievings and where the last five rotten eggs are located. Uh, cameras are rolling, and you might just be the star of the show, they say. Uh, but guests must uh go through the maze, it's scare actors and uh go through the and search the hedges to complete the hunt. Uh, when you get your final rotten egg, you can take your map to the retail counter for a confirmation and you can claim a coveted golden egg. Inside of it, you'll find a prize, which can be from select free merchandise items to discounts off your entire purchase of merchandise at Universal Horror Unleashed. So pretty cool. Uh, but then they obviously uh you know have some really unique food and beverage, and their chef and his team basically created some really cool-looking food as well. And all of it is edible, including edible blood. Uh, for you know, you can the chef basically said, Whenever I make menus, I say, How can I incorporate blood into this? So the you know, one of the drinks is a feastertini, uh, it has vodka, coffee liqueur, Spanish liqueur, vanilla syrup, and espresso, and it's got torch bunny marshmallow on top. Um, then they have a blood bunny mocktail, and uh, so there's a cola vanilla ice cream float, and it's kind of sweet and fizzy and it's got nostalgia there. They have uh like bloody egg pops and uh as well, and uh, you know, a bunch of other things there, like uh pickled eggs, and then they even have a uh a dessert called Humpty's Cracked Egg, which is chocolate egg with glazed strawberry sauce and set atop a bed of green cotton candy. So, anyway, pretty cool FB. And if uh this runs through April 26th, so this is a limited time only. So if you are going to Vegas anytime in the next two weeks, I highly recommend you get down there and if you like your haunt experiences, check out Feaster Bunny on the set of Feaster Grievings at the Universal Horror Unleashed. All right, so speaking of Universal, Universal recently uh created a uh filed a new patent, I guess we'll say. And the new patent is uh you know, basically like what if you want your dark ride to ease people into their surroundings from the outside environment? Um, so you don't want the audience to know really when the reality ends and the storytelling starts. Uh, you know, like for example, you know, you're in the queue uh and it's outside, like think of like haunted mansion, like the queue is outside, and then all of a sudden it goes inside. Uh, you know, you have the same thing with Pirates of the Caribbean, like we're just talking about classic Disney dark rides, uh Pirates of the Caribbean. You're outside and it's bright, and then all of a sudden you go inside and they're just juxtaposition and they're trying to tell the story and move you through that. I mean, you have the same thing with Wizarding World, and like a lot of these dark rides have the same problem. You're out there in the bright daylight, and then you go into this dark room, and they're trying to then get you reset, but they want to drag you in and transition you more seamlessly. And so, in a patent application that that Universal published, they propose to make that happen. They call it the show effect system for amusement park attraction systems. So, very generic, of course. Uh, but it details how sensors, control systems, and displays could work together to create a simulated environment that borrows elements from the real world outside an attraction. So basically, the low-tech of way of doing that is uh to just have a window. You can see outside. Um, so but what if you wanted to manipulate that outside view to begin to introduce storytelling elements? That's what their application proposes. And it would say, like, take video of the outside and manipulate it for you know, display inside. For example, a guest is transitioning from an outdoor portion of the queue, you may not realize that the indoor imagery provided by the display is not the outdoor environment because real weather and/or foliage pattern foliage patterns may be mimicked uh in the generated imagery based on the detection of outdoor conditions. And so their application also continues to say that this allows for introduction of desired illusions like a sun or a moon with human features or a flying pig passing through an otherwise realistic sky that reflects the actual weather outside. Um, and so the imitation of this environment that feels consistent with the real outdoor environment. So, anyway, this would be a type of uh really type of different dark ride and pretty cool concept that they're uh proposing here, which makes me think that this is probably going to be a part of some future attraction. Although, as we know, a lot of these things are just crazy ideas and they file patents and they never know if they're gonna actually use them yet. But it will be cool to see this come into some sort of reality at a future universal ride. And so one last thing here on News You Should Know is um input on season five. So we have uh we're in season four right now of the LBX show, and we have season five coming up. That'll start in August. That's when our first season, when we first launched the LBX Daily Show, way back in wow, 2021. And uh this will be uh 2022, excuse me. And so this will be coming into season five and uh of the LBX show. And you know what? I'm feeling like it's uh feeling like a little tired. It's it's kind of doing the same thing over and over and uh ready to like really shake things up and have a really interesting new format for season five and uh so beginning to work on that, but would love your input as uh much as possible. And so you know if you have the um uh you know time or have ideas, would love to see and hear from you. So you can go to either lbxers.com slash season five. Um that'll take you to a forum where you can fill out fill out just a few things, just like a little two-field form to fill out, so suggestions on guests that you want to hear, topics you might want to see, new segments that you might want to have on the show. Um, maybe you want to be on the show or have an idea of a regular recurring segment like Adam or Kevin or Clint. And so would love to have you on the show as well, potentially. So submit anything you possibly can. We also can scan the QR code if you are watching this and would love to hear from you. Please do that. This will be open and available for the next two to three months, and then we'll go into heads-down mode in July as we lead into August, really recrafting what this show will look like. All right, so that is news you should know. Coming up right after the break, we will have open and shut with Kevin Williams. They introduced cashless technology to the amusement industry and have been leading the way for over 30 years. Cashless systems from Intercard increase customer spending, get satisfaction, and boost revenues by up to 30%. Intercard is still proud to be serving the amusement industry. And if you are already part of a global family of customers, they hope you will become one too.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

Hey, a big hello to everyone to this latest opening shop. And how are you in the attic, Brandon?

SPEAKER_02 13:13

Yeah, it does have the it does have uh an old Midwest attic feel to it, doesn't it? Yeah. Doing well. I've got uh a little place up in northern Arizona, and I'm here uh right now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:25

I'm just worried this uh this nurse is gonna come in with a hammer.

SPEAKER_02 13:28

So yeah, yeah, we're we're all good. But uh shall we get started? See what uh what's going on here in the uh openings?

Competitive Socializing Gets Crowded

SPEAKER_00 13:38

Let's jump straight into it. All right, and as you can see, uh relatively crowded uh gathering of uh facilities. Uh as you know, pause as I zip through them. Sinbin's UK facility entering the uh competitive socializing crowded arena. We have a number of new uh offerings in this sector in the UK testing their metal before they look towards world and US domination. Interesting thing about this one is it's a mixed-use uh social entertainment facility, is it depending on one kind of entertainment to fill its uh fill its audience appeal?

SPEAKER_02 14:24

So I'm I'm a little do we know is this a restaurant that added some competitive socializing at one point, or is this a brand new, this is a brand new like facility entirely, right?

SPEAKER_00 14:35

Brand new facility run by a restauranteur. So that's where you're getting the vibes from. They have applied their restaurant and uh uh interesting decor uh approach towards dropping in some competitive socializing. I don't know if one mixed the other, but uh you know, we have a couple of entertainment systems from the usual providers dropped into this experience.

SPEAKER_02 15:01

Yeah, yeah. This is not super alluring. I mean, when you look at some of their pictures on their website, they even have like some tiny little TVs on a wall with I think maybe a PlayStation connected to it as well. Like it looks like this. This is why I was wondering if this is like just a restaurant that they added. It feels like an afterthought. The the the actual competitive socializing entertainment aspect of the restaurant feels like an afterthought.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

I don't want to jump on a train and go up and visit them, though I promise I will make the effort at some point uh uh to visit their facility, but not in the near term. Um, maybe it's food out the front and crack dealership out the back, but at the uh at the moment it is an interesting concept which we need to see some uh validation to.

SPEAKER_03 15:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:52

This one we're gonna touch upon a little bit more in sound off, but uh our friends at uh pinball capital in Illinois, they invited to their grand opening Roger along, um, you know, great man of the pinballs, and he uh was there for them throwing their doors open. You know, that's a 100-plus pinball tables, uh you know, 8,000 squares, not too uh out of the way, but it can hold the record of being the Midwest's largest pinball arcade. So that is something worth noting.

SPEAKER_02 16:28

I mean, 110 pinball tables is uh is is a lot.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

It's a labor of love. You just don't do that as a business model because the maintenance, because there's some real classics in there, as we'll go into when we talk about it later.

SPEAKER_02 16:44

Yeah, there definitely is. And um, you know, given, I mean, the it looks very clean, but it does it looks very much like a pinball warehouse. Yes, inside.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

A parking facility for pinballs.

SPEAKER_02 16:57

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:59

But uh their heart's in the right place, and I wouldn't be surprised if uh they they'd done some research on it. But we'll come to that.

SPEAKER_03 17:06

Yeah.

Japan’s Crane Arcade Standardization

SPEAKER_00 17:08

Uh our Gigo moment, our enda moment, um, yet again, our friends in Japan have found somewhere in Tokyo that you can squeeze a uh facility into. It is slightly different than the norm. I looked very closely at this installation, it is a repurposing of a previous locale, and it has been brought up to a much higher standard than just a renovation. We now see how Gaigo are going with their illuminated uh LED frontage signage. We now see the clean layout of their machines. If it wasn't already clean, uh their layout, they are going very much for a product production line approach to at least their claw and uh crane business.

SPEAKER_02 17:56

Yeah, I think that's a good way to phrase it, a product production line. I mean, it looks it's very, very uh I mean again, clean but standardized as well.

SPEAKER_00 18:07

And that makes it easier for the AI uh technology to track player usage and to uh understand what the trends are. And if you don't understand what I mean by those statements or the term DX, then you've missed out on a sound off. Jumping across to the continuation of uh VR in our sector's uh edition, and rather than a new development, this is an addition. Our friends at Sea Life have uh owned by Merlin. Merlin has a relationship with iMotion, iMotion has a fantastic virtual reality underwater experience, passive, tethered, underwater motion. So you could say this is old generation VR, but in the right place at the right time, with the right price point, it's a perfect fit. And so sea life in San Antonio gets a lovely VR experience, and our friends at iMotion uh hits the 149 number of installations, which is a remarkable number of installations for um, you know, in specifically inside of the museum and aquarium sector, right?

SPEAKER_02 19:16

So this is not just their total number of installations, but for that particular sector, and I think that's uh yeah, significant. Do we know is this just piloting inside of this particular sea life San Antonio or uh or is this already in some of the other sea life locations?

SPEAKER_00 19:33

There are other uh venues under the Merlin banner that have iMotion VR experiences in it. I don't know if all of the sea lives have them yet, uh though I would uh I would say that this from my uh very poor research is about the third or the fourth uh sea life installation that's had VR. And also remember that not all iMotion venues are museums or aquariums, they also drop them into shopping lots. Yeah. Jumping forwards, and we will go into a lot more detail regarding what this represents. But our friends at Fever have uh entered the world of um what I would call a dedicated VR entertainment arena kind of approach. Our zero latency friends and our sandbox VR friends should take note of this free consultancy. But uh, here we go. Uh they have launched what they are calling virtual zone, and this is an arena-based high-end VR experience, which is part of the uh FIVA Hub. And again, we have talked about FIVA Hub and the aspirations from FIVA in this particular direction in previous sound-offs and opens and charts.

SPEAKER_02 20:56

Yeah, I will reserve my comments for sound-off, but uh if uh I'm very much looking forward to this conversation.

VR Add Ons And Escape Rooms

SPEAKER_00 21:03

It's gonna be a tricky one. Our friends at the uh Escape Room Association had uh the chance to send out their latest newsletter, and as I was plowing through the vast number of openings uh across the Australian, European, and North American market, I thought I would just pick two uh to drop in here, or else I would be bulking uh up uh this uh open and shut. Our friends at Immersion uh escape rooms have uh opened in the UK. Again, it is a new entrance into the market. They feel strong enough that they can open a four room escape environment within a town, a reasonable size town in the UK, and it is one of many in the catchment area. So, yet again, when you're calculating who your competition are or is, um, you've also got Into the friends in the escape room business.

SPEAKER_02 22:02

Yeah, absolutely. And I think one of the one of the things that at least appears to have done right is that they have the F and B. And I don't know if it was they had a restaurant and they had some space open up and they decided to do escape rooms, or if there's a partnership there between the F and B and the restaurant and the immersion escape rooms, or what, but the fact that they um are co-located anyway is a benefit to each of them.

SPEAKER_00 22:25

And that's how Dave and Busters was born.

SPEAKER_02 22:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:30

So uh having a uh a decent cantina and restaurant next door to your entertainment facility can become a marriage made in hell when you actually see the bottom line numbers. Moving on, and attack of the gashepots, uh you can't hide. Uh and we have France being infected by the disease, the first of uh the Bandai uh gashepot chain uh to migrate to France. We already have about 13 of them in Europe, a number in the UK, a number in mainland Europe, but now we have the first one in France, and I don't expect it to be the last. And if you haven't actually considered the possibilities of what a gashepot addition to an MX use entertainment facility is, then you're missing out because this is a trend that ain't going away, no matter what sort of people say.

SPEAKER_02 23:28

Yeah, 100%. This is a trend that's even coming here to the you know to North America and uh surprising that only it's 13 installations. I wouldn't be surprised if that's 113 at this time next year.

Gashapon Expansion And Active Play Growth

SPEAKER_00 23:41

Yeah, the uh our friends at Bandai have a very specific uh attack plan regarding either people that install their Gashipo machines, which you see on the Bandai Namco amusement booths at the shows, or those that have dedicated entertainment uh facilities within their catchment. But as you said, expect that number to grow. Yeah. Our friends at uh Lava Island, uh, they have about 12 uh facilities out in the market, or they have now, uh, with the announcement of uh their Louisville, Texas uh opening. 33,000 square, nothing to sneeze at. It is a dedicated entertainment environment and what must be one of the most crowded uh states for entertainment, active commercial.

SPEAKER_02 24:33

I I just don't understand how this can continue, how we can continue to open active play adventure park models in the Dallas Fort Worth area, which is Lewisville, it's a suburb of the yeah. Yeah, Louisville is this is, I mean, this was the birthplace to some extent of trampoline parks. And so there are an enormous number of these. And yes, the the DFW area is, if not the fastest growing, one of the fastest growing, I believe it's Houston now, but one of the fastest growing metros in the country here in the United States. But uh it's remarkable that we can still be, you know, we can still open 33,000 square foot facilities.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

And they're moving more and more away from just being a trampoline facility. We you know they may have been the crucible, the launch pad for this uh particular entertainment, but the entertainment is evolving. And so we're now seeing a lot more attractions, amusement, and F and B being rolled into the mix. And uh I think we're gonna get to a tipping point where if the numbers decline on uh same site sales, then we may see a more uh stronger pivot towards uh uh a broader interactive entertainment offering. But I again I don't want to get ahead of ourselves because there's one option that these facilities can take on board for their monetarization, which uh we'll be talking about in sound of.

SPEAKER_02 26:01

You know, and one of the things I want to just call out here, and I thought maybe these guys were a franchise, but that doesn't look like they are. So they are a I think a corporate run, you know, like basically a corporate-owned facility or location um anyway. But the the the locations, this is what was catching me, because there's a location in Tucson, Arizona. And uh Tucson is you know, not it's not Phoenix, right? So they open a location in Tucson, they have a location in Aurora and Billings, Montana, and Englewood, Colorado. These are all locations that are a little bit on the edge, you know, of the major metros. And it feels like they probably can fill that type of gap in those types of metros. When you but the this is the first one in looking at all other locations that's really in, besides they have one in Plano, but there's really in uh like a major metropolitan hub. And I don't know if this is one of those where they're just going to, they've maybe stretched or leaned a little bit too far over their skis, and they've done really well in these smaller mid-markets and smaller tier markets, and now they're coming into this massive market with high levels of competition, with by the way, a launch family entertainment just right down the street from them. Um, that's uh that they're gonna this location may struggle where their other locations maybe didn't because they had less competition.

SPEAKER_00 27:20

Or that they are now taking uh the lead and feeling that their brand is strong enough to compete with the others. They've seen the failings of the others, they've built a brand new facility in an available space, and they've made sure that they've acquired the difference compared to their competition. I would also say that if you drew a line between all of those openings and then drew a line between the nearest Chuck E. Cheese and all of those openings, you would be surprised by that. But again, no free consultancy here. Jumping forward to spinners, and um this is the fourth of a competitive socializing chain operation. They uh received uh last year about four million uh to speed up their rollout of their particular concept. It is you know a standardized competitive socializing. It's got the darts, it's got the shuffle, it's got the shotguns, which uh will stand it out a little bit, it's got the dedicated bar and the F and B. It is an entertainment facility real large, it is the alternative to going down the pub from uh the you know the hospitality industry's point of view, and it is the beginning of an important part of this chain. You know, I always look at these chains when they get past the five facility mark and the ten facility mark. Spinners is an interesting one because it seems to be a magpie. It grabs a number of uh available competitive socializing uh concepts. As you can see there, it's they took the decision to get the quickshot uh guns in, they took the decision to uh get our our friends of 501's Dart, as well as their um the golf system. So it is a magpie. The answer to the question that I have will be how much revenue it generates in this locale and how much of it's dependent on cocktails uh food, and how much of it's based on return player entertainment.

SPEAKER_02 29:25

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and look, it looks nice. It you know, it reminds me very much of Clays. Of course, the look and feel of it, right? Like very much like Clays. Obviously, though, they've done you know multiple games and multiple bays. So I think this is this is uh what we've been talking about for a while, which is the need to blend multiple activities, multiple forms of entertainment alongside your F and B and not just one form of entertainment. And I think they've done this in a and what at least um according to these videos looks uh like they've done it very well. They've they've brought the the different games and the different entertainment together alongside some uh you know, some casual F and B as well.

A Five Star Arcade Up For Sale

SPEAKER_00 30:07

You would expect a consultant in the industry to say this, but they have done their homework. Yeah. Looking at the shots, and uh rather than just closing, it's up for sale. So you have Jack in Arcade. I can see what you were trying to do with that name. Uh, and if you have uh you know$250,000 burning a hole in your pocket, you too can enter the crowded Texas uh virtual reality and amusement sector, or the best offer at about 60k. Uh that kind of is a big separation between two numbers. So uh or I was a weird one. Yeah, that that was a weird one when it came up. I had to double check to see if it wasn't a mistake. The the issue here is for me, is if you look at the reviews for this facility and if you look at the equipment they're using, you can see that a little bit more TLC is going to be needed if you're going to take this on board. I'm not saying that it's a bad offer, I'm just saying that uh if you're jumping into something like this and you have 250 burning your hole in a packet uh in your pocket, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I really need to study.

SPEAKER_02 31:26

So here's what really blows my mind, right? And this is what really must tell you, you know. So hopefully, you know, again, 250k or best offer, give me 60k, I'll take it and walk away, right? Whatever. It's just kind of it's a funny thing. Um, I mean, not funny to the unusual people that it's an unusual thing. But uh one of the things that blows my mind is uh and which tells me there's something broken in their business model is that or you know that that caused them to have to sell. And we don't know all the reasons why we don't know all the reasons selling, but they do they have 500 Google reviews, and they're at five stars.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

Like everyone that has gone has had a good time. The parties that they have run there have been very successful. People are happy, and I wouldn't be surprised if I went on to the local uh forum there uh regarding the arcade. They will be unhappy to see this go. So it is a going concern, maybe, but still there is something broken with this.

SPEAKER_02 32:25

Yes, there's something that's got to be broken at the business model side because people are having a fantastic experience here, um, but something is not working.

A 1979 Era Location Closes

SPEAKER_00 32:35

And uh all it may be is one member of staff or one management position or even a price, uh, a decimal point on pricing. But once the new owner takes this over, adds the TLC, then this could be a very strong going concern. It could even be the launch pad, especially as it's an arena VR system, so it's not an up-to-date technology. So we're not advising anyone uh one way or the other, and we're not criticizing the sellers one way or the other. We're just saying from these numbers that are available to us, there is something very obvious. Yeah. Uh moving on, and uh Chuck E. Cheeses come and Chuck E. Cheeses go. If you have uh over 500 facilities out there, you're going to have churn. We've talked about a couple of churns, a couple of uh open and shuts back. But this one's a little bit of an interesting one because this is an old, old one going. So a Peter Piper pizza or Pete Pizza or a pizzeria based on the original Chuck E. Cheese model has been in this locality since 1979. And it has survived, it has gone through retrofit after retrofit, and then we come to 2026, and sadly it will not continue any further. And there were comments in the local media regarding how unhappy they were to see it go, and they even pointed out how far a distance to the nearest alternative Chuck E. Cheese. I get the feeling that this is a landlord issue rather than an uh operational issue, personal opinion, and I hope that uh the team at Chuck E. Cheese, uh, after they remove their handcuffs, uh, take a look at um, you know, maybe that this area does deserve a retro Chuck E. Cheese facility in there to mark such a long tenure of its presence there. Just think of how many generations have been brought up on that stringy cheese.

SPEAKER_02 34:37

Absolutely. No, I mean it is uh it it really is an institution at that uh at that age, that location, right? Um, and just even four years ago, they had Munch's make-believe band still there, the animatronics and still operating. So I don't know when they removed that, um, but even as recently as four years ago, based on some of the pictures here, they had the old animatronic um band, and that had been in there for, you know, obviously probably since 1979 or something, or some variant thereof, if this was a show biz pizza or whatever before Chucky Cheese, right? Um, so yeah, it'd be really interesting. It it feels like it feels like it's a development uh or landlord issue.

SPEAKER_00 35:16

I would like to steal some Friday donut money from the C-suite at Chuck E. Cheese, develop a facility there that marries both the original Chuck E. Cheese and the new Chuck's arcade concept, roll it out, test it with a market that's proven, and I think the surprise would be the revenue you could generate.

SPEAKER_03 35:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:40

The the usual situation that we find ourselves here in the UK, that is the older seaside uh amusement facilities, rather than dying, are being uh consumed. And uh consolidation is uh definitely what uh Lyons Holiday Parks has been focusing on. They've been acquiring a number of what we would say are uh regional seaside amusement facilities. You know, these are eight 8,000 square kinds of properties, you know, they'll have about 50 or 60 amusement machines in them. It'll be a little bit tired, but it will have a seaside tourist uh business. And rolling this under one big empire, consolidation is king uh in amusement, as long as you don't forget the entertainment that you're offering.

SPEAKER_02 36:28

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. No, I mean these these guys are they're up to 22 um parks now. See they call them seaside parks, right? Lions is definitely on that uh acquisition spree. And you know, it looks like they are they they do a good job when they take over. They clean them up, they modernize them, they um really try to make them a destination.

SPEAKER_00 36:49

I wouldn't be surprised if they're gonna go for a dedicated brand when they get to a certain number so they can uh you know do the buttons if uh those of you that are familiar with the uh uh Seaside Entertainment Resort chain that was popular in the UK. You know, you want to have a brand to stand by when you have this many. 25, maybe they'll do that at 30. Anyway, that's a quick rundown on the key developments in the market. You know the form, the LinkedIn, we have some stingers coming out, we have some entertainment social arenas due to be uh completed. And if you have any corrections or information, hit me up via these sources.

SPEAKER_02 37:30

Perfect. All right, sir. Well, it's a great open and shut, and we'll see you on the next one. Have a good one.

SPEAKER_06 37:44

If you run a location-based entertainment brand and want to attract more visitors, check out Radius. They use real-time location data and customized market strategies to help brands like yours stand out. Radius can boost your foot traffic and build a loyal customer base. Plus, they're offering a complimentary local market analysis to show you exactly how they can help you grow. Curious? Visit radius.co and ask about your free market analysis. That's R-A-Y-D-I-U-S.co.

SPEAKER_02 38:16

All right. Well, that was a great open and shut with Kevin Williams after we solved that little problem of starting arcade corner too soon. But uh, you know what? We're gonna do arcade corner with Adam Pratt right now.

Pickleball Rivals Goes Single Player

Disney Speedstorm Arcade And Harry Potter Pinball

Stranger Things Arcade Teaser

SPEAKER_01 38:33

Greetings everybody, it's Adam with Arcade Heroes for the Arcade Corner here. It's uh been a couple of weeks as I missed last week, but that's allowed some news to accumulate, so let's jump into it. Uh first off, what I have on here on the screen is something that popped up uh in my suggestions this morning uh from a channel called Legal Mindset. And what caught my attention was uh at least one name on this that some of you might be familiar with. Um back in, I think it was 2018, there was a uh documentary of sorts uh that was released called The King of Kong, A Fistful of Quarters, and that uh documented the uh wild world of high score competitions on retro arcade games, particularly Donkey Kong, uh, where you had Billy Mitchell and Steve Weeby, or Wybee, sorry, uh going at uh getting the world record. Now, of course, the world records changed hands. I haven't looked lately as to who has it uh currently, uh, but it was a fun uh film and everything. But of course, uh in that film, Billy Mitchell was uh who was I think crowned the gamer of the century for the back in the uh when it was 19, uh the 1900s, so to speak, um, as he played a perfect game of Pac-Man, completed all uh 255 levels, and I think Namco did a big thing with him uh back in the day. Um he was the villain of the film. And uh there's been a lot of things going on, accusations of cheating, and uh some other stuff that frankly I've never just I've never really liked uh following. Sometimes it feels like it's just because there's not a whole lot of new news in the retro realm or the retro arcade collector realm that a lot of people just spent a lot of time on that particular uh on those cases and whatnot. Um, but uh back in 2021, there was this Australian YouTuber by the name of Carl Jobst uh who uh made some very serious accusations, and as I recall, if I'm recalling correctly, did a video breakdown uh as to why he believed that Billy Mitchell was cheating on Donkey Kong, I think it was. Um I don't remember everything about that, but uh he lost that lawsuit and uh ended up declaring bankruptcy. But uh apparently this Carl Jobs has filed a new lawsuit uh against Billy Mitchell um for defamation. And so this channel, Legal Mindsets, which is a somewhat irreverent channel that covers a lot of legal issues from around the world. I've seen stuff uh for on uh some other YouTubers and them doing things uh around the world and whatnot. But uh, and this stream that he posted uh on uh Friday morning uh is where he went he goes through the entire lawsuit uh because it was filed in Florida, where Billy Mitchell lives. And uh this uh attorney here, legal minds that he's actually from Florida. I guess he's currently in uh Asia, I think it might have said Singapore in the live stream. Um but he goes page by page through all of it and covers what this whole lawsuit's about, which is apparently uh new claims of defamation and things about uh Billy Mitchell's hot sauce and whatnot. And so I didn't actually get a chance to go through all of it, uh, but I did catch a little bit of it. And so if you're really, really interested in the latest drama uh on Billy Mitchell and whatnot, uh, there's that to cover. Um personally, I'm just kind of like uh there's other things to cover out there and move on to, um, such as what we're gonna go on to next, because there are other things going on in the arcade world, and uh particularly with uh brand new games. I don't have anything here about retro arcade games to discuss, aside from that one there. But uh interestingly enough, this week Eunice announced uh on LinkedIn that they are doing a single-player version of their pickleball rivals game. Apparently, the uh feedback and the response to this game at Amusement Expo was enough for them to already create this single model. At that show where it debuted, it was shown only in the um twin model, so it comes with two units essentially linked. Uh, but uh now they have this single one, and they've made some other changes, such as turning the floor black so that it's uh not so obvious on things like scuffs and uh dirt and such. Uh they also got rid of the uh calibration that the paddle was needing to do at first. Uh, they've added some voiceovers and such, and so any changes to the software will be applied to both models. But in the event that you don't want a twin model, maybe you just want the single one or you want to upgrade later, uh then you can do that with this. And this will be available, I think they said it in June. And you can link up to four. Uh the if you get the uh Raya the twin model, then you can link two twin units, so it'd still be four uh units there, but uh that is coming. I didn't hear about a price on that yet, but you can always check with a local distributor if you so choose. And then uh on Betson's website, they actually did post this uh new render of Disney Speed Storm Arcade by Adrenaline. And I did reach out to Jeff at Adrenaline uh looking to see if there was anything more up to date, as well as asking about some other details. Uh, he wasn't able to get back to me in uh time for this recording here, but at the very least, you as you can see, uh this latest render does show some differences from what we saw at Amusement Expo. Particularly, you don't have that little uh card reader up on the side there. Now, maybe this little um black circle that's on there is where it reads, well, maybe not. Now that I'm looking at this a little more closely, I do see that there's two of them. So those could be speakers with LED lighting on them. Uh and maybe everything with the card readers over on the left-hand side uh where you'd also have a dispenser, or maybe they could have built it into the panel if it has any sort of NFC technology. Uh, but uh at the show they were telling me that the um the Mickey Mouse uh logo on the back was going to be an infinity mirror. That's what it looks like they got here, and some other small changes to the cabinet. And so that looks like that's all in place. But I still haven't been able to confirm yet if this is the final, final, like the production model render, uh, but it's looking pretty close. And then uh also I guess as uh as I'm still looking at this a little more closely as I talk about it, I noticed the coin doors uh occupying the uh left-hand side there, whereas at Amusement Expo, there was no coin door at all. Um, but uh be interesting to see uh where they go with that. I know that uh uh from what they said it will have uh boxes of 200 cards. And uh again, I'm waiting for more details on that. But uh yeah, it's supposed to start shipping in May, so hopefully in the next arcade corner we'll have more of those details to share. And then this week, um Jersey Jack Pinball posted this video uh about their Harry Potter pinball machine, which they've been advertising heavily in Replay Magazine. They weren't at Amusement Expo as Jersey Jack really just hasn't uh gone to Amusement Expo in a long time. I can't remember the last time they were there. They have got they do go to IAPA, um, but uh they'll generally speak, they'll go to other pinball festivals that are more focused as to where their target market is, such as like the Texas Pinball Festival or Pinball Expo or places like that, uh, where you get a lot of collectors who are oftentimes the ones that are buying pinball machines these days. Uh, but uh Tom Felton, who you might recognize here as he played Draco Malfroy in the uh Harry Potter series. Uh they they posted this. I'll let you uh uh watch it, I'll mute it so there's no like uh copyright strikes. But uh he was uh suffice it to say, very, very impressed uh with this machine. He loved the artwork, he loved the the game design and everything. And uh they also had the um uh the uh designer of the machine, Eric uh Winnier, I believe, uh, there to show it off. And a very well-produced video here, so you can catch this on Jersey Jack Pinball's YouTube channel and uh see that reaction there. But uh pretty good piece. Uh it's not often that uh what's weird in this industry is we have almost everything is licensed these days, and a lot of them are based on movies or TV shows, but so infrequently do we actually have anybody involved with those uh doing a promo like this. And so uh uh to me this seems like the this is exactly what you would want to do to uh help market the machine. And uh this is over at the um, I guess it must be I'm not sure where the play is exactly. Um it's okay on Broadway. Uh so it's of uh Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and so it looks like Tom Felton's uh participating in that. And uh this is there for the cast members to enjoy. And uh so yeah, that's a pretty cool uh little thing that they did there. So again, you can catch that on YouTube, just go to their uh YouTube channel. Then last but not least, uh Roth Rills, um two weeks ago now, um, posted this teaser of Stranger Things Arcade. Now, as of this recording, I still don't really have details on this. Um, I do know a little bit about it that's not public yet, so I'll uh still refrain from that because they haven't said anything. But even then, there's still a lot about this that is uh mysterious to me. But it's a very, very quick teaser. Uh it says one game can change everything, so there's a demogorgon there in an arcade. Or uh this is actually one of the first times. Maybe it's not the first time, but that almost looks JI generated, as far as the scene goes. Uh no clue if this is from the game or if it was just made for the trailer. Uh, but uh the rumblings about this were that it's uh coming to Dave and Busters. It wouldn't surprise me uh Dave and Busters has an exclusive like this because they've done stuff like that before, uh, such as Marvel Contest of Champions was uh exclusive to them for five years. And uh and so but this, interestingly enough, this teaser doesn't mention anything about Dave and Busters, it just mentions Netflix and uh Stranger Things and all that stuff. So um it's like okay, um, what is this going to be exactly? But again, this started popping up on places like Reddit, uh, where oftentimes there's these leaks uh that happen with that, and that's usually where I learn about some certain things, uh, particularly when they come to Dave and Busters. Um, but uh I don't know. Uh I have a feeling that some people in the industry think that I'm the one linking those stuff uh onto the DB, but I'm not. And so I'm not a Dave and Busters employee, don't have any real contacts with anybody there anymore. And uh even then when I did, I didn't go leaking stuff out onto the internet. But uh either way, um, since this started popping up and there were people at DMB starting to talk about it, it seems like Roth Rills wanted to get ahead of that and posted uh about this. But again, that's all we really know uh about it at this point. And so um we'll have to wait and see exactly what uh this is gonna be about. And hopefully we will know that sooner rather than later. Given that uh John Wick is coming to Dave and Busters uh here in May, I wouldn't be surprised if we hear something about this pretty soon. Usually Roth Rills doesn't wait too long. But uh that covers us for our uh arcade news this week. Thank you for watching and uh stay tuned for the next segment. We'll see you around.

SPEAKER_02 51:31

All right, well, thanks for that, Adam. Uh it was great overview of the latest things going on lately in the amusement and arcade sector. And so we've got sound off with Kevin Williams, number 117, coming out this Tuesday, just in two days, April 14th. Make sure to give that a listen. And just as a reminder, uh, to do the season five suggestion box. Go ahead and get your ideas, your your concepts, your segments, your guests uh recommendations, whatever you want to put in there, throw that in the the season five suggestion boxes again in this QR code or visiting lbxers.com slash season five with the number five and uh and and get filling out. All right. With that being said, that's a wrap for this week's LBX show. Keep kicking ass.

Brandon Willey

Host