The LBX Show #49 - Fall Promotion Strategy, Dinos for Sale, Universal Kids, & more!

Tuning you in now to the LBX show

with your host Brandon Wy

brought to you by the LBX Collective.

Your community to connect, engage, and

inspire.

All right. Well, welcome everybody to

the LBX show for October 19th, 2025. Uh

we've got a solid show lined up for you

today. We're going to dive right into

some news you should know right at the

beginning and then we've got another

guest gab. We had one last week with

John Keys from Center Edge and we're

going to do one this week with one of

our regulars, Clint Novak. He's here to

talk about his latest article in the

Replay Magazine about running fall

promotions. And then we're going to roll

into Open and Shut with Kevin Williams.

We're going to review the latest

openings and closing trends from this

last week. And then we're going to hear

from Adam Pratt with Arcade Corner.

He'll give his memorial for Paul

Williams who has recently passed away

and was the CEO of Sega Amusements

International and Kaizen Entertainment

and then moves into uh then he'll move

into news releases. Um and then we're

going to close out with promo pro tips

with Chuck Damonte as he shares tips on

how to combine digital with a local

presence. So that is our show for today.

With that, let's start with some news

you should know.

All right. Well, the big thing that's

happening, you know, in a few weeks is

expo. And so, we've got to talk about

some expo news. There's going to be

probably a flurry of news coming out

over the next few weeks as we get ready,

but this one is uh is is internal. So,

this one is about LBX Collective. We've

got our booth there. It is booth number

4402.

And I realized I didn't put that on this

next slide, but you know, we're booth

4402, but we are going to bring the LBX

Collective speak easy back. So, what

this is, this is a speak easy literally

on the trade show floor hidden inside of

our booth. And we're going to do it

every day at 4:30, Tuesday, Wednesday,

Thursday. And we might throw in a

special one on Friday towards the end of

the day. But as everybody knows, um t uh

Friday is actually a shorter day, so it

actually ends at four. So, we may not do

the speak easy on Friday, but you know,

stay tuned. We might put that news out.

But otherwise, 4:30 I will be inside of

our speak easy, inside of our booth

serving up unlimited Negronis, unlimited

old-fashions, and back again this year,

our very own, very popular Galaxy

cocktail. So, this is after the LBX

Galaxy, our online community. And so,

very excited about uh that. And so, you

know, come join us, come have fun inside

of our speak easy. And you can see a

couple of pictures right here on the

screen. All right, the next thing coming

up with IPA, and this is something that

I'm involved in every single year, is

the Give Kids the World charity

campaigns. And so what we've got going

on here is uh the first one is a golf

tournament. I'm not involved with that

one because you don't want me playing in

a golf tournament, at least not on your

foresome. So anyway, uh we've got but

there is a golf tournament that happens

on Sundays and it takes place at Rosen

Shingle Creek and so that'll be November

16th. And so you can sign up by scanning

the QR code that is on the screen or by

you know visiting um give.gktw.org.

Um so give.gktw.org

and you can learn more about the uh golf

tournament there. And then, you know,

you can also go ahead and uh donate uh

you can join the LBX Collective team or

just donate to either one of these

things as well because there is a 5K run

and a 1K walk that takes place every

Thursday morning. And this one is

awesome because it actually takes place

at Give Kids the World Village. And um

you know, basically, I don't know if you

know much about Kids the World, but they

provide cost-free vacations to children

battling critical illnesses. and they

partner with the Makea-Wish Foundation

and other foundations out there that

basically bring in kids that have

critical illnesses and gives them an

amazing time and it's always great to be

running through the Give Kids a World

Village and seeing all the families come

out and cheering you on and it's a good

time. We do have a again if you scan

this QR code, we do have a um a campaign

going for the LBX Collective. So you

could either join our team, be one of

the LBXers running um and then you know

or you can actually, you know, just give

and that's fine as well. So that's

another way to participate. So all of

the funds through these charities go

right to give kids the world and it's a

it's a big way that they raise money and

it's usually um in the six figures every

single year. And so highly encourage you

to either sponsor, donate or participate

in one of those things. So that is the

news for IPA right now. I'm sure we'll

have some more coming up in the next few

weeks. All right, so this one is about

Field Station. This is a Field Station

Dinosaurs. This is a theme park in

Leonia, New Jersey, and it has listed

all of its animatronic dinosaurs for

sale ahead of its closure. So, this

place is closing down. It has been open

for a long time, but they are selling

all their animatronic dinosaurs. And

these guys are cute little critters. Uh

you can see here there's about 30

animatronic dinosaurs uh that will be

for sale and they are permanently

closing on November 9th and so that'll

be their last day and they are for sale

up on their Facebook marketplace. So if

you just Google Field Station Dinosaurs

Facebook or whatever you can purchase

these dinosaurs. They range from $700

for a velociaptor to $2,800 for a

full-size Spinosaurus. This one here is

a $2,200 Triceratops. And I'm telling

you, if I had space for this

triceratops, I would get this

thing. It looks so cool

and it's awesome. And so for yours, it

could be yours for a low low price of

like $2,000. They're selling a

pterodactyl for $850 and more

velociraptors, like a whole set of them,

three for $2,000 and a parasaural

parasaural office uh for $2,400. So

anyway, uh they didn't have pictures of

all of them. I just had the pictures of

a few. But you know what? If you're

looking for a dinosaur or you're trying

to create a dinosaur theme for your mini

golf or for your laser tag or something

else like you might want to take

advantage of these dinosaurs like when

you get a chance to get discount

animatronic dinosaurs especially before

IPA when you're going to be able to see

lots of animatronic dinosaurs this gives

you kind of a leg up. So there you go.

That is the dinosaurs that are being

sold by Field Station Dinosaurs in New

Jersey. You can find that stuff on

Facebook Marketplace.

All right. Well, this is another one

too. So this is u you know going up for

sale. This is a place called Swings and

Things. And so it is uh for sale. This

is an Ohio amusement park in the Mstead

Township. It's been open for more than

four decades. So a long time. And you

know what the longtime owners of Tim and

Joanna uh Joanne, excuse me, Sorhe are

announcing plans to retire basically. So

but they are going to continue to

operate the business until a new owner

can be found. So this isn't a distress

sale. This is just retirement sale and

they're looking for somebody who's going

to come over and take care of it and

take it on. This thing looks beautiful.

It looks like it's been a big part of

the local northeastern Ohio community

for a long time. And uh you know,

they've loved every minute they say of

this uh they just want looking for the

next generation to continue the

tradition. And they didn't put a price

out there for the listing, at least not

on the press release. So they are

listing it through an investment banking

firm. So, I'm sure that you could do uh

you know, I'm sure you just contact

them, but you know, basically they have

mini golf, go-kart tracks, you can see

here, bumper boats, a batting cage and

outdoor laser tag, paintball, and then a

large indoor game room and homemade ice

cream. So, you know, really a nostalgic

classic FEC that seems to serve the

community really well and it could be

yours. So, go ahead and reach out to

them if you want to add it to your

portfolio or you're first just looking

to get into something um that can give

you something interesting to do. All

right, so that is the swings and things

up for sale. And the last thing I want

to talk about here because this is big

news. This stuff was just announced this

week is the Universal uh experiences

destinations experiences. They finally

confirmed the lands. It's been rumored,

but they finally confirmed the lands for

their upcoming Universal Kids Resort in

Frisco, Texas. So, we've talked about

this on the show multiple different

times that they've given little tidbits

of news, but this is a resort listed

exclusively for kids. And so this is the

Universal Kids Resort and they're going

to have multiple themed lands now. So

it'll be seven different theme lands. It

sounds like it's going to be somewhat

structured in a very portal type of way

that the uh Epic Universe was

structured. And so you know, here are

some of the different lands. I'll make

this a little bit bigger so you can see

this here. Um, basically it's going to

be DreamWorks Shrek Swamp, DreamWorks

Puss and Boots Delmare, the Minions

versus Minions, a Bellow Bay Club, the

Jurassic World Adventure Camp,

DreamWorks Trollfest, and then

Nickelodeon's Spongebob Squarepants

Bikini Bottom. I'm sure lots of kids are

going to love seeing that. And then I

love Curiosity, which is actually where

everybody first comes in. So the

executive president and chief creative

officer for Universal Creative, Brian

Robinson said, quote, "We envisioned

this park through the unbridled

creativity of kids where infinite

imagination curiosity and

free-spirited play were core to our

design philosophies." And they say it

produced a park that's pure joy and an

absolute celebration of what it is to be

a kid.

So they've also revealed some of the

interactive play areas and experiences

that they will contain. Obviously,

they're not going to talk about all of

them because they want to remain some a

surprise. But, as I mentioned, they're

going to enter the park through the

aisle of curiosity, which is described

as a whimsical gateway and be home to

Gabby from DreamWorks Gabby's Dollhouse

for a special meet and greet and dance

party. And then there's a Shrek swamp.

And I'm just going to scroll through

some pictures, not necessarily in the

order of what I'm discuss what I'm

talking about here, but you can just see

some concept images. Obviously, this is

not open yet, so there's no concept

images. Um, but you have Shrek Swamp and

uh there'll be you a bunch of different

things there. Puss and Boots Delmare

where guests can meet characters and

then they'll actually have Meow Carnival

games. They'll have Minions in the

Minions uh Bellow Bay Club. There'll be

a special meet and greet for Minions as

well. So, lots of meet and greets.

Obviously, kids love to meet the

characters from these shows uh and from

these movies and this IP. Troll Fest

going to have two different interactive

play areas. Poppy's Playland and Trolls

Critter Crawl. And then they'll also

have obviously experiences from

Spongebob Squarepants, Bikini Bottom,

and so they include Muscle Beach, and

Pineapple Paradise. And so they also

want to have an area where kids can

dream up imaginary worlds. So there'll

be some places where they can use

sidewalk chalk or spray themselves silly

with water blasters. And there'll be

team members there who can help them and

support them. And then they're also

going to offer multiple sensory gardens

for children. And as may have known as

well, they will have a resort hotel

which will have a colorful 300 room

property specifically for kids and

designed around kids. Obviously, lots of

merch and FNB and entertainment as well

in this whole place. So, that is the uh

some early signs into what they're doing

with this Universal Playland. And I

thought it would also be good to just

see if they've got a website because I

talk about this all the time, right? If

you're going to be launching and opening

your place, you should have your website

up and running as you've broken ground,

as you're beginning to put press out

because people are going to want to know

more and want to have a place to land

where they can continue to get

additional information. And sure enough,

they do. So, we will uh pull this up

here real quickly. And sure enough, here

is their website. And uh you know what?

Look, it's really basic at this point

still. So, you can explore the lands.

You can see the different lands. And

again, they don't have a whole lot more

than the concept imagery that we've

already seen. This is the Puss and Boots

land. We just saw this image with the

swings, which is like one of my favorite

rides. I absolutely adore uh these types

of high-flying swings. And so, I'm glad

to see they're going to be putting

something like that in. But again, real

basic concept imagery, but more

importantly, it is at least showing me

and giving me a chance to get excited

about what's happening here. And I can

put in my email address and collect more

information about uh and get more

information as they release it by

signing up for those emails. So, this is

absolutely they've done a great job

kicking things off here. This is

obviously their first location

specifically targeted to kids and very

excited to see this thing when it opens

next year. All right, that wraps up our

news you should know. Coming up next, we

will dive right into Open and Shut with

Kevin Williams. Oh, I'm sorry. We're not

going to do that. We're going to go

guest Gab with Clint Novak. Let's do

Guest Gab first. That sounds better. All

right, here we go.

Power up your game floor with arcades by

Allen 1. Whether it's perfectly pouring

drinks and Dr. Pepper Soda Slam,

grabbing official Butts on Things

plushies, or defending cities from

Attack and Missile Command Recharge,

Alen One has something for every venue

and arcade floor that will delight your

guests. Each game is also enhanced with

Major League Ess that tracks player top

scores and brings guests back to your

venue for more. Visit allen-1.com to

learn more. That's all-w.com.

All right. Well, welcome Clint back to

the show. Normally, it's normally road

trip with Clint Novak. We're doing a

guest gab today, so it's kind of fun.

>> I'm excited to gab it up.

>> All right. Perfect. Yeah. Well, so I was

reading the Replay magazine from uh the

October issue and I came across one of

your articles and I really liked what

you were talking about. You basically

about not fearing the fall. So it's like

kind of good good title there, but

basically about promotions going on in

the fall. So I figured we just dive

right into it and chat about that.

>> Perfect.

>> All right, cool. U so in the article,

one of the things you you know emphasize

is launching promotions way ahead of

Black Friday. um you know, even as early

as October, which we're right in the

middle of right now. Um and it's all

about building momentum. And so, you

know, how would you recommend operators

really begin to uh plan out their

marketing and what pitfalls do you find

when they wait too long to launch their

promotions?

>> Well, I mean, really, the first thing

right now they should be doing is

figuring out what kind of deals that

they want to offer for Black Friday. Um,

you know, if if that's you with when I

was with Funland, Black Friday was a

massive day for us,

>> but nobody showed up to the park. Like,

we were doing $30,000 sales just online.

Um, and that's what we're really driving

online. The Black Friday sales could

only be purchased online. And we'd

actually run it from uh Friday to

Monday, Cyber Monday. Um, and you just

come up with the best deals possible.

and uh and then you start kind of

pushing and teasing those um you know

one thing that you'll find over years of

doing it you'll start building a

reputation

of doing those amazing deals you know

everybody has amazing deals on Black

Friday so if you are then put pushing

let's say memberships season passes

whatever that may look like for your

facility or buy one get one like you

know buy 100 get a 100 uh play cards or

attractions or whatever the passes are

um you start pushing those and people

your your uh regular clientele will feed

off of that. They'll they'll be like,

"Oh, every year I have to make sure that

I buy Funland's, you know, uh great

membership deal or, you know, whatever

it is that they're purchasing for their

stocking stuffers." So, uh yeah, first

find the deal, what you want to do, and

then you need to start planning out how

is that going to look like when you're

teasing and marketing. Are you going to

do Facebook ads? Are you going to do

social media ads, Tik Tok? Uh, can you

start making Tik Tok videos? Uh, drop

promo codes in there, whatever you can

do to uh start funneling those people in

to your uh, Black Friday sale.

>> Yeah. Yeah. And it sounds like, you

know, what you're trying to do is hype

up the fact that you've got the sale

coming. So, you're not maybe doing the

pre-sales. you you're still going to

have it be a Black Friday sale, but

you're doing the Facebook post, the Tik

Tok post, and everything else weeks in

advance so people know and are ready for

that deal so that they don't miss it

when it hits their inbox that weekend or

or whenever you end up sending it out,

that Thursday or Friday, they don't miss

it because they know they've seen all of

your pre-arketing ahead of time.

>> Yeah, definitely. You want to get it

online. You want to make sure that uh

you know your black the black Friday

wordage is there so the search engines

find it. Um and you know really you know

the first week of November you should

really be uh live with the deals. Not

live in the ability to sell them but

live in the sense that these are the

deals that we have. This is the time

that we're going to do it and uh and and

be ready. Uh hopefully uh you'll you'll

uh you know have a server crash on uh

Black Friday because you're selling so

many wristbands or whatever it is that

you're going to sell. So

>> yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. U in

the article you mentioned that the

offers need to be too good to ignore for

these Black Friday deals as well. What

are some of the promos or bonus

structures or or you know promo

structures that have consistently

delivered the best ROI? You know, maybe

for Funland or or others other operators

we've seen.

>> Yeah. I mean, uh, like I said, the buy

one get one. Well, that's the problem.

Every FE FC is going to be different and

what they offer. So, we were very heavy

on wristbands and memberships. Um, we

had 18 rides and attractions and we

would try to push people in the

direction of wristbands. So, if you

walked in the park, you could do

everything all a cart, but that would be

silly because a wristband was $56.99.

You could do everything for $56.99.

Um, so our we would do buy one get one

free wristbands. Uh, we had a membership

uh, which we did a tiered membership um,

um, savings. Uh, so we would do a

hundred at 50% off and then every time

we would sell a hundred of the

wristbands or whatever number it is,

500, whatever, we would bring it up 10%

more. So instead of saving 50%, you're

saving 40%. And then 30%. Now, the one

thing that uh was not fun about that is

we had to sit there and watch the sales

uh you know as they were happening um

and as they were flowing in. You could

also do that in a different way. You

could say 50% off the wristbands on

Friday, 40% off the wristbands on

Saturday, 30% off the wristbands on

Sunday. You know, kind of building up to

and the deal just kind of gets, you

know, weaker and weaker, but people will

still be buying because there's that

sense of urgency. When is the wristband

uh going to go up in price? So,

amusement parks do this, too. Um, you

know, when they're selling their season

passes in the fall, uh, they'll start

with a really good deal for about a week

and they, oh, but the price goes up

October 10th, you know, and they keep

pushing that and then it goes up like

$10 and they're like, okay, the next

price hike is going to go up uh uh

October 31st, so make sure you buy it

now. So, just kind of that I've got to

go buy it uh, you know, before the

before the deal goes away.

>> Yeah. Yeah. you know, and I think a lot

of times you when I was running Hound,

obviously there's a promotions platform,

right? And so we dealt with a lot of

different promotion structures, but a

lot of things that our operators would

sometimes push against during the

holiday season was that they don't want

to cannibalize future sales by doing

deeper discounts during the holiday

season. But then you at the same time,

you also know that you've got this

breakage issue, right? So you've got 20%

sometimes as high as up to as you

mentioned the article 30 to 35% of these

types of coupons promotions go

unredeemed and so you know yeah you are

maybe selling a discount a lot of them

are actually never getting redeemed.

What are your thoughts on balancing the

short-term urgency you know you're

talking about like 50% off or boos on

that Friday Black Friday um with the

longer term brand value of like not

having the deep discounts. Yeah, I mean

like you said the people, you know, tend

to sometimes forget that they made the

purchase. Uh you can also make it so

that it's only available uh you know the

year after. So uh this Black Friday, you

could say you could buy uh buy one get

one free wristband, but those wristbands

can't be activated until 2026, you know,

pushing those into your your next year.

Um, but I mean the the amount of sales

that we would get on that one day was

just astronomical. Like it was something

that uh you know we'd have to bank on

every year because they were so high.

You know, uh we would do uh um you know,

like I said, $30,000 what is what we

would do on a busy Saturday at the park.

So if we were doing that on a Friday

during the holiday season when people

were not going to visit the park, that

was a great way to make it through that

weekend.

>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And we would do we

would have, you know, encourage our our

customers to actually do a Black Friday

promotion, do it over the weekend, but

then do another promotion for Cyber

Monday. So, actually have these

backtoback. And we would sometimes have

our C some of our customers selling

hundreds of thousands of dollars. Like,

you know, there was a go-kart facility

that in Dallas, uh, the Dallas Fort

Worth area that would literally sell

$150,000 in in passes like just in one

in like two days. I mean, it's insane

what what can actually happen, but they

did all the right things, right, leading

up to it, like you've talked about. Um,

so, you know, one of the things that we

also struggle with is in um

having depleted prize inventory during

uh the holiday rush, right? So, so now

we're, you know, kind of past the Black

Friday, we're going into the holiday

rush. What are some of the operational

safeguards or inventory strategies that

you would recommend to avoid

not having enough during the holiday

rush when kids are off from school and

everybody's coming in, but also without

overcommitting too much capital?

>> Yeah. So, you really have to pay

attention to the calendar and the days

off of school, spring break, winter

break, uh summer. Um a good redemption

area and a good prize area when it comes

to merchandise for games, uh you're

going to have a par level. So, uh,

basically, you know, doing your

inventory on a once a week or once a

month basis, you don't want your prizes

to fall below the PAR level. So, you

always want to, you know, bring yourself

back up above that par level. Um, but

that PAR level also has to be a floating

number because if you your PAR level is

really low because it's, you know, uh,

you know, the first two weeks of January

when everybody's back in school and

nobody's coming to the facility, um,

that PAR level has to look very

different the week of spring break or

the week before spring break. So, uh,

something you could do is just color

code your calendar. you know, uh, have

your calendar. Put the days off of

school that, uh, you're going to be

affected by on the calendar and then

make them like blue, green, and red. You

know, red is your highest par level. You

need to have the most stock in there.

Uh, you know, uh, green is that mid

tier, and blue is going to be, you know,

very light. You don't need a lot of

product in. and uh just make sure that

you know you're you're looking two weeks

into that forecast and purchasing or

raising that par level to make sure that

you have enough stuff on hand. Uh one

thing that we did at Funline, we were

doing weekly orders. So when you're

doing orders, we would every Monday we

would do an order, the order would

arrive on Thursday. Um and then we put

that order away, have it ready to go at

the redemption counter for Friday.

>> Um we would have two weeks worth of uh

product on hand at all times. uh with

that, you know, floating calendar. Uh

because we wanted to make sure that if

something were to happen, you know, a

shipping error, um anything that would

happen with that, you know, maybe our

redemption person was sick that Monday,

the order didn't get in, and if it

doesn't get in on time on Monday, then

you're looking at a a weekend delivery

or a Monday delivery. So, um, we always

wanted to make sure we had a a buffer so

we would have that two weeks worth uh

that two week uh two weeks worth of

supply on hand to make sure that we

would get through uh those those uh

those, you know, any type of error that

might happen.

>> Yeah. Yeah, that's a good point. I mean,

especially when we're dealing with the

uncertainty of tariffs and how that

might impact your potential suppliers

bringing things in in time, too. Do you

have enough of a buffer to solve for one

of those issues? Um, but then I was also

thinking too, you have you're not going

to have necessarily more birthday

parties during this period of time,

right? Because it should be fairly

steady because people are born

throughout the year, but you will have

corporate parties and depending on again

the type of park you have. Uh, corporate

parties are also going to have they're

going to consume redemption. They're

going to consume things sitting in

cranes and other inventory as well. And

so you do need to be aware of what your

parties are going to consume in addition

to just the overall increased traffic

from kids being off of school. Yeah, and

I would say inventory is also very

important for an operator as well

because the smaller you are, the more uh

of that operating budget you need in the

bank and not sitting on a shelf. And you

have to think about it like if you have,

you know, $20,000 worth of product,

that's $20,000 that you can't use in

other parts of your business because

it's sitting there waiting to be used at

redemption. So, if you're ordering once

a month, uh, twice a year, you know,

those kind of big orders, you know, you

could, if you're doing if you're a a

decent sized facility and you're only

doing two orders a year, you're sitting

on $100,000 worth of merchandise uh that

is just waiting to go up. That could be

an attraction. Like, you could build

another attraction on the amount of um

uh on the amount of product that you

have sitting on the shelf. So,

>> yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Well, you know,

as you think a little bit further ahead,

u you know, we're thinking over the next

few years as we think about holiday

planning, signature event planning as

well. What are some of the trends or

things or consumer behaviors that you're

beginning to see that you think that

will shift how FEC's and LBE operators

will approach those types of holiday

events and signature events?

You know, it's it's tricky because it's

like everybody finds their own little

niche. You know, Funforall in um in

north of uh Pittsburgh, uh they started

about five, six years ago started doing

a uh an event on their mini golf course

called uh uh uh like a holiday mini

golf. You know, that's not the name of

it. I don't remember the name of it, but

it's something like holiday mini golf.

uh where they took their mini golf

course, you know, they're an mainly

outdoor facility in Pittsburgh. So, it's

like, okay, in December, you're not

getting any plays. Nobody's playing mini

golf in December there. Um so, they

transform theirs into like a winter

wonderland. They put lights everywhere.

They start in July putting up lights uh

for or actually, excuse me, uh they

start in uh Memorial Day weekend. Uh

Labor Day weekend. I'm gonna get it

right. I'm gonna get it right. Labor Day

weekend, they start putting up lights

and uh and they just they have two

18hole courses that are just filled with

lights. And uh

>> you know, Chris would say that they made

some mistakes when they first started

this. Uh they went with an outside

company to do it the first year and that

outside company cost as much as it would

have to just buy all of the stuff

themselves and do it. Um and so then the

second year they made that move to do it

themselves, but then they had to eat

that cost. Um and then every year it

just keeps getting better and better.

It's becoming a tradition for people to

go to uh that uh that mini golf uh

Funland. One thing we did was we did

spooky golf. So during the month of

October, uh we would decorate the mini

golf course with really cool uh lights.

Um it was spooky, not scary. So it's

like kids could still participate. Uh

fun, you know, Halloween music like

thriller and spooky skeletons. And uh we

made it just a lot of fun to do at

night. During the day it was cool, but

at night it just really looked uh

amazing with all the lights and effects

that we would do. Um, we would also do a

Halloween trick-or-treating through

there. Uh, the the Friday or whatever

day that was kind of on a slow side.

Friday night was I think usually when we

did it before Halloween. Uh, and so

basically we'd say the first 200 um kids

uh can go through and we'll have candy

at all 18 holes. Our staff would dress

up, hand out the candy. Uh macaroni kids

would come in and do an arts and crafts.

So it was like a two or three dollar uh

kit that you would buy from your

redemption provider and they would do

that like decorate their Halloween bag

and then they would go trick-or-treating

through that that we'd have a DJ playing

like the Cupid Shuffle and all that in

the uh in the uh uh uh arts and crafts

area. So, we made it an event and on a

Friday night, we wouldn't typically have

a lot of people who would come to the

facility, but on those nights, we would

fill the parking lot because everybody

was coming for the free candy and it was

free. You know, we wouldn't charge

people for the event, but we'd give out

a $5 play card on Whole 18 and then that

$5 play card turned into a lot more

because they would go play a few games

or ride a ride and then it would eat it

up and they'd want to do more. So, um

you know, it's it's finding those

nuggets. It's finding those things that

are successful and then building off of

them, making them into a tradition,

making them something that people expect

every year that's going to work into

your favor. One thing you also have to

realize is when to cut something loose.

Like if you uh keep pushing yourself

into thinking that the event that you're

hosting is going to someday be

successful and every year you're just

losing money on it, you need to either

revamp it, rethink it, or just go a

different direction. you know, not every

idea is going to be a winner um for your

facility. And so, you just need to learn

when to, you know, have that hindsight

and say, you know what, we're we've

tried it. It didn't work. Let's go a

different direction. And uh talk to

other operators because other operators

are going to have some amazing ideas on

what they do that are successful and not

successful. Um, we tried doing princess,

you know, themed uh, events at our

facility and we the breakfast, the

princess themed breakfast, it was never

popular for us, but Adventure Park USA

does themed uh, princess birthdays or

not birthdays, uh, uh, breakfast and

they're extremely popular and they have

a really good um, base that they send

out all their information to and then

they come back every time. And so, you

know, sometimes we just had to say, you

know what, we're not executing it right.

We can't get it right. We have to move

on to the next idea and see what we can

do. So,

>> yeah. Yeah. I think also understanding

what your

nearby competitors are doing for their

types of signature events, if they have

any, and making sure you're

differentiated, right? So, you want to

make sure that, you know, you can be

maybe a little bit similar, but you what

what you're deliver you can have spooky

golf and the other spooky golf, but you

got to make sure your spooky golf is

unique and different than somebody

else's. But um you do want to build that

type of regular tradition, nostalgia

type event that is going to get families

to come back year after year, bring

their kids because it's just a thing

they do and it gets them in that one

extra visit a year or two extra visits a

year because you've got something really

unique and so but you have to start

planning that signature event now.

>> Yeah. Yep. Definitely.

>> Awesome. All right. Well, Clint, it's

been amazing to have you on this round

of Guest Gab, and we will see you on

another one soon.

>> I look forward to it.

>> Intercart is the only cashless system

designed, developed, and manufactured

all under one roof. They introduced

cashless technology to the amusement

industry and have been leading the way

for over 30 years. Cashless systems from

Innercard increase customer spending,

guest satisfaction, and boost revenues

by up to 30%. Innercart is so proud to

be serving the amusement industry. And

if you aren't already part of their

global family of customers, they hope

you will become one soon.

All right. Well, that was awesome having

Clint on the show again and looking

forward to him hopefully coming back to

doing some road trips and some other

guest gabs in the future. But coming up

next, we now have Kevin Williams with

some open and shut.

Hey, a big hello to the latest open and

shut. I hope we find you all well as

well as you, Brandon.

>> No, ready to go. Let's do it.

>> Let's jump straight in. This is a bit of

a crowded one. We've returned to the

large number of venue openings. Some of

them are familiar names adding to their

established operation. Anyway, follow

the usual pause if I zip past one that

you'd like to see. Our friends uh at Fun

Labs in Australia have started their

international move and they've already

had a Holy Moly opened up in San

Francisco and now uh in Orange County

they're opening up a Holy Moly with a Hy

Jinks hotel. Um the the idea of their uh

hotel concept as a kind of escape room

or challenge room experience I haven't

had the the pleasure of doing. Their

holy moly um mini golf environment is

really the cocktails mini golf concept.

It's just that they do go for a much

higher level of theality.

>> I've been a big fan of what these guys

have been doing down in Australia for a

long time. been really excited to see

them finally come into the US market.

And the Hi Jinx Hotel I've also had my

eye on. I mean, holy moly has been

around for a little bit longer than they

added the Hy Jinks Hotel. And it just

looks the theming looks well done. I'm

hoping the game play is as well. I'm

going to be in Long Beach for Bata. So,

I'll be in Long Beach the first week of

December and my goal is to stay out

there an extra day and get there and

maybe even go with some of my crew mates

to uh to check this thing out.

>> That'll be that'll be interesting to

see. I' I've heard um interesting

comments. We've reported before that uh

uh the high jinks hotels in Australia

have been expanding. Um so let's see how

they apply themselves for the North

American market.

moving on and we're seeing an

established facility um with Craigs, but

they've now added to their uh

entertainment offering and they've done

a deal with our friends at Triotech and

they've parachuted into their amusement

area uh a brand new setup, a fourplayer

version of the Super Blaster uh system,

which I call the shooting gallery 4D

effects kind of game experience. the the

facility already has an XD theater, so

they're continuing their love affair

with Triotech. And this is, of course,

part of the Five-Star Parks operation.

So, um, you know, it's it's the

continuation of investment needed to

keep entertainment fresh. Yeah, I think

it's important obviously when you have

especially when you have 120,000 square

feet, you have some room to play, some

time to move things around and add extra

things, but it really comes down to how

do they market it? And um you know,

obviously it came across uh it came

across your perview, but are they really

getting it out to the community? Making

sure the community knows there's now a

new not just a new game, but a new

attraction really that that they can

come in and experience.

>> It's always difficult to find out how

the players are receiving this type of

information. And I know that uh uh the

guys at Craig Cruisers were encouraged

by their owners to put a press release

out about this investment. So, let's

hope that they've hit up their social

media promoting this deal.

Moving on. And Venous, uh this is a

weird one for me. Uh I I don't you know,

they they use the phrase immersive

liveaction uh experience. It's a

multitude of ball throwing and

touchscreen kinds of experiences. I'm

not seeing any amusement machines per se

being plummeted into this environment. I

think this is just really a immersive

active entertainment experience that's

throwing its hat into the ring as a new

concept.

>> This was a weird one. Yeah. For me as

well. I really couldn't figure out what

this was about. um you know it's you go

on their website and you know shows

people like taking balls and throwing at

them as screens and doing different

things and okay so um I just don't know

I've I've actually lived in Pleasanton

for several years this is why this one

came up across my you know my desk

earlier because you know I have

Pleasanton as a search one of my search

terms and so you know there's kids and

there's it's a family town so you you

can go down there and I could see this

being like more of a little community

center place play place you know things

that keep the kids busy.

>> That's how it comes across. It feels

>> Yeah. I don't really see it being

something that's going to even draw more

regionally beyond Pleasant in itself,

frankly,

>> which is a danger in itself that uh you

know, if you're going to build a

facility like this, don't limit your

options. But anyway, we wish them luck

and we'll try and keep an eye on them

and maybe one day get a chance to visit.

Sandbox uh continue well the franchisee

of Sandbox in Germany continues their

continual roll out of new facilities.

They call this their 66th facility. My

database says it's the 67th.

So uh either they've lost a site or my

database is wrong. And uh I'd rather bet

on my database being right. Uh I put

enough energy into it. Uh again, Sandbox

has uh been pushing hard. They've got a

new investment round on the horizon.

They've also been in the news regarding

some financial issues back uh in Hong

Kong where they originate from which

they've been going through. But uh it's

clear that they are in the final stages

of their mass roll out before their next

financial positioning or the proposed

flotation whichever it is.

>> Just keep building them.

>> Just keep building them. Time Zone just

keeps building them. So, uh we have a

new Indonesian facility. Um it's gone

into a Tokyo hub themed area um uh

within this shopping mall. It is the

standard format, a little compact

compared to uh traditional time zones.

And then we have India again expanding

with uh uh their latest uh I think this

is their 70th facility in India. Uh

again proven formula shopping mall uh

bumper cars laser tag a bit of

everything lots of amusement but we

don't talk about it enough. There are

other um shall we say components to the

uh time zone brand. They have their

bowling uh dedicated sites. They have

the normal times home amusement or mule

as I would call it sites. And they also

have their play and learn sites which

are uh you know kiddy activities uh very

standard fair party rooms but it is also

proven very successful and they have

about 87 of these dotted around uh

India. Uh I think you know from the

information I have it's not just India

that these are dotted around but I think

it's India, Vietnam and Indonesia that

have this uh all part of the TEG

uh operation uh from Australia which uh

includes our friends at Embed and Lii

games uh and their time zone. So the

family grows as it were.

>> Yeah. And you know when it says the

driving track too, I was curious

actually because this is obviously

targeted at like that five and under

maybe maxing at seven year old in the

center. So I was like what? Yeah, it's

much smaller, right? Like the five and

under. And so I was like, okay, what

kind of driving track? It's actually

just the play school little little

pedal, you know, feet pedals, you know,

their feet run on the ground and then

drive around the track. So it's it isn't

like a full-on uh, you know, driving

track. I didn't think it'd be a

racetrack, but I didn't know if it was

going to be motorized. Um, but it isn't.

It's it's foot pedal or foot not even

foot there's no pedals

>> childp powered

>> it's fl it's flintstones

>> yes and uh you know it I think the most

technical thing there is the

registration process it you know they

are aiming for a very early learning

environment and it is proven to be a

strong cornerstone to their operation

jumping into Japan uh and our gender

moment uh the latest Geico has thrown

open its doors again in a shopping mall.

We're seeing a kind of pattern here.

Shea uh Tato also in a shopping mall has

thrown their doors open with a brand new

site. You will notice that their new

sites both Dender as well as Tato as

well as the new Capcom styles very

bright now very much focused on the

Japanese interpretation of the next wave

uh of crane and claw machines uh and a

strong placement of amusement but also

skewing for a much younger audience than

the traditional uh Japanese amusement.

But this is these are the shakes for the

new market that they are targeting.

Yeah, I mean I obviously the the

colorization is what gets me and

especially the wide variety in colors um

for for both of them, right? I mean so

obviously they have different brand

styles, so different color guides for

each of their locations, but it's the

variation in color and and the grad the

gradations as well. And that's actually

what um stood out to me in I'm going to

share my screen here real quick because

it stood out to me at the play and learn

location. So, you know, obviously it's

hard to tell because it's a little bit

dimmed, but it's more pastels. So, it's

not quite the same bright colors, but if

you look at the variation in color,

there's just constant gradations. It's

not like a single, you know, they didn't

do one color on one wall, one color on

another wall. Literally multiple colors

on each wall. So, I think it's something

to think about and start looking at the

color schemes, especially for some of

the younger ages where there is

definitely much more care taken and

choice taken in the colors that are

being used now to not just decorate the

walls, but also the attractions

themselves.

If you ever came to uh one of my uh

presentations either at foundations uh

when I used to do it or uh more recently

now with creative works, we go into the

kind of the the interests of what the

audience is looking for and who you're

targeting. But be mindful that if you're

going to create a very high color, high

viz, um, women, children of a young age

entertainment environment that you will

be also creating kryptonite against

maybe the older audience. And it's much

harder to pivot one of these facilities

to be transime

uh facing. you know, the ability to uh

capture the children in the morning and

the uh the uh young adults in the

evening is difficult when your color

layout is like that. And it's also very

difficult the staff, but that's a a

topic for another day.

>> Yeah. Yeah.

>> Um again in Japan and I've touched upon

Exile Center Games Space before. They

are a group of VR arena based uh

developers that have run a number of

sites. They've just penned an agreement

uh with Move X uh in Japan which is

quite a large about 23 24 cinemas that

is now pivoting towards having some kind

of synotainment. So they've you know

handed over a part of their lobby so

they can set up their arena based VR

experience. We've seen this attempted

before. Uh, and it'll be interesting to

see how this does in the Japanese

market.

>> Do you know what the gameplay uh, length

of time is for this particular game? Do

we know? Is it a 20 minute? Is it a

45minut experience?

>> It's a 15 minutes. It's a 15-minute game

experience.

>> Okay. Yeah. I mean, if it's a 15inute, I

could see this being an add-on. Hey, we

went to a movie together with some

friends. Let's go play this. or um you

know, but I still struggle with these

types of longer uh you know, longer like

actual session based experiences tied to

a movie theater. Um and you know, you

are to be able to draft off the people

coming to movies is um is really your

goal, right? To try to increase the per

cap when they're there. Um people are

probably very rarely coming just for the

VR and then happen to go into a movie. I

don't think it things happen that way,

right? Because people are scheduling

their time. So, it has to be something

that's quick and impulsive that they're

going to be able to go and do that they

didn't necessarily come planning to do.

>> If your market is capable of handling

registration, you know, our friends at

Sandbox VR don't depend on the majority

of their clientele from walkin. They are

looking at people finding the facility,

registering to come, playing the game

experiences and sharing their

experiences. here. I think that there is

a a different culture that they're

hoping that they can capture people to

think about either we go and see a film

or we try the VR experience.

Either way, we'll need to see how this

one survives compared to many of the

others. I can list a long list of uh

companies that opened

VR arenas. You know, we just talked

about what uh Vus is uh only a matter of

weeks ago who've launched their AR based

uh uh XR experience into a cinema

enclosure. And again, we look closely to

see how those are going to survive.

>> I would one last thing I'll say to to

that point is it's not even just a VR

experience itself. It's the gameplay,

the length of gameplay and what the type

of onboarding is and how much time

you're going to spend doing it. you

know, uh, Santikos in Texas, for

example, in the Dallas Fort Worth area

and even down in the San Antonio area,

they added immersive game box

facilities. So, several immersive game

boxes. Well, that's still also a 45

minute minute multi-game experience that

you're going to go and do. And it has

struggled to it struggled to gain

traction in those uh, you know, and

actually get gameplay in there because

for this, you know, very similar same

reasons that we're talking about here

with this VR. It's that added length

that people aren't coming to a two and a

half hour movie and then planning to

spend an extra 45 minutes there plus the

extra cost.

Funny you mentioned Immersive Game Box.

I know that maybe next week we'll be

having some news regarding uh that

operation uh where we you know see the

rubber meet the road regarding revenue

numbers. But again, let's not get ahead

of ourselves.

Flip out uh this is a vast facility for

a UK location. Leadeds gets a 100,000

square foot uh facility which uh the

media I was reading was calling one of

the world's largest trampoline

attraction facilities. It's got laser

tag, it's got amusement, it's got FnB.

Uh I assume this is a warehouse space

that has uh been turned into this vast

entertainment space. You know, we we

know that uh Flip Out know their

business. They've got about 80

facilities dotted around the place. It's

just uh I was surprised by the size of

this and you know I I I think I'd better

jump on the train and go to Leeds just

to get a an idea of how something this

size American scale will fit into a UK

environment.

>> Yeah, it'll be tough to say. I've been

to Leeds a handful of times and you know

it's it is a uh more industrial um you

know city in the UK and so you know

maybe um they can have the because they

have the space you know the cost is

maybe a little bit lower for real estate

to be able to justify build out this big

but as you said flip out these guys have

been they were one of the first um

trampoline park venues to start rolling

out in the UK about 15 years ago and so

they're obviously very uh very familiar

with running these types of facilities.

>> I think Flip Out, I'm trying to remember

which other countries Flip Out has uh

operations in. I'm not mixing them up

with one of the other chains, but yeah,

they know their beans. Anyway,

>> Mhm.

>> Now going to the shuts. And as I uh

forewarned a couple of sound offs ago,

we are now seeing an increase in the uh

rotation retention as it were of

facilities. Um, bit of a sad one here.

The marineland in Canada near Niagara

Falls, they fell into closure and now

they've rushed to the local government

to give them money to save the animals.

Uh, I was reading a press release, well

not a press release, but a press

statement only a day ago that for moved

on to say that they looked like that

most of the animals have been found at

home. But, you know, I I feel part of me

has always felt uncomfortable using

animals as an attraction. Uh because

when things go wrong, not only the staff

are left high and dry, but uh I'm led to

believe that there may be a happy ending

for these animals.

>> Uh yeah, I sure hope so. I'm I've soft

spot in my heart for belugas. And so

they're you sad to hear that you having

to euthanize any animals, let alone um

you know, these brilliant smart animals.

I think it was used as a little bit of a

uh blackmail that if the government

wouldn't cough up then, you know, put a

gun to the head. But yeah, God's

creatures uh top cats uh couldn't find

out a lot of information. You know, a

facility that's been going from since

1999

uh in Springfield. It has a very small

arcade. You know, it is it is a taster

arcade as it were. It would be a mini

arcade, but the restaurant and the

arcade uh are closing. Um they also have

an indoor carting capability. Uh and

some other attractions. Uh I was led to

believe that there's laser tag in there

and some other stuff. So it's no small

shakes. Maybe their arcade game floor

from the pictures is uh subpar, but uh

either way uh for whatever reason

they're closing the doors uh after such

a long time in operation.

>> Ah man. Yeah, that's always tough.

Something something happened, you know,

maybe a death in the family or sickness

or you know, anything. We know we know,

right? Some of the news that you know

happened this week. Um you know, those

things can come very suddenly without

preparation.

Yeah. And you know uh you don't want to

spend more time uh at the office. You

want to spend more time with your

family. So these things come along and

uh time moves on. I assume this will be

acquired. Uh so be prepared to see this

name appear again in a coming report.

>> Interesting to uh end with is uh Mr.

Getty's Pizza. now a very successful 60

facility chain but the majority of these

facilities have been run by franchises.

uh and

uh this week marked the final uh

facility that was owned by the company

then being now taken over by a

franchises and it was their flagship

facility uh that is now so the the site

that kind of broke the mold and they've

been supporting from a corporate level

has now been handed over uh or been

acquired by uh an operator. So this

marks that all of their 60 uh facilities

are now owned by uh third-party

franchise operations. It is interesting

when a company such as this migrates

from being a owning their own operation,

handing over part of their operation and

then transferring fully to uh really

being landlords near enough of uh of the

brand while others run the facility.

This is a very strange move for any

franchise frankly is to you know if

anything you hold on to at least one if

not three corporate locations at the you

at the minimum because you need room for

experimentation you know you have no

control over your franchises and what

they do. So you can um you you can

obviously do all your franchise work but

yeah how do you experiment with your

marketing with your branding with your

offerings without having your own

corporate location. So very strange and

is very curious as well um you know

about you know a lot of times if if

franchises are running well you often

see the franchise the franchiseors

building more corporate locations

because they know the cash flow is good

so it is interesting that they're

actually divesting themselves of their

own corporate locations and

>> that's the important word there you use

divesting I I see this as a

fragmentation of a brand you know they

have now no control over how the baby is

dressed up uh unless they have put in

extreme uh instructions within their

franchise agreement which I don't think

they have. Or we could be witnessing a

play. We could be seeing a company

coming in maybe they own three or four

franchise facilities and they're

thinking about utilizing their money to

buy more and more and more. And what we

will see is the uh the brand now

changing hands as it were a uh a stealth

acquisition as it were. But again, I

don't want to jump to too many

conclusions here because I'd like the

dust to settle. You know, the one thing

that we didn't know about the

transaction was how much was paid for

this and all of that. You know, the the

devil is in the detail and you know, the

uh Mr. Gratis uh pizzeria, you know,

it's it's known. It's uh it's not

earthshattering, but 60 facilities is

definitely nothing to uh to sniff at. So

for some corporations, this may be an

opportunity for acquisition.

Anyway, that's the rundown uh of uh the

main developments. As you can see, uh

there is still a lot of life in this old

dog. uh you know, we're getting back to

the numbers that we were dealing with in

January and February, uh regarding new

openings, and I'm already halfway

through stacking up for next week. That

shows you how fast things are moving.

Anyway, to keep up to date on that

information, there's the Stinger report,

of course. And on the competitive

socializing side, we have the

entertainment social arena, we have the

library or the archive, uh as well as

our videos. And of obviously if you have

any information or any corrections uh

there's our email details in our

LinkedIn. Anyway, have I covered

everything Brandon?

>> Well, I think so. Another another week

down.

>> Another week down. Have a good one.

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 marketing 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 ydus.co.

>> All right. All right. Well, that was a

great open and shut with Kevin Williams.

And next up, we've got Adam Pratt with

Arcade Corner. So, Adam, take it away.

Hey everyone, it's Adam with Arcade

Heroes for the Arcade Corner here at LBX

Collective. I hope you're having a great

October so far. kind of hard to believe

that we're almost done with it. But um

the thing with October, especially for

those of us in the press who cover the

industry, it's weird because it usually

starts off kind of slow and then what

withappa a month away, it suddenly just

gets a ton of news that hits the wires.

And so I'm going to be rushing through a

lot of this to fit my time because I've

got way more than I've had in uh

previous weeks. Um, but I'm going to

start off with something that's a bit

more solemn first. And as you can see on

the screen, if you hadn't heard already,

um, Paul Williams, who was the CEO of

Sega Amusements International and Kaizen

Entertainment for, um, a very long time.

I know he was with the company for

something I think it was around 40

years, maybe I'm wrong on that. Maybe it

was like 30. Um, and I know he wasn't

CEO for the entire time, but regardless,

um, there was the news how he stepped

down from the CEO position very

recently. And then the shocking news

came, um, first heard it from Kevin

Williams where he at first uh, was it

was a rumor. Unfortunately, it turned

out to be true, but Paul um, passed away

u from an illness that recently became

pretty aggressive. Um, I talked with

someone at Sega who said he was with his

wife when he passed and that uh he was

able to pass peacefully there with

family, but um, sincere condolences to

him, his family, his friends. Um, I knew

Paul just through trade shows really and

talking on email a few times. So, I

couldn't say that we were on like a

friendly basis. I never had like dinner

with him or anything. But every time I

met with him, he he was always reserved

and uh um he was always very nice and

very accommodating and uh so um I know

for many of you we'll all miss him and

his presence and uh so yes, rest in

peace Paul. um with that um with Sega

and they do of course do have a new CEO

a new seuite team really and um they do

have quite a bit of stuff coming to

Iappa now some of those things I've been

asked not to reveal in advance and so we

we'll see if we can preview anything one

of them is a little bit of a surprise

because it's a game that's a few years

old that's been on the market but

they're coming out with a brand new

model for it um that's not the game

that's on the screen here um But this so

this would be a brand new game that they

picked up from GTI Asia China Expo Speed

Rider 4DX.

And so aside from this being a

motorcycle racing game, what one new

mechanic that this has on it that I've

never seen before with an arcade game is

that the bikes themselves have this kind

of sliding shifter mechanism. And so for

you to drift, you have to literally

shift the bike. So, it still does the

swivel thing and it's on a motion base,

but on top of that, you can shift the

back end of it and then it will drift in

the game and it looks like it has really

good graphics. Um, very well designed

and so that will be there. But again,

there will be a few other things that I

am aware of. It's just at at least at

this moment in time, Sega's wanting to

keep those under wraps. But, um, yeah,

there there will be a few new things. It

will have a strong booth there. Um, but

I'm sure um the

it'll Yeah, I'm sure I hope they have

something like maybe uh memorial to Paul

there at the at the booth. That would be

a nice touch if they're able to do that.

Um, for other news, we have Jordan

Classen is the new Big Buck World

Champion. So, the Big Buck World

Championships happened uh not this past

week, but the week before that on the

weekend. Um, but uh for us to be able

for me to be able to record that uh the

champion hadn't been crowned until that

Saturday night and so so just didn't

know when I was able to record, but he

won $25,000

and I think over $100,000 worth of cash

and other prizes were given away by Play

Mechanics and Raw Thrills uh to these

champions and to the various

participants in there. But of course, he

got the the biggest of the bunch and

he's the champion at least until next

year when they do it again, which I if

I'm recalling correctly, they announced

it. I I think they said it was Memphis.

I can't remember um where the next

year's is going to be held, but they

didn't reveal anything new. Like this

year is actually the 25th anniversary of

Big Buck Hunter. And so I was kind of

wondering if they would do something

like a brand new iteration of Big Buck,

but they're kind of just doing the same

thing as Golden Tea where they just

release updates kind of annually. They

don't call it like Big Buck Hunter 2026

or anything, but they do have they did

reveal a new content update which will

be at IPA. Um, but other than that, they

didn't uh show anything else in regards

to that game itself. and Rothrills as

well will also be at IAPO with at least

one new racing game. Um, but still need

to chat with them on that as to uh when

they're ready to reveal it. It's been

seen on test out there. If you've read

Arcade Heroes, where I post a lot of

this news, uh, then it chances are

you've seen it because of the location

test coverage that I've done. Um, and

also possibly the nonVR version of

Godzilla Kaiju Wars. Uh, in new

releases, we also have uh Dr. Pepper

Soda Slam by Allen 1 and DSM Arcade. And

so they actually were teasing this way

back in um at Amusement Expo 2025. They

had a a thing of Dr. Pepper uh there,

but they had just the original

non-licensed Soda Slam. And of course

that non-licensed version of Soda Slime

did come out in the summertime, but of

course for a lot of consumers, they like

to see brands and licensing and such.

And so they have that now. Uh and it

they've changed the joystick so the tap

handles actually have an image of a Dr.

Pepper can of which flavor it is. So

there's regular uh diet uh zero and

cherry that are all in there that you're

dispensing. And so you you play that now

and it comes in two flavors. Uhhuh. Uh

where the the only difference between

them are the giant cans. Now those are

not full 3D cans like was seen with the

original Soda Slam. So those original

Soda Slam ones were like giant

fiberglass cans. So now they're more

like big marquee things. They have LED

lighting built into them and so they

light up and flash and catch a little

bit more attention or draw a little bit

more attention to them that way. Or if

you don't have that extra space, you can

just get the deluxe model. But I

wouldn't this game does not fit through

a 32 or even a 36-in door. You

definitely need double doors to get this

into your venue if this is something

that you're looking at. And Allen One is

looking at even another license for soda

because not everywhere around the planet

cares or even sells Dr. pepper um

particularly like Southeast Asia and

places like that. So, there is another

one that's coming. Hasn't been announced

yet, but it from my understanding it

will be at IAPA at Allen 1's booth,

which is 3417.

And they they're not in the game arcade

and games pavilion. They're in the rides

and equipment pavilion. They're not

super far away from where the games and

arcade pavilion is. um just a little bit

past a few rows past Bob Space Racers

from what I've seen of the map. Um but

if you're interested in seeing that and

some other things, they have a prize

merchandiser called Cosmic Spin. They'll

have a new Butts on Things Crane Machine

there as well. And um also a new version

of Missile Command. And so um that will

all be at their booth there. And of

course they're an LBX Collective sponsor

here. Uh then uh for pinball. Now this

one I don't know if I won't spend too

much time here, but Winchester Mystery

House, which um you can go to the

History Channel or YouTube to learn all

about that one of a house that had over

500 rooms at one point and it's

considered to be a haunted house and all

that, now has its own pinball machine.

Now, this is by a company that so far

they've kind of just avoided any

industry trade shows. They are what you

would call a boutique pinball

manufacturer where they do a very

limited run. For this particular game,

they announced 525 units. I don't know

why that exact number. Maybe that's the

maximum number of rooms that the house

once had. And so they just picked that

arbitrarily, but um they did say I did

see on Facebook that they sold over 60%

of their initial of that 525

I think within 24 hours of announcing

it. So, who knows? Maybe they'll uh

relent from that. But it's again, it's

an old it's boutique pinball. That's

kind of the fancy way of saying an indie

or a smaller manufacturer. This isn't uh

Barrel of Barrels of Fun's first game,

though. They've done things like uh

Labyrinth based on the 1986 David Bowie

movie as well as Dune based on the more

recent Dune films. and and so, you know,

with these few games out that they're

showing that they have some momentum

there, but they're at Pinball Expo,

which took place this past weekend in

Chicago. Um, but again, I have no idea

if they ever plan on showing up to

something like IPO or amusement expo or

bowl expo or anything like that because

their focus most of those sales probably

came from home consumers which are still

the biggest buying block of consumers of

pinball machines across the board. And

that's of course why a lot of pinballs

just not focused on our industry um in

recent times. I said I wouldn't spend a

lot of time and then I did. Um, now also

at Pinball Expo is something that will

be um, showing up out there. This won't

be at IAPA,

uh, from at least from what I spoke with

Ron, unless something changes. Ron at

Orbit Games and so it's, this might take

a little bit too much time to explain,

but Orbit Games is the new company is a

new company and they are also over

American Pinball. And so like I guess

you could say they're like an umbrella,

but there's an umbrella that's over

Orbit Games and American and some other

companies that owns Orbit Games. And

then Orbit Games owns and operates um

American Pinball. A little bit

confusing, but either way, they've taken

a game that existed back in the 30s and

the 40s, an Ali Bowler variation that

did its own thing slightly separate from

ski ball and called Whle Ball, and

they're bringing it back because I guess

there's no copyright on it anymore.

though Patton the company hasn't existed

almost existed in almost a hundred

years. And so what you do is you do roll

the balls up, but they go up the ramp

over the top and wherever the target is,

they'll actually like go over the hump

and then fall back inside. And they have

some mini games built into it, too. Uh

on the where it has that 150 in the

colors, that's actually a 32-in screen.

Uh but the where the big numbers are,

those have LED RGB LED lighting behind

them. And so that allows them to do some

mini games which are mainly intended for

breweries, bar arcades, stuff like that.

And it also has wider lanes. And these

are priced the same as Skiball is

currently um which I believe is

somewhere in the 7 to8 maybe $9,000

range depending on the model. Um and

those will be shipping out pretty soon.

And again, they're at Pinball Expo in

case you were there. then you probably

saw this and played it. And then another

new game release. This one was I knew

about this months ago, but I was

surprised that it just kind of dropped

all of the sudden. And that was Hunter

Cross Hunter Nen Impact. Then this is

through the company known as X Arcadia,

where they sell kits. They sell

something a lot like the Neo Geo. If you

haven't come across it, just look up XA

E XA

Arcadia and you can look into that. But

uh their system has cartridges and so

operators like myself, I actually own

three Exa cabinets. You can take these

cartridges and swap games out. But

they're not the giant like VHS size or

larger than VHS size uh cartridges like

Neo Geo had. They're about this big,

maybe like a candy bar size. And uh but

anyways, Hunter Across Hunter is an

anime, a popular anime, and this is

their first major license with an anime.

And so this is a one-on-one fighting

game kind of like Street Fighter. And uh

they've taken what exists on consoles

and they've polished it up, improved it.

They've taken all the exclusive content

from the different console versions such

as costumes and put it all into this

edition. And so this is kind of like the

director's cut of the game. And um

there's already a location out in Japan

that has one of these. And so if you go

through whatever source you use to get

XA games or if you're interested in

that, look up XTA Arcadia distributors

or exa.ac is their website. Uh then you

can get your hands on that and a brand

new one-on-one fighting game that has a

name that people recognize. All right,

and we're pretty much out of time, but

uh for our last bit, uh Blue Motion

Games, they were at Aappa last year as a

part of I can't remember their name, but

they were um at some motion simulator

booth, and then they were at Amusement

Expo this year with their own booth and

their new games, Desert Chase and

Cannonball Jam in giant four-player uh

configurations. They've just announced

that they are shipping out two-player

configurations of these same games, but

they also have some new game coming that

they didn't announce what it is yet.

They just said it uses a major Hollywood

IP. And so, take your guess as to which

one that might be. I would assume

something that hasn't been licensed by

like Raw Thrills or Sega already. And

they'll be unveiling that soon. But they

didn't say because um only Desert Chase,

the two-player version, will be at the

Player One Amusement Group booth, which

is uh booth number 840. And uh they

won't have their own booth there. But

they will they be at Amusement Expo. And

so I assume that by then we'll know what

that Hollywood IP is. But I'm a little

bit overtime here. As I said, I had a

lot to go through and probably in the

coming weeks it's going to be a lot of

this kind of rushed stuff. But uh that's

what's uh out there. the arcade news.

Hope you enjoyed that. We'll see you

next time.

Hello and welcome to Promo Pro Tips with

Chuck Deonte. That is me. And today I

want to discuss something that every

local FEC should be doing and that is

combining digital with a local presence.

Right? So what does that mean? And I

discussed on another segment but I want

to take a deeper dive into it and say

how you could accomplish this. Right?

And so uh FEC's that we have seen

combine this really have the best impact

in terms of visitors revenue right they

really really really do well. Obviously,

you have to have a really well um run

operation, right? People need to have a

good experience, but how do you how do

you strengthen that community bond to

get more people into the location,

right? So, basically attending community

events, right? And so, what does that

what does that mean? Uh festivals,

carnivals, parades, farmers markets,

right? Whatever that you know is

happening around locally to you, we want

you to have a presence there. And I

promise you, when you combine that with

digital, the effects are are amplified

tremendously, right? And so first and

foremost, you need to find the right

event, right? Uh so how do you do that?

So, you know, you can, you know, there's

Google, right? There there's local

community uh calendars that you can look

at of events coming up. And so you it's

going to take a little time to find some

events, but you don't need to do a

hundred of them, right? You need to do

three, four a year. Let's call it one

per quarter. Okay? So you could find

four events local to you that are worth

attending. And so how do you vet these

events? Um you want to make sure it's a

family focused event, right? You want to

look for ones that are in a I would say

10 to 20 mile radius at the very very

most. You know, depending on uh sort of

how far people travel, you know, around

you. They travel 30 minutes to something

like this, 45 minutes. You know, the

more rural rural you are, obviously the

further sort of out people travel, uh

you want to look for things that have

attendance of probably a thousand plus

and that are family focused events.

Okay? So, if you could find those

events, you also want to, you know, go

to their website, find out the contact

person, the the, you know, the email,

the phone or whatever. call them, see

what it looks like to be a vendor and

have a presence there, okay? And get a

few, you know, get a few of them so you

could understand what it costs, you

know, and analyze each and compare uh

which ones you think are worth

attending. But that's how you find the

events, okay? But now that you found

them, what are the next steps? What

should you do to really make the most

out of these events, right? From your

presence there to even after the event.

So let's talk about your presence there

first. So you really want to make it

make yourself stand out while you're

there. Okay? And then while you're

there, you also want to uh take

advantage of getting in front of as many

people as possible and sort of capture

their information and you know use that

to further market to people. You want to

try and get them in the top of your

customer journey funnel, right? And so

one, what does it look like when you're

there? Right? So let's just, you know,

you're an FBC, get creative, make it

fun. What does that look like? Right?

Don't just have a table, right? But

let's do giveaways. Let's maybe, you

know, maybe you create a little mini

obstacle course for for kids to do or an

arts and craft station to color

something with your brand or um, you

know, photo opportunities, right? Like

really get creative. What could that

look like, right? You have some sort of

uh contest that kids could do, you know,

a race, a reflex thing or something,

right? A jumping uh, you know, contest,

right? I don't know. Get creative uh to

make your booth stand out. Okay? So,

again, don't just dial it in there.

That's the biggest piece. You want

people to be walking over so you could

have those conversations that they'll

connect your brand and remember your

brand and also come over to your your

table or whatever and enter and sort of

give you their information. Okay? So you

could further market to them, right? So

that's the biggest thing. You want to do

a giveaway. You want to get their

information. Not only do you want to see

people just see literally with their

eyes your brand and hopefully remember

you and say, "Oh, that place looks cool

or we should check it out or oh remember

when we went there and keep top of mind,

right?" You want to hopefully capture

their information so you could continue

to market to them, right? So, how do you

do that? A lot of times you're going to

want to do that with a giveaway, right?

Give away tickets. In order to sort of

redeem that ticket, they have to, you

know, sign the waiver, opt in, sign up

on the email, right? Think of mechanisms

like that. Okay? Now, I'm not going to

do too deep of a dive in terms of, you

know, the mechanics behind that, right?

Um, because they can range from the

simple to the complex, but again,

capture their information. Okay? Once

you have their information, what are you

doing with it? You're uploading it to

things like Meta, your email, your SMS.

You're now putting them in your

marketing funnel, right? Especially if

they sign a giveaway. And basically, by

entering that giveaway, they're opt into

marketing. Okay? Uh you want to make

sure you're staying in front of them

again to stay top of mind to hopefully

get them from that event to, you know,

getting into uh into your location.

Okay? Uh, and so if you do that

consistently, right, imagine you're

doing this three, four times a year and

you're getting a couple hundred people

or, you know, whatever that looks like,

every time you go to these things,

you're building that up year after year

and month after month, right? And now

they're they're sort of word of mouth

and coming to your location. So it just

is a snowball effect that builds on top

of each other. Okay? Now, once you're

done with the event, you want to

obviously email the people, thank them

for coming out, make social media posts,

right? you want to sort of extend the

the uh you know the impact there and

sort of you know use that as uh to

strengthen people that maybe didn't even

see you at the event like oh that was

cool that you know this FEC was at this

local event right they're going to see

you like being part of you want to you

know represent that you do love being

part of the community you are a part of

the community you want to repres you

know represent the community you want to

help the community right so it's really

really important uh to be at these

things for all of those reasons right um

and then again I I can't stress enough

when you combine this with that digital

concept, right, of when you have their

emails. Yeah. And and you're and you're

retargeting them and you're, you know,

you're just creating your your local

community awareness, strengthening it

tremendously. So, I promise you,

continue to do that. Get creative at how

you attend these events and it will

produce results.

All right. Well, thanks Chuck, thanks

Adam for those two great segments. And

uh you know what, a couple of things

here to just note. We've got Sound Off

number 95 with Kevin Williams coming up

on this next Tuesday in October 21st. So

just in two days. And then uh you know

what? That's a wrap for this week's LBX

show. This is Brandon Wy signing off.

Stay tuned and keep kicking ass.