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LoserKid Pinball Podcast
LoserKid Pinball Podcast
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Ep 36: Hot Wheels with Josh Kugler

PodcastAnalysis updated 3d ago58 min listen
From the creator

Let's talk some Hot Wheels with the one and only Josh Kugler! Not only does Josh answer all our questions about Hot Wheels, he also tells us what got him to American Pinball and the fun adventure...

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Highlights

  • Hot Wheels produces 25,000 cars every 25 minutes
  • Hot Wheels is the largest selling toy of all time
  • American Pinball developed Houdini in four months
  • Hot Wheels has been around for 50 years
  • The Hot Wheels game features a stepped stand-up target configuration in the middle of the playfield that Joe Schober designed specifically for this game
  • The tachometer multiplier system progresses through five gears, with permanent scoring increases when completing multiball modes at each gear level
  • Hot Wheels City YouTube series became inspiration for the creature battle modes in the game
  • American Pinball had a large booth planned for TPF with eight games and full-size replica Hot Wheels cars from California

Notable quotes

“I play very little pinball at home now. When you're working on it all day and I'm usually so focused on the game that I'm working on that my games at home get very little play at this point.”
Josh Kugler
“So in the time we were talking, they just made 25,000 Hot Wheels cars while we were talking. That's crazy.”
Josh Kugler
“We really want to make sure that there's something in there for the three different types of pinball players... the tournament guys, the collector and enthusiast, and the novices.”
Josh Kugler
“if it's well done, you can take, you know, make anything into a great pinball machine if you, you know, put all the pieces together the right way.”
Josh Kugler
“The tachometer is basically indicating the scoring level of the game. You can think about it as your playfield multiplier. And as the tach goes up, all the scoring in the game goes up.”
Josh Kugler
“We really want to incorporate all of those things. When you approach the game, it talks about car collecting, track building. And then, of course, we have this element of battling creatures.”
Josh Kugler
“It's a very multi-ball heavy game so if you like multi-balls you're definitely gonna like hot wheels”
Josh Kugler

Entities

  • American Pinball· company
  • Flippin' Out Pinball· company
  • Lit Frames· company
  • Mattel· company
  • Amusement Expo· event
  • Texas Pinball Festival (TPF)· event
  • Hot Wheels· game
  • Houdini· game
  • Iron Maiden· game
  • Oktoberfest· game
  • Pinball Magic· game
  • Ed· person
  • Eric Pripke· person
  • Jim Pat· person
  • Joe Balser· person
  • Joe Schober· person
  • Josh Kugler· person
  • Josh Roop· person
  • Roger Sherp· person
  • Scott Denise· person
  • Scott Larson· person
  • Hot Wheels City· product
  • P-ROC· product

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