As far as the flaming kit goes....I'm, really surprised what he got was cheaper. As others are selling "Flaming" or "Destruction" kits that look like flaming crap for $159 when my far superior flaming light kit is only $120.

Just wondering whats a better game Stranger Things Premium or James Bond Premium?

Question about "free shipping". I've seen some dealers talk about free shipping to the nearest terminal. Are there any distributors that offer "free shipping" to your door, or does that not exist? Thanks. I'm still trying to decide who I am going to buy this game from.

Cointaker ships Stern games free to my door.

CoinTaker did as of yesterday. It’s pay all up front though.

To me, Bond is more of a "shooter's game" or "player's game" where you have challenging upper flipper shots, big risk/reward playfield multipliers, and lots of different kinds of modes, some of which are hard to understand how to qualify. Lackluster audiovisual assets if you ask me, you need to enjoy this one for its gameplay intricacies.

Stranger Things is much more straightforward. Good game for casual players or even experienced players who just want to relax and enjoy the ride. It's a fan with no challenging shots, I guess except for maybe the left saucer. You can easily see your progress toward starting the various modes. Start a mode, stack a multiball, go nuts. Bash the crap out of the middle drops & monster. Enjoy the vibe of spooky sounds & unique UV light show.

I don't love, hate, or own either game, so hopefully that's a relatively unbiased take.

STh prem IMHO

Now you're just digging a hole. GOOD companies do this on their dime for good will and to protect their own reputation. Offering parts or solutions below market value for their own deficiencies, even if not legally obligated. It's part of the cost of business.

Businesses that scream 'who will pay for this' will find themselves paying the cost in the future in the form of customer sentiment, and in the case of big companies, legal challenges. Stern is just lucky that hobbyists are too damn cheap to pay the legal bills to pursue Stern under the various consumer protection laws around the world.

Recalls are not limited to cars - what is this stupidity you speak of?

Wut? Even Stern has done it... even as recently with Iron Maiden. Offering fixed or updated parts FOR FREE after the sale and not tied to warranty. Stern has a long history of these service bulletin parts. Rush locking scoop fixes? Stern used Service Bulletins in the past, including upgraded parts.

The main difference is COST - if it's a high dollar part, cheap ass Stern wasn't going to give it away without a fight. Cheap parts like brackets, posts, switch assemblies - they've done. Big dollar parts like large assemblies, motors, etc... those are more on a 'replace broken' instead of proactive replacements.

Safety issues are what force a company's hand to be proactive - but they are not the only reason companies support their customers with replacement of defective components.

Haaaa...there's no relaxing on this game. I just picked up a MM and almost finished it with extra balls turned off, if I did that with STr, I'd be lucky to start the first Total Isolation.

If you want people to be happy just walking up and playing your game.. Stranger Things.

It's proven for years across the general public.

Putting my order together. How are the Stern side blades for this game? Look good?

Has Stranger Things been a good earner for you?

Both great games. I like Bond better but if on location or for others to enjoy, STh mite be a better call (theme and bash toy wise).

Have mirrors on my pro, I like them better than the art blades. Just my preference.

bond not even close i think once the code gets better people are going to love it super fun layout

They will run this in 2024, I'm almost positive. They announced one last "final run" for GoTG and for this Stranger Things re-run they aren't listing it as a final run, but as a pre-order for a November run.

I think most believe it will be put on the line again in 2024 based on how sales of the November run go.

That's easy...

JP Prem

If i was a betting man, Stern will produce this up to and through the final season to seize on and maxmize that "emotional purchase" window once season 5 is done. Can't blame them honestly!

I don't think it's a limited run. If it were limited, Stern would say it was limited because they'd have nothing to lose. If Stern came out and said it wasn't limited, buyers would not be lining up to buy because they'd be thinking they can pick one up late on.

Nevermind, found it

The owners thread has lots of info on both topics.

Side text me , you can get 3 percent back maybe

As long as they don’t remake ghost

You don't even make sense with this stupid reparations argument. If they sent out shit and now have it fixed make it right! Manufactures do it all the time and its the only right thing to do.</blockquote

I’ve never seen anyone successfully argue with crazy levy .. he just way to bright and knowledgeable to fight with

well Stern posted on instagram yesterday morning and it said it was for a limited time only. Now they changed that to don't miss out on the rerun of stranger things.

They announced the games as "Premiums" and "Pros" which aren't typically limited as long as people (distributors) keep ordering them. How long this one will continued to be ordered will be interesting though... Although the game clearly now has a cult following on Pinside, it didn't sell well and was pretty widely dismissed when it was in production... FWIW, this was a 2019 game that was available all the way up to 2021 when I bought mine NIB below MSRP. The game went to stupid pricing, so I am glad folks that want it can get it at a fair price... But I have to wonder, aside from a few hundred Pinsiders, is there really that much more demand today then there was in 2019-2021?

All this to say, I'm sure they will sell through at least a run, but I don't know that I would bank on this being available for years like a normal run... If you want it, buy it or score a used one while pricing has cooled. Either way, I would bet Stern gives a last call to give some notice though...

Iceman thought the new factory and market conditions would mean the end of FOMO...instead Stern is gonna lean full into FOMO and only announce one run of a game at a time, no more long-term production schedule projections, and preface each run with "available for a limited time only!" =D

As a universally reported top earner on location I suspect demand for this title will be high.

good news is....................if you didn't get one, i had a family emergency come up and i will sell mine nib for 40k.

Why wouldn't a company lean into FOMO? You see it everyday on tons and tons of items. Almost every commercial you hear or see. "call now, this offer won't last long!" "Get into your GMC dealer for the best deals of the year" ect. Pretty standard marketing practice. Its only up to the consumer if they decide to fall for the FOMO or not.

Fair point. Maybe there are alot of operators that are wanting this. They were some of the biggest complainers at launch though... UV kit was seperate, maintenance issues, don't want projector, etc. But maybe the drop negates all of that and/or they fixed some of the issues.

In further defense of this being a big seller, people may snap this up because the perceive it as a "deal" over where market pricing just was... Say what you will about Mr. Davis--but the man is a money guy who knows how to raise it...

Its funny to think that a game which Stern struggled to sell for $7699 just two years ago is a "deal" at $9499 (23% increase) today? And what's sad, is it IS a deal over where used was...

Most operators just get a pro anyways which doesn't have the projector, and the UV kit was optional so most of them wouldn't worry about buying that either. I'm happy we're getting a STh premium w/UV kit at my local watering hole soon!

When will pinsiders recognize Crazy Levi is never wrong and Stern is the only one that runs a perfect company.

If and when we do, imagine the reduced amount of pages on most threads Love you Crazy!

Yes - top tier

Makes sense. It’s one of the few themes normal people will play based on the license alone. People that never play pinball otherwise.

What does the Premium offer that the Pro does not have? I heard the magnetic wall/levitating ball can be problematic.

Old review video.

Doesn't need to be 'more demand then there was...' - they want inventory available for the people who want a game now, but weren't around or buyers when the game was last available.

This is the same logic why Stern switched to having multiple games available in the channel in the first place. People seem to forget it was not long ago that Stern, and the companies before it, would only ever produce one title at a time. This meant if you were a home buyer and went to a dealer and said "I think I want a pinball machine..." - they basically would only have one or two options of games to pick from in terms of NIB buying. "You want a pinball? Well the only pinball available new is model X... take it or leave it"

Stern shifted to a strategy of wanting multiple titles available in the channel for buyers to pick from. And ever since then, that is why we get this quick rotating build pattern where Stern keeps restocking multiple different titles and keeps several titles in production for a period of time.

Since so many people are buying NIB now.. keeping a diverse range of NIB inventory available has been key to fueling NIB sales.. and it's worked. As long as they don't over produce, or produce a title no one wants, they've balanced this supply vs demand pretty good. Here, as long as they can sell their 500+ games in the next 6 months or so I'm sure they'll have considered it a success. And once again measure the demand afterwards to decide if they build more.

Bond is really only a 4 out of 10. Its layout is not great. Mechs are lame. Code is really unfinished and boring. Shame its such a great theme.

I would compare Venom the ST. Both fan layouts by Brian Eddy. Venom has potential with code saving our progress. IMO Godzilla is still number 1, followed by Foo and maybe Maiden, AFM.

I remember you. You bashed Bond before anyone even had a chance to play it. But then you said this 5 months ago:

"I wrote off 007 because of the incomplete and boring code. Lack of action button integration and clear objectives.

I played le today and was pleasantly surprised it was much better! More modes. Easy jet pack MB. More stacking. I even made it to a mini wizard 007 mode. Keep up the good work coders."

It's only gotten better since then so why are you bashing Bond again now? A lot has been added in the past 5 months (multipliers, 4 new mini wizard modes, 4 Q mode multiballs) and it's still not done (which is either good or bad, depending on how you look at it).

I don't have enough playing time on STh to say one or the other is better, but I think Bond is a pretty good game. It's all subjective, of course.

IIRC nothing other than the tele lock (which can be problematic depending on incline and game levelness) and projector, but even as someone who hasn't watched the show I think the projection makes the premium the far superior play experience. I can see why you would go for the pro on a budget since it changes next to nothing gameplay wise, though.

Yep, lean on into it. Stern has to get a lot more creative to keep the sucker train running now.

That said, if you love this game, so what, the $$ shouldn’t matter. These aren’t the “suckers”.

It’s the play it for 50 times and then try to resell it for more. Or just a NIB flip.

Can’t help a general lack of common sense.

It is relevant insofar as I was commenting on speculation as to "how long will Stern run this."

They aren't going to do multiple runs of this for years if people aren't buying. Their production strategy (which is brilliant) hasn't materially shifted from when this game was last built, which ended production ostensibly due to lack of demand (and was a relatively short run to boot)..

Will there be enough demand which keeps this in the pipe long term? Maybe... it would be cool to see.

They did another run of Iron Maiden earlier this year after they retired it because of demand and then did a proper “Last Call” on it. I would assume Stranger Things would get the same treatment until proven otherwise.
But at the end of the day it’s up to Stern,
There’s no real rules as to what the can/can’t do.

Yep. I agree.

I bought the UV kit and the shooter just in case they go out of stock, but I'm going to wait until a 2024 run to pre-order the game because I need to sell some stuff first. If they don't run the premiums again, oh well, I'll just sell the UV kit and shooter and buy BTTF or Indiana Jones when that comes out.