Stern TRANSFORMERS pin coming

vintagegamer

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Yup, I'm interested. One of the reasons I cancelled my Tron order....I hate the Tron theme, and love the Transformers theme.
 
Yup, I'm interested. One of the reasons I cancelled my Tron order....I hate the Tron theme, and love the Transformers theme.

Is there a formal release date for the TFORMERS one? They really should have gotten it out with the latest movie release.
 
I am ALL about Transformers, I will probably sell off anything I have to to get one. Once they announce it anybody know how much cash you have to put down as a preorder? And what would a NIB pin cost? $4000-$5000?
 
Is there a formal release date for the TFORMERS one?

They're shooting for a September release.

They really should have gotten it out with the latest movie release.

*sigh* ...I've explained this a million times but here we go. Day-and-date release of a pinball with a movie is irrelevant if the property is iconic. Spider-Man is still a popular game and was still in production YEARS after Spider-Man 3 came out. Lord of the Rings was put back into production multiple times for 7 years!!! Pinball sales do not start and end with the box office. Transformers has been popular since the mid-80s. So - if the pinball comes out after the 3rd movie, the timetable is irrelevant and the game will still be popular and desirable to fans of the franchise.

On the technical/creative side of things - Stern has more audio/video material to work with if they wait until the movie is released. Batman, Indiana Jones, Iron Man and Spider-Man were missing TONS of material because the only stuff they were allowed to use from the studio were the trailers of the newest films. Luckily, Spider-Man got code updates 2 years later to correct this....Iron Man it didn't really matter cuz the only good stuff from IM2 was in the trailer (lol)....but Batman and Indy really suffered from this.

Avatar sold fine being released after the movie. Tron is selling INSANELY well...AFTER the movie....and Transformers will be just fine.

EDIT:
I am ALL about Transformers, I will probably sell off anything I have to to get one. Once they announce it anybody know how much cash you have to put down as a preorder? And what would a NIB pin cost? $4000-$5000?

There, this proves my point! Does jdubb care that it doesn't come out THIS WEEK with the new movie? No, he loves Transformers! That's what matters.

Pro version will be ~ $4000-ish
Limited Edition will be ~$5500-ish
 
There, this proves my point! Does jdubb care that it doesn't come out THIS WEEK with the new movie? No, he loves Transformers! That's what matters.

Pro version will be ~ $4000-ish
Limited Edition will be ~$5500-ish

Thanks RH.... You are exactly right with your point there as well. I have been a Transformer geek since 1985. I have been hoping Stern would come out with a TF pinball since I got into this a few years ago. I called the wife up about a half hour ago after I read about this and told her. She agreed with me, I have all the time in the world to get any of my collectibles or current machines back in the future, but I only have 1 chance to get a NIB TF pinball machine!
 
Rumors on RGP indicate that this is a George Gomez-designed game, and my use some sort of smaller LCD somewhere as well as a "transforming" element on the playfield. Given Gomez' toy design past and ability to do playfield toys(Corvette, and the Castle from MM) this should be a pretty cool deal. While none if these new Sterns are in my price range, everyone has to admit it is a pretty exciting time for pinball...
 
I am ALL about Transformers, I will probably sell off anything I have to to get one. Once they announce it anybody know how much cash you have to put down as a preorder? And what would a NIB pin cost? $4000-$5000?

Rough guess I would think $4500 for Pro. And at least $5500 for LE. And starting with Tron, the LE's are supposed to keep being greater and way more features than the Pro's. So maybe more $ for the LE's.

Which means you really need to shop around and get the best deal you can.

LTG :)
 
Day-and-date release of a pinball with a movie is irrelevant if the property is iconic.

That depends. If the pinball is themed around a specific movie and the movie's been out of theaters for six months, it's stale. Can you imagine McDonald's coming out with Spiderman happy meals now that it's no longer in the theaters? Most merchandising efforts, if they work, should be better-timed than what Stern does IMO.

Tron is selling INSANELY well...AFTER the movie....

LOL... define "insanely well?" You just cancelled your order.
 
I think if Mcdonalds came out with Transformers toys 2 years from the movie release we would be getting them..... uh... here is another to put in perspective Star Wars....enough said.
Wish I had the room and dough for this pin.... but I had other arrangements :)
 
Tron is selling INSANELY well

What 400 LE's ( not counting distributors grabbing to sell on speculation ) and similar number of Pro's. About 800 total. They used to have to make 3,000 to break even.

LTG :)
 
I think if Mcdonalds came out with Transformers toys 2 years from the movie release we would be getting them..... uh... here is another to put in perspective Star Wars....enough said.

Unfortunately if that were true, then we'd see goofy-timed branding from the big corporations, but we don't because they're smarter than that.

That's not to say if you stick a lightsaber in a pile of cat poo, x amount of fans will stand in line to buy it. But that's not going to push your sales to the next level.
 
That depends. If the pinball is themed around a specific movie and the movie's been out of theaters for six months, it's stale. Can you imagine McDonald's coming out with Spiderman happy meals now that it's no longer in the theaters? Most merchandising efforts, if they work, should be better-timed than what Stern does IMO.

Comparing apples and nutsacks. Like I said, Transformers has been around since the 80's. It's still popular. There's no such thing as "stale" with that license. It's iconic.



LOL... define "insanely well?" You just cancelled your order.

I'm not a Tron fan. Made no sense for me to order in the first place. Regardless of my opinion, there are tons of Tron fans and they've made it clear they love the theme by whipping out their wallets. The Tron fans aren't saying "oh well, the movie's out of theaters, therefore my interest in Tron has ceased"
 
What 400 LE's ( not counting distributors grabbing to sell on speculation ) and similar number of Pro's. About 800 total. They used to have to make 3,000 to break even.

LTG :)

It just came out. You can't judge a pinball's final production run by its first few months.
 
It just came out. You can't judge a pinball's final production run by its first few months.

I agree.

I think that word of mouth (internet discussions) will play a big role in how this pin does (pro and LE) in the next few months.
 
Yeah..if there ended up only being 1000 Tron pins in the world, I may cry. Literally. I want one very badly but there's no way I'm coming up with 4000$ anytime soon. Could care less about LE or not. I'm trying to appease myself by restoring this Space Shuttle but I'm probably just living a lie, lol. :p

I find it amazing given those numbers so far that a local nickel arcade has TWO of them...my god. And I'm going back at least 1-2x a week JUST to play that.
 
As far as timing for the release goes, who's to say there won't be another Xformers movie out in a few years when this pin gets released?
 
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