Wow,
I got here a little late but, after a bit of excitement and some dissapointment, then reading others reactions, here's my take.

I got the Wolverine LE and the art looks good to me... I actually prefer it to the pro (except on the backbox). There's no villian, but plenty of characters. The blue trim puts me off a bit and I think chrome on the wolverine version would go great to match with his claws all over the place... maybe leave on the blue legs... dunno?

Look closely and you'll see the LE spinner has some very small black circular slits cut into it where the pro does not. I'm guessing a ball trap of some sort comes up while it spins (the mech in the promo video) and it drops to release?

Looks like I was right about the crossing element on the CAD file being the moving ramp... wish I wasn't Looks a bit clunky, but I like some variety. It might be cool?

Magneto figure looks okay to me. He's in a good spot for his size and I think the wide angle photography used is also exaggerating the figures a bit.
The half-wolverine is way too much IMO and I would totally try and replace him with a smaller and more "full body" figure if possible. Does anyone know if the figure itself gets bashed or just some target underneath it? The bust posted earlier would be an awesome replacement but probably too brittle if this thing is meant to take a beating.

Wolverine backglass is okay by me too. Not sure if I would change it.

And I agree, 3D nightcrawlers would have been far better. I like the troll modes on my MM and they offer some cool variety... but this just looks cheap. I was expecting more with these "custom toys".

Most likley. Too bad that ramp couldn't be plastic!

To be fair Gambit, you know that MM trolls have thin flaps that are oversized to cover the holes when they are down. This doesn't look like that. When Nightcrawler is down, there is going to be a gap (no matter how small) and those edges will likely be prone to wear. It's just another example of Stern not going that extra mile to do something right IMO.

Back on the CAD drawing you could see that the upper flipper would shoot an inner loop to the right of the Xavier ramp and this Magneto diverter will send balls to rest on that inner column underneath his figure. Eventually the two pins drop and release these locked balls into the magnetic spinner.

There was talk early on that the ramp would be user controlled. Since there aren't any extra buttons to divert, like on TS, I would guess that you use the left flipper to force the ramp over on a right ramp shot to bring it left... possibly for repeated right ramp shots on some mode. Maybe you don't always make it and the ball drops to the playfield?

Just looking back at these PF pics I'm counting 9 key shots if you count the wolverine bash toy. That's pretty impressive in a standard sized cabinet! It's a modified fan playfield but my MM in comparison has 8 shots and my IJ is a widebody and has just 7!
The only other game I own with that many shots and no upper playfield is TAF... and it has four flippers!
As a result I think this is going to be an extremely tight shooting pin geared to the more skilled player. Not sure how it will do on location?

Sadly, I haven't seen anything exciting from Stern in the rule-set department for a long time.
If there's one knock on Tron it's the super-basic achievement ladder and basic modes.

From the inserts, XM seems like more of the same.

I really want me some good old-time mode pinball like IJ or TAF. Why can't people write rulesets and fun modes like that?

For now, yes. Wolverine LE.

If I was GS I would do this sooner than later. If this thing plays as good as everyone at Stern says, a vid would go a long way towards squashing much of the bashing these pics are taking.

Nice work on the chrome! This was my first instinct when I saw those pics. The claws and all the grey in the wolverine LE artwork really scream for this trim package. I was on the fence about keeping my pre-order. This helps a bit... Although that's more money I'd have to throw into this pin!
Now if only a reasonable mod for the night crawler and wolverine figures could be found, this pin would be awesome!

I'm guessing they'd just remove it for the LE.

This is seriously putting me on the fence as well. An $8K game should be perfect; not require another $500-$750 in parts and mods to get it right.

You're right. This is just an opinion of course. Many people love it as-is. I'm coming from a creative background and it's entirely possible I'm just being way too critical... but it's becasue I was so excited for this release.
I guess I just hoped, with the announcement of custom toys and such, that they would have been a little more well executed.
Modding is fun, but it should not feel almost necessary on an expensive premium game. How many people are modding their ACDC LE's?

my guess is metal fins come up through those slits and trap the balls as they spin. When it drops, the balls probably release???

It seems like something that could be added, but the code might be different and not support the extra features.

I'm pretty confident what you see is what you'll get. I would not hold my breath for subway ramps and other features not already shown. This game is as good as in production.

I'm surprised so many people are worried babout the art. That would be the least of my concerns wit this pin. I think all the art packages are well done.

I'm the same way. I love mode-based rule sets, but not when they seem to have pointless and repetitive objectives.
I always go back to games like IJ and TAF that used different parts of the playfield and specific targets and objectives that really felt like part of the theme. I haven't seen anything like that from Stern in a very long time.
I wish I knew which way XM was going. From the inserts I'm guessing it's a lot closer to how Tron works.