Lots of LOTRs are popping up for sale...

Hadn't heard but that's cool if true.

Wouldn't doubt it. Heck of a way to capitalize on the release of the final Hobbit movie in the next 3-6 months.

If that is the case we wouldn't see that before the new year at the latest. MMR, TWD LE should be running by now. But if LOTR VE comes by...then i guess it will be my first NIB..given that they don't raise the prices yet again. VE models are money in the bank for them as there is little to no production work needed. The plans are set, schematics are drawn. Perhaps different artwork.

I'd buy it to place alongside my Hobbit.

yoursign.jpg

It's a possibility. Newer Stern location will have multiple lines running, and yes, Stern has been ramping up parts specific to lotr.

If they make the LOTR VE with all new static figures to replace the out-of-production figures then it will be very interesting to see the price point. I can't imagine it being much less than $6000 since LOTR has probably a greater material cost than present day Stern Premium games.

I think LOTR VE is a great idea! It will sell as many as IM, if not more! Plus it's a savvy business move releasing it just before TH. I like it!

I think it would be very cool. Would my LE value get hurt a little? Very possible. That said, I don't ever plan on getting rid of it so hopefully it doesn't bother me too much.

Color DMD + LOTR VE = good move by Stern

My LOTR LE might have to get some of those cabinet decals if they can be purchased separately.

int stern() {

if (usedPrice > NIBPrice)
{
vaultEdition = true;
}

return profit;

}

I would love for this to be true.

It'd be cool if they worked in characters from both LOTR and The Hobbit into the playfield and software.

That definitely cannot happen since JJP has the rights to Hobbit pinball.

They would be nuts if they didn't. Selling a run of 1000 would be a piece of cake. And as said earlier more of them have been showing up for sale lately. The insiders know......use MM and MB (and possibly BBB) as examples.

I heard it was Tron premiums bitches!

Disclaimer: I lied

There are many thousands of LOTRs out there. It would be weird if they WEREN'T for sale any any given time.

int stern() {
if (usedPrice > NIBPrice)
{
vaultEdition = true;
bendoverpinsiders++

for(i=0; i < LOTRLEprice.length, i++){
var hikeprices = increase *i;
var vodka = numberOfGlasseGaryCanHave *i;
var takemymoney = depositSightUnseen *i
}
}
return profit;

They have kind of dried up lately compared to a year ago actually.

Would be a good move. A lot of pre-order money was freed up when TH bombed at Expo. They could easily sell 300-500. I'd love to see an LOTR with high definition decals on the cabinet and as others have mentioned, they need to sell the decals directly. Would be interesting to see what CPU would be used - SAM or Whitestar.

If there was ever a game that deserved that...

I agree.

I would buy a VE (so long as it was priced well)

I don't even care about the PF figures or no figures doesn't mean much to me.

If I recall correctly, at expo the color dmd guys specifically mentioned stern's assistance/help with the colorizing process on lotr.

I'd honestly be surprised as I just don't think the demand is there. It's a great pin, but there are tons of them already out there. Maybe they could sell a couple hundred of them, but is that really worth it?

If someone wants to buy a nice LOTR and they are willing to have it shipped, it would not be difficult to buy at all.

But there seems to be trend where people are turning their noses up at well maintained to happily pay a premium for the "NIB experience".

I don't see the rationale, but multiple members have remarked along the lines of $5500 is too much for a "used" game (that is demonstrated to be issue free) but they would roll the dice on an an unknown cost reduced NIB model for $1K more.

Makes as much sense as other aspects of this hobby

My guess is yes. They already have the tech for high rez decals (metallic?). If they have to port the game over from Whitestar to SAM it would be some work, but presumably that work would scale to any other Whitestar title they might want to do later.

Beyond that it's pretty much stuff that's set, the work has already been done for the most part. Keeping the line running and money coming in off a couple hundred games sounds pretty good. I imagine they've run the numbers and know where their break even point is and then it's just a matter of trying to forecast the demand beyond that to calculate the risk/reward.

New decals seem like a slam dunk, why the hell not? What would be more work but a killer feature would be upgraded sound. If they port to SAM they should have the memory to handle that, assuming they have the original samples still.

I will buy it even if it is priced badly.

profit is uninitialized; they could make 0xFFFFFFFF dollars (about $4.3B).

This is the absolute killer point. Good sound = EVERYBODY want.

Yes, I'm sure that Stern will do their homework as they always do. But much of what you type is based on the assumption that Stern has already decided to do this, which we don't know.

And if they do: what will the price be? $6k or more? If so, the number that they will sell at that price point will definitely not be very large.

If they pull a rabbit out of their butt and price this at $5k or less? That would be sweet, and even I'd have to consider owning it at that price (I've only owned 3 LOTRs, so owning a 4th version would be a must, right?).

If all this Vault activity means that I can buy HD decals for my LOTR and IM a few years down the road, I'm all for it.

I dare you to try and find one in Canada that someone is willing to let go. They are few and far between. All I wish is that the CDN dollar comes back to par.

It's like Star Wars Rob. You can't do 4 without doing 6.

what's with all the undeclared variables in here.

I just bought a nice HUO example so I'm sure this is true...you guys will get the HD art and improved sound and I will be stuck with rabbit ears with aluminum foil to your dish network...

Wasn't their business model founded on the ability to rerun titles in smaller quantities if there was demand? There are a lot of new people in the hobby since LOTR was last run.

Seems like a great idea to leverage their top titles. Additional work would be required to port it to the new system and fit it to the new cabinet style. I wouldn't be surprised if LOTR VE was priced closer to their premium games considering the amount of stuff in it.

Funny thing. A friend and I were just talking about this possibility the other day and I thought it was highly unlikely due to the BOM used on LOTR compared to their current games.

They were doing Trons 100 at a time, so why not 200 LOTRs? This seems to be with the new Stern M.O., which is efficient productions and multiple titles at the same time.

Some of these boutiques who want to run 100 of a game should really talk to Stern, they seem geared up to handle a job like that.

Nobody cares about Canada.

^^^^. Lol, I'll sympathise with ya, flash. Can't get em here either.

In order for stern to run lotr ve they would have to sell 400-500 units at a price point of $6800 to offset Sam conversion and current bom costs.

the real question is will it ship with LEDs? I never liked LOTR with LEDs

<$5K I'm in , over that looks like no Stern for me.

Why would a VE Pro jump to $6k?

Stern would get a bump in sales due to improving decals and sound, and considering ColorDMD support is ready to go plus Hobbit movie, it's not a bad move.

Good point! Hopefully it would be all sockets

Because LOTR has a lot of shit in it compared to IM, and it will involve more work in terms of porting the Whitestar stuff to the SAM system.

When they sold LOTR LE several years ago, they sold for close to $6k.

I'd love to see them sell a LOTR VE at $5k. I just don't expect it.

oh man ... LOTR VE .... now THAT sounds like a Vault Edition