Again for what they are intended they are pretty good. All pinball is good pinball.

Looks like a ton of play getting put on those things...

I guess we know why the Transformer code is delayed...

Great theme, ugly cab/backbox, high price. Won't they learn?

Neat, I wonder when more detailed pics will be released. What trade show are these at, if anyone knows? I am assuming CES based upon timing... but ?

This may have more visibilty for the home market versus TF because of the recency. Best of luck in their sales!

Looks like the exact same PF layout with different art.

I guess any pinball presence at CES is better than nothing. If a young person gets to play pinball for the first time that's a success to me!

I'd never buy one, but they've done a good job with these. They actually look a lot better than I expected.

I feel like they will take this concept, add a coin door, and voila the new pro level pinball machine is born.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009AVLBS0/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_4

Interesting reviews on Amazon.

Can't help thinking that there isn't really a market for these. Hope I am wrong.

Who handles the warranty returns? Sounds like they will get a lot of returns. Since buyers can return it for even a switch not working I see lots of this happening.

One of those reviews is from me. The PIN is ok for families, those with space issues, those who just don't want to go thru the headaches that come from a 20 year old machine that will break down at some point.

Having said that, the damn thing malfunctioned in 7 days. Unacceptable. Luckily, since Amazon is the vendor, the return policy is as easy as it can be.

Of course this damn thing is going to cost me a LOT of money, since I'm now on Pinside and looking at multiple machines to buy! I've got the bug.

Stern tech support told me (paraphrasing) these are not intended to be serviceable by customers. You can flip up the glass, but not the playfield. You have to remove screws and go in underneath to do anything, really.

Amazon does the return, but outside of the 'return period' I'm not sure how that'd be handled. The motto at least is 'return, not on-site service.' Really messy and inconvenient.

It is so funny to read those reviews. The phrase "fun, fun, fun" and "fit and finish" and "real pinball" are so clearly reviews that are staged for sales.

They will get many returns under Costco's and Amazon's liberal return policies.
Most non pinheads will be irritated with the smallest maintenance issues.

Welcome! Yours was the only review I figured was real.

It's a good thing you're looking at "multiple machines." I doubt you'll stop at 1.

...and all the 1 star reviews are clearly by people that haven't purchased them or purchased them just for the sake to write a bad review and return it.

If this ^^^^^^ happens many times over, then even if the Pin is awful and doesn't succeed in its own right, if it draws a whole bunch more people into playing/enjoying real pinball, then by all means, Stern, keep doing your "Pin" thing.

Welcome! Because your review was clearly the only real or valid write-up of the machine, would it be too much trouble to ask you to post a youtube video of the gameplay? There hasn't been anything out there other than Stern propaganda...

Enjoy the sickness!

I am going to go with "yes" on this one...

From his Amazon review:
"Well, something burned out. The pinballs won't deploy. Maybe something burned out but the machine is essentially toast."

Hopefully each new person to pinball doesn't need to get a $3,000 lesson before they can get into the hobby. If the "Pin thing" is selling $3,000 un-servicable games to people that break in 7 days, that is not going to be a good thing for pinball.

My biggest problem with "The Pin" is people that haven't seen pinball in a long time are going to think this is what it evolved to. First impressions, you know?

lol this shit is funny. send it back an get a real tf for 3500

Yep. I wish I had vid of it. Even with malfunctioning drop targets. It just left back for Amazon today. Adios! At least that was easy. Now onto the real stuff.

I'm sure they'll be some buyers, but at least for now, I'm steering away from Stern. With my experience and some of the QC issues I've read on TF, XMen & Avengers, I don't want problems on a machine I dropped 6 grand plus on.

Played a lot of pinball in the last 2 weeks and I'm drawn to 90s Williams stuff anyway.

F THAT!! As we all know, PINBALL MACHINES NEVER FAIL!!

As long as they sell these to the general public well and make good money, so they can stay in the business longer and make more real pinballs that we will buy. Win win situation for everyone, the way I see it.

I noticed in your review you stated "I am worried about spending $3K for something that shouldn't malfunction for years, but has a big issue in a week's time." but then in the same paragraph you say " A pinball machine, new or used, has moving parts. Things can and will happen, but that's the chance you take to play these classic games." Your first sentence would be typical of someone who hasn't owned a pin, but your second is more indicative of someone who has, as we all known that they can and will break at any time.

The pin has 60 days labor and 6 months parts warranty. Does Stern have any official warranty with NIB pro or LE models?

Yeah, probably, but I was drafting the review and the damn thing malfunctioned, so I went back in later and wrote it from scratch AFTER I joined and visited here, actually. So there is a little 'before & after' there.

However, if you're marketing to the non-traditional pinball consumer, these things better be damn bulletproof. They're expecting it. The pinball community expects issues. The market for the PIN doesn't.

At the very least, have SOME sort of access for troubleshooting. There's literally no consumer-friendly access panels. The Megatron issue was 'an easy fix' according to Stern, but they don't want consumers performing it. The solution is sending it back? Who keeps their 5 foot high pinball box for 6 months?

Depends, does anyone have sales figures on the transformers one? Maybe Costco has committed to buying a lot of these ahead of time.

Well...we know at least one sold, but that didn't go so well, so now we are back to 0 known sold.

Might count as -1? ;D

That's too bad, and it sucks you had a bad experience with what should have been flawless out of the box. Hopefully everyone won't assume that all 'Pins' have poor quality control until we hear more about them.

Its good you posted here. Stern minions troll these boards.

One of my concerns is that if Stern invests a lot of money in "ThePin" and the whole thing blows up and becomes a money pit who do you think will be left holding the check?

I got news for ya, it's not Stern (or the investors), it's us. The money they lose will be passed onto all of the NIB Pro/LE/Premium purchasers in the future who will now have to pay an extra markup because they screwed the pooch.

That is my one and only concern (aside from R&D being taken away from the "Real Pins")

/rant

is the backbox made of plastic or wood? i can't tell.

i agree with what someone said, when people who never saw a pinball before see this, gonna think thats the way pinball evolved... bad.
now if stern comes out with pins looking like this, imagine what the pro will look like in a year or two... bad

why not focus on just one pin like they used to do few years ago with full features, not LE or premium or a pro (taking everything out and asking more money, ripping you off if you wanna have it back... the premium or le).

if they sell 500 of those worldwide i'd be surprised.

This is a legitimate fear and most likely what will happen. It will also sour new owners like the one above to shy away from stern as a whole. So while they are bringing new people to the hobby they're also shooting themselves in the foot with the product.

I left my review from when i played it and i can answer most questions about the game.

With a NIB Pro going for around $4300, and a Costco version about $800 less, what is a fair price for this based on your impressions of the build quality?

Agreed the development costs of this will be passed onto future LE models!

There have been 16 in stock on Amazon for ages........

its a solid 1k toy. Yes a TOY. It feels very flimsy and wheni went to nudge the machine i moved it 12-16 inches across the floor. Of course i am used to nudging 300lb wood machines around.

Now dont get me wrong the game is fun to shoot. More than a zizzle but i dont think jpop had alot to spend. The pd was glossy and looked nice. The pops where nice flipper felt fine. Hand full of leds where flickering and some where cooked all together. Spinning cube was a neat little toy for sure.

The sound was HORRID. OMG system 6 bad. Of course the rules are well not really a game for rules. The cabinet does look really nice until you touch it and see its abs and flimsy. The leg mounting is janky and likely will not hold up long term. Ie the cabinet slots breaking. The one i played had white stress creases already.

I fear new customers will see this think Stern sells junk and wont purchase another product from them for some time if ever again. Hell i wouldn't if this was my first pinball machine.

The fact of the matter is there are enough honest people in this hobby where a new player can get a solid working machine and help to fix it for around 2k.

for $800 difference i'll go with a pro all day long.

only $800 difference from the pro, no coin door, weird back box, only 2 display, can't lift the playfield and what else? probably a lot more!

I'm sure they're on here, but that wasn't my intent by the post / review. If I overwhelmingly LOVED the game I would have just exchanged it, but I look at the price point and my experience with it and I'm a little soured. Now if there was a TFLE thru Amazon that I could've replaced it with I might take a chance, but there are some issues. It'd need to be returnable though.

The Pin is an attempt to grow pinball, which is definitely a good thing. It could open up a whole new market. There is no one else doing it. There are some kinks off the bat. Hopefully they get worked out.

Plastic backbox. Pretty flimsy plastic.

Well i hope you can take your 3k and get yourself a nice working game and some experience under your belt changing bulbs coils etc. Welcome to the sickness.

They also tried this a few years ago and it flopped hardcore. Ended up being a terrible idea.

How so? I imagined it would be the same music/audio from the real pin but with one speaker. At this point, audio playback isn't an expensive technology...no reason for it not to have the same clear sound as a regular machine. If it's all downsampled and weird, that would be a shame.

tinny and crackling. Sounded distant in recording. Like it was done in a closet....reminded me alot of system 11 very early wpc ie wh20. Its not the boardset thats for sure.

I hope the"Pins" get buried in a New Mexico landfill just like the ET video game.

Wait. WAT? Where can you get a Tron Pro NIB for that price?

Why are people upset when Stern is trying to expand the pinball community and stay in business? This is working, we have a new pinhead already. He returned "the pin" but has been hooked. Chances are, he'll buy another Stern later on down the line.

JJP is still struggling to release pin #1 and who knows if they last, hopefully they succeed.

Stern is here to stay and they have produced some pretty fun games, good for them for their efforts.

For the hundredth time, "the pin" is not for us.