Stern has sold more of this pin on title alone sight unseen to overseas buyers, and they could give a shit about us home collectors/players on this one. They don't need the hype to sell Avengers, it's already sold as far as they're concerned. The games they sell to us (the LE's) will just be gravy to them. The real money is in the Pro's for this one. Gary has mentioned several times that they stick to popular titles because they sell tons on title alone to the overseas market. Fact is, us collectors are hungry for new games/titles and will be eager to see/play/buy the new machine when it hits no matter when it is. The X-men comic theme needed the hype as it was comic based and didn't have a blockbuster movie to pump it up. I know a lot of people that got caught up in the hype (in other words, it worked), and I think that's one of the main reasons you see so many of them up for sale.

Stern is a business and all they care about is making money.. While they have to keep us somewhat happy, we've been accepting of their hype up to this point, only to be fed unfinished, untested machines that have all kinds of problems that should have been worked out in the factory before shipping. I for one am a little bitter on the X-Men machine I shelled out $6500 for, only to get a machine that wasn't set up correctly (Iceman ramp) and code that was not only infantile, but didn't even add the score/numbers up correctly. I think a lot of us feel this way, and more hype right now would just bring out the collectors like me that are going to ask "but what about the last machine that you haven't even finished yet"? Kind of like JJP's announcement on a payment plan for the hobbit- hell, how can you ask for that when you don't even have the first one done?

I for one am OUT on Avengers, and like some of you have said, I think I'm finished for a while with new Sterns. Luckily, I have an AC/DC Premium to hold me over for quite some time.

They will do a premium just like AC/DC, so if it's a good title that sells you can bet they will pump them out to meet demand. This title won't be limited to 550 LE's and no other option to have the upgrades in a Premium (all based on my speculation, of course). Again, they make money selling machines.. and Avengers will sell. They just have to dedicate themselves to making a good machine that has kick-ass code (like AC/DC) to get my $. Of course I'll be excited to see the new machines and will be tempted, but the taste of X-men will most definitely hold me back until I know exactly what I'm getting with Avengers.

I came so damn close to buying a Transformers... so glad the stars didn't align for that one, had my money tied up in my Tron LE.

And for those saying "just wait for the pictures, you may want one".. I would have agreed with you until I owned X-men... I love the Layout that Borg gave us and am happy with how the pin plays/looks, it's just the code that kills it for me at the moment. So no matter how good Avengers looks, for me it's the substance of the code that matters.

It's probably going to be a Rolling Stones re-skin with a plastic Loki on a stick... so there you have it, the cat's out of the bag!!

That's why we haven't seen anything, Gary Stern wants all the overseas markets to buy the container loads before the wave of disappointment hits and they cancel their orders.