I'm anxious to play BM66, I might sell my GoT LE down the road to buy a MB66 Premium!

didn't ask

but, haven't seen it listed anywhere & they didn't say it.

Did anybody on the tour ask what $5000 gets you for buying a Super LE over a regular LE?

It gets you one of 30! errr uh one of 80! errrr uh...........maybe more? LOL WTF

There's no answer to that question, so why ask?

I've never seen such a poor value proposition in pinball. That premium is a pro. That LE is overpriced, and that SLE is simply offensive with its pricing.

Why ask? Because if you were there, you could.

"Because this one goes to 11--er, $15,00!"

Does the Premium have reduced game play like a Pro?

I think the Pinball News guy did and was immediately kicked out and banned from the Stern Epic Party.

I heard none of them were playing.

One could argue that the game is sparse enough that that they had to remove armor and such because there's not much left to strip from the game...that game is thin.

No deep dish pizza for you!!

It gets you a box of cheap cigars and lunch with Gary whether you like it or not.

And the honor of being one of the dummies that f ing paid it?

Yes, I know I'm one of the idiots that bought a BMLE66

So what, people with $$ do stupid shit all the time and Stern knows that. Jack DOES NOT know that. Period

Right Gary? George? Jack? Yeah you know exactly wtf I'm talking about

The extra $5k is for only ONE THING. You get to say you have 1 of 80

The LE is only for ONE THING. You get to say you have 1 of 240

Hey Jack, how many of the LE's and SLE's did Stern sell?

Well I'm not sure Iceman, well Jack, they sold them all and have people waiting in line.

Hey Iceman, I think i really F ed up being a smart ass with the Lawlor reveal and thinking all of you dummies would run up to the stage and throw $100 dollar bills at me for an unlimited run.

Sorry Jack, it doesn't work that way.

We have move into a new era where people aren't going to pay $9k plus for ANY pinball machine, again and again.

And yes, I know you know that now. When will the standard version be available?

The new spinning toy seems interesting, but since they wouldn't let anyone play it and didn't have a video who knows.

Honestly I'm just grateful Stern made the reveal so blah, it helped Alien out.

Who was the total dumb ass that pulled that move!

I swear, these "pinball companies" just can't help stepping all over their dicks.

It's the most amazing lack of competence I have ever seen.

Thank goodness they have some of the dumbest consumers on earth like myself.

I am amazed Star Trek LE still looks better than a Batman 66 "Super" LE...........guess it was all downhill after Star Trek. I figured 15k would surely blow STLE away........NOPE

So he was kicked out of the Stern tour and the party? Seems crazy and strange to me. Pinball News is highly regarded within the industry. Pretty lame if that's true. Stern shouldn't be afraid to answer a few questions.

The guy from pinball news didn't need the pizza anyway. I hear there is a Chik-Fil-A right in the neighborhood. With new BBQ sauce and all.

True.

Unfortunately, because we had the temerity to question the $15,000 price tag for the new Batman 66 game, Pinball News was banned from the Stern factory.

While the JJP Deep Dive event was taking place, Stern Pinball were holding their 30th Anniversary Party at the Viper Alley concert venue in Lincolnshire. Sadly, despite purchasing a $30 ticket, Pinball News was banned from the party by Stern Pinball for suggesting their $15,000 Batman 66 Super Limited Edition machine might be a little overpriced.

http://www.pinballnews.com/shows/expo2016/index.html

I have heard NOTHING but good things about that new BBQ sauce.

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At Gary's talk they said they were working on the licensing for years, and it needed a license from 2 parties. That finish on the sides of the superLE made me think of all of the different finishes they have on sports cards now. I think those finishes were influenced from the Topps collectable guy.

Glad you decided to use the cardgument instead of the cargument. At first it was kind of hard to tell...

All models better come with it for the new prices .... my goodness. Bad enough its not even a new game from ground up .

Now that's f ing funny Deener

Thanks for posting that. It's the first time I've heard someone from Stern say that when the pro returns, it will include a price increase. I've thought for a while that fully crossing the psychological barrier of a 5k street price for a Pro would tumble sales. It's exciting to finally see if that is correct or not.

Postulation 1. Rising above 5k street price for a Pro will cut sales in half.

Postulation 2. Once crossed we will be at 6k Pros within a year (assuming 3 cornerstone games per year).

Postulation 3. Pro games will get a bit more as the get close to premium pricing.

Postulation 4. Once there they will strip back out the additions one at a time.

The cool part of Pinside now is that after 24 hours I won't be able to change my guesses. Could be right, or they could be wrong. Just my opinion.

From what I was told at the show, the answer is no. I didn't catch all of what he said, as we got interrupted, but I could swear I heard a comment that they (Stern) was trying to standardize the play across all levels, which makes it easier to code, and only one playfield version has to be produced. I don't know if that was just BM66, or all models going forward. I guess time will tell, but on the BM66 at least, all levels of play are the same.

The differences are finish, armor, LE/SLE plaque, and some extra add-on's such as playfield toys and an autographed collectors card affixed to the LE and SLE versions. Rumor has it there is some different callouts on the SLE, but when I asked about those type of differences, I was told that was not the case. Given the confusion, I suspect they really don't know that yet.

SLE and LE have toppers, but only the SLE has the bat-signal. It can be added to the LE easily and will be available from Stern at a "nominal" cost...

SLE has a really sharp embossed type of decal on the cabinet exterior, as well as some extra "bat-toys" on the playfield, but none of them are interactive...they are just hot-wheels, etc. Again, this was part of the conversation around different code for different models, and this is where the comment came in about code being the same. Both LE and SLE have nice flaked black paint on the legs, lockdown bar, etc.

So unless there is something that pops up that wasn't presented at the show....there is absolutely nothing included on the SLE that would justify even one tenth of the additional 5K. And for that matter, there is very little to justify the increase of the LE over the premium, but at least that difference gets you a topper, armor, and some nice paint. Not worth the price jump, but at least it is something material.

So if you are buying to flip.....LE is your model. If you are buying to play, then a Premium is the best bang for the buck. Same Bat-game, less bat-cash...............

Edit: Forgot, the SLE has the upgraded sound system and speaker lights/grille inserts. Still not $500 difference, let alone 5K

(Disclaimer: Our conversation got interrupted several times, so if there are some differences I haven't mentioned, please bay all means post them)

So is everybody loving the clip art or should a milestone pin with a milestone price have hand drawn art like GB?.

I think they had to use the stock images due to the licensing agreement, but I for one would have liked to have seen more hand-drawn work. They cabinets are decent, and the playfield is OK....but they could have really dressed these pins up with a little more work. As it is, they just cluttered things up with a lot of bright color distraction, and called it good. If we actually saw a stripped playfield, it probably wouldn't look that much different than BDK.

I saw they are bringing back the old BBQ sauce. Hope no one from stern has a heart attack.

I think the artwork looks fantastic. I do, however, strongly feel a premium priced anniversary pin should include an all new playfield, rather than modified version of a mediocre original.

On the other hand, this bodes well for future VE's.

The playfield art IS hand drawn. It's hard to tell from the photos, because it's done in a photo-realistic style.

It is and it isn't. The whole game's package is put together in Photoshop with a collage style, but it uses hand drawn art as the source.

I don't care, I thought it looked good. I'm just saying that we should probably save that terminology for something like Aerosmith or Metallica, where Donny actually hand drew the entire layout. Just so that the term doesn't start to lose meaning.

Just compare the Premium and LE translites for instance. Look good, but they're the same art just with the collage rearranged and tilted, and the LE has Batgirl and the Premium doesn't as they moved the Batmobile around. (Going from memory here, pretty sure that's right.)

I guess people are critical of it since some (not all) of the art was used on previous Batman products. I love the art package and it is all hand drawn. See pics below for examples of Chris Franchi hand drawn sketches early in his design process.

I was at the Kevin O' Connor seminar at expo and didnt realize he did some art for Batman 66 as well. He said he started with some playfield and translight art but Stern decided to go with Chris Franchi art instead. One of the main reasons being that Chris Franchi is a frequent collaborator with the license holders so the approval was a lot quicker using his stuff. Kevin's work is still on the game. All the heros and villains are Franchi and some of the other non character stuff is by Kevin. Maybe someday we will see some of the earlier concepts of Kevins Batman 66 work before they switched to Franchi.

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My bad if they are hand drawn, I am talking about the back glass where there appears to be a bunch of images drag and drop with for example an image of Robbin overtop of an image of the Penguin. With different sizes and perspectives just a collection of individual images rather than a cohesive image like you'd see on a comic book cover for example.

Most art is composite, in this case they just did a piss poor job of it. I myself am not a fan of the art style, I was hoping it would be more comic book and less TV show. Actually its the parts of both I don't like, if you going with clips from the show on the LCD then make the art style match. Or use animated clips on the LCD and use art that matches, they are kinda stuck in the middle of both.

I thought this was funny as Ed Robertson of Barenaked Ladies takes a little jab (in good fun) at the BM66 price model during a live performance at the Stern party (Viper Room). Sorry if this was already posted.

And he has now been banned from Stern

j/k

I took a photo from the front row as the game was booting up.
Software version is 0.3
No wonder we were not flipping it.

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It reminds me of comics in the 90s before the crash. Time for a comicgument.

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Maybe on the next SLE they'll use holograms.

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and to confuse us even more...lets start a poll...who is hotter...Catwoman or the Invisible Woman as pictured on the Fantastic Four cover above??

Or just skip to Jessica Alba as "Sue Storm" in the 2005 FF (or pretty much any role she has played) and we have our winner!

Sorry I could only give you 1 thumbs up.

I prefer classic costume Sue Storm. Her 90s costume makes her look like a stripper. It still funny though for it's 90s cheese. Did anybody notice Thing has a helmet on in that cover?

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i'm looking at the SLE and wondering how much does it cost stern to built the game? 4-5k?

That's the price just for the decals!

The first 500 having the card with Adam West's signature bumps up the BOM a bit per machine.

No, try much lower.