For EM's there is only one answer, Gottleib 1964 Majorettes only 425 made, great wedgehead AAB

My wants, but have-nots and will try hard to have someday...
Krull - played and loved
Viking - have not played
Alien LV - played and loved
Cyclopse - have not played

We had a Solar Fire in our basement growing up. Only 782 produced. Super fun and challenging game. Wish my dad never sold it.

I very recently went through this one which has a low production run,
and as far as performance. No disappointment. 100% "Plus" Satisfied..

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They are for sale regularly. Being a clone of BK, JL and Pharaoh, with varying opinions of which of the 4 were best, there is opportunity to own one or similar style of play.

Personal favorites of the rare games I have played...

Cosmic Gunfight
JJP Pirates of the Caribbean
Defender
Mystery Castle
America's Most Haunted

How about a link to the poster on the wall? Now that would be fun!

I played Kingpin at a show earlier this month and thought it was awesome. Really cool and unique theme, a fun layout with some great gimmicks (slot machine and spinner ramps), exciting scoring with the playfield x, and the video game-esque life meter rule is very cool, especially how the enemy goons shoot back at you and you've got to then regain health.

BBB for me.

Big Buck Hunter Pro (pretty sure it had a small run)

Not sure about the very best, but (playability wise) it was very much a surprise.
Pleasant surprise..

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I didn't know Snow Derby/Snow Queen had an AAB version. Those games are super fun so I can only imagine the AAB is great too.

Stern Shrek < 700 units

Best rare games for me are Andromeda (500 made) and Algar (349 made).

Andromeda is one of the best all around early-SS games made from both player's point of view and certainly for the art.

Algar is super under-rated. Great tournament game, and so weird/wildly different in gameplay from just about any other game I've played.

I have a Sunset Riders on the truck on it's wat to me atm.

Retheme of a Bally Eight Ball. Not sure how many there were made, maybe 6 or 7? I'll ask the manufacturer.

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Total run of 7 machines apparently.

Yea. Actually Bristol Hills has a little meaning to me. It's a Ski Resort here in Upstate N.Y. fairly close by..
A Vendor (and a huge Gottlieb distributor, Johnny Bilotta) from my small hometown knew Dave Gottlieb
well. As the two were walking through Gottlieb's factory, Johnny noticed a Ski Resort pinball machine (Snow
Derby) being made and said, "Why don't you call that Bristol Hills" thus Dave produced 110 Bristol Hills
models solely for New York State..
I had it (actually a couple) for years, and just this past month or so I went through it and I can honestly say,
the rating on IPDB isn't joking..

Defender.

My Cleopatra EM is 1 of 349 made for US market.. It's by far the most fun EM I've played ( haven't played many ). Game has been HUO since early 80's. I got it for free..

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Totally agree. Was going to say this, but saw you beat me to it. Played Tim Mehan's at a PPE years ago, and was hooked on this game.

ROCKY a totally fast and challenging game.

PUNK is a great game.

DEFENDER is all time great

friend of mine picked up 3 last yr at different times.

Not a pin, but since I tuned up the Jumbo last month, it's what I've been
playing more than any other single game. Only a handful of the 7 footers.

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Came here to say this. Such a unique, fun pin.

Rolling Stones LE (a few hundred maybe?)
Fastest game in all of pinball with wide ramps and navi ball.

Stern NBA is really popular amongst guest and the amazement watching the ball fly in the air never gets old.

FEW hundred? I think that's an over estimation. STERN only made as many as were ordered and there were NOT that many ordered at all. I honestly believe there are less than 200 of these but, probably more than 100.

People believe that all Stern LE's are always made. Truth is that a LOT of LE's were never made for multiple Stern titles. This is especially true back then when LEs were a very new concept. They only put that 250,350, ect. number out there to show the maximum that they would ever make, not to indicate how many were actually made.

22 have turned up on Pinside and only 6 have been reg'd here:

https://www.ipsnd.net/view.aspx?id=5708

Tommy Prototype next to Tommy was really unique at Ann Arbor VFW. Varkon was bad ass as well.

Another vote for Krull. I've played 2 of the 10, it's like Haunted House only better. Others would be Verne's World, Defender, Cosmic Princess, Warlok and Big Bang Bar. King Pin wasn't that fun. Spectrum is odd but after a few games, not fun to play. Gemini and Cyclopes are good. Cosmic Gunfight is fun but a bit too one-dimensional (right orbit all day) and I don't consider it "rare". Pink Panther is fun, provided it plays well; some are too floaty or have weak flippers, makes them tedious. Asteroid Annie is just okay. Bristol Hills is rare artwork but not rare playfield; they had one in the Classics tournament bank at Expo last month.

One I haven't seen mentioned so far is Starlight. Used to be one at Expo every year; I'm blanking on the name of the woman who brought it. Very fun to play, good rule set.

As for the recent games with "limited" production runs, I don't consider them rare since the low count was intentional.

The starlight more than likely was Phoebes Butterflygirl24

As for the 2 krulls that you ahve played, im guessing i know the two owners given your location. Are you coming to pincinatti this weekend?

I use to own one. The key word is 'use to' own a Krull. It was not a keeper. I sold it years ago for $5000. I do wish I still had it so I could sell it for todays going price.

Majorettes is fun. Middle saucer is a cool idea

your years ago must actually be decades ago. years ago it was still a 40k game. I owned one also till about 3 years ago

No, going to do 2 of 4 days at Captains in Anaheim. And one of the Krulls was not in CA but in CO.

I really enjoy Goin' Nuts.

Defender is such a great pin. If you like early 80s solid state action it's one the funnest

So many pop bumpers, and it’s a 1 ball game right??

I really think if Krull was remade with modern music and callouts, it would be a hit. Even as is, the lower playfield is not a gimmick, it’s a very well engineered 3/4 sized playfield, it plays like a dungeon boss fight. Seriously one of Trudeau’s best

3 ball multiball at the start of each ball.

LTG : )

Correct, and when you get down to only one ball in play it becomes a timed ball. You can stop the timer by earning balls to restart the multiball.

I haven't gotten a chance to play a Krull yet. Hope to play one someday.

For me it's Spirit. So much going on and crazy multiball sound effects make it top of the list.

I have yet to play a Mystery Castle, but would like to get one when the stars align for it.

Otherwise, Cosmic Gunfight, Defender, and AMH are also the first ones that come to mind for me, so I was surprised to see such a post (Defender and CG both games I'd like to get one day as well).

Would add Radical

Starlight and Defender are tops of my list. The limited number produced did not have to do with fun.

Both have been on my list for years since i missed both in the mid 2000s and still kick myself.

I also have had the chance to play Spirit and original BBB and both are fun with my limited plays.

Sometimes I kinda miss that 1960 Williams Magic Clock. Good luck finding as many as 5 still in existence. Great player nonetheless.
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I sold the Krull game after I bought Big Bang Bar. It was around 2007-2009 when I sold the Krull for $5k. Pricing was much different before 2013. I paid $4500 for a new in the box BBB in 2006-2007. Stern started the pro/premium/LE pricing level around ACDC timeframe. My LOTR was around $3100-3200. My Varkon was $700 and my original Capcom Kingpin was $5K. Times were different.

C’mon, that’s a what I drank in college.

Whattya think keeps him so young?!

And all this time I thought it was these.

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Would it be worth the effort, and expense to build a goin nuts or spirit from scratch?

Spirit, no it would not be worth it, they made a decent amount of those.
Goin' Nuts would be very difficult. With only 9 out there that might be worth the effort. But again very difficult (if not impossible).

Going through this thread and did not see mention of the best rare game yet?

If someone asked me what is the best rare game you would like to have in your collection?

The answer is easy:

Pinball Circus taking pinball vertical with only 2 examples

1. Pinball Circus
2. King Kong
3. Rolling Stones LE