Clermont, FL
Quoted from drfrightner:If you're forcing me to, okay you broke my arm, Black Knight in 6 months will be worth about these prices: Pro $4500 Premium $5700 LE $6300
Willy Wonka will sell just like Dialed In or WOZ it will lose maybe $500 to $800 bucks. If we're talking money Willy Wonka is going to pummel the Knight.
If we're talking about tournament game anything Stern is going to pummel JJP.
Now that is a fair statement.
Well, here we are 6 months later and Black Knight is doing much better than you forecast. Pros are more like $5000, rather than $4500, so that's close, but a pretty typical drop for a used Stern pro. The Premiums are all still over $7000 asking though. I think that's probably because, the Premium has a little more going on with the catapult ball-lock and upper playfield; whereas the Pro is a little too barebones.
As far as the OP's question goes: for me, I love the style of the BK. As others have said, its you versus the machine, and its fast, and its brutal in a good way. I'm a mediocre player, so I know for me it will be a long time before I battle and defeat the Black Knight, as well as unlock the newly added retro Black Knight 2000 mode. I love the Thrash Metal music, the bad@ss medieval fantasy imagery, and the overall style of this pin. IMO BKSWOR is honestly the most "metal" pinball of all time, I even think it beats Iron Maiden and Metallica for that honor. And the LCD-display animations are among the best I've seen in a pinball to date. I love the callouts, and the music too. I could listen to them a lot longer than that "golden ticket" tune from Wonka. Plus, BK has the classic and cheesy "Black Knight 2000" theme song which I love in a Queen Flash-Gordon kinda way.
Wonka also looks nice, and would be much better for my family, but I don't actually think it has any more depth than BK. Its not a fan layout, so that's good, but I don't think it really has that much going on, especially when compared to JJPs other pins. I think hitting that Gobstopper over and over to get multiball will get old pretty quick. Soundwise, while I like it, I do find the Wonka music far more repetitive than BK's. Both pins' music pulls you in, but BK's just gets me going more.
I think the dream would be to have both, but my vote would be for the BK Premium. In the end, its just my kinda pin.
EDIT: I forgot to add; I fully expect the BK Prem and Wonka SE to settle down to about the same price on the secondary market. At least they will if current trends continue.
