I got the same quote unfortunately.

Classic frog in boiling water scenario. A couple of years ago, 5K was an outrage, then it became the norm. Now, very few seem to scoff at 6.5K. Soon, it will be 8K. Then that will seem like the norm and everything will be great again. Turning up the heat slowly as opposed to suddenly can fool just about anybody, even people with enough money to own pins. Or is it ESPECIALLY with people with enough money to own pins?

Hand painted stuff is always going to cost more. This is for people who really want things painted by the original artist.

Prices are Crazy...Not good for us that loves playing Pinball at Home !

Those painted toys on the Pic d'ont even make me say wow.

I want a metal ball to hit expensive hand-painted art. That makes sense..

Can't play it, that'd make it lose value.

curious to see how this new "premium" will affect the current met prices?

For $2300.00 more?

I'm still waiting for a Metallica to put my hand painted Sparky in, but I plan on playing the shit out of it.

Yeah, I hear that loud and clear, I wouldn't pay it, especially not if it looks like that pic Stern posted. Sorry, that's not actually that much custom work, for that kind of money at least. If someone wants to pay me $2000 (a bargain compared to that!) I'll hook up every inch of those plastics with proper custom brush work, not just "spray your hammer plastic green".

$2300 more? I would paint all that stuff to your specifications for $1500. A deal at twice the price!

Keep in mind, you're paying for artwork. These aren't $150 Sparky's anymore, they're more like $800.
They're not painted by just anyone, and you pay a premium for that. (See what I did there?)
Stern is marking up DD's items which aren't cheap to begin with.
I don't think this is aimed at many Pinheads, but is likely perfect for those diehard Metallica/DD fans.

I figured this version would be an extra $500. I was WAY off. It's cool, but I'm not seeing an extra $2k here.

First Pinsider to buy this game gets a kick in the nuts

From Stern of course lol

sterns been kicking nuts ever since the pro/premium/le gimmick was launched, and they will continue to do so. with so many pinsiders horny for way overpriced le's and sterns continued swollen profits the gimmick will continue, who can blame them? this is the direct result of suckers plunking down 8500$ for le's. bravo stern!

No horse in the race, but in my humble opinion, it would have been in Stern’s interest to *individually* sell these custom painted Donny figures and market them as the “ultimate customization mods”...instead of selling them as a part of an entire machine. Metallica owners and fans would eat up the individual pieces by the spoonful and demand more. Kind of like Dunny Bunnies or Simpsons Lego for pinball machines.

A review, and some opinion, about the announcement is here:
http://creditdotpinball.com/2014/05/29/news-sterns-custom-dirty-donny-premium-edition-metallica/

Rob
creditdotpinball.com

I could never understand why sparky gets painted green all the time...

Some might call it a gimmick. I call it more options.

I went blue on the one I did, and had Donny paint me a red one.

How much does a Refinery pro run?

Yeah, of all the ones I've seen done the green ones are my least favorite. I prefer light tones, you lose some of the contrast otherwise. When I did mine the flesh tone I used was lighter than the stock one. Just have to be careful to make sure the whites of the eyes still pop enough.

Refinery pros start at $5,595. Premiums run $7,495. I believe that you can customize up or down too.

$5595

Cool

How much are they getting for a Metallica Quilt in a Day LE?

Its hard for me to hate on this idea since it will not decrease the chance I will eventually see a reasably cheap Metallica pro spring up local-ish to me.

But I can't see paying that much extra for a signed translite and some custom painted toys that the ball can easily "interact" with and devalue.

It seems targeted to the true collector,e.g. someone who collect the NIBoxes and does not open them, or just sets them up to stare at them.

Happy to be wrong, but I imagine the calls to Stern would be along the lines of:

Customer: You know that custom painted hammer I just spent $400 on?
Stern Customer Support: Yeah
Customer: It chipped during multiball.
Stern Customer Support: At least this is a change from people bitching about malfunctioning hammer boards and broken drop targets...

Nah. It's just stern trying to wheezle in more machines. More power to them.
Don't get me wrong... I DONT LIKE this 8k craze.... but I see it occurring until the next pincrash.

Agreed. I don't want any of that stuff, but if I did, I wouldn't sell my LE to buy a DD premium. I'd buy the DD pieces to put in my LE.

Are the custom-painted toys installed in the machine or are they extras? I imagine they may have used the stock photo for the Premium machine itself as it shows Sparky as usual. But then you also see a picture of other painted Sparky toys that appear to be other custom DD work. I am just wondering if anyone has confirmed exactly what you get when purchasing this machine.

Brad

Love your Metallica, but wish you had a WOZ? Bring a little rainbow flavor to the party!

WizardOfBlahs.jpg

LOL. PASS. Think I'll drop coin on a METLE instead. What a joke.

I'd probably knock off the back box and under cabinet lights and see how much that saves.

I think I'll bring the customs toys on Metallica to China or Tijuana and have them painted just like the DD edition for a fraction of the cost.

$2300 more? This is from Stern.........................
Dirty Donny has been hand painting and selling to enthusiasts Sparky’s to mount to our Metallica pinball machines.
Donny has offered to hand paint and sign complete sets of the Metallica Hammer, Snake Head, Tombstone, plus Sparky.
We are installing these on some Metallica Premium Pinballs, along with a Donny signed backglass translight. Our selling price for the few games with this special original art is $US 1,250 over the normal Metallica Premium Pinball, which reflects the value of Dirty Donny hand painted items in the secondary market.

25 tops

Yancy, is that your snake (did you paint it) ? Nice work!

Stern posted that on their FB page, along with better pictures of the toys in the flyer...

10346184_10152438011469244_8338404793124441475_n.jpg

Nope, that's from Stern's facebook.

ok,

now I'm waiting for the Karl Urban special edition of ST.

Uber rare, and $10K out the door

I'm not feeling the cross or hammer, just a little airbrush coloring, meh. Why is everything going green? Sparky's skin I at least get, even if it's not my favorite look, but the hammer? Weird.

If you get some input into the colors and work before you pay though it might be better.

Edit: I looked at FB, the quote for that image is

"I gave this first set the treatment I envisioned when I conceived these designs." - Dirty Donny

So fine, if that's his vision more power to him. But it sounds like you don't have to go that route.

Edit2: Stern reply: "each set will be unique and randomly placed in the games."

So sounds like you can't choose, you just get whatever random color he wants to paint things and hope you like it?

I didn't think the JJP bashing was warranted for Ruby Red 75th - it got people LE's that were sold out that wanted them.. They have started selling nicely for us and collectors are happy to be able to get them. And Jack did the right thing by offering the extras to prior owners so they weren't left out of those.

I also think this is cool from Stern and bashing isn't warranted... People liked ACDC Luci - it's different. And Dirty Donny is an artist doing something special for pinball (and he hit a homerun with Metallica art) and these are custom made by him - it's also different and it's great it's available for those who want it to buy it.

Choices are better than no choices. It's a different landscape - better mostly, some things not, but I'd rather choices than none anyday. I keep reminding people a few years ago you had NBA and BBH to choose from and that's it, want that instead ? Would it be nice they are all done up front and the pricing on everything is less... Ya I agree there...

Anybody making pinball machines, parts, mods, toys, podcasts, magazines, websites, putting on shows, doing repairs, etc... deserves our thanks, not bellyaching... : )~

The guy that sells these things doesn't think the bashing over RR is warranted? And OH! BY THE WAY! I CAN SELL YOU ONE!!

How noble.

Yeah, the RR was a total cash-grab release that was really a big slap in the face to the original LE buyers. It was a knee-jerk reaction to MMr selling out in hours at 8k. Jack thought "8k for that!!!?? I'm releasing one for 9k now!!!". He didn't think about screwing over the original LE buyers at the time. I wonder if he regrets it?

At least this is a premium with no added features...there was stuff ADDED to RRWOZ.

I read the flyer and it says Dirty Donny signed the translite and it has painted toys. It did not actually say Dirty Donny painted every toy. Maybe he just signed off on the design of the painting....

Who knows......

This is the Premium, Premium, Premium Edition!

I suspect Stern will keep making different premium versions of anything.

As long as they're doing it the right way, sure. If there is any scent of shadiness, they should be very closely scrutinized.

If I manufactured a niche product, I'd want to know if my relatively small pool of potential customers aren't feeling it. No one wants to waste time & money cranking out products for people who aren't buying them, but are too polite to criticize. Pinside is better than the best market research money can buy. And it's free!

If this moves more premiums out the door then more power to stern. I dont see this as much different than the luci acdc pin. Just a way to move more product.

Having said that, i would think that you should have some say in what your paint job looks like. Esp with the $$$ upcharge.

I got the impression that DD would paint a bunch of snakes, sparkys and crosses and stern would put them in a bin and randomly install them on the assembly line. So your custom sparky might not coordinate with your cross or snake... If that is the case then i dont think this will be that popular.

They should sell the translite and parts as an upgrade package for ALL owners. Would be a cool upgrade and I's sure a lot of guys would do it.
Think outside the box Stern. You might make some money. Marketing 101.
There are seriously a ton of Pro, and RoadCase Premium owners that want the Dirty Donny Monster Translite.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Me three. $500 more than MMR? Really?