Unfortunately I heard something different from my distrib - he said the plan for EHoH Prems was Q3 2022. I hope he was wrong about that as that would be incredibly unfair to the people with Prem orders.

I’ve heard the same thing from mine. Agreed. It’s a shitty move not to just make 1000 playfields as opposed to 200.

Oh man that would really be a bummer! Hey Stern can we get a priority put on Elvira Premium’s, I Would really like to get my game in this lifetime
:-/

I heard the 199 Limited 40th Anniversary Edition Machines are going to be produced and shipped before Christmas. On the other hand the Premium I've had on order for almost half a year will likely be made sometime in Mid 2022. As for pricing, the Distributors are definitely making a decent margin on this one. It's a bone thrown to them since they have a bunch of orders for products they can't get. Its great to have a 100 machine order backlog, but if you're a distributor you don't really make any money until those machines are shipped to you and then delivered to the customer. Tough to keep the lights on when you don't have the cash flow because you can't get product.

good point.

By mid 2022 the Premiums will have another price bump due to whatever….

They could have illuminated the shooter Rod for 25k
Come on guys it's all in the details that will get you to 100k by Christmas.

Wait, they have limited parts but won’t run ANY backlog premiums along with this thing before March?
Brutal if true.

Well, son of a....

Honey! Bring me the checkbook!

Hearing Nov 29th build starts

You mean on the 40th anniversary edition, not the premiums, correct?

GAP is advertising "December build," so that November 29 statement sounds pretty accurate.

Been saving up for an Elvira for a while now. First they increase the price and then you'll have to wait almost a year to get your pin. I think you lost me Stern.

Lots of premiums come up on the marketplace here. Grab one!

Does anyone know if the Stern topper will be compatible with the 40th anniversary edition?

Yes it is

Excellent

Stern could have produced 400 40 year anniversary EHOH toppers and sold each for $2.5k. Give the 40 year anniversary buyers first chance to buy. A million dollar cash grab that would have created a market frenzy. Missed opportunity.

never say never

Stern has the opportunity to release 41st anniversary edition topper beginning January.

I'll go one further... anyone who buys an LE should get the option to add a topper for any game. With this Elvira 40th, telling your dealers to sell at any price, it should have come with the promise you get dibs on a topper. C'mon already.

Wonder how you came up with that idea...

“For that price it should come with a topper!” Is the new “for that price no color DMD?!”

For the price of my car, I should have been given free all weather mats and a gas card

For the price of my Boars Head luncheon meat, I should have been given a free loaf of bread and some cheese

For the price of my house, I should have been given all the furniture, a new garage, two cars to put in the garage, and free electricity for a year

For the price of my airline tickets, I should have been given a steak dinner on flight, a massage, and a reach around happy ending

For the price of a JJP GnR, I should have been given good code and a perfect playfield

Lets all bitch and moan about wanting free stuff. Should it come with a topper? ... probably. But it doesn't and we all can live with it

Please! Here is what Stern should 110% so forget all this other back and forth.

Stern Announces new game...

750 Limited Editions
Premium and Pro. all announced at the SAME TIME. Raise the number of LE's because now under my plan they're aren't the most limited thing anymore and people will be able to get them.

But every game should have the SLE which comes out at the SAME TIME the ball shooter and topper are announced.

250 Super Limited Editions which include TOPPER - BALL SHOOTER ROD - color coded flippers, buttons, rubbers, posts, mirror backglass, coin box powder coated, plastic protectors, foil artwork with the latest code updated to the game. In other words a version you don't have to do ANYTHING TO! You want everything this is your version. Sell this version for $13,995.00 So in short EVERY MOD Stern would release for this game will come on THIS VERSION and will only be announced WHEN all the planned mods are released. Would be nice if the game is licensed to a band it comes with autographs, whatever. But 250 copies not 50 not 100. Make it so enough people who want them can buy them. Now under this plan more distros will sell the LE for what they're suppose to sell for because there are more of them, and everyone knows the SLE is coming soon.

Why not one of these for every single game they release and you don't show pictures, you don't see anything until the topper is announced.

I don't get why there are such strong opinions of these super high priced pins that most aren't in the market for anyways? Why does it need a topper? Why do you care that it wasn't included on a machine you weren't going to buy anyways?

People are now advocating for the very buyers that they also claim are ruining the hobby by buying at the super high end price range. I don't get it...

It's funny, because I actually prefer the amber DMD to full color.

I'm guess I'm not surprised how some are reacting to this announcement. It is certainly a considerable amount for a reskin of an existing game existing IP but it gives another wrinkle to a game that everyone loves. I'm excited for another game as always and I hope those that actual want one get one.

I've got a 40th Anniversary Edition on order. It'll be unboxed and played with.

I know I'm paying a ridiculous amount of money for a pin, but I see ads for Ghostbusters at $16K and Munsters at $12K as I write this, so...

Please post unboxing pics!

Ditto, and unapologetic ( last I checked, I'm paying for it)......these things are all crazy $$$ it seems. Wanted an EHOH for awhile, so very excited to nab this one...

Will do.

Ditto.

For those of you that didn’t see the 40th anniversary in person at expo, I took some video that day, probably should have posted this here earlier. Pictures do not do the side art justice, and quite frankly neither does the video, but certainly shows more. It’s incredibly cool! It really a beautiful machine.

AND Rosey Cheeks!!!!

the game at MGC had the dagger shooter rod

I like the clown shooter rod better.

pin is a work of art though. amazing

I'm in the same boat.

This was going to be my first NIB from Stern. Put in a preorder from my distributor around July. Was told the would be running them around December once they got enough parts. That date got pushed back, which sucked, but was understandable.

Then they increased the price by $1600 due to the game being pushed back to 2022, which felt like a steep jump, it was less understandable, but I was still keeping my order. Don't get me wrong, a price increase during these times is understandable, $1600 just seems a little extreme.

Now it sounds like they're doing this 40th LE run before those premiums and are using up all the parts so that they have to push back the premiums again to mid 2022? It's not only that, but they are screwing over the previous LE owners by showing them there LE doesn't mean anything.

I don't think you can excuse the decision making. They clearly don't care about their customers and I don't want to support that. I can't remember the last time I was treated this poorly by a company. I've canceled my order. Not that one order will make a difference... I just can't in good conscious support this behavior. I'm definitely going to avoid ordering new games from Stern in the future, though I will probably still buy used ones. They do make some great pins after all.

CCr will now be my first NIB and Toy Story will likely be my second.

Has this been confirmed by anyone who actually knows or is it just speculation?

pretty sure it's more like 4th quarter 2022.

I agree that Stern seems to have played a little fast and loose with the Elvira schedule but find it somewhat ironic you are switching to CCr with all the recent talk over topper gate and supposedly dissing buyers.

I don’t think you can go wrong with CCr but in the long run I think Elvira will be the better game. And would think hard about buying any game from JJP until they get playfield quality under control. I really want Toy Story too but no way I’m buying one before that.

Sterns not trying to screw over premium preorders but my guess is they are trying to get good profit to distributors in times they don’t have machines to sell. If they get three 40th, that’s 30k in profit to pay bills. Only 199 games compared to prob 1000 backordered. They can make those in a week.

I know being a Stern distributor that some will take this with a grain of salt. But I just think that its strange that you say that you will not buy a stern again and will buy a CCr and a Toy Story.

CGC did the same thing with Medieval Madness. They announced the remake with only 1000 copies being made, the next day they announced that due to demand that they will now make a standard edition. Then a few laters they release more versions.

JJP is the leader of doing this. Wizard of Oz had the LE (emerald city) Then came out with the Ruby Red 75th Anniversary, then the yellow brick road

I agree.

The primary mistake Stern made was agreeing to run the 40th edition before existing premium orders. If it meant running both runs together then it would have been fine. But noooooo! Stern had orders on the books and they knew inserting new buyers would push existing buyers out by 10-12 months. That decision was wrong.

However there was another consequence of pushing the prem out, it means they are eligible for present and future price increases to the proud buyers.

The second bad decision Stern made was in not building and including the toppers in the high-roller edition. That mistake is merely laughable. Whomever decided that has large cohones and a poor understanding of what people want. They want the frikking topper, man. That decision was so stupid, there is still a chance to correct. Stern could announce a topper for 40th owners for $2k. But once again if Stern didn’t have parts to build previous premium games, they should not have agreed to release 40th edition.

I have an LE with the clown shooter rod, but I really like the dagger shooter rod. Is it possible to order just the shooter rod from Stern? Or any enterprising mod makers want to make a dagger shooter rod?

No.

To be honest, I'm not really annoyed with Stern for making another version of Elvira.

Almost every distributor has shown the LEs aren't really limited. I honestly would prefer companies just stop with the LE versions. Don't get me wrong, I like what they do with these games, but I think they should just be another tier above premium, that is unlimited, if people want to pay more for the extra features, they can. If people want the items and have the money, let them. I'm not a fan of the FOMO that LEs create (though I do get why companies would want to make them). I did get the pre-order of an LE of Cactus Canyon, but I could care less about the 'rarity', I think the additional features warranted the extra grand in cost, and would not mind in the slightest if they allowed more people to buy it.

What annoys me about the situation is that I placed an order in July for a premium EHOH. They pushed back production from December, to early 2022 due to a lack of parts. Then they added the clause, since that game is no longer being made in 2021, they're charging an addition $1600 for it. This was all bad news, but understandable, I was annoyed, but understood where they're coming from, parts are hard to come by and everything is going up in price.

What rubs me the wrong way is they somehow have parts to make these 40th EHOH games and are choosing to make those before the premiums, even pushing the premiums timeline back another 6 months. They essentially gave the people like me who've been waiting patiently for their premiums a middle finger. They have the parts to make our premium games that they have been gladly taking deposits for, and instead of making the premiums they decided to use those parts on one of the most insane cash grabs I've ever seen. It honestly feels like they knew that they said the price would go up in 2022 for the premiums, so the decided to come up with the 40th EHOH as a ploy to prevent them from making anymore EHOH at the rate the initially promised.

All around this situation felt super scummy and has disappointed me beyond belief. Essentially, since I'm not willing to spend $25k on the game, I'm pushed to the side. They've made me feel like a second class customer.

This was my first attempt at buying a new game and almost every month it felt like another slap in that face.

Which is why I canceled my pre-order and will try to reframe from ordering from them again.

Don't get me wrong, I'm no saint, and will probably still buy used games of theirs down the road and I'll still play their titles on location. I'm just going to direct the bulk of my money to the other companies.

My distrib was pretty disappointed in the EHoH40 thing. He would have rather gotten paid on his outstanding prems and made those buyers happy vs selling a couple of 40s.

This was nothing more than a cash grab/market test at the expense of LE/SLE owners as well as those with Prem orders.

I don’t see the 40th causing any significant impact to LE/SLE owners. At $22k-$25k the 40th is going to be in a very limited market niche. Anyone buying these isn’t going to be selling for a very long time.

As an LE owner, I don’t care at all. The people that appear to be getting screwed are those with long term confirmed Premium orders

I honestly think the LEs and SLEs look slightly better than the 40th Edition too. The fact that they used the 'bloody' side armor, painted it purple, but kept the side art blood red just looks wrong. And the 40th Anniversary on the backglass just looks like a sticker added too. The game looks a little thrown together.

That being said the foil artwork on the body of the machine looks amazing! And the dagger is a nice touch.