Stern seems to care more about the bottom line over customer satisfaction.

I would not be surprised if they do this 40th Anniversary run before the Premiums just to ensure that the Premiums are made next year with their new, more expensive pricing system.

From my understanding, EHOH is going to have an MSRP of just under $11k next year, which is a big jump up from their current $8500 MSRP. People tend to forget that EHOH, like B66 is one of Stern's special premiums that come with an additional upcharge, currently those sell for about a grand more than normal Premiums.

Hence, pushing the EHOH run back to 2022 will certainly make Stern a lot more money.

I think people like Stern games. They've released some killer games recently. It's a good product and their poor customer service isn't enough to stop people from wanting the product. I'm in this boat.

Will I be upset when they likely build the 40th anniversary Elvira's before my Premium Elvira I've had on back order for over a year? Yes.

Is it a shitty thing to do when they keep saying they aren't making more because they don't have parts, for them to get parts and just make a new edition? Yes.

Is that enough from stopping me from buying this great game? No.

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.

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.

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.

Don't get me wrong. If I seen an EHOH used for a reasonable price. I'm still going to jump on it. Stern makes some great games, I just don't want to order from them directly. Which I admit is a bit hypocritical.

In my eyes, what really makes EHOH shine is Lyman's code. Which is a big reason why I put an order in for CCr. I'm essentially betting on his code giving the game more life. The layout is awesome, it just needs to the code to support it.

I knew going into my pre-order that they were considering making toppers for the SEs. I honestly side with the company's decision on the whole topper-gate thing.

The JJP playfield issue does have me concerned. I do question how wide spread the issue actually is. I've been making it a habit to really examine their games when I see them on location, and I haven't seen any chipping. I would expect it to effect location games more than HUO games too. That being said, if I buy it and the game ends up chipping like crazy. I will definitely avoid them as well. If it makes a small chip in one location that doesn't effect the gameplay, I could care less. I'm not very anal about those kinds of things.

In my eyes, JJP makes some of the best 'Worlds Under Glass' games out there. Stern sometimes beats JJP in 'kinetic satisfaction', however JJP is steps above everyone else in terms of theme integration and light show. Their machines are works of art and I want to support them for that reason. I also don't have a Lawlor game and want one. From my understanding this is his last game, then he'll take on a roll similar to Gomez at Stern. With this, I expect he'll want to go out with a bang. Also, the guy known for cool toys working on Toy Story, this is a winning combination.

My distributor told me they are no longer giving him an expectation date of the run. Which he said means they're probably pushing it back again. There are a couple of other people that have said their distributors have told them middle of next year now.

I honestly think Stern is really just playing everything by year and are using up the parts they have on these 40th EHOH. I expect it to be mid 2022 now, but that is speculation. They could still make them in February like they were saying before.