This kind of machine is not a bad idea for someone with kids and just wants something cool without the hassle of repair problems (?) BUT, it's the price point that is out of whack. Under $1K should be it.

Great idea. Unfortunate price point.

Funny enough, it wouldn't be much more expensive just to buy a used Pro

Coincidence? The price and date has been removed from the page.

Power to the pinside!

Oh good God! <barf>

I wonder if it has an iPod dock built in?

Maybe some QC codes as well

If you zoom in on the pics it appears it's allen screws.

They've also updated the product description

"TRANSFORMERS™ Pin™ is Stern Pinball’s newest stylish, affordable and entertaining pinball game designed and engineered exclusively for the home. The TRANSFORMERS™ Pin™ offers fun and timeless family entertainment at an affordable price. The Pin™ also provides an entry into the rapidly growing community of pinball play and ownership driven by impassioned enthusiasts and collectors around the globe. The Pin™ is the latest model to be developed by Stern and joins the company’s existing line-up of Pro, Premium, and Limited Edition models.

Under license from Hasbro, TRANSFORMERS™ Pin™ features art, music, speech, and sound effects from the blockbuster TRANSFORMERS™ franchise. Players can expect the classic battle between the heroic OPTIMUS PRIME and the villainous MEGATRON as well as other beloved AUTOBOT and DECEPTICON characters.

The easily assembled TRANSFORMERS™ Pin™ is built to last and engineered with genuine Stern commercial-quality parts including flippers, slingshots, pop bumpers, tempered playfield glass, and the traditional pinball plunger. The playfield is housed in a stylish cabinet with modern, high definition artwork. The all-LED playfield lighting provides optimal color and performance.

Other features include: Traditional three-ball multiball---Adjustable volume---Set permanently on free play—no coins needed---Uses standard household current---Game Dimensions: 64 in. H x 21.5 in. W x 43 in. L---Weighs: 120 lbs. "

Under license from Hasbro, built by Stern, with assembly engineering by IKEA

Welcome to Costco, I love you!

The price is gone from the link also. And if it really weighs 120 lbs., you have to figure, like others said, those first numbers were probably placeholders. If they are cheap enough, they may sell. Probably not to most of us, but sell nonetheless.

LOL +1

Exactly! What else could you buy for $3k? A couple of decent 90s WPC games? A few System 11 games? Why anyone would waste their money on this is beyond me.

Thank you. I was feeling sick at first but these pics show an interesting game. A roundabout spinner on the playfield. A normal spinner. A drop target. Two ramps....not bad. The table itself looks totally weird, but the playfield looks ok. Can't really be 3k though could it? Without DMD etc?

Maybe they use smaller balls to make playfield seem larger?

So there is the Le, and PRO, so would this be the "amateur"??

Agreed! I kinda want to get one of those and see if it can be retrofit onto the LE!

Why does everyone have their panties in a bunch? These games aren't aimed at any of us in terms of market so why do you care? If these games make Stern some money and allow them to build more "superhero/70's bands" games in the future, then more power to them. They aren't doing this business exercise to please us and they must assume there is a market for them.

Think a bit outside of the box and try being a little supportive of this business model.

I think we bumped there time table up lol. People are going to google this thing and find these threads here and on rgp and not get it unless its really cheap.

REALLY JODY, REALLY TALK IT UP LOL

all new low for jody asking pinheads to talk up this product lol.

Any chance Hasbro could be tempted into making Stern an offer if a successful product went off?

Because it's an overpriced low quality piece of crap, which at that price point will only serve to inflate the price of real machines even more in peoples minds. Just look at the 180 ramp to the left of Megatron, it's actually made of plastics and spacers. Check out the printing lines on the backdrop behind him.

Consider how close to the price of a full price machine that is, only a few years ago.

I'm hoping the pricing was all wrong, and it's in the 2k and under ballpark, even that's pushing it.

As I recall, people said this about the Costco Batman games, and all I know is that they disappeared pretty quickly. Gomez was involved in that one as well as I recall. Anyone care to chime in on if I am wrong on this?

I just don't see what is so wrong with putting out a cheaper version of a game that parent's can buy for the family for the holidays. I can tell you that I have talked to many parents who are scared to death of buying a used game that has no warranty. This is a lower cost alternative that is a NEW game with a warranty. Also, the buyers of these games could care less about the trend of pricing for the LE or pro games.

I am not supporting nor bashing Stern for this move. I do believe that there is probably some sound judgement behind this move however. Again, these games are not targeted for anyone on Pinside or RGP. They are targeted who could care less about a coin slot and more about some type of warranty if "little Jimmy's" game breaks on December 27th.

As for the price point, I can guarantee that there are people with the disposable cash to buy these games for the coming holiday season even priced at 3k. Stern mine as well market themselves as the "only pinball manufacturer" and grab the money before it is spent on other "happy meals".

I'm pretty sure Gomez was behind the BDK Costco version, it was his game after all so he must have been involved at some point on it. Gomez seems to be involved in anything that's remotely s$(t!

Gomez, Lonnie and Jody - Sterns version of the 3 stooges! That was for you Akuma hope I made your day

_{Post edited by absocountry2 : Profanity edited}

Well said. This type of product isn't light enough or cheap enough. It will also break and need servicing, another problem for many families who aren't hobbyists like us.

It's really a shame that a company with limited R&D resources is wasting it's time on this crap. For most kids, "Pinball Arcade" on the iPhone/iPad give kids a chance to play the top rated games on devices they already own. No maintenance whatsoever, no space required, cheap.

I'd love to see them innovate and build a great machine for the home that costs 3-5k. That will spur growth. The only Sterns I want to own unfortunately cost 6-7k now and the quality continues to suffer.

Can't speak for everyone else, but it's an obvious distraction for a company with limited resources and R&D budget. I'd much prefer them focus on something that will "bear fruit". Having Stern resource dedicated to building products that nobody wants is wasteful on many levels.

"Nobody wants" or "Nobody on Pinside or RGP wants"?

The fact that jody is sand bagging the comments with his friends list is proof enough. He is scared. He has asked several people to talk it up on pinside as well.

The damage is done. If anyone googles the product these threads show up.

Ok. Well, I'm not someone who is trying to talk it up. I am just trying to put forth a possible view from Stern in terms of a business reason for these models.

Its clear that they have a ton invested in this new line so I wish them well so they can keep producing games I might want (full sized, coin op) down the road.

Party on...

I was thinking the same thing. The idea of a cheap entry level pin is good but not at that price. Most people I tell how much pins cost cannot believe people they cost that much.

C'mon, man...no need for personal attacks.

I agree. The price doesn't make any sense. I could see this kind of machine being sold in pool table stores along with home versions of rod hockey and foosball. But not at 3 grand.

http://www.amazon.com/Stern-Pinball-9386-Transformers-Table/dp/B009AVLBS0/ref=sr_1_5

Price now back!

$2999

Geesh...I was really hoping when the price came back up it would have one less digit. I just don't see this working at that price point. Like I said, great idea and the playfield actually looks fun to shoot, but that price is just insane. Hope I'm wrong and it's a huge success, but I'm not holding my breath.

$3,000 ?!?!?!?!?!?! ....I'm sorry - but that's silly.

My only care is that I like Sterns regular games and really hope this does not act like a boat anchor. Certainly not my place to say this early. They may have had feedback for years to do this. We just have to wait and see.

Nobody wants (in that form factor, at that price). It's a joke.

You can get a proper machine with a third party warranty for less, including older Stern models which will outlast this by several decades while being far better. And which parents just randomly throw $3k on a toy pinball machine for the kids anyway?

We all know exactly what's going to happen here, and that's why it's sad to see Stern spending time and money on it. If you want to build a cheap machine, build a cheap machine and sell it cheap. This is a cheaply built machine sold for a comparative kings ransom.

Ok, let's see what happens. I will be interested on the reviews that the game gets through Amazon if people do buy it. Amazon is very "heavy handed" when it comes to follow-up and product reviews.

I don't think that anybody that reads this forum is the target audience

I don't see why everyone is complaining.

Pinball companies have been making cheap home games since the 70's.

There was even a Heathkit version that you could build yourself.

If Stern can make some money making a home game, let them do it.

It's better than them making slot machines.

If you don't want it, don't buy it.

Wasted development resources on a sales model that is not very popular (and we all thought was finally abandoned in favor of the "pro" model) and as Akuma put it, the "predatory" price point -- are definitely things worth complaining about. Stern...and sometimes pinball as a whole...is a rollercoaster of cool ideas followed by bizarre marketing/PR/sales strategies that seem out of touch in the post-2001 world.

With that out of the way, as crazy as it sounds...I kind of want to try it out. The playfield is pretty different from the Pro/LE models. I should underline and bold "try it out". Someone else buy it for 3K and let me come over to play it for 10 minutes (and kill my curiosity).

Unless this is a good product it might wind up defeating the purpose of getting kids/adults into pinball.
Reminds me of the telescopes packaged in dept stores with pretty pictures of distant objects with color and Hubble like images. Then the kid/adult takes the scope out to view and he can hardly see anything. That person then gets turned off to astronomy forever.
The price sounds way too high for what is being offered…but if it works and draws people in…then no harm, no foul..if it works like crap..they defeated the purpose, except for making fast money.

Can't see the flippers in any pictures. Are they at the very bottom of the apron and there is no outlanes?

I would love for them to come up with a successful budget pinball line of products. I love how this one shares some of the same look as the "real" one. Unfortunately the price is going to kill any long-term prospects. I agree with some of the other posts that $1000 - $1500 would be a realistic price. Personally I wouldn't do it, but I know some that would. It would benefit our hobby if more people got interested. Get them hooked and then start hitting them with real machines in the future. More market...more innovation and competition...better pins...lower prices. It sure would be nice. Don't see this happening at this price though.

My Costco was one of the test markets for the Classic BDK and they sat for a month then disappeared. I wonder what happened to them.

For a while they had it on free play and people did play it there when it was on and working. When it was off, it might as well been a crate as it just took up space. The Iron Man and BDK were 3600 bucks and had some of the features of the Pro model. (Crane on BDK and Iron Monger on Iron Man.

McCune got a cool translite because he took a neat picture of a family playing one at his Costco and Stern used it. It was signed by Gomez and I thought that was a cool gesture by Stern.

I think people are upset because they waste time doing R&D on this when games are shipped with unfinished codes, toys that need modified, boards that are burning up, etc. Even I am still waiting for replacement parts for my Tron LE and have been on the phone with them a number of times.

This is not going to sell at 3K and will not sell at 2k. When I purchase titles in the 1K-2K range and tell non-pinheads how much they cost they think it's crazy. That's for full fledged machines and not this Zizzle LE. Yea, some rich people might drop 2-3K on this for their kids but the majority of families will not. I hope I am wrong and these sell like crazy, but have my doubts as do many others.

Don't say that man....then they will think every Pro is worth 7000.

Stuff like this, foosball, pool tables and air hockey always show up in places like Sears and Dick's Sporting Goods around Christmas... The thing is, they're always around $500 or less and that seems to be about the realistic limit for this kind of stuff.

This might even be a cool idea if it has real flippers, good pops and a full sized ball, but they are out of their minds on the price. If they are not $500 before Christmas, they surely will be by February.