Hi all,

Just about to turn 30 and decided it was time to use the birthday as an excuse to finally take the plunge and bring a pin to our basement playroom! Found out about the community, did a fair bit of reading and thought I would come to you for advice.

I am a long time casual player, but wouldn’t call me skilled by a long shot. Some of the games I enjoyed the most over the years have been LoTR for the theme and quest aspect, and Whitewater for the insanely fast action and sheer fun even though that game is brutal. My wife got into WoZ and PoTC.

As we live in Europe and somewhat remotely, our options seem limited.

I’m considering either buying a NiB pro (JP/AiQ/Mando/Deadpool/SW comic home available. HoE is out of budget) or going for a used model. Looks like the local market consists mostly of System 11s or EMs.

Found a couple of what I think are decent deals: WW for 4.3k $ and a Pinbot for 4.5k $. For reference, the price of a NiB pro is 7.7k $ including taxes around here…

We did not get a chance to play most recent LED pins and there’s hardly any available locally to try out. Looking for something that can appeal to the larger family and not get boring after a few months for us as (I hope) our skill level will improve over time.

Last thing to mention is that while I’m handy with crafting tools, I have absolutely no experience with any soldering or electronics tinkering. I must say that’s the main thing holding me back going for an older model at the moment. Worried something will break down after a couple of uses and I will either be at a loss and have to call one of the extremely few experts in the area to do some expensive work on it or try to fix it myself and screw something up in the process. Only for this to repeat a few months down the line. Am I exaggerating this concern?

Would greatly appreciate any advice and recommendations. Thanks!

Thanks all for your valuable input! Looks like opinions are split and I’m still thorn.

Realized the local scene is not as barren as I thought. Found a collector not too far away from my area and got the chance to play a couple of recent Sterns as well as a couple of older ones.

-IM: wife won’t let skeletons go near our game room so ruled out, but chaining orbits was super fun
-AiQ pro: good fun, lots of action but my skills need improvement... had a large number of sdtm from ramp right ramp when I would not use the third flip and side drains.
-DP: Fewer shots compared to AiQ, but good fun!
-SW pro: playfield felt rather barren in the middle

-SoF: wow, pure blast to play! Did not expect it at first glance, but we both enjoyed it.
-Gameshow: my least favorite of the bunch

I would lean on the AiQ side for longevity, but the thought of getting two used machines for the price of a NiB really puts me on the fence.

Local SoF is 4k$. Fully converted to led and play board looks good, but cabinet front took a beating and is partially splintered. WW is another local-ish alternative and looks v nice but did not get to play it (pics attached). NiB stern retail for 7.7k.

Any thoughts on SoF vs. (and?) WW vs. AiQ?

Thanks,
Microvolt

676BBFFF-57E3-40A6-92C3-7A6F858FEF5C (resized).jpeg

B0DA20C1-187E-4023-94AE-538475746C3E (resized).jpeg

C9FA94CD-5004-4A22-94DA-EADD4754C926 (resized).jpeg