There are 4 HUO LOTR on MR pinball right now that are in the $5's

Make an offer

$5000
$5250
$5500

See what happens

The one in TN is firm at 5400 for a routed game with LEDs. I contacted him first thing this morning in hopes to get it for 5.

ebay.com link: Lord of the Rings Pinball Machine by Stern

Dude sold a HUO on ebay & paid a 10% fee to do so

That's a F'n $4K LOTR when the dust settles

Start offering ebay sellers some cash pickup deals outside of the auction. Some of these sellers list high to get free advertising followed by reasonable offers on the phone.

Gimli. It's like the Luke vs Darth Vader argument, Darth and Thorin both were turned at one time. Luke and Gimli stayed true no matter what.

Plus Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) did the main voice for LOTR *AND* IJ. He wins in Pinside land for that alone.

I'd let that one get away.

There are 4 HUO in the $5500 range

That is my stance as well. John Rhys-Davies could just talk to Thorin and knock him over, but don't tell the elf.

en·ti·tle·ment
inˈtīdlmənt,enˈtīdlmənt/
noun
the fact of having a right to something.

I never said I had the right to something. I insinuated something else. Let me spell it out for you.

o·ver·price
ˌōvərˈprīs/Submit
verb
past tense: overpriced; past participle: overpriced
charge too high a price for.

I really don't think that pic ended up on Sterns website by mistake. Stern is well aware that a lot of people want a LOTR VE. If they posted that, and don't plan on producing a VE, I think that would have been a poor marketing decision. It may cause some people to hold on to their money and not purchase a current Stern offering. I know it would do that to me. On the other side of it, if they plan on making the VE, and post that pic, I think that's smart. It says, "Hey don't go blow all your money on a MMR or Hobbit just yet, LOTR VE is coming.". Stern isn't still in business by being dumb. I'm sure a lot of thought goes into what they post.

I think LOTR VE is going to be made. Whether is announced in 3 weeks, or in 3 years, I believe it's a lock. It would be completely insane not to make one. I also think it's a little nutty to think it's not coming. If you were Stern, would you make another run of them? I would. I would love to print money...

Disclaimer: These are speculations only. I have not based these on facts, only common sense. *Ducking for cover from the VE haters*

LOTR VE is a no brainer!

Most people would rather own a LOTR to a HOBBIT (it's just true).
It's not crazy insane to make a few hundred more SAM boards.
I figure it'd be the technology of the SAM system but Standard art/backglass?
but, I could be wrong...
Better resolution side art, etc...

I'm a HUO 2004 LOTR Owner and my machine is super mint just like right out of the box with zero wear and mod'd to the max, I hope they do make the LOTR VE. Although the there is no issues with my machine at all, the one option I'd like is to have the ability to purchase new resolution side art. That's the one draw back about those earlier stern titles.

The sound isn't all that bad as some make it seem and gets better with a sub and it's no big deal to pull bulbs and drop in leds of your liking. So I hope they do it.

An for those who want figures I'd start hunting the LOTR Armies of middle earth figures on ebay now to addon.

I never really noticed any audio quality issues either, then again, it wasn't in my home when I played it.

There are no "issues" really - it's just Whitestar. Doesn't sound as crisp and clear as B/W DCS, WPC'95, or SAM games. That being said, it's probably the best sound package of a Whitestar game ever...all of the music compositions are well done and exciting, sound FX are awesome, and there are tons of voice clips - all well integrated for an amazing gameplay experience.

A lotr ve would be sweet! Not going to stop me from looking for a nice huo. Will never happen but I always thought it would of been sweet if balrog would have come up from underneath the pf like the monger in IM. Would look a lot cleaner. Anyways a ve would be cool.

Yeah that would be pretty sweet. He does look a little odd when he is swung open...

It's Whitestar + the new sound chip older Whitstar games used BSMT2000

I heard Missy Elliot eats one cracker a day

I tried that a few months back on a Twilight Zone on Ebay. Listed for $6100 and I offered 5600 cash with local pickup. The guy refused to sell outside Ebay even though my cash offer was $200 more than what he would have gotten after Ebay and Paypal took their fees.

Any chance this is still happening?

It happened already. You missed it. You'll never be able to find a LOTR now. Bummer, bro!

Haha too bad. My life will never be complete now.

I know, I'm sorry man...if there were only thousands of LOTRs out there already, you might be able to get one!!!

Don't stop now, you're on fire!

Yea I know but it would be nice to get a new one that I could take of from the start. Most of the ones that show up here are close to the NIB price games these day.

It'll happen some day if they can figure out the licensing, the demand is clearly there. But Rarehero's right that if you want one anytime soon, you should probably just buy a used one, could be a while until they get around to it.

Based on their recent QC, I'd rather have an original I could inspect first and see how it has handled the past decade. I have a 2005 LOTR and it's practically been bulletproof since I shopped it out (2008 I think).

Personally, I don't think the demand is there to warrant the relicensing costs. There are a few vocal forum peeps who are afraid of used games for some reason...but I think most people who want a LOTR are fine just going out and finding one, and you CAN find them.

Was able to find a super nice HUO one for ~$5K in January. Then someone right here in town put his up for sale the next month, and this is in a relative "pinball desert."

If they make a VE, it would be interesting to see if it was an IMVE style (practically exactly like the original) or more of an SMVE style (maybe a Ralph Bakshi LOTR retheme).

Oh vomit. That would never happen...plus not sure why anyone would want that. One of the things that makes LOTR so great is its use of the movie assets...music, voices, scenarios. Everything about Bakshi's sucks, and it's not even the complete trilogy. Ugh. Gah...F that lol

I remember from the last five times we had this conversation! I don't know why you think relicensing would be any more costly here than for the other properties Stern has made/remade. The obvious potential issue is if something's expired with the movie license and they had to get the Tolkien estate involved in any way they're presumably hosed, since the estate hates the movies and video games, and would presumably hate the pinball if they were aware of it. And then there's image rights (which could work out nicely IMO if they shifted over to new hand-drawn art).

Like it or not, well more than "a few" people would be interested in a LOTR VE, and from the many, many threads of this kind LOTR is clearly the top one or two game people want to see Stern re-make. And of course from Stern's perspective the logic behind making a VE is not the rarity of the game, but the price point. If used games are selling for $5k and there are 5,000+ of them out there, it seems safe to assume they could sell hundreds of new games at $6k. If I'm Stern, I'd follow that logic rather than rushing out to remake a $2-3k game like 24 or CSI just because they're rare.

It's inarguable that nice LOTRs can be purchased for ~$5k right now. So anyone that wants one today can get one. Of course the same could have been said for Spiderman, and somehow Stern remade that one...

1

Agreed about the use of the movie assets and callouts from the actors. Without the extra Gimli and Frodo callouts the pin wouldn't be nearly as good as it is.

Cost , not going to happen. I was told by someone at stern , during a discussion about quality a year ago, pins like T3,
if made today would be an $ 8,700 game.

Spider-Man's totally different. First, they couldn't get the movie rights again so they changed it to Ultimate comics. They had to redo all the art, toys, and voices...and they charged a Premium price for it. Spidey was selling for A LOT more than $5k before the VE was announced...not to mention the Black-Suit LE.

There is no "alternate LOTR" to re-skin the game as...no one wants Bakshi. From what I've heard, the licensor wants a shit ton to relicense...and for the amount of games they'd likely sell, it's not worth it. And remember - lower runs = parts more expensive. Look at LOTR's parts vs. current games. Much higher BOM. Plus they'd have to port the game from Whitestar to SAM or SPIKE, redesign it for LED. It just doesn't financially make sense. Nor should any pinball fan be upset about this because THEY'RE EASY TO GET lol.

If you were upset at my thoughts on this years ago and still are....I dunno what to tell you. Here we are years later and it still hasn't been remade. I've been playing mine. If you want an LOTR, just go get one and play it. Waiting won't make it magically appear new in a box....and again - I dunno why anyone would want an NIB Stern these days anyway.

I've been waiting for a LOTR VE for a couple years. It's a pin my whole family wanted and wanted as a NIB.

Meanwhile, time passed, and we continued to not own a pin we all really wanted.

I finally wised up. The HUO one I bought arrives in a few days and will be my wife's Mother's Day gift from our boys.

No more waiting. No more wishing. I say if folks want their 'precious' just go grab one.

Like folks have been saying, they're plentiful.

Nice! Congrats! Enjoy!

This thread is two years old, if you're still waiting for a VE, then you've just lost two years of enjoying one while you're still young. They can be had all day for 5-6k in really nice shape. Stern knows they will not sell too many at their current pricing model.

Just got into it this year.

A very satisfying part of the hobby (IMO) is finding a used and dirty game and shopping it out yourself. You get a game cheaper & learn a lot too! Now, that's way harder these days since projects are harder to find these days - but since LOTR is a "newer" game and they made a lot - it's a game you could reasonably expect to find from an arcade operator, on Craigslist, at an auction, etc.

I heard LOTR VE is coming in 2044 when LOTR is public domain and they no longer need a license and can develop their own art.

I think a LOTR VE is about as likely as a TSPP VE.
Will probably never happen. Expensive or hard to get license and the bill of materials would make both a super duper LE.
There are also plenty of copies of both games available for sale without the NIB pricing.

I'd say LOTR VE is definitely coming. I'd expect much better artwork (even resolution-wise) and much improved sound (it's been done before on VEs), which will get lots of people lining up. Even more could come (a full LCD rework would be awesome). The question is when; it could be soon but it could just as easily be be 5-10 years down the line.

I wouldn't wait for the VE if a good LOTR came up reasonably locally and I had the cash, but I'd also probably upgrade to a VE if I liked what I saw.

LOTR VE was in 2009. You all missed it.

Why would anyone want a LOTR VE? Cabinet issues, clear issues, who knows what's next issues. HUO LOTRs are out there and reasonable given current market prices. If Stern ever did produce a LOTR VE, it would be priced at Premium or higher and would come with who knows what issues. If you want a LOTR, just get a nice HUO example. Cann't go wrong if it's well taken care of.

Who's upset? Your arguments are unpersuasive but I'm not losing any sleep over it. As you say, they haven't remade it yet, and maybe they never will. But if Stern's going to keep making VEs at all, there simply aren't many titles that would make financial sense to reproduce before LOTR (again, unless the licensing proves impossible due to Tolkien estate or image rights).

I apologize for saying anything. I really don't care.

No need to apologize! I'm not personally invested either (though I might still buy an LOTR VE if they did it right), we're just talking pinball here.

This guy gets it.

This is true. If you look at it, Stern has only done ONE vault game - Iron Man (twice!) - which is generally agreed to be the most stripped-down, cheapest game they've ever made. Spiderman doesn't count, it's reskinned and cost $1500 more.

Vault editions are going to be few and far between - as has been stated a million times, LOTR doesn't really make any sense - they'd have to charge $8,000 to make it worth their while and HUO versions cost much less.

The vault discussion gets annoying because it's hard to understand why people can't grasp the reality of the situation. Stern was very clever in their re-release of Iron Man. They pumped out a cheap game people wanted, and at the same time made a big deal about this "VAULT EDITION!" and how we could look forward to more releases from the vault. In three years it hasn't happened again, yet any seeds of doubt they can plant into the minds of people who might otherwise buy a used Stern instead of a new one is just a bonus. And no doubt, they've caused buyers to put off buying used Sterns in hope of the pie-in-the-sky vault.

Does anyone know how many LOTR were produced? They're not still coming off the line,so the number must be limited.

5100 units per IPDB.org

I remember this rumor. I had to consider the rumored VE as I was buying my second copy of LOTR. Thank goodness I picked buying a HUO copy that plays incredibly.