They could have made people submit a video begging to be able to buy it! But that would be crazy ...

What IS crazy is that people WOULD submit videos begging to buy it.......

They are not going to make a lot of these toppers so even if many people will pass a few will jump on them. Like you said mando is not as popular as other games. Just imagine if they only make 500 toppers for Godzilla. People will fight like crazy to have the privilege to drop their money.

If I was them I would make 500 Godzilla toppers and charge $4,999 for them I bet they would all sell in this crazy market... Less hassle for them as they only need to commit to a low volume, they make their margins and the people that get them must be happy as they all sold. In fact they should only make them for LE's on a go forward basis and add it to the cost of the machine and make them even more exclusive.

Anyone able to grab some video from expo?

oh great...........a woke ass pinball company now?

lol wtf does this even mean

Invoking the "W Word" is a Pinside achievement around here and gains you lots of fans, because it shows you are clever, witty, and a free-thinker!

Anyone attached to Disney anymore is a cancer, even ex Disney employees.

Not true, there are a lot of good people at Disney past and present…Disney is a big company. I think this new guy looks good on paper. Bringing in someone with the Disney/GE background can only help Stern long term. Outside ideas may help Stern (not that they need much help).

Well we made it 7 pages before someone went full... FFS... IBTL...

To be fair, it's easier to see the animations on the toppers when they're wearing these.

model23B (resized).jpg

Don’t think people are buying because they like spending big dollars on crazy overpriced toppers. It more like Stern yells, “stick em up” buy it or take a hike! We have no choice in the matter, if we want the topper to complete our game.

For sure. I hate that there are going to be three modes our there I’ll simply never play on my home machine…it suddenly makes me feel I have an incomplete experience. Is what it is though, I can’t blame Stern from cashing in as much as possible on this incredible license.

If Stern released a limited edition shooter rod for a pinball machine for $1,500 i am sure it would sell out in minutes. Crazy community here!

It's challenging, because I get the FOMO aspect of "missing out on modes", but at the same time it's undeniably cool that the topper is really interactive. I wish I could make a mod that added that much to a game!

There's really two ways to think about this, imo.

Stern either picks a price point, and then tries to justify it. "We want to charge mfers 2k for this thing, so uh, how can we cram some more features in to make that not seem utterly ridiculous?"

Or

Stern gives their people free rein to design the coolest thing they can think of, and they say "well, we can do holograms and stuff, but what if we make it light up and do these new bonus multiballs? It will take X developer time and drive the price up, but I think our core collectors will pay for it and it's gonna be bad ass"

Maybe it's somewhere in the middle. The people working at Stern are creative souls who like doing cool shit, not faceless robots. I remember talking to Lyman once (RIP) about how he just wanted more time to make things better. It's not just a job you clock in and clock out at.

I'm spending so much time on a mod right now, just utterly redrew the entire thing because I wasn't happy. I promise you nobody would have hated the first version, but I wasn't satisfied. It's not a job for me, the hours are what I feel like spending. But if I was salaried someone would be bean counting that time.

I can afford it so money not the issue but hey this is a joke at $3k AUD
SW updates should be inclusive of such extra features and gameplay
This has upset me as we now know any future Stern pinball will need a topper to be complete otherwise you buying a game thats 90% finished

Imagine having a choice when buying a topper.

I don’t see it that way at all. They are ancillary modes that have nothing to do with the core game play. If these toppers were the only way to play “this is the way”, then I’d agree.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stern-spike-2-hdmi-otput

Looks like you'll be able to build something similar yourself.

It's a display and a mirror... I don't get why peeps think it's so cool. Doesn't match 2 out of 3 of the machines and it costs a 1/3 of an actual used Mando pro entire pinball game. Some crazy sh...

I think (/hope) you forgot the <sarcasm> </sarcasm>?

Because it’s cool. Don’t over think it. Lots of cool stuff out there that are very simple concepts. They did a great job with this topper. Price sucks, but the thing is cool.

The price is just ridiculous. I hope those considering purchasing the topper have enough personal pride to pass. It shouldn’t matter whether you can afford it or not.

No disrespect, but cool to me and u must be different. Cool to me is tilting playfield, building collapse, killer combo shots, and mechs. Not a mirrored display. The IG11 topper a random pinside dude made is F'n cool.. Nothing against mando but its by far not one of Sterns best releases, but what if this hologram was integrated into the game somehow and had the additional code the topper offers. Maybe then everyone would buy the actual pinball game. The current market shows the overall value of the pin and its gameplay. Improve the game instead of putting lipstick on the pig.. for $2k.

All those things you mentioned are also cool. Guess I’m just less strict.

been there for several years already

I believe he since discovered the HDMI output to be disabled in a later update.. remains to be seen whether that’s temporary (while they were waiting to reveal the topper) or if it’ll be programmatically disabled when you don’t have a topper.

The game already knows if you have a topper connected or not, so I’m skeptical we’ll be able to DIY much without also having a node board up there.

Exactly this. I do not want to feel like I have to buy a $2,000 topper to complete the home owner experience. I currently feel that way. It absolutely cheapens the experience of owning the just the game.

I wonder why Stern made the decision to have the least numerous of the three models be the one that color matched.

To appeal to the LE owners, the buyers that without fail, will get this topper.

Good point. They know for certain every LE owner is going to buy this topper.

FOMO is a hellavu drug, folks.

These threads are always the same. I saw this same crybaby spoiled child shit with the stranger things uv kit.

“Waaahhhh, it shoulda been included, waahhhhhh”

I’ve been into video games for almost 40 years now, same crap there. “Wahhh, I want more for free, waahhh”

Is the base video game worth $60? Yes? Then DLC is extra shit you’re not entitled to. If it isn’t, then why did you buy it in the first place?

Is the base Mandolorean game worth $7k-9k? Yes? Then topper modes are fluff, and if the base game they advertised wasn’t worth it…. Why did you buy it?

Like it says in the Bible “spare the LE shooter rod, spoil the pinsider”

I don’t see anyone crying in here…just people expressing their general dissatisfaction with the price point of the paywall between them and the full game experience. Missing out on a mini wizard mode is a pretty big deal and Mando is not Stern’s best coded game…my pro could have used some additional code.

Clearly the demand for this product is going to far exceed the supply…so I’m certainly not criticizing Stern for the business decision they have made.

There’s a spectrum in this discussion, so while you make a good point I think you’re also missing some of the nuance.

I agree that expecting endless content for free just because you bought a machine is on the “crybaby” end of the spectrum, but it is still frustrating to see this kind of stuff happening when the base game code lacks the polish it should have (bugs that have been reported for months, lack of polish in mini wizard modes like “I Like Those Odds,” etc).

Stern usually makes good on their code eventually, and I get that the “waiting for code polish/completion” thing has become part of ownership. It’s just frustrating to see “DLC” released at a premium when the base code doesn’t feel done yet… I think that’s a pretty reasonable/moderate take, not “cry babying.”

I’ll live without the topper. Disappointed, yeah, but I’m not that beat up about not getting one…that said, the people griping here have a point too.

Someone posted this on facebook and it made me laugh, even though I knew it. They have a flat piece of plastic with a STICKER to simulate LED lights to the side of the display screen. And all the topper does around the $50 video screen is flash. That's it. For $2K, they could have spent another $30 putting in LED's.. but decided it wasn't worth their time to do even the simplest thing.

Screen Shot 2022-10-22 at 11.58.17 AM (resized).png

Stranger Things topper at $650 looking like a steal now

What a stupid comparison. Stanger things UV kit cost a fraction of this topper turd

Mando code is laughably light, has received almost no significant updates since release, and to hold key features behind a 2k paywall is a borderline scam. Don’t kid yourself, the code that is exclusive to this topper at one point was intended to be part of the base game.

I bet over half of you would spend 2k or more for rims and tires on your used car you just bought.
Same effect right as a topper.

I love stern pins, but man, the greed is insane and will most likely continue to spiral until it ultimately will be their downfall.

I heard it’s sold out. Guess 2k is the new price point going forward and I thought $1k was high for HOH.

Haha this might be the worst analogy I’ve ever read

I hope 1/2 of the buyers are flippers who end up taking a $500+ hit when they try to flip it.

Players don't see the topper effects when playing and drivers don't see their rims when driving the. And rims don't increase the value of your car or go up in price. You must be one of the ones that do that and don't realize that you ruin your suspension on your with thin side wall tires and big rims

LE owner here and I bought one.

This is nothing, the Bond topper will be $5k.

SLE 7.5k

This and Godzilla topper are the end for me. I need to complete these LE games. I have a large collection and all my games have toppers. I am out on all future NIB LE games unless it’s a dream theme and I dont have many of these left. Stern pricing and strategy is disappointing for sure. If the games were loaded with toys, special armor and backglass etc I would maybe think about it. As you can see in Bond they are not. They will lose my NIB purchases and I’m sure sales will be affected. I can’t be the only one. JJP is a easy pass due to poor quality. They all sucked for me!

Many of us are with you on this being the last big dollar spend with Stern pinball toppers to complete Mando/Godzilla. Stern, fleece us while you can, because most of us won’t let it happen again later. The big question is, will people keep taking extreme price increase abuse in the future???

Mando debuted so long ago when prices were so much more reasonable for the game itself, there’s almost a disconnect with Stern’s new pirate plundering Mando topper price. Games going forward are most likely not going to command $13K LEs, plus $500 shooter rods, and $3,000.00 toppers, making completed games $16,500.00 plus tax and shipping, being pushed to nearly $18,000.00 total.

What? You’re obviously not a golfer.