Blocks your view from what? I don't see a problem with it! Its one of the coolest features created, IMO of course.

You can't see the block underneath at all, so it's really hard to tell what angle your ball is coming off of until it's already cleared the hammer, which is pretty big. I also don't like anything that obstructs the path up the middle when you have a middle shot that's so important.

The real issue is that it fails too often. It should at least award a virtual lock if it doesn't catch your ball, because it doesn't about 25% of the time.

Exactly!!!

Maybe he has a glass eye??

Or I can just see flaws. It's probably that.

Well must be a different hammer then mine cause mine does not block my view,well
maybe a little but the little that blocks is nothing!

Hammer is such a cool toy with the coffin and the rest of the cool feature on Premium
Premium always Premium,Pro is the Poor man's Pinball

Never buy the pro(cheap)model of anything.

Except for Metallica, where you get a better functioning game. The hammer is problematic, there's no way to argue around that.

Edit: Or maybe X-Men, where you don't have the dang cross ramp issues. ST Pro seems just fine too. It's not a hard and fast rule to go Premium/LE over Pro, to be honest.

The premium is 100% worth getting over the pro. Enough extras to justify the cost. My father bought the pro then bought the premium a month later. Spend the money once.

Why do you have a Tron pro and standard LOTR? Do you regret owning those games?

$5k is cheap? Geez...

Met Pro is a very cool pin. For Metallica (assuming I could afford it) I would either consider the LE because of its cabinet artwork, or the Pro. And would actually try to find one HUO rather than NIB.

I buy pins to play, not to decorate a room with. Therefore I bought a MET Pro.

We'll be doing a few more refinery pros in the next couple weeks if you're looking for something in between a pro and premium

I am a pinball snob to some degree. I always but a Limited Edition. But Metallica LE I really do not like the Hammer Toy. It blocks the view of the playfield and Sparky. And the snakes lower jaw at least on the few I played was raised to high I thought. The pro model I think in this case would be my choice.

No it doesn't. Hammer is off to the right. Sparky is right up the middle. He's perfectly visible no matter what your stance is. No actual playfield is blocked at all.

It blocks the line up to Sparky. You briefly lose sight of the ball going up and coming back down in many instances, especially from a right flipper shot. The bigger problem is not seeing the angle that the hammer's block is being hit, however. It's fine if the ball goes out of sight in the loops or whatever, but right in the middle of the playfield, that's not cool. If the ball is coming from the pops, exiting left, you don't get a good view of that either.

But screw sight, that's just a secondary issue. The fact that the lock misses as often as it does is inexcusable. It's really a poor lock mechanism. It looks really cool, but few things are more disappointing than scoring a lock and having the hammer miss. You just end up with a hole there in the middle, and often times it misses repeatedly. That kinda sucks.

MetLE.jpg

Lower jaw issue is a mechanical adjustment. Several posts about resolving it exist online.

There's no denying that the Premium/LE looks incredible, however...

Just wanted to throw my thoughts in. Had a pro and upgraded to a Prem within weeks.

First time I've ever done that with a pin. I even took the pro and added LEDs, but it just wasn't the same. Buddy of mine has an MOPLE and it's something else to play entirely. I couldn't cough up the coin for one at the time, so I was able to upgrade my almost new Pro to a HUO Prem.
Hammer I could take or leave, but what really made it worth it for me:
Color changing LEDs are nice.
The real ball lock is a biggie for me. Virtual ball locks don't give me the same satisfaction as seeing a ball locked.
Spinners. The damn spinners made a big difference. Tied in with the drums, they just make it for me.

The lockdown bar, playfield sliders, and art package don't mean much to me, but those are my big reasons.

You don't have the same hammer as me

https://flic.kr/p/ja389a

Does MET Premium come factory with just partial LED's or all?

MET Pro comes factory with no LED's?

thanks!

Met premium is all led except for the flashers below the playfield. Pro is all incandescent.

thanks for the quick reply.. makes my decision to look at a PRO or Premium even harder

It seems like the PRO has less things that can break and I can always replace PRO incandescent with LED's but coming from the factory with them is nice.

I think the premium is a no brainer - but I understand others opinions. Color changing LED and toys are worth it to me plus i didn't find the hammer a blocking issue.

+1 MetallicA had some Hammer issue but it's fixed and toys are Worth it well i am a big MetallicA fan
and now Huge MetallicA and Lyman Fan...I got ACDC after he last code update on Met,sold my Bally/ws

Permium for me is :

Changing color Leds and Light show is great but not even done yet Lyman's on it !
Hammer smashing ball in the playfield with the new sound is Awesome,Amazing Toy !
Snake is Great gotta have it does some cool stuff !
Moving Cross is nice but not more,cool when it comes up with the other tombstones on DMD !
Spinners are Great !

Aint Sparky the Best toy ever....i hope with the new Code Sparky will be even more in the gameplay !

Hope it Helps and if you get a Prem come back in a few and thank me !

what is the best price for a Met premium? If someone can PM me.

Someone PM me too

Just finished playing a game...wow Crank it up 4 modes are awesome but that Fade to Black WOW
Playfield lights are awesome !

Is the Hammer issue fixed via a recent software update?

So far it seems best price on MET Premium NIB is $6500 from a distributor.

thanks

I received my nib premium a week ago and have approximately 60 games on it. I have noticed no issues with the hammer, it works as intended on my machine. No phantom hits at all and it seems to be synchronized perfectly. A really awesome effect.

I'm going Pro NIB.

Some of the premium stuff is very cool, but the hammer kills it for me. So lucky for me I can get out cheaper.

I just read though this thread and wanted to note the pro now includes LEDs from the factory along with the new tilted backbox. I dought it gets the GI dimming in fade to black still.

I weighed which to get for almost a year and ultimately couldn't get over the hammer. I think being short makes it more in my line of sight. I was stuck on the spinners also but bought Hooks prebuilds that I plan to hook up flashers with and cross my fingers one day Lyman sneaks us in the needed code switch. Someone will eventually hack a rom.

Tonight I signed the check and will be overnighting payment tomorrow for a Pro with No Remorse.

Pro is the way to go Bob - good choice.
You can dress it up and sell save a pile of cash to boot.
I wound up keeping mine no takers at what I had in it and I didnt want to dumb it down.
Over the top sure but plays great!

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/metallichrome-concept-by-hkd

I had LE, than pro, than prem, than pro led and finally settled with monster premium.

Get prem if you can afford it!