The same thing is happening to AC/DC right now. The premiums and Luci are getting harder to find and more expensive due to license expiration. I wanted an AC-DC premium and payed more than fair market value for it since I am impatient and want the game now!

I have a pro with custom colored LED'S and just love it. Its one of my favorite games. Love the art work.. Both models are awesome but for me went with the savings of the pro and used the savings to purchase an IMVE.. Just a thought

Exactly!

That makes the game easier as well.

I agree with everything you said. Especially the spinners. It's the only feature that I miss on the Prem/LE. For $500 more in add-ons, I think I am completely satisfied with my pro.

Some of Sterns production decisions still bother me on ALL versions of their games:

-It still bothers me that Stern uses the CFL bulb on the Pro LED. It's 4 times more expensive to run it, and 3-4 times more expensive to include into production than LEDs, if you count all the parts involved.
-It bothers me that Stern uses a $6 speaker in the lower and upper cabinets for a pin that costs 5-8K. C'mon Stern, you have to at least put a $20-30 speaker in there for a music themed pin!
-You have to tweak the sound settings to get them to sound good as well. Why can't it sound good from the factory?
-It bothers me that Stern continues to waste money on bad game design AND bad lighting design. If I could buy a Pro with no speakers, no bulbs at all and no ballast,starter,bulb, FOR THE EXACT PRICE, it would saved me a bunch of time, not having to remove all that useless junk.

I realize I'm the exception here, but Stern can SAVE money in some places and invest that little they save in the speaker/sound system, but they DON'T. I am confident that they would sell more music themed games if they did this. I am but a lowly "collector" though and know nothing (to Stern).

I do realize that you need additional apporval when you change anything on the machine and that takes time and costs a lot of money as well. So, I do understand why Stern makes a lot of these decisions. That doesn't mean I have to like them though.

Agreed, so much. This is what pushed me into buying my LE, once I saw what the new code was doing with the lights I had to have it. I love all the little touches, like how the red goes out to make the playfield feel more blue when you're one shot away from starting Cross Multiball.

Both the pro and LE/premium are great machines. Depends on your own personal preferences. I personally love toys in pinball and watching the ball get hammered into the playfield is just too cool an effect for me to live without. So I personally prefer the LE/premium. But I have put plenty of time in on the pro on location and it is a great game in its own right, and it is a lot cheaper. You really can't go wrong with either. One of my favorite games of all time.

Very good points regarding the lighting. I do consider things like this "eye candy" that don't add much for ME to the gameplay. I can see how others would see it differently.

I wanted to specifically mention the cross being white when it pulses on the pro... it's much better looking, in my opinion, if you put a red bulb back there.

Snake mouth in premium and le is a big part of the game... During modes it takes hits when it's closed.. Hit enough times it opens... U can lock a ball in its mouth and it closes.. Then u get it back after a allotted time like a prize... Snake mouth closing and opening is only in metle and pro no other game has ever had that feature. Personally my favorite

Well, I suppose if there's enough demand, Stern would do another small run of Premiums. They still have the license, and I'm sure they have the parts. Cabinets are the same as the Pro - so that's easy. Email Stern...couldn't hurt.

just an FYI....Timebandit here on pinside is working on a light kit that (from a PM exchange with him) will attempt to duplicate the lighting of an LE for a Pro. Not sure if it will have all the features of an LE lightshow, but I am interested in his project.

Picking up my Met Pro LED at Allentown

I think Stern will eventually pull a "LUCI" and create a new Ride the Lightning Premium featuring a new translite and cabinet art and that edition would sell like hotcakes! Dirty Donnie is still active in pinball and has a good relationship with Stern so it wouldn't take much to make it happen... Honestly if It didn't happen I would be surprised.

I asked and was told "no more premiums" Pro's only with another small run in May.
Now that I have received my pro it wouldn't surprise me for Stern to run some premiums.

If they made an awesome Ride the Lightning cabinet with some chrome trim they would probably sell 1000 of them easily, and I would be first in line.

I bought a MetLE NIB, but ultimately decided I just didn't care for the cabinet artwork and trim for the price I paid.

There's a pretty significant risk of saturation at this point though. A lot of people who would have bought a retail premium if they were still readily available have likely given in and bought the pro, so there may not be a high volume of premium buyers left.

I had an LE and sold it, miss it a ton but I also think it is one of the best Pro machines out there for the price difference.

They also said no more Iron Man and that was after the license expired. They still have the Met license....you never know with Stern!

I've had a pro refinery edition for bout a year and a half, it ain't going anywhere soon, maybe never. Very fun pin Le, prem. or pro!

Speaking as a member of the group of people most likely to be mad and bitch about such a thing, Master of Puppets LE owners , I think it's an awesome idea, they should totally do it.

Make the translite feature the band gathered around Sparky, getting ready to fry him!

I tried to sell my MetLE five months ago here on Pinside for $6900.00 and had zero buyers. I'm pretty sure it would be a different story now. What a difference a few months can make. But just take your time and the right offer will come around.

Great idea if they still have the liscense and it could be done affordably it's a no brainer. It would sell well IMO.

And then print a bunch of extras so I can get one of those rather than my boring pro translite.

I actually like the pro translite.

I like the monsters one better. More going on. But you can only get one of those from someone willing to part with theirs. At a hefty premium.

I like me the pro personally. If you got cash laying around you can go up to a prem, but for me it isn;t worth it. Great game either way luckily.

Yes it the same, you can change bulbs on the new led pro version image.jpg

That's cool! I figured there were light boards in the newer models.

These are some of my favorite bulb changes from stock.
Coffin - purple w/ purple flashers
Sparky webs - ice blue
Mystery hole - purple
Crank it up - purple

I dunno. They only sold around 200 IMVE's. That may have not been the numbers Stern was hoping for on that re-release. I'm fairly sure they were hoping for more like 500.

I've seen playfields that say x of 300 and others x of 500. So, maybe they made 800.

Where'd you hear that? Word is they sold 500 easy. I heard the 200 number regarding AC/DC Lucy.

Playfield numbers mean absolutely nothing regarding how many machines were made. That's just a clue as to how many play fields were made (hundreds more than were ever used). I have heard from reliable sources that 15-25% of play fields are completely unusable and rejected the moment they are received, for a number of reasons. Poor clear adhesion/dispersion, warped, raised inserts, ect.

Pinball buyers are picky. Stern needs to often send out a nice, or "seconds" play field, to keep the disatisfied customers drinking the cool-aid.

Here's a serial on ipdb... It's really anyone's guess as to how many. I certainly haven't seen the machine with the same frequency/numbers on Pinside and other sites, compared to other Stern titles that have a confirmed run of 500 or more. I think it is safe to say more than 100, less than 1000.

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love my "Purple Monster" premium

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Awesome summary. I wish I could give you more thumbs up.

I do believe you mean premium. The pro snake don't move, the snake in l.e. premium does and is really cool.

Here pinbalz, this one comes with a shaker motor and free shipping . Only 3 left. there was another ad and it was well over 8k but that's because its there last one, so they gonna get as much as they can for it.
ebay.com link: Stern Metallica Monster Premium Pinball Machine with Shaker

To give a decent example of the Premium light show, I did a video to just show the fade to black crank it up mode.

It looks better in person as well. But rest assured, premium or pro, you won't be making the wrong decision as the game is a winner for both. But if you like light shows, I have not personally seen a better one than what Metallica is currently doing.

Can not argue with that Sir!

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The DD version is old news. It was $1000 (I think) more than a regular premium too. Not worth the extra coin for me. Starburst did have one listed on their site and must have sold it....

Rob

I sent you a PM

Allen

I have never had the opportunity to play a prem/le

having said that i dont think you can go wronf either way. If you have the $$$$, and can find one, get a pem/le. If you dont want to hunt or spend more, a pro is and awesome machine too.

I'm confused. Did the pro version come with two versions where one was LED and another Incandescent?

Yes, sort of. Original pro runs were incandescent. New runs are LED.

While I agree SM is Stern's best recent game, is MET really better than AC/DC?

Isn't that a matter of taste? Both are great pins, 2 different desigs. Why don't you play both and determine for yourself which one is better.

Metallica is one of those games where I like the pro version better than the premium. the hammer is big and in the way. Like the cleaner look of the pro, plus the translite is better.

I think that Met pro is better than Ac/Dc pro.

I almost wish they sold the LE features as add ons for the pro. I'd pay to add the spinners and the GI lightshow (if they're properly controlled by the code), even if I had to install it myself.