Not gonna happen. These are in the high 3k range. Maybe more due to Star Wars license. BTW, why didnt this title have Disney branding?

I agree this pin is not for me either, but there is a group of folks that would buy this at Costco on a whim. They will never change the rubbers, lift the playfield, or open the coin door. This will go in the game room as mostly a decoration, get a few hundred plays in the first few months and then occasionally be turned on when the kids friends come over.

It’s pretty simple. This home edition is obviously not created nor intended for the “pinside crowd”. These new machines are targeting a totally different segment of potential buyers - if they can help spread pinball and increase exposure with mainstream media it’s a win. Maybe it will lead some new people to pinball and perhaps later become collectors or operators.

Disney branding? I have never seen Star Wars merch with Disney branding. I am sure Lucasfilm is listed somewhere on it. Parent company Disney is usually never on the product.

Agreed.

However, I think people are more frustrated with the perceived “hype head fake” if nothing else is announced. If the target demographic isn’t current enthusiasts, why make an announcement to people who aren’t listening (ie the “sw he market”) 4 days early? Why not just do a show reveal?

While I will agree with you that they will sell some to the "at whim" customer, but when you get into pricing above a grand customers tend to do research and check outside market places like craigslist or Facebook market place for deals. I want to be as positive as everyone else here and think that somehow these are going to fly off the shelves at basically 4k after taxes and help grow our hobby, but I think some of you are overestimating the American consumer.

I'm sure they passed that link for the scheduled video to various media outlets. Pinside's general inability to see the bigger picture sure is amusing.

It’s way too expensive for the Christmas impulse market and obviously it’s too stripped for the collector. It’s really in nowhere territory.

It’s not that much cheaper than a Pro.

Surely they did some actual market research on this? To me it screams of a manufacturing driven product. “What’s the cheapest we can manufacture a real pinball machine?”. Instead the question should be “What’s the ideal price point for this target market and can we reach that price point?” If the answers no, you don’t do it.

Anyway, I’m assuming they at least consulted Costco who told them they’ve got a chance of selling them. So there must be some hope.

well ... that has changed and here is proof.

disney logo on a luke starwars lightsaber

source (7 min mark) :

I’ll be pre ordering one today. Exciting.

That's a thing you can get AT a Disney property; of course it's going to have Disney tagging there.

Its geared for and cool enough for the Star Wars fanatic that would like a pin without the total sticker shock? Stern has the parts, tooling, code with license. With a little tweaking of the big brother version they have a home pin with not a lot of skin off their nose.

Wondering if Amazon Aus will carry this too...

Ok then! That is at Disneyland, but I get it. Must be the new branding strategy.

surprised they included a lockdown bar button

Sorry folks... it’s all Disney now

F636EBDF-A0BE-4BF8-9BA4-6DEEBB68F743.pngF636EBDF-A0BE-4BF8-9BA4-6DEEBB68F743.png

Assimilation is complete

People want the start button on top.... finding how to start the game is a common issue

how else would you collect tie fighters? hmm .. they could have just had you mash the flipper buttons I suppose.

Maybe the rules are not quite the same?

Arcade 1up only does well because of the modding community.
If someone is only curious about getting into pinball, I cant see them shelling out several thousand dollars for a pinball like experience. When I wanted to add my first pin to my arcade line up I spend $1,000 (cdn) on a 1980 William's Blackout. I would take that Blackout over one of these any day. Shit, I could buy a Blackout AND a System 11 for that price. This isnt zizzle bad but the zizzle I bought my 5yr old cost $100 (cdn)
Unless Stern is going to sell these at Costco and Walmart for about $1,000 I cant see them moving very many.
I'm also still optimistic that today has some secrets in store. I cant see the Stern hype train all being for this home edition. Maybe one of several announcements today? SWHE + a real pin + some topper and code announcements if we are lucky

I know, which is crazy. Part of me thinks it could end up at $2,999.

Distributor price is $3995.

People saying “why not just buy a WMS game” have clearly been living inside the hobby bubble too long.

Regular people HAVE NO IDEA used pinball machines exists or that you can buy commercial arcade games for the home. One of the most common things I get when people visit and see the pins is “Wow, where did you get those?! You can own arcade games?!”

You can’t buy a Pinbot at Walmart. It takes actual effort to buy an old machine. First it needs to even occur to them to think they might want one.

This helps with that. This is the gateway game. And from the looks of it, it’s a huge improvement in home games.

But for only $4000 more they could get a Wonka!!!!!

JW is right of course. Sure, YOU could buy a ratty system 11 and a Williams Blackout for $4k, both of which will require constant maintanence and be general pain in the ass to acquire and move...but that's not for everybody.

Also, neither, nor both, of those games are Star Wars.

I agree to a some degree. Some people do get into to the hobby by just buying an older game, I mean its not rocket science to type in "pinball machine" into facebook market place but yes some older folk might not think to use markets like this. But, price and distribution will be what ultimately kills this. I'm willing to bet that you won't see this game at Walmart or Target at least not in physical stores and yes it will most likely end up at Costco but think of their target demographic... people who go to Costco go there because they are on a budget hence why they are buying a 12 pack of deodorant or enough frozen chicken to last you a year.... I'm sorry but this isn't going to be the gateway into the hobby that everyone is claiming. I want to see this hobby survive, and I want all current and future pinball manufacturers to be successful, but this was just blatantly not researched properly.

ahhh k that makes sense to me considering the market they are going for.

I'm curious to know how much these weigh.

Definitely not for the pinside crowd but seriously who is this for? The person who is not a pinhead is going to spend $4000 on a semi-serious pin? The serious Star Wars fan is going to buy this over the legit Star Wars pin? I see a few well-to-do grandparents buying one for their grandkids to play when they come over but that's it.

My guess is that zizzle was bought second hand. A new one was more than that, and someone bought it new.

People on a budget go to Wal-Mart, not a membership club that requires annual membership fees and paying in bulk for items not needed for months. You go because you can afford to spend $500 a trip to buy items you won't use immediately but will save you money/time down the line. There are not a lot of beater vehicles in the Costco parking lots here, their customer base is well above average in income.

The Motley Fool did a report that found "Costco's entire membership base spends on average about $2,500 a year at its stores. Due to the membership fee, Costco's customers tend to be wealthier than the average American and have an average household income of $100,000." Now I know $100,000 a year is considered on the poorer side for Pinsiders (cough cough) but it seems like a solid target to aim this product at.

Having said that, I figured $3,999 retail would be the absolute top of the pricing chain but if that is distributor cost then I will be very interested to see how this plays out. Stern has done some research into the market for an item like this, lets see if it actually pays off for them.

Nah.

Try
Used SW Home Edition $3300
Used SW Pro Pinball $4700

I agree that people who shop at Costco tend to be wealthier than the average Walmart shopper, but they also tend to be thrifty and or budgetary don't you think? Just because they have more money doesn't mean they aren't going there to save money. I'd also like to see how many Costco stores actually get these, Costco knows their audience and I'm willing to bet that these wont be at every store.

cotton (resized).jpg

I could see this selling on Amazon to those that know nothing about pinball, but not at Costco.

This thing has wireforms, but the Pro has plastic ramps

Where are these magic SW Pros sitting unsold? They seem to sell for around 5k almost instantly when they show up.

Star Wars just had another run in June which would indicate they are selling.

That's wrong. Here's a bit of a long story explaining wrongness: before I was in "the pinball community", I was NOT in the pinball community, just played in "my youth" and now I have extra cash. I thought, hey it'd be cool to get a pinball machine. My next, apparently amazing thought was, I WILL CHECK CRAIGSLIST where people buy all kinds of used shit and see if there are any used pinball machines for sale....people must sell those right? Yup. If anything, I didn't know they regularly made new ones.

New SW Home $4,000
New Star Wars Pro $5,799

That is pretty substantial difference for the casual interested buyer. Sure there are differences between them and the Pro will be a much better game and value long term (I would assume) but those saving go a long way.

In reference to the SW Pro HUO sitting around unsold for $4700 I put myself in the mind of a non-pinball geek. I checked Facebook Marketplace for "Star Wars Pinball" within a 100 mile radius (includes Boston, RI, CT and parts of other states). There are no machines found, it goes outside of 100 miles and I can get a Star Wars LE for 10k if I drive to NYC and an Episode 1 for $5,150 in NJ. Craigslist (with a 200 mile range) has a Star Wars LE for $7600, that's it. If I Google Star Wars Pinball it comes up with the $5,700 price new. Oh and if you find one of those $4700 HUO Star Wars Pros on CL or Facebook expect to be told that you have to go to a strangers house to look at it, bring cash and deliver it yourself. Great!

Most of the ones I've seen tend to sell around 4,700 as long as they haven't been super modded with every model known to exist.

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/classifieds/ad/81874

Say what? As I am sitting here at my desk at work I grabbed the first Star Wars merchandise I could find. A Hallmark card. Maybe your looking at something that was made before the Lucas sale?

20190718_102408.jpg

This is exactly correct. We are in a bubble within a bubble. Average people shopping for a home gameroom have no idea and just use google.

Apparently it all has Disney on it now. This is within the last couple years apparently.

Blackout $1,000 cdn January 2018

Used yes but the seller was the first owner and paid $150 when they were on sale