In the eBay ad under Item Specifics, you can actually read "MPN: Spiderman-The Pin"

And hopefully have some code that's a step or two better than a Zizzle. I think the eBay seller has prices that are fluffed up even over MSRP (look at the Stern Pros they have FS) so I bet the street price for these deeleys will be $3200-$3600.

Somewhere Vid is dancing a jig because there will be like 9 new threads where he can defend this product w/ all the good hardware that goes into it.

There's an "Ask The Seller" link at the bottom of the eBay ad.

I wonder how much it would have added to the cost to move the speaker to the exact center of the front of the cabinet (instead of the top left corner) and then put a large 10" square black speaker grill over it. This would've kept it a home model while also giving it some sort of traditional appearance of a coin door.

Lol, they were $3800 on their own website, $3900 on eBay...

And now we're up to $4300 on Amazon! Maybe they saw too many "$10K by Xmas" posts here and thought it was an actual sales technique.

Capture4 (resized).JPG

And now they're up to $4K on their website!

Capture5 (resized).JPG

I tried to get through the checkout process as far as I could without actually buying the thing. Unfortunately it only allows me to qualify for free shipping (wow, free shipping from a company that artificially marks up games hundreds over MSRP, what a bargain!) and I can't get far along in the checkout process where I get a lead time.

Side note: If the list price was actually $2500, and I was instead on the site of a respected distributor, I may have went through the checkout process just to be one of the first to get one and fill in the blanks that much of Pinside is wondering. I have a 7yr old that loves watching Ultimate Spiderman, and I have family that we frequently visit looking for a starter pin. At $2500, it would've been an fairly easy gamble because the theme is right, probably crazy-basic rules for kids/parents to understand, enough to bring me back on an intermittent basis, and it would have a warranty. But I also can think of about 1000 ways to spend $2500 in the pin-world right now instead of NIB Sterns... ... and this probably will have a street price in the mid-$3K range anyways which is a deal breaker IMHO for a home pin.

And now eBay has ended but went up from $3900 to $4100. It's like the machine is a real time tracking of Pinflation!

ebay.com link: itm

It's beyond obvious at this point that this is a unique layout. It's not anything close to SMVE, TF, or TF-Pin. If you think any of those are the case, then "anything" is a remake of "anything"... as long as pops are allowed to move, multiple ball paths are allowed to change, and none of the same toys exist in the remake. Also, it's a full PF.

Though I've been ultra-critical of Stern lately (and justifiably so due to something that happened off the record with the company), I think this machine has g-i-a-n-t GIANT potential, even more so if they tweaked a few items. Here are some thoughts I haven't seen brought up yet.

1) I love reading things literally. The description on Game Room Guys mentions "All new custom-molded toys specifically designed and decorated to capture the ultimate Spider-Man art style". Toys is used in the plural, but we only see the Doc Ock toy and it could easily be a single, stationary, non-interactive toy. I'd love to see all 4 villains (see, I can spell check!) as toys, even as stationary toys as it would fill up empty space. That adds what, $10-20, their cost on the BoM?

2) According to the product description "Durable high grade plunger". I'd love to see a manual plunger with an override to go for a super skill shot by holding a flipper and hitting a specified shot. Instead, I fear "high grade" means they used an existing and proven auto-plunger and the leaked photos with the "double button launch" method will prove to be true.

3) I think the code will probably be quite basic, strictly compared to what we're used to with modern pins. Though this will look like a LED-era game, yet I bet it will have the code of a late 80s game. According to the rules, hit S-P-I-D-E-R to start mode. There are 4 villains. So you hit the standups to start whatever villain is lit. It looks like 3 shots beats a villain, so 3 orbits for Sandman, 3 drops for Doc Ock, 3 ramps for GG, and 3 horseshoe loops for Venom. Probably a wizard MB for completing all 4, a MB for the "Rescue MJ" feature, and one other for some achievement. This is all probably very good as an intro-level game, but I wish it was a bit more varied than "hit targets to start, and then 3 shots to win".

4) Lastly, tied to point #3 above, the thing I'm yet to understand is the "Rescue MJ" feature. According to the ad "Rescue MJ random ball lock target creates a fun and unique new way to enable a multiball". Here is a picture of the area in question...
SM-Pin MJ (resized).JPG

It appears that you drop the Doc Ock targets and then there's a small horseshoe into the ball lock setup in the right of the picture, which looks to be a few switches for 2-ball lock logic and a girl's ponytail elastic to hold everything there. I'm guessing the way to initiate that MB is to hit the captive balls between the posts (think Avatar) but instead you're just hoping you can Newton-ball the balls free...? I'm not saying this isn't a very inexpensive and brilliant way to have a special way to trap and start MB, but it just looks less "fun and unique" and more "JPOP leftover parts concept".

Overall, this is still a full-size PF game with rules that probably exceed most games in the 80s, with a color DMD, great theme, perhaps a toy, 2 ramps, all for under $4K. This really sounds 1-2 small steps from those "minimum whitewood" threads where we all want basic street-level games for under $4K. We probably lost a manual plunger, a standard front (coin door area) face, some in depth code, and interactive toys. In that trade off we probably gained full Stern parts/interchangeability, Spike benefits, a lift up PF, LEDs, color DMD, ramps, a good theme, and anything else I'm omitting.

I honestly think the Pro's outweigh the Con's, especially now that Expo only has debuted $6K+ games. Everyone would design their own street level game a bit differently, but I think this hits most of the major concerns for the home/entry collector. Anything more, and Stern risks cannibalizing their Pro market which is why I bet the limited the scope of this machine.

Either way, bravo Stern. This is light years beyond The Pin, and credit where credit is due. It's not for everyone, but it will be for many who aren't digging $9K Premiums.

I'll never dispute the price vs. features of WNBJM. Take out the nostalgic EM factor and "melons" and it probably loses to SM-The Pin in every way possible. Therefore it says a lot about WNBJM.

I personally don't think the theme of this machine will be a deterrent. As Vid and others say, The Pin is great for those single moms wanting to step it up come holiday time. Now it's a full pin and not some wannabe lookalike. You just have to accept it's an 80s game in a modern skin. But that was a lot of people wanted all along, affordable modern pinball.

If it were "generic sci-fi" i don't think it wouldn't even hit the radar of much of this machine's target audience. I'd probably like it more, but I also have a 7yr old who is 10000x more connected to Marvel Spider-Man than "robots from Neptune" or whatever they could do.

Unless they make a change to the coin door on the units (rumored for international machines only at the moment) it's strictly a home machine that can't go on route.

IMO, this is a very strategic and well thought out attempt to gain new customers as others age and grow out of their potential customer base. It won't suit all pinheads but it will gain a few sales from this community.

I think their biggest internal concern is still how to make a machine that doesn't cannibalize their Pro models. The physical features omitted only cost Stern a few bucks each (spinners, additional plastic toys, plunger) yet they're the difference in a fairly substantial list price delta.

We know what things cost retail on Marco and PBL and elsewhere so it's a safe bet that Stern gets bulk items far less from vendors. But to include those would bridge the gap closer to a Pro model and I'll wager they don't want that at all. This may seem cheaper to us, but due to standardizing on pops, slings, and flippers (no additional R&D, sourcing, lower Qty purchasing), among the other low cost designs, this may carry an equal or greater margin for them, even as the only NIB model under $4k, especially if this model sells.

Now on pinballs.com site as well. Uses the phrase "recently released" and has a price + shipping.

SM HE (resized).JPG

Also on GRG as "23-26 business days" which would put it right around X-mas.
SM HE2 (resized).JPG

And here is the flyer from another website...

SM HE 3 (resized).JPG

SM HE 4 (resized).JPG

Just noticed too that in small print on the bottom of the flyer it calls this model the "ELG" which I assume means Entry Level Game,

This is what I fear too.

Just watched the video above and was pleasantly surprised. My only two gripes were A) the ramps seemed a bit clunky and killed flow at the top 180deg turnaround (probably a design concession so they could make straighter ramps and use less plastic or something), and B) the slings were on a common coil, which we've known for awhile. At $4K I'm still in the mindset that I'd rather go for a traditional HUO. I've spent exactly $8K combined on my HUO RBION and HUO ST Pro and I know I'd rather have those than "this + the next model" on this platform. At $3K, I could start to see this as a real possibility, especially for my son.

If you think of the numbers on this one, if it has only ~125 made, and let's pretend Stern is taking in $3K on each (+/- I have no idea what the Distributors cut is off of the street price), that's only maybe $375K in revenue. From there, profit is much less after you take out BoM of each machine and spread R&D and Design over just 125pcs.

Therefore I wouldn't be surprised if the next machine is a rehash of the same layout with different theme... perhaps different ramp shapes to help differentiate them in a showroom.

Looks like they've considered what many have stated here and changed to a blank coin door, perhaps with an option for coins/dollars if requested?

IMO, this new design looks light years better with a blank door than what it was before with the SM art there. Looks much more like a traditional design now.

SMCE (resized).JPG