I have nothing but respect for The King. I'm not trying to push him out the door to retire.

But ...

Maybe it's time for some younger designers who want some w** p**** to do some band games?

Nothing wrong with Led Zeppelin as a theme. It's a little old man, but a little timeless, just like pinball. And maybe pinball isn't ready for a Young Thug pin. But there's gotta be a lot in between. What's the 'youngest' band to get a pinball? Rob Zombie I guess?

Not thrilled with any of the artwork - especially the cabinets. Any model.

3 wizard modes and since this is a hype thread I’m going to go out on a limb here

Top of the charts - Stairway - number one rock some to most.

World Tour - not sure maybe the ocean

The Zeppelin with ? - Dazed and confused, it’s from that album.

I’d shit if this is correct

Obviously... I would read an entire thread where people have listed where the art came from several times and still ask? Some people love those images, not what I picture for iconic Zep due to similarity to Yellow Submarine

Zeppelin my favorite band and I’ll have to process. Hopefully, JJP gets the U2 license..

To be fair neither has JJP

Yeah, I don't want to sound ageist...but Keith Elwin is the youngest head designer and he's almost 50. He at least has a lot of fresh ideas because he hasn't been doing pinball design his whole professional career.

Rob Zombie, Primus, and GnR all formed roughly the same time but got popular at very different times.

Love Zepplin and Love Stern... but nope... don't hate it but bottom line, Price doesn't match what you get period on any of the models listed. JJP just sold even more G and R machines now. For all the people that were waiting to see which to go with. Not a fanboy here I own machines from both companies. Just stating fact in this war of rock music pins JJP won the better bang for the buck this time around.

Haha! Yes! What was somebody going for with the LE?

Elwin designs don't do anything for me. I love Maiden but the code saved it, JP2 and AIQ are meh at best. The code worries me on this game, Tim Sexton did BKSOR and hasn't had any major updates since release.

Lots of old people in pinball so they aim for that market , also the older ones have more money in their pockets

Young Thug pin ? Maybe time for Tim Tok pin LOL

Does Scott Danesi count as a one-man band?

Stairway is not in the game. Ritchie tried and it was too difficult to secure apparently.

I have an LE on order and the Rock Gods won't allow me to cancel it, after all it's LZ, however having said that I feel like I am totally stupid buying this one. Confirms to me Stern wont budge on their margins to create something special like JJP does and the passion must be sucked out of the designers trying to fight for anything cool to put into these tittles

Here's my first thoughts from looking at the photos....

Just looks like yet another standard, late-career Ritchie design. Upper flipper cross playfield shot. 3 pops at the top. Long ramp shots. Speed speed speed! If this is your thing, more power to you. But how many of these similar designed Ritchie games do you actually need? I'd take a unique Elwin design anyday of the week.

The main feature is a pop-up spinner with a magnet. Different idea for sure. But what I see is two pop-up posts in the center of the playfield that are RIPE for brick shots. I hope that mech has a wide opening for smooth spinner rips.

And TWO U-turn ramps, which are usually placed closer to the player. In this design, the right one is a really long shot. If you don't hit that perfectly with some speed, it's getting rejected. And the left one from the upper RT flipper looks like a really tight shot. Guessing a very low success rate making that shot from the fast RT orbit feed.

Good code will help but that layout still won't change. I'll have to see it in action. Just seems uninspired for such a popular theme. Just like Ritchie's Star Wars. See the trend?

Is that published somewhere? Or anecdotal guess?

Not a guess. I’ll leave it at that.

He said the Pro looked like the Beatles

I've been closely going over all the pictures and watching the videos over and over again to see if my first impression softens a little but if anything I'm even more underwhelmed than before. Pro looks barely more than a version of The Pin to me. I really don't like the 3rd flipper to nowehere. At least it goes somewhere on the premium and LE.

No Stairway to heaven doesn't really bother me because I don't think it would translate into pinball, unless it somehow ramped up to the ending of the song quickly, which kind of kills the spirit of the song. I kinda feel the same way about "dream on" missing from Aerosmith, but I think that would have worked a little better at least

tumblr_lxa7im1wLZ1qz6f4bo1_1280 (resized).jpg

Don’t need no Pearl Jam pin,but I will take some of that [removed] pin you speak of!

Could not help yourself,could you?

Going to keep my deposit towards EHOH and sit back and wait and see for gameplay and in hand impressions. I would not be happy buying an LE sight unseen and then seeing the reveal. I would regret it big time but just my opinion.

LZIII artwork should have been on the premium. It’s much better than LZI artwork. Wish the backglass was not just the LP cover. There’s no separation from the cabinet art work to the backglass and the color pallet used on the playfield is a huge contrast from the cabinet artwork.

Feels like two separate games art wise. Aerosmith, Metallica, AC/DC has great cohesion. Shame Led Zeppelin doesn’t have the same style of artwork on the cabinet that is on the playfield. Aerosmith cabinet art really pops and I love it, but not a big fan of the band.

I am a big fan of Zeppelin, but going to wait. I am not sure if will eventually go with pro or premium. Love the premium extras on the playfield, but the cabinet artwork on the pro with LZIII is so much better than LZI.

Really sucks. Get the pro and be happy with the artwork but miss the extras of the premium. Get the premium and be happy with the extras, but hate the artwork.

Unfortunately the translite on the premium is tied into the art on the side of the backbox so a custom could be possible but just will lack cohesion.

Man I had reservations about how this would turn out and still have them. Really disappointed with the cabinet artwork.

Only 10 songs is kinda of a letdown. Enjoyed Metallica, Aerosmith, and AC/DC. AC/DC is still one I would like to add someday to my collection because the songs kick a$$, but I was worried about Zeppelin’s songs not being on par for a pinball.

Just my opinion and trying to not be a stern or Zep fanboy and say it’s all incredible. I love pinball and Stern and new to the hobby, but just as far as what I see so far I would give it a 6/10 for excitement level and must buy.

Congrats to those who love it, but I am in no rush and definitely not a day 1 preorder. Now will wait for EHOH to be made next year and hopefully get a chance to play Zeppelin and see if it will be fun.

Still enjoying my BKSOR premium and Stranger Things pro is in the garage waiting for Christmas Day.

Dude come on LMAO.. I'm sitting here eating waffels and just spit them out laughing...

OMG. I am speechless. This is atrocious. So, let me get this straight: Stern pays LZ $700-900k to LZ for the following items: 10-12 images from albums (hindenburg, artist images, icarus, and the funny crazy art package), 10 songs, and rights to images on animations. Led Zeppelin takes the check, and sends the IP to Stern, who then simply slaps the predetermined items onto the playfields and cabinets, which were already pre approved. Then they use SR's completed whitewood and implement the art quickly and easily. This is amazing.

Did Steve Ritchie even make a shallow attempt to integrate the theme here? Did Steve Ritchie have this game in his back pocket ready to launch, and just slap LZ IP on it and sell it? this looks like another SR game with a perfect fan layout same depth shot pattern, little to no design effort on tuning the shots in the game, and very little R and D to get the game shooting right, because its pretty much already been done many times. what a shame. do better Stern!! I hope SR is done after this. this is getting ridiculous. his time has come. Two of the biggest IPs in history of pinball (star wars and Led) are now immortalized by two of the most uninspired designs in pinball history since the year 2000. What a shame. SW and LZ deserved better representations of their band in Pinball, like metallica and ACDC. This can't happen.

Hey guys, at least we can count on Borg and Elwin to bring it on the next titles. SR needs to have a seat and watch Elwin and Borg build the company every year.

it definitely isn't.

Feels like two separate games art wise.

Totally agree, was my first thoughts too. The Prem isn't bad but the all the color on the playfield doesn't match the rest of the machine.

I like the Prem art but lets be honest.... that was done in 3 hours in windows paint. Ok morning coffee , band album art left click... right click enter LED ZEPPLIN text in orange... save ok we are done here... now give me $7800.

I've never owned a new pin and thought this might be the one. Probably not. 10 songs ain't enough for the greatest hard rock band in history.

Agree to me when the levy breaks is my fav... so many songs and just 10 ? blah

LOL and you said you blocked me

Does the Icarus sculpt have the post shoved up his ass? Looks painful.

Even the Stones machine has 13-14!

Edit - maybe Stairway isn’t wizard but something tells me they arent generic modes with specific inserts. Remaining optimistic until proven otherwise.

Yet you did not deny it

I would almost bet money that if Stern could have seen GnR a long time before they did,Zeppelin would look a lot different.It’s a shame they’re the favorite of my youth.
Sex drugs(nothin too harmful) and rock & roll(Shit loads of concerts for $7.50 each!

btw, there is some BS about no drops on the pro and less multi balls - pretty sure that isn't the case. Sometimes the amount of fabrication on this forum esp on the hype threads is irritating.

The game has ten songs which I read as ten modes, how many modes does GOTG have? Then I can see a few multi ball modes and likely a few wizard modes thus pretty much inline with every pinball machine made. Folks are moaning about the layout, I like Steve's layouts because they are max flow and they are very backhand able which isn't the case with some others. I'm not a LZ fan but the art and theme looks good, and with a band that's been around as much as LZ there is a lot to chose from and making all of the people happy is not so easy. I think the blue armour like the yellow armour will look mech better in person.

Cheers,
Neil.

Only Stern would make a big deal about what is a virtual kick back. That is now a feature? Lol.

Like all modern Sterns LZ looks fun but I'm not seeing enough features, mechs, and songs to justify the price tag.

I wonder how long ago Stern started planning the side rail lights. Just interesting GNR and LZ have a similar feature in such a short time span. I would think Stern was working on it before the GNR reveal, but it'd be funny if they spent the last two months cramming it in there.

There is one less multiball on the pro. This is confirmed in the Stern feature matrix. The center toy isn't present or compensated for in the pro, so its multiball is entirely missing.

I don't think you could knock something so well integrated in a couple of months. My money is they were there from the start.

They take completely different approaches to getting the lighting... Speaking of which... I wonder how Stern did that? GNR has the ligthing on the playfield shinning up. Stern has theirs drilled into the wood. I am guessing there is a second chanel below the glass with a string of lights in it with the chanel simply covered up by the decal. Will be interesting to see how they actually did it.

sorry correct, that one is right apologies, just some other BS further up.

I still love STTNG (ground breaking mechs/toys for '93) and my AC/DC (SR's triumphant return to Stern).

Sold my SWLE recently because it wasn't fun. Cool video clips/audio. Hyperdrive mech possibly the best toy in any Stern, but underutilized (big time).

I'm a huge music/LZ fan (and have owned most rock & roll pins). I was planning on getting a Premium LZ, but the artwork is a massive "meh", along with the popup spinner/lock. It's just f-ing shocking that almost 3 decades have past since SR developed STTNG and this game doesn't look nearly as satisfying. I guess the rules could be cool, but I doubt it will be enough to carry the show. So disappointed. Oh well...still playing the hell out of JP, RAM, and Avengers.

Are you guys NUTS?

That Pro artworks is the best I've ever seen on pin. INCREDIBLE.

Blown away by that art.

I had high hopes for this, but it's a bit underwhelming. If you compare this to every other Stern rock pin, it's weird how much more creative and packed with features they all seem. Well, maybe not KISS or Rolling Stones, but the rest of them.

Pros:
- Love the cabinets and translights of the pro and premium.
- The Expression Lighting system could be very cool. Have to see it in action.
- 3 flippers.
- Good track list. Yeah, no Stairway is weird, but I've heard that song enough to last me three lifetimes. Would've liked more than 10 tracks, but didn't expect it.

Neutral:
- Shots/ramps seem fine. Basic. Like AIQ Lite.
- Much like the shots/ramps, the playfield art is fine. Not awful, not that exciting or detailed.
- Electric Magic toy needs to be seen and played to judge it. It definitely isn't a visually pleasing item, but maybe it's fun.

Negative:
- The art on the plastics... did they not finish those in time for the reveal? They're like a placeholder pattern.
- Big, non-interactive plastic blimp is dull.
- Those lower right R-O-C-K standup targets, why even bother? I would have taken anything else there.

I usually never rag on art, because I know its subjective. That and I really only care about gameplay anyway, but the other day I was thinking it would be awesome if they made a pinball with a ton of buck naked angels on it and a buck naked angel toy.

300+ GnR pins coming to Aus and NZ.. Can't see LZ selling that many down this way. Can still buy LZ LE's here.

Stern and JJP are like 2 miles from each other. Better believe they have spies in each other factories. We are talking about multimillion dollar business.. they couldn't afford not to have spies.

It’s not what we’re talking about,stay on point!

Try unseeing the 70s vibrator on the playfield

Not me cause Im buyin it