I know it will never happen, but how about no one buys one? I’m not judging anyone and people are free to do what they want, but it would be nice to give Stern some pause for thought in order to protect our interests (and pocket book). With everything “limited” selling out, there just isn’t any incentive for Stern to do anything else. This one feels like a price gouge more so than others. It costs about 12.5% of the cost of a new Stern Pro...

Do distros need to buy these from Stern to have in their stock or do they just drop ship from Stern?

As a distributor you can not drop ship from Stern.

This hobby cracks me up. Just imagine trying to explain to an outsider how a $750 decoration on a $10000 box of lights is a rip off but $500 is okay. At some point, LE toppers will be $1000+ and guys will long for the day when they were only $750.

Reminds me of the Dalek topper for Dr Who.

Man there's a lot of miserable bastards in this hobby!

Seen it? Review it.

Don't like it? Don't buy it. Say you think it sucks.

Telling people they are morons for paying what amounts to a very small amount in an expensive, luxury hobby...pointless and absolutely ridiculous and impotent calls for boycotts that reek of idiocy and lack of self-awareness (OK Rosa Parks, let's see what cheesy and overpriced garbage YOU'VE bought to feed your pinball lust)...outright anger for things you can't control and that you shouldn't really care about...

Makes you look petty and jealous and reflects poorly on all of us, frankly.

I only asked because everyone here is saying boycott the product to send a msg to Stern about pricing but if the distros are forking the cash out up front they should be bitching about the price too.

Honestly, I don't mind the look of it. It's unique, it moves and makes noises which is cool. I only have an issue with this "LE" tactic Stern is using and the absurd price associated with that. I would buy this immediately at the regular inflated topper pricing. At this price it would be a buy only if R2 was replaced with a sculpt of Gary's head with a removable Vader helmet.

I think he'd make a better Emperor

They're not bitching about price because people are buying it.

I stand corrected. Perhaps an SLE version of the topper is in order.

This is true for accessories but not machines.

Hmmm. I don't believe there's a speaker in the topper. My ears tell me every sound is sourced from the pin-speakers, however, the servo motor is quite loud in a quiet room.

Does anyone else find it strange that Stern has done zero marketing on this thing? It was in the Stern of the Union on Tuesday but more of an afterthought, saying it was now available from select distributors and it would be in the Stern Shop (website) soon. That’s it. No photos. No video. Nothing.

The Munsters topper was an insider sneak peak and they just posted photos of the Elviria topper for insiders.

thats the reason i wouldnt buy these to horde and resell. what do you do when you resell it and its broken?

i dont like the look with the new comic art. looks like an extension of darth vaders head. for some reason i cant unsee that.

Does anyone else think that some people, possibly even you, have been micro managing this thing the whole time and maybe looking too deep into it?

I miss these days

It certainly does, but I haven't keyed-in its patterns to describe when it does. There's a flurry of activity when hitting Mystery. I suspect more activity when playing R2 versus Han, Leia or Luke, but require more playtime to be sure. It's fun.

I wonder if the delay was related to how the lights display R2 in 'just the right way'. Perhaps delayed for timing of the new movie release.

Of course. I have been waiting for 2.5 years for this topper. Doesn’t mean you need to be a jerk about it.

With all this forbidden anxiety about this topper it’s actually swaying me to want one now... lol. Definitely a spendy purchase but I admit price aside it does look nice and love the effect.

I want the topper and ordered one, simply because I want my LE to be complete with everything. I can't wait to get it and 250 up or down I don't care. If they make a mainstream topper after, which costs half, I also won't mind, but will be happy that those who didn't want to spend the 750 will also be able to get one. For me it's exactly that simple.

Same here - I ordered one. I like how it looks and look forward to have it on my LE too.

Anyone actually have any in stock yet?

We don’t have any in stock yet, but a couple spots left from our initial order

Zach
Flip N Out Pinball
[email protected]

Stern is so smart to trickle these out to get buyers on the fence to panic and buy them.

I have only seen GAP advertise they had them in stock, but pretty sure the few they had are sold. My distributor has them on order and he is saying they are in production now. Not sure if any other distributors have inventory yet.

My distributor in Germany has a confirmation of his order from Stern, but no delivery date yet.

I hate to say it as a SW nut the damn R2 topper is growing on me and I’m disappointed in myself!

I ordered mine from the dealer that sold me the pin, but they indicated it might be a bit before it shipped, i.e. January. They did throw in free shipping, which was appreciated.

Yeah it sucks. I have been in on this for so long, its hard to walk away at this point over $250. Seeing other newer animated (BKSOR) toppers sub $500 make me think this was more of an anomaly than a trend.

It is what it is, SW is a keeper for me.

I’m not sure if this will be an anomaly or not I sure hope it is but don’t forget BKSOR is $429 and there is zero licensing costs associated with it.

Munsters was also about the same price.

i may never own a topper as don't like them at all. I had considered this one and will also pass. this shit is almost as much as my monthly mortgage payment. laughing at stern right now as they have lost another sale based on overpricing.

Prices are gonna go up, up, up and beyond thanks to those that pay these prices. 500 was too much. Maybe 100.

Please list everything pinball-related you've bought in the past five years so we can see if you are partly responsible for increasing prices in pinball.

And if you are an EM guy who never buys overpriced modern crap, please explain why you care what these lunatics are paying for toppers.

Thanks!
blake

I know a guy who has ordered 3 SW toppers. I’m holding him solely responsible for Stern raping the community with these cRaZy prices.

NAME NAMES!!!!

He's a goddamn Premium + buyer, that's enough for me.
Get him up against the wall!

Look at my collection. I have spent money on pins. But examine the value of this decoration. The next topper will be 750. Because it sells. Crazy.

It's like they are charging what people are payng for it...Crazy insane, insane, crazy?

Christ now we need to add mods to a topper? Get me on the waiting list for the mod.

Only a matter of time I suppose.

And we're gonna need more lighting up there to see the mods.

Someone has to finish the job, lol

We're now far down the path to $1000 pinball toppers.

I guess that is one good thing about the price, there is a lot of financial incentive for progression in toppers. I am sure people can do a lot better than this for $750. I don't think there has been a lot of motivation to really integrate toppers into gameplay at a $250 price point. At this price it really worth the money to go all out and make something awesome.

Your collection is stuffed with $7500-8500 LE/PRemium pinballs.

I hereby place all of the blame on rising prices on YOU, D. Gottlieb.

For shame.

I have never spent more than $5000 on a pinball machine and anybody who has is ruining pinball and causing prices to increase.

I'm sure a lot of people will act like it's going to happen, but I'm doubting it.

For sure. Look, I'm a pro buyer becasue I think the extra shit on the other models isn't worth it for me. Maybe if I had a slick topper for a G, still less than a Premium, I would do it? (not actually me of course)

I remember when NIB Stern machines were $3400.

None are NIB. SW was a demo. ST was second hand as was TSPP. The pinball machine prices are not the issue here. It's this topper.

I guess I’m going to have to get a baby pinstadium to mount on top next to my topper