Not really. Stern knows everything including all that is said on Pinside. They are well aware people have been clamoring and whining for a Star Wars topper release for two years. They had a built in sales base and they have known it for a long time. So why market? Isn’t virtually everyone in the entire pinball community talking about it? That’s plenty of free advertising. Whether you like Stern or not there’s no doubt that they are brilliant at understanding their customer base. They don’t deliver things that some of us complain about because they don’t have to. They know people will buy just about anything they put out. There’s a sucker born every minute right? In pinball there’s a sucker born every 10 seconds. I’m one of them.

You could, and should, get a lot more functionality for $750 but not when most of the cost goes to licensing.
If the topper would have been more intricate it would probably have been over $1000.
In order to keep the price down with the high licensing fee they had to skip on features, I guess.
And to justify the cost they decided to make it limited.

Would the licensing fee already be paid to make he pinball machine in the first place? Do you have to pay an additional fee to make an item for the original machine? They were able to produce side art, armor and a shooter rod that has star wars all over it. Those were all the same prices as other machines so why is this topper so much higher? I just don't think its for licensing, but I have no idea how licensing works either.

This is why Steve Ritchie likes the original themes. Dealing with Disney on licensing sucks. Look at the Black Knight topper vs Star Wars. If anything, the BK topper is more intricate at $300 less

It's 100 percent licensing, at least the delay.

It's irrelevant anyway. It's $750 because people will pay $750, therefore ruining the hobby for everybody.

If Only that put that saved 300 into the BK game and upper Playfield it might have been a better game. Probably not...

I'm not someone that was ever interested in buying toppers for my games and I'm so happy for that after reading that there might be the potential for adding mods to them. This is really getting stupid.

I would like to make my own topper and using the code to move it similar to this r2d2 topper

Looks like I'm ordering two SW toppers. One for my game and one for a friend's.

We got to taking about it and talked each other into buying one.

This is my question. Can someone intercept the code calls and make a custom mod topper that does more when the code signals simple r2 movements?

As i've said in another thread. Pinball needs more kids aka hackers.
Is the movement and lights dmx controlled similar to a moving head?

Mod-wise i sure look forward to a time of more code-hacking and more accessories integrating with code and gameplay.
This combined with new accessory ball-locks etc and what some good people doing with the jp sound is great.

Don’t give him ideas, there will be an announcement in a weeks time for Pin Stadium Towers revolutionary lighting for your pinball toppers blah blah blah

Disney/Lucas Arts licenses everything separately, because each item in the Star Wars Universe is its own IP. R2D2 is a very popular IP by itself and is a license required purchase. Big license fee because such a small run of only 500 R2D2s made for the topper and would think Stern made the deal based on 500 units only and paid that fee total, rather than an open ended fee which would be more, I’d guess. R2D2 licensees are usually licensing thousands or even millions of units, so the cost is spread over more R2D2 items and can be absorbed over many units. Difficult licensing deal and the reason it has taken so long. Can’t believe they messed up the details of such a well known icon as R2D2 so much, so here’s hoping Stern fixed it on the final product.

This belongs in “you must be old“ thread.

15 years ago? Less?

Can somebody please post some video of R2D2 topper during gameplay

Seems like a working $750 SW topper is more of an anomaly at this point.

Yeah...I’m truly amazed at this point that there hasn’t been a single video or description of how the fully working topper integrates with the game code.

I want one and I think I’m over the hump on spending the $750 but I’m not doing it until there is some feedback.

So far there are two owners in this thread. Both have posted upside down photos. A request for a video may be unrealistic.

All kidding aside, I appreciate the photos and information provided so far. But a video would be fantastic. Pro tip: ask your spouse, friend, or kids to film the video while you play. Upload to YouTube unpublished and post the link to this thread.

I dont really think it does much. Looks like the head just spins around occasionally. Not very exciting for 775 dollars that's for sure.

I definitely want to see the thing in action. The only video from a year ago was pretty lackluster at best. Does r2 bounce? Does he project anything (doubtful)? When does he activate in gameplay?

Projecting is 98% chance of NOT happening from what have seen of the cone attachments on the R2 unit. Bouncing would be awesome and possible given the design, but I seriously doubt it. To be true to the story, it would only bounce during very specific moments, so I doubt it. That would be amazing though.

It likely just makes sounds, lights up and rotates, becoming more active during more R2 centric points in the plot.

I agree with this 100%. Still waiting to see it in action.

Yes... A video would be cool. I took the chance and ordered one from GAP... checking every day for a tracking number email.
I took a chance considering this Pin is my Grail pin... No plans on leaving my house unless stolen, caught on fire, or the wife divorces me My pins have survived a 6.5 and 7.1 earthquake this year....

I'm hoping the topper could trigger another code update?? Does someone know if any of the recent Stern Toppers (Walking Dead, Black Knight, Munsters) are controlled by the code or is it only connected for power??

I’m pretty sure on the last SW code update the R2 settings showed up in the service menus.

I would like to see just a hair more polish on things like the ball drain Yoda stuff. More variety would be nice.

Really no complaints otherwise.

I don think there are many out there in the wild yet - I ordered one and hope I was one of the first ones and that it ships soon. I will post some video if I get it but some folks on here don't make it a pleasant experience to show something. They just bitch and complain and jump all over the person that posted. Kind of sucks for someone just trying to help out with pics and video.

Club threads are friendly. We won’t hate on anything you post! Even the topper thread has taken a turn to be more positive than negative.

Controlled by code. That’s why they have their own node boards.
BM66 batsignal corresponds with the batphone during gameplay.
DP adjusts “thumbs up or down”.
GOTG rgb’s change colors to correlate to the mode you are playing.
TWD flashes white when walkers make growl noises.
Etc.

On another note, I remember a setting in the adjustments in SW for an R2D2 topper projector. Did Stern remove that planned function of the topper? If so, that sucks.

The projector image may have licensing legal issues with Carrie fisher estate “image” Just guessing

Not sure if there was ever a projector setting but other than the motor setting the only other adjustments I see are for topper attract mode interval and attract mode sounds for topper.
If anyone is good at pinball browser you could always open the code up and see if there is any hologram images or video files associated with the topper. If it was in the code update when those settings were implemented it would be there.

There was a video that showed a setting/adjustment for projector, couldn’t tell you what video it was in but I certainly recall seeing what imagamejunky is referring to.

It was definitely there before. They must have removed it.
20191209_142942 (resized).jpg

Interesting

Well it sucks if they removed it and had planned that feature and then dropped it. That feature alone would push this topper to very innovative and quite unique. It would also justify the price. The license alone does not IMHO.

I agree.

Are we certain there is no projector or internals for one?

The projector feature must be in the $1500 SLE topper. It's time to get those video applications ready!

Wow. That would have been incredible (an R2D2 projector). I'm curious what I could do to add it;
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B081T1RN3J/ref=sspa_dk_detail_12

It's hard to believe that Stern would stop at 500 toppers. I suspect another design will follow. For custom work; There must be a node board in the R2D2. Where's the spreadsheet that documents all node board numbers for Stern games?

Once again licensing with Disney seems to be a problem...

https://www.gameroomguys.com/Stern-Pinball-Topper-Node-Board-12

Had thoughts about using the extra game-blades to create a custom topper. Looks like a custom topper will start at $90 for the board.

I wonder if the green light on the back back of R2's head was originally the projector.

it would have been cool if stern would have put some effort into the final product and had incorporated something like this into the topper
https://www.touchofmodern.com/sales/holovit-5587b238-8b96-40b1-b308-88b51cfed111/holographic-screen

if they positioned that acrylic panel to the side (and positioned it at a 45° angle), the R2 holographic scenes from star wars could have easily been reproduced

or with a piece of semi-reflective user installable mylar, they could have projected something onto the top of the pinball playfield glass

Heard they are shipping, :}:} "Help Me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're My Only Hope" so lets get some video out so we can see if r2 saves our game and tells us what to shoot at.And lets hope the dark forces didn't take away any holograms or projector images showing up.The dark force already put our pocket book hostage,lol Regardless R2 is still the best and hoping for the best topper ever made.

So, I fixed my topper. It was simple but something I was worried about doing after paying so much. I will post more extensive gameplay video now that I can, but it will have to wait until tomorrow morning. I will also post a video of the issue I had and what I did to fix it. I was wrong, there is no speaker in the front, it beeps through the pin speakers.

BTW pinside inverted those pics I didn’t take them that way.

I'm curious if your topper positions flush to the cabinet. Anxious to see inside too.

I can't say the topper assists with game-play, but would be interesting to see a laser pointer spotting an easter-egg shot. Feels like a nuisance more than a helper, however great fun for the on-lookers. Here's a gameplay vid with the topper;

So, are there more sounds than just hitting the upper left switch. If it’s the same, the only thing we gain is a rotating R2D2?

LOL at the reaction to the tilt warning. Needs some sort of gasket to keep the light from leaking underneath.

That light leak is easy to fix. I would be concerned about the reflection off the glass from the ceiling.

Hmmm, I don't recall any other sounds. A variety of R2D2 beeping tones w/light-show (1-Light Red, 1-Light Green, 4-Light Banks White) and a Rotating Head.

The machine in that vid has Stern HD Glass. Reflections are reduced while the most abundant is sourced from the LCD display. I find extra light helps my game-play too, especially when the strobe-lights flash while running Boba Fett. Powering the other machines certainly makes it easier on my eyes.

In your opinion, and I know you bought it, is it worth $775?

Thanks for posting the video.