Don't mean to rock anyone's boat, but it seems that some folks have a blatant prejudice against anything Stern. I don't mind anyone having a hankering for one machine or brand over another, but am I off base when I observe that it seems no matter what the newer Sterns might do, they won't get a fair shake?

I can't believe some of the negative reviews on TF. You read the positives and the negatives and you'd think they're not even talking about the same machine. I'm glad Stern is there. I loved their IM and SM and also thought the Tron rocked. Not better or worse than oldies, just different, and certainly their more modern themes have a better chance of pulling in the younger crowd to start playing pins.... I think Stern and JJ deserve some support and respect... I'd rather have them producing pins than out of business.

Maybe I'm naive, but heck, my IM rocked. Solid, looked good, worked well, neat games. True, it didn't have twenty years of play time to see how it held up. But I had absolutely no problems with it from the second I opened the box and set it up. Now I wish I hadn't sold it. I'm gonna get a TF LE. I betcha I'll like it just as well. And I gotta point out, having a decent collection of the older machines, not a month goes by when I don't have to have my tech come out and fix this or that with the old time classics.

well I'm investing in one. Fact is, I'm selfish, I only care about making me happy..... As long as I like it, whether others do or not doesn't matter.

When I first played IM, after hearing all the negativity, I wondered what I was missing. I'd been told it was bad, typical Stern, etc. but when I played it I liked it a heck of a lot. I agree, more money, but have you compared what a car costs now compared to twenty years ago?

I agree IM was lesser quality, but it gave me a lot less maintenance headaches than any of the older machines I own. Long term, it will probably need care. Short term, plug and play and never look back, whereas on a regular basis I have to replace or fix things on the classics. Truthfully, the constant upkeep gets old when I want to play. Nothing worse than turning on one of the classics to show a friend and frowning cause lights or boards or plastics or some such is defunct.

Okay, so I have a question for you guys. Let's say Stern used real artwork, not photoshop, more games, thicker plastics, more clear coat on the pf, better quality parts in every aspect, and it raised the game price by two k. Would you rather have cheaper materials and prices or more quality materials and correspondingly more expensive list prices? You can't get all the quality you want and low prices. It is one or the other. Ready for a top notch pin coming out of the shoot at nine k?

You make good points emo. Maybe us pinsiders are leading the pack.