I can see two possible outcomes and how they can affect Pinsiders in the long run:

1. It's wildly successful and Stern decides to incorporate some of the cost cutting measures (i.e. paperclip ball lock) into future cornerstone pins.
2. It's horribly disastrous and Stern decides to off set some of the losses by inching up prices on cornerstone pins.

I'm not trying to bash Stern. I'm just pointing out how business decisions for one product line can have direct connections on another produce line.

I don't know how the ball lock will hold up, but on the surface it is genius. So simple yet it works, is very unobtrusive, a semi-challenge to load and fun to knock the ball out of. I thought it was pretty cool.

You must be the best rich uncle ever.

yep, one can really hurt themselves on a protruding coin slot when taking a knee to the front of the coin door. nothing wrong with smooth and flat. the mod community can come up with a 3D coin slot decal/sticker to replace them.

Have you seen the stream? How can it be horribly disastrous, it looked fun, i think it will sell. People a lot smarter than me (Disney/Stern) must think so too.

The cost cutting thing is just speculation. For cornerstone titles that are made for commercial use you have to engineer parts/mechs to withstand lots more use than a home use game so that doesn't make sense to me.

I'm not saying it will be disastrous, but there are things that could block a successful sales campaign.
Rejection of the price point, excessive mechanical failures, lack of proper field support etc..

I don't think Cost cutting is speculative ...

Honestly, is anyone actually upset by SWHE? I don’t think anyone really cares either way. We’re all just shooting the sh*t on Pinside because there’s nothing else to talk about. Think it’s a good move or not, there’s no harm in debating it.

They actually made 4 or 5 I believe, so I'd counter that they were successful.

Captain and FIreball are the ones I see the most often.

Well it looks more fun than a Homepin Thunderturd, but not a fan and had heard other older releases had thinner playfield than regular and 1 or 2 had playfields made from mdf (not sure if this correct)

Here is the history of The Pin / Home Versions - all in MRSP

July / 2019 / Star Wars "The Pin" / $4499 (Home Version Pin)
February/ 2018 / "Supreme" / Boutique (Re-themed Spiderman "The Pin" design game) / $10.5k with 200 made (apparently)
September / 2016 / Spiderman "The Pin" / $3800 (Home Version Pin)
Jan / 2013 / Avengers "The Pin" / $4000 (Home Version Pin)
October / 2012 / Transformers "The Pin" / $4000 (Home Version Pin)
April / 2010 / IronMan / Classic (Home) / $3799 (Home Version of the Regular but looked more like a regular pin)

Math upsets Doc Frightner.

Home Star Wars pinball will go nicely with this!

894B49E2-7C31-4FFB-A30F-5F6C259A1274 (resized).jpeg

Fair enough.

Looks like they made heaps (10000) of Fireball home - guessing Evil Kenevil and Captain Fantastic were similar numbers.

And guess what....using the trusty Inflation Calculator, the $895 that they were sold for in 1976 is $4000 today.

Star Wars is the best “proof of concept” theme they could run with. The package looks good enough. If it doesn’t work this time I’m guessing we won’t see any more.

Maybe we should challenge the status quo. Is a lockbar and latch system ideal for home. Sliding out a playfield glass is a really bad experience and requires a lot of space. Designs more that fireball did or glass that lifts out seems much better in a home environment. The coin door makes it easy to get access to the coin box and fix jams in the coin mechs.

Supreme is full arcade spec with coin door and everything. It just used the SMHE pf design.

They also made a home edition of Batman Dark Knight as well, I think they called it a Standard edition.

I recall the Batman Dark Knight and Iron Man home edition machines being called *classic*, but memory may not serve.
Terry.

I just looked it up, and on IPDB anyways it’s referred to as the Standard... meaning my memory from 10 years back of fairly worthless details is failing me. DAMMIT.

1) Most home owners are not going to open the pin so moot point.

2) Going to the Bally style hinged glass and frame from the early 70's is just going to jack the price since it is going to be a part unique to "home pin." Off the shelf glass and lockbar for lowest price.

Watching the deadflip stream, why are the slingshots and two out of three pop bumpers firing simultaneously? Have they gone Zizzle-style one coil for both?

Yes. Not sure if its just one coil or two coils and one transistor. Wouldn't make sense to go through that to only save one transistor.

That style of glass frame must be substantial to prevent the frame from twisting and stressing the glass (could shatter the glass if frame twists). I think it would be way costly for Stern to do it that way. Standard side rails, lockdown bar, and standard playfield glass would be more practical and economical.

Maybe they are paralleling the slingshot switches or pop bumper switches to save on a switch matrix?

Thunderbirds or Stern Star Wars Home Edition?

Thats is pretty much what I just stated =)

I played Thunderbirds at Pintastic and if I had to choose, SSWHE would be a no brainer.

Did you even read my post? It's like you read two words and started your verbal diarrhea. I said coin doors matter because many ppl route in this hobby, including myself. This means if you buy a home pin (yes, I know it says 'home' in the title for a reason), you eliminate a lot of your resale market. If the customer wants to keep it forever, it doesn't matter, but as I said before, people with money are usually smart with their money and will research about pinball. They'll end up with a pro if anything. Just my two cents, but at least read it and use basic comprehension if you want to respond.

Hmm. A little bit like "Asparagus or Broccoli" - neither is ideal, but at least one doesn't make your pee stink.

Ironman home version was know as a classic and at the time before VE's were made

Iron Man Models released by Stern are:
Iron Man - Pro - estimated at 1100
Iron Man - Classic - estimated at 50

Notes: Ironman Classic
 (home / costco version)
- New redesigned MDF cabinet screwed together Ikea style.

- No magnets

- No kickback

- All LED inserts

- Stronger slings to compensate for lack of magnet/kickback

- Easier rules

- Always on Freeplay and no coin mech.

and not confirmed but believed that you could not hook up backbox lighting effect kits nor the shaker

So in effect this Star Wars and the other "home" and "The Pin" are small run trials of trying to develop a pinball for the home market to get new customers into the market. Just a matter of finding the right recipe.

I read a post yesterday from an older thread that manuals etc have been extremely poor for these home games - not sure how true this.

Its so they can get away with using only one node board. Sucks that the slings and pops fire at the same time.

I thought I saw that on the stream. Pretty weak, Stern.

Themewise Thunderbirds (srsly)... but yeah, Star Wars.

More like non-existent.

Sorry, but this is an insulting and inane question. Star Wars HE is a first class title and machine. Thunderbirds is a box of garbage and you know it.

Nice. Never knew these even existed.

I think all the node boards should be eliminated.

That would make it awfully tough for the game to work!

The node board design IS better... flexible, easier to produce, less expensive, more efficient and less heat... they just need to be perfected. Is Stern the outfit to do it? Who knows but they’re what we got.

FWIW tho I had more board issues on my SAM Star Trek than my SPIKE Ghostbusters.

I really want you to be right. But I didn‘t want to start another Spike discussion - as much fun as they are to read, somehow I just couldn‘t resist that post - against my better judgement - so hopefully we can now return to the discussion of Stern‘s new product.

Here's a great blast from the past. Dude thought he was sitting on a goldmine with an Iron Man classic.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/price-check-iron-man-classic

Was it full of sick mods bro?

I sure hope you took a huge hit off the sarcasm crack pipe before typing that.

Unlike some blowhards who think this is “all about why I wouldn’t buy this game”... the criticism isn’t from that. It’s based on the product not being priced well enough for its target market.

No one shown yet why they think this product will succeed at this price point verse the previous efforts.. even the most recent.

The Spider-Man pin didn’t fail due to its speaker location...

Stern added more to the game and potential made it more interesting... but at the same time boosted the biggest weakness of the game.. price.

It’s too expensive for a casual home purchase, and not differentiated itself enough to serve as an “entry product” for an enthusiast purchase. It’s stuck itself in a horrible no mans land.

My best guess is the combination of two things:

1) From what I saw on Deadflips stream, this one looks and plays very well unlike past "home" efforts, so it should still satisfy that pinball feel without feeling cheap.

2) It's priced to where they have left a good amount of meat on the bone for traditional brick and mortar stores like Best Buy, etc, to consider selling it.

Without a good margin it makes no sense for such stores to take up floor space with this kinda stuff, but given the msrp maybe this time around there is enough margin there for them to consider it. Combine that with a true pinball experience and maybe this will work this time around. Just a guess though.

looks pretty good to me, definitely looks like a real machine and not a toy which i like. Shame does not have the larger lcd though.

Seeing as NO ONE here actually knows what the BOM cost is / how much they spent on R&D its hard to say if it's priced fairly. Maybe pinballs are just expensive to make?? and you just can't sell them for 3k like every one wants.

So much hate for a company trying something different its insane!!! If you don't like it don't buy.

I don’t hate it at all.

However, I know that it’s not going to move at $4,000.

I don't no, none pinball nerds who walk into a show room and see the prices of the latest JJP machines and high end sterns then see this for 4k might think differently. They probably won't notice all the little details every one here picks up on. And just see a fun looking licenced pinball machine.

Be interesting to see what market it fits into.

But most likely, at least at first, this wouldn't be listed at $4K in big box stores. I'd imagine it would start at $4500.

We've been clamoring for more affordable pins - this seems to be Stern's answer, whether directly targeted for "us" or not.

Honestly, I like what I see, minus the super basic code. There's basic code, which I can appreciate in some settings and titles, and then there is literally doing everything in the game multiple times on ball one. This looks like the latter if I didn't overlook some nuances...

Srsly the more I see of this game, the more I like it... mostly.

So the metal ramps, the better theme integration (Tie Fighter Drops guarding the ramp entrance to the Death Star), the Death star having an actual target where the ball can ricochet off instead of being just decoration like with the pro, as well as having the Tie Fighter on a spring... springing (shaking)... in a much simpler way. This game has not LESS toys then the Pro, ist has MORE!!! (I don't coun't the underused mini screen above the stand up targets as a toy. I wrote here when that game was new, that this targets should just have been drops to get a physical feedback instead of the screen animation - and now they are.)
(Edit: I forgot the 3 Color GI, but that still is no game changer - well, maybe in "lightsaber battle" mode.)

Mechanically I'm intrigued how they tried to do cost savings (like the slings not firing individually) as I have a background in product development; but not so much on the customer end of things, of course. But still, unless you're in multiball it will make no difference gameplaywise, whatsoever.

And regarding the price:
1500$ less then the Pro is a huge amount of money for a missing screen, less coils and missing coin slot mount.
Additionally for me as a "Newb", when I had made my mind up to buy a full fledged pinball machine I wanted to buy a TOTAN but preferred to buy a Ghostbusters Pro NIB. Because no matter how good a TOTAN is, I couldn't imagine to pay the same price for a 20 year old game as for a brand new one. Going back to that thought I'd buy a Star Wars Home oder a 2 year old used Pro, because I'd still have warranty and customer service on that!

Should I have bought a TOTAN? - Now I'd say yes. BUt this still were my thoughts back then thinking of this of a huge investment going into a mostly new hobby.

Flash forward to today at exactly thirty seconds ago. Game will be available soon and it costs $4k, will you be buying one? I ask because that seems to be the only sticking point to Stern being able to sell these in quantity. If you answered no, would you buy one if it were priced at $3k? I’d be a very hard yes. The proof is in the pudding and we will see how things actually play out.

Well, to be honest I will be buying no game because I'm broke.

Additionally I don't even like Star Wars and only bought a NIB Star Wars Pro because I (usually) love Steve Ritchie games... but sold this one after 2 weeks because of code and sparse toys and got a Star Trek Pro instead - So the next go to game for me would be GoT or Black Knight SoR. (I like SoR better but I wan't the full game there whereas with GoT I'd only want the Pro, so my next game will propably be GoT Pro because moneyz.)

So no, I wouldn't buy one but I am very intrigued to play one.
But, if Star Wars was my go to license I would even reconsider buying a Home Edition (after playing it).

Be interesting to see if a shaker motor and a real knocker can be added to this machine.

I would thnk probably not if they skrimped on the drivers they probably only have enough for the existing hardware.
I doubt you could add anything to this game, so if you like it as is, that's all you're gong to get.
I thnk the LCD screen size is the biggest bummer. Teeny!