Well, I guess the bright side is I like my LE art better and personally I prefer the Pro colors to the Premium, but definitely a dick move. Especially since they had it planned all along.

Edit: To clarify, anyone with an LE, just had to look at their playfield the first time it was raised to see they had the premium planned.

Oh and I HATE the AMC logo running through the Premium translite. At the bottom and it would have been fine, as the rest of the art looks pretty cool from what I can tell.

Cab art is the big one to me. I'm actually replacing the rust colored armor as that was the only negative and in the promo art it looked like it had a metallic flake look, it's pretty much just brown with flecks of black.

I agree. Personally given the choice (as we should have been from the beginning) I'd have still gone LE. I ended up loving the cab art, once I got over the crappy brown armor which conveniently enough they're offering a replacement for. Someone at Stern is very clever. And a total a-hole. lol

Yes. To me.

That being said, if I was someone on the fence about the LE or the Pro, personally I'm going Pro. I prefer the red and black cab to the Premium and well that translite on the Premium is pretty awful the more I look at it.

Now, if they had simply stuffed the LE playfield into their Pro, then that'd be a toss up as to whether I liked the art $1000 more. And ultimately about $1500 more since I hate the armor on the LE. In the end I think I'd have stayed LE. The Premium definitely doesn't make me question that decision, just a dick move to me, because I'm sure there are some LE owners who don't feel the art is worth the added cost.

Release 6 versions if you want and 20 add ons, but do it all at once so the customer can make the best decision.

And this is what I mean. I don't think they'd have had trouble selling out the LE's one bit even if they released them all at the same time. The pro's would have sold very well still because they're awesome looking and people like MN who want all the features but not the price tag would buy the Premium.

I don't think they'll sell any more or any less in terms of sheer number of games, but now they've pissed some folks off. I doubt they care, but hey that's just my opinion.

And if I felt that way, I'd be salty as hell that I had an LE.

Now I'm just annoyed I have to upgrade my upgraded armor to make it look better. Which makes me wonder, since the Pro and Premium both have black armor already, is anyone other than an LE owner even bothering with their upgraded armor?

I'm buying it because I want black, not the brown and the blood spatter fits perfectly, but if it came factory with black, I wouldn't pay $500 for blood spatter alone.

Did they sell out before the playfields were printed? Because all the LE playfields say prem-Le, which implied to me when i saw it on mine that they bailed on the premium idea late or had it planned all along.

I prefer the LE backglass (but shocker I own an LE). The premium would have looked really good, if only they'd put the AMC Logo on the bottom with the Stern logo beside it on the far right.

I haven't looked closely enough at the pics, but I wonder since it's just a regular translite sheet if it's feasible to take an X-acto to it and put it back together in the proper order? Maybe at the same time adding a strip of tint to the AMC Logo piece so it barely glows at the bottom?

Mtripl would have to lift his ramp and look under it.

And if they haven't yet and they'll be sending out kits to the Premium owners, I hope their distributor told them about it in advance so that they can put down an extra layer of mylar, or add felt prior to even firing off the first ball.

Yes, Stern will be sending out batches to distributors. So contact yours and I'm sure he can better let you know when it should be in.

I was told about 2 weeks for them to be at the distributors.

Yes, the rivets on the bottom of the ramp will cut through the factory mylar very quickly leaving two marks. Stern is sending out a fix to LE owners. Premium owners we haven't heard if they had the fix factory installed or if they'll be getting it as well.

I'd suggest at a minimum adding another piece of mylar over the factory one, or adding a 2" wide by just over 1/4" strip of adhesive felt to cover the rivets until the fix comes.

The felt, I have installed on mine, but haven't installed the ramp yet since I managed to drop the pin and the game ate it. A new one arrives Monday, so I can't confirm that the ramp lays flat with the felt installed.
Here's a shot of my ramp damage, that's very similar to everyone else who's reported it. It's on a home use game with maybe 50-100 plays.

BGRampDamage.jpg