Have had a chance to put 70 games on my CE. Glad I didn't become dissuaded by the Pinside hate. I will start by saying it took me 40 or so games to really get a hang of it and my enjoyment on the machine increased exponentially after that point.
Theme- At release, I was surprised by the use of Toy Story 4, but the game plays like a Toy Story carnival adventure. You get the superior cut scenes from the most recent movie while getting all of the callouts one would expect "There's a snake in my boots" "To Infinity and beyond". When playing this game, I didn't feel any pangs of wishing that the game had all four movie assets. Would have been nice, but it doesn't detract from the game for me. My children like the Toy Story franchise and really like this game. We also have Godzilla, Deadpool, Rick and Morty, Wonka and The Big Lebowski. They put this game near the top of that list. We also had a kids sleepover where most games were flipped on TS4 and these were kids who had not played any of the other machines and were new to pinball. Yes, we had RM and TBL on family mode
Appearance- The artwork on this game is stunning. The CE sparkle, the red color, the lights, the topper. Playing it with the lights down really shows off the topper.
Humor- There is a lot of humor in this game. You will be made fun of by Tim Allen (Buzz Lightyear) when you can't make a shot. There is a classic cut scene that my son loved from the movie where an army guy is left hanging on a high five. Honestly, bricking the Duke Caboom ramp is pretty funny in of itself.
Shots - I wanted this to be Dialed IN with a better theme as Dialed in shoots the best of the JJPs IMHO. I had been told before and I can confirm this game shoots on par with Dialed IN. Needs some "dialing in" to make it perfect though.
Value - Talk to me in a year or so or if I decide to sell. If it keeps 80-90% of original price, that would be acceptable. Would it be nice if it were cheaper? Of course. Did I feel pangs of buyer's remorse after playing it? Absolutely not.
Sound - Love the sound and the music. The Annie Potts callouts are very good (not sure what is exclusive to CE) and the Tim Allen callouts really bring the game together.
I want to get to a couple hundred games before rating the machine, but I can already see that this one is rated WAAAAY too low.