I spotted these on my kid during his swim class this weekend and thought of this thread. What does it mean?
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I heard they're rebooting Frazier. There hasn't been many (Gilligan's island might be the only one) sitcom-based pinballs. I want to see an iconic sitcom set recreated in a pinball machine. I want to shoot around Frazier's apartment.

I got bad news. Your kid is part of global secret society of pedophiles that eat children and control world leaders to bring about the end of Jesus. Also, he may be a lizard.

There's BSD and MSF, so technically you have Dracula and Frankenstein taken care of. If there were a Bride of Frankenstein, Mummy and Wolfman pin, then you'd really get the band together with your lineup.

Although, I'd rather have King Kong to sit next to Godzilla. Takes up less space lol.

I think it could tie into Pat Lawler pins. ?

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This would make such an epic pin. But Stern would never touch it. If you havnt seen it I highly recommend it. One of the best films I’ve seen in a long time and it is beyond badass.

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Since we're getting older and nostalgic, the 90's we're 30 years ago... Armageddon would be great. And then another manufacturer could do Deep Impact =p You could do some fun things with 90's comedies: American Pie would do well on location at bars I would bet.

You could do a CFTBL style game but base it on an 80's/90's shopping mall. Tie it in with the movie Mallrats if you need to have an ip.

I still think Firefly could be cool. Do jobs, stay out of the way of the alliance, ... lots of modes and mini missions/games/awards.

If Stern wanted to break ties with their main license supplier they could do a royalty free Mickey Mouse Steam Boat Willie. That'd be the end if Marvel games and Star wars games if ya'll are done with those themes!

Quick… get to the chopper!

Flight of the Valkyries lead in music to multi-ball. Hmm maybe a little too politically incorrect, too serious but part of pop culture and anyway who was it that said war is hell!
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Cool movie but the trailer seemed to make it seem there was more action than there actually was. I like the " mood" of this movie, almost reminded me of Valhalla Rising. Almost...

I like The Northman for how bleak the story is. Not sure how well it would translate to pinball, besides making a generic Viking game...which have you seen LOV?

make an alt translite for LOV and you're good to go

With the long awaited return of Tom to Blink-182 and the upcoming new album and world tour, I say it's time!

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How do you think Tom DeLonge would feel if a Blink 182 pinball machine was about ufos and chasing big foot? Because a game about UFOs and cryptozoology could be fun

I feel like that would be the only way that he would agree to it. Honestly a blink 182 attack from mars style game would be incredible.

Stern Just released the Mandalorian Topper...

"Only" $1999

I feel like Tom would be all in, who knows about the others. Even if it's not the main theme, UFOs/Bigfoot etc. could be featured in the art and have an "Alien Hunt" mode or just the main objective for "Alien's Exist" song selection. Love it.

It's very cool but that price is insane.

Ok, that’s looks amazing. Too bad the game doesn’t hold up to the topper

looks pretty cool

I had a feeling years ago after a vendor came out with the hologram toppers that Stern may pick up on it. I am not a topper guy so it does not interest me very much. I was kinda hoping for a cool interactive IG-11 that would peak my interest

Yeah, what do those vendor hologram’s go for? 3-400. So, stern is asking 1600-1800 for a chunk of plastic!

I think this is the direction Stern is taking. The $200-$300 aftermarket topper scene seems to be in the past. One thing I have picked up on in the last few months is how ga ga people are for toppers. Once a collector starts their collection with toppers-every machine must have a topper! Different strokes for different folks but I like my chotskies that I put on top of some of my machines. My $2 stuffed Harley Davidson pig on top of my Barbwire-perfect My $3 plastic Shark on top of my Black Rose-so sweet My $4 plastic Dinosaur hand puppet on my DE JP-noice

I copied this fellow pinsiders picture of his home made topper because I thought it was badass

Now this is a topper...

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GWAR pin?

Good luck with that. I mean at least it DOES something and isn't 2 or 3 sheets of printed plastic, but $1999 is out of bounds. That's like 5-7x markup over their likely hard cost to make it. Stern joining all the other corporations just marking up their profit and using "pandemic" and "supply chain" as cover. I recently read that corporate profit margins are the highest they've been since 1950, and this kind of nonsense is exhibit "A". Pure naked opportunism.

I don't think it's a hologram fan. Pretty sure it's just a hologram-look video projected onto a slab of plastic. Great effect, but not $1999 great.

Topper $1999.00

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Its a LCD screen reflected off of a piece of clear plastic. Space Invaders used the same effect 40 years ago.

So the most expensive part of the topper is the molded plastic pieces, followed by the node board to run it. Small high res LCD screen is like $5. I'd be surprised if they had more than $200 cost in these, but the molded pieces are the wildcard given the relatively low quantity of units topper runs are and the expense of mold charges. But say $200, plus a generous $200 in labor and associated costs to make it happen, and that's still a huge profit margin in these.

Around $3300 CAD I think with added costs exchange etc. LMAO

There is a lot more to the cost than just the straight bill of materials. There's also the design element (and paying for it to be officially licensed)

It's a small run item that dozens of people touch in one way or another during the project. You're paying for designer's time, software integration, 2D art, 3D assets, etc...

And then yeah, Stern needs to make some money off it too. They're bottlenecked in factory production from supply chain issues, so they sell some expensive toppers

I agree it's a lot of money, the fact that it costs about 30% of a pro Mando machine is nuts, but some folks will gladly buy it. It will add value to the pinball (asset improvement) In some case's sadly later they will sell it NIB or used for 6-10K down the road.

May I kindly remind everyone, the same thing was said about Ghostbusters topper back in 2016-2017, lots of fellow Pinsider's stated we are never going to pay $499 for a topper! At the time it was $100 more than any topper Stern sold before. Now GB toppers sell for around $2,000- $4,000. I bought the topper in 2017 new when I ordered my GB premium. I love it still, it adds to the total experience of the pinball machine without being a distraction, and code updates have helped it become a better value over the years, and pinball sold with the GB topper sales for more than $499 in addition to the pin.

I stopped referring to my machines as toys, especially to folks outside of pinball, they just look at me and say $6,000 - $10,000+ for a toy is crazy talk. I prefer the term asset/s, (like a home, etc...) each asset (pinball) I purchased has increased in value since I have owned regardless of the economy as of to date.

Carry on!

I feel like I should just be buying toppers and then selling them in a couple years as a retirement plan.

I told my friend how much Halloween cost, was like Eff. I said im "Parking $10,000" not sure hes convinced...

$5,000 by Christmas!!

Mando, or the Mando Topper?

Mando down, topper up.

Seeing them this coming Tuesday in Minnesota. Not the same without Brockie.

Sterns top choices.
Beastie Boys
Pink Floyd
Hendrix
Van Halen
Motley Crue
Ozzy
Ramones
ZZ Top

Agreed

This is what puzzles me - they have enormous margins on toppers vs. pins. You would think the toppers would come a little faster..

Anyways - Stern has the last laugh as the topper is sold out.

As great a theme as Airplane pinball would be, it is too edgy or asleep (unwoke). People can’t go around quoting jokes from a movie all willy-nilly like. Sounds like a “dangerous” pin to make.

Very Pinball 2000

I predict they sell out in 5 minutes and we see them all on the marketplace for $3500

I regret that I have to sell my topper at $3500 as I have as my favorite Hamster Lemiwinks is in desperate need of a Kidney transplant.

JJP has Pee Wee?

From a factory tour:

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They were talking about this on one of the live Expo show streams this morning. Came out of nowhere, but I guess maybe it's happening. Looks like they've been working on this for 2 years or more, and the last update to that was Summer 2021, so maybe this is the next JJP after all?

JJP is trolling......

Like they would leave something like that out for everyone to see.

Did anyone post a video of the American Pinball seminar?

That would be really interesting.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-next-american-pinball/page/35#post-7199530

Thanks Ballder

Much appreciated