Its not a pinside flavor of the month. IM has been strong for awhile. The reason is its a great pin. Also one of the last superhero pins without an LE or premium attached to it.

I guess we'll just have to disagree. It's a fine game and all, but it's pretty shallow, and it didn't sell well hence the low production run. Is IM really a $5K+ game like people are paying for it? Hell no. It's the flavor of the month.

I would say it is the flavor of the year it has been the #1 searched for game for some time now. I played it numerous times and knew I had to have one. I think you need to own one in order to truly appreciate what a great game it is. This game is worth 5k+ no doubt about it. Why would so many people want it-if it sucked? I will go with the majority on this one. Now- look at my Iron Man porn....

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Que? How do you quantify that?

I actually believe I'm in the majority, just not in this thread

Never said it sucked, I said the opposite actually

Iron Man was created at a time when Stern was trying to shorten ball times to increase operator revenue... the side effect of which was to alienate the casual player due to lack of perceived reward. It is part of the reason it didn't sell well/operate well, but then again, what does? Stern has done various short, medium, and long ball time games, and none have really cracked that nut... maybe it's time for something new, like Wizard Blocks

No, but it is a nice $3,800-$4,000 game.

If I had $1 for every time this topic came up, I could personally finance another run

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I haven't played them all (not nearly and not AC/DC) but so far Ironman is the only Stern I'd consider buying. I was really impressed.

I miss those days of having IM sit in the window while all the pins around it sold and sold, I sold thre BBH and a Batman:Dark Knight before Chad finally came and purchased this IM as nobody wanted it. The pin does good on location, simple and fun not many of parts to tear up.

So glad I have a nice one for myself!

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Funny, almost all of the ops that I have spoke with have said that the game earns really well on location. The game was widely panned when it came out for being Austin Powers with less on the playfield. I went to the release party and instantly loved it, but the reaction in general from home collectors was that it was barren with not enough to do. A year after the game came out, you could find HUO ones regularly for well under cost.

I don't think the reason is because of licensing. Let's face it, Paramount recently released a new Star Trek movie, but Farsight licensed the old Star Trek pinball machine for release. Licensing can be overcome if the price is right. The Monger toy is similar - A simple bash toy could be designed and put into the theoretical new run... if the price is right.

I think the reason Stern won't rerun is simple - risk. Iron Man has grown in demand lately, but at let's say $4800 new, I don't know how much demand there would be. The people paying $5k and up would get them, but I think that those are few and far between. I know of multiple IM owners who have bought recently and paid much less than that still. It's just a matter of waiting it out.

It took a LONG time for them to sell out of the IMs they made. A TON of them just sat on the shelf waiting. Is the demand for a new run enough to sell enough to make up for the costs of relicensing / tooling a new toy, or is it the same 50 people talking regularly about it, and would it be a GIANT risk to do? I don't know that answer, but when Stern has games without licensing or tooling issues that are selling really well right now, why risk it?

I'm in for more IM. There are Zero in our area to play. Fast, furious, and pure fun - Simple as that!
If Stern makes more, I know many that will put deposit down Now.

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They could put a real Mandarin in there! Mandarin Monger!

One downside would be you'd need to change it out every week or so or it'd stink up the place.

"Mom, my ball got stuck in the Mandarin Monger again..."

"No problem son, must be time to change it again...!"

Pinside servers would be overloaded with orders for the Hemi Monger Mod, and many others!

Here's my version ....

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rd.

Dunno about Stern reading this thread, but some guys on the space station saw that picture!

Jeeeeeeeeeezus those LEDs are bright! How do you play that thing? Welding goggles?

rd.

Its just my camera does that with all the LED's, it was normal looking in person

According to Gary Stern, it is a licensing issue, and Marvel is much stricter than Paramount.

However you have a good point... if it took 2 years for the IM inventory to sell out, how can Stern feel comfortable running another 500-1000 pins to pay for renewing the license? Stern is actually very keen on retaining aftermarket value on their pins for collectors. To me that sounds like 3 strikes against a re-run, as the market did not prove it's worth a re-run.

Disclaimer: Just purchased a beautiful POTC.

If Stern were to re-run this game, the ship would be a flat plastic, not one of the coolest animated toys of all time. Stern would charge a mint for one exactly like they built in '06. Have you seen what a NIB pro machine of the last couple of years has to offer? Not much.

Maybe with the popularity of the Tron re-run, Stern might do more re-runs in between production to keep the lines firing. Now the new in box bug has bitten me, I want a Family Guy in my collection and with the new movie coming out for Iron Man, would be great to see more people getting the opportunity to buy a brand new one.

Cheers!
Adam.

You shouldn't even be posting in this thread, since you obviously own one already Don't hog all the fun and begrudge others trying to get some Ironman pin action going.

I would have agreed with you, except Tron was re-run in batches of 100, 100, and 200 or so. It's not like Stern has to make 500 or 1000 of a game. They could just as well ask the big distributors if it was rerun would they order some, 5, 10, 15 or whatever. Trent could ask around and get 20 commitments here etc.. Probably a run of 200 or 300 would sell out in a matter of days or weeks.

This is a great point. Let's keep in mind too that the reason for the final LOTRs re-run was because Jack (at the time Stern's biggest distributor) pushed and pushed for it. We really need to get one or two of the big distributors pushing for it and then we will know the extent of whether the lack of the Mongor toy will really stop Stern from doing another run.

I never buy the licensing issues. If they got it once they can get it again. Companies like to see their brand out there on expensive products . . . pinball machines fit that bill easily. As do slot machines.