I heard that rumor too. I directly asked Pat's wife about that at MGC in a conversation we had. She flatly denied that and went out of her way to ask the guys and find out the name of the female that they had to hunt down via Facebook - JJP liked her voice in some other game and tracked her down. Pat's wife said she had no interest in doing voices on Pat's games ... she said with a smile.

I've been playing a Wonka standard fairly often at a location and just got my LE for home yesterday. Too soon to tell for me. DI is pretty polished with code and the modes, really only one super hard shot (sim card) and the only "cheap drain" sometimes comes from the theater. They changed some code for the QED dude to interfere with that, so it's not too often that it happens anymore. If you are a nudger type of player, you can probably get away with hardly any cheap drains. For Wonka they've added more modes and multi-balls in more recent updates, still needs some polish, but is fun to play. There is some drainage action that some might consider great to make the game harder. However, if I hit a clean shot in one direction and it returns with a SDTM or left out lane drain, I'm more frustrated as a mediocre player. I WILL add the left out lane post to keep the fun factor higher for us at home. Coming out of the pops is dangerous for a possible drain. It's all part of the game I guess.

Wonka seems to have more parrallel things accumulating for modes and accomplishments, while DI has phone modes, Bob modes, and mini Theater modes that are random, but one at a time in each with some reward modes as you progress. They both shoot smooth with no real "clunky" shots.

Like I said, it's too early on Wonka (in the honeymoon stage) to give a conclusive opinion from me. I have to tweak some things, play for a while, learn the rules and progressions better, etc. Not an answer for you guys yet, but some initial thoughts since no one else replied for you.

There are different schools of thought on this topic, so it depends on your perspective on the topic. Personally I would have to have the invisiglass and shaker. That cuts down the difference. The blue sparkle powdercoat looks really nice, I like it, could live without out it, but ... it looks nice ... super sparkly. I'm one of those people that when I buy a pinball machine for home, I want all of the playfield features available that effect game play. I see that your collection has LE's/premiums in them except for a past Aerosmith which was a pro. Did you miss that upper playfield in AS? It changed the elevator multiball qualifications slightly and added the 2x multiplier (easier). I bought a HUO AS premium because I had to have that upper playfield for home and "have it all" vs. the pro. If you didn't miss having that upper playfield, then you likely wont miss the wonkavator on the LE ... just from that train of thought. If you're just going to have the pin for a year or less and move on to the next latest and greatest pin, SE is probably economically better versus the I want it all mentality. So far I have kept all of my pins, but I'm running out of room. I will likely keep all of my JJP pins for a very long time (last to get rotated out ... only the strong survive). That's another small reason why I like the LE better as I will enjoy the extra bling and wonkavator for many years. I occasionally use the headphones when I'm "supposed to" be quiet. That can probably be rigged up, but it's turn key already installed on the LE. I'm glad I bought the LE. This time (this pin) the RGB lighting is on both, so no loss there.

You will find that most SE owners say the SE is better because of cost/value. Most LE owners will say they made the right choice. As always, try them before you buy them.

The coding team at JJP has stated that they don't want the pins to be coded in a similar manner. They want each pin to have something different and be a different type of progression in the game. So ... with that in mind ... people will favor the code in one machine over the other based on how they like to play the game. Wonka code and progression is different(?) than DI and stacking modes is easier. However, you need to complete disaster modes in DI and complete collecting the jackpots in the modes in Wonka to make overall progress (Sim cards vs. golden tickets). I haven't completed more that 2 sim cards and 2 golden tickets, so to me they are pretty balanced at my mediocre skill level. Wonka hands down has better light shows and better (and maybe more?) modes outside of the sim card / golden ticket qualifier modes. My opinion gives the edge to Wonka as being more fun to play. (But I like JJPOTC better. ). Just some input ...

If you're "thinking about" getting a NIB DI, you better pull that trigger pretty soon. Jersey Jen sent out an email saying that they have a "VERY limited" supply in stock and that they "have no immediate plans to manufacture more in the near future".