Absolutely!! Let's see... TRON LE game play is great. METLE game play is unknown. Looks nice, but who knows. I will say that the inline targets are nice!!!!

tron 169 says no

Or if it flops, you could turn it into a $6K NIB like HulkLE. You gotta ask yourself. Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk! I still think at this point in the game waiting to play it and getting a Premium is the way to go. The LE boat has sailed... You don't play the art package.

This is truly a gamble. What is Stern's ratio of hits to misses these days, specifically for LE games?

Avengers--miss
XMen--miss
ACDC--hit
Transformers--miss
Tron--hit
Rolling Stones--miss
Avatar--miss

Now, we could debate on whether or not Avengers and XMen will get better with newer code, maybe even include Transformers in that discussion. Aside from that unknown, all of these LE games except for ACDC and Tron haven't been good enough to even hold their price point. Whether or not you like them is beside the point for this discussion, have they shown any appreciation? That answer is no.

Why would anyone want to take the chance on Metallica LE or any unknown game, when Stern has this kind of a track record?

Disclosure: I own four of the above LE games, two of the hits and two of the misses. That said, I decided to wait on Metallica. If it is a great game, I can always buy a premium.

I was just thinking about what LE models had gameplay differences and no Premium model. I was a bit surprised by the numbers made of each model:

Avatar LE 250
The Rolling Stones LE 350
Tron LE 400
Transformers LE 750
X-Men LE 550

Of these games I don't know which one have bigger gameplay differences than others. I can't really remember much on Avatar except for the power ball. All the other things I remember were more cosmetic than gameplay (coffin opened, mech stomped a little more). The Stones had power ball, an extra song, magnets under the playfield and the save posts. That seem like quite a bit of changes gameplay wise. Tron had drop targets and an extra mode. Transformers seemed to have the most differences. Both upper corners are different and the drop target in front of the scoop. X-Men has the Nightcrawlers, spinning disc and moving ramp.

It looks like Transformers taught them a bit of a lesson on how many LEs to make. I wouldn't have thought that 750 was a crazy high amount since there was no premium, but since they are still readily available from distributors....I would say they over estimated. I'm also guessing X-Men got 550 instead of the originally planned 500 just to entice more people to buy Magneto versions (make Mags more rare to make it more desirable).

Anyway....in summary. I would consider Tron LE a bigger grab over Metallica LE because of the lower numbers and the fact that it had no premium. Having said that...I would take a Metallica pro over an Avatar LE.

Well said. This started about a year or two ago and it is ruining pinball for many. Don't be surprised if we've seen the peak of interest in the hobby as a result. Kind of reminds me of the dot coms... inflated speculative values that couldn't be sustained.

The LE boat is just beginning... the fact that "you don't play the art package" means nothing to the collectors. With them its LE or nothing.

20k by Christmas.

Your last sentence is the key and a wise move. There isn't any game play difference so why pay the extra cash that people are already asking for before it's even released!!

Tell us again how many you have?

61

NEVER!

are we comparing a great pin with a pin that nobody even seen a video?
hmmm.....

i own 3 LE's and just trying to understand your POV. thxs

so u're saying limited editions work to inflate the value of the all the machines and therefore knock out the common man who wants to get into owning a machine but can't afford it....? I'm new to pinball, not a distrib obviously Are LE's disliked by distrib's? or do they help create buzz and drive more sales into premiums/pros, etc? Isn't creating excitement good for pinball?

my feeling is by creating LE's, Stern is helping me maintain a higher resale value. That's really why I own 3. Easier to unload if the zombies attack.

I don't think pinball has peaked unless they build crappy un-creative machines. Hulk, although flawed, was a positive shot for pinball. Unique machine which is what I collect.

some guys understand it, some guys dont get it, some guys can afford it, some guys just whine about it, some guys look ahead, some guys never left 3 years ago.

That should about cover the bulk of pinball pricing.