MB is a fun pin no doubt and a family favorite but WoZ will run you less money and you will get to experience that NIB feeling. That plus what it's coming with is a bargain in today's market for the money.

Obviously no one can truely compare the two as one is established and the other on its way but I would go WOZ.

Call pinball sales tomorrow and speak to Jen to order because I believe the price goes up on Wednesday.

Monster Bash at this point in the game.

MB is great but will cost a lot....

If you're 2 weeks in, I would enjoy your present games, wait for WOZ to come out, and base your choice on experience. Welcome to the addiction!

I would say WOZ so you have a new game to compare to two 90's classics. I think it is good to have a mixed floor of games, between old and new. Also, it is great to support the hobby by buying a NIB game from an existing manufacturer. That is my view anyway.

Welcome to the hobby and welcome to pinside. This is an awesome place to be with really good people.

Most of the people are good

Actually, this is very good advice OP. Don't get all the games you want immediatly. Enjoy the hunt!!!

If you got a shot at the MB, get it. WOZ will be around for quite a while, but a nice MB is hard to find.

WOZ is available for $6500 if you order before the 1st. You only have to put a partial payment.
Sounds like the way to go, and look for a MB later.
Enjoy this awesome hobby!
Allen

I second this. And, while you're enjoying your games, spend some time 'under the hood' and get to know the insides of your games. Make some adjustments and tweaks whenever you notice something doesn't work just right: an insensitive switch, the ball not rolling cleanly around an orbit or lane shot, spinner not spinning smoothly, etc. One of the joys of pinball ownership is being able to play games that are dialed in. And you don't want to be calling a tech or friend for every little thing that goes wrong.

MB...grab it if you can!

Your pace at the moment is more of a sprint than a marathon

Take your time and play both to make sure you make the right decision. Although it may be more difficult to find a nice MB in the long run - they will be more rare than a nice WOZ as a majority of the 1000+ WOZs will be HUO.

Scott

I would probably wait a while too. I would only grab a MB if you see one at a reasonable price(7K and under). They don't come up to often anymore.

You need something with some flow. None of your games are much for flow and I doubt WoZ will be either. Plus who knows when WoZ will be out. You can buy something else now, play it for several months then sell it and buy WoZ when it's out. Mb is a great choice to offset your collection but very expensive. There are other games that can provide decent flow also some if which are just as expensive:
Afm, mm, mb, tron, spiderman. There are plenty of B titles also that provide fun...

Agreed - and enjoy PLAYING as much if not more than the hunt. Some people get too wrapped up in building a collection fast. Starting slow is the way to go, IMO...then you can truly savor the games you have and enjoy all they have to offer. Remember - the more you have, the less you're going to play any of them. Also, you can get comfortable with fixes and repairs...too many machines w/ too many problems all at once can get daunting.

As for the question at hand...I love MB, but honestly WOZ seems like a better bang for the buck. If you can get one at $6500, that's $1500-3500 less than a new-ish quality MB...and from everything we've seen, the depth and features are very impressive on WOZ.

You'll probably end up with both lol

Let him decide what he 'needs' ...flow is fun but not the be-all-end-all ... not all people crave or require it.

I meant, I recommend. Sorry. It's obviously implied. It's not like the guys going to spend $7k because I told him to. So it's obviously a recommendation. Now who is all nit picky about wording or semantics?

Go with WOZ. I love MB, but it is not a very difficult game + routed games go for a fortune. WOZ will be deep, if not the deepest game in pinball. A lot of new features, which I feel will change the "quality" of pinball/expectations for years to come.

WOZ. You will then have a modern NIB to compare to the older pins in your collection. Some folks only have older pins, some a mix of new and old, and some go with only recent titles. Get a mix and see what you like.

Get a SM now and WOZ when it comes out......

If you want one of the two NOW, go with MB. If you can wait for WOZ, it's probably your best bet.

Another point. If you do fork out extra money and buy a MB now, good chance whatever you pay you can get most if not all that back out if you decide to sell the MB when WoZ comes out and buy the WoZ. In that sense you can get both of what you're asking. Play the MB now and own the WoZ instead when it's out. I think a lot of people forget that used pinballs seem to at least hold their values and if you're not buying them as life-long purchases, whatever you got into them is usually easy to get back out - unless you pay ridiculous prices in the first place.

WOZ vs MB?

Or

Preorder vs MB?

Buy the MB now, sell it a year from now when the 1000+ WOZ games in front of yours are finished.

I think WOZ will be superior & a must have but it's a ways out for people just getting in. Also why preorder one, all the LE's are gone. Is the $500 NIB price break worth your $6500 being tied up indefinitely? You do know people will sell their first runs HUO before your NIB is even built right? The HUO won't be hit by pinflation either since they are still in production.

Stern has tricked us into preorder sheep with their limited runs of 200-500 units. WOZ is claimed to be a 10,000 unit run...

Deja Vu

Easy answer. If you have the cash and a MB is available, get it. Thus have an awesome game to play while you're waiting who knows how long for WOZ. Then,(gasp!) play WOZ and see if it is worth owning. Plus, who knows what else will be available by that time? If you prefer WOZ, you can easily sell the MB to fund the purchase with money left over.

Secondly, WOZ looks very stop and go, which you already have covered.

Buy whatever makes "you" happy. It's your collection and all that needs to be happy about it is you.

It's ez, buy the game that's actually a game. MB or any Bally/Williams/Stern title is a buy right now if the price is right! Buy everything you can afford, you wait and it's going to cost you more!! WOZ is a train wreck and not worth consideration. Buy WOZ if you like "Air Pinball", their isn't a machine coming anytime soon. Soon = ~6 to 12 months more! JJP is feeding off a group of people that have no clue what's going on. Hence the Ipad demo of the game, it's all smoke and mirrors!

Monster Bash

I know you are not a distributor for jjp but those are overly harsh words for anyone who is at least trying to deliver a high quality new and innovative pinball machine. I'm not in on woz either due to the theme but am happy enough people got in to make the game happen and it will happen and it will be a high quality game, I am confident of that.

If MB is "your" game, then MB will *always* be your game, and you'll want one eventually anyway.

WoZ will be fantastic, but if you know that MB is the game that you love the most, WoZ will never be MB. It might be outstanding, but you'll never have that bit of nostalgia that you get on top of the fun you have playing MB. So, get the games that you KNOW that you'll love first, and then aim for the titles that you think will be amazing later.

Full disclosure here is that I have all the games I know that I need. If I had the money, I'd have a WoZ on pre-order.

Yeah right...that thing is gonna be under the X-mas tree 2011...oh wait a sec...what year is it again?

welcome to the hobby! I pesonally at this stage wait and buy woz later. Wait until its proven reliability wise. Buy cheaper games fix them up and resell. its a fun hobby

Ac/Dc

If it were me...I would maybe trade the TZ for WoZ and get the MB. TZ is great but two widebodies with similar layouts may be not offer as much variation. This way you get a NIB wide body and one very collectible machine with great style.

Tough question to pose as no one has played WoZ so we can't really offer an opinion and the release date is still uncertain. You'd be waiting awhile likely.

How about a newer, HUO Stern like Iron Man or Tron? You don't have to jump on all the big $$$ games right away and you'll likely find that some of them are rather over-rated.

Neither? Get a Predator!

From your current collection....MB all the way.....BTW MB is my alltime favorite machine....buy one, buy a nice one, know what to look for, and never look back!

Might still be a few left. Look for the skitb website and email Kevin. Takes time to hear back.

No Predator pinball machines have been made yet, this is a future game like WoZ or BHZA, the build number to be not more than 250 so if you think you may want one and you can get on the list IDK if there are any spots left but it's free to get on the list, I bet once actual real money is needed some people will back out. Not because it's a bad game but some people could have a hard time laying their hands on $5k all at once so possibly if there is some kind of wait list it may open up for a few people who back out, also it has not been said the orders are all gone yet anyway.

Your choices are way too limited considering you're just getting started. Play a LOT of games, look for great local deals. You may find lots of other games you like better than MB or WoZ and cost way less, who knows. Just pick up the next great deal locally, play the heck out of it, and sell it if you don't want to keep it and keep doing that. You might find you really like modern Stern games, like SM, Tron, Xmen, TSPP, LoTR, IM, etc. You can get those for less than MB/WoZ and they should all be in like new (or brand new for Xmen) condition. I have an SM and think it's one of the best games out there, and it goes great with a TZ. I also think STTNG is one of the best playing games, works great next to a TZ as well.

Email the Skip people. Even if all 250 are spoken for, no deposits have been made . . . there will be a ton of drop outs once money has to be ponied up . . . let them know you want on the list.

So speaks someone who apparently hasn't been invested through a stock-market crash (or if so, has forgotten that lesson!). Prices could drop, perhaps significantly, when the bubble bursts, just as prices have risen significantly recently. There's not an infinite market for pins, new or old, and once the newbies stop overpaying, there could be a correction. My advice is to proceed with caution and not assume prices will hold on your purchases (unless you get a killer deal).

Also, I would suggest to the OP to get out and about and play lots of pins to explore different aspects of your new hobby. Find out what *you* like: which layouts, manufacturers, types, eras, rules, etc. And maybe discover some favorite games. And then start looking for a good deal on those games at your own pace. Despite what some suggest, buying a pin is a hassle: they are big, shipping (if needed) costs $$, you may soon find yourself putting a lot of hours and $$ into replacement parts, fine-tuning, etc. And don't go by mainstream opinions of what's popular; there are lots of people who really don't care for each of the most popular pins.

P.S. If you live anywhere near Pittsburgh, I'd recommend a visit to PAPA between August 9-12. Besides the huge tournament, there are hundreds of pins to play there--you'll really be able to figure out which games you really like!

The only way B/W A title machines will drop in price is if NIB Stern machines hit a price point of about $3K across the board.

What about SS? As much fun as MB but half the price

After WOZ got me back into the hobby and I bought one in Feb of 2011 I wanted to add a pin in house as quick as possible.....the BEST thing i did was wait and actually play as many games as i could, luckily I was able to do that in Austin at Pinballz...

I ended up with a LOTR LE and SM and couldn't be happier with those two so far.....What i thought i wanted changed dramatically after I played a lot of these pins.....like many have said, take your time and patience will pay off!

This is the exact same for me. When I got back into the hobby about six months ago after a notable absence, I thought I still wanted all the same classic games. After playing the newer Stern games i realized I wanted Tron. After I had Tron, I figured I'd wait and see what else Stern would release, and I'm glad I did as XMen is epic.

The point is, you don't know what you want unless you play a bunch of games. Go to places like pinballz or joystix or wherever else and play as many games as you can and get a better idea of what you will want longterm in your collection. Don't believe for a second that theme doesn't matter either, long term it really does.

+1 Good call!!!!

+1

MB machines are hard to find, but at least they exist. All kidding aside, if you don't like MB you could easily sell it (or probably trade it for that matter) for a WOZ in 6 months. Personally, I think WOZ will play a lot like TZ, so that's why I'd recommend MB, SM, AFM, or some other fast flow game for you. Hope this helps.