Stern announces new KISS pinball

[dealers choice]

Not sure how many LE's are being made, one of my mates ordered 2 of them, definitely going to unbox one of them.

[MartyJ]

Yeah seems the true collectors are jumping the LEs..  Good to see.  I can see some pinheads going the premium and Le for storage or leaving NIB

[Strangeways]

Has Stern announced how many LEs will be made?

I wonder if they may be holding off announcing the number of LEs until they test the market.  Presuming LEs are selling out in the USA, as fast as they did in Australia, we might see LEs quantities of greater than 500 for this release.

600 LE - 300 for the domestic market and 300 for export. A little birdy told me 100 LEs have been presold to a "KISS fanclub" - Maybe the KISS Army ?
The word is 50-60 are allocated to Australia. They are all gone. Stern have done backflips in the past, but distributors have been hounding them to make more.

Stern were told by Distributors that they need to increase the LEs to 1000. No doubt there will be a "Luci" model - HOPEFULLY.

[Strangeways]

BTW - Just broke the news to the missus. She was holding a VERY heavy book my son won at the Mother's Day raffle at school - so I didn't tell her the price.

 

[andypinboy]

I'm guessing Stern will do multiple runs of the LEs - if they are onto a good thing they may as well milk it. Plenty of fans so why not look after them. The playfield on this is a gem - is the any video of gameplay anywhere?

[Brunswick Brawler]

It's odd Stern haven't stated 600LEs on their website.  My little bet here is that they will do 1000 LEs.  If Stern haven't publicly committed to 600, they seem to deliberately leaving that door open to do more than 600.

...I'd love to see 1000 LEs. It will show that the pinball market is really is growing.  It will be great for pinball to see Pro/Premium/LE out sell ACDC.

[Brunswick Brawler]

BTW - Just broke the news to the missus. She was holding a VERY heavy book my son won at the Mother's Day raffle at school - so I didn't tell her the price.

 

Now you know what it's like for some of your customers Nino, when they need to explain to their wives that they have just placed a deposit on an APR game!

[skywalker]

What ever the LE production total is, find out soon I guess, As stated previously by stern LE's don't get a 2nd run in the future,  done Is done, nothing stopping them making a Kiss Luci version down the road As Nino hinted.

[Caveoftreasures]

On some models of Sterns, when they produce a 4th model, that model becomes HIghly collectable because that model ends up being made in very low numbers. Then when only 3 models are made, but the Premium model is only manufactured after all LE have sold and The Pro production has slowed, the third model or Premium becomes very collectable. Below is the order of production.

Eg - ACDC
Pro, LE models, Premium .Then the Luci model came which I am told is less prevelent than all the other models.
So the Luci is low numbers compared to the others. Less Luci than Pro in Aust.

Eg - The Walking Dead
Pro, LE produced, then last was limited Premium numbers. The green cabinet of the Walking Dead Premium is hardest to find. Probably less than half a dozen in Australia, if that. Very very hard to find. Will rise in value.

Sometimes the Premium or the "after Premium very short run" number can be very collectable and very hard to find.

When KISS sells out of the LE and runs the Pro and Premium numbers for as long as it can, with whatever Premium stock they have left, which might be selling/moving slowly, all they have to is do a slight cabinet decal art change, slight Translite change, this now becomes a "new limited edition" very low numbered release, it then helps clear the Left over Premium playfields and any left over hardware the company can turn into cashflow and profit.

IF Stern is to extend the LE run of KISS, I think it will be only a small run of same LE numbers, or a slightly different LE in order to keep original LE buyers happy.

Either way, the current Stern model makes all models highly collectable, all the way from Pro to LE or other Premium or 4th special run models. It keeps resale values and collect ability high which is good for both industry and consumer alike. The pinball industry is almost using the Car industry model which is a good thing.

[Caveoftreasures]

Also, www.pinballnews.com website has a few articles on the KISS pinballs if u haven't already seen it on there.

It doesn't look much when u first click on but it all expands out to lots of info and has the FRIGGIN excellent Stern release video on there.

Also, some other excellent articles about TimeZone on the Gold Coast which will have a KISS pinball very soon I am told and various other great pinball news articles . Martin from PinballNews is a top bloke and runs a world class website and I believe is a fellow Australian based Aussie ! He is great to speak with. Passion running in his veins and such a nice guy. Doing us and the Pinball Industry proud.

Cranked up all the KISS songs listed on the KISS pinball machine list and brought back many fond memories from my childhood so I definately know and feel Nino,s passion.

Also, the audio on the last 4 Sterns (Pro) models I have , all have absolutely excellent stock speakers and the audio even on the Pro models are awesome so the upgrades on the other models will blow your ears off and the clarity already is just amazing so people who purchase the new KISS Pinny are going to be in for a treat.

I don't have any concerns about the recordings or re-recordings used cause I can't see Gene Simmons allowing anything out of the factory that isn't to his perfectionist taste. I am betting that even Nino will be happy with the factory released original audio.

***Can someone who is good at starting those voting threads start one and list the ten KISS songs listed on the new Pinball and do a Vote thread to get members feedback on what is the BEST song listed of those ten songs.
PopBumperPete and Swinksy are usually good at doing that style of voting thread. Thought it might be fun for the forum ? Or anyone else who wants to post it up please !

Thanks from Cavey in advance.  

[Freiherr]

On audio, I reckon Stern should integrate wifi in their new system. Upgrades would be easier and sound possibilities awesome.
I just got Sonos Play 5 which sounds out of this world.
KISS or any pinball would sound incredible with a wireless setup around your mancave.
Stern have the capabilities with their new system. Gary, just do it and give our ears a treat!

[Brunswick Brawler]

I may be wrong about Stern changing their mind on the number of LEs.  I based that assumption on not seeing the LE numbers of KISS on their website.  Having just looked for LE numbers of other recent machines, I don't see those numbers either.  So it seems that this is not out of the ordinary.

I'm still surprised the KISS LEs are only 600.  They could easily have sold 1000, based on the current rate of sales.

On audio, I reckon Stern should integrate wifi in their new system. Upgrades would be easier and sound possibilities awesome.
I just got Sonos Play 5 which sounds out of this world.
KISS or any pinball would sound incredible with a wireless setup around your mancave.
Stern have the capabilities with their new system. Gary, just do it and give our ears a treat!

It's not wifi, but you can add a cable to connect to your HiFi system.  The KISS Game Features Matrix includes "New CPU mounted line-out audio connector for external amplification"

[Pintoxicated]

As cool as it sounds to have any machine, especially a LE, left in the box as an investment there is an element of risk with doing this.  Speaking from personal experience, I bought a MOPLE that had never been opened and technically was out of warranty and guess what, it had several issues that had never been detected because it had never been out of the box.  To their credit, AMD were excellent to deal with despite the fact that I was not the original owner and the machine was technically out of warranty.  Michael in particular went over and above what he needed to do.

Just remember that the LEs are amongst the first machines to be made and as we have found out with many new Stern machines, there are parts that end up having to be replaced under warranty such as drop targets, PCBs for example and the issues only come to light once there have been numerous games played on the machines and the problem/s start to present in a number of machines. 

Some machines have imperfections that probably should not have passed through Stern's quality control and unless you pull your machine out, you will not know if there are any issues or imperfections that may well be rectified or replaced under warranty. 

Not trying to spoil the fun but just something to think about.  After my experience, if you were planning to sit on it as an investment, I would at least CAREFULLY pull the machine out of the box, have a good look over it and then put it back to bed in the box.  Your audit report/s will show the machine has never been played as well as the fact there won't be any marks or dimples on the playfield, targets and the like.  The machine will be worth more to you knowing there is nothing wrong with the machine as opposed to pulling it out of the box and then finding the playfield is flawed, cabinet is marked or scratched and the machine is well out of warranty. 

[Strangeways]

As cool as it sounds to have any machine, especially a LE, left in the box as an investment there is an element of risk with doing this.  Speaking from personal experience, I bought a MOPLE that had never been opened and technically was out of warranty and guess what, it had several issues that had never been detected because it had never been out of the box.  To their credit, AMD were excellent to deal with despite the fact that I was not the original owner and the machine was technically out of warranty.  Michael in particular went over and above what he needed to do.

Just remember that the LEs are amongst the first machines to be made and as we have found out with many new Stern machines, there are parts that end up having to be replaced under warranty such as drop targets, PCBs for example and the issues only come to light once there have been numerous games played on the machines and the problem/s start to present in a number of machines. 

Some machines have imperfections that probably should not have passed through Stern's quality control and unless you pull your machine out, you will not know if there are any issues or imperfections that may well be rectified or replaced under warranty. 

Not trying to spoil the fun but just something to think about.  After my experience, if you were planning to sit on it as an investment, I would at least CAREFULLY pull the machine out of the box, have a good look over it and then put it back to bed in the box.  Your audit report/s will show the machine has never been played as well as the fact there won't be any marks or dimples on the playfield, targets and the like.  The machine will be worth more to you knowing there is nothing wrong with the machine as opposed to pulling it out of the box and then finding the playfield is flawed, cabinet is marked or scratched and the machine is well out of warranty. 

Distributors have already been told by Stern not to allow single customers to buy multiple LEs. Not sure if this effects other titles, but KISS fans usually buy two of everything, and store the spare to sell 10 years down the track. I'm told one customer wanted 4 games and another 3 games. Both were politely declined.

[Caveoftreasures]

Even if a game was BNIB and pulled out, had a dozen only test games played on it, then put back in the box, current game plays and audits left in tact and not erased, the machine would still sell in five seconds a week or a year or more down the track.

The benefit to the buyer is that the game has been tested and can be described as such. This would not scare off any buyers. I understand what happened in Blairs (Pintoxicated) case. Something was missed at factory and the game wasn't checked out of box in Australia.

I know that when AMD gets a BNIB game and is asked by the customer to fully check the game before shipment, they pull the game out at absolutely no cost, check everything and then send the machine out after fitting coin mechs and shakers etc if u buy them fitted.

Also, my understanding is that every game is played and tested at Stern and audits (any plays) are reset so someone thinking a BNIB has never had any Playfield action for a few minutes is not always correct. The games are all plugged into Sterns test rigs and everything is also checked on a software package. This happens on every game.

I have never had a BNIB Stern with any faults from factory and the machines (at my request) were never pulled out in Sydney for checking. I fit my own shakers etc. Never had a scratch or blemish or anything. Been all perfect from factory. The only hassle I had after a year was a few tiny marks on a few ramp flaps on ACDC. Otherwise perfecto.

KISS should be solid. Nothing ever gets past AMD if they pull the machine out of the box and check it over thoroughly and they always request they do that.

The audio output option on KISS sounds good. The Wi Fi idea is great n should be a reality sooner or later by new design or simple add on to some existing Stern titles.

I am sure a few people bought a few LE models for themselves.
Wife rings up, brother rings up and customer rings up and so on.
Since I like the Pro models, certainly wasn't the case for me etc but who knows, someone may have bought a multiple or two ?