here is a interesting story by gangsterbulls from pinside in regards to IM production numbers, pretty cool that it sync's in to the production speculation
http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/ims-s-producedpossibilitycurious/page/3"Hi, I just signed up on Pinside for the sole purpose of responding to this thread. I purchased my Iron Man machine NIB late in the game (March of last year). Upon completing the purchase I was told that I just bought the last Iron Man that Stern produced. I didn't think about it too much until one day when I was on the phone with Stern & I inquired about it. I was told that they would look into it. A week or two later it was confirmed to me that my game was produced on the last day of the production run. I was also told that they had no way of knowing if it was actually the last game that came off the line. Honestly I think they know but just did not want that info released to the public. It should also be noted that they tracked my machine by serial number & not the number on the playfield.
Now with all that being said, my playfield is number 1014. Although I would like to think that there were exactly 1014 Iron Man machines produced & that I have the last one, I would say it is a pretty safe bet that there were less than 1100 made...... and probably less than 1050...... and very possibly less than 1025...... and maybe even exactly 1014.
As an old man who grew up playing EMs & 1st generation SS machines I would like to make a couple other comments about Iron Man:
1) It is my opinion that Iron Man is the best "player's machine" made in the last 30 years. Note that I said "my opinion" !!
2) When you hear people say that Iron Man is "over rated" or that it "feels cheap", what they are really trying to say is ............"I played Iron Man & it kicked my butt; I don't want any part of that machine, it fights back 
"
