This afternoon Stern Pinball revealed its official line of accessories for its new Metallica Remastered Pinball machine. The accessories include:
"Justice for All" Topper for $999
Sword Side Armor for $399
RGB Shooter Rod for $224.99
Expression Lights: $599.99
Speaker Lighting System: $199.99
The prices for the accessories are interesting. The side armor is more expensive than any recent offering and the shooter rod is tied for the highest ever.
The Metallica Remastered shooter rod is $224.99. Here's how that compares to recent rods:
Avengers Infiniti Quest: $179.99
Black Knight Sword of Rage: $169.99
Deadpool: $109.99
Foo Fighters: $249.99
Godzilla: $179.99
Iron Maiden: $109.99
James Bond: $179.99
JAWS: $149.99
Mandalorian: $129.99
Rush: $159.99
Star Wars: $169.99
Stranger Things: $179.99
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: $129.99
AVERAGE: $161.53
The Metallica side armor is $399. Here's how that stacks up versus the armor for other games:
Avengers Infiniti Quest: $249.99
Black Knight Sword of Rage: $249.99
Deadpool: $269.99
Elvira's House of Horrors: $269.99
Foo Fighters: $249.99
Godzilla 70th: $289.99
Iron Maiden: $269.99
James Bond: $249.99
JAWS: $249.99
Jurassic Park: $249.99
Mandalorian: $289.99
Rush: $249.99
Star Wars: $269.99
Stranger Things: $289.99
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: $269.99
AVERAGE: $264.66
At $599.99, the price of the new Expression Lights for Metallica is $100 higher than the lights for Foo Fighters and Rush as well ($499.99).
I NEVER get into politics on my pages, so I'm trying to figure out a way to mention this next part without getting political. The fact of the matter is that Stern Pinball imports a LOT of parts for its games and accessories from China. I'm hearing rumblings that Stern is very concerned that its cost for these Chinese parts will increase significantly IF new tariffs are implemented on Chinese imports in 2025, which has been strongly hinted at.
These new high accessory prices may be illustrative of that fear. Keep an eye on Stern pricing in 2025. After holding prices steady for the past several years, if the cost of the parts that Stern imports from China increase look for it to pass along those increases in the form of higher retail prices.
Glad i quit buying NIB pins from Stern. They are overpriced big time. Of you wait on new machines you can save 3-4k. And most will be modded and have all the extras!
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labor costs are going to go through the roof once a State of Emergency is declared and the military starts deporting millions of migrant workers next year. The tariffs will also be a big economic concern, but labor is what will spur the highest inflation and likely lead to a recession.
I noticed it immediately. I have an LE coming but this is the first LE I've seen ship without the shooter rod. Prices are just high. Way it's going to be I'm afraid. But I disagree with Cruiser. They hobby seems to be doing very well IMHO. That machine is awesome though so they will get me on the topper and the rod. My buddy has a premium ordered and it makes me very curious also why they don't have inside art blades for it on the list. I do like how the Premium armor is different from the LE. Nice touch there.
IMO, the increase in price on accessories is a money grab for a product Stern knows a ton of people are going to buy OR it's a test to see if people are willing to pay that before they raise it on all items. In regards to tariffs, even if Trump does put new tariffs on China, Stern has the option to:
1) Eat the entire new tariff percentage
2) Split the percentage with their customers
3) Pass the entire percentage onto their customers.
Stern was the only pinball manufacturer around for many years, and I think we all know that when they were the only game in town, some of the pricing they had for things was insane, like…