Why  NOT to buy a Stern pinball made after 2015 (with Spike system ) !

In 2013 Stern pinball launched the home version noncommercial  pinball Transformers for 4490 usd with Spike system which was a commercial failure,  because a Transformers  commercial  basic operator version  4p was delivered  to distributors  at 4900 usd and distributor  retail  it   for max 5900 usd .

To all consumer goods like home appliances  and cars producers tend  to keep or lower the retail price but life use shortened  and spare parts were more expensive and lower quality than OEM parts  to make the consumer  buy a new product instead of repair it  . Any new car have specific bugs from design to cut the costs  some of them improved  after  use  wear test  by the consumers  other not , replacement parts or upgrade made on consumer money after the warranty period  expired . In a few words some components were designed to last only at the length of the warranty period after that a component or  an  assembly produced with 50 USD is sold at 500 usd or 1000 usd  ,  example :  an electronic control unit  for air conditioning  . In this line the minimum warranty is 12 months but you can extend at 24 -36  months paying  more up front . For cars KIA has broken the rule because  a KIA  has 7 years warranty with free mileage …for this reason you find KIA  and Hyundai  in  US  Malls and on the US  Highways. 

 Stern pinball has made a different policy starting 2015  they put inside a more compact electronic system   “Spike “ from the “low cost “ home version pinball,which did not sell, into the commercial pinball’s doubled the  prices and more,  like  an  ultra-limited edition 15k USD  with a warranty of 60 days.Let’s compare this with a KIA  Picanto new car  priced at 12k USD with 7 years warranty and free mileage !
In the following links you can watch two more detailed videos about this subject and “ Spike” system  :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APszp0x6GYY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMA_p3ozGVg

part number search link for Williams pinballs

this part will be full in a while with some usefull advice,before that you can mail me at technical@pinball.ro for any technical questions about pins and arcade ,I have almost 10 gigs of pinball and arcade stuff archive from which I can share and send any file for any pinball fan or arcade fan in this world.