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Stern's The Munsters Pinball has been revealed! My First Impressions.

Cary Hardy·video·23m 15s·analyzed·Jan 8, 2019
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.025

TL;DR

Stern's Munsters dual-playfield design impresses with innovative basement mechanics and striking artwork across all three variants.

Summary

Cary Hardy provides first-impression analysis of Stern's newly revealed The Munsters pinball machine during a live CES reveal stream hosted by Jack Danger. He examines all three variants (Pro, Premium, LE) and highlights the innovative dual-playfield design with secondary flipper buttons controlling a basement playfield, praises Christopher Franchi's artwork across all models, and predicts strong market performance particularly for the unique black-and-white Premium edition and location-focused Pro model.

Key Claims

  • The Munsters features a fully functional basement playfield controlled by separate flipper buttons, not just a bash toy

    high confidence · Direct observation during live reveal stream showing dual flipper button sets and playfield mechanics

  • Premium version has black and white artwork while LE has full color

    high confidence · Multiple direct visual confirmations during stream examination of different cabinet variations

  • Pro model has no basement level, while Premium and LE include it

    high confidence · Direct visual comparison of all three variants during stream review

  • Christopher Franchi created the artwork for The Munsters

    high confidence · Confirmed in stream commentary and Stern's promotional materials

  • Full audio and video stream of The Munsters is scheduled for Thursday from Stern

    high confidence · Jack Danger announced during live reveal that streaming would occur Thursday with direct capture

  • Black and white Premium edition is expected to appeal to buyers despite initial skepticism

    medium confidence · Hardy's prediction based on visual review; notes that colored inserts remain while artwork is monochrome

  • Game should release to locations within a month of CES reveal

    medium confidence · Hardy's speculation based on typical Stern release timeline after major reveals

Notable Quotes

  • “the basement is essentially almost like a mirror image of the actual large playfield itself in a way it's got two ramps... to have an actual another playable full-fledged little game down there that's pretty innovative”

    Cary Hardy@ 9:21 — Highlights the innovative dual-playfield design as a standout mechanical feature differentiating The Munsters from competitors

  • “black and white machines are not very common and done in this manner so you still have your colored inserts a lot of the machines so you're still going to have color throughout the game but just the artwork in general is going to be black and white and i feel that that's going to do well”

    Cary Hardy@ 20:36 — Core argument for why Premium's unique aesthetic will succeed despite potential consumer hesitation about monochrome design

  • “When you bring in competition, that's going to force companies to try to reel in as many people as possible by doing something that the others are not doing”

    Cary Hardy@ 21:50 — Analysis of competitive market dynamics driving innovation in pinball design and manufacturer differentiation

  • “the pro is going to do very well on locations it's going to draw in the young and the old crowds because you're bringing in nostalgia but you're also bringing in something that's intriguing”

    Cary Hardy@ 18:43 — Market positioning assessment of Pro model for location-based operators with dual demographic appeal

  • “I'm not there at CES, so I cannot play it, but I really want to play this game”

    Cary Hardy@ 17:13 — Establishes limitation of analysis as visual first-impression only, not based on hands-on gameplay experience

Entities

The MunstersgameCary HardypersonJack DangerpersonChristopher FranchipersonDwight SullivanpersonStern PinballcompanyGaryperson

Signals

  • ?

    event_signal: CES reveal triggered rapid community information sharing across Pinball Enthusiast forum and major content creators within 30 minutes of reveal

    high · Hardy notes 'in the last 30 minutes we've got all kinds of people posting up pictures and information on this got special one lit up on here head to head twip marco essentially everybody that I follow'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Stern positioning The Munsters with innovative basement playfield mechanics as competitive response to Jersey Jack Pinball and Deep Root Pinball market activity

    medium · Hardy notes that competition from JJP and Deep Root 'is going to start just putting some fire underneath the butts of some of these designers'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Dual-playfield design with separate flipper button controls represents innovative mechanical feature distinct from competitor offerings, driving potential market differentiation

    high · Hardy notes basement is 'actually another playable full-fledged little game' not just bash toy, describing it as 'pretty innovative' and potential catalyst for future design competition

  • $

    market_signal: Premium black-and-white variant represents unusual aesthetic positioning for modern pinball; Hardy predicts market acceptance based on differentiation from standard bright-color machines

    medium · Hardy's analysis that black-and-white 'is not very common and done in this manner' and 'that's what i believe is going to sell the game is the fact that it's not what you see all the time'

  • ?

    community_signal: Christopher Franchi's artwork direction differs across variants (color LE vs. monochrome Premium) representing deliberate aesthetic strategy

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.070

0:00
What's up guys? So we are actually gonna be doing a video on the Monsters reveal done by Deadflip other than Jack Danger at CES right now. So I'm going to just have this going and we're gonna see how things look and how things go. Everyone knows it's the Monsters. If it's not the Monsters, it's gonna be a hell of a surprise. And the big reveal is that it's actually the Golden Girls. Oh, biggest troll by Stern ever. That would be amazing.
0:34
Pretty decent makeup that Jack's got going on right there. Finally, here we go. Under play field. Nice.
0:52
Rip lower play field. the glass on there it's got a wicked reflection on it wow okay internet I'll play this in a second hold tight thank you brother that's fine take your time Jack give me more time to examine get your damn camera out of the way that makeup that you got on Jack is really it changes the way you look tremendously actually. Come on, take the glass off, get a camera in there. I want to see on the play field what this stuff looks like. The above view does not give this game the appropriateness of how beautiful it is. I want a camera in there showing me what it looks like.
1:42
Man, even from a player standpoint. Come on, give me that. Alright, I'm going to take this off and give you a little tour. Yes! Good, good, good, good. So what we're looking at here is you've got a lower playfield that is controlled with secondary flipper buttons. There's two on the side here.
Jersey Jack Pinball
company
Deep Root Pinballcompany
Deadflipperson
Texas Pinball Festivalevent
CESevent
Pinball Enthusiastorganization

high · Stream shows distinct visual treatments per variant; Hardy predicts black-and-white Premium will appeal despite consumer hesitation

  • ?

    announcement: Stern officially revealed The Munsters at CES with live gameplay demonstration hosted by Jack Danger, with additional full audio/video stream scheduled for Thursday

    high · Hardy analyzing live reveal stream footage; Jack Danger announced Thursday stream with 'direct capture direct audio'

  • ?

    product_strategy: The Munsters explicitly designed with three-tier feature distribution: Pro has no basement, Premium has basement with black-and-white artwork, LE has basement with full color artwork

    high · Direct visual confirmation during stream review of all three cabinet variants showing feature progression

  • ?

    product_concern: Side armor accessories positioned as separate paid additions despite apparent consumer expectation they be included

    medium · Hardy's reaction: 'Stern, come on... you know that everyone's going to want that. So why not charge more for it?'

    • 2:02
    One, two. It's hard to see the black one. But you see that? You can flip that one and this one. Separately. You can play the upper and lower playfields at the exact same time. Ooh. Ooh, I sense a crazy wizard mode. You kind of go in here, and then there's a kick out that goes up there. There's a spot that comes out of that ramp. You got a Herman Bash toy here. You got to scoop some ramps. Borg's using these long, flat touch targets again.
    2:36
    Pop-Tot. Let's just play the game. What am I doing? Screw this. Let's just play the game. I'm also curious about the music while you're playing.
    2:46
    so he locked a ball up there at Herman oh okay so all right Herman multi ball internet this is my first time playing this game in its production form just so you know sound please yeah here's the thing I will move the mic towards the game in a second so you can hear it we're gonna be streaming oh I bounce back up to be playing all three models of this game and we're gonna be doing a direct capture direct audio stream of this game this Thursday from Stern Oh dude. I'm loving how the ramps go behind the playfield up there. Like underneath the back box area. I've always loved that in games.
    3:58
    It's like a magnet up there in front of Herman. the left ramp directs the ball to the left flipper. Oh! Oh, shit.
    4:18
    Zachary, what are you posting in Pinball Enthusiast? Let me find out. But I know what it is. I'm already there, man.
    4:32
    get it grandpa's laboratory oh actually I got some really good footage of what the game looks like over here damn so there is definitely a black and white version holy crap Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was also going to move the microphone towards the game. That was a rumor. I just moved that over there. And now it's confirmed there is a black and white version. Is that the premium?
    5:09
    That guy? Yeah. Oh, man. Okay, well, I'm already loving the music. My god, it might have it up a little too loud there. Let's tame that down a little bit. Oh, it's like a mini, like a marble version ball in the lower playfield. Oh. Oh, okay. yeah the lower play field looks pretty damn cool it's got the laugh track i've noticed that too whenever you hit ramps you hear like the laugh track that you would normally hear on the show i've got to say i know this is the le so it's got everything on it but we don't know well we in a way we do know but we know that of course the premium and pro is not going to have all of what we see here on it but from what i can see on the le it's going to sell out pretty damn quick and i'm pretty sure this game in general is going to do very well in the market it's difficult to see that lower play field whenever it's going with the camera angle that we've currently got because it's like everything lights up underneath there and it just looks like a giant white box in the middle of a playfield right now. Ah! I want to play it! This game looks pretty damn cool.
    7:42
    But again, it's the LE. Of course it's going to look cool. It's kind of mesmerizing, really. Time to comment on the LCD screen that they have for this game.
    7:52
    It's looking good. It flows very well with the theme. They've got the font and everything and the sounds. They mesh very well.
    8:03
    Ask Dwight I love how You've got The main guy at Stern He wants to know why the hell A certain game doesn't have anything Walking around shaking his head They're all like talk to Dwight Sullivan He's the one that programmed the game Oh, you know, it's Chris Franchi's work. Man, I like how when you hit that right ramp, it delivers it to the right flipper pretty quick. You got enough time to where you can react, of course, but it's a quick turnaround, right back to you kind of thing. Okay, going by what I just heard them talking about the differences between the models, It looks like the premium version, which is mainly for the enthusiast homeowners that aren't hardcore and want the LE. But for the premium users, the cabinet and art is going to be black and white. So that is actually not what I expected. I mean, I honestly thought that the black and white was going to be the LE. yeah the the basement is essentially almost like a mirror image of the actual large playfield itself in a way it's got two ramps and uh looks like it might have yeah definitely very impressive basement looks like it's actually like a playable game not just a bash toy oh it's even a multivol down there too sweet no we can't see it Jack it's all bright yes that's very cool because a lot of the times when you see a game with a basement is usually like you got a couple of targets to hit maybe a bash toy of some sort but to have an actual another playable full-fledged little game down there that's that's pretty innovative out there good job on that Stern all right so I'm gonna keep this screen up to show off what they're playing and then I'm gonna come over here to my other window all right so let me bring this over here and we're gonna go full screen now stop This is the pro version.
    10:39
    There's no basement on the pro. Then you have the premium. Damn, guys. Oh. Oh my god. Ah, this is really, really beautiful.
    11:27
    Alright, let's go back. Let's go back. Let's look at this again. Alright so right side of the cabinet gosh that looks good Chris you done good man you done good all right let's see what we got going on here so it looks like it's the same bash toy for Eddie Munster and I want to say it looks like they've moved the artwork from the basement playfield up to the playfield right here so that was an easy transition right there on their part
    12:11
    love that just looks good no okay now from this point of view I can see why that ball is able to come back as quickly as it does on the right ramp because it goes from just a vertical angle and drops down okay yeah from the first angle when I saw the game on the LE I just think I was like man that comes around quick but that's nice because you have to hit that ramp with some speed to get it to actually late yeah mm-hmm good Trying to see all the modes down here. Man I can already see a lot of mods coming out for this game. Look at that! They've done good on this because you've even got the spider web shielding for your flipper button area right there for the flipper buttons. Black and white, but it's not entirely black and white, you still have the actual font for the monsters in green. Oh man. I mean, the side armor. Oh, side armor accessories sold separately. Ah, Stern.
    13:47
    Stern, come on. Ah. Because you know that everyone's going to want that. So why not charge more for it?
    14:02
    Ah. Yep Alright so From what I can see so far Christopher French you've done great work With the artwork on this game Very impressed And now I've got some Random old guy Playing the monsters I guess they've opened it up to the public now Slowered his volume down a little bit here We will be getting more footage like Jack Danger said This coming Thursday They will be doing a full audio and video stream Dude You're hitting the wrong flipper buttons Wrong buttons dude Someone explain to him how the flipper buttons work He doesn't understand Two sets of buttons One set does the top One set does the bottom There you go That's going to be a little unusual, I think, for some people, is having two separate sets of buttons for different flippers. Because usually, in your basement games, typically the flipper buttons work for them down there whenever that playfield is activated.
    15:19
    But it looks like maybe it's a possibility that the basement can be activated alongside the same time as the upper playfield. which I perceive that being some kind of like badass wizard mode have a multi-ball going upstairs and downstairs good lord oh here we are showing off what it looks like the premium this is what I wanted to see it's like a walk around view of it oh Chris you did great work oh my god it's beautiful don't get me wrong the le looks beautiful as well but that premium they really did a good job on that the pro is going to do very well on location I can see that machine doing bringing in a lot of cash on locations across the help the globe
    16:49
    Eddie, I'm very upset with you this morning. Go back to the premium. I want to see more of that. God, that is a tempting buy. I mean, so I believe I've got enough footage here for a first impressions, which is all I'm giving right now because that's all we have to go by is just first seeing it. I'm not there at CES, so I cannot play it, but I really want to play this game. Unfortunately I'm not going to be able to play this Until Texas Pinball Festival coming up in a couple of months During that time There going to be all kinds of alterations to the code I sure There might be one on location by then I don't know the release date of this game yet. I would assume since they're revealing it, then we should have it within a month. It should be out on locations. I'm getting messages from people right now.
    17:45
    One of my buddies is like, I don't think I would like the black and white version. and I'm like dude the premium is beautiful I love it oh of course in the last 30 minutes we've got all kinds of people posting up pictures and information on this got special one lit up on here head to head twip marco essentially everybody that I follow so it's it's everyone's got all the information up now so let me see here on my first impressions solely judging on what was revealed during the stream and the stern promo video yes there are a bunch of pictures that i can look at but i'm just giving you first impressions down the road once i obtain more information about it then i if i feel the need to then i will post another video on that but going solely on just first impressions within the first 45 minutes of reveal of the full reveal my thoughts are pro is going to do very well on locations it's going to draw in the young and the old crowds because you're bringing in nostalgia but you're also bringing in uh something that's intriguing to those right now things that are darker tend to do well in the market whether it be movies or television uh darker themes seem to do better right now it's something that i guess people are going after so i feel like that's going to bring in a new crowd to pinball as well as bringing in the old people that are familiar with the monsters um yes the pro of course does not have the basement level on there and as well as probably other little things here and there but it's still the game the artwork looks great uh moving on to the premium model which is going to be of course the last one released and that's going to be mainly for the home users and enthusiasts like me dude this game is beautiful it looks so great christopher franchi uh you should win some kind of like you know recognition on the artwork that you've done for these machines it looks fantabulous i actually just would like the picture of the portrait of the family that you have on the side for this premium model and i think it's the same picture but just you know of course a little bit different that you have on the le as well but i want that image that just looks itself just looks really great the premiums black and white which people are going to be afraid it's going to be a turnoff for a lot of those but i feel like it's actually going to be a turn on i don't know because it's it's different it's not the the regular rigamarole just you know bright and shiny colors all over the place and everything not that that's a bad thing but it's different and that's what i believe is going to sell the game is the fact that it's not what you see all the time black and white machines are not very common and done in this manner so you still have your colored inserts a lot of the machines so you're still going to have color throughout the game but just the artwork in general is going to be black and white and i feel that that's going to do well moving on to the le what of course we've been seeing Jack Danger and Gary play on this and showing mainly off is this LE model that itself is man it's a beautiful game as well it looks great I love the whole basement how it's actual functioning fully fledged other game in the basement it's not just a bash toy or some little simple targets to hit it's like a miniature version of the game in the basement that is good So I'm really excited to see where games are going because since we have much more companies coming into this hobby, into this exciting, growing hobby again, that's going to draw in more innovation.
    21:41
    And I think that this is obviously going to be a good thing for those of us that do and breathe pinball is that it starts to get stagnant whenever there's no competition. When you bring in competition, that's going to force companies to try to reel in as many people as possible by doing something that the others are not doing. So I'm thinking that now that we're getting deep root into this game and Jersey Jack is just taking off and doing so well with their games, with Pirates and everything, that this is going to start just, you know, getting – putting some fire underneath the butts of some of these designers. And it's going to do great. And I'm really excited to see what the future of this hobby is going to be for these future games.
    22:23
    So there you have it. My first impressions of Stern's The Munsters. I want to know what you think now. So do you feel like this game is going to take them in the right direction? Increase the sales? I mean, basically, do you agree with my thoughts? Or do you have your own personal opinions on what you think this game is? Whatever it is, let me know down there. That's going to wrap it up here. So don't forget to hit that like button if you enjoyed what you saw here. And if you haven't already, hit that subscribe button. That way you can be notified of whenever I upload new material for your viewing pleasure. Until next time, peace out.