Possibly pulling a Jurassic Park, Deadpool etc
Those seemed do fine either way

100

Still think its clone wars cartoon. A whole 168 people saw most of that.

Maybe this was mentioned, but doesn’t this prop guarantee it’s going to be at least Episides 5 and/or 6?

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Its been mentioned around 200 times, and no.

Edit: BUT realistically yes

Looks an awful lot like the Jabba sculpt in the Sail barge Lego.

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His shirt certainly is a preview of the quality of the animations you have to presume.

Maybe it's just a way of saying : This Fall season will be the season of the Empire pinball machine. September to December

Ok good. So since my post is 201 it’s official now. It’s going to be Empire Strikes Back only pin

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Borg. Star Wars. Jabba.

770 LEs planned? Might as well call it The Return of the Scalpers.

Randy lead on art ?

Cant wait for the meltdown when it's full AI generated generic cartoony Star Wars.

770 sounds like a low number for a Star Wars LE.

They have to drum up fomo some how.

Gomez spoke at length about Spike3 in an interview recently. It sounded like this release was going to be more like Spike2.5 as there would be more coming it won't be the full Spike3 upgrade in this game.

He said there would be much improved sound, so hopefully that means better speakers installed? not just the capability to drive better speakers. I guess pros will have the same shitty speakers. maybe prem also, but LEs will have much better speakers and Stern will sell them as upgrades for other tiers at 5x what you could buy elsewhere.

Better visuals was also discussed, so I doubt they would downgrade the monitor. Gomez has previously talked about not changing the look too much so that lineups don't look weird. I expect the monitor will be only slightly bigger in Spike3.

I think a comedy Star Wars Lego pinball game would be cool, I would much prefer that

Hopefully the LE stands out on its own. Really excited for this. Hopefully it is not a let down.

Well with yet another new star battles game and supposedly pokiman on the horizon, at least I’m safe from buying any new Sterns for at least a year! My wallet is happy.

Save your money and wait a year for the anniversary edition of whichever part of Star War this is…More limited run, better looking and lower-priced!
I kid, but recently it sure feels like they just keep going back to the well ‘til it runs dry.

Every game has LEs still available these days. 500 is an appropriate # for most titles. 770 sounds about right in that case for a bigger seller (we’ll see) like Star Wars.

Spike 2.5, as you call it, will have a bigger LED screen, better computer internals, and improved speakers as well as a headphone “solution” (likely not line-in and not Bluetooth either. Possibly some janky IC daisy chain).

Full spike 3.0 will feature a couple of extra items including a new expression lighting system.

Really now? Tell me more of this "janky IC daisy chain" leveraging these "better computer internals."

Agree, and 770 for Star Wars kind of feels like what 500 did for Metallica Remastered LE at 500. Hope it is a good one.

the hardware has Bluetooth.
Now if they want to make headphones be an paided thing with an shity phone app? then JJP will kill them.

Hypnosis

“You will embrace Pokémon”

Hypno

Who doesn’t like an interesting backstory

Misty

Or hilarious moments

Spa

Or underwater ballet

Ballet

The logo is throwing me off but if you ask any search if Episodes 4, 5, or 6 are the fall of the empire - they say no on 4 & 5. Only 6 is a yes

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Here’s a structured mock-up concept for a “Fall of the Galactic Empire” Star Wars pinball machine, pulling inspiration from existing Star Wars pins (Data East, Sega, Stern) while creating something fresh.

⸻

Cabinet & Backbox Art
• Cabinet Sides:
• Left: Darth Vader’s helmet cracked and dissolving into sparks, the second Death Star collapsing behind him.
• Right: Rebel fleet victorious — Millennium Falcon front and center, X-Wings flying toward Endor.
• Backbox/Translite:
• Centerpiece: Luke standing in Jedi robes, lightsaber ignited.
• Top left: Emperor’s throne room exploding with Force lightning.
• Top right: Imperial Star Destroyer in flames, breaking apart.
• Bottom: Fireworks over Endor with Ewoks celebrating (a callback to Stern’s Star Wars fireworks animations).

⸻

Playfield Layout (Inspired by Stern Star Wars + Williams Attack from Mars + custom ideas)

Lower Playfield
• Flippers: Standard two flippers + optional upper mini-flipper on right for shot control (like Stern Star Wars).
• Orbits: Left and right orbit shots feeding into inlanes/outlanes with smooth loops (classic Williams feel).
• Spinner: Imperial Star Destroyer spinner — spinning causes explosions on the LCD.

Mid Playfield
• Death Star Toy: A large spherical toy at center mid-playfield (like Stern’s Death Star) but cracked open. Hitting its inner targets progresses “Death Star II Destruction Multiball.”
• Throne Room Drop Target Bank: 3 targets spelling “EMP” (for Empire) — drop them to expose Emperor Palpatine pop-up bash toy.
• Luke vs. Vader Duel Ramp: A steep metal ramp with RGB lighting. Shots light up blue for Luke, red for Vader. Alternating shots build toward “Duel Multiball.”
• Explosion Bumpers: Jet bumpers styled like flaming TIE Fighter debris, with red/orange LEDs flickering.

Upper Playfield
• Mini Endor Playfield (like Stern Star Wars’ mini LCD integration + Black Knight style upper deck):
• Small flipper
• Ewok village sculpt
• Drop targets representing shield generator bunker
• Completing objectives here disables the shield and enables the Death Star shot

⸻

Game Modes
• Shield Generator Mode: Knock down drop targets on Endor to “blow the bunker.”
• Final Duel Mode: Alternating Vader/Luke shots; miss too many Vader shots and “turn Dark Side.”
• Escape the Death Star II: Timed hurry-up mode where orbit and ramp shots simulate racing out before the explosion.
• Empire Multiball: Lock balls under the cracked Death Star; exploding mechanism releases them (think Stern’s Death Star ball lock).
• Victory Celebration Wizard Mode: All lights shift to rainbow fireworks, Ewok music plays, unlimited multiball for 30 seconds.

⸻

Unique Mechanics
• Collapsing Death Star Toy: Instead of just exploding open like Stern’s, this one could collapse inward with a magnet grab effect before shooting balls out.
• Force Lightning Feature: Flashers + blue UV LED strips simulate Emperor’s lightning during playfield multipliers.
• Dynamic Soundtrack: John Williams score shifting dynamically — Imperial March (multiball), Duel of the Fates remix (wizard mode), Ewok Celebration (victory).

⸻

Inspirations Pulled From
• Stern Star Wars → fast orbits, LCD video integration, Death Star toy.
• Data East Star Wars → R2D2 toy with mechanical movement, voice integration.
• Attack from Mars → center “destroy the mothership” bash toy mechanic, humor + explosions.
• Stern Mandalorian → upper mini-playfield with theme-specific missions.

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Knapp has an article where Borg shows off the Jabba toy for the new game.

Would much rather have Pizza The Hutt in
SPACEBALLS THE PINBALL GAME

That makes me think that I'd take a "80'/90's pizza hut" pinball machine. You could have some of those red cups sprinkled throughout it. Maybe a small TMNT arcade game bash toy. A ramp up around the buffet and that white and red checkerboard tablecloth design sprinkled throughout.

No, that’s not a light saber in my pocket. I’m really excited to see this pin.

You can cleanse your mind of this idea by playing a Dominos for 94 seconds

I would love a fully animated SW story with video modes.

I legitimately had no idea this existed....

It’s wait and see time, but a Sand Crawler scoop used to purchase different droids that help in different ways would be real cool. You can just do so much more with an open canvas still sticking to the main story.

Connect your Bluetooth headphones to your insider connect app on your phone. Walk up to any pin with insider and when you login it auto connects headphones.

If Fall of the Empire is launching with essentially Spike 2.5, and we expect there may be a 50th Anniversary Edition in 2027, it seems reasonable to expect that the Anniversary Edition would have full Spike 3 by then, right? So if you're looking at a Premium game you get an additional benefit from waiting.

That would be very cool to have at arcades. This feature won’t be available on Spike 2, I assume.

It could happen, but isn't guaranteed.

Jaws 50th came out and still reportedly shipped with the noisy Spike 2 PSU, as did my Godzilla which was made this year, both long after other games (MetR and later) started using the quiet Spike 3 PSU.

Stern have made some minor changes to existing games, like early Godzilla had those clips in the cabinet to center the playfield but later ones don't have/need them. But they seem to stick with a given hardware spec for each game as much as they can.

Curious to see how bluetooth is executed, if they choose to use it. When I connected my JJP to bluetooth, it was unplayable because of the delay introduced. Pinball is so fast any minor audio delay is a dealbreaker.

Wireless headphone compatibility does nothing for me, as I do not use wireless headphones.

I loathe wireless headphones.

This.

And if I see one more person ask AI what "fall of the empire" is, or posts that comic book or regular book or whatever it is, "the rise and fall of the empire", I'm gonna crash out.

I see the Star Wars reveal has went over well.
At least it's an 80s/90s era pin like most wanted, instead of episodes 1-3.

I'm curious to see how it looks and plays.

But I'm hoping the Pokemon rumors continue to heat up. I know many are tired of hearing about Pokemon, but it's the elephant in the room and can't be ignored unless Stern outright says that they do not have the Pokemon license.

Right now i'm assuming it's not a pin based on movie assets. otherwise they wouldn't have come up with some novel name for it.
We can also assume a modern layout.
not sure about art style, but I am not thinking anything about it will be "80s/90s" pin...

do you think if this is true?

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What would they call it? Star Wars again? That would be really confusing with the Ritchie version. I think they just needed a distinctive enough name to avoid any confusion with the old one. Especially if it’s the same time period as the previous pin.

Yeah I heard that from a few distros. I think it’s bc of licensing.

There is no way that is from licensing. Star Wars is an internationally recognized IP and pinball is so niche that there is no reason to geographically separate that license. It has to be tariff drama. They don't know how to price it yet because they have import tariffs on parts to the US and import tariffs to the EU/UK and who knows where those will be by the time they would be ready to export.

Dang, now people won't be able to claim the LE is somehow twice as rare since "half the games go overseas."

It’s likely due to the extreme $ increases in exchange rates & taxes. Because of that, Stern has probably noticed sales are not as strong for LEs outside USA, so… makes sense to just export the Prem & Pro to those markets.