Hopefully soon I'll have a Stern Spider-man to keep my Lord of the Rings pin happy. In anticipation, I've been reading lots of reviews and strategies online. A lot of people are claiming that SM is 'the best' Stern pin yet. That may be hyperbole, but since I thought most people considered LOTR the best Stern ever, I was wondering how the two stack up next to each other.

What's the strength/weakness of one vs the other?
Which has longer ball times?
Which is funnier?
Which has better music?
Which has better flow?
Which has better scoring?
Which has the deepest rules?
etc.

Actually its TSPP...but I am willing to buy a LOTR and give it a fair appraisal afterward!

I like Spidey a lot too and they had it for the longest time at the local Silver City so I dont really feel the need to buy one...yet.

Spidey is not at all funny. Good ball flow, yes. Love the Venom shot. Sandman shot, meh. Its a risk for STDM.

Which features Elijah Wood on the back glass?

Quoted from jonny_eh

Hopefully soon I'll have a Stern Spider-man to keep my Lord of the Rings pin happy. In anticipation, I've been reading lots of reviews and strategies online. A lot of people are claiming that SM is 'the best' Stern pin yet. That may be hyperbole, but since I thought most people considered LOTR the best Stern ever, I was wondering how the two stack up next to each other.

What's the strength/weakness of one vs the other?
Which has longer ball times?
Which is funnier?
Which has better music?
Which has better flow?
Which has better scoring?
Which has the deepest rules?
etc.

Longer ball times = LOTR (and I've got the outlanes as wide as they go .. guess I could remove the post altogether)
Funnier = SM (there are settings as to how much the razzing you get)
Music = LOTR as I like the way it works in the theme but SM has great music as well.
Flow = tie they both flow well but in different ways
Deepest Rules = LOTR .. Spidey has a good rule set but it doesn't compare to LOTR
Scoring = SM has more balanced scoring I would say .. it is fairly easy to have a long game on LOTR without getting a great score.

anyway that's how I see them

Quoted from SquidVicious

...
Flow = tie they both flow well but in different ways
...

What about the Paths of the Dead on LOTR? Doesn't that kill the flow?

Quoted from jonny_eh

What about the Paths of the Dead on LOTR? Doesn't that kill the flow?

No more then locking ball in doc oc or finishing off the sandman on SM, IMO.  

Quoted from jonny_eh

What about the Paths of the Dead on LOTR? Doesn't that kill the flow?

Kinda but I like it as a reprieve but for pure flow I guess you are right (Doc Ok stops the ball but I guess so does the VUK and Shire in LOTR) so SM by a little, I usually think of flow as the overall feel of the game which in that sense I think they are basically equal.

I prefer TSPP and RBION over SM or LOTR. Looking forward to Iron Man. Hopefully one of our league hosts will buy one.

Quoted from tinyrodent

I prefer TSPP and RBION over SM or LOTR. Looking forward to Iron Man. Hopefully one of our league hosts will buy one.

TSPP I am warming up to and I can appreicate the depth ... RBION is a decent game (although I'd prefer an ELVIS as a forth Stern title), both have to much stuff up close for me to rate them above LOTR or SM but hey that's what opinions are all about.

Quoted from Vengeance

No more then locking ball in doc oc or finishing off the sandman on SM, IMO.  

The problem is probably with my game. I'm missing the plastic that sends the ball to the bumpers when the ball falls out of the ring. The result is the ball ends up in the PoTD all the time, very tiring. There's the animation telling you the ball is about to be popped up into the path (which can be skipped thankfully), then the ball trickles down to the shire (sometimes the wire ramp if you're lucky), then a VUK sends it to the ramp back to the flipper. Compare that to Sandman or Doc Ock, both are just VUKs that send the ball back into play once their skippable animation is done.

I have both and in my opinion, SM is more fun by wide margin. It does not have the depth of LOTR, but I do not like deep games. Both are great pins, you cannot go wrong with either. The rest is all personal preference.

Quoted from jonny_eh

The problem is probably with my game. I'm missing the plastic that sends the ball to the bumpers when the ball falls out of the ring. The result is the ball ends up in the PoTD all the time, very tiring. There's the animation telling you the ball is about to be popped up into the path (which can be skipped thankfully), then the ball trickles down to the shire (sometimes the wire ramp if you're lucky), then a VUK sends it to the ramp back to the flipper. Compare that to Sandman or Doc Ock, both are just VUKs that send the ball back into play once their skippable animation is done.

True but in a longer game on SM the sandman does seem to go on for awhile (again nice place to catch a break but it can be a bit tedious), I finally got to SH a couple of weeks back (but didn't get anywhere near finishing it) I'm sure you will have a great time playing both.