# Transformers by Stern Pinball: A WAR Under Glass
by [James Fremont](/author/james-fremont) · May 23, 2026 · [News](/news/category/news)

> Impressions of Transformers: More than Meets the Eye from Stern's Media Day.

Battle lines are drawn on the playfield in [The Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye](https://www.kineticist.com/games/pinball/transformers-more-than-meets-the-eye), Stern Pinball’s latest cornerstone release, revealed Wednesday at its headquarters in Elk Grove Village, Illinois.

Autobots are rolled out on the left side of the game’s playfield, while Decepticons set up on the right side with the aim of dominating the world under glass created by Stern’s team, led by engineer and designer [Elliot Eismin](https://www.kineticist.com/people/elliot-eismin) and programmer [Elizabeth Gieske](https://www.kineticist.com/people/elizabeth-gieske).

![Sci W1374 Copy](https://admin.kineticist.com/assets/358a2bd2-0e77-4d0d-a089-c3138486e92e.jpg?width=3840&height=3840)

*Lead game designer Elliot Eismin stands with his latest game, The Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye.*

Transformers is the product of nearly a year and a half of work, aided by a license from Hasbro for the original cartoon series and 1986 movie that handed Stern’s team a ball to run with. The result is a packed playfield and a highly developed code at launch, compared to some other Stern releases.

“We started in January \[2025\],” Eismin said at Stern’s media day reveal, “That’s when our official kickoff was. We knew what \[license\] we were doing and had time to research it, so from the start, we knew what we were doing. [Mike \[Kyzivat\]](https://www.kineticist.com/people/mike-kyzivat) was there in the beginning too, so it was, like, \[Gieske\] and Mike just fleshing out all the rules, and I think it shows how the code base is right now.”

Eismin engineered games for Stern starting with 2015’s [WWE Wrestlemania](https://www.kineticist.com/games/pinball/wrestlemania) through [James Bond 007](https://www.kineticist.com/games/pinball/james-bond-007-2022) (2022), before his first as lead playfield designer in [John Wick](https://www.kineticist.com/games/pinball/john-wick-2024) (2024).

## How a wooden box transformed into pinball

![Sci W1369 Copy](https://admin.kineticist.com/assets/37192e2b-d17b-4868-83bf-ac3f943055c4.jpg?width=5156&height=3437)

*Elizabeth Gieske, lead programmer on The Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye, discusses Stern Pinball's latest game with pinball content creator Retro Ralph at Stern's headquarters in Elk Grove Village, Ill., May 20, 2026*

Once the license was secured, Eismin and Gieske went into a deep dive on the original 1980s franchise.

“Elizabeth… took on a lot of the rules herself… to make the gameplay as fun \[as possible\],” Eismin said. “We were working alongside Mike, our subject matter expert, and his brother \[[Tom Kyzivat](https://www.kineticist.com/people/tom-kyzivat)\] did all the artwork on the LCD.

“There’s this big team of people involved to get this to the spot you’re seeing. It’s a long process.”

In contrast to 007, which required Stern to run a license acquisition gauntlet across multiple Bond films that was still in progress at the game’s launch, the path from whitewood to machines shipping in boxes was much more clear-cut. The first two seasons of the television animated series and the movie were in the hands of the Stern team from the beginning.

Eismin’s engineering background and experience on previous projects helped shape the physical aspects of what would become the miniaturized battlefield between Autobot freedom and Decepticon tyranny.

“I \[could\] envision the toys really easily,” Eismin said. “I’ve done this since 2014 and worked with a lot of people… I knew with Transformers — big toy game. It just helped with that \[concept\] right away, and I was able to communicate with the other engineers, and it just makes the process a little bit smoother.”

## Designing by the Rule of Fun

![Sci W1337 Copy](https://admin.kineticist.com/assets/7b33b377-25c3-4b66-ac64-5bf304496b3c.jpg?width=5760&height=3840)

*Megatron takes aim with a pinball-firing bazooka in the Limited Edition version of Transformers, in which the robot moves from side to side and can fire either into a wireform with safe delivery to the flippers – or directly onto the playfield to hit whatever it may.*

Transformers’ Megatron ramp on the right loads the Decepticon’s cannon in a shot that recalls the Deconsecrated multiball lock on Wick’s Premium and LE models, but otherwise this layout goes in a different direction from Eismin’s first.

Eismin’s design influences are well informed by the teams he’s worked with for over a decade at Stern, from [Keith Elwin](https://www.kineticist.com/people/keith-elwin) to another mechanical engineer-turned-designer – [Steve Ritchie](https://www.kineticist.com/people/steve-ritchie) – with whom Eismin worked on [Star Wars (2017)](https://www.kineticist.com/games/pinball/star-wars).

“The turnaround run for Grimlock to feed the upper flipper, I got that straight from [King Kong](https://www.kineticist.com/games/pinball/king-kong-myth-of-terror-island-2025). And I think Keith got that from [Black Rose](https://www.kineticist.com/games/pinball/black-rose). So there’s a succession, but not a whole lot of ‘oh yeah, I like this game, I want to copy this.’ It’s more just, like, place the big toys, put shots around it, and see what’s fun.”

![Sci W1348 Copy](https://admin.kineticist.com/assets/acb193b2-fab9-44eb-a912-d85b0a17c4c2.jpg?width=5760&height=3840)

*Grimlock defends the lower segment of the Autobots' side of the playfield in The Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye.*

The spinner loop-upper flipper combo can end with a shot on Optimus Prime or the scoop ramp in the lane underneath that feeds to the left flipper in a shot that recalls the tower in [Jurassic Park (2019)](https://www.kineticist.com/games/pinball/jurassic-park-2019), and is probably the hardest shot to make on Transformers.

Stern’s [earlier Transformers release](https://www.kineticist.com/games/pinball/transformers) from 2011 was designed by [George Gomez](https://www.kineticist.com/people/george-gomez) and based on the Michael Bay film series. The latest derives only from the original 1980s toys and animated series, yet a continuity still exists.

“There were a few nods to the Gomez Transformers,” Eismin said, “But not a whole lot. \[In\] the Megatron area, I pulled inspiration from [Cactus Canyon](https://www.kineticist.com/games/pinball/cactus-canyon), because it’s got that same villain area, so that’s kind of where I picked that from.”

## “Till All Are One”

![Sci W1334 Copy](https://admin.kineticist.com/assets/650cbbbd-a99d-41f3-aef4-97ada25a2ee3.jpg?width=5680&height=3787)

*Optimus Prime towers over the Autobots' half of the playfield in a target-rich environment in the upper left playfield.*

While the playfield differs greatly from Wick, one thing carries over from Eismin’s first design — tight shots, if maybe easier than Wick’s — but also geometry that makes nearly every shot accessible forehand or backhand, and misses are almost always defensible with quality catching and nudging work. And like Wick, Transformers is a title that will test both skills.

Eismin said that Wick’s relative difficulty is reflected in the adult-oriented theme, but Transformers required a different mentality.

“Because of the property, this is more fun and light-hearted…I wanted to make something that \[is\] more approachable to people who aren’t necessarily into pinball, so you have the big toys right in the front. The people who are into pinball, the geeks, they can shoot around and have fun with that as well. It’s a mix of both worlds.”

Fans of the series who are good enough at pinball will see the conflict between the two mecha factions come to a head in the mode “One Shall Fall,” in which the display shows an animated battle between Optimus Prime and Megatron. Purple shots are lit that damage Megatron, while red shots damage Prime and are to be avoided.

Three drop targets guard the Megatron scoop that starts most modes, in another nod to Gomez designs. The drops are easy to clear safely, with a center gap post that adds a line of defense down the middle. The scoop can be reached with a cradled right backhand.

The Prime side ramp requires a very clean, precise shot to make, keeping the game from feeling too easy.

The Pro-versus-Premium/LE gap doesn’t feel as wide here as it did on Wick, where the Pro skipped the right-side briefcase — one of that game’s riskiest shots. Like Wick, only the Premium and LE have a physical ball lock.

The game’s geometry and ball paths also tend to recall classic [Pat Lawlor](https://www.kineticist.com/people/pat-lawlor) pinball, with prominent shots up the middle and the upper flipper firing at multiple shots in the back of the playfield, and even in how the ball travels back to the lower flippers from the Prime area.

## “Knowing is half the battle” — sorry, wrong show

![Sci W1359 Copy](https://admin.kineticist.com/assets/c4a3b74d-5899-4c20-b5af-734a757c8e80.jpg?width=4800&height=3840)

*Media Day attendees at Stern Pinball's headquarters in Elk Grove Village, Ill., try out Transformers and the other two most recent releases - Star Wars: Fall of the Empire and Pokémon.*

Objectives are clear through the insert lights and audio, allowing this piece’s author’s first game to see the main Transformers multiball twice and a Starscream Frenzy that looks like a key driver of high scores, accounting for roughly a fifth of the 161 million final score. Across the demonstration that included top-ranked competitive players like Steven Bowden and Jason Werdrick, scores tended to average close to 100 million.

“It’s easy to learn how to get the locks, how to get the multiball, and how to start modes,” Bowden said after his first rounds of Transformers. “All the basic pinball stuff….the battles are straightforward, I think, and the risk-reward \[factor\] was good.”

Bowden, whose pinball blog [funwithbonus.com](http://funwithbonus.com) will soon cover tutorials for Transformers, needed little time to find paths to maximum scores.

“If you \[charge\] your Energon cube before you start a battle,” Bowden said, “then you can either play an easy or hard version of the battle,” with a multiplier active on the latter option.

Bowden said you didn’t need to be in the top of the world’s pinball ranks to make something happen in this box.

“It’s got the good shots up the middle for the people who are just going to shoot up the middle,” Bowden said. “That’s where the lock is, and that’s where the mode is.”

## More Than Meets The Eye — even after first reveal

![Sci W1383 Copy](https://admin.kineticist.com/assets/943b06d3-11f6-4094-8f14-1eac1f93b12d.jpg?width=5316&height=3544)

*Derek Karamanian, Kineticist contributor and Apprentice Model Maker at Stern Pinball, flips at Media Day for The Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye, May 20, 2026.*

Not everything could be seen at the reveal due to Insider Connected not yet being operational with Transformers. This was certainly not lost on Bowden, for there’s much to be seen even after this sneak preview.

“I’m just thinking, this is all \[based\] on what’s shown to us before it’s even connected,” Bowden said. “There’s more stuff we’ll see when \[IC\] is done.”

The head-to-head competitive mode and special mode built around the Transformers movie are unlocked in IC, which will award players Cybercoins in a digital version of the tokens from [Safe Cracker](https://www.kineticist.com/games/pinball/safe-cracker) (1996). Cybercoins can be redeemed at launch to start the movie-inspired mode that features “The Touch” by Stan Bush from the film’s soundtrack.

It wasn’t easy to hear much of the audio in Stern’s demonstration room until toward the end of the session, when many had cleared out. Then, the callouts from original Transformers voice actors Peter Cullen and Frank Welker could be taken in fully. The result is a game that sounds just like its theme.

Anyone fluent in Cybertronian will be able to readily see the first Easter egg on the Limited Edition, but there’s something hidden to be found in all versions of the game.

“If you do get an LE or CNLE,” Eismin said, “there’s a message to decipher on both the Autobot and Decepticon side.”

Any other goodies to be found, it’s every Autobot for themselves. Eismin wouldn’t reveal any more hints, just confirmed they exist.

Finally — possibly to the disappointment of some — the pinball machine itself does NOT transform into a robot.

Maybe next century.

## Related
- Game: [Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye](/games/pinball/transformers-more-than-meets-the-eye)

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