Damn you!!!!!
There I was thinking my money was safe for a while since I could no longer afford any of the DA* glass..... Then you say LENS HIRE!!
NOOOooooooo!

You'll get me divorced............

It's much more likely to be a capacitor than the flash tube.
There was a batch of dodgy chineese capacitors that worked their way into all sorts of electronic goods a few years back so that may well be part of the problem. If the flashgun is out of warranty it may be worth taking it apart and having a look. It should be quite obvious if it was one of these dodgy electrolytic capacitors. It will either have exploded leaving "stuff" everywhere or will have a noticably bulged end or ends of the capacitor( they should be flat).
Or you could contact Metz and see if they'll come to an arrangenemt!

Samsung version £479 Park Cameras.

I'd stretch to the 55-300 option. Is really is an excellent lens and will give you a much more versatile setup. It is slightly bulkier than the 50-200 but its image quality is noticably better and you get quite a bit more reach. Very useful for photographing stone work on the roof of buildings in Glasgow. At 300mm and it's minimum focus distance it does a pretty good impersonation of a macro lens too.
If your friend is from NY maybe you could sort something out with the US cashback deal as I believe you need a US bank account for it to work.

Well worth the effort. Excellent shot.

I think this is the best I could come up with in my limited window of opportunity.

Fire Demon

Sorry, looks like a cartoon.

I'll be watching for sale and end of line items now!

I really must proof read my posts......

I love the contrast in this image and the deep rich red. Unlike the previous comments I'm nor distracted buy the light areas , in fact I find myself wanting to see a bit more detail in the boots.