This shit is depressing. It totally sucks every ounce of fun out of buying a new game. And to all of the people that are going to say something stupid like “well then don’t buy a new game”.........im not even going to say what i want to say.

Yes it does. I was trying to figure out what game I wanted to buy around Halloween. I was thinking IMDN Premium or JP2 Premium, but now that's on hold and I'm bummed, but I'm more bummed dealing with this AC/DC Luci VE playfield.

Imagine all the guys who bought playfield protectors to keep their playfields mint, and now their playfields are being damaged in places where the ball isn't even rolling and the playfield protectors aren't able to help. Imagine how those guys feel! I mean, WTF kinda bizarro pinball world did we all just enter into? I've been in the hobby for more than 13 years and I never imagined this.

Elvira has been on my radar since it was announced and i would love to have a new Jurassic Park but there’s no way in hell that im buying anything right now. Its going to take a while to build my confidence back up with this situation that is going on here.

I'm with you man. I love my Scared Stiff and was waiting for the new Elvira reveal as that could leap frog my other choices, but I'm on hold. Maybe we can create a Pinside support group that meet bi-weekly!

Based on what I've seen on multiple recent Stern playfields, I will not be buying Elvira 3 NIB.

There are more examples in the POTC, Wonka and JP2 threads. Munsters may not show up as often because (a) Stern uses multiple suppliers for their playfields and (b) Munsters doesn’t have any art under the slings so the pooling issues may not be as prevalent or noticeable (assumes the theory of the art not adhering to the wood properly is one potential cause of the damage).

As others have pointed out the “bad” playfields may show issues right away or a year down the line (though I suspect most show up early). Stern and JJP are clearly aware of the issues (washers installed under posts to attempt to mitigate/delay damage).

Any NIB buyer will have to expect this type of damage is possible until the manufacturers identify and solve the problem. Many surmise the problem is isolated to one playfield manufacture (Mirco) but that’s all circumstantial. Unfortunately this is not a problem impacting only a handful of people. It’s gotten common enough that I’m holding off any NIB purchase until the playfield issues have been resolved or Stern/JJP officially covers PF defects like this under warranty. (Stern has done a much better job of customer support on playfield issues to date).

However, as long as buyers jump in on day 1 of the LE feeding frenzy we aren’t likely to see a change. I suspect it will take a noticeable drop in sales to distributors before Stern or JJP will do anything significant about the problem.

@robertwinter out on Elvira and @richiewrench out on Wonka are the canaries in the coal mine for Stern and JJP.

I can't tell you what to do (possible warranties and such) but for that separation issue, if it were my play field, I would be making a fine cut with a scalpel or an Exacto knife with a new blade and get some thin bodied superglue and let it fill the gap. The superglue should grab on, fill the void and stop the advance of more separation.

but you will need to protect the rest of your play field as necessary to avoid dripping superglue in areas where you don't want it to be.

EDIT: You had me grab a flashlight and have a closer look at my play field. I'm still in good shape with only the one ripple near the left outlane. but now I am always going to be sweating this.

There are these little bubble of separation next to the holes the ball guides are located in. They look white and cloudy.

Yes those but also check around every metal post and see if the paint is wrinkling or pooling. I have a couple that is slightly doing it.

Yes. Those. The reason I talked the superglue is that my first restore play field started peeling some big chucks of clear in the apron area. A pice would chip and peel off and then you could hook a fingernail under the edge and start lifting and making it peel. There appeared to be no end to it. Flowing the superglue was a desperation move---and it worked. The peeling stopped.

These small bubbles shown in these pics could have a high propensity to keep getting larger. To fix what is in these pics dictates that you remove the ball guides for good access.

FYI: Acetone on a q-tip will get superglue off a playfield without hurting the clearcoat, at least it did on my Luci VE chip fix.

Ugggggh. After closer inspection at out of the way places, it looks like both my Munsters Premium and SW Premium have this issue. Munsters is way more minor, but it's there

There is no way Stern is going to replace all of these playfields. It would cost them a fortune and appears to be widespread enough that the replacement playfields seem like they would have this problem too, right?

Uggggghhhhhhh.

Contact them, first you never know and second it alerts them to give these playfields some time to cure!

From memory the main Luci VE pf is the same as the regular AC/DC Premium Pf. I think only the lower pf is different. That may increase the chances of a spare pf lying around at Stern. Touch wood, I haven’t had any clear issues on my Luci VE, but that’s located at work and doesn’t get played nearly as much as my home games.

Oh, man.

Was all excited for mine to arrive. Now I am worried.

If they are all going to do this maybe I should just say the hell with it and get Wonka CE too.

Worked a trade for Munsters pro- going on location tomorrow

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I just checked my Munsters LE in detail. I have a early LE number. Not sure if that means anything. The playfield is mint. I have had for several months. I will keep a watch on it. Guess I got a good one. Been lucky with all my machines. I passed on Wonka, POTC and BK. Waiting for Elvira.

My MunstersLE also mint...Looked it over extremely close...

Does the LE have anything game play wise that sets it apart from the Premium?

Nope

I don't have any chipping or pooling as far as I can tell on my pro with nearing 900 plays on it. Lots of dimples though which I understand is the new normal.

Finally beat my grand champ score tonight from way back on July 9th. That one was mainly due to a 100 mil Munster madness. I've also adjusted the machine for a much steeper incline since then.

Tonight I had a great first ball (123 mil) draining at the end of Raven multiball going into the first Munster madness. I had a 6x multiplier on that Raven but none banked. So the Munster madness wasn't that great but grabbed Herman and Lily right out of the gate afterwards and then a quick Raven multiball to finish my GC on my machine. Bested my super jackpot champ with over 40 million too. Earlier today I drained on a 7 super jackpot stacked with a 6 x multiplier. Had I grabbed that I would have been over 200 on that game. Slowly getting better and really enjoying the game.
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A couple of things about my munsters that I wanted to check to see if anyone else is having these.
1. when the magnet releases from Herman, it hits the little target and goes straight to the right outlane. I put a small piece of double sided tape on it and it stopped
2. the Eddie loop from right to left. It hits the spinner and changes trajectory just enough to send it between the flippers every time.
3. 7 out of 10 Grandpa mysteries are friggin Lite Kitty
4. The slingshots go back and forth moving the ball upward and then shoot it into an outlane about half the time.
I love this game but these things make it brutal!

I am sure you have already checked it but it sounds like leveling issues to me. Other than the slings that is, you have to nudge to get it up and out of there.

Yes that was it. I moved it from one part of my room to another and it was off just a little

I was able to play Munsters before I bought so I knew exactly what I was getting into.

Yesterday I was invited to play collection locally.

I played

POTC. The Stern model

LOTR

TRON

Spider Man

Indiana Jones. Stern model

Mustang

AC-DC. Pro

Sharky’s Shootout

I liked TRON. IJ was OK. Mustang was OK. The others I would not walk across the street to play.

LOTR should have come with a manicure kit so I could file my nails while waiting for the ball to come back. Multi ball was OK and the play field was lit up real pretty but it was not my kind of action.

For speed of play that demands fast reflexes none of these I mentioned came close to the ball action Munsters provides.

The other games are all top rated as you all know. I’m not trashing them; They are not my style of pins.

I am also going to get an invite to play a Beatles and Batman 66 shortly. I really want to give Batman a workout since it and Munsters are being compared with each other and everybody says how great Batman is how crappy Munsters is. I’ll get to see for myself.

The code is far more advanced on BM66 than Munsters but i still love my Munsters and wouldn’t take anything for it.

Batman 66 is not a fast and furious shooter like Munsters, so if that’s a key criteria, you may be disappointed. Batman shines because of the deep code (there are so many ways to play), the “play through the episodes” structure for the major villains, theme integration and immersive use of audio/visual assets.

BM66 for a mediocre / average player like me is a a lot of fun overall but I have trouble putting together combos. It doesn’t shoot very well for me.

I’m kind of simple minded and deep rule sets are not something that have held interest for me.

For me, pinball is like a sword fight. Fast and furious. Kill or be killed. Perhaps as I continue to play and (hopefully) get better the deeper coded pins that are like taking a journey may be of interest to me.

I’ll try to keep an open mind but right now I figure the Beatles pin will probably be more to my liking than Batman if it is deep as you say. The owner seems like a cool dude so I’m thinking I will get the opportunity to give it a good workout. If all goes well this should be happening later this week.

I have BM66 and Munsters. BM66 is deeper and better theme integration. The sounds, the announcing, the music and clips are phenomenal tying all that together. It’s probably my favorite of our line up but I do love Munsters. It’s fast and straight forward. We won’t get rid of either but they play a lot different. Besides the classic theme, i don’t understand how they get compared to each other

That’s exactly why they get compared. Classic TV from the same era.

I own them both and think they’re equally a thrill ride. While I think they both shoot well, Munster edges out Batman in the shooting department. The reason they get compared is because they are contemporaries of each other. Although Munsters code is quite good now, many of us would like Munsters to have more of a Batman like story/modes in the game. If Stern did that, I’m convinced it would become a best seller of all time. Munsters has everything else going for it, it just needs more show based material included.

We just had a party last night and Munsters was hands down the favorite of all our guests. I asked them why they liked Munsters over all the other great tables we have and they said:

1. Munsters shoots well and is easy to get into and get results with a Herman MB right close to the start button.
2. Lighting is superb and exciting music changing with each new ball or mode. 60’s Venture’s style music.
3. They also said, look at this table, there is stuff everywhere and it looks loaded. They walked over to our Star Wars and said, it looks a little empty by comparison. Lol (I totally disagree with that assessment, as Stern did a fabulous job on my SWLE conveying the feeling of the last battle scene in the first movie.) Wonder what they’d think about empty if they saw a SWPro, lol.
4. They thought it is the best party machine of all, because loads of fast ball movement, with rockin music, along with great light show and rewarding jackpots, along with zaps. The games has it all. I set the midnight madness to come on at 8pm right during our tournament. Everyone stopped playing the other games and immediately came over to see what it was all about. They went wild. What fun Munsters is for our home!

People that don’t have a Munsters are missing out on the best part of pinball ever, imo.

Love them both

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@thunderbird what do you mean?

“I set the midnight madness to come on at 8pm right during our tournament”

Instead of setting the internal clock to the real time, I set Munsters internal clock to be midnight, while the actual real local time is 8pm. That way at 8pm Munsters machine thinks it’s midnight and goes into the Midnight Madness mode.

I had no idea this was a thing.

It's a fun thing for sure. The looks you get from people are priceless. Just be sure someone is actively playing a ball when the time arrives, otherwise it won't activate.

I know everyone has been focused on playfield issues, but I was curious, what's the latest on the toppers being shipped back? Is it going to happen soon?

I contacted Stern weeks ago and they said they just received a certain part in and would be shipping the toppers soon afterwards, but I haven't received any word since then. If I have to wait any longer, I think I'm going to use the money to buy some JP mods for my pin when it comes in. LOL

My Munsters Premium table is currently waiting on the topper before it ships.

Distributor is close to one of the factories. Stern told them Friday that the parts are in and installed. There was an issue before with springs not working as well as intended.

New setup is going through QA now.

Assuming everything checks out, they will be packaged and shipped out.

So hopefully just another week or two??

Thanks guys! I've got some time off next week and I was hoping it would be here by then. If not, oh well. At least it's getting taken care of and it'll be a fantastic topper when they do finish it. I'm trying to sell one of my motorcycles, and if all goes well, I can put my order in on a JP2 Premium. Fingers crossed!

Check your playfield, this is my LE with under 300 plays

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Mine looks identical.