STLE-Perfect
TWDLE- Dead out of the box. Connector had come loose from head to the playfield. Took a while to find but easy fixMinor Cross Bow Issue
MET- Cabinet issues ball launch was all messed up. Had to take apart playfield. Metal guides were too tight and ball would get stuck.
ACDCLE- Switch stuck in fire button.

Met was a pain to get working right but once I did it has been solid. I expect minor fixes from NIB. I have bought 8 NIB over the years and have been lucky not to have any major issues.

Both of mine worked "Fine." Nothing needed to be "fixed" just tweaked like bulbs not working as I expect with any machine I pick up. EDIT: Or is driven anywhere

ST Prem - perfect out of box.
AC/DC Prem - if 'normal setup' includes adjusting pop bumper leaf switches - yep.

Got pro- no issues
Twd Pro - adjusted prison and well Walker switches
Xmen LE - three seperate aux boards needed, took 2 months to play first game. Stern did replace the boards.

Metallica pro and dare I say woz nib, and worked great this entire time. Woz needed a few settings adjustments on some coils, but nib was a great experience here.

Metallica Pro LED - No issues played great right out of the box.

MMR worked fine out of the box. Pulled it out and played.

WOZ was DOA. The connector from the monitor jiggled loose, the game won't boot without it. The connector popped off the minute we touched it and it took four people about ten minutes to find it. Another few to repair and hasn't given us any trouble since.

1) TRON Pro-Played perfect

2) Avengers LE-Lots of tweaks to make various things play/work better but playable

3) AC/DC Luci- Played perfect

4) Met Premium-Hammer magnet wonky but fully playable

5) TWD Premium-Played perfect

6) TWD Premium-Played perfect

7) GOT premium-Plays nice from what I can tell after 5 plays, I think the ramp to the upper PF needs a little adjusting, lots of rejects from it

Spidey Vault-TBD

ST Pro and WOZ... Both pretty much perfect out of the box.

TWD Premium - Lamps not working on arrival, RJ45 cable not connected to processor PCB in backbox. Fluorescent lamp transformer dangling from top of backbox, both nuts to secure were found in the bottom of the shipping box. Last ball trough switch would not register, adjusted. The dimpler (Crossbow) stopped working after a while because home switch wire was damaged due to being pinched between apron and cabinet lockdown bar receiver.

None of this phased me in the least, I am very comfortable repairing and restoring pins. I am very pleased with the game.

Tron Pro, AC/DC Premium, and KISS Premium all perfect out of the box and no problems with them since.

IMVE (Sept. 2015) - Perfect

Met Pro (Jan. 2016) - Almost perfect. One trough switch needed to be replaced, easy enough. Stern sent a new one and a spare.

GOT LE (Dec. 2015) - Technically played out of the box. but... upper PF dragon was busted, wings wouldn't flap. Stern replaced. Node 8 errors w/ occasional flipper power failures. Stern replaced board. A coil was cracked around the plastic. Stern sent a new one. Front decal was bubbling near the top. Stern sent a new one.

Not sure how to answer the poll regarding my ST Pro.
At some point Stern switched backbox designs to use the larger hold down bolts that match the legs. I got a main cabinet designed for new larger bolts and those bolts were in the bag but the backbox was actually designed for the older small bolts so I couldn't fasten the head down as recommended (so "playable" in this case is subjective).
I went to the hardware store and got some shouldered bolts that worked great and Stern sent "factory" bolts a few days later ( I kept using mine because they fit tighter) Other than that it was fine.

Met Prem Road case:
No issues. I don't count the hammer board as their was a bulletin and the board replaced. otherwise no issues

ACDC Prem:
Clear window but a small chunk out of the window the size of a ball point pen tip. Couldn't really notice it. Otherwise no issue

ST Pro: No issues out of the box but head decals eventually lifted in the corners. Got a set of head graphics sent and I used a hair dryer to activate the glue to restick the originals. They aren't lifting as much but the edges are lifting again. If it annoys me I will replace.

Kiss Pro: One of the wires in a molex connector needed to be reconnect for the left orbit switch and lower left inlane/outlane to work. My local pin repair guy helped me fix. The cab decals on the front aren't bubling but there is an area of wrinkle indentations that is annoying. The side art is bubbling around the buttons and have asked for lollipops.

Will wait it out for GB, if its a player will probably spring for a Pro. Kiss, regardless of update will stay until Iron Maiden can shake out. In full disclosure on my pre2008 purchases my TSPP in 2003 had cabinet issues from packing. SM was pristine out of the box, POTC was pristine as well.

2015 ST Premium no sound out of the box.

..and these guys obviously don't stand behind their products

Back on topic: GOT perfect out of the box.

METLE was almost perfect out of the box.

Had one drop target that I needed to make an adjustment on and the ball got stuck behind the snakes lip but it was an easy fix. The T-molding on the backbox was a little rough because the groove that it fits in was smaller than previous models and had to be hammered in. I replaced it with black and it was much better. Got tired of it though so traded it after a few months.

ST Pro (Jan 2015) - I had to adjust a stuck leaf switch and fiddle with an insert light to get it to work. Only real issue I ever had with it was a bad opto but that was many months later.

Forgot two on the pre 2008 full disclosure.

FGY: Pristine
WOF: Also pristine, no issues..

ST Premium : perfect
Iron Man VE : shooter rod misaligned
Got Premium : cable blocking lane

Mustang premium played perfectly after basic setup. I later easily added a Stern shaker motor because the T-nut mounting holes and wiring harness connectors were already there. The bowl initially registered a full five revolutions without nudging, but I screwed that up when I took it apart to add LEDs under the slingshot star posts (a waste of time since they added little to an already very well lit game) and I'm lucky if I get four revolutions now. My only gripe is that even if they do a ColorDMD for Mustang pro, there will probably never be a ColorDMD for Mustang premium because there are a whole lot of Mustang Boss premium specific dots that were done in the revision 1.30 software and who is going to take the time to colorize them for the small number of Mustang Boss premiums made?

ST Pro - Had the vengeance magnet issue but stern sent new opto boards to fix the issue
TWDLE - A few air balls from the lift ramp but the fix kit corrected the problem
ST Premium - no issues
Met Pro - One stuck switch, 30 second fix
GOTLE - no issues
IMVE - no issues
MMr - micro switch that controls the left ramp flasher died after a week of play, CGC sent a replacement
WNBJM - no issues

Does stern actually test the MMr?

I was under the impression they assemble it and send to CGC for final play testing......just wonder if they should be at fault for any out of box issues...

These are my NIB's

XMENLE- perfect
Avengers Hulk - perfect
MOPLE- perfect
IMVE - perfect
STLE - Connector not connected easy fix once diagnosed
ELVIS GOLD - Right Flipper switch gap needed bigger gap (lucky NIB grab last Fall)
MMR - perfect
KissLE - perfect
AC/DC Luci - (lucky NIB grab last May)
MustangLE - first one I bought needed auto plunger adjustment. Sold that one regrettably, and bought second one - perfect
GOTLE- Left orbit issue. Not fixed yet and that is a bummer. SR should be fuming....
TWDLE - PF damage from left ramp - only NIB Stern I haven't kept, no regrets.

Buy 12 NIB and the next one free.....LOL.

ST pro, no issues.

IMVE. Had to adjust the center spinner as it didn't spin. It was stuck again the guide rail. And had to plug in a flasher plug under the playfield but no big deal.

Nothing severely wrong NIB. That couldn't be fixed in a few minutes while setting it up.

AC/DC Premium - No issues out of the box at all. I didn't have my first issue for at least a year and it all it ended up being was a loose wire on the cannon which was an easy fix.

Iron Man - This is bending the rules a little. I got it last year, but it was an original run still NIB. Not a problem at all.

Met pro 2013

Fine right outta box. Just a few bulbs burnt out. But i did break off one of the factory snake's teeth the first night.

Metallica LE snapped targets like crazy - huge pain to keep replacing

ST pro, played out of box. It had vengeance opto issue... Pretty common I think, and no big deal. They sent new optos, but I suspect twisting the paired wire is what actually fixed it. I would buy nib again from stern... with the art quality going way up lately it's very tempting.

IMVE -perfect

AC DC Luci -perfect

MET pro -played perfect but 1 line out on dmd..sent replacement right away with no other issues (I have has this since Dec 2013 and it has never had an issue except the dmd)

AC/DC cannon died on day 2! Does anyone still remember all the problems with the cannon motors? They sent me 4 of them. Finally for the last one the "purple star" was the new cannon motor that was up to scratch. They must have replaced a ton of motors.

New-In-Box (NIB) Stern
Metallica Premium - no issues - did replace magnet board ( a known issue that stern replaced due to a faulty board
Star Trek LE - drop target kept dropping after a few weeks. Put washers behind part that holds target up. Only other thing was I replaced the coil stops on the flippers as they were loose. I replaced them without contacting stern about it.
Mustang pro - no issues
Walking Dead pro - one of the star rollover was not registering well - adjusted it and was fine.
KISS LE- no issues
Game of Thrones LE - problems with ball diverting into back vuk from plunge or mystery shoot - fixed myself moving the assembly for the diverter back and repositioned the diverter arm. Actually got a call from Steve Ritchie on this after talking to Stern tech support. It was very cool to know he cared so much. Hasn't been a problem since.

ACDC Premium - one light board went out and Stern replaced.
Spider-Man - game blew solenoid fuse when started up. Replaced fuse. Never had an issue since 6-7 years (can't remember exact year).
Transformers LE - decals ripping at legs - stern sent me decal replacements. This was before they used the protectors and was the first game they used the new decals instead of screen printing. Mini playfield was not moving correctly. Stern replaced it.
Avatar LE - had a board issue main CPU- Stern replaced it. Right flipper had some weird issue and I ended up replacing the pawl (did not contact Stern regarding it)

I'd say they have had a pretty good track record.

ACDC pro-no issues at all.
MET pro-had a transistor problem that was tied to the bottom right pop bumper. It fried the coil sleeve on that pop bumper coil and was causing a lot of fuse issues. Stern sent a new replacement powerboard, new coil sleeve and been flawless ever since.
GOT pro- Coin box clip was missing, DMD had burnt in dots, replacement sent and replaced, hopefully nothing more other than code bugs in the future.

NIB. Stern Avenger's HULK.. Set up and played..
No Drama noted but..

To tired tonight to worry about it tonight...

XMLE - perfect

TWD Prem - service switch 'Volume +' was flakey and failed within a few days

Spiderman - Took awhile to figure out... ball kept slamming around ball ejector trail and wouldn't even make it out of the ejector trail! I couldn't for the life of me get the shooting rod to center on the ball. I kept adjusting the shooting rod housing to no avail... It ended up being that those 2 pf adjusters on each side of the inside cab that keeps the pf from moving around were not installed correctly and kept the pf from leveling correctly and thus way off center shooting rod. Once I knew the problem easy fix.

ACDC Luci - No problems

MET Premium - Warped playfield. Stern eventually replaced the playfield after months of persistance. That experience was rather dismal.

ST Pro - No problems

KISS Pro - Needed switch adjustments for spinner and scoop, minor stuff. Gene head shot balls SDTM, but I was able to adjust that.

GoT Pro - Battering ram lower plate fell off during shipping. Node 8 failure after 3 weeks.

Rob

One of the first GoT Pre (Jan 2016), was playable out of the box. The left orbit issue was the only problem

Star Trek LE - No issues out of box, played perfect. Though the playfield is a dimplearama now

MMR LE - Ball coming out of right orbit would hit the top of the right sling shot and bounce over to the left flipper. Had to bend the right orbit ball guide some to get the ball to hit the center of the right flipper as intended. Back Glass/Translight was very hard to get out because it's a bit bigger than it should be. Once I got it out I could not get it back in so I finally removed the upper trim piece and it went back in. Playfield is beginning to become a dimplearama

GoT LE - Upon opening the box I found a tear in the cabinet side art, Stern sent me a replacement set of decals. Played perfect initially, about a dozen games in the castle black kick back began constantly firing. I removed the upper playfield to investigate and found the castle black opto had a bad solder joint. Re-soldered the component to the circuit board and it works well now. Playfield is already becoming a dimplearama and there are a few inserts with crazing. :-/

TWD Premium - Perfect, but eventually had to replace a wire, stern was great and sent asap
KISS Pro - Perfect
MET Pro - Perfect
GOT Pro - Bulb fell out in shipping
SMVE - Had to adjust switch, had to adjust magnet as it was raised

Nov. 2014 Metallica.
Perfect out of the box. I did put hole protectors and didn't use the factory balls, but no complaints.

KISS Premium - No issues out of box. Spinner motor issue a few months later. Was sent a working replacement.

Great thread, I'm waiting for my first NIB and now I know what to look for if there are any issues

Star Trek LE - Had to replace missile light board. Code was terrible until Dwight took it over.

KISS LE - Had to replace SD card, CAT 5 wire leading to cabinet node board, replaced cabinet node board and replaced node board #8. Still waiting on new code...hey Lonnie, you suck at what you do!

GOT LE - Flasher fell out, added extra hot glue to hold in place. Adjusted leaf switches on upper play field slings.

Iron Man VE - 1 light under the play field was a little lose, just had to push back into the socket.

Spider-Man VE - 1 light under the play field was a little lose, just had to push back into the socket.