Howdy-

My AVLE blue arrived yesterday. The 100F temps in my garage couldn't deter me from setting her up, tuning her in, & getting a few games in. Heck of a game--I've adjusted the front-bake rake to be a little steeper than what the bubble level suggests--it felt way too slow!

First thoughts:
1 - Need to tweak Hulk to minimize stuck balls under his right arm.
2 - Likenesses of actors used, but not their voices. Darn.
3 - Can't see the Thor targets.
4 - What sort of voodoo lights are under the PF? Fancy? (Yes, I know they're color-changing LED thingies.)

-Jason

Avengers Mummy.JPG

Thank you very much for the summation of recommended tweaks. Wow, quite a few!

Hulk: Are you referring to the plate right in front of him? I think that most of the stuck balls skirt around that plate. I get something like 2-8 stuck balls per game, depending on how well I do. I'll look into the threads discussing his adjustments. His right hand's knuckles are scuffed from scraping the bridge, it seems.

Plastic: Noticed the big plastic that wraps around behind Hulk is cracked at its thin spot, but it seems solid. Oh well.

Voice work: Nope, not feeling it. Is that scary hissy voice supposed to be Loki or one of the aliens? I hope not Loki. Hulk stands out as hilarious & awesome in a sea of mediocre voices. Man, the "announcer" sounds like a game show host: "Blaacck Widoooow!!! Captaaaaaain......AmeeeRRRRicaaaa!" I'm expecting "Come on down! You're the next contestant on The Price Is Right!"

THOR targets: thanks for tip on looking for PF lights instead of the drops themselves. I'm still somewhat in flailing mode--haven't had time to play much & learn strategy...and 80% of the games that I find time to play involve putting my 1-year-old boy on the glass & playing half-blind, so it's difficult to get a serious game in... :]

GI lights: I couldn't stand the red/blue/green/purple randomness, so I dug into my bags of frosted bulbs & swapped out most of them--I prefer to make the GI more subtle with frosted diffuse light, so that the flashers & inserts stand out more: mostly blue & red under the plastics (because they're blue & red), changed the apron art ones to frosted white (they were tiny white points of light crammed up against the art, lighting up just 1 teeny point), PF row over flashers are now frosted white, under back ramp are a couple of frosted white, some frosted green by Hulk. I need to get a few more from Nifty after I take inventory of what I want to do w/ this game & any more tweaks to my Tron Pro. Oddly, many of the flashers in this AVLE Blue were incandescent...is that normal for a game sold w/ LEDs? (I'm the 3rd owner.)

Flipper area light: doesn't bug me yet. Will probably keep as is. (I'm going to town on my Tron, so I want to curb my enthusiasm a little on AVLE.)

Quinn Jet & Helicarrier plastics: These already seem to be out of the way. They block portions of the PF where the ball just passes along a path--I don't see a need for visibility. What *does* bug me is that the jet is angled just right to reflect my ceiling lights, so it look just like a shiny white piece of plastic--I can't really see the art printed on it.

Backbox fluorescent: The previous guy wrapped it in blue painter tape. The translite hardly lit up at all. I removed it. Yeah, a bit too much glare. I put a thin 1" strip of blue painter tape along the bulb, sort of the bottom/front area that would reflect off the glass & into my eyes. Good balance now.

BW ramp/spinner: I saw a post about this but don't understand the problem. It seems to work fine as-is. Please elaborate.

Settings: I go for factory, except for Free Play, strong coils, & a custom message.

Tesseract: Previous owner installed. Very awesome. Noticed last night that a chunk of it had broken off. Hope the rest stays together!

Loki: The figure was already put at the back left corner, & there's an L-shaped plastic w/ 3 lights halfway up the shooter lane. Seems fine like this.

I noticed a bit of oddness last night while fussing w/ LEDs:
On the right, near the inlane/outlane, there's a metal stud flush with the PF. See red arrow. It's not the outlane size/difficulty adjustment hole (shown in yellow--I've got mine in the easy position). What's this for? Occasionally, w/ the outlane difficulty post where it is now, the ball will manage to wiggle up into that little cavity behind the lowest SHIELD target. It's kinda comical & cute.

Thanks,
-Jason

MysteryMetal.JPG

Howdy-

Spent some time w/ my AVLE Blue this weekend.

1 - Raised the height of Hulk's arm's resting position per

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/hulk-avengers-ball-hang-up-fix . While I was in

there, I took a green marker to his "armpit" adapter plates & to the screw heads in his

shoulders--far from a perfect match with his green skin, but better than shiny metal. I'll play with it like this for a while & see if I want to try adjusting the switch or widening the switch "hat."

2 - Ordered a USB drive Quinjet from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Avengers-Quinjet-4GB-

Drive-18043-WLG/dp/B00EB7NYEW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411415856&sr=8-1&keywords=usb

+avengers+quinjet . I'll swap it in for the Quinjet plastic at back right, which just

reflects way too much glare from my ceiling lights--can't see the printing on it anyway...To

preserve its rakish angle, I'l probably drill out the rivet holding it to the base, keeping

the base & screwing this USB drive to the resulting hole. That way, I can go back to the

stock plastic w/ a simple nut & bolt if desired.

3 - I now see what the BW ramp issue is. Yes, mine had a noticeable step up to go from the stationary ramp to the the dynamic bridge. I removed the plastic washers under the bridge to lower its "down" position & put the 2 washers under the BW ramp to shim it up. Nice & smooth now. Still doesn't help me get the shot *into* that skinny BW ramp... :\

4 - Found missing chunk of Pinball Refinery Tesseract in coin box baggie. Glued it back. Looks better.

5 - Right outlane rubber. Nope, TheFamilyArcade, I can't stretch the existing rubber around the outlane post to make it at triangle--it will interfere w/ the Loki Lock vertical white plunger. So, I simply swapped rubbers: I moved the single-post rubber to the top of the "triangle" & wrapped the double-post rubber around the "left" post & the outlane easy post that I'd scooched down. That does the trick.

6 - One more BW ramp observation. I see that the steel flamp that transitions from the PF to the ramp doesn't quite lie flush. Normal?

Thanks,
-Jason
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BWRampLift1.JPG

A fair amount of tweaking last night:

1 - Shimmed up the BW spinner w/ one washer. Can't say if it really helped, but no harm--it still spins nicely.

2 - Shimmed up the 2 "ceiling" plastics at the top of the BW ramp, which were very low & might have been interfering with complete BW shots that traverse the entire bridge. Used some plastic standoff spacers.

3 - Was now getting some balls stopping at the far end of the dynamic bridge, where they enter a static U-channel guide. That U-channel seemed to be a little too close to the front of the machine, relative to the dynamic bridge ball channel. Used vise grips & a rag (to prevent marring) & bent the U-channel a little. Still get a few balls stopping there & diverting straight down to the ramp hole that drops the ball into the Hulk saucer.

4 - Haven't had many balls drop down into the Hulk saucer & fall right out, but I looked for a way to slow down fast balls & help prevent those pop-outs. I put a post rubber around one of the 2 black standoffs at the end of that cantilevered ball path. So far, so good.

5 - Looked into flattening out the flexible sheet metal transition from the PF to the BW ramp. That horizontal ramp piece on which the ball rolls seems to be quite stuck in the PF--I unscrewed the 2 fasteners at the tail end of the path, & it seems that there's 1 big fastener under the flexible sheet metal, but I couldn't wrest that free. Oh well, will keep it as-is for now.

6 - I conceded & changed all difficulties for collecting & completing the Avengers from factory setting Hard to Medium. Still played completely terribly all last night. Bah.

7 - Turned the coil power down from Hard to Normal. Was getting lots of violent slingshot launches & air balls off of flippers. Normal doesn't seem too different. Might try Soft later.

8 - Still get inconsistent plunges & auto-fires. Some zip up the shooter lane so fast that they leap over the rollover switches up top. Some make it up about 2/3 of the way, rattle/jam, & roll back down to the Loki Lock plunger. Can't see what makes it hang up sometimes.

Thanks,
-Jason

A few updates after more tweaking & playing:

1 - Don't shim the BW ramp "roof" plastics too much--when the bridge went up, it hit the glass & couldn't drive back down. Had to unshim it a bit.

2 - If you shim the BW ramp entry too high relative to the bridge portion of the ramp, so that there's a slight drop as the ball progresses along the ramp, then a shot just weak enough will get trapped on that transition--I need to try to make those 2 parts as coplanar as possible, with no step down.

3 - Dialing in the game either made it harder, or I just got way worse. One quick change I just did on the "easy" position of the right outlane was putting the post rubber on the outlane post alone, & stretching the bigger rubber between the "left" & "top" points of that triangle, as I had it previously. I was finding that the rubber stretched between the "left" triangle point & the adjustable outlane post was making a nice angled path to bounce the ball into the right outlane. My game doesn't need any more challenges...

4 - Got & installed the USB Quinjet toy. Much nicer than the original plastic. Easy to drill out the rivet & run a screw through the plastic hole & into the Quinjet. Put a dab of superglue between the Quinjet & metal bracket to keep it from spinning on its single screw mount.

5 - Holy moly, this game launches balls! I get so many air balls off of the slings & often off of the flippers. Sometimes the flippers shoot the ball onto the Hawkeye arrow, sometimes the left sling launches the ball into the shooter lane or the Loki Lock. Last night was the best: left flipper launched the ball aaaallll the way to the back right of the playfield, into the bonus multiplier lanes. I've never seen such a launchy games--what gives? I had the coil power on Hard for a while, then Normal, & now on Weak--didn't seem to change anything.

-Jason

Indeed. The legs are all set as I set them for my other game.

These launches come right off the solenoid-powered devices, like when you're shooting pool and hit the cue ball too with your cue stick. Hmmm...maybe my balls are too big...

Rubbers: I don't know what rubbers I have. They're black. They were on the machine when I got it. I'm guessing they're the Stern OEM, given the young age of the game. It had 2 previous owners, so I can't say for sure.

Coil power: Already moved it down to the lowest setting. I didn't see any difference between the 3 settings.

Slingshots: Capital idea. I put some fatty thick washers under 2 of the star posts for each sling (no point in shimming the post that's not involved in the slingshot action). Played a couple of games. No airballs--I'll keep an eye on it. During gameplay, one of the left sling's leaf switches slipped out & was in front of the rubber...which reminds me that those slingshot leaf switches (on both sides, I think) have snuck out a few times. Weird.

Flippers: Another capital idea. Raised the flipper bands a little. I think they scooched back down after a few plays. Perhaps I'll instead loosen the bat shafts, shim them up a tad high, & then reclamp them.

Wax: Probably a good idea. It's super clean & already too fast for my meager skills, but a waxing is always a good idea.

Other: Come to think of it, I get many other bounces pretty frequently. I watched the Captain America pop bumpers in action more closely last night, & the ball definitely hops around between them, but it never got out or over into another part of the PF. Also, on a good plunge, sometimes the ball falls out of the shooter lane above the rollover lanes & then hops right over them & into the pops, skipping the rollover lane switches altogether.

-J

Thanks for the input.

I replaced the rubbers on the 2 slings (a little extra work required to thread the flasher wiring out in the process).

I also replaced the rubber that separates Hulk from the Captain America pop bumpers (again, requiring extra disassembly--had to pull apart much of the Hulk bridge). Oddly, this area had 2 rubbers stretched around it, though the posts had but 1 rubber groove each. This was another location where I was getting lots of ball hops, either from the pops or from the plunge.

Indeed, the rubbers that I pulled off were rather squishy & stretchy compared to fresh ones.

I played a few games & it was better behaved. I didn't get a whole lot of games in because...

...the wife came by to talk, so I captured & cradled the ball in the left flipper (b/c I had a good game going), & after a minute or two, the flipper dropped.
- Blew a fuse.
- Replaced the fuse.
- Powered up, flipper popped up, blew that fuse in a few seconds.
- Replaced the fuse again & also the power transistor at Q15. I didn't have any 22NE10Ls on hand, but I did have 1 leftover 20N10L from my old pinball 2000 machine.
- Installed it, powered up, flipper behaved! Oh wait, flipper *almost* behaved. If I've got the flipper up & the ball comes down & hits it, the flipper twitches & kicks the ball, rather than staying put & having the ball bounce.
- Putting together a Pinball Life order that includes lots of these: http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=190 . I'll probably proactively swap them for all flippers on my Avengers & Tron, given that this is a common problem & that PL claims that this transistor is "a more durable replacement"...and in my last few games of Tron, with multiball going strong, I was scared to cradle the ball...my pinball game lately has been poor enough already--I don't need any extra handicapping...

Thanks,
-Jason

UPS sent some Stern love my way. A little slow on the e-mail responses, but good communication & a nice little package of items for which I asked, in addition to some more:

1 - L-shaped -36 plastic behind Hulk. Mine was cracked at its thinnest point. They sent me a new one. This new one also has 2 more Phillips screws & cone things pointing downward on its right side. I guess they limit the deflection of the rubber stretched around 3 posts, by Hulk's left elbow. I'm not yet sure what purpose they serve. Perhaps they ensure that the rubber stays away from the moving bridge lift arm?

2 - Drop guide for Hulk saucer. Got the extra piece of plastic & a nice exploded view of how to install it. At first, I tried to out-clever Stern by not placing this extra piece right under the existing lowest piece in the stack. This just brought the screw heads too close to the PF so that they'd interfere w/ normal rolling (and slightly hopping) ball flow around the saucer. Also, I got pop-outs about 1 out of 5 times when testing by hand. So, I installed it properly. It does slow down the ball nicely as it drops. 0 pop-outs in 10 or so hand tests. Hot dog indeed!

3 - Stern bonus #1. Sticker to cover 2 screw heads holding Loki Lock PCB under Loki Lock ramp. I'd previously wasted an hour fussing w/ screws & washers & such before finding a pic on Pinside showing this sticker. Reverted to normal fasteners. Installed sticker. Love it. Was never a problem getting ball sticks here, but now that my 1-year-old boy knows how to power up my Avengers, pull up a stroller, start the game, plunge weakly, & randomly thrash w/ the flippers, he somehow managed to frequently plunge just right to get the ball stuck here.

4 - Stern bonus #2. Extra star post & screw & rubber. They must have been psychic. This is exactly what I wanted to close out the short dead end above the right outlane that I created when I moved the outlane post to the wussy position. Sorry for pic reflection--I'd already buttoned up Avengers & started on some Tron mod fun. You can see both posts right around the middle of the pic.

Thanks,
-Jason

1 - 36 Hulk Plastic.jpg

2a - Drop into Hulk Saucer.jpg

2b - Drop into Hulk Saucer.jpg

3a - Loki Lock sticker.jpg

3b - Loki Lock sticker.jpg

4 - Extra star post & rubber for right outlane.jpg

Look at my 4th & 5th pictures of my post just above. It's a blue rectangle w/ one slot cutout on the left. It covers 2 small sunken screw heads in the stack of plastic above the 3 Loki Lock ball sensors.

-Jason

My previous fix: shim up the 2 of the 3 star posts on the slings. That pretty much stopped the slingshot air balls. However, the rubber was just a little too high, & the sling leaf switches often slipped under the rubber & ended up on the outside of the rubber.

Current fix: I went with something like this: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stern-slingshots-suck#post-404811 I used little domed clear-ish self-adhesive rubber cabinet bumpers on the coil stops. After a couple days of playing, only 1 impressive air ball after a bit of back-and-forth sling action (left sling launched the ball into the shooter lane).

-Jason

Had my best game ever this weekend. Finally got to the Hellicarrier mode for the first time.

Then, a stuck ball. I tilted when trying to dislodge it--should have pulled the glass, I know...

Anyway, I've undone one of the popular tweaks, as it didn't seem to be a problem for me before but has resulted in 2 stuck balls now.

I had shimmed up the BW spinner at the bottom of the ramp for supposed better ball flow. Twice, though, the ball ended up in an unlikely position, stuck on the ramp, wedged tightly by the spinner body.

I've removed 2 thin metal washers from the stack (which had 2 thin metal washers & 2 thick black plastic washers--I don't recall what it originally had from the factory, but that's the stackup that I had after...after doing something other with the stackup). We'll see if I get any more jams.

Thanks,
-Jason

Read this: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/avengers-le-known-issues

:]

If you're referring to the Quinjet at back right, I recall that it was riveted to the bracket. I drilled out the rivet & then used a screw to attach the USB Quinjet. Much keener.

BTW, I realized last night what bugged me about the narrator who announces the Avengers & such. He's not so much a game show host as Duffman!

-Jason

I never had this problem...till my almost-2-year-old learned how to turn on Avengers, pull up a stroller, climb up, push Start, & plunge balls. His weak plunges often got stuck in Loki Lock 3. I tried a bit of shaving & shaping of the plastic track, which helped but didn't fix. I also tried all sorts of nut/bolt/washer combinations to try to make the channel flush at the fastener head.

They stick in the small depression for the upper screw that holds the ball sensor to the underside of the track. On mine, it wasn't an issue of being pinched by the left side of the track.

I then learned of a sticker put on later production machines (mine is Blue LE #121). I contacted Stern. They sent it out right away, along w/ the cracked behind-Hulk plastic & the control-the-drop-into-the-Hulk-saucer-better plastic add-on (but they forgot the different standoffs for the ceiling plastic just before the ball enters the lifting bridge channel in front of the Hulk).

It worked better. But there were still stuck balls too often.

A little more shaping & tweaking still didn't make it foolproof.

Eventually, I took a Cliffy's inlane switch slot protector from my Tron (put Mylar stickers there instead), bent it up, & bonded it to the right side of the channel. This diverts the ball to the far left of the channel & a little higher up, so that it can't ever get into that little depression. It's been flawless ever since.

-Jason

Took a few pics last night of my tweak to prevent balls from sticking on Loki Lock 3. It's a little kludgy, and it doesn't look so hot up close, but it seems to be foolproof.

The whole idea is to divert the ball to the far left *before* it gets to that depression that accommodates the upper screw head. Without the diverter, the ball is guided right into the depression if the ball comes in too slowly.

You can see that the sticker as received from Stern didn't work either, so I tried cutting the sticker to guide the ball, but it still got hung up.

The 1st picture shows a virgin Cliffy's inlane switch slot protector, oriented roughly the same way as the one I installed. I trimmed 1 wing of the Cliffy, bent it, & it tucks under the stock shooter lane ramp. I then JB Welded it to the plastic wall on the right side of the channel. Not gorgeous, but it is somewhat hidden from the player's POV.

-Jason

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Thanks for being a good & easy customer, Grinder!

If anybody else has interest in my Loki Lock fix that I sold to Grinder, shown in the pic immediately above, please PM me. :]

Thanks,
-Jason

Finally finished Attack the Helicarrier mode for the 1st time.

Lots of extra balls.

Still got only my 3rd highest score (about 80M).

Kooky.

-Jason

I came up with 2 toppers. First, I put a big Helicarrier on top of the backbox. Maybe I'll pull out the 2D Helicarrier plastic art & put this in instead. That will help with the game's visibility issues. And then I can use the box to make a replacement backbox--it's almost the same size as the stock backbox...

top1.JPG

It wasn't interactive enough, so I wired these LEDs into the flashers. Much better. Taking preorders now. Even Quorra likes them--see how envious she is.

top2.JPG

Thanks,
-Jason

Hulk is 4-ball multiball. You should be able to add-a-ball by hitting the S.H.I.E.L.D. reward target around middle right to get 5, then 6 balls. Same with Loki, I believe.

I think earlier code had 6-ball Hulk multiball.

-Jason

Me three.

The Hulk art is too over-the-top and in-your-face for me.

However, after owning the (blue) game for a while, I did come to learn that the game itself is really The Hulk show more than anything else (which I grew to accept and then embrace).

I miss it. It was a sad "goodbye."

Thanks,
Jason