Winston-salem, NC
The green plastic protectors come from pinbits and are $38 plus shipping. They were on the game when I got it. It looks better than pics in person and it is a must have mod.
(Topic ID: 95421)
Linked Games
Avatar (LE)
Stern, 2010-
Avatar (Pro)
Stern, 2010
Topic Gallery
Lauwe
Quoted from wolfy:It works best with cool white led's in GI'S. I never put colored led's in GI's on any of my games because your right it does loose the different colors in the artwork. My friend has an Avatar LE with no green protectors and it just does not pop like mine without them to me.
Yes cool white in the gi. I cleaned the underside of the inserts real good and put Comet cool white dual smd clear dome leds in the inserts and the facets of the inserts just sparkle like a new Stern. I also have the OCD board on my LE and the insert fades are perfect even in the stock setting.
noob question about Avatar. I thought I read somewhere that the path to the Wizard mode resets after each ball...is that true?
Quoted from Rondogg:noob question about Avatar. I thought I read somewhere that the path to the Wizard mode resets after each ball...is that true?
1 week later
Warrington
Quoted from PinKopf:What are the amp suit upgrades?...
Add the Colonel Quaritch figure (comes from Stern on the LE)
Add LED control panel/s to inside of AMP cockpit
Add Gun and Knife to AMP
Paint AMP to match film version, movie accurate detailing
I have seen a Jake figure on a Pro, suspended in front of the AMP (I assume using piano wire or something similar) with the big knife/broken hilt, going through the AMP cockpit - basically copying the final fight scene - looked cool but not sure if its possible without deactivating the suit coils, on the LE it falls down, not sure if it does that on the Pro??
Avatar didn't get a lot of mod love, two areas in need of it are the Link Pod and I would love to get some Avatar pop caps made, molded and painted to look like the flowers from the film (they are shown on the DMD) and made so they actually bounce when the pops fire, depends how much interest there would be in that??
Quoted from J85M:Avatar didn't get a lot of mod love, two areas in need of it are the Link Pod and I would love to get some Avatar pop caps made, molded and painted to look like the flowers from the film (they are shown on the DMD) and made so they actually bounce when the pops fire, depends how much interest there would be in that??
Check out the mods I've done to my game. Look for my pictures in the Gallery, pop caps, Leg Light-Ups, shooter housing light up and Pod light up. My game is an LE though.
Does anyone know where I can get a new Amp suit guy? The one on mine is broken. He's missing some of his bullets.
I found one on Marco, but I don't think it's the mechanism, but a little figurine.
On ebay, search amp suit mattel (the box with the explosion amp suit on it as there are two versions)
fe:
ebay.com link: Avatar AMP Suit Vechicle MiB Factory sealed Mattel 2009
that's the exact one Stern used on the pro
Though I think stern cut the bullets themselves so it didn't interfere with playfield glass or plastics.
YO, Avatars
I have an offer in on a Avatar pro in Northern California. Have seen the pictures and going to inspect it next week when it shows up at the shop. Some ball wear in the launch chute, all the pieces seem to be in good conditions. The amp suit is intact and good condition. Currently still being played in a bar, but seems to be in reasonable good condition. Anything specific I should check out before purchasing?
It appears to be a plain vanilla, no upgrades, stock pro version. The owner said he keeps it clean and in good working order. Just what I'm looking for and looking forward to upgrading lights and other mods. Hope to join the group soon. Let me know what you think! I believe it's a very reasonable price for what it is when I compare it to what has been selling on pinside.
Quoted from Brent1955:YO, Avatars
I have an offer in on a Avatar pro in Northern California. Have seen the pictures and going to inspect it next week when it shows up at the shop. Some ball wear in the launch chute, all the pieces seem to be in good conditions. The amp suit is intact and good condition. Currently still being played in a bar, but seems to be in reasonable good condition. Anything specific I should check out before purchasing?
It appears to be a plain vanilla, no upgrades, stock pro version. The owner said he keeps it clean and in good working order. Just what I'm looking for and looking forward to upgrading lights and other mods. Hope to join the group soon. Let me know what you think! I believe it's a very reasonable price for what it is when I compare it to what has been selling on pinside.
All Cal bars are non smoking right? Look for dirty rubbers and ball trails, that will tell you how clean he has been keeping it and how often he changes balls. Look to see if the legs have carved into the cabinet and how much flipper button cabinet wear there also. Is the glass all scratched to shit, that's $40-$50 right there to replace. Nothing makes a game look bad more then a scratched to hell piece of glass. Take the glass off when you look close up at the pf. Lift the pf and see if any liquid has gotten into the cabinet from drinks that have spilled. Have him show you how many game have been put on it, write it down and SAVE it!! The very first mod to put on it is to led it and the second one would be an OCD board. The OCD board makes a WORLD of difference on this title. Then the 3rd must have mod are my Leg Light-Ups.....sorry I just had to do that. 
Mustang Paul, thanks for the tips!
So, I looks around for OCD boards, seems to be several to choose from ranging from 50-150 bucks. GIzmo was one brand I found, also a Sterns. what are most people using? and yea ALL calif. bars are non smoking, best thing that ever happened in a bar, well almost, maybe 3rd best. Would also like to get a set of the blade art that I saw earlier in the posts.
You bet.
You want the one for Sterns, $130 may sound like a lot but man it's worth every penny, I have them on my Avatar and NASCAR and like I said worth every penny and I just left them in the default setting too. I have my LE really modded up as you can see if you scroll through all 27 pages of the thread. We are non smoking too so the smoke smelling games are pretty much history which is a good thing. The art blades are nice, I've got mirror blades on mine. When you get your game don't be a stranger to the club.
2 weeks later
I'm having magnet issues. Can anyone jump in here and help out? Thanks!
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/avatar-magnet-issues
1 week later
HI Avatars,
Joined the club this week! I've played the game a few times now and have an issue that popped up. Things go along fine and then I get a screech (not a banshee) from the speakers. Didn't do it when I checked out the machine at the shop. Any suggestions as to what is causing this? It's a pro version. It needs a good cleaning and will start replacing gi bulbs with led's soon. As Mustang Paul suggested, my first mod will be to get the ocd board.
Quoted from Brent1955:Things go along fine and then I get a screech
I had the same thing to happen when i first got my pin. It was brand new. It didn't 'screech' often but at times it did. I had mine set on the Easiest Play you could do so that the grand kids could enjoy it (and me too! Ha.). I had it set to award an Extra Ball whenever it gave me a Special, and I fixed it where I got LOTS of Extra Balls.
I should have said, keep in mind that when I first set it up I had it on Factory Setting and I never got any screeching noises. It was AFTER I set it all on Easy. I noticed it did it when I had the game rockin' and rollin'. Especially, during multi-ball. And when I earned an Extra Ball, the screech came when it was time for the 'knocker' to sound. I didn't get a knock, I got a "pfffttt screech"!!! It did it several times during the same game.
I called Stern and talked with Patrick Powers about it and after I described it to him he said words to this effect: "It sounds to me that the game is being overloaded at times as you've got so many features going on all at the same time, and then when the knocker kicks in, the sound is distorted." That's when I learned that it didn't have a physical knocker. The knock comes from the sound ROM in the game. I was stunned to hear this news because I had never seen (or heard) anything but a physical knocker in pins before. His explanation seemed plausible. So, I went back into the game and changed a lot of settings. I kept most everything at Easy, but I dropped the Extra Ball percentage back a notch. I have never had a problem with it since then.
Patrick made it sound as though the game needed to be broken in. That once it had some games put on it, it should clear up. That sounded wrong to me, but I knew little about modern pins at that time (2010). I'm thinking Patrick knew something I didn't know. Maybe the pin DID need to have some mileage put on it.
I'm interested in knowing if you have noticed your screech problems come at the same time you are earning a knocker moment.
Keep posting about it. Perhaps the sound ROM needs replacing. But wait for an expert like Mustang Paul to respond to this.
Mike in Kentucky
Quoted from Brent1955:Things go along fine and then I get a screech (not a banshee) from the speakers.
Sound like a constipated monkey fart? That's Stern's weak attempt at a replay knocker sound. To save one coil, they replaced that wonderful mechanical knocker with that wretched noise since at least 1999. Enjoy it because it doesn't get any better.
3 weeks later
So my Avatar LE has started occasionally registering normal chrome/steel pinballs as the ceramic Navi-ball. My understanding is that the system is designed to detect the ceramic ball by the ceramic not completing the circuit between the metal strips in the shooter lane. If the steel balls are also not completing the circuit, I figured there must be a loose connection underneath randomly preventing the circuit from completing. But, when I look underneath this section of the shooter lane, I don't see anything obviously wrong anywhere.
Has anyone heard of this problem before or have any recommendations on what to specifically check? Thanks in advance and Merry Christmas!
Quoted from VegasAlleycat:So my Avatar LE has started occasionally registering normal chrome/steel pinballs as the ceramic Navi-ball. My understanding is that the system is designed to detect the ceramic ball by the ceramic not completing the circuit between the metal strips in the shooter lane. If the steel balls are also not completing the circuit, I figured there must be a loose connection underneath randomly preventing the circuit from completing. But, when I look underneath this section of the shooter lane, I don't see anything obviously wrong anywhere.
Has anyone heard of this problem before or have any recommendations on what to specifically check? Thanks in advance and Merry Christmas!
Wow never heard of that one before. 
Sounds like you may have to take it apart and clean those metal strips to see if it helps.
1 month later
Helsingborg
I'm not sure if it is ok to do what I'm about to do, but there is 27 pages in this thread... I got this pinball a week ago. It's our first. I'm trying to figure out what the menus are all about. Installs for example. I wanted to try out directors cut, but it wasn't installed for some reason. Anyone know why?
I can't get a hold of a decent manual either. The one I found look like it's run thru a broken copying machine from the seventies.
The game is fun thou =)
Quoted from r0ddan:I'm not sure if it is ok to do what I'm about to do, but there is 27 pages in this thread... I got this pinball a week ago. It's our first. I'm trying to figure out what the menus are all about. Installs for example. I wanted to try out directors cut, but it wasn't installed for some reason. Anyone know why?
I can't get a hold of a decent manual either. The one I found look like it's run thru a broken copying machine from the seventies.
The game is fun thou =)
I never install those pre-set adjustments. I go through and set up the game by changing each adjustment separately.
You can get all the manuals for Stern games from their website. The later manuals seem to be just parts and pieces of a larger manual. It seems to be missing game adjustments, pricing adjustments and such. The sections it does include are schematics and parts assemblies.
Sternpinball.com --> Games --> Archive --> Avatar --> Specs&Manuals --> Avatar Manual
http://www.sternpinball.com/upload/games/avatar/avatar/434/Avatar%20Manual.pdf
Quoted from r0ddan:I'm not sure if it is ok to do what I'm about to do, but there is 27 pages in this thread... I got this pinball a week ago. It's our first. I'm trying to figure out what the menus are all about. Installs for example. I wanted to try out directors cut, but it wasn't installed for some reason. Anyone know why?
I can't get a hold of a decent manual either. The one I found look like it's run thru a broken copying machine from the seventies.
The game is fun thou =)
Welcome to the club. Pro or LE?
Thx Paul. It's a pro.
Back to my question about installs. I know I can set each adjustment manually. My question was why the game says "not installed" when I try to set fx directors cut. Or extra hard or hard and some other setting I can't remember. What am I not getting about that? And what do they all mean? Google translate doesn't quit work in this case and my native tounge is swedish, not english 
. Add a ball?? There's four balls? Is it some kind of magic ball adding machine I bought? Home play? Yes, I'm at home? What...? =)
I know where to find the manual at Sterns site. That was the one I was referring to as being run thru a bad Xerox machine
There are others on their site that seem to be the real deal. But not the one for Avatar. What's the deal with that? I mean, the file must exist somewhere...
People know so much and I know so little. It's frustrating
Quoted from r0ddan:I know where to find the manual at Sterns site. That was the one I was referring to as being run thru a bad Xerox machine
There are others on their site that seem to be the real deal. But not the one for Avatar. What's the deal with that? I mean, the file must exist somewhere...
That's all there is. They used to do a very nice manual and even include a printed one with each game. Maybe they have a full manual on a CD or something, but it's not included with the game or online as far as I know.
Quoted from J85M:Avatar is a hugely underrated game, it’s so good I upgraded and brought another.
Possibly the last Avatar LE NIB, true Unobtainium.
You were talking about getting so when did ya get it? I can't remember if you posted about when you were getting it.
Quoted from spfxted:Anybody tired of theirs and want to trade for a Sopranos?
Fuckin' Big Points! 
Quoted from J85M:Avatar is a hugely underrated game, it’s so good I upgraded and brought another.
Possibly the last Avatar LE NIB, true Unobtainium.
Thoroughly enjoyed playing a Pro at Play Expo last year.
Did you go Pro to LE? Or used LE to NIB LE? The latter is a bit extreme!
Melbourne
Quoted from MustangPaul:You were talking about getting so when did ya get it? I can't remember if you posted about when you were getting it.
Picked up the NIB LE from Germany early last year only just finally moved it into my home though, had to keep the collection hidden from the ex 
Quoted from monkeyboypaul:Thoroughly enjoyed playing a Pro at Play Expo last year.
Did you go Pro to LE? Or used LE to NIB LE? The latter is a bit extreme!
Had to sell my last LE which was HUO due to my ex getting herself and without my knowledge me into serious financial trouble back in 2014, had to sell my cars and pins to keep the roof over the kids heads while she went swanning off without a care in the world.
Finally managed to get into a position late 2016 early 2017 to start getting some pins and my collection back, Avatar was one of the games top of my list so a 28 hour round trip to Germany and back got me an LE again and NIB which was a nice bonus.
So I guess you could say I went HUO to NIB and I went all the way to Germany for it, that felt extreme at the time I was knackered on the drive back! 
Quoted from J85M:Had to sell my last LE which was HUO due to my ex getting herself and without my knowledge me into serious financial trouble back in 2014, had to sell my cars and pins to keep the roof over the kids heads while she went swanning off without a care in the world.
Finally managed to get into a position late 2016 early 2017 to start getting some pins and my collection back, Avatar was one of the games top of my list so a 28 hour round trip to Germany and back got me an LE again and NIB which was a nice bonus.
So I guess you could say I went HUO to NIB and I went all the way to Germany for it, that felt extreme at the time I was knackered on the drive back!
Sorry to hear that but glad it worked out for you.
Quoted from J85M:Had to sell my last LE which was HUO due to my ex getting herself and without my knowledge me into serious financial trouble back in 2014, had to sell my cars and pins to keep the roof over the kids heads while she went swanning off without a care in the world.
Finally managed to get into a position late 2016 early 2017 to start getting some pins and my collection back, Avatar was one of the games top of my list so a 28 hour round trip to Germany and back got me an LE again and NIB which was a nice bonus.
So I guess you could say I went HUO to NIB and I went all the way to Germany for it, that felt extreme at the time I was knackered on the drive back!
Awesome story.
It's a Chunnel Pin?
Quoted from Guinnesstime:Awesome story.
It's a Chunnel Pin?
Wasn’t so awesome when I had to sell off my entire collection thanks to the ex but the end of 2016 and last year especially was a great year restoring my favourite games and getting a decent collection again.
Yeah you could say she’s a Chunnel pin but from what I understand/have been told Avatar started out life headed in Canada, then made it’s way/trip round Europe to Switzerland, then Germany, then I made the crazy drive to being her to the UK passing through France, Belgium and the Netherlands so she’s more of a Euro pin
Quoted from J85M:I went all the way to Germany for it
I remember this quite well. I kept up with your journey. Sounds like you are bouncing back from all the marital damage. Good for you!!!
Mike in Kentucky
3 weeks later
Cheers Mike, yeah the bounce back has a been a little slow but think I’m just about there now, cannot complain with my collection now very happy indeed and Avatar LE is the icing on the cake for me.
Next up is my full NOS Goldeneye restore, while I wait for JJP to secure Bond rights and make a new Bond pin, other than that I’m done buying pins, especially NIB for now.
Btw guys can someone remind me, does Avatar haveajy true skill shots/super skill shots - not including the plunge to roll over lanes “fake” skill shot.
Quoted from J85M:Btw guys can someone remind me, does Avatar haveajy true skill shots/super skill shots - not including the plunge to roll over lanes “fake” skill shot.
I don't think it does.
1 month later
Just picked up an avatar, so I'm looking for any modding & lighting ideas. I'm already getting a shaker & upgraded speakers, perhaps an LED backbox kit. I'm torn on what to do for GI. Normally I don't color bomb too much but I'm wondering if that might actually work with this game. Idk just wondering what other people think who have experimented.
Quoted from robx46:Just picked up an avatar, so I'm looking for any modding & lighting ideas. I'm already getting a shaker & upgraded speakers, perhaps an LED backbox kit. I'm torn on what to do for GI. Normally I don't color bomb too much but I'm wondering if that might actually work with this game. Idk just wondering what other people think who have experimented.
Welcome to the club, which model. A center drain light looks great and so do my blue Leg Light-Ups and my new blue Pincup light-up installed in a clear blue PBL PinGulp. A powered sub woofer is great too with a Pinnovators sub hook up mod. I have Comet 2 smd white clear dome bulbs under the inserts with a LED OCD hooked up for them, your inserts will fade beautifully with that in and 2 smd white frosted and clear dome in the GI. I don't color bomb my games, I like to see the original art. I also added a couple of double headed spot lights and modded my pop caps. I also have two little vid screens showing parts of the move on the pf. Scan the pictures at the top of the page for some ideas. Have fun with your modding.
I went with some color GI on my Avatar to make it look like your on Pandora. Look at the ice blues, regular blues, purple, and maybe a few greens by the amp suite.
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