The main place balls can get stuck is under hulk's fists. There was an early software update that changed how he reacted to the ball, but in some cases there still need to be physical tweaks to increase the sensitivity of the pressure plate right in front of him. Some people have raised the hulk figure up a bit to stop balls from getting stuck under his left fist. Other tweaks needed out of the box were adjustments to the plunger to get the ball consistently all the way up the ramp, and raising the plastic above the Black Widow ramp entrance.

So more tweaks needed than some machines, but once dialed in is a fun game. Ball times tend to be on the long side, and the rules can get a bit wood choppy especially if left at factory. Decrease the number of shots to qualify the Avengers and the game opens up quite a bit.

Almost all shots are tight, about the only "gimme" is the Hawkeye shot, so it can be frustrating for some players, not everyone's cup of tea.

There are those that love it, those that hate it, and those that are meh. I think you will find the "meh" and haters outweigh the people who like it, thus the low market value.

check out this thread:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/hulk-avengers-ball-hang-up-fix

In the 40 + games since performing the adjustment to Hulk, I have not had one get stuck or hung up.

I really enjoy the game, but there are a couple issues that annoy me. Hulk arm ball stuck and the Saucer kick out issue with the "H" in hulk drop target. But besides that it's a great fun game!

What I've done w/ my machine. Well, #1 is what I want to do--a little help on that, please! :]

1 - How do you fix the inconsistent rattly plunges?

2 - Loki Lock sensors. Ball gets stuck. Get sticker from Stern. Ball gets stuck less. Get creative & tweak for hours until it never sticks.

3 - Slings launch balls. Put small rubber self-adhesive foot on coil stop for slings. Balls launch only occasionally.

4 - Hulk sticks balls under elbows. Disassemble Hulk, put rubber self-adhesive foot on mechanism, raising Hulk's lowest arm resting position a bit. That helps.

5 - Hulk sticks balls under elbows still. Disassemble switch plate, scooch down playfield electromagnet that's slowly destroying switch plate. Fuss with assembly until the slightest pressure makes the switch close. That helps moer.

6 - Hulk sticks balls under elbows still, but not often. Considering taking a file to his elbows to increase the gab between the PF wood & his elbows. These parts of the arm don't show anyway.

7 - Ball sticks on Tesseract cube turntable. This doesn't seem to be adjustable (like the PF window in Congo or the bookcase in Addams Family). I had only 1 or 2 sticks here.

8 - Ball sticks on Hulk drop targets. Only once or twice. Ball search will kick it out if you wait.

9 - Ball sticks on both transitions of bridge. Tweak bridge to minimize gaps at both ends.

10 - BW ramp shot often doesn't make it. Raise the roof at the top of the BW ramp entry portion (not too high or bridge hits glass & gets stuck in up position), slightly raise the BW spinner, lower the bridge resting position, bend back the back wall of the post-bridge fixed U-channel if it's impeding ball flow.

11 - Ball drop into Hulk saucer often bounces out. Get fix from Stern: an extra plastic.

12 - (Optional) Replace random red/blue/green Christmas tree lights color scheme with a tasteful selection of bulb colors.

13 - Put a bit of blue painter's tape on the fluorescent tube in the backbox if you want to see Hulk instead of a bright white glare (for AVLE Blue, at least--can't comment on other flavors).

14 - Set Avengers difficulty down a notch from factory settings for everybody except Hulk.

15 - (Optional) Hulk's right fist knuckles are probably scuffed from scraping the bridge. File or sand or paint or whatnot as desired.

16 - If you move the right outlane post to "easy" position, the ball will often wiggle up into the gap you've created above that post. Add another post or stretch a rubber across this gap.

17 - Buy some some power transistors on your next pinball order. If you hold the flipper for a minute or two to cradle the ball, you'll blow a transistor. Learn to remove & install 3-leg transistor packages.

18 - L-shaped -36 plastic behind Hulk. Mine was broken. Stern sent me a replacement. It had 2 extra spiky pieces pointing downward, nested within the triangular rubber by Hulk's left elbow. I'm not sure what purpose they serve, but they seem to be a late-model upgrade from what I had in my machine.

Thanks,
-Jason

A lot to shoot for, some depth for good accurate players, not my cup of tea, (that's why I am selling Modded Avengers LE blue $4650) but all my guests play more than others and really like. The machine has a great look. I gave it a sideways for me, but people who have played mine are all thumbs up....

First I have heard of this.....

Who cradles the ball for 2 minutes?

Word.

Love my HULK. Frustrating for beginners.....satisfying for the times of glory....

If you have played the game and enjoy it then get one. You shouldn't need others to tell you it's OK to buy one as their enjoyment wont equal your level of enjoyment.

That's the fun of this hobby is that everyone doesn't like the same things. I've even come to find out that I like things that most others don't.

All issues can be worked out. Go get one and have fun with it.

I adore my Avengers Blue LE. Yes, it is a bucket of issues and has required way more tweaking than any other game I know of, but it is well worth it in my opinion. Most everything has been covered here numerous times both in this thread and if you do a quick search of the forum. It is such a fun design, it just needed a few more weeks in engineering and I believe it would be a much higher ranked game.

I also completely agree about bumping the difficulty down. This takes out almost all of the "wood chopping" and lets you get to the meat of the game, of which there is plenty. Not sure why the factory settings are so repetitive. That combined with all of the physical issues really gave the game a bad first impression that many people haven't gotten over. It's a shame...Avengers is honestly one of my all time favorite games.

Many people complain about a lack of flow, but that's pure bull. Yes, the shots are very tight, but if you are hitting them you can make some amazing combos. It is a complete rush to pull something like Hawkeye to Iron Man to Black Widow without missing a beat. You can even set the software to let you manually control the Hawkeye diverter so you can decide what shot to set-up next. There is a ton of flow and speed as long as you can hit the shots. If you can't...yup...brick city. It will make you a better player though, guaranteed.

One more thing that I do not see mentioned often...the game has a ton of humor. Sure, the voices are not from the movies, but they are way better than they get credit for and there are some hilarious quotes.

For the prices these seem to be going for now, it is well worth giving a chance. I bought mine slightly used but before the prices started to drop, so I paid quite a bit more than one can be had for now. I have no regrets. There have been times I was frustrated with all the tweaking, even to the point that I put a trade feeler out, but I'm glad I stuck with it. Mine still isn't 100% perfect, and I don't think it can ever be (the shooter lane still give me some trouble...tried everything). But the issues have been minimized to the point where they can be looked over in exchange for the pure fun of playing it.

they are a heck of a lot better than the voices in Xmen!!

Out of all my games it needed the most tweaking. Once it was dialed in it's great! It will be the last game to leave my house.

People who are in the middle of an awesome game & have their wife come up to talk to them about something that she felt was very important & needed to be discussed right now. That's who.

The cradling kablooey isn't uncommon in modern Sterns--I'm not a unique weirdo:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/tron-flipper-energized-on-start-up-electrical-issue
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/tech-lotr-le-flipper-fuse-transistor-failed
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stern-flipper-blowing-3a-slow-blo-tron
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/tf-le-fusetransistor-issue
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/lotr-flipper-fuse-keeps-blowing
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/acdc-flipper-problem-coil-stuck-on
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/acdc-flipper-stays-up-and-burns-fuses

http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=190

So there.

-Jason

I wasn't questioning it at all, I had just never ran into such an issue on my Sterns. Thanks for the info.

The disc height is adjustable (in small increments) using the set screw below the playfield.

No more than you would probably be working on a mid 90's DMD.... at least that has been my experience. It is a fully time job just about keeping the mine, dad's and some of my friends machines up and running

FWIW, I had a Pro that was more or less dialed in when I purchased it. I played it a ton and worked on it a grand total of maybe an hour the entire 8 months I owned it. Maybe I got lucky, but once at least MINE was dialed in, it needed no further adjustments, especially not daily or anything like that.

Took me a couple of weeks of playing with things on my pro to dial everything in. That was almost 2 years ago now. Since then I've only spent time on playing and modding it.

my least favorite Stern pin I've ever owned. And I collected comics as a kid.

Least favorite? Why?

No recent Stern has escaped QC problems. AVLE had more than its fair share and got reamed for it. But all has been remedied and the game plays fun and fast. It's hard with an unconventional layout (go figure!). It it were named "Iron Maiden" it would be in the top 10.

Owned the game and sold it.

Hulk multiball is great and I like the look of the game.

There is just too much wood chopping going on for my tastes.

Sideways.

Stern transistors suck! Hardly unique to AV.

And the HE shot is "easy" until you need it to start Battle For Earth!

Good point. Yes, per the assembly drawing in the manual, item 10 is a set screw that holds the plater [sic] arm to the shaft, & the plater [sic] is attached to said arm. I should be able to loosen that set screw & scooch the Tesseract disk as desired. [EDIT: CAN'T REACH ITEM 10 SET SCREW WHEN SPINNER IS ASSEMBLED & ATTACHED TO PF--CAN REACH ITEM 15 SET SCREW, THOUGH.]

I guess I was looking more for disk tilt control than for scooching the disk up & down along its axis. Tilt could be controlled by loosening the 4 mount screws & shimming accordingly.

Fortunately, the ball has stuck here but once or twice, & a gentle nudge freed it, so I'm going to hold off on fussing with this for now.

Thanks,
-Jason

PS--"so there" was in jest. :]

Avengers Tesseract Spinner Assembly.JPG

You won't be working it all the time, especially if the fix-it kit from Stern is installed and the code is up to date. I had a great Hulk LE but sold it after a short time and do miss it. The quality issues had nothing to do with my decision to trade the game. It's just a really tough game that can be frustrating day-to-day if you're not a great player. Unlike most games, I don't think there is any shame in changing it to an easier setting so that you can get deeper into the rules. I was able to regularly get to the mini wizard mode on factory settings but advancing to the main wizard mode on any settings seemed daunting and like it would require chopping a lot of wood. At the current price, I wouldn't hesitate to give it a try if you're OK with selling if it turns out not to be a fit.

Items 11 need to be tightened if your disc is tilted in relation to the playfield.

I don't want to speak for them but this is what I was quoted Monday for Blue TAVLE:

I called Trent at Tilt Amusements - 6600 NIB $5800 Showroom

I called Cointaker - $6495 NIB

I snagged JJ's last one - $5795 NIB however, give him a call and see if maybe I'm wrong and he has another: (303) 931-3685

PBR - Sold out

Good luck. Mine arrives Friday. I am so excited and impatient

My 10 year old son does

Sideways for my vote.

I think it sucks how the inlane inserts are blocked by the plastics. How the F did they miss that?

Also it's a bummer the Thor targets are covered by plastics. Again, what an oversight.

The Teseract is a total dog turd of crappy plastic & pot metal so you have to mod it & repair it

The Loki plastic with the LEDs blocks your view on the right too. WTF gomez!

Man that plastic ship on the left... What a lame suck ass feature.

The ramps or whatever they are consist of thin bouncy sheets of plexi. Pretty shoddy

GI wedge bulbs are a bummer

Hulks hands are either scratched up or his arms are gone on almost every example I've ever seen

The blue should have came with a blue DMD. The green DMD is dim & lacking contrast. The hulk powdercoat is sorta 1970's too.

It sounds like I hate the game but I dont. The layout is awesome & fresh. I love the fundamentals of the game, I truly do but as they say the devil is in the details. It's often said the last 20% of every project takes 80% of total time (except for JJP where the last 20% takes 300% lol) & in this case Stern certainly pushed this thing out the door way too soon ignoring the 80/20 rule

At first I wanted one, badly. Soon I decided no matter how cheap the money is better put towards something else.

There are some great deals on HUO LE's. If patient, you can get one for around $4500 (even a Hulk) with mods or tweaks that fix all this stuff:

You can't fix all of those issues, a few are permenantly baked into the game.

The best mod to a $4500 Avengers is adding $500 to your money & just buying a well priced ACDC premium

If it hits $2500 then I'd consider it.... Nah, I'd buy RBION instead lol

Where have you seen an ACDC Premium for $5000 and that's not including shipping? How many songs are on ACDC? 6? 8? I forget. I have played it a few times and if I owned it, I'd play the same three or four songs over and over. I'm afraid Id get burned out quick. Yea yea pinball browser to the rescue. I'm a big time ACDC fan, we rocked it hard over in Iraq in '03. Still for me, the theme for Avengers trumps ACDC. I can overlook some issues it may have.

Where? In my PM's of course.

People list at $5700 or $5500. Weeks later the off the record price is $5K

Glad you like Avengers, I do too, but some things about the game bother me so I mentioned them here.

I can offer no rebuttal for Acdc either

Can confirm the fixes via mods. My tesseract spun like a top and looked amazing.

You guys are really making me regret selling mine!

Bias Alert - I am currently long AVLE

This is still my wife and my favorite game. We have had it for about 8 months and still push start all the time. I admit, the rattly ball launches have proven difficult to resolve and is getting old but all other issues have been resolved months ago and has not required continuous tweaking. Fix it and forget it, for the most part.

It has made my wife and I better players. If you can consistently hit all the AV shots, those skills transfer to other pins quickly. No better feeling than hitting BW 4 or 5 times in a row! Now if I could just do that for the IM shot!

I didn't mean to come off douchey. It does suck that so many tweaks have to be done to a game at this price tag. It's pretty inexcusable.

Oh and I totally agree the blue should come with a blue dmd

12 Songs. I don't get the getting old part as most pinball machines have 1 song, possibly 2 or 3 for different multiballs.

I love my AC/DC Prem, but I would love to have a Blue TAVLE right next to it. I think both games are fantastic.

Toughest game I have ever played.
Good players will get much pleasure out of it once tight shots are mastered.
Provided they are patient with Hulk's arms!

Well, I'd say your missing a great in-home game experience then, but to each his own. That cannon assembly on ACDC looks like ass too (so does the band but it's oh so quaint), but the game around it is great, just sayin'. You mod the cube, buy Hooked's clear inlane plastics and relocate Loki and you've just solved most of your problems.

With the game settings on easy, I can get to Battle For Earth when I'm locked in. And that is a very satisfying game of pinball when that happens.

This is what happens when you play ACDC after owning AVLE:

image-123.jpg

image-263.jpg

Awesome scores!
Congrats!
Did you do 2,098,419,200 with more than one extra ball?
Was there an amazing canon shot with 3x lit?
Tell us how it played out!

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/acdc-2-billion-encore-whew